Chapter One:
Gabriella found herself staring across the Gryffindor table. She found the person she was looking for. He was in the process of flinging a spoon full of scramble eggs at his younger brother Ron. As if he could feel someone looking at him, Fred looked at her and smiled. She smiled back. He turned back around and continued flinging different foods at Ron. She smiled slightly. She stared back down at her plate and pushed the food around. She wasn't hungry anymore.
She got up from the table and walked from the Great Hall. She walked through the corridors until she reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Cambanoris Leeshmorn," Gabriella uttered the password. The portrait swung open. She climbed through the portrait hole and into the empty ruby red common room. She sunk into one of the cushy red armchairs by the fire, leaned her head back and closed her eyes. The fire was warm compared the cold, windy winter day outside. She pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her chin on her knees, her eyes still closed.
She remembered very clearly her first day at Hogwarts. After she was sorted into Gryffindor, being one of the first because her last name was Agong, along with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, when the first years were getting walked up to the common room, she got lost. She had lost her house. She started wandering aimlessly around the corridors. That's when Fred found her. He had actually been looking for George but had, quite literally actually considering she had been at least a foot shorter than him, bumped into her. She had told him she was lost so he had taken her to the common room and given her the password.
On the way up to the common room she had rambled on aimlessly to him, pretty much telling him her whole life story. That is why Fred had started calling her Gabby. It wasn't only short for Gabriella, it was just true. She talked all the time. Although she was two years younger than him, they had kept a friendship from that day on.
All the sudden she felt something hit her in the side of the head. She opened her eyes to find a piece of buttered toast floating in the air beside her. It was suspended by Fred's wand.
"You didn't really eat anything. Eat this," he dropped the piece of toast onto her lap.
"I'm not really that hungry," Gabriella said as he sat down in the chair across from her.
"You have to eat. I don't want you to become anorexic on me Gabby," he said staring at her with his brown eyes. She grabbed the piece of toast from her lap and took a bite.
"There, happy?" Gabriella said with a mouthful of toast.
"You have to eat the whole thing to make me happy."
"Fine, I guess I will do it just for you."
"Thank you. You have to keep up your strength the exams are coming up soon."
"That's true." Gabriella took another bite from the buttered toast. It actually did taste very good.
"What was up with you not eating anything anyway?" Fred asked her.
"I was distracted," Gabriella replied.
"With what, today was very uneventful," Fred replied.
"Just stuff."
"What kind of stuff?" Fred asked suggestively, cocking an eyebrow.
"Nothing like that," Gabriella said starting to blush.
"My little Gabby is growing up so fast."
"Shut up you git."
"Oh, you know you love me."
If only you knew, Gabriella thought.
"Gabby? Are you sure you're okay? You've seemed kind of out of it lately. You didn't eat at all yesterday, and the day before you had nothing to eat as well," Fred stated sounding concerned.
"I'm fine. I just haven't been sleeping well I guess," Gabriella replied, smiling and finished the last bite of toast.
"As long as you're sure," Fred muttered, still sounding slightly worried.
"Fred, you don't have to worry about me. Believe it or not I am capable of taking care of myself."
"I know, I know."
It was almost time for Gabriella's Divination class.
"I have to go," Gabriella said reluctantly, "Divination time!"
"Oh, exciting," Fred said facetiously.
Gabriella got up from the chair and exited the common room.
As she walked up the many flights of stairs she could feel the dread of the class weighing upon her.
I wish I didn't have to go to this class. I could spend all my time just sitting talking to Fred. I fancy him quite a lot. It's just not fair anymore, Gabriella thought bitterly as she climbed the last staircase to the Divination tower. The brunette walked into the classroom and took her seat where she worked with Parvati Patil, another girl in Gryffindor; who she, quite honestly really, found extremely annoying. As Gabriella didn't quite believe in all the 'Oh, your going to die' rubbish Professor Trelawney taught every day, Parvati was very in to it. It got very aggravating to hear her worshiping Professor Trelawney throughout the whole class.
Little by little people were filing into the classroom. There were crystal balls resting on all the tables. After the classroom was full Professor Trelawney came out of her chambers. Her big glasses magnified her eyes so much she slightly resembled a bug.
"Good morning class," she said in her normal dreamy voice. Parvati was already glued to every word coming out of the professor's mouth. Gabriella could already feel herself starting to zone out, imagining herself outside of this classroom. She wished to be anywhere but here. Gabriella realized she hadn't been paying attention to a word the Divination teacher had to say and tried to tune back in.
"You will all be looking into the crystal balls," Professor Trelawney was saying, "you will all be looking for the future."
Gabriella sighed quite loudly, not looking forward to the task ahead of her.
"Is there something wrong dear?" the professor asked her in her misty voice.
"No, everything in great Professor, sorry for being interruptive," Gabriella replied smiling at her. Out of the corner of her eye, Gabriella could see Parvati glaring at her from across the small table.
"Well, I am going to let you all use your inner eye now. I will be walking around the classroom to help those of you who are having trouble with the sight," Professor Trelawney crooned.
Parvati discreetly slid the crystal ball farther towards her side of the table. She looked inside of and started to look shocked.
This is a load of rubbish, Gabriella said to herself, I totally wish I was still back in the common room. I'd even rather be outside practicing Quidditch right now than be in this class. Why do I even take this class anymore if I don't like it? Why is it that all I can think about is Fred? What is wrong with me? We have been friends for ever. I hate this.
"Gabriella?" Parvati asked from across the table, snapping the brunette from her thoughts.
"Yes Parvati," Gabriella replied politely, although a pink tinge was rising to her face from being lost in her thoughts.
"It's your turn to look." Parvati pushed the crystal globe toward her. Gabriella looked at it, but all she could see was the reflection of her emerald green eyes staring back at her. That and the curling smoke inside of the globe.
"Its no use, I'm not very good at using my 'third eye'," Gabriella said, putting air quotes around third eye. She didn't believe any of this. That's when Professor Trelawney came over.
"Having trouble my dears?" she asked the two girls.
"Gabriella is; I'm not though. I can see very clearly what is going to go on," Parvati said in a gloating voice.
"Oh, dearie, let me help you with seeing," Trelawney said, starting to look in the crystal ball.
"I see loneliness in your future, you will have no one," the professor started.
It's a wonder how she see's all this. All I see is smoke, Gabriella thought as Professor Trelawney continued on with her prediction. Parvati looked completely impressed as the teacher finished.
"Mmm, I see. Thank you very much Professor," Gabriella said politely, although she hadn't really been paying attention.
"Anytime my dear, anytime," the Divination teacher stated quietly.
"She's just amazing isn't she?" Parvati asked, sounding so impressed.
"I guess," Gabriella answered.
"You guess? You don't think that Professor Trelawney is brilliant?" Parvati said sounding offended, like Gabriella had insulted her and not the teacher.
"No, I mean she's great and everything, its just I don't really believe in all this nonsense. Looking into the future and such," Gabriella explained.
"Nonsense? This is not nonsense, no wonder you can't see anything. You don't believe," Parvati was practically yelling now, drawing attention from the whole classroom. Gabriella felt herself starting to blush, as more eyes were turned towards her table.
"I didn't mean it like that. I think I'm just mocking it because I'm no good at this class," she lied quietly. Parvati seemed to relax a little at this statement.
"I guess that's true, you are pretty poor at this class," she said, "no offense meant."
"None taken," Gabriella replied back smiling. Now that Parvati wasn't screaming all the eyes had turned from her table returned the crystal orbs they were supposed to be finding the future in.
Finally the class ended. Gabriella practically bounded down the stairs and went back to the Gryffindor common room, to find it empty. She was quite disappointed, but she had expected as much. She went up the stairs to the girl's dormitory and into the room she shared with the three other girls. She grabbed her brush out of her trunk when she spotted a note on top of her pillow. It read:
Meet me in the common room at midnight.
It bore no signature. Gabriella read it again, trying to recognize the hand writing, but didn't recognize the sloppy scrawl. She quickly brushed her shoulder length hair and put it back up into a messy bun. She walked back down into the red common room. It was still completely deserted and she still had a half an hour before her next class. She took this opportunity to work on her Defense Against the Dark Arts homework that she had been putting off since last week. She took the book out of her black messenger bag, a piece of parchment, a quill and began to work on the two paged paper she had to write on Nifflers.
She was half way done when she heard people scrambling through the portrait hole and into the common room. It was two first years that she recognized only from having seen them at the table during meals. They looked at her timidly and climbed the steps to their dormitories. She looked at the time and she had 10 minutes to get to her Transfiguration class. She packed up the paper she had been working on and hoist her messenger bag onto her shoulder. She climbed out the portrait hole just as someone opened the portrait swung open. It was George.
"Hey," he said smiling, "where you off to?"
"Transfiguration class," Gabriella replied smiling as well.
"Oh, okay well I'll see you later, at lunch I suppose," George replied.
"See you," Gabriella muttered as she climbed out of the portrait hole. She walked down the stone steps to her class. The classroom was almost full. She took her usual seat next to Hermione Granger. She set her bag down next to her, taking her wand out of it and setting it on her desk. Hermione was deep in conversation with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. They were talking quietly, so Gabriella couldn't hear what they were discussing. She assumed it was quite important because they were all leaning in close together. Professor McGonagall was already sitting at her desk waiting for the rest of the class to pile in.
The class started off with a bang. Literally, Professor McGonagall had turned her desk chair into a chicken and back again. Today they were going to be learning how to turn rats into tea pots. Of course Hermione was very successful. Gabriella had managed to turn a few into tea pots by the end of class but some of them still had whiskers or fur. When McGonagall dismissed the class it was lunch time. Gabriella was very hungry but had homework she had to work on, so she went up to the common room again.
She sat down on the gold couch in the corner of the room, and spread her things on the table in front of her, her back facing the entrance. She managed to finish her paper for her Defense Against the Dark Arts class and had started working on the paper for her Potions class that was right after lunch. That was the class she hated the most. Not because of the Potions master, who she was actually quite fond of, despite his strictness. She was actually quite brilliant at Potions, so he never had ant snide remarks to make about what she made. Then again he never complimented her either. The reason was dreading Potions was because they shared the class with the Slytherins. They were all quite obnoxious, especially Draco Malfoy and his two thuggish friends Crabbe and Goyle.
She was lost in her thoughts when she heard someone coming into the common room. She turned around at the scent of food. It was George.
"Hey, here's some food," he said, setting the plate in front of her.
"Thanks," Gabriella said gratefully, taking a bite of the sandwich.
"Thank Fred; he was worried when you didn't show up for lunch."
"I just had a lot of homework that I had been putting off. I had to finish it before I had to go to classes."
"Fred seems to think you're becoming anorexic. Speaking of you are becoming quite thin."
"I guess so," Gabriella commented, looking down at herself. She had noticed that her clothes had been fitting more loosely but hadn't thought anything of it. She had skipped meals occasionally, but more often than not she went. Now that she thought about it, when she did go to meals she didn't eat a lot. Most of the time she just ended up eating a couple of bites and then pushing her food around her plate for the remainder of time. She looked up and George was looking at her curiously.
"I'm going to go let Fred know that you are okay," he said walking away.
"Okay, well let him know I'll come to dinner. I promise," Gabriella added at George's doubtful look.
She scowled as he left. She was almost done with her Potions paper. So before eating more of her sandwich she finished her paper. When she was done she looked at the clock on the wall in the common room. She didn't have any time to eat. She only had five minutes to get to the dungeons. She grabbed her bag and raced out of the common room. She sped through the hallways until she reached the dungeons with one minute to spare. She sat down next to Hermione, short of breath.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine but I was a little late heading down here," Gabriella lied quickly. She was the exact opposite of fine. She was out of breath and since she hadn't eaten lunch she was quite dizzy from running all this way. In fact it looked like the whole room was spinning. She closed her eyes and opened them again. The room was still spinning. The last thing she remembered was seeing Professor Snape swoop into the classroom before she passed out.