The sky was swallowed up by toxic green and lavender colored clouds, rumbling thunder and odd noises as silent flashes of black lightning slammed into the earth, or what was left of it as a murky wave of greens, blues and white rose up, boiling and steaming as it crashed back into the toxic ocean.
The waves revealing a small trio of islands before being swallowed up by the raging storm and endless rain. His boat creaked and groan, threatening to split apart in the stormy waves as he pushed himself forward, breathing heavily as he tried to find the Sea of Eden.
"Keep your mind blank and empty before you go to bed."
Ness scoffed and shook his head, hating how sticky and hot the rain felt as he forged on, "Easier said than done, Professor." That was before Magicant appeared, starting out as a mere memory before evolving a physical location in his head and subconscious despite accepting the fact that he had absorbed it to defeat his essence of evil and awaken his true power in order to soundly stop Giygas. Had allowing Snape to wander through the first layer of Magicant allow this to happen? He thought that he could survive Occlumency with his a few precautions set in place…had he been dreadfully wrong?
He shook his head as a wave almost swallowed him whole, a flurry of emotions and happy memories playing in his head for a split second before disappearing. Being replaced by the horrifying image of a green skull laughing at him.
Why was Magicant back? And why was the Sea of Eden spilling over into it? Was his trauma that bad? Or…had it gotten worse as he discovered more and more about Harry and the Wizarding world?
A bright white lightning bolt briefly jolted him out of his thoughts, the world giving an all mighty rumble that sounded like screaming. Frustrated, sad, screaming. Or maybe wailing as the sound quieted and his boat bumped into the newly formed island.
Which was even worse than the ocean and sky combined through some horrific feat. He swallowed a yelp of surprise as he placed his hands on the 'ground', feeling them sink into the cold, slimy dirt that was thrumming with the feeling of a heartbeat. Pushing him back before he scrambled onto the 'land'.
Very disturbed by how some parts felt solid but others wet and flimsy, trying to swallow his shoe or force him back as he felt the heartbeat grow louder and stronger in power.
"Wow…very creative…" Ness murmured, studying the 'landscape', it was a mixture of a destroyed castle, rubble strewn around with random objects wearing knights' helmets or cloaks with a faded letter and an everyday home that had been built in sections strewn around the 'land'.
The few sections of normality he found filled him with warmth and the energy to go on despite how small they were and—wait, were they actively shrinking? He paused in disbelief as a small section of a living room was slowly swallowed up by the murk and gloom of the destroyed castle.
That…wasn't good. He should hurry on before the Sea of Eden or where ever he was swallowed or shrank him as well. With that terrifying thought in mind he broke into a run, hating how the heartbeat was speeding up, how a sound of static and cruel laughter bounced around the fallen walls of the castle as the ground cleared and hardened with small jagged stones with blurred letters scratched onto the surface.
His feet slipping over sharp and jagged rocks that oddly didn't slice open his bare feet as Ness found himself looking at three figures standing over something, someone.
All of them wearing black cloaks that was somehow visible despite the storm allowing no light to slip through and the lightning long gone, trapped on the 'ocean'. The heartbeat began thundering in his mind as several figures appeared in front of the first three, only three of them were tall enough to match the first three's height. The others barely reaching their comrades knees as they stared at something in horror.
A flash of red and blonde from the human three filling him with dread as he realized that two of them might be Luna and Ginny. And if they were looking in horror after studying the someone then—
"I'm the hero. I'm not scared. I saved the day."
Lightning crashed down, revealing one—no two very important details from two of the figures, one had a lightning scar while the other with almost solid black eyes frozen with fear and anger. A chorus of screams filled the air as the ground split apart, dropping him out of Magicant and the Sea of Eden and back into reality.
"I am not a pillow!" something long and smooth protested as Ness grabbed Cloak from under his pillow, the overwhelming urge to scream and throw up strangling him as Cloak jolted in his hands then twisted his 'arm', teleporting them into the Room of Requirements his room where he could freely scream and squeeze a pillow filled with lavender and peppermint to death.
"O…oh dear." Cloak murmured 'standing' up and shakily patting his head as the body wracking trembles and the urge to scream himself hoarse slowly faded. Allowing Ness to curl up into a ball and focus on breathing now that he felt the cool wood piercing his pajamas and allowing a fever like chill to overcome him.
"Was…was it worse than usual?"
"Take worse and multiply it by ten thousand." Ness croaked, fighting the urge to hurl as he felt something slither around his waist and give a soft squeeze.
"Sssso, it's even worse than me being almost thrown out of bed?" Nagini asked, looking very annoyed and grumpy. Prompting Cloak to give an angry rasp of, "He's just had a nightmare worm! Let him breath!"
"First, I'm a snek—SNAKE. Second, I am letting him breath you overgrown moth cloth."
"Moth cloth!?"
"Did I mishiss?"
Cloak gave an offended shudder, the hems of his body and arms curling inward a little as Nagini sent him a smug, snake like smirk before turning back to him. "So, what was so bad that you never invoked my wrath?" Nagini asked, ignoring Cloak's squawk of, "You do realize he's our master, right?!"
"Magicant" he managed, taking a shuddering breath as he pushed himself up, his head spinning from the sudden overload of adrenal and fear as his heart happily banged against his chest. "It came back. Worse. I saw. I saw-,"
"Shh…shhh…" Cloak soothed, wrapping his arms around him, "Breath, take all the time you need."
"Witch hunt."
"…Er…?" Nagini offered as Cloak murmured, "I don't see what America has to do with this…"
"PSI Witch hunt."
"OH GOD." The urge to laugh briefly ran up his sides before it was shut down by a violent lurch in his stomach. "I don't get it." Nagini deadpanned, "Why are people hunting witches and-,"
"Have Defe explain it to you later." Cloak deadpanned before focusing on Ness again, "It wasn't…graphic was it? Oh god it probably was-,"
"Harry. He was the hero."
"What?" Cloak drew back murmuring, "What does Harry having to be a hero have to do with-," before the answer came to him, the memory of his Occlumency disaster of a class prompting the robe to seize up as if he had been washed in hot water.
"He…was behind—no, don't answer that. I can…" Cloak trailed off before sagging with a bone deep weariness that only a faded robe could produce. "It's…it's only going to get worse from here…isn't it?"
"Well, considering how Herbo's first report of spying on Harry and company was basically listening to Ron and Harry throwing a fit and deciding that letting the Dark Lord into one's head was the BEST idea ever." Nagini deadpanned, flicking her tongue in annoyance as Cloak sagged even more.
"Er, yes…I remember that…It's quite scary to see how easily one is going to let someone else into their mind."
"Yea, because it means information! Yaaaay!" Nagini huffed and grumbled, "You should just let me bite him, that'll solve everything!"
"I really doubt that."
"It will!"
"No, it would make it worse since Harry outright confess that he's scared and jealous of Ness." Cloak reminded her, "Although his denial is a bit worrisome…There's nothing wrong with being fearful or jealous of someone."
"Sounds to me that no one taught Perfect Potter how to be a human."
"Well…"
"Perfect Potter?" Ness questioned, trying to force his mind from the chaotic state his subconscious was in. He figured it was bad but that dream…that trip had proved to be worse than bad. So much worse. And he hadn't even seen any enemies! Well…aside from one lightning scarred boy.
"What am I going to do…?" he wondered as Cloak and Nagini broke into an argument, bickering over ways to teach Harry to be human and to stop him doing something dumb. It got worse when Cashino showed up and loudly suggested invading Harry's dreams.
"Absolutely not." He retorted, looking up at the doll who seemed to pout in dismay, "We are not going to harm Harry."
"Even though he's harmed you the most?" Cashino questioned, "Mast-,"
"Ness." He insisted, hating how Cashino stumbled for a bit before forcibly repeating his name, "Ness, Harry is a DANGER to you and others! What happens if he uses that knowledge to hurt your loved ones back home? What happens if You-know-who finds out about your weaknesses and-,"
"I know!" Cashino stopped and shrank as Ness softly repeated, "I know…So many risks and dangers all hinging on one person. One selfish, misguided person." The spark of uncontrollable anger that had been subdued all through winter break and a little into January returned with a demonic vengeance.
Everything. Every mission, every plan, every step seemed to revolve around Harry. Stubborn, shortsighted, reckless HARRY. Going so far as to kick him in the teeth when he tried to distance himself from the boy, and that had worked out with Harry not only slicing open old wounds but blackmailing him and threatening his friendship with Ginny and encouraging Ron to murder him without a second thought.
Even Umbridge was focusing on Harry. The stupid Toad who went off and torched Mystic Informer and— a loud explosion brought him out of his angry and hate filled mental rant as Cloak, Cashino and Nagini yelped and pressed themselves against him. A large mirror had been completely eradicated.
He blankly looked at it, trying to figure out who or what had broken it as he studied the remains of the glass shards. They were pure dust, almost like frozen tears as he numbly reached out and poked a small gathering of dust.
"…What a burn." Cashino murmured as Nagini shakily hissed, "You know what…I'm going to go get some paper and pen so you can just…rant to Paula or your sister about this."
"Three steps back…all because of one boy…" Cloak murmured.
An empty bookcase exploded next, the air filling with dust, wood and splinters as they flinched back.
"What a burn!" Cashino repeated as Nagini happily fled the room to get the pen and paper. "I…I think I'm skipping school." Ness wheezed, swallowing a groan as his head pounded from the concentrated force of Rockin Omega being used twice in a row in such a twisted way.
"That. That is a good idea." Cloak agreed as Cashino perked up, "Wanna know a better idea?!"
"…N-,"
"Burn the toad's office down!"
"…That sadly DOES sound like a good idea but, no."
"Fine, I'll burn her plate at breakfast."
"Wait-," the words were barely out of his mouth before Cashino vanished in a flash of card symbols and dice, leaving him staring at empty air as Cloak sighed, "We believe his original owner and tormentor was a big fan of Muggle gambling…Hence the weird terms he likes to slip in when he's talking or blowing stuff up."
"…Huh."
"Expect to see several things destroyed when you go get breakfast."
"I…really don't think I should head down for breakfast."
"It won't be that ba-,"
"I might murder Harry and the toad out of fear.
"…Never mind then."
"I'll just have to ask someone to pick some food up for me…" Ness murmured, vaguely wondering what time it was as Nagini returned with pen and paper. He hadn't got a chance to check since he was busy trying not to wake everyone up but…what time was it? Early morning? Time for breakfast? Class?
On second thought, maybe he could just…ignore the time and focus on catching his friends up in his newest dilemma. They were still out of the loop of Occlumency, Harry and…The PSI Witch hunts.
Ness swallowed a lump and grabbed the pen, his right-hand flaring with phantom pain as he began his first letter to Paula. He wouldn't dump the PSI witch hunts on her, not yet. She had been freaking out when he informed her of how Ron attacked him and was all but ready to blast everyone with Fire Omega or beat them with her pan, she didn't need more proof and evidence to confirm her fear of wizards being cultists.
So, he started talking about how Harry had blackmailed him into going into Occlumency, his vision blurring as the anger being held back by a thin thread surged through his hand, his writing speeding up and getting messy as he ranted and raved about how Harry had the nerve to not only blackmail him but to ignore the class he was just saying was good for him in favor of endangering him and his friends.
Hypocrite.
When he finished his vision was blurry with barely suppressed tears and his head was pounding from the rush of uncontrollable anger as he added how Harry had seen him at the end of the hallway of the Ministry of Magic or something that looked like him before making a final note of explaining the slow but sudden return to Magicant and his current fears of Harry killing him out of fear and jealousy before signing off and moving onto Jeff's letter.
Jeff's letter went a lot smoother in terms of anger, but the urge to throw up and curl into a ball got worse as he explained what his new teammates informed him, explaining the killing of PSI influenced kids, his nightmares in the steadily growing Magicant, Harry's stubbornness and how idiotic Ron was being—how they both were being and his plan of just hiding in the Room of Requirements to avoid blowing up Harry, the toad and maybe Ron. Lord knows that Ron had it coming.
"Better…?" Nagini offered, accepting the letters as Ness collapsed into the fluffy den of pillows. "Not really…I just feel drained…and homesick…dang it." He reached for another piece of paper to write his mother as Nagini teleported away. He gave her the basics, allowed his feelings to pour out onto the paper before he wearily finished with, "I imploded a mirror and bookcase into dust right after nearly throwing up. Hogwarts might not be standing once the year is over." As a black hearted joke.
"You. Owe. Me."
"For what?" Ness asked, glancing up as Nagini returned, landing on a pillow with a huff, "You're just, never going to show him respect, are you?" Cloak muttered, throwing his arms up in disbelief as he floated away to do something.
"For my bleeding eardrums!"
A quick study of Nagini quickly proved that her eardrums were not bleeding and that she was fine. He shot her an unimpressed look as Nagini protested, "It feels like their bleeding! After all you should have heard the shirk Paula gave! Nearly woke up her entire block!"
It was still nightfall over there? Dang it, he didn't want to give Paula nightmares! "Also, the nerd was muttering about doing through research and checking on Mystic Informer to try and throw the toad in jail. Should I be worried?"
"…Nah." Ness decided, pitying the wizards that would try and stop Jeff. When Jeff had a plan in mind, he was practically unstoppable. He was almost as scary as Poo. Almost, but it helped that Poo was A, was a prince. B, powerful martial artist with PSI powers and C, fiercely loyal to him.
He had taken care of censoring what happened at Hogwarts for fear of Poo breaking down a wall and declaring war on Britain for not only hurting him but posing a threat to other PSI kids and thus, his entire circle of friends. And that was before he nuked everyone with Star-storm Omega.
"I'm still going to be worried." Nagini deadpanned as Ness pulled the letters free from her grasp, "If that makes you feel better,"
"You are no fun sometimes."
"It'd take a miracle for you to show some respect." Cloak grumbled, prompting Nagini to snap, "No it wouldn't moth balls!"
"I would challenge you to say that to my face, but you don't have legs."
"And you don't have a face!"
"Better to have no face than no legs."
"…That makes absolutely no sense."
"I consider this a victory then."
Annnd time to tune out the bickering duo as he opened Paula's letter, biting back a laugh at the messy handwriting that greeted him as he read through it,
"Dear Good evening, Good morning Ness Long story short. Where is Harry and how soon can I bash some sense into him and Ron with my frying pan? I'm asking for a friend named 'Are you kidding me'.
Huh, looks like Paula wasn't very positive when she was woken up in the middle of the night… Part of him wanted to pity Harry for some odd reason.
"Seriously. Has no one taught him how to think outside of his box?! I mean—ASDFBV Don't laugh (And I know you ARE laughing, Ness.) I'm not a morning person if a snake drops onto my stomach in the middle of the night screaming, 'Please don't hit me with the frying pan.' And no, you may NOT ask why Nagini was screaming that. Anyway, are you okay? Can you get back to bed? (Probably not given how messed up your Magicant was…) Do you have something to entertain yourself with until you can talk to a reasonable teacher? (OH WAIT.) Can I ask Ginny to knock some sense into Harry? (You better say yes.)
"Also, Harry being jealous of you is…oddly surprising. I mean, granted you ARE pretty awesome and thanks to our adventure to stop Giygas (Who better be DEAD.) it makes sense that you're more knowledgeable and mature than he is at the moment but why does that translate into giving him the right to snoop around YOUR business?! You guys aren't friends, (If so, I shall have to disown you as my rescuer.) right?
"And you don't really owe him much. I mean, it'd make more sense if Ron was blackmailing you. (That git's getting a frying pan to the head as well.) And seriously. BLACKMAIL because you were defensive and truly believed that Occlumency would make your problem worse?! Cultist. And no, you can no longer change my mind on this. Not after you wrote that someone so nicely gave you a perma game over. (I bet the toad you were ranting about was there too. She's also getting a frying pan to the head. Followed by Freeze Beta.)
"Hopefully you can avoid Harry for a bit, it sounds like you BOTH need space to think and not fall apart completely. Or, implode objects. How on earth did you manage that? Although now that you know you MUST avoid Harry and avoid answering his questions on PSI the universe will make the impossible happen and force you two together like glue. Say, maybe you can get a breather during that trip to that cult hog town. Ginny's been sending me letters about planning something, (Can't tell you what, so don't bother asking.)
"From, a sleepy and very angry Paula. (Someone. Is getting hit with a frying pan.)
"What on earth did I do to offend the universe?" Ness wondered, hating how Paula was most likely 90% right about him being unable to avoid Harry even if he prayed for help—Which was never happening—and threatened the universe to behave. Ah well, at least he could snicker at Paula's sleepy threats and wonder how Nagini had spooked her into attacking her with a frying pan—wait, how did Ginny send Paula letters?
"…Nagini, does Ginny…?" The snake glanced up from her attempt to strangle Cloak who was smacking her with his sleeve, fussing tossing clothing themed curses at the viper who tilted her head and hissed, "Yea, Paula wanted me to secretly leave her a letter and she caught me." She gave a snake like giggle and added, "She trapped me in a pillow case and threw a fit when I just teleported onto her bed. Hee-hee!"
"…Oh god Ginny's probably been planning my murder this entire time." Ness breathed, dropping his head onto the cool floor with a groan before he went to read Jeff's letter, which was a lot more collected then Paula's.
"Impressive, and here I thought I was the one with terrible social interactions with the people I care about due to my shyness and love of science. Hopefully you've managed to calm down and not imploded more things…Although I do want to write a theory about why Rockin' focused on one object and imploded it instead of exploding it.
Anyway, it's troubling to hear that the Magicant is back and becoming new territory for you to explore. I have two reasons behind this, both aren't very fun to think about.
Reason 1 is that the stress from trying to protect yourself and Harry from the misleading information that you two were connected somehow coupled with the latest train wreck this school year has become, reawakened the Magicant since you began losing confidence in yourself and subconsciously feared you would harm someone. In fact, if reason 1 is correct it could explain why you struggled with your powers at the start of the year. It was actively attacking people to defend the conscious from the stress and fear that was just lingering in your mind instead of being dealt with in a positive fashion.
Reason 2 is that Giygas is back and your resolve has greatly weakened thanks to wizards chipping away at your confidence in your powers and skills as well as the looming fear of your friends and family being endangered because of you. This is more problematic since your mind hasn't found a way to minimize the PTSD into something manageable since you keep gaining new triggers, making the Magicant far to dangerous and nerve wracking for you to conquered since you're facing multiply enemies at once instead of one big boss with trusted friends backing you up.
I'm hoping its reason 1 and not 2 but…Only time will tell sadly since everything we once understood is now being flipped upside down by wizards. And speaking of wizards, A PSI Holocaust…that is just, disturbing and…Wow. I know that fear can bring the worst out of people but…Wow. I take it you haven't mentioned it to Paula since she hasn't vowed to blow up the Ministry for your own protection nor have you mentioned it to Poo since…Actually, does Poo know? Granted, it might be kept under wraps and kept to Britain only but…Never mind. I know for sure that you haven't told Harry—I doubt he would be open minded enough to realize how much danger you're in—nor have you informed the teachers what you know—
The letter briefly cut off, followed by lines of scribbled out text as Jeff presumably tried to say something comforting before he dissolved into facts and science.
"Umbridge, you should keep an eye out for Umbridge. She's working for the Ministry and might have access to the er, 'clean ups' to protect Wizard kind. If she somehow got a hold of your true status and powers she might report you to the Ministry—no, the Wizarding WORLD in order to protect the 'government' Also, you should focus on avoiding Harry and his friends like the plague. Given how the Magicant is back and your response to the images shown in the Magicant left you wanting to hurl, prolonged exposure to Harry might lead to you lashing out and explaining everything in a desperate attempt to get him to back off. And if Ron were to gain this information, he wouldn't hesitate to…You know...
Also, skipping school for a day is a wonderful idea. Just make sure to report to your head of dorm and report it before you go back to hiding. This will give you an alibi from the Toad and give you a guilt free trip of trying to calm down and form a plan. It's currently 4 in the morning, so you'll only have to deal with the super early birds when you teleport back to inform the head of dorm of your plans and possible ways to make up school work without bumping into Harry.
Also, also. Dumb suggestion but if you see Harry, picture him as a frog. I don't want a letter from you explaining how you imploded Harry into dust out of surprise/fear. Although Paula would probably be cheering given how drunkenly angry she sounded in her letter…(Don't tell her that I don't want her wrath aimed at me.)
The last line got a small chuckle out of Ness as he remembered the one-time Jeff had gotten Paula mad. She had caught him tinkering away at something instead of sleeping and had lectured him on how he needed to focus on sleep so he could be ready for anything Giygas threw at him and how he was going to stunt his own growth by having such a weird schedule. He and Poo had just watched in silent, sleepy confusion before slowly going back to bed to avoid being roped into the argument.
When morning rolled around Jeff was eerily quiet and keeping a close eye on Paula at breakfast. Going so far as to slip him a note asking if all mothers were terrifying and if Paula had worked in a daycare. The black humor had him almost choking on his toast as Paula spotted the note, read it and attempted to defend herself when Poo bluntly stated, "You're a growing young woman, it's natural that your motherly instincts start to show."
She ended up chasing Poo around the hotel out of embarrassment and annoyance at the possibly hidden meaning in Poo's words since his culture seemed quite…traditional.
The memory put a small smile on his face as he packed up the letters and placed them in a box that Bearable was content guarding with his life. "I like boxes." The bear softly admitted as Ness handed the box back and got up. A small amount of dread settling as Cloak and Nagini studied him, waiting for the plan.
"I…need to head back to Gryffindor tower." Ness started, "To inform Professor McGonagall about my plans to just, hide and chill."
"Good idea, with a teacher's permission or acknowledgement you won't have to worry about the Toad sticking her nose into your business." Cloak noted, ignoring Nagini's huff of, "If she tried, I'd just bit her nose. Teach her a lesson about manners."
"It's more Jeff's idea than mine. He's sadly well versed in talking to teachers since he keeps blowing stuff up."
"…Maybe HE imploded the-," Nagini started when Cloak smacked her on the back of her head before draping itself around his shoulders. "I'm ready whenever you are." Cloak murmured, going limp as Ness carefully put the robe on. Shuddering from the weird feeling of warmth and familiarity coming from the faded robe as he adjusted it and felt Nagini slither into his sleeve, snickering as Cloak grumbled.
"Snakes ARE slimy."
"Teleport." Ness stated, relaxing a little as Cloak made a jerky spin gesture and the world vanished in a spiral of colors, the warm and cozy colors being replaced by a sea of red and gold as he landed on his bed. Feeling a little dizzy as he listened for sounds of early birds before slipping out of bed.
"Looks like everyone's still asleep…" Cloak murmured as Ness pulled on a pair of slippers and slipped down the stairs, hating how his heart hammered against his chest at the idea of seeing Hermione or worse, Ron and Harry as he stepped into the common room where quiet studying or talking was being held.
Although most of it was focused on the bulletin board which held announcements, announcements he usually ignored in favor of getting the news from Ginny. He'd been getting headaches from trying to decipher the 'fancy' font the teachers wrote in and the messy attempts from students weren't any better.
"Almost there." Cloak coxed, tightening around him as Ness swore that he had seen a head of bushy brown hair in the ground crowd around the message board. "Just a few more steps."
Of course, that was when his luck went downhill. Someone broke away from the crowd, loudly grumbling, "She's gone to far this time!" when they spotted him before he could see them. It was only thanks to Cloak's loud curse that he picked up the pace and hurried into Professor McGonagall's room. His heart pounding as Cloak whispered, "It was just someone a year below you, they aren't connected to Harry. At best you'll have to deal with gossip about how pale you look."
"I look like a complete mess, don't I?" Ness questioned, mentally groaning as Cloak tittered then sighed, "A little…" as he knocked on Professor McGonagall's door. Relived that she was already up and dressed despite her surly and confused frown aimed at him. "What did the Weasley twins do this time—Earthbound?"
"Hi, er, can we talk? Private?" he blurted out, feeling the eyes on the back of his neck as Cloak gave him a tight squeeze, "I er, had a…episode I guess."
"An…episode?" Professor McGonagall questioned before she noticed the growing crowd of curious students and ushered him inside. Her dorm office was…small and clearly there for sleeping, a moment of privacy without being disrupted during school hours and possibly, to avoid Umbridge since she probably (and hopefully) couldn't enter the Gryffindor tower.
It had a couple items of warmth, probably from home—a picture of family and Dumbledore, the Gryffindor house cup from last year's victory and a stack of Transfiguration books with a small notebook covered in fancy writing.
"Tea?" Professor McGonagall asked, adjusting her glasses and realizing the grim shape he was in, "Good heavens Earthbound, just what kind of episode did you have?" Was she basing his appearance on how Harry reacted from his trips into Voldemort's mind? Trips that would eventually endanger everyone if he didn't stop being so selfish and—
"Focus." Cloak chided, sounding nervous as Ness blinked and registered the sound of rattling glass. Glass he was rattling with the faint boom of rock n roll attempting to grow in power. "I…it's not one like Potter's." he forced out, struggling to focus on breathing as he prayed that he didn't imply Professor McGonagall's tea cups. In his struggle he didn't notice Professor McGonagall stiffening in surprise.
"It was a nightmare. A bad one. I've had them all year but today I…I had to leave the tower since I didn't want anyone to hear me screaming…or vomiting."
"Screaming?" Professor McGonagall repeated, paling greatly as he nodded and tried to will a small smile. It felt stiff and flat. An illusion.
"Y-yea…Normally I just wake up struggling to breath or to lash out at whatever I saw but tonight was bad…Real bad." He pulled Cloak and himself into a tight hug, praying that the pressure would steady his churning stomach at the memory of Harry standing over him, over his body, over his corpse.
"What happened?" Professor McGonagall asked, quickly backpedaling as she realized the unfamiliar territory she was treading on, "I mean, you don't need to tell me if you don't want to. I'm merely trying to-,"
"Help. I get it." Ness interrupted, a small wave of anger washing over him as he remembered how she had 'helped' Paula with Professor Snape. "I saw someone killing me in a place I once saw safe."
"Someone?" she pressed,
"Yea, someone." They looked at each other for a moment, Professor McGonagall studying him with surprise at his clipped tone and Ness suppressing a glare as the memory of Paula being kidnapped, of Paula nearly drowning played in his head. She was scared, oh so scared.
The moment soured as a tea pot imploded into desk, Professor McGonagall giving a startled yelp and looking at the remains, then him in silent horror. "I'm…I'm skipping today. Try and make sense of my nightmare. That's all." He stated, turning to leave when Professor McGonagall asked in a tone desperate to seem normal. "That dream, was Potter involved in it?"
"I'm the hero. I'm not scared, I saved the day." The anger rumbled in his heart as he grabbed the doorknob, the cold metal biting into his skin as he forced out, "Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on how much Potter is going to ignore Professor Snape's warning and keep sticking his nose where it doesn't belong." He pulled the door open with enough force to make the door groan in protest as he all but slammed it.
Cringing at the thinned crowd lingering by the hallway as he tightened Cloak around him and hurried back to his bed. Ignoring the sudden recoils from students as his bad mood coming off him in waves.
And his disheveled appearance wasn't helping either. "Well…At least Sweepy will have something to do." Cloak murmured, as Ness collapsed on the bed and pulled the curtain shut. Trying to reason with the boiling anger churning inside him as he heard people move around him, some whispering in surprise others chatting about the school day.
"Speaking of something to do. Did you see what was on the board?" Ness asked, hoping that maybe some outside news would keep him occupied from imploding the entire room with a now completely out of controlled Rocking Omega. "Somewhat," Cloak answered,"it appears to be a message forbidding teacher informing students of matters that aren't related to school."
"A message…? It's probably in response to the St. Mungo's staff discovering that murderous plant Sister Mary accidentally torched in her haste to escape…The one that was given as a gift to some bloke."
"I can't believe Broderick Bode was attempting to break into the Ministry of Magic!"
Ness almost flew out of bed as Sawdust happily recited a conversation he had heard. "I guess he was desperate for money, wonder why…"
"Dunno, maybe he realized the Ministry's falling apart thanks to the truth coming out. Can you believe they tried to pin the whole thing on Sirus Black?"
"Yea, the guy's OBVIOUSLY innocent since Petigrew's still running around."
"The Daily Prophet is becoming a tabloid…Really wish Mystic Informer wasn't attacked. They actually had bits of worthwhile news in between their goofy articles."
There was a pause then a soft hoot as Sawdust 'spoke', its voice torn between being a soft whisper or a ragged creaky tone, "Ginny wants to know what's wrong."
"I got to visit my conscious and subconscious and see myself dead thanks to Harry and two other people's help." He cringed at the startled hoot Sawdust gave before the stuffed owl all but whispered, "Ginny is…very upset."
"I ah…guessed."
"Why was lightning boy murdering you?"
"…Ask Nagini, I already imploded three different things trying to calm myself down."
"Im…ploded?"
"Once again, ask Nagini." Sawdust gave a small hoot before his voice faded from his mind. Allowing Cloak to sigh, "I really wish he would make himself known before he starts being a parrot."
He silently nodded in agreement before he reached out from the sea of blood and grabbed his school bag. "Might as well get some homework done…" Ness murmured, listening as the noise completely died down and the school day began. It was…eerie staying in a completely empty tower but also kind of…nice. Just him, Cloak, Potio and sometimes Nagini, who was now dropping off letters from a more awake Paula to keep him company.
When lunch rolled around, he reluctantly got up to look a bit more collected to get some food. He hadn't been hungry or in the mood for breakfast but he still needed to eat something in order to avoid getting physically ill.
Walking down to lunch was…weird, everyone was leagues ahead of him as he slowly climbed down the shifting staircase, all oblivious to him and the Influenced beings happily lurking around them, the Influenced (He should really find a better name for them...) attempting to pull small pranks on him to lighten the growing boulder of dread in his stomach as he got closer to the crowds of students happily exchanging conversation and laughing with nervous airs.
"Sweepy, Cashion. What did you two do?" A small frown formed as the two in question gave nervous but delighted titters and Herbio merely sighed, "I believe you need to see it in order to believe it."
That didn't sound good, but hopefully it wasn't the Great Hall burning down or being turned into molten lava. And it didn't seem to be that since no one was screaming—
"…Why are the tables and benches just. Floating in place?" Ness asked, looking at the sight in stunned and wary disbelief as Cashion's titters evolved into full on laughter as Sweepy wheezed, "I merely thought everyone would enjoy a change of scenery!"
Scenery. Right. He reluctantly moved forward, a little amazed at how well everyone was responding to the duo's prank—Heck, Fred and George looked floored as they tried to figure out how the tables and benches were just floating in place a couple inches off the ground—casually eating lunch or attempting to hang upside down from the benches. Luna mostly but Ginny joined her to flash a couple annoyed gestures to Luna who glanced at Ron and gave a small shrug in reply before sitting right side up before repeating the process/conversation.
"Unbelievable." Ness mentally sighed, climbing onto a bench and flinching as Cashion howled, "Look at the toad! Look at the toad!" He did and—Oh. OH that was so smart! For some glorious reason, Umbridge's chair was floating higher than the table, making it an uncomfortable attempt to seem high and mighty as she was forced to eat with her plate in her lap. A tight smile on her face as she shot death rays at anyone who so much as snickered at her predicament.
"Has she been like that since breakfast?" Ness wondered aloud, muffling a giggle as his bench mate, Henry Erand glanced up and giggled, "No, before she was slightly higher than it. The Ribbons and I are betting that she'll be unable to reach her chair when dinner rolls around."
"Oh my gosh." Ness murmured, fighting back a guffaw as Cashion mused, "I was actually going to float her out of the room but that sounds even better! Or, maybe I can do both! All in!"
"The demons haunting this school has finally heard our complaints and agreed." One of the Ribbon siblings stated before she glanced at Ness, "Speaking of complaints, are you doing alright Earthbound?"
It was a little jarring to hear a student refer to him by his last name but he ignored the feeling and focused on replying without imploding something important. Or someone. "Sort of." He answered, grabbing a small sandwich and placing it on his plate, "I just had a bad nightmare."
"I didn't hear anything though…" Erand murmured, flinching as Ness weakly answered, "Probably because I booked it out of the tower when I woke up needing to scream."
The boy shrank back a little with a small, "Ah." As he looked at his partner for help. "It's alright, some days will be worse than others." That didn't seem to sooth Erand's worries since one of the Ribbons' changed the topic.
"Have you heard?" Ribbon asked, her eyes nervously darting around before she flashed a coin at him, the coin Hermione had made for the DA members to use when they had an upcoming meeting.
"Oh…No, I didn't. I never bothered to get a coin." And if he did, he probably lost it since it wasn't important.
"Are you going?" Erand asked, looking a little hopeful before Ness shook his head no, "Nah. I'm going to focus on recovering so I can make up my overdue schoolwork tomorrow."
"My…they certainly seem comfortable to your presence in class." Cloak noted as attempts to talk to him tampered off. Something he was a little grateful for since he wasn't sure if he could handle someone asking how a nightmare had left him looking half dead and probably murderous.
Of course, he wouldn't be so angry if he didn't have to deal with the taunting fact that Harry was in the room, happily babbling about what Voldemort had allowed him to see so he could wrestle some information away from Harry's unprotected mind. The stupid—
"Ness!" Cloak yelped, jolting him out of his mechanical stupor of eating his sandwich as Cashion, Sweepy, Herbo and Sawdust erupted into joyous laughter, the sound joining surprised guffaws as he looked at the teacher's table to see Umbridge missing from her high chair.
The teachers beside her looking down at her in shock and amusement as she stood up, her face burning with embarrassment and shame as Ness realized he had imploded her chair.
Well…at least he did a small amount of good as he turned back to his sandwich and resumed eating. Smiling as the laughter outside of his head died down a little and the inside resumed until dying down with happy wheezes.
"Ginny wants to know if you did that on purpose." Sawdust giggled, "I say, do it again."
"Sawdust, she only has ONE chair." Cloak groaned as Ness suppressed the urge to glance at Ginny and confirm it, "It was a rage induced accident."
"It was a good one." Sawdust chirped, his voice fading as he relied the message. Lunch ended on a high note for those not haunted by a horrible dream and the thought of bumping into Harry as he headed back up to the tower to resume studying or…Or maybe,
"Hey Potio, how knowledgable are you on firing teachers?" Ness asked, slowing down a bit as Potio hummed in thought, "Not very, but I can ask Selvis. He knows some Ministry types."
"Great, and can you ask if he can keep an eye on Harry during DA practice? I know he's already going to but…"
"Don't worry." Potio assured him as Ness slowed to a stop in front of the Fat Lady, "Selvis has been keeping a very close eye on Harry with Herbo's help. So far, Harry has reported a spike of anger from Voldemort. Probably something to do with the implications that Bode was under an Imperious curse and forced to head to the Ministry to steal something."
"Steal something?"
"Yes. The news didn't explain what though."
"Of course not-,"
"Ness!" he jumped almost jumped out of his skin as Cloak unhelpfully yelped, "Why are so many people sneaking up on us?!"
"Because we're distracted." Ness offered, turning around and breathing a shaky sigh of relief when he saw it was just a winded Professor Kale. "My god…" he wheezed, "Why does Gryffindor tower need eight flights of stairs?!"
"To rule over the school, I guess." Ness offered before changing gears, "But er, why are you here?"
"Ah, you're girlfriend sent me a letter asking to check up on you…Also to bludgeon Umbridge…and Potter, and a Weasley…er, why am I doing that?"
Ah yes, how could one answer that he accidentally sent his friend on a murderous tyrant by waking her up just as she had gone to bed after a long day and-
"Wait, how did she send you a letter?" Ness asked, horror settling in as Nagini happily poked her head out of Professor Kale's sleeve, "Hello!" she chirped, ignoring Cloak's inhuman screech of disbelief as Professor Kale nudged her head back into hiding, "You have a very…interesting pet snake." Professor Kale offered, lightly laughing until he noticed the panic stricken expression on his face.
"Ah…let's take this in my office, shall we? I have hot coco~."
"Nagini. You are so DEAD."
Nagini was still dead even after Professor Kale gave a hurried and cryptic explanation of why he was trustworthy. "As Miss Polestar might have mentioned before, I am a seer with magic. And a squib."
"…But—oh wait." He flushed in embarrassment as it officially dawned on him that he was also a PSI user, albeit a very weak one posing as a squib. "So that uncle with homesickness?"
"Me, mostly." Professor Kale answered, pouring him a couple of hot coco as Nagini slithered into a pile of mail. Why? Because she could and found the mail much more enjoyable than his death glare apparently, "Hence why I wished to join Snape in your Occlumency lessons."
"You were worried about how I would react to it."
"Indeed. And given this delayed reaction…" Professor Kale trailed off as Ness forced himself to take a sip of the warm, creamy chocolate liquid. "The Occlumency itself wasn't so bad…I was mostly prepared for it, I just set up my mind as a maze with all my past enemies ready to scare Professor Snape away if he slipped past me."
Thankfully it hadn't come to that, he doubted Professor Snape would look at him the same way if he found himself forced to flee from a murderous taxi, ghosts, dolls and—you get the picture.
"But I guess it did allow me access to my Magicant. Even if it took a while for it to happen." Ness amended, shivering at how broken and wounded it looked, felt. "It…it was in terrible shape. My old memories were swallowed up by the Sea of Eden in turmoil and what little land there was left-," he abruptly stopped himself as the urge to throw up forced him into a ball.
He faintly heard a startled, "Oh dear." As Professor Kale nudged a trash bin in front of him, "Paula gave me some details but…it was really that bad."
"He doesn't care. He just doesn't!" he exploded, "He wants to leave himself vulnerable! Not caring that he's carrying vital information that Voldemort would KILL for to ensure that I can't carry my threat through! All because he's jealous of me!"
"I'm sure he'll come around to the idea…" Professor Kale started, stopping himself as Ness snapped, "No, he's not! Because I, we heard him saying how he could use this to get information from Voldemort, how he can save lives! He brushed Hermione off and agreed wholehearted with Ron to keep his mind open and ignore his problems!"
"Ah…"
"And get this! He has the nerve to blackmail me into going in the first place! He twisted my arm, not caring that was exactly how I got stuck playing bad guy for the final event of the Tri-Wizard cup and threatening to turn my friends away from me if I didn't go with him!"
"Blackmail?!-,"
And now, he's probably going to feel like he has the right to ask why he saw me at the end of the freaking hallway in his tainted vision! Not even caring that hey! Maybe I don't want to tell him since he has such a bad track record of thinking things through!"
"Ah…" Professor Kale managed, "Well, that's…certainly… something." He swallowed an angry hiccup as he pulled his knees to his chest, the anger coiling around his heart like an angry, murderous noose as the memories of how wizards and magic had endangered those, he cared about so many times in the past two years.
"Would you like me to set up appointments? Maybe…show Harry that his good intentions might be more harmful than he thinks?"
"No."
"But…"
"He could barely admit that he's scared of me let alone jealous. If you bring anything up about me, he's just going to be a giant child about it."
"Well."
"Child." He repeated, his growl causing his cup to vibrate violently as Professor Kale backed off with a quiet, "Alright…But I am talking to him about his lack of progress if it shows up in Occlumency lessons."
"Fine."
"…Want some marshmallows?"
"…Sure." It felt nice to rant and rave about Harry without too many interruptions. It was also nice to hear Professor Kale ramble on about pretty much anything as they dunked marshmallows in their hot coco.
"Ah, nearly time for dinner." Professor Kale noted, frowning at the clock as Ness looked at it in disbelief. "Already? It's only been an hour…"
"So, it may seem. Good thing my classes are pushed back for heavy snow or that would just give Umbridge something else to complain about." Professor Kale rolled his eyes as he stood up, "Come on, before she figures out that I've been avoiding her like the plague."
"Hasn't everyone?"
"True, but she doesn't blame everyone for turning her chair into dust and giving her a nasty headache."
…Whoops.
"…Did you…?" Professor Kale, noting the sheepish grimace on his face as he silently nodded. "…Nice." Was all the man could answer as he pulled his robe back on and moved to open the door.
"Hey er, Professor?"
"Hmm?"
"Is…is it normal to have the dream of someone you barely know standing over your body and implying they'd just killed you?"
"…No, no it is. Did…"
"He wanted to be the hero." He bluntly answered, taking in Professor Kale's blank expression before the man slowly nodded, "I…see. We…We really need to have a long conversation one of these days."
"I think everyone does-," Ness started, his small bubble of happiness popping as Professor Kale opened the door to reveal Umbridge jerking back in surprise.
"…Hey Cashion, when you float Umbridge's chair up into the sky. Make sure to throw her out a window."
Cashion gave a small "Uhhh…" as Umbridge tried to defend her actions as wanting to ask Professor Kale a question when she heard them talking and moved onto blaming Ness for faking his illness.
"Throw her. REALLY hard into the lake."
"Isn't it frozen…?"
"You're right. Snowbank then."
"Okie dokey!"
Dinner was happily interrupted by the shrill screams of Umbridge flying out of the Great Hall, out the preemptively opened door then into a giant snowbank. Her pink clothes sticking out in the pure white snow like a forgotten, ugly plastic toy as the doors suddenly slammed shut. Preventing anyone from opening them from either side for a good ten minutes. The students (And teachers) dubbed this day, The Miracle After Christmas.
Hopefully everyone's staying warm during the snow storm! I'm mostly cold as usual.
I'm torn between liking this chapter and doing it over from scratch... I dunno, had fun with Ness's 'friends' and a murderous Paula though, also sending Umbridge out of the castle. My little sister and I had a blast imagining her flying out the window (before I had mercy on those closest to the window.) but with the shooting star meme playing in the background and Umbridge just spinning into space. (She's planning on making that thought a reality. Somehow.)
Reviews! :D
Guest: Thank you so much! It's nice to hear that despite the angst and logical emotional reactions everyone-well mostly Harry and Ness should have since they cannot catch an emotional break- that everyone is still in character.