Emilla Potter

The butterfly-effect

Days went by and exams got done. Flitwick told her her test got a perfect score, Sprout was all proud to her Hufflepuffs after herbology exam's two parts, professor Beck's exam was really easy to a lot of students - it only had multiple choice questions - and on potions some of them brewed a good or an  acceptable cure for boils.
The last exam for first years was charms in use. The were in front of the classroom again, waiting for each of them to go in alone and take the exam. Evelynn slept in that day. She was tired even after that and she felt nausiated. She found some rash on her right side and after they disappeared yesterday, it came back this morning. All together, she felt terrible. She hardly went down to the classroom and sat down on the floor. She looked outside an opened window.
It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, birds were singing and no wind was cooling the heat.  But there she was, shaking from cold and hardly breathing. After Eva came out she stood up slowly and walked in.
- Good morning, Miss.... are you alright? - Flitwick stood in the middle of the classroom, smiling from ear to ear until he saw her. His smile quickly merged into a worried glance. Evelynn just shook her head as she walked closer. Flitwick quickly got a chair but the girl didn't want to sit down. - Miss Prince, you can go to the...
- Professor can't I just quickly take the exam? - she said. Her voice was trembling as she was shaking. The professor nodded and put out a feather.
- Then Miss, please make this feather.... Miss Prince.
Her nose was bleeding, she felt light headed, the room blurred away and everything turned into darkness....

Snape was sitting on a chair in a hallway. Different people talked either to patients, to healers or to portraits.
The St. Mungo was full of wizards and witches. Severus Snape didn't hear a thing. He was scared to his soul. To give out some of that frustration his left leg was trembling and he was wringing his hands over and over again. He mumbled something constantly
On his left the Helbert Spleen ward closed two hours ago, and nobody came out since. On his right an old man sat down with halfmoon shaped glasses. He looked concerned.
- I should've seen it... - Severus murmured. - I should've seen it... I should've seen it...
- Severus - Dumbledore looked at the man. He didn't hear the principal. - Severus!
-... Dumbledore! - he looked at him realising his presence - Dumbledore.... - he just repeated the name over and over again in terror. His eyes weren't in tears, he was too afraid to cry. Dumbledore put his hand on the professor's shoulder and gripped it tightly. Snape shivered, stopped talking and gulped. He was breathing fastly in his willies for his daughter.
- Why didn't I see something... - he finally whispered - Was there any signs I should've know about? - he was crying. Few tears rolled down his cheeks but he quickly wiped them away.
- We won't know until they tell us - Dumbledore told him in a low tone, speaking slowly.
- I have been waiting for two and a half hours... - he wasn't angry. He was just telling facts.
Before this stress in Hogwarts he was with the third years. They were writing their potion essay. Few minutes after the end of their time a Ravenclaw student ran in between the leaving students and said that Dumbledore is asking for him. He should go as fast as he can. He didn't understand what is so urgent, but Dumbledore was a resonable wizard so he pointed her to show the way. When he got to the Charms classroom, three healers were taking Emilla to St.Mungo. The principal was there already with Filius. Students wanted to see what created the fear. As soon as Flitwick told the two teachers what exactly happened he got up and ran to a chimney. He used floo-powder to get into the hospital. Since then he was sitting there. Filius saw her real face. She changed back to Emilla but Dumbledore was there...
- What about Filius? - Snape asked.
- He doesn't know a thing.
- Are you sure? - the man looked into those blue eyes and from the glaze he watched a point on the floor. He is sure.
Hours passed but it felt like enternity. The sun was setting as the door of the Spleen ward opened up. Three healers came out. One of them walked towards the two professor.
- Dumbledore! Professor! - the woman greeted them - Where is the  family of this witch? - she asked them. Snape felt the nervousness sinking into his stomach. He couldn't talk from the fear.
- Miss, the professor here is the adoptive father of the girl - Dumbledore helped out. The witch turned towards Snape and looked at him in the eyes.
- That's luck in some form - the healer said. - My name is Isla Campbell, I am the Healer of the girl. You can come in. If the principal wants to get some information, please ask for Augustus Pie.
- I will, certainly! - the man said and walked away. Snape went in behind the Healer.
- I have three things to talk about. - she started. They walked in and Severus saw her. Her face was chalk white, her arms got the rash too. She wasn't really moving. With her closed eyes the only thing that showed that she's alive were the tiny movements from breathing. Snape sat down next to the bed, while on the other side Isla stood.
- The first - she started it - this condition is very rare. But we know the cure. We'll do what we can. Sadly we can't promise anything - this line felt like a punch on his chest. He nodded silently.
- The good things are - the woman continued on - she got here before it was too late. And this is non-contagious.
- But what is this? - the potion teacher just blurted out the question.
- Have you ever heard about butterfly-fever? - she asked him sitting down. He shook his head. He never even heard the term. - It's the casual name. We use the latin name: Coenonympha febris. This sickness comes really from a type of butterfly. The coenonympha oedippus. The mutation rarely comes out on the butterfly but if it's mutated it'll will bite just like an insect - she went deeper into the background of the sickness.
- H-How bad is it? - Snape was scared to get an answer to this question.
- We will do everything we can but as I said earlier - she shook her head - she isn't in a condition when we can promise that she'll live through.
His eyes started to get watery as he became aware every word he just heard.
- What can you... or... what can I do? - he asked looking up to the ceiling. The healer sat down.
- If she wakes up, we will have more information. First we are doing our job. Of course the professor can come in as visitor in visiting hours. You will have to wait... - she took a deep breath - I know this isn't what you wanted to hear. My apologies.
Severus nodded as his heart sank. After an hour of sitting next to her silent body he went home. Without even realizing it, he walked into Emilla's room. He looked around. Books on the shelf, everything at it's place. The ink-puddle left a hardly noticable stain on the desk. Pictures were put out in the room. Some of those were moving some of it weren't. Some of the pictures had a brown haired, freckled girl, mostly with her friends from Hogwarts. The other pile of pictures had a red-headed, lighter skinned girl. A lot of them weren't moving. "Just like she isn't moving right now" he thought and started to cry. In the last four years he have never been this scared from the future. Now he has the question: Will there even be a future for some of them?