Disclaimer: Not JK…
A/n: Written for the Halloween Competition. The prompts were "Nothing like the fear of death to make you feel alive, eh?" for dialogue, A Broken Flashlight for an object and the Creature from the Black Lagoon for the monster.
The corridors of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry were a quiet place at midnight on Halloween. No doubt there would be informal parties at all comonrooms, and so the students of Hogwarts had left the corridors blissfully empty for the day. And Rose wished, for once in her life, to find some rule breaker. Even her prankster brother Hugo would do. But he would, of course, be partying at the Room of Requirement with all the rest of the Weasleys and Potters, Longbottoms, etc, etc.
That was a private party, and one she would go to once she finished her own patrolling. Hearing a footstep behind her, she looked around carefully, making sure her lit wand reached every nook and corner of the dark corridor. Finding noone, she sighed and began walking again, her anxiety increasing as she neared the turning. She chided herself for being this scared. She was a witch for heavens' sake! But the fact did nothing to halt her from peeking at the corridor before taking a turn or from making sure that the Muggle torchlight she kept was safe within her cloak.
Damn Scorpius Malfoy and his stupid myths and Muggle concoctions she swore under her breath and jumped as her own voice echoed around her. Shaking her head, she took a deep breath and concentrated on the only thing that would keep her mind off the ghastly stories he had told during dinner, ranting about the devil himself.
To finish in a simple sentence, Scorpius Malfoy was Lucifer in wizard form. He had the evil and handsome part down very well, anyway. And of course, he loved to taunt and bicker with Rose at every damn opportunity he got. Which was oftener than Rose wished to admit, since he was attached at the hip to Al, her cousin-who-refuses to see why she and Malfoy couldn't get along and constantly pushes them together. Rose secretly doubted that he bribed or worse, Imperio-ed Headmaster Zabini to make the two of them Heads. Yes, Albus Potter could be that bull headed when he wanted to. And the most irritating thing was that the one person she had banked on to support her, Malfoy, had seemed delighted at the prospect. That guy had serious issues with predictability.
Rose turned the corridor, fully expecting to come face-to-face with Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy so that she could yell at him all she wished for frightening her that way. And no, she had no plan to tell him that. Hopefully, her brain would come up with some passable excuse by the time she met him. Not that he seemed to be affected by her rants. His smirk only widened at that. Hell! If he ever smirked at her in that oh-so-ire-inducing fashion one more time, she'd chase him down to the fiery pits of hell and murder him in the most painful way known to man. And no, she wasn't exaggerating. Anyone who made her this jumpy deserved that. Especially if that someone happened to be a Malfoy. Or a particular Malfoy, in this case.
A sudden cold breeze hit her, making her stop. Looking around, she found the source. The window was directly facing the Black Lake and Rose went over to close it. Shivering slightly as the breeze hit her again, she froze with fear at the scene before her. The Black Lake, which had been calm, started rippling and slowly, a black shape emerged from it. At first Rose tried to dismiss it as one of her illusions but when the creature turned its head to the window she was standing in, staring straight at her, panic began seeping in.
The creature had a transparent shield over its face and in the fading light, she couldn't see much behind the mask. A few hours before, she had sat at the Gryffindor table at the Great Hall listening to Scorpius' tales of creatures of the dark which gained their strength during Halloween. About how they would be at their strongest during full moon and finally, about how no magic would work against them. Even the thought that such a creature could be prowling the grounds chilled her to the bone. The creature continued to look at the window where she was standing, and her eyes had adjusted to the light and allowed her to see better. The creature seemed to resemble one of the monsters Malfoy had described, the most dangerous of them all, the creature from the Black Lagoon. The one that attacked unsuspecting females. Eyes round, Rose stood paralysed as the creature turned towards the castle doors. The creature disappeared before her very eyes and Rose realized that the creature was coming after her. That melted her bones and she began running through the corridors, knocking down random suits of armors and awakening disgruntled portraits in her wake. Her wand dropped to the ground when she crashed into a particularly large suit of armor and it collapsed on her. The light went out and Rose struggled to stand up. A flurry of footsteps was heard and Rose looked in horror. Shaking aside her terror, she lifted the final block of armor and started running once again, not looking back to see if the creature was following her.
After almost an hour of wandering, Rose was reasonably sure that she had misled the monster. She paused beside another window and took a careful look. Thankfully, there was no monster in sight. Panting, she slid down the wall, looking around her. She had absolutely no idea where she was in the castle. In her hurry, she had forgotten to take note of where she had been running. Having lost her wand, she now had to rely on the full moon's beams to look around, and it wasn't much help since there weren't many windows there. Standing up, she tried to walk around and find her way to the moving staircase which she knew would be decorated with lanterns. She stumbled over what seemed to be a mass of junk and fell to the floor, once again.
In her illusioned frenzy, she imagined that she heard footsteps behind her. She watched in alarm as a haze of ghostly pale light neared the corridor she was lying in. Deciding to face whatever came with her head held high, she sat up and tried to brace herself. A tall shadow preceded the figure and Rose wondered how tall it would be.
"Rose?" Did monsters have voices? Rose wondered as she now waited impatiently for it to appear.
"Is it you, Rose? Are you here?" Why did the voice sound so concerned? And so familiar? Rose had the queer feeling that she had heard the voice before, and it hadn't been under comfortable circumstances. The echo made the voice unclear and she could barely make out the words. She stood up and tried to carefully maneuver around the mess. She reached the turning exactly at the time the other person did and both of them took a step back as they met.
"Malfoy? What are you doing here? And what's that in your hands?"
"It looks like a broken flashlight. I found it in this corridor" he said, indicating the one she had come from, "And I found your wand lying around too. Where did you run off to? And why were you running through the corridors at all?"
"I…I…it was nothing" How was she to explain that she had been spooked by a creature that had come from the Black lake? It seemed silly to her now. But she had seen a figure come out of the lake, of that, she was sure.
"You look pale as an albino and you tell me it was nothing? You should have been at the Room of Requirement half an hour ago. We got worried when you didn't turn up and I came to check out" his voice was edgy as he looked intently at her, as if trying to decipher a mystery.
"I'll tell you if you swear not to laugh at me or make any snide remarks" Rose demanded, knowing he'd never admit.
"You think I'd make fun something that has you this terrified? No way. I won't tell anyone. What was it?"
"Before that, answer me this. All these monsters you spoke about during dinner, they aren't true, are they?"
"Most of them are myths but some people swear they have seen some with their own eyes" Scorpius shrugged as they began walking towards the seventh floor. With both their wands lit, it was easy to find their way around and the warmth of the light emanating from it gave Rose a cozy feel that she had never experienced before.
"Well…I think I saw one of them"
"Which one? Where?"
"The creature from the Black Lagoon,"
"The one that drags away unsuspecting women?" he asked and the ever-present smirk replaced his concerned expression. She marveled at how quickly he could revert to being the annoying git.
"Yes. I think I saw it on the Lake's shore. And then it suddenly sort of disappeared" she looked at Scorpius' face to find it brimming with unshed tears of mirth. He was biting his lips to stop himself from bursting out laughing and it irritated Rose to no end.
"What's so funny?" she asked, stopping and placing her hands on her hips to emphasize her annoyance.
"Rose, do you realize that there could be a logical conclusion for all this?"
"I don't see how there can be one"
"Lorcan Scamander was dared to take a dip in the Black Lake. He used the bubble head charm to protect himself" he stated, looking at her face.
"And he used the disillusionment charm to go undetected" Rose finished, realizing how stupid she had been. And he had been staring at the window above her which was where the Room of Requirement was situated, not at her. Everything fell into place and Rose felt like she was the stupidest person in the world. She wasn't a three year old to be afraid of monsters!
Noticing her cheeks flame with embarrassment, Scorpius chuckled and said, "If I'd known you'd be so spooked by my stories…"
She slapped his arm and said, "Now, remember, you promised not to tell anyone about it"
"Of course not"
As they walked, Scorpius noticed that she was still tense, "Nothing like the fear of death to make you feel alive, eh?"
"Whatever. As long as nothing bad came out of it"
"Just think of the mess you made in the corridor and wherever you ran. I was afraid that a dragon went loose and you were chasing it"
"Were there fire burns all over the place, too?"
"Okay, may be not dragons but I knew you were there. That was enough to make me worry. And you kept running away everytime I came close to catching you. You shouldn't do that to people, you know?"
"You shouldn't tell spook stories so well, you know?" she said, imitating him. The thought that he had been worried about her gave her a delight that she didn't want to explain.
"I think you just paid me a compliment" he said, turning to smile at her.
"Don't get used to it" was all she said before they reached the portrait opposite the Room of Requirement. Rose walked three times before it and sure enough, a door with a pumpkin hanging on it appeared. Before she could enter, a hand caught her by the wrist and she was engulfed in an embrace. She knew it was him and yet, she did not push him away like she normally did. And when he kissed her hair, she couldn't help the warmth that seeped through her. She knew she needed to defend herself, but she didn't. May it was because she was too shaken from the events of the night. May be not.
"Don't ever scare me like that again, Rose" he murmured before he released her and calmly entered the party venue.
Rose was left standing alone in the corridor and she didn't even notice. The only thought that was running through her mind was that her reaction to him was scarier than any spook story he could ever narrate.
A/n: Review!