SUMMARY: Summary: Cecilia Rigby, vampire and former student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is asked by Albus Dumbledore to join the Order of the Phoenix. She finds the offer hard to refuse when she sees it will reunite her with two of her old school friends, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. Takes place before and during Harry's fifth year.
Disclaimer: I'm sad to say, I do notownany characters in thisstory except for the original character of Cecilia Rigby.
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The girl waited till everyone was asleep. Once she was convinced that not a person remained awake in the dorm room, she quietly slipped out of bed and put a long cloak on over her nightclothes. With one last look around the room to make sure nobody had seen her, she turned around and walked down the steps and into the Gryffindor common room with a swish of velvet.
Silent as a ghost, she walked around to the front of the squishy armchair facing the fire, to find James's invisibility cloak resting on its arm in a ball. She smiled. She knew James would come through for her. He always did. Slipping it on over her cloak, she exited the common room.
Before she knew it, she was outside Hogwarts and walking in the Forbidden Forest. She knew she shouldn't be here. It was still so early! Although the full moon was still in the sky, it was slowly vanishing. But she neededa quiet place to be by herself andto just think. She had received the news only the previous morning that her father was dead, consumed by pneumonia. When she asked James that afternoon if she could borrow his invisibility cloak, he was more than willing to help her out. Letting grief finally overcome her, she threw off the cloak and wept openly. She never heard the rustling sound in the bushes. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a dark shape rush out towards her, knocking her to the ground. She didn't have time to scream as she felt a great pain as something pierced her neck. She blacked out.
When she came to, a boy was standing over her, surrounded by three others. They talked hurriedly amongst themselves; her vision was so blurred that she couldn't make out their faces, but their voices sounded familiar. She felt strong arms lift her off the ground, and, overcome, the world went dark once again.
Cecilia Rigby, panting, sat up. She looked hurriedly around the room, her eyes darting from wall to wall. Convinced that she was in her small room and not in the middle of a forest, she breathed deeply. She had had that nightmare again.
She got up, threw a terrycloth robe on, and walked to the window. Gingerly pushing aside the heavy black curtain, she was relieved to find that the sun had just set. She sat down again on the small, rather uncomfortable bed, her head in her hands. She fervently wished to stop having that dream.
Cecilia sighed and stood up after she was sufficiently calmed. She glanced around at her new home. She had just moved in this morning. There were boxes stacked in every corner of the room, and various clothing and knickknacks were scattered about on the floor. You could barely call this cramped, molding, one-room place a hotel room, but it was the best she could find that would offer her the degree of privacy she required. It's more than I deserve, she thought bitterly.
She had only taken a few steps when she was across the room, standing in front of her prized possession, an ornate, 18th century English dresser. She rummaged inside one of the drawers and managed to throw together an outfit- a kind of bohemian-looking white blouse, long black skirt, and, after searching through a box at the foot of the bed, a pair of black pumps. She threw on the clothes, grabbed a hairbrush, and gave her hair a hearty tug. After a few more, it was tangle-free and, as she glanced in a mirror encased in a beautifully gilded frame thathung above her dresser, quite shiny.
Cecilia found her mind wandering back to the dream. Why had she been having it so frequently now? After a good fifteen years of NOT having it, too. She paused, taking a good look at herself in the mirror. She saw the pale-complexioned, ruby-lipped, black-haired reflection of a fourteen year old girl staring back at her. She swallowed uneasily.
For Cecilia, that nightmare had not just been a dream. It was the painful remembrance of what had happened when she was fourteen years old and in the fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When she had dared, her sanity almost shattered by grief, to venture into the Forbidden Forest slightly before the sun would rise. Where something had happened to trap her in the body of a fourteen year old girl forever.
On that fateful night, Cecilia Angelique Rigby had been turned into a vampire. As if that was not bad enough, she never found out exactly who it was that had done it to her. For many months after her recovery, she was paranoid and frightened around everyone she talked to, afraid that one of them had intended to kill her.
Except for the five who were her best friends. She knew that they would never try to hurt her. They WERE her best friends, after all, and they stayed her best friends for a long time. Reminiscing, losing herself in the past that was so much more comfortable than her miserable existence now, she was startled by a knock at the door. She looked at the clock to find that it was almost midnight. Time simply flies when you're undead, she thought sarcastically.
Opening the door cautiously, a grin broke out across her face as she saw who stood in the dimly lit, dingy hallway.
"Hello, Albus. What a pleasant surprise."