Chapter 62. House of Cards

I turned away and continued my journey to the 7th floor, suddenly exhausted and it wasn't from the classes I had today.

More than finding out that Roxana was no different from Hazel, the fact that she had a couple students pretend to be talking beside us was a different kind of stab wound.

Even Hazel hadn't felt the need to do that, it meant that Roxana believed that I would do something to hurt her and needed witnesses for protection.

I needed a place to spend the night and the Room of Requirement provided it.

The room I had been given was outfitted with everything I could need over the course of the night but it also wasn't like anything I had ever spent the night in before.

It was a generic bedroom, done in muted colors with a connecting bathroom.

I had no plans of doing any work tonight, I was too distracted too.

It felt like I was staring at a large House of Cards that I had made all by myself, only for it to fold and scatter as I tried to place the last piece on top.

If Tanner noticed that I didn't spend the night at the dorm, he didn't mention it when I returned in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

I didn't say anything to him either, still reeling from the events of the past couple days.

It had been building slowly ever since the last day of the previous term but I chose to ignore it, holding onto the non-existent hope that it would all be fixed if I returned to Hogwarts.

It would all be fixed when I returned to Hogwarts and attended my little classes and did nice things for strangers. 

How did I let it get to this? What was I playing at?

I had Herbology first thing this morning, so after breakfast, I headed for the greenhouse.

-*-

… earlier, Tuesday morning…

Professor Pomona Sprout clutched her thick wool cloak closer to herself as she trudged down to the lake.

She had almost forgotten to restock on Flame lilies, a magical plant that could be used to start fires and ironically were only found in water.

There were lots of them growing in the Great Lake.

Pomona tended to the flowers, occasionally taking some for Herbology classes like she was about to do.

The Flame lilies grew close to the surface of the lake, floating on spiny vines.

They grew at a corner that she knew too well, walking around the edge of the lake in that direction.

It had snowed in the late hours of the night so it was particularly cold this morning.

Snow gathered on the turrets of the castle and the roofs but the Great Lake remained unfrozen. 

With the creatures that made its depths their home, it was no surprise.

For Professor Sprout, dipping her pudgy arms in the depths of the dark waters that looked an oily black in the dim of twilight wasn't the problem.

The Great Lake which was naturally cold year-round was no different in Winter.

The problem was the period after she brought out the plants, the cold would be especially biting on her wet skin.

Well, for a few seconds before she magically dried up the wetness.

She had to do it for her students though so she crouched beside the lake at the right spot and dipped her hands into the lake.

She had done this often enough that she could find the spiny vines as soon as she started her search.

Her hand came in contact with something but it wasn't what she had been expecting. 

Pomona's eyes went wide in terror as her hand unmistakably brushed past another person's hand.

She yanked her hand from the cold depths of the Black Lake, falling to the ground.

It took a few seconds to process what had happened and after that was when her horrified scream carried over the calm surface of the lake that hid sinister secrets.

-*-

It had been half an hour since today's Herbology lesson should have started but Professor Sprout was nowhere to be found.

It was freezing cold inside the Greenhouse, no one wanted to be here anymore than they should be.

The other students were already beginning to mumble, a few suggesting that we return to the warmth of the castle.

Today's Herbology lesson was with Hufflepuff House.

Tanner and Blair kept to themselves in this class too, Mathias sitting with them.

I noticed for the second time that Sawyer wasn't in this class.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen him at all since we resumed.

Did he even resume the new term?

I felt strangely uneasy about his disappearance, mostly because Blair had asked me about him.

An hour into the class and the Greenhouse was about to be emptied of all students when Gabe showed up.

There was no teacher in the class but instead of walking up to me to quietly say what news he had to give, he stood right at the doorway and loudly said it.

I shot him a cold glare, preparing my books to get to my feet amidst the intense stares of the entire class.

"You don't have to bring your books with you." He cut off my actions. "Just come with me "

I shrugged the heavy weight his words brought off my shoulders but it stuck stubbornly.

Unease grew under my skin, clogging my veins. 

I did as he said, walking out of the class behind him, a cloud of confusion floating over my head.

Why did Headmistress McGonagall want to see me?

The term was just starting, I hadn't done anything yet.

It couldn't possibly be because of last term events, could it?

"Why does the Headmistress want to see me?" I asked Gabe, walking behind him with my hands in my pockets.

He didn't even spare me a glance. "You'll find out soon enough." He muttered in a self-righteous tone.

I sighed silently, I knew it was useless to ask but I did anyway.

I could use Legilimency but it probably wouldn't help me out in the long run.

I doubted that Gabe wouldn't notice if I used Legilimency on him, I wasn't about to hand ammunition over to him.

Besides, I would find out soon enough.

-*-

Professor Pomona Sprout had to catch her breath before she braved the lake again.

She only managed to pull what she had touched previously halfway out of the black depths of the lake before her will crumbled and she bent over to the side to throw up.

Then she immediately went to get Hagrid who managed to complete the task with a dark expression on his hairy face.

The matter was so dire that the Headmistress had to be called in immediately. 

Headmistress McGonagall had immediately gone green in the face and it took her a considerable while to recover.

The cold temperatures of the lake had perfectly preserved the body that if the student wasn't white as a sheet and had his eyes wide open, she would have mistaken him to still be alive.

Bile rose up in Headmistress McGonagall's throat for the umpteenth time.

Sawyer Patris.

The student that had been missing since Sunday.

He looked unharmed, his uniform still in place.

 It meant one thing, that he had been killed by an Unforgivable curse.

This was a dire turn of events, parents and guardians were already testy from the attacks of the previous term.

Another student dying right at the start of the new term was going to come over very badly.

There was also the sickening possibility, that a student of Hogwarts was responsible for it.

Headmistress McGonagall immediately ordered for the body to be properly preserved and hidden from the rest of the students 

It was just about dawn so there were no students outside the dorms.

It was the best time that Professor Sprout could have found the dead body tangled in between vines in the Black Lake.

Poor Professor Sprout had to retire to her rooms for the day as her disposition became quite poor as she witnessed the evidence of murder.