Early return on the Hogwarts Express
Early the morning after the attack, the students empty the Great Hall to pack and return home early on the Hogwarts Express. There would be no Feast and no celebrations of the House Cup. This year unlike countless times before all of the students return to the Hogwarts Express via stagecoach including the first years. The student's voices are hushed, there are no loud or joyous voices. It is an uncanny sight in comparison to the countless end-of-the-year departures.
The atmosphere grew even more somber as the students traveled through the ruins of Hogsmeade, and even more so as the students climb up the train platform. There are scorch marks across the platform from jinxes, curses, and hexes. There are dried, dark blood stains that have yet to be removed.
The students hastily enter the Hogwarts Express without any prodding from the (remaining) Prefects. In neat, single files the students board the train. It is simply an unprecedented sight.
By 10 o'clock sharp, the Hogwarts Express is ready to depart several hours early at that. The students are all accounted for as the train doors close shut. The gleaming engine lets out a piercing wail, before slowly hurtling forward. A mist follows them as the Hogwarts Express gains power vanishing into the gloom.
The drag scenery zooms past the train compartment windows as Mary MacDonald gazes vacantly out of the windows. Her dark brown hair is somewhat of a tangled mess. Her golden-brown eyes appear sickly even more so with dark, purple-like discolorations under her eyes highlighted by the gaunt cheekbones. Her lips are chewed raw with dark scabs. Her nails have been bitten down until they nearly bleed. She did not look well at all.
Mary pays no mind to her companion, Willa Sands who laughed causing her naturally curly chestnut hair to gently shake. Her cappuccino-colored skin glitters with a healthy glow and her hazel eyes practically sparkle. Then again, Willa is madly infatuated with Thomas Bell, a Hufflepuff Chaser, and her current boyfriend. The two of them warmly chat along with Thomas Bell's friend, who had joined them in the train compartment.
Occasionally Willa will send Mary a worried look. Willa had not gone down to Hogwarts like Mary and instead had opted to stay behind at Hogwarts to play quidditch with Thomas and other quidditch house team players. It had been a warm day with the perfect weather. One last match and far more exciting than Hogsmeade, but oh how very wrong they had been.
After the attack, Willa had been one of the students helping carry the wounded students to the infirmary. Willa had found Mary stumbling back to the castle with her hands covered in blood. She had frozen in fear for a moment having never witnessed such a soulless, vacant expression on Mary's face.
Willa had been, oh so terribly frightened by the ghastly appearance of Mary. She had hurried Mary to the infirmary only to find that Mary had no visible wounds. Mary had then been promptly ushered out by one of the golden-haired women. The infirmary needed to use every single bed for those wounded and there was no room for those who were non-injured.
Willa tried to go after Mary, but a wounded patient carried by two tiny first-years caused her to stop and help. It wasn't that she had not wanted to go after her friend. There were so many wounded students in desperate need of assistance, she simply did not get the chance to slip away.
By the time, Willa escaped the infirmary the shadows are long. Hurrying back to the Gryffindor tower in search of Mary, Willa passed through the Gryffindor common room only to hear loud gossip. It was all over the school and tower that Mary had in a very public manner broken up with Remus in the Great Hall.
Rushing up the stairs, Willa burst into the shared girl's common room. The red drapes around Mary's bed are shut. Tentatively, Willa pulls them aside and tries to speak to Mary, but Mary does not respond. Mary simply lies still with her back turned towards Willa blankly staring at the wall.
Willa tried pleading, begging, joking, speaking softly, being sarcastic, and even almost yelling, but nothing moved Mary. She wasn't the only one to try as did Lily and their roommates. Yet Mary never spoke all that night and only broke her vow of silence when Remus spoke to her in the Great Hall that morning.
At first, Mary pointedly ignored Remus's efforts until she could no longer. Abruptly Mary spoke up and said, "It is over, Remus," and nothing else. It was as though Remus Lupin had existed to exist.
Heartbroken Remus retreated with his heart in tatters to only be comforted by James and Terry Greengrass. (Not that Terry would ever admit it, but Terry was rather fond of Remus. And had caused Remus to turn slightly aghast at Terry's promise to poison Mary for him.) Not that Peter Pettigrew or Sirius Black wouldn't have, but both are not at Hogwarts.
Willa could only in great frustration watch Mary push away Remus and everyone around her including them. No matter how Willa tried to broach the subject Mary would not make any attempt to speak or seemingly appear to listen. It is a dreadfully frustrating business.
Abruptly Mary sits up looking rather pale and sickly. "I'll be back, I need a breath of air," Mary mumbled stumbling from her seat.
"I'll accompany you," Willa sincerely offered rising to her feet.
"No! I'm fine," Mary snapped causing Willa to freeze as hurt flashed across her face.
Remorse flashes across Mary's face, she takes a deep breath. "Sorry, it wasn't my intent to shout, Willa. I just need a breath of fresh air. Please."
Willa nods her head slowly and reluctantly sits back. Mary squeezes past them firmly shutting the train compartment door. She leans tiredly against the door for a moment, before hearing their voices pick up quietly inside. Not wanting to hear them discussing her, Mary wanders away to the nearest loo.
Mary picked an empty stall and shuts the door behind her. She slumps down against the seat burying her face in her faintly trembling hands. She hadn't slept a wink since the night before. And now, she wasn't certain she would ever sleep after what she had done.
Time slips by Mary is not certain for how long or whether she dozed off or not. It is simply a passing blur. She staggers out of the stall to the sink avoiding her pale, withdrawn reflection in the mirror in front of her
Mary begins to wash her hands in the sink, but they can't seem to get clean. The more she scrubbed the pinker her hands became. Yet her hands remain unclean.
The sound of nearby approaching footsteps causes her to stop, Mary hurriedly dries her hands on her clothes and slips out of the lavatory. In her hurry, she collides with someone. Startled Mary glances up peering into the midnight indigo eyes of Rowan Prince, her friend.
At that moment, something terrible occurred that Rowan had never intended for to occur. It was not conscious nor was it a natural born gift. With utter ease, Rowan slipped inside Mary's mind and began to see. Awful, dreadful things.
Abruptly Rowan stepped back almost dropping Mary. Pulling out of Mary's mind, Rowan barely manages to keep her grip on Mary. Mary fails to notice Rowan's disturbed expression having pulled her gaze away from Rowan's to gaze at the floor.
"Sorry, Rowan, I wasn't watching where I was going," Mary sincerely apologized.
"Yes," Rowan lamely answered unable to pull herself back together.
"I gotta go, Willa's expecting me," Mary mumbled hurrying away past her friend.
Rowan stumbled to lean against the wall for strength. Just what had she seen and how?! She rubbed her face with a slightly shaking hand. She is not a natural legilimens nor is Severus except for their grandfather. Severus is a bit more talented as a legilimens, but he is far from being as good. His attempts are raw and brutal much like Riddle.
A skilled legilimens can slip inside without your knowing if so, they desire much like Albus Dumbledore. An equally skilled legilimens can do the same brutally tearing through your mind and prying open all your secrets much like Voldemort. Yet Rowan had not been in possession of this skill before and now she did.