"Professor, Professor."
Pomona was dreaming. She dreamed that Professor Grubbly-Plank was calling her "Professor."
"Get up," Grubbly-Plank said.
"What time is it?" Pomona asked groggily.
"Emergency." Grubbly-Plank tossed her coat over.
"What emergency?" Pomona said sleepily as she crawled out from under the covers.
"A Muggle-born girl has been hit by Dark magic. The Headmaster is in the Hospital Wing," Grubbly-Plank said.
"Is she from our House?" Pomona asked, rubbing her eyes.
"No, she's from Gryffindor."
Pomona wanted to fall straight back into bed. Why should she go to the Hospital Wing if the girl was not from her House?
But Grubbly-Plank still dragged her out of bed.
And so, at three in the morning, wearing a dressing gown and rabbit slippers, Pomona went to the Hospital Wing with Grubbly-Plank.
The victim was named Mary MacDonald. Before Pomona even reached her bed, she heard her crying. Dumbledore and Minerva stood beside her.
"This is utterly outrageous," Minerva said furiously.
"Try to remain calm," Dumbledore soothed her.
"Professor," Pomona said.
Dumbledore turned at the sound of her voice, and in that instant Pomona saw Mary MacDonald. Her mouth had been "split" open, the corners nearly reaching her ears. She looked like a monster.
Pomona instinctively stopped walking. Her reaction only made Mary more upset.
"You're here, Professor," Dumbledore said calmly.
"What happened to her?" Pomona asked instinctively.
"She was hit by the Grinning Curse. Mulciber and Avery from Slytherin did it," Minerva said angrily.
Those two were Death Eaters in training. Pomona thought Mary was lucky to be alive. Perhaps they remembered that at school they could not kill people as freely as they did outside it, where nobody would be left to deal with the bodies.
"Professor."
Pomona turned and found Filch arriving with a lamp.
"Where is Professor Slughorn?"