Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling, Ann Radcliffe, Jane Austen, or anybody else I allude to in this story.
A/N: Thank you to my reviewers. This story is written completely, and all seven chapters should be posted in the next week or so. I am trying to write this in the style of the Gothic, so if anybody has any comments on that aspect, please mention them in your review.
"I'll tell what I saw, though how I came to enter
I cannot well say, being so full of sleep"
-The Inferno of Dante
The individual dorm rooms were charmed to conform to the colours of the Head's house, and Lily looked around her scarlet-decorated room. The bed was full-sized, nicer than the twin-sized ones in the dormitories shared by the girls in her house. Beyond that, the room was kind of creepy. Whereas the Gryffindor dormitories had carpet, her room merely had a scarlet rug, and the rest of the floor was stone, as were the walls. There was a thin layer of dust covering the floor, dresser, and everything else, and cobwebs were spread across all of the corners. I seemed as though even the house elves were scared to come in there and clean it. It was slightly musty, so Lily went to open the window a little bit. With some difficulty, she managed to pry it open, and a gust of wind surrounded her immediately. She jumped and gasped as several brightly-coloured leaves blew into her face, then laughed at herself.
"Goodness, Lily, you need to ignore the crazy stories. You may start to believe them." She proceed to tidy up a bit, charming the cobwebs and dust away and clearing out the leaves that had blown in, even placing a special air-freshening charm to negate the musty, dusty smell of the little-occupied room. After about forty-five minutes of cleaning, she decided that it was good enough for the night and climbed into bed and was asleep soon afterwards.
Although she did have her nights when she could sleep through anything, Lily was, in general, a light sleeper, so when she woke around midnight she thought nothing of it. Until, of course, she heard the voices. They were difficult to discern at first, but eventually she was able to make out the words "help" and "save." She admonished herself, conjecturing that it was merely the wind and her over-active imagination, and she rolled over and went back to sleep.
The next morning, she went to breakfast, excited about her first day of classes. She was ready to work hard this year because she wanted to do extremely well on her NEWT exams at the end of the year so she could get a job at the Ministry of Magic. Her best friend, Samantha Killon came and sat by her, yawning sleepily.
"Morning, Lily. How are you?"
"Great, Samantha. I'm ready to start classes. How about you?"
"A little tired, but ready to take on anything, even the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." Lily laughed at the "bravery" of her friend. The new Defense professor this year was supposed to be really tough, going by the rumors flying around at the Welcoming Feast last night. He was an ex-Auror who had excelled in the field, retiring with an Order of Merlin, Second Class.
McGonagall came by at that moment, handing out timetables. Lily took hers and read it eagerly. "Defense first thing today, neat, then Charms, and then Herbology after lunch. Oh, great, Potions is first thing tomorrow morning. Back to the grindstone with Slughorn," she groaned sarcastically. Slughorn was not her favorite professor, but he was okay. She had learned not to complain too much when a professor likes you despite your cheeky attitude.
"Awww, poor baby," Samantha 'consoled.' "At least you don't have Binns for the double period. I swear, that man is so old and crotchety, he is going to die any day now."
"You know, you shouldn't say stuff like that. He just might die tomorrow, and then you would feel guilty."
"Not bloody likely," Samantha muttered under her breath. Lily smacked her upside the head. James and his friends entered just then.
"Ghost making you violent, Lily?" James joked. Everyone laughed except for Samantha, who did not know the story of haunted Head Girl's dorm. James and Lily, with a little help from Sirius, who exaggerated the story greatly, quickly related the tale to Samantha.
Samantha had pretty much the same reaction Lily had had the night previously. Upon stating her skeptical opinion, Lily nodded in agreement. "The stories are getting to me, though. I could have sworn I heard voices last night."
"You know, hearing voices no one else can hear is not a good sign. It means you're going crazy," James' best friend injected into the conversation.
"Thank you very much, Sirius. I appreciate your vote of confidence," Lily said sarcastically. When Lily had become friendlier with James the year before, his friends had come along with the package. You can't be friends with one of the quartet without having to learn to like the other three.
"Wow, Lily. I'm impressed. I don't think I could have handled that dorm. We've been hearing the story for years, and I think I am more afraid of the ghost in the Head Girl's dorm than I am of the Bloody Baron," Peter added to the discussion.
Lily smiled at the boy who always seemed slightly nervous but went along with everything the group did, anyways. She kind of admired him because he refused to be held back by his fears and tried very hard to keep up with the other boys in the group academically. "If you want, I can introduce you sometime if I ever meet the infamous Elizabeth Conrad." The six teenagers laughed and then began to fill in the others on the little bits of their summer holidays they had not had time to discuss on the train ride the day before.
Much too soon, in the opinion of most of the group, the time came to go to class, so they all left, hurrying so as not to be late for Defense. They did not want to be late on the first day, especially for a teacher of whom they were slightly apprehensive.
That night at dinner, the group discussed their first day of classes. They had all been in Defense together first thing, but after that their schedules had differed. The conversation of other courses did not last long though, because the new Defense professor was the most interesting subject not only for them, but also for the rest of the school. While a little intimidating, Professor Quensel was very good. Everyone was in awe of the great things he had accomplished and hung on his every word. After a short lecture, he had led them in a practical lesson. The Hogwarts students had participated in few such lessons in their years of Defense Against the Dark Arts, so they were eager for the rest of the term and what they would be facing.
"I hope we get to face a boggart," Samantha stated. "In a way, I am kind of curious about what form mine will take. I know I'm scared of several things, but I have no clue what I am most afraid of."
"I know what Lily here is most afraid of," James added. Everyone looked questioningly at the dark-haired boy. "The ghost of Elizabeth Conrad." He laughed as he ducked Lily's hand, which narrowly missed the back of his head. "It's a good thing I've been dodging bludgers my whole life, otherwise I would have a knot on the back of my head, Evans."
Lily smirked, satisfied with herself.
"I'm looking forward to learning how to do a Patronus. I've asked the past several Defense professors if they would teach us, but none of them knew how to do a proper one," Remus said.
"Count on Remus to want to learn the hardest Defense spell possible," Sirius joked. The group's conversation remained along the same lines the rest of the evening, moving into the Head's common room after dinner. Lily went to bed before anyone else, wanting to look around her room a little more since she did not get to explore it much the evening before with all of the cleaning she had been forced to do.
The first thing she further investigated was the bookshelf. It was one of the many things she had been forced to dust the evening before, but now she wanted to see what books were on it. There were several old course books, probably left by former Head Girls who had either high-tailed out of the dorm as fast as they could, taking only what was necessary or, before the "ghost" had started to haunt the dormitory, merely had left them for posterity when they graduated. Lily read over the titles, but then noticed the top shelf of the bookcase. On that shelf were placed several Muggle classics, including several by Jane Austen. Several of them she had already read, but one, Northanger Abbey, caught her eye. She had longed to read this one for a while, but had been unable to find it during the holidays, and the Hogwarts library did not have a copy.
She took the novel with her to her bed, but was only able to read a few pages before she fell fast asleep.
Lily heard the voice again: the faint "help . . . save . . ." of a disembodied echo. She sat up, calling out, "Who's there?" There was no reply, but for the calls for help. Lily climbed out of bed, following the sound of the voice. Down the stairs. Through the Head's common room. Out past the statue of Valancourt the Valiant. Down another set of stairs into a deserted hall. Again, Lily called out, "Who's there?"
Hearing a noise behind her, she turned abruptly. "Oh, James, it's only you. What are you doing out in the hall at this time?" As he stepped into the light cast by her wand, Lily gasped at his countenance. She watched with growing fear as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. His eyes glowed red and black, burning with hatred. He approached her, slowly, confidently. "J-James? What are you doing?" Without responding, he closed the gap between the two of them, raising his handkerchief to her face.
"Shhh," he whispered. "Don't scream."
As he pressed the handkerchief to her face with increasing force, Lily woke with a scream of terror.
Someone was shaking her. As she opened her eyes, she screamed in horror once more, for standing there in front of her, was James Potter, the object of her dreams.
"Shh, shh, it's okay Lily, it's just me."
Lily looked into his eyes, which were now their usual hazel and were filled with concern. She took a few deep breaths. "It was just a dream. It was just a dream."
She continued this mantra for a minute, while James relaxed and smiled at her. "I think this dorm is getting to even you, O Brave One."
