Chapter 9: Mysterious Visions

The night before Halloween, I had another dream; but this time, it was one of the most disturbing to date.

I was running through the dark, icy corridors of Hogwarts again, which was no different than my previous dreams. As I passed certain rooms in the castle, I saw several large blocks of ice, some of them containing people frozen inside, many with horrified expressions on their faces. Knowing I couldn't do anything for them, mainly because I didn't know any melting spells, I just continued running, looking for…something…or someone. At the time, I wasn't sure what or who I was searching for, but one thing was certain: I was desperate to find whatever or whoever it was. For all I knew, this thing or person I was looking for may have been the cause of the blocks of ice mysteriously appearing all over the castle, and I had to stop whoever or whatever was doing this.

As I continued running aimlessly through the castle, I heard a distant male voice call out to me in the darkness, "Jane…"

"Jacob?" I called back, recognizing that the voice belonged to him.

"Jane…" Jacob said again, this time a bit more clearly, like he was standing right in front of me, but I couldn't see anything. For some reason, I didn't think to use Lumos, even though I was very familiar with the spell by now.

"I hear you, but I can't see you," I said, looking around and squinting through the darkness. "Where are you?"

I suddenly gasped as I saw Jacob, dressed as he looked the last time I saw him before he disappeared, on the far side of the corridor. He gestured to me and whispered, "I am here. Come to me…" He then disappeared into a nearby room.

"Jacob! Wait!" I yelled, chasing after him.

When I entered the room, the room was dark, much darker than the corridor outside. Also, when I entered, I felt a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, like I had just run into a trap. I turned my head to the corridor behind me, but there was nothing; the corridor had disappeared. Panicking, I glanced in all directions and discovered that I was standing in…nothing. Absolutely nothing. There was just an empty void, like the whole world had vanished under my feet.

"Jacob!" I called, my voice echoing through the void. "Where are you? I can't see."

I heard a response say, "Lumos Maxima!" and then I saw my brother—or who I thought was my brother—standing in the middle of the dark void under a bright ball of white light, but he was different this time. Under the glowing light, he was wearing a heavy black cloak that covered his whole body, except for his face, which was still visible under the hood of the cloak.

"Jacob?" I asked him, suddenly getting the sense that there was something very not right about his presence. "What's going on? Why are you wearing that?"

Then I immediately felt something strange wrapping itself around my waist and pulling me back aggressively into a thorny wall. Gasping in pain, I looked down and saw the familiar vines that had almost killed me on my first day at Hogwarts, slithering over me and holding me tightly against the wall.

"Jacob! Help!" I cried. "This is Devil's Snare! Use your light to let me loose!" But Jacob didn't move; he only smiled, but it was a sinister-looking smile, which was one I had never seen on his face before. The expression sent chills up my spine, for now I knew I was in a trap. "Jacob, what are you doing?" I yelled at him, in utter disbelief that he was just standing there. "Help me!"

He then shook his head and said, "Sorry, Pip, I can't do that. My Lord told me not to."

Normally when he'd say my nickname, it made me feel joy inside, but this time it made me feel fear, mainly because of how he'd said it. He said my nickname with neither love nor hate, but that was all I really knew how he'd said it. I honestly didn't know any other words that described his tone, but it terrified me to my core.

But then I frowned at the last bit he said. "Your 'Lord?'" I asked, puzzled. "What're you talking about? Jacob, what's happened to you?"

Surely he wasn't talking about him…was he?

"I'm with him now," he shrugged in a no-big-deal manner. "He offered me to join him when I left, so I did." He then took out something from his cloak pocket—a sinister-looking white mask with snake-like eye slits that looked disturbingly familiar.

As he placed the mask over his face, I asked, struggling to breathe from the tight hold the Devil's Snare had on me, "Who's 'he?' Jacob, what have you done?"

He then looked up at me, but he wasn't Jacob anymore. Standing in front of me was a proper Death Eater. "Lord Voldemort," he said in my brother's voice, but it was unnaturally distorted, warped, so unlike my brother's true voice. This was the voice of a dangerous psychopath…a true killer.

"Jacob!" I cried, in total disbelief at what I was seeing, what I'd seen my brother become. "No! How could you?"

Instead of answering, he just continued as if I hadn't said anything at all. "He asked me to give you a choice. Either join us…or die. So…what's it going to be, Pip?"

It was unusual hearing a Death Eater call me by my brother's nickname for me, but this was no longer my brother. There was absolutely no trace of him left under that traitorous mask.

"Jacob, no!" I screamed again, tears spilling down my cheeks. "You can't do this! I won't do this! Please, come back!"

"So be it!" the Death Eater that was once my brother growled. He then stood forward, raised his wand and cast the worst spell imaginable. "Avada Kedavra!" A bright green light shot out from his wand tip straight toward me.

"NO!" I screamed as the light struck me in the chest, and everything went dark.

#####

The darkness was then cleared by bright moonlight shining through the curtains of my four-poster in my dorm room in Gryffindor Tower. In complete shock at what I had seen in my dream, I sat bolt upright, heart racing.

"Jane?" Rowan's concerned voice asked me as I heard her stir in her bed next to mine. "What's wrong?"

I then heard another roommate of mine, named Emma, ask with equal concern, "Jane? Why are you screaming?"

"Sorry," I said, shaking my head. "It was just a nightmare. Go back to bed."

While my other roommates settled back in their beds, I sensed that Rowan was not doing the same. I could see her silhouette through the thin curtains surrounding my bed. "Row, I'm fine," I said as calmly as I could sound, despite the feeling of dread still coursing through my veins. "Please go back to bed."

Rowan stood up from her bed and came over to mine. "But you're not fine." She then parted my curtains and sat next to me, her long dark hair cascading over her shoulders, glasses absent from her clean face. This was the first time I had seen her without her glasses, and a small part of me thought she looked prettier without them. Not that she didn't look pretty with her glasses, of course.

"Jane, it's okay," she soothed, laying down next to me, "you can tell me. What happened?"

With a heavy sigh, I told her about my dream. "I saw Jacob…in my dream. It was so horrible. He…" I paused, glancing through the curtains to my other roommates, making sure they were back to sleep before continuing. "He joined You-Know-Who. He became a Death Eater. He trapped me in that room with the Devil's Snare, and he gave me a choice to either join him or die. I refused, and he…" I then sobbed, not being able to hold back my tears any longer. "He killed me. He used the Killing Curse and killed me. Oh, Rowan… What if Merula was right? What if he had joined You-Know-Who? What if he's coming for me next? My own brother… How could he do such a thing?"

It just seemed utterly impossible. Jacob wouldn't betray his family like this…he wouldn't betray me, his own sister. Now that he was gone, I wasn't sure what to believe anymore.

"I'm sure he's fine," Rowan said, although she didn't sound very sure herself. "Maybe he's just lost. Even if the Death Eaters do come after him, I'm sure he can fend them off just fine."

Her words did make me feel a bit better. "He did tell me he was a fantastic dueler," I admitted. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he is just lost."

But where, though? I couldn't help thinking in my head.

#####

For the whole rest of the night, Rowan was kind enough to sleep with me to keep me company, and also because "no one should have to be alone when having nightmares," which I couldn't have agreed more. The next morning, I thanked her a thousand times, and she admitted that she would've done it anyway, because "that's what friends are for." Of course, if it was she that had the nightmares instead of me, I would've done the same for her in a heartbeat.

During the day of Halloween, we still had our normal classes, but thankfully the ones in the afternoon were cut short in order to prepare for the annual Halloween Feast that night. By the time of the Feast, the Great Hall was decorated beautifully, with floating pumpkins in place of the typical candles, and the tables were set with the most delicious treats in the world, such as Pumpkin Pie, Custard Tarts, and the lot. During the meal, a few students that were gifted in Charms prepared some special entertainment with dancing skeletons performing a synchronized waltz of sorts, which was very amusing to watch. I especially liked seeing Professor Dumbledore enjoying himself at the teachers' table; I didn't think the broad smile, nor the sparkles behind his half-moon spectacles, ever left his face once.

"Blimey, I'm stuffed," Rowan declared, rubbing her tummy. "I don't think I'll be able to eat anything for a whole week." She then thought better. "Actually, that's not true. I'll probably be hungry again for a late breakfast tomorrow. Good thing it's Saturday tomorrow."

I smiled back. "Yeah. We can stay up late and eat as many sweets as we want."

"Are you sure, Jane?" she said, suddenly looking concerned again. "They say too much sugar gives you nightmares. Are you sure you want to fill up on sweets tonight after the nightmare you had last night?"

I sighed in exasperation. "Oh, Rowan, that was just a dream. There's no way that was something that happened or will happen in real life." I then felt the familiar icy chill creep up my spine in that moment, and I suddenly got the feeling that the dreams I've been having of what I had recently dubbed 'the cursed ice' encasing Hogwarts weren't just dreams, since I had had these dreams on more than one occasion. Ignoring the icy feeling, I said, "If there's one thing I'd like to see in a dream that would later become a reality, it's seeing the look on Merula's face when her tyranny is finally over."

Rowan sniggered. "Yeah. I can already picture that in my mind. She'd be so humiliated." Changing the subject, she said, "Speaking of which, I've talked with our Prefect, Angie. She's willing to help us stop Merula's bull—"

"Angie?" I interrupted with a frown. "I thought only her friends called her Angie." I still felt a little disgusted toward her for the way she treated me when we first met.

Rowan sighed somewhat guiltily. "Yeah…well, I've sort of become friends with her recently. She's not actually all bad; she's actually quite friendly once you get to know her. Granted, her sense of humor needs some improvement, but she's quite nice to get along with."

I sighed, glancing to Angelica sitting with her friends not too far from us. "Yeah, well, she still doesn't seem to trust me, like everyone else in this school, especially all of Gryffindor."

"Just give her another chance, Jane," Rowan insisted, "just like you want us to give Ben Copper a chance to overcome his cowardice. I see he's cowering under the table again. I honestly don't know what you see in that boy."

I glanced over at Ben and saw that he was, indeed, crouched under the table; though I wasn't sure what was spooking him at that very moment. The Hogwarts Ghosts were, surprisingly, nowhere in sight, and the dancing skeletons' performance had long since been over.

Giving up on trying to figure out what was bothering Ben, I said with a shrug, "There's a true lion in him somewhere. He just needs to learn to see that for himself." If he was cowering because of a few dancing skeletons (that weren't actually real; it was just a spell), clearly that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Changing the subject back to our Prefect, I asked, "Anyway, you said something about Angelica; you said she wanted to help us with Merula?"

Rowan nodded. "Yeah, she said there's a secret dueling book reserved for Gryffindors to use hidden in the Artifact Room; although, it's in the same area as the room where we found the Devil's Snare, but thankfully on the other side of the corridor. Ben Copper says that's where he goes to hide a lot. Angie said if we find the book and learn some dueling spells from it, she can help us stop Merula's bullying at least for a little while. She said you can't really stop a Slytherin's bullying forever, but it's a start."

"Brilliant!" I praised her. "We'll go to the Artifact Room and find that book after dinner."

#####

I didn't exactly feel comfortable returning to almost the same place as where we found the Devil's Snare—especially not after my dream of Death Eater Jacob trapping me in it—but luckily the Artifact Room was on the opposite side of the corridor, exactly where Rowan said it would be. After hearing about Ben Copper coming here to hide, it seemed a bit surprising to me that he would, considering it was very close to where I almost died. Then again, maybe it didn't matter to him, as long as it was secluded; though it was a bit too secluded in my opinion; that meant people could get away with anything around this part of the castle and not get in trouble for it.

"They say untold treasures lie within the Artifact Room," Rowan said as we entered the room.

"Along with untold odors," I said immediately after a putrid stench ran up my nose, making me cough. Ignoring the foul smell, I asked, "So what did Angelica say the book looked like?"

"Not much," Rowan shrugged, "except that it was big, red, and it had strange markings on it, like something written in Celtic, or some other ancient language."

I smirked. "Huh, no surprise Gryffindor would reserve a red book. Let's hurry and find it. You search over there, and I'll look over here." I gestured to the far wall where there was a large group of cabinets with its doors covered in dust, and I walked over to what was once a bookshelf, only it held very few books, but no red ones. The shelves mostly held strange items, such as a skull wearing a pair of earmuffs, or those 'headphones' Muggles used to listen to music.

"I'll fight the urge to catalogue every single amazing thing in this room," Rowan said with a small chuckle. "I'll probably fail, but at least I'm good at multitasking." She then paused and asked hesitantly, "Um…while we're searching, you want to talk about what Merula said about your brother?"

I sighed, knowing this conversation was going to come up eventually, but I decided to share it anyway. "You already know most of the story from the Daily Prophet," I explained. "My brother was obsessed with the idea that there were Cursed Vaults containing mysterious treasures hidden at Hogwarts, but no one believed him, not even our mum. He broke all kinds of rules and put people in danger while trying to prove he was right. Some people say he unleashed curses on Hogwarts. Some say he was cursed himself. Everyone thought he was mad." I then frowned. "Merula was lying about him being involved with Voldemort, but she was right about him being missing." Continuing with the story, I said, "After he got expelled, he ran away from home and hasn't been seen since. There were rumors he came back here, searching for the vaults." I sighed again, suddenly feeling a large knot appear in my throat. "Sometimes I wonder if he really was mad. Sometimes I wonder if I am too…"

Rowan then paused her searching and put a soothing hand on my shoulder. "I don't think you're mad, Jane. I think you're brilliant, and I'm glad you're my friend."

I smiled greatly. "Thanks, Rowan. Merula will keep attacking us until we do something to stop her, which is why it's so important to find that book."

Rowan nodded understandingly. "Right." She then started searching the cabinets again. After a while, she paused and cried, "Ooh! A book on Apparition! I always wanted to do that! They say it's so much quicker to get to places when Apparating. Although, you have to be careful when doing it, or you could get splinched."

"Splinched?" I frowned, puzzled at the unusual word.

"It's when one's body parts get left behind after Apparition," Rowan explained. "It happens from time to time. Most people lose a toe or a finger, and other times people can lose much more, like a whole arm or leg. My grandfather got splinched once when he was very young, losing his arm. It was a mess having to reattach the arm…so I was told from my grandmother. Other than that, it's actually quite helpful and fun…Apparition, I mean."

I paused, feeling disturbed. "Maybe I don't want to learn Apparition just yet." I didn't fancy the idea of losing a limb, as gruesome as it sounded.

"Oh, no, you learn it in Year Six," Rowan said, shaking her head. "If you're not comfortable Apparating, you can always use the Floo Network instead. That's what I prefer."

I resumed my searching for the red dueling book that our Prefect wanted us to find that would help us stop Merula's bullying while Rowan was rambling about the Floo Network. During my search, I heard a chilling female voice whisper my name from…somewhere, but it also sounded like it was coming from everywhere, "Janelle…"

"What?" I asked, looking around in fear.

"Huh?" Rowan glanced at me, confused. "Did you say something?"

"You did," I corrected her, so sure she was messing with me. "You said my name, my full name." Then again, she normally said my short name 'Jane' instead of my full name.

"No I didn't," she shook her head, and I noticed that her tone sounded like she was telling the truth.

I continued looking around, trying to find the source of the voice. If it wasn't Rowan, then who was it? "I heard a voice…" I admitted quietly, like I didn't want the owner of the voice to know I was on to her. "A woman's voice."

"It wasn't me," Rowan shrugged, and I believed her this time.

I shook my head, thinking I was being paranoid for no reason. "It…must've been my imagination. Never mind." Suddenly, something red in a large barrel next to the shelf caught my attention. I reached in and grabbed the red thing, and it was the book we were sent to find. I exclaimed, "Hey, I found the book…I think."

"Is it red with Celtic-like symbols on it?" Rowan asked to make sure it was the right one. I glanced at it and confirmed, and after I did, she said, "Good. Then let's go. I'm anxious to read what's in there."

As we were preparing to leave, I was suddenly overwhelmed with a massive headache. I screamed and collapsed against the cabinet of drawers that Rowan was searching through, clutching my head in pain. Behind my closed eyelids, I saw flashes of incomprehensive images. One image showed a tall knight towering over me that was covered in ice and snow. A second image showed a large door that was in the shape of a snowflake. A third image showed an ancient staircase shrouded in icy mist.

But the most disturbing thing of all was the woman's voice saying with a sinister laugh, "The ice is here. The vault will open," as several images of students and staff being frozen in cursed ice, screaming for help, flashed in my mind.

Finally, all was quiet, and my head cleared of the images, and I could see Rowan's pale face looking down at me.

"Jane!" she exclaimed, concerned. "Are you alright?"

"I saw things…" I said breathlessly, "in my mind. A walking suit of armor standing in front of an icy door…a staircase shrouded in mist…ice encasing Hogwarts, spreading faster and faster…"

"Ice?" Rowan asked, puzzled.

"And I heard the voice again," I added with a shudder. "It said, 'The ice is here. The vault will open.'"

Rowan paused for a moment. She then said slowly, "Um…okay. I still don't think you're mad, but I wonder if your brother saw these same visions."

"Maybe," I shrugged, my headache finally subsiding. "There's no way to know for sure. Let's just get out of here and head back to the Common Room. I'm suddenly not feeling so well."

Rowan nodded in agreement. "Okay. We can talk about what you saw later. I want to start skimming through this book. There must be a spell in here that'll put Merula in her place."

We then left the Artifact Room without another word.

#####

Even after we arrived back to Gryffindor Tower, we still hadn't spoken to each other. I was still speechless about the images I'd seen of all those terrifying things, most of them relating to the cursed ice. After seeing images like them, I was even more sure that these were images of the future and not dreams, like I would normally have at night while asleep. They all seemed so real, like I was actually there…like I will be there; although, I wasn't sure when I'd be there, and I honestly didn't want to find out.

One thing that was certain was that this was not how I planned to spend my All Hallows Eve this year. I supposed it seemed appropriate to have scary visions on this night, even though I didn't ask for them, nor for any other night.

For several hours, I thought about these visions while Rowan quietly read through the red dueling book. It wasn't until around midnight that Rowan finally spoke up to break the long silence between us.

"Are you alright, Jane?" she asked, concerned. "You've been awfully quiet since we got back to the Common Room. Is it the visions you had earlier?"

"Yeah," I reluctantly answered. "I can't stop thinking about them, and I can't really make sense of them either."

"Well, let's talk about them," Rowan said, closing the dueling book and joining me on my bed. "Talk me through what you saw again. Maybe I can make sense of them."

I still felt reluctant to speak at all, but I did anyway. "I saw a walking suit of armor standing guard in front of a large door that was in the shape of a snowflake… There was a staircase shrouded in icy mist… And the worst image of all was ice encasing all of Hogwarts. There were loads of people, both students and professors, frozen in the ice, unable to get out. But the one thing that creeped me out the most was the woman's voice saying that the ice was here and the vault will open.

"I've also been having these dreams ever since I got to Hogwarts," I said, deciding to talk about them as well. "I've been seeing blocks of ice appearing in random places all over the castle, sometimes trapping people in the ice. I fear these recurring dreams are visions too—visions of the future. I fear that the ice has something to do with one of the Cursed Vaults, and apparently it's about to open, if it isn't already open. Maybe the mysterious woman that said it will open will be the one to open it…or maybe my brother will come back to open it. Either way, what the woman said was a warning…a warning that one of the Cursed Vaults will endanger all of Hogwarts if not stopped."

"And you want to stop its curse—this 'ice' curse—from happening?" Rowan asked with a raised eyebrow.

I nodded. "Exactly! But I'm not sure how we're going to do that. I mean, we don't have proof that these things will actually happen."

"Not yet," Rowan corrected me. "If we see any evidence that your visions are coming true, we'll have to tell someone—the professors, or even the Headmaster. I'm sure Professor Dumbledore might help you make sense of your visions. Maybe he's had visions too."

I shrugged. "Maybe…or maybe not. Most of the school already thinks I'm mad; the last thing I want, in that case, is for the Headmaster to think the same way about me."

Rowan shook her head. "I doubt he will. Remember what I said on our first day: you gotta think positive, otherwise it'll get you nowhere. You'd be surprised what Dumbledore might do for you if you just ask nicely."

I sighed. "For now, let's focus on dealing with Merula. Once she's out of the picture, we can think about my visions without any distractions. The last thing I want is her getting in the way of finding my brother, no matter what condition he is in."

I then thought about Jacob and the vaults, and whether or not I would ever see him again. I was worried I would see him again, either as a Death Eater or actually dead. Thinking back on my dream of him last night, if he actually had (or rather, will have) something to do with opening the vault that will set the ice loose on Hogwarts, I wanted to stop him at all costs, and even find a way to save him from his curse, if he had gotten a hold of something from one of the vaults, and it made him truly mad.

I sighed with tears lingering in my eyes. Oh, Jacob, what have you done? What have you become?