Somewhere Only We Know - Part 2 - Sirius Black x OC

Chapter 13: The Unknown

Gemma squeezed Mary's hand. Come on, Mary. Fight this.

It had been almost two days since Mary had fallen ill in Hogsmeade. When Gemma, Alice, Sirius and Remus had made it back to the castle, Lily had been in tears. Mary had collapsed on the walk back and James had carried her to the hospital wing. It had been a terrifying few minutes and it wasn't getting any better; Mary was barely conscious for more than a few moments, and when she was, she was incoherent.

Gemma looked over at the two other students lying in the hospital wing. Both of them were in a similar condition to Mary; racked with fever and barely conscious. No one knew exactly what had happened, but the school was filled with rumours. The most obvious being that they had all been poisoned.

Gemma closed her eyes and brought Mary's hand – clutched in her own – to her cheek. "Please Mary. Please fight this."

"She will." Sirius's voice startled Gemma and she looked up to see him, James and Lily standing behind her. Sirius placed his hand around her nape and squeezed gently. "She's tough."

Gemma nodded while Lily took a seat on the other side of Mary's bed. "Has she woken at all this morning?"

"No." Gemma sighed. "Alice was here before me and she said the same. She's just not waking." They had all been taking turns to sit with Mary so she was never alone.

Lily nodded and Gemma saw her lower lip tremble. She was clearly scared and worried for her best friend. James sat next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. It was clear to see he had been a support for Lily over the last two days.

"Gem." Sirius gently rubbed his thumb up and down her nape, the affection sending shivers through her. "I know Potions is the last thing you want to be thinking about right now but..."

Gemma nodded and smiled up at Sirius. "I know. I need to write that essay." She had asked Sirius to remind her about the various essays they had on, so she didn't forget anything. "Thank you."

Gemma stood and gave Mary's hand one final squeeze. Sirius guided her out and she left Lily and James to sit with their friend. She sighed as she stepped out of the hospital wing. She wanted to cry.

"Hey." Sirius turned her and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. His hand lingered and he ran his thumb over her cheek. "She's going to be ok. Madam Pomfrey said last night that Slughorn has almost finished making an antidote. I'm sure it will work."

Gemma nodded. Slughorn had made an antidote to common poisons and an antidote to uncommon poisons, but neither had worked so far. Now he was experimenting. "Yeah. I just wish we knew what it was. And who was responsible."

Sirius frowned. "Yeah. I want to say it's related to Mulciber, but why were the other two students targeted as well? I can't see how a fourth year Ravenclaw and a third year Hufflepuff could have done anything to upset Mulciber. I doubt either of them even knew him."

"I agree. It doesn't seem connected." Gemma paused, a constant thought niggling in the back of her mind. "Mary was ill before, remember? On Peter's birthday. She had a fever then too, but she was also really sick. Violently, in fact." Gemma turned away from Sirius and paced back and forth slightly. "I've been thinking; what if Mary was poisoned back then as well but she was so sick from it that she threw it all back up? This time, Alice said Mary felt sick but she wasn't actually sick before the fever took over."

Sirius frowned. "It's possible. But why would someone target Mary like that? And what does it have to do with those other two?" He nodded his head towards the hospital wing.

Gemma sighed. "I don't know. That's the bit that doesn't make sense. This feels like an attack, whereas before it was just Mary who got sick."

Sirius nodded then suddenly frowned again. "That you know of. I'm sure James mentioned someone on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team was ill around that time too. I remember him hoping it would spread to all the other players because they were a week or so away from their first game."