A Little Knowledge

Olivia jogged through the corridors of the castle with her wand in hand, glancing left and right down each of the side corridors as she passed by them. She had no idea where she was going, merely that she had left Sophia and Professor Krohn in order to go and look for Sissy and Martin. She wasn’t even certain where they had gone, though she thought it had originally been in the direction of the Owlery.

She chewed her lower lip anxiously as she hurried along. Not being an especially good student in defense class, she didn’t have any idea what she would do if she were to be confronted with the vampire nor how she would assist Sissy and Martin, if they needed any assistance, and she rather imagined that they would need all the help they could get if they managed to locate the vampire. And yet, despite her only logical fears and concerns, she felt obligated to search for them.

“After all, they might have chased the vampire from the castle, and they’ll want to tell someone about that,” she reasoned, trying to make sense of the shifting staircases and having a bit of luck at it. She was desperately trying not to think that anything bad might have happened to her friends.


Knowles knelt on the cold stone floor of the corridor, feeling the chill seep through his robes at the knees almost immediately. He was still panting from the encounter with the vampire. In fact, it felt as though his breath would never return. Shaking hands guided his as he attempted to examine young Dumbledore, who, according to Miss Howard, had been held under the Cruciatus Curse for a long time, as such things were measured. Mere minutes, he imagined, though such minutes could be counted as ages of the world, especially from the perspective of the victim of such a horrifying curse.

“Professor, will he be all right?” asked Miss Howard in a tremulous voice.

He thought she might be crying, but if so she was doing so very unobtrusively. He knew she had been shaken up by the affair. No one on earth could blame her for that. She had handled herself most admirably, and in his mind, she was continuing to do so. He had never been so proud of Miss Howard nor of any student before her. In better circumstances, he might even have told her so.

“Of course, but we must get him to Madame Pomfrey. The pain of the curse has an unfortunate tendency to linger. She will be able to give him something to soothe and counteract it,” said Knowles as he felt for the boy’s pulse. It was erratic, but present, which was what mattered most. “My cane,” he instructed Sissy, gesturing down the corridor behind him. Knowles heard her begin to stand and changed his mind. “I’ll not need it. You must guide my steps while I carry your young friend,” he decided, making up his mind as how to handle the situation.

“Of course,” she agreed with a soft sniff.

He found her hand again and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Everything will be all right,” he told her calmly.

Then he thought of Reynard and hoped that he knew what he was talking about when he said everything. Pushing that troubling thought aside, he lifted Martin from the floor, cradling the young wizard against him as he stood. With a bit of assistance from Sissy, Martin’s arms were placed around his neck and Knowles managed to get a good, firm grip upon him. He was like a sack of potatoes, only much heavier.

“Lead the way,” he instructed Sissy.

She placed a hand on his elbow and guided him forward, down the corridor in the direction of the hospital wing.


Sophia wasn’t certain how much time had passed since Olivia had sprinted away to seek out their friends. The broken hunks of ice that had once been flame were melting and beginning to dampen the floor around unconscious Professor Krohn and her. She was shivering now from the chill that had replaced the heat. She pulled her professor’s robes closer about him to protect him from the cold, which was seeping back into his skin as well, she realized, as she cautiously felt his forehead.

“You’ll be all right,” she said more to convince herself than out of any hope that he might hear her. Krohn had not moved nor flinched since the vampire had attacked him. Sophia was no expert, but she thought he might be stunned in addition to receiving a severe blow to the head. “You must be,” she said even more quietly, though with no less fervor.

As she waited, she began to think that no one would come, that Corinna had not been able to find the mediwitch or that perhaps one or both of them had been waylaid, but then she heard running feet down the corridor. Raising her head, she saw Corinna and Madam Pomfrey, both with wands drawn, racing swiftly toward her. For a moment relief washed over her. Help had arrived at last.

“Merlin’s Beard! What happened?” gasped Corinna as she caught sight of all the ice. Though she had known that Sophia was in trouble, she could not fathom what manner of disaster would produce this result.

“Not now, Miss Bellew,” said Madam Pomfrey, cutting her off as she knelt with Sophia and Krohn. “We have more important matters to attend to at the moment,” the mediwitch added.

She swept her wand over Krohn’s prostrate form. Sophia regarded her anxiously, nearly holding her breath as she watched Madam Pomfrey. She adjusted her grip on the professor to accommodate the mediwitch, but she did not release him. Pomfrey didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she hardly seemed to notice as she examined Krohn.

“Oh, that’s a nasty bump, to be certain,” Poppy murmured as she waved her wand over his head. “We had best get him to the hospital wing right away,” she said with a somber expression on her face.

“But he will be all right, won’t he?” asked Sophia.

Her eyes met those of the mediwitch, and Sophia saw doubt and perhaps even a hint of fear in Madam Pomfrey’s eyes. Sophia realized then that the older witch didn’t know if Krohn was going to make it. She was merely putting up a brave front for the sake of Corinna and herself.

“Miss Colville, please, now is not the time to ask such ridiculous questions,” admonished Pomfrey. “Now, please let go of Professor Krohn so I can cast a Moblicorpus spell on him.”

Sophia did as she was asked and accepted a hand up from the floor and a quick hug from Corinna. Ice crunched underneath her shoes as they stepped away and let Madam Pomfrey cast the spell, levitating Krohn into the air like a marionette whose strings had been cut. She swallowed hard and blinked away tears as his head lolled forward and his arms dangled limply at his sides.

“You should both come with me, and stay close,” instructed Pomfrey. Obviously she had some idea that the corridors still held more than a bit of potential danger for them.

Sophia timidly took one of Krohn’s hands and received an approving nod from Pomfrey as they began making their way toward the hospital wing. Corinna trudged behind them with her wand still in her hand, unwilling to take any unnecessary chances.


Knowles’ arms were beginning to ache. They had descended and ascended as many as five separate staircases and made their way down countless corridors, but if he had to guess, Cyrus would have said that they were no closer to their destination for all the effort. Sissy was a capable guide and knew the castle well enough for a student of her year and house; however, the castle was being particular difficult and troublesome that evening. Knowles wasn’t certain whether to blame the weather, their luck, or some last deviltry of the vampire’s for slowing their progress. He suspected that it was some mix of those three elements that was to blame for their plight.

The boy in his arms shifted slightly, pressing his face into the side of Knowles’ neck. His skin was clammy and cool to the touch. Shock, Cyrus realized. And why not? Eleven-year-olds’ bodies weren’t meant to bear the sort of agony he had just experienced. No one was meant to endure the Cruciatus Curse. Such a vile thing... Knowles adjusted his grip on Martin just slightly and held him closer, trying to comfort him as best as he could and as best as he knew how. Sissy squeezed his arm in reassurance.

“Professor, I think we’re above the library. Do you know of a better way down...” she began to ask him.

“Just use your instincts, Miss Howard. I’m afraid I lost track of where we are some time ago,” he admitted, not bothering to tell her that his mind was torn between concern for Martin Dumbledore and for Reynard. He was walking blindly in more ways than one.

“I’ll try,” she said more softly, but there was an anxious quaver in her voice that he could not miss.

“We’ll get him there eventually,” Knowles promised her as Martin shivered in his arms.


Sophia felt lost as she looked down at her professor when he lay on the hospital bed. Madam Pomfrey had placed him there and instructed her to watch over him while she contacted Healers from St. Mungo’s Hospital in London. Apparently, she didn’t have the expertise necessary to repair his fractured skull, which was more difficult to mend safely than most other bones in the body, nor to meliorate ought else that had been done to him. Sophia stood helplessly at his bedside while Corinna, nearly forgotten, lingered at the end of the bed, awkwardly shifting from one foot to the other as she watched her friend and Professor Krohn.

Sophia was almost afraid to touch him now, afraid that any jostling might do him more harm. Sophia longed to wipe the grime and sweat from his face, to do anything that might make it better for him, no matter how small or silly. She knew that the important things, like healing him and making him well again, were far beyond her power. She sniffed slightly and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, trying in vain not to weep again.

“Sophia...” said Corinna softly.

“Tell me he’ll be all right,” she said, turning to look at her friend.

“I can’t. I don’t know if he will be or not,” she replied. The answer was an honest one, though it pained her to give it. “Wizards survive things all the time that would kill Muggles...” she said, remembering what her father had taught her of such things as a child. “I think he ought to be able to survive this.”

“He always has been a survivor,” murmured Sophia, remembering his words from ... only hours before. She nearly laughed. Had it only been so long as that since they were seated in his parlor looking at an old family photograph together?

She laid one hand on top of his and just shook her head. Everything had changed so quickly.


When Olivia first saw them, she feared the worst had happened, that Martin was dead or undead, that the vampire had finally accomplished its goal. Sissy and Professor Knowles looked so pale and so tired, and more telling still, Sissy appeared to be crying or on the verge of it. The professor’s face was half-gaunt with strain, no doubt in part from carrying her friend. And Martin... so still and pallid in the defense professor’s arms.

“Martin!” she yelled, dashing the length of the corridor instead of waiting for their approach.

Knowles started and came to an abrupt halt, though Sissy’s hand never left his arm. In fact, she gave it another reassuring squeeze.

“Olivia, do you know the way to the hospital wing from here? Martin has been hit with a curse, and the stairs keep playing bloody tricks on us,” she said in that infuriating calm tone of hers. Never mind her tearstained face. She could still manage that imperious tone.

“I think so, but the whole castle has gone barmy. I think maybe someone tried to Confund the stairs themselves or something,” replied Olivia. Though she had noticed the change, the stairs had not troubled her as much, possibly because of her relatively good sense of direction. And having not fought a physically and emotionally draining duel like Sissy had.

“Then kindly guide us thither, Miss Scarrow,” said Knowles, adjusting his grasp upon the young wizard again. Martin groaned in his arms. “There, there,” whispered Knowles into his ear without a second thought.

“Is Martin all right?” asked Olivia, chewing her lower lip anxiously as they began moving. She risked a backward glance at Martin.

“He will live,” replied Knowles, “though he has been through a nasty ordeal.”

“We defeated the vampire, the professor and I, so at least this will be the end of it. It won’t ever be able to hurt Martin nor anyone else again,” said Sissy. Her hand upon the professor’s arm tightened. He acknowledged her with a slight nod.

“It’s dead?” asked Olivia to be certain, feeling a surge of almost euphoric relief, despite any doubts.

“Quite dead,” Knowles affirmed, but unlike her, he felt a peculiar pain at that. After so many suffered, that its end should have been as quick and neat as it was. Where was the satisfaction in it?


Madam Pomfrey returned from her office, much to Sophia’s surprise, with three Healers in tow. The mediwitch apparently had some influence at the hospital, though Sophia recognized at once that the three wizards were nearly as young as she was. Perhaps she had asked for the return of personal favors or knew them from school. Sophia neither knew nor cared as she moved out of their way, but not so far from her professor’s bed that she could not watch what the Healers were doing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Corinna walk away, possibly so as not to crowd the area.

“Miss Colville, might I attend to those burns now?” asked the mediwitch gently. Sophia had nearly forgotten about them herself.

“I don’t want to leave Professor Krohn,” said Sophia, shaking her head and never taking her eyes of the Healers, who were removing his torn and singed outer robes.

“Stay where you are then,” Pomfrey agreed, much to Sophia’s surprise. She more than half expected to be whisked away from his bedside whether she wanted to go or not. The mediwitch dashed away, obviously going to find a burn remedy for her.

The Healers had managed to get Krohn out of his robes and his ripped shirt using a few quick spells and some ingenuity. Sophia glimpsed a faint, just barely visible, but nevertheless unusual scar across the professor’s chest, obviously from some long-healed wound, but one of the Healers moved into her line of sight before she could figure out what exactly might have caused it. She watched the Healer nearest his head waved his wand over Krohn with a very serious expression. He gave his colleagues an uncertain nod.

“We can have an emergency portkey ready in two shakes,” said one of the other Healers, “but the paperwork’s going to be messy.”

“Doesn’t matter. He was a damn good professor ... to all of us ... and he is not dying like this,” said the other Healer, probably the oldest and most experienced of the three, who seemed to be in charge of things. “Start on that portkey while I try to do something about his condition.”

Tears filled Sophia’s eyes again as she realized that they would be taking Professor Krohn away from Hogwarts. She knew that it was for the best, that he could receive the best possible care at the hospital, but nevertheless, she didn’t want to see him go.

The Healer-in-charge glanced up from his work as the others moved aside to begin their work on that portkey. His expression was sympathetic as he beckoned Sophia closer with his free hand. She stepped toward the bed again and gazed down at Krohn, blinking away her tears as she did so.

“Would you like to say good-bye to him before we take him with us?” he questioned.

Sophia started to answer him, but there was a sudden commotion at the entrance to the hospital wing. She turned just as Olivia, Sissy, and Knowles, who continued to carry Martin, came barreling through the doors yelling for Madam Pomfrey at the top of their voices. She took a step away from the bed, forgetting the question for a moment as her heart pounded in her ears.

“Merlin, it never rains but it pours!” said the Healer behind her in surprise.

Madam Pomfrey appeared carrying a jar of ointment, which she shoved into one of her pockets upon catching sight of the quartet that had just burst into her already busy hospital wing. Her eyes went wide with shock.

“Cyrus, is he...?” she began to ask the professor.

“No, but he has been cursed with the Cruciatus. Have you a bed ready?” Knowles questioned even as Sissy, always thinking a step ahead, continued to maneuver him toward a hospital bed at the far end of the ward, somewhere more private for Martin to be examined and treated.

“Yes, yes, just put him down on any of them back there. Let me fetch some pain-relieving potions and summon his parents. Sweet Merlin, Minerva will be absolutely frantic!” said Pomfrey before dashing back into the corridor leading to her office, rushing away as quickly as her legs would carry her.

Sophia was torn between running to join her friends and staying with Krohn for the last few minutes that he would be there. She watched Knowles deposit Martin on a hospital bed and step away. Corinna had joined them and was busy helping Sissy and Olivia make Martin more comfortable. They didn’t seem to need her nor anyone else at that moment. Except Madam Pomfrey, of course.

Knowles, having done what was needful and within his abilities, turned and walked away from them. There was a half-lost and half-haunted expression on his face. Taking a few steps into the central part of the wing, his brow furrowed.

“Reynard?” he called tentatively. “Are you here?”

All three Healers looked at him for a moment, diverting their attention ever-so-briefly from their appointed tasks, but none of them answered the call to tell him that his colleague was unconscious and gravely wounded.

Sophia looked to the Healer who had offered her the chance to say good-bye, but his attention was on Krohn again. Precisely where it should have been.

After a moment of hesitation, she moistened her lips and called, “Here, professor. He’s over here.”

Knowles oriented himself to her voice and started toward her. He nearly crashed into one of the Healers, but he moved out of the way of the blind professor, whose steps were unsteady without a cane or a guide.

“Where, Miss Colville?” he asked with a note of desperation in his voice.

She reached out and caught him by the sleeve in order to direct him toward Krohn’s bed.

“Careful, sir. He’s been hurt,” she said quietly, leading him to the bed where Krohn was being treated and releasing his sleeve only when the defense professor’s knees touched the edge of the bed.

She stepped aside, knowing that Knowles deserved this opportunity and needed it more than she did. Sophia had said her good-byes, more or less, earlier in the evening. But her throat constricted as she watched Knowles find his friend’s unconscious form with his hands, running them over his pale chest until he clutched Krohn by the shoulders.

“Careful of his head, sir,” warned the young Healer.

“Reynard?” whispered Cyrus, acknowledging the warning with a terse nod and nothing more. He leaned down until his nose nearly touched that of his friend. “Can you say anything? Reynard? Can you hear me?” He squeezed his sightless eyes closed as he waited for a reply.

“He’s unconscious,” said the Healer in a gentle tone.

Sophia watched as the shoulders of her defense professor shook with suppressed anguish. His lips moved soundlessly before he turned his head to the side and said something to Krohn that she couldn’t hear, speaking directly into his ear without daring to touch his face. She didn’t want to hear what he said. Knowles deserved to be able to say whatever he needed to say to Krohn without eavesdroppers intruding upon that. Sophia respected that.

“We’ve got to take him now, sir,” said the Healer-in-charge as his companions returned to the bed with a portkey made from a pillow case.

Knowles straightened himself and stumbled back from the bed with a quick nod to them. He was unable to speak any further. Sophia caught him by the sleeve and led him to the next hospital bed over.

“A seat, professor?” she offered. He sat down silently, and she released his sleeve, but not before she noticed that he was trembling all over. She was trembling too, and for just the same reason.

Sophia watched the Healers place the pillow case on Krohn’s bare chest and lay a hand each on top of it before one of the Healers began a countdown. When he reached zero, all four of them disappeared and Knowles made a stifled sound of anguish.

“So much I wanted to tell him,” said Knowles raggedly.

Meanwhile, Madam Pomfrey had returned with potions for Martin, shooing the girls from his bed in order to begin attempting to give them to the nearly unconscious boy. They crowded round the foot of the bed to watch her at work, having nothing else that they could do for Martin until she permitted them to sit with him again.

Only moments later, however, several people, including Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Flitwick, not to mention Kettleburn and Sprout, came racing from the office of the mediwitch, obviously having come by floo from some other part or parts of the castle. The girls exchanged glances and shifted out of the way even more, though Sissy did so with obvious reluctance.

“Poppy! Is Martin all right?” asked McGonagall as she hitched up her robes and ran half the length of the hospital wing with her husband not many steps behind her.

The other professors respectfully kept their distance, choosing instead to gravitate toward Knowles and, by default, Sophia. The students’ head of house appeared to be especially concerned.

“Help me get him into hospital robes, Minerva,” Poppy instructed, choosing not to answer her question directly. She summoned a privacy screen from across the ward. “Get his boots off, if you would,” she added as she began measuring a dose of fizzing orange potion into a cup.

Olivia sniffed as Martin convulsed, almost trying to fight his mum off as she unlaced his school boots, and Corinna covered her mouth as her eyes bulged. The scene was at once horrific and completely unreal to her. Sissy swallowed hard and put her arms around them both as they stood there. They clung to her for support and strength as the two older witches worked to attend Martin.

Glancing to her left, Sissy saw Professor Dumbledore walk away, pulling the screen half-closed behind him. She had a feeling that he was going to confer with Professor Knowles about what had happened, perhaps to be certain of the vampire’s fate. She could not fault him for that.

“You girls should go and see about Miss Colville,” Madam Pomfrey told them as she selected another potion to give Martin. Professor McGonagall was unbuttoning his robes for him and hushing him as he whimpered and twisted in protest.

Sissy didn’t want to watch whatever else they intended to do for Martin and knew that they certainly would not be allowed, so she nodded and led Olivia and Corinna from the screened off portion of the ward, back to where a crowd of chattering adults was beginning to gather.

Sissy glimpsed Professor Dumbledore grasping Knowles briefly by the shoulder before starting toward the doors of the wing. Professor Flitwick was seated beside Sophia on a hospital bed next to the one where Krohn had been. The rest of the professors seemed to be milling about rather uselessly. She almost wished that she had the authority to tell them to stop crowding the place and get out.

“Let’s go sit with Sophia,” suggested Corinna.

“Of course,” Sissy agreed before letting go of them.

Flitwick’s expression brightened as they approached. He left his seat to make room for them, knowing, as any head of house would, that Sophia would be best comforted by her friends.

“I’m sorry,” said Sophia very softly after Flitwick had gone to speak with Knowles, who was now standing alone in the middle of the room almost as though he were still in shock.

“For what?” asked Olivia.

“Not being there for Martin,” she replied before breaking down into tears again.

---