Authors Note: This chapter has a little more action in it, plus more Cordelia/James stuff.
Disclaimer: All rights go to J. and the people who wrote the riddles.
Cordelia woke up on Tuesday morning, panicking. Phew. It was only a dream. She rolled over and went back to sleep. By morning, she had completely forgotten about it.
Wednesday morning, the same thing happened. 'Strange,' thought Cordelia and continued with her day as usual.
Okay. Something was weird, maybe she should ask Bea what recurring dreams of a . . . personal nature meant. 'Probably nothing,' she assured herself.
'Why was Merlin cursing her!' By the next Monday, she had had enough. The dreams were progressively becoming more and more confronting. She had to completely avoid James whenever she saw him. It was beginning to affect her concentration in History of Magic just imagining- no she would not allow herself to go there.
"Cordelia wait!"
Cordelia kept walking. It was quite nice walking around Hogwarts.
"Cordelia, I'm sorry."
That person should really shut his mouth or she was going to shut it for him. Happy place.
"I didn't mean what I said."
Cordelia wheeled around, startling her stalker. "James, you need to stop this."
"What! But you haven't forgiven me yet," he pouted.
"James," Cordelia grimaced consolingly, "I'm not angry with you."
"See that's what you think I said- what? You're not?" he said, faltering.
"No, you were angry and I was in your face, but I need you to give me some space."
James looked confused, "But we're doing that . . . thing together, we need to work closely."
Cordelia sighed, "I know, but I think after this, it will be better if we just go back to how we were last year, okay? I hate drama, I can literally feel myself becoming more and more insane each day. I just think it was simpler when we weren't friends."
She walked off, leaving James with a pitiful expression on his face.
Really, it was for his own good. He simply liked the idea of her, he didn't actually want to go out with her. It was stupid, Cordelia and James weren't compatible, it was a fact of life, and although those dreams said otherwise, that would NEVER happen in reality. Ew . . . hmm . . . stop thinking about it, Cordelia!
Cordelia emerged from double Arithmancy feeling great. She had achieved 34/35 on the quiz last week and the teacher had given her 20 points for Gryffindor.
She had had a great chat with her friends during the break and also was doing well in Transfiguration. Lunch was spectacular and she hadn't been thinking about James at all. It was a great day.
But, as she was walking to Herbology she saw Madam Eliot and Professor McGonagall speaking in hushed voices outside the staff room. She hated herself but hid behind the stone gargoyle to listen to what they were saying.
"I don't know, Emily," McGonagall was saying, "I don't think Bode would be the sort of student to use an item of dark magic, are you sure that's what it is?"
"I'm sure, it's either dark magic or a significantly powerful magical item. I need to do a few more tests but I should have it identified by the end of the week. And I agree with you, Miss Bode does not seem the type to hide dark magic so that makes me think she doesn't own it willingly."
McGonagall leaned closer. "Are you suggesting that Bode is under a controlling magic of some kind?"
"Well, if it's not that I don't know what it would be, it is possible she didn't realise its qualities but I'm torn by the fact she wanted it back so badly if that's the case."
McGonagall nodded, "Very well, we will speak of this again once you have finished your examination."
Cordelia quickly hurried off before one of them spotted her, feeling horrible. The teachers thought she was carrying dark magic. She was either a bad kid or she was imperiused, she couldn't decide which was worse. She had to act, soon.
"Cordelia! You are trimming way more of that plant than you have to," said an exasperated Bea, correcting Cordelia for the third time. "Where is your head?"
"Sorry," Cordelia muttered, paying more attention to the plant in front of her which was now bristling it leaves indignantly. It wasn't her fault, she just wished classes were over so that she could talk to James.
Wow.
She didn't think she would ever think those words. This was scary.
'One problem at a time,' Cordelia told herself.
"So, Bea, Jasper's looking pretty fine today don't you think."
Subtle.
Bea looked up at Cordelia, confused, "Er . . . yes, I guess so. I think Louis looks better, though."
Cordelia let out a laugh, "Bea you always think Louis looks better."
"Well, it's true," Beatrice bristled, not unlike the plant. "I thought you fancied James anyway.
What!
"Bea, did you seriously just say that to me? James Potter and I have had five and a bit years of mutual hatred."
Beatrice looked at her disapprovingly, "Hate, is a strong word, Cordelia. And anyway, everyone's noticed the amount of time you've been spending with him lately and it was kind of obvious, sorry."
"What! Does everyone think this?" Cordelia panicked.
"Yes. James hasn't said a word so don't go biting his head off," finished Bea with an all-knowing air.
"Well, it's not true," and when Beatrice only shrugged she continued, "It's not, I swear. I think I'd have to re-evaluate my sanity if that ever happened."
Beatrice sighed, "Okay, Cordelia. I believe you."
"Good."
It had been some time since Cordelia had had that eye-opening conversation with Bea. Since then, Cordelia had been watching her friends very closely, but seeing no changes she shrugged it off. If her friends couldn't say anything to her face, fine.
It was one week before Halloween, this meant Cordelia and Henry had been extra-busy on their night-time patrols, catching pranksters and first-year terrorisers, extra-busy, of course, meaning maybe one detention per patrol.
Her plan she had made with James was nearly finished. All they had left was to check, double check, triple check, and maybe if James didn't die of boredom, quadruple check.
"Okay, so I go down this corridor and you are here, you set off the distraction and be careful because Slughorn usually . . . James are you listening to anything I'm saying."
James' head came off the table with a start. He had also been drooling which was insanely attractive.
"What was that?"
"I said, ARE YOU HARD OF HEARING!" Cordelia said this right in his ear to make it louder, he did not appreciate it.
"Merlin woman. I was just . . . resting my eyes," he invented with a shrug.
"Oh sure, you know I can just ask Fred to help me," said Cordelia casually.
"NO!"
Cordelia leant back to look at him, "Alrighty then, don't 'rest your eyes' again, is that okay my delicate flower?"
James glared at her, she smiled and continued with her recitation of the plan.
"Okay, the last item, when should we put this plan into action?" asked Cordelia.
James thought for a moment, "I think tomorrow night. On Saturday's they stay up late and Sunday's they are preparing for class."
"What do the teachers do on Saturday's?" she asked, genuinely interested.
James sighed dramatically, "We may never know."
Cordelia grinned at him, "Okay, Friday. Is it weird that I'm really excited for this."
"Oh my Merlin, we've brought you over to the dark side!"
Cordelia gasped, "No, I would never."
"Too late, cupcake, you've had a taste for mischief, there's no going back."
"I can change. I would never give in to the temptations of the shadow world," Cordelia said, following James into the hallway outside the library.
"Am I one of the temptations, Bode?"
Cordelia chuckled, "Oh, you wish, Potter."
They continued the banter until they reached the common room where they went their separate ways; Cordelia realised with a pang that after tomorrow, she would no longer be joking around with James Potter.
"Good luck," said Cordelia. It was three minutes to midnight and the plan had begun.
"You too," said James before disappearing down the corridor to the North Tower, it was the longer route, but Professor Sinistra was doing her rounds in the other direction.
Cordelia waited ten minutes before setting out herself, backpack on her shoulders, assuring herself that their plan was impeccable, nothing would go wrong.
On the sixth floor, she stepped into an empty classroom to avoid Peeves the Poltergeist, then, checking left and right, continued down the corridor. She reached the first possible encounter with a teacher, but, it seemed James had been successful with his distraction, the whole corridor was filled with his uncle's Portable Swamp.
Cordelia used her wand to clear a path with the special spell James had told her and carried on.
The night continued like this, Cordelia coming across abandoned corridors, filled with all manner of substances. If this worked, the teachers and prefects on patrol would be unable to access the particular area they needed to complete their task.
Cordelia finally reached the safe place. It was a stretch of wall covered by a tapestry of giants running away from bumblebee's. It was the sort of thing you'd expect to see at Hogwarts so no one looked twice at it.
"Pssst," said a voice to her left. James was gesturing to her from behind the tapestry. "I think I need you."
"Aww, you need me? Get out of the way," Cordelia elbowed him so he would move, there was no room behind the tapestry, she could barely wiggle her arms.
She placed her hand on the wall, she jumped when she felt it move underneath her. There was writing on the wall!
It read: 'What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?'
"Riddles," she breathed. "Of course."
James peered at her curiously, "Well, we're screwed."
Cordelia smirked. "No, we're not, I'm no good at riddles but I do know my Shakespeare."
"What's that, a disease?"
"Thankyou for that. He is actually one of the most famous historical figures of all time. Muggle," she added when she saw his confused expression. "The question is, how do we respond?"
As if in answer to her question, a speech bubble appeared on the wall.
"Okay, The Gravedigger," she recited, "for his houses will last forever. Or . . . until doomsday he says."
"Well that's full of sunshine," said James dryly.
The question sank into the stone and another one appeared.
"Come on!" said Cordelia, this was taking way too long.
'I can bring tears to your eyes; resurrect the dead, make you smile, and reverse time. I form in an instant but I last a lifetime.'
James looked at her, "Is this another one of your Shake and Spear riddles?"
Cordelia didn't even bother. She thought long and hard.
"A memory," said James.
Cordelia raised her eyebrows. "What?"
"Contrary to your opinion I do have a brain."
Another riddle appeared.
"Well, everything goes in three's I guess."
'There are two sisters. One gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. Who are the sisters?'
"Well, I don't know about you but that sounds disgusting," said James.
"Oh shut up, it's obviously not talking about human sisters . . . Oh!-no, not that . . . I know! It's day and night," seeing his incredulous expression she explained, "Day and night are always shifting into one another and I've never heard either be referred to as 'he'."
James stared, "I have never been more attracted to you."
Cordelia shook her head, amazed, "That is such a strange thing to say. Do you realise how awkward it makes this situation?"
"Right. Forget I said it." They both peered into the hole; they saw, on a deep red pillow, the time-turner.
Cordelia let out the breath she had been holding since that dreadful day when she had lost it. It was safe now.
She took it out and they both looked at each other. At almost exactly the same time they each broke into a different victory dance, equally dorky.
Footsteps.
Cordelia's heart missed a beat and her dance faltered, no they could not be hearing this right now.
She rounded on James, "I thought you blocked all the corridors around here?"
"I did, but the teachers are pretty smart, they can remove stuff . . . it was just quicker than I thought it would be."
Cordelia listened, the voices were coming from her right.
"Run!" she whispered, grabbing his hand and turning into the next corridor. They kept running all over the third floor but the voices kept coming in different directions, either there were more teachers than they had reckoned for or the staff knew some pretty decent short-cuts.
They stopped in a long corridor, it was connected in the middle to the one they had started on. They had gone in a complete circle!
"Okay, breath," said James, watching Cordelia carefully, "It'll be fine," he listened to their surroundings. "Is it just me or are those voices on either side of us."
Cordelia glared at him, "Not. Helping," she panted.
The voices were getting closer, seconds away.
10
"Okay we can't look as though we've been breaking into the safe,"
said Cordelia.
8
"How do we do that?" replied James.
6
"I don't know."
5
4
Would that work, though?
3
2
It was their only chance.
1
As the teachers rounded each side of the corridor Cordelia grabbed James around the neck and pulled his face down to hers, kissing him full on the lips, praying that it would work.
James, after going completely limp from surprise seemed to understand their emergency situation and deepened their kiss, pushing Cordelia's back to the wall and wrapping his fingers in her hair.
"You two, get back to your beds," yelled a voice. "We are too busy trying to catch some troublesome students to deal with overly hormonal teenagers."
James and Cordelia broke apart. James was breathing hard and Cordelia was blushing.
They took off down the corridor.
Cordelia kept having minor panic attacks during breakfast on Saturday morning. She continued to recall last night no matter what she did to try and stop thinking about it; even when someone dropped pumpkin juice on her she thought, 'James did that to me in the fourth year but of course I wasn't randomly kissing him at the time.'
And her dreams that night hadn't helped, in fact, they had only gotten worse. The dreams were not normal. She had to talk to someone about them.
Oh no.
James and Fred were entering the great hall at their usual time which was: late. They sat down on the other side of the table to Cordelia and James made sure to avoid her eyes.
"I had a fantastic night's rest last night. I felt like the morning was going to hold lots of possibilities so I slept well," Bea paused and looked around at the other sixth-years, " How did everybody else fare last night?"
"Great!" said James and Cordelia, they looked at each other then quickly back to their plates, realising that the outburst had been highly suspicious.
Ella leant forward, she was in her element, "Ooooh, awkward glances, 'great' nights, empty beds, James and Cordelia," she leant back again, looking at the others. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe what we're dealing with here is the morning after."
Several things happened at once. Cordelia screamed, 'Are you crazy?' Beatrice fell back off the bench in surprise at the outburst, Jasper ducked a fork which was thrown his way as James flinched, and Hazel dropped her coffee onto Henry's lap.
And in the middle was Ella, smiling like it was Christmas.
Once everything had settled down Ella continued, "Well?" she asked, staring pointedly at James and Cordelia.
"No! Merlin! I shall answer my own question, you are completely off your rocker!"
"James?" Ella changed her target.
"Cordelia and-" he cleared his throat, "Cordelia and I didn't even see each other last night."
Ella eyed them suspiciously.
"Ella, let it go, nothing happened," said Cordelia.
"Yeah," James said. "Can you pass the kisses- kippers! I meant kippers," he took a deep breath, "Now the pash browns, oh Merlin."
James dropped his head on the table with a loud thunk.
At least, he tried.
Cordelia was hiding. She would have loved to say otherwise but she couldn't bear to face Ella's smirk or James' awkward grin. It was too much.
She had decided, as a cure for her tortured noggin, to write a letter home since she hadn't written one yet and her parents were probably getting a little worried. They'd live.
What in Merlin's name did she write? Her Dad, even though he had given the time-turner to her hadn't actually known what it was, only that it was powerful presumably.
Okay, all she had to do was try and do was write a letter, being as distantly detailed as possible. Fun.
Dear Mum, Dad and William,
Great start, Cordelia, you are doing well.
Everything's well here. You were probably sent a letter a few weeks ago about me taking up residence in the hospital wing, but don't worry, I'm completely fine, just a dizzy spell.
Cordelia had only realised that they had received a letter just at that moment. Whoops.
Hogwart's is great, it's much more interesting this year because I have dropped Divination (the one I kept complaining about and Will kept asking me to explain how they stuck the horse to the man). Hazel, Beatrice and Ella are all good. Lot's of drama but I am trying to stay away from it now, it's my new resolution. Hazel has said to apologise yet again for killing Bob the fish but I don't think she means it yet (should we leave her hanging?). Also, Hazel is moving on from the incident over Christmas, I think she's been happier lately which is always good.
I hope work's not too busy mum, don't completely tire yourself. Dad, I want to hear more about the man who claims he's taken out his eyeball, that sounds disgusting. Will, your toys can't hear you, stop talking to them. And I miss you all very much.
Love,
Cordelia.
Well, successful writing. To the Owlery!
Cordelia hated birds. She did not have an owl for that very reason. They were so unpredictable. Cordelia had a pet dog at home, a huge Irish Wolfhound, but unfortunately, he wasn't allowed at the school/ wouldn't fit through the portrait hole so she remained petless.
Trying to avoid the mess on the ground, Cordelia inched towards a barn owl that she had deduced was the least likely to flap his wings suddenly. She called him Brent; because he looked like a Brent and she didn't know the actual names of the school owls.
Brent came down to her level when she waved at him, this was good so far. Cordelia tied the letter to his leg and watched him fly out of the high window. It really was a beautiful day.
Cordelia made her way over to the window and sat herself down, letting the breeze tickle her face. This was probably one of the last days with sun they would have. It was a shame, but Cordelia loved winter too; snowball fights, winter clothing, fires. Hogwarts was wonderful any time of the year.
Feeling brave (and maybe a bit reckless) she swung her feet over the ledge so that they were dangling over the side of the castle. Cordelia looked down past her feet and felt a swooping sensation in her gut. It was scary but addictive. Alright, so maybe it wasn't the smartest of things to be doing but she was so sick of the petty squabbling and drama that was inside the castle at the moment. This made her feel as though none of that mattered, just her and the mountains, co-existing.
The world was so big.
"Cordelia!" said a shocked voice behind her. She wished they would leave, they were interrupting her zen.
Hands grabbed her by the waist and pulled her down from the ledge. "What in Merlin's name are you doing, you want to get yourself killed?"
"What the hell, let go of me!" Cordelia whirled around to see the main reason she needed a therapist.
James looked at her incredulously, "I knew you were mad, but I never knew you were suicidal. I just saved you," his gazed changed, "I am a hero." He looked off into space for dramatic effect, Cordelia rolled her eyes.
"I was not committing suicide, I simply posted a letter and was enjoying the sun on my face."
"There is the sun on the grounds, you know, where there is no chance that you could fall to your untimely death," James realised he still had his arms around her waist and quickly released her.
Cordelia and James both looked around for other mindless conversation topics, both avoiding the massive elephant in the owlery.
"So, er, why are you here?" started Cordelia. Good question, casual and non-suggestive.
"I was posting a letter," replied James, holding the item up in his hand. "It's to my parents. Al and Lily keep bothering me to do it and I finally worked up the courage to write one."
Cordelia laughed, "Why do you need courage?"
"Because my mother will read into every tiny detail of what I'm saying. Christmas will be torture," James sighed.
Cordelia swung her arm up, intending to sarcastically comfort him but decided at the last minute that it would be weird and her arm started swinging of its own accord.
"Okay, well, I better go," said Cordelia. "Lots of homework you know. Busy busy busy."
James turned to watch her leave, "Oh, okay," he paused as though he was going to say something, then, "See you around."
Cordelia nodded and shut the owlery door behind her. She hurried up the stairs and down the corridor to the Fat Lady's portrait.
"Pineapples."
The Fate Lady turned her nose up at this, "I swear, the passwords get worse every year."
Cordelia sighed, "Just let me in." The portrait swung open and she made her way to her dormitory to get her books.
As she picked up her bag, a letter flew out of it.
It read: 'You should have let it go. Destroy it before it destroys you.'
Cordelia froze and dropped her books back onto the bed.
What was she going to do?