Out of the Shadow – Year 2

Christmas arrived and I woke up alone in my bedroom. I pulled my knees to my chest and hugged them as I looked out the window near Ashley's bed and watched the snow fall. After a while I sighed and picked up my presents that sat on the bottom of my bed. I unwrapped a box of candy from Ashley, a toy dragon from Rhea, and a new sweater from Mrs. Weasley. I smiled and pulled it on instantly. This ear it was navy blue with a silver H.

It was then I noticed a rose sitting on top of the next box. I picked it up tenderly. "Hello Beautiful." Was all the note said I felt a smile tug at the corner of my mouth. Something inside me told me it was from Roger Davies. I lent down to smell it when suddenly water sprayed me all over. I dropped the rose and sighed. "Fred and George." I tossed the rose back on my bed. "I should have known." I shook my head and dove into the last box.

Inside where a bunch of worn out books. I picked one up and smiled. This was something Remus would enjoy reading. Sure, enough the small note told me just that. He had been collecting books he thought I'd like and promised to see me again soon. I gathered the books on my bed while I changed before carrying them down with me to the great hall for breakfast. I didn't even pay attention to the lack of people in the entire great hall as I sat at the Ravenclaw table flipping through one of the books Lupin left me.

"Are you really in the entire Ravenclaw tower, alone?" I looked up to see Harry, Ron and Hermione standing over me. "Hmm?" I said looking up at them. "Oh, no. I think there's two others. I'm not sure." Harry looked down at the books and smiled. "Where'd you get those?" I couldn't contain the smile on my face. "Mooney." I said simply. Harry gave me a small nod before Hermione insisted, they get moving. I waved to them and went back to my book. After breakfast I was approached by Professor Dumbledore.

"I see you are on your own."

"I am, sir. I don't mind it though."

"Feel free to sit with your brother for the feast tonight. Christmas is a time for family after all."

I gave him a small smile. "Thank you, sir." I wanted to ask him about our parents, since he mentioned family, but I didn't want to push it. I knew they were still working for the Order and everything was under wraps; keeping them hidden from everyone, including their own children. "You're Godfather always had incredible taste for literature."

Dumbledore's voice was low, but his eyes sparkled with whatever memories he had of Remus. I gave him a small smile and nodded. "He does, sir." Once Dumbledore walked away, I returned to my book until another red rose dropped onto my open book. I blinked at it for a second before picking it up and let my gaze rise to the Gryffindor table. Sure, enough Fred and George waved at me.

I picked up the rose and closed my book before walking over to their table. "Did you get our flowers?" Fred asked teasingly. "Yes, and they were very funny. Pay back I assume?" The Twins shrugged as if they had no idea what I was talking about. "The note was a nice touch." Fred's head snapped up again. "What note? We didn't add a note, did we George?"

George shook his head, but his eyes didn't meet mine. I looked back down at the rose and tried to fight off a smile. The flowers might have been a prank, but if George added the note without Fred knowing, what does that mean? I was worried my mind was getting ahead of me. Maybe he didn't either, or someone else got in on their prank? But who Lee Jordan? Oh god, wouldn't that ruin everything with Ashley.

"Earth to Holly."

I shook my head, trying to pull myself from my own thoughts. "Hmm?" I said looking back up at the twins, trying my best to fight down a blush. They were my friends; I couldn't ruin that my mixing feelings into it all. "We are going outside for a bit. Do you want to meet us out there?" Fred asked. I nodded. "Sure."

A few moments later I bundled up in my sweat, hat, gloves and cloak before going outside. I wanted to tell someone about what I was working on with the professors, but I hadn't found time to tell Harry, and I trusted the twins with my life. I knew they wouldn't say anything to anyone. I met them in the main courtyard, and we trudged down to the lake to see if it was frozen.

"If it's not, who's going to dig you out?" I asked. They looked at me. "That's why you are here." Fred added and I put my hands on my hips. "Oh, jeez. Thanks." I watched as Fred stepped on to the lake. It instantly started to crack, so he jumped back into the snow next to George. "Alright, now that our fun is ruined. What did you want to show us?" George said.

I smiled. "You have to promise you won't tell anyone." The twins looked at each other with excitement in their eyes. "Not a soul." They said in unison. I stepped around a tree, so I was out of sight from the rest of the castle. "Okay. Attack me, with a spell or throw something." George dug into his pockets and pulled out a dung bomb.

"Do you two seriously just keep them stashed in your pockets?"

I shook my head before the boys could answer. "Whenever your ready." I said. I kept my feet planted on the ground. The moment the dungbomb left George's hand I raised my hands and focused. Sure, enough a golden shield burst out right in front of me, and the dungbomb simply bounded off, and landed in the snow. I put my hands down and the shield with it. The twins stared at me in disbelief.

"No way." They said in unison. Then Fred started scooping up snowball after snowball, throwing them in my direction. I threw my shield up automatically. I got a free second to put my shield down and cast my own spell. Thinking about exspelliarmus, I flicked my wrist in Fred's direction and the snowball flew out of his hand and off to the side.

"You are in year 2, and you already can do nonverbal and wandless magic. That doesn't make sense." George finally said. I shrugged. "I did some nonverbal magic in front of McGonagall in transfiguration last year, and this year Dumbledore's been having me work with some of the professors to get it under control."

"But why?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I think Dumbledore knows more then he is letting on, and I'm part of whatever he is preparing for." Fred and George looked at each other before turning to me. "You can't tell anyone. The only people that know are the professors." I started to panic. "We won't say a word." George said clapping me on the shoulder. "But we may enlist your special talents if we need too." Fred added and I smiled. "Fine. Just don't get me expelled. I'm doing that well enough on my own."

We walked back up towards the school and went our separate ways until dinner. I wanted to spend more time with them, with any of them, but I was freezing cold and desperately needed a change of clothes. When I returned to my room, I draped my sweater over the rains near the heater so I could wear it again at dinner. I laid in bed with one of the books from Remus until dinner. It was weird, reading these books from him almost made me feel closer to him.

It was hard to be sad about anything once I walked into the great hall. It was decorated beautifully, and the food looked incredible. I walked up to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Harry. "Hey! What are you doing here?" He asked smiling at me. "Dumbledore told me I could have dinner with you, since I'm basically alone in my own house." Harry patted my arm reassuringly.

We sang carols terribly, along with the rest of the teachers and students that remained in the school. I watched as Fred transformed Percy's Prefect badge to read "Pinhead." We all laughed, and even Ginny looked a little more relaxed then she had in weeks. It wasn't until Harry was on his third helping of pudding when Hermione whispered something to him, and Ron and they left.

I spent the rest of the night with the rest of the Weasley's. Fred, George and I created little pranks that made Ginny laugh, before Ginny and I dove into our own conversations about classes, quidditch. "This is a weird question." Ginny started. "But, will you guys be coming to stay with us again this summer?" I shrugged. "I don't know. I have a feeling we are going to be sent back to our Muggle aunt and uncle. We've not heard a thing though."

"Can I ask you another question?"

"Sure."

I was sipping on some hot chocolate as Ginny sat beside me at the Ravenclaw table near the fireplace. "How come you are friends with Fred and George?" I glanced over my shoulder just as George tossed something to Fred to catch in his mouth, but he missed. "They needed help with a prank one day, and I agreed. I think it's because they know my dad was a bit of a trickster when he was here. The only difference is that he was a bit of a bully."

"Harry and I are different sort of twins to Fred and George. We like having our own things, but we each picked a Weasley to be friends with, so that keeps us connected."

I gave her a little nudge with my shoulder, and she smiled. "The way I see it is Harry and I are friends with all of you Weasley's." Ginny smiled again. "Yeah, I like that." Once we finished our drinks, we said goodbye to everyone and headed to bed. I hadn't seen Harry since he left earlier, and I hoped he wasn't getting himself in trouble.

The following morning, I ran into him on my way to breakfast. "Where's Hermione? I almost never see her without you guys." Harry and Ron exchanged looks. "Erm. Hospital wing." Ron said finally. I looked at Harry. "What happened?" Ron and Harry looked at each other before turning back to me. They both looked almost embarrassed like I called one of them out for having a crush on her.

"We've been brewing Polyjuice potion, and we took it last night to get into the Slytherin common room to question Malfoy."

"Question Malfoy? Why?"

"We thought he might know who the heir is."

"What did he say?"

"He didn't know. It was a dead end. We are back to square one."

I shook my head. "I could have told you it wasn't Malfoy. He is way to arrogant, there would be no way he'd be able to keep it to himself. He would have let the entire school know the moment he could. The person doing this is logical, they aren't going for the obvious kill. That's exactly what Malfoy would do."

Harry and Ron exchanged a look. "Who do you think it is then?" Ron asked seeming annoyed that I was probably right. "I don't know. It's going to be someone no one expects."

"Like you?" Ron said.

"Trust me, I'm one wrong move from getting expelled. I don't need a big scary monster to help me with that, I'm doing perfectly well by myself."

"You almost look proud that you are basically getting expelled." Harry pointed out. I sighed. "I'm not proud of it, but I'm not going to say I regret anything I've done up to this point. I was defending you when I fought Helen and I would do it again. Honestly, I don't know how you haven't beaten up Malfoy yet. It's quiet liberating."

Ron looked at Harry. "Your sister scares me sometimes." I laughed and gave Ron a soft pat on the cheek. Fred and George walked into the great hall then. "What's so funny?" Fred asked as they sat down. "Ron's scared of Holly." Harry said with a teasing smile. "I am not!" Ron defended himself weakly. "I think you should be." Fred said. "She is the sister of the heir of Slytherin after all." George added. I rolled my eyes. "Ha ha, very funny you two."

"Careful Ron! She's going to attack with just the flick of her wrist!" Fred added pretending to duck under the table. "I'm leaving now." I said simply before walking over to my own table. Today most other students were returning from their holiday break, so it was back to my own table for me, even though I was sure Dumbledore wouldn't have minded if I had breakfast with them.

Ashley and Rhea arrived back to the common room right before dinner. They chatted excitedly about their holidays at home and listened to my boring tales of being in the common room and dormitory alone. "Who sent you a rose, Holly?" Rhea asked picking up one of the roses on the side of my bed. I closed my eyes and shook my head. "Three guesses." I watched as Rhea went to sniff the rose and was sprayed in the face.

"Oh." Was all she said before putting the flower on the table. "I fell for it, too. Oldest trick in the book." I said trying to make her feel comfortable. "I think it was payback for the water balloons." Ashley smiled. "I don't know, if that was the case why the flower?" I shrugged. Rhea and Ashley looked at each other but didn't mention it again.

As we sat down, a little while later, to dinner I turned to Ashley. "Were your parents worried about sending you back?" I asked her. "A little, but I promised them I'd be safe, well as safe as I could."

"Are you worried?"

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't, but I want to be here, and continue learning. I don't want to miss anything. What if I stayed home and couldn't catch up by next year?"

"Who says this castle will still be standing next year?"

"HOLLY!" Rhea and Ashley said in shock. I shrugged. "I'm just saying. If there really is a monster loose in the castle, I mean it could bust through these walls at anytime and bring the whole place down."

"Holly. You have the craziest imagination." Rhea said turning back to her food. I gave her a weak smile, but I couldn't deny I thought about what that would be life. If that monster just showed itself. Surely the entire school would be able to fight against it. Was this the reason why Dumbledore was preparing me? Was he around the last time this monster made an appearance?