The Phantom of Hogwarts
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Chapter FiveHermione awoke the next morning feeling as if she were sleeping on a cloud. Suddenly she could feel the coolness of her silky sheets and the warmth of her feather pillow. Every one of her senses became sharper, as if she were looking at the world with new eyes. A light fluffy feeling was flowing through her stomach, making her feel like she could fly.
Exhaling deeply and turning over, Hermione opened her eyes ever so slightly. The red and gold colors of her Gryfindor-themed room stood out brightly as she racked her brain for a memory of why she felt this way. What had she done last night? There was dinner with Harry and Ron. They had a long conversation about Hagrid's last Care of Magical Creatures class, in which Hagrid had hinted that they would be studying dragons. The whole concept had them worrying and feeling sick to their stomachs.
Then what happened? She had gone to do homework in the library. Something about the library sparked in her brain, but she was too tired to remember what. Anthony hadn't confronted her, and only gazed longingly at her from across the tables. She had finished her homework, then left to find Harry and Ron to help them if needed. They had already finished, and Hermione joined them in a game of Exploding Snap. Afterwards, she made her rounds quickly and headed to bed.
Hermione's eyes snapped open. Of course! The music, the library, the Phantom, the kiss. Immediately, her mind flashed back to when the Phantom was kissing her neck. Surely he wouldn't… He couldn't possibly….
Sheets flew off Hermione's bed as she scrambled up to get a look at herself in the mirror. Her worse fears were confirmed. At the base of her neck was a medium-sized and noticeable bruise. Not just a bruise, a hickey. Horrified, Hermione stared at her reminder of last night. Hickeys were often called love bites, but Hermione knew it was out of lust for she had felt it too.
The fire that ran through he blood whenever she thought about the Phantom both terrified her and made her want more of him. He was addicting, and he made her hot and feel as if she were in a dream, never to awake. No, she didn't want to wake up because she would return to her good girl ways and spend the rest of her days behind a book. The Phantom brought out the bad girl in her, and she would show herself only for the Phantom.
Sighing, Hermione dressed and did her best to hide the hickey beneath her collar. It would work as long as she didn't do any extreme physical activity. Please, she thought as she left her room, walking down these stairs will be the most physical thing I do all day.
Harry and Ron were waiting for her in front of the fireplace in Gryfindor Common Room.
"Morning Hermione. Sleep well?" said Harry smiling. Hermione gave a small smile back and a yawn.
"Yeah, just tired. I had a bit of a tough time falling asleep." She confessed.
"So did I." Said Ron. "You've never heard Neville snore." They laughed as Ron led them out of Gryfindor Tower and down to the Great Hall. The magic ceiling above reflected the beautiful sunny morning that it was, and the castle seemed very cheerful. Hermione looked around at all the smiling faces and knew doom was coming.
And come it did.
Moments after the three sat down next to their fellow Gryfindors, a large black owl swooped through the Great Hall. It circled above for a while, earning the stares of over half of Hogwarts' students. Finally, it began to sink lower and lower until it was directly in front of Harry. Harry only blinked while Ron stared open mouthed at it. Hermione looked away and glanced nervously around.
"Harry, it's got a letter for you. Thank the nice owl." She said shakily. Harry shuddered and took the letter with a mutter of thanks. It was the same pale parchment as before with the blood red wax seal of a skull and crossbones on it. Roughly, Harry tore open the seal and read it to himself before reading it again, this time aloud. The whole hall was silent and listened attentively to Harry's words.
Dear Mr. Potter,
I'm hoping that this letter reaches you in good health, and that you may take this more serious than you did the last. Hopefully, you will have noticed that next week is indeed Halloween. Because of this festive occasion, I shall require a few mire items so that I may too have a pleasant All Hallows Eve. The first is nothing up one single chocolate frog. The second will be a little bit harder, the tail of Mrs. Norris. See that it is properly taken off and preserved in a gold chest. The third and final object will be your greatest treasure.
You now have my requests. If these objects are not set at the base of the portrait of the Hogwarts Four on the fifth floor, another disaster will occur, and nothing you can do will stop it.
My Sincerest Regards,
Phantom
Harry crumpled up the note, threw it on the ground, and stomped out. The hall broke out into whispers as Ron and Hermione followed out hastily. They found Harry sitting outside on the stone steps of the courtyard, fuming.
"Who the hell does this guy think he is?" Harry shouted as his friends came and sat down on each side of him.
"Harry, calm down." Said Hermione patting his shoulder.
"Yeah mate, relax. I mean, a chocolate frog? It's not all that bad." Said Ron helpfully.
"But what about the treasure?" exclaimed Harry standing up. He began to pace back and fourth in front of his friends. "My greatest treasure? What the hell does that mean?"
"I suppose my Christmas gift from last year would qualify as 'your greatest treasure'." Said Ron giving Harry a small joking smile. "What else could it be?" He wondered aloud.
"It could be that picture of your parents." Suggested Hermione.
"Nah," Ron said. "People can easily make copies of that picture so even if Harry did have to give it up, he could always get a new one fairly quick."
"I don't know." He said shortly. "Look, let's just go to Charms. Maybe it'll come to me while we're working." Ron and Hermione nodded, and the three friends started off for Professor Flitwick's Charms class.
"Today class," said Professor Flitwick as the class took their seats. "We will be studying Invisibility Charms. There is a simple incantation for this spell…"
But Hermione didn't hear much else of Professor Flitwick's lecture, and having already mastered the spell with Harry and Ron, she drifted off into her own dream world and began to think. What would her greatest treasure be? Of course, she loved her material things like her books and Crookshanks the cat, but there were things more important than that. Was the Phantom really going to make Harry give up something so precious, such as his life? Was that the answer? No, definitely not, she thought. The Phantom would make Harry suffer before actually killing him.
Class ended, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione made there way to their next class, History of Magic. Hermione hoped that maybe a nap during Professor Bins' class would help her think. However, her nap was not needed.
Halfway through a lecture on the under-aged wizard law, Harry stood up, shouted, "That's it, a copy! Ron, you're a genius! I've got it!" and dashed out of the door. The whole class was staring, but Professor Bins gave no notice and continued his lecture. As soon as the class was over, Ron and Hermione hurried upstairs to Gryfindor Tower and to the dorms where they hoped to find Harry. They did find him there, turning over his Firebolt in his hands.
"Harry, are you alright?" asked Hermione as she and Ron walked over to Harry's bed.
"I'm better than alright! This is it, my most precious treasure! Sirius gave this to me before he died, and it's one of the only things I have left to remember him by. Don't you see? Every time I fly, I think of him. Not to mention I always beat Slytherin on it too, and the Phantom obviously favors Slytherins." Harry did have a point, but Hermione still wasn't sure.
"Do you really want to give up your broom?"
"Of course not! I'll duplicate it. I bet Dumbledore knows a spell that's lawful and will duplicate it. Then I can trick the Phantom with a copy."
Harry did just that. That evening, he marched right up to Dumbledore's office to get started on the plan. By October thirtieth, the chocolate frog, the tail of Mrs. Norris in the gold chest, and the duplicated Firebolt were all set and ready. Harry planned to leave the items at the portrait, walk down a staircase to retrieve his invisibility cloak, then go back and wait for the Phantom to appear and take the objects.
Halloween had finally come. Giant pumpkins from Hagrid's garden decorated the Great Hall, and live bats floated around the castle. Students amused themselves by playing harmless pranks on one another, and it wasn't until Colin Creevey accidentally set fire to Crabbe's robes, which scorched his bottom and made sitting very painful, that Professor Dumbledore ordered a stop to the pranks. The students then turned their attention to the Phantom, and what would happen tonight.
At eleven o' clock, Harry left the tower and set off for the fifth floor with the items in hand. The teachers and prefects he passed gave him encouraging smiles, having been told that he was aloud out of bed. He reached the portrait with time to spare and left the items for the Phantom to collect then headed for the fourth floor where his cloak was waiting.
When he returned to wait for the Phantom, he smiled to himself. "Let's see you get out of this." He muttered.
The Phantom smirked in the shadows as he watched Harry leave the items, walk away, then come back under his invisibility cloak. Honestly, did Harry underestimate him that badly? Anyone could tell that the broom was a fake, and it certainly wasn't his most precious treasure. There were far more important things out there. It didn't matter. The Phantom of Hogwarts would get what he wanted tonight.
Hermione sat on her four-poster bed, reading a book and waiting for Harry to return. There was still an uneasy feeling with her about the broom. To quote herself, "There are more important things; friendship and bravery". The Phantom was not one to be crossed. Suppose Harry did have the right items, but the Phantom noticed the fake. Would he kill again? Or worse? Was there a worse? Hermione groaned turning these things over in her mind.
The clock on her wall struck midnight. As if on cue, the candlelight began to fade, and the room grew deathly cold. Hermione's senses sharpened as she looked around her room cautiously.
Suddenly, a voice, floating out of thin air, was heard.
"I would've thought Mr. Potter would've been more selective on his treasure." Said a deep voice, and Hermione knew in an instant. It was the Phantom.
"Show yourself." Hermione said back. As she reached for her wand, it began to float above her head then vanished suddenly in a puff of smoke. "Give me back my wand!"
The Phantom chuckled. "No, I don't think I will. Tell me, Hermione." Said the Phantom in a sensual way. "What would your treasure have been?"
Hermione thought for a moment. "I suppose it could be the locket that I got from my grandmother before she died. Or it could be my wand, which reminds me everyday of my talent. But those things don't seem like the kind of treasure you're talking about."
"No, indeed not." Answered the Phantom.
"Well then, what could it be? Other than my life, there's nothing more I value other than my friendsh…" Hermione trailed off as the truth sunk in.
"Yes." The Phantom said softly. "Without his friends, his most precious treasure, Harry Potter would be nothing more than an empty shell."
"But why me?" Hermione asked.
"Because," whispered the Phantom in her ear. Hermione froze as the hairs on the back of her head stood on end, and she felt a rough hand caress her neck. "I marked you as my own." The Phantom began to kiss and massage her neck with his tongue, gently sucking on it. "I only wanted what was mine to return to me."
Hermione began to feel faint again as the Phantom's arms scooped her up. The last thing, she remembered before falling into a deep sleep, was walking through her floor-length mirror and wondering what the Phantom planned to do with her.
Back on the fifth floor, midnight had come and gone, but the items remained at the foot of the portrait untouched. Harry waited and waited. Finally, a laugh, rich and full, rang through Hogwarts Castle. Several people awoke in their beds, dazed and confused, while others slept right through it. Harry stood up quickly and let the cloak fall to the ground. Right before his eyes, the chocolate frog, the chest, and the broomstick caught fire and disappeared leaving only a pale envelope with the blood red wax seal in their wake. Harry paled as he picked up the letter and tore it open.
Tisk, tisk, Mr. Potter. I would've expected something a little bit more clever than a fake broom. I have with me now one of two of your most precious treasures. You will get her back of course; she will be right here twenty-four hours from now. Maybe next time, you'll think twice about what's really important.
My Sincerest Regards,
Phantom
A/N: Wow! Sorry that took so long. I wasn't sure how to write this chapter. The next one should come much sooner. Hope you enjoyed this one! Thanks for reading and please review!
Running Amuck,
RonFan