Sora couldn't help it. He just stared, and stared, and stared, at the group of shrieking sixth year Ravenclaw girls that were flailing on the stairs as they tried to shake their books out and save some of the sodden piles in their arms, even as they themselves were soaked through to the bone. How had it happened? A pile of water bombs had appeared out of nowhere from above, and had dropped directly onto them, right in front of the keyblade wielder's gaze.
"Is this normal?" he asked Rose, who was standing beside him looking just as stunned.
"Increasingly recently… or water attacks are anyway," she replied, the shock morphing into a frown. "They've only just recently started in the last couple of months or so, and the teachers have had no luck in finding out who's doing the pranks."
"How awful," Sora murmured, shaking off his shock.
"Yes, those poor books," she murmured before shrugging and continuing on up the stairs. "Come on."
"The books?" Sora asked in confusion. "What have the books got to do with anything?" he quickly followed her. "Aren't you worried about the people involved?"
"Why? They're almost adults; they're more than capable of taking care of themselves." She rounded a corner, leaving Sora to stand, absolutely stunned, before shaking his head and hurrying after her again. Rose tended to surprise him half the time. He obviously still didn't have her personality completely down yet.
"G-g-g-gh-gh-GHOST!" Sora screeched the next day as he wandered the halls between classes, jumping behind Albus in fright as the ghost of an elderly gentleman floated towards them, looking amused.
"My, my, I haven't had a reaction like that from someone in a few years."
"Hello Sir Nicholas," Albus greeted calmly, glancing over his shoulder at the quaking Sora in amusement. "Sora, come out. Sir Nicholas isn't scary."
"Quite the opposite I think," the old man chuckled, peering around the middle Potter to get a better look at the brunette. "So you're the one everyone's talking about? The new student?"
"This is him," Albus confirmed with a smile, "and his friend Riku who's in fifth year Slytherin as well."
"Two? That's never happened before," the ghost mused, stroking the goatee he sported. "One is very unusual, but two is unheard of."
Sora poked his eyes over the top of Albus' shoulders to get a better look at the ghost.
Nicholas noticed the blue eyes scrutinizing him and laughed good-naturedly. "Come on out. You're a bit jumpy, aren't you?"
"Just a little," Albus replied dryly, stepping out from in front of Sora. "Sora, meet Sir Nicholas, also known as Nearly Headless Nick."
"Nearly headless?" Sora asked in confusion, his gaze scrutinizing the seemingly fully headed ghost. "How can you be nearly headless?"
"Like this," the ghost answered in amusement and leaned forward, pulling his head to the side so that the inside of his neck was visible.
Albus turned green while Sora screeched in fright as his hands flew to his mouth in horror. "Lord of Darkness, your head!"
The knight laughed as he settled his head back on his shoulders, giving Sora an amused look.
"Doesn't that hurt?"
"No, of course not. I'm dead."
"But… but that doesn't mean it won't hurt," Sora protested with a pout.
"Ever so true, but in this case it doesn't," Sir Nicholas answered with a smile. "Ah, there she is, the person I was looking for. Excuse me Sora and Albus, it was a pleasure seeing you both. Have a pleasant day." With that, he was gliding down the corridor again, nodding a greeting to the other students and staff in the hallway.
Sora watched him go with wide eyes.
Albus laughed and grabbed his new friend's arm. "Come on, let's get to class before we get in trouble."
Nodding, Sora quickly followed as he was tugged forward.
"Riku! Guess what, I saw a ghost!" Sora announced that night at dinner as he raced over to the Slytherin table to tell his friend who he met today.
A snort of amusement from the other Slytherin's had Riku raising an eye as Sora pouted slightly. "Yes, Sora, there are ghosts in Halloween Town and the Underworld as well. It's not like it's your first time seeing a ghost."
"But Zero was a dog," the brunette protested with a pout. "This was a real ghost, a person ghost, and he – he grabbed his head like this and pulled, and his head came off his shoulders, sort of," Sora imitated Sir Nicholas and pulled his head to the side like the ghost had done, wincing as his neck cracked. "Ow…"
Riku shook his head slowly in disbelief. "And you're telling me this at dinner why?"
"Because it was interesting, and I thought you'd be excited?" Sora replied with a small shrug, his tone a little unsure.
"Sora, you're friends with a talking skeleton that wears a suit. Why would meeting another ghost excite you?" the other teen asked, obviously trying to make sense of his friend's thought process.
"This ghost talked to me! He's the first one to actually talk to me. The ones in the Underworld just ignored you, or floated. They were boring."
The Slytherin's listening to the conversation were now looking at them like they were insane.
Riku just planted his face in his hand, shaking his head and he dragged it down his cheek and looked back up at his practically bouncing friend in amusement. "I don't think I've seen you this excited since you went to Christmas Town."
The blue eyes lit up spectacularly as those particular memories came back to him, and he laughed. "Yeah, see I told you Santa Clause existed!"
"Yes, you proved me wrong on that one," Riku admitted in amusement.
"What?" A Slytherin boy asked in disbelief. "Santa Clause doesn't exist! He's a figment of a child's imagination."
"He is not!" Sora retorted loudly, his fists clenching defensively. "I've met him. He's real!"
The boy snorted and raised an eyebrow. "What? In a mall?"
"No! I met him in Christmas Town, and I helped him against… oh what were their names again? Fox, Lox and Barrel? Something like that?" he looked at Riku for confirmation.
The silver haired teen shrugged. "Don't look at me. You're the one that met them, not me."
"You're strange," the wizard decided, looking at Sora like he was insane.
Riku, for some reason, started laughing loudly, unable to stop. The boy threw him a dirty look, while Sora just looked confused. "Oh, you have no idea how true that statement is," he snickered eventually.
"Huh?"
"Don't worry Sora," Riku replied with a grin as he wiped the tears from his eyes. "Go and eat. I'll see you after dinner."
"Okay!" Hugging his friend on impulse, he quickly let go and headed for the Gryffindor table. "Cya Riku!"
"You're friends with a Gryffindor?" a Slytherin girl asked in disgust, wrinkling her nose at him.
"Hey, he's not so bad," Riku defended, glancing over his shoulder to smile fondly at Sora, who was seating himself with the Weasley and Potter clan, already talking amicably as he gestured wildly. "He takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do he's the best friend you'll ever have." He smiled wistfully, looking back at his plate, a small, nostalgic smile on his face. Shaking his head, he continued to eat.
Walking into charms the next day, Sora paused at the doorway as he heard the sound of running water in the corridor behind him. Turning back, he surveyed the area with a perplexed look. Nope. No water. How odd. Then again, this entire place was odd.
Turning back to the classroom, he froze as the unmistakable sound of screaming began rapidly approaching. As the screams peaked, a wind flew past, ruffling his hair, and Sora whirled around with wide eyes only to watch a black cloaked figure sliding past on a wave of water and a plank of wood, his arms rotating madly to try and keep himself balanced as he screamed loudly, and crashed unceremoniously into the wall. Sora's jaw dropped as a dark portal opened a few seconds later, a hand reached out, waved and evaporated the water, grabbed the cloaked man on the way back in and shut without a trace that they were ever there.
Laughing nervously, Sora turned back to the doorway and screamed as he found Rose Weasley staring at him in concern, less than half a meter from his face.
"Are you okay?" She asked in concern when he finally stopped freaking out.
"Fine, fine," he answered shakily and gathered a tighter grip on his books. "I think I'm just going crazy, that's all."
"Oh…"
"Yeah..." Giving her a shaky smile, he quickly darted inside into the classroom and took his seat.
"Come in, come in Miss Weasley. Let's begin, shall we? Alright, let's all take out our wands, and we're going to learn the Cheering Charm today. Mr Hypernious, could you please explain to us what this charm is and what it does?"
Sora sighed and stared up at the ceiling. He could have sworn he just saw one of the members of the Organization, or maybe two, if that arm flying out of the wall was any indication, and considering the water, it must have been Demyx, unless there was another Organization member he didn't know about that used water magic. He prayed that wasn't the case though. He didn't really want to take on the whole Organization again.
Breathing in deeply, Sora froze, his eyes wide as a head popped through a black hole that had appeared in the ceiling, and the nobody, known to Sora as Xigbar, or The Freeshooter, was gazing around the classroom curiously. The searching eyes landed on him, grinned, winked and the head disappeared into the ceiling again.
Sora could do nothing but stare, his eyes wide and his breathing rapidly bordering on hyperventilation. "Sora, are you okay?" Albus asked quietly as his friend froze.
"Did you see that?" Sora asked breathlessly and desperately looking at his friend.
"See what?" the black haired Potter asked in confusion.
"The… The head in the ceiling!"
"What head?"
"Did…Did you not see that?"
"See what Mr Hikari? Mr Potter?" Professor Flitwick asked curiously as he caught the no longer quiet conversation between his two students.
"Did no one else see that?" Sora asked quietly as he gazed around, his eyes wide.
They all gave him confused looks.
Swallowing hard, Sora stood up and stumbled out of his seat.
"Hey, are you okay?" Albus asked in concern. "Sora!"
The brunette didn't answer as he stumbled out of the room in a daze, immediately heading for the first person he could think of to talk to that wouldn't think he was insane.
Stumbling down to the dungeons in a daze, he pushed open the door, immediately halting the potions lesson Professor Higgs was teaching. "Can I help you Mr Hikari?" the Slytherin head asked curiously.
Ignoring the teacher in his daze, Sora stumbled towards Riku, who stood up in concern. "Riku… I think I'm going insane," he began, his voice sounding like he was on drugs, or day dreaming. "I keep seeing ghosts…"
Blinking in confusion Riku looked at his friend in worry and confusion. "Yes Sora, ghosts exist here. You're not going insane."
"No, no, no, no, no," the brunette protested drunkenly as he reached out and grabbed the front of the silver haired teenager's robes, shaking them a little. "I keep seeing ghosts, Riku. Ghosts-ghosts, not ghosts."
"I'm not following you," Riku replied in confusion, reaching up to grab Sora's wrists and detangle them from his robes. "Ghosts exist Sora. Here anyway. You've seen them. We went through this yesterday, remember?"
"No, no, no, I know about those ghosts. These are different ghosts," Sora said, his tone of voice bordering on calm hysteria.
"I'm still not following you," Riku muttered in confusion.
Taking a deep breath, Sora began again. "I'm seeing ghosts Riku. Ghosts that other people can't see."
Frowning in confusion and worry, Riku didn't answer that one but retained his firm grip on Sora's wrists as he turned to face his Potions teacher. "Professor, do you mind if I take Sora up to see Madame Pomphrey in the Hospital Wing? I don't think he'll be able to make it there by himself in this state."
Professor Higgs was standing there frowning thoughtfully at the two of them, namely Sora. He nodded. "Yes, grab your things and take him up Riku. He might have been confunded. She'll probably check for that first but ask her to anyway."
Nodding, the silver haired keyblader released Sora's wrists and quickly walked back to his desk, which was quickly being cleaned up by his partner for him. "Thanks."
Sora quickly followed and placed his hands on the desk. "Riku, you don't understand," he began firmly, obviously a little more lucid and stared his friend in the eyes. "I'm seeing ghosts. Organization ghosts."
That stopped Riku in his tracks. Freezing, he looked at his overly serious friend with thoughtful eyes. "Are you serious?"
"Yes, I'm serious!" Sora nodded determinedly. "Demyx, at least I think it was Demyx, came flailing down the corridor on a wave of water, screaming, and smashed into the wall. Another hand came out of the wall, waved, making the water evaporate within a second and pulled Demyx into the wall without a trace. There was no water left anywhere. Rose was just in front of me. She didn't see a thing! THEN about five minutes later during Charms, Xigbar's HEAD popped out of the ceiling and GRINNED at me! I'm going insane!"
Riku's stunned gaze shifted from Sora to the wall thoughtfully. "DiZ never mentioned anything about the Organization's souls turning into ghosts…"
"Yeah, he also didn't bet on them winding up here either," Sora shot back irritably.
"You're right… he didn't. Agh! Why did the old fool have to go and die!" the elder islander suddenly yelled and scrubbed at his head irritably, messing up his hair.
The brunette scowled. "You know that reason as well as I do, if not better. What has this got to do with my going insane anyway?"
Riku frowned and shifted his gaze to the other side of the room, where James Potter was sitting, looking at them in confusion. "James, do you know where your brother keeps the map?"
"Map?" the brown-eyed boy asked in confusion before widening in recognition. "Oh, that map. Yeah, he um, keeps it under his mattress. Why?"
"No reason. Thanks Professor Higgs. Come on Sora." Picking up his books and grabbing Sora's hand, he dragged the confused brunette out of the room and began a direct beeline for the Gryffindor Common room. "Wha…? Hey, wait! I thought we were going to the hospital wing. Riku! Wait!"
"I want to check something out first."
Grumbling, Sora muttered the password when they reached the fat lady, who eyed Riku distastefully but let him in anyway.
The two slipped through the empty common room to the male dorms upstairs and Riku immediately went searching for the map that was supposedly under Albus' mattress. He pulled it out and tapped the piece of parchment with his wand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Like reliable magic, the map revealed itself and Riku sat down on Sora's bed with the map spread out between them. "Here, start looking for any names that shouldn't belong there."
"Like the Organizations?" Sora asked in surprise as he grinned at his best friend.
"Exactly," Riku replied with a smile and immediately went back to searching the map. Sora quickly copied him.
Half an hour later the bell went and Sora felt his heavy heart drop like a stone. There were no organization members registering on the map. "That's it then. I am going insane," he mumbled and Riku looked at his friend in concern, quickly mumbling the words to hide the map again.
"Sora, there could be other possibilities. There is no way that this map will show absolutely everything that happens in the castle, or every secret passageway or chamber."
"You really think so?" The brunette asked hopefully as he smiled up at his friend.
Riku nodded. "Yeah, I think so. Either way, just to be on the safe side, let's take you up to see Madame Pomphrey so she can check you over."
Sighing heavily, Sora nodded miserably. "Okay…"
The two of them rose, Riku putting the map back underneath Albus' mattress where he'd found it, and the keyblade wielders walked out into the common room, meeting Rose and Albus on their way in. "Sora, are you alright?" the female Weasley asked immediately.
"I don't know…" Sora murmured and swallowed miserably.
"Well, let us know if there's anything we can do. We bought your books up for you."
"Oh… thanks…" he murmured with a forced smile.
"Come on Sora," Riku murmured gently and gripped the brunette's hand, pulling him from the room gently. The two of them headed up to the Hospital Wing on the sixth floor and entered it.
A few seconds later Madame Pomphrey stepped out from around a corner with a look of surprise. "Can I help you?" she asked kindly as she walked forward.
"Go on Sora, tell her," Riku murmured and pushed his friend forward a little.
With a little encouragement Sora spilled everything and the mediwitch looked at him with concern before casting a number of spells on the brunette. Shaking her head in confusion, she ushered him over to a bed, Riku trailing behind.
"Professor Higgs asked me to ask you whether you'd checked to see if he'd been confunded." The glare she sent the teenager had Riku reeling back in surprise. "Not that I think you wouldn't have done it already! He just told me to mention it."
Madame Pomphrey pursed her lips together. "I did check. There's nothing."
"So I really am going insane?" Sora asked bitterly.
"We don't know that for certain," Riku soothed, exchanging a worried look with the mediwitch.
"Do you know what it could be? Where these people could have originated from?"
Sora and Riku exchanged a look before nodding. Sora began explaining about the organization and his role for the past two years in in the saving of the worlds, and his defeating the organization.
By the end of it she was looking a little less uncertain and more relieved. "Well, I think I can answer your question. I believe you have Acute Stress Disorder."
"Acute what?" Riku asked in confusion.
"Acute Stress Disorder," she repeated and waved her wand, calling a book over from a shelf wordlessly. "Acute stress reaction, also called acute stress disorder, psychological shock, mental shock, or simply, shock, is a psychological condition arising in response to a terrifying or traumatic event. It should not be confused with the unrelated circulatory condition of shock.
"Acute Stress Reaction: The symptoms show great variation but typically include an initial state of "daze", with some constriction of the field of consciousness and narrowing of attention, inability to comprehend stimuli, and disorientation. This state may be quickly followed by either further withdrawal from the surrounding situation (to the extent of a dissociative stupor), or by agitation and overactivity, anxiety, impaired judgement, confusion, detachment, and depression. Autonomic signs of panic anxiety (tachycardia, sweating, flushing) are also commonly present. The symptoms usually appear within minutes of the impact of the stressful stimulus or event, and disappear within 2–3 days, often within hours. Partial or complete amnesia for the episode may be present."
"But, hang on, that doesn't make sense," Sora rationalised. "If that's what I'm suffering from at the moment that has to have happened recently. We completed our mission months ago."
"Aside from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which doesn't entirely add up, this is the best fit for what I've seen Mr Hikari."
"And considering you've only just started seeing them, maybe this is the best fit for what you've seen," Riku pointed out with a frown. "But why now? We've only been here for almost a week so far. It's been months since they were defeated. Surely someone would have seen them before now?"
"If they have been spotted no one has reported them," Madame Pomphrey replied lightly and fixed Sora with a studious gaze. "Mr Hikari, I'd like to keep you here overnight if you don't mind."
"Um… not at all."
"Good. Go and have some lunch and I'll meet you back here after that. Pack some pyjama's please."
"Okay."
She smiled sympathetically and patted the brunette's knee before standing up and waving her wand, the book she was holding returning itself to its rightful place. "Have a good day Mr Valley."
"Thank you Madame Pomphrey."
Sora and Riku exchanged a look as she walked off. "Well, at least we know you're not going insane," Riku joked lightly and held out a hand for Sora to grip.
Smiling grimly, the brunette took his friends hand and stood up. "Not just yet anyway."
Sighing, Riku turned and followed the other keyblade wielder down to the great hall for lunch. This was going to be troublesome and worrying.
As they entered the Great Hall, Riku claimed a seat next to Sora at the Gryffindor table. He ignored the unimpressed look from Professor Vane and began eating, chatting happily with James and Lily.
Albus, Rose, Hugo and Scorpius joined them a short time later, and they all chatted and laughed, avoiding the question brewing in the centre.
Riku blinked when James, Rose, Albus and Scorpius all froze suddenly, jaws dropping wide open, food falling from Rose's mouth as she gaped wordlessly at something just behind the two keybladers.
Blinking, Riku, Sora, Hugo and Lily all turned around, Riku's jaw dropping in shock as he saw the familiar red head standing behind them, giving them a cheery grin and a two fingered salute as a greeting.
"Yo! Listen, Riku, you don't mind if I steal the runt here for a while, do you?" Axel asked as he quickly reached forward and plucked Sora out of his seat and tossed him over his shoulder.
"Wha-? Hey! Axel! Put me down!" Sora yelled as he attempted to kick and punch his way free.
"Stop squirming," the fire wielder ordered as he quickly called a corridor of darkness. "Don't worry, we'll return him." The green eyes winked as they both disappeared into the darkness.
Riku leapt into action. "Axel, put him down!" he yelled as he leapt at the corridor, hitting it too late as it dissipated and the silver haired keyblader hit the floor and skidded a bit. "DAMN IT!" Punching the floor, he pushed himself upright and glared around the room, which was now silent. "AXEL, GET YOUR SKINNY ASS BACK HERE RIGHT NOW BEFORE I FLAMBÈ IT FOR YOU!"
There was silence, and Riku's attention was caught as a note flickered out of a small dark spot before floating to the ground. Picking up the piece of paper, Riku snarled as he read the note. "ZEXION!"
TBC
*cackles evilly* Cliffhanger! D Review and i'll post the next chapter sooner.
