Prompts: Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington. QLFC Round 10 Keeper Prompt
Write about someone who feels as if they're being suffocated. Charms Assignment #4
How long had he been standing there? Quidditch Pitch
Basilisk. Drabble Club
Horned Slugs-Write about a person being left vulnerable. Potions Club

Word Count: 967 without the A/N

It was quiet in the halls of Hogwarts. Of course, if you asked anyone at Hogwarts they could tell you the reason with a single word.

Heir.

A simple four-letter word, and yet it held so much meaning in it. It held the fear of the students feeling like they would be attacked next and killed, the fear of the teachers feeling like they would fail their duties in protecting the students, and the fear of the ghosts feeling like their beloved Hogwarts would close and they would never speak to a human again.

"We have to do something!" Sir Nicholas shouted out, glaring at the Bloody Baron, the ghost of Slytherin House, who glared right back at him. The Bloody Baron floated over to yell in his face.

"And do what? You forget that we're just faded souls lost in the Human dimension; we can't do anything!"

"Please, both of you stop arguing! It's not going to solve any of our problems!" The Gray Lady floated in between the two men, her cold eyes piercing both of them. The Fat Friar nodded and floated over to be even with her right side, facing the Bloody Baron.

"Instead of arguing whether or not we can do anything, why don't we come up with a plan?" The dead monk smiled softly and spread his arms wide. "How can we protect the students as we are?"

"Hogwarts will tell us when a student wanders around alone, why don't we stick with them? That way if they are attacked, then we can get a teacher to them quicker." The Ravenclaw ghost spoke quietly, one of her hands waving in the air as she talked. The Bloody Baron nodded his head, a soft smile crossing his face as he stared at the gray lady. The ghost of Gryffindor scoffed, turning in the other direction and crossing his arms.

"Fine, but we start tonight." Sir Nicholas didn't turn around to look at his fellow House ghosts, instead, he floated through the wall and focused on what Hogwarts was telling him.

'Nicholas, there's a student from Hufflepuff directly above you wandering around alone. I don't like the vibe that I'm getting from that area.'

'Alright Hogwarts, I'm heading that way.'

Sir Nicholas sighed and tilted his head back, lifting a hand to grasp the back of his head and prevent it from falling to the side like it was apt to do. The feeling of his form shifting through the walls of Hogwarts and the magic that ran through the walls gave him the illusion of warmth, and he felt himself give a soft smile at the warm voice in his head.

'Please be careful Nichols.'

The ghost of Gryffindor smiled and with a small nod, floated out of the floor and hovered to a stop in front of Justin Finch-Fletchley, a second year Hufflepuff.

"Hello, Justin! How are you tonight?" The young boy smiled nervously at him.

"I'm doing good Sir Nicholas. I just finished with my Potions essay and am on my way back to the Common Room. My partner wasn't finished yet so I told him that I would just continue on my own." Justin smiled and continued walking down the hall, Sir Nicholas hovering directly in front of him as they talked.

"Ah, well then I'll walk with you back to the common room and then I'll go back for your friend. It just won't do for students to wander about alone when it begins to get dark." The friendly ghost wagged a finger at the boy teasingly. Justin laughed slightly, shifting the books in his arms as he turned the corner.

"So what have you been u-" The boy cut himself off mid-sentence, one hand frozen up in the air from where he waved it while talking. Sir Nicholas blinked, wincing when the boy fell onto his back and stayed there.

"What's going on?" The ghost whispered to himself, turning around to go get a teacher. He froze at the sight of a large basilisk in front of him. Large yellow eyes pinned him in place, on top of it's head a large Mohawk of red feathers swayed gently with the large snake's movements.

'Hogwarts, warn the others. Ghosts can be effected by the basilisk of Hogwarts as well.'

'...'

'Hogwarts?'

The school didn't answer him. And as the basilisk slithered out of view, Sir Nicholas felt his vision disappearing. The feeling of breathing that he had allowed himself to indulge in disappeared, and his hearing lessened significantly. His thinking slowed and he found all of his thoughts and reactions happening three hours after they occurred. Every single thing that happened around him came to him as if they were moving through flobberworm mucus. It was suffocating.

-XxXxXxX-

"How do we...get the cure into...a ghost? I mean, we...can't really...have him swallow...the thing." The voice of Poppy Pomfrey filtered through his mind. How long had he been standing there? He had no clue, he was just relieved that he was hearing someone speak to him. He normally only heard random screams of pain or the occasional shout of joy as a person was relieved of a horrible sickness. Not really a happy thought.

"Why don't we spray...it on him? I'll...go ask Severus if it's possible...to...convert the potion...into a gas-like state, or...if it's...possible to put it into...a spray bottle." The uncertain voice of Minerva McGonagall popped into his head and he felt himself smile inside of his head. It seemed as if he would finally be free of this prison.