Lumos (Book One)

Chapter Eleven ~ The Quidditch Final

"She took a good fall. I'm surprised she survived."

"And Avery?"

"Asleep behind that curtain."

"You said she saved her from dementors? Why would she be attacked by dementors when she did what she did?"

My eyes fluttered open. Through the curtain I could make out the shape of Dumbledore, Lupin, and Madam Pomfrey. I stayed as still as possible to make them think I was still sleeping.

"I think she might have been under the Imperius Curse," Madam Pomfrey said.

"An Unforgivable Curse? At Hogwarts?" Lupin questioned.

"This does look like the work of the Imperius. She knows she needs to talk to someone if she feels she's better off dead." Dumbledore cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable with the subject. "She lost her father to suicide when she was a child, so she knows it causes more pain than it relieves."

"The girl I saved... tried to kill herself?" I thought aloud, now standing, pulling the curtain aside and staring between the three of them. Lupin looked extremely uncomfortable, along with Dumbledore, and Madam Pomfrey looked as though she was having trouble comprehending the situation. "And what's this 'Unforgivable Curse' business?"

Lupin looked at Dumbledore for permission. He gave my godfather a nod of approval, gesturing for me to sit. Lupin sat next to me on my infirmary bed.

"There are a great deal of horrible, horrible curses in the world. People make new ones every day and find new ways to use the ones we already know. But of this number of curses, there are three we have outlawed in the Wizarding World because they are so unbelievably terrific. There is the Imperius Curse, which puts the victim completely under the caster's control, the Cruciatus Curse, a spell that causes unspeakable pain on the victim, and the Kil--"

"The Killing Curse," I finished for him. "The one that gave me and Harry these." I pointed at my maimed face with a weak smile. He nodded sadly. "Snape said that even though the odds are more against the victim of the Killing Curse than any other possibility ratio, it is possible for someone else to survive or have survived. Is there anyone other than us who lived through it?"

Lupin cleared his throat. Dumbledore shifted his weight. I looked between them.

"There is, isn't there?" I asked. "Who? I need to know. I need to meet them."

"Well," Lupin began, "the only other person to have survived hasn't been heard from in almost ten years. She dropped off the map a year after the incident. I tried to find her but I couldn't."

"What was her name?" I was now more curious about this than anything I had ever been curious about before.

"Scarlett Ariana DiLaurentis. People think she died when she was a child, but no one really knows." I looked over at Dumbledore as he spoke. "All anyone knows is she was the illegitimate child of Bellatrix Lestrange and was adopted by the DiLaurentis family when Bellatrix was imprisoned in Azkaban."

I thought for a moment. Something about that name sounded familiar. My eyes widened as an idea struck me.

"Am I allowed to go, Madam Pomfrey?" I asked.

After an extensive checkup to make sure I was stable after almost getting a concussion on the floor, I bolted from the infirmary straight to the library.

- - - - -

Hermione told me about Hagrid losing his case on the way to breakfast the next morning. I nearly broke down in tears thinking about Buckbeak being executed.