Chapter 18: Scream

Harry shut his eyes, trying to stop the tremendous pain. Ginny screamed with pain. Her scream pierced through the air. Harry took a hold of her and shook her. She stopped screaming.
"Harry," she said. It had seemed she screamed the word. "Harry" she said barely whispering, "what are we to do?"

Ron stopped crying and looked at her. He was disgusted with himself. True, he had the headache from hell but Faye was losing everything. He picked her up and brought her to the bathroom. He sat her down on the tub. Grabbing a towel, he went to the sink to wet it. He caught a glimpse of himself in mirror. His hair was in disarray and he was a pale white. He took the towel and walked over to Faye. He attempted to take her hand. But Faye wouldn't let him. She snatched her hand away and whimpered. Sighing, he realized this was going to be a long day.

Mia got up and dusted herself off. "Malfoy?". She looked around but he was nowhere to be found. However, across from her was herself, only older. "Great! Another me!"
Her double turned around, "I'm sorry? Did you say something?"
"You can hear me? Malfoy!" The older Mia looked at her like she had three eyes and nodded.
"Who do you keep calling for?"
"Draco Malfoy?"
"Hmm. Never met him."

Mia looked around. "Nice office. What do you here?"
Mia's older self looked uncomfortable, "It's not my office. I clean here."
Mia blinked, "What?"

Harry got up and blindly found the light switch. When he turned it off, he could hear the electricity stop. He opened his eyes. It was still hurting a bit.
"Ginny, let's just go to sleep, ok" he mouthed. She nodded her head and they went to sleep. Well, they attempted.

"Faye, I need to clean your hands, ok?"
Silence.
"Faye, please."
Not a word.
"Faye!" Ron grunted. All of a sudden, he felt something rise in his throat. He knelt by the toilet and preceded to vomit over and over again.

Draco landed in the Malfoy Manor. He was in the library. He looked around the room. It seemed to be normal and then, he saw it. A portrait of him in what had to be the future.
"May I help you?" A voice behind him drawled. Draco turned around. It was him.
"By chance, have you seen a bushy haired girl around?
"Who are you? Is this a joke? How did you get here? Get out!" the older Draco pointed out the exit.
"I'm you in the past. Look, has Hermione been here?" Draco was starting to lose his patience.
"Who in the bloody hell are you asking for?" the older Draco sat down at his desk

Harry tried to go to sleep but he could hear everything. The electronic humming of the TV, Ginny's breathing, insects chirping outside, and the ticking of the clock; all magnified by what it seemed to be a hundred. Sick of trying, he opened his eyes and stared at his watch, waiting for this trial to be over.

After what seemed like forever, Ron stopped vomiting. Exhausted, he laid on his back. No, I have to be strong. I have to be strong. As he struggled to get up, he saw Faye. She was looking at the ceiling and her eyes seemed hollow. He went back down and stayed there.

"Never mind, I don't think you know her" So, this was his life without her. "So, what do you do?" asked Draco, curious of what he was to be.
"I am in charge of the Council of Magic Law," The older Draco said smugly.
"I thought it took years to get in that position." Even with bribes and blackmail, it would have taken a long time. Draco's father was always trying to get in that position.

"Not if you're the one who took down the prior person who was in charge."
"Oh."
"My, you have much to learn," the older Draco smirked. Draco wanted to swipe that smirk off. Nobody patronized him.
"So, you never met Hermione Granger?"
"What blood is she?"
Was this all I thought about? "She's muggle-born," responded Draco.

Harry stood up in alert. He poked Ginny, sat up. It was apparent she didn't get much sleep.
"Ginny?" Harry mouthed.
"Yeah?"
"It's 5: 58 in the morning," Harry mouthed nervously.
Ginny was confused. She wasn't sure what was going on. And then it hit her, it was two minutes to six.

"I'm the cleaning lady." The older Mia shrugged.
"I'm going to be the Janitor?" Mia muttered. Mia was stunned. She sat down in a chair "You were Headgirl! What happened?"
"Oh, Hogwarts? Girl, I was never Headgirl. I dropped out Third year."
"Wait, what? Why?" Mia started to get a headache. She dropped out and she never heard of Draco. What the hell is going on? Mia looked at her watch. She sighed, wishing she was back at the house. Back at the house, it would be 6 AM. She would be waking up to loud cheery music

"Harry!" She whispered the word but to Harry, it seemed she spoke it. "What are we going to do?"
Harry shrugged. His mind was racing with thoughts. Then, the alarm went off.

"Didn't seem worth it. Learning spells for what? I was a muggle- born girl and I just left it at that." Mia stood up, outraged.
"What? You never questioned what you could have been?" Mia screamed.
"Would you calm down? I am not going to lose my job."
Mia lowered her voice. "I just don't understand"
"There was nothing driving me. Nothing pushing me to succeed."
"Like proving a person wrong," Mia nodded.
"Now, please leave, I have several more offices to clean. Shoo!" The older Mia gently pushed her towards the door.

"Well then, I'm glad I haven't meet her" sneered the older Draco.
"Why not?" Draco asked, walking towards him.
"Because she's a Mudblood," He chuckled. Draco chuckled along . . . and then, he punched him in the face.

Hours later, Ron was still on the floor. With the exception of vomiting, Ron didn't care. In fact, he was wishing he would die. Why was he still around? All he had to do was one too many pills and it'll all be gone. And he'd never had to deal with this again. He closed his eyes and somehow, drifted off.
In his own little world, he felt something cold and wet pressed against his forehead. When he opened his eyes, he saw Faye. She was wiping his face in rough, jerky movements. He relaxed, fully knowing it was a dream. Looking into her face, he noticed something. Her eyes were a bright yellow. Confused, he returned back to the darkness.

The older Draco staggered back, clutching at his eye. "What is WRONG with you?"
"What's wrong with you? You don't even know her. She's smart and funny. And you just wrote her off as something unworthy because of her. . . " Draco trailed off. What was he doing? What was he saying?
"Blood is all that matters," The older Draco stated.
"No, it's not. My, you have much to learn," Draco did his trademark smirked and walked out of the library.

Mia started to walk out the door when she heard, "Wait!" Mia turned around.
Her older self was leaning on a broom. "Good luck to everything you do."
Mia smiled, said thank you, and left the room. And for the first time, she was quite glad she knew Draco Malfoy.

A few hours later, he finally got up. Sighing, he looked up at Faye. She was still looking at the ceiling, as if the answer to this horrible trial was to be found above. His eyes traveled down to her hands. In her hand, she clutched a towel. He made his way over to her.
"Thank you," Ron gently said, as he sat next to her.
She turned her head and looked at him. And as if this trial never happened, as if she never went insane, as if Ron didn't go to the brink of Hell and back, Faye coolly whispered, "Right back at you".

Harry felt like his ears were on fire and about to explode. He put his hands over his ears. It helped a bit but the music was unbearable. He crumbled to the floor in pain. He looked over to Ginny and felt his heart stop. She was also on the ground with her fingers in her ear. Tears streaming down her face, which was contorted in pain and anguish.
Harry made his way over to her. Removing his hands from his own ears, he clamped his hands onto her ears. Gritting his teeth, he sat there and heard the music.

When all of a sudden, the music stopped. Harry got up and looked about. There on the couch, were his housemates. All of them tired and quite relieved to be home. The TV turned on by itself and on the screen, was Dumbledore. Looking sad and guilty, he precede to speak.

But they didn't have a chance to hear him out for Ron got up, walked over, and punched through the TV screen.
"Ron! That wasn't right," screeched Ginny.
Ron swung around and glared at her. "You try vomiting for 12 hours straight because the pain in your head is so intense, and then we'll talk about what's right."

"Ok, guys. I think it's safe to say we're tired" Faye spoke.
"I think that's an understatement," Ginny smiled.
"Let's go bed and talk about our fun adventures later" Faye finished. They all got up and head towards the stairs.
"Later as in tomorrow," joked Harry.

As they were going up the stairs, Faye started to sing "Once, I built a railroad. Made it run. Made it race against time. Once, I built a railroad, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?" Ron smiled and looked at her. Everything was back to normal. Well, as normal as it got. He sung along. "Once, I built a tower to the sun. Brick and rivet and lime. Once, I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?"

Far away, in Hogwarts, four adults were watching them.
"He punched through the screen. I don't think he likes this very much." Snape muttered. "He's unruly. He'll be that much harder to train."
"Draco punched himself. He'll be a breeze to train." Lupin retorted. The two men glared at each other.
"Can you two just shut up?" Professor McGonagoll snapped. "What do you think, Albus?"
Dumbledore was silent for a moment. He stood up and simply said, "It's time."