Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
A Night-Time Visitor
Someone was sitting on top of me. Their knees dug into the ground on either side of my waist. "No", I whimpered. "No, no, no". They had one of their hands pinning my wrists together above my head; increasing pressure whenever I wiggled too much or became too loud. I tried pleading with the person. I knew I was staring directly into their eyes, but still, their face was shrouded in shadow. The only thing I could make out was the cracked skin of their lips as the person slowly licked them in agitation.
"All you had to do was keep your fat mouth shut", The person said, digging their fingernails into my skin.
"I'm sorry", I blubbered, trying to thrash out from under this person's hold. But I couldn't even get an inch.
"But you couldn't even manage that, could you Jess", The person continued to talk as if I hadn't said anything. "If you had just listened, we could have kept going. Nothing would have to change. But now", The person paused, snarling in disgust. "Now, I have to clean up your mess". With their free hand, the person raised a stainless-steel knife into the air with the blade pointed downward.
"No, please stop", I sobbed as I furiously shook my head side to side. Nothing worked. The knife plunged down to a point where I couldn't see it. But I could feel it. Burning hot pain paired with intense pressure grabbed my full attention as I cried out. The person on top of me withdrew the knife, pulling it back into my line of vision. It was hard to focus my eyes, but I zeroed in on the now crimson-stained blade with little beads dripping off the tip. "Please", I tried again as coldness seeped in and I started to shiver. The person plunges the knife a second time, then a third, and a fourth. Each time it was in a different place. At some point, it became difficult to breathe and the only sounds I was able to make were gurgling ones.
"Jessie, Jessie, Jessie", the person tsked as my vision started to fade. I heard them toss the knife aside and it softly clattered against the dirt floor. "If only you could see yourself right now". The person said as they placed a blood-coated hand on my cheek, turning my head to look at them. It felt warm to my quickly freezing body. I wasn't sure if it was warm because of their body heat or because of my blood. Though I suppose it doesn't matter. Not as everything was slowly fading out of existence "You were right. Red really isn't your color".
Gasping for breath, I sat up as my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the dorm. As my chest heaved, I started to make out the forms of the curtains that hang around my four-poster bed. Where am I? I asked myself; pressing my right hand against different parts of my torso. My shirt wasn't torn. Nothing hurt. And when I pulled my hand away, nothing red and sticky came away with it. Who am I? I closed my eyes and focused on slowing my breathing; letting my shoulders rise and fall with the attempt. You're Holly. I tell myself. Jessie is dead, and you're Holly Weasley. You are fourteen years old. You have two parents and seven siblings. You're a witch and you're dating a wizard named Adrian Pucey. Telling myself facts about my life always helped. It served as a way to ground myself in my present reality. Still, it wasn't enough to stop my hands from trembling or my heart from racing. Letting out a deep exhale through my nose, I threw the covers off and swung my legs over the side. As soon as my bare feet touched the chilled wood floor, a shiver ran up my spine. In a couple more weeks it would be October and I would need to start wearing socks to bed.
Having done this many times before, I don't worry about making noise as I tiptoe past the sleeping forms of Angelina, Alicia, and the two no-name roommates I don't care to know. None of them stirred. After three going on four years of this, any noise I did make probably passed unheard. I take my time walking downstairs from the girls' dormitories to the common room. When I get there, it's easy to see that the house-elves had already cleaned for the night based on the lack of litter and dust. I don't linger and head straight for the boys' dorms. It doesn't take too long to climb the stairs and get to the door labeled fourth-years. Opening the door, I step in like I am supposed to be there. Just like in my dorm, no one stirs. The boys hadn't changed their sleeping arrangements for the new school year, so it was easy to know who was in which bed. Passing the beds containing the two no-named boys no one cared to know, I quickly slipped into Fred's bed since he was closer to the door than George's. The minute I was laying down, Fred flinched awake and turned under the covers until we were face to face. It only took him a couple of seconds to recognize that it was me as his consciousness still lay half asleep. "Your feet are cold", he muttered groggily as he pulled the covers up higher over both of us.
"Sorry", I whispered; already starting to feel more relaxed. I'd never get enough sleep if it wasn't for Fred and George.
"You haven't had a nightmare in a while", Fred said as he shifted to get more comfortable.
"Yeah", I agreed as I closed my eyes, ready to try to go back to sleep as I breathed in Fred's familiar scent of grass and pine. "It was nice while it lasted".
It was quiet for maybe five minutes before a small crack sounded. I wouldn't have paid it any mind if it wasn't for Fred tensing next to me. I cracked one eye open to watch as he sat up, bracing his weight with his arms. "Fred?" I whispered my question, opening the other eye when he didn't immediately relax. Fred didn't respond.
Instead, there was a second sound, like the hinges of a trunk or a wardrobe opening. "Oi!" Fred called out in a raised volume as he reached over me to get to his wand resting on the nightstand near his bed. Alarmed, alert, and one-hundred percent awake, I heard a small squeak that was high-pitched like a hamster, followed by the sound of a trunk lid dropping shut. "Lumos", Fred cast the moment he had his wand in hand. As the tip lit up, he sat straight with his arm stretched out. I sprung up beside Fred just in time to see a small form standing at the foot of Fred's bed. It had a hairless head, long pointy bat-like ears, and round wide eyes that seemed more startled by us than we were of it. Its face was familiar to me. Despite never seeing it before.
"Dobby?" I asked before I thought better of it. The little creature gave a second hamster squeak before snapping his fingers and disappearing into thin air.
The shock of the surprise visitor wore off quickly as Fred's shout and the light from his wand started to rouse the others. "Blimey", one of his roommates complained. "What are you trying to do, Weasley?" The unimportant roommate asked as Lee loudly groaned in the background. He rolled over in his bed and pulled his pillow over his head. I'm not sure a rowdy cheer squad of veela could wake that one.
The unimportant roommate was ignored. Fred turned his head in the direction of George's bed where George was sitting up and staring at us expectantly. "There was a house-elf going through my trunk", Fred exclaimed.
George's eyes widen as Fred's words sink in. We only knew one reason that house-elf would be rummaging through our things, and it wasn't one we liked. The second unimportant roommate scoffed. "You were dreaming, Weasley. It was probably just your sister sneaking into our dorm again".
"She has nightmares", Fred and George instantly defended my being there. Fred canceled the Lumos spell, sending the room back into darkness.
"Sorry", Fred said, only to get them to go back to sleep so the three of us could discuss what just happened. He reaches over me to put his wand back on the nightstand before lying down. I follow his example. We lay quietly as we listened to the sounds of Fred and George's roommates settling back down. There were some huffing and grumbling criticisms, but they were craving sleep a little too much to make a big deal out of it. Minutes ticked by as we waited for their breaths to even out. As soon as it felt safe to do so, Fred and I sat up again and George climbed out of his bed to join us.
"You sure it was a house-elf?" George whispered as he sat crisscrossed at the foot of Fred's bed, forcing Fred and me to draw our knees up to our chests so George wouldn't sit on our feet and shins.
"Yeah", Fred confirmed in a similar volume. We could have drawn the curtain closed and cast a silencing charm. But that would mean taking our eyes off Fred and George's trunks, which didn't feel like a very safe thing to do at the moment. "Big shiny eyes and batty ears. There's no question". I nodded my agreement. It was the only thing that made sense too. Other than teachers, the only non-Gryffindors that could access the common room and our dorms without using a password were house-elves (since their magic wasn't affected by apparition wards) and maybe ghosts. The figure we saw was too small to be a teacher, and a ghost wouldn't be able to open and close trunks. So, that just left house-elves.
"I'm pretty sure that it was Dobby", I whispered. I had only seen the house-elf for a couple of seconds, but he seemed familiar and what reason would any other house-elf have to go through students' trunks? "He wasn't here when I came in, but maybe we should make sure we still have it".
There was no need to clarify what I meant by it. George unfolded his legs as he climbed off Fred's bed and tiptoed to where his trunk rested at the foot of his bed. A lot quieter than Dobby had been, George opens the trunk lid halfway with his left hand and uses his right to dig through his belongings. Fred and I watched with bated breath. "It's still here", George whispered after a moment. "It's buried at the bottom under our socks". With that knowledge, it became easier to breathe. Probably the only thing worse than having a Horcrux in your possession is to lose a Horcrux.
"Lucky that Holly came in when she did", Fred whispered as George climbed back up onto the foot of Fred's bed. "I wouldn't have heard him if Holly hadn't woken me up when she got here". Yeah, that was pure dumb luck on our part.
"But why search your trunks?" I asked. "Does Dobby somehow know we have it?" That didn't seem likely. Not when Malfoy Sr. didn't know. He should think it's still with Ginny. So, if Malfoy Sr. had talked at home about his plan and what he had done at Flourish and Blotts, then Dobby wouldn't know that we'd taken the diary from Ginny. Something didn't add up.
"We should lock our trunks from now on. If we all lock our trunks maybe it won't be obvious to him who has it" George thought aloud. But Fred and I nodded. It was a good plan. "I don't think he'll come back tonight. We probably startled him. But we need to be more careful". Again, Fred and I nodded. At least, that much was apparent.
None of us got much sleep after that. Every little sound had one of us waking. By the time breakfast rolled around, we were struggling to keep our eyes open. George had his elbow on the table so he could rest his chin on his palm. Fred was doing everything he could to keep himself from drifting off into his bowl of porridge. I was a little more used to operating on little sleep. Thanks to my frequent nightmares, I was just dealing with drooping eyelids. But I couldn't focus on my meal either. Instead, I kept glancing down at my bookbag every few seconds in its place under the table by my feet. I had even wrapped the strap around my left ankle as an extra precaution.
That morning, we had decided we shouldn't leave the diary in our trunks during the day; locked or otherwise. So, I was going to carry the diary around with me until we could figure out a more secure hiding place for it. It was still disguised with the Magical Me book cover, but I had an uncomfortable and paranoid feeling that people would know that I was carrying something I shouldn't be.
At least, a few things made more sense once Ron, Hermione, and the other second-year boys sat down at the Gryffindor table. "For the last time Weasley", I overheard Seamus Finnigan say as he dished scrambled eggs onto the empty plate sitting in front of him. "No one went through your stuff".
My attention caught, I looked down the table until my eyes landed on a red-faced Ron. He sat next to Harry; grumbling discontentedly into his goblet of pumpkin as a red-faced held a sheepish look on his face; like he was trying to be supportive of his best mate, but didn't think Finnigan was wrong either.
"Who did it then?" Ron argued after having lowered his goblet. "My trunk didn't empty out on its own". With my elbow, I nudged George as I kicked Fred under the table. As soon as they were both looking at me, I nodded my head in Ron's direction. Two trunks raided in the middle of the night? That was too much of a coincidence. "You don't have anything anyone would want", Dean Thomas broke; backing up his friend. "We don't know who went through your things, but it wasn't any of us". Fred and George stiffened at Thomas' words. If Ron's things got searched, that meant Dobby wasn't targeting us specifically. In other words, it could be reasoned that Dobby knew enough of what his master had done to suspect a Weasley.
"It is strange, though", Harry spoke up after grabbing some bacon for himself. "Especially since it was only Ron's trunk. Maybe we should tell McGonagall".
"I don't think that's necessary", Hermione said as she swallowed a bite of her porridge.
Ron glared at his only female friend. "How would you like it if someone broke in and went through your things?" He asked aggressively; misinterpreting what Hermione had meant.
Hermione didn't appear to take offense. Instead, she rolled her eyes and pointed to the very front of the table. All the second-years and Fred, George, and I traced to where her finger was pointing. Percy stood between Gryffindor table and the edge of the staff dais, looking up at McGonagall, who was standing just a couple feet from him, as they talked. "I heard Percy talking about it to his year mates when I was waiting for you two in the common room", Hermione said to Ron and Harry. Even though their conversation included the other second-year boys. "Last night, someone went through his trunk too. Percy said he found all his things on the floor this morning. I bet that's why he's talking to McGonagall now".
Ron didn't apologize to Hermione for his abrasive manner. Though he did look a little contrite as he said, "I think I'll go tell them it happened to me too". Quickly, he stuffed a piece of unbuttered toast into his mouth before getting up and hightailing it to our older brother and head of house.
Instead of watching Ron's retreating back, Fred and George turned to look at me. "So, it wasn't just us", Fred said.
"Meaning, if it was Dobby, he doesn't know who has the diary", George reasoned, being mindful of the other students around us.
"At least that is something in our favor", I said. "But we don't know if he'll try again, so we need to find somewhere he won't think to look for the diary and somewhere no one would accidentally find it".
Fred and George nodded. Keeping the diary safe was at the forefront of all our minds. "Do you think we should tell McGonagall that someone tried to break into Fred's trunk too? Since our roommates woke up last night". George asked. That was a good question. The two unimportant roommates in Fred and George's dorm had woken up to hear Fred claim that a house-elf tried to go through his trunk. And that did complicate things. Especially now that Percy and Ron were reporting that someone had gone through their things. It probably wouldn't be long until all of Gryffindor knew about these incidents. If we didn't share that it almost happened to Fred, and one of the unimportant roommates did, it could put attention on us. Which we didn't need. "I think we should", Fred said after a moment. "If we didn't know about the diary and this had happened, we would have been telling everybody. We'll make ourselves suspicious if we don't say anything and someone else does".
George nodded. It seems we were thinking along the same lines. "You go", I said to Fred. "It was your trunk, so you better tell". Fred didn't need any more prompting in getting up and joining Percy and Ron as they informed McGonagall of what occurred last night.
"What do you think is going to happen?" George asked as we watched Fred talk with our other brothers and McGonagall.
My shoulders felt slightly heavier than normal as I shrugged. "Not a clue", I answered before looking at George. "This wasn't in the book."