The moon, popped out again through the black clouds,  shines its cold light on Hogwarts and the surroundings, and enters like a beacon through the large windows of the silent Castle, in which the students are sleeping unaware of the battle just ended, to illuminate the shadows of the corridors and of the atrium of the infirmary where George expects for someone who enables him to visit Ellemir.

He came running and now, out of breath and with the forces that are leaving him after that long sleepless night and eventful just passed, with his forehead against the cold glass and contracted jaw, looks out the window into the garden without actually see anything, completely lost in thought.

What he has heard in the Headmistress's Pensieve swirls in his brain and does not grant him respite. He does not forgive himself for having believed that Ellemir were a Death Eater, for not understanding how things were actually, for having just watched their appearence.

It keeps coming back to his mind what happened in the instant in which his Patron reached the girl: it was clear that it was his Bear which has provided the latest energy needed to defeat the  Blue Magic... at the expense of herself and her safety.

'My magic is killing Ellemir' George keeps thinking. 'If I had used the brain, I would have understood how things were actually and maybe we could have found another solution ... '

He closes his eyes and rubs his neck, while that belief corrodes his soul and removes his last remaining energies, preventing him from seeing what has happened in a more detached and objective manner.

A slight fever pulses through his veins, while the minutes pass one after the other without anyone bait from the Infirmary.

Suddenly the sound of a door opening breaks the complete silence of the room. George turns around quickly, emerging from his thoughts, and is located in front of Madame Pomfrey with three other people, presumably doctors, who speak in a low voice coming out the Infirmary.

With difficulty the man comes off from the window and, in uncertain steps, reaches them looking Madam Pomfrey but unable to utter a word.

The old witch, a veteran of Hogwarts, understands immediately the unspoken question of those blue eyes that fixes her, and approaches George kindly saying:

"These doctors have come from St. Mungo's, and they tried to do everything they can for her. But the amount of energy that has passed through her body is far beyond what can withstand a normal human being ... Now we have but wait..."

George runs a hand over his face as he turns his gaze elsewhere to mask the anguish that tightened the heart while heard those words.

"You can come in," continues Madam Pomfrey, who perfectly understand the reason why he came to see Ellemir "Stay close to her, maybe to feel your presence will help in her struggle to survive."

Without a word, George makes a nod with his head and approaches the entrance to the infirmary. He is going to close the door behind him, when he hears the words that one of the doctors exchanges with another and that hit him like a blow: "I've never seen such a thing ... I wonder how she can be still alive ... Not I think she will survive much longer, poor girl."

With difficulty George manages to recover himself and, in faltering steps, comes down the room lit by the moonlight, walking through the space between the empty beds, up to a screen behind which there is Ellemir.

George approaches the bed where lies the girl who seems to sleep. Even without other light than which it comes from the windows, he can see the great pallor of her beautiful face, her lips parched and pale, and dark circles under her closed eyes.

Unable to withstand the sight, George falls to his knees beside the bed and, taking in his hands the cold hand of her, he approaches it to his hot forehead and there rests, closing his eyes and hoping vaguely that somehow, not knowing how, Ellemir can draw on his vital energy for the silent struggle that is fighting.

They remain in that way, while the minutes pass slowly, with the moon lonely witness of their suffering.

***

Headmistress McGonagall, came in the atrium of the Infirmary immediately after George entered the room in which lies Ellemir. She looks at him through the glass door, moving between the empty beds and disappearing behind the screen at the end of the large room, then she turns worried and awaits, walking up and down, that Pomfrey comes back after having accompained out of Hogwarts the doctors of St. Mungo.

She does not have to expect much: a few minutes later the two women are face to face, and the Healer updates each other on what they have told the doctors just gone.

"They did all they could, but they had never seen a case like this ... I think that tonight it have been used an ancient magic of which we have lost track. Plus, the fact that Ellemir is a Catalyst, as you told me, it does not help: none of them has ever seen one, so they have no idea of how to act or what kind of magic is in the body of these magicians, nor which defense mechanisms they have if, like tonight, their bodies are crossed and must handle a flow of energy so great."

"And so ...?" asked McGonagall, unable to finish the sentence.

"And so they were able to do very little, unfortunately." Madam Pomfrey sadly shakes her head. "I fear that we will lose Ellemir, Minerva. Only a miracle could save she, at this point."

The Headmistress was expected these words, but hearing them makes an effect disruptive. During the weeks of Ellemir stay at Castle, unwittingly she was fond of that unhappy and courageous girl and to hear now that she has no escape makes a great sadness.

With tears in her eyes, she makes a brief nod to the Healer, then slowly enters the infirmary to go talk to George and prepare him, as much as possible, on what will happen.