[Chapter Eighteen: Bloodroot. Edited.]

*Third Person*

Hermione and Ron followed Willow into the castle but she ran out of sight. They were looking for her, with no success.

"What did Malfoy do to her?" Ron cracked his knuckles. "I'll kill him."

"Maybe it isn't anything to do with Malfoy. She's been kind of...down, lately." Hermione mumbled.

"I've tried to talk to her, I really have, but she doesn't want to. She's pushed everyone away." Ron was quite upset, and craned his neck to see around the corner. She could be there, he thought, she could be anywhere.

"I told her I wouldn't let her push me away, but she won't even talk to me." Hermione looked as upset as Ron felt, and surged around the corner on the seventh floor. They were determined to find her, but as the minutes ticked by, they realised she could be hiding at the other end of the castle. "I don't know how to help her anymore. I want to. I've never had friends before, I don't know how to help anyone."

Ron frowned, "It's to do with whatever happened at Christmas. It's got to be. She's been odd ever since then... We should never have let her go home. What did her parents do to her?"

"Do you think we should go to Professor McGonagall?" Hermione asked Ron, looking tearful. "Maybe she'll be able to help Willow..."

"If anyone can," Ron said, nodding. "It's her."

The pair marched their way to Professor McGonagall's office, a five minute walk from where they were, and knocked on her door with determination.

"Come in."

They entered, feeling nervous, and told her everything they could about Willow. Hermione thought she must have known something they didn't, because her eyes did not widen and she did not look remotely shocked.

When they'd finished, she nodded her head, "thank you for telling me, you two. It is very brave of you to have done such a thing."

Professor Snape was pleased that there had been no 'funny business' at the Quidditch match - even if Gryffindor did win. He decided to take a stroll. There was no particular reason, he just felt like it. He ambled up to the seventh floor. When something struck him as weird...there was a door he had never seen before. Something vague meandered into his mind. Room of requirement. Could that be it?

There were bizarre noises coming from the room; a clutter of metal on porcelain? A cry? He walked at a brisk pace towards the door, pausing for a moment before entering. Was this really the right thing to be doing? Invading someone's privacy like this? It seemed to be an age as he stood there, thinking. The sobs had stopped altogether, so he knocked and entered the room.

Severus Snape gasped.

The sight that came before his eyes was severely unexpected. He saw a small girl sprawled on the floor blood pooled around her. He recognised her immediately as Willow Malfoy, the poor, curious girl who had the likeness of Lily Evans.

His first thought was that someone had used 'sectumsempra' on her until he noticed the cut-throat razor and the deep vertical slits on her wrists.

In what seemed like both an eternity and a flash, Severus was on his knees beside her, wand pointed at her bleeding arms, muttering a spell to heal the wounds. They had no effect, so in a delicate haste, he pulled her into his arms and carried her to the hospital wing. The movement disturbed her – she drifted in and out of consciousness, with no awareness of her surroundings.

"Willow, can you hear me?" He walked as briskly as he could toward the Hospital Wing.

"Stop...No..."

"Stay with me, Willow. Come on."

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

"You have to hold on."

"Don't hurt me."

Madam Pomfrey was tending to a third year Slytherin boy, who had bruises all over his arms. He kept his head down and did not look her in the eye once.

"Jimmy, you're going to have to tell me who keeps doing this to you." He shook his head. "They cannot attack you because you're a muggle born."

"It don't matter."

"This is the third time you've been in since Christmas, Jim."

At that moment, Snape walked into the Hospital Wing, his heart pounding, carrying Willow who was wet with her own blood. Both Jimmy and Madam Pomfrey looked up and gasped.

"Severus – what happened?"

He lay Willow down on the bed closest to the window, panting. "I think she attempted suicide. The spells I tried were useless."

Madam Pomfrey pointed her own wand at the deep cuts, but her spells, too, failed.

"Contact Minerva and Albus – I need dittany and bandages from the storeroom."

As she turned away, Severus sent two paper memos in separate directions. He gazed at Willow, who was still mumbling.

"All...wanted...love me..."

Madam Pomfrey returned, this time, pouring a thick blue liquid onto Willow's left arm. It stopped the flow for a moment, but only a moment.

"I don't know what to make of this," she murmured to herself, now spraying white foam from a metal can onto the wounds. "This is a muggle invention. It's supposed to stop the bleeding until they can get to their version of a Hospital. It's as good as I've got at the moment." She handed Snape a bandage and they wrapped Willow's bloodied, foamy arms in them.

Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall arrived shortly after, their eyes travelling from the traumatised looking Jim Watts sitting in the bed opposite Willow, to Willow herself, lying helpless.

"What is going on here?" McGonagall said, staring at Willow with a mixture of shock, anger, and sorrow.

"I found Miss Malfoy lying in the room of requirement. It appears as though she has tried to kill herself."

"Nothing is working to heal the wounds. I've used a temporary muggle measure, but unless I fix those arms up, it's unlikely she's going to make it." Madam Pomfrey exhaled a long breath. "I'm going to have to call in some healers, I can't help her on my own. Maybe they've seen something like this – I just don't understand what is counteracting the spells. A potion, perhaps, Severus?"

"Go." Professor Dumbledore said to Severus. "Try to find anything you can on anything."

With a swift nod, he was out the door, down the corridor, but he didn't head straight for his office. There was a detour he took via the forbidden forest. He had already planned to meet Quirrell there. While he cared for Willow's wellbeing, the safety of the world was at stake.

"Albus," Professor McGonagall's voice was strained when she began to speak, but she recovered herself. "Her friends came to see me, not a quarter of an hour ago. They told me she has been avoiding them, secretive, sad, ever since Christmas. She disappeared after the Quidditch match. They said she seemed quite distressed."

Willow screamed, and the trio looked at her. She spoke, as clear as day, "I am not a squib!" Willow let out a gasp.

They stared at her, with an almost intrusive interest.

"Draco, stand back... Why do you hate me so much? What did I ever do to you? I only ever wanted you to love me." Silence. A yelp. Silence.

"It's one side to a conversation." Madam Pomfrey frowned. "Replaying through dreams."

"I won't grovel, if that's what you want, Father... You can't kill me."

"What did Lucius Malfoy do to this poor girl?" McGonagall had tears in her eyes – of rage or pity was anyone's guess.

"It is," Willow whispered, before seizing in her bed. Madam Pomfrey helped to restrain her.

Dumbledore turned to McGonagall, who was getting increasingly distressed, "You need to alert Potter, Weasley and Granger." She turned without another word, without looking back.

She found the common room packed, remembering that Gryffindor had only won their Quidditch match about an hour ago. It seemed bizarre. Wrong for people to be celebrating at such a time.

"Harry Potter," she called across the noise "Miss Granger, Mr Weasley, come here." the whole room stopped and looked at them. The trio sat nervously by the fire. "Come on." McGonagall ushered. The three of them followed the Professor out of the portrait hole and downstairs.

"Did you find Willow?" Hermione said instantly.

"Yes... but, not in the best way." She took a breath. "It appears as though she attempted to...take her own life" Hermione froze. Harry gasped. Ron's face was unreadable. "I know it is a shock...nothing is working to heal the wounds...she seems to be trapped in her nightmares. We are unable to wake her." McGonagall paused to stop her voice from shaking. "Is there any other theory you three may have as to why she would do a thing like this?"

"Malfoy spoke to her earlier and she ran off crying," Harry said. "Not that he's to blame." He added. "Just an observation."

They walked in silence until they reached the hospital wing and the trio rushed to Willow's side. Her arms were bandaged, but the blood was trying to escape them.

"She was taking something," Hermione thought aloud.

"Go on," Ron urged.

"She has been taking it every night...it umm...she claims it's water, but I don't think it is."

"Where is it?" Harry asked her.

"In her trunk...her locked trunk, otherwise I would have gotten it," Hermione added glumly. Ron looked bewildered.

"This is coming from -"Ron paused, dropping his voice "-the only person who read 'standard book of spells- grade one'."

"Oh right. I'm a witch, keep forgetting," She said with a blush. If it were a different situation, they would have laughed.

They were shaken from any thoughts they might have had by Willow's ear splitting screams.

"You three should go," McGonagall said gravely. The trio stood up and began walking to the door.

"Do you three know anything about why she might have done this?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"She's just been acting weird since she got back at Christmas," Harry said, but they didn't mention the peculiar potion Hermione had spoken of.

Hermione slipped up to her dorm and broke open Willow's trunk. She pulled out a few letters, riffled through the clothes and then she found it.

A large bottle that was almost empty. The remainder was a dark substance. Hermione hid it underneath her robes and appeared back down to the others.

"We need to see Snape," Harry said softly.

"Snape? You're joking right?" Ron exclaimed.

"What other choices do we have?" Harry asked.

Snape had returned from his meeting with Quirrell. He poured over books, each of them as unhelpful as the last. His mind raced. Why hadn't Willow healed under spells?

There was a knock on the door.

"Enter," he assumed it was McGonagall, perhaps to tell him the worst.

What he didn't expect, was Potter, Granger and Weasley.

"Professor, can we ask you something?" Harry asked quickly. He was nervous. It was obvious.

"I suppose," he was curious at why they were here; they were probably the three students in the school who hated him the most.

The boys looked at Hermione. She sighed, placing down the large bottle on his desk.

"What is this?" she said nervously. He looked at the children and wondered whether to tell them or not. His curiosity took over.

He opened the lid and from the first whiff he knew.

"This is bloodroot potion," He said, glancing at them all curiously. "How did you come across this?" he was shocked and tried to keep the expression off his face.

"Umm...what are its side effects?" Ron asked trying to ignore Snape's original question

"Please sir," Hermione begged.

"Bloodroot potion is a most dangerous poison. It is cheap, and slow, but the user's mind is poisoned first, and then their bodies. Its properties include bouts of deep depression – the potion's purpose is to kill its user – and it prevents wounds from healing, as to stop anyone from saving the victim's life." Hermione clutched at her chest. "The dark wizard who invented it cursed the name. It has never been published in a book, and yet it appears in them occasionally, in copies of text that are only seen by the most vulnerable people. The description varies, offering things that seem too good to be true... In all cases of it, the poison was identified too late to save the victim. There are no known cases of survival." Snape finished and observed the three first year students.

Harry sat on a desk and buried his face in his hands. Hermione backed against the wall where she slid onto the floor pushing her face onto her knees, sobbing silently. Ron stood dumbstruck, frozen on the spot. Snape looked from one child to another. A light-bulb flicked on in his head.

"This has to do with Willow, doesn't it?" he asked in alarm. Harry was the only one who looked up. He nodded vaguely. Snape ran out of the door.

Snape didn't know the cure for this. He didn't know if anyone could save Willow's life.