Chapter 12: Sleeping Problems
The first day of suspension turned out to be much more tiring then the kids had expected. Hermione left a few minutes after their talk with Neville, but not before making the other three promise her to start their research in the library. Then Wood came down and snatched Heidi away to the Quidditch pitch, taking advantage of her suspension (and his free period) and promised the girl that he'll extend her Quidditch practice to every time he had a free period this week (and the Quidditch pitch was not occupied by the other teams).
"No use in wasting precious time sitting around and hoping Heidi," Wood had said. "After all, Slytherin scored 220 points in their match with Ravenclaw. We have a lot to live up to!" He looked slightly stiff as he said this, and Heidi noted that he was far more critical and sarcastic of her performance then normal.
By the end of it all, Heidi drowsily made her way to the library only to find Diana with her nose buried in Dragons from birth to adulthood, and Neville reading 1000 magical Herbs and Fungi.
"I thought we agreed that you were supposed to start researching spells!" Heidi snapped startling the two and causing madam Pince to give her a warning glare.
"Sorry," Diana mumbled. "We didn't know where to start."
"Typical," Heidi sighed and motioned for the two to follow her. "The herb book might be useful," Heidi said pointing at the book securely held in Neville's hands. "Though if you want to read anything about animals, I suggest you start looking at the properties of their blood, skin and so on which can be used in potion ingredients," she said to her sister.
Diana turned green in a matter of seconds and said she'd much rather concentrate on spells thank you very much.
"You can take care of the gory potion ingredients," the red head huffed.
"Fine," Heidi threw an annoyed look her way before dumping into her hands a book entitled Most common Healing spells and the basic of Healing Magic which was a rather thick book. "You can start with that!"
Diana glared at her sister, but quietly made her way towards a table and started reading the book.
"Can I continue with this?" Neville asked indicating his book.
"Have you read that book before?" Heidi asked with a slightly raised brow.
Neville flushed and nodded his head.
"Then I suggest you start with something else," the brunet said and picked up Rare Plants and their uses for Common Potions and handed it over to him. "This should be a good start!"
Neville nodded and went to sit beside Diana while Heidi proceeded to scoop the Potion section for an interesting title.
"Hi there," a voice coming from behind her made her jump slightly.
Heidi turned around to glare at the person who had startled her, an insult ready at the tip of her thong, which died the moment she laid eyes on the perpetrator.
"Diggory," she greeted with a dazzling smile. "What are you doing in the library," she asked; then mentally cursed herself for asking such a stupid question.
"I came to return a book and borrow a new one. Why else would I be in the library?" he answered very much amused causing Heidi to turn a scarlet red color.
"Don't you have class?" Heidi asked hoping to distract the boy from her previous dumb question.
"I have a free period," Diggory answered with a light smile. "I'm guessing you have one too?"
Dang! Another stupid question, Heidi though.
"No, I was supposed to have a full schedule till after lunch," Heidi answered.
"Then why aren't you in class?" Diggory asked slightly intrigued.
Heidi flushed a shameful red as she averted her eyes and answered. "I got suspended," and then mentally cursed herself for telling the truth.
"You got suspended?" Diggory asked concerned. "Why, what did you do?"
"Don't want to talk about it," she said grumpily as she began fidgeting on the spot.
"Oh, pardon my meddling! It's really none of my business," the boy apologized.
"Don't worry about it," Heidi waved his concerns aside, a little too hasty in her opinion. Damn, she needed a change of topic, and fast.
"I wanted to thank you for the Valentine," Diggory said. "It was rather cute."
Now, despite what her sister might think of her, Heidi wanted nothing more then to be swallowed whole by the marble floor underneath her feet. Truth be told, she had no idea what crazy divinity possessed her to write that blasted Valentine, least of all send it. And Diggory bringing it up made her regret she had ever had the blasted idea...despite the fact that he said it was cute. Wait what?
"You liked it?" Heidi asked doubtfully.
"Well, I didn't like the fact that the dwarf started singing to me in the middle of the corridor," Cedric groaned slightly and Heidi stiffened beside him.
"Were there any witnesses present?" Heidi asked worried. She had completely forgotten about Lockhart's foul idea of hiring dwarfs to sing their Valentines. The bastard was going to have a gruesome accident sometimes soon!
"The corridor was packed," Diggory said apologetically.
Yep, Lockhart was toast! Heidi decided after hearing the news.
"But I imagine I got the same end of the stick," Diggory said, distracting her from her gruesome thoughts about how to kill Lockhart.
Heidi turned a questioned look towards Diggory. "Why would you?"
Diggory looked confused at her. "Am, you didn't get my Valentine?" he asked perplexed.
Heidi turned bright read at hearing that and averted her eyes as she hastily shock her head no. "I ran," she said in a small voice.
"You actually managed to run?" Diggory asked awestruck.
"It wasn't that hard," Heidi answered, her eyes still locked on her shoes.
"So, that's why I got this back!" Diggory exclaimed, seemingly relieved. "I thought you didn't like it." Heidi lifted her eyes to see Diggory produce a neat envelope out of his pocket, which he then handed to her. "I know it's a little late, but, Happy Valentines!"
Heidi stood rotten to the spot, glaring at the envelope in Diggory's hand with a racing heart. Not knowing what exactly she was supposed to do, she reached out and took the envelope, and then stared at it mutely with a completely blank expression on her face for a couple of minutes up until Diggory placed a delicate finger under her chin and lifted her head up. She suddenly came face- to-face with the boy's stunning gray orbs which were regarding her intently. He leaned in slightly closer and Heidi's breath caught in her throat. He was so close the tips of their noses were nearly touching.
"You really have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen," Diggory said.
He tilted his head to the side, and suddenly, Heidi felt a pair of demanding lips crashing upon hers which nearly stole the last supply of oxygen that her lungs had left...only problem was...Diggory wasn't the one kissing her. He'd turned his head and gave her a soft peek on the cheek; then he'd said a quiet see you later and left, leaving her standing there confused as to what had just happened.
Heidi rested her back up against the wall and traced her index finger across her bottom lip. That was Voldemort she'd been daydreaming about kissing.
"Sissy!" came a squeak of delight from her left, and before Heidi had time to process what was going on, she found herself in the choking embrace of her sister, who nearly succeeded in sucking the life right out of her.
"Oh, I'm so happy for you!" Diana squealed and released her, only to start choking her again. Neville was trailing slightly behind her looking red in the face.
"What are you so happy about?" Heidi asked slightly dazed thanks to the lack of oxygen.
"I saw Diggory," Diana said in a mischievous voice.
"We were wondering what was taking you so long so we came to check on you," Neville supplied.
"And I just saw the Hufflepuff hotty kiss you on the cheek!" Diana taunted. "Oh, you have to tell me everything!" she demanded. "What is that you have there?" she asked pointing at the envelope in Heidi's hand.
"My Valentine Letter," Heidi answered.
"From Diggory?" Diana squeaked sounding nothing less then Rita Skeeter (a vile reporter of the Daily Prophet), which had just gotten her greedy little hands on some juicy information.
"Here," Heidi handed her the letter knowing she wouldn't get away with it. "Help yourself."
Diana snatched the letter out of her hands and scanned through it in one beat, while giggling and squealing all the while like an enamored fangirl.
Heidi didn't care. She was to busy trying to figure out why she had daydreamed about kissing Voldemort while Diggory was so close to her? Because she did like the Hufflepuff boy, less she wouldn't have bothered to humiliate herself by sending him a Valentine. Granted he didn't actually kiss her, and she had been damn sure that he would, and the only person she had kissed up until now was Voldemort, so she had nothing else to compare to. Still, she didn't like the fact that Voldemort had decided to make an unwanted cameo in her intimate moment with Diggory. Well, it wasn't exactly intimate, and she was starting to ramble... how odd.
"Heidi," Neville's quiet voice brought her out of her reverie.
"What?" Heidi asked.
"Are you feeling alright?" the boy asked concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she assured smiling at him.
"Ok," Neville nodded. "Wanna go back to study?"
"God, yes! Anything to keep me away from my sister today would be a blessing," Heidi answered and proceeded to pull out a random book from the Potion shelf; then she followed Neville to the table where he and Diana had taken residence. The next half an hour was spent trying to convince Diana to shut the hell up about Diggory and his oh so sweet Valentine letter, and get her to concentrate on the book at hand, which surprisingly, managed to gain some of the red-head's interest.
Then came lunch, where they met up with Hermione, then Wood ushered the Quidditch team off to practice, because, apparently, they had the match against Hufflepuff coming up in two days time, which Heidi had completely forgotten about! And after that, they had their first detention of the year...with Filch ("Yay!" Diana had squealed in delight and hugged the caretaker), who let them off with cleaning the trophy room with their wands, so that was done in no time at all. The kids made it back to the common room at a quarter pass nine and settled themselves next to Hermione who was busy with some homework or another.
"Done with your detention?" Hermione asked surprised.
"We got Filch," was all that the kids said and Hermione nodded in understanding.
"Lets hope we always get old Filch from now on until the end of the year," Neville said keeping his fingers crossed.
"We have that extra week with McGonagall," Hermione reminded which caused the kids' good mood to vanish.
"My match against Diggory is coming up soon," Heidi said grumpily, remembering one of the reasons why she hated today.
"Sis, you better be careful not to clobber him in the upcoming match, less you risk hurting his pride," Diana advised. "Men are really sensitive about things like that!"
"I'm hardly gonna let him win," Heidi said skeptically. "And besides, what's he gonna do about my wounded pride if I lose?"
"Screw him, you better win this match if you want to have a career in professional Quidditch," Diana said. "Just make sure that you don't completely trash him, so that he doesn't feel offended about it."
"What if he trashes me?" Heidi asked.
"You've been on the team for longer then he has," Hermione said reasonably. "You have experience on your side."
"And besides, they got totally whooped in the match against Slytherin," Neville said in an attempt to reassure her.
"The Slytherins play dirty as hell and have the fastest brooms around," Heidi reminded. "It's not that easy to compete with those brooms. I should know, I had a rough time too."
"But you beat them," Diana reminded.
"Because I'm just about as much of a cheat as they are when I want to be," Heidi said.
"Then cheat," Diana said.
"Against Hufflepuff?" Neville asked skeptically. "Only the Slytherins would sink that low as to cheat against those guys!"
"Yes, one of the main traits of the Hufflepuff house is fair-play," Hermione reminded. "You cheat against them and you'll end up flying from Diggory's list of friends, let alone crushes."
Heidi frowned slightly frustrated. "Then what am I gonna do about the match?! McGonagall will have my head if I don't win!"
"Try playing fair!" stated Hermione simply. "It's not like you had to cheat last time and it's not like Sanpe's gonna be referring the match again! So there really is no reason for you to worry!"
"I guess you're right," Heidi grunted, not looking pleased about the turn of events.
"Well, then, problem solved!" Diana cheered. "I, for one, am of to bed! See you in the morning!"
"You're turning in so early?" asked Heidi perplexed. "It's not even ten!"
"I'm tired!" Diana whined. "I'll see you tomorrow!" she waved and rushed up the stairs which led to the girls' dormitory.
"She's in a rather good mood," Heidi commented.
"Think she's got another crush?" Hermione asked.
"I hope it's not a Slytherin again," Neville said disgruntled.
The other two nodded their heads in agreement.
"Hermione," Heidi said suddenly remembering something. "Do you still have that book about the Hogwarts prefects?"
"Yeah, it's in my bag," Hermione answered, not bothering to take her eyes off her homework.
"What are you working on?" Neville asked.
"Transfiguration. Do you want to start on your essay?" Hermione asked.
"Do you think McGonagall'll be asking for it?" Neville wondered.
"It's McGonagall we're talking about," Heidi said. "Of course she'll ask for it!"
Neville sighed and crouched down next to Hermione. The girl proceeded to explain to him the basics of the spell they were learning about while Heidi dug into Hermione's bag and pulled out the Famous Prefects from start till today book and started scanning the photos on the pages to see if she recognized anyone.
Hmm, let's see, 1860... 1900... 1922... 1938... Here he is! Tom Marvolo Riddle! Prefect from 1942 till 1945, he was made Head Boy in his last year and received an award for Special Services to the School in his sixth year.
He is the boy Augusta Longbottom said had blamed Hagrid for the whole Chamber incident! Heidi noted.
Heidi glared at the photo. The boy in the picture was almost smirking, a gesture she had become quite accustomed to since last night; she doubted the boy could even smile for a change (probably developed a phobia of smirking disease). The eyes were different though. Contrary to Tom Riddle's jet black orbs, the teenage Voldemort in her dream had deep crimson eyes and quite an unnerving shade mind you. Though there was one thing that bothered her...why had she linked Tom Riddle, the model student, perfect-mister-pretty-boy-who-probably-had-more-fans-then-friends, to someone like Voldemort, a murdering deranged psychopath who was extremely ugly to boast?
Oh, yeah... that's why!
Diana scurried through the door of the second year girls' dorm and jumped on her bed and made sure to draw the covers around before pulling out Tom Riddle's diary from within her drawer, a bottle of ink and one of her fancy quills.
Hi there Tom! Sorry for leaving you alone for so long, she wrote. Hope you haven't missed me.
Actually I have found myself missing you terribly, Tom replied. It does get rather lonely being trapped in the diary all day, with no one else to talk to.
Aw, I'm sorry I was out for so long, but I have so much to tell you! You'll never believe what I've been doing these past few days!
I'm all ears!
Diana smiled at the reply and began scrabbling frantically along the page, filling Tom in on every little detail, every little event that had taken place in her life so far. She told him about Hermione getting petrified, then about the chamber of secrets, the Heir of Slytherin, the talk in Dumbledore's office, their resolution on finding a cure for Neville's parents, Diggory's Valentine letter for her sister, and every little thing that didn't manage to elude her memory at the moment.
That was quite a fascinating story, Tom commented once she had finished her long rant.
I know and I'm rather proud of myself!Diana admitted.
For good reason too! I can't believe Dumbledore punished you and your friends after you've rid him of this Voldemort guy and his pet Basilisk!
I know he was rather mean, Diana whined. But Heidi did say it was gonna end up that way. I just didn't care! I wanted that asshole caught, and I caught him...well, sort of...
It's better then nothing.
Yep! I know! And now Hermione's all better, so I hope that jackass is fuming somewhere in a rotten hole if he's not dead from grief already!
That's quite some language for such a pretty lady. It doesn't fit you one bit, Tom chastised.
Sorry! I promise I'll quit after tonight! Hope you don't mind indulging me just a little bit do you?
Not at all! Though...just for tonight!
Thanks Tom! You're a real sweetheart! Diana blushed as she realized what she'd just written. I mean, a real gentlemen!
Well then, how about we try to make a real lady out of you? Tom questioned making Diana blush harder then she'd ever done in her life. It was times like this when she was glad that Tom was not able to see her face.
Sure, she wrote eagerly. What is it that you have in mind?
Let's start out simple by trying to make you swear less with every passing day; then we'll work on the rest.
Ok Tom!
Diana kept writing to Tom for several more hours, up until her sister and the rest of the girls started filling in the dorm. Then she decided she'd had enough for one night and finally wished her good night's to Tom before falling into a dreamless sleep, the diary securely tucked underneath her fluffy pillow.
Heidi barely managed to fall asleep, only to weak up in a familiar king-sized bed with none other then the face of one Tom Riddle with scarlet eyes (commonly known to her as teenaged-Voldemort) glaring dangerously at her. The teen was currently sitting on the edge of her side of the bed with his arms hanging loosely on either side of her head.
"So, that's all it takes to impress you, a bloody valentine's letter?!" Voldemort hissed menacingly.
"Excuse me?" Heidi said slightly perplexed. She felt her scar prickle faintly as the teenaged dark lord narrowed his eyes which for a slight second turned a nasty bloody red color.
"Pretty boy Diggory hands you a silly little Valentine's letter and flashes a few smiles and suddenly you're acting like all the other thousand or so fangirls that he's got out there hanging on his every word. If I had known you were so easy, I might have sent you a stupid letter myself!" the dark lord snarled.
"You ass!"
Heidi's cheeks flushed in anger and her eyes narrowed to slides as she brought up a fist with the soul intent of breaking the boy's jaw. The teen caught her fist and took hold of her other hand then lifted them on top of her head, while Heidi struggled and started shouting obscenities at him all through the process.
"Quite a cute temper you have there," the boy taunted. "Tell me love, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
Heidi glowered at the teen as she struggled to free herself from his grasp, but it was no use, she was quite literally sandwiched between the bed and the teenaged-Voldemort's slightly muscular frame. Well...at least she wasn't going to let him get the best of her in an argument.
She smirked.
"No. Last I remember, I've only kissed you with this mouth," Heidi answered in a sweet venomous voice.
Voldemort's lips suddenly twitched into the much too familiar smirk as he leaned in slightly closer and purred: "Fortunately. Because, let's face it, Diggory's a wuss. I doubt he's got what it takes to satisfy a girl of your... caliber."
"Hmm," Heidi lifted a delicate brow at his statement and asked: "So you think you've got what it takes to handle someone of my caliber?" in a slight patronizing tone.
The bastard's smirk widened. "Of course," he purred and bent forward to brush his lips over hers.
Heidi flushed upon the contact and managed to catch herself just in time to not respond to the teen's kiss. She needed to think of something to distract the boy fast or she might end up loosing the argument to the insufferable prick. Then she remembered something.
"Really Tom Riddle," Heidi purred tauntingly against his lips. "Do you really think you've got what it takes to satisfy me?"
Voldemort's eyes snapped open in a flash after hearing the name and his head shot up and away from hers. For a split second, his surprise was there for all to see, before he covered it up with a cheeky smile and stated: "Hmm, so you've finally found out whose appearance you've assigned me, and here I was thinking that you've forgotten about me for the entire day."
"Oh, believe me I haven't forgotten about you for one second," Heidi assured. "I fact," she smiled widely. "I've come up with a new theory regarding your identity!" she stated proudly.
"Is that so?" Voldemort quizzed with a suspicious smile.
"I think you'll rather like it," Heidi confessed, grinning broadly at him. "It goes something like this: You, Tom Marvolo Riddle, are Voldemort!" she stated coldly, her smile dropping of her face. "My mind didn't associate Tom Riddle's face with Voldemort's, that's how you've always looked! Well, at least up until you got shot with the killing curse and made the stupid choice of attaching yourself to Quirrell's head!"
"And where did that come from?" Voldemort asked coldly. "Is it one of your silly and desperate little excuses to prove that I am not just a figment of your imagination but Lord Voldemort who is somehow screwing with your head, or do you actually have a plausible explanation for these arguments?"
"I have a plausible explanation for these arguments! And I will explain them to you right now!" Heidi snapped. "But first, can I sit up?" she asked frustrated.
"No," Voldemort said with a taunting smirk. "I much rather like the idea of you squirming helplessly beneath me."
"Pervert!" Heidi snapped glaring daggers at the smirking teen.
"Fine!" She said. "I'll talk like this, though it will be rather difficult!" she warned.
"Oh, don't worry, I won't mind one bit."
"Ass!"
"Anyway," Heidi squirmed slightly in order to arrange herself in a much more comfortable position, but seeing as there was none, she sighed in frustration and began talking. "The reason why I think you're Tom Riddle is, because he lived over fifty years ago, and" she raised her voice slightly to stop the teen from talking when he looked like he was going to interrupt, "the Chamber of Secrets was opened over 50 years ago! Voldemort began his war campaign against the Ministry over thirty years ago, a gruesome little crusade which earned him the title of the most vile and sick bastard to have ever walked the face of the earth!" Voldemort glared threateningly at her while Heidi stopped to shoot him an imperious look. "Something which got me wondering about how old he was around the time he started his little pureblood-only campaign. So I did a little bit of snooping around in my first year and I concluded that he had to have been somewhere around thirty or in his late twenties back then."
"And how pray tell did you come to that conclusion?" Voldemort asked intrigued.
"Oh, you see, that's the problem," Heidi said smiling pleasantly at him. "It seemed no one had ever heard of Voldemort before the start of his little crusade, he appears to have simply popped out of the ground! Whoever he was before his dark lord time did a dang good job at covering up his tracks. Changed his name, moved out of the country for a few good years let his past self slowly slip away from the minds of all his ex-acquaintances – of course, only those who didn't interest him that is – and once his past self had slipped into the shadows and everyone he knew had moved on with his life, he popped back in with a new name – a French one at that," Heidi wrinkled her nose "–and went about playing the big bad Dark Lord who everyone had to bow down to like a god charade. And now here comes the funny part!" Heidi fixed the now stoic-faced dark lord with a cold glare. "Tom Riddle, by all accounts the smartest student to have ever studied at Hogwarts, prefect, head boy, award winning student, seems to have just disappeared after finishing his final year at Hogwarts! Perfect-little-pretty-boy who everyone loved and admired, who everyone expected to have a bright and successful future ahead of him simply vanished of the face of the earth after his final year. Coincidence? I think not!"
"And what if it was?" Voldemort asked smiling nastily at her.
"Oh, no my dear, it was no coincidence," Heidi said her face twitched into a cruel smile. "Because, you see, you made a rather big mistake in the beginning of the year which gave you away rather quickly."
"And that is?" Voldemort asked sounding bored.
"You knew where the chamber of secrets was!" Heidi accused. "At the beginning of the year when I told you my friend's stupid theory about the chamber being sealed off with parsel-magic and hidden in some god-forsaken place, you smirked in my face, something which made me doubt my judgment regarding the Chamber matter. Then the chamber does turn up to be located in some god-forsaken place and its entrance sealed with parsel-magic! Coincidence? I don't think so!"
"And now for my favorite part," she purred. "Tom Riddle! He was given a special award for services to the school, on the same day on which one Rubeus Hagrid got expelled from Hogwarts. Given that fact that Dippet had announced a day before that they had caught the perpetrator who opened the chamber, you'd have to be an idiot to not put two and two together and conclude that Hagrid was the perpetrator and Tom Riddle was the one who caught him. But you'd have to be really dumb to think that someone as gullible and naive as Hagrid could ever set a giant Basilisk loose around the school to petrify people! Which I'm sure Dippet was, but not me! Not to mention the fact that Hagrid is not a parselmouth. I should know, I scared him senseless when he caught me hissing at Marcus Flint in the hallway." Heidi glared coldly at Voldemort. "Which means that the perpetrator was someone other then Hagrid, someone who was put under enough pressure when Dippet announced that they were going to close the school because of the attacks; someone like and orphan maybe, who had no desire of going back to their home and whose career would suffer greatly thanks to the abrupt end of his education, someone like Tom Riddle! Someone like you!" Heidi concluded. "You're the real Tom Riddle! You're Voldemort, not a figment of my imagination! And you framed Hagrid for the Chamber incident 50 years ago, you bastard!"
"Are you sure that's not just an unfortunate coincidence which took place, and that this Tom Riddle person just made a regrettable mistake when accusing Hagrid of being the perpetrator? After all," Voldemort smirked. "You did say he was put on the spot, right? Maybe he just...lost his tether and in his desperation for securing his stay at Hogwarts made an awful mistake and accused Hagrid of a crime he did not commit."
"Ain't that cute?" Heidi teased. "You're actually trying to overrule my argument on the mere assumption of coincidence?! Do I really look that dumb to you?!"
"The only thing you look like to me is a helpless little girl trapped like a lamb in the snake's lair whose trying to escape her fate by means of silly little arguments which seem preposterous even to her," Voldemort hissed tauntingly.
"You can speak parseltongue!" Heidi declared in triumph. "How could you speak parseltongue if you're not the Heir of Slytherin?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe it has something to do with being a figment of your imagination and knowing everything that you know?" Voldemort asked sarcastically. "Honestly girl, are we gonna do this all night or will you just give up on it already?"
"I'm not giving up!" Heidi said resolute. "You're Tom Riddle! And you're Voldemort! And you're screwing around with my head!" she wined.
"I doubt even you believe that," Voldemort said.
"How would you know?" Heidi snapped finally reaching the end of her tether.
"Because I am a part of your mind," Voldemort said. "And because I know that you yourself doubt that someone with such a bright future ahead of him as Tom Riddle, would give up all the influence and respect he would gain just to become a hated and feared dark lord who got nowhere in the end."
Heidi glared at him. "What about Diggory!" she challenged. "Why are you so jealous of him?"
"You created me," Voldemort stated simply. "You subconsciously associate me with Voldemort. According to you he is one of those possessive and dominant types who'd hardly allow a prey to escape his clutches, and therefore, by extension, you have attributed those characteristics to me."
Heidi glared at him unable to argue against that.
"That or, your mind is not satisfied with the idea of you liking a bloody Hufflepuff of all things," Voldemort added.
Heidi couldn't help sniggering at that. "So my mind favors the sneaky Slytherins over the honest Hufflepuffs, ha? What exactly does that have to say about me?"
Voldemort pretended to think over the answer for a second before saying: "That you like power and influence, just like a true Slytherin. That good looks only are not enough to satisfy you, or keep you interested for long. That you want your men to be more then pretty faces on a poster and a little bit more indulgent of your brat like personality. And that pretty boy Diggory is going to fly off your list if he lets you win in the upcoming match."
"Hmm, you're trying to place yourself in my good grace while making Diggory lose face," Heidi said. "Quite sly of you."
"Well, I am impersonating the king of Slytherins after all," Voldemort purred and bent forward to place a slight peach on her lips. "You would be quite displeased if I had acted any other way."
He began nuzzling on her bottom lip while Heidi squirmed slightly underneath him. He then started trailing soft kisses along her jaw and down her neck.
"I doubt my mind's masochistic enough to torture itself in such a way," Heidi said in a raspy voice, while she began squirming even harder, trying in vain to free herself from the teen's iron grip.
"Torture itself in what way?" Voldemort questioned while placing a soft bite on her neck.
Heidi bit hard on her lip as to suppress the moan which was threatening to escape her and said through gritted teeth: "You!"
Voldemort chuckled lightly as he lifted his head towards her face and gave her a crooked smile. "I doubt your mind associates me with the word torture," he purred against her lips. He brushed his lips against hers, and then graced her with an out right smirk as Heidi pressed her lips in a thin line and glared lividly at him. "You can struggle if you want," the dark lord said nonplused. "After all, I do rather enjoy a challenge." Then he crushed his lips onto hers and began ravishing them relentlessly.
Heidi was squirming even harder by now and futilely tried to resist the temptation of responding to the kiss even as she felt her resolution faltering.
No! She was not letting this bastard get the best of her! She gritted her teeth even tighter as she felt Voldemort's hands release their hold on her wrists, although something prevented her from moving her hands down to give the bastard a good punch in the face like she wanted to.
Voldemort's hands moved to rest on her back and he enveloped her in a bon-crushing hug, effectively squashing her to his chest while he nuzzled tauntingly on her bottom lip, driving Heidi up the walls as she tried one last desperate time to stop herself from responding to his kisses.
She felt herself loosing the battle however as her lips slowly began responding to his demanding ones. Voldemort wasted no time in slipping his tong inside her mouth and explore it thoroughly.
Heidi's hands were suddenly released and they instantly found their way in the teen's messy looks as she allowed her tongue to intertwine with Voldemort's demanding one. Her eyes roll in the back of her head and her breathing became raspier as Voldemort's kisses became hungrier.
Voldemort slipped his hand along her side and down towards her ass, only to be unpleasantly surprised by Heidi, who suddenly bit down hard on his tongue. The ex-dark lord pulled back with a sudden yelp and bent over the side to spit a mouthful of blood on the floor.
Heidi meanwhile had jumped of the bed and rushed towards the door hoping to get as far away from the teen as possible. She yanked the door open in one swift motion and stumbled down the stairs which led to the common room only to bump head-first into one very angry dark lord.
Voldemort trapped her in an iron grip and smirked menacingly at her. "I trust it that you've forgotten that this is not exactly the real world you're in, right?"
"Might have slipped my mind," Heidi admitted as she tried to slip out of the teen's embrace. The teenaged Dark Lord smirked at her as he tightened his grip and lifted her up into the air.
"My, my, you are rather stubborn for a Slytherin, but to sneaky for a Gryffindor," he mussed as he began guiding her towards the couch. "So, what does that make you? A Ravenclaw? Probably. A Hufflepuff? Not likely."
"It makes me, me!" Heidi snapped sending him a reproachful glare. "It makes me unique, my own person, and I think I should be given my own house for that fact," she said in an arrogant voice.
"My thoughts exactly," Voldemort agreed and dumped her on the couch beside the fire place then he captured her lips in a breathtaking kiss. "Good luck with your match against Hufflepuff," he whispered.
Heidi snapped her eyes open and sat up straight with a start, nearly managing to bump her head into that of one Hermione Granger who was shaking her lightly.
"Hey, are you ok?" Hermione asked.
Heidi stared at her dumbstruck and confused. The two girls were currently in the Gryffindor common room, sitting on the couch beside the fire - the same couch on which Voldemort had dumped her.
"Heidi?" Hermione said again, shaking her roughly.
"What?" Heidi asked turning to give her friend an annoyed glare. "Oh, Hermione how did you get here?"
"I followed you down from the dorms," Hermione answered.
"You...followed me?" Heidi asked confused. Hermione nodded. "I walked down here on my own?" she asked perplexed. She was sure she'd been sleeping in her bed last she checked. So what if she'd run down here in her dream, she'd never woken up in the forbidden forest when she dreamed.
"You did," Hermione confirmed. "But, what I don't understand is, why did you throw Diggory's letter in the fire?" the bushy haired girl asked pointing towards the fireplace.
"I what?" Heidi asked confused and lifted her face to glaze into the blazing flames. Amidst the burning ember, there lay a small piece of paper, which looked suspiciously like the envelope which Diggory had given her the other day.
Heidi stared dumbfounded at the tiny piece of parchment. Had she really burned Diggory's letter? No! Of course not! She liked the boy! Why would she burn the letter when she hadn't even had time to read it! "I didn't burn it!" she told Hermione.
"Yes, you did," Hermione told her.
"But I don't remember burning it!" Heidi protested.
"Shhh!" Hermione shushed her. "Keep it down or you'll wake the others!"
"Sorry," Heidi mumbled looking dejected at what was left of her Valentines letter. "I didn't burn it!" she said again.
"I saw you," Hermione said sadly.
"Why would I burn my Valentine's letter?!" asked a slightly irked Heidi.
"Maybe you thought it was something else," Hermione reasoned.
"No I didn't! Hermione I was dreaming the whole time! I just woke up now! I don't even remember walking down the stairs!"
"Maybe you were sleepwalking," Hermione suggested.
"I wasn't sleep walking, I was dreaming!"
"Bout what?"
"About that..." something in her brain seemed to click, because Heidi jumped to her feet abruptly and snapped: "That son of a bitch!"
"What?" Hermione asked confused.
"Voldemort," Heidi said as means of clarification.
"What does Vo-am, I mean You-Know-Who, have to do with this," Hermione asked confused.
Heidi blushed furiously and gave Hermione an appraised look. Should she tell her friend about her dreams? She dang well wanted to! Truth be told, she was tired of those stupid dreams, but she'd tried everything she could think of and still failed to get rid of them, maybe Hermione could help her out. She took a deep breath and started talking.
"You dunderhead!" Hermione chastised. "You should have told me sooner! Next time, when something like this happens-" the bushy haired girl threw her a warning glare which promised lots of pain, "-you better tell me!"
"Come on!" she grabbed Heidi by the arm and started dragging her up the stairs towards the girl's bedroom.
"Where are we going?" Heidi asked.
"To the library," Hermione stated. Heidi was just about ready to point out the obvious fact that, one, the library was not in their bedroom, and two, it was most certainly closed at three in the morning, when Hermione added. "But first we need to get your father's cloak; we don't want madam Pince to catch us snooping around after curfew."
"Oh, ok," Heidi said and obediently followed the girl.
Half an hour later found the two girls snooping in the library's potion section.
"You said you didn't have a dream that night when madam Pomfrey gave you dreamless sleep potion, right?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah," Heidi answered. "But maybe I was just too tired to think of anything other then the whole Chamber matter," she tried to reason.
"It's still worth a shot," Hermione insisted.
"The potion is addicting," Heidi pointed out.
"That's why we're not gonna brew dreamless sleep potion," Hermione said.
"We're not?" Heidi asked confused. "Then why are we looking the potion up for?"
"We're not," Hermione stated. "We're looking up for the Draught of Living Death. It has the same effect as the dreamless sleep potion, well...sort of."
"What do you mean sort of?" Heidi asked catching the slight hesitation in her friend's voice.
"Well," Hermione mumbled as she said the following words. "The difference is that this one knocks you out for a few hours..."
"A whole day actually," Heidi answered. "I researched it when Snape mentioned it in first year."
"And?" Hermione prompted. "Is it addicting?"
"Dunno," Heidi said shrugging slightly. "No one's really tried to use that to get through the night, and besides, Herms, I don't need to sleep 12 hours!"
"Who said you do," Hermione waved her worries aside. "It says here we can use Wiggenweld Potion to counter it!"
"So, now you want me hooked on two potions at the same time," Heidi grumbled.
"No!" Hermione snapped slightly offended. "I want to help!"
"I know Herms, but I don't think potions is the right thing for me," said Heidi tiredly.
"Your match against Hufflepuff is tomorrow," Hermione reminded. "Do you want to spend the night before the game trapped in a nightmare with teen-Voldemort or do you want to have a good's night's sleep for once!"
"You said Voldemort's name," Heidi said bewildered.
"So what?" Hermione snapped. "I'm Muggle-born! My parents never experienced Voldemort's reign first hand, so they never taught me to fear him like the devil since I was a child!"
"Well said," Heidi beamed at her.
Hermione threw a slight content smile her was, before molding her features into the worried look again. "There's a few hours till sunrise, and I want to get to try that potion tonight," the bushy haired told her.
"Why tonight?" asked Heidi.
"Because, we're not sure that this might work, are we?"
"I suppose not...wait a minute. Are you telling me that, if this potion doesn't work, then I'll be stuck in a dream like trance, with teen-Voldy on my back for 12 whole hours?!" asked Heidi slightly alarmed.
"Aha," nodded a sympathetic Hermione. "That's why I want to make sure that this thing works before submitting you to a prolonged version of the treatment. There are about three more hours till sunrise, so, I want to try and dope you now, and wake you up in three hours time; then you can tell me if the potion worked or if we have to search for something else."
Heidi nodded her head in understanding, but still looked doubtful.
"I understand if you don't like this," Hermione assured, "neither do I, but, it's only temporarily! You know, for this week, then we can try and find something less dangerous, a spell maybe..."
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Heidi nodded. "But, where are we gonna get a vile of the Draught of Living Death, let alone Wiggenweld Potion?"
Hermione blushed hard as she answered in a deceivingly business-like voice. "Well, I was thinking we could snitch some from the hospital wing." Then she hurriedly added: "Just for tonight! We'll make our own potion tomorrow and return what we stole to Madam Pomfrey."
Heidi laughed slightly at her friend's embarrassment and nodded her head. "Sounds fin by me."
"You shouldn't encourage me!" Hermione chastised.
"What exactly is it that you want me to do? Talk you out of it?" Heidi asked in a slightly amused voice. "Come on," the brunet prompted. "Let's go before someone catches us."
It was half an hour later, and a few near run-ins with Peeves that the girls made it back to the common room, two bottles of portion securely held in their grasp. The hospital wing was light guarded, obviously, since they doubt anyone else had tried stealing from there before! The girls felt slightly ashamed for breaking the record, but it was all for a good cause.
"Ok, are you ready?" Hermione asked as she settled herself on the girl's bed.
Heidi silently put the cloak back in her trunk and came to stand besides Hermione.
"As ready as I'll ever be," she said slightly nervous. It had seemed fairly easy theorizing about it in the library, but now that she was actually about to take the dang potion, well, it didn't feel as easy as she thought it would.
"Don't worry, I'll wake you up in two and a half hours," Hermione promised sounding worried.
"What? Are you gonna chicken out on me?" asked Heidi cheekily, with a confident smile plastered on her face, though she felt her insides turning as Hermione pulled out the vial with a clear liquid from her pocket and gave her a somewhat reassuring smile.
"No," the bushy-haired girl said. "See you in a couple of hours," she handed the vial to Heidi and prompted her to drink.
"Hope this works," Heidi glared miserably at the vial, teeth clenched and heart hammering wildly in her chest. "You'll wake me in two hours!" she ordered Hermione sharply.
The other girl nodded solemnly. "I will!"
"K," Heidi exhaled sharply. "Pleasant dreams," she said and drowned the vial in one gulp.
The effect was instantaneous! Heidi's eyes rolled up in the back of her head and she dropped on the four poster bed out cold.
Hermione tucked Heidi in and whispered a soft "Good night," before heading towards her own bed and lying down. "Hope this works," she added as an afterthought as she closed her eyes and fell in a troubled sleep.