Armilla

Chapter 59

My heart seemed to skip a beat.

"Poisoned?" I repeated, knowing very well that I had not misheard.

"Yes." Snape glanced briefly at me before turning to look closely at Morag, who still had her eyes closed. "From what I can gather, it's a very rare poison."

"How do you know that?" I said quickly, gripping the edge of the workbench very tightly. My chest felt tight, as if someone had reached in and grasped my lungs with one hand.

"Most poisons act very quickly," he explained, narrowing his eyes as he pried one of Morag's eyes open. "There," he murmured, apparently to himself. "Just as I thought."

"What is it?" I said quickly.

"Look at her eyes. Can you see those blue swirls clouding her eyes?"

"Yes." That couldn't be good.

"Go and get the Morgan's food. I want to be able to confirm what poison it is."

I obeyed at once and when I returned, Snape was busy accioing an assortment of things from his potions cupboard. He uncorked a potion and poured a couple of drops each onto three small squares of white parchment. Offering no explanation, he used a cotton bud to absorb a bit of the blue stuff clouding one of Morag's eyes. He then wiped the bud across one of the parchments, which turned royal blue in an instant.

"She's not as bad as she could be," he said quietly. "If she was close to death the parchment would have turned a deeper shade of blue."

I felt a tiny bit of relief. "Can you fix her then?"

He picked up the second piece of parchment. "I would rather check your health first, if you don't mind."

"What do you mean?" I said incredulously. "I'm fine."

He handed me the parchment and another bud. "Absorb some saliva with that bud and then wipe it across the parchment," he instructed. When I continued to stare at him he gave me a dark look. "Now."

Feeling very strange about it, I complied, noticing that Snape also did the same for himself with the third piece of parchment.

My parchment turned a very pale blue, nowhere near as dark as Morag's. Snape's was even paler again.

"What does this mean?" I asked, feeling very worried now.

Snape merely shook his head as he summoned another bottle. "Not now. I'll explain later."

I watched in silence as he poured a small amount of a thick pale yellow potion into two glasses. One of them held slightly more than the other.

"Drink that," he ordered, handing me the glass containing the greater amount. "All of it."

My confusion at an all time peak, I downed in potion in one gulp, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Snape do the same thing with his potion. Neither of us bothered to disguise our grimaces at the foul taste.

"Now," Snape said, taking my glass from me. "I'm going to try and help Morag as well as I can, but you cannot stay in here."

"Why not?" I asked, as I followed him out into the corridor.

"Like I said, I'll explain later. You must not leave our quarters under any circumstances. Understood?"

"Yes." Though I wish I knew what was going on...

He took out his wand and cast a very long incantation in very rapid Latin.

I looked askance at him, but didn't bother inquiring what the spell was for. I would probably be told again that he would explain later.

Snape stared down at me. "Cleansing the air," he said simply, before going back into the lab and shutting the door behind him. I heard him cast another incantation inside the lab. I guessed that he was either cleansing the air in there or sealing the room so that the air didn't get out.

I stood alone in the dark corridor for a few moments, letting the last few minutes sink in. I wanted to know what the special parchment thing was about. Why did I have to drink that stuff? Was I infected with something too? That meant that Snape was as well. Morag must have been poisoned with something contagious. Why else would Snape have cleansed the air?

I wandered into my bedroom, feeling lost. Who would have wanted to poison Morag?

No, said a voice in my head. It's a contagious poison. Whoever sent it wanted you or Snape to be poisoned.

I shuddered. That was not a nice thought. Someone had planned this.

I didn't know how long I sat on my bed, completely absorbed in a combination of disturbing thoughts about the identity of the culprit, and whether or not my owl was dead.

I didn't know what time it was when I heard Snape open the door of the lab. He strode briskly into my room, carrying a cotton bud and parchment again.

"Do it again," he said shortly, handing them to me.

I obeyed and watched as the parchment turned a slightly lighter shade of blue than before.

Snape nodded, a mild expression of relief passing across his face.

"Is she alright?" I asked quietly, as he sat down on the bed next to me.

He met my gaze, his black eyes like tunnels. "I don't know."

Hearing my brother admit to not knowing something was very unsettling. He had always struck me as one of those people who had an answer to everything.

"But she's not-"

"Dying?" he offered. "I don't believe so, but I don't want to say that she's not. All we can do at the moment is wait."

"For some sort of improvement you mean?"

He looked thoughtful. "Well, a change of any sort. I can't guarantee that there will be a rapid improvement. I don't know if she'll get worse."

"Get worse? Didn't you just give her what you and I drank?"

"Let me explain this to you," he said quietly. "Morag was given a slow-working poison. It gradually spreads throughout the body, with the intention of shutting it down over an extended period of time. What is interesting about this sort of poison is the contagious effect it has." He paused to give me a significant look. "Though you may have already worked this out."

I nodded.

"Though the body has been poisoned, it breathes out some of the toxins, and others in close vicinity breathe them in. The toxins are not as powerful once they are exhaled, but they will do damage. And the more time they spend roaming the air the weaker they get. It wasn't a huge effort for me to cleanse the air of them."

"But you and I were poisoned then?"

He inclined his head. "Not to the extent Morag was, but yes. The parchment we used has been soaked in a potion that makes it reveal if the body has been infected by something. The more severe the case, the darker blue the parchment turns. As you saw, our case was not as dire as Morag's. And the antidote seems to have helped you. That's why the parchment just turned a lighter shade of blue than before."

"Did it get lighter for you?" I asked at once, feeling worried.

"No, it's slightly darker," he admitted. Upon seeing my anxious look, he hastened on. "But that's only because I spent longer in the lab with Morag. I had to send you out so you wouldn't breathe any more toxins in."

"But you drank that antidote too," I pointed out.

"True," he said. "The antidote works to cancel out the poison in the body. It also stops you breathing out toxins so you won't infect anyone else. It doesn't stop you breathing them in. Morag was still breathing out toxins at that stage, and if you had breathed in more toxins I would have had to given you a larger dose of the antidote, which is very dangerous."

"Why?"

"The antidote can be as slow to work as the poison itself. Like I said, the antidote works to cancel out the poison, but sometimes the poison has taken too strong a hold on the body and it can't be stopped. The antidote itself has to be used sparingly because it contains phanohal, a rare ingredient that can cure quickly at a price."

"What sort of price?"

"We could have drank three times the amount of that antidote and cancelled out the poison in an instant. But though phanohal is excellent for cancelling out toxins, it also has a flair for slowing down the nervous system, often permanently. It's a very dangerous ingredient and you can only get a hold of it in Knockturn Alley. You can take a certain amount and be safe from any ill effects, but that's as long as the poison hasn't taken a strong hold on you. The stronger the hold of the poison, the more phanohal you have to take."

"So you and I are lucky then that the poison hadn't taken a stronger hold?"

He inclined his head. "Very lucky. It took more than an hour for Morag to start feeling the effects of the poison. If Morag had failed to let us know that she wasn't feeling well, then our own situation would have become a lot more serious. We wouldn't have felt different until the poison had taken on a similar hold to Morag's."

"But she ate the poison. We only inhaled it. Would it have taken the same amount of time to affect us?"

He shook his head. "No, it would have taken a lot longer. That's why the parchment turned much lighter shades of blue for us. But even so, if we had been in the same situation as Morag, things would have looked pretty grim."

"What would you have done?"

He was silent for a moment. "Well," he said slowly, "I would have given each of us greater amount of the antidote, and then I would have kept testing ourselves with the parchment every twenty minutes to see if it had beaten the poison."

"And if the poison was overriding it?"

He sighed. "Then there is no other option. A greater dose of the antidote would be the only path to take...either that or a slow death."

"And a greater dose of phanohal generally slows the nervous system down permanently?"

He nodded. "Generally, yes. But there have been cases when the nervous system improved over time, but never back to what it was."

"Why couldn't you just give Morag what you and I drank?"

"Phanohal doesn't really agree with magical creatures. You can only give them a tiny amount before it begins to affect them negatively. I was testing Morag on other magical creature antidotes hoping that I wouldn't have to use any phanohal. When her situation didn't improve, I gave her a small quantity of phanohal."

"And did it help her?"

He sighed. "Nothing happened for awhile. She didn't get worse, but she didn't get better either. I kept testing her with the parchment and I kept getting the same shade of blue."

"So the hold of the poison is too strong for the phanohal to handle?"

"Not necessarily. One seems as strong as the other at the moment, so things could change either way."

"So all we can do is wait for a change now?"

He nodded. "I'm going to test her again in a few minutes."

"So we're safe from inhaling anything from her now?"

"I believe so. However, since I can't guarantee it since it's a magical creature we're talking about and not a witch or wizard, you aren't to come into the lab until I tell you it's safe. It's too dangerous."

"But you might be making yourself worse," I pointed out.

He looked grimly at me. "I don't think she is breathing out any toxins. My parchment only turned a bit darker because I spent a little more time with her before giving her phanohal. The blue was no darker than your first parchment."

"But you'll be alright?" I didn't want Snape putting himself at risk.

"Yes, I'll be fine," he insisted.

"So if the antidote stopped me from breathing out toxins," I said slowly, "why couldn't I leave these rooms?"

"Just in case there is someone in this school waiting for us to be poisoned," he said simply. "Someone may have a means of knowing about this and even if you venture out into the rest of the castle now, someone may know how to reverse what the antidote is doing. There is still poison in your system."

"So if I had left before taking the antidote, I could have infected more people?"

He nodded. "Of course. The toxins would have been weaker still to inhale after someone else already has, but it would only result in the poison working even slower again. It would still eventually work towards death. Neither of us can leave until the parchment stays completely white when we test ourselves. We can't go out into the school while there is poison in our bodies. If there is anyone in the know about this at the school with the ability to reverse it, we are better off not venturing out into the school. It's against the rules anyway."

It seemed such a lot to take in. The idea that Morag had eaten something that could have killed all three of us, not to mention the entire student population was simply unbelievable. And trying to find out who exactly would want to do such a thing was not easy - there were too many candidates.

"It's strange that I've had poison in here all this time, but touching it didn't harm me."

Snape frowned. "The packet contained a mixture of normal food as well as poison."

I gave him a wry smile. "I suppose Morag would have been poisoned earlier if you hadn't stopped her from eating Morgan's food."

He sneered slightly. "Ironic, isn't it? To think that she had several tantrums over something that could end her life."

We were both silent, contemplating this.

"I'm going to test her again, and see if there's anything else I can do." he said, after a moment. "It's a quarter to ten. I suggest you go to bed."

"I can't go to bed," I said indignantly. "How can I sleep now?"

He glared at me. "That's why you're a trained Occlumens."

I glared back at him. "But I-"

"Go to bed," he said firmly. "I won't tell you again. I will come and wake you as soon as I have news. I'm going to have to wake you every couple of hours anyway to check that the antidote is still working." He swept from the room, closing the door behind him.

Very begrudgingly I did as I was told and went to bed. For ages I was determined not to sleep, no matter what Snape said. I thought it a terrible thing to try and sleep while my poor owl could be dying. But then, I starting thinking about what Snape had said about being a trained Occlumens. I was supposed to prove that I could shut down my feelings in times when it was extremely hard to. Even when it came to life and death situations.

So I shut my eyes and put the steel wall up in my mind. These days it came to me so easily. Snape's training had made sure of it. I kept the wall up until sleep finally came...

"Armilla, wake up." Someone was shaking my shoulder.

"No," I mumbled in my sleep.

There was silence again, and then...

"Did you just say no to me?"

"No...what?" I said sleepily, my eyes closed.

"Not what, Armilla, pardon."

"Why?"

"What do you mean why?"

My eyes shot open as full consciousness came back and I realised that I was actually talking to someone, not just talking in my sleep. Everything came back to me in a split second. I hoped Morag was alright.

Snape was sitting on my bed, looking a bit disgruntled. "If you're going to talk to me in your sleep, do try to provide well-mannered conversation."

"Sorry," I said groggily, as I sat up. "I didn't realise I was talking to you."

He raised an eyebrow. "Who did you think you were talking to?"

"I didn't think I was talking to anyone."

He shook his head. "You're half-asleep, I'm sure." He handed me some parchment and a cotton bud again. "You know what to do."

"How's Morag?"

He looked pointedly at the parchment. "Do that first."

Thankfully this time the parchment turned an even paler shade of blue than before.

"That's good," I said sleepily. "What time is it?"

"Just after eleven-thirty," he replied, taking the parchment from me.

"And is the blue getting paler for you?"

"Yes, significantly paler."

"And Morag?"

"There's been some improvement. Very slow improvement, but nevertheless the blue has been getting paler for her too."

Suddenly I was wide awake. I could have hugged my brother with happiness. "Will there be any permanent damage?"

"I hope not. This might take her several weeks to get over since the poison had a hold on her. The worst might be that she has a small amount of nerve damage."

"Will she be able to make deliveries then?" I knew Morag would be very upset if she saw me tying mail to another owl to deliver.

"I should think so. If not, I'll keep researching until I can find something to help her."

Another thought suddenly came to me. "What about her ability to change appearance?"

Snape considered me for a moment. "That's another thing I'm not sure of. I believe she will be fine in that regard, but only time will tell."

"I suppose I can't see her?"

He narrowed his eyes at me. "You know the answer to that. I will let you see her as soon as her parchment remains white."

"What if our parchment isn't white in the morning?"

"I'm not expecting it to be," he answered. "We'll be confined here tomorrow for the morning at least."

"That's going to get people talking."

He sneered. "Indeed it will. It'll get back to Father in no time. I'll have to tell him that we were both unwell and couldn't attend classes."

"He'll love that."

"He can deal with it. I'll tell him that you were sick with something you caught off another student, and then I caught whatever it was off you."

I shook my head. "Hang on. You see a larger variety of students than I do everyday. Why didn't I catch it off you?"

He glared at me. "Because it's my story."

I fought the urge to laugh. I was feeling so relieved that Morag was going to be alright. "Won't it look strange for us to suddenly turn up to the afternoon classes tomorrow?"

"Oh, we're going to have to take the whole day off," he assured me. "We'll just be confined to these rooms in the morning. I've already contacted Dumbledore and told him what happened. He insisted that since we're going to be up every couple of hours anyway to test ourselves, we should have tomorrow off."

"What about Harry's Occlumency lesson tomorrow night?"

"He had better turn up," he said, scowling. "It'll be detention if he doesn't."

We were silent again, letting everything sink in. Before long, my mind turned back to finding out the identity of the poison culprit.

"Do you have any theories?" I asked my brother, hoping the same thoughts were running through his mind at the moment.

"A few," he murmured, rubbing his temples. "There are so many possibilities."

"At least we can rule out Father for this one," I admitted.

Snape nodded. "Yes, Father would certainly not have done this. He would not have had the Morgan's company send poisonous owl food. He does not want you dead by any means."

"The Malfoys would have had nothing to do with it either then, I suppose." I was racking my brains for the culprit.

"No, not the Malfoys either," he agreed. "We're on good terms with them, though it does sound like something Lucius would do. He's done things like that many times in the past. But killing you off wouldn't help when he wants you to marry his son."

I shuddered. Mrs. Armilla Malfoy. That did not have a nice ring to it.

"It may not be someone you or I know well, you know," he said thoughtfully. "There are many people in the Dark Lord's service who would commit acts like this to rob someone of their place in the inner circle."

"And you have a good spot in the inner circle?" I said quietly, trying to ignore the flip-flops in my stomach at the mere thought of it.

He met my gaze, his expression unfathomable. "I do."

We sat in silence for a moment.

"It might be someone who's convinced you're a traitor to the Dark Side," I pointed out.

He nodded. "That's another possibility. Any investigation done will have to be carried out very quietly. I do not wish anyone to think that I suspect them."

"If someone was going to try and kill you in such a way, using a poison in owl food was a pretty brainless way of going about it," I said thoughtfully.

Snape nodded. "I agree. Like I've said to you before, people can be sly, but not intelligent. Tell me why you think it was brainless."

"You're a Potions Master," I said simply. "You're the best Potions Master. Even if Morag had died you would have been able to identify why. And there's no guarantee that you would have been affected by the food. We could easily have taken it up to the owlery if you had decided that Morag was not to have the food. And also if we had gone out into the school before we knew Morag was sick, other people could have caught it as well."

"That's right," he said, his expression dark. "Anyone at all from any House, or any member of staff could have caught it. Sending a contagious poison to a school was a ridiculous thing to do. It will narrow down my search considerably, for I'm going to be looking for someone dense."

"How would the person...or persons have gotten hold of such a rare poison?" I asked.

"That's what I'd very much like to know," he answered, his eyes glittering. "Rare poisons are rare for a reason. They are hard to get. They contain uncommon ingredients that are very expensive and they are usually extremely complicated to make. If one intricate detail is missed, the poison can become useless and that would mean a lot of time and money wasted."

"So there would be few witches or wizards up to making it?"

"Indeed. I could count on one hand all the people I know of capable of such a potion. I am more inclined to believe that someone was paid a lot of money to make the potion, and was then obliviated once it was complete."

"What are you going to do?" I said softly.

"I've already discussed the matter with the Headmaster. He has the right connections for carrying out hushed up investigations. It could take some time to identify the culprit, or culprits."

"Maybe one day you could research that poison and find a proper cure without side effects," I said thoughtfully, sliding further down into bed.

Snape nodded. "I would like to, believe me. It's such a rare form of poison that there hasn't been a lot of research carried out to find a more effective cure. I'm-" He suddenly stopped, looking pained.

I was silent he as looked at the wall.

At length, he turned back, looking serious. "I am thankful," he said quietly, "that Morag alerted us when she did. If she hadn't..."

I nodded. "We'd have bigger problems right now."

"To put it lightly, yes."

"Are you going to test all of Morag's food first from now on?"

"Most definitely, though I do not believe whoever is responsible would do the same thing twice."

I didn't like to think about that. If whoever was responsible wasn't caught, they might try another method...and soon.

"Don't think on it, Armilla," he said seriously. "I will not permit you to waste time thinking about it when you have exams coming up. Let other people handle it and concentrate on other things."

"Easier said than done," I murmured.

"You're capable," he said shortly.

I smiled. "You might have to be nice to Morag for awhile, you know."

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, I might just. Not too nice though, not after I've just succeeded in squashing her arrogant side."

"Might give Morgan's food a miss from now on..."

"I doubt Morag will touch it now," he agreed. "I suppose she'll adopt a woe is me approach to life." He scowled again. "It's enough to put up with that from Potter."

I said nothing. Sometimes it was just best to say nothing.

o o o o o o o o o o o

When I finally got out of bed around eight-thirty the next morning, I had had barely any sleep. Snape had woken me up every couple of hours to make sure that the effects of the antidote hadn't suddenly backfired.

After showering, I sleepily made my way out to the sitting room to have breakfast. The room was empty and I supposed that Snape was in the lab with Morag. I didn't think that he had gone to bed at all. He had to keep testing me as well as himself every couple of hours, as well as monitor Morag. I hoped that Snape's blue was still getting paler.

I ate breakfast by myself, feeling like I could fall asleep at the table. Generally Snape would have made sure that I didn't sleep past seven-thirty, but I knew today he wouldn't care so much. I would just stay over in the dungeons and go to bed early that night instead.

I was looking over the study notes that Snape and I had gone through the night before when Snape emerged.

"Bit keen aren't you?" he said, when he saw what I was doing. "You've barely had any sleep."

"I know," I replied, trying to stifle a yawn. "Did you go to bed at all?"

He sat down at the table and reached for the coffee. "I've just had two hours sleep," he said, "and I wouldn't mind some more. Have you eaten?"

"Yes, I just finished. How is Morag?"

"I just checked on her," he answered, reaching for some toast. "She's a lot better. I'm hoping that her parchment will be all white by tonight."

"And yours?"

"Extremely pale, like yours. I want you to check yours again soon."

I nodded, feeling so relieved so we're were all going to be alright.

"Who is teaching your classes today?"

"Professor Sprout is taking two. She has a couple of free periods and will take my classes then. As far as I know, she's taking them down to the Greenhouses to do theory work on Potions ingredients stored there. I believe the Headmaster is taking the other classes."

"Lisa and Terry will wonder where I am."

"I daresay Professor Flitwick will let them know."

"Am I allowed to tell them what really happened?"

He considered me for a moment. "I'd prefer it if you didn't. Just stick with the story that we were both unwell."

"They'll see through that."

He looked indifferent. "Be that as it may, I would prefer to keep this private."

I nodded. "Alright, so I caught something off you." I smiled, waiting for him to take the bait.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "No, I caught something off you. Don't you twist the tale around."

Fine. Hopefully I would get to make up the next cover story if there was ever a need for one.

"Might I ask if you are planning on going back to bed this morning?" He gave me a stern look.

I shook my head. "I've got homework to do, and later I'll have to catch up on everything I've missed."

Now it was Snape's turn to shake his head. "I don't agree. After I check on Morag again I am going back to bed for a couple of hours. I suggest you do the same."

I knew the man well enough to know that it was an order disguised as a request. And I didn't want to argue with an exhausted Snape. The man had just cured my owl. I knew his patience would not need testing today.

"There's still some of that parchment in your room," he said, "So go and test yourself."

I got up and went into my room, but not before glancing at the closed lab door. I really wanted to see Morag. I hoped she wasn't thinking that I didn't care.

"It's off-white," I called a few moments later. Really, the parchment was barely blue anymore.

"I'm glad to hear it," he called back. "I do hope you're going to bed now."

I certainly recognised that as an order.

o o o o o o o o o o o

It seemed that I had just closed my eyes when I felt someone shaking me.

"I went to bed...like you told me to..." I murmured.

"Yes, and I'm very proud of you," came my brother's sarcastic voice, "but I'd appreciate it if you would get up now, otherwise you won't sleep tonight."

I rubbed my eyes. "I only just went to bed, you know."

He raised an eyebrow. "It's nearly one o'clock, Armilla."

What? "I didn't want to sleep that late! I've got homework to do."

"Really?" he drawled. "Well, now you might make a good job of it now since you've had a decent rest."

"Is Morag-"

He held up a hand. "Morag is still making progress. I think I can safely say that she'll be back to normal before you go to bed tonight."

I smiled. "I'm glad you were around to fix her."

He nodded. "Well Potions Masters are useful every now and then."

"So can I see her tonight?"

"We'll see," he answered, passing me another piece of parchment and a cotton bud.

He didn't need to tell me what to do by now. I was very much relieved a moment later to see that the parchment remained completely white.

"Cured?" I asked, seeking confirmation of this.

"Cured," he said simply. "Well then, I think I can hear your homework calling you."

There was suddenly a loud hoot from inside the lab.

"I think someone wants some company," I said.

He rolled his eyes. "I have better things to do than be sociable with your owl."

'She probably really likes you now since you cured her."

He frowned. "I can't have that, can I? I'd prefer if she was afraid of me, not worshipping me."

o o o o o o o o o o o

After coming back from Occlumency lessons with Harry that night (in a quite a questionable mood), Snape tested Morag and declared that she was one hundred percent well.

We already knew that she was feeling better anyway, since we had spent much of the afternoon hearing sudden outbursts of cheerful hooting and the flapping of wings. To Snape's credit, he hadn't gone into the lab, waving his wand threateningly every time she had done this. Instead, he had pursed his lips and had muttered about tomorrow being a different day and doing and saying what he liked to the wretched creature. Underneath, I knew he was just as relieved as I was that Morag was going to be alright.

"Well come in and see her then," he said, standing in the doorway of the lab.

I followed him inside and smiled when I saw Morag perched on the workbench, looking expectantly at me. She looked a lot better than she had the night before, but she wasn't small and white at the moment. Instead, she was iridescent purple and quite large.

"Obviously she can still change her features," said Snape dryly. "She's been going from one outrageous colour to the next for a few hours."

I put my hand out to pet her, but she suddenly nipped at my finger, blinking at me. Then she let out a loud, angry hoot.

I frowned. "What did she do that for?"

Snape was glaring at Morag. "I believe she is letting you know that she is less than pleased that you weren't with her while she was unwell."

"It's not my fault," I said indignantly, looking directly my owl. "You were contagious."

She blinked at me, and then turned aqua.

Snape sneered at her. "You look ridiculous."

"Why don't you go back to your normal form?" I suggested.

She hooted softly, looking anywhere but at me.

"Conceited creature," Snape muttered.

At that moment, there was a puff of smoke in front of Snape and a hazy picture of Dumbledore appeared in the fading smoke, only to vanish again a few seconds later.

"What was that?" I asked, pretending that I hadn't really jumped back in alarm.

"The Headmaster is outside," he replied. "Stay here, I'll go and let him in."

I nodded, watching as Snape swept from the room. I couldn't believe that I had spent so much time in the dungeons and had just found out now what means Snape used to let him know if he had a visitor. The visitor couldn't very well knock, seeing as the door to our quarters was concealed by a portrait.

I turned back to Morag, who had started hooting softly whilst staring in the opposite direction.

"Morag," I said quietly.

She ignored me.

"Morag?"

Still nothing, though the hooting was getting louder. I could hear the muffled voices of Snape and Dumbledore out in the sitting room. I supposed they were discussing how they would go about investigating who was responsible for the poison.

"I told you it wasn't my fault," I said earnestly, trying to keep the impatience from my voice. "I wanted to see you, but you were too sick. You know I wouldn't just leave you."

Still, I got no response.

Through an effort of trying not to get annoyed by her rudeness, I reminded myself what Morag had been through in the last twenty-four hours. Instead I changed tactics.

"Fine," I said coolly, taking a step back. "Be like that. I understand perfectly if you don't want to forgive me."

She kept hooting, but more softly, as I knew she was listening to me still.

"If you're not going to forgive me, then there's no point in me sticking around, I suppose. Very sad, but there it is." I sighed dramatically. "Well I suppose I shall leave now, since there's no one here who wants my company."

I started walking towards the door, careful not to look back.

"Guess I'll have to ask Severus to get me a new owl then," I said, very clearly. "A nice little white one, preferably not stubborn."

I was a step from the door when I heard a loud screech and a flutter of wings. Morag, small and white once more, fluttered in front of me until I stretched out my arm for her to land on. She looked quite frantic and I used my other hand to stroke her head.

"Should I keep you then?" I asked.

She closed her eyes in response, happy to have me stroke her.

Sometimes situations called for me to do something Slytherin.