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They went through the giant oak front doors, into the cavernous Entrance Hall, which was lit with flaming torches, and housed a magnificent marble staircase that led to the upper floors.
The door into the Great Hall stood open at the right; Madison followed the crowd toward it, but had barely glimpsed the enchanted ceiling, which was black and cloudy tonight, when a voice called, "Potter! Diggory! Granger! I want to see the three of you!"
The Diggory girl frowned, doing a double take to see if she'd heard it right. "What's that about?" Pansy asked looking the Gryffindor duo over in distaste as they scrambled to make their way over to the professor. "Dunno, we'll see," she shrugged before making a way to push through the crowd.
She found herself lined up with them along with the Weasley boy as an addition.
"There's no need to look so worried — I just want a word in my office," she told them. "Move along there, Weasley."
Ron stared as Professor McGonagall ushered the three students away from the chattering crowd; they accompanied her across the entrance hall. Somehow, Hermione found herself walking next to the Diggory girl with Harry anxiously trailing behind them and McGonagall leading the way. Hermione glanced at the Slytherin girl curiously, she pondered asking her what happened and how she was holding up. She'd found it rather peculiar that only her and Harry had suffered -professor Lupin had told her-, it was an odd duo. Sure, it could be pure coincidence, but in the world they resided, was something ever? She racked her mind at what those two could possibly have in common, but couldn't connect them. When she finished weighing the doubts in her mind, she finally decided it couldn't hurt to ask. She'd also found it odd the hazel eyed girl hadn't made any attempt to tease her, in fact she'd quite actually completely ignored her presence. Hermione wanted to be relieved, but she felt queasy. She noticed the paleness of her face that strongly contrasted with the dark bags under her eyes. She seemed exhausted and drained and Hermione felt her stomach churn with worry. She opened her mouth to ask her, "Hey, are you-" before she was abruptly cut of by the loud creak of an opening door accompanied by an "We've arrived." as they'd reached the ending of the corridor.
Hermione clicked her tongue at the misfortune, but the words she'd managed to get out had not gone unnoticed by the other girl. Madison turned to look at Hermione as they entered the small room with a large, welcoming fire. She gave the girl a fleeting smile as if to reassure her. It was different from the usual suggestive smirks, cheeky smiles and mischievous grins she's received from her. It seemed dampened and did the opposite of what it was meant to do. The messy haired girl didn't understand why she could possibly care about the Madison Diggory's well-being. She shook the thought of as Professor McGonagall motioned for them to sit down. She took the space in the middle of the couch before the professor's desk, in between Harry and Madison.
When the professor settled herself behind her desk and said abruptly, "Professor Lupin sent an owl ahead to say that the two of you were taken ill on the train," her eyes darted from the Diggory girl to the Potter boy.
