Waiting For the End- Chapter Ten
What one of the twins said had been on the back of my mind. Could I really be under the Imperius Curse? There were some times when that seemed just impossible, but there were other times when it made perfect sense. Whenever I did think that it made sense though there was The Voice butting in and convincing me in the most relaxing way possible that it wasn't the Imperius Curse.
It kept making more sense to me though, despite what The Voice said. Why did I even have a voice in my head? Was that healthy at all for me? I don't think it is. It might be a part of this curse. I had only ever been under the curse once, and it wasn't a very strong one I'm sure. It told me what to do though, and what to think, just like this time.
I've also been noticing that I've been getting funny looks from the people around me. Some of the people were my old friends, while Professor McGonagall gave me these looks as well. I didn't know what to make out of it. Did they tell her their suspicions?
The Voice told me to go along with my life though, and not to worry about those petty people. It was so hard to fight The Voice. I went along with it. I kept getting my grades, and hanging around with Lavender and Seamus. Every once in a while though I looked to my old friends, and usually they were looking back at me. They looked worried. The Voice told me not to worry about it, but they used to be my friends for a reason, right?
When they weren't looking at me though they were leaned into each other and whispering. It made me wonder what they were talking about that had to be so secretive.
After class one day, Professor McGonagall called me up after class. What did I do? I hadn't done anything wrong, had I? I've done all my homework. I wasn't messing up around class. What was the reason for this?
All the students left after the bell to go to their next class but I stood next to Professor McGonagall's desk and waited while she sorted out some parchment and tidied them up. After she was done, she looked to me and said, "Miss Potter, I would just like you to remember that it is okay, and even very good, to do things out of your comfort zone."
And then, with a nod, I was dismissed as I scurried off to my next class.
I now understood, that yes, I was under the Imperius Curse. I knew that I had to break it. I felt like I didn't want to break it though. Whenever I almost broke it, because there were times, it was horrible. I had a terrible feeling. I realized that although being under this influence was bad, it was also great. It felt relaxing. All my troubles went away; there was nothing to worry about at all. I couldn't say the same outside of the curse. Outside of the curse, I felt terrible. Outside of the curse, everything was just so real, and right now, reality was horrible.
So, due to my very selfish reasons, I listened to The Voice that was controlling me. I was feeding off of it and taking in every word it said. It felt good. It felt right. I was floating, I was relaxed, and everything was fine.
I'd catch a glimpse though of Fred or George, who I sometimes realized, I missed, alone with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I had grown up with Harry, went through everything with him, through thick and thin. He was there with me through the Dursley's, and I was there for him. When they were just so horrible that we couldn't stand it we would always vent to each other. Now, he wasn't here anymore, and that was no one's fault but mine.
A part of me knew that I really needed my friends and family back. I needed my life back. But not only did this curse feel good, it felt addicting. I'd get away from it, but I'd want more. I'd want more, because it felt good. My life was in turmoil and this made me forget about it. It felt like I was under water, and drowning, not able to swim back up, when I tried.
The Voice had been giving me harsher directions lately. And today, it was most definitely the worst I've ever had.
I was sitting in the Common Room when I got the directions. I could feel one of the twins watching me from a distance, but I chose to ignore it. I could feel the warmth of the far away fire and my quill was scratching against the parchment. It was late at night, and no one was expected really to still be up.
Kill Harry Potter. Kill Harry Potter. Go up to his dormitory and kill him in his sleep.
I couldn't help myself but get up at once. My ink spilt on my parchment as it lay forgotten. I left it there and went up the stairs.
"What are you—?"The one twin asked as I climbed the steps and ignored him. I took out my wand from my pocket and climbed the stairs stealthily. I creaked open the door to his room without thinking.
I opened his curtains slowly, where Harry was sleeping. I saw him though and remembered all the times. He was my best friend, and even though he's been the famous one for the past five years, he would always be my best friend.
Kill him. Kill him.
NO! I wasn't going to kill! I'm not listening to you anymore!
I came back to reality, out of the curse. I gasped, and dropped my wand. Fred came up, as he must have decided to follow me. I looked at the scene, not a single person awoken, yet still. I saw everything, and I passed out.
xXx
"I cannot believe you brought that with you Ronald," a voice snapped.
"What? I 'as 'ungwy!"
I squeezed my eyes tighter until I opened them and looked around. Fred, George, Ron, Hermione and Harry were all standing around me. My eyes landed on Ron, who was eating chicken in the middle of the hospital.
"I want chicken," I said and tried to grab Ron's. He pulled back from me. I was hungry and Ron wouldn't give me chicken… some friend I have. Fred grabbed the chicken from the greedy boy's hand, took a bite for himself, and handed it to me.
"Thanks," I said brightly as I ate some of the chicken. Hermione ran off to go get Madam Pomfrey.
"What happened to me anyway?" I asked, feeling no pain except for a slight throbbing on the back of my head.
"You fainted," George said. "Fred found you and brought you back over here."
"Thanks, Fred," I said to my friend. He nodded and smiled at me.
"Oh, you're awake," Madam Pomfrey said when she came back with Hermione. "I should get to calling Dumbledore now. He's going to want to ask you some questions."
She then scurried off, probably to find Dumbledore.
"How long have I been out then?" I asked them.
"A little more than twelve hours," Harry answered.
"Oh," was all I said, taking in that I just wasted a little over twelve hours of my day passed out. But then again, that's kind of what happens when you sleep, right?
Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall came along then and joined the group of people around my bed.
"I would wish for everyone but Mr. Potter to leave please," Dumbledore said and the rest of them disappeared out of the room quickly. Fred and George waved to me as they left. I smiled back at them, before frowning once again, wondering what they were going to ask me.
"Now, Miss Potter, we have suspicions that in the past couple of days, you were under the Imperius Curse, is that true?" Professor McGonagall asked me.
"Yes," I said.
"In the detention you served for Professor Umbridge what did she have you do?"
I was kind of uncomfortable answering questions, but I went on with it anyway. "She asked me questions about me going to school in America, and I told her that I went to school there. She just kept asking me and that's what I kept telling her and then she told me that she didn't want me to turn out like Harry, or something like that, and she figured the only way for me not to turn out that way was to Imperius me."
"I see, I see," Dumbledore muttered, mainly to him I think. "Well, I think you have had quite enough for the day, and you are free to leave and get some lunch. I can see that you must be fairly hungry so you can leave whenever you wish."
Then, without another word, he left, his cloak sweeping against the floor, and out the doors. Harry and I looked at each other.
I got off of the stiff hospital bed, and walked out the door too. Harry walked with me.
"Do you notice how he never looks at us when he talks?" Harry asked me. I hadn't not until now, but he has.
"Well since you mention it, he does do that, doesn't he? What do you think the reason for that is?"
"I'm not sure, but I'm not exactly fond of it," Harry grumbled. He must be used to being Dumbledore's favorite so much… But then again, everyone just loved Harry.
"It's Dumbledore," I reasoned. "He must be doing it for some logical reason."
"Maybe he is," Harry said, although he didn't seem to have too much hope in the idea.
"Whatever the reason, I want food," I said, before throwing the doors to the Great Hall open and sitting over by Fred and George.
"Hello," I said brightly as I picked up another piece of chicken, and discarding the old piece with some Ron germs.
"Feeling better, Lily Pad?" George asked me.
"Much," I said and bit into the chicken.
"Since you are feeling so much better, we have a proposition for you," Fred said with a smile.
"And what would this proposition be?" I asked them.
"Help us with Weasley Wizard Wheezes; we're setting up location in Moaning Myrtles toilets at the moment."
"I'd love to," I told the two of them.
So that night, I made my way down to the abandoned toilets and set up the store with my two idiotic friends, Fred and George. They were completely crazy and wanted to own a joke shop, but I loved them anyway.
"You want me to put the Puking Pastilles by the toilets?" I asked them, scrunching my nose at the idea.
"Of course," George said to me.
"They are puking pastilles, aren't they? It's only normal to put them by the toilet," Fred finished off.
"I wouldn't call that normal," I muttered under my breath as I set the sweets by the toilets. Just as I was setting them down by the toilet something came out of it and the toilet water splash me in the face and I stumbled backwards and hit the door of the toilet.
"Ouch," I said as I put my hand to the soon-to-be bruised spot on my head. I looked around trying to find what the cause of my pain was. I kind of just got over my fainting headache, and now I have this.
I looked around and found the annoyance: Myrtle.
"Well, hello Myrtle," George said.
"Fancy seeing you here," Fred replied. I walked out of the stall, holding my hand to my head. "Hey, are you okay?"
"I'm just fine…" I said, not saying anything to bad or hardly anything at all, because I didn't want Myrtle to have a fit.
"What are you doing here?" Myrtle snapped at us.
"Setting up shop," George said simply as Fred insisted on looking at my head. He searched through my currently orange hair (annoyed) looking for some sort of serious harm done to me. But as they both know, my head was already seriously harmed.
It's bad when you say that kind of stuff about yourself, but I never pass up a good chance to insult someone, even if that someone just so happens to be myself. If you look at it on the bright side that means that I have never really had a big ego.
"You're setting up what kind of shop," she continued to ask.
"A joke shop," Fred answered nonchalantly as he finished searching my hair.
"We couldn't do it in our common room without a Prefect breathing down our necks," George shrugged.
"Well then," Myrtle sniffed. She eyed Fred and me, and we were standing pretty close together and she smiled. That fact was quite surprising because not once have I ever seen Moaning Myrtle smile. "You two look cute together," she said, grinning. "Are you dating?"
"What? No!" We both said at the same time, but now George was smirking too. Did they know something I didn't? Of course they couldn't. George can't know something I don't, it's impossible!
And that is where the whole 'at-least-I-don't-have-a-big-ego thing is countered.
"Well, you should then… I'll just leave you alone to do your shop then." She then whirled back into her toilet, which I refuse to get close to every again, and span in circles into it. If you really thought about it, it could be kind of fun to be a ghost. It's all like, I can haunt you, I can walk through walls, and you're all human and can't do any of this wicked fun stuff. I'd be like a Ghost-Peeves, causing mayhem and the like, no one can do anything about it. But when I die, I'm going on, so I suppose it doesn't matter anyway.
It was silent between the three of us for a bit once she left, the tension getting thick, but then George clapped his hands together and said, "Let's sell some kid's their joke needs!"
So then we let the children in, letting them know that we are now open for business. I did stay completely away from the puking pastilles and the fainting fancies today. The puking sweet because of the horror of Myrtle's toilet, and the fainting sweet because it happened to be a touchy subject for the day and nobody was going to push it on me.
Only about a half hour after we started selling to children a boy, who was similar to me with jet black hair and glasses walked into the store and tapped me on the shoulder.
"Yes Harry?" I asked as I spun to face him.
"Hermione told me to find you. She said that you need to catch up on studying for your O.W.L.s," my twin told me. I so hate my friends right now.
"You've got to be kidding me," I complained. "It hasn't even been two weeks into school and she's making me study!"
"Tell me about it," he groaned. "You're not the one that is around her constantly, mind you."
"Yeah, the craziness of Fred and George kind of levels me out, I suppose."
"You're crazy all on your own," Harry said with a laugh and I stuck my tongue out at him, because I happen to be very mature.
"Come on then, don't need to keep Hermione waiting, trust me," Harry said.
"Let me tell Fred and George," I said first. I ran off and found Fred leaning against the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, little did he know, and smiling as he looked over the products and students buying them. This really was what he loved to do. I poked him and he exited his current state of 'This-is-the-best' mind.
"Yes, my dear Lily Pad, what do you need?"
"Hermione's hunting me down and wants me to study. So I'm going to leave before she discovers what you guys are doing here."
"Get the hell out of here," Fred told me.
"I love you too," I called as I exited the bathroom. I left with Harry and went to the Common Room.
Hermione was there waiting, tons of books in tow and her hair flying all over the place. But maybe it just did that naturally.
"Come on, come on, come on," she said as she tugged on my arm. "Do you realize how little time we have? We need to study!"
"Aw, come on Hermione. I've been on my sickbed for half the day and you want me to study? Don't I ever get a break?"
"If you're well enough to do whatever with Fred and George you are well enough to study," she said sharply.
"I'm always well enough to do something with Fred and George," I told her.
"I know," she said with a sigh as she tugged me along to a desk, filled with even more books than what she was carrying with one arm. This should be fun…
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