Silas woke, feeling weird. It took him several minutes before he realized that it was because Severus was laying next to him in his bed, holding him tight. Slowly, the memory of what happened came back to him and he started panicking, unable to handle being confined so tightly by his brother.

Fortunately, the panicking woke Severus up and he set to immediately calming his little brother. It was amazing how the incident from three days ago proved to him how much he cared about Silas. He found it scared him. He honestly didn’t think he was capable of caring for Silas, especially at a time like this.

"Are you hungry, Silas?" Severus asked, and he shook his head. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Silas just looked at him with wide, scared eyes before looking down, mumbling, "You’ll hate me."

"No, I won’t. I’ll help you. It is not good to deal with something this extreme by yourself, especially if it is what I think it is. If I promise I won’t hate you, will you tell me?"

"Promise?" Silas asked in a childish voice.

"Promise," Severus answered, and Silas sighed, curling up with his pillow as his older brother continued to hold him. It reminded him so much of that dream . . . It was also the only time Silas could remember his brother holding him, excluding that dream. It felt so comfortable and safe. Maybe it was going to be okay.

"I was six, I think," Silas said quietly. "Mikey was my only friend, and I met him at school. He had three kids in his family, and he was treated horrible. Worse than me. That’s probably why Dudley couldn’t scare him away.

"During school, we talked about running away a lot and going to the woods and live or finding a family that cared about us. During the summer, Mikey wasn’t allowed to come out and play, even though he lived a few houses down, but one day he got out and came and got me. I didn’t want to go at first because we didn’t plan anything, but I went because I wasn’t going to let Mikey go himself. He was my best friend!

"I don’t know how much longer later, a few days I know for sure, Mikey and I came across this big fire in an opening in the woods we were in. It wasn’t spreading, and I think it was there on purpose. There was a lot of wood. I thought it would be helpful because then we could cook meat. We found a dead rabbit that we were trying to figure out how to eat.

"I burnt myself getting some of the wood, but it wasn’t bad. I got burnt a lot when I had to help Aunt Petunia with her cooking. Mikey decided to help, and we were having fun trying our best to get wood without getting burned, but Mikey tripped into the fire. He screamed so loud, but I just stood there and watched. I didn’t know what to do!" Silas sat up, peeling himself from Severus’ arms and fell off the bed as he struggled with the covers. "He kept calling for help, but I couldn’t! Then he stopped screaming, and I ran. I ran far . . ."

Silas started crying so hard, he was having trouble breathing. It took Severus a minute before he could process everything his younger brother said, but when he did, he moved himself to the edge of the bed and grabbed Silas, pulling him back onto the bed and started rubbing his back.

"It was an accident, Silas," he whispered into the hysterical boy’s ear. "You were six and scared and there was nothing you could have done."

Severus let Silas cry himself out and to sleep once again. It was the fifth time in the past three days he did so, only this time it took much longer. Although he wanted to give Silas a calming draught, he knew from experience that it wouldn’t help in the long run, and Severus wanted his brother to deal with this now instead of later. He was surprised that Silas wasn’t afraid of flooing after seeing his friend burned to death, but he remembered that they flooed together until he was eleven. That would have helped.

Tucking Silas in once again, Severus went downstairs to the floo to talk to Narcissa. He felt he was beginning to irritated the lady by contacting her so many times in the past few days, but she said she understood. He had no idea who else to contact for help that he trusted.

It was Lucius who answered the floo this time, saying that Narcissa had to go out for a bit, and Severus invited him over.

"And how is Silas?" Lucius asked as he sat down with a cup of tea.

"He’s been sleeping. He needs to eat, but he’s never hungry," Severus replied, sitting across from him.

"Try putting food in front of him when he wakes. He will realize soon enough that he is hungry."

"I hope that is the case."

"And what is it that has gotten him so upset?" Lucius asked. All the Malfoy adults knew was that there was a haunting at Hogwarts that deeply disturbed the young Prince, but they were unaware of the circumstances. Severus was planning on keeping it that way, at least for awhile.

"I don’t wish to speak of it at this time. I am hoping that it will all be over soon. Albus should be stopping by soon for tea. Do you wish to stay?"

Lucius sighed.

"I suppose I could, as I am already here. I do wish to see Silas for a bit, if he should wake soon."

"With as much as he has been sleeping, he–."

Severus was interrupted by a flare of green light from the fireplace and the headmaster stepping into the room.

"Hello, Severus. Lucius, hello! It has been a long while. How have you been."

"Nothing has much changed since last we saw each other. It has been rather quiet since Draco started Hogwarts," Lucius replied in an airy manner, which Severus recognized as his ‘I am only talking to you to be polite’ voice. Severus inwardly sighed. Lucius did not like the headmaster of Hogwarts much at all. He had not wanted Draco to go to Hogwarts mainly because of that man, although Draco did not know that. Best that the children did not know the histories of the adults in their life. It would only make issues more complicated.

"Ah, yes. Children do liven up a place quite a bit. And how is Silas, Severus?"

"I do not know. He is sleeping," Severus replied flatly.

"Perhaps you should wake him. I would much like to see him," Dumbledore suggested, and both Severus and Lucius eyed that man warily.

"I will go see if he is well enough for visitors," Severus answered, getting up to leave and leaving the other two men alone.

"I assume you have heard of the newest Defense professor?" Severus heard Albus ask Lucius as he left the room, and he shook his head slowly.

"Silas," Severus whispered into the sleeping boy’s ear once he arrived in the bedroom. "Silas, there are people here to see you. Are you well enough to get up? They don’t know, I promise."

"Sev’us?" Silas asked with a slur. "Don’ leave me."

"I’m not going to leave you, Silas, but you need to get up. You haven’t eaten very much in the past three days, and you are going to stay tired if you don’t get food in your body."

"Tired . . ."

"Yes, tired, I realize that," Severus answered, still calm, but starting to get impatient. He vowed to himself not to show any irritation, though. At least not at this stage. "Now, you need to get up."

Trying to convince the boy, Severus pulled back the covers and sat him up slowly. Silently, he cursed to himself. Silas probably didn’t have much energy to be able to move much on his own, with how little he ate, especially since he was now used to eating decent-sized meals.

"I’m getting you something to eat," Severus said. "Do not go back to bed, as I will only get you out again once I get back. Understand?" When Silas nodded and swung his legs over the bed in a small attempt to stand, Severus left the room to make a peanut butter and jam sandwich to get some energy into his younger brother. Thankfully, by the time he got back to the room, Silas hadn’t moved, and he handed the pale-looking boy the plate.

For a minute, Silas just picked at the sandwich, putting only small bits in his mouth at a time, but when his stomach growled (rather loudly), he started to take actual bits from the sandwich, finishing it within another minute.

"So you are hungry," Severus commented flatly, and Silas shook his head.

"Full now," he mumbled, moving to lay down where he was.

"No, Silas, you have been in bed long enough. If you are full, you need to get dressed and come down to see your visitors. They are worried about you."

"Do they know?" Silas asked, not realizing that Severus stated the answer before that they didn’t.

"No. They are just worried and wish to see you," he replied, helping his little brother off the bed and giving him a robe to put over his nightclothes. No need to get any more dressed than that, just yet.

"Okay," Silas replied gloomily. "You’re not mad at me?"

"No," Severus repeated. When is he going to understand that? Severus asked himself. He had told Silas that he wasn’t going to be mad at him many times in the past few days, whenever he woke up, but he still didn’t seem to be able to get his mind about that quite yet.

When Silas got the robe on, he ushered the younger boy down to where Lucius and Albus were waiting, hoping that nothing had happened to alienate Lucius from the Headmaster than he already was.

"Hello, Silas," Lucius greeted, looking grateful that they had come in. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," Silas answered his godfather, looking at the headmaster questionably and wondering why the headmaster would visit him. As much as he had been at Hogwarts, he rarely talked to the old man, and although he was nice, he was kind of scary. Silas couldn’t figure why, but he figured it was because he was the headmaster of his school and he had a sense of power aways around him.

"Would you like a lemon drop, Silas? I find they are good to give you a small burst of energy until you are able to eat a good sized meal," Dumbledore said cheerfully, reaching a hand into one of his pockets.

"No, thank you, I just ate," Silas answered.

"I was wondering what was taking so long," Lucius said, giving a barely-noticeable glare at Severus.

"Perhaps you would like to talk with your godfather a bit, Silas, while I talk to your brother?" Dumbledore asked, and Silas shrugged.

"Okay," he said quiet, really wanting to sit down. He watched Severus follow Dumbledore out of the room, then turned to his godfather after he sat.

In the kitchen, Dumbledore sat down at the table and indicated to Severus to sit across from him.

"You have found information, I am assuming?" Severus asked, and Albus nodded.

"Yes. I believe it might have been a case of powerful accidental magic more than a haunting," Albus replied. "I have found cases similar to young Silas’, and they all involved the child getting extremely paranoid or scared about something before the incident occurred. I believe it started it with his strong fear of the forest, and his wish for his young friend to stay most likely strengthened the illusion first caused by the fear, which would explain why Mikey became solid. It would seem that the fear took over in the end."

"And why was I able to see Mikey when no one else could?" Severus asked, trying to make sense of the information his boss was giving him.

"Perhaps because you two are related? Silas’ situation seems unique, so it is merely guesses and speculations for what happened. I do suggest slowly introducing him to the woods, though. It wouldn’t do to be afraid of them his entire life. Forests are filled with many, many interesting lives."

"Of course," Severus replied. "We will try to be back at Hogwarts tomorrow. Now that Silas is out of bed, he should be well soon."

"Good, good. Well, I should be on my way, then. Much to do! Have a good day, Severus, and be patient. I’m sure it will take a short while for Silas to overcome his fear. Although I don’t know the entire story, it sounds rather tragic."

"Yes," Severus replied flatly. "Good day, Headmaster."

Severus followed Albus to the sitting room where Silas was sitting alone, and after the headmaster left, he sat down next to his brother.

"Would you like some more food?" he asked, and Silas shook his head.

"Why did he have to die?"

"Sometimes . . . sometimes, we just can’t control situations," Severus answered. "Where did Lucius go?"

"He had to go back home. Something about a meeting with someone at the Ministry . . ."

"Ah. Do you think you will be well enough to go back to Hogwarts tomorrow? You would only have two days of school work to make up, then."

"I guess," Silas answered. "I wanna stay here, though."

"You can’t stay here forever, Silas. It will all be fine soon."

Silas didn’t answer, and Severus inwardly sighed once again. He had no idea what was going on in the eleven year old’s mind, so helping the boy any more than he already was seemed out of the question.

"Can I go outside?" Silas asked quietly.

"Of course," Severus replied. "There is no reason for you to not go outside."

"But . . ." Silas trailed off, standing up and slowly walking toward the door. When Severus was sure that his brother wasn’t going to continue the thought, he stood up and gently grabbed the small arm to stop his progression toward the outside.

"What, Silas?"

The first year didn’t answer at first, just looked questioningly up at his older brother. Was he brave enough to ask? Would Severus refuse him? Call him a baby or something worse? Say he was useless?

Silas shook those thoughts out of his head. Not once had Severus been mean to him like that. If he couldn’t, he would explain why, maybe in an irritated fashion, but he would never call him names. Right?

"Can you come with me? I don’t want to be outside alone," he finally asked.

"I will get a book," Severus replied, and Harry let out a sigh of relief before going to the door that led to the outdoors to wait for him.

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The next day, Monday, Severus woke Silas up early, telling him to get dressed quickly so they could make it to breakfast in the Great Hall and still have time for Silas to talk to his professors before the day started.

It seemed to Silas that they had flooed to Hogwarts and arrived at the Great Hall much to quickly. Severus hadn’t said much about Mikey, except that it wasn’t his fault, but Silas couldn’t help but sense something wrong with his older brother. He just hoped that he wasn’t having second thoughts about anything. Severus wasn’t much to change his mind on issues, but he was used to when the Dursley’s told him one thing, but did another. He didn’t want Severus to send him away, but he new he should prepare himself for it just in case.

Although breakfast was being served, it was still too early for everyone but a professor and a few scattered students to be eating, none of which were Silas’ friends, so Silas sat alone at the Ravenclaw table and ate quickly. He knew his professors would be in their offices or classrooms before breakfast, every professor taking separate shifts for the slow meal most days, so he wanted to catch them.

By the time he had learned what he missed in every class except for runes, it was nearly time for class to start. Almost running, he made it to the Ancient Runes classroom just after Professor Camstar, who gave him a worried look. Her look was followed by the rest of the class, and Silas quickly sat down in his usual spot near the front as quietly as possible. He hated the looks everyone was giving him, and he wondered what they knew. From they way they were staring, he felt like they did know.

Impossible, Silas thought. Severus is the only one who knows, and he promised not to tell anyone. They’re just wondering why I was gone on Thursday and Friday.

"Mr. Prince, as you were late, perhaps you could explain to us the basic meaning of Ingwaz?"

"Er . . . usually common sense, internal growth, family caring, and . . . er . . . male fertility," Silas finished, blushing a deep red and getting laughs from most of the third years.

"Correct. This week we will be beginning with the basic uses of Ingwaz . . . oh, and before I forget, stay after class, Mr. Prince, in order to get what you missed while you were gone."

"Yes, Professor Camstar," Silas said, trying to make himself smaller in his seat. As much as he loved Ancient Runes, it was unnerving to be in the same class as the third years, Gryffindor and Slytherin at that. It didn’t help that he already knew a lot of the basics, which was what they were currently learning, so he was called on a lot in class.

The Slytherins in the class knew that Silas was the brother of their Head of House, mostly because of Draco, and they often tried to get Silas to convince Severus to give them special privileges. He would always refuse, but they always gave him disappointed looks, and he hated that.

And he was sure that they were going to ask about what happened at the end of last week. After all, it was hard to miss that your Head of House was gone for four days, especially one that was as involved in the House activities as Severus.

Inwardly sighing and attempting to clear his mind (Severus insisted it help concentration), Silas tried listening to Camstar lecture about the history of the rune-of-the-week.

After class, Silas made his way to Potions and was nearly bombarded by Draco and Stephan, who were waiting for him near the beginning of the dungeon corridor.

"What happened, Silas? Are you alright? What could have happened that you had to go home for four days?" Draco asked, his voice becoming more demanding the longer he talked.

"I don’t want to talk about anything here," Silas answered, debating whether or not he was going to tell his friends. After all, they were the only two who knew bits of the Harry Potter secret, so they might understand. Maybe. Well, he could at least tell them about Mikey’s ghost; just not what happened.

Still, thinking about talking about what happened made his stomach cramp up as he and Stephan entered the Potions classroom – Draco had a different class – and he decided suddenly that he wasn’t going to tell them. Now, he just had to figure out what he was going to say so they wouldn’t try and persuade him into talking.

Severus came walking in as usual, only giving a slight indication that he recognized Silas, and he started lecturing about the potion they were to brew the next class immediately. Silas couldn’t help but notice the poor mood that his brother was in. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw lost 20 points each in the first ten minutes for the constant talking that ensued in the background from the moment Severus walked in – no doubt because of their professor’s previous absences.

Silas tried listening to what everyone was talking about, because it was rare that anyone was willing to talk during Potions class, but once he heard his name a few times, he decided not to listen to them and pay attention to the potions lecture.

It was one he wasn’t very familiar with, which enabled him to keep his mind off of the past and the still low murmur that occurred when the professor’s back was turned.

By the time class ended, with five more points off from Hufflepuff when Severus caught Susan Bones passing a note, Silas had forgotten about the discussions and was looking forward to a free period, then lunch. He was extremely hungry, an unfamiliar feeling from the past few days when he felt as if he couldn’t eat.

Maybe Severus is right, Silas thought. Maybe it will all be over soon. Maybe I can forget about it.

Silas’ good mood was cut off shortly by a few of his Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw classmates, who stopped him just down the corridor from the classroom.

"What did you do that got Snape so angry?" Su Li asked, and Silas gave her a questioning look. She had never talked bad about Snape around him before, so he was wondering where this was going. "You must have done something bad."

"I didn’t do anything wrong," Silas replied flatly, almost sounding like his older brother.

"Sure. Then where were you for the past few days? I suppose Snape just decided to take you and go off for a holiday?" Hanna Abbot asked.

"That’s none of your business," Silas answered, getting angry. He looked for Stephan, but didn’t see him. He was probably in the common room by now. "Don’t you have class to get to?" He started pushing his way past the small group of first years, most of whom where taller than him, but they didn’t try to stop him, and soon he found himself back at the Ravenclaw Tower.

"Well, hello," the man in the portrait guarding the entrance said. "Haven’t seen you here for a few days. I’ve heard nasty rumors, of course. Hope they weren’t true! Password?"

"Umbletilkins," Silas replied, and was glad to find that the password hadn’t changed. Stephan probably would have told him if it had.

Stephan was waiting for him in the common room next to a fireplace on the far end.

"Took you long enough," Stephan said. "I thought you were right behind me. I didn’t notice until I got here, though, so I figured you stopped to talk to Snape."

"No," Silas said, sitting down hard in the chair next to his friend. "Some of the kids in our class accused me for Severus’ mood."

"He’s not mad at you, is he?"

"I don’t think so. He wasn’t at breakfast."

"So," Stephan said, an indication that he was changing the subject, and Silas groaned out loud. He knew what was coming. "What happened? Did it have anything to do with . . . you know who?"

"No," Silas answered. "He’s dead remember?"

"Well, I thought . . . maybe because . . . you know . . . that something happened. Why else would you have to leave so quickly? Without saying anything?"

"There was a ghost that wanted me to go with him, and Severus thought it best to leave until it was taken care of," he answered, only partially lying.

"Oh," Stephan said slowly. "Did it have anything to do with that spell you did at the beginning of last term? What kind of ghost?"

"I don’t know . . . I don’t think so. Severus said it was because I was stressing and the ghost was caused by accidental magic. Why are you asking so many questions?"

"Just curious," Stephan shrugged. "You sure get into a lot of trouble during the year. Something going to happen every term?" he teased, and Silas hit him on the shoulder.

"No. I hope not, at least. That would be horrible."

"Yeah. Want to play a game of chess?"

"Now?"

"No, during our next class," Stephan answered, rolling his eyes.

"I suppose. You set up the bored. I want to get some chocolate. I’m starving," Silas said, running up to the dorm to get some.

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Over the next few days, Silas came to the consensus that almost everyone who knew he was Severus’ brother blamed him for the constantly bad mood the potions professor was in, and after hearing it behind his back so many times, he was starting to think that maybe it was true. Stephan and Draco (although they told him that it couldn’t be his fault) finally convinced him to talk to the professor after their Thursday potions class.

"Yes, Silas?" Severus asked after Silas had been standing there for a few minutes.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked quickly. Severus looked up at the boy.

"No," he answered, looking back down at the papers he was looking over.

"Then why are you so mean to everyone lately?"

Severus put his quill in the inkwell and looked up, once again, at his little brother.

"Am I hearing right? That as I have been taking points off of those who are misbehaving – rather excessively, mind you – that this is somehow your fault?"

"No," Silas answered slowly, beginning to feel stupid. "But . . . never mind."

"I am not mad at you. Your classmates have been acting rather disobedient all week, and I am merely being strict to remind them that they are here to learn . . . not to gossip."

"Oh."

"How have you been?" Severus asked.

"Better. I . . . don’t feel so bad about it now."

"Good. Now, go. I have work to do and I know you have at least one essay to work on."

"Bye," Silas said, picking his bag up on the way out of the classroom and feeling better.

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It was the next Friday night, and Silas was excited. It was safe to say that all of Hogwarts was excited. Except, of course, for the older, more mature students and most of the professors. Among those professor who were excited were Flitwick, Trimdol, and, of course, Dumbledore.

Headmaster Dumbledore had decided to start a biweekly game night to relieve the stress of classes, which began immediately after classes (about four-ish) and went until curfew. Because of the games, curfew was changed to ten for those third year and under and midnight for fourth years and above. This was only for the gamers, of course. Dumbledore made it very clear that if you were not in the Great Hall, you must be in your house.

The night would include, as the posters stated, Wizard games, Muggle games, Wizard and Muggle sports. And, of course, the best of all: Dinner and Desserts! Silas’ first thought was that if whoever it was who did the signs (he guessed it was either Dumbledore, Flitwick or Trimdol) didn’t know how to rhyme. It flowed like a rhyme, but sports and desserts just did not work.

"Ready?" Stephan asked, and Silas nodded. He was dressed in a pair of black pants and a blue t-shirt, as the school robes were not required for the event. He did not want to play soccer robes.

"Yup," he answered. "Draco’s probably already down there."

"No, he’ll probably be late. He had this entire ‘fashionably late’ rant when you were late for breakfast this morning. Unless a party or class calls for you to be exactly on time, you are supposed to come after the time indicated, or something like that. I’d tell you to ask him, but it’s nothing you’d really want to hear," Stephan answered, and Silas laughed. Draco did have a habit of going on rants about what was proper and what wasn’t. And it was rather annoying at times, because Silas really didn’t care. He had enough problems with Severus correcting his language almost every day.

Down in the Great Hall, which was set up with many small tables with games on them on one side, and room for sports on the other side, but first year Ravenclaws noticed that Draco was not there yet . . . no surprise to either of them.

Spotting William and Trimdol near the area where the Head Table usually was (the raised area was now set up for games), Silas grabbed Stephan and pulled him to his very young friend, who was currently walking around and under tables, talking gibberish to a toy snake he was carrying around. Silas was glad to see that the boy liked the snake, since it was what he picked out for William for Christmas (Severus paid for it, of course). The child’s English, although not up to par with other four year olds’, was much better than it was at the beginning of the year. He rarely talked in parseltongue, and when he did, it was when he was frustrated and usually when Silas was around.

"Silas!" William shouted when he saw his favorite person. He ran up to Silas as fast as his small body would allow, and Silas picked him up for a little bit, but had to put him down since he grew so much.

"You’re getting really big boy, William," Silas told him, kneeling so he could talk to the boy face-to-face. "Soon, I won’t be able to pick you up at all!" William giggled and held out the stuffed snake for Silas to pet.

"Hissy like you," William said.

"Really? Well, I like Hissy, too," Silas answered.

A few minutes later, much to Stephan’s chagrin, Silas, Stephan, William, Dumbledore, Trimdol, and Flitwick were all sitting down at a small table playing a game that was meant for four and five year olds learning to read. Silas was surprised that William knew a few words.

"Broom!" William shouted, five games and two hours later. Somehow, William had convinced everyone to keep playing the game, even though they all were sick of it by the end of the second. It wasn’t a hard game at all, and it was only challenging for the small child. Finally, William won the last game, and he crawled off his raised chair and into his father’s lap.

"Tired. Hungry," William complained, and Trimdol sighed.

"I suppose it’s time for food and bedtime, huh? Although it is still early. Long day, eh, kid?" Trimdol asked.

"Long. Bed."

"Okay, then. Let’s go," the father said, but it was easy to tell he wanted to stay. It was half his idea for the game night to begin with.

"Perhaps one of the other professors could take him," Dumbledore offered. "It seems to me that Professor McGonagall is looking quite tired. I’m sure she would love to look over William until the night’s finished."

"Wonderful! I’ll go ask. If she says yes, I’ll set her up and be right back here!" Trimdol said a little too excitedly, a bounce in his step as he bounded over to the deputy headmistress. Silas had to laugh. Trimdol was probably one of his favorite professors. He was just so happy a lot of the time. Sometimes, it got old, but he could almost always cheer a gloomy someone up.

"There’s Draco," Stephan said flatly. "And he doesn’t look to happy."

"Oh, he’ll get over it," Silas said. "He always does. Let’s go."

By the time they got to Draco, who was sitting and playing a seemingly boring game of cards with Crabbe and Goyle, who were more interested in the food than the game, he looked as if he was ready to hex anyone and everyone.

"Want to go see what else there is to do, Draco?"

"Yeah, there looks to be some interesting muggle games that I want to try," Stephan said.

"Muggle games?" Draco asked, bewildered. "Muggle games? Why? I mean . . . it’s muggle."

"Yeah, I kind of gathered that," Silas said flatly. "You know, games are games. It doesn’t matter who invented them."

"Fine, we’ll play a wizard game, although I was kind of wanting to try something new," Stephan said, and Silas dragged them to the gobstones area so they wouldn’t begin fighting. Silas waved to Trimdol, who came back into the Great Hall dancing, and they began a game after recruiting another first year Slytherin, Nott.

Another hour later, they finished a game of Gobstones just as the last call for food was yelled out, and Silas and Stephan (Draco had already ate, so he started another game with Nott), ran to the table and began filling their plates with food.

Stephan dropped his plate as several students screamed, and everyone turned to see what the matter was. There was a pause in time as everyone’s mind registered what they were seeing, then panic overwhelmed the Great Hall.

Teachers began magically ushering the panicking students away from the overlarge Chimaera while Dumbledore, Trimdol, and Severus worked on putting up a shield between the lion/goat/dragon mix and the students, without much luck. Every time the shield appeared stable, the Chimaera broke though and make another attempt at one whoever was closest. Soon, almost all the students were out of the Great Hall, except for the few who seemed to be trapped in place.

The Chimaera, breaking free of the magical bounds once again, dodged the stunning spells sent at it and aimed right for the nearest student – which happened to be Silas. Silas couldn’t move. He didn’t know if it was because he was so scared that he felt like he was going to pee in his pants, or because he really couldn’t move, but why he couldn’t move wasn’t the point. The point was that the monster was running right for him very, very quickly.

"Silas, MOVE!" he heard Severus and Trimdol say together, and he tried, he really did, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the Chimaera’s. Suddenly, everything spun quickly before going black.

Not realizing he had shut his eyes, Silas slowly opened them to a dimly lit room. He was laying on his back on the cold stone floor, and he was surprised that he was not in pain. Was he dead? He surely hoped not.

Sitting up, he saw a lady standing in the corner of the room, her back turned to him. He stared at her for a few minutes, realizing that at times, she didn’t look completely solid. He had the strangest feeling when she turned around, and he couldn’t help the word that escaped his mouth.

"Mom?" he asked. Footsteps were then heard coming quickly down the corridor, and Severus and Trimdol entered the room with a bang of the door.

"Silas, are you okay?" Severus asked, worried, and ran to kneel next to his brother.

"Fine," Silas answered, looking at the place where the lady disappeared just before the adults entered. "I . . . I saw . . . mum," he said, still very confused.

"Then you are obviously not okay, as Mother is dead," Severus replied harshly, picking his brother up like a small child.

"Did you want to floo to the infirmary? I’m sure Filius has the floo open in his classroom."

"No. Poppy is probably dealing with many hysterical students at the moment. I will assess the damage first, and bring him to the hospital wing later, if necessary."

"If you’re sure . . ." Trimdol said, giving Silas a pat on the shoulder.

"You’re okay, kid?" he asked, and Silas nodded, blushing.

"I can walk . . ." he complained, but Severus took no note of his talking as they made their way down to the dungeons.