QLFC: Season 10, Round 1

Team: Kenmare Kestrels

Position: Beater 2

Prompt: (Yawning) Possession

Additional Prompts: Feather, Astronomy Tower

Word Count: 2020

Warnings: mentions blood on hands (similar to Macbeth), genre is horror, mentions alcohol

You Have Me

She sat up, her heart thrumming in her chest like a captured Snitch.

It was just a dream, Ginny told herself. She couldn't even remember it properly. There was an aftertaste like copper on her tongue. Somehow, one of her pillows had exploded, covering her in brown down the same as when mum had her plucking chickens for a roast.

Spitting out a feather, Ginny clambered out of her four poster and slunk past her sleeping dorm-mates. After a month at Hogwarts, she still wasn't used to how grand things were. Even in the bathroom, the ceiling was so high, everything was covered in marble, and there were tiny gold lions instead of normal taps. And nowhere did she find Ron's old socks, mum's forgotten bras, or lime green stains that were one spell away from being sentient.

She washed her hands and face, frowning at the dirt under her fingernails. When she scrubbed them, the water turned brownish red. Like blood.

Ginny blinked. She could picture it dripping from her fingers, with feathers clinging wetly to her skin. Almost as if Fred and George had decided to prank her, except it wasn't funny at all. Once she'd given up on cleaning the feathers and had binned the ruined pillow, Ginny settled into bed and pulled Tom out from under her mattress. Stroking the cover, she felt a rush of warmth for her friend. Already, she couldn't imagine being without him.

"Dear Tom," she wrote, "The strangest thing happened to me. I woke up from a bad dream I can't remember, covered in feathers."

"That's odd. Let me think." His beautiful handwriting curled across the was the part that the enchanter who had made Tom had gotten wrong. Everything else about the answering diary was perfectly believable, like a friend-in-your-pocket, except that boys didn't write so prettily. Sometimes she wondered if she wouldn't have liked the girl version of the diary better, but Ginny was the seventh Weasley child. Everything else she owned was second hand, too. Tom was a bit worn, but his enchantment still worked just fine. He didn't usually take so long to reply, though.

Ginny sighed, snuggling into her sheets. "Do you think it was Fred and George playing a trick on me?"

"No." Another pause. "It's more likely that your magic is very strong, so when you got anxious from your dream, it ruptured your pillow."

That made sense. "Percy did say that boys can't get into the girls' dorms." It was extra special, having a place none of her brothers could ever go.

"You're just an exceptionally strong witch. It'll make you a bit more tired and hungry, because your magic is growing just like your body is growing. But it's nothing to worry about. Is it very early?"

"The clock still says it's Time to Sleep."

"It's not wrong. Try to get a bit more rest, alright? You'll be learning Wingardium Leviosa soon. Your first spell!"

Ginny giggled. She'd already done plenty of spells, with mum's wand and with her own. Tom was supposed to guide a Hogwarts student through their first year, though, so of course he was all about following the rules. "Good night, Tom," she wrote.

"Good night, Ginny."

.oOo.

Red, they were still red. Ginny scrubbed and scrubbed, but the water had been running clear for a while now.

She could still smell it, like copper, like blood. Then she heard the bathroom doors open, and turned off the tap.

"Hello, Ginevra."

"Luna." Ginny let her shoulders slump. She twisted her face into something that was almost like a smile and turned to face her friend. "What are you doing here?"

"It's a bathroom."

It probably wasn't Ginny's best moment, but the good thing about Luna was that she probably wouldn't notice. "Yeah. That's why I'm here too."

Luna nodded. Her eyes were as wide as ever, looking past Ginny's face into the mirror behind her. "You were trying to wash away the Wrackspurts."

Ginny dried off her hands. They looked a bit raw, but other than that they were perfectly fine. "I'm done now."

"That's silly. Everyone knows that you can't wash Wrackspurts down the drain. They're not water soluble. Or oil soluble. My daddy says alcohol isn't the solution, though it is a solution, so I think you probably shouldn't wash with that either." Luna stared a bit longer, but Ginny knew that she just had to wait it out. "Have you tried paint thinner?"

Ginny wrinkled her nose. "I'm not washing my hands with paint thinner, Luna."

"Alright. I'll think of something else. In the meantime, stay away from cold, damp places. Wrackspurts are a bit like mould."

"We have potions next. In the dungeons."

"You could just…not go. Hardly anyone notices when I skip."

It'd be nice to spend an hour sneaking around the castle with Luna, like back before Hogwarts, when they used to go exploring in the forest behind The Rookery. Tom wouldn't like that at all, though. "I'm going to class now."

She walked the long way around, so she wouldn't have to pass by the wall where Mrs. Norris had been strung up and petrified. Tom didn't like Ginny being late, either, but he was just an enchantment in a diary. He couldn't understand how the letters on the wall made her hair stand on end.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

Ginny slid into her seat just in time for Professor Snape's lesson to begin. They were deboning mice today. At least this time, the blood would be gone with the thwick-snap of a pair of disposable gloves.

.oOo.

It was cold, so very cold. She felt like she was floating, or dreaming, but she knew she wasn't dreaming at all. Her feet moved and her mouth spoke in a strange, hissing way.

They were words to a language that she didn't speak, but she could understand them anyway. The snake came tumbling out of the statue's mouth like a messed up Slug-Vomiting Charm. Ginny closed her eyes, but she could somehow still see. It felt like she was sinking, or drowning.

The snake was saying, 'I'm hungry, so hungry.'

And her mouth was saying, 'Rip, tear, kill. KILL.'

.oOo.

Ginny was crying. Her whole body felt cold, and it was hard to breathe. It would be better if she stopped running, but if Ginny stopped running then she'd be able to breathe, and if she breathed she'd have air left over to think, and if she thought she'd remember that Colin had been Petrified last night.

Ginny couldn't remember going to bed yesterday. She'd done her homework so that Percy would shut up, then had written with Tom for a bit, then…nothing. Professor McGonagall had woken them all with the call for a meeting before breakfast, and halfway through Ginny had realised she was accidentally wearing Emily's pyjamas under her bathrobe instead of her own. The whole day Ginny had felt numb, and then she'd gone to see Harry in the Hospital Wing before curfew and had ended up by Colin's bedside instead.

He'd been cold and stiff, like a corpse. Ginny had just been complaining about him to Tom the other day because he was so annoying with his camera, but Ginny had never wanted this. Standing there looking at him, she'd felt her throat closing up, and she hadn't wanted to cry where Harry would see. So, she had run away.

There was nowhere else to run now. She put her hands on her knees, feeling a little sick from all those stairs. Tom would be mad at her for breaking curfew, but right now Ginny needed fresh air. The Astronomy Tower's door opened with a quiet groan, revealing the parapets and the open sky.

Tilting her head back, Ginny found Polaris and Ursa Minor, then Ursa Major. She thought she could see Gemini, but then she realised she was looking in the wrong quadrant, so that probably had to be Taurus instead.

They all looked pretty much the same, really. Ginny went to sit on the edge of the platform, letting her legs dangle and imagining she was flying. The sky was stretched out before her as if it was endless. With a broom like Harry's, she might have soared all the way up to the clouds that were creeping their way across the horizon.

The door to the tower creaked. Ginny ducked her head, leaning into the shadows. She had heard lots of students came to the Astronomy Tower to snog, even though she couldn't imagine why anyone would want to. She held her breath, hoping her heart wasn't actually as loud as it sounded in her head.

"Hello, Ginevra," said a familiar voice.

"Merlin." Ginny's breath whooshed out of her. "Luna, what are you doing here? It's an hour past curfew."

"I was looking for you." Luna sat down right beside Ginny, letting her own legs dangle too.

"Where are your shoes?"

Luna wriggled her toes. "I already told you last week, the Nargles took them. Here, I made this for you. Happy Christmas."

"It's November." She took it anyway, unfolding the napkin to reveal what was inside. "A…chain of corks?"

"A Butterbeer cork necklace." Luna's smile was brilliant. Her face was tilted up towards the stars.

The necklace was a bit uneven and lumpy, and it smelled like Butterbeer. Ginny held it out, wondering if she could pretend it was an accident if she dropped it over the ledge. But no, Luna was her friend, and it wasn't like Ginny would actually have to wear it. "It's lovely."

"It's for your Wrackspurts. Or rather, against them."

"Right." Ginny lit her wand so she could get a better look. "I thought the answer was paint thinner, plus avoiding cold, dark places? So that I don't grow any mould."

"If you were avoiding cold, dark places, you wouldn't be up here." For a second her eyes felt like they were seeing right through Ginny. Then Luna looked away, and the moment was gone.

"Is this a phoenix feather?" It was red, but a nice red, not like blood at all. Touching it made Ginny feel like maybe, everything was going to be just fine. "Luna, where on earth did you get this?"

"Oh, I just asked Fawkes. Don't you know? Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

Privately, Ginny wondered why Luna didn't ask for help finding her shoes, but she knew better than to say so out loud. "Thank you," she said instead. There were fresh tears in her eyes, but they felt different from the cry she'd had before.

"Of course. What are friends for?"

That night, once she had made it back to bed with only a bit of a scolding from Percy, Ginny cracked open Tom's spine and got out her favourite quill.

"Dear Tom," she wrote, "You won't believe the day I've had. First, Professor McGonagall woke us up early because Colin had been Petrified, like Mrs. Norris had been. I told you about Colin, he's the boy who's always taking pictures. I went to see him in the Hospital Wing. He was stiff as a board, it was really sad. Anyway, Luna just met me in the Astronomy Tower and gave me the most ugly Christmas present ever. And I have six older brothers, so there have been a lot of ugly Christmas presents. But…"

The ink dripped off her quill, bleeding green splotches onto the page.

"But?"

"It's funny, but somehow holding the necklace makes me feel like everything's going to be alright."

Tom didn't take long to reply. "Of course it's going to be alright. You don't need a silly trinket for that. You have me."

She smiled at the page, feeling ridiculously sentimental again. "I'm really glad you're my friend, Tom," she wrote, pouring all of her emotions into the page.

"I'm glad too, Ginny," he wrote back. "Now, it's time you got some rest. I'll still be right here with you in the morning."