Disclaimer: I don't own any Harry Potter characters, I just own whatever characters that have come from my brain and their personalities. J.K. Rowling is a genius, I am not.
A/N: I've found inspiration again! Finally, after so long, I've started writing. I've watched way too much anime and listened to too many awesome Japanese anime theme songs… but I've developed ideas from all of this and have created a storyline that you readers will hopefully like. I've also spent hours researching specific facts, known or unknown, about the Harry Potter series so I can make the best out of this and please you, as well as myself. This fan fiction is dealing with the next generation, so spoilers are bound to show up for those who have not completed the Harry Potter series. With that, please read and enjoy! Don't forget to review!
The Lamplight
Deep within a blackened forest was a single lamplight. It floated through the trees, illuminating only a small patch of darkness. This forest was said to be a dangerous place at this particular time of night. Anyone who entered it was strongly cautioned against doing so, and in some cases forbidden, for there were certain creatures within the wood that held the desire to drink the blood of an unsuspecting or fearful boy or girl.
The light continued to search the darkness through unsettled fog, flickering every so often. As it got further into the forest, the fog became thicker and more difficult to penetrate. Suddenly, the light flickered out. The lamp slowly drifted to the ground, settling down softly. A small white light was emitted just above the lantern. It was hardly any better than the lamp at this point, but would have to do. A wizard's wand was visible from behind it, as well as a pale hand. The carrier of the wand turned around to head back in the previous direction, however, ended up catching a glimpse of another tiny pale glow in the distance. Rather than ignoring it, the wand's owner decided to follow it.
The light was bouncing up and down at a pulsing rate, weaving in and out through the trees. It was running. There was nothing for its follower to do but start to run as well. They traveled until they had almost reached a break in the trees, where a small clearing was dimly lit. Something dark fell in front of the pursuer, vanquishing the light, and causing a loud terrified cry.
Watching this from behind a tree, the follower saw a set of claws grasping at long blonde hair and restraining a face with panicked, glowing green eyes. It was a girl. She was holding the wand that had emitted the light. The creature pinning her down was shrouded in black robes, unrecognizable, and appeared to be changing slightly with every passing second.
Held down, the girl tried to use her wand, but the creature swiped at her hand and threw it aside. It was far within reach and she couldn't move. Her eyes darted around, hoping for some form of help. She was nowhere near as powerful as the monster was. One mighty hand caressed her neck, and the girl began to scream in pain as two sharp fangs punctured her flesh, drawing up blood. Suddenly, she saw the light from the wand of her unintentional pursuer, who panicked and quickly hid it from her sight. She reached out for it, and the cloaked fiend noticed, turning to glare in that direction with gleaming blood red eyes. The creature let the girl go, and headed towards the person in the trees.
The individual pointed their wand towards the monster, stumbling with words, "A- Avada-"
"P-please!" the girl choked.
"SECTUMSEMPRA!" the person hollered.
A red light shot towards the monster, illuminating the face of the caster. He was a pale young man with short flaxen hair.
His cloudy gray eyes widened in fear as he heard the girl scream yet a third time. He thought the girl was being attacked by yet another vicious creature, however, the original monster had disappeared the moment the curse was cast. The girl was shaking on the ground, blood spurting from her body, surrounded by a blue light. The curse hadn't hit the fiend at all; instead it was directly cast at the girl.
The boy rushed towards her, desperately trying to think of a way to stop the curse and the gushing blood. A moment later his head began to feel heavy, his vision blurred, and a stabbing pain in his chest sent him collapsing to the ground next to her. It was then that he recognized her. He could hear her cries of pain fade as he blacked out.
Sometimes, even the use of a wand will fail to help you.
:
"Wake up! Everyone's getting off the train now!" yelled an excited young boy.
"What?" another boy shot up in panic.
"Hurry up!" the boy danced on his heels, then turned as he slammed the compartment door shut.
"Oh, my head…"
Dark clouds swarmed in and consumed a navy sky. Rain started pouring down heavily, beating covered carriages making their way to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The howling wind muted the conversations of the students. Golden lights shined brightly from the windows of the school creating a warm, inviting atmosphere. Everyone was anxious to enter into the comfort of the building. They jumped out of the carriages and stampeded in doors to avoid getting drenched in water, tracking in mud and gravel.
A sixth year Slytherin rushed into the illuminated entrance of the school, looking around impatiently for someone he could talk to. Hearing his name, he headed over to dark haired boy in his year, who was wearing similar attire.
"Alistair, how are you?" he asked, brushing a piece of blonde hair out of his eyes.
"Just fine," the other Slytherin boy answered, looking at someone in the distance.
They watched as a girl came closer to them. She was a Ravenclaw student in their year. Her shoulder length dark chocolate hair was windblown.
"Alistair," she said, nodding 'hello' and smiling at the long dark haired boy.
"Hi, Mina," he said, and then looked at his friend, who was staring at her with cold gray eyes.
The girl stopped for a moment before passing them, then quickly glanced at Alistair's friend, and stifled, "Malfoy," nodding promptly before moving on.
"Malfoy, you okay?" Alistair questioned, shaking him slightly.
He didn't answer, turned away from his friend and stormed into the Great Hall.
Inside, everyone was seated at their designated house table, anxious to feast upon the food which would soon be in front of them. They watched as the new first year students were sorted and welcomed warmly into their new houses. After the sorting was completed the Headmistress welcomed all, new and those returning, with a speech to start off the new school year. Finally, with great pleasure, the students and staff began to dine on the food they had been waiting all night for.
"Lucy, have you seen Vince?" Mina asked a Hufflepuff girl in the Entrance Hall after the feast.
"I thought I saw him with Alice. As usual, right?" she replied, shaking her head.
"I see. He spends a lot of time with her…"
"They're friends. They've known each other since they were little," she said, and adjusted her yellow headband in the window. Her chocolate brown hair was messy.
"Whatever," Mina walked off.
"What's the matter with her?" Rose Weasley walked up to Lucy.
"She's upset because of Vince. She has to understand that Alice is only his friend. Though, he is a little overprotective of her."
"Oh." Rose sighed.
"Well, I've gotta get to my dorm. I'll see you tomorrow in class?"
"Of course! Al will be there too! Wonder what that boy is getting into now…" Rose waved goodbye as she ran down the hallway towards the staircases.
She raced up the stairs, eager to get to the Gryffindor dormitory. On her way she encountered a staircase blocked by two fallen portraits, who were screaming out for assistance. Noticing one of the professors shortly behind her, she decided to take another path to get out of the way. Racing up a set of stairs, she caught her foot on one of the steps and tripped. She gasped, and sat down against a wall to look at her knee, which was now slightly skinned.
"I haven't heard from you all summer, I just want to spend time with you!" a boy's voice came from behind the corner.
"Look, I just need to be alone right now. Okay?" a girl replied.
"I don't understand! You've been alone all summer! Don't you care about-?"
"Vincent! Just shut up and leave me-"
There was silence for a moment.
"No! Stop it! I-I'm sorry. I just can't handle this right now!" the girl cried, running from around the corner and down the stairs. She hadn't even noticed Rose sitting on the floor right next to the stairs.
"Alice?" Rose said, recognizing the blonde haired Ravenclaw girl who had just passed by her.
She stood up and walked around the corner. Vincent was standing next to the window, staring out at the stormy sky. There was no one else around. Rose headed towards him and he turned to her. He looked defeated. His brown eyes showed signs of anger and pain from behind his glasses.
"Are you going to be alright?" Rose asked softly.
"Sure, I'll be fine," he said dully, running his hands through his short mousy brown hair.
She walked with him in silence all the way to the Gryffindor common room.
"Goodnight," Vincent said hollowly.
"Goodnight. See you tomorrow," Rose said, trying to smile.
He turned away just as she noticed blood on his lower lip, and opened her mouth to speak, but he was already halfway up the stairs.
:
The next morning Alice walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts with a dark cloud hovering over her. She ignored everything going on around her and sat in the nearest empty seat closest to the back of the room. The person next to her looked at her as her head slammed down on the desktop.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
She didn't respond.
"Fine then, be a bitch and ignore me."
"All right class, today we're going to practice blocking the incarcerous spell. You may use whatever form of shielding charm you'd like. For those of you on the attacking end please do not suffocate your partner. You will be partnered up with the person you're currently sitting next to," the professor said.
"This is going to be fun…" Alice's partner sighed, "You are on defensive, okay?"
Again, Alice didn't respond.
The class headed into the next room to practice. Alice and her partner stood at the back of the room. She wasn't paying attention to what was going on and just stood there, blankly looking at the floor.
"Alice! Are you ready?" her partner asked.
"What's wrong, Malfoy?" Albus Potter said, looking over at the two while he blocked a shot from Rose.
"She's spaced out!" Malfoy answered.
"Maybe she's just bored. Try attacking her." Rose suggested, looking sadly at Alice.
"Okay."
He was just about to cast incarcerous when black ropes shot out from Alice's wand. She wasn't paying any attention to Scorpius or the spell she had just cast.
"Alice! What are you doing? Let Malfoy go!" Rose said.
Alice looked up and saw Scorpius wrapped in black ropes that were squeezing him tighter with every passing moment. The vines continued to strangle Malfoy. Alice's face looked blank, and she was unreceptive to her classmates screams.
"Expelliarmus," Mina said boringly, pointing at Alice's wand.
It fell to the floor and the ropes receded back into the wand.
"Thank you, Miss Jacobs. Miss Henderson, pay attention!" the professor warned her as she bent down to pick up her wand. "You'll end up hurting him."
"Alice, are you feeling well? You're acting awfully strange," Lucy said.
Suddenly, Scorpius started flailing his arms and screaming in pain, running around in a circle. Red welts began to appear on his arms.
"Henderson's using a stinging hex!" Scorpius hollered.
"Alice!" Vincent ran over to her and shook her. "Snap out of it!"
"What's wrong with her?" Lucy asked, concerned.
"Just make her stop!" Scorpius cried.
"Miss Henderson! Stop hurting him immediately!" the professor yelled.
She didn't listen. Everyone was looking at Alice and Vincent. He stared deeply into her eyes, trying to get her to concentrate on him.
"P-please! H-help me!" Scorpius screamed.
Her eyes darted towards Scorpius. Suddenly, Alice's eyes closed and she collapsed against Vincent like a rag doll. The stinging hex cast upon Scorpius had stopped, and he was covered in red welts, bleeding slightly.
"I'm taking Alice to the hospital wing," Vincent said, picking her up in his arms.
"Mr. Malfoy, you go with Mr. Locke too," the professor said, waving them off. "Class is dismissed."
:
Scorpius followed Vincent, who was running to the hospital wing. His arms and face were feeling the after affects of the stinging hex. He had no idea what had come over Alice, or if she would suddenly wake up and begin to attack him again.
"Was she possessed or something?" Scorpius asked aloud.
"Look, Malfoy, I don't know what happened to her! I'm just worried that it's going to happen again and she'll end up killing herself!" Vincent hissed, stopping in his tracks and looking at Scorpius.
"I didn't even ask you! And you shouldn't just worry about if she kills herself! What about me? She could've murdered me in front of the whole class!"
"I think I'd feel better if she did kill you! Maybe then I'd be able to figure out why the hell she did that! I care a hell of a lot more about her than you. Idiot!"
"That way you looked at her when she attacked me… you were controlling her, weren't you? You're trying to kill me!"
"Why the hell would I do that? I have no reason! She went berserk on her own!"
"So someone else controlled her, then? Who the hell wants to kill me? I'm nothing!"
"Exactly! You finally figured it out dumbass! You're worthless! A worthless waste of a wizard!"
"You stop there, asshole!" Scorpius pointed his wand at Alice. "You're girl gets it."
"Don't you dare try to hurt her! You cast once and you're head is mine!" Vincent grasped Alice tighter.
It was then that Scorpius noticed something rather odd. "What's wrong with her neck?"
"What? Nothing."
"But her neck has… holes in it.
"It's... I don't know what it is! Let's get her to the hospital wing. Maybe it's got to do with what happened," Vincent turned around and started running again.
Scorpius paused for a moment and then ran off to catch up to him.
:
When they reached the hospital wing Madame Pomfrey dealt with Scorpius first, and recommended he stay the night to heal from the after affects. He decided to remain there overnight and spent his day watching Alice, in hopes of avoiding another attack. Meanwhile, Vincent explained as much as he could to Pomfrey, but she couldn't think of anything that could have possessed her to attack Scorpius in such a way. With that, Vincent skipped his classes and stayed by Alice's side to wait until she woke.
"Are you going to stay here all night?" Scorpius asked.
"Yes. I want to be here in case anything else happens. I'm not leaving her, especially not with you!" Vincent growled.
"You're dedicated, Locke. Alice means a lot to you, doesn't she?"
"The difference between life and death, pretty much. I've known her since we were six years old. This, I guess, is my way of making it up to her."
"I see. But what do you mean by 'making it up to her'?"
"I was distant towards her a while back. I guess I got scared for some reason. I'm weak, and I keep thinking that she doesn't want that. Though, she really doesn't seem to care. It's difficult for someone like you to understand."
Scorpius sighed, "You think a lot don't you."
"Yes. So?" Vincent sat down in a chair next to Alice.
"No reason."
Eventually, Scorpius fell asleep, leaving Vincent all alone to contemplate about what happened earlier. He knew that she had lost control, but didn't know how. Maybe it had been a spell of some sort to send her into a berserk state. Or was someone else controlling her? He kept replaying it over in his mind until he ended up falling asleep in his chair.
Several hours later Scorpius woke up. His head was throbbing and he was cold. Rubbing his eyes to lift the grogginess, he got up and walked around the room a little bit. The welts, he noticed, had disappeared, and the stinging was gone. Looking outside, he could see that it was almost sunrise. He stared out at the sky, becoming lost the moment, forgetting everything from the previous day. He soon returned to reality though, as he heard coughing behind him.
Alice had finally woken up.
