NORMAL POV
Alice had a dream.
She dreamed she was standing on a platform, in the middle of a dark room. Then again, she didn't actually know if it was a room or not, since it was completely pitch black.
There was one faded, rusty lightbulb with a switch above her head. It's rays of light barely illuminated the small pedestal she stood on, but enough to make the rest of the darkness seem terrifying.
Nothing happened in the dream. Alice Potter stood there, unable to move her body or eyes. Staring into the darkness.
And then, in one quick moment, the lightbulb flickered and burnt out. There was a strange moment where nothing happened at all; it was like the entire world paused momentarily. Feeling started to make it's way into her joints, and Alice felt her hands search her pockets for something, a flashlight, she presumed. Maybe a match?
Her emerald green eyes still stared forward, now immersed in complete darkness. Her hands shuffled through the contents of the pockets in the baggy apparel she seemed to be wearing.
Something cold came in contact with her fingers.
A knife. A small, scaly-handled dagger, which slipped about in her grasp. She moved her fingers around the tool, tracing the carved-in serpent and the small jewel in it's eye.
She held the dagger's handle between two open palms, the sharp end down, as if she was praying. And then, she stretched her arm's muscles outwards, her hands going forward like a pencil. Alice's fingers wrapped around the handle, and the blade was hurled straight into her chest.
Alice awoke with a sharp gasp, seconds before she lost her balance and tumbled off the side of her bed.
"You know that's the third day in a row, right?" Abuka Awnakah, her roommate of three years at Hogwarts half-laughed as she applied dark mascara to her eyelashes in the bathroom mirror.
The feeling in the room was strange-like something terrible was going on and everyone tried covering it up. It was too...casual. Too casual and much too early.
Alice's emerald eyes stared at the ceiling above her. It was the ceiling of her dorm at Hogwarts, what she saw every morning when she fell out of bed. Then..why did it seem so..distant?
/Let's see, I did my Potions homework, I'm not in a fight with Draco or anything../ Alice tried to recall what was making her mind so fuzzy.
All the memories rushed back to her like water in a dam that's been held back too long. The dagger, Voldemort speaking with her, falling unconscious in the corridor, the dream about the knife...
Her hand flew to her heart to find that there wasn't a huge scar, a cut, a bruise, or anything that could have signified that a razor sharp knife had pierced it. The skin was smooth and seemingly unharmed under her white shirt.
"Did Draco carry me up here last night? After I passed out in the corridor?" She spoke slowly, trying to piece together what little information she remembered. The memory of the hallucination Voldemort laid out for her made her chest hurt. Like someone was squeezing her insides and no matter how hard she cried, she couldn't do anything about it.
Abuka capped her Mascara and stepped out of the bathroom, eyeing Alice weirdly. Her hair was pin-straight as usual, her reddish-brown locks swaying everytime she walked. Compared to Abuka, Alice looked like a total hobo, what with her messy hair and tired eyes.
"Uhm, last night? You came upstairs yourself, bro. And as far as I know, you never passed out..." She raised her eyebrow. "Are you feeling alright?"
The moment from when the snake dagger hit her chest to waking up on the floor, everything in her mind was a blur. A weird, colourless blur, almost as if-
Almost as if someone had been controlling it.
"Ah..okay.." Alice stumbled into a standing position and yawned, ruffling the back of her hair.
"I'm hungry." She complained. Abuka rolled her eyes, laughing, not matching to mood Alice felt.
"Too bad, I'm going to Hogsmeade today with Seamus. Get your own breakfast for once." Abuka laughed somewhat good-naturedly, grabbed her purse and was out the door before you could say "quidditch".
Finally alone, Alice organized her thoughts as she rummaged through her bag, which sat at the foot of her bed.
Voldemort had controlled her, she figured, and had taken full hold of her mind when the bluriness had taken effect.
She knew why, though.
As soon as her body shut down from the shock of the hallucination of the dagger, in order to make sure nobody had found her lying unconscious in the hallway...
She just prayed she hadn't done anything terrible while Voldemort had been controlling her mind.
After she spilled all the contents of her bag out and realized there wasn't any food in it, the cruel reality hit her like a baseball in the side of the head. She would have to go get breakfast herself, and actually talk to people and pretend that the dark lord wasn't constantly wondering when he should invade her mind next.
And, within the next fifteen minutes, she somehow, in her mentally flustered state, managed to throw her dark hair up into a bun and toss some shorts and a sweatshirt on before heading down the moving staircase to the Great Hall.
Alice took a seat in between Crabbe and Goyle and across from Draco, ready to narrowly dodge any comments about her appearance this fine morning. A black and white newspaper with moving images was rolled up in Crabbe's chubby fist. Well, it was, until Alice noticed a certain headline on it and flipped the paper open in front of her.
" Famous Harry Potter's Nightmare Saves Arnold Weasley" Was plastered across the front page. After reading, she carefully placed the paper back onto the table and tapped her fingers against the wood worriedly.
"I'd have left 'im for the snake." Goyle retorted, taking a greedy bite out of a scone.
Nightmare? Did this mean that Voldemort was reaching Harry, too? Harry was alot nicer and kind-hearted than Alice, and if Voldemort had...
Draco searched Alice's eyes, trying to figure out what she was thinking. His arms were crossed. He looked determined to find out what was happening beneath that thick skull of hers.
Her green eyes skittered across the Great Hall. There weren't many students there, as most had gone home for Christmas. Those that were were casually eating and chatting amongst themselves.
A certain bundle of unruly black hair caught Alice's eye.
"I'll be right back." She muttered. As she was making her way across the room to he Gryffindor table her brother was seated at, she half-noticed what she was wearing. Seeing as that she was half asleep when she threw her outfit together, she wasn't all that surprised to find herself lazily wearing a black hoodie with a green 'SLYTHERIN' printed on the chest and chalky black skinny jeans. She had more important things on mind at the moment though.
Hermione, Ron and Harry seemed to be deep in conversation when Alice approached, until Hermione noticed her and cleared her throat, making most of the Gryffindors at the table stare up at her.
"Eeeehh, Alice! Good to see you!" Fred exclaimed, picking her up and swinging her around.
"Haven't been round the Gryffindor table in too long!" George continued, ruffling the top of her head when Fred put her down.
"Uh, yeah, well, I needed to speak with Harry.."
She mumbled under her breath. Suddenly, the floor was magical to stare at.
"You haven't had nightmares about Mr Weasley too, have you?" A boy named Nigel that Alice remembered from Dumbledore's Army spoke up. Everyone got quiet. They all expected an answer from her.
"Uhm, actually, that's-"
Someone from the Hufflepuff table behind them cut in.
"No way! Even if she did, it's not like she'd tell anyone! She might be a Potter, but she's a Slytherin, after all!"
The silence that followed cut Alice to the core. Fred, George, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Percy, Nigel, Lee, and many other Gryffindors stared at Alice. Some looked like they wanted to object to the hufflepuffer's statement. And others just wanted to see her reaction.
"Yeah, that's me. Alice Potter, the girl who's lived under her brother's glorious shadow her whole life. Thank you very much for reminding me of how closely related I am to the person who murdered my parents." Tears prickles at her eyes, but her voice was even, and she grabbed Harry's sleeve, leading him out the door of the Great Hall.
When they were alone in the corridor, she told him. Alice told him everything about Voldemort talking to her since fourth year, him invading her mind knowingly, saying that she was valuable to keep alive. She told him about the Dagger hallucination, and the dream about it the same night. In the end, Alice ended up sobbing like some sort of baby on the shoulder of her brother.
"Listen, I've been getting Occulumency lessons from Snape-my case isn't near as serious as yours. Voldemort..Voldemort doesn't even know he's going into my mind, whereas with you he's actually speaking with you."
Alice nodded, and stepped back to wipe her tears away on her black sweatshirt sleeve.
"He said I was valuable to keep alive. I think- I think that because I'm a Slytherin he thinks I'll turn to his side in the end."
After a moment of thinking, Harry nods vigorously and grabs my hand, dragging me through the corridor, as if he had finally decided on something.
"Where are we going?" I protested, even though I was too tired and overwhelmed to even attempt to pull away.
"Occulumency lessons." When I groaned, Harry continued talking and we made our way to Snape's office.
"He keeps you alive because he thinks he can force you onto his side. You have to pretend to want to be, and then close up your mind with Occulumency before he can fully take your mind over. If you don't, he'll just kill you on the spot anyways. It's what he'd do to me if he knew he was able to control me." Harry rushedly explained.
"Wait, so I'm just going to let Voldemort slowly take over my mind, and then quickly shut it closed before I'm fully taken to the dark side?" I gave Harry an are-you-insane look just as we reached Snape's office door.
"If all goes according to plan," He glanced from me to the door and back.
"Yes." Harry took a breath and rapped his knuckles on the wooden door.
AN: I was going to add the bit with the occulumency lessons in here, but I decided I'd rather update often then have you guys wait even longer. I'll do this for a while, not forever though. I feel like you've waited over two months, you shan't need to wait all the more longer ! Don't worry, I'm going to be (hopefully updating often)) . Just note : I will not be able to write or submit from the fifth of July to the fourteenth. I'm going camping XD But after that, for the most part I shall definitely be able to update way more.
So, again, Reviewing makes me write faster ! Tell me all your thoughts on this; please dont just say "great please update soon", please actually tell me whats good and whats bad, ask questions, please ! It all goes towards me becoming a better writer. Which is one of my dreams. C: So thank you very, very much for sticking through with me for the past 38 chapters , and hopefully lots more to come !
-Alice