Disclaimer: No I don't own Harry Potter etc. J K Rowling does. Elianne is my own character though. And the poetry is definitely mine, and only mine.
Author's Note: another chapter on Hogwarts. Hope it's satisfactory. Got a cliffhanger mystery for you this time. And it won't be the last in the next few chapters.p.s. spelling now corrected on third papragraph
As for the relevance of the title, you might or might realise it later on in a few chapters time. It goes with the events of Halloween, which is of course always a very interesting time, though you may not realise even then what it means. It depends how sharp your mind is.
Chapter 13 "News Travels Fast"My eyes bound
I see still
The bloodied pictures
Of what may be
And of every light
Gone out
I see still
Despite
My life
My eyes bound
I wish that truly
That I could not
Find what others
Want explained
A want
That cannot
For what is not
Named
My eyes bound
Not against the real
I see it all
That is the truth
I see it all
My eyes bound
Not to cloth and darkness
But to darkness and pain
My eyes bound
To what is destiny
~~~~
It was late September, October nearly on them. The Pax Omnia ball had gone by uneventfully for her, as one of the years not allowed to participate.
Elianne had been preoccupied with school. Hermione's answers to her letters were uncharacteristically cold and short. Without any normal cheeriness. And she would have been worried by this. If she hadn't had things closer to home to worry about.
Strange how Hogwarts was home now. A few weeks and all she knew was the curling banisters of the staircases, the quiet vast and grand library, the ghosts that floated round greeting them on occasions, even the magical portraits she would watch on her way to classes. As they danced up the walls stopping to talk to each other sometimes, gossiping almost more than the girls of hufflepuff and co. The notorious gang of the inane gigglets, sadly not just from hufflepuff. Even ravenclaw, a house noted for its smartness. Somehow even their names suggested their character of superficiality- Daphne, Charlette, Georgia and Patricia in the middle, naturally.
It seemed the houses were no barriers for the ancient art of Chinese whispers. It figured that at least two of them were sly and malicious slytherins. Not that people were any longer prejudiced against the house. But both were definitely still the old school type of their house. Nasty pieces of work. Not too unprone to spreading fictitious rumours as well as the real.
She was worried though. About the rumours flying around. Cassandra wasn't all she seemed. Nor was she ready or willing to explain it to her best friends.
Strange things had been happening to her. She'd collapse. Faint. Go pale at the slightest mentions of things, not even important things. Just normal every day things that made her look like she'd seen a ghost.
People were saying she had.
And no ordinary ghost.
Their brilliant brains had surmised that she must have been seeing a ghost no one else could see.
The infamous duke of Hogwarts. Who was meant to reside in some secret location in the castle. Bound and chained by magical means to his place of rest. The rest being something he'd never intended on. Much like the late Professor Binn's.
They said he didn't know he was dead. He still believed. And belief was a scary thing. In the hands of ghost.
Peeve's was a nasty ghost.
The bloody baron was a vision of nightmares that shot chills down your spine.
But compared to the duke. Neither were on the scale.
And he didn't know he couldn't do all that was possible.
The duke had never been a very nice person in life. Which was why in death he was no better. And no less murderous. That was the reason he was imprisoned in Hogwarts.
So of course they thought the duke was in some way haunting her or she was seeing other visions, the kind that was bad whatever world you lived in, muggle or magical.
Yet Cassandra would not explain.
She ignored any questions directed to her. And insults from Patricia too. However cruel and obnoxious she was, nothing she said provoked Cassandra to satisfy her.
And she was equally worried that Cassandra wasn't there for their first flying lesson. The whole year was being taught at the same time, due to Madam Hooch's hectic schedule and had been instructed to congregate outside the school broom cupboard.
Elianne was as usual with Lucretia and Dido. Flora had opted to stand further by the corridor spying out for the twins. She had of course got distracted by Hector, a ginger haired Ravenclaw, who seemed to blush at the sight of flora and took every opportunity to talk to her.
Flora was indeed too into her conversation to notice the quadruplet of first years that approached the crowd. From the distance they all looked the same, short black hair and medium height. Closer up you could see two distinctive sets of similar twins. Two boys, each the same with ruffled black hair. The only difference was on the thin silver chains hung off the neck, an independent pendant for Damien and another Leander.
The girls looked equally identical to one another. Very short sharp stylish hair, making them look elven in quality. Though there was a clear cut between them. One, Anastis wore sweet pale pink subtle makeup and looked meek, whilst Ayran had her hair ruffled and tousled and held a tough face, waiting for someone to question her.
"Hi." They said all in unison. Greeting Elianne and her friends who were at the front of the crowd.
"I expect we look a sight," said Damien
"Two lots of identical twins. "And Leander
"All at Hogwarts." Anastis carried on from him
"All in first year." Ayran after her
"All in the same lesson" and all in unison again
They grinned to each other respectively. Boy to boy, girl to girl. Before looking back at the confused faces.
Anastis, the quieter twin apologised "Sorry. Don't mean to freak you out. Our mothers were twins too. Parvati and Padma Patil. They went to Hogwarts, probably the same time as your parents."
Lucretia's face drained of all colour and her mouth formed a neat o.
She spoke up in a hushed voice
"You...you mean you're all related to Parvati Patil? The famous…."
"The greatest…" hurried Elianne
Flora realised she'd missed them, and rushed over hoping it wasn't too late to at least introduce herself to Damien. Instead she caught onto the end of the conversation.
"Oh, her. That astrologer. Muggle magical one. She's pretty good. Wonder if you inherited any of it? Bet you can't wait for year three then."
Elianne and Lucretia stared at flora, who had totally demystified whatever they'd been trying to say about their heroine.
Flora smiled "Hi. I'm Flora Hinkley, in Gryffindor. Nice to meet you all"
Flora held out here hand to the twins, shaking the girls hands ignoring them at the same time and then moving on to the boys.
She disappointedly shook the hand only of Leander. Leander shook her hand in a leisurely manner, repeating his details. Which were lost on Flora, as was Flora on Damien; he nonchalantly picked his nails and looked anywhere but at her. Even the far sidewall with the picture of Wallis Wickham captured his attention more brightly than Flora.
And for a while they stood waiting, chatting amongst themselves. Flora tried ever diligently to strike up a conversation with Damien. It wasn't difficult in these circumstances to tell which he was. He ignored her. Leander on the other hand tried to talk to flora.
Damien once murmured something like, "That's nice Laura." And yet Leander was not taken in, despite his friendly stream of information on himself, his family and other general things.
When Madam Hooch finally approached Leander had more or less got the idea. And looked rather dejected as they began the lesson.
Elianne watched him carefully.
Not even Madam Hooch's little jokes and anecdotes on the dangers of flying made him smile.
He in turn was watching Flora,...and Damien. Flora was watching Damien. And Leander could see she was. He scowled at them briefly before mounting his own broomstick.
All through the flying lessons, she took in the instructions and flew quite fine, thinking nevertheless about her friend. Cassandra.
Where was she?
A fifth year slytherin walking from the 2nd floor, late to lesson and mindful of the moving stairs and changing hidden holes stopped oddly. Cocking his head to the side. A puzzled expression on it.
He knew he was so, so late. Snape would have taken a dozen points off the house if he hadn't been in his house.
Snape'd take off more than that if he found out where he'd been to become late.
The answer was not too surprising considering he was a fifth year male and this wasn't an all boys school.
Houses boundaries weren't as strong anymore. But for slytherins they'd been fierce and now were only less than that.
Love however had none.
Which was why Daniel Hyssop was late to potions.
And was why he didn't stop to find out what those noises were coming from the third floor.