NIGHTMARE
Before he was completely awake, Scorpius Malfoy knew something was wrong.
First, because his peaceful dream – he was playing Quidditch and dozens of friends were cheering for him in the stands - suddenly turned into a pitiful comedy: all spectators' heads became balloons and spun to the sky with clownish sniggers, while his own broom was decorated with atrocious pink bows.
He only had such ridiculous nightmares during the holidays.
Then he woke up in a startle and realized the bedroom was silent.
Which explained the stupid conclusion of his dream.
He kicked off the blankets and got up, grabbing his dressing gown on the chair next to the window. The moon bathed the room in ethereal blue light.
Terrence's shadow sat up on the opposite bed.
- "Scorpius?" he whispered worriedly.
- "Yeah", the blond boy grumbled after stifling a cry of pain: he had stepped on the debris of Fabius Macmillan's Sneakoscope.
- "What's the matter?" suddenly mumbled Craig, sitting up haggardly.
Terrence always wondered how Finnigan managed to look disheveled with so little hair on the head.
- "Albus stopped purring", reported Scorpius, carefully circling around a pile of mess in the dark.
- "Engine's broken?" muttered Finnigan sleepily. He fumbled for his wand and eventually grabbed it. "Lumos".
Malfoy blinked, dazzled.
- "Not that strong!"
- "Blimey, mates, it's four in the morning ..."
Terrence, who had gotten up, hissed angrily, turning to Finnigan's bed.
- "Shut up! You're noisier than Peeves!"
Scorpius and he leaned over Albus' bed then raised their heads and looked at each other.
- "He's asleep?" snapped Malfoy incredulously.
Terrence nibbled his lip.
- "I hope", he said at last.
He shook the shoulder of his best friend whose messy black hair was the only thing showing.
- "Al."
The boy curled up under the sheet with a whimper.
- "If he's asleep, let him be", Scorpius said, shrugging to hide the malaise that gripped his guts. "Maybe the purring was supposed to end one day."
More likely it's something to add to the fishiness list, Terrence thought, his eyebrows so furrowed that it hurt.
- "Oï, sleepy-head."
- "Well, tell me when you have restarted him, 'kay", yawned Finnigan from his bed where he lay down again lazily after pushing his wand under his pillow.
Albus turned to the other side and moaned. The two boys had trouble seeing his face in the night, but they saw enough to understand he was drenched in sweat.
- "Al, wake up", Terrence rasped.
- "Shall I get a teacher?" Scorpius suggested – his tone was becoming more and more irritated as his concern rose.
- "We shou ..."
Terrence's voice suddenly broke off. He swallowed and avoided Malfoy's gaze.
- "What's that? articulated the other boy, his mouth completely dry.
Something had lit up under Albus' blanket. It was diffuse, almost transparent, but the shape was easily recognizable.
- "Looks like a flower", Scorpius whispered. "What is it? His wand's on the nightstand, as usual. Where does it come from, if it's not a spell?"
Terrence clenched his sweaty palms then wiped them on his pajama bottoms.
It's the exact same shape as the scar-tattoo.
Before he could think further, Albus winced suddenly and began to mumble.
- "No… don't ... No, Daddy, don't ..."
His head sank into the pillow as if he was trying to escape a horrible vision. He had a strangled sob and Scorpius stiffened.
- "Swanson? What exactly is happening?" he hissed.
Terrence did not answer.
- "Al? Al, you're at Hogwarts, wake up!" he pressed, grabbing his best friend's arm.
The sleeping boy's nape writhed back and his fists clutched on the sheet. He was trembling and started weeping in his slumber. He kicked off the blanket. His shirt was rolled up, the bandage undone and the flower-shaped mark appeared, perfectly cut in fire spirals on his sweaty chest.
- "Dad ... Daddy, I beg you ... no ... Daddy, please! DON'T!"
A jolt shook him violently and he awoke, disoriented, out of breath. The moment he opened his eyes, the light disappeared, leaving only the swollen red scar on his skin.
- "Terrence? Scorpius?" he gasped, discovering the two faces anxiously staring at him.
- "Stop scaring us to death, mate", Terrence stammered, pushing up his glasses on his nose, while Malfoy regained his senses and the control of his furious face.
Albus sat down heavily. He hurt all over and felt sick. Mechanically, he pulled down his shirt, looked around him.
- "Here", Scorpius said, handing him a chipped cup in which he had poured what was left from a butterbeer bottle.
Albus drank greedily then flinched.
- "Ha, that's gross. How long has it been here? Tastes like old socks ..."
Terrence shook himself back to reality.
- "Oh. I think that's the cup I used to prepare the anti-horns remedy my grandma wanted for Christmas", he said absently. "It was here? I thought I had lost it..."
Scorpius pinched his nose and sat on Albus' bed.
His legs were wobbly and his thoughts struggled to get back in order in his brain.
- "I don't even remember what the nightmare was about... " Albus mumbled after a few minutes of silence. "Sorry I woke you up..."
Malfoy looked up, exasperated.
- "Bobbie was right when she wanted to keep you for the night", finally said Terrence, leaning back against the wall.
In his bed, Finnigan was snoring at full throttle.
oOoOoOo
Wendy's eyes gradually went from a surprise face to a snide smile as she watched the four boys who were sitting in the classroom, yawning in the racket that preceded Transfiguration class.
- "Must have been quite a party, I reckon", she sniggered, pulling her chair that shrieked horribly on the floor.
- "Button up, Philips", grumbled Scorpius who had a headache and whose eyes had become thin slits at the shrill sound.
Craig Finnigan stretched his arms across his desk and shut his eyes with an indecent yawn.
- "They shouldn't force us to use our brain so early in the morning", he complained.
- "At least, if you were tired from studying... But no! What an idea to read your stupid magazines that late in the night!" said Rose Weasley who was sitting next to Wendy, shaking her head disapprovingly.
She pushed back her long Venetian blonde hair. The class was held in common with Ravenclaw.
Terrence kept his eyes open with his forefingers and thumbs.
- "… wasn't reading", he protested weakly.
- "Experiments are for holidays", Wendy sneered, hiding her concern for her Quidditch team's Seeker who looked like he had lost weight over the night.
Was he sick? Is it still hurting? Have these idiots let him rest? I thought he had to stay in the infirmary for the night...
Rose turned to Albus, who was her cousin, and frowned when she saw the dark circles under his eyes and how his uniform hung pathetically on his thin collarbones.
- "Oh no, not you too, Al!" she exclaimed disappointedly.
Fortunately, before she could lecture him, the teacher arrived and walked up to the front in dancing steps.
- "Quiet, please, that would be nice", sing-sang the woman with blond-white wavy hair.
She put the enormous book she was carrying on her desk, raising a huge cloud of dust that she scattered, coughing, then spun round. Her lawn-colored long skirt rippled and the double-row radish-shaped beads necklace hanging on her blouse rattled merrily.
- "Good morning, ladies; good morning, gentlemen."
- "Good morning, professor", graciously answered the students.
Luna Lovegood had the reputation of being completely bizarre, but she was highly placed in the school surveys. You did not take long to realize that her dreamy voice did not prevent her from being a powerful, intelligent witch. She was the director of the Ravenclaw House and had been teaching Transfiguration for three years at Hogwarts. Some rumors said she had worked at the Ministry of Magic before becoming a teacher, but others asserted she was a reporter for the Quibbler. Some Ravenclaw students claimed she had been an Auror in secret missions and some from Gryffindor looked forward to the love story between her and their director...
She smiled enigmatically and waved her wand at the black board on which her quirky handwriting loomed out.
- "Animagus", she said. "Could someone explain what it is?"
Rose Weasley raised her arm at once.
- "Yes, Miss Weasley."
- "An Animagus is a wizard who can change into an animal but retains control of his mind during his metamorphosis."
Luna Lovegood nodded.
- "Very good. Ten points to Ravenclaw."
She took a few steps on the podium.
- "Becoming an animagus is a long and difficult process and there are just a few animagi in our country, all identified by the Ministry", she added. "We monitor closely those who want - and have the ability - to become an animagus, especially since an illegal one caused all that evilness, more than twenty years ago ..."
Craig Finnigan leaned toward his neighbor.
- "I bet she's talking about the war. I reckon it'd be better to address it in our first year, rather than giving us spoilers for six years."
Samuel Flint-Fletchey did not answer; he was busy pretending he was picking up the tip of his quill.
- "There are currently two animagi recognized by the ministry within your school", continued Mrs. Lovegood in her piping voice. "One is our Director, Minerva McGonagall, and the other ..."
She discretely cleared her throat to restore the silence her last sentence had broken off.
- "And the other one..."
She paused again and sighed.
- "Mr. Flint-Fletchey, your quill tip is next to your left sole, and not under Miss Brown's skirt."
Miranda Brown gave a little cry and covered her flushed face, while Samuel straightened wryly.
- "Five points from Gryffindor", said the professor in her ethereal voice, so friendly it made Terrence smile.
He suspected her to have a lot more humor that one could believe while seeing her dreamy bulging blue eyes.
- "And the other animagus we have the pleasure to have in our midst is your Defense Against Dark Arts' teacher, Mauritia Curtis."
- "Please", Wendy asked, raising her hand, "what animal can they change into?"
- "I heard the director could morph into a cat", intervened one of the Morgensten twins – the one who had a mole on her ear.
Luna Lovegood smiled ecstatically.
- "You heard well. Regarding Mrs Curtis ... Well, if her current state would allow, I'm sure she would be very happy to show you."
- "What do you think she changes into?" Fabius Macmillan chuckled, giving a nudge to Emile Scarecrow. "A whale?"
The young woman's eyelids fluttered.
- "I'm afraid twenty points are again lost to Gryffindor because of you, Mr. Macmillan", she sighed. "This was not very polite ..."
An all-round outcry greeted this announcement, quickly calmed by a 'tsk' of the teacher.
Craig Finnigan jumped on Fabius when the class was over, with the clear intention of shampooing his head and making him stop his nonsense, while Rose Weasley and Miranda Brown lingered behind to ask questions. Terrence gathered his things and stood up. He stopped when he saw Albus had not moved, his arms folded on his desk and his forehead buried in the crook of his elbow. He walked over and put his hand on his best friend's shoulder.
- "Hey. You dead? Feel like going to DADA or d'you want to go back to the infirmary?"
Scorpius had stopped at the door and was watching them with his usual scowl.
Albus got up and quickly ran a hand over his face, as if that could help him to stay awake.
- "I'm okay", he muttered.
He smiled to dispel the doubt he saw in his best friend's eyes and on the face of Wendy who was waiting a few steps from them.
- "I don't know what that nightmare was about, but I never managed to get back to sleep ... Anyway. I hope DADA won't be as soporific as last time."
The week before, they had spent two hours copying chapters 11 and 18 from the book instead of practicing because Mrs Curtis - who was pregnant from head to toes - had nausea.
- "If we're lucky, her replacement will already be there", said Wendy encouragingly, as they went across the courtyard to the large room where their favorite class was held.
But there was only a large wardrobe in the room when they entered and the other students were keeping at bay from it, since it twitched on its base and muffled screams were heard inside.
TO BE CONTINUED