The air grew colder and each day the sky threatened to bury the castle in snow. Two more attacks happened; one on a second year Hufflepuff boy and the other on Nearly Headless Nick. The Dueling Club had been entertaining and not much else. Poor Harry was the villain according to just about everyone, save the few friends he had that stayed with him over Christmas break.
Less than twenty students stayed behind for the holiday, the rest had fled the castle in case they were petrified next. With so few to notice or see, Fred and George propped the Fat Lady's painting open long enough for Clione to come down the hall and sneak through without being seen.
The plan was for her to spend the night in the girl's tower with Hermione and Ginny, but the boys had kept her so long in the common room showing her the hand-held fireworks they'd been working on that she'd fallen asleep on the couch.
Snow had covered the grounds outside by the time the sun rose. Clione woke finding a blanket had been thrown over her and Fred sprawled out on the ground beneath her. "Happy Christmas, George."
He grinned from where he lay closer to the fire. "Happy Christmas," he told her in kind, watching the way she watched Fred. "Oliver's been in a foul mood as of late." It was an innocent comment, an honest one.
"Yeah, probably should've let him enjoy the holiday before breaking his heart." Her eyes trailed over the plains of Fred's thin angular face before she rolled onto her back with a sigh.
George should've been happy, he'd been waiting all summer for them to figure this out. But her voice had been soft and sad, which is how she'd been acting since Hogsmeade. She must've broken up with Oliver that same night. "You okay?" he asked her.
She was quiet a moment before giving a tired, "I will be."
It wasn't long before the others woke and their infectious excitement got to Clione as she sat at the end of the couch watching the lot of them open their presents. Fred and George teased her for only getting Ginny a gift, one that nearly set the poor girl crying as she threw her arms around Clione's middle.
"I wouldn't think a pureblood would be Muslim," Hermione commented rather quietly. It was a question she'd been itching to ask since last year, but only now felt like she knew Clione well enough to ask without seeming rude.
"I'm not," she said giving the four of them the sweets she'd gotten them. "Certain families wear traditional headdresses as a sign of their status. I liked what the hijab means." She let out that it was also what her mother had chosen, and it was Clione's naive effort to feel in some way connected to her.
Hermione took her answer in stride and came back immediately with another question. "You're from a very old family, aren't you?"
It was Ron who answered, with a mouthful of his chocolate frog. "Bill says she's from one of the oldest families on record. He's really excited to meet her, asks about her now every letter. He said there's even a few pharaohs in her bloodline." He said this with cheerful adoration and a dopey chocolate smeared grin.
"Ooh, a princess."
"No," she told Fred sternly.
He was still laughing as he handed her the gift from his mother. It was the same knitted sweater they all got, though hers was green and had a silver C in the middle. But she had the same smile Harry did as she put it on. She wore it the rest of the day tucked into a pair of baggy jeans. Mrs. Weasley had even made it larger for her.
After a nice quiet day of roaming the empty halls with Ginny, and Fred and George who popped out of every corner to scare them, she sat with them at the Gryffindor table for dinner. A plate of Koshari appeared in front of her where the others were surrounded by the bland british food she was normally forced to eat. After sneaking a taste, Fred said it was his duty to help her finish it.
It was this night Harry, Ron, and Hermione would take the polyjuice potion they'd been brewing all month to sneak into the Slytherin common room. Because they knew for a fact Clione wouldn't be there.
"Milady," Fred said as he held the Fat Lady's painting open for Clione. She'd chosen an oversized forest green silk pajama set with matching slippers, and she wore a black fitted cap over her hair. Fred didn't remember ever seeing her slender brown neck before, or that he'd ever noticed how sharp her jaw line was.
With Ginny tucked in and the twins hiding the map from her so she couldn't see Ron and Harry somehow in the Slytherin common room with Malfoy, she sat on the couch reading by the fire.
"There." Fred was by her side immediately looking at the picture because he couldn't read the words. "It's like a Cockatrice," she told them and paused long enough for the boys to laugh at the name. "It's not quite what I saw."
Fred was still laughing. "It's got a chicken head."
"Look at its little chicken legs," George said in between big belly laughs.
She paused again letting them get it out, doing her best to look annoyed when they were done but they could see through it. "There are a few variations of it in different," she broke off in a fit of giggles as they started up again.
"No, we'll stop," George tried to tell her when she closed the book.
But she waved him away. "It's fine. Knowing what it is doesn't help, no one even knows where the chamber is." She raised her arms above her head and stretched with a big yawn. "I did find something for the wand idea you guys told me about."
Fred and George shared a bright-eyed look; so far she'd helped them figure out the logistics to three of their ideas. This would end up being the fourth. As they knew from Bill's job ancient Egyptians were big on curses, and Clione had found one they'd used on their wands so that if they were ever disarmed the wand wouldn't work for anyone else. The twins excitedly scribbled away possible variations for a fake wand, and when they were done they turned to find Clione had fallen asleep.
George gathered their things while Fred draped a blanket over her. "I'm not sleeping down here again."
"S'alright," Fred mumbled and tossed a pillow on the ground beside the couch. It wasn't comfortable last night nor was it that night. But he woke to the feather-light graze of her knuckles on his cheek and her warm eyes above him. And though he'd find when he got up that he couldn't turn his head all the way from the crick in his neck, the soft smile she hid against the edge of the couch seat made it worth it.
..
The holiday ended before they were ready. Hermione especially, given that she was tucked away in the hospital wing having turned herself into Millicent's cat. But Fred, George, and Clione reluctantly parted ways as the school filled once more with students. There was a quiet air about the halls, a held breath, the calm before the storm.
The first morning classes started and Clione, inexplicably, was sitting at the Slytherin table next to Terrence Higgs. A small square box was tossed onto the table in front of her and she looked up finding Noemi looking painfully serious as always. "Gail asked me to give that to you. She also told me to tell you she's furious with you." She looked down at Clione's innocent face seeing she wasn't sorry in the slightest. "Don't tell her I said this, but you made the right call."
With that Clione watched her march back down the aisle and head for the Ravenclaw table. She was looking morosely at the box when a loud, "psst," came from the Hufflepuff table. Cedric jerked his head behind him and she found Angelina beckoning her to come over. Grabbing her belated gift Clione climbed over first the Slytherin then the Hufflepuff table and sat across from Angelina.
"Not quite what I meant," Angelina told her, having seen her shove Graham Montague's head out of the way in the process. "What'd you get?"
Clione slid the box towards Angelina and rested her cheek in hand. "Probably the last thing Gail will ever get me," she mumbled.
Angelina had already undone the bow and was pulling the lid off when she asked, "where is she?"
"I wrote to her mum letting her know what's been going on," Clione admitted.
"Oh," she said not knowing what she expected but it hadn't been that. At how much care it took to have done that. "This is beautiful."
Clione took the beaded underscarf and ran a thumb over the crystal studs that lined the front. Angelina then pulled out the delicate silver chiffon scarf to go with it.
"You really will look like a princess," Fred butted in from Clione's right.
She turned seeing his mischievous grin, but the way his gaze flicked over the top of the head had Clione turning to see Oliver coming down the aisle. His eyes brightened when he saw her, his mouth forming a smile before he remembered he wasn't supposed to feel like this anymore. As he chose to sit further down the table by Percy, Clione sat her elbow on the table and slumped against it with her chin on her knuckles.
"It was a good thing, ending it now," Angelina told her with a kind smile.
With Oliver no longer speaking to her and her best friend stuck at home, Clione began to mope. "What's the point in doing the right thing if it feels like this?"
Angelina shrugged not knowing what the right thing to say was. Her answer came from her left as a Ravenclaw girl begrudgingly slid onto the bench beside her. "Because it's the right thing to do," Noemi told her.
"Gail ask you to look after me?"
Noemi shot her an irritable look in answer as she reached for the tray of toast and a cup of butter. The weight of Clione's head on her shoulder had her saying, "we're not that close." She finished buttering her toast when a pair of thin arms wrapped around her shoulders making her sigh. "You've spent too much time with the Weasley's." She'd just picked up her toast when another pair of arms stretched around Clione to envelope her.
"Yeah she has," Fred said into Clione's scarf. He could smell her shampoo this close, floral and sweet.
They were both chuckling lightly as they sat up, and Fred reached a hand to Clione's shoulder fixing her scarf. Looking at his shining eyes, knowing he'd done his best to make her smile, she thought maybe the rest of the year might not be that bad.
..
At first the pureblood prefects helped the teachers doing rounds before bed. Percy was paired with Clione, per his mother's written request to him. He'd considered being cross about it, would much rather spend those quiet minutes with Penelope than his surrogate sister. But one night he stepped into the corridor behind the Fat Lady's painting and for some reason turned to look back; Clione stood at the end of the hall where he'd left her determined to see him safely inside Gryffindor Towers. He thought to himself that she might not be so bad.
Another attack on a student would put an end to the student patrols and a mandatory curfew put in place. It'd been another game day, this time between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Feeling restless Clione had spent the early hours of dawn with Professor Sprout, taking Gail's place assisting with the growing mandrakes for the petrified victims.
Clione was picking dirt out from under her fingernails as she walked through the sleepy halls towards the library. Exams were still to be done whether anyone wanted them or not. Given that everyone would be up soon to attend the match, it was the perfect time to study in quiet.
There was a quiet whisper hidden beneath the ruffling of the soft scarf covering her ears. She rounded a corner and looked up seeing a short girl with bushy hair mid-way down the hall. The girl gasped raising her mirror higher at a sudden shadow appearing behind her, but she let go of that breath. "Thank heavens, it's you," Hermione sighed at seeing it was only Clione. In her mirror a large terrible thing slithered around the corner behind Clione. Its glowing yellow eyes found hers and her face froze as she tried to scream.
"Hermione?"
She stepped forward catching a shadow on the wall grow so large it nearly touched the ceiling. Clione turned and looked the Basilisk full in the face as it hovered over her, as though waiting.
"Granger?"
Clione spun around and ran to the adjacent hall just as Penelope Clearwater stepped around the corner. "What," she barely got to say before Clione slammed into her pushing her back down the hall she'd come from.
With a hand clamped over Penelope's eyes Clione turned seeing the Basilisk had crept after her. "Leave," she begged in a voice that shook. As if her word was all it needed, it slithered back to where it'd come from.
Penelope was trembling as Clione let her go. "You," she spit with venom.
Clione left her to find someone, anyone. She led Professor McGonagall back to Hermione and Penelope, and they loaded the petrified girl on a stretcher they levitated to the hospital wing. "You two found her like this?" McGonagall asked, looking more at Clione who'd been the one to find a second victim.
"We had our eyes closed," Clione whispered.
"It's her, she looked right at it!"
Clione's eyes closed and her chin quivered. She looked up at Professor McGonagall seeing not only suspicion but also fear. Of her. "I don't know what's happening," she tried to say.
"She talked to it. It listened to her!"
A hand on Clione's shoulder had her looking up through her tears at Dumbledore's kind face. "It's quite alright, Ms Ayad," he told her gently. "We can discuss this matter later. For now both of you need to return to your dormitories."
"Albus."
Dumbledore raised a hand to quiet McGonagall until the girls had left. He assured her it wasn't Clione, while Penelope stalked after Clione down the halls. They crossed paths with the Gryffindors heading back to their dorms, the quidditch players still in their uniforms.
Clione pushed through them as Penelope caught sight of Percy. "It's Clione, she's the heir of Slytherin. I heard her talk to the beast. She sent her favorite muggle-born away and now she's unleashing it."
The Gryffindors leapt away from her like she herself could petrify them. They whispered to themselves, one girl cried when Clione pushed past her. "Tell your girlfriend to shut it," George told Percy through bared teeth as Fred shoved his way after Clione.
"Honestly, Penelope, if she were the heir of Slytherin why would she leave you alive?" That one came from Angelina.
She'd made her way out of the crowd when Fred grabbed her hand. "I'm fine," she told him in a broken voice with tear-filled eyes. "You need to go inside and wait for Professor McGonagall."
Neville stood pressed to the wall beside Seamus and Dean, who'd jumped back when she stepped past them. But Neville saw the way her chin trembled and he remembered all the times she'd helped him to class, or undid his hexed shoelaces, or walked with him to keep Malfoy from picking on him. "I don't think you're the heir of Slytherin," he told her loudly.
She looked at his sweet pudgy face and tried to smile, though it didn't stick. "Thanks," she told him with a sniff. She turned to Fred and nodded, sucking in a big breath and letting it go. He raised a hand to catch the tear hanging from her lower lashes. "I'm okay," she told him and this time she more or less was. And only then, did he let her go.
..
The talk with Dumbledore never came, a visit from the ministry that night took him and Hagrid away. The school suddenly felt too large and they too young. The next several days saw Clione surrounded by Slytherins. Word spread like fire and though she kept her head held high, how easily they'd turned on her hurt.
They would see her coming and either quickly hurry away or decide they'd confront her. The latter ended in one of her Housemates, usually Marcus or Lucian Bole, but often Cassius as well, glowering as they walked beside her. Even Draco occasionally when they happened to cross paths.
"Clione?"
She looked up from the sandwich she was making herself for lunch to find Harry standing next to her. It'd been a relief to have everyone's suspicions and fears off him, but it didn't make him feel better to see how they treated her. A Slytherin, her hijab, her being a foreigner. It surprised him how readily some of them had gone against her.
"I was wondering if you'd like to eat lunch with us?"
Her eyes moved from his sweet face to the Gryffindor table where Ron waved to her. "I'd really like that," she told Harry with a small smile.
He carried her plate for her all the way back to his seat where he set it next to him, glad he could give her back some of the kindness she'd given him. Neville sat across from Ron and he gave her half his apple. Fred and George slid down with Angelina, Cedric left the whispering Hufflepuffs to join them, Noemi shot a daggered look at Penelope as she got up to sit with Clione, several first years loudly called to her to say hello, even Oliver moved closer.
Fred leaned toward her putting his mouth close to her covered ear. "All your children have your back." He met her warm look with a dopey grin that made her feel like everything would be okay.
It wouldn't be, but that afternoon it really felt like it might. They finished the rest of their classes, they had an early dinner, and right before six the students were filed quietly in lines as they made their way back to their dormitories. The Gryffindors and Slytherins had the misfortune of starting back the same way before they split off. Clione was walking with Fred and George when she caught a shadow darting around the corner at the far end of the adjacent hall.
She stepped out of the way of the group and stared down the empty hall trying to make sense of what she'd seen. Fred and George hovered close on either side of her. "Think she'll check it out, Fred?" George teased lightly, though neither he nor his brother had seen anything
"Always," Fred replied knowing her too well.
Clione looked to Fred and told him seriously, "five minutes. Less but no more." He raised a hand to his heart and made an x over it. She reached a hand to his arm before she stepped away from them.
She quickly walked about halfway down the hall and turned right. "Ginny?" It hadn't just been a black uniform she'd seen, it'd been her hair too. She slowly stepped toward where Ginny stood looking up at the white wall. This was where Mrs. Norris had been found, and the first message in blood written. "Ginny, is everything alright?"
Ginny turned but she didn't look like herself; it wasn't her hatred that was etched on her young face. She raised her wand and cut it through the air. Clione blinked not understanding the strange coldness that bloomed in her chest and spread through her limbs. Her knees hit the ground and her hands stung from how hard they hit the stone to catch herself. Blood dripped in the space between them and she looked at it not yet understanding it was hers.
The scarf was pulled from her head and a light steady stream of blood began to pour from her throat. A cruel small hand raked across her neck before stepping to the wall. Clione turned back towards Fred but her arms began to shake and she lowered her body to the ground, her mouth opening like a fish drowning on land.
While she lay dying Ginny came to dip her fingers in the blood pooling beneath her. Until at last the message was complete – her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever. Then she left Clione there to die alone.
"Clio?" Was the last thing she heard before her eyes closed.
With his wand in hand Fred came around the corner after her and it clattered on the floor when he saw her. "George," his voice cracking at his cry for his brother.
George barreled down the hall after him. What he found was Clione's bloody powder blue headscarf lying forgotten next to a puddle of her blood. He glanced at the words written on the wall before running after Fred, who held Clio tight as he raced her to the hospital wing.
…
An owl had been sent to the Weasley's at once, one girl in the hospital and the other missing. They came as soon as they could. It was long enough Harry and Ron had found the Chamber and brought Ginny back shaken but unharmed.
They burst into the infirmary wild eyed looking for their girls. Ginny threw herself out from behind a white curtain and barreled into her mother weeping. Molly held her tight shushing her, and Arthur ran a hand over her small head as he turned to his sons.
Fred and George sat side by side on the bed across from where Clione lay hidden by thick drapes. They'd refused to leave her. Blood was smeared over Fred's neck and dried all over the front of his shirt.
Arthur stepped towards him and Fred rushed into his arms. Something he hadn't done since he was a small boy. "She's alright," he assured Fred while asking Madame Pomfrey.
"Yes," she answered quickly to give them peace of mind. "She lost a lot of blood. Had your boys found her any later." She let that hang unwilling to put that on the girl still clinging to her mother. "She's going to be very tired these next few days."
Tired they could handle, tired was still alive. He squeezed Fred's arm, reached another hand to Ginny's head, and slipped past the curtains boxing Clione in. He paused at the foot of the bed. She was as white as the sheet covering her, as white as the bandage across her delicate throat.
He had to remember to breathe before he could move around to her side. She'd had to be cut out of her uniform, and when she was stable they'd put her in the pajamas Snape had collected from her room. There was a wet mark on her shoulder from where Ginny had been crying, telling her over and over how sorry she was.
His hand in her hair had her heavy eyes opening, and the way her face broke reminded him how young she was. "You gave us a right scare," he told her softly. He watched a crease form between her brows as she tried to swallow.
He pulled the curtain back, his eyes were wet and his expression seemed to tremble on his face. "I think she's in pain."
Madame Pomfrey grabbed a bottle off her desk and hurried to Clione's side. She ushered him out with her. "She likely won't wake again until morning." This she said to Dumbledore.
"Yes, I think it's time we let Ms Ayad rest. We'll talk in my office, they were just about to tell us what happened."
Dumbledore led them out of the infirmary; Ginny holding her father's hand, Harry and Ron who'd both had a hard time looking at Clione's ghostly face, and last came Mrs. Weasley who'd left a kiss on Clione's forehead.
"You too," McGonagall told Fred and George, who'd crept back against the wall hoping to be forgotten. "Let the poor girl sleep. She's had enough trouble without one of you setting off one of your fireworks."
They shuffled their way after her to Gryffindor Tower where they were immediately assaulted by Percy asking after Ginny then Oliver and Angelina asking after Clione.A bit later Harry and Ron came back and they stopped to tell the twins goodnight, and told a nosey Percy that Ginny was staying in the hospital wing that night. The boys were in high spirits, the Mandrake Draught would be ready tomorrow to wake everyone that'd been petrified.
Ginny was sound asleep in the bed beside Clione, her parents had gone home when they were sure both would be alright. The shuffling of too many feet on the marble floor disturbed the silent infirmary, though all but two of its patients were still as statues hidden behind curtains at the end of the wing. Ginny roused enough to see her brothers and rolled over falling back asleep.
"I'd better go," Ron decided with a nod. He took the hat from Fred and stepped through the curtains into Clione's protected area. His hand on her shoulder had her squinting up at where he stood at her back. "Fred brought this," he said holding up the hat their mother knit Fred two years ago. Her long dark hair hung over the side of the bed like spilled ink. He gathered it all in the hat and pulled it down over her forehead. Before he let the others see her he bent down to hug her as best he could. "I'm really glad you're okay." He almost wasn't sure she heard him until she smiled.
The twins turned from their sleeping little sister at the rustle of the curtains being pulled back. George blinked down at Clione lying on her side facing them. Four years they'd known her and they'd only ever seen her in oversized clothes. The long-sleeved white shirt she'd been put in actually fit her. She had narrow shoulders and sharp collar bones. "Did you know she was this small?" George whispered in case she was awake.
Fred shook his head and stood back while George stepped forward to tell her goodnight. Ron took the bed on the other side of Ginny and George took the one across from them. Which left Fred, who was still just looking at her. Her eyes opened and she looked over at him without raising her heavy head. When he didn't move she grabbed the edge of the sheet and pulled it down, or at least she tried to. The draught she'd been given made her body feel like lead and she had a hard time moving it.
But Fred gave a breath of a laugh understanding what she'd meant. He stepped forward and pulled the covers back enough so he could climb in beside her. They lay face to face in a bed not big enough for both of them, he couldn't even find it in himself to be embarrassed at the arm he had over her waist. She'd stopped breathing right before he got her here, he really thought she died.
"Glad to see you're okay, Ayad," he told her, his voice a low rumble between them. "The others were worried sick." He watched the way her mouth curled, then he watched it slip away as she fell back asleep. And he looked at her a moment longer, taking her in, before he closed his eyes and drifted off.
..
The Mandrake Draught revived the three students, ghost, and cat. Hermione left Clione with a peck to her warm cheek pulling Colin with her so he didn't wake her. It was a shame she slept through the Great Feast, though Fred and George told her about it later when they snuck in that night. George took the bed across from her again, planning to give Fred hell when Clione was better for how mushy he was. As Fred curled himself against Clio's back, he found that he didn't care in the slightest.
That was how they were found in the morning. Clione with a little more color in her face still wearing his hat, and Fred tucked in tight against her. "No way," Gail whispered behind her hands to Noemi beside her. She'd gotten back to the castle too late yesterday to be permitted to visit Clione.
Noemi stood at the foot of the bed with her arms crossed and an almost pleasant smirk lifting one half of her mouth. She came around Fred's side and cuffed his ear causing him to jump awake. "Time's up," she told him callously.
He climbed out of bed rubbing his eyes and grumbling as he stumbled to the bed next to hers and sprawled out. Noemi shook her head at him, finding this one as annoying as the last. She turned back around to find Gail sitting on the bed hugging Clione to her.
That was the first morning Clione made it to the Great Hall. She wore baggy sweats and a fitted cap, the line across her neck still pink and tender. Gail held her hand walking as slow as she needed, having stopped many times so Clione could catch her breath on the way. It grew quieter at the sight of her coming in; the last time many of them had seen Clione they'd accused her of being a murderer before she herself had been attacked. Penelope Clearwater jumped up from the Ravenclaw table and ran over to Clione's side taking her other hand with a deeply sorry smile. The students sitting at the first few seats of the Hufflepuff table quickly scooted down so Clione could have it, she didn't look like she could make it much farther.
She made it to breakfast, didn't eat anything, and fell asleep about halfway through. "Pathetic," Fred said standing over her.
Clione sat with her chin in hand and mumbled in a quiet cracking voice, "I'd hit you but I'm too tired."
With a wicked grin Fred bent getting his arms under her and lifted her off her seat. "Milady," he said carrying her out of the Great Hall.
"I hate you Frederick Weasley," she laughed gathering her arms around his shoulders.
He was still grinning as he set her back in the bed in the hospital wing. "Hate you more," he told her pulling her slippers off and the sheet over her. He looked down at her lying curled on her side and he brushed his knuckles over her cheek feeling her smile.
..
This time last year Clione had boarded the train back to Kings Crossing with a knot of butterflies in her stomach, feeling like her whole world had been pulled out from under her. Now she sat in a compartment with Ginny pressed close to her side, talking to Hermione about something Harry and Ron were trying very hard not to get dragged into, while Fred and George used the last of their fireworks. Near the end of the ride Fred felt the weight of her head on his shoulder and he shot a grin at George across from him.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were waiting for them at the platform. Mrs. Weasley hugged Ginny and nearly squeezed the life out of Harry, thanking him again for saving her youngest. Mr. Weasley brought a hand to Clione's chin remarking on how much better she looked, and all around fussed over her. Ginny and Clione walked arm in arm out of the train station after Mrs. Weasley, with the boys straggling behind as they dragged everyone's things.