With My Little Eye

Chapter 1 - Imagination

Mrs Valerie Kensington sat down across from the sofa where her patient lay.

"Right, we will start with an imagination game. This game works by feeding on your most frequent thoughts, that you may not have realized you were feeling. Please say now if you wish to back out."

"No, I'll continue."

All Valerie could see of this girl was her long curly black hair that fell over the side of the red fabric seat.

"Very well. I will ask you questions, and you will start to see an image build up in your head. Answer all my questions in as much detail as you can, please." Valerie saw the girl's eyelids flutter shut. "That's it, close your eyes. Now I will begin.

"You see a place. Where is it?"

"A dark house," the girl replied. Valerie paused to see if she was going to elaborate, but she seemed to have finished speaking.

"What does it look like?"

"I can't see very well," she replied. Valerie saw her twitch on the sofa. "It's night-time, and there's a thunder storm. The brick looks to be grey, and the windows are empty. There are no lights on. The door is peeling paint. Green. Forest green, quite dark, with a black heavy iron door knocker, shaped like a griffin, or something. The doorknob and lock are the same black iron."

Valerie was pleased. They were definitely getting somewhere. She quickly took notes on all of the parts she thought important.

"What do you do?" These were all the standard questions. Valerie would run through them, then she would try to analyze her results.

"I go up to the door. I pause, then knock, loudly and clearly."

Valerie was pleased by the detail. As quietly as possible, she wrote down the girl's answers.

"Do you get a reply?" Valerie started to veer off the usual questions, as they did not seem to fit with this girl's actions.

"No. I think the house is empty."

"What do you do next?"

"I knock louder, as there is no doorbell."

"Is there an answer this time? Do you hear anything?" Valerie asked, intrigued. Unless she was mistaken, this girl had an awful lot on her mind. From the tone of her voice, she didn't seem to be in full control over what she said. She was starting to slip into a dream-world, and Valerie was overjoyed. This would make brilliant analysis.

"There's a small noise from in the house... like furniture being turned over. But that's probably the thunder. There is no answer." The girl shifted slightly.

"So now what do you do? Do you leave?"

Valerie moved around to the chair next to the sofa, so she could see the girl's face. It was currently frowning.

"Leave? No. I'd like to, I think, but I can't."

"You can't?" Valerie wondered. This was very unusual. Her patients were usually in full control of their actions and words. This game was never usually very effective, but it used up time, and Valerie was paid by the hour.

"No. It's like I'm being pulled towards it somehow... I just feel like there's something important in there." The girl's arm twitched, as if she was going to reach out for something.

"Like what? Do you know?"

"No, I don't. But it has something to do with him, I think."

"Him?"

Valerie had abandoned her notes. She was now staring at the girl in surprise.

"Yes, my uncle. He's in hospital, in a coma."

"How did he get like that?" said Valerie. This wasn't really relevant to her study, but she was curious. This may be important, anyway.

"He spoke to a stranger."

"I'm sorry?" Valerie was now very confused.

"He spoke to a stranger. A man in a long cloak, wearing robes... not a very friendly person. He did something, because I saw him. I was there. I could feel his presence... Before he did it... I don't know what he did..."

"His presence? You felt it? How so?"

"Like I do now... I don't know what it is, I can just tell when they're near. This only ever happened once before, with a girl at my nursery school. She had red pigtails, tied in little green ribbons."

Valerie wondered about this girl's sanity. She had seemed fairly normal when she entered the room, but she was clearly disturbed. Valerie could see that now. She was about to suggest that they stop, when the girl said something else.

"Some people give off a kind of aura that I feel... like him... and the girl..."

Valerie was extremely curious.

"You feel it now? The presence?"

"Yes."

"What do you do?" Valerie said, remembering the questions she was supposed to ask.

"I go in. If I stay outside, I'll freeze to death it's so cold."

Valerie rarely heard her patients speak so rationally. They usually babbled on about how spooky it was, or how fresh the daisies smelt. This was quite unnerving.

"What do you see?" Valerie asked cautiously.

"The house is empty... I can't see or hear anyone else there." The girl's face screwed up in concentration. "There are just wooden floorboards and an old rickety staircase, also wooden. And lots of doors. Too many."

"Too many?" How could you have too many doors? What an odd thing to say.

"Yes, it's unnatural. There didn't look to be this much room from the outside."

"Did it look small?" Valerie was now completely baffled.

"No, not at all. It looked like an old manor house... but this looks like it comes from a palace, by the size of it."

"What do you do now? Do you feel a presence?"

"No... it's all quiet..." Valerie watched the girl tense up on the sofa. Her mouth opened slightly, and she looked slightly surprised. "I can't even hear the weather! I don't feel anything..." The girl's expression turned from nervous apprehension to pure terror. "No... no... please... he's gone! He isn't here! You can't be here, I won't let you be! Just go! Go! He left me... ages... ago... I feel you."

Valerie was scared now. This was not supposed to happen. The girl began to convulse, and Valerie froze. She didn't know what to do. Did the girl need an ambulance?

"What's happened? Please, tell me!" Valerie's voce sounded shrill, and was slightly louder than necessary. The girl only convulsed more violently. Valerie thought she was having some sort of seizure, until she spoke again.

"Go! How did you get here? What? Don't talk rubbish, you can't do that... no, you can't! No, you didn't! Don't lie! Stop! You're lying! No! I don't believe you! I am not foolish! I KNOW YOU DID! I HAD TO WATCH YOU, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! No... he didn't... stop, just go away! You can't, he won't let you, and I won't let you! I can and I will! Just get out! I don't care, I want you to leave! Yes, I do! You can't! NO!"

Small red crescents of blood were marked in Valerie's palms, where her nails had dug in. She ignored the sting, and rushed to the girl's side.

"Are you alright? Are you OK? Talk to me! Can you hear me?"

Valerie was panicking.

Suddenly, the girl awoke and let out a piercing scream.

~*~

It had been six weeks since that psychiatrist's visit, and Elianne didn't feel any calmer. She would still jump at any unexpected sounds, although
the kind old man had helped.

When she arrived home to her uncle's flat, the family had been out, and a visitor had been waiting for her in the kitchen. That had not really been the most effective way of calming her, nor had the flash of light that came afterwards.

Eli still found that very strange.

As soon as she saw the old man sitting there, it was as if a camera went off. He appeared not to have noticed, and when she asked him, for some reason he seemed not in the least bit surprised..

"Did you see it then?" Eli had asked.

"No," he had replied. She had waited for a minute to see if he would explain what he was doing there, but he didn't.

Somehow, Eli had known that this man was not going to hurt her. She trusted him as soon as she saw him, although she got a very strange feeling about him. As she had told Valerie, he seemed to be giving off some kind of aura.

Elianne laughed as she remembered her first reaction to what she was told. She distinctly remembered his amused face when she had called him "a lying, crazy old coot". That had surprised her. She expected him to be angry and indignant. But then, you would have to expect some kind of reaction to being told that.

Eli shook her head, then carried on packing. She would be leaving in the morning. She had left a quick note to her aunt, wishing her uncle a speedy recovery, and telling her to 'have a nice life'. Hopefully, she would never have to see them again.

A brief flash of a family reading a scrap of paper entered her head. She wasn't surprised to see that her aunt looked rather pleased.

Professor Dumbledore had said that might happen.

Eli really couldn't wait to get to Hogwarts.

~*~

Moira combed her light brown hair, carefully tracing her parting with the tip.

"How do I look?" she asked her roommate. "Do you think Seamus will like it?"

"He'll love it, you look great," Ginny Weasley replied. "I still can't believe you worked up the nerve to ask him out. In front of Lavender! I thought you'd be six feet under from the glare she sent you!"

"Well, she wasn't about to ask, was she? And I really was in a hurry. I had to finish that essay for Snape, didn't I?"

Ginny laughed.

"And what about you and Dean?" Moira asked interestedly. "How are you two?"

"I dumped him last week," Ginny said, concentrating on doing up the zip on her bag, which had got stuck.

"Ginny!" Moira exclaimed, appalled. "At the beginning of last year, you'd blush if you came into a fifty foot radius of the Boy Who Lived, and now, you've practically asked out every boy in Gryffindor apart from him! It really is terrible, you know."

Ginny stood up abruptly. "I'm sure Harry didn't expect me to wait forever," she said, then she stalked over to the door. "Are you coming or not?"

"So that's why. I had been wondering if you were just trying to make him jeal-"

Moira was cut off by a pillow sailing across, smacking her in the face.

"You dare finish that sentence, Moira Greene, and I swear you won't live until your and Seamus' first date," Ginny warned, pointing a threatening finger at her friend.

Moira rolled her eyes.

"Come on, let's go to breakfast."

~*~

A/N - Was that any good? I'm so tired now, I really don't know. Please review, and I'd be really grateful if you could post any improvements I could make. I'd like to sort them out early on, if possible.

I'd like to ask if anyone feels up to a beta-ing job, as I'd really like to get my stuff edited before I post it. If any of you are interested, please leave it in a review. I'll take on more than one, if offered, as different opinions can be very helpful!

I know this is pretty confusing, but it's meant to be. You will find out next chapter a lot more. I'm hoping to be able to update this at least once a week, depending on how many reviews I get.

I hope this was OK!

Padfoot xxx

PS - To those of you who were reading my other stories, I was planning on stopping them now, as they don't make any sense with OotP out. What do you think? If you want me to carry on, I will, but I'd like to know if I've got the reviewers or not. Cheers!