Chapter 1: You don't see me, now you do...
"Oh, Hi! My name? Caridwen, but my friends call me Cari. Yes, I live here in the great Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I studied here a long time ago, but no, I'm not a teacher. I am just a lonely ghost. What you said? The Gray Lady? No, I'm not her either. She is very nice though. She is witty and funny…. Between you and me, I think Nick, you know, Nearly Headless Nick, has a crush on her. I think he's had it for the past 150 years….."
"Very few people in Hogwarts know of my existence. Why you ask? I can not be seen by most people. So far, only him and the Headmaster. I guess I was always a shy person when I was alive, I think it stuck when I died. How? If you go to the trophy room, you can see my name in a Special Award for Services to the School, the list of people who gave their lives defending Hogwarts. Same old story….. Dark Wizard wants to conquer the wizarding world…. Voldemort is not the first one, you know…."
"How did I met him? I saw him for the first time just before he was sorted. We were a group of about 20 ghosts and were discussing a problem with Peeves. I did not pay too much attention to him, because I thought he couldn't see me."
"The first time I talked to him was in his second year. I was attending Nearly Headless Nick's 500th Deathday party. I was talking to Moaning Myrtle, you know, the ghost that hunts the toilet in the girl's 1st floor bathroom, when I noticed all three of them looking at us. Oh, yes, Hermione and Ron attended the party as well. Myrtle went to talk to them, when I noticed that Harry was still looking in my direction. I turned to see who was behind me, but I was the only one there. That's when I realized he could see me."
"Days after the party, I found Harry looking sad. I decided to talk to him. I asked what was wrong, and he started babbling about his friends thinking he was Slytherin's heir, and that many students were afraid of him because he is a parselmouth. So we kept meeting in the corridors from time to time to catch up. I have seen more of him lately, but I have no idea why…"
"Who are you talking to?"
Cari turned her head to the voice and smiled. "Oh, hi Nick! Just talking to this cat. He saw me waking up Harry and telling him to go to bed, so he got curious and started talking."
Crookshanks just yawned and stretched himself on the couch He blinked, jumped to the floor and strutted to the stairs leading to the girl's bedrooms.
"You know what is strange?" Cari started saying to Nick, "The cat just told me that he sleeps in an empty bed in the 5th year girl's bedroom. Guess whose?"
Nearly Headless Nick gave her a puzzled look and said "Don't tell me, yours?"
Caridwen nodded affirmatively, and said "I don't know why, but no one has slept on that bed since…."
"Since you died, I know", completed Nick.
"Talking about strange things, you haven't been to this common room for a while. You started coming back here what, five years ago? I wonder what could have made you do that? Or maybe the right question is who?" said Nick in a teasing tone.
'Thank the Goddess ghosts don't blush' she thought.
But Nick continued the teasing "I have noticed that you and the young Potter are becoming chums…"
Cari now was starting to get furious on his undertone "Just because I decide to try to have a living friend does not mean anything. Besides, you know that the reason I never talk to anyone alive is because only animals can see me. Somehow, Harry can."
And without another word she left through the walls of the common room.
The next day Harry, Ron and Hermione went down to breakfast. On their way to the Great Hall, Harry saw Cari from the corner of his eye, and fell behind couple of steps from his friends to wave hello. She waved back sadly, and continued on her way. Harry noticed this and frowned.
"What's the matter Harry? You seem worried about something…" asked a concerned Hermione.
Ron teased Harry "Maybe he is trying to figure out how to ask Cho out for next trip to Hogsmeade…"
Harry laughed at the comment and entered into the Great Hall for breakfast.
"Cari? Are you here?" Harry kept looking around the empty room, until he saw a gray shadow in a corner. "What's the matter?" he asked.
"Nothing, just a bit tired, that's all. Oh, don't you look at me like that. I know ghosts are not supposed to feel tired, but I really do" she replied.
"Are you going to watch the quidditch game today?" Caridwen smiled at him and said "You know I would not miss it!" and playfully fogged Harry's glasses.
"You better leave now, don't want you to be late for Divination!" laughing at the funny face he made as an answer.
"All right, I'll go, but we'll talk later, OK?" said Harry, while waving her good-bye.
Harry was running through the hallways. He might make it to Divination on time after all. He climbed the ladder faster than he thought possible, and crashed into the cushioned chair next to Ron. Ron looked at Harry. He was panting, trying to catch his breath.
"Good luck catching your breath in this place!" he thought.
Once he saw Harry's composure went back to normal, he asked "Harry, is there something wrong? Hermione and myself haven't seen you around that much lately. I mean, you don't hang out with us like we used to…"
Suddenly, Ron noticed that Harry kept quiet, but he was blushing.
Ron asked tauntingly again "Maybe there is something I should know about? Or better yet, a someone?"
Harry blushed more intense now.
"Bingo!" thought Ron. "Sooo, who is the lucky girl? Cho, perhaps?" he asked with a wicked grin.
"No, you don't know her…" Harry answered quickly, thinking "No one does, except me."
At that moment, professor Trelawney entered the room past the curtains, and stopped at their table.
"Here we go again!" thought Harry.
Professor Trelawney just pointed at Harry and said "You will think your friend is dead, when in reality is not!"
Ron looked at Harry, and all he could say was "Huh?"
Harry answered with a shrug. They got their tarot cards ready and started another session of 'make up your doom as you go' as they liked to call it.
Nearly Headless Nick was roaming through the hallways when he saw Cari. "Going my way?" he asked.
Cari jumped and turning to face Nick, who was looking at her curiously, said "You scared me. I was immersed in my own thoughts. Where are you going?"
Nick gave a suspicious glance for a second, and said "To the quidditch game, of course".
She smiled and responded "In that case, it will be an honor to accompany you, sir" to what he offered his arm.
She laced hers within his and floated to the quidditch field talking animatedly.
Today's game was against Hufflepuff. It was the first game of the season, and the Griffindors were looking forward to win the cup this year, as last years quidditch games were canceled due to the Triwizard Tournament. Nick and Carry floated to some seats that were at the upper row. Cari looked at the sky. Even that still was late afternoon, it was beginning to get dark because of heavy clouds rolling in.
She commented to Nick "I just hope it doesn't rain. I used to hate playing quidditch in a storm"
She saw Hermione sit in front of them, talking to Nick, while ignoring her. "How can she ignore me if she can not even see me?" thought Cari wondering what made her think that.
She heard a "Hi Hermione!" coming from the field.
Ron was enthusiastically waving at Hermione from the field. He was the new Griffindor keeper and surprisingly was even better that Wood.
Hermione yelled back "Good Luck in the game!".
Ron looked at Harry, who appeared like he was trying to find something in the crowd, and said "Did you saw Hermione? She is over there", and pointed to where she was sitting.
Harry looked in that direction and saw Hermione, noticing also that behind her were Nearly Headless Nick and Cari.
He smiled and waved, screaming "Hi!", not looking at his friend Hermione, but at a grayish silhouette right behind her.
Nick noticed that Harry's reaction when his friend waved back, was a little bit like disappointment. But when Cari waved right after her, his face lit up with a big smile. It was time to start the game, so everybody went to their positions.
Madame Hooch blew the whistle, and everybody went into the air. Hermione, Nick and Cari kept cheering their team, when Cari saw lightning far away.
Not 10 minutes into the game, when it started raining heavily. The clouds seemed to get darker, and the rain heavier.
Lee could be heard "Great catch by Griffindor keeper Ron Weasly! Possibly the best keeper in Griffindor History!"
As the game continued, the rain seemed to get heavier.
"Potter dives against Hufflepuff defense and yes! He has the golden snitch! Game over! Hufflepuff 40, Griffindor 190"
Harry landed his Firebolt in the field. Before anyone could get near him, Cari saw the sky and then saw Harry.
"Oh my, Nick! Do you see that?"
Ghosts have a very different sense of time. They can make seconds look like hours and centuries look like minutes. Nick saw what Cari was pointing to.
"That lightning bolt is going to hit him!" whispered Nick.
Cari knew she had to do something.
She floated to Harry as fast as she could and screamed "Harry, watch out!" and tried to push him out of the way.
Miraculously, somehow she managed to shove Harry, who fell sitting down on the floor. Cari suddenly saw a blinding bright light, as she realized she had been hit by the lightning. She could feel herself being pushed heavily into the ground, hearing a loud thump as her arm reached the floor.
"Hey, that hurts!" thought Cari while saying out loud "Ouch!"
When she looked at Harry to see how he was, he looked like he had seen a ghost, all he could muster was "Cari?"
She was feeling wobbly, but managed to say "Harry, what's going on?"
With amazement he responded "Cari, you are solid!" and then she fainted.
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