Chapter Three
Professor Crumbie
She was there again. Where the trees seemed to engulf her. She couldn't escape. She couldn't get away. She was going to die.
"No! No!" She screamed yet again. The man was coming towards her. His wand was pulled out. He was going to kill her like he killed Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Sally. She couldn't escape. This was it . . .
"That's it!" Yelled Sally. "I'm bringing Harry in!"
"Oh, no Sal. Don't bring him in here. You can't. Tell him I'll meet him down in the common room."
"Fine, but if you aren't down there in five minutes, I'm coming up to get you."
"Fine!" Ginny said, very grumpily. Stupid nightmare. It had to come. Now Harry was going to wake up and be annoyed that she woke him up because of another stupid nightmare. The nightmare probably didn't even mean anything, either.
Sitting up, she wrapped her blanket around herself, and walked quietly past where Samantha and her friends slept, trying not to wake them up.
The minute she sat down, Harry popped onto the couch beside her. "I see you're apparating farther distances now." Commented Ginny.
"What's this Sally is telling me about nightmares? What are they about exactly?" Harry asked, looking concerned into her eyes.
Ginny quickly explained the two nightmares that she had had, and why she thought they were coming to her. "It can't be anything to serious, I've just been really worried lately and this is probably just an effect from that."
"Yet you can picture it so well, I don't think that you are getting these nightmares just because you are worried, Rose, I think that somebody is sending you these dreams. Have you been able to figure out who the man in the nightmares is?"
Ginny had a suspicion that she did know who the man was, but she couldn't tell Harry. "No, I don't."
"You know. I do know when you are lying Rose, and you're lying to me right now. Who do you think the man is?"
"I think," she gulped nervously and looked Harry straight in the eyes, "I think that it's Voldemort."
Harry clenched his jaw. He didn't want to worry Ginny at the suspicions that he had, and the worries that he had as well, so he kept his mouth shut.
Suddenly, Ginny burst into tears.
"Rose, what is it?"
Ginny pulled Harry into a hug and cried into his shoulder. "Harry, the dreams are so real. I'm afraid that you and everybody else that I love are going to die. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm afraid to go to sleep, for fear that I'll see you, Ron, Hermione, and Sally dead. Then, when I am asleep, I'm afraid to get up in fear that the dream had come true. It's so realistic, Harry."
"Hush, Rose. It's okay. I'm here for you. It's okay." He ran his fingers through her hair, and waited for her to calm down. It took her a while, but soon she was relaxing on Harry's shoulder.
"Thanks, Harry. I've been really worried lately, I wish I could stop being so worried." her voice was slightly muffled because she had buried her face into his shoulder.
"Look, why don't we sleep down here tonight. You can sleep on the couch here, and I'll sleep over on that chair over there. If you need me, I'll be right here with you." He walked over to one of the more comfortable chairs by the fire and conjured up a blanket for himself. Ginny turned her head, and looked at him one last time before she slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep.
She woke up the next morning feeling more rested than she had in a long time. She looked over at the clock that hung over the mantle piece in the common room. It read, '7:00 o'clock, students are about to wake up.' Ginny turned, and saw that Harry was still asleep. She didn't want to wake him, but then again, there would be a lot of questions if somebody caught them and asked them why they had slept downstairs all night. Especially since they had been down there together.
She walked over to him, wondering how she was supposed to wake him up. Grinning at the thought that he might kill her if she woke him up in the way she was about to wake him up, she brushed her hair behind her ear so it wouldn't touch him, and whispered in his ear.
"Harry," she said in a voice that didn't sound anything like her own. "I have your girlfriend. You better get up before I kill her." She drew back quickly as he shot upright, looking around quickly and then, seeing her perfectly fine, frowned.
"That's not funny," he murmured, rubbing his eyes.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't think of any other way to wake you up." She said with a small grin. "I think we better head up to our dormitories, if anyone catches us down here, we could be in serious trouble."
"All right, get your blanket and take my hands." She did so, and the moment she grabbed his hands, they Apparated into Ginny's dorm.
"Thanks, but you better get out of here now before Samantha and her friends wake up."
"I'm gone." he said with a wink, and he Disapparated.
Ginny sighed, and started to pull on her robes just as Samantha woke up. She didn't say a word to her, she just left to go get Hermione.
She met her on the staircase, bag already with her. "Good morning Rose!" she said with a smile.
"Good morning Books!" Ginny said, returning the smile
"How long do you think it'll be until the boys meet us this morning?" Hermione asked with a laugh.
"I don't know, but I do know that I'm starving!" With that, they raced each other down to the Great Hall to get some breakfast.
After about half an hour, the boys met up with them, Harry looking more awake than Ron.
"Good morning boys!" Hermione said cheerfully.
"What's so good about it?" asked Ron. "We have to get up, get to work all day, then lay down. Good is not my definition of the morning."
"Geez, somebody's cranky." murmured Ginny as Harry sat down next to her.
"What do you have today?" asked Harry to Hermione will he started to get some eggs and bacon.
"Well, first Ron and I have Herbology, then Potions, and then we have Life Class. And what about you Rose?" Asked Hermione.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms and Potions."
Ron looked up at the teacher's table. "I wonder what the new Defense teacher is like? Is she nice, or is she mean?"
"Rose will just have to tell us, won't she?" Said Harry. "Of course I will! We better get going to class before we're late though." Harry looked down at his watch. They had ten minutes to get their first class. "You're right. We'll see you later than, Rose." Harry gave her a hug and, to hide what that meant, so did Hermione. "Thanks," whispered Ginny into Hermione's ear. "Don't worry about it. When you guys are ready to tell, you will." "See ya Pawn." called Ginny, and she walked to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. She sat in the first row, waiting for the rest of the class to come in and the class to start. The teacher, Professor Crumbie, walked in and looked at her surprised. "An early student? Are you sure I'm not dreaming?" she said, smiling slightly at her. "I'm almost always early. Unless I have to help my friends, and then sometimes I can be a little late." Professor Crumbie smiled even more widely. She murmured softly so that Ginny couldn't hear, "Just like Lily at her age." Professor Crumbie was a very sweet teacher. It happened that she had traveled the world a lot, and came to find a lot of new and fascinating dark creatures, not to mention a few dark wizards. She wasn't like Professor Lockhart who had bragged openly about his "adventures", and Professor Quirrel who had lied to everybody about his adventures. She actually was kind, and asked the students what type of story they would like to hear first. All the students were highly impressed by her, and couldn't wait to hear stories about her travels. It was only Samantha who seemed to be able to ruin it. "Have you ever encountered You-Know-Who or one of his followers?" she asked incredulously, for she didn't seem as ready as the other students to believe that this woman had done so many great things. Professor Crumbie feel silent for a moment. Ginny could see the pained look in her eyes. But as suddenly as it had appeared, Professor Crumbie's eyes returned to normal, and she said, rather quickly, "I think that's enough stories for one day. They're supposed to last me all year, and you're about to clean me out in one day!" she said as a joke, but she seemed to have lost her touch. The students seemed to enjoy her a lot, and they couldn't stop talking about her stories after class and on the way to lunch. "Can you believe how she destroyed the banshee?" "And how about the pack of werewolves?" "I don't believe a word of it," said Samantha snootily, tossing her hair to one side. "If she had been a real hero, she would have had to deal with the Death Eaters, or even You-Know-Who, like Harry." Her eyes misted over as she thought about him. "To bad Daffodil over here thinks she has a chance with him. Do you notice how she totally hangs over him, and you can tell that he doesn't like it. Did you notice how he grimaced when they hugged this morning?" she let out a fake sigh. "It's just to sad." She said this all rather loudly, and her friends nodded in agreement, even though not all of them agreed with her. Ginny didn't say anything. She was trying to hard not to smile.
The end of the day came quickly for Ginny. At dinner, Ron was complaining about Snape as usual. "That old git! He is making us do three rolls of parchment on a Vanishing Potion!" he yelled, but not loud enough so that Snape could hear him at the teachers' table. Harry stood up, and started speaking in Parseltongue to Ginny. "Meet me in my dorm in five minutes. I want to talk to you privately, so I think we need to go to the hidden chamber." Ginny nodded, slightly surprised. What was the problem that he needed to speak so privately about? (T/N: I'm sooo happy! Heather~Oh no! Here she goes again! Me~Everyone, there's this guy that I've liked for almost a year now, and I finally got up the courage to tell him . . . Heather~And he didn't say yes. Me~Well, he didn't say no either, did he? No, he didn't. We're going to call him "Matt" {not real name} And Matt said that he would like to get to know me better and hang out with me more, he just doesn't like to date. Heather~Or maybe he just wanted to let you down gently? Me~Shove it Heather. I notice you waited until you were 29 to tell Sirius. I'm going to stop writing now so I can tease Heather freely. I'm going to also stop putting Tisha's notes in for a while, because I'm sure that everyone is getting sick of them. But hey, if you want them to continue, just write it in a review. And if you want to hear more about Matt, just mention so, so I can e-mail ya and talk to ya. If anybody needs advice or help, I'm here too! Luv ya guys! Review!)
Professor Crumbie
She was there again. Where the trees seemed to engulf her. She couldn't escape. She couldn't get away. She was going to die.
"No! No!" She screamed yet again. The man was coming towards her. His wand was pulled out. He was going to kill her like he killed Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Sally. She couldn't escape. This was it . . .
"That's it!" Yelled Sally. "I'm bringing Harry in!"
"Oh, no Sal. Don't bring him in here. You can't. Tell him I'll meet him down in the common room."
"Fine, but if you aren't down there in five minutes, I'm coming up to get you."
"Fine!" Ginny said, very grumpily. Stupid nightmare. It had to come. Now Harry was going to wake up and be annoyed that she woke him up because of another stupid nightmare. The nightmare probably didn't even mean anything, either.
Sitting up, she wrapped her blanket around herself, and walked quietly past where Samantha and her friends slept, trying not to wake them up.
The minute she sat down, Harry popped onto the couch beside her. "I see you're apparating farther distances now." Commented Ginny.
"What's this Sally is telling me about nightmares? What are they about exactly?" Harry asked, looking concerned into her eyes.
Ginny quickly explained the two nightmares that she had had, and why she thought they were coming to her. "It can't be anything to serious, I've just been really worried lately and this is probably just an effect from that."
"Yet you can picture it so well, I don't think that you are getting these nightmares just because you are worried, Rose, I think that somebody is sending you these dreams. Have you been able to figure out who the man in the nightmares is?"
Ginny had a suspicion that she did know who the man was, but she couldn't tell Harry. "No, I don't."
"You know. I do know when you are lying Rose, and you're lying to me right now. Who do you think the man is?"
"I think," she gulped nervously and looked Harry straight in the eyes, "I think that it's Voldemort."
Harry clenched his jaw. He didn't want to worry Ginny at the suspicions that he had, and the worries that he had as well, so he kept his mouth shut.
Suddenly, Ginny burst into tears.
"Rose, what is it?"
Ginny pulled Harry into a hug and cried into his shoulder. "Harry, the dreams are so real. I'm afraid that you and everybody else that I love are going to die. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm afraid to go to sleep, for fear that I'll see you, Ron, Hermione, and Sally dead. Then, when I am asleep, I'm afraid to get up in fear that the dream had come true. It's so realistic, Harry."
"Hush, Rose. It's okay. I'm here for you. It's okay." He ran his fingers through her hair, and waited for her to calm down. It took her a while, but soon she was relaxing on Harry's shoulder.
"Thanks, Harry. I've been really worried lately, I wish I could stop being so worried." her voice was slightly muffled because she had buried her face into his shoulder.
"Look, why don't we sleep down here tonight. You can sleep on the couch here, and I'll sleep over on that chair over there. If you need me, I'll be right here with you." He walked over to one of the more comfortable chairs by the fire and conjured up a blanket for himself. Ginny turned her head, and looked at him one last time before she slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep.
She woke up the next morning feeling more rested than she had in a long time. She looked over at the clock that hung over the mantle piece in the common room. It read, '7:00 o'clock, students are about to wake up.' Ginny turned, and saw that Harry was still asleep. She didn't want to wake him, but then again, there would be a lot of questions if somebody caught them and asked them why they had slept downstairs all night. Especially since they had been down there together.
She walked over to him, wondering how she was supposed to wake him up. Grinning at the thought that he might kill her if she woke him up in the way she was about to wake him up, she brushed her hair behind her ear so it wouldn't touch him, and whispered in his ear.
"Harry," she said in a voice that didn't sound anything like her own. "I have your girlfriend. You better get up before I kill her." She drew back quickly as he shot upright, looking around quickly and then, seeing her perfectly fine, frowned.
"That's not funny," he murmured, rubbing his eyes.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't think of any other way to wake you up." She said with a small grin. "I think we better head up to our dormitories, if anyone catches us down here, we could be in serious trouble."
"All right, get your blanket and take my hands." She did so, and the moment she grabbed his hands, they Apparated into Ginny's dorm.
"Thanks, but you better get out of here now before Samantha and her friends wake up."
"I'm gone." he said with a wink, and he Disapparated.
Ginny sighed, and started to pull on her robes just as Samantha woke up. She didn't say a word to her, she just left to go get Hermione.
She met her on the staircase, bag already with her. "Good morning Rose!" she said with a smile.
"Good morning Books!" Ginny said, returning the smile
"How long do you think it'll be until the boys meet us this morning?" Hermione asked with a laugh.
"I don't know, but I do know that I'm starving!" With that, they raced each other down to the Great Hall to get some breakfast.
After about half an hour, the boys met up with them, Harry looking more awake than Ron.
"Good morning boys!" Hermione said cheerfully.
"What's so good about it?" asked Ron. "We have to get up, get to work all day, then lay down. Good is not my definition of the morning."
"Geez, somebody's cranky." murmured Ginny as Harry sat down next to her.
"What do you have today?" asked Harry to Hermione will he started to get some eggs and bacon.
"Well, first Ron and I have Herbology, then Potions, and then we have Life Class. And what about you Rose?" Asked Hermione.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms and Potions."
Ron looked up at the teacher's table. "I wonder what the new Defense teacher is like? Is she nice, or is she mean?"
"Rose will just have to tell us, won't she?" Said Harry. "Of course I will! We better get going to class before we're late though." Harry looked down at his watch. They had ten minutes to get their first class. "You're right. We'll see you later than, Rose." Harry gave her a hug and, to hide what that meant, so did Hermione. "Thanks," whispered Ginny into Hermione's ear. "Don't worry about it. When you guys are ready to tell, you will." "See ya Pawn." called Ginny, and she walked to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. She sat in the first row, waiting for the rest of the class to come in and the class to start. The teacher, Professor Crumbie, walked in and looked at her surprised. "An early student? Are you sure I'm not dreaming?" she said, smiling slightly at her. "I'm almost always early. Unless I have to help my friends, and then sometimes I can be a little late." Professor Crumbie smiled even more widely. She murmured softly so that Ginny couldn't hear, "Just like Lily at her age." Professor Crumbie was a very sweet teacher. It happened that she had traveled the world a lot, and came to find a lot of new and fascinating dark creatures, not to mention a few dark wizards. She wasn't like Professor Lockhart who had bragged openly about his "adventures", and Professor Quirrel who had lied to everybody about his adventures. She actually was kind, and asked the students what type of story they would like to hear first. All the students were highly impressed by her, and couldn't wait to hear stories about her travels. It was only Samantha who seemed to be able to ruin it. "Have you ever encountered You-Know-Who or one of his followers?" she asked incredulously, for she didn't seem as ready as the other students to believe that this woman had done so many great things. Professor Crumbie feel silent for a moment. Ginny could see the pained look in her eyes. But as suddenly as it had appeared, Professor Crumbie's eyes returned to normal, and she said, rather quickly, "I think that's enough stories for one day. They're supposed to last me all year, and you're about to clean me out in one day!" she said as a joke, but she seemed to have lost her touch. The students seemed to enjoy her a lot, and they couldn't stop talking about her stories after class and on the way to lunch. "Can you believe how she destroyed the banshee?" "And how about the pack of werewolves?" "I don't believe a word of it," said Samantha snootily, tossing her hair to one side. "If she had been a real hero, she would have had to deal with the Death Eaters, or even You-Know-Who, like Harry." Her eyes misted over as she thought about him. "To bad Daffodil over here thinks she has a chance with him. Do you notice how she totally hangs over him, and you can tell that he doesn't like it. Did you notice how he grimaced when they hugged this morning?" she let out a fake sigh. "It's just to sad." She said this all rather loudly, and her friends nodded in agreement, even though not all of them agreed with her. Ginny didn't say anything. She was trying to hard not to smile.
The end of the day came quickly for Ginny. At dinner, Ron was complaining about Snape as usual. "That old git! He is making us do three rolls of parchment on a Vanishing Potion!" he yelled, but not loud enough so that Snape could hear him at the teachers' table. Harry stood up, and started speaking in Parseltongue to Ginny. "Meet me in my dorm in five minutes. I want to talk to you privately, so I think we need to go to the hidden chamber." Ginny nodded, slightly surprised. What was the problem that he needed to speak so privately about? (T/N: I'm sooo happy! Heather~Oh no! Here she goes again! Me~Everyone, there's this guy that I've liked for almost a year now, and I finally got up the courage to tell him . . . Heather~And he didn't say yes. Me~Well, he didn't say no either, did he? No, he didn't. We're going to call him "Matt" {not real name} And Matt said that he would like to get to know me better and hang out with me more, he just doesn't like to date. Heather~Or maybe he just wanted to let you down gently? Me~Shove it Heather. I notice you waited until you were 29 to tell Sirius. I'm going to stop writing now so I can tease Heather freely. I'm going to also stop putting Tisha's notes in for a while, because I'm sure that everyone is getting sick of them. But hey, if you want them to continue, just write it in a review. And if you want to hear more about Matt, just mention so, so I can e-mail ya and talk to ya. If anybody needs advice or help, I'm here too! Luv ya guys! Review!)