And now, a bit of fluff for your pining souls. Lol.
Chapter 16: Midnight ScreamRon, Alexis, Hermione and Harry drank several cups of coffee each that night, keeping them up for their midnight astronomy session.
This particular session seemed to be a very drowsy one for all four of them, and Harry felt it his job to poke Ron (who sat in front of him) in the back each time he fell asleep.
Proffessor Sinistra was an elderly teacher who still thought herself to be about thirty-five. She wore colorful robes and had crazy, dyed black corkscrew curls that bounced wildly every time she moved. Her teaching was rather extravagant, and she tried very hard to act as a peer to her students.
"So-" Professor Sinistra said peppily as the two hour lesson drew to a close. "So- I was thinking about assigning a project-" Everyone groaned. "No no no! Not that kind of project! Something fun and creative!"
Harry stared at the back of Ron's head as his friend nodded off once more. Harry didn't feel like doing something fun and creative at the moment. He felt like sleeping, just as Ron was doing. Harry poked his friend in the back once more, silently laughing when Ron almost fell out of his chair.
"Bloody Hell, Harry!" Ron hissed, then pretended to be taking notes as Professor Sinistra looked their way.
"I'm going to have you each find a photograph, a magazine article, any kind of picture- of a person or animal- anything living- that has meaning to you. In other words, something that you care about, I might even go as far as say, something that you love." This word brought forth several snickers, but Professor Sinistra ignored them and continued. "You're going to use that photo for an astronomy project. You'll bring in the picture sometime between next class and the 31st of October, that's Halloween." As if we don't know when Halloween is, Harry thought as Sinistra smiled around at them, sitting on her desk at the front of the Astronomy tower.
"How are photos supposed to tie in with Astronomy!" Dean Thomas said from somewhere to Harry's right.
"Can I use my goldfish?" Another voice came from the rear of the classroom.
"Settle down, settle down." Sinistra hopped off her desk and walked down the isle. "Yes- you can use your goldfish if you want to- and I'm not going to tell you how this ties into astronomy- you'll find out during November, after your photos are due. All I want you to know is that it has to be something of value- otherwise you won't get anything out of the project." Professor Sinistra walked back up the isle and stopped once more at her desk. "This is going to be the basis of the entire term, so you better put some meaning into it. I don't want any pictures of yourselves, now, alright?" She laughed at her own joke. "Okay- class dismissed. And bring in a photo- remember!"
Harry, Hermione, Alexis and Ron left the tower together, stumbling down the steps. The other Gryffindors walked a hundred or so yards ahead of the foursome as they neared their section of the castle.
"So- what is it? We have a project? Ron said as they dragged their feet towards the common room. Hermione scowled at the redhead.
"Yeah- I didn't really catch that either." Alexis said, lighting her wand as they entered a dark corridor. Harry could just make out Dean, Seamus and the other Gryffindors turning the next corner.
"You were sleeping too!" Hermione looked appalled, but Ron and Alexis high-fived.
"No- actually- I was doodling- but it's the same thing."
Hermione scowled harder.
"We have to" Harry began sleepily, "We have to find a picture of something that-"
They boy was interrupted when Hermione gave a yelp as if running straight into a solid brick wall. She clamored at thin air, as if pulling at a curtain.
"Herms-" Alexis stared at her, just as clueless as the others. Hermione seemed to be pulled forward, feet dragging along the floor, and then she finally fell to the ground, catching herself with a slapping sound as her palms hit the slate tiles.
Harry quickly bent to help pick up the Hermione's books, but Ron and Alexis just looked blankly at the fallen girl.
"That was a wicked stunt, Hermione!" Ron finally broke the stupor, grinning. "You have to teach me that sometime!"
Hermione just stared around at the other three during the silence that followed, allowing Ron's words to echo off the walls.
"It- it wasn't a stunt. There's- there's someone there." The girl looked up at them, her face dead serious. "I- I touched them. I swear-" she quickly clamored to her feet, taking her books from Harry.
"Hello...?" Harry said questioningly to the darkness in front of them, through he glanced at Hermione, confused. The four were standing at an intersection of corridors, and no one was in sight.
"I swear- they were wearing an invisibility cloak or something- but there was someone there!"
Ron heaved a sigh at Hermione's plea for support.
"Merlin, Hermione- I thought Harry was the only one who hallucinated!"
"I wasn't hallucinating! I'm- I think that we should tell someone… a teacher."
Ron rolled his eyes. "Well… look- it probably wasn't anything important… I'm not scared of anything. You guys stay, I'm going to bed." With these words Ron walked off down the corridor, readjusting his bag. Harry and the rest watched him round the corner and move out of sight. They stood in silence until they heard the distant murmur of their friend giving the password and the slight 'clunk' as the portrait hole closed behind him.
"It was probably just Peeves, Hermione." Harry said, his voice unusually small, quiet in the chill air. He put a hand on the Hermione's shoulder, steering her down the hall and nodding for Alexis to follow.
Harry saw Alexis shoot a glance at Hermione, but didn't mention it. It had been Peeves- nothing more than a Poltegeist. Nothing more.
Harry sighed. Then, out of nowhere-
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRGHHHH!" The thick night air was shattered by a solid, hair-lifting scream from several floors bellow. Alexis echoed the shriek, almost dropping her books in surprise.
"What the-?" Harry whirled around and looked down the hallway by which they had come. He saw nothing except the swirling darkness that the weak light of his wand would not penetrate.
"Let's get inside." Hermione said as she rushed towards the portrait hole and yelled the password at the Fat Lady, who took no time to cooperate.
"Get inside children. Hurry- we don't know what it could be." Alexis immediately obliged, almost diving through the portrait hole in her frenzy to get inside, but Hermione glanced over her shoulder at Harry, who was still staring down the passageway towards the shrieks of alarm.
"Harry! Get in he-"
"Let's find out what it is!"
"No- Harry- get IN here!" Hermione grabbed him by the wrist and pulled his through the common room's entrance so that he toppled over the slight ledge in the doorframe.
"Gods- Herms." Harry sat on his heels.
Hermione didn't apologize, pulling the Fat Lady's portrait closed with all her might, causing the lamps on the walls to tinkle and flicker. As the door shut the sound outside was cut out completely, but the eerie silence that followed was almost twice as horrible.
"What was that?" Alexis said, the pupils of her grey-brown eyes large and luminescent in the light of the dieing fire.
The others were too shocked to respond, Harry still on the floor and Hermione in some kind of stupor, staring at the wallpaper above the fireplace.
"Let's- let's just go to bed." Hermione said softly after a few moments, helping Harry to his feet and brushing him off. "We'll- we'll find out what happened in the morning."
The other two just nodded, Harry separating himself from the girls, walking up to a chilly dormitory where all the others were already asleep.
AN: If you didn't read the AN at the top, please go back and read it now, it's extremely important and concerns the continuation of this fic.
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Two hours later Harry bolted upright when he heard the dormitory door creak open. He squinted in the darkness, trying to see who had entered.
"Hello?" He spoke into the darkness as he grabbed his glasses and jammed them onto his nose. "Neville? Is that you?" About ten feet away, Ron grunted and rolled over in his sleep.
"No, it's-" There was a thump and the voice came again. "Bloody-" it hissed. "Oh I'm sorry, you didn't hear that Harry, alright?"
"Hermione?" Harry swung his legs over the edge of his four-poster and hurriedly grabbed his wand from the bedside table. The flagstones were cool on his bare feet.
"Lumos," he whispered and held up the light to see Hermione, clad in pajamas with her hair done up in pigtails. She stood on one leg with her foot in one hand, her expression a grimace and her sheets draped over her back like a cloak, whispering along the stone floor as she bounced up and down.
"What the-?" Harry stared at her, his face somewhat horrorstruck, but still partially confused.
"I stubbed my toe." She winced and limped over towards Harry's bed, sitting down on the edge. "You shouldn't put your trunk there. Anyone could trip over it." She took off her sock and rubbed her sore foot with both hands.
Harry stared at her, trying to figure out why she had come upstairs, to Ron and his dormitory, at- he checked Ron's watch, which lay on the boy's bedside table.
"Hermione- it's half-past-four!"
"I know," she put her sock back on and turned to him.
"No, I mean-" Harry paused and used his wand to light the two candles on his nightstand. "What are you doing, here, in a boy's dormitory no less, with your bedclothes?"
"Oh! That!" Hermione sat Indian-style on Harry's bed, turning in his direction and pulling her sheets tighter over her head, creating a cocoon of warm air around her body. "I thought- Harry-" Hermione's expression of innocence changed to a plea for comfort. "I couldn't stop thinking about that scream!" She exhaled slowly, covering her face with her hands. "What if it were someone that we knew- someone coming back from astronomy? Do you think that anyone's hurt? What if it was- what if it was whoever I ran into in the hallway! And Alexis won't talk about it at all! She's just- I don't know- she says that she wasn't scared and I'm just- Harry- she wouldn't listen to me."
"So you came here?"
"Yes. I mean- I know that she was scared- she just isn't the kind of person who would admit that, and I- Harry, you can see that I'm having a complete-"
Harry reached out and held her wrist of a second, silencing Hermione. "Calm down, okay?" Their eyes locked for a mere moment and Hermione's breath caught in her throat, cutting off the stream of words she had meant to let loose.
The girl gave an involuntary shiver as Harry drew away, suddenly nervously aware of where she was, who Harry was, and all the people that were around them, fast asleep.
Hermione nodded to herself and bit her lip, looking down at her hands as Harry got up to pour himself a cup of water from the pitcher that he kept on his windowsill.
"You want some?" He gestured at Hermione and then held out Ron's cup. The girl shook her head and pulled her covers further over her head, burying deeper.
Harry took a sip and then scratched his head, not knowing what to say.
Neville snored from a bed nearby.
"So-" Harry returned to the bed, leaning against the headboard with his feet up on the mattress, legs bent and hands on his knees. "So-"
"Wait," Hermione hushed him. "Listen."
Harry tried, but he didn't hear anything. "What?"
"Someone's coming-" said Hermione. The two 6th years sat in silence, listening for a sound- a footstep- anything.
They both twitched as the door creaked open and someone stumbled in, tripping the same way Hermione had on Harry's trunk.
"God Harry- you need to move your trunk!"
"Alexis!" Hermione hissed, surprised.
"Yeah. I- I was wondering where you had gone..."
Harry and Hermione tried to hide their grins.
"You said that you weren't scared." Hermione readjusted herself on the bed so that she was sitting next to Harry, and making room for Alexis at the foot of the bed.
"I know- I wasn't." Alexis retorted, taking her space on the bed and creating a pillow for herself with her own bunched up blankets, which she carried with her as Hermione had done. She lay down on her 'pillow' and looked up at the other two. They stared back at her, still grinning.
"What!" Alexis said accusingly, but the others didn't respond, still looking at her in the same manner. "Okay, fine." Alexis said grumpily. "Fine. I was- I was a bit scared. But only after you left Herms." Harry chuckled as Alexis stuck her tongue out at them and nestled deeper into her blankets, closing her eyes as she talked.
"I mean- there isn't probably that much to worry about, you know.." Her voice trailed off.
"Yes- I guess not- It was probably just Mrs. Norris screaming.."
"Mrs. Norris screams?" Harry said, taking his blanket and readjusting it over his legs.
"You never know." Hermione smiled up at him. "Or maybe it was Pansy Parkinson... that would have been nice." Harry grinned.
"Or Malfoy. I remember Ron and I used to plot schemes to get him expelled. We used to write them all down on paper. Actually- I think that I've left them in my dresser all these years!"
"You still have them!" Hermione laughed.
"I'm pretty sure. Want me to read you some?"
"No- that's alright. Well- maybe Alexis would want to-" Hermione looked over at the other girl. "Alexis?"
"I think she's asleep." Harry said softly.
"It isn't fair, you know-" Hermione put her head on Harry's shoulder, looking over at their friend. "All she does is eat- and sleep- and she's the most physically fit girl that I've ever met! If I were like that I'd weigh about three hundred pounds!"
"And you don't?" Harry said sleepily.
"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, but quieted down when Ron expelled an extra loud snort from the nearby bed. "You know- I never treat you like that... I'm a nice, caring person." She tried to get more comfortable against him. He sighed and shifted so that his head was against hers.
"I know," he responded sleepily. "That's why I love you so much."
Hermione paused slightly, taking in his words. Had he really meant it in… that way? She decided not to pay attention to the statement.
"They'll just- they'll tell us who screamed in the morning- right?" Hermione yawned.
"Yeah…"
AN: I hope that you enjoyed this bit off fluff, and please review and vote. (If you have no clue what I'm talking about, read the AN at the top of this post)