"Yes, I think I've seen this before."
Ben Cooper spoke after viewing the memory in the Pensieve.
"Have you seen it, or haven't you?" Snape asked through gritted teeth, stressing every word.
"I saw it," Ben said solemnly, though Pomona suspected he was only saying so because he had been frightened.
"It seems we've taken another step toward the truth," Dumbledore said optimistically. Minerva, however, remained grim-faced.
"I don't think the Big-Headed Hairy Monster is the culprit, but rather whatever was attached to it," Pomona said. "Something like the Black Death and fleas..."
"You may go," Snape told Ben.
Ben Cooper looked at Headmaster Dumbledore. The kindly old man nodded at him, and Ben Cooper left the office.
"Don't say such things in front of them. You don't know what sort of rumors might spread through the school," Snape said, staring at Pomona. "Especially when the Ministry of Magic is still watching us."
"I don't think Ben Cooper is someone who talks too much," Pomona said.
He was about to argue with her when Dumbledore said, "I believe Professor Sprout is correct. That black object was not merely attached to the Big-Headed Hairy Monster. It controlled it as well, bringing it into the Gryffindor common room."
"I thought the protective magic in the common rooms would keep out dark creatures," Snape said with a humorless smile. "Especially Gryffindor."
"The Big-Headed Hairy Monster comes from the distant East. Though the founders traveled through many parts of Europe, they never set foot in that land," Dumbledore said.
"Or there's another possibility," Pomona said.
Everyone looked at her.
"It can possess a Big-Headed Hairy Monster, but it can also possess a person. The monster follows people and attacks them. What if the thing possessing it transferred itself into a Gryffindor student at that