when you come with us on the hunt.
I will remember the details of that night my all life. How could any of us not have seen that there was something different about Cybele until that night and the many months that followed? It took these dramatic events for us to realize what was going on.
Cybele had told us she would resume her tutorials after the holidays, but Snape unexpectedly requested a meeting with her on the last week before Christmas break, a last minute summon. While Fred and George had gone for Quidditch practice, I stayed behind and we lingered at the Hufflepuff table with Caroline and Cybele to keep her company until her appointment.
‘No meetings until Christmas and all of a sudden he has to meet you right away!’ Caroline was saying enthusiastically, for reasons I could not understand. ‘He must have discovered something meaningful!’
Cybele was sending uneasy glances my way. She never spoke about Snape’s research project to the twins and I and we never felt curious about the time she spent with our least favourite professor. Caroline, however, seemed to know more.
‘What are you working on with him, anyway?’ I asked directly.
‘Elixirs,’ Cybele answered.
‘Mediterranean potions,’ Caroline said at the same time.
There was an awkward moment before Cybele jumped up.
‘I’m running late! Thank you for waiting with me!’
‘We’ll walk you,’ I offered. ‘You can explain to us about all the lies and secrecy on the way.’ I teased.
‘Oh, it’s not what you think, Lee!’ Cybele protested. But she didn’t give me more explanations.
As we walked to the doors, I could hear nasty laugher coming from the entrance and I was wondering who could be there at this time.
Cybele was first to reach the doors and she stopped so abruptly that we both bumped into her. By the time we apologized and looked up to what she had seen outside the hall, all what we could see was a bunch of Slytherin second-years, with expressions that said they had just been caught red-handed, a Hogwarts Elf banging his head against the stone wall, and the Malfoy boy just far enough away to make someone unsure whether he was with the others or not – to someone who didn’t know him, that is.
After a few awkward seconds, the Slytherin girl – Pansy Parkinson – kicked the Elf away from the wall.
‘Stop that!’ she cried malevolently.
The main doors opened wide; the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams had entered just in time to see Pansy kick the Elf. They stopped their heated argument about how the Quidditch pitch couldn’t have been double-booked at once. For a moment, every party froze.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Fred roared.
Cho, Ben, Harry and George had taken out their wands as Caroline and I had done. The Slytherin girl looked a bit frightened. If she had considered the possibility of getting caught, it wasn’t by a large crowd of older students from other Houses – not at this time of the evening.
‘Answer!’ ordered George, an ugly look on his face.
Cybele had not taken out her wand but she ran to the Elf and kneeled down to tend to him. Parkinson was looking at the pair with disgust.
The circle had closed around the Slytherins now and George simply grabbed the girl’s wrist. She immediately pulled it back angrily.
‘Don’t touch me you filthy-’
‘Answer, then!’ Fred yelled, supported by an angry looking Cho, who pointed her wand at the girl’s face.
Caroline, Ben and I had circled the three other Slytherins with more Quidditch players and were pointing our wands at them too.
Zabini answered for her.
‘Nothing! We just found this stupid animal banging its head on the wall, we were trying to stop it,’ he spat.
‘Yeah,’ Parkinson joined in. ‘It wouldn’t obey, that’s why I kicked it away. For its own good,’ she added with an evil grin.
‘A likely story,’ Ben commented.
‘You can’t prove the contrary!’ Parkinson taunted unwisely.
‘Yeah?’ Cho countered. ‘We saw you kicking him. You’re not supposed to do that. There are other ways to stop an Elf punishing himself!’
‘For you, maybe,’ Zabini answered haughtily.
‘Anyway, Cybele saw them doing something before, didn’t you Cybele?’ Caroline asked.
Cybele looked up from the Elf with whom she seemed to have been talking.
‘Yes, it seemed to me that you were encouraging him to do it.’ She looked briefly at the Elf and did not elaborate. ‘That’s what I’ll tell to your Head of House when he asks me, anyway,’ she added fiercely.
The Slytherins looked at her murderously. Cybele always inspired, together with a great deal of hatred and jealousy, some amount of fearful respect from the Slytherins, since she was on speaking terms with their Head of House – a card she often played.
‘Yes, someone should call a teacher,’ Caroline said.
Some Quidditch players went away in different directions to find teachers.
‘Hey, come back here you little snake!’
A Ravenclaw Beater grabbed Malfoy by the collar as he tried to make an escape following the older students.
‘Leave me alone, I’m going back to my dormitory. I had nothing to do with this!’ Malfoy was protesting, trying to pull from away from the Ravenclaw girl who was two times bigger than him.
‘Just happened to be passing by, were you, Malfoy?’ Harry asked. ‘Unlikely that these two’, he jerked at Crabbe and Goyle, ‘would find their way to the Hall without you.’
‘Was he with you?’ Caroline asked the Slytherins. They smirked but didn’t say anything.
‘Was he with them when you caught them first, Cybele?’ I asked, little knowing that I would feel guilty for years for asking this simple question.
Cybele caught Malfoy’s eyes and gulped. She seemed to wait for Malfoy to say something. One could see the request in both pairs of eyes: Malfoy wanted Cybele to stay quiet and save his skin and Cybele wanted Malfoy to speak up himself to avoid her to have to denounce him; both feeling strongly that their own option was the only one which could save whatever was left of their friendship.
As Malfoy kept quiet, Cybele started to look around her and she seemed to panic.
‘Cybele, did you see him?’ George pressed.
Cybele looked at George and said nothing.
‘Of course she did, didn’t you see him trying to escape?’ Cho insisted.
Cybele looked at Cho and started to look like she was about to be sick. She actually put her hand on her stomach. Nobody seemed to notice that she was not feeling well. I opened my mouth to suggest we let the teachers deal with Malfoy, but Fred spoke first.
‘We all know he was with them! Come on, Cybele, you cannot seriously consider covering for him!’ he cried indignantly.
Cybele looked at Fred and said nothing. For a spit second, I thought she glowed slightly. On second look, she was just extremely pale.
‘Cybele, was he with them or not?’ Ben repeated kindly, looking confused by her stunned silence.
Cybele twisted to look at Ben and said nothing. Something was definitely wrong with her now. She looked as through she was going to become transparent if she went any paler. Nobody seemed to realize, all passionate as they were about having the poor Elf avenged.
‘What are you playing at, Cybele?’ eventually came an ice-cold voice I didn’t immediately recognize as Caroline’s own.
Cybele gave a final twist and looked at Caroline with disbelief in her eyes. I saw the glow again and this time I knew it was not a trick of my eyes. Something wrong was happening. Light seemed to try to escape from Cybele, like some layer being ripped of her.
I looked around me but still nobody seemed to notice. Caroline had a cold mask of anger and was looking straight at Cybele without seeing anything. The others were discussing and a rumble was developing as some players were coming back with teachers. Then I spotted Malfoy. Malfoy had seen it too. He was looking at Cybele, transfixed and frightened, with a look of concern I never saw on him before.
‘No!’ the tiny Elf squealed.
I looked back and choked. Cybele looked on the verge of fainting now and the rippling hallow around her was flickering furiously. Everybody noticed now but all seemed frozen. I eventually recovered the use of my legs and reached Cybele just in time to catch her clumsily in my arms and collapse on my knees under her weight. The light around her immediately stop fighting its way out and seemed to settle back into her through her chest, where her pendant watch was lying. She was completely still.
Professor McGonagall and Snape arrived. McGonagall came to me but Snape was faster, and he took Cybele easily from me and walked away with her limp body in his arms up in the direction of the Hospital Wing. He disappeared in a twirl of black robes and McGonagall was left to listen to the witnesses and take charge of the Slytherin culprits.