A/n: Some canon dialogue is present in this chapter and will be italicized.

Prompt: Drifting Away (# 945)

A Journey Begins

Or

At Flourish and Blotts

Harley was vaguely aware, that somewhere beyond the castle walls, the sun had set. Trudging along with Mina form the library,she felt pretty tired and wondered if she was overdoing things. They'd just reached the Entrance Hall, when Harley felt a small surge of vertigo and had to stop suddenly.

"Are you all right?" Mina asked as she came to a stop as well, having noticed Harley's sudden change.

Harley tried to shake the light-headed feeling once the spinning in her head had stopped, but felt her stomach give a sudden swoop. As much as the Halloween feast was one of the most looked forward events of the school year, the thought of food and so many sweets made her feel extremely sick that Harley felt she must be turning green.

"Actually, I think I'm going to have a lie down."

"Now, but you'll miss the feast," Mina questioned with a frown.

"I'm just not feeling well," Harley replied, though she tried to downplay how very sick she actually felt.

"Do you want to go to the Hospital Wing?" Mina asked with concern, placing a hand on Harley's arm.

Harley shook her head, feeling adamant. She'd always hated spending time in the Hospital Wing.

"No, I think I just need to lie down for a bit. I'll be fine."

"All right. If you're sure. I'll check on you after the feast," Mina responded, still sounding concerned and Harley smiled in amusement in spite of her nausea to see that there was a bit of a Mother-hen in Mina 'Runs-with-vampires' Harker.

"Thanks," Harley waved as she made the long journey to Slytherin. At least, it seemed long in her disoriented and sick condition. But she made it, just in time to collapse onto her bed. Harley had just finished turning to lie on her back when she felt the oddest sensation.

Cold had descended upon her. She felt as if her body were going numb or she was losing contact with it. As if the nerves ceased to exist, or had frozen over and could not send it's electric messages to her mind.

Her body then gave a sudden jolt and she had the sensation as though she were watching her body from somewhere overhead. As she looked down at herself she could see that her eyes were open, but did not seem to see anything- Haley felt as if her hairs were standing on end to see her own blank and hollow eyes. It was like she was looking at her own corpse, just after the killing curse might have struck, her eyes stuck open but no longer able to take in visual stimuli.

It was the last thing she saw, before suddenly space seemed to be speeding past her. Unending blackness whizzed past her while she seemed to sail through the air, unable to control her path. Stars by the millions, little and great dots of lights, streaking past, becoming rays and Harley felt like she was passing through a rain that was all light.

And then, in the blink of an eye or perhaps in the expanse of hours, it all stopped. Her feet were touching the ground, though she could not feel it.

She was in total darkness, but for a few candles she noticed, places strategically on the ground around her. Five weak flames, unlike any she'd ever seen, barely cast any light on the darkness that surrounded her.

Harley wondered, trying to feel calm as her eyes tried to adjust to the dark, if she'd strayed into some strange dream though she could not recall falling asleep. Glancing down at her hand, she noticed distantly that she could see one of the dancing flames of a candle through her shadowy but transparent hand.

And then, causing her heat to jolt wherever it was a million miles away, a voice came from the dark. A voice that was deep and might have been velvety, were it not a rasp of a tortured soul. In what could have only been the most desperate of yearning, it uttered syllables heart-wrenchingly put together: "Harley."

X

Mina shook her head in disgust as she headed down to the dorms, trying not to think of the disgusting display her housemates were making with their crowing and far too gleeful speculation of the blood-written message. Although there was no evidence it was blood and Mina was willing to be a hundred galleons that one of her moronic housemates was responsible for the tasteless prank.

"How are you doing, Harley?" Mina asked as she marched into her dorm, keeping quiet in case Harley was suffering a migraine. Harley was prone to them now and then when she was on her menstrual cycle, which was why Mina hadn't been very worried when Harley had mentioned feeling unwell. Mina assumed that was what was going on.

On not hearing a reply, Mina approached the other girl's bed.

It wasn't until she was standing over Harley, that Mina felt that something was very wrong.

"Harley?" Mina asked, her voice trembling slightly with unease as she noticed that Harley's eyes were wide open, but Harley remained completely unresponsive. Even people under the Petrificus- were able to move their eyes.

"Harley?" Mina tried again, grabbing Harley by the shoulder, thinking that perhaps the girl was asleep with her eyes open- a strange thing, but something Mina was aware of being possible, though she didn't know if Harley did that.

Harley blinked, but otherwise there was no indication that she was conscious. She didn't react at all to Mina's voice of touch and suddenly, Mina felt her panic and terror spike. She wasn't sure why, but Harley struck her as lifeless and never having see anything like this, Mina felt terrible fear for the girl she'd grown to think of as a friend.

At that moment, the door of their dorm opened. Whirling around, uncaring of who it was but glad that it was Amarantha, Mina shouted at the girl.

"Get Professor Snape! Tell him to go to the Hospital Wing, there is something wrong with Harley!"

Amarantha jumped at the sudden and unexpected and very loud orders. She paused to cast a very brief glance at the prone and motionless Harley, but was quick to beat a fast retreat, heeding the panic and urgency of Mina's tone.

Amarantha had only just vacated the room when Mina summoned a House Eld. The familiar, small form of Twisty appeared within the blink of am eye.

"I need you to transport Harley and I to the Hospital Wing Twisty, on a cot. Cant you do that?" Mina asked, her words feeling disjointed, clumsy and too loud to her own ears, but she could hardly think with her heart thundering as it was.

Twisty, looking frightened but also determined, nodder her head. She reached out a hand and wrapped it around Mina's wrist before placing the fee one on Harley's leg.

Instantly, they were pulled through jarring space. When Mina breathed again, she was in the Hospital Wing, standing beside the bed on which Harley was laid. Throughout the entire endeavor, Harley hadn't moved a single muscle.

"Thank you, Twisty. Could you please get Madam Pomfrey?" Mina asked, feeling slightly more calm but still very concerned and unnerved.

Twisted nodder before popping away, leaving the harshly breathing Mina with the still unresponsive Harley.

Wringing her hands together, wondering what the hell was wrong, Mina hoped that Amarantha and Twisty would hurry!

X

"I know it's weird," Harry was saying as from where they were stopped, just down the hall from Professor Lockhart's office. "The whole thing's weird. What was that writing on the wall about? The Chamber Has Been Opened... What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know, it rings a sort of bell," said Ron slowly. "I think someone told me a story about the chamber at Hogwarts once... might've been Bill..."

"And what on earth's a squib?" said Harry, causing Ron to snigger.

Hermione couldn't help, turning to look at Ron then with a frown finding his amusement very out of place, after the evening's events.

"Well- it's not funny really- but as it's Filch," he said. "A Squib is someone who was born into a wizarding family, but hasn't got any magic powers. Kind of the opposite of a Muggle-born wizards, but Squibs are quite unusual. If Filch's trying to learn magic from a Kwikspell course, I reckon he must be a Squib. It would explain a lot. Like why he hates students so much." Ron gave a satisfied smile. "He's bitter."

Hermione couldn't help frowning even more at Ron, though she was rather interested in the matter of Squibs and feeling a twang of painful compassion towards Filch, no matter how nasty he was.

Before the trio could continue conversing, the sound of quick steps approaching drew their suddenly panicked attention. They all jumped and turned, wanting to hide, but finding it too late as a tall girl suddenly came racing down the hallway. However, she hardly seemed to care about them as she swerved around them and continued on down the hallway.

"What do you expect that's about?" Ron asked from where he stood, staring wide-eyed at the older girl.

Hermione frowned, as she'd noticed the Prefect badge on the girl's chest. Hermione guessed the blonde girl had been in search of a Professor and considering how quickly she was moving, that something must be wrong.

But what more could possibly go wrong in one single night? Hermione wondered.

"We should probably head to Gryffindor before we get in anymore trouble," Harry said, perhaps catching on that whatever had the girl running, couldn't be anything good.

Ron and Hermione both nodded, but before they could move, they heard the sound of commotion, just around the corner. The trio quickly hid from sight, stashing themselves behind a tapestry as Snape suddenly rounded the corner along with Dumbledore and McGonagall. Jogging alongside them was the girl who'd just run past them.

"Did you notice what was wrong, Miss Baptist?" Professor Dumbledore was asking as Hermione hid, just as they were passed. When the hurried steps had past them, Hermione took a chance and peeked out once more, to see the blonde girl shaking her head.

"I could only see Harley laying down, but I don't know what was wrong with her. But Mina looked very scared and panicked, and said to meet her in the Hospital Wing-" the blonde girl said, her own frightened voice, carrying down the empty corridor.

Hermione felt something in her stomach drop as she exchanged looks with Ron before turning to study Harry who had gone pale.

Though Hermione still wasn't sure what to make of Harley Evans, Harry had grown very attached to the girl in the past few weeks.

Hermione was very sure that Harley was hiding something, and lying, but she didn't know about what or why.

But the fact that couldn't be denied, was that ever since Harley entered Harry's life, Harry seemed much happier. And Hermione couldn't deny, throwing Harry that surprise birthday party she'd thrown Harry the previous evening in the Room of Requirement, was a very sweet and thoughtful gesture.

Somehow, Harley Evans seemed to know Harry and what he needed, better than she and Ron could.

While Hermione was worried about what Harley was up to, what she could possibly hiding, and was afraid that she might somehow hurt Harry, she had to give the older girl the benefit of the doubt, if only because how happy she seemed to make Harry and because she genuinely seemed to care for him.

"We'll go to the Hospital Wing," Hermione said gently, reaching for Harry and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, feeling suddenly as if the boy she'd been best friends with was something fragile. "Madam Promfrey will fix whatever's wrong."

Harry nodded his head, but remained pale and worried. And Hermione couldn't help her stomach twisting as she hoped fiercely that Harley was fine, for Harry's sake.

TBC...

At Flourish and Blotts - Write about Hermione. Alternatively, write about a fight between a Malfoy and a Weasley.

risi- Nope, Severus isn't really the giving up type. I'm pretty sure he's sustained by the sheer will of his anger and hate (But really, what else is there when love and hope are gone?). And yeah, you never really get to see how people are adapting to life after such tragedies (at least in the Harry Potter world). I do feel awful for Snape in her world in particular though. Not simply because he lost the two women he'd ever allowed himself to care for, but because they're perhaps the only two people in the world to show him that they cared for him.

RedEyedSurprise- Harley will not be going back to her own world. I hope to get into how she might have come to be in the canon world in later chapters, but she is dead in her own world and remain as such. I hope that's not terribly disappointing.

WickedGreene13- You know, I think I have read the Visitor. Unless I'm confusing it for another story with a similar title and plotline. Although, Harley came to the canon world already in love with a Severus. In a way, she does have to fall in love with Snape again though (what with him having no prior history with her). As for her visiting her world in dreams, I included that mostly because of the belief that in your dreams, your spirit/soul can travel to other "worlds". I'll probably get into how it works in this story in a future chapter.

sunsethill- I like Wolfstar enough to have it as background for this story. But I'm not sure if I'm convinced about it either. Although if you ask me, whatever Sirius' sexuality might have been (maybe straight because of the posters of girls in his room, unless he was using them for cover) it was probably buried underneath the trauma caused by Azkaban and the stunting of his growth as a human being for being locked away when he was young and experiencing such deep grief- besides that Sirius wasn't very mature to begin with. I imagine that in the time between his escaping Azkaban and his murder by Bellatrix, that Sirius was probably not remotely interested in romance. Probably never crossed his mind. As for Remus... I was never convinced of his attachment for Tonks. I may have shipped them before HBP, but afterwards, I lost interest, feeling sorely disappointed in both characters. They seemed a shoddy couple in canon. Much like Ginny/Harry.

Love-Fandom03- It will be strange for Harley to meet them again, but I'm looking forward to getting into Book 3! :D

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