Chapter Eleven
"Well have you spoken with her? She's been acting very strangely and I think she's coming down with something."
"Of course we've spoken to her, but we don't keep tabs on her 24/7, do we?"
Being cornered by Percy Weasley in the common room that evening was the absolute last thing that she'd really had in mind after the taxing day she'd had. She'd spent the first half of her day listening to Tori complain about the twins' birthday prank of making her forehead grow over the better half of the day. It had taken Nessa a couple hours before she'd noticed much difference, but by the time either of them had deduced what was happening and who was to blame, Tori's forehead was large enough to hold a small dinner plate.
It had taken Madam Pomfrey only a few attempts to figure out what had caused the sudden growth and she had corrected it in no time, but the following hours of Tori's rampage was enough to make Nessa strongly consider smothering herself with a pillow. After what felt like an eternity of listening to Tori's insistence that this was because of the joke she'd made about Fred's forehead on the train, they'd finally managed to track down the twins and Nessa had deposited her with them before hiding out in the library for an hour so that she could decompress.
She'd no idea what they'd said to her in the time she'd disappeared, but whenever she returned to the common room, Tori was just as chipper as usual and seemed to harbor little resentment towards them. She half suspected that it was because they had pooled what money they had to buy her a very nice set of Quidditch gloves for her birthday in penance, but she wasn't going to mention it as long as it kept her quiet for the rest of the day.
After a rowdy game of Exploding Snap, dinner, and a group prank on the Slytherin Quidditch team — one which Nessa had been roped into participating in because Tori insisted and she was the "birthday girl" — Tori seemed to have completely forgotten about the events of the morning. Nessa was just beginning to think that her night was going to end much calmer than the day had begun until Percy Weasley barged over to their table, looking harried.
"She keeps writing in that book of hers," said Percy in frustration. "And I don't think she's been eating or sleeping well because of it. I've no idea what it even is."
"It's her diary, Percy, would you relax?" said Nessa in frustration, bouncing her leg up and down anxiously at his tone.
"Her diary?" he said in disbelief.
"Yes, her diary."
"Who writes in a diary for hours on end?"
"She's got six brothers who are overprotective and tease her incessantly. I'm sure writing about each of you takes a considerable amount of time and effort." said Nessa sharply. "And it's not really any of your business what she's writing in it or why or for how long, is it?"
Percy bristled immediately. "I'm worried about her!"
"Then have a conversation with her! Don't come over here and try to round up all her brothers to bully her into doing what you want. It's just going to piss her off and she'll write in that bloody book even more."
"Honestly, Percy, she's right," said Tori in a much gentler tone than Nessa, something that very rarely occurred. "Nessa talks to her at least once a week and she's mentioned to me that she hates when you all bully her into things as well."
"When was the last time you spoke with her?" Percy asked Nessa pompously.
"We meet in the library on Fridays. She writes in her diary and I practice DADA spells." said Nessa, leg still bouncing incessantly. She had at least managed to calm her anxiety enough to soften her tone and felt a little bad for getting so irritated with Percy when he was clearly very concerned for his sister. "I told her she's been looking peaky lately and asked if she's been feeling okay —"
"And what'd she say?"
Nessa closed her eyes and took a deep breath at his interruption and reminded herself that he was merely trying to help before she spoke again.
"She said she felt alright. She didn't feel as though she had a fever, either, because I checked. She's been a little stressed lately because she's having a hard time remembering the things she's been learning in class and she's not been getting much sleep because she's been trying to study harder to make up for it."
"I'm worried she's overworking herself," said Percy.
"Just five seconds ago, you were worried she'd come down with the flu, Perce," said Fred, rolling his eyes.
Percy ignored him completely.
"We should all talk to her and —"
"No, you all shouldn't," said Nessa, firmly. "Did you hear anything I just said?"
"Well, what do you suggest we do then?" said Percy exasperatedly and puffing his chest out importantly.
Nessa had a very strong urge to provoke him further at the gesture alone. She had no idea why, but Percy rubbed her the wrong way. Of all of the Weasleys, Percy was her least favorite to speak with, despite the fact that they shared a disinterest for breaking the rules, though admittedly for entirely different reasons. Nessa was simply too afraid to get caught — she had no idea what Percy's problem was. He had a very unhealthy respect for authority that she thought bordered on being dangerous.
She jumped slightly when she felt George rest his hand on her bouncing knee and she stopped immediately, trying not to blush at the action. She had barely been able to look at him since they'd fallen asleep in the common room the night of her birthday. Tori and Fred found this particularly amusing and had been teasing her relentlessly since they'd found them the next morning. George hardly paid it any mind but seemed to find her embarrassment at the situation amusing all the same.
"We'll talk to her, Perce," he said calmly. "Try to get her to relax a bit for a day or two and see if that helps."
Percy eyed him severely for a moment as if trying to determine if he were being truthful. She felt George tense slightly beside her and wondered briefly if it bothered him that people didn't always take him seriously. She made a mental note to ask him later and promised to be more perceptive about her own behavior around the twins.
"Fine," Percy agreed. "But if this keeps up, I'm writing to Mum and Dad."
The twins rolled their eyes as he turned around and stalked away. Nessa closed her eyes for a moment and decided she was very clearly too overstimulated to remain around other people for much longer. Her attitude with Percy seemed proof enough of that.
"I'm going to bed," she said heavily, gathering her things.
"It's eight o'clock," said Fred incredulously.
"Yes, well, I could use the peace and quiet."
"I'll go with you," said Tori immediately, ignoring Fred's protests.
Nessa considered pointing out that peace and quiet did not really include being in the presence of others, but she really didn't have it left in her to argue. She was barely keeping it together as it was.
When they'd made it up to their dorm and the silence engulfed her, Nessa felt herself relax minutely. Her body felt so tense that her muscles ached, and she was getting a headache behind one of her eyes. She'd just changed into something comfortable and laid in her bed when she felt Tori climb in next to her.
"Move over, you're taking up all the space."
Nessa snorted and shifted onto her side so that they were facing each other.
"It is my bed, you know. I can take up as much space as I'd like," she said in amusement.
"Yeah, well, you could clearly use the company," she said and Nessa could hear the eye roll in her voice alone, despite not being able to see her very well. She bit her lip to keep from laughing. "You're going to work yourself into an anxiety attack if you don't relax."
Nessa should not have been surprised by this astute observation. The only person who knew her tells more than George these days was Victoria. Even when she was trying her very hardest to keep the chaos in her mind from showing, they still noticed. No matter how hard she tried, she could not seem to fool anyone around her anymore, despite having done so well in doing so years prior. Either they were all extremely perceptive or she was just able to control her feelings a little less. She expected it was both.
She sighed heavily. She felt bad for being such a mess considering it was Tori's birthday and she shouldn't have to deal with her friend's issues on a day that should have been about her.
"Don't start, Vanessa," said Tori sharply. "You had to deal with me earlier, so don't go feeling bad now."
"Can you read minds?" Nessa replied with an eye roll.
"No, but that would be pretty cool, actually," Tori said, sounding intrigued. "Imagine what Dumbledore must be thinking every day."
"Something too complex for you to understand, I'm sure."
Tori smacked her on the arm lightly and they both laughed. They fell silent for several minutes and Nessa tried to close her eyes to sleep, but she still couldn't get her muscles to relax enough to allow her the luxury. She felt Tori shift briefly and opened her eyes again, waiting for her friend to say whatever was on her mind.
"I'm sorry for being a lunatic this morning," she said finally. "I'm sure that didn't really help."
"I'm sorry for being a lunatic right now and ruining the end of your birthday."
"You aren't ruining anything, Nessa," said Tori gently. "And you aren't being a lunatic either."
It felt like she was being a lunatic. There was so much going on in her head and yet none of it made any sense. No matter how hard she tried to logically make it all make sense, there was just no calming the pit in her stomach or the tension in her body. It felt like she was a string that had been pulled too taut or like she was carrying a hundred pounds of bricks on her shoulders. She was just waiting for the moment when the string snapped, and she completely fell in on herself.
It was so odd to feel this way without anything actually being wrong, but she had gotten used to being in a constant state of distress without a catalyst. Normally, she was much better at keeping the feelings at bay, but with her own concerns about Ginny, listening to Harry complain constantly about Snape and Quidditch practices, and Tori's hours of ranting this morning, she felt like she was really just begging to fall off the edge of the cliff soon.
"It's just been a long week, is all," said Nessa tiredly. "I just need a couple hours away from people and I think I'll be fine by tomorrow."
"Do you want me to go?" Tori queried quietly and she sounded like she was trying not to be hurt if Nessa answered in the affirmative.
Nessa smiled in the dark and laced her fingers with her best friend's. Despite having reservations about Tori following her up to bed earlier, she was grateful that she was here now. The conversation was calming her racing mind and her proximity was so familiar that her body was slowly beginning to come back down to neutral.
"You don't count," she said. "Oddly, despite your unhinged personality, being around you doesn't tend to stress me out so much."
"And apparently the same can be said for one George Weasley."
Nessa could just hear the smirk in her voice and that alone made her want to push her friend off the bed, but Tori would only find this more amusing.
"Don't even start on this again, Tori," said Nessa, cursing internally when she could feel her face getting warmer. "Harry overheard you and Fred the other day and he's been looking at George and me strangely ever since."
"I'm only teasing, relax," she said, laughing. "And Harry already asked me what was going on with you two and I said we were just taking the mickey."
"I hate you all," said Nessa with a groan. Tori cackled and then fell silent again.
As the silence lingered, Nessa could feel her mind beginning to race again now that she wasn't being distracted by conversation. She took several deep, slow breaths in an attempt to calm the knots in her stomach and tried not to be too restless in case Tori had fallen asleep.
"I am glad you've given them a chance this year though." Tori said suddenly, causing Nessa to inhale sharply in surprise. "Much easier now that I don't have to run back and forth between the three of you."
"Me too. I never really noticed how depressing it was to sit in the library every day," said Nessa truthfully.
"Well, you should have," said Tori with a snort. "Pince is a lunatic, for one thing. And for another it's incredibly boring. I don't know how you survived it."
Nessa laughed. "Pince isn't a lunatic. She just hates you because you were always trying to steal the books in the Restricted Section."
"What is the point of having those books if you can never read them?" Tori huffed.
"Please. You don't want to read them as much as you want to know what's hiding back there."
"You've got to have a little adventure in your life, Nessa, and there's got to be plenty of exciting things back there to spice things up." said Tori as if this was sage advice. Nessa tried very hard not to giggle.
"I think you get plenty of adventure from pranking with the twins, so you can afford to give Pince a break."
"Speaking of pranks," said Tori with a grin, sounding smug. "You appeared to be enjoying yourself earlier."
"I think you're mistaking relief at not having been caught with enjoyment."
Nessa refused to admit that she had actually enjoyed pranking the Slytherins earlier. Tori had tried to rope her into pranks with them before and insisted that she absolutely was the kind of person who would enjoy them. Nessa had adamantly disagreed that this would be the case and refused to take part in any pranks with her or the twins. The enjoyment she had experienced earlier had come as a surprise to her and she did not like admitting that Tori had been right the entire time, knowing the smug delight her friend felt at being right would last for weeks.
Truth be told, she'd liked the feeling of belonging between the four of them and, while she had been extremely anxious about both being caught and knowing she was breaking the rules, the entire thing had also been surprisingly exhilarating. And, according to Fred, she was a fantastic partner because she was innocent-looking and sweet, which could get them out of a bind if they ran across any teachers. She had been stuck between being offended, charmed, and anxious by this remark and prayed that they would not actually run into any teachers at all.
Any concerns she'd had about it had flown directly out the window when she watched in amusement and horror as the Slytherins' fingernails grew rapidly and began to curl to the point that they'd all had to dismount their brooms and race back to the castle. Draco Malfoy's panicked cries were like music to her ears. It was only the sight of Mrs. Norris that had brought her back down from her fit of giggles and she had only a second to panic before George had grabbed her around the wrist and the four of them had taken off sprinting so fast she'd thought her legs would fall off.
"Don't even try to lie," said Tori, pulling her out of the memory sharply. "I haven't seen you that excited since the day that you found out you didn't have to take flying lessons anymore."
"Shut up, Victoria, and go to sleep," said Nessa, laughing lightly and closing her eyes, finally feeling calm enough to relax. Tori snickered but fell silent anyway and after several moments, Nessa spoke again. "Tori?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you." whispered Nessa, her voice weaker than she had intended. She could feel the prickling of tears behind her eyes and tried to focus on breathing again. She hated crying.
"For what?"
"Just…being here. Helping bring me back down, I guess."
There was a moment's silence before Tori laced their fingers again.
"Always," she whispered back.
-o0o-
The next day started better, as she had expected. By the time she'd woken up, Tori had already vacated the dorm with a note that she was going with the twins to spend the morning with Ginny. Nessa had ignored her grumbling stomach in favor of spending the morning in bed to further decompress from the stress of the day prior.
By the time she had made it to a late lunch to join her friends and her brother, she was feeling much more optimistic about the day and the decorations within the hall only made her all the more ecstatic for the night to come. She had always loved Halloween and it was much more exciting at Hogwarts than it had ever been with the Dursleys.
The Great Hall was already decorated for the Halloween feast with four vast pumpkins that Hagrid had grown and carved into lanterns that were each large enough for three men to sit in, the usual floating white candles had been replaced with black and red ones, and there were live bats flying up toward the ceiling.
"What's wrong with you?" said Nessa to Harry when she sat down next to Tori. He was moving his peas around his plate morosely and it was far too early in the day — and a Saturday, to boot — for him to be looking so melancholy.
"He's just found out Dumbledore has booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for the feast tonight," said George with a smirk.
"Really?" said Nessa excitedly. George grinned at her, but her features registered confusion almost immediately. "Wait, why would that make Harry sad?"
"I'm not going to the feast tonight," said Harry.
Nessa raised her eyes to the ceiling in exasperation and sighed heavily, reaching for the tray of sandwiches in front of her, tearing off the crust.
"You know, Harry, at this rate, you're going to have more detentions than Fred and George."
"Well, I never," said Fred in mock offense.
"That's a challenge, if I ever heard one, Fred," said George grinning.
Nessa smirked playfully at them both and threw her crusts at them.
"I haven't gotten detention, anyway," said Harry with a roll of his eyes. "But thanks for the vote of confidence."
"Drama queen," muttered Tori, causing Nessa to giggle and elbow her sharply.
"Why aren't you coming to the feast then?" she said, grabbing another sandwich.
"I'm going to Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday party."
Nessa paused in tearing the crust off and looked up at him in confusion.
"I'm sorry?"
"It's a party some ghosts have to celebrate the day they died," supplied Tori from beside her with a smirk.
"Er – that sounds —" Nessa began cautiously, having no idea how she would finish that sentence.
"Dead depressing," finished Tori with a nod, causing Nessa to fall into a fit of laughter. When she'd managed to control her mirth, she spoke again.
"Just out of curiosity," said Nessa. "What made you agree to go to that instead of the feast?"
"He didn't get accepted into the Headless Hunt because they said he didn't meet their requirements."
"The what?"
"The Headless Hunt," repeated Harry, waving a hand dismissively. "It's apparently some kind of group activity for headless ghosts. Something about Head Juggling and Head Polo. Anyway, he didn't get in and wants me to talk him up — say I think he's frightening so they'll let him in."
Tori and the twins were snickering at this, and Nessa bit her lip to keep herself from laughing.
"I, uh, I don't really know what to say to that," she said finally. "I mean, he isn't headless, is he? He's called Nearly Headless Nick. What difference does it make if he's frightening?"
"Don't let him hear you say that," said Harry, darkly.
Nessa and Tori made eye contact briefly before she had to hastily look away before she started laughing again.
"Why don't you just skip it then if you don't want to go so badly?" said Tori, her voice still filled with amusement.
"Hermione says we can't break our word," he grumbled back. "And she thinks it'll be interesting."
"Of course she does," said Tori with a smirk.
"I suppose she's right though, isn't she?" Nessa queried nonchalantly, pouring herself a glass of pumpkin juice and hiding her smirk behind it. "I mean, if you don't go, Nick will spend an eternity feeling disappointed. I don't think I could stand the shame."
The twins snorted and Harry rolled his eyes.
"Imagine an eternity of wondering if Harry Potter could have gotten you into the Headless Hunt," said Tori, resting her head on her hand with a wistful sigh.
"It'd be a dream, wouldn't it?" said Nessa, mimicking her movement and tone.
"The two of you are worse when you're together," said Harry frankly. The twins looked caught between laughing at his annoyance and agreeing with him.
"How insulting," said Tori with a grin. "We bring out the best in each other, I think."
"Weird how bringing out the best in each other happens to annoy everyone else around them, innit?" said Fred cheerfully.
"That's very sweet, Fred, but please keep the hypocrisy to yourself," Nessa said with an eye roll. George cocked an eyebrow at her and snatched the discarded crust off her plate.
"As you wish, munchkin," said Fred, smirking and pretending to bow.
"Munchkin?" said Harry, voice quivering in amusement and raising an eyebrow at her. "Is that what we're calling you now?"
"If you'd prefer to be six feet under then be my guest." Nessa remarked nonchalantly.
"I love you too," said Harry with an eye roll, kissing her on the cheek before gathering his things. "I've got to meet Hermione and Ron at Hagrid's. Have fun at the feast tonight."
"Have fun at the party," said Tori, grinning innocently. Harry grunted but said nothing as he left the Great Hall.
"Such a cheerful chap," said George with a grin.
"I'd just ditch Hermione at the party, personally." muttered Tori. Nessa snorted.
"Every time you say something sweet like that it reminds me why we became friends," she said sarcastically.
"You couldn't survive without me," Tori said simply before changing the subject. "Are you meeting with Ginny later?"
Nessa nodded through her mouthful of crisps. They typically met on Fridays, but since Tori's birthday had been the day before, Nessa had convinced Ginny to meet with her tonight before the feast instead.
"I hate to admit it, but I think Percy may be right," said Tori, uncharacteristically nervous. "She was so pale this morning. I've a hard time believing it's just because she can't sleep at night."
Nessa swallowed roughly and nearly choked.
"Did she say anything?" she said, looking back and forth between Tori and the twins sitting across from her.
"Not much," said George solemnly as Fred frowned next to him. "She looked like she wanted to be back up at the castle the entire time she was with us."
"We even offered to let her fly our brooms," said Fred, shaking his head in confusion. "She's been begging us to fly for ages, but she just told us she had homework she needed to do."
Nessa frowned, biting her lip. It certainly was odd seeing Ginny behave so strangely. She'd had such a fiery personality when they'd spent time together over the summer, but she was so enraptured with her diary and classes that she hardly seemed present during any of their meetings now. Even ignoring the fact that she looked sickly lately, Vanessa felt that her subdued behavior was cause for concern enough.
She'd hardly mentioned Harry during their last few meetings — something that she had at first disregarded as her being nonchalant — and she never sat with people within her own year. Further concerning was the fact that Nessa never saw Ginny interacting with anyone in her own year anymore. Hypocritical as it felt for her to be judging her for not having friends when she had only recently developed more of her own, Ginny's personality didn't really seem to strike her as the type that would have difficulty making friends.
"Nessa?"
Nessa jumped slightly and met George's eye. She blushed when she realized they were all looking at her curiously.
"Sorry, what did you ask?"
"Would you talk to her tonight?" he said again, the corner of his mouth twitching at her embarrassment, but his eyes filled with very obvious concern.
"Yeah, of course," she said, finishing her crisps and beginning to gather her bag to make her way to the library. "She isn't supposed to meet me for a couple of hours, but I have a Potions essay to finish before I talk to her. I'll see you at the feast?"
She'd already rushed off, biting her lip worriedly, before any of them garnered a response. Fred shook his head bemusedly.
"We've really got to work harder to keep her out of the library on weekends," he said with an eye roll. "We keep going like this, we might as well just befriend Granger."
-o0o-
Vanessa spent the rest of the day finishing up her essay for Potions and starting on her Transfiguration essay. The hours dragged as she attempted to meet the 15 inches McGonagall required. She'd managed only twelve and was reluctantly coming to the conclusion that she was going to have to bug George again for help. Not that he seemed to mind all that much — she simply hated admitting that she needed the help.
It was only after she had completely given up in frustration that she realized it was nearly time for the feast. Instead of feeling excited, her stomach lurched suddenly. Where in the hell was Ginny?
She looked around the library to see if she could spot her anywhere, but only saw a group of Hufflepuffs at the table nearest hers and a giggling group of girls behind the stack nearest them. She rolled her eyes and shifted her focus to the clock above the entrance — only 30 minutes before the feast was set to begin.
She chewed her lip anxiously. It was so unlike Ginny not to meet with her. Neither of them had seemed terribly excited to meet on Halloween, if only because it was a Saturday and neither of them had really wanted to complete homework on a holiday. They'd both grown rather fond of their meetings, however, and it seemed a small price to pay overall. Not to mention, Vanessa had been secretly hoping that their meeting would give her an excuse to put off her Transfiguration essay for a bit longer. Considering how frustrated she'd been while working on it, she was surprised it took her this long to notice her absence to begin with.
Her leg began bouncing incessantly when the Hufflepuff table began to gather their things to head off to the feast. The giggling group of girls followed shortly after, one of them appearing brave enough to run up to Cedric Diggory and begin chatting with him on their way out. After several more minutes, she huffed and gathered her things to head to the feast herself. Maybe Ginny had forgotten they were supposed to meet. It wasn't like she was going to head to the library this close to the feast anyway, so she might as well just speak to her at dinner.
It felt like she was the last of the students to have arrived for the feast and she hurried over to Tori and the twins, dropping her bag at her feet with a thump.
"Where's Ginny?" said Tori, looking back up at the entrance as though expecting her to appear out of thin air.
"She never showed," Nessa muttered, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice. "I thought she would have been here already."
"We haven't seen her since this morning, and I haven't seen her come in for the feast yet."
Nessa bit her lip and shifted restlessly. Fred and George didn't look any happier at the news than she felt, which didn't make her feel any more relaxed. She'd never seen the twins worried on any level and had always thought that their optimism was unending. As if sensing her growing anxiety, George smiled kindly at her.
"She probably just fell asleep. She looked knackered when we were with her."
Nessa had a hard time believing that Ginny would have slept long enough to miss their meeting and the Halloween feast but did not have the heart to point this out to him. As Dumbledore stood to begin the feast and introduce the troupe of dancing skeletons, she took a deep breath and tried to focus on the festivities around her. They were at Hogwarts after all, so really, what was the worst that could have happened to her?
By the time the feast was coming to an end, she had begun to relax again. As much as anyone could relax with the amount of candy she had gorged herself on. She was feeling near sick to her stomach and that was without Fred and George trying to convince her to try one of the Bertie Bott's beans that they insisted was marshmallow, even though she was certain it was really rotten egg. George's insistence that she wouldn't know until she tried it was doing little to sway her.
"You eat it then," said Nessa laughing and pushed his hand away from its trajectory toward her mouth.
"Georgie doesn't eat them anymore," said Tori with a laugh, rifling through her own box and eyeing an orange one curiously. "Do you think this is mango or earwax?"
"Earwax" said Nessa at the same time Fred said "Mango." Tori was much braver than Nessa, however, and chewed the jellybean curiously. Nessa laughed at the almost immediate transition to disgust on her face and she shoved Fred as if it were his fault she had gotten the short end of the stick.
"Why doesn't George eat them anymore?" said Nessa, still working at keeping George at arm's length as they made their way out of the Great Hall to head back to the Gryffindor common room.
"Got a bogey flavored one once," he said with a grin. "Didn't even know they had those."
"That's disgusting," said Nessa with a scrunch of her nose.
"Indeed," he said with a lopsided smile that made her stomach flip. "But this one definitely isn't bogey flavored, so you're in the clear."
He lunged forward and attempted to hold her arms down and force the jellybean into her mouth before she could stop him without either of them losing stride.
"George Weasley, stop that!" she said, her laugh sounding through the corridor as she struggled to get away from him. "You're much too happy about this jellybean for it to be marshmallow flavored."
"Maybe I'm happy that my friend is going to be lucky enough to enjoy a marshmallow flavored jellybean."
She eyed him incredulously and rolled her eyes when his grin widened.
"And I'm a flying pig."
"You shouldn't talk about yourself like that, love," he said, cheekily, steadying himself when she shoved him away from her playfully. He cocked an eyebrow at her before throwing the jellybean into the air and catching it in his mouth. After a moment of pause, he shook his head. "Definitely not marshmallow."
Nessa burst into laughter and had to steady herself on his arm as they rounded the corner. Her laugh died immediately in her throat as the sight before her registered. She and George came to a dead stop in shock, causing Tori and Fred to run directly into them from behind.
"Bloody hell, will you two —"
"Oh, shite," Tori's surprised whisper cut Fred off as she realized what stood before them.
Despite the torches providing only a dim amount of light within the corridor, the scene before them stood out in stark clarity. In the middle of the corridor, standing in a large puddle of water, next to a dead-looking Mrs. Norris, stood her brother, who was looking particularly tense and anxious. Shimmering in the light of the torches, and written in something that Vanessa sincerely hoped was not blood, were the words:
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS
HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE
HEIR, BEWARE.
As the other students began whispering around them, Nessa felt her hand clamp down on George's arm, this time to keep her legs from giving out in horror. As if sensing this, he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side. Harry's eye caught onto the movement and his eyes shot to hers.
"Nessa, I —"
"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"
Nessa tensed immediately at the sound of the shrill voice that rang throughout the corridor, as Draco Malfoy pushed his way to the front of the crowd of students, pale face flushed and his eyes alive with excitement and cruelty at the sight of the terror in front of him.
George's hold on her shoulders tightened as Malfoy's focus shifted from Harry to Vanessa, a haughty smirk taking over his face as she glared at him for the use of the word. It was with great restraint that she refrained from hexing him in the hall in front of the entire school.
"What's going on here? What's going on?"
It was like watching a horror film play out in front of her from that point. Attracted to the sound of Malfoy's shout, Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd of students and immediately fell backwards, clutching his face in horror, at the sight of the immobile Mrs. Norris hanging from the torch bracket before him.
"My cat! My cat! What happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked before his popping eyes fell upon Harry.
"You!" he screeched, shooting forward to grab Harry by the collar of his robes. It was only the tightening of George's hold and Tori and Fred grabbing the back of her own robes that kept Nessa within the group of students instead of lunging forward to snatch him away from the caretaker. "You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll —"
"Argus!"
Dumbledore had arrived on the scene, followed by a number of other teachers. Nessa felt Fred and Tori loosen their hold as she relaxed. Dumbledore's eyes swept quickly over the writing on the wall, the hanging cat, and the four people in the middle of the corridor briefly before he swept past them all and detached Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket.
"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch. "You, too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger."
Lockhart stepped forward eagerly.
"My office is nearest Headmaster — just upstairs — please feel free —"
"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore.
Nessa watched as the group of students on the other side of the hall parted silently to let the group pass until she could no longer see them through the throng of students. Her horrified gaze latched onto the words daubed on the wall in front of her again.
Chamber of Secrets…why did that sound familiar?
"Off to bed, the rest of you," said Professor Sprout sharply. "Back to your common rooms, go on."
Nessa's eyes locked with a smirking Malfoy as he passed her to head in the opposite direction. Her chest burned as her anger flared again and her arm shot out to grab his arm, pulling him up directly to her so that they were nose to nose. He balked and Crabbe and Goyle tried to come forward immediately but caught Tori and the twins' wands in their hands and seemed to think better of it.
"What the hell is your problem, Potter?" he spat, struggling against her. She tightened her grip.
"I told you not to use that word in my presence again, Malfoy." Nessa hissed, her eyes sparkling dangerously, stare never wavering from his own.
"You can't do anything to me in front of all of these people, Potter," he said, eyes darting around the corridor.
"You don't know me very well, Draco," she said dangerously, but pushed him away from her anyway. She smirked as he straightened and tugged his robes back into place. "Sleep well tonight. I'll be seeing you again soon, I'm sure. I'd hate to break a promise."
He took a step backward in alarm and hurried off down the corridor with Crabbe and Goyle. She watched them disappear toward the dungeons before huffing in frustration and stalking toward Gryffindor Tower. She'd nearly made it to the end of the corridor before she realized that Tori and the twins were not following her.
She spun around in confusion. Fred and George were staring at her in bewilderment in the same spot she'd left them. Tori was eyeing the two of them back and forth in amusement, her eyes twinkling merrily.
"Are you coming or not?" Nessa huffed.
"You're a bit frightening, did you know that?" Fred said slowly, still staring at her as if she'd grown three heads.
"Brilliant, of course —" George offered immediately.
"-but horribly frightening," finished Fred.
"I thought it was inspired," Tori said with a grin, skipping forward to lace their arms and drag her down the corridor, the twins following slowly behind them. "Please just let me be there when you teach him a lesson."