The corridor was dark and cold. Every noise echoed. Every nighttime creak that filled buildings when everyone went home, and it became the witching hour. The noises that caused people of a more anxious temperament paranoid.
Nighttime made familiar places look very different. It took her a few minutes to realize where she was. She was in the Ministry of Magic, near the lifts. Staring at the silent, dark lifts, she half expected one of them to start moving like in a horror movie. None did.
A soft hiss startled her, and she jumped, whirling about, attempting to pull her wand, but she could not find it. Panic filled her as a large snake, easily seven or more feet long, slowly slid by her feet, missing her by mere inches. The snake, for its part, appeared to not notice her. The creature oozed a sticky, disgusting aura that made her wrinkle her nose in disgust, her own magic reacting with the desire to flee. The snake went off to the side of the lifts towards a door she had not noticed during her few visits to the ministry. The snake, due to its size, was able to push the door open and reveal a stairwell.
Following the snake even with every alarm bell in her mind going off, she went down the stairwell towards an area she had yet to visit in the ministry. The snake pushed open another door when it reached the floor it wanted. She could just make out the words DEPARTMENT OF MYSTERIES on the door's placard before she hurried after the snake.
The corridor she found herself in was darker than where she had started. But there was one difference. In the distance there was a soft blue glow of a light. She carefully stepped closer to the wall, using it to help guide her as she made her way towards the blue light, the soft movement of the snake on the floor the only noise.
The light went back and forth the width of the corridor. As she got closer, she realized that it was a person with their wand lit, pacing back and forth.
Immediately a deep sense of terror filled her. The snake was still slithering forward, heading straight for the person, and she knew deep down that while the snake had not noticed her, it did notice whoever was pacing back and forth. She raced forward, passing the snake.
"Mr. Weasley!" she cried to the person. The person, surprisingly, paused in his pacing and looked around. To her horror, she realized it was Mr. Weasley. He could not see her, but for whatever reason, he could hear her?
"The snake!" she shouted. "The snake!" She screamed as horror morphed Mr. Weasley's kind face. The snake struck, its fangs long and dripping with venom. Mr. Weasley had no time to react, only scream. She too screamed as she attempted to grab the snake, but her hands went straight through the creature like it was a ghost. The snake began to tear at Mr. Weasley's skin, no longer satisfied with just injecting venom with a bite.
"Stop it! Stop it!" she shrieked. "Mr. Weasley! Mr. Weasley!" Blood-soaked Mr. Weasley's clothes and the floor beneath him as she tried to staunch the wounds no matter how many times her hands went through him. The snake flicked its tongue and seemed to sigh with satisfaction as it slithered over Mr. Weasley's twitching body, disappearing into the darkness of the Department of Mysteries.
"Help!" she screamed, looking back the way she had come. "Somebody! Anybody! HELP!"
A hard thwack across her cheek awoke Aria from the dead of sleep. She stopped screaming, scrambling in panic in the sheets that were tangled around her legs.
"Help! Mr. Weasley!" she screamed. Someone slammed a door. She grabbed her wand from the nightstand in time to fall out of bed, her legs still in the sheets.
"Aria!" Daphne cried, trying to help her disentangle herself.
"He's hurt, he's hurt!" Aria shouted. "We've got get help. He could be dead!"
The door opened and Professor Snape swept in, Millicent close behind. Her face, like the rest of Aria's roommates, was white in terror. Outside in the hallway, Aria could hear doors open and close.
"It's Mr. Weasley!" Aria shouted, finally managing to get to her feet. Professor Snape grabbed hold of her as she nearly tripped over her slippers. "He was attacked by a snake in the Department of Mysteries!"
Snape paused, eyebrows turning downward as he frowned for only a minute. Then he was yanking Aria through the door towards the common room.
"What was that 'bout my dad?" Ginny demanded, slipping from the gathered crowd, and hurrying after them. The other 5th years thundered after them. Snape pulled Aria through the hidden door that connected the common room to his office, Ginny close behind. He slammed the door in the faces of the other 5th years and Aria could hear their complaints through the door as Snape dragged her to the Floo.
"Hold onto each other," he stated to Aria and Ginny. He pulled both of them into the Floo.
"Headmaster's Office!"
The three were spat out into Dumbledore's dark office. Aria and Ginny toppled to the floor, neither use to going through the Floo with so many people at the same time.
"Headmaster!" Professor Snape shouted. Fawkes screeched from his perch, clearly unhappy at being awoken so suddenly. "Headmaster!"
A few seconds later Dumbledore came into the office through a door hidden by a bookshelf, wand drawn.
"What is it, Severus?" Dumbledore asked. Aria and Ginny tried not to stare too much at the man. This was the Defeater of Grindelwald? Had the headmaster actually dueled the old Dark Lord, or had he just distracted him by wearing something so ridiculous that he took advantage of Grindelwald laughing at him?
The headmaster wore a long nightgown, much more reminiscent to men's night fashion of the late 1800s than the current late 1900s. Both the nightgown and the bath robe were bright in color with magic designs. The nightgown had zooming stars while the bath robe had moons that rotated between the different phases. He also wore a cap, long and dangling like he was a Victorian. Paired with his long white beard and spectacles, it was a comical sight. Or it would have been, if Mr. Weasley's bleeding form wasn't seared into Aria's mind like a hot cattle brand.
"Arthur Weasley's been attacked," Snape stated before the headmaster could ask anything else. "Department of Mysteries."
Fawkes startled everyone by immediately disappearing into a burst of flames and Aria felt her heart begin to finally slow down. If Fawkes reached Mr. Weasley, then he could save the man! Or at least, save him long enough for help to arrive. If it was one thing, she had learned in her course of searching for a cure for lycanthropy, phoenix tears could cure and heal a great multitude of ailments and wounds, but sometimes, injuries too extensive still required further medical help.
Dumbledore asked no questions. He immediately knelt before the Floo and spent several minutes Flooing multiple people, sticking his head in and out of the hearth so many times Aria was surprised it didn't get lost amongst the grates. If a head got lost in the grates, where would all the blood go? Could the head accidentally get shot out of another grate into an unsuspecting house with an open Floo connection?
"Phineas!" Dumbledore called, pulling out of the Floo. He rose to his feet and waved a hand at a portrait on the wall. The man in the portrait turned to Dumbledore with a sharp glare.
"Inform Minerva that the Weasleys have an emergency at home and she must bring Misters Weasley to my office immediately. Do not stray."
Phineas, whoever he was, sneered at Dumbledore before disappearing out of the portrait. Aria looked up at the rest of the portraits of the headmasters and headmistresses. Something was off about all of them, she felt it in her bones, but with her still wildly beating heart and all the adrenaline pumping through her, she could not clear her head enough to think about it.
"Where is Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked.
"Probably fretting in the common room," Snape answered. "Wearing a hole in the carpet no doubt."
"I'd like to know more about what he saw."
"Mr. Potter saw nothing," Snape said with only a slight pause. "Miss Bourne experienced the vision."
Dumbledore could not hide his surprise fast enough. Aria managed to school her face quicker than him. He stared at her for a minute, too stunned to speak.
"You had the vision?" Dumbledore finally asked.
"Yes, sir," Aria muttered, feeling Ginny's grip on her hand tighten.
"Not Harry?"
"Just me."
Dumbledore looked at Snape as if somehow Snape would tell him the truth. Snape's face was as blank as ever.
"Severus," Dumbledore said, "could you please fetch Mr. Potter?" Snape sighed and disappeared back through the Floo, returning a moment later with Harry, just as McGonagall arrived with Ron, Fred, and George.
"Harry," Dumbledore greeted gently. "I am trying to understand the situation we find ourselves in. Miss Bourne claims to have had a vision of Mr. Weasley being attacked tonight—,"
"WHAT?" the Weasley boys cried.
"—but I thought you'd have the vision."
Harry gave Dumbledore a look that would have earned Aria a pinch from Kenneth if her dad ever saw her looking at an adult like that.
"I didn't see anything," Harry said. "I only heard Aria screaming. I thought someone was attacking her again."
Dumbledore looked back at Aria, eyes sharp now. She made sure not to catch his gaze, not wanting to have any sort of migraine at the moment.
"Miss Bourne?" he questioned. "How is it that you had a vision?"
"God knows," Aria muttered with an exaggerated shrug. "Why can I do half of the stuff I do? I just try and go with the flow at this point."
Dumbledore still looked unhappy.
The Floo flared and Bill Weasley stepped through.
"Bill!" his siblings flung themselves at him, nearly knocking him back into the Floo.
"Bill, what's happened? Dad's hurt?" Ron cried.
"He's been taken to St. Mungo's," Bill stated. "Mum wants me to bring you all. It's . . . it's not good. But I think we arrived in time."
Fawkes reappeared on his perch with a triumphant squawk.
The Weasleys disappeared through the Floo without another word to anyone.
"What has happened?" McGonagall demanded. She finished tying her night robe around her. Her hair was down in a single long braid and Aria couldn't help but admire how long her hair was.
"Arthur Weasley was attacked tonight on Order business," Dumbledore stated. "Surprisingly, Miss Bourne had a vision that allowed us to get to him in time. Otherwise, we would not have known about the attack."
"I am truly sorry to hear about Mr. Weasley," McGonagall said. "But I don't know why any of us are surprised by Miss Bourne having a vision. At this point we ought to be thankful that such strange things happen to her."
It would be nice if strange things didn't happen to her, Aria thought, but she could not argue that the strange things had helped her and her friends plenty of times.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked, slipping to Aria's side. "You were screaming something awful."
"I'll be more okay once I hear about Mr. Weasley," Aria said. "There was . . . so much blood. A giant snake attacked him and . . . and . . ." she shivered.
"A snake you said?" Snape asked. His face had paled, and he clutched his left forearm tightly as if he were in pain.
"It was large, kinda like a python," Aria answered. "And it was . . . I don't know . . . there was something evil about it. It . . . felt off. The snake. It seemed to almost enjoy attacking Mr. Weasley."
"You saw this snake?" Dumbledore questioned. "Or you were the snake?"
"What a peculiar question, Albus!" McGonagall cried.
"I saw the snake," Aria stated clearly. "I followed it through the Ministry of Magic from the atrium down the stairs to the Department of Mysteries. It was large like a python. It liked attacking Mr. Weasley. That much I know." She looked over at Snape. "It's not an ordinary snake is it?"
Snape shook his head.
"The Dark Lord—,"
"Severus, I'm sure this is of no interest to the students."
"Albus, she ought to know what she saw so she can be prepared," McGonagall snapped. "It's likely they'll face the beast in whatever comes."
"As I was saying," Snape bit out, clearly done with his fellow colleagues. "The Dark Lord has a familiar. A large snake like a python, but I've never been able to identify the breed. Her name's Nagini and she is probably the only thing in this world that You-Know-Who cares about."
But that couldn't be true now, could it? Aria recalled the conversation she and Snape and her family had had just after the soul fragment had been removed from Harry's scar during the summer. About how Voldemort could possibly be the same as Tom Riddle, the owner of the diary horcrux. And if that was the case, then that meant that at one point, Tom Riddle had been deeply in love with Professor McGonagall! He had had no snake, from what Aria had seen, during his time at Hogwarts. What . . . what had happened? If he and Voldemort were one in the same how could someone so loving become so evil? Is that why McGonagall and he had parted ways eventually?
As the adults began squabbling around her, she became aware of another presence in the room. Half expecting Death to be lurking behind her again, she carefully peered over her shoulder. A man, regal and tall with a sharp chin and even sharper nose stared hard at Tom Riddle from his spot sitting in the headmaster's chair. The man's robes were well fitted, clearly tailored, and of expensive quality. It was a stark contrast to Tom's secondhand robes that were in clear need of replacing as the boy was too tall for them.
"Please, sir," Tom Riddle cried. Aria could hear the sharp hitch of his breath like he was holding back tears. "I'm not lying. I swear it!"
"Mr. Riddle," the man in the headmaster's seat said, his voice sharp and filled with warning. "I have been very lenient with you throughout your years here at Hogwarts. I've allowed you certain privileges that other half-blood Slytherins could only dream of, but my patience stops when you bring such unfounded and, frankly, insulting accusations against one of my most respected and beloved teachers."
"But—,"
"No buts, Mr. Riddle." The unknown headmaster turned towards a calendar hanging near his chair. The date read June 13, 1943. He wrote down a meeting time on June 14th. "You're dismissed. And I better not hear you spreading such vile lies. I will know where they come from, and I will act upon it. Understood?"
Aria could not see Tom Riddle's face from where she stood, but she could see how his back straightened and his shoulders became set like the teen was setting himself up to walk into battle.
"Understood, Headmaster Dippet," he replied, his voice losing the sad hitch and taking on the steely edge of a person who had decided a course of action and will not deviate from it. The teen spun on his heal and stormed from the office. Aria watched the door slam.
"Miss Bourne?"
Aria spun back around to see Harry and her professors staring at her.
"Did you see something, Miss Bourne?" Dumbledore asked.
There had to be a reason why Hogwarts showed her what she saw, Aria thought. Hogwarts never showed her just random snippets from random lives of students. There had to be a reason that she saw the Shadows that she saw. Did she see Tom Riddle because what she and her family believed was correct? Was Tom Riddle really Lord Voldemort? And if that were true, is that why she was seeing him? But then why did Hogwarts deem it so important for her to see Lord Voldemort before he became Lord Voldemort? What was she meant to do with this information?
She thought about the boy in the Shadows and the boy in the diary. They were the same person but different. The boy in the Shadows was expressive, full of life and love and excitement. The boy in the diary . . . he had been calm, but tense, had taken no time to turn and accuse Hagrid of killing Myrtle. The boy in the diary had also somehow possessed Draco in order to open the Chamber of Secrets to use the basilisk to go after Muggleborns. She could not imagine the Tom Riddle who kissed McGonagall under the mistletoe to the amusement of people like Madam Pomfrey and Lady Longbottom wanting Muggleborns dead. So, what had changed? What had made him create the horcrux? And why . . . why use Myrtle's death to create one when they had been friends? She remembered seeing him cry when the diary had sucked them all into its pages. Tom Riddle had been sad that Myrtle had died.
How were they the same person at all?
"Miss Bourne!"
Dumbledore's voice once again pulled her from her thoughts. She instinctively reached for Harry's hand, and he let her fingers curl around his, acting as an anchor as her thoughts fought to slow down.
"Did you see something?" the headmaster asked again, clearly wanting an affirming answer.
"I'd like to go to bed now," Aria said instead. "I'm tired."
"As you ought to be," McGonagall, always the voice of reason, said. "As we all ought to be. I'll reach out to Molly first thing in the morning. Until then, Severus, make sure your snakes get back to bed and I'll go see if Mr. Weasley's roommates have returned to bed of if they're insisting on waiting up to hear news."
Severus guided Aria and Harry back through the Floo. The common room was suspiciously empty when they arrived back. Snape glared around the room as if expecting someone to jump out at them and yell "SURPRISE".
"Will we get updated on Mr. Weasley?" Harry asked as Snape pushed them towards the dormitory stairs.
"I will see what I can do," Snape replied, "but you might just have to wait until the holiday break. Or see if Mr. Ronald Weasley will write back to you."
That was no good, Aria thought, Ron was a terrible letter writer. She was better off writing to Ginny or Percy.
Snape forced Harry to go up the stairs to the boys' dormitory instead of escorting Aria to her room. Truth be told, if Harry had escorted her, there was no way he would have left her alone for the night.
Daphne, Tracey, Pansy, and Millicent were all in bed when Aria slipped into the room. One of them had left a floating orb emitting soft, soothing light into the room without making it so bright no one could sleep. Aria chucked off her bath robe and toed out of her slippers before opening the bed curtains to crawl into bed.
She nearly screamed.
"Sh!" Draco cried, yanking her onto the bed and closing the curtains. "Do you want the whole dorm to know I'm here."
"You're not allowed here at this time of night," she stated. "Imagine what would happen if you were seen."
"The girls already know I'm here."
"I wasn't thinking about the girls."
"Oh, please! What Snape doesn't know won't hurt him."
"So, you think he's not checking in on us students to make sure we're all in bed?"
Draco paused, clearly calculating the risks of being found out of his bed and in Aria's bed by his godfather. Deciding that it was worth the risk, Draco shrugged and lay back down on top of the covers while lifting up the corner to let Aria wiggle down underneath.
"If he does find us, he can't accuse of us of anything inappropriate," Draco stated, wrapping an arm over Aria and pulling her close. "I used to do this with Pansy when we were kids. She doesn't like thunderstorms."
Aria grimaced. "Don't talk about being in bed with another girl, Draco," she teased, pretending to be upset. "Especially past lovers."
Draco flicked her forehead and she giggled.
"I don't like these visions you have," Draco murmured once she had settled down. "They never seen to be good, and they make you frightened."
"I don't like them either," Aria murmured. "But Occlumency doesn't work on magic visions such as these. Suppose it's just my lot in life. Being magically powerful and all that."
Draco tucked her head under his chin. She breathed in the smell of his soap, cedarwood and moss.
"What did you see?" he asked.
"Apparently I saw You-Know-Who's pet snake attack Mr. Weasley in the ministry," Aria said.
"Nagini?" Draco shuddered.
"I take it you're acquainted?"
"It slithered around my house all summer. Of course, I'm acquainted! She likes to coil herself around a person when they're talking to the Dark Lord. Intimidation and all that. It's . . . I watched her coil around my dad's throat a few times."
"Too bad she wouldn't strangle Abraxas."
Draco snorted.
"If only."
