Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
What Happened?
I was still shaking when I slipped through the portrait hole into the common room. Though, I tried to hide it by keeping my hands in my robe pockets. There was no hiding my emotional state from Fred and George, but I didn't need my housemates knowing my business. Standing at the edge of everything, I scanned the common room. At first glance, things looked normal. The usual friend groups were sitting together with their homework or games spread out in front of them. Wood and the team were together just as I expected them to be; sitting around the table that's set up next to the windows. Wood was doing all the talking, but the only one who seemed to be listening was Katie. And probably just because she's polite. Alicia was preoccupied with a nail file and it looked like Angelina was working on the essay Sprout had assigned. What was out of place was the absence of Fred and George. In my current state, their absence aggravated me. Where were they? Wood never tolerated his players missing team meetings, even if they didn't pay attention. I mean, Merlin! Wood made everyone have a team meeting in the hospital wing when he had to stay there overnight due to a quidditch practice injury.
I took a deep breath to draw upon any semblance of calm. Maybe they just had to go to the bathroom, I thought as I approached the quidditch team. That could be it. Even if it was weird that Fred and George would have to use the loo at the same time. When I reached their table, I didn't wait for Wood to notice me. I didn't wait for him to pause. I talked over the quidditch captain, achieving two things; cutting off Wood and alerting everyone else to my being there. "Where's Fred and George?' I asked. Vaguely proud of myself when my voice didn't shake.
Alicia and Angelina turned around in their seats to see me as Wood closed the notebook that was sitting in front of him. "We're in a meeting", he said, making it sound like I was interrupting a confession in a courtroom. The only person who didn't have any visible reaction to my presence was Katie.
There must have been something in my complexion or my expression that worried my roommates because they both started to rise from their seats. "Holly-" Angelina started to say.
I cut her off. "Where's Fred and George?" I asked again. My voice sounded far away. Like I was listening to it from underwater.
Wood sighed like he is the square peg and I'm the round hole; we just don't understand each other. "They went upstairs ten minutes ago with Potter and your little brother", Wood relented. Probably just so he could get rid of me and go back to boring the girls with his playbook.
I scrunched up my nose. Why would Fred and George go up to the dorms with Ron and Harry? But now that I took a second glance at the Gryffindor quidditch team, I noticed Harry was indeed missing. Not knowing how I should feel about this abnormality, I closed my eyes and breathed deeply through my nose. "Okay", I said again before I opened my eyes, looking at Wood. "Thanks", I said as I started to turn away.
Angelina and Alicia paused halfway between a standing and sitting position. "Is everything alright?" Alicia called after me.
I shook my head at her as I passed by her seat to the stairs leading to the boys' dorms. "Everything's fine", I lied; hoping no one noticed when my voice cracked at the word 'fine'. Fred and George could hang out with Ron and Harry without it meaning anything, right? I asked myself as I took two steps at a time. But I knew better. Neither George, Fred, nor Harry would ditch Wood just to goof off.
Assuming they wouldn't have gone to the second-year boys' dorm, I head straight for Fred and George's dorm room. I didn't knock on the door, letting myself in. I knew I guessed the right room when five heads swiveled in my direction with their mouths clamped shut. The fifth head belonging to Hermione. Yeah, this was more than just Fred and George hanging out with the younger boys. Hermione and Harry sat on Lee's bed while Ron was on George's bed with George. And Fred had his bed to himself.
When their eyes registered it was me who walked in on them, all their spines relaxed. "We did it!" Hermione said excitedly as I closed the door behind me. She sounded like a poodle who just performed a trick and was expecting a treat.
"Did what?" I asked a bit dazed as I made a beeline for Fred's bed. Fred moved over so there was room for me to squeeze against him and both of us could rest our backs against the headboard.
"What you told us to do", Hermione replied as I made myself comfortable. Or as comfortable as I could feel at the moment.
"What we told you?" I questioned, distractedly as I curled into Fred's side and buried my face in the space between his shoulder joint and chest. In response, Fred slung an arm around me. I clutched the fabric of his shirt and let out a deep tremor. Fred's arm became tighter and I focused on the weight of it; grounding myself.
"We freed Dobby!" Hermione exclaimed; apparently, she had no more patience for my slowness.
They freed Dobby, I repeated in my head. They.. freed….Dobby. It wasn't making any sense. Dobby… Dobby who? Dobby the house-elf!? My muscles tensed and my eyes widened. They freed Dobby! I snapped up, smacking my head against the bottom of Fred's chin.
"Merlin, Holly", he complained as he tried to rub some of the pain away.
"How did you do that?"
The tale they told us spoke of many long hours dedicated to planning, practice, and trial and error. Evidently, tonight's attempt hadn't been their first, and it made me wonder why Fred, George, or me hadn't heard of anything about this before.
Apparently, they got both Ginny and Dobby to help. "Ginny only helped because she fancies Harry", Ron informed us, much to Harry's embarrassment.
They needed Ginny to be their eyes and ears concerning Malfoy's activities. Once they knew when Malfoy was most likely to be alone, they made a plan for how they could trap him in one of the broom closets, intending to use the information we had collected about Malfoy's fear of the dark against him. Then they had Dobby make sure none of Malfoy's friends would come looking for him any time soon. Which… explained the toilet incident Snape had to see to. Then Dobby joined them and took on the role of scary closet monster.
"We weren't sure Dobby could pull it off", Harry said. "Or how much he would be allowed to do".
"But we worked around it and made sure we were the only ones using magic against Malfoy", Hermione added to assure us she had thought everything out.
From there, they just had to terrorize Malfoy and prevent him from using his wand. Which turned out to be the opportunity Harry needed to master expelliarmus. Once wandless, Malfoy was left to spook in the dark closet as a mysterious garment kept attacking him. All Dobby had to do was ask if he could have the garment. Too scared to recognize Dobby's voice, Malfoy had agreed; wanting to stop the onslaught. Unknowingly to him, the mysterious garment was one of his robes that the golden trio had nicked from the laundry.
Hearing that tale, left us gobsmacked and slightly impressed. They made it sound so simple like it hadn't been difficult at all. Rubbing the skin under my eyebrow, I looked at Fred and George in turn. "I guess we can see if Dobby can destroy the diary now". They nodded in agreement.
"About that", Hermione said. "Will Professor Lockhart be okay if we destroy the diary?" My hands twitched at the sound of that man's name. "I think we should help him first. What if destroying the diary before Professor Lockhart is rescued hurts him?"
"Who cares about him?" Ron asked rhetorically, unaware that I started to experience shortness of breath. Fred began rubbing my upper arm. "He tortures Harry in class, made Holly drop Defense altogether, and he's bloody useless. I hope the diary destroys him".
Hermione scowled. "He's possessed, Ron. None of that is his fault", she argued. "We have to help him. He's our teacher, He-"
It felt like I was wearing a corset; like something was physically blocking my lungs from fully expanding. I looked down at my hands as I twisted them together in my lap. The bickering second-years were drowned out as the sound of my own heartbeat filled my ears, making them feel clogged. Without meaning for it to happen, tonight's earlier events washed over me. Lockhart/ Riddle, he had been so close. Too close. My skin still felt off from where he'd touched me. The memories kept cycling through my head as the second-years kept at it with Fred and George supervising. Even though I wished my brain would stop.
My body started to feel shaky and clammy as if it were fighting a fever as Harry said, "I think Ron's right, Hermione". He sounded so far away. Despite sitting within spitting distance. What's worse, other memories started playing as well. Ones I didn't like and had avoided for years.
Whatever Hermione was going to say next to defend her argument was interrupted by Fred crawling off his bed and kneeling in front of me. "Holly?" He asked carefully, placing a hand on my knee. "You okay?"
Fred's actions were enough to draw everyone's attention to me. Exhaling and inhaling through my mouth, I fought for some control, wanting to breathe normally again. But nothing worked. It was like a stone was lodged in my chest, keeping my lungs pressed down. I was alone with Lockhart… he said… he thought… "Lockhart, he-" I got two words out before choking. Because it wasn't just Lockhart/Riddle I was thinking about. "No one should go near Lockhart", I finally managed to say. Fred squeezed my knee in a silent prompt to keep going. "It's not safe. Tonight, he-" My stomach churned and I couldn't force myself to say anything else.
"You had detention with Snape, right?" George asked. I heard him move. Fred's bed compressed on the left as it accepted George's weight. A warm hand came into contact between my two shoulder blades and started making circles. "When did you run into Lockhart?"
He cornered me…. Riddle thought that I was…. He acted like he… like he owned me. It was like he was… I shook my head furiously, words escaping me. I needed to tell them everything about Lockhart... But I couldn't. Not right now. So, the abridged version it was. "Snape left", I forced out in one gasp.
"Because of Goyle and the toilet". Hermione whispered from Lee's bed. Her voice was absent of her usual confidence.
I didn't confirm she was right. There was no need. Lockhart got way too close, and I hadn't been prepared. Just like last time. "He was-" I had to wait for the tremor in my voice to die down before I could finish. "-waiting for me to be alone".
The hand Fred had on my knee started to feel as if it was made out of stone. "What did he do?" His voice contained a hard edge that forced an uncharacteristically loud sob out of me as a few tears fell. It reminded me of that night. The night before I became Holly… Unable to run… No conviction to fight back.
Despite surviving it once before, I feared death when I saw its approach. The only things that had been missing were a knife and stab wounds. And I thought I could handle Lockhart/ Riddle by kicking him in the balls. How stupid can I be?
"Snape", I started to say; skipping over everything my brothers and Harry, and Hermione wanted to know. "He-he came back. B-before Lockhart could-".
Fred shook my leg. "What did he do, Holly? Did he hurt you?" Fred was close to yelling at this point. But I was finding it difficult to react to his urgency. It was like I was reliving it all over again. Lockhart. In Snape's classroom. Alone. He called me a Horcrux. Called me by pet names that made my skin crawl. He had stood unwelcomingly close; touching my face without my consent. Just like… just like…
"Snape", was the only thing I seemed capable of saying even though I knew Fred and George needed to know about the Horcrux bit. "Snape returned before anything could happen". Merlin, bless Snape. A couple of tears fell off my cheeks and dripped onto my hands.
George's hand stilled on my back. And I could only imagine what expression his face must be wearing. "Fred, I don't think we're going to get anything else out of her right now", George said, not addressing the golden trio at all.
"I'll bloody kill him", Ron blurted out in his best-enraged voice. "He can't just- just-" Ron tried to express himself but seemed to lack the words. It was a sensation I could relate to.
I couldn't see what everyone was doing, and I wasn't too motivated to find out. But I could guess based on what they were saying. "Sit down and shut up", Fred barked to our younger brother as he let go of my knee; allowing George to pull me into a hug. I just about crumbled into him. "If Holly's like this, do you really think we're going to let you anywhere near Lockhart?"
"We really should tell Dumbledore", Hermione broke in. "If he knew about this-"
"We already tried", George cut her off, voice grim. "We already tried to tell Dumbledore and all he did was put Lockhart on probation".
"Why wouldn't he help?" Harry whispered in disbelief.
"Why doesn't matter", Fred growled as he pulled a blanket off George's bed. Brushing Ron off in the process. The golden trio was silent as Fred dropped the blanket on top of me and left George to sort it out. "We have to figure this out for ourselves".