Author's Notes: I'm sorry, but in the last chapter's review responses, I made a booboo. I let a spoiler slip in my response to Duelist Demon's review. I replaced it with an edited version, but some people had already seen it. I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! Anyway, thanks to all the people who are reviewing! You make this story worth it!
Disclaimer: I don't claim to own anything presented in this story except for this plot, so you can't sue me. So there!
Chapter 4: The Man in the Broom Closet
Harry, Ron and Hermione trudged to their classes. At breakfast they had heard that Parvati Patil had become the most recent victim of the soul-snatcher (as he been dubbed).
"What the heck does this guy want?" Ron wondered aloud. "I mean, what's the point of taking other people's soul"
"That's exactly what everyone else is wondering," Hermione said, and she couldn't be more correct. There wasn't a person in Hogwarts that wasn't gossiping about who or what was guilty. Lavender and Padma were crying rather loudly amongst a group of girls who tried to comfort the two. Nobody could blame them, though, because it was a very tragic thing.
"Potter!" Harry didn't need to turn around to identify that smug voice, but he did anyway. "You're still sore about when Patil ditched you at the Yule Ball? Or did she do something else to make you snatch her soul?"
Harry was about to tell Malfoy to eat something very nasty when Padma screeched and lunged at the offender. She attempted to scratch his eyes out and ended up chasing after Malfoy up the stairs. Padma was stopped only when the Ravenclaw Prefect ordered her to and deducted 15 points from his own house.
"I guess she doesn't want people joking about Parvati," Hermione said quizzically.
"Only the Slytherins would do that," Harry added bitterly.
"The least the guy could've done was take Malfoy," Ron said, "Nobody would miss him."
Harry privately agreed while Hermione scolded Ron for wishing that fate on anyone, even if Malfoy deserved it.
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Fourth year Transfiguration is just as difficult as I imagined it! Ginny Weasley thought as she desperately tried to turn the bottle on her desk into a butterfly. It was the day after Parvati's 'disappearance', and the school was still buzzing about it.
She looked up in time to see Colin Creevey accidentally knocked his bottle on the floor with a forceful wave of his wand. It shattered on impact, spraying glass all around on the floor.
"Colin Creevey! What have you done now?!" Professor McGonagall swooped down on the boy, piercing him with a stern stare.
"I – I'm sorry, I just got frustrated and –"
"Enough, Creevey. I'll simply have to get you a plastic bottle this time. Weasley," she said, startling Ginny so that she almost fell out of her chair, "would you kindly get a broom? I can't have students going to the hospital wing to get glass out of their feet."
Ginny nodded and walked out of the classroom, watching where she stepped. She hurried down the corridors, partly because if Filch were to find her he might not listen to her excuse, and partly because of the soul-snatcher. She wasn't sure what it looked like, but she imagined a hairy body with too many arms and teeth. It had never occurred to her that it could be the same culprit that had taken the Dursley's souls.
She found the broom closet easily enough, and carefully sought a normal sweeping broom. Sometimes, by mistake, a flying broom would be placed in the broom closet, and if you tried to sweep with it it would fly out of your hands and give you a sharp whack on the head for being so foolish. Ginny had learnt that lesson in her second year.
A small whimpering sound came from behind the brooms. "What?" Ginny pushed aside the brooms and saw what had made the sound.
A young boy with brown eyes and long white hair stood at the back of the closet. Dark circles under his eyes indicated a lack of sleep, and the dark spots on his skin looked an awful lot like bruises. His head snapped up and he stared at her like she was some kind of unearthly savior.
"What are you doing back there?" Ginny asked.
"Help me!" he cried, and he latched his hand on Ginny's sleeve. "Help me, please!"
"Calm down," Ginny said nervously. What on earth did this boy want? "If, you need help, I'll go get Dumbledore for you-"
"DON'T LEAVE ME!" he yelled as he fell on the floor, still holding Ginny's sleeve. "Don't leave me, he might take over again!"
"Who? Who'll take over?" Ginny was utterly confused. She noticed that tears were streaming down his face. This is scary, Ginny thought, Either he's mad, or he's scared out of his wits!
The boy simply looked up at her and said, "I'll tell you everything, just don't leave me here."
"Okay then, you'll have to come with me," she said in the most soothing voice she could muster. Ginny pulled him up to his feet. She noticed an odd medallion hanging around his neck.
Suddenly the boy's eyes opened wide. He let go of her sleeve hastily and attempted to get the medallion off.
"What are you do-" Ginny's question was answered before she could finish asking it. The medallion glowed brightly before he could get it off, then it shone so brightly that Ginny had to cover her eyes. The boy's screams filled her ears, until they stopped abruptly. The light was gone too.
Ginny uncovered her eyes and gasped. All the boy's bruises were gone. There was no sign at all that he had been crying, and the bags under his eyes were missing too. His eyes were narrower, darker, and had an evil glint in them that she had seen once before; in the eyes of Tom Riddle.
Immediately she knew who the boy was, and what the boy had meant by 'he might take over'. "You're the soul snatcher!" she whispered, feeling as if she had lost her voice. Ginny found it and screamed as he made the medallion glow again. She bolted down the hall before she saw what could have happened next. Frankly, she didn't want to see at all. Ginny didn't stop running until she came across McGonagall's room and practically threw herself in.
"Ginny Weasley, what on earth-"
"I saw him! I saw the soul-snatcher!" Ginny then fainted against the wall, from fear and exhaustion.
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The entire staff searched the castle for two days straight, but didn't find the boy. They supposed he must have run off the school grounds.
Ginny was soon swept up in a river of attention and questions. Like Ron in his third year, she was now getting more attention than Harry. Everyone wanted to know what had happened and finally learn who the soul-snatcher was.
The Weasley brothers almost had a heart attack when they heard what had happened. She was lucky Percy wasn't there, otherwise she would have received a long lecture about why you shouldn't investigate strange noises (or something like that).
"That must have given you quite a scare," Hermione said sympathetically.
"It was scary. I thought he was going to get me!" Ginny said. She had gotten over the issue and was now enjoying her fame.
"Did you ask him if he could get Malfoy?"
"Ron!"
"What? It was worth a shot, wasn't it?"
Harry stayed quiet. He wasn't assured that the boy had left for good. Something told him that he would be back, and soon.
"What did he look like, Ginny?" Ron asked.
"He wasn't much shorter than you, Ron, and he had long white hair that was in bunches that ended in a point. He had narrow brown eyes and was wearing a weird medallion. I think that's what he used to steal souls."
"Interesting," said Hermione, "what kind of medallion?"
Ginny frowned, deep in thought. "I kind of don't remember. There was a big ring with a triangle on it. It had an eye in the middle that looked like those eyes the pictures on the walls of the Egyptian pyramids."
"Maybe he's Egyptian?" Ron suggested.
"Since when do Egyptians have white hair?" Ginny said, "And besides, he seemed more like an alien to me."
Hermione's eyes snapped wide open. "That gives me an idea!" She dashed out of the Common Room and they supposed she went to the library.
"What was that about?" Harry said, finally joining the conversation.
"She figures she'll find some book in the library on aliens that terrorize Hogwarts." Ron yawned, then said, "Well, I'm off to bed. See you in the morning."
"Goodnight!" Harry and Ginny chorused. She was becoming a little less shy around Harry, at least so that she could talk to him.
"Harry, do you think he's an alien?" Ginny asked.
"I think he's something like that. I'm not sure why, but that's what I think."
What is Hermione after? Will Yami Bakura return to the broom closet? In the meantime, where'd he go? I will put out the next chapter in exchange for-
All the readers: One review!
*blinks* Okay, I guess you guys are familiar with the terms then. See y'all later!