Filch marched Harry to McGonagall, who was more concerned with his bloodied eye than what he was doing out after hours with Snape’s broom. He told her what had happened on the way to the infirmary. She sent someone to get Ron off the roof and to check on the prefect in the hall.

Madame Pomfrey was tending his eye when Sirius and Lorelei burst in. He told them what had happened as well. Lorelei didn’t seem surprised, only grim. Sirius was more upset than confused, but fussed over Harry and his eye before sprinting off with Lorelei before Pomfrey could throw them out. Filch left in a grouch.

With a bandage on his head and a tingly feeling in his eye socket from the healing spell, Harry tried to rest a little. He was put into bed in what was now a familiar routine. I do seem to end up in here a lot, he thought. Then, he noticed Raye in a bed further down the room. She was staring at the ceiling and making no sign that she knew he was there.

He wondered if he should speak to her, but decided not to. If she was ignoring him, she wouldn’t want to talk anyway. He heard Madame Pomfrey hurrying around the other room and after a moment, Snape’s voice halted her. They talked for awhile, and though Harry strained his ears, he couldn’t make out any words. He hoped he wouldn’t be in trouble over the broom. Then, there was a flutter of several feet on the floor and Lorelei asked them what was going on now.

Her voice was woozy, but louder than an infirmary whisper. Maybe she had taken another vial, Harry reasoned. Snape reported that a bottle of harpy blood had been taken from his cabinet.

“Good gracious!” said Pomfrey, forgetting to keep her own voice down. “If the creature tries to drink that-”

“She’ll be easy to find,” interrupted Lorelei. There was a pause after that and Harry pictured shocked expressions on the other witches’ faces. He must’ve been right, because Lorelei’s tone was more defensive when she spoke again.

“I’ve had to put up with this all my life,” she said. “I’m thinking of performing a study on the phenomenon and declaring it the Esme Curse, so others will be warned. She always does this! I know it’s not intentional, I know she means well, but she has never once failed to make a bad situation worse!”

“Speaking of which,” came the hurried voice of McGonagall as she swept in the room. “I’m sorry I’m late, but the Weaselly twins have somehow made voice throwing devices. I think most of them have been confiscated, but be on your guard. They had Trelawney thinking she was being visited from beyond.”

“What about the younger Weasely?” came Moody’s rasping voice.

“He’s fine.”

“The sun will be up soon,” said Snape. “Will she be able to bear it? Such an ancient vampire would surely fear the sun, even if he was in a human body.”

“Professor Moody,” said McGonagall. “You and Ms. Zephyr are both Defense teachers. What d you suggest we do? How do you catch a vampire?” There was another long pause and then Moody spoke again.

‘It isn’t so much a vampire as it is your sister,” he growled, apparently to Lorelei. “You know best what her habits would be.”

“No, I don’t,” Lorelei sounded worried this time. “This is the first time I’ve been this close to her in years. And I can’t even guess what Brohm’s influence would make her do.”

“What do you know him? Of Brohm?”

“That he’s old. Biblical old. And every bit as powerful.”

“No longer!” said a cheerful voice that Harry thought was the Elmskill Professor Dormire. “Now, he’s a bit of Dark Magic turned parasite. This Esme will still face charges, but if it can be proved that she was infected with a Bind, things may go better for her.”

“Well,” Lorelei’s voice was hesitant. “I have to catch her to get it out of her again. I don’t know where she would go, but...there may be a way to lure her back to me...I haven’t done it since I was a child. but she should remember...”

“You know her best,” Moody said again, and then there was the sounds of the group leaving. Harry laid back down to think about it all. He wondered what drinking harpy blood would do to a vampire in a human body. He wondered what Lorelei had in mind to catch her sister. Full of such thoughts, he dozed off.

A soft voice calling his name pulled him from a dream of following a trail of blood through the Hogwarts halls. He blinked himself awake and squinted into the light. Hermione and Ron hovered over him. They burst into smiles when he focused on them. By the brightness from the window and the empty feeling in his stomach, he guessed it was late morning.

“How are you feeling?” Ron asked. Harry felt the bandage over his eye gingerly. When it didn’t hurt at all, he pried the cloth off and squinted with both eyes.

“Good as new,” he said, sitting up. Raye was still there, but facing the wall now.

“Well, we were told we could take you to breakfast if you felt up to it,” Ron told him. “And Hermione has something to show you.” Harry glanced at her. She was beaming and bounced on her toes.

“Oh, if you can, come and see!” she pleaded, so Harry allowed them to pull him from the bed and drag him off. They went deep into the castle, to a steamy room full of house elves ironing. Past that was a room full of clotheslines and wet clothes hanging from them.

“So this is where Hogwarts’ laundry gets done,” he mused. Hermione sniffed, but was too giddy to go into one of her S.P.E.W. speeches. They went through the washing room which was full of many-colored bubbles and elves working hand-cranked wringing machines, and from there into the dirty clothes room.

The smell was incredible. It was like stepping into the world’s largest and most worn sweaty sock. Harry saw special hampers in the back where the elves worked with clothespins on their little noses. One was marked ‘Potions Classes’ and seemed to be glowing. Another said ‘Care of Magical Creatures’ and whenever an elf looked in that one, it would turn green and run away gagging.

Hermione lead the way to a corner and pulled back a curtain. Mrs. Norris was there, curled in a huge basket of black wizard robes which she had shed all over. The house elves had waited on her hand and foot. There was a bowl of milk to one side and a dish of tuna on the other. She reclined with all the dignity of a very scruffy Empress, and squirming next to her were four tiny kittens.

“Does Filch know?” asked Harry, kneeling down beside the basket with Hermione.

“Yeah,” Ron chuckled. “He’s in here every hour. Hermione convinced him that as paternal grandmother, she gets visitation rights too. We’ve been declared uncles.”

“Does that make Crookshanks MR. Norris, or her Mrs. Norris-Granger?” Harry asked. They both laughed and the kittens stirred.

“You’ll wake them up!” said Hermione, so the boys quieted down and crouched to look. There were two orange tabby kittens, one calico, and one was dusty-beige with the faintest outline of stripes over it. Each of them had Crookshanks’ crooked tail.

“We should call these two Fred and George,” said Ron, reaching to touch one of the orange tabbies. Mrs. Norris gave him a warning look and he pulled away.

“Except that Fred is a girl,” said Hermione, stroking the calico. Mrs. Norris tolerated that.

“Fredina then,” Ron said airily. “Fredina Sabrina Jolina Norris-Granger.”

“The name is bigger than the kitten,” Harry said, and they all laughed again. Then his stomach gurgled.

“I forgot you hadn’t eaten,” Hermione said. “Let’s get you some breakfast.” They pulled the curtain back into place and left.