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The sight before her made Professor McGonagall's heart sink.
Stalys Black's magical fluctuations were wildly unstable as she unleashed a frenzied barrage of attacks. One student lay unconscious on the ground, while another, pale-faced and exhausted, was desperately dodging her relentless strikes.
On the other side, three students were repeatedly casting Finite Incantatem at a swirling mass of black mist.
"Stop! Stop this at once, children!" McGonagall shouted, her wand in hand. She silently transfigured a chair into a shield, positioning it in front of young Lupin to protect him.
Next, she transfigured Lys's clothing into bindings, attempting to restrain her wand-wielding movements.
But it was of little use. Lys chanted her spells with alarming speed and precision, and the sheer force of her magic made her attacks devastating, even if the spells themselves were incomplete.
McGonagall had no choice but to transfigure her own hat into a strap, wrapping it tightly around Lys's chin and mouth to prevent her from continuing to cast spells.
She had to stop her—if this continued, Lys wouldn't just be expending magic but her very life force.
Seeing the situation barely under control, a Slytherin student, who clearly regretted getting involved, quickly reported, "Professor! Quickly, that's a bloodsucking black mist! We can't stop it! And there's another one under the stands—Merlin knows if anyone's fallen down there!"
"Oh, Merlin's beard!" McGonagall exclaimed, summoning two Patronus cats to call for Slughorn and Madam Pomfrey. If Dumbledore was available, she hoped he could come as well.
After much effort, McGonagall and Slughorn finally managed to pull a battered Sirius Black out of the black mist.
His face was deathly pale, and he had fallen into a deep unconsciousness, showing no signs of waking.
Madam Pomfrey summoned stretchers and had the injured and weakened Marauders taken to the hospital wing.
As for Lys, who was still struggling against her restraints, McGonagall felt at a loss. The snake coiled around her refused to let anyone approach, hissing warningly with a slightly wilted lily in its mouth.
When Slughorn raised his wand to subdue the snake and retrieve his student, McGonagall stopped him.
She had noticed that whenever a wand was pointed at Lys, her magic would surge violently. If she saw her snake being attacked, it might very well spell the end of her already unstable magic.
Hagrid's head appeared from the stairwell leading to the exit. "Oh, hope I'm not too late. What's happened to Lys?"
Oblivious to the tension, Hagrid picked up the limp Lys from the ground and even patted the dust off her back, leaving McGonagall both astonished and relieved.
And so, Lys, bound hand and foot with her mouth gagged, was carried to the hospital wing by Hagrid and placed in the farthest bed.
The moment she spotted Potter, her eyes widened, her magic flaring uncontrollably. She looked as if she wanted nothing more than to sink her teeth into him.
At McGonagall's direction, Hagrid lifted the cloth covering Lys's mouth just enough to pour in three bottles of magical stabilizer. Madam Pomfrey sighed, "What's going on, Minerva? Is Lys really this upset about Slytherin losing to Gryffindor in Quidditch? Or did these two troublemakers provoke her again?"
McGonagall could only sigh. "I don't know, but I don't think the problem lies with Lys."
After administering two bottles of Blood-Replenishing Potion to Sirius Black, Madam Pomfrey cast a healing charm and added, "But this was far too severe. If you hadn't intervened in time, this child would've been in grave danger—worse than Binns." McGonagall and Pomfrey exchanged a glance but said no more.
Bloodsucking black mist was a classic dark magic.
The damage caused by dark magic was lifelong.
Madam Pomfrey examined Potter again. "It's best to have Professor Flitwick take a look. I suspect this is a curse with a linking spell, but for some reason, it appears incomplete. For now, there's no immediate danger. A dose of Skele-Gro tonight should fix the broken bones."
"She went all out, but… fortunately," Pomfrey said, "there's still room for recovery."
Nearby, Lupin, weakly sipping a restorative potion, slumped on the bed next to Potter, wishing he could pass out from sheer exhaustion. Stalys Black was terrifyingly formidable.
Hagrid, his head filled with questions as large as himself, sat quietly on the floor by the window near Lys's bed.
Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let him leave—no one else dared approach the snake except Hagrid.
Once the chaos was cleaned up, Professors McGonagall and Slughorn returned to the hospital wing to investigate what had happened.
A now-conscious Peter Pettigrew shrieked in his high-pitched voice, "Professor, she's a lunatic! She attacked James and the rest of us without warning!"
Since this was a conflict between students from two houses, fairness required hearing both sides of the story.
Severus Snape had also been brought in, but he didn't know much either. He could only recount what he had seen.
"Stalys was at the stairwell near the stands, probably waiting for the crowd to thin out before leaving. I spoke to her when I saw her. She seemed fine—just not very happy."
Seeing Snape's facial muscles twitch as he struggled to continue, Lily Evans stepped in to fill the silence.
"Professor, we were all about to leave when Sirius Black blocked our way at the stairs," she said, glancing briefly at Snape.
"We had a bit of an argument, and then James Potter flew up from below the stands on his broomstick, inviting me to join him in Hogsmeade. But before he could finish, Stalys Black started attacking—she went completely berserk!"
Lily grew agitated as she spoke. "Professor, it was so dangerous! The stands are so high—if James had fallen and no one had caught him, he could've died! She went too far. Sirius is lying here now, too. You have to do something about this!"
She didn't notice that as she switched from calling him "Potter" to "James," Snape's face grew even paler than Lupin's.
"That doesn't make sense," Madam Pomfrey interjected, clearly displeased. "Stalys has been in my hospital wing long enough. I can't speak to other things, but randomly attacking people isn't something she'd do. There must be more to this."