Chapter Twenty-Eight
"Confusion"

Page Two

"We've called the other Professors," said Hagrid, walking back over to Ron, Hermione and Madam Pomfrey, who were standing nervously in the corner. "They should be 'ere soon, I 'spect."

"Hagrid," said Madam Pomfrey quietly. "It's really been too long since Lavinia Ceres and Harry left. I really think, even though it means splitting up, that we should go look for them."

"I quite agree," said Malfoy harshly from behind Hagrid. He had walked up silently and was looking quite stern. "I've thought it over and it seems much too dangerous to leave them alone out there. As soon as Professor Flitwick gets here, I'll place him in charge and we can all go out and look for them."

"Thank you, Lucius," said Madam Pomfrey sincerely, her eyes showing with concern and fear.

* * *

McGonagall was sitting in a corner of her little white cell, her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth in frustration. About an hour before, she had woken up, her mind free from the torment of the voices that had plagued her. Now she sat in deep contemplation over her situation.

As she sat there, her lips pursed, thunder clashed somewhere above her and she looked up to see the ceiling had disappeared, revealing a black abyss. Suddenly, she saw little white specks falling towards her and then she realized it was rain. Thunder boomed loudly again as the rain finally landed on her and splashed as it hit the floor. In no more than five minutes, she was completely soaked. Her white nightgown clung to her skin and her hair stuck uncomfortably to her face and neck. She continued to rock back and forth as if nothing had changed, until a few minutes later, she looked up and shouted,

"You'll have to do a lot better than that!"

* * *

The ground beneath had to be at least three stories below him as he stood on a window ledge on the side of the castle. Rain wildly whipping his hair, the rain stinging as it collided with his defined cheekbones. Severus Snape blinked hard as he tried to comprehend what he was looking at and where he was. Last thing he remembered he was holding McGonagall by the shoulders in a dark corner… and then nothing.

He heard something behind him, a low growling noise. He looked over his shoulder and saw a small, hideous green-skinned house elf-like creature barring its teeth and him and flexing short stubby claws at the end of its fingers. It stood hunched over on its self, looking at him with a piercing red stare, one eye milky from the effects of cataract. It had large, pointy ears that were horribly scarred and one ear even seemed to be missing a large chunk, as if it had been bitten off.

"Master said to make you fall," croaked the elf. "You fall!"

Before Snape had time to think, the elf lunged at him, knocking him off balance. He desperately grasped behind him, his hands clasping around a slimy wrist that belonged to the elf. The elf raised its other arm and brought its claws down upon Snape's chest as they fell to the muddy earth below them, landing with a definitive splat, sending specks of mud flying. Snape felt more mud hit him on the face as the elf fell, two seconds later, directly to his right. Snape quickly tried to forget the pain in his back as he turned over onto his side to pin the elf to the ground, but he only rolled over onto a denser puddle of mud. The elf had disappeared.

He collapsed, face down in the mud, unable to forget the pain any longer. His chest felt as if it had been crushed by a hippogryph and his left arm was twisted and broken. His left side was now rendered completely useless, as he was almost unable to move it at all. The mud cushioned his throbbing ribs as the rain beat down upon the back of his body.

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