The Haunted
Chapter I –
Dominus est maior
The soft breeze playing at Hermione's neck, the scent of
loneliness and hatred infesting the surrounding air. The noise of a single owl
hooting in the sinister forest. The rest of the Gryffindor's were still back in
the common room as a group, Hermione had distracted herself from the what she
thought a intimidating atmosphere. Why must I be the lonely one? She
thought as a single pearly tear dripped from her chin shattering at the
stone-cold floor. The darkness was closing in upon her. The self hatred turning
into fear and jealousy. The clock chimed and the moon shone down upon the
gleaming almost perfectly smooth lake. The forest with it's infinite darkness.
She heared footsteps as Snape ran down the front steps a
couple of storeys below her. She slipped on a mossy patch just managing to grab
a gargoyle behind her. Why am I finding this so hard? Hermione thought
as she peered over the edge of the ledge. The thought of death swarmed in her
head. She closed her eyes and stepped up to the rim of the ledge. She started
to hear a cackling. She stepped back opened her eyes and looked around, Snape
had gone back into the building and there was no one around. She closed her
eyes again and yet the cackling started again, more fiercely. As a cold voice whispered
into her ear 'Mortem discedem'. A very strong, disturbing wind hit Hermione at
a catastrophic force. She fell cracking her wrists on the stone. A gaping wound
bled profusely from her leg. She closed her eyes as her tangled body lay there
as if her life had already been torn from her. She tried to stand up her leg
shaking. The cackling continued as a fog descended upon her, she wanted to get
off the ledge. She stepped forward.
*****
'Dominus est maior' a sweet voice said.
'What?' said a familiar voice coming from somewhere near.
Hermione opened her eyes. Her vision was very impared. She did realize she was
in the hospital ward.
'It means 'The master is stronger'' said the first voice now
recognisable as Madam Pomfrey.
'The master obviously meaning Voldemort' said the second
voice now matched up to Albus Dumbledore.
'It was carved upon her stomach when we found her' said
Madam Pomfrey in a mystical voice.
'I guess he means stronger by gaining another Death Eater:
Hermione' said Dumbledore in a very bland voice.
'She is one of the best pupils, how…' started Madam Pomfrey
as Hermione let out a cry and the two ran into the ward.
'Ahhhhh, your awake' said Dumbledore 'How are you feeling?'
'Not very good' stated Hermione 'What happened'
'You were found face down on the concrete steps, you
probably fell, it was a great distance, about from the 3 storey. You were
almost dead. If you had not made that thudding noise on your contact with the
stone you would surely be dead. You had broken your legs, arms, five ribs,
cracked your skull, lost almost half of your blood, your heart had stopped and
there was a mysterious carving on your stomach. In Latin. It seems to have been
done by the Dark Lord himself, claming you as his,' said Dumbledore 'Of course
with the power of magic we managed to heal you up. Why were you upon that ledge
Hermione, what happened?'
Hermione started to explain the events as a searing pain hit
her stomach. She looked down and the wounds were glowing bright red as blood
seeped from them. Her eye's closed involuntarily, almost violently. Her ears
shut off from outside noise. She saw only the blackness of the inside of her
eyelids. Suddenly visions started to flash across her eyes, they were so vivid
it was like being there. A stake through the pale body of a man, his eye's open
looking at Hermione delving into her very being, she felt cold hands caressing
her cheeks. The noise of baby's crying. She saw the raw bubbling flesh of a
woman being burned alive, tied to a pole, the flames playfully licking at her
terrified face. The tears dripping down her face and the merciless onlookers
laughing. Hermione felt her stomach turning and the thick liquid raising up in
her throat and gushing from her mouth. It burned her chest, her lips and her
mouth. She saw Voldemort bent over a sleeping couple. His eye's full of glee
and hate at the same time. Death swiftly flooded her mind as he cast the Avada
Kadavra spell. She saw it was her parents and the deep hate lashed out at her
mind. She couldn't cry just lay there, screaming on the inside.
She opened her eyes and the coldness hit them as tears
flooded from her eyes. Her top was saturated in vomit. Her face was as pale as
snow. Her pain was both physical and emotional as she wept. The cackling
started up in her ears and she felt cold hands gripping her throat, squeezing,
trying to push the life out. She felt compounded. The grip tightened as she
tried to rip the hands off and yet there was nothing there. She started to
loose consciousness. She looked up and saw the silhouettes of Dumbledore and
Madam Pomfrey. The hand's let go and she took in a deep revitalizing breath.
She felt the room was closing in upon her, she saw the light fading as she fell
asleep, her head pounded.
She felt herself falling deep into a pit of mocking, hatred
and death. Hermione found herself wanting to be there as she fell further. This
lust for the collaboration of darkness was good in Hermione's eyes. She felt
her body filling up being completed, she could not place what was being
completed. She felt another presence that of a superior being. She heared the
cackling and cherished it. She was unmoved by the most evil thoughts. She loved
it.
