Chapter 38

On Saturday morning Eliza was planning on catching up with some work before joining her friends at the Gryffindor table for lunch and then going to watch Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, as she passed a window and saw the stormy sky; she hoped that the match had been cancelled.

She was just passing the Charms classroom when Ron approached in the opposite direction looking extremely grumpy; nevertheless he smiled when he saw her.

"Eliza! Have you been to the library already?" Eliza smiled at him and nodded and then questioned him with a look.

"Oh, I've got detention ... stupid Snape ... I've got to clean out the bedpans in the hospital wing WITHOUT magic, I'm going to miss the match and everything."

Eliza gave him a commiserating look and the friends parted.

"Eliza, you made it!" Shouted Hermione as Eliza slipped in next to her at the breakfast table, "I'm so pleased, I didn't want to watch the match on my own." She said lowering her voice to spare Harry's feelings.

As the girls sat down Harry poured Eliza a cup of tea, he opened and closed his mouth several times and eventually Eliza put her hand on his to indicate that she had forgiven him for his over-zealous speech in the hospital wing. He looked up at her with a serious look.

"I'm really sorry Eliza; I promise it won't happen again." Eliza nodded and took a gulp of her tea. Hermione had watched the exchange with interest and looked pleased that all was well again.

"I better go, see you out there." Harry left the table with the rest of the team and Ginny Weasley came to join the girls.

"I'm glad you're feeling better, Eliza." She said with a small voice, although still somewhat shy, Eliza felt that Ginny had made much more progress in a few months that Eliza had made in years.

"Do you think they'll win the match?" Asked Hermione looking at the Hufflepuff team as they left the Hall.

Ginny looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Diggory is a really good seeker; he's a good captain as well. He knows all about tactics and formations and stuff."

"Do you like Quidditch, Ginny? I didn't think you were allowed to play at home." A mischievous smile formed over Ginny's face and she blushed slightly.

"Don't tell Ron, but I've been stealing broomsticks from the shed ever since I was four, I love flying ... I want to make the Gryffindor team one day, maybe chaser!"

The girls laughed at Ginny's confession,

"I never realised you were so sneaky, Ginny." Said Hermione with an almost admiring look.

"I grew up with six older brothers; I learned fast how to play my cards. I can cry on command and everything!"

The laughter at the table was stifled when Professor Dumbledore approached the girls,

"Excuse me girls, Eliza could you come to my office at six this evening? Madam Pomfrey wants to discuss her observations and formulate a plan of action, you can inform Miss Brown that her socks will be safe soon!" He left the table and Ginny collapsed into silent giggles.

All in all it was a fairly silly group of girls that made their way down to the Quidditch pitch.

By the time they arrived at the pitch Eliza was already freezing and completely soaked.

"It must be horrible, playing in this!" Said Neville, sliding into the seat next to Eliza. She nodded in agreement.

"Maybe it will be called off, it can't be safe if there's lightening?" Shouted Hermione, trying to be heard over the sound of the wind.

"You can't cancel Quidditch, Hermione, not for the weather anyway!" Yelled Ginny, her voice was quite disproportionate to her size.

The match started and Eliza had no idea what was going on, the only players she could see were the Weasley twins, and that was only because of their hair.

"This is mad, we can't even hear the commentary, how do we know what the score is?" Neville yelled, looking at the pitch in complete bewilderment.

"We're twenty points up!" Shouted Ginny, a look of complete concentration on her face.

"How do you know?" Asked Hermione.

"I'm watching! Katie just scored again!"

Ginny kept up a running commentary of the score but after fourty minutes Eliza stopped listening, she suspected that Hermione had too. Neville had retreated into his coat so only the top of his head could be seen.

"I wonder if Harry can see in this, through his glasses?" Hermione mused.

"They've called a time out!"

"I bet he can't, I'll go and check." Hermione disappeared and when she returned she seemed satisfied.

"I cast an Impervius charm."

"Great Hermione, we'll definitely win now." Ginny said, beaming at her.

"Anything to get inside." Hermione mumbled, too quiet for Ginny to hear. Eliza smiled in agreement, she was soaked through and it was freezing!

A thunder clap from the ominios clouds made Neville whimper in fear and Eliza nudged herseld closer to him, offering wordless support.

When she looked back at the pitch the sound dropped suddenly. It became much colder, every breath drawn felt icy cold.

Eliza stumbled back, slipping onto the floor. She could hear the voices again, two male voices and a woman screaming. She shut her eyes tightly and put her hands on her ears, trying to block on the sound. It seemed to be coming from within her.

"Not one word…"

"Say 'who are you?'!"

"Please! Have mercy … take me instead … kill me instead!"

Each voice was getting loudly and she heard laughter, she could hear him so loudly but she couldn't figure out how he could get to her in Hogwarts.

The blackness in her mind seemed to get black still and then she felt something hit her, like a spell, and the blackness consumed her.

Eliza could hear soft voices around her but they made no sense, the last thing she could remember was hearing Neville whimper at the thunder and then the voices.

Her eyes flew open and she looked around frantically, checking where she was and who was with her, she was in the hospital wing. Hermione ran forwards with her arms out, clearly trying to calm Eliza.

"Eliza! You're awake, it's okay! It's over!" Eliza tried to slow her breathing and calm herself down. Hermione waited until Eliza had relaxed back against the pillow and then spoke again.

"Madam Pomfrey said you need to eat this chocolate straight away." Hermione handed her friend a huge bar of chocolate which Eliza took with a shaking hand, she felt like she was recovering from a severe cold, looking at the chocolate she realised that there must have been Dementors at the match. She cast an inquiring glance at Hermione, hoping for an explanation.

"Do you remember what happened?" Hermione asked gently, Eliza shook her head and Hermione took a deep breath.

"Well, we were at the Quidditch match, and then Dementors showed up … and Harry fell off his broom. Don't worry though, Madam Pomfrey said he should come round any minute." She said the last part very fast, as though trying to soften the blow and reassure at the same time, Eliza made to get out of bed but Hermione pushed her down.

"Madam Pomfrey said you've got to stay in bed untill you've finished the whole bar, you were shaking and crying I didn't know what to do. Neville said we should get a teacher but before I got a chance Professor McGonagall arrived and when she saw you she stunned you and then we brought you up here. Dumbledore was really angry, the Dementors went straight for you and Harry, he must have sent Professor McGonagall straight over to you and he slowed Harry down so he didn't get too hurt … it was really scary." Hermione's eyes were red, she had clearly been crying, Eliza nodded acknowledging that she would stay in bed and made a start on her chocolate, it was certainly no Cadbury's Dairy Milk but it was still pretty good.

"I'll go and tell Madam Pomfrey that you're awake and see if Harry is yet." Hermione left the cubicle and Eliza made steady progress on the chocolate. She started to connect the voices with the Dementors. If they forced you to relive your worst memories then it made sense that Tom Riddle's voice would be there, from the Chamber of Secrets. The other male voice was easily placed, it made Eliza feel sick just thinking about it so she shut it off, concentrating on the female voice.

She realised who the woman was just as Ron came in, he too looked slightly shell shocked although he had not been at the match so he was not soaked like the rest of them.

"Hi Eliza, Hermione said you were awake, Harry's just woken up, he's just a bit bruised but Madam Pomfrey said he hasn't broken anything." Eliza nodded relieved, Ron looked to be pondering something and she looked at him, waiting for him to speak.

"Eliza, I need to tell Harry that his broom has been smashed ... How do you think I should do it? Like quickly, like ripping off a plaster or slowly?" Ron produced some broken twigs from behind his back, the remains of the Nimbus two thousand and Eliza's heart sank; Harry loved that broom.

"So quickly?" Asked Ron in quiet desperation, it couldn't have been clearer that he was not looking forward to telling Harry, Eliza nodded she hated it when people broke bad news slowly, it always made it worse. Ron nodded and left the cubicle slowly, clearly not looking forward to telling Harry the fate of his broomstick.

After a few more bites of chocolate Madam Pomfrey came in, accompanied by Professor McGonagall who looked slightly sheepish although she had clearly used a charm to dry her clothes. Madam Pomfrey pointed her wand at Eliza and it was like she had been sat in front of a fire for hours, her clothes dried out in second, she smiled in thanks but it felt forced on her face.

"Apologies for stunning you, Miss Potter, but you were in considerable distress." Eliza nodded thinking she would be eternally grateful to the teacher for purging her head of the voices. Madam Pomfrey took over.

"You can leave as soon as you have finished the bar, I have some sleep potions that I want you to try, a week on each potion to see which one works the best, Miss Granger has agreed to have a spell around both your beds that will record movement and alert her if you are walking around subconsciously, at the end of each week come and see me and we can see which one works the best, understood?" Eliza nodded mortified that her night time activities would be causing her best friend lack of sleep. As if this thought had flown out of her head into Hermione's, the young witch entered the cubicle.

"Don't worry Eliza, I don't mind! I find it quite interesting actually" Clearly Hermione had been listening outside the cubicle and she did look rather excited by the experiment, Eliza gave a small smile.

By the end of the weekend Harry had returned to Gryffindor Tower in full health, although noticeably upset about his broom and rather subdued, Eliza felt it too and they had not discussed their encounters with the Dementors.

Hermione had told Eliza that she needn't worry about her not getting enough sleep as she was using her time-turner more often than not. Apparently the first potion was having little effect of Eliza's nocturnal wonderings and Lavender's socks were still fascinating to the sleeping witch.

"Eliza, have you finished you Potions essay?" Ron asked, it was ten o'clock on a Sunday night and the essay was due the following day, Eliza nodded and Hermione tutted and looked up from her Ancient Runes translation.

"It's in for tomorrow morning, Ron! Why haven't you finished it?" Hermione asked with a look of maddening superiority.

"I just forgot, I'm nearly finished! Eliza, can I look at your conclusion?" Eliza passed over the finished essay and Ron read it and passed it back, he then looked up at Hermione whose work he hardly ever even dared as to look at.

"See, I'm not copying it, I'm just trying to get the gist!"

Eliza looked back at her half completed Advanced Transfiguration essay and furrowed her brow, she was saved the trouble of trying to understand Professor McGonagall's diagram by Harry tapping her on the arm,

"Can I have a word?" He asked indicating at a window seat that was free, Eliza nodded and followed her brother. As they sat down Harry looked at her with a sad and serious expression and she knew what they would be discussing.

"When ... When the Dementors come ... It wasn't your screaming ... I think ... I think it was mom...when Voldemort came I think it was her screams." He looked at the floor embarrassed, Eliza's heart filled with emotion, she had made the link between the screaming woman and her mother and she had suspected due to Harry's demeanour that he was close to realising it too.

"Do you hear her?" Harry asked, still looking at the floor

Eliza nodded, wondering if Harry heard anything else.

"I was thinking, we need to know how to fight them, do you think I should ask Professor Lupin? Ron said he made the Dementor on the train go away, maybe he could teach us?" Eliza nodded impressed by Harry's solution to the problem eagerness to learn. Perhaps he simply thought that if they made him fall of a broom it was not worth the risk, she spent hours the previous night thinking of the consequences if Dumbledore hadn't slowed him down.

"I'll ask him on Tuesday, if he's back." Eliza looked at him slightly worried about the teacher.

"He was ill last week; wasn't he in the hospital wing?" Harry asked, when Eliza shook her head he shrugged.

"Must have just been a cold then." Harry stood up and walked back to Ron and Hermione (now arguing about Crookshank's continued attempts to eat Scabbers), Eliza remained at the window seat thinking hard, a Cold wasn't a big deal in the Wizarding World, one spoonful of Pepper-Up and you were fine (although visibly smoking), deciding that one more thing to worry about probably wasn't a good thing Eliza looked out of the window and drifted into a thoughtless trance.