It was the day before the hogsmeade weekend. I was so excited. My dad told
me all about Hogwarts and everything through the weekly letters we sent to
each other. I needed to ask Dumbledore another question. I sent him an owl,
to make an appointment. He called me out of my Transfiguration class. I
walked past the gargoyle and up the spiral staircase. Dumbledore was
sitting at his desk.
"Good Afternoon." He said without looking up. I closed the door.
"Good after noon." I said.
"So, what did you need to talk to me about?" He asked me. I took a deep breath; it was all or none now.
"Well, I was wondering, can people.... Wizards and Witches communicate with the dead?" I asked him. He raised his eyebrows and then thought about it.
"Well, yes they can, but it's a rare gift. Not many people can do it, even if they tried and dedicated their lives to it." DUmbledore informed her.
"How do you know whether you have that gift or not?" I asked.
"Well, they just know if it occurs more than once than you know. Why?" He asked me. I looked down at my hands.
"Well, I keep having these dreams with people who I know who are deceased. And it seems so real, like the conversations between those people and me. And it's insane. I don't know if I am imagining it or not." I said he watched me with intense eyes. It was like he was boring into my mind. Flashes of my dreams went flowing through my head like a T.V. show.
"Maybe you have that gift." He said after a minute.
"How do I know though? I mean, I just... I don't know. I'm very confused." I said.
"You will know, when you need to know. And you believe you will know." DUmbledore said. I nodded and got up to leave. I wanted to take a nap.
"Here. Why don't you read this? And when your done you can bring it back." He said. I nodded and took the book from his desk. It was title, Death and the Mysteries Of.
I got to the dorm and laid the book on my trunk. I wanted to sleep. I drifted to sleep, hoping to contact Conner again.
Ashleigh was sitting on a couch; Conner was sitting in a chair right in front of her. "Ashleigh! I have been waiting for you." He said his eyes were sparkling. She smiled. "Conner! I have to know, is this you? Is it really you? Or is my mind playing tricks on me?" I asked him. "It's me. You have the gift. Pretty soon I will be leaving though. I need you to know. I love you, I always will but you and me we weren't meant to be. Fate showed us that. It's hard for me to say this but you will move on and someone will be there for you when I cant. Ya know?" He said and asked. I did understand, but it didn't mean I liked it. "Conner, you can't leave me. We can survive like this." She said, she reached out to grab his hand she couldn't touch him. He shook his head sadly. "No Ash, we cant. He is the one, and you know who I am talking about." Conner said. Ashleigh looked down; she wasn't going to accept it. She loved Conner. "I love you. I couldn't do that to you." She said. He closed his eyes. "Ashleigh, I.... I understand, I can't be there for you... I WANT you to move on. Please baby, Please." He said. And then he started to drift away. Everything shifted. There was a flash of green light and Lily was dead on the floor. A baby was crying and the tall cold figure from her other dreams stood over the baby.
I woke up breathing hard. I needed to see Lily, Just as I thought that, she walked in.
"Ash! Hey, you missed an awesome lesson." Lily said. She put her book bag on her bed. Great! She was alive; it was just a dream, nothing more.
"I bet." I said. We talked the rest of the time in the Common room before Supper. But I had to go to the library and get a book on the eclipse. They were studying that in Astronomy. And I needed to write an essay about it. It was half an hour until supper the library was packed. I just hope they still had the book.
"Hey, do you need any help?" A sly voice that I recognized as Malfoy's said behind me. I turned and smiled.
"No, but thanks." I said. He nodded and yet he didn't move. He kept staring at me. I was wearing a short skirt; they said we had to wear the uniform, a blue shirt and a plaid skirt. But they never said anything about adjusting it. I had to reach up to get a book, which would cause my skirt to follow.
"Actually...." I said turning around to face Malfoy, but he wasn't there. I shrugged and reached up to get the book.
"Hey." Snapes voice this time. I turned after pulling my skirt down a little.
"Hi." I said in my usual cheery voice.
"What book is that?" He asked me. I looked at it and then I showed him the cover. We made our way to Madam Pince.
"Astronomy?" He asked I nodded. He seemed very nervous.
"Ash!" I heard my name being shouted. Alyssa was at the door; she was receiving a piercing shh from Madam Pince. I said a quick good bye and ran to Alyssa.
"What?" I asked. She shrugged.
"I was just saving you from Snape." She said. I groaned.
"What are you talking about?" I asked her. It was her turn to groan.
"Ash, Sirius likes you and you obviously like Sirius, and yet you are willing to go out with trash like that? I mean come on, he is so into Dark arts." She said. I laughed.
"I like him? You think I like Sirius?" I asked her. Her nod was very confident.
"Oh, really? And yet somehow, I loathe him and his styles. He is an arrogant jerk!" I said everything I was saying was true.
"You think that, but under all that he is very sensitive." She said.
"Try not to Psycho analyze him, it will only create confusion." I told her as we entered the Great Hall.
As the days went by, they also got colder. I was wearing more clothes under my robes. I tried my hardest to avoid the outside cold. But in some cases it was just inevitable. It was a week before Christmas break and my dreams were getting less and less frequent. I never talked to Conner again, in a dream anyway. I felt sort of saddened by this. The only other people who knew about Conner were Lily, Alyssa and Dumbledore. Every time was crying at night they knew why. They helped comfort me. We were in the common room watching Sirius kiss his newest victim. It was Courtney. She would end up alone in awhile and then she couldn't walk around the dorm boasting about her relationship. If you can call it that.
"Ash!" Alyssa said I woke up out of my stupor.
"Yeah? What's up?" I asked. I was working on my potions essay. Everything in life was going great.
"I need some help. Can you read over this?" She asked me. I nodded and glanced back at Sirius. Lily came up and jumped over the back of the couch onto the seat next to me. She saw me glance.
"Do you reckon its time for another prank?" Lily asked. I smiled. But I ended up shaking my head. My dad may be a forgetful alchemist but he would remember about the changing school thing.
"We can take the blame this time." Alyssa said. I laughed. God, I wanted to so bad.
"What do you guys have in mind? Do you really think we can top off the last one?" I asked them. I knew why Lily wanted revenge. James' had been dating some girl who he just used as a sex toy. Lily liked him a lot but would never admit it. But one night we were playing truth and dare. I had to admit that I liked Sirius and Lily liked James. Alyssa's crush was still undetermined, partly because she said she didn't like any of the immature guys here.
"Well.. We can get peeves to help." Lily said. I shook my head.
"Isn't it a wide known fact that Peeves would never help a student?" I asked them. They shrugged and then nodded.
"We can turn them into girls." Alyssa squealed. I laughed. God, think of something better! Although I did like the though of Sirius in a skirt with long hair and boobs. I laughed again the mental image was hilarious.
"And do you really think that will work?" I asked. The thought for a minute.
"Ok, so its not going to work, but I am sure we can think of something." Alyssa said. I nodded. I'll think about it all right. I just can't get caught.
"Are you guys going home for Christmas break?" I asked changing the subject. Lily nodded but Alyssa shook her head no.
"Why not?" I asked her.
"My mom said she's too busy to pick me up and when I said I would have a friend drop me off she said no, she doesn't want me to do that and it would be best if I stayed here. Probably having one of her boyfriends over. I hate I hate them all. I would live with my dad, but he's in Bulgaria and I would have to go to some school there. And I want to go to Hogwarts." Alyssa said. This was the first time I had heard about Alyssa family. She never talked about them.
"I'm sorry." I said. I know corny.
"Don't worry." Alyssa said in her usually cheery tone. Remus walked in and I waved. He smiled and waved back.
"Do you have something for Remus?" Alyssa asked panicked. I laughed and shook my head no.
"I just think he is cool, ya know, not like his friends at all." I said.
"In other words, she has a crush on him." Lily said.
"Have a crush on who?" Asked a voice from behind them, it was Jordan. He was the tallest and most athletic of all the people in Hogwarts. He also was born in America.
"You." Both of them said. I laughed and shook my head.
"I was telling them that I don't have a crush on Remus, he's just a cool guy." I said. He nodded. His eyes were green, bright green. They were gorgeous and they matched his brown hair.
"Ahhhh, too bad it wasn't me, I wouldn't have minded." He said, obviously flirting.
"Too bad huh?" I said flirting back I had my smile on. No one could resist the smile.
"I was wondering if maybe we could go out sometime, the next Hogsmeade weekend is coming up in two days and maybe you wanted to go and hang out with me." He asked he seemed so shy it was cute. I smiled and nodded.
"Sure, that would be great." I said his nervousness turned into happiness.
"Great, I'll meet you at the gates on Saturday then?" He said. I nodded and he left. We all squealed when he walked out of the portrait hole.
"What's happening?" Remus asked as he sat next to Alyssa, I could have sworn that I saw her turn red.
"Ash just got asked out by Jordan." Lily said. He looked at me with his eyebrows raised as if to ask really? I nodded and smoothly and then laughed.
"Awesome, so when's the wedding." He asked threw a pillow at him.
"Who's getting married?" Sirius and James asked together.
"Remus and Alyssa." I stated.
"Remus! You dog! Is she pregnant?" Sirius asked. We all laughed and Alyssa threw a pillow straight at his head. This started the pillow fight that the Prefects had to stop. But Sirius accidentally hit one. They eventually settled down when Courtney came back into the common room. She gave me a bad look when she saw us all bunched together.
"Here comes SB. Super Bitch." I said. Lily and Alyssa knew who I meant and giggled. The boys turned to see Courtney walking toward them. Sirius looked back at me and raised his eyebrows. Courtney grabbed his arm and looked around at everyone.
"I still stand by to what I said." I said and then I got up ready to leave, Jordan came up behind me and put his hands in front of my eyes.
"Hey." He said and I pulled away and turned to face him. I kissed him. When I was down everyone was staring at me. Jordan had a look of surprise on his face. I smiled and went up to my dorm.
"Good Afternoon." He said without looking up. I closed the door.
"Good after noon." I said.
"So, what did you need to talk to me about?" He asked me. I took a deep breath; it was all or none now.
"Well, I was wondering, can people.... Wizards and Witches communicate with the dead?" I asked him. He raised his eyebrows and then thought about it.
"Well, yes they can, but it's a rare gift. Not many people can do it, even if they tried and dedicated their lives to it." DUmbledore informed her.
"How do you know whether you have that gift or not?" I asked.
"Well, they just know if it occurs more than once than you know. Why?" He asked me. I looked down at my hands.
"Well, I keep having these dreams with people who I know who are deceased. And it seems so real, like the conversations between those people and me. And it's insane. I don't know if I am imagining it or not." I said he watched me with intense eyes. It was like he was boring into my mind. Flashes of my dreams went flowing through my head like a T.V. show.
"Maybe you have that gift." He said after a minute.
"How do I know though? I mean, I just... I don't know. I'm very confused." I said.
"You will know, when you need to know. And you believe you will know." DUmbledore said. I nodded and got up to leave. I wanted to take a nap.
"Here. Why don't you read this? And when your done you can bring it back." He said. I nodded and took the book from his desk. It was title, Death and the Mysteries Of.
I got to the dorm and laid the book on my trunk. I wanted to sleep. I drifted to sleep, hoping to contact Conner again.
Ashleigh was sitting on a couch; Conner was sitting in a chair right in front of her. "Ashleigh! I have been waiting for you." He said his eyes were sparkling. She smiled. "Conner! I have to know, is this you? Is it really you? Or is my mind playing tricks on me?" I asked him. "It's me. You have the gift. Pretty soon I will be leaving though. I need you to know. I love you, I always will but you and me we weren't meant to be. Fate showed us that. It's hard for me to say this but you will move on and someone will be there for you when I cant. Ya know?" He said and asked. I did understand, but it didn't mean I liked it. "Conner, you can't leave me. We can survive like this." She said, she reached out to grab his hand she couldn't touch him. He shook his head sadly. "No Ash, we cant. He is the one, and you know who I am talking about." Conner said. Ashleigh looked down; she wasn't going to accept it. She loved Conner. "I love you. I couldn't do that to you." She said. He closed his eyes. "Ashleigh, I.... I understand, I can't be there for you... I WANT you to move on. Please baby, Please." He said. And then he started to drift away. Everything shifted. There was a flash of green light and Lily was dead on the floor. A baby was crying and the tall cold figure from her other dreams stood over the baby.
I woke up breathing hard. I needed to see Lily, Just as I thought that, she walked in.
"Ash! Hey, you missed an awesome lesson." Lily said. She put her book bag on her bed. Great! She was alive; it was just a dream, nothing more.
"I bet." I said. We talked the rest of the time in the Common room before Supper. But I had to go to the library and get a book on the eclipse. They were studying that in Astronomy. And I needed to write an essay about it. It was half an hour until supper the library was packed. I just hope they still had the book.
"Hey, do you need any help?" A sly voice that I recognized as Malfoy's said behind me. I turned and smiled.
"No, but thanks." I said. He nodded and yet he didn't move. He kept staring at me. I was wearing a short skirt; they said we had to wear the uniform, a blue shirt and a plaid skirt. But they never said anything about adjusting it. I had to reach up to get a book, which would cause my skirt to follow.
"Actually...." I said turning around to face Malfoy, but he wasn't there. I shrugged and reached up to get the book.
"Hey." Snapes voice this time. I turned after pulling my skirt down a little.
"Hi." I said in my usual cheery voice.
"What book is that?" He asked me. I looked at it and then I showed him the cover. We made our way to Madam Pince.
"Astronomy?" He asked I nodded. He seemed very nervous.
"Ash!" I heard my name being shouted. Alyssa was at the door; she was receiving a piercing shh from Madam Pince. I said a quick good bye and ran to Alyssa.
"What?" I asked. She shrugged.
"I was just saving you from Snape." She said. I groaned.
"What are you talking about?" I asked her. It was her turn to groan.
"Ash, Sirius likes you and you obviously like Sirius, and yet you are willing to go out with trash like that? I mean come on, he is so into Dark arts." She said. I laughed.
"I like him? You think I like Sirius?" I asked her. Her nod was very confident.
"Oh, really? And yet somehow, I loathe him and his styles. He is an arrogant jerk!" I said everything I was saying was true.
"You think that, but under all that he is very sensitive." She said.
"Try not to Psycho analyze him, it will only create confusion." I told her as we entered the Great Hall.
As the days went by, they also got colder. I was wearing more clothes under my robes. I tried my hardest to avoid the outside cold. But in some cases it was just inevitable. It was a week before Christmas break and my dreams were getting less and less frequent. I never talked to Conner again, in a dream anyway. I felt sort of saddened by this. The only other people who knew about Conner were Lily, Alyssa and Dumbledore. Every time was crying at night they knew why. They helped comfort me. We were in the common room watching Sirius kiss his newest victim. It was Courtney. She would end up alone in awhile and then she couldn't walk around the dorm boasting about her relationship. If you can call it that.
"Ash!" Alyssa said I woke up out of my stupor.
"Yeah? What's up?" I asked. I was working on my potions essay. Everything in life was going great.
"I need some help. Can you read over this?" She asked me. I nodded and glanced back at Sirius. Lily came up and jumped over the back of the couch onto the seat next to me. She saw me glance.
"Do you reckon its time for another prank?" Lily asked. I smiled. But I ended up shaking my head. My dad may be a forgetful alchemist but he would remember about the changing school thing.
"We can take the blame this time." Alyssa said. I laughed. God, I wanted to so bad.
"What do you guys have in mind? Do you really think we can top off the last one?" I asked them. I knew why Lily wanted revenge. James' had been dating some girl who he just used as a sex toy. Lily liked him a lot but would never admit it. But one night we were playing truth and dare. I had to admit that I liked Sirius and Lily liked James. Alyssa's crush was still undetermined, partly because she said she didn't like any of the immature guys here.
"Well.. We can get peeves to help." Lily said. I shook my head.
"Isn't it a wide known fact that Peeves would never help a student?" I asked them. They shrugged and then nodded.
"We can turn them into girls." Alyssa squealed. I laughed. God, think of something better! Although I did like the though of Sirius in a skirt with long hair and boobs. I laughed again the mental image was hilarious.
"And do you really think that will work?" I asked. The thought for a minute.
"Ok, so its not going to work, but I am sure we can think of something." Alyssa said. I nodded. I'll think about it all right. I just can't get caught.
"Are you guys going home for Christmas break?" I asked changing the subject. Lily nodded but Alyssa shook her head no.
"Why not?" I asked her.
"My mom said she's too busy to pick me up and when I said I would have a friend drop me off she said no, she doesn't want me to do that and it would be best if I stayed here. Probably having one of her boyfriends over. I hate I hate them all. I would live with my dad, but he's in Bulgaria and I would have to go to some school there. And I want to go to Hogwarts." Alyssa said. This was the first time I had heard about Alyssa family. She never talked about them.
"I'm sorry." I said. I know corny.
"Don't worry." Alyssa said in her usually cheery tone. Remus walked in and I waved. He smiled and waved back.
"Do you have something for Remus?" Alyssa asked panicked. I laughed and shook my head no.
"I just think he is cool, ya know, not like his friends at all." I said.
"In other words, she has a crush on him." Lily said.
"Have a crush on who?" Asked a voice from behind them, it was Jordan. He was the tallest and most athletic of all the people in Hogwarts. He also was born in America.
"You." Both of them said. I laughed and shook my head.
"I was telling them that I don't have a crush on Remus, he's just a cool guy." I said. He nodded. His eyes were green, bright green. They were gorgeous and they matched his brown hair.
"Ahhhh, too bad it wasn't me, I wouldn't have minded." He said, obviously flirting.
"Too bad huh?" I said flirting back I had my smile on. No one could resist the smile.
"I was wondering if maybe we could go out sometime, the next Hogsmeade weekend is coming up in two days and maybe you wanted to go and hang out with me." He asked he seemed so shy it was cute. I smiled and nodded.
"Sure, that would be great." I said his nervousness turned into happiness.
"Great, I'll meet you at the gates on Saturday then?" He said. I nodded and he left. We all squealed when he walked out of the portrait hole.
"What's happening?" Remus asked as he sat next to Alyssa, I could have sworn that I saw her turn red.
"Ash just got asked out by Jordan." Lily said. He looked at me with his eyebrows raised as if to ask really? I nodded and smoothly and then laughed.
"Awesome, so when's the wedding." He asked threw a pillow at him.
"Who's getting married?" Sirius and James asked together.
"Remus and Alyssa." I stated.
"Remus! You dog! Is she pregnant?" Sirius asked. We all laughed and Alyssa threw a pillow straight at his head. This started the pillow fight that the Prefects had to stop. But Sirius accidentally hit one. They eventually settled down when Courtney came back into the common room. She gave me a bad look when she saw us all bunched together.
"Here comes SB. Super Bitch." I said. Lily and Alyssa knew who I meant and giggled. The boys turned to see Courtney walking toward them. Sirius looked back at me and raised his eyebrows. Courtney grabbed his arm and looked around at everyone.
"I still stand by to what I said." I said and then I got up ready to leave, Jordan came up behind me and put his hands in front of my eyes.
"Hey." He said and I pulled away and turned to face him. I kissed him. When I was down everyone was staring at me. Jordan had a look of surprise on his face. I smiled and went up to my dorm.