Seneca was on a streak of bad luck. That same evening after her incident at the bathrooms, she'd gotten high fever. The raise of her bodily temperature was so sudden that there was no doubt it was a magical illness we were talking about. Her suffering was too great for her to sleep in the common room, so a female prefect escorted her to the Hospital Wing in the middle of the night.

The next morning, Holly Scrimgeour joined her, with similar symptoms. Over the course of the day, other sick students also filled the beds around them. It appeared to be an epidemic, with Seneca being the first to cotract it, or show symptoms, at least.

The sickness itself involved high fevers, terrible headaches and frequent changes of the patient's skin colour. At first, the nurse assumed it was Seneca's metamorphic powers that caused those changes. However, Holly and the others began to turn blue and green and purple, so it became apparent this was an illness side effect.

It was night now and everyone was sleeping. Seneca didn't feel her bed raise from the ground, nor its short flight towards Holly's bed. She only woke up with she was violently thrown on top of her friend, like a sack of potatoes! Her own bed landed clumsily back to its place and Peeves' laughter boomed in the room.