IMPORTANT UPDATE!
This
is now the REAL chapter. The teaser's gone, but I left the note about
it...don't ask why. Just to confuse you all, I'm sure. I'm crazy. Let's just leave it at that. :P
Chapter Notes: Ok, first of all, I am SO SO SO sorry for not putting anything up earlier. I've been more than a little hung up on my other story…but I've also been stuck-right at the end! And I'm still stuck. So really, this is a TEASER. It's what I have so far that isn't crap, basically. As soon as I can make the ending of this blasted chapter work properly, I'll replace this one with it. I'm sorry this isn't a real update, but I feel like I've made you guys wait long enough. So, without further ado, I give you Chapter Twelve-the beginning of the end. (Of Raven's first year, in any case.) ;D
First Year, The End
When I heard Professor McGonagall's voice ring throughout the halls, telling us students to go back to our dormitories, my first though was, "Oh my god, Harry's been attacked!" But as I ran down to the dungeons from the Library, I knew immediately that that wasn't true.
All of the students were gathered in the common room, talking animatedly about who the next victim could be. I just sat in the dark corner, looking dazedly at the floor and trembling slightly. Blaise sat near me, giving my hand a squeeze. "It's alright, Raven. It's not any of us, anyway. Just another Mudblood." I stiffened under his grip, but tried to act as natural as I could.
"Yes, I suppose you're right, Blaise. Just another Mudblood." I put just enough disgust and malice in my words to be believable, but the reasons behind it had to do with Blaise's (and the rest of the Slytherins') attitude towards the situation.
Snape came into common room a short while later to inform us that we were going home the next day, so we were to pack our bags, and we were not to try and leave the common room under any circumstances, and that if they needed assistance, to owl him. He would be spell locking the entrance so no students could leave.
"Is everyone here? I don't want to lock anyone out." He said in a grave voice.
There was a murmur of ascent among the crowd; yes, everyone was there. Then an older student asked, "What's happened, Professor? Has there been another attack?" There were a few chuckles among the students gathered. I glanced at Draco, and saw a smug smirk carefully placed on his lips.
Snape glared briefly at the student who asked. "Only to stop any rumours that may arise, I will divulge in your enquiry. No, there has not been another attack."
"Then why were we all sent back to the dormitories?" another student asked, not hiding his annoyance.
"Because, Mr. Montague," Snape sneered, he was obviously not in the mood to deal with us. "A student has been taken into the Chamber by the monster. We are working on a plan to retrieve her." That comment spurred me into action.
Standing up quickly, I said over the murmur of the crowd, "Her? Who is it, Professor?" The room was immediately quiet, awaiting the answer.
Snape slowly turned to me and quirked an eyebrow, ever so slightly. I could tell that he was trying to judge what my reaction should be. And I never would have guessed his answer.
"Miss Ginevra Weasley." He said softly.
My world stopped for a moment. Oh my god…Ginny…I kept staring at Snape, but my gaze was elsewhere. I kept staring, even after he had gone. Only Draco moving into my range of vision caused me to snap out of it.
"You hear that, Raven? Your little Weaselette friend is as good as dead. How do you feel about that?"
I looked straight into his grey eyes and said in a dangerously low voice laced with anger, "She's not my friend, Malfoy."
He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Yes. Really. We were never friends." And with that, I turned away and went to my room, slamming my door shut. As soon as I got into my room, I flung myself on the bed, bursting into tears, my cries caught in my throat. I cried for a long time, fearing for the life of that red-haired girl I met on the train. And I cried about what I had told Draco…we really never had been friends…and I regretted that more than anything. I wish I could go back in time, and make real friends with Ginny, so maybe I wouldn't have been in Slytherin, maybe I would have been in Gryffindor, and I could have protected Ginny from the monster.
But as my tears slowed, my mind became clearer. Why did the monster take Ginny? She's a pureblood, right? That's what Draco said about the Weasleys. So…that doesn't make any sense. The monster had no reason to take Ginny. Unless…unless the Heir of Slytherin had something against the Weasleys…against Ginny. Someone like…Malfoy.
But again, that didn't make any sense. I heard Draco himself say to Crabbe and Goyle (or what he thought was Crabbe and Goyle), that he didn't know who it was, and that his father told him to lay low. And he also told me before that that it wasn't him. Surely Draco's ego is so big that he'd tell everyone in Slytherin. Then again, with me around, he'd probably think I'd tell Dumbledore. You can't trust everyone in Slytherin. I sure don't.
I sighed heavily. I just didn't know what to think. And currently, I couldn't do anything anyway. I was locked up in these oppressive dungeons underneath the lake. Besides, if Draco was the Heir of Slytherin, he probably wouldn't be here, right? He'd be off in the Chamber, commanding the monster to kill Ginny.
Draco Malfoy…
He was an enigma to me, even more so now than when I had first seen him that day in Diagon Alley. I just didn't understand him. Sometimes I hated him, and sometimes…he acted like he actually had a heart. But those times were few and far between. When he first met me he seemed interested in me…wanting to know everything, looking at me with those strange grey eyes. Making me feel like he was sucking me into ice-cold oblivion…
Wait a minute.
The memory of his eyes from a few minutes ago flashed in my mind. I didn't feel weird, like I used to when I looked into his eyes. In fact, I hadn't felt like that in a while. When did it change? Oh well. It's not like I missed it or anything. It just wasn't natural, really.
I sighed again. This thinking was getting me nowhere. Not that my mind had anywhere to go in the first place. At least it was keeping me from thinking about…
And I started crying again. Oh, Ginny…I hope they find you in time…I hope you're okay. I hope we can get another chance to be friends. And after a mentally exhausting evening, I fell into the void of sleep, still fully clothed and my eyes aching from all the crying I had done.
What felt like a few hours later, I woke up, still in my uniform, and slowly made my way to the door to get some water. My tongue seemed glued to the roof of my mouth. When I reached the hallway, the silence of the dorms seemed to permeate my skin. The ringing in my ears grew louder as I shuffled down the darkened hall to the bathroom. I was about to open the bathroom door when I heard a vague noise behind me. Whirling around, I said, "Who's there?"
But there was no answer. The hall was dark and empty, save for me and the green torches. I turned back around to proceed, but I heard it again. I still couldn't identify the noise, but it almost sounded like laughing…or crying. It was coming from the common room.
Slowly, my footsteps took me to the other end of the hall, the darkness only broken by the flickering green flames on the wall. But the sound was getting louder, so I started to move faster. I could make out the sound now. It was definitely someone crying. A girl perhaps? Quickly I walked, until a feeling of dread rose up in me and I broke out into a dead sprint. I burst through the door to the common room, only stop dead at what lay before me.
Ginny, beautiful, red-haired and fair-skinned Ginny, lay on the floor in the middle of the common room, a growing pool of darkness around her. She was as paler than death, her skin sallow, and her eyes slightly sunken in, her life-blood seeping out of her as not only I, but one other person watched.
But this other person was not weeping shallowly like Ginny, nor were they screaming like I. No, they were laughing. Laughing like no greater or funnier thing could have just happened.
Suddenly I was rushing forward, screaming Ginny's name. Her blood seeped through my clothes as she took her last shuddery breath and I felt a rage and an anguish tear through me so great that I slid to the floor, the darkness swallowing me as lay in the cooling blood of the body next to me.
The last thing I saw was Draco Malfoy's laughing face.
Raven came to, screaming and screaming and screaming. No words, just shrieks and cries and screeches. Her heart hammered in her chest so hard she thought it was going to break. She felt the blood all over her, the sight of Ginny's body and Draco's face fresh in her mind. It took only the feeling of someone's tight embrace to make her screams dissolve into whimpers and body-racking sobs.
"Shh…shh…it's alright…" She heard in her ear.
She barely registered it as Pansy, who to Raven, at that moment, was the greatest friend a girl could have. She may not have showed it, but Pansy really was the mothering sort of type, but only if she really liked you and felt it was worth her time. The frightened young Slytherin vaguely heard Pansy telling someone to get a handkerchief and some water. She rocked Raven back and forth, and slowly her sobs subsided, and she became more aware of her surroundings. Pansy wasn't the only one in her room. Millicent was also there, along with a few girls from other years, and Blaise and Theo and few other boys were also there. Blaise was sitting on the end of her bed; a comforting hand on her foot, and looking deathly worried about the girl. But there was one there that shouldn't have been. This one person made all rational thought disappear, and made Raven shriek in fright and start screaming again.
"NO! GET HIM AWAY IT WAS HIM! HE DID IT! HE KILLED HER! NO! HE'LL KILL ME TOO!" Raven screamed at the top of her lungs and she desperately tried to get out of Pansy's hold to find somewhere, anywhere, to hide, as long as it was awayfrom him.
Everyone jumped at her sudden burst of screaming, and while the girl who had been sent, Natalie Pierce, came back with a few handkerchiefs and a glass of water for Raven, they were forgotten momentarily in the immediate chaos that ensued.
Pansy tried to ask her what she was talking about, but Raven just shook her head, all sense of reality gone. "HIM! IT WAS HIM!" She shrieked as she buried herself as deep as the material world would let her go into Pansy's embrace. Her eyes were wide and she was staring in utter terror at a boy standing just outside the doorway.
"Who?" Pansy said in a soothing tone.
Raven finally raised a hand and pointed him out. "HIM. He's evil, a monster. Please, Pansy, don't let him get me…please…" Her voice suddenly lost all its power and she trailed off, whimpering again.
Everyone in the room looked at the boy in question. Draco Malfoy stared back at all of them, hiding his utter confusion (and well, let's face it, a little worry) of the situation and accusation with a hard look bordering on a glare, and a tightly pursed mouth.
Pansy sharply said, "Draco, you'd better go." And with an even sharper glare at Pansy, and one last glance at Raven, Draco turned on his heel and stalked away; the students gathered gaping after him.
Pansy then looked at the others, as she smoothed Raven's sweaty hair down. "Someone go get Snape. Send him an owl. Or something." Immediately, someone was out the door, off to send and owl to their head of house.
"Natalie, the water, please." Pansy was definitely now in 'mother' mode, and no one was arguing. Natalie handed her the glass of water, and Blaise the handkerchiefs. She silently got Raven to drink a bit of the water, then took a handkerchief from Blaise to wipe her sweat and tear-drenched face. She didn't particularly like taking this role, and sweat was something she generally swore to never deal with (after all, Pansy absolutely did not sweat), but it had to be done. She could already tell that Blaise was too fidgety for the job, and besides, she was there first. She had just opened the door to the girls' hall, after spending a late night with a fair lot of Slytherins, when Raven's screaming had grabbed the attention of anyone still awake and/or in the common room. She had thought she'd have a problem with the door, seeing as Raven tended to lock it, but she easily made it past that particular barrier and to the girl thrashing on the bed.
Raven had finally curled up in exhaustion, falling into a light slumber. Pansy gently laid her down then motioned everyone out of the room, although both her and Blaise left reluctantly.
I awoke again feeling quite dazed. I also felt disoriented, seeing as how I knew that what I was looking at was not the ceiling of my room. I tried sitting up, but immediately, a pair of hands belonging to Professor Snape pushed me back down.
"Professor…what's going on?"
"I was hoping you could tell me that, Miss Harrell," he said, looking at me with mild interest.
I took the chance to look around at my surroundings. I was apparently in the hospital wing, although I don't remember how I got there, and it was much busier than the last I had visited. Madam Pomfrey and a few teachers were running around administering the mandrake potion to all of those who were petrified. But then I saw someone I wasn't expecting.
Ginny. And her parents. And just seeing that she was ok, sitting there drinking something out of a mug, it brought back all of my memories of the past few hours.
The dream, the waking, the irrational fear…it was as if I had never really woken. In fact, it seemed rather like a dream, another person entirely.
Oh, and the things I had screamed…everyone probably thought I was mad. I would too, if I had seen someone in that state.
"Miss Harrell?" I was startled out of my thoughts by Professor Snape.
"I…well, Professor…what do you know?" I asked wearily.
"Only that you seemed to have had a dream from which you awakened screaming."
"That's about all I know as well, Professor." When Snape raised an eyebrow, I continued. "I mean…I'm not sure why I was so…scared."
"Miss Parkinson mentioned Draco Malfoy. Has he been a problem as of late?"
I shook my head. "No, Professor. It's just…in my dream, Draco…well, I dreamt that Draco had killed Ginny, sir." This last part I said in a whisper. I didn't want Ginny to hear, who was sitting only a few beds away with her parents.
"I see," was all my head of house said. Then he stood, and conjured a mug of hot chocolate for me. "Drink this, then come to the Great Hall. The Headmaster has had a midnight feast prepared in honour of Harry Potter's safe return of Miss Weasley." He turned and left before I could respond. Harry…saved Ginny? How? Ohmygod, I hope he's alright…
But as my eyes quickly scanned the infirmary, I knew I wouldn't find him. I knew he was fine, and he was safe. That feeling was all I needed to put my mind at rest.
Ignoring the hot chocolate, I slipped out of my bed and over to Ginny's. Her mother saw my approach, and stopped talking. I saw her eyes widen slightly when she saw my green and silver tie and the Slytherin House crest on the school robes I was still wearing. She moved slightly closer, and Ginny finally looked up from her mug to look at me with wide eyes.
"Ginny?" I said hesitantly.
She looked at me for a minute before nodding.
"I…I know that this probably isn't a good time, but Ginny…I just wanted you to know, that I was really, really worried about you…when I heard… And that I'm sorry we could never be friends, 'cause I really wanted to, and…and I'm just glad you're ok!" Tears started rolling down my face, and I wiped them away harshly, mad at myself.
Ginny's brow furrowed. "Raven, I…" she faltered. "Thank you. Um…I-I really wanted to be friends too, but-"
"I know. We can't. But maybe…in the future?" I looked at her hopefully.
And to my relief, she smiled. "Yeah. I'd like that."
"Me too." I replied. "Um…well, I oughta go…the feast and all…"
"Ok. I'll um…see you around."
"Yeah." And I turned around and made my way to the door, sharing a look with Hermione, who was in a bed, still recovering, smiling at me. Smiling myself, I left the hospital wing and went downstairs to the Great Hall.
Upon entering, I was greeted with the oddest site I'd ever seen. Everyone (minus those still in the infirmary) was seated at their house tables, but almost all of them were all in their pyjamas! I looked down at my own attire and felt a little silly. Here I was, in the middle of the night, still in my school robes, which were all wrinkled and rumpled. I probably looked like a rag-a-muffin, and my suspicions were confirmed a second later when Pansy bounded over to me, squealing her delight at seeing that I was ok, followed quickly by her wishing she had her brush so she could fix my hair.
"Thanks, Panse." I said a little sarcastically.
"Oh, it's no problem. One of us has to worry about appearances, and we both know that it's not you." She led me over to our table, and as I sat down, I caught sight of Harry and Ron on the other side of the Hall. Harry smiled my way and mouthed, 'I'll write you' and then went back to talking with his friends. The next moment, Hermione burst into the Great Hall, ran up to Harry and Ron and screamed, "You solved it! You solved it!"
Smiling, I started piling stuff on my plate. When my first bite was halfway to my mouth, the excited jabbering of Blaise and Pansy on either side of me was drowned out, as my sixth sense picked up on the gaze of two ice-coloured eyes that were trained on me. I looked up at the seat across from me, and saw Draco looking at me with a mixture of blankness and glare. Setting my fork down, I gazed solemnly back, and spoke in a clear and calm voice, quite unlike how I felt inside.
"Draco, would you like to step outside? I think we need to talk."
The chatter died in the immediate vicinity around us, as Draco's look hardened. But he silently stood and made his way outside. I climbed off of the bench and followed, making sure the door closed behind us.
"What do you want, Harrell?" He said, crossing his arms over his chest in a defensive stance.
Nervousness flittered inside me as I tried to form a request for forgiveness. "Draco, I…wanted to apologise. For what I said just after I woke up. I…wasn't myself."
"I couldn't care less about an apology. You were the one who looked like a raving lunatic, screaming your head off and crying. Maybe you should apologise to everyone you woke up with your incessant screeches."
I frowned. "I was just trying to apologise for blaming you. I never really thought you did anything. It was…just a really vivid dream, was all."
"And again, I don't care. Now, if you're through wasting my time, I'd like to get back to the feast." He strode past me, knocking me hard in the shoulder.
When the doors closed after him I shouted, "I don't know why I bother with you! You ungrateful, spoiled…bastard!" Huffing for a minute, I eventually reined my emotions in, trying to set an indifferent mask on my face. Smoothing down my clothes and hair, I went back inside the Great Hall as sat down in my seat. Pansy and Blaise looked between Draco and me for a moment, but Draco was busy picking at a roll, and didn't notice the attention. I just shrugged and rolled my eyes, and my two…friends…yes, friends, went back to their eating and chatting, as I picked up my fork again. Soon we were all (minus Draco and his cronies) laughing and delighting in the news of no exams and no more Lockhart (thank Merlin). When our stomachs were full, Pansy went on to do braids in my hair, and I talked with Blaise and Theo about what our plans for summer were.
The rest of term went on quietly, and was mainly spent outside in the blazing sunshine. I received a rather long letter from Harry describing his exploits with Ron and Lockhart in the Chamber of Secrets, along with Ginny and the journal, and a promise to write during the summer. Knowing that I really shouldn't send him a response, seeing as no one was to know that we were friends, I only gave him knowing glance during breakfast one day.
The only dark spot in the whole time was when Draco learned of his father's dismissal as a school governor. He immediately turned even colder and snappy, and not just at me, since it was obvious that he didn't want me around him, but at everyone. But it's not like I went anywhere near him anyway. Or at least I tried not to. And then there was the occasional burst of anger, in which he would go on about how unfair it was and how anyone stupid enough to do that to his father, the Great Lucius Malfoy, should be immediately done away with. Most everyone expressed their sympathy…actually, everyone did, except me. I just didn't say anything, pretending I couldn't care less. And I didn't really. Lucius got what he deserved. In fact, he should have gotten a bigger punishment, considering what the consequences nearly were.
And let's not get into how I felt about Harry nearly dying.
I still feel my chest clenching painfully when I read his letter. And I haven't been able to talk to him since. And now here I am, sitting on the train back to London, wishing that I could go talk to him and hug him tightly, or even Ginny and Hermione, but knowing that I can't.
I still hate being in Slytherin.
Too many expectations. Too many rules. Too many people watching your every move.
I can't wait to get home.
But then there's Blaise, with his excited and incessant chatter, his occasional but meaningful glances my way…a little unnerving sometimes. I've never had a boy look at me so much before. Well, then again, I usually never talked to any boys, let alone people in primary, so…it's only natural to feel this way, right?
But he's a good person. I can tell.
And then there's Pansy, who, while being completely snobby and self-preening, is actually a valuable friend. Although she doesn't show it much. Still always thinking about herself, or at least, appearances. 'You've always got to look your best, Raven. We're Slytherins. We are the best, and we need to make sure everyone else remembers it too.'
And shy and quiet Theo, who really only jokes with Blaise, but holds this strange ruthlessness, when he thinks no one's watching. But I watch. I have to, really; I've come to realise, if I'm ever going to survive this.
Oh! We're pulling into London. I've got to go. Hopefully, I'll be able to continue writing during the summer; seeing as I'm sure Mum will keep me more than busy. I'm so glad Harry got me this journal and quill!
Gingerlover: Merry (very belated) Christmas to you too! LOL And yes, I've always seen Blaise as a cutie…we'll just have to see how things develop from here…wink wink
SmileyFace3: Er…Hermione was already petrified…back in like…chapter ten or something. Yeah. So…and as far as Harry and Ginny…well, she now obviously knows about Ginny, but when she finds out about Harry…well, let's just say I'm still working on it. And yes, I celebrate Christmas…but I had to WORK! :( But it wasn't so bad. I like my job, surprisingly.
Thank you all for reading! I love you all!
