Chapter 4
The room was dark when I woke up next morning, or at least I thought it was morning. I sat up on my bed feeling groggy. I looked around the dark room and every event from yesterday came, at least I think it was yesterday, came flooding back into my mind. They came so fast that I got a headache. I laid back down, putting a pillow on top of my face, and groaned. Me, staying here was a very bad idea. Something wrong was going to happen and I bet they were going to blame it on me.
As I got off the bed, now standing on the cold hard wood floors, I barely remembered something. What was I supposed to wear from now on? I walked across my room to lone dresser. I peered into the three drawers only to see all of my clothes in them. I walked along the wall, trying to find a light switch. When I did, I turned the lights on and saw everything I ever owned, that was supposed to be at the Riddle manor, now in this cramped room.
How they got everything here was beyond me but I was grateful. I then found a towel that near my bed and went to the bathroom. I was also glad that the bathroom was next door to my room; that just made going to the bathroom quick and easier for me. I was taking long stride, so I got there in a mere 4 steps. I shut the door quickly so no one could see me.
When I got out of the shower, and wrapped myself with a towel, I knew I forgot something. My clothes. I groaned and sat on the toilet lid. What was I going to do? I looked around the bathroom and thought of no plan. I then looked out the window and saw that it was still pretty early. Everybody was probably still sleeping. That gave me a slight advantage of getting to room quicker.
I took a deep breath and looked outside. Nobody was there so I slowly opened the door further and quickly but quietly closed it. There was nobody in the halls and that made it seem deserted. Everything was quiet and that made me think back to my time at manor. I shuddered as I remembered the effect of what happened to me after I spied on Voldemort. I swore I didn't mean to do it but why would he have believed me. I was just curious and he should know how curious I get. Then that led to the cruciatus curse. I shuddered again as I felt the pain double within in. It wasn't something I expected. I would have rather got shot by the killing curse then getting tortured. I sniffled a little as I saw the hate in Voldemort's eyes the whole time. To think he loved me was probably a crime. He could never love anybody.
I heard a creak and immediately froze. I was still at the Riddle Manor. Everything from yesterday must have been a dream. A scary, relieving dream in my case. I was scared that I found this place and glad that I finally got away from Voldemort's grasp. I probably got hit with the cruciatus curse so bad that I fell into a deep unconsciousness. He should have just killed me then instead of doing all this. Voldemort loved to torture people and that made him even more of a monster than he already was. I was defiantly going to die today. I tuned around expecting angry, red eyes, but instead I saw cold, surprised, emerald eyes.
Then everything from yesterday wasn't a dream. I actually escaped the clutches of Voldemort. Though, I was standing in the middle of the hall in nothing but a towel feeling very uncomfortable. The look in his eyes told me he was also uncomfortable but he didn't have trouble as his eyes scanned me up and down. His eyes rested on my shoulder where there was a two day old purple bruise. It looked disgusting but I knew I couldn't hide it. He was staring at it making me feel even more uncomfortable. I think he noticed this too.
"I'm sorry," Harry said automatically. It looked as though he actually meant but I could have always been wrong. He looked into my eyes and I saw the sincerity in his eyes. Sadly though, that was only for a second and his sincerity was turned into a glare.
I knew it wouldn't have lasted long but I just wanted a little shimmer of hope that someday we'll be on speaking levels. I hugged the towel closer to my body feeling self-conscious.
"Riddle," he snarled. I could tell he was having trouble keeping the glare on his face and looking at the sickly colored bruise on my shoulder, and not to mention my body. I silently giggled but I guess it was out loud because then he said, "What's so funny?" His face softened a little, but I could see it.
I shook my head my head and ignored him as I made it to my room in one piece. Just as my door closed I heard yell, "Damn it!"
I leaned against the door and slightly smiled. I did a double take. I actually smiled because of Scar Boy. Something was defiantly wrong with me. I really am sick then. I decided to forget about it and get on with my day and life.
My wardrobe consisted of a lot of skinny jeans and different colored long sleeved shirts. I put on a pair of jeans with a black long sleeved shirt and converse. I let my hair dry by itself as I sat on my bed. I wrapped my arms around my legs and looked at the clock that was on my night stand. It read 7:40 am. Everyone was probably already eating their breakfast while they left me upstairs to starve. It's not that I wasn't hungry, I was. It's just that I didn't want to go downstairs and have every eye on me.
I stayed like that, on my bed, for a few more minutes when I heard a knock on my door. I ignored it thinking it was some prank. I didn't need to be humiliated anymore than I already was. There was another knock but I also ignored that too. The knocking stopped but I heard the door open and then close shut. I looked up and saw a girl with bushy brown hair entering my room looking cautious.
"Hello, my name is Hermione Granger," Hermione said, sticking up her hand. I looked at it with confusion. It wasn't like I didn't know what to do with it, I was just confused.
"Brooklyn," I said nonchalantly without shaking her hand.
"Ok," she said looking a little embarrassed. "Are you hungry?"
I looked at her face with more confusion. "Why are being so nice to me?" It was a sudden question.
Hermione looked a little taken back. "What do you mean?"
"I meant what I said. I know Harry told you everything and you saw what happened when I arrived."
Hermione looked thoughtful for a second. "Well, first of all, Harry did tell me and Ron everything and second, when you threw Harry across the hall, you also looked just as shocked as we did." She shrugged. "Plus I want to get to know you myself. Not just Harry telling me your bad news."
I laughed at that last part she said. "Well, thank you. You know Hermione, let's start all over." I stood up from my bed and faced her.
"Ok," she laughed. "My name is Hermione Granger." She stuck out her hand again and this time I actually took it.
"I'm Brooklyn, as you might already know." I shook her hand.
"What's wrong with Riddle? How come you won't use your last name?"
"Hermione," I looked at her incredulously. "Listen to what you're saying. What's wrong with Riddle?" I let go of her hand and started swinging my hand back and forth. She did the same thing.
"Oh, right," Hermione giggled. I laughed back, and then everything was quiet. It was a kind of awkward silence for silence for us.
"So," I said trying to start up a conversation. I seriously didn't know what to say. Me and awkward silences don't mix. I stopped swinging my arm.
"Want to go downstairs for breakfast?" She asked me pointing towards the door. She was genuinely being nice to me and I loved that.
"No it's ok. I'm not feeling too hungry at the moment," I lied. In reality I was starving but I didn't want to face anybody right now. What would people think if I started hanging out with Hermione? They would hate her for hanging around Voldemort's daughter, the Riddle Girl. I couldn't do that to her. She should be able to have friends unlike me.
"Ok then, I'll come back after breakfast," Hermione said leaving the room. Before I could get a word in she was gone. I couldn't force her to not hang out with me. Actually I can but that be to mean. I'm not actually as mean as people think. I just come off like that because people get me irritated or because they catch me at the wrong time.
When I knew Hermione was downstairs I left my room very quietly. I wanted to explore the house seeing as I might be here for awhile. I walked along the hallways and up the many flights of stairs, looking through doors. I opened a door to see that it was empty. There was barley anything in the room or around it. Maybe just a couch and a couple desk lamps but other than that it was empty. The only difference this room had was the wallpaper. There was a tapestry on top of that wallpaper. It was the Black Family Tree. I went into the room and read all the names. There was Bellatrix Lestrange, Regulas Black and Narcissa Black Malfoy. I knew almost everyone on this list. There were also pictures that were burnt, probably by a cigarette since the whole was fairly small. I saw Sirius Black and Andromeda Black with the charred cigarette burn. But next to Sirius is what got my attention. Right between Sirius and Andromeda was a picture and a name that was burnt and under Sirius and the burnt name there was a single gold thread that led to a burnt name and another burnt picture. Something about these two destroyed pictures was intriguing to me. I traced the family tree feeling overwhelmed. I didn't know why.
"What are you doing here?" I jumped and turned around to see a familiar pair of emerald eyes.
"Jesus Harry! You almost gave me a heart attack," I said putting my right hand over my heart to make it look dramatic.
"And that would be bad, why?" Harry snarled, glaring at me. I looked up at him. Why would he say that? That was a very spiteful thing to say.
He glared daggers at me and I gladly returned it. That's when Harry started backing away looking scared instead of glaring at me. "What are you doing?"
"What are you talking about? I'm not doing anything!" I yelled at him. He was so aggravating and stupid. I was only just glaring at him.
"Then why are you eyes turning black?" Harry yelled "What are you doing?" I got angry at him for accusing me of doing something. I glared at him long and hard. All of a sudden I saw his whole body start hovering off of the ground. My eyes widened and I turned around to find a mirror behind me. I looked at my reflection and saw my eyes were indeed black. My hair also suddenly started changing color as I touched it and Harry started going higher up.
"Can you get me down?" Harry yelled. He was now floating upside down. I would have found that funny if I knew what was wrong with me.
"I'm not doing anything!" I yelled yet again. I was probably going to lose my voice if I spend any more time with Harry. That's all we do, yell at each other.
"Oh sure," Harry said sarcastically. I turned around and glared at him even more. He was now touching the ceiling.
"What's happening to me?" I whispered to myself. I turned back around to face the mirror and saw that my eyes were turning into a blood red color. I shrieked as loudly as I can because there was only one person who had these eyes. I heard an explosion coming from a corner of the room and I heard Harry land on the floor and groan. Footsteps were coming toward the room and I knew everybody downstairs heard what had happened. My knees suddenly felt weak and I also fell to the floor on my hands and knees. The door opened and I saw a bunch of redheads, Hermione, Lupin, Sirius, a lady with purple hair and even Dumbledore.
"What is going on in here?" Sirius said, completely shocked from what he was seeing.
"Harry, mate, what did you do?" one of the red heads asked him. He sounded like they were used to weird things happening to him.
"Me!" Harry screamed. "This was all her!" he pointed to me. He tried standing up but failed to do so. I also tried standing up but couldn't my body felt like it had a ton of bricks resting on top of me. I did manage to sit up though but my head was throbbing with pain.
"Me? I don't even know what's going on," I yelled looking at Harry. Yep, I was defiantly going to lose my voice if I kept this up. There was another explosion in another corner of the room that made everyone jump. I turned my head and saw that another object had obviously blown up.
"What was that then?" Harry questioned pointing to the object that just exploded out of nowhere.
"I don't know," I said in a voice barely above a whisper. "I don't know what's happening me. My appearance is changing and I can make people move with my hands. I can make things blow up!" I was hysterical now. My voice was raising but I wasn't yelling. "What's next, I turn into an animal?"
I didn't know what it was but I felt some sort of power surge throughout my whole body. There was a strong prickle that went from my head to my toes. I got on my hands and knees again and arched my back. My body felt like it was on fire. The power that was in me was too strong for me to handle. There was fur all around my body. I tried screaming but instead I heard a growl. My head turned towards the others and they all had scared or shocked expressions. In an instant I felt my body become freezing cold and the power within me vanished. My body was now human and I laid sprawled out on the floor groaning and shivering in pain. The power took a lot of energy from me.
"Oh dear," I heard an elderly woman with, of course, red hair say. She had a motherly tone so she was probably the mother of all the other red heads.
"Aw, what happened to the poor baby?" Harry asked icily, trying to make a baby voice.
"Shut it, Potter," I groaned, still slumped on the floor. I couldn't feel any of my muscles in my body.
"Sirius," came Dumbledore's voice. "Take Brooklyn to her room."
I didn't hear Sirius say anything so I'm guessing he just nodded. I felt myself being picked up and I saw Sirius carrying me. My eyes were heavy and I wanted to drop dead right then and there, or at least sleep until everyone else was dead. I felt myself land on something soft and then I saw Sirius walk out of my room. A few minutes later Dumbledore came into my room just when I was going to fall asleep.
"Brooklyn, can you tell me exactly what happened?" Dumbledore asked, looking at me through his half-moon spectacles.
I took a deep breath and nodded. I started to tell him the whole story starting when I wanted to explore the house.