Haille Markson and The Rise of Gifflet

by Harrypotter-stuff

Hailie Markson is a 12 year hogwarts student in the year 2019, her and her new found freinds are about to face the biggest challabge the wizarding world has seen since the 1990s, a new dark lord. Thanks to little tigress for helping me write this! She has some great stories and you shoukd totally check her out!

Haile Markson and The Rise Of Gifflet

Chapter One (Entrance)

I stepped out into the warm summer air. The breeze swept through my hair and my empty backpack flapped behind me. I had my hair in two immaculate Dutch braids cascading down my chest, stopping right at my waist. My green eyes glimmered with excitement as I shifted from one foot to the next. That was it, goodbye Primrose Hill primary school. Hello North Bridge House Preparatory School. My friend Lucy slid in step with me as I started towards the metro station.

"So," she said, breaking the silence. "Have you picked the secondary school you're going to yet?" she asked excitedly.

"Yeah," I said nonchalantly. "I'm going to North Bridge, it's right in our district, where are you going?" I add casually.

"Oh" she said, her face falling. "My parents are sending me to a catholic boarding school." she said looking at her feet, playing with her bracelet. It said our names on it. I had been her best friend since before we even knew what friendship was. We practically grew up together. I looked at my identical one. Well, almost identical. Hers said my name. A ratty worn string with a silver charm attached in the shape of a heart. It said her name and had her glittering sapphire birthstones. I knew she played with her charm when she was upset. I looked up, lost in thought, to see the entrance to the metro blocked by a sign it read closed for street cleaning. I looked over and saw that Lucy had noticed it, too. She looked disappointed. "Guess we aren't going to the mall," she said

"Guess not." I paused. "I'll text my mom to come pick us up, maybe you can sleep over," I suggested. A cat, sitting on the sign, glared at me. I stepped back, amazed.

"You know what? Maybe it's better if you just go home.." I added and trailed off, eyes still locked with the cat.

"Are you ok?" She asked me, pretending to feel my temperature like my mom when I was sick.

"Yeah, I'm ok." I stared directly at the cat who stared back, unfazed. "I'm fine." I said, waving away her hand.

"Okay" she said, and slowly turned and began to walk in the other direction, back to her house. The cat jumped off the sign and tore down the street. I looked around, confused, then pulled out my blue iPhone XR in a clear case with glitter and proceeded to text my mom.

Mum?

Yeah, sweetie?

The metro is closed today "for cleaning"

Ok. Want me to come get you?

Mum, really? alien emojis? XP

Yes really. Want me to come or not. you can walk home too, ya know

No, sorry. please come get me ️, it's just you know how I am about cars, ever since...

Alright I'm on my way

Fifteen minutes later

K hon I'm here.

Kk

I put my phone back in the pocket of my ombré windbreaker and dashed over to my mom's car. I pulled myself into the back seat, grinning. "Hey sweetie, you got an acceptance letter this morning." she said cheerfully. "I don't remember applying for you but it seems like a nice school. The supplies list is kinda odd, though." she finished, a bit confused.

"What do you mean?" I questioned, "what's this school called?"

"Hogwash or something like that, strange name for a school." She lowered her voice "Hallie, they say they are a school for magic, they might be able to fix you." she said in a solemn tone.

…

Steam billowed out of the smoke stack I turned around slowly in wonder taking in all the sights. I saw a few girls on their phones, and a few older boys loitering by the train. One of them, already in their robes, directing all the first years to their compartments. I looked around to say goodbye to my mom but soon realized she had already left. I sighed and headed towards the train and went up the stairs and into a hall with a bunch of compartments. I slid into an empty one and shut the door. As I was drifting off to sleep my compartment door slid open and a scrawny 11 year old boy stood there. "Sorry is this compartment taken?" I sat up and rubbed my eyes "No, of course not!" I said, inviting him to come sit by me. His blue-green hair messily pushed back with no attempt to style it. His piercing blue eyes twinkled joyfully. He sat by me and began to introduce himself. "I'm Scott Prestly." he said.

"I'm Hallie."I said as I gazed out the window of the compartment. A tall tan boy with striking dark eyes and messy hair, thin and slender, walked by with an heir of confidence. I felt my heart leap.

"Why are all the wizard boys so damn hot?" he mused to himself.

"I know, right?" I said, not realizing that he wasn't talking to me. He flushed bright pink and stared out the window, trying not to catch my eye. I suddenly realized he wasn't talking to me and how embarrassed he must feel.

"So guys then, huh?" I said awkwardly. He looked back in my direction.

"Yep." He said awkwardly shifting. I looked at his bright, colorfully painted nails.

"Figures." I said, glancing back at his nails.

"Excuse me, what?" he said, offended.

"I was just saying. I just kinda assumed cause your Rainbow nails." I said matter of factly

"It's not cool." He said, "to say that. "I'm not super sensitive but other people might not be pleased, ya know..." he trailed off

"Sorry," I said sincerely "I didn't mean to be offensive." Pause. "Friends?" I add.

"Sure, friends." he conceded.

"What house do you hope to be?" I asked.

"I hope to be in ravenclaw."

"Why?" I asked, he turned red and looked at the ground.

Then with a surge of confidence looked up and yelled, "Cause that's where all the hot boys are!" He quickly looked at me, smiling shyly. I laughed so hard that I almost rolled over onto the floor. Soon he was laughing too and we were both muttering 'cause that's where the hot boys are!' Over and over again.

"Then I want to be a ravenclaw too!" I said, before cracking up again.

…

I walked into the great hall side by side with Scott, looking up at the amazing ceiling and floating candles. All the teachers sat at the long table in the back of the room up on a platform. The headmistress sat in the center of the table and smiled fondly and knowingly at me. It sent a shiver down my spine. I knew her, but from where? Suddenly, she turned into a cat and jumped down from the table and walked over to the lectern, where she turned back into a human to address the room.

"We have some new and old business to attend to," she turned to me and smiled "but first, we must welcome our brand new first years and sort them into their houses." I nugged Scott and showed him my crossed fingers he laughed and stuck up his crossed fingers too. "First we have…." she began down the list of first years until she stopped "Markson, Haille." I heard my name called my heartbeat fast, time stopped I felt Scott push me forward onto the stage. My palms were sweaty. I found my way to the stool and sat down. A raggedy hat was put on my head and I sat nervously while it deliberated.

"Quite a hard choice but I think you will do well in…" it paused for dramatic effect. "SLYTHERIN!" it exclaimed excitedly all the slytherins clapped Wildly and I felt my heartsink. I guess I'm not in ravenclaw. I put on a fake smile and ran over to sit with my new house.

"Prestly, Scott" I heard the head mistress call out. I picked my head up. Please be in slytherin please be in slytherin please be in slytherin.

"Ah, I know where to put you," it started. "oh, I see.. slytherin, you say?" It called out, much to the shock of everyone. A dead silence fell over the crowd. "Well, you could've done very well in ravenclaw, but very well." the hat finished. "Slytherin!" the hat cried. Scott looked up and caught my eyes beaming ear to ear. I laughed and he ran over and sat by me.

…

We followed the prefect down all the stairs and hall. I saw something turn the corridor quickly. A noise came from a nearby closet around the corridor that sounded like chattering. I looked around the corridor and dragged Scott over to the closet. I watched as the rest of the first years walked off without us. I opened the door to see emptiness below us.

"Well that doesn't look safe." Scott said.

"Yeah, no duh." I replied, rolling my eyes.

"I wonder why they would need to have a door going to nothing?" Scott asked

"Or maybe it does go to something, something that they are hiding." I said, trailing off. "I'm gonna jump in." I said. I put my foot forward and jumped into oblivion

"Wait, HAILLE!"

"That's one way to do it." Scott muttered before he followed me down.

…

I shivered, I opened my eyes to see I was in an empty room. I felt something hot running down my check and lifted my hand to it, it stung so I pulled my hand away. As I put my hand into the light I realized it was blood. I quickly wiped my hand off on my robe and stood up. My perfect braids are messed up and dirty with cobwebs and pieces of gravel in it. I suddenly rendered where I was "Scott!" I cried out into the darkness the panic in my voice echoing back to me.

"Where are you?" I heard Scott's voice echo back to me, I heard him gasp as he stepped into the light. "Did you hit your head? Cuz you have a little blood right.." he trailed off waving his hand around his head. I didn't know what he was talking about. I stood there in the dark, slightly sick and dazed.

"How do we get out of here?" I asked him urgently. I heard a chitter and scratching in the corner. Quickly I walked over to the dark corner. I pulled my wand out of my pocket and tried the spell I had been practicing for weeks. "Lumos," I whispered, and the tip of my wand lit up with bright white light.

"Wooaah," Scott said, amazed, "does it come in rainbow?" I smiled. "There!" Scott cried, pointing at a little creature that was half snake half fox. It had a long snaking body covered in fur with the face of a fox. It was curled up in the corner, whimpering.

"I think it might be hurt." I said.

"To bad we don't have a hufflepuff." Scott joked sarcastically. Suddenly I realized how long had we been down here. I pulled my phone out from my robe pocket 15:20 am was the time it read.

"Scott, we've been down here for hours!" I exclaimed, suddenly worried.

"Wow, genius, you think I haven't noticed?" He said

"What I mean.. is that the teachers probably are looking for us. we should call out for help!" I said

"I've already tried but you're welcome to…" I cut him off

"HELP SOMEONE, DOWN HERE" I yelled. The echoing silence was like a slap. I could practically feel Scott's eyes rolling behind me.

"To be fair, it could've worked when I did it." I said turning around to face him.

"Yeah, sure, Hallie." He rolled his eyes "Well while you were doing… well, that, I found something."

"Oh really?" I muttered. Scott picked up the creature, which it did not seem to like, and snap kicked a wall.

"That definitely did som-" I was cut off by the sound of a door creaking open. Light flooded the room and I quickly followed Scott out onto a corridor.

I had definitely lost a fair amount of blood at this point and stopped suddenly, very dizzy and sick. The corridor started to spin and I heard Scott's voice echo back at me "Haille? Are you ok?" it echoed and I felt like I was falling and everything went black.

…

Bright light hit my eyes hard, forcing me to blink them open to a stinging in my head and side. I closed my eyes again and willed the pain to go away but it didn't. I heard a sharp shrill voice scolding someone next to me. "you could've been killed." her voice trailed as I faded in and out of consciousness. Someone scooped me up off the stone floor.

"What do we do with the girl? She's bleeding all over the floors!"a raspy male voice called out.

"Take her to Madam Pomfrey." she said "you, young man, have a lot of explaining to do." the Lady said, addressing yet another person.

Chapter Two

I jumped awake, screaming something along the lines of 'hot boys in ravenclaw', before realizing where I was. I looked around to make sure nobody heard my sleep rambling. I touched my head where there had been blood, but now there was only what felt like a slight scar.

"Well, that's convenient." I muttered.

"Haille! You're all right!" Scott cried, and sat in the chair next to me. He then proceeded to tell me all about the common room and the dormitory. "And there's this boy Albus Potter, and he's Harry Potter's kid! Can you believe this I mean a Potter in slytherin…" he trailed off excitedly.

"Wait, wait. slow down.. who's Harry Potter?" it was a lot to process and my head hurt. Scott started at me mouth hanging wide open eyes wide

"You don't know who Harry Potter is?" He rambled about a baby and a scar and he who must not be named and marauders and a teacher named Snape, an an old headmaster named Dumbledore and a golden trio and a basilisk and a stone and some horcruxes and a derpy boy who ended up saving the day.

"This sounds like a fiction story my friends were telling me about." I said drously, still rather out of it

"Yeah, my life sounds like a fiction story." he said resentfully.

"My life is boring.." I trailed off "Was boring." I added before falling back to sleep.

…

I walked down the stairs to the dungeon clutching the railing so as not to fall down the stairs. Scott laughed. He walked ahead and waited at the bottom staircase. When I met him at the bottom we walked up to the common room door. "Serpentine," he told the portrait and knowingly the door swung open to let us in. I gazed at the common room, no one could ever accuse the slytherin of living in squalor. He sat down in a chair by the fire he called back to me. "Your stuff is already in your dorm you should get changed you've been wearing the same thing for what 3 days now?"

"I guess so." I said shocked at my lack of hygiene. As I trudged up the stairs I thought about school. Everything used to be so simple, but now it's already the fourth day of school and I haven't even been to class yet! I wondered how much homework I had missed out on in the past few days. All because I wanted to save a stupid magical creature. I took out my care for magical creatures book and began flipping through it to find the fox like creature we saved in that.. Place. I found a picture of a long fox like snake changing colors with a claw for a tail, under the picture it said its name an where the species originated from. It's called a nguruvilu, it originates in Chile it is found in large bodies of water, rivers, and streams, and then the information stopped someone had torn out the next page and poured water over the ink. I ran downstairs to the common room to find scott sitting on one of the long black leather couches.

"Scott!" I said out of breath, "the creature, the thing we saved, it's called a nguruvilu, but someone ripped out the information in the textbook."

"Well then i guess we're headed to the library before dinner." Scott said haphazardly.

…

We walked into the library and quietly as possible crept to the section of magical creatures. The kids I had overheard talking about the librarian being scary weren't joking! As we turned the corner into the section with the thousands of books on all sorts of creature fairy lore, Scott yelped. I turned around to see Scott looking at eyes peeking in through the other side of the bookshelf.

"Are you looking for something interesting, Hallie?" The eyes asked. I looked at them startled.

"How do you know my-"

"Gossip, obviously." The eyes muttered. The green eyes disappeared and I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"I walked around the bookshelf." A tall boy with jet black hair said. "I'm over here now."

"Obviously." I muttered a little to loudly. I looked over at Scott who was still looking at books, trying to avoid the boys eyes.

"Can you go now." I asked dully.

"Don't you need my assistance?" The boy replied.

"Yeah Hallie, it's okay if he stays." Scott said quietly. I groaned, "fine."

"Ok what are you looking for?" The boy asked.

"Hold up. First off, what's your name." I asked, so I could stop referring to him as the boy.

"Wallace. Wallace Holland." He said smiling at Scott. Scott muttered something that sounded oddly like hot boys in ravenclaw.

"What house are you in?" I said trying Not to crack up

"Ravenclaw" He looked at me oddly. I nugged Scott and I started to chuckle. Wallace cocked his head confused. I cleared my throat.

"Nothing." I my said quickly.

"So what are you looking for again?" He asked.

"Nguruvilu." Scott said looking up at Wallace.

"Oh so he speaks." Wallace said smirking. Scott,going red, rolled his eyes, he was clearly amused though he didn't want to show it.

"Yeah Yeah, where are the books on Nugruvilus" I said

"The restricted section" he said nonchalantly, Scott sighed and groaned.

"But I can get you it." he smirked and looked at Scott.

"What do you want" Scott said pretending to be annoyed.

"Nothing. Meet me in the library at midnight" He said quietly walking away. Over his shoulder he whispered, "and don't let the teachers catch you" he said. And with that he was gone

"Well that sounds safe." I muttered. "Hooray for the fourth day of school, detention already!"

"You haven't even completed one day of school" Scott reminded me.

"Hooray for detention of the first day of school!" I muttered. Scott rolled his eyes.

"Let's go to dinner." He said and we quickly walked out of the library realizing how hungry we were.

…

After dinner we went our separate ways to try to get some sleep before we had to go to the library for we still had class in the morning. I tossed and turned in my four poster bed I rolled over and checked my Apple Watch it was already 11:30. I got out of bed and pulled on socks and shoes and pulled my robe over my plain white nightgown to provide some warmth. I tiptoed downstairs grabbing my phone off the dresser and heading down into the common room.

I sat down in a chair by the fire and pulled out my phone to text Scott.

Scott, u up??

Haile what?

Meet me down in the common room it's almost midnight!

Ok ok.

It was ur idea.

It was Wallace's idea but still

Scott and Wallace sittin in a tree

STOP THAT

I chuckled and looked up to see Scott at the bottom of the stair with a robe pulled over his unicorn jammies

"I like your Jammies" I poked fun at him.

"Shut up, let's go" he said pulling out a page ripped from a library book. "It's a map of the castle" he explained to my confused Look. I nodded and silently we left the common room and made our way Into the dark corridor.

"Lumos" I whispered. My wand lite up and Scott pulled out his wand the tip of it covered in rainbow cellophane.

"Lumos" he whispered and with that the bright white light was tinted rainbow by the cellophane. We walked the corridor silently till we got to the library I tried the door but it was locked.

"Alohomora" I said and with a click the door swung open. we wandered into the dark room with only our wands as light

"Wallace?" Scott called uncertainty

"You didn't think I'd ditch you? Now did you Scott" I heard a voice call I glanced over at Scott who looked confused.

"How do you know my name? I never told you my name." Scott said.

"Word travels fast here at Hogwarts." he said mysteriously. Wallace walked into the light and caught Scott's eye "bloody hell you didn't think I was a stalker did you"

"Well I mean-" Scott started, smiling at Wallace.

"Can we get to the bloody book already?" I asked "I didn't wake up at midnight to watch you two flirt."

"Err, right then. This way." Wallace said awkwardly and we followed him to the entrance of the restricted section.

"Wow a rope. That's all?" I asked ducking under the flimsy price of rope.

"Well yeah, I mean why be elaborate?" Wallace asked. I shrugged.

"I mean it's not so restricted if you can walk under it."

"Well I mean sometimes the Books scream at you"

"I'm pretty sure a lot of non restricted books do that too." I replied remembering the book of monsters from the store.

"And I'm pretty sure that's not the point." Scott muttered trying to drag us to where we should've been looking.

"Right sorry." I replied scanning the shelves. Suddenly a book caught my eye. "Look I think I found it" I called waving Scott and Wallace over and pointing to a bright blue book with gold writing on the side. Advanced Magical Creatures The Care And Keeping. I reached up but I couldn't grab it. I sighed and gestured to Wallace to help me reach. With ease he reached up and plucked the book off the shelf and handed it to me.

"Thanks" I said, grabbing Scott and pulling him away and back to our common room.

"Byeeee!" Scott called over his shoulder.

Chapter Three (New Friends)

I gazed out of the big glass windows to watch the trees around Hogwarts magic campus turn orange. Fall was one of my favorite months and I had heard that Halloween at Hogwarts is a blast! I felt a tug at my robes and saw Scott trying to pull me away from the window.

"We still have to go to DADA." Scott whined, "Hurry up." I sighed.

"You only want to go to class because we have it with the ravenclaws." I moaned finally giving into Scott and following him to class.

"Shut up Hailie." Scott said shooting me a look.

"Alright alright!" I said defensively before hurrying along in the hallway after him careful not to trip on my robes. We entered the classroom and took our normal seats next to each other, close to the side of the room the Ravenclaw sat on.

"Hey." A voice whispered behind us. I turned around to see Wallace sitting abnormally close to us. My head flopped down on the desk.

"Hello Wallace." I groaned.

"Hello Hailie, your more grumpy than usual today."

"Thank you for noticing Wallace." I muttered.

"Your welcome. Now Scott, how's life?" He said ignoring me. The ravenclaw girl sitting closest to me leaned over.

"Your freinds are so gay" she wispered and I nodded my head.

"Tell me about it." I muttered back she laughed.

"I'm Lyla Chang" she said warmly "you?"

"I'm Hailie" I said laughing "I know this sounds weird, but I think I need some more girls in my life. Want to be friends?" I said smiling

"Sure!" She replied happily. "What's your friends name?" she asked gesturing isn't Scott's direction.

"Scott." I responded

"Hey Scott," she called forward "want to switch seats?" She asked. Scott shot me a glance and reluctantly switched seats with her.

She sat down and immediately started talking about notes, note taking, books, and other stuff. I watched as she took out a piece of paper, ink, and a quill. To my surprise the ink came out bright pink.

"Woah that's so cool! I didn't know ink could be different colors!"

"It can't." She said smiling at me "Unless you use a spell to change it."

"Woah that's so cool! How?" I asked her.

"Let me show you" she said. I slid my bottle of ink over to her. "Colorvaria," she said confidently and with a flick of her wand, my ink had turned bright green "here you go." I turned to Scott.

"Did you know you could change the color of your ink with a spell?" I asked him excitedly, he just lifted up his bottle of rainbow ink and smiled.

"You need to tell me these things Scott!" I joked rolling my eyes. I saw Lylas eyes wander over to my bracelet.

"I love your bracelet!" She said when she saw that I had noticed her gaze.

"Thanks, my best friend-" I stopped suddenly remembering how I had left things off with Lucy. On the last day of school, at the metro station. "Has one just like it." I finished slowly.

"Sorry I brought it up" she said noticing I was upset. "I didn't realize it was a sensitive subject." she finished slowly. Scott looked at me curiously.

"Yeah Hailie you never really share much about what you were like before you came here." Scott added.

"Shut up Scott" I said trying to change the subject. "Maybe there is a reason I don't." I snapped. Scott rolled his eyes and looked away while Lyla just looked more interested. I looked down at my paper my face burning red, there was a reason I didn't talk about it. I bit my lip, I didn't like to think about it.

…

Flash back 2014 April 15, London England

"Mom where are we going?" I asked looking up into my mother's fury ridden hazel eyes.

"Somewhere, now be quiet hails watch you iPad." She said forcefully.

"Mom?" I looked up at her again through the rear view mirror. "Is dad coming going to be home tonight for my birthday?"

"No hails, I told you he's not coming home for a while." She replied clearly trying to avoid the subject, though I had never been one for giving up on conversations.

"Mom? Are we going to have a birthday cake at where we are going?"

"I don't know hails, I don't know."

"Where are we going?" I asked looking out the backseat window at the mountains. The world was spinning fast, just like earlier in the week on the merry-go-round. The merry-go-round, life had still been perfect then.

"Are we going to stay with Nana grandpa because—" The car jerked to a stop and smoke billowed out of the boot of the car. The world was spinning faster now, maybe it wasn't just the speed of the car.

"HAILLE!!!"

…

I snapped back to see Lyla staring at me. Her green, yet gold eyes were full of worry.

"Are you ok Hailie?" She asked concerned.

"Fine. Why?" I said trying to shake off the painful memory. A part of my head that I'd never felt before seared with pain. I gazed out one of the huge windows facing the grounds, the world was spinning faster than it had before.

Chapter 4 (The Rise Of Gifflet)

In the common room everyone huddled around a boy holding the daily prophet and reading it out loud. Everyone pushed and shoved to get closer to the boy like it was a sacred text. I turned to Scott with confusion.

"What's everyone fussing over?" I whispered so that none of the few stuck up pure bloods would hear me. I started piling on top of the other students to see, not waiting for Scott's answer. I only managed to catch a few words off the headline, but it told me all I need to know.

Could he be back? Even though these words could mean anything, in this common room it only meant to worst possible thing there was. Tom Riddle. I had never been one for a fear of names, especially nicknames, so when I went to learn all about the wizard world, naturally Tom Riddle sounded best to me. One boy walked across the common room and poked a boy with white blonde hair, that I was sure I'd seen somewhere.

"There talking about you." The boy hissed into the blonde boys ear.

"Leave Scorpius alone." another boy said that was standing next to blonde boy, who was apparently named Scorpius.

"Shut up Potter. The Potter disgrace." the boy said. I nugged Scott and gave him an inquisitive look.

"Albus Potter." he said sitting down in an armchair in front of the fire without taking his eyes off the boy.

"Someone's thirsty." I teased and poked Scott.

"Shut up haille," Scott hissed more seriously this time.

"You better not let your boyfriend catch you looking at other boys." I continued to tease. Scott went red and look up at me glaring.

"First off Wallace is not my boyfriend, Secondly I'm NOT CHECKING ALBUS OUT!" he hissed to me in an angry whisper.

"Ok, ok." I giggled at his frustration, almost forgetting all about the daily prophet article. For a minute everything felt like it was perfect, but only for a minute. Suddenly it felt as if the fire went cold and it felt as if a cloud flowed through the room. A girl screamed and everyone began to panic as a long wispy black figure had glided into the room.

"A dementor" Scott said in shock, he had risen from his seat and reached for his wand. "what are they doing so far from Azkaban?" He muttered worriedly. The wispy creature seemed so framiler, so much like something I knew, something I wanted to be with. An older prefect stepped in front of the panicking students, breaking my train of thoughts.

"Expecto-patronum!" he called and suddenly a wispy white large snake slithered out of the end of his wand holding the demented thing back.

"Someone get Headmistress Mcgonagall." The boy instructed calmly. I grabbed Scott's hand and began to drag him off to find Headmistress Mcgonagall.

"I want to learn how to do that." Scott whispered as I dragged him out of the common room. We broke into a run and dashed up the stairs from the dungeons. My throat burned from the continuous screaming for help we did all the way up.

We reached the top of the stairs and a concerned headmistress looked back at us.

"What's wrong dear?" She said as she looked at the upset looks on me and Scott's faces.

"Dementor, in the common room!" I managed to make out as I gasped for air. Her face turned hard as she searched our faces for any sign of joking. He face started to draw much more serious by the minute.With no hesitation she began down the stairs and we followed out of breath and exhausted. We ran down countless flights of stairs and the world began to spin all to fast, and something told me it wasn't from running.

"HALLIE!" A voice scratched at the back of my head like it had all those years ago. I felt sick, I bit my lip. Soon the stone floor was where my face was and the cold night covered my eyes with darkness.

Chapter Five

I jerked awake on a familiar field. As I looked around I saw the golden hoops where I often liked to watch players stop the quaffle and the stands where I sat and watched our team crush Gryffindor. I grinned at the strange thought, being so involved in a sport that I hoped we would crush them.

"Hallie." A voice hissed in my ear and I stopped lying on the field and sat up quickly. A young man stood before me, his eyes gleaming with information I didn't know. I rolled my eyes.

"What now?" I said annoyed that I had to sit through this. He growled at my annoyance.

"I found her!" A voice screamed from across the quidditch pitch. I saw a light flying towards me.

"See you soon Hallie." The young man said as he started to disappear.

"Wait! What's your name?" I called after him. He barely turned around.

"Gifflet." He said as he walked off into complete darkness. I felt a hand on my shoulder and saw a broom hovering close to me.

"Headmistress!" The person behind me called. "I found her! I found Hallie!"

"What's going on, why am I here, who are you?" I asked a millom questions raced through my throbbing head.

"Slow down, I'm Andy I'm a second year Hufflepuff, I don't know why you are here, you went missing so Headmistress sent out a search party." he answered slowly and reassuringly.

"I can't believe I was rescued by a Hufflepuff." I said bitterly "I thought the only thing hufflepuffs were good for was giving hugs and caring for Pygmy puffs and shit. No offense." I added. He glared at me.

"I could just leave you here you know." he said as Headmistress appeared on foot. Even though her mouth was moving I couldn't care at the moment to listen to what she was saying. A purple haze flowed over my eyes clouding my vision and causing my head to hurt. The world soon became purple as my head seared with pain.

…

I reached for my head as I opened one eye. It felt like my head was splitting in two and burned like I had a fever. Skeep! A chirp sounded from behind me. I turned to see a fluffy pink thing sitting at my bedside looking at me with joyful eyes. Around its neck it had a little note. I put my hands down on the bed to to push myself up to read it, but as I did so my head hurt so much I couldn't. That's when the doors flew open and I knew all hell was going to break lose.

"Hallie!" Chimed Scott and Wallace as they ran in dragging a girl behind them. They ran over to my bed and sat down on the end, trying not to sit on my feet.

"Lyla! Scott! Wallace!" I screamed with excitement. I was even, surprisingly, excited to see Wallace.

"Oooo," Lyla said looking at the thing on my bedside. "What a pretty pygmy puff!"

"Do you have a secret admirer?" Scott mused grinning.

"No I do not ha-"

"What does it say?" Wallace asked cutting me off. "Since it's the only thing we're good for, I may as well give one to you." Wallace read out loud confused.

"What? Hallie have you been insulting people again?" Scott said scolding me.

"No I haven't! Wait, actually, yeah I might have done that." I said remembering the boy on the Quidditch Pitch. I cringed, probably shouldn't have done that. But still it was nice of him to give me a Pygmy puff. "I'm my defense I had woken up in the middle of the pitch with a splitting headache so maybe I was a little crabby" I replied slowly pushing myself up to look my friends in the eyes.

"You have a little blood right-" Lyla said guestering to a crack in my head with blood seeping out. "I'm surprised Madam Pomfrey hasn't come to deal with that yet," she said. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen her all day." she said, suddenly I had an idea.

"Lyla, you can fix my head right?" I said hopefully. "I know you're ahead in all your studies, like your pretty much a third year. You must know some spell!" I said looking up at her.

"That's not a very good idea." she shifted nervously at the end of the bed.

"Come on, please." I pleaded "Come on.." I was beginning to get dizzy again and the room started to spin, but I shook it off and looked at her.

"Fine, but only because you blood is making me nauseous." she replied curtly, she stood up and moved over to the side of my bed pressing her wand against my head and, suddenly the skin healed over and all that was left was dry blood. She flicked her wand by my head once more and the dry blood vanished. "There," she said stepping away. Scott and Wallace mock clapped. I wanted to throw my pillow at them, but I was still really dazed.

"Shut up" I said smiling at Scott and Wallace. "You guys are annoying as hell."

"Yeah I know." Scott smirked.

"Lyla," I said, turning to her who had settled back down at the foot of the bed. "can you hit Scott for me?" I said smiling.

"Pleasure." she responded and elbowed Scott in the gut, he dubbled over and fake groaned, I laughed. Everything seemed perfect as I drifted off to sleep.

…

Flash back, Paris France 2014

"Granma!" I ran across the airport to my grandma and wrapped her in a huge hug.

"Hallie, are you ok, I heard all about the accident, you're going to stay with me and grandpa, while your mom is in the hospital." she said wrapping me in a coat and bustling me out to the car. I looked around the white landscape as little flurries of crystal snowflakes flew around. As I got into the warm car, I started to shake with fear. Why was I shaking? It's not every car that gets in accidents. Just my moms. I'll be fine. I felt the car roll back steadily as the car pulled out of its parking spot. I looked up from the backseat and into the rear view mirror. I saw a man dressed in black with a mask on. The mask seemed to smile at me insanely and it looked almost like a skull. Nana's eyes widened as the man didn't move from behind us. I closed my eyes as the car went rolling not at all steadily. My stomach churned as it went uncontrollably fast backwards.CRUNCH! I could feel the car wrap around the back of the tree.

"Is he crazy!?!" My grandma screamed. A shallow face smiled crazily at me from the window glass, his hood flipped up as he shot a firework in the sky out of a long brown stick.

…

I sat up panting, sweating and screaming. I bit my lip. My head still throbbed, I lifted my hand to my head and brushed aside my messy curly hair, down from its braids for the first time in a while. I touched where the gaping hole in my head had been before it was repaired by lyla. My hand came away covered in blood. Shit. her spell hadn't lasted. I looked around in the darkness, had I really fallen asleep until now? It used to be the middle of the day and now I sat up in the darkness alone in the hospital bleeding out of my head. "Why me?" I whispered into the dark. I looked back down and closed my eyes, trying to will away the nightmares that woke me. Why now? I wondered, I hadn't thought about or dreamed about what had happened since I was six. Why now all of the sudden did the nightmares come back? Why here? Just when life was starting to get better. It felt like someone or something wanted me to figure something out.

"Well you don't look your best." A voice said. I looked down at my pale sweaty body with blood on my hands.

"I might look better if I didn't have a hole in my head." I said sarcastically. The voice stepped into the light and I saw the young man again.

"Who are you?" I asked rudely

"Gifflet. Pay attention girl." The man said snootily.

"Leave me alone." I snapped

"Well okay then Hallie. You don't have to be so rude." He said brushing some hair out of his face. Though he looked considerably young his eyes looked as though he had seen too much.

"How do you know my-" I started but he was gone before I could finish. I slumped back down more confused than ever. Well he was very annoying. I felt a sharp pain like a slap on the back of my head.

"Ouch! What was that for?" I yelped to nobody in particular.

"Don't be unnecessarily rude" a voice called from nowhere.

"Can you read my thoughts?" I asked again to non one looking around the room. But no reply. I looked around desperately for anyone, but once again nobody was there. My pigmy puff looked up at me it's eyes filled with empathy.

"I forgot you were here" I cooed at the Pygmy puff somehow it's presence made me feel less unnerved. I scooped it up in my hands and lied back down. It curled up in my hands and we fell asleep.

...

I woke up to the smell of some food that wasn't for me. I opened my eyes to see Madam Pomfrey feeding and stroking my Pygmy Puff. When she noticed me she set the Pygmy puff down and rushed over to get a new bandage for the one that was soaked through.

"I must say your friend did quite a good job at fixing your head, but you should've waited for a more permanent solution." she said changing the bandage on my head. "You know Hallie this is the second time you've cracked your head open you have to be more careful, I'm surprised you're not suffering from memory loss." she said she held up her wand to my head and flicked it, the blood seemed to stop flowing and she pressed an ice pack against my head.

"Thanks." I said as she walked off. I looked out the window where the light from the moon had shone through last night. Gifflet, what an odd name for such an odd guy. Well I had lots of free time to ponder it.

"By the way," she called over her shoulder "your friend brought you some school work to catch up on if you feel better later today" she said "you probably wouldn't be released until sometime later this week, I need to stop the bleeding every hour or so, so I can't have you wandering the halls bleeding out of your head," she said as she continued to walk away. I looked at my bedside table and sure enough next to my Pygmy puff was a bunch of books and notes to copy down as long as ink and a quill. I groaned at the stack of stuff, I hated work. I picked up a book and tried to read the first page the word swam in front of me and my head throbbed, I set the book back on the table and slumped down. I took my wand out and pointed it at my History of Magic textbook. I tapped on it a couple times and muttered the spell I made under my breath. The book flipped itself open to the correct page for the homework.

"The legend of King Arthur and Merlin." It started to read and I tried to listen, but my brain tuned out. "Gifflet. He was-" I sat up at the name.

"Repeat that." I commanded.

"Weren't you paying attention?" The book asked with an attitude.

"No, I have a head injury," I snapped

"If you were paying attention I wouldn't have to repeat it. I don't like reading to people who don't listen." The book said flopping itself closed. I groaned, why is life so hard.

"God! How hard is it to find good magic these days!" I laughed at my own joke still annoyed.

"Your book seems to have quite an attitude." A voice said.

"Go away." I said frustrated with Gifflet.

"But you haven't even met me yet." a girls voice chimed. A blonde girl stepped out from behind a hospital curtain. Shit.

"Sorry" I told her Sincerely "I thought you were someone else. Who are you by the way? And why are you here?" I questioned.

"It's okay. People often think I'm someone else. My names Bernice or Abbott. Call me what you want. Most kids call me Abbott when I think about it." she said. My head hurt a blonde girl who came out of nowhere with two names was just too much. My hand instinctively went up to my head to run away my headache.

"Ok Bernice," I said my patience waning for this girl "what is your house, your year, how do you know me, and why are you here." I said closing my eyes.

"I'm a second year Gryffindor. I was just wandering around really. That's when I heard your sassy book." I opened one eye to see her looking at me kindly. No matter how much I wanted to crush Gryffindor, this girl didn't seem too bad. Not really.

"Is Abbott your last name?" I asked the girl as she sat on a stool near my bed.

"No actually. I'm Abbott Bernice Stevens. Though nobody calls me that. It's normally just Abbott."

"Right." I said glancing at her earrings. They were little beaded pine trees that glittered with magic. She wasn't wearing her uniform either and instead was wearing converse and a checkered dress with a collar. Around her collar was a Gryffindor tie. She also seemed unusually wet, like she had been swimming somewhere.

"Where have you been?" I asked looking at her hair more closely.

"Swimming with the mermaids." She said whimsically and for some reason I don't think she was joking. I chuckled.

"Your different." I said bluntly looking at the little chunk of kelp in her hair.

"Thank you." She said mock bowing. I chuckled again.

"I better sleep now Abbott." The girl looked at me and nodded.

"Nice talking to you." She said walking off. I laid my head down on the pillow and started to think of my odd new friend.

Chapter Six

I walked into the library and put my things down on a table. I flipped on the lamp, sat down, and began to read the section about Gifflet in my history of magic textbook.

"Whatcha doing?" A voice chimed from behind me, I jumped. "A little jumpy today aren't we?" I looked up and realized it was Scott.

"God Scott your scared the hell out of me!" I said laughing.

"That's what in here for!" He said happily and pulled out the chair next to me and sat down.

"Where's your boyfriend?" I teased, Scott rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"How would I know?" He said.

"Ha! He is your boyfriend you didn't deny It!!" I whisper yelled at him.

"Not true!" He shot back. I laughed pleased at how annoyed I was making him. "Anyway," he moved on rolling his eyes. "What are your reading about?"

"Well you have to promise to not tell because it makes me seem crazy." I said ready to tell him everything the car crash the nightmares the man named gifflet.

"I'm am intrigued." he joked.

"Shut up," I elbowed him. "This is serious." I told him. I started to explain why I was researching Gifflet and he listened intrigued. "Anyway, that's why I'm researching him, I promise I'm not crazy he really has been talking to me!" I said.

"Yeah you sound kinda crazy," he said.

"Scottttt." I whined.

"But" he said cutting me off "I believe you." he said.

"You do?" I asked sitting up more and looking at him intensely.

"I really do" he said.

"Hello!" Two voices screeched from behind a bookshelf. I watched as Lyla and Wallace turned the corner.

"What are we looking for?" Lyla said already pulling books down from the selves with Wallace.

"Oh erm, Gifflet." I said surprised by the amount of books they both put down on the desk.

"You mean the knight of the round table?" Wallace asked. I nodded.

"Well it's not him. He's dead." Lyla said bluntly.

"But," Wallace continued hopefully, "the name means something."

"Right of course!" Lyla said excitedly as she started to pull more and more books down from the shelves.

"Names mean something?" I asked concerned for their health.

"Sometimes. Remus Lupin, the werewolf, remember? He was teacher here a while ago, before we were born. Remus, the Roman Mythology dog boy. Lupin, comes from Latin mean wolffish." Lyla said like it was obvious.

"What does my name mean then?" Scott asked confused.

"Probably nothing." Wallace said casually.

"But we can look!" Lyla said enthusiastically.

"Scott, from Scotland, well that's not wrong. Prestly, someone who lives near a priest's woods. Well that's weird." Lyla said while flipping through a book.

"Anyhow, back to Gifflet. Technically it means, if we look at the story of King Arthur, the one who becomes important after someone important falls." Wallace said while looking through two books at the same time.

"Like, Tom Riddle?" I asked

"I guess kinda why would you ask that?" Lyla said shrugging.

"No reason." I glanced at Scott who met my concerned glance. I saw something moving behind the bookshelves. "I'll be back, one second." I said getting up.

"Okay see you in a sec Hallie!" Scott called after me. I walked behind a couple shelves to see a boy with brown hair standing on his tiptoes trying to reach a book above him. I cleared my throat.

"Oh hello!" Andy said startled. He turned to face me.

"Umm. Thanks for the Pygmy" I said awkwardly, "Did you give it a name? I've just being calling it Pygmy Puff."

"Oh err, I've called it Amorette." He said looking back at the book on the self.

"That's a cute name!" I said, still awkwardly trying to keep up the conversation. "So what do Hufflepuffs do outside of magical creatures?" I asked. He pointed up at the book on the self.

"Lots of things." I walked over to the book he was pointing at, Magical Tricks for Underwater Breathing.

"What is that?" I asked.

"It's for a friend, she's looking for ways to be with her friends more often."

"I guess you Hufflepuffs are pretty cool." I mumbled trying to help him get the book down from the shelf.

"I was wondering something, you like Quidditch right?" He asked and I nodded quickly in response. "Well, I was wondering, would you like to come to my quidditch game on Friday? Even though it's Hufflepuff?"

"Of course! I didn't know you were on the Quidditch team?" I said excitedly. He brushed his hand through his hair.

"Yeah, I'm a chaser." He responded, clearly happy that I was so excited.

"He's really good too." A voice rang out. I looked behind Andy to see Abbott. Today she was back in her converse, but this time she was wearing a cream cable knit sweater, checkered skirt, high white socks, and her Gryffindor tie.

"Hello Abbott!" I said waving at her.

"You know Abbott?" Andy asked, finally getting the book off the shelf.

"Yes, Hallie has a very rude History of Magic textbook." She said taking the book from Andy's hand and flipping through it. I noticed her black converse's shoelaces were untied and very wet.

"Where did you go today?" I asked looking at her hair for any signs of kelp.

"Moaning Myrtle. She was very upset since some fourth year boys were vandalizing her stall." She said now sitting down and flipping the pages.

"I can see why you two would be friends." I said looking from Andy to Abbott.

"Animagus!" Abbott shouted. "I like the sound of that." Andy walked over and sat next to Abbott looking over her shoulder.

"Yeah but you can't control what animal yo-" Andy started.

"I swear to Godric I'm surrounded by idiots!" Two voices shouted and following this a loud SHHH noise followed.

"Sorry!" The voices said in reply. I took one last look at Abbott and Andy sitting together over a book before walking off. I walked back to the spot where Wallace, Scott, and Lyla sat, still apologizing to the air for screaming.

"What was that about?" I asked walking over to them.

"He's a bloody idiot, that's what!" Lyla said pointing at Scott.

"It's not my fault I'm not as smart as you!" Scott whined.

"Ok, ok, can we just not make a scene in the library if you need to make a scene go outside" I told them coldly, annoyed they had interrupted my conversation with Andy.

"Sooo Scott tells me your going crazy, how's that going?" Wallace said without a thought, Scott burned red and looked sheepish, my heart ached, betrayal stung.I bit my lip hard. I put on a cold face and tried to hide my feelings.

"I'm not crazy," I said curtly, "now if you'll excuse me I'll be going back to my common room to be crazy in peace." My face burned as I picked up my books and shoved them in my bag.

"Haille!" Scott called after me "Hallie wait I didn't—" I cut him off my face burning with rage

"You didn't mean to share a secret that wasn't yours to share." I cut him off "or you didn't mean to embarrass me?" I said again the hurt on his face made me stop. "I'm sorry. I'm just, I don't tell many people what's going on with me, so when I open up and I get betrayed, it just really made me mad." I said. I bit my lip again but quickly stopped noticing I had bit it so hard it began to bleed.

"I'm sorry" he said. "I didn't know" he said. "Want me to walk back to the common room with you?" he asked.

"Alright" I said, then and idea came to me I smiled up at Scott "I guess you couldn't resist telling your boyfriend that your bestie was losing it." I laughed. Scott elbowed me in the gut only making me laugh harder. He smiled despite my teasing and we started down the corridor.

….

I laid on my bed looking up at the ceiling. SKEEP! I turned my head to see Amorette on my bedside looking at me curiously.

"Oh, I haven't feed you yet today Amorette" I said realizing why she was staring at me. I got out of bed and grabbed the bag of food on the table and poured half a cup into a small bowl and filled another small bowl with water. I picked up Amorette and put her next to the bowl and climbed back into bed.

"Hallie!" I heard someone call my name from downstairs. I jumped out of bed, grabbed Amorette and toddled down stairs to see Scott standing there waiting for me.

"Are you coming?" He asked.

"Right right, of course." I said hurrying down the stairs. I sat down on the couch and stroked Amorette.

"So fill me in on everything you learned about Gifflet." I asked Scott. I pulled a small note pad out of the pocket of my robes which I had pulled on before hurrying down stairs. I wrote on the top of the page things we know about Gifflet.

"So basically, probably a follower you know who." Scott said. "Nobody else can see him, except you. And that's about it."

"Right of course that's about it." I sighed and looked at the fireplace. It roared away staring right into my soul.

Chapter Seven (The Trouble With Quidditch)

The spectators in the stands cheered as the hufflepuff team soared into the air, facing off against Gryffindor. I cheered with excitement. I wish I was apart of the quidditch team, But only second years did quidditch, I was pretty good at flying though. When I called my broom it had soared into my hands. I watched as it started to rain, but the game continued anyway. I saw Andy flying after the quaffle, trying to snatch it away from a Gryffindor. I watched as lightning shot through the air and hit the pitch. I shivered as a cold breeze blew through the stadium. I bit my lip hard, I didn't like the cold.

"Are you okay?" I heard a voice from behind me. I whipped around, but the seat behind me was empty. Abbot tapped my shoulder from the seat next to me. "Yeah I'm actually sitting over here." She said.

"Right, it sounded like you were behind me for a sec there." I responded as I started to shiver from the cold.

"It's not that cold out, are you sure your okay?" She asked clearly worried. "Do you have the flu?" She gasped scooching further from me.

"Abbot I'm fine, I don't have the flu" I told her reassuringly "I'm just cold" I looked back to try to see Andy in all the rain, but couldn't find him. As lightning struck again it illuminated the stadium along with seven dark, cold shadows. I screamed, my voice echoing throughout the stadium. The crowd turned their heads to look where I was looking. There were panicked shouts and screams as everyone tried to get out of the stadium.

"Dementors!" The commentator shouted from the magic microphone, "RUN!" The crowds moved in a panic to get out.

"Stay behind me." Abbott said calmly as she drew her wand. I felt a hold hand on my shoulder and turned to see a dark shadow approaching.

"Abbott!" I screamed panicked.

"Think happy!" She screamed back trying to fight off some more dementors.

"How can I think happy? I'm going to die!" I screamed back, she didn't respond and the silence echoed back at me.

"I can't see your friend Hallie." A voice said. I turned to see Gifflet standing next to me. "It would really be to bad, if you were, to fall." He said holding on to more shoulder tightly.

"No!" I screamed back at him trying in a panic to get away. I made a grab at my side to try to reach for my wand, with horror I tempered I had left it on my bedside table. I squirmed as he put his other hand on my other shoulder and backed me against the railing. I screamed as I felt the wet railing against my robes and my body started to go over.

"What a shame." He said as he gave me one final push over the railing. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as I felt my feet leave the ground, my back rolling over the railing. My stomach dropped like when you are riding a roller coaster. I was falling, I was going to die.

"Hallie!" I heard a scream across the quidditch pitch. My braids flew past my head as I kept falling down and down. Swoosh! I felt a hand wrap around my arm. My head was inches away from the ground. I looked above me to try to see who caught me past the hard rain. Another hand reached out and tugged me onto the back of a broom. I sighed a sigh of relief as I sat on top of the broom and wrapped my arms around the rider.

"Are you okay?" A framiler voice asked.

"Andy?" I asked puzzled.

"Yeah, I saw you falling off of one of the high seats. What happened?" I sighed. I hated that I had to lie to Andy, he had just saved my life. I didn't know if I could trust Andy, I mean I barely knew him.

"I just stumbled back and slipped over the railing" I said biting my lip. He looked back at me unsure.

"You know you don't have to keep secrets from me." He told me, I nodded looking down at the ground. "But if that's really what happened." He said and I nodded furiously.

"Can you just take me back to the school, I'm still kinda shaken up, I just want to go back to the common room." I told Andy still looking at the ground.

"Alright." he said calmly as we started off toward the school.

…

Scott came bursting into the common room and ran over to where I sat in a black leather armchair by the fire stroking Amorette. "Are you ok?" He practically yelled across the common room.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it," I said nonchalantly, "just another horrifying experience to add to my répertoire of sleep paralysis nightmares." I said dryly sarcastic. Although deep down I was still scared and shaken.

"Ok then." Scott said eyeing me. "You've had a pretty stressful day you should probably go to sleep." he said.

"Your right" I said standing up. "Goodnight Scott" I said taking Amorette in my hands and trudging up to the girls dormitory. I pulled on a plain white nightgown and flopped down on my four poster bed, drawing the curtains around the bed. I laid down on the bed looked up at the ceiling, and closed my eyes thinking about the quidditch match. A guilty wave of heat flew over me as I thought of the fact I lied to Andy. As I laid down I started to feel less and less on my bed and more somewhere else entirely.

"I must say that is quite a lovely memory." A voice echoed throughout my head. Wherever I was it was pitch black and I could hear my own breathing so clearly it was scary. I looked around of what seemed like a void of darkness.

"Wouldn't you agree?" The voice inquired and I jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Gifflet standing there looking at me curiously.

"Why can't you leave me alone!" I shouted and my voice echoed through the void and practically bounced off the non existent walls.

"As much as I'd like to leave you alone, I can't." He said bluntly.

"Why not?" I asked starting to walk around observing him. I stopped, being confident wasn't the right idea he could kill me with a snap of his fingers. He stood in silence saying nothing. "Fine don't tell me" I snapped "I'll figure it out on my own, now can you please send me back to my dorm? It's not nice to spy on people when they sleep, didn't your mother ever teach you manners?" I asked teasingly. Stop it Hallie, try not to insult him. I opened my eyes, panting.

"Are you okay?" A girl asked. I sat up and looked to my side where another third year Slytherin stood.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine." I said trying to shake the 'dream' away.

"Nightmares?" She asked concerned.

"Something like that." I said still shaken.

"Well I'm going to sit in the common room by the fire." she said matter of factly "you can join me if you want" she said as an afterthought.

"Um, alright." I said getting up, I grabbed a blanket off my bed and wrapped it around my shoulders. And started down the stairs following the girl.

I sat down by the fire in the leather chair wrapped in my blanket. "So what's your name?" I asked her.

"Kitty the best person ever." she joked sarcastically. "I'm actually just Kitty, Kitty Boil." she said. We talked about random things for hours until I felt myself getting drowsy and drifting off to sleep.

…

"Hails" I heard a harsh whisper in my ear. I awoke with a start screaming a little. "Godric, chill it's just me!" Scott yelped.

"Sorry" I mumbled tiredly. Scott sat down next to me.

"Long night?" He asked sympathetically.

"It's Gifflet, he's in my thoughts and he pushed me off the quidditch stands." I said to Scott still rubbing my temples trying to shake off the headache I woke up with.

"Maybe you should tell the headmistress this sounds serious, it sounds like another wizarding war is starting." He told me.

Chapter Eight (A New Wizarding War)

Me and Scott scrambled up the stairs from the slytherin common room, to find Lyla and Wallace and in the library. I quickly explained to Lyla and Wallace about Gifflet being inside my head and to my surprise, they believed me.

"Well there's only one way you can fix that." Lyla said still hovering over a book while writing and essay.

"No that's wrong!" Wallace said pointing to a part in Lyla's essay. "But yeah about Gifflet, Oclyomcay. It's how you can read people's thoughts slash memories and get people out of your head. Well, theoretically."

"Hold up." Scott said, his head banging down on the desk. "How much of this is theoretical?" Lyla shrugged and waved her hand sideways.

"Some, maybe all?" She said hesitantly as Scott began to bang his head on the table again."it's kinda iffy." She finally said.

"Will you stop with that?" I asked Scott sharply. In response he banged his head on the table on final time and then sat there head down on the desk. "Scott, what the hell, sit up" I said annoyed.

"Well the only person who was really good at it, and knew the most about it was Professor Snape." Lyla said, flinching every time Scott hit his head against the table.

"Who?" I asked, lyla seemed appalled at my ignorance.

"Is she kidding?" Wallac asked Scott. He banged his head on the table and sat up looking at Wallace.

"She's a muggle born, of course she not kidding!" Scott hissed and then he went back to hitting his head against the table. I elbowed him under the table.

"Stop that." I muttered at Scott, who continued to bang his head but more quietly now.

"History aside, he was a professor here at Hogwarts, who to our current annoyance, is dead." Wallace said leaning back in his chair. "And for the last time Lyla that's wrong!"

"But," Lyla said hopefully while trying to get Wallace off her essay. "He does have a portrait, which is essentially the same thing, right?"

"Yeah and on top of that he can't physically hit you!" Wallace exclaimed getting up. "Which is always nice." he said under his breath.

"I'm sorry what?" I asked in shock. Scott stood up and grabbed my arm.

"It's a long story." Scott said as we rushed out of the library.

…

"Wait Wait Wait!" I said and our group came to a halt. "How does one break into the headmaster's office?"

"I mean it can't be too hard can it?" Scott said looking back at me.

"She probably leaves the door unlocked anyway." Lyla said shrugging.

"Can't we just go in and ask her if we can use the portrait" I pleaded.

"Are you crazy!" Wallace practically yelled at me. "That's a horrible idea!" He said.

"Alright alright." I said giving in. "Let's break in to the headmistress office." We ran up some more stairs before we came to the statue of an eagle.

"Where's the office?" I asked looking both ways.

"You really can the that dumb?" He knocked on the top of my head "Hello? Anybody in there?" he joked. "It's behind the statue." He finally told me rolling his eyes.

"So how do we get past the statue?" I asked.

"A password." Lyla said proudly.

"Do you know it?" I asked everyone.

"No." They all replied slowly.

"Are we going to just sit here and guess it?" I asked. Lyla shrugged.

"Yup." Scott said sitting down by the statue.

"No." Wallace said hauling Scott to his feet. "Scott lay off the cookies your getting fat" Wallace said, Scott slapped his arm and laughed.

"Ugh! This is so dumb!" I groaned. I heard a creak from the statue.

"Please don't tell me that off of all things this is so dumb is the password." Lyla moaned. The statue turned as of saying yes and stairs started to fold out.

"Wow." Wallace said after a couple minutes, "That's a relief, I thought we were going to have to start guessing muggle candy!" We started up the stairs, hoping nobody was behind us and that nobody was in the office. We stood outside the office door for a couple minutes listening for anything."

"Anyone want some sherbert lemon hard candy?" I said pulling a hand full out of my robe pocket.

"You just carry around candy in your pockets?" Wallace said.

"Yeah, so? Do you want one or not?" I said. He shook his head. "Suit yourself." I said popping one into my mouth.

"On three." Lyla said putting her hand on the door knob. Wallace, Scott, and I followed suit.

"One." Wallace said.

"Two." Scott said, ready.

"Three!" I shouted and we flung open the door and tumbled into the room.

"Who's there?" A voice asked.

"Probably a Potter." Another grumbled.

"Why don't you let us sleep?" A third voice screeched. We walked forward examining all the portraits.

"Who's that?" A portrait asked us.

"Yes, who are you?" Another asked.

"Children." I grumbled. Looking around the room for anything important.

"Is that back talk I hear?" A portrait said, sitting up to get a better look at us.

"What are you here for?" A kindly voice asked, and I turned to see an elderly man with half-moon spectacles.

"That's Dumbledor!" Scott excitedly whispered.

"We, err well, We broke in for, well to see-" Lyla stuttered baffled.

"Professor Snape." Wallace interjected walking in front of us.

"He's over there if you really want to see him." Dumbledore said somewhat relaxed and surprised. I looked over to where Dumbledore was pointing. A greasy long haired pale faced man sat in his portrait, sleeping. That was the wizard we were looking for? Really?

"Excuse me?" I asked a little timidly. No response. "Excuse me?" I said a second time, more frustrated. "Professor Snape! We need your help, please it's important!" I said harshly losing my patience. Scott sensed I was losing my temper and put his hand on my shoulder pulling me back from the portrait.

"What?" Snape snapped "I didn't die to have children mess around with my portrait." he said harshly.

"Severus, calm yourself, they have come to ask for your help." Dumbledors portatit said calmly.

"We want to learn occlumency." Lyla said camly. Professor Snape scoffed.

"Rude." I muttered under my breath.

"Only the very intelligent can learn something like this." Profesor Snape muttered. "Not first years."

"You know what." I said loud enough for every portrait in the room to hear, "There's probably a book in the restricted section, we should just get there." I angled, hoping his vanity would get the best of him.

"Haile what are you doing we're gonna get detention." Scott hissed.

"Shut up and let me work my magic." I said through my teeth at him. "Just follow my lead," I said. Wallace catching on chimed in,

"Yeah your right who needs help from a crotchety old portrait anyway." he said.

"Yeah I mean this portatifs old enough to be our grandpa." Lyla said slowly. I glanced at the portrait who was scowling into a small shard of glass on the table in the portrait trying to fix his greasy mop of hair, and swishing his cloak around.

"Fine." Snape drawled, "You'd probably kill yourselves trying anyway." He told me coldly.

"Great!" I said excitedly, I walked over and up to the painting examining the hinges and screws that kept it tethered to the wall. "We are going to need some kind of heavy duty metal cutter and screwdrivers, lots of screwdrivers" I said still looking at the portrait, Scott, Wallace, and Lyla nodded in agreement.

"I am NOT a portable portrait!" Snape said highly offended. "I'll follow you from painting to painting, where are we going?" He asked coldly and uninterested. I was about to speak when he cut me off "we'll use my old classroom, theses children are blithering idiots how am I going to teach them occlumency?" Snape said loudly to Dumbledore. Wallace and lyla exchanges hurt glances, me and Scott rolled our eyes. I turned my attention back to the por trait of Dumbledore, who in response to Snape, shrugged and settled into his chair petting his Phoenix.

Chapter 9 ( occlumency)

I had never attempted something so advanced. My mind raced as I thought about all the things that could go wrong, and all the things I could do with that knowledge, as I followed the portrait down the many stairs into the cool darkness of the dungeons, I heard Wallace nudge Scott "do you guys really live down here?" He asked, shuddering. I didn't see what was so bad about being down here, it was quite nice in our common room. Scott just shrugged and we kept walking down the twisting Turning hallways when we stopped at a door I had never seen before.

"I guess this is it." I hesitantly looked at the large door, I tried the handle of the door but it was locked. "It's locked." I said staring blankly at the door.

"Alohamora" Lyla said flicking her wand, the door locks all seemed to reverse and then to my surprise the door swung open. We all walked in hesitantly the foreboding darkness of the classroom the ingredients sitting in formaldehyde jars, all seeming to stare at us. Dust and cobwebs covered everything and it seemed like it has been left untouched for years. Until the occlumency lessons started, of course.

…

"Legilimency!" Wallace said pointing his wand at me. The light from the spell came towards me at a fascinating speed. I stumbled back slightly as the speed hit me, I wasn't ready for it. Flashes of winters, falls, summers, and springs flew through my head. Creating years and years of memories. My mind slowed on a memory, screaming and darkness being hurled toward the front seat snapping back, screaming, crying. A man with shallow eyes.

"Stop!" I screamed "Stop that's private!" I said tears streaming down my burning red face. Wallace looked at me wide eyed and scared. Lyla walked over to him trying to comfort him, but he only stared at me, horrified. I started to back away, out of the classroom, until I hit a cold stone wall. Snape stared at us coldly and somewhat confused.

"I guess that will be all for tonight it's late." Snape drawled out, coldly dismissing us. I dashed out of the classroom desperately trying to get as far from Wallace as possible. I dashed up the stairs an out and into the courtyard. I sat on a bench in the courtyard, my knees resting against my face, embarrassed, upset with hot tears streaming down my face. I heard footsteps approaching me and stopping right in Front of me.

"Go away Wallace." I said annoyed and not moving.

"Hailie." I heard a soft voice say "Are you ok? What's wrong?" They said, concerned. I looked up and saw Andy. My heart started racing, I wiped away my tears and tried to smile in spite of it. Trying to hide the fact I was crying.

"I'm fine." I said looking up at him "J-just enjoying the night air." I manage to say stumbling over my words.

"Haile, I can see it in your eyes you're not okay. what's wrong?" he repeated sitting next to me.

"Well a friend saw something, something about my past." I bit my lip hard and continued. "It was kind of messed up and I've lived with it for a long time. I dunno it put a black cloud over me for what seemed like forever and I thought I had escaped it. I thought no one knew. So they wouldn't think I was weak." I said sadly looking down.

"Hey," He said, touching my shoulder to make me turn to face him, but then quickly pulling his hand away once I looked up at him. "Hey. Just because you have seen some stuff, And have lived through some terrible things doesn't make you weak. If your friend thinks less of you because of that, is he really a good friend?" Andy said, pulling his hand through his hair, as if he didn't know what to do with it. I bit my lip and smiled at him.

"It's getting late" he said breaking the silence and looking up at the sky, I nodded and stood up and walked back to my common room.

….

"HALLIE" a voice screamed then darkness and then silence. I woke up panting. I had had this nightmare so many times this week, I grabbed my blanket and wrapped it around me shaking. I bit my lip and drew the curtains around my bed and sat in the dark.

"Are you alright?" Kitty said poking her head past my curtains. I nodded biting my lip. "Clearly you're not ok," she said looking me up and down. "Want to talk about it?" she said sitting down on my bed.

"Just nightmares.." I said trailing off.

"Well if it's just nightmares then do you want to go steal some snacks from the kitchen?" She said standing up.

"Alright" I agreed following her down the stairs and into the common room. We quickly exited the common room and crept around a bunch until we found the kitchens. We got a couple odd looks from some of the house elves, but they left us alone. As we crept over to the farther end of the room a shadow moved.

"Aw come on guys what did I tell you about stealing snacks?" A couple first year Gryffindors backed away from the cookies there.

"Sorry." A girl with a mouth full of food muttered. Both me and Kitty chuckled and grabbed a couple cookies. We sat down by the cooking fire and looked into the intensity. The flames leaped up and down and the oranges yellows blues and gold intermingled into a mess of colors. The warm dry air filled the room leaving it warm and quiet with the exception of the quiet crackling.

Chapter 10

Frost covered the windows in swirling patterns. I rushed to the window to see the first snow of the year. Fragile snowflakes fell In little flurries almost obscuring courtyard.

"Brilliant isn't it?" Scott breathed as we settled back into our seats in defense against the dark arts.

"Yeah." I said back distracted. Everyone in the room was quiet watching the snow. Some girls were messing around with quills and floating them in front of their face as if they were levitating them with their mind. A couple boys laughed at this and messed around, but the majority of us couldn't believe we were almost at the end of the first year. Before going to class Kitty had asked me if I wanted anything from Hogsmeade, she had suggested a love potion, but I had declined and just asked for candy. She raised an eyebrow and then noted it was more fun to brew them anyhow. I had wondered m what she meant about love potions, since as far as she knew I'd never even been in love. I sat staring out at the cold harsh snow. When I thought about it I did kind of like Andy, but I didn't love him. Besides, it's wrong to use love potions on someone, Isn't it?

"So Hallie. How's life been going?" A voice from behind me asked. I turned to see Wallace, his black hair rumpled up like crazy and growing too long. He had dark circles under his eyes, but they still seemed to smile, though not as much as usual.

"Fine. How about you, you look," I paused. "sick?" At this Wallace chuckled as he tried to straighten out his hair and rubbed his eyes.

"No I'm fine! Just, just contemplating life. That's all." He finished his last words with a note of sadness and tiredness to it. I nodded my head and looked back in front of me.

"Me too." I said to no one in particular, but Wallace heard. A heard a Flump as Lyla flopped herself across my desk.

"Good morning Hallie." She said looking up. I chuckled at her awkwardness as she tried to get back up and into her seat. I heard the door close and Mrs. Tooke walked in with a cup of coffee following closely behind her.

"Ladies!" She said addressing the half of the room with girls floating objects. They all stopped and pretended they didn't know what she was talking about. "And Gentlemen, open your textbooks." A couple kids sighed and struggled to pull out their textbooks from their satchels.

"To what page?" A small voice echoed from the other half of the classroom.

"That's a very interesting question Miss Jones." She said now sitting on top of her desk waving her finger around dramatically. "Turn to page 394." A couple muggle borns in the back chuckled uncontrollably each shooting each other looks and imitating something I couldn't put my finger on. Then one of them stopped laughing and looked up.

"But that's the page about werewolves Mrs. Tooke." Jones said.

"I know. We just finished the moon cycle so I believe we should move on to werewolves." she cast a pointed look at Wallace, then shook her head and kept speaking. I looked back at Wallace whose face had seemed to swell up red. I couldn't understand why she had looked at Wallace that way but, it couldn't be that important. "Today we will be learning about how werewolves are connected to the full moon cycle and how to spot a werewolf. Anyone know any characteristics of a werewolf?" She again looked at Wallace, what does she mean by keeping looking at Wallace? Wallace slowly raised his hand.

"Yes Mr. Holland?" She said calling on Wallace.

"One characteristic of a werewolf is a transformation during a full moon," he told her.

"Very good, Anyone else?" she asked, Lyla's hand shot up.

"Yes, Miss Chang?" She said.

"One way to spot a werewolf is scars after transformation" she said again looking back at Wallace. The fleshy pink scar across his check caught my eye, but he had said on his way to care for magical creatures he had been foolishly walking through trees and cut his cheek across a branch.

"Good. Anybody else?" Nobody else raised their hand. "Take notes while I'm reading." Mrs. Tooke said as everyone pulled out parchment. She jumped off the desk and grabbed a stick, it wasn't her wand since that had ended very badly earlier in the year, and started speaking while waving it and hitting it against desks while stomping her foot to prove a point. She continued to read about recognizing werewolves with the occasional glance at Wallace.

After class, I tried to find Wallace in the hallway, to ask him what was up and why the teacher kept looking at him. Every time I saw him though, he avoided my eyes and got himself lost in the crowd as if he didn't want to talk to me. I felt someone brush up against me, I turned to see lyla standing there, "what's up with him" she just shrugged and walked away.

…

I walked into the library to see scott sitting across the room looking at Wallace I sat down next to him "your starting again" I said under my breath to scott

"What?" Scott said rolling his eyes and looking at the shelves of books as if in a day dream.

"At Wallace, your practically drooling." I told him smiling teasingly.

Scott reached to wipe his mouth "No im not shut up!" he said insistently. I laughed a little, "You're insane." he told me.

"You're right." I said an idea coming to me "What would you ever see in Wallace anyway?" I turned away and smiled knowing I had got him.

"WHAT?! Wallace is amazing! Funny, smart, beautifu-" Scott stopped and fell silent all the while turning more pink. I sniggered at him. "I can't believe I fell for that." he said hitting his head on a table. I saw Wallace from across the room stare at scott but when scott picked his head up he looked away. I sniggered. Scott shot me a playful glare and shoved me causing me to fall off my chair laughing. As I picked myself up off the floor I noticed something shiny on the floor. Squinting I picked up a circular flat thing, that looked somewhat like a scale.

"Scott!" I cried out in realization waving the scale around. He looked down at me with a what-do-you-want-now stare.

"SHHH-SHHH" I heard Wallace's example from his table.

"Oh, no one gives a shit Wallace!" I said rather loudly and some fourth year gryffindors sniggered from where they were sitting. Wallace looked embarrassed and went back to his reading.

"What is that?" Scott asked, eyeing the scale in my hand.

"The Nugruvile! Don't you remember, the first time I got in the hospital?"

"Oh yeah! Forgot about that." Scott then lowered his voice to continue. "You know, with the whole Gifflet thing."

"Right, but it's probably still around here right?" I asked.

"Well I mean yeah, nobody really leaves Hogwarts." I rolled my eyes at Scott's comment.

"Not helping. Anyhow we never ended up looking through that restricted book."

"Also true. Hallie do you thin-"

"What are you two talking about?" Lyla asked coming to sit down on the floor beside us."

"It's a long story." I muttered.

"And it's the story of how you met me, so get comfortable." Wallace said sitting down in my chair. I rolled my eyes and pulled up a new one while Wallace told the story of the Nugruvil and how he stalked us. Scott added in bits Wallace got wrong and other bits about before we met him. Lyla seemed to absorb it all, nodding and laughing at the funny parts.

"You done yet?" A voice sounded from behind me. I looked up to see Kitty leaning over me.

"Oh yeah, we're done. What's up?" I asked looking at Kitty who seemed to be getting confused looks from everyone.

"Well I'm back from Hogsmeade, so I got you some stuff. Also I was wondering if you wanted to come do something with me. Your female friend can come too, she looks smart." Lyla smiled at the last part.

"Can I come, Hallie? Please?" Lyla asked. I chuckled and nodded.

"Well come along!" Kitty said and we trailed after her like ducks. We stopped at the end of a hallway and Kitty looked both ways before approaching a tapestry. The tapestry showed an odd man and some trolls. Kitty walked up to it confidently, but also seemed to be concentrated on something. A door appeared and with a gasp Lyla muttered something under her breath. As soon as we were inside I noticed it was a very nice room that had tons upon tons of potion supplies.

"Welcome to the come and go room!" Kitty exclaimed. "Or that's at least what the house elves call it. Sometimes it's here and sometimes it's not, and it always looks different."

"The Room of Requirement." Lyla muttered.

"The what." I asked, looking at her puzzled.

"My mom told me all about this place, Harry Potter taught special classes here at some point." Lyla said looking around the space. "She also said something about a first kiss here too, but I wasn't exactly paying attention to that part."

"Who is your mom anyway Lyla?" Kitty asked. Lyla sighed.

"A nobody. Well her name is Cho, but like." Lyla sighed again and picked up some mistletoe from the floor.

"Tis the season!" Kitty exclaimed, pulling out a tattered potion book and some supplies.

"What are we making anyway?l" I asked walking over to the fancy caldron and the tattered notebook that was flipped open to a certain page. Lyla walked over to try to read the scrawled handwriting.

"A love potion!" Lyla asked startled and confused.

"Well yeah, I like to make them just to see what my favorite smell is and to try to make the potion better." Kitty said shrugging.

"Did you write this?" I asked looking at the book with interest.

"Yep! I wrote the entire thing, it's better than the actual book itself."

"So how do we start?" Lyla asked, genuinely excited.

"Well there's a pinch of whatever this is. And don't touch those, those are rose thorns." Kitty said, eyeing my hand right by the thorns.

"Right" I said pulling my hand away from the thorns and being careful not to knock anything over. "What else do we need?" I asked, surveying the large shelves filled with potions ingredients.

"Ashwinder eggs, peppermint oil, moonstone dust, which Kitty is holding now, and standard potion brewing water" Lyla said reading off the list of ingredients from the book. I nodded and grabbed each thing from off the shelf. As we carefully brewed the potion lovely smells started to flow into the room. Kitty took deep sniffs Turning in circles. Me and Lyla laughed and eventually we all sat down in a circle around the potion, I plopped down on a pillow and crossed my legs. Kitty scooped up a vial of the Amortentia and held it up to her nose.

"It smells like all your favorite smells." Kitty explained before the potion turned a deep purple. "Detergent,"

"Detergent?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Kitty just shrugged and continued as it turned a light reddish brown with hints of sparkles.

"Sweet smelling wood," The potion turned a light brown, "Books, mainly old ones, and err, well," Kitty stuttered as the potion turned a jet black. "Coal." She croaked out.

"Coal? You have a weird sense of smell." I said, rolling my eyes. Lyla looked like she was thinking about something, but then shook her head and took the vial.

"Fresh parchment, Citris, and coconut conditioner." She said quickly as the potion changed to a paper brown, lemon yellow, and then a weird creamy color. They all looked at me expectedly. I took a deep breath and sniffed the potion.

"I smell mud, well a muddy quidditch field" I said slowly, my mind raced with images of andy racing around in the rain the grass on the quidditch field was spotted with patches of mud from where the dead grass and dirt usually rested. I shook the images away and took another deep sniff, "I smell Lush bath bombs, the sweet smelling kind" I said and consequently the potion turned a deep fuschia, I saw lyla and Kitty shoot me an inquisitive look, I waved my hand at them "it's a muggle thing. And also printer ink." I quickly added as it turned a mixture of strange printer colours.

"What's a p-printer? Lyla asked.

"It's that weird black box that violently shoots out non moving words and pictures on white parchment." Kitty said while trying to describe it while making weird hand gestures. Lyla nodded.

"OHHHHHH my dad has one of those things in his office, it always kind of frightened me." she said. I rolled my eyes. Kitty plowed on changing the subject.

"Soooo, do you fancy a quidditch player, because I highly doubt you have a strong emotional tie to quidditch coming from a muggle family." Kittys asked.

"Actually-" I started trying to make something up.

"I think Hallies has been to every quidditch game there is! She even goes to non Slytherin ones." Lyla said quickly, covering for me, she quickly glanced back at me, did she know I liked andy?

"Yeah, I just really like quidditch, I want to try out for the team next year, I want to be a seeker, but if madam pomfrey found out she would kill me it's been half a year and i've cracked my head open twice." I finished and lyla nodded solemnly.

"She would come at you with knives," she said in all seriousness, I shook my head slowly.

"Probably." I shrugged in agreement.

"Rrrrrrright." Kitty said unsure, but also realizing she wasn't getting an answer out of me. "Anyway I guess we should clean up? Or something." I took a glance around the room and noticed everything was astray.

"Nahhhh, Won't it just clean itself up anyways?"

"I guess" she said, shrugging and picking up her books. I shrugged and waved as I left the come and go room and stepped carefully out into the hallway. I looked down at my watch, shit scott was probably wondering where i was, it's getting late almost it's almost 9. I started down the hallway at a run, not looking where I was going, until I ran into something or someone. I sat on the ground knocked down and looked up at who I had run into. Brown eyes looked back down at me with a slightly inquisitive look. I sat baffled at the feet of Andy who was pulling his hand through his hair again, his eyes glancing around nervously. He was smeared with a weird mixture of what I think was mud and sweat. I stood up quickly, my heart started racing my palms sweating.

"Sorry I didn't see you, there." I said "not that you're hard to see or anything just…." I added quickly trailing off awkwardly. I looked down at my things on the floor and began to drop down to get them.

"It's really no big deal," he said, dropping down to scoop up my books "here," he said, extending the books. I sheepishly took them from him and stuffed them into my book bag.

"Thanks." I mumbled and started down the hallway face fully red and my ears burning with silly embarrassment. "Sorry again" I called over my shoulder as I disappeared around the corner. Why was I so akward and so stupid? I hit my face. What was that? In all of my insane sanity what was that. I tried to push my stupidity out of my head as I walked back towards the common room.

Chapter 11

I woke up the next morning, tried. Honestly I'm always tired, but I was more tired than usual. As I dragged Scott down the hallway to breakfast,some part of my brain was aware something else was going on.

"Hallie!" Scott said, shaking my shoulders.

"What?" I was confused as to why he seemed so worried.

"Why are we here again?"

"Um, what are you talking about?" I responded.

"We're at the door that leads to nothing again." He said. A chirp came from the door. A strangled chirp.

"No, were not" i said defiantly "it leads to breakfast"

"Haille, stop joking around i'm hungry" scott whined desperately. I swung open the door and almost stepped into the gaping hole below me. "Haille.." scott said unsure

"Scott." I whined under my voice. I needed to go down there. Now.

"I-" he paused and thought it over. "Fine!" He took my hand and jumped down the hole in the floor. As we hit the floor I looked numbly around.

"Lumos." Scott said as I started to wander around. As I did I saw what I was looking for, more than one door. It was like an all access portal room. I flung open one door to reveal a long chamber of sorts. And in the center was a huge pool of water where a nugruvile sat, ten times the size it was at the beginning of the year.

"Hallie." Scott whispered into my ear.

"What?" I asked as we walked closer to the pool of water.

"I can see him." He said looking at his reflection.

"See who?" I asked. "Scott you're scaring me"

"Gifflet." he answered. I looked down to see the reflection of not only me and Scott, but another person as well.

"So you've finally found me. I've been right behind you this whole time" he chuckled "living right under your noses". He finished with a note of mystery. My mind raced back to all the times I had seen him, first in that car, outside of the car window that sometimes reflected my face, then in the beginning of the year on the quidditch fields it was muddy and damp and there were puddles all around, in my dreams that reflected a distorted view of reality, and in the common rooms with mirrors. Suddenly it hit me.

"You're a reflection, you can't stray too far from…." I struggled to think of some other way to say reflective surface. He paused expectantly,

"Yes, hurry up girl." he said impatiently, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Well a reflection" I said giving up on my search

"You could've said-" I heard Wallace start from behind me.

"When did you get here?" Scott whirled around to face Wallace cutting him off mid sentence.

"Well you weren't at breakfast and…" Wallace trailed off starting to go a little red.

"We were most definitely not stalking you." Lyla added quickly, Scott chirped with laughter.

"LYLA" Wallace said, kicking her in the shin, and laughing.

"Why are you all so sappy." I heard someone groan and I suddenly remembered Gifflet was still here, I whipped around to face him completely serious.

"What happens if I stomp on your puddle" I said menacingly, but he laughed, his spine chilling peels of laughter filling the air breaking the silence, like a sharp knife cutting effortlessly through the air.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Did you even go to school? Do they still teach science?" he asked inquisitively and sarcastically.

"Well," I started

"Don't answer that" Gifflet said impatiently

"The bodies are coming in a month." Scott chimed in and Gifflet stared at him confused. After all he wouldn't know that's what Mrs. Gedyan said to us excitedly every day before she was brutally slain by a mountain troll.

"One, what the hell kid,two that was hypothetical, again do they teach anything here?" Gifflet said annoyed. But we stood silently this time.

"I missed the first four days without consequence." I muttered bluntly.

"Oh yeah that happens a lot." Lyla chimed in.

"Remember when we walked around school after hours and didn't get caught?" Scott added.

"Which time?" Wallace chimed.

"Will you all just shut up?" gillet said exasperated now jumping to the mirror across the room, now he was standing full length in the mirror with an air of confidence in him now. "Godric you're just like Rebecca." he blurted out annoyed. I stopped short, my face falling.

"Who's rebecca?" I said quietly. Wondering if this horrible killer had a human side. His face hardened.

"It's none of your business," he snapped.

I heard Scott audibly gasp behind me and whisper "Tea" only to be kicked in the shin by lyla.

"Scott this is serious,'' Lyla said through gritted teeth. We stood staring.

"So we're gonna kill you now, or?" Wallace asked bored.

"Not before I kill you." Gifflet muttered darkly. His reflection gestured to the nugruvile swimming consistently in the puddle.

Scott scoffed "What are you going to do with that?"he said, rolling his eyes before jumping in pain. "OW Lyla goddammit stop that" Scott muttered as Lyla once again kicked him in the shin. "I probably have a bruise the size of-" I elbowed him in the side. Gifflet rolled his eyes and kept walking away from the edge where we stood. The nirigruvill spun around like a merry-go-round making the water into a whirlpool, slowly drawing out a human like figure from the water. Suddenly I realized what he was trying to do with the nirigruvill.

"CRUCIO!" Wallace screamed, aiming at the gifflet figure, suddenly in a flash of light I knew something went wrong. I felt a flash of hot stabbing pain, like someone had pulled molten iron out of the furnace and stabbed me with it. I screamed out in pain, thrashing around. I felt the pain spread all over my body like a thousand little burning knives.

"FUCK!" Wallace screamed and immediately stopped the curse. I felt my body go limp and crash to the ground . My eyes rolled around my head feeling heavy, like I had stayed up to late. Purple dots clouded my vision until everything went completely black.

...

"Hallie?" A voice asked, cutting through the dark.

"What Do you want?" I moaned, my head throbbing. I looked around to see Wallace in the bed across from me. His arm was bandaged up almost like a cast. "Why are you here?"

"Honestly I don't know, I normally rely on Lyla for these sort of things. I must have been knocked out." he said said shrugging.

"My head hurts!" I heard scott whine from across the room

"Lyla is the only one who isn't here. Oh your boyfriend came by earlier." Wallace muttered, smirking at me.

"Shut up" I mumbled while trying to hide my burning face.

"So you don't deny it," Scott teased.

"Be quiet scott your boyfriend might hear you." I told Scott, smirking. Wallace looked at me and then at Scott, then back at me again, obviously very confused. I knew if there was a table Scott would be hitting his head against it.

"Oh look who's up, rise and shine Miss Markson." Madam Pomfrey chirped. She walked over to Wallace and checked on Wallace's arm. As she unwrapped the bandage I saw cuts all along his arm that looked like gnawing. As she wrapped a new one the door burst open. SLAM.

"Hallie!" Andy and Lyla stood there in the doorway. Lyla walked over to Scott as madam pomfrey left Wallace.

"If you weren't hurt I would hit you. But then madam pomfrey would hit me and that would be bad." Andy said forcefully. I swore Madam Pomfrey muttered something around the lines of 'damn right I would'. Wallace made a crackling noise from next to me. I glared at Wallace, who only smirked at me.

"That's Wallace by the way." I mumbled trying not to look at Wallace who was giving me suggestive faces. "He's gay." I said addressing Andy's confused look.

"Damn right he is." Scott practically yelled from across the room. Now it was Wallace's turn to look embarrassed.

"This is scott hes also gay" i said turning to andy. He looked at both of them and then at me.

"So are they-" he started guestering to both of them.

"Sadly not yet." I said shrugging. I smirked at Wallace, who was now burying his face in the pillow instead of looking at me or Scott.

"I'm betting by christmas" Lyla shouted from across the room. Scott smacked her lightly.

"That's for all these bruises I have now." Scott mumbled at Lyla.

"Next time you decide to fight something that threatens the school, what about inviting me? Then maybe you won't be half dead."

"That's right. No more of this being half dead." Madam Pomfrey said from across the room

"It's not my fault Gifflet hit me with the cruciatus curse" I said defensively. I heard Wallace facepalm behind me.

…

"Yeet" I said as I chucked my books across the room and into my trunk, the time had finally come it was finally summer break, Next year I would be a second year I would also officially be a teenager 13, as I slammed my trunk shut and dragged it down to the common room, I felt a sharp tap on my shoulder, I jumped but quickly realized it was only Scott. "Scoot, what are you doing?" I said teasingly without turning around, but Scott stepped in front of me, his face echoing bewilderment.

"Haille im right here," he said concerned, my stomach clenched with dread and fear as I struggled fighting myself with whether I should turn behind me or not, what you can't see can't hurt you right?