The Other Potter: Book One

Chapter Eighteen: Bloodroot.

[Chapter Eighteen: Bloodroot. Edited.]

*Third Person*

Hermione and Ron followed Willow into the castle but she ran out of sight. They were looking for her, with no success.

"What did Malfoy do to her?" Ron cracked his knuckles. "I'll kill him."

"Maybe it isn't anything to do with Malfoy. She's been kind of...down, lately." Hermione mumbled.

"I've tried to talk to her, I really have, but she doesn't want to. She's pushed everyone away." Ron was quite upset, and craned his neck to see around the corner. She could be there, he thought, she could be anywhere.

"I told her I wouldn't let her push me away, but she won't even talk to me." Hermione looked as upset as Ron felt, and surged around the corner on the seventh floor. They were determined to find her, but as the minutes ticked by, they realised she could be hiding at the other end of the castle. "I don't know how to help her anymore. I want to. I've never had friends before, I don't know how to help anyone."

Ron frowned, "It's to do with whatever happened at Christmas. It's got to be. She's been odd ever since then... We should never have let her go home. What did her parents do to her?"

"Do you think we should go to Professor McGonagall?" Hermione asked Ron, looking tearful. "Maybe she'll be able to help Willow..."

"If anyone can," Ron said, nodding. "It's her."

The pair marched their way to Professor McGonagall's office, a five minute walk from where they were, and knocked on her door with determination.

"Come in."

They entered, feeling nervous, and told her everything they could about Willow. Hermione thought she must have known something they didn't, because her eyes did not widen and she did not look remotely shocked.

When they'd finished, she nodded her head, "thank you for telling me, you two. It is very brave of you to have done such a thing."

Professor Snape was pleased that there had been no 'funny business' at the Quidditch match - even if Gryffindor did win. He decided to take a stroll. There was no particular reason, he just felt like it. He ambled up to the seventh floor. When something struck him as weird...there was a door he had never seen before. Something vague meandered into his mind. Room of requirement. Could that be it?

There were bizarre noises coming from the room; a clutter of metal on porcelain? A cry? He walked at a brisk pace towards the door, pausing for a moment before entering. Was this really the right thing to be doing? Invading someone's privacy like this? It seemed to be an age as he stood there, thinking. The sobs had stopped altogether, so he knocked and entered the room.

Severus Snape gasped.

The sight that came before his eyes was severely unexpected. He saw a small girl sprawled on the floor blood pooled around her. He recognised her immediately as Willow Malfoy, the poor, curious girl who had the likeness of Lily Evans.

His first thought was that someone had used 'sectumsempra' on her until he noticed the cut-throat razor and the deep vertical slits on her wrists.

In what seemed like both an eternity and a flash, Severus was on his knees beside her, wand pointed at her bleeding arms, muttering a spell to heal the wounds. They had no effect, so in a delicate haste, he pulled her into his arms and carried her to the hospital wing. The movement disturbed her – she drifted in and out of consciousness, with no awareness of her surroundings.