DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter is not mine, I'm writing this for my own
pleasure. BOOK FIVE OUT IN JUNE!!! OMG
OMG!!!!! ::faints from excitement::
(Green Pig ~PROUD Hufflepuff~: Howdy-ho!
Hey it's been a while hasn't it? Oh my God I realised I had to get a new
chapter up so I wrote this as fast as I could, it was supposed to be 'Blood
Falls – Part Two' but I decided to just have it as a slotted-in chapter
from the point of view of Harry, Ron and Hermione. It's the shortest chapter so far – shorter even that 'Day out in
Diagon Alley' wow I never thought I'd do that again!
Ok so next chapter shall go back to
the point of view of Draco and it SHALL be called 'Blood Falls – Part Two'. Hopefully
I shall finally get round to the ACTION and HORROR side of this story by the
end of the next chapter hehe, so until then, hope you enjoy this little part
(even though it's short I think it's quite good) I believe my writing style has
altered slightly since I wrote the very first chapter of this fanfic – what do
you reckon?
Anyhoo, shan't keep you, thank you to my wonderful reviewers – NekoNinja and HermioneFan in particular 'casue you keep coming back! – and to you if you're new ^___~ and don't forget that you gotta review at the end or else you'll upset me!!)
Chapter Six
Vision in the Fire
Hermione had been walking around the lake for almost ten
minutes. She came out from the shadow
of the forest trees and stopped to look up at the castle. It was an idyllic scene; the tiny windows
gleamed golden light and the moonlight had made the grass silvery-blue. She turned after a long moment of deep
uncomplicated thought to gaze out over the water of the wide and black lake.
It was the first
time she had properly taken in the beauty of the castle grounds. Hermione breathed in slowly and gently and
breathed out with as much care – she felt very peaceful.
But this silence
was rudely interrupted; she spun round in the direction of whoever had screamed
so piercingly into the night and was shocked to see that it was none other than
Draco Malfoy – striding out from the darkness of distant shadows coming quickly
towards her with arms outstretched, but it was not just his manner that had
frightened her so much:
Draco's eyes were hollow and black, not a glint of a human
eye was where it should have been – it was like they had been plucked right out
without any mess. Hermione
felt her very inner soul being strangely drawn into to that powerful darkness
of where his eyes should have been, but something at the back of her mind rang
alarm bells and without knowing why until she was safely back in the Gryffindor
common room, she turned and ran as fast as she could from him.
Crookshanks yowled at her feet and rubbed against her
trembling body but received nothing back from Hermione. She didn't feel right at all – it was like
her whole body had come in close contact with… a Dementor – or something much
worse, but she couldn't think straight any more; there were too many questions
and images floating in her mind. Images
of, she couldn't describe it, even to herself… it was just odd…
She involuntarily shivered and sat down onto the couch in
front of the fire, staring into the flames as if she was trying to find the
answer in the embers. She randomly
remembered something she'd read about in a book somewhere that ancient prophets
used to do this to see the future or find the answers to any difficult
questions they came across. Merlin was
said to have done it. Maybe she
shouldn't have quit Divination – right now she could do with a teacup full of
leaves to gaze into; she felt her mind turning to a soft haze that would have
been familiar to her if she'd been up into Trelawney's tower in recent
years. Sometimes she wondered why Ron
and Harry had stuck with it, but as her thoughts trailed off into idleness a
sudden, distressing image pierced through her mind and it made her heart
falter:
She saw Draco coming towards her as he had been outside;
eyes hollow and empty of all emotion, but he wasn't outside by the lake – he
was stepping from the shadows of a dungeon corridor and he had caught her in an
overpowering grip, her whole body turned to ice and she was paralysed on the
spot staring in terror at the endless blank of tormented space as he laid his
lips on hers and she couldn't scream she couldn't do a thing-
Ron was shaking her awake - Hermione gasped and wheezed;
it was just like surfacing from the lake.
"Hermione what's wrong?" Ron asked anxiously stroking her
forehead, "Crookshanks was in our dorm again so I came down chasing him out and
you were just acting so weird-"
"Ron what happened? Where's Draco?" This quickly altered
Ron's behaviour at once.
"What do you mean? Was he in here? Did you let him in?!"
"No, no Ron I-I don't know he, he was here he-" Ron's eyes
narrowed questionably.
"Hermione… what's going on? What happened?"
"I was, just… I don't know I saw him, he was holding on so
tight I couldn't shake him off, I couldn't! He was just too strong I-" Ron
shook his head irritably.
"For God's sake Hermione I can't make any sense of what
you're telling me! Was he here? Did Draco get into the common room?"
Hermione's face was awash with utter confusion and Ron could see that she
didn't know. "What happened?"
He said slowly and Hermione told him all what had happened that she could
remember.
"…So he was in here…"
"No, no I saw him in the dungeon it wasn't here… but I
don't know why he was there, why I was there, I wasn't there at all…"
"Hermione…"
"Yes?"
"It sounds like you just had a bad dream." Hermione sighed.
"No it was too real to be a dream. Ron don't you get it? I was out there
tonight by the lake and he, he came straight for me Ron, I was so scared I just
ran I didn't bother with any spells or questions I just instinctively ran for
my life – I ran for my life, Ron."
"Okay, okay… look, we'll sort this out tomorrow. Tomorrow me and Harry – and you if you think
he hasn't frightened you too much – will go up to him and find out what he was
up to at the lake last night. Alright?" Hermione hung her
head, feeling tired and confused.
"I don't understand what happened just now… Ron, when you
came down, what was I doing?" Ron's
ears went a shade redder.
"Er, well… you were erm." He looked down at her hands and
she realised they were scorched and she was wearing Ron's pyjama top. She looked at the fire and then at the
scattered embers on the rug.
"Ron…?"
"You were throwing yourself into the fire, your robes have
been burnt, look…" He'd been going red because her robes had been burnt where
they covered her front and – Ron didn't tell her the exact view he'd got when
he pulled her back – but it was clear she'd new to buy some new shirts to cover
parts she wouldn't want everyone to see. She blushed furiously when she realised what Ron must have seen and was
extremely grateful he'd quickly and thoughtfully thrown his pyjama top on
her. Of course now he was topless and
she reddened even more but was angry with herself for thinking such thoughts –
after all they had split and she liked Draco now… though she'd never seen Draco
with his shirt off…
She realised Ron must have noticed the way she was staring
at his muscles and he coughed nervously.
"Well erm, we should get off to bed. It's past midnight, don't want to be late
for lessons tomorrow… erm, you can keep the shirt tonight, give it back to me
in the morning. And don't go throwing
yourself into the fire okay?" He said jokingly as he ascended the stairs to the
seventh year boy's room.
Hermione clutched at the shirt and guiltily enjoyed the
feel of Ron's warm fabric on her body. She blinked out of reminiscing the past with Ron as her boyfriend and
turned back to look at the flames. They
were still burning brightly and furiously.
What had she just encountered though? What had she seen…? She had an odd feeling in the pit of her
stomach that things were going to get really complicated…
The next morning there was a notice pinned up on the
inside of the Gryffindor common room entrance. Ron and Harry and Hermione squeezed themselves through the crowd to read
the notice:
All students are to remain in their common rooms until
further notice – lessons are cancelled for the day.
Seamus Finnigan was trying to unlock the entrance with
magic but with no luck, while the rest of the Gryffindors were complaining
about being cooped up all day.
"It won't be all day, I bet they'll release us soon."
Lavendar told Parvati with an air of one who knows-it-all
"What's going on? Why are we locked in?" Ron said. No one knew and it didn't seem likely they were going to be told. Breakfast had been sent straight up to the
common room so there were no disgruntled stomachs, but now there was nowhere
Ron and Hermione could discuss in private the previous night's activities with
Harry. It would seem an interrogation
with Draco Malfoy would have to wait.
Harry, Ron and Hermione reluctantly gave up trying to help
Seamus unlock the entrance ('-must be a very strong locking spell but I'll
break it-') and went up into the boy's dormitory to wait. Harry polished his Firebolt and Ron and
Hermione took this brief moment of almost complete privacy to tell Harry about
the night before – they had to keep their voices very low and pretended they
were deeply interested in Harry's broomstick to hide what they were really
talking about.
"Are you absolutely sure he wasn't in the common room last
night?" Harry said sternly.
"Harry I'm sure, I don't know what happened while I was
watching the fire but all I know is…" She paused because Neville came running
up into the dorm.
"Hey guys! McGonagall's unlocked the entrance! We can all
leave!" Neville skipped off back down the stairs and the three could hear the
rest of the Gryffindors chatting happily again as they filed out. It was nearing midday now so with no lessons
(for whatever mysterious reason) it seemed everyone was off to have a little
gossip wherever they could find a free spot.
"Hermione, carry on." Harry said once it seemed everyone
had left.
"… Well I don't know what it was, but I felt like I'd been
almost touched by a Dementor when I saw Draco coming at me out by the lake
but…What I saw in the common room, in the fire-"
"Aha! You said 'what I saw in the fire' – you're
starting to sound like Trelawney with those words! Are you trying to tell us you had a vision?"
"Ron! Don't interrupt her!" Harry snapped (he'd been
getting quite snappy in the last year – especially at Ron).
"Well sorry but, maybe she did have a vision, of
the future or something,"
"That's ridiculous, Trelawney told me in front of everyone
the day I walked out of her classroom that I had no talent at all with the
inner eye, it's all nonsense! I ask
you, Divination is hardly what I'd call a useful subject. I didn't see a vision of anything-"
"Then what did you see?" Hermione frowned at
Ron. "We all know that in our third
year, Harry saw Trelawney make an accurate prediction about Wormtail
returning to You-Know-Who on the very night she said he would and now you see
something funny in fire – which is another way of seeing things with your inner
eye remember? God Hermione you were the one who told us last year about Merlin
the Magician using embers of a fire to see things others couldn't." Both Harry and Hermione seemed to consider
this opinion but while Harry logged it away as something-that-might-come-up-in-the-future,
Hermione laughed and waved her hand in a gesture that showed she didn't believe
it at all and was sweeping it away.
"Ron, I don't know what happened last night but I did not,
did not, have a vision. It's not
possible – for anybody to have a vision-"
"But what about Trelawney's prediction about Wormtail?"
Ron pressed. Hermione sighed
exasperatedly and got up.
"I'm sorry but this is ridiculous. I'm going to the library to do some homework
– lessons may have been cancelled for the day (for whatever mysterious reason)
but we still have a Potions task to complete." Hermione swept out and Ron
clicked his fingers remembering about Snape's homework.
"Damn, coming Harry?"
"Yeah alright." He began to put away his broomstick
servicing kit. "Y'know, she still hasn't
told us exactly what happened to her in that 'vision'' from the fire."
Harry said walking out with Ron. "Think we can wheedle it out of her before
lunch?"
"Bet I'll do it before you can!"