After Caitlin Rowle was taken away, the students who had gathered to watch began returning to their dormitories.
"What on earth happened?" Eddie was clearly excited. "Do you think one of Rowle's roommates hexed her while she was asleep? Or put some kind of poison in her cup?"
Roger, walking ahead of them, turned and glared at him. "Don't make wild guesses, Eddie! Talk like that could damage Ravenclaw's reputation!"
Eddie immediately hunched his shoulders.
"Poor Rowle. I really hope she gets better soon." Milton sighed, his face pale.
"Don't worry. Madam Pomfrey will have her cured in no time," Scott reassured him casually.
Of course, only he knew that was impossible.
Afterward, the roommates who had been woken by the screams went to wash up, while Scott, already finished, returned to the dormitory to fetch a few books. Then he went back downstairs to the Common Room.
"Good morning, Scott."
Luna's voice was as distant and dreamy as ever.
She was standing by a window, looking through the glass at the distant Black Lake.
As Scott passed her, she turned and greeted him.
"Good morning, Luna." Scott smiled at her.
Luna stared at Scott with her large silver eyes. "You seem to be in a pretty good mood today."
Scott stopped and studied her, then asked curiously, "Can you see how I'm feeling?"
"What?" Luna tilted her head.
Seeing her bewildered expression, Scott shook his head. "Never mind. I'm off, Luna. Goodbye."
"Goodbye." Luna waved.
Scott left the Common Room and jogged down the spiral staircase. After leaving Ravenclaw Tower, he crossed the corridor and climbed to the castle's second floor.
The Hospital Wing was in a side passage on that floor.
Scott didn't try to approach the Hospital Wing. Instead, after crossing several corridors, he tucked a small object into a crack between the bricks in a corridor wall, then turned into another passage and pushed open the door to an abandoned classroom at its end.
Caitlin Rowle's trip to the Hospital Wing had caused quite a commotion, so Scott was sure the news of her strange illness had already spread throughout Hogwarts.
He thought that if Jasmine Travers and Morgan Avery heard about it, they would choose to visit the Hospital Wing.
On their way there from the Slytherin Common Room, they would have to pass the corridor beside this classroom.
Scott closed the classroom door, walked to the window, and pushed it open.
He took another piece of ebony from the Moke Skin Pouch at his waist and, using the same trick as before, cast Compound Transfiguration.
This time, though, he didn't choose a bat. He turned the ebony into a sparrow.
The sparrow flew out through the open window and landed on the sill of another window outside the castle, where it could see the corridor beside the classroom. It hopped back and forth.
Scott looked away and took two small glass vials from the pouch.
Once again, he turned two needles into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, then had them wait inside the vials.
Twenty minutes later, the sparrow's hearing, linked to his own, picked up footsteps coming from the side corridor.
He immediately pointed his wand at himself and softly cast a Sensory Enhancement Charm.
With the charm's help, he soon sensed the magic in the side corridor. Unfortunately, it wasn't Jasmine Travers or Morgan Avery.
Scott sighed silently. If they had been somewhere else, he wouldn't have needed to go to so much trouble.
As a magical castle that had stood for a thousand years, Hogwarts was filled with magic that was vast and complex. It seriously interfered with Scott's ability to sense magic.
To avoid revealing himself, he had no choice but to use this inconvenient, clumsy method.
Ten minutes later, he heard another set of footsteps.
"Super Perception."
Scott cast the Sensory Enhancement Charm on himself again, then slowly smiled.
His targets had arrived.
He waved his wand, and the two mosquitoes immediately flew out of the vials and slipped through the gap beneath the classroom door.
Scott remained where he was.
Through his senses, he followed the two tiny mosquitoes as they crossed a corridor and caught up with Jasmine Travers and Morgan Avery.
As they neared the girls, the mosquitoes slowed down, their buzzing growing quieter.
At last, they split up and landed on the girls' ankles, each giving one a light bite.
He had chosen their ankles because those were the hardest places to swat. To slap at them, the girls would have to bend down.
So when the girls felt a slight sting and bent over, the mosquitoes had already flown to a nearby wall and slipped into a crack between the bricks.
At the same time, the little trap Scott had hidden in the crack was knocked open by the mosquitoes, releasing several real biting midges.
At this distance, neither Scott nor the sparrow perched outside the window could hear what the girls were saying.
He only sensed them angrily casting several spells at the biting midges before storming off.
Scott waited in the abandoned classroom until the two mosquitoes flew back. They turned into needles and dropped into the glass vials.
"Vanishing Spell."
Scott waved his wand, once again satisfied with the spell best suited to destroying evidence.
Then he used the same method to dispose of the sparrow and the little trap in the crack between the corridor bricks.
After morning classes, Scott had lunch with his roommates.
After lunch, they returned to Ravenclaw Tower, only to find the students crowding around the entrance to the Common Room.
"What happened?" Scott asked a couple in his year nearby.
"Professor Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey are searching Miss Rowle's dormitory," Dylan Kinwell said.
His girlfriend, Kayla White, added, "Maybe they'll search our Common Room too!"
The girl's face was pale. She had clearly been frightened.
"It was awful. Did you see Caitlin this morning?"
She clutched Dylan's hand tightly, as if trying to draw strength from him.
"I heard about it. Madam Pomfrey thinks it's a strange illness she's never seen before, not something caused by a hex or Potions. Since there's no specific potion for it, all she can do is keep Caitlin's condition under control for now. She's searching the dormitory to find out what caused it."
"Don't worry, Kayla," Dylan murmured. "The professors will find a way to help."
But Kayla was still worried. "We don't even know whether this terrible illness is contagious."
Soon, Professor Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey came out of the Common Room.
"No! We didn't find anything that could make someone ill!" Madam Pomfrey looked dejected. "I'm sorry, Filius. Perhaps we should get the girl to St Mungo's as soon as possible."
"We'll go see Dumbledore."
Professor Flitwick looked unhappy too. The two of them hurried away.
The student's strange illness soon reached her family. Caitlin Rowle's parents arrived at the school, took her away, and brought her to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
But it seemed the matter wasn't over.
That afternoon, two first-year Slytherin girls suddenly fell unconscious in class. They soon began showing exactly the same symptoms as Caitlin Rowle.
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