The Unknown of the Order (Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

Help from Hogwarts

Barnaby frowned, thinking. 

"What about me being too dangerous to travel with?"

"Well, I don't care much about that anymore," she admitted. "I mean, if the Andrels were still interested in us, you'd have heard from them by now, wouldn't you? For all we know, the Death Eaters got rid of them. And anyway, the whole world is dangerous now. I figured...if you want...we might as well face it together."

This time Barnaby did step forward, his eyes as serious as she'd ever seen them. 

"I'd like that," he said. "But, there's something I should tell you."

Sarah jumped at the shrieking whistle of Hagrid's tea kettle.

"Tea?" she said, breathless. 

Barnaby helped her lift the bucket sized kettle from the fire and place it on the table. Sarah busied herself with arranging the chairs while he reached up into Hagrid's tall cabinets for teacups. 

While Sarah poured the tea into bowl sized cups--using her wand this time to levitate the kettle--the door opened again. She nearly dropped the kettle in surprise, sloshing hot water on the table as Fang bounded forward to greet his master. 

Hagrid entered the cabin, closely followed by Professor McGonagall. The latter staggered slightly and pressed her hand over her heart as she surveyed the scene. 

"Miss Spellman? Mr. Lee? What on earth are you doing here?"

McGonagall appeared to have dressed in a hurry. She wore her usual green and black robes, but she'd forgotten her hat and her hair, normally pulled into a tight bun, fell about her shoulders. The buttons on the front of her cloak were misaligned. 

"Hullo, Professor," said Sarah, unable hide a grin at the look on her old head of house's face. "It's good to see you."

"Don' be fergettin' Merula, now," said Hagrid, gesturing toward the bed.

"My word," said McGonagall, going at once to the patient. 

They all sat in silence while McGonagall set to work. Hagrid finished pouring the tea and passed around a plate of his infamous rock cakes as the professor conjured a few orbs of light above her workspace. She traced her wand along Merula's wounds, and pulled out vials of potions from a small leather bag at her hip. Once she'd administered several portions, both by mouth and directly on to the wound, she nodded in satisfaction. 

"That should do it," she said, rising from the bed and going to wash her hands. "Madam Pomfrey would have done better of course, but I'm not inept at healing magic. She'll need to rest for a day or two, but she will be fine."

"I though' it better teh go to a direct member o' the Order, Professor," said Hagrid apologetically. 

"You did perfectly well, Hagrid." 

McGonagall looked down her stern nose at Sarah and Barnaby, and Sarah felt so much like she was back at school being scolded that she almost laughed. 

"Now, that brings us to why you all are here. Surely, you realize that Hogwarts isn't safe for you? What you thought by coming here--"

"We had to escape--" Sarah began, but McGonagall held up a hand. 

"Curious as I am, Miss Spellman, the less I know of this the better. I suggest that as soon as Miss Snyde is able, the three of you get far away from here." She stood up and surveyed the cabin. "And Hagrid, I told you this party business was too dangerous. You better take all this down before anyone hears what you're up to."

McGonagall began to head toward the door. 

"You could come with us, Professor," Sarah said suddenly, standing up. "The Order needs more people out there."

"My place is here," said McGonagall, turning to face her. "I must do everything I can to protect the students under my charge. But, I wish you luck. Now, I must return to the castle before anyone notices I'm gone." McGonagall hesitated a moment as she opened the door. "It was good to see you all as well." 

Then, she was gone. 

"Well," said Hagrid, clapping his hands together. "Glad we got tha' sorted."

Sarah's stomach squirmed as a small moan reached them from the bed. Merula shifted on the blankets, her eyes fluttering open. She lifted her head enough to take in the hut. 

"Oh, hell."

He head fell back against the pillows. 

Sarah got up to stand beside the bed.

"You'll be alright," said Sarah. "But McGonagall says you've got to rest a day or two before you can travel again." 

"If you think I'm spending another moment in this dingy hut, you've got another thing coming," she said softly.

"Hagrid saved your life," said Sarah. "If it hadn't been for him, you'd probably be lying dead on the forest floor, waiting for some werewolf to pick your bones clean."

"Don't forget this is all your fault, Spellman," she said. "If you hadn't dragged me away from that fight like a bleeding coward."

"There were too many of them. We walked right into their trap. I had no choice."

"There's always a choice," she gulped. "You took the easy way out. And as usual, someone else had to suffer because of your actions."

Sarah had no reply to this. "I'll get you some water."

"I'll do it," said Hagrid, rising to his feet with Fang at his heels. "Best fer you lot to stay out o' sight." 

Sarah went back to her chair and sipped her tea while Hagrid went outside to collect water from the pump. She tried not to let Merula's words affect her; she knew she'd only said them because she was in pain, but Sarah was already emotionally drained, and this only added to her exhaustion. Barnaby placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and she managed to smile at him. 

Hagrid returned with a pitcher of water and poured some into a mug, but Merula had already fallen asleep again. He sat the mug down on the little table next to the bed and said, "Well, we better get some sleep. Sarah you can conjure yerself a bed in here. I don' mind bunkin' down with Grawpy fer a night or two."

"Grawpy?"

"Don't ask," muttered Barnaby. 

Once he and Hagrid left, Sarah transfigured Hagrid's kitchen table into a small bed and climbed in. How strange, to be back in a place that was so familiar, but to be an outsider, even an outlaw. She was proud of her teachers, in the belly of the beast, doing what they could for their students. She smiled at the actions Hagrid and Barnaby were taking in the forest. It was like Hogwarts was a living thing, a being taken over by disease, but the good cells were still there, still fighting. 

She worried about Lee and the twins, but she was too exhausted to stay up pondering their whereabouts for long.