Chapter Nine: It's a Creeper-beat-Creeper World
(I swear, Lylia keeps getting tossed around like a shiny among magpies or a bit of meat among wolves. Why can't any guys her own age act that way over her? Gah. I give up.)
"They're following students," commented Lylia casually at breakfast about a week after the Aurors were installed.
"They're creepers," replied Kayla with just as much nonchalance, pointedly not looking at the ones posted around the Hall.
"I do so love waffles," added Aidon through a mouthful of one.
"You mean they're following you, don't you." Kayla bit into some tart.
"Yeah." Lylia drank some juice.
"You haven't been sleeping at all, have you." Some more tart.
"Nope." Some more juice.
"You've been talking to that dead woman, haven't you." The rest of the tart.
"Sure have." The rest of the juice.
"Lylia?"
"Yes, Kayla?"
"You've somehow turned Hogwarts into a breeding ground for stalkers."
"Thank you, Kayla. You're a wonderful person too."
"Pass the waffles, Letum."
"Hey, Haynes. Bite me."
Kayla's own sleep was not going perfectly either, however. Once a particularly vivid nightmare ghosted her from her bed in fright, and she immediately decided that Detention wasn't so bad if she got caught being up. Her robes shrugged on quickly, she hurriedly strode to McGonagall's office.
"I-I have a problem, Professor McGonagall…" The Slytherin's eyes were wide, and pure fear's remnants remained embodied in their shine.
"What is it, dear…?" McGonagall asked as she ushered Kayla inside her unlit office.
"They're my nightmares, Professor. Only… They seem far too vivid to be just dreams… I don't know how to put it!"
"Karen Goldberg has informed me of these dreams as well, saying you'd be having them too." The Professor looked skeptical but at the same time concerned. "What do these dreams entail?"
Kayla glanced down at her shaking hands, trying repeatedly to calm her voice in her explanation but only getting tenser and tenser. "T-there are men, in black robes… It's always starting with Lylia running into t-that fire of the Three Broomsticks… But then it changes…! There's chanting, and, and sulfur…"
McGonagall drew the terrified girl into a hug and rubbed her back; she said as comfortingly as possible after some time, "Ms. Hartland, I have no way of stopping these dreams… But I know of someone who does."
Teacher and student made the trip back to the Dungeons, going to ask Professor Snape for a sleeping draught and get the girl back to her bed.
While they did so, Lylia padded through the winding towers until scaling the Divination one, tracking down her eccentric psychic teacher.
"Professor Trelawney…?" She called to no answer.
"… Professor Trelaw-"
"Yes, my child?" asked the woman at the classroom's center, making Lylia jump.
"Oh, hello, Professor. I was… wondering if you could help me figure out this problem I have. My mind seems rather jumbled and confused lately, and it won't let me sleep…" Lylia slowly, cautiously went up beside Trelawney.
"I could look into your mind, yes, dearie." Trelawney stood and took Lylia's hands rather abruptly, but to no apparent surprise from the blonde. "I must ask you remain completely still, so that I may examine your aura as best as possible."
Lylia complied with the best of her own ability, closing her eyes and trying to keep her mind open. As her teacher released her hands, she pictured doors opening, windows being thrown open, gates being raised, clouds parting… Nothing noticeable happened.
"… Professor Trelawney?" she tried asking without moving her lips much.
Again, no answer.
Opening her eyes, she looked down. "Professor?"
Trelawney had silently fallen into a heap on the classroom carpet, eyes closed as if in sleep.
Lylia flipped out as she crouched by the comatose teacher. "T-Trelawney! Sybil? Psycho-lady-whose-help-I-needed? Come on, don't be dead!" She put a hand at the teacher's throat.
"A pulse! SCORE!"
The student bolted off to find Trelawney some help of her own.
Karen and Melinda sat side-by-side at lunch, toying with their new rings.
"Where'd you say you got these, Karen?" asked Melinda curiously.
"They were in the Room of Requirement!"
"Meaning they're not yours?"
"They are now," smiled Karen cheerfully. She concentrated on a single message and gave the ring a squeeze.
Melinda glanced down as her own ring began to press on her finger in response. Sliding it off her finger, she read the formed inscription on its inner ring:
"'I heart Lestoat'?"
"Yep."
"… Did you seriously just send me that, Karen? Really?" Melinda shook her head in pity.
"What? What'd I do?" Karen pouted.
That afternoon as Lylia exited the Hospital Wing where Trelawney was resting in her mysterious (and maybe… mystical?) new coma, she noticed she was being tailed by three of the Auror visitors. Uneasy but not alarmed, the Ravenclaw slinked her way to hide in the Room of Requirement and sat before the Mirror of Erised in solitude. Her semblance of company was present only in the boy she saw herself embracing in the ephemeral peace of the reflection. A mop of shaggy brown hair fell in front of his eyes, but his smile was soft and genuine, like it always had been.
"… Talem, where can you be...? I won't believe them… You're not dead…
"Why aren't you beside me?"
"She's late again," Kayla announced fifteen minutes after dinner began.
"You'd think she'd be punctual after you gave her that watch!" mourned Aidon into his fish and chips.
Melinda twitched as her patience evaporated. "That's it- I'm going to go find her. It's better than sitting around here and listening to His Majesty whining. I'll send a message to Karen's ring if I locate her."
"Yeah, yeah, sure," Karen distractedly agreed, her eyes glued to a certain teacher at the Staff Table who eyed her flirtatiously in turn.
Lylia eyed the corridor before her carefully as she exited the Room of Requirement. At first it seemed clear; but as she began her journey down the hall, a collective squad of the Auror trainees rounded the corner and blocked her path.
"REALLY?" she demanded.
"Halt!" one shouted.
"Screw that!" yelled the girl in answer as she took off in the opposite direction.
Melinda was about to start up the staircases to look for Lylia when the Ravenclaw she was seeking bolted past and down one of the enchanted stairwells.
"Hi, Melissa! 'Bye, Melissa!" yelped Lylia in her fleeing from the cluster of uniformed men who just barely managed to not shove Melinda off the side of the stairs.
"It's 'Melinda,' actually!" the Slytherin tried valiantly to shout to her, but Lylia was by now out of earshot. Sighing, Melinda concentrated on a message and fidgeted with the ring on her finger.
"It's Melinda!" beamed Karen as she slid off the vibrating gold band. "It says… 'Trouble. Toward the… Libra'?"
"Library." Kayla slid off her seat and ran out without giving her food a final resting place. Aidon shockingly did the same, almost weeping as he abandoned the meatloaf. Draco followed Kayla with not nearly as many complaints.
Already out of breath, Lylia raced past the once-safe Library and continued on down the torchlit halls. Aside from a couple late students or random teacher the pathway was deserted. This aid helped little due to Lylia's innate ability to get herself lost, and soon she ran straight into an iron grate door.
"OF COURSE there is a RANDOM FENCE DOOR THING at HOGWARTS!" she shouted irritatedly as she shook at the cell entrance.
"Stop right there!" cried the men as they fanned out at the intersection of her little alcove and the other hall.
"Where else COULD I go?" shouted the irked blonde back at them. "THROUGH the bars?"
"Melinda says she's at the Dark Tower's base," huffed Karen as she ran alongside Kayla, now sliding her ring back on. "Just a little more of a ways down!"
Sure enough, they soon met up with a winded Melinda and, wands drawn, sprinted with her to the semicircle of foes. While the majority of the opposition whirled to face the new challengers to their command, the fedora-clad leader raised his wand as Lylia's hand glided toward her wand pocket.
"Let's all just calm down," he smiled condescendingly around. "We simply wish to ask Letum here a few questions about Professor Trelawney's indisposal."
"Why does that take a dozen people?" asked Aidon.
"Because your little friend has a bad habit of slipping away from pursuit and confrontation!" answered Sir Fedora.
"That's not very fair," chimed in Lylia.
"Fairness is unnecessary when you have authority!" the leader snapped and again pointed his wand at her. "Now you either all SHUT up and I get my answers, or Letum here is finished with her lifetime as a witch!"
"Touch her, and I swear I'll kill you." A black mist sprang out from the air's moisture in accompaniment to this growled promise, leaving behind a familiar foe as it faded; donned in a midnight-hued robe, his natural jet-black hair hanging down in front of a pair of murderous purple-blue eyes, Elden Lesperance stood in front of Lylia, his black wand raised and aimed directly at the leader's heart. His clear, perfectly pale skin shone in the light without a hint of sweat, showing his absolute calm.
Within moments, the entire mini-herd of Aurors had bolted back the way they came, their once-advantageous numbers forgotten in fear for that one man. Kayla wasn't sure whether she should be more surprised by the disappearance of one group or the reappearance of the other. Lylia's eyes remained remarkably close to the size of saucers during the brief standoff, but her usual cool returned once more after the Ministry agents had fled. In a swirl of Elden's cloak the two had their wands prodding each other's throats, black wood pressed against white as their holders shared a fiery stare.
Karen, Aidon, Draco, and Melinda openly gawked in the meantime.
Elden jerked back his wand at length, giving Lylia a dark grin. "You're welcome."
"The hell are you doing here?" she replied curtly.
"No, really. The pleasure was all mine," he smirked between black bangs at her as he put away his wand once more.
"So the rumors are true? That black smoke- Necromancy! The Lesperances are necromancers!" piped up Karen. She was promptly ignored.
"You can lower your own wand now too," Elden smiled at the still-defensive blonde, who inchingly lowered the white rod. "That's a girl…"
"Are you staying?" asked Kayla as she observed the exchange suspiciously.
"Henh." The revealed necromancer threaded a hand through his hair and looked around at the congregation. "… Hardly." His sharp eyes flicked over and sized up Lylia. "You. Do you really have NO idea about them? The Addonexi?"
Lylia, unpleasantly reminded of her last conversation with the man, glowered. "… None."
"I suppose it would take a necromancer to piece it all together. They're literally 'Bringers of Death.' The acquisition of Death itself is their goal. Or should I say Death herself?"
"What do they want with Lylia?" attempted Kayla.
Lylia tried to answer for Elden. "Nothing! They don't have ANY business with me-"
"Their business is with Death," hissed Elden, "And you ARE Death."
"Oh, don't be ridiculous!"
"Ridiculous, am I?" Indigo eyes turned steely as Elden leaned a hand on the grating behind Lylia, forcing her to back up against it in order to avoid his closeness. "Let me guess. You've had the worst luck with people dying wherever you've gone, right? Animals hate you, don't they? Then there's the attack by that Lethifold in broad daylight, the goddamn infuriating affiliation for kelpies, and a macabre card reading or two."
A flush of mortification crept its way into Lylia's cheeks as she listened to the senior student looming over her, her eyes lowering in defeat. Elden gave another grin.
"… How do we stop them?" Kayla asked.
"It's Hogwarts. They may never get here." The black-haired man straightened and focused his penetrating eyes on the rest of the group. "You guys have bigger problems, like that group of Aurors. They're been sheltered by the Ministry of Magic, and they'll play by their own rules as long as any playground brute can."
"So what do you care?" frowned Karen as she flipped some red locks over her shoulder.
Kayla looked thoughtful, but a playful gleam was in her eyes. "Well, he IS a necromancer. I wouldn't be surprised if he wants a piece of Little Miss Letum." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, smirking. "And I'm not talking about the power."
Elden took in a deep, calming breath to avoid killing anyone. "I am seeking my purpose in life. I… want simply to be worthy in the eyes of the one who defeated me."
"So, Letum, then." Melinda raised an eyebrow.
"It looks like we have a new team member!" grinned Kayla as she nudged Draco.
"I would rather perish." Elden shook his head disdainfully. "Goodbye."
Kayla broke into a fit of laughter after he had vanished again into black mist. "Poor, arrogant prick!"
Lylia raised a hand to the evaporating mist, slowly threading her fingers through it as it faded away. "... Wow…"
"It's still dinnertime," Aidon hurriedly began to prod the other students back toward the Great Hall. "C'mon, c'mon- maybe dessert's up!"
"I would like some chocolate-covered strawberries…" Lylia thought aloud as she finally consented to returning.