The Sorting Hat Crusades

Upon reaching the quiet of the corridors, they abruptly realized the fact that it would just be them for a while, until reaching Dumbledore or another professor. Narcissa walked with confidence, not letting on that her insides seemed to compress whenever she looked over to the infamous Lily Evans.

Lily, however, had no trouble walking side-by-side Narcissa Black, nor studying her from afar. She assumed it was unadulterated snobbery that kept Narcissa from looking her way, and focusing on the twisted hallways ahead. "Are we taking the long way?" she asked.

"No. We're taking the way that passes by Charms," replied Narcissa, without looking to her side.

"The long way then." This pulled her eyes to Lily, who tried to hide a smirk in a friendly smile as she characteristically looked anywhere but at Narcissa. Narcissa, for some reason, found it contagious and smiled a bit as well.

The moment passed, and gave way from awkward to mutually comfortable silence. "Wait, do you hear that?" asked Lily, stopping in curiosity.

"What?" Narcissa stopped and listened. She heard what sounded like a muffled riot. Lily began to follow her ears, and she followed. The noise got louder and louder as they approached the Charms classroom. The girls exchanged looks before Lily opened the door to peer inside.

She saw a flurry of Hugglepuff and Ravenclaw colors, which in closer examination revealed a variety of magical brawls. Lily, mouth gaped, dropped her hand from the doorknob and let it swing open for Narcissa to see.

It really wasn't much different from the scene they had just left at Potions. One girl even managed to whip out her broom and chase around what looked to be a monkey boy in robes. Professor Rivenstone was far from helping the situation, assisting her house in performing the knee-reversing hex on unsuspecting Ravenclaws. One poor boy had been hit with the nudus charm, giving his attackers reason to ridicule certain unfortunate endowments.

Narcissa's eyes went wide, and she slammed the door shut. She looked over to Lily, who said, "Maybe this is a coincidence."

"Bugger it, I'm going to my common room. Call me when it's over," said Narcissa, who began to walk away without giving Lily an opportunity to respond.

"Wait, Narcissa," called out Lily. "What if it's happening there too? What if the whole school's gone insane? What if--"

Narcissa turned around. "God doesn't exist? Aliens on Mars? All questions I'll be happy to let other people answer. You really ought to relax, this whole thing isn't ours to fix."

They were face to face, now, talking calmly and unlike the panicked air of a few moments before. "We might be the only ones sane, you know."

"Why would we be? That wouldn't make any sense."

"None of this makes sense."

Narcissa sighed. She was usually up to a good argument, but she actually did share Lily's concerns. "Fine, Evans. Transfiguration is close to here. If it's anarchy there too, we'll go to Dumbledore." She, once again, walked off without hearing Lily's response. Lily followed, a bit irked this time.

Lily wondered why she began calling her Evans, out of the blue. Should she call her Black? Narc? Cissa? Best to stick to pronouns, she decided.

Narcissa didn't have to open the Transfiguration door to hear the riot inside. She even heard a very clear battle cry concerning something about Peruvian toads. "Let's not go there," she said as Lily reached for the handle, and gently pushed away her hand.

"Oh, um. All right," said Lily, wondering if her cheeks looked red as Narcissa's hand lingered just a moment too long. "I-- I wonder if James is all right," she said offhandedly.

Narcissa dropped her hand, and once again resumed walking. "We've been gone for ten minutes. I think it's safe to say that someone must've lost an eye, by now." Lily flinched. "Although that Potter boy seems good enough with his magic," Narcissa added, for reasons beyond herself.

Lily stopped herself before asking if Narcissa fancied anyone. They were hardly good friends, and she realized she really didn't want to know. It must be awfully difficult, Lily thought, to find a guy up to her standards. Not only was she the prettiest girl in school, she was a Slytherin too.

Every boy in school would give anything to date Narcissa. Everything about her was pristine and regal, with an underlying factor of rebellion and cleverness. Her light blond hair was tied into a bun, accentuating her long graceful neck. Her gray eyes would sometimes shimmer in pale green. Lily wondered if something like enchanting eyes was a benefit of being pureblooded. With all the fuss over purity, there must've been some perks involved.

Narcissa and Lily walked in silence, while their minds raced with arbitrary thoughts and curiosity. Lily had a small urge to ask why Narcissa would even think of partnering up with a muggle-born, and why it seemed she wasn't as mean anyone would think. Instead, she asked, "Have you ever been to the Headmaster's office?"

Narcissa seemed to give this a bit of thought, before answering, "Yes. We can reach it from the second floor, but I'm not sure how we can get in. He has a password."

"We could try knocking."

"Suppose we could."

Luckily, they were only on the third floor, and the long winding stairwell was just a bit away. As they approached it, Lily felt an oddly sudden sense of foreboding. She shivered in the wave of ill will that washed over her, and in the cold chill that accompanied it. Narcissa looked as if she felt it too, with her usually calm face covered in what might have been fright. Footsteps were heard racing through a hallway to the left of them, and they turned around to see who was running.

"Severus?" Lily asked in surprise. Severus just scowled in her direction. Down the other corridor, a massively transparent image floated towards them. It was the Bloody Baron. While this made more sense than Severus being the source of the bad feeling they both felt a moment before, it was still odd and frightening. Narcissa sees the ghost every day, it being of her own house, but never has he accompanied that feeling before.

The three young students went pale and mute as the Baron glided by them, eventually taking away the feeling he brought. Lily, keenly aware that she was a Gryffindor in the company of two Slytherins, waited for one of them to speak. Narcissa raised a questioning brow her way before asking Severus, "What are you doing here?"

It was the first time Narcissa ever directly spoke to him, let alone acknowledged his presence. He was torn between shrinking away, and insulting her for being with a muggle-born. "I-- I'm, well, it's really none of your business."

That wasn't the right thing to say at all. Narcissa looked at him as if he was the lowest thing on Earth. "You're running away from Sirius, aren't you? Off to cower in the common room?"

Lily was surprised to hear her say such things, considering that Narcissa was ready to hide away till everything was all right as well. Severus contorted his face in pure disgust, contradicting his inward feeling of hurt, and said, "I'm not the one coddling with a penniless mudblood, Black."

He was disappointed to learn that all of the year's Black family were imbeciles, even the one housed in Slytherin. Still stricken with the fever from the classroom and the rush of magical power, he pointed his wand at her. He had a funny look in his eye, with his pupils down to barely a spec. "I think a simple hex will do. You're even worse than the mudblood in class. Wouldn't know what to do if--"

"Stupefy!" yelled Narcissa, sending a bolt of magnificent red light that knocked Severus down and sent him hurling toward a stone wall. After the impact, he didn't look like he'd be getting up anytime soon.

"Was that really necessary?" asked Lily, carefully.

Narcissa put away her wand and turned to Lily. "He was still under the madness, whatever it is. Did you see his eyes?"

Lily didn't answer, and muttered, "This must be a little bigger than I thought."

Back when the Baron flew by them, Narcissa felt something that she felt back in the other classes, although stronger. It was wrong, very wrong, and practically gave her goosebumps. She looked over to Lily, her face looking uncharacteristically grave, and said, "Dark magic."

Lily mirrored the expression and nodded. It was the only conceivable thing thing that could explain the delirium that seemed to afflict the entirety of Hogwarts. With an unspoken newfound determination, the two girls began to quicken their pace and descended the stairs. Both were motivated by fear than anything else, although neither would admit that.