"A complete mess... too much leniency... chaos everywhere... I've had enough..."
Filch muttered under his breath as he walked, face dark with displeasure, dragging James along in front of him. He looked very much like a man who had suffered a heavy blow.
Snape, meanwhile, was supporting Pandora, following behind them.
When they reached the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey was already waiting at the door.
"Come in quickly," she said. "Professor McGonagall told me you needed treatment."
After helping Madam Pomfrey settle the three of them onto separate beds, Filch shuffled away, dragging his feet.
Noticing the bandages on James's arm, Madam Pomfrey's eyes lit up.
"Potter, your arm is wrapped quite well. After all those times before, why didn't you ever try treating yourself first?"
"I did it," Snape said. "I can't mend bones, but I could at least do that much."
"Very good," Madam Pomfrey praised. "At last, a student who actually has some basic medical knowledge."
But right after, she glared at Snape sternly.
"It would be even better if you didn't keep getting yourselves hurt in the first place!"
With practiced skill, Madam Pomfrey mended James's bone in only a second.
She then gave Snape and Pandora a careful check, finally confirming they had no serious injuries.
Only Snape's tailbone had been bruised in the fall, which required him to lie face-down for her to treat it.
At his vehement protests, Madam Pomfrey reluctantly agreed to draw the curtain so the other two would not see.
"Madam Pomfrey, we're fine now." After the treatment, Snape lifted his head and asked, "Can we leave?"
"No," Madam Pomfrey said firmly. "Professor McGonagall instructed me that you are to stay here in the hospital wing. You are not allowed to go anywhere."
Seeing Snape about to argue, she added at once:
"If you don't want to behave, you may as well drink a Sleeping Draught. It will let you slumber dreamlessly until morning."
"No need," Snape shook his head like a rattle drum. "I'll just stay here."
He had no idea how much time passed before his head grew heavy, and drowsiness stole over him.
The ward was silent. His head drooped lower and lower, everything around him blurring, the lights behind the curtain seeming to wink at him like friendly eyes.
It felt as though his body were sinking deeper and deeper into the warmth of a feather mattress...
"We have to ask them."
"Can't it wait until morning?"
"It will wake them!"
Snape stirred awake, hearing whispers outside the door.
The room was still dimly lit. It was clearly still night, and he doubted he had been asleep for very long.
With an annoyed shove, Madam Pomfrey pushed open the ward door and led Dumbledore inside.
"We meet again," Dumbledore said kindly, a gentle smile on his face. "Quite an eventful night, I'd say."
"Professor," Snape sat bolt upright at once. "You're back. Is everything alright?"
"Patience, Severus. You, James, and Pandora, if you've rested enough, come to my office with me."
Ignoring Madam Pomfrey's silent protests, the group left the hospital wing and made their way to the Headmaster's office.
The stone gargoyle at the entrance still had not had its password changed, it was still lemon sherbet.
Snape and James were quite familiar with the place by now, but it was Pandora's first time here.
She looked around curiously, stopping in front of a portrait of a sleeping former Headmaster, squinting one eye open to imitate him. When she noticed someone watching, she hurriedly shut her eyes again.
She even tried to touch Fawkes with her finger, prompting the phoenix to take wing from his perch. He circled the room gracefully before settling on Dumbledore's shoulder, where he began gently preening his feathers.
"Sit down," Dumbledore said. "Pandora, you speak first. The words of those two aren't nearly as reliable."
"Alright, Headmaster." Pandora still looked drowsy, struggling to hold her eyes open. "Severus and I went to a passageway on the fifth floor, and we were planning-"
", I was planning to blow it up," Snape cut in. "I asked Pandora to help me."
"Wait your turn, Severus." Dumbledore gave him a stern look.
So Pandora continued:
"I found traces of ancient magic there, which I managed to clear away.
"But just as we were about to blow up the passage, Inferi, just like Professor Grubbly-Plank showed us in class, started crawling out of the stairwell.
"They kept increasing in number, so we decided to leave quickly. But as soon as we opened the door, Mr. Potter was outside. He hoisted Severus upside down.
"There was no time, so I hit my bag with a spell, trying to make it destroy the passage. Then we were blown into the air..."
"Is that so? And why did you want to destroy the passageway?" Dumbledore asked Snape.
"Professor," Snape said, "Mulciber has been sneaking out of the dormitory at night all term. I followed him through the passage all the way to Hogsmeade.
"But I don't know what he's really doing. So I had a bold idea: why let him? If he's going to use the passage to do bad things, why not just destroy it?"
"That way of thinking is rather extreme, Severus," Dumbledore said calmly. "You should have come to a teacher. But speaking of this, how did you discover the way into the passage?"
"Sir!" James suddenly stood up. He was fully awake now, his face full of fury.
"The Marauder's Map! He used the Marauder's Map to get into the passage!"
Clearly, James no longer cared about keeping secrets. Which was understandable, since the Map was in Snape's hands, better for the Headmaster to confiscate it than for Snape to keep it.
Snape was furious at such spiteful behavior, harming him without helping Potter in the least.
Reluctantly, he pulled the parchment from his pocket and handed it to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore took it, turned it over, and murmured:
"A blank piece of parchment."
Then, holding his wand between his fingers, he spread the parchment open flat on the desk.
"Reveal your secrets!" Dumbledore tapped the parchment with his wand.
Nothing happened.
Snape suddenly grew eager to see what might happen next.
James looked tense, his hands twisting tightly in front of him.
"Show yourself!" Dumbledore struck the map firmly.
The parchment remained blank.
Inside, Snape was gleeful, though he forced himself not to smile.
"I, Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of this school, command you to reveal what you are hiding!" he said, rapping the map with his wand.
As though written by an invisible hand, words appeared on the parchment's smooth surface.
Beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down James's forehead.