Seeing Things

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Some of these characters are mine, though, so if I accidentally copied off some one else's story, well, sorry about that! As far as I know, this is an original idea with original characters.

Summary: Alea Avis was a normal British teenager, on a normal vacation, with her normal family. But everything is not as normal as it seems. OCs galore along with the rest of the gang! Enjoy and please R&R!!

A.N.: Hi!! This is my first fic, so please: be nice! I've been roaming around for awhile now and finally, I've decided to post a story of my own up. I'll probably get better as I go along. I'm American too, so please excuse me if I get the British wording or anything else wrong. Harry and Co. do show up in the story a little later, too. Reviews are always welcome (HINT HINT!! ), and so is constructive criticism. Enjoy!

Chapter One

Nighttime Conversations

An eerie breeze crept around Hemiline Woods Campsite one shadowy night. This particular campsite was located near a northern part of England were barely anyone lived or visited. The dark, dense, woods surrounded the small area on all sides, its trees having so many leaves on them, that the forest was even dark in the daytime. The campsite was a run-down old place that had scarcely enough money to keep it open and at the moment, the only people at this camp was a vacationing family from London named the Avis'. They had rented two tents: one for the couple and the other for their two daughters, ages thirteen and sixteen.

The Avis' had settled into the camp nicely; stood up the tents, made a campfire, had a canned dinner, and finally calmed down for some sleep. Of course, as to be expected the two girls didn't relax as quickly as the adults did.

Inside their tent that night, just barely audible above the whistle of the winds, you could hear a silent argument happening. A light inside flashed on…

"WHAT?!"

"Oh, pleeease! Please, please, please, please, please!!" begged an untidy haired brunette.

"No - way!" replied a grumpy, ruffle-haired, sleepy looking girl from the other side of the tent. She slammed the pillow over her head, hiding her strawberry-colored curls to futilely try drowning out her sisters' whining voice. The brunette, though, had decided to try again.

"Oh, come on! Please?" She snatched the pillow away from the redhead's face. The look of annoyance spread wide over the other sisters' features.

"No way, Alea. You're not going into those woods." She listed the reasons off on her fingers. "You could get lost! You don't know what's in there! Mum and Dad would slaughter me if I let you go. And besides that", said the redhead in a superior tone," that old caretaker back there warned us not to go in there alone. "

"Who said I'd be going in there alone, Rachel? You'll be going with me!" Alea rolled her eyes, as though it were obvious.

This struck Rachel as a surprise. "B-b-but,-"

"What are you? Afraid or something? Ha! That's hilarious! Hahaha!"

"I am not, so just shuddup 'Lea!"

"Oh, yes you are! I know when you're afraid. Your cheeks get all pink! So, what are you afraid of? Are you scared that a big, huge, hairy werewolf will pop out and eat you or something?! I mean, just 'cause it's dark in the woods doesn't mean -" she broke off in thought for a moment. Then an evil grin spread across her face. " Oooooh, I get it now! You're afraid of the dark, aren't you?! That's even more hilarious!!" Alea rolled over in her sleeping bag, giggling.

"I thought I told you to shut up! Besides, if you don't you'll wake up Mum and Dad!" said Rachel, jerking her head in the direction of the other tent. "And if you do that, you'll never be able to go into those bloody woods." Rachel paused and then smirked as her voice slowly rose above a whisper. "Never mind me! Be as loud as you want! Don't let me stop you from–"

"Shut up!" whispered Alea, her fit of giggles gone. She sighed. "Ok, you don't want to get caught, right?"

"Correct."

"And I don't want to get caught either," said Alea. "I know that if mum and dad found that we were planning to go into the woods that-"

"Wait. We?" said Rachel. "Who ever said that I was going too help you?"

"Oh, get off it Rachel! You know you're going to help me anyways!" snapped Alea.

"You can't tell me what to do!" responded Rachel. "I'm older than you and I'll tell Mum and Dad that you were plotting to go into those dangerous woods. You will so be grounded!"

Alea looked crestfallen at her sister. " Oh, come on, Rachel. I'm sorry I laughed at you, okay? … I didn't mean anything by it…" The teen gave her sister then a sorrowful glance, turned around, and buried herself in her sleeping bag. "I guess I just won't get to go in the woods with you, after all. I really was looking forward to it, too … but we could always find some other way to bond, like… like do our summer homework together…" She sigh miserably.

A wave of guilt passed over Rachel. "Oh -- all right, I-I guess we can go," she sighed.

Alea sprung back up, smiling broadly. "Wonderful!"

Rachel frowned and rolled her eye. Stupid little prat, leading me on like that. "But how are we going to get passed that creepy caretaker? What was his name? Mr.—ah, what was it?"

"Karkaroff," said Alea, "Wasn't it?"

"Yeah, I think so … He didn't look too nice."

"Humph," pouted Alea. " You always have to spoil everything." She rubbed her fingers on her temples and closed her eyes, saying nothing, thinking. Now was the perfect time to go over their plan, so she didn't dare lay her head on the pillow, lest she get tired and accidentally drift off to sleep.

"Well," Alea said irritability. She was tired of having her sisters sparks of genius ruin her plan. " You got any bright ideas, Ms. Know-it-all?"

"Um… He seemed to be practically dozing off in his chair when he was signing us into the camp", said Rachel. "Maybe we could just sneak past him?"

"No, no. That won't work…" Suddenly, an excited grin spread over Alea's face. "I know!"

"What?"

"We can make a mess! That should distract him!" said Alea.

"Ha! That's never in a million years going to-"

"Oh come on! What else would we do? Trap him in a net? I know it'll work! Please? Will you trust me?"

How can I? Rachel thought as she rolled her eyes. But she said, "Alright. But for now can we go to sleep? All this bloody planning's getting me so exhausted."

"No way! We're no where near done! Can't we finish this now so we don't have to do it in the morning?" said Alea, who felt anything else but sleepy, actually a bit hyper. Her head was reeling with ideas and she couldn't help but smile.

Rachel reluctantly agreed.

So they talked for a few minutes and got the details of the plan to get the caretaker out of their way. Then they ran into another predicament: their parents. But eventually they figured something out for them too. Having no further problems that they could think of, they decided to get some rest.

After a few minutes of laying on her back and thinking of her adventures she was soon to have, though, Alea started to stretch and yawn. She had suddenly realized how tired she was. The sleeping bag on the hard forest floor suddenly seemed like her soft bed in London and it was quite warm and cozy… Her eyes were begging her to close them and she agreed. Soon she was sleeping silently next to her sister, enjoying dreams of grand adventures, impossible possibilities, and, of course, food.

Though if she had stayed up a little longer she would have found it hard to sleep indeed.

Out of the forest, seconds after midnight, marched three dark, hooded figures, two with gleaming white masks. Silently and swiftly, they moved across the grounds of the camp, heading for the caretaker's cabin.

The one to the left had a silver glove, though why he would wear just one was anyone's guess. It seemed to glow with a strange silver light, and if you looked closely it almost seemed attached to his very wrist. He was short and trembled slightly as though he wanted nothing more than to leave the presence of his companions.

"Wormtail," snapped the man to the very right in a harsh voice. Then man to the left tensed. "Stop quavering like an idiot. It is a honor that our Master has graced us with his presence, is it not?"

"Y-yes! Yes of course it is!" he said in a squeaky voice, glancing with frightened blue eyes through his white mask at the center man, whom remained walking towards the cabin. The man called Wormtail did stop shuddering, although his nervous posture was still foolishly obvious, playing with the sleeves of his robe.

The one to the right who had just spoken stood tall and menacing, striding proud next to the one in the center, blonde hair shining under his hood. However, he glared in disgust whenever he could toward the character with the silver-gloved hand, as though he was lower than dirt.

The one in the center stood in front of the others, and had totally ignored their conversation. He seemed much more interested with the task at hand. The man was leading the way towards the door of the cabin. He wore no mask. Two, scarlet eyes flickered on the man's pale face from beneath the figure's hood.

As the man approached the door, he raised his hand, but not to knock on the oaken door. His long skeletal fingers were holding what looked like a skinny, slightly battered bit of wood. The figure pointed it at the door.

"Alohomora!" whispered the high, cold voice.

The door jerked open with a loud screech.

The middle figure smiled coldly to himself, seemingly satisfied, as he stepped though the door, the tall man following closely behind. The man called Wormtail paused when he reached the door, then pursued after the others, sweeping in after them, while an unnoticed snake as large as a python slithered in front of the entry.

Inside the hut there was a surprised strangled yelp of a new voice, the caretaker's, and scrambling, as though trying to get to something as quickly as possible, but the harsh, strong voice of the right hand man said, "Locomotor Mortis!" There was a loud THUMP! and the clambering stopped with a sudden eerie calm.

"Accio Wand!" said the same voice, breaking the silence.

The cold voice of the middle man could then also be heard, talking icily to the caretaker inside, voice dripping with mocking fake concern. "Well, well, well. I was beginning to wonder… Karkaroff, were have you been? We've all been so… worried about you…"

There was an evil snicker and the colossal snake then crept in and the door shut behind it.

For a few minutes, all that could be heard was the silent talk of the two men, the caretaker's stuttering and hesitating, the others biting, accusatory, and pitiless.

But then, suddenly, the caretaker's voices rose into a frantic plea. It was no good. Muffled cries of pain could be heard from inside. Cruel, cold, laughter followed. Then the voice cried some unheard incantation, and the screaming stopped.

The door opened seemingly on its own accord yet again. The hut was encroached in darkens, the lights inside appeared to have been put out.

From the doorway the hostile voice could be heard, saying "I do not take kindly to cowardice, Karkaroff, which you have shown much of these past few years. Too much of. And that greatly irritates me. Wormtail here knows well what happens when you displease Lord Voldemort…" An evil, amused grin spread across Voldemort's face. "Don't you Wormtail?"

There was a terrified gulp and then the squeaky, slightly trembling voice said, "Y-y-yes M-master." What little of Wormtail's face that could be seen from under his mask had gone white with fright at being addressed and was glancing at the battered stick in his Master's long fingers worriedly.

Voldemort laughed, high and cold, piercing the night like a blade tearing silk.

"I believe we shall meet again soon Karkaroff," said Voldemort with a cackle. And the men who had entered just minutes before now exited the dark hut. Voldemort lead the way, followed by Wormtail, who was at, most likely, what he thought a safe distance away.

The tall man, though, paused in the doorway, glanced over his shoulder at Voldemort and Wormtail for a moment, and then whispered something indistinct to the caretaker, who was at the moment, panting on the floor. The masked man handed something to him, and swept quickly towards his companions, who were heading for the woods. They didn't seem to have noticed his private word with the owner of the campsite.

Everything was silent as the three men walked back towards the forest, the snake following close behind. It's scales glittered as the clouds parted to reveal the crescent moon. The breeze picked up, moving the clouds back over the moon, making its feeble light fade as quickly as it had come. Then the snake and three men disappeared with a small pop, leaving no trace that anyone had been there.

Eyes snapping open, the young man came to, fighting for breath. Sitting up slowly, as though it pained him to move, he reached a shaking hand to his forehead and winced at the touch. Removing his hand and groping blindly in the darkness beside his bed, his fingers curled around cold, smooth wood. Sighing in relief, the man whispered, "Lumos," and a soft glow filled the room.

The raven-haired man with the bright green eyes sat there like that for a minute, regaining his breath. I better owl Dumbledore about this, he thought with a grimace on his face, remembering the promise he'd made to the old man. He placed a pair of glasses he'd found on a desk on his nose lightly and turned his gaze to a clock hung on the wall opposite him: 25 minutes after midnight. Looking past the clock and raising his wooded stick to spread the light, he spotted the empty birdcage at the top of the wardrobe. He sighed.

"Hedwig still isn't back yet," he muttered to himself. If she isn't back by tomorrow, he thought, I guess it's a trip to Hogwarts for me.

A.N.: Sooo? Whadda ya think? If you stick with the story for a while longer, the writing will get better, I promise!

I'm suspecting that when Karkaroff ran into the Forbidden Forest after the third task, he was too afraid to go back to Voldemort and his deatheaters. So, he got outside the Anti-Apparation wards, and Disapparated to a small muggle village to hide as a 'normal person'. Well, it didn't say anything about him in the 5th book, so I believe that's what happened.

Karkaroff isn't the main character in my story, though, don't worry! It's going to be mostly Alea, and a fair dose of Harry, too.

Please REVIEW!!! I'd love to get some feedback so the next chapter can be even better! THANKS!!!

Next Chapter: The girls put into action their plans to get their parents out of the campsite and to put Karkaroff out of the way.