Chapter 14

Hogwarts Home for Imaginary Friends

Two weeks.

It had been two weeks since that whole blow up with Remus, and I hadn't spoken to anyone since then. Not Remus, not Sirius, not James.

Not even Elle.

Well it's not that they even tried to talk to me either, I walked past her the other day and nothing, granted I had my head down and was running rather than walking.

Still, I expected her to approach me at some point and apologise, I mean, she didn't really think I'd do anything bad with my wand, did she? I was barely passing Defence against the Dark Arts and she knew how long I'd liked Remus.

I would never hurt him, I was just so angry!

Like the hulk on a Monday.

So, I have nobody to talk to. Well, not nobody.

I hang out with Mary occasionally, she spends a lot of the time in the library, which is perfect since the marauders never do. Apart from Remus, as unlike certain people (Sirius) he values his education, but I doubt he would turn up.

And I'd been helping Professor Sprout with a lot of stuff. I'd never had a particular aptitude for Herbology, but she was a fun teacher, and gave me lots of house points for helping. At least I felt like I was doing some good in the world.

Plus, my parents had owled me once over the course of the two weeks, keeping me updated on family life and telling me to stay strong. Yeah, words to live by, thanks mum.

And, well, there was one other person. Well, I couldn't really call them a person, per se.

He was a ghost, to be more descriptive.

His name was Kael, he was born in the 1500's. He sailed when the English defeated the Spanish Armada but, unfortunately, was thrown overboard and drowned.

He told me stories of wizards in those days, we had to hide our powers from muggles because they were so prejudiced against witchcraft and sorcery. He was a good friend.

Kael floated along the corridors, almost invisible, until he approached me. He looked quite dashing, even if he was dead.

'Hey' I greeted him as I looked up from my book. As I was in the library at a late hour, my voice was the only one to be heard, though I seriously doubted anybody else was even in here, nobody would stay in the library after curfew.

'Hello Alexis' he smiled as he floated down next to me, mocking my sitting pose in mid-air. I smiled back at him, going back to my book. Our conversations were never actually conversations. With our friendship, a lot could be said by saying nothing.

Time passed slowly, Kael just sat there reading well, looking at a page and occasionally asking me to turn the page, and I just stared into space the memories of that night just playing around and around in my head like cartoon birds.

I heard the bell toll through the library, it was almost 11 even Kael was asleep. I quietly packed up my things and sauntered out of the library taking care not to get caught. It was a clear night, so I headed back towards the common room. Hopefully Elle would be asleep.

As I turned the corner, I bumped into someone. I was going to apologise and step around them before I realised the colour of the robes.

They were lined with green and silver.

'Well, well, well, what do we have here?' the Slytherin asked mockingly. I identified him as Mulciber, one of the meaner slytherins.

'Back off' I glared at him as I stepped back, accidentally backing up into another person.

I turned around to look at another Slytherin, Avery. He had a particular distaste for me, no idea why.

'Little Lexi, where are your friends?' he asked, his voice thickened by the cold he had.

'About, I'm sure' I threatened them, even if I was lying.

'From the way I've seen it, you haven't spoken for weeks' Mulciber cut in, forcing me to step backwards once again towards the wall.

My back pressed against the wall as my glare faltered, 'Back! Off!' I threatened once again, though they took no heed. I threw my arms wildly but Avery pinned them to my sides, I squirmed, tears rolling down my eyes. Mulciber reached and ripped the glasses off my face, scratching my cheek.

'Stop please! Give them back!' I screamed but my voice was hoarse.

'What was that! Mudblood wants her glasses back!?' he snared and threw them on to the hard concrete floor before smashing them in to a thousand pieces. Avery stepped back and I collapsed to the floor, they high fived and laughed villainously as the strolled away.

I haphazardly tried to grab at my broken glasses in a failed attempt to fix them. All I accomplished was cutting my palm on the jagged edge of the frames.

I hissed in pain and put my palm to my mouth in an attempt to wash away the blood.

'Are you okay?' I heard someone asked me as I felt them kneel down beside me. I couldn't see him, but I could easily recognise the voice. It was Remus.

How fucking cliche!

'Are you okay?' he repeated, offering his hand.

I batted it away with my injured hand, hissing at the pain that shot up my arm, 'Do I look like I'm okay?' I hissed back at him, pushing myself up the wall to a standing position, without his help.

I didn't need it.

He frowned, or I imagined it was a frown – I couldn't really see without my glasses.

'Just let me help you Alexis.'

Oh, it was Alexis now. I was back to square 1, it was like he hadn't known me since first year.

I scoffed at him and started to walk away, keeping my hand on the wall in a vague attempt to find where I was. If my memory was correct, I needed to take a right, then make it all the way down the corridor before taking a left. Then I'd be halfway to the stairs…

I'm going to be wandering these halls all night, god, I'll be dead in my classes tomorrow.

'Alexis! Let me help' Remus sighed, following me. I could hear the heavy thud of his boots against the floor as he approached me, 'Here' he sighed as he brought his hands around my waist.

'Get off me!' I yelled at him, uncaring of any prefects or teachers that might find me after hours as I ran off, my hand leaving the only guide I had, the wall.

His shouts faded away as I ran. I estimated where I was through the blurry shapes of the castle. My eyes weren't really a help, I might as well have had them closed.

I ran up the stairs, or some stairs, I wasn't sure whether these would take me up to the Gryffindor tower, but one can hope.

I ran higher and higher. At about the right spot, the stairs ended, opening up to a small corridor.

I caught my breath before walking forward to wear the Fat Lady was bound to be, though the painting looked darker than I'd ever seen before, though I've never been out after hours – so there's my answer.

I put my hands out in front of me and muttered the password, hoping to push on the painting so it would open inwards into the common room. I pushed my palms forward to the painting and met… nothing.

Well, guess I wasn't at the Gryffindor common room.

I tilted forward to feel the wall as I heard Remus approaching behind me, yelling at me to stop. He followed me!

Could this boy not take a hint?

I pushed forward for some sort of support but met nothing, no painting, no wall, nothing.

'Lexi stop!' Remus yelled as he rushed forward behind me, attempting to grab me as I fell forward.

He didn't catch me.

I thought nothing of it, I'd simply fall to the floor and hurt my ass or something, nothing big.

That was until my arm hit a telescope, sending the ibject whirring around on its stand.

Of course the only place in the castle that had telescopes was… the astronomy tower… oh dear.

I realised too late I had been tilting towards one of the large open windows, the kind that had a 30ft drop to the floor in front of them.

'Shit!' I yelled too late as the telescope I had sent whirring around hit me, knocking me finally off balance and pitching me forward out of the window.

'Ah!' I screamed, shutting my eyes.

A hand grabbed my wrist, stopping me abruptly and tugging at my shoulder.

It was painful, but preferable to smashing to the floor.

'Got you' Remus' breathy voice called out as his other hand reached beneath my arm to pull me up.

I gripped onto him and let him pull me up, scrambling with my feet to push myself up the outer wall and fell to the cold floor of the astronomy tower, shaky.

It was silent for a while between us as we caught our breath, 'S-Sorry' I mumbled, the words barely audible even to my ears.

Remus shook his head, or at least that's what I imagined he was doing, 'No, you've nothing to apologise for' he panted.

He pushed something beneath my shaking fingers. I gripped onto it, realising it was my glasses, newly repaired.

'Reparo?' I asked as I brought them to my face, the scenery becoming more focused as I looked at the astronomy tower and the shaken Remus.

He nodded his head, 'Can we put this behind us?' he asked me as he stood up, once again offering his hand out to me.

This time I took it, pulling myself up to my feet and dusting of my robes.

I nodded my head, 'Sure' I smiled sheepishly, letting go of his hand.

Looks like the next few weeks weren't going to be nearly as bad as I imagined.