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Chapters 13 and 14
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Chapter 13
"News Travels Fast"
~~~
My eyes bound
I see still
The bloodied pictures
Of what may be
And of every light
Gone out
I see still
Despite
My life
My eyes bound
I wish that truly
That I could not
Find what others
Want explained
A want
That cannot
For what is not
Named
My eyes bound
Not against the real
I see it all
That is the truth
I see it all
My eyes bound
Not to cloth and darkness
But to darkness and pain
My eyes bound
To what is destiny
~~~~
##Elianne##
It was late September, October nearly on them. The Pax Omnia ball had gone by uneventfully for her, as one of the years not allowed to participate.
Elianne had been preoccupied with school. Hermione's answers to her letters were uncharacteristically cold and short. Without any normal cheeriness. And she would have been worried by this. If she hadn't had things closer to home to worry about.
Strange how Hogwarts was home now. A few weeks and all she knew was the curling banisters of the staircases, the quiet vast and grand library, the ghosts that floated round greeting them on occasions, even the magical portraits she would watch on her way to classes. As they danced up the walls stopping to talk to each other sometimes, gossiping almost more than the girls of hufflepuff and co. The notorious gang of the inane gigglets, sadly not just from hufflepuff. Even ravenclaw, a house noted for its smartness. Somehow even their names suggested their character of superficiality- Daphne, Charlette, Georgia and Patricia in the middle, naturally.
It seemed the houses were no barriers for the ancient art of Chinese whispers. It figured that at least two of them were sly and malicious slytherins. Not that people were any longer prejudiced against the house. But both were definitely still the old school type of their house. Nasty pieces of work. Not too unprone to spreading fictitious rumours as well as the real.
She was worried though. About the rumours flying around. Cassandra wasn't all she seemed. Nor was she ready or willing to explain it to her best friends.
Strange things had been happening to her. She'd collapse. Faint. Go pale at the slightest mentions of things, not even important things. Just normal every day things that made her look like she'd seen a ghost.
People were saying she had.
And no ordinary ghost.
Their brilliant brains had surmised that she must have been seeing a ghost no one else could see.
The infamous Duke of Hogwarts. Who was meant to reside in some secret location in the castle. Bound and chained by magical means to his place of rest. The rest being something he'd never intended on. Much like the late Professor Binn's.
They said he didn't know he was dead. He still believed. And belief was a scary thing. In the hands of ghost.
Peeve's was a nasty ghost.
The bloody baron was a vision of nightmares that shot chills down your spine.
But compared to the duke. Neither were on the scale.
And he didn't know he couldn't do all that was possible.
The duke had never been a very nice person in life. Which was why in death he was no better. And no less murderous. That was the reason he was imprisoned in Hogwarts.
So of course they thought the duke was in some way haunting her or she was seeing other visions, the kind that was bad whatever world you lived in, muggle or magical.
Yet Cassandra would not explain.
She ignored any questions directed to her. And insults from Patricia too. However cruel and obnoxious she was, nothing she said provoked Cassandra to satisfy her.
And she was equally worried that Cassandra wasn't there for their first flying lesson. The whole year was being taught at the same time, due to Madam Hooch's hectic schedule and had been instructed to congregate outside the school broom cupboard.
Elianne was as usual with Lucretia and Dido. Flora had opted to stand further by the corridor spying out for the twins. She had of course got distracted by Hector, a ginger haired Ravenclaw, who seemed to blush at the sight of flora and took every opportunity to talk to her.
Flora was indeed too into her conversation to notice the quadruplet of first years that approached the crowd. From the distance they all looked the same, short black hair and medium height. Closer up you could see two distinctive sets of similar twins. Two boys, each the same with ruffled black hair. The only difference was on the thin silver chains hung off the neck, an independent pendant for Damien and another Leander.
The girls looked equally identical to one another. Very short sharp stylish hair, making them look elven in quality. Though there was a clear cut between them. One, Anastis wore sweet pale pink subtle makeup and looked meek, whilst Ayran had her hair ruffled and tousled and held a tough face, waiting for someone to question her.
"Hi." They said all in unison. Greeting Elianne and her friends who were at the front of the crowd.
"I expect we look a sight," said Damien
"Two lots of identical twins. "And Leander
"All at Hogwarts." Anastis carried on from him
"All in first year." Ayran after her
"All in the same lesson" and all in unison again
They grinned to each other respectively. Boy to boy, girl to girl. Before looking back at the confused faces.
Anastis, the quieter twin apologised "Sorry. Don't mean to freak you out. Our mothers were twins too. Parvati and Padma Patil. They went to Hogwarts, probably the same time as your parents."
Lucretia's face drained of all colour and her mouth formed a neat o.
She spoke up in a hushed voice
"You...you mean you're all related to Parvati Patil? The famous…."
"The greatest…" hurried Elianne
Flora realised she'd missed them, and rushed over hoping it wasn't too late to at least introduce herself to Damien. Instead she caught onto the end of the conversation.
"Oh, her. That astrologer. Muggle magical one. She's pretty good. Wonder if you inherited any of it? Bet you can't wait for year three then."
Elianne and Lucretia stared at flora, who had totally demystified whatever they'd been trying to say about their heroine.
Flora smiled "Hi. I'm Flora Hinkley, in Gryffindor. Nice to meet you all"
Flora held out here hand to the twins, shaking the girls hands ignoring them at the same time and then moving on to the boys.
She disappointedly shook the hand only of Leander. Leander shook her hand in a leisurely manner, repeating his details. Which were lost on Flora, as was Flora on Damien; he nonchalantly picked his nails and looked anywhere but at her. Even the far sidewall with the picture of Wallis Wickham captured his attention more brightly than Flora.
And for a while they stood waiting, chatting amongst themselves. Flora tried ever diligently to strike up a conversation with Damien. It wasn't difficult in these circumstances to tell which he was. He ignored her. Leander on the other hand tried to talk to flora.
Damien once murmured something like, "That's nice Laura." And yet Leander was not taken in, despite his friendly stream of information on himself, his family and other general things.
When Madam Hooch finally approached Leander had more or less got the idea. And looked rather dejected as they began the lesson.
Elianne watched him carefully.
Not even Madam Hooch's little jokes and anecdotes on the dangers of flying made him smile.
He in turn was watching Flora,...and Damien. Flora was watching Damien. And Leander could see she was. He scowled at them briefly before mounting his own broomstick.
All through the flying lessons, she took in the instructions and flew quite fine, thinking nevertheless about her friend. Cassandra.
*Where was she?*
+++++
A fifth year slytherin walking from the 2nd floor, late to lesson and mindful of the moving stairs and changing hidden holes stopped oddly. Cocking his head to the side. A puzzled expression on it.
He knew he was so, so late. Snape would have taken a dozen points off the house if he hadn't been in his house.
Snape'd take off more than that if he found out where he'd been to become late.
The answer was not too surprising considering he was a fifth year male and this wasn't an all boys school.
Houses boundaries weren't as strong anymore. But for slytherins they'd been fierce and now were only less than that.
Love however had none.
Which was why Daniel Hyssop was late to potions.
And was why he didn't stop to find out what those noises were coming from the third floor.
~~~
Chapter 14
"Autumn Ghosts"
## ___ ##
She stood stark still in the middle of the room.
It felt icy cold.
Her breath made a cloud in the atmosphere.
The door was locked. She'd heard it herself. Along with their vicious laughs down the corridor.
The third floor was out of bounds for a reason. She knew. They all knew.
They thought it was the duke. Maybe it was.
They thought he was here. That's what the whole joke was about.
It wasn't funny now.
Ignoring them had got her into this situation.
Full body bind. Kidnapped. Stuffed in the one room that you'd rather never see in your whole life.
She just hoped the binds held him to wherever it was near here that he was meant to stay.
Though the coldness indicated otherwise. He had to be close.
Why hadn't she said something?
Anything to get them to go away.
Anything but the truth. And anything but this.
She was scared.
Closing her eyes she tried to block it out.
The feelings of anger.
Coming closer.
Eyes closed didn't do a thing to it.
It wasn't her eyes that saw.
Rage hit her in the head. The pure power of his presence in her thoughts made her scream.
She ran to the door.
Close up to it for protection. Murmuring under her breath. He wasn't really there. Couldn't really hurt her.
How in hell did they get the door unlocked?
Or was it her that had drawn him to this room.
Her power enticing him.
She could feel the patterns of his thoughts.
He wanted recognition for once. Centuries of being here alone. He wanted her to stay. Forever.
Fingers tried to form, not quite whole, and desperate to claw at her back. She panicked. Breathing tense and hard. She in turn clawed at the door hoping to find a hole, a knot, something that might open it.
His digits grasping her more strongly, still not what they should be, but more than before.
She found it hard to believe now that he couldn't hurt her.
Her belief wasn't in the equation.
He believed.
She screamed, pounding on the door. Rattling it at the hinges. Ever desperate to get out.
And she remembered nothing from then on of the duke or of the room.
Only that there was that frozen horror.
That came before as always.
The warning of danger.
Taking her to darkness.
+++++
##Elianne##
Elianne tossed in bed. Cassandra hadn't been to any lessons. The whole day gone without sight of her.
She couldn't sleep for worry.
Fortunate for that, her woken state meant she finally found out the whereabouts of Cassandra.
There were quiet footsteps up the stairs. If they'd been silent she wouldn't have heard. Quiet however wasn't good enough for her not to notice.
The door opened silently though.
Elianne peered through a small opening in the curtains around her four-poster bed.
And in stepped the school nurse. Floating Cassandra in behind her, some kind of charm at work to do so. Something far beyond a first years knowledge.
The nurse kindly and softly positioned Cassandra on her bed.
Cassandra lay there blissfully, unwoken by the movement. Sound asleep.
The worry rested on her mind despite this. What had happened to her?
In her ponderance, she did not hear any signs of Madam Pomfrey's sneaking up on her.
The curtains where drawn suddenly around the nurses face.
Elianne gasped at it. She hadn't heard a thing.
"Ms Potter, I know you shall not mention this to anyone. Understood"
She nodded unquestioningly
The nurse's face softened and she spoke again.
"Your friend is fine. I would not have returned her here if she were not. She is in a dreamless sleep. She had a panic attack from a rather nasty prank that some other students played on her. We will find out who is responsible. But your discretion would be well for the time being. You did not see me. You do not know of this."
The nurse disappeared at once.
The explanation given wasn't enough to stop her curiosity.
If not for the deep sleep her friend was in, Elianne would have been tempted to stir her from it.
But it would have to wait til morning.
+++++
###Hermione###
Hermione idly typed a sentence out on the screen.
Nope.
Her task for the day was to finish the article.
---The uses of harebell in healing---
Thinking straight couldn't be done right now. Making the task impossible to achieve.
She badly needed a break.
All that cluttered her mind was questions of how Elianne was doing. Was she ok? Was she finding it too difficult? Was she making friends?
All questions that mirrored her own fears when she had first gone to Hogwarts.
She was letting the past, her past, have control over her present situation.
She had to remind herself Elianne wasn't her.
She was stronger.
Like her father.
Maybe truthfully Elianne wasn't the only thing that plagued her mind, preventing her from completing next months article. It needed just a few concluding paragraphs. Then she could email it to her boss, one of them anyway.
She wrote for so many different things these days. Hard to keep track of what was on her resume. Of who she was meant to send it to.
But she did require time out from this. Endlessly sitting at a desk provided no inspiration whatsoever.
The country would be nice
Or the town as long as it was quiet.
To get away from it would be nice.
She'd got an owl. From Ron.
He was coming home.
After eleven year he'd chosen now. Why?
She'd known why he'd left. She'd understood why he stayed there. He always maintained it was to help with the research. But she knew he never cared for it. It was an excuse to keep him there with no questions asked from anyone.
She'd never questioned him either. Knowing what she did she ought to have. But she wouldn't. She already had a tainted outlook on his reasons.
Why?
Because he felt guilty.
He may not have caused it. He may not have been able to prevent it.
His guilt was sheer; it was simply there, for its own unfathomable reason. Attached to that was the fact he'd never been able to find or prove who was responsible.
Ultimately that would be Voldemort, deceased. Though someone had been the betrayer. On the inside there must have been one. One that had never been found thanks to the closing of the books on the matter. Ron had of course only been let out of custody because of this but he must have wished they hadn't let him go, that they hadn't stopped looking for her. Ron had been adamant about that fact.
Just as Snape had been.
And reading Elianne's owls his opinion had never changed.
Just as mistrusting as ever. Just as dark and angsty by the sound of it.
Never willing to accept plain facts as facts.
The single change in him being that he'd actually complimented a student, a Gryffindor at that.
He'd never done that to her.
Ron's suspicions were never backed up by evidence. After all the biggest piece of evidence was missing should it have been true. The one flaw to his theory was that she was dead. The investigation therefore never went any further. No one believed him. They talked about it as a blatant front to shove them off his trail, away from the truth.
No, they never proved him guilty either but there were people who thought Ron shouldn't have been released, who only felt good about the lock down of the case because of the great joy of the war being over. That would perhaps be just another reason Ron had been eager to get out of the country.
But the same people who thought he was on the bad side were still alive. If that was what mainly made him leave and stopped his return, then why would he still come back today?
She couldn't answer any of the questions she asked herself.
Very literally she'd stopped thinking anything more than of the past.
Lost in the depressing reality of old, she got up, gathered up her belongings and put on her warmest cloak.
+++++
##Cassandra##
A pile of books slammed down onto the table, followed by an intimidating face behind them.
"What's going on? I need to know. I am your best friend. Aren't I?"
Cassandra opened her mouth to speak; tentatively she searched for the right words.
If she got it wrong, then she was sure they wouldn't be friends much longer.
"Shhhhhh. Be quieter. I can explain. Its difficult to but I can. Lets go somewhere else though. More private."
Elianne stared into her eyes. Cassandra already knew the answer.
"No. There's no one here anyway. This will do fine, its got all the privacy you could want. Now spill."
Cassandra feared to look at her friends face whilst she started to talk. Who knows what she'd think and she didn't want to see any of the looks that she might give her. She couldn't stand further disgrace from those she knew.
"I have a gift."
There was an impatient silence.
"I get it from my grandmother. She's not all human you see. And I share certain qualities with her, certain things like her gift. Though I should say curse."
There was more silence. Cassandra didn't dare look up.
"I had a panic attack after Patricia and co locked me up on the third floor. Where the duke is. Madam Pomfrey thinks he's why I panicked but that's not the truth. I mean he did scare me but that wasn't it."
Silence. She couldn't stand it. Why didn't she say anything? She carried on. Angry. Hoping though that Elianne could perhaps understand. If she could just explain it enough and in the right way.
"I blacked out. Sometimes it does that to me. I get a feeling. It's a warning that a visions coming. Sometimes its also a warning generally because I see things in my visions. I see the past, the present, and the future. My grandmother called it a gift. The rest of my family call it a curse. And I was unlucky enough to get it. The things I see, they aren't nice. That's the whole point. I see the bad things that are to happen. Whenever they are from. Sometimes I'm still conscious when I see them. And I act funny then; go pale, just like seeing a ghost. Or I'll speak things I don't understand. Say things about what I see, that I can't control. It controls me. It shows me things I never want to see. Such bad things. Things that are going to come true."
Silence for a few seconds. Then she heard her friend's voice
"Why was it so hard to tell me that? Why did you think I wouldn't want to know?"
"I thought you wouldn't want to know me."
She looked up to Elianne. Her face creased with concern.
"Why?"
She honestly didn't care, did she. She didn't care about it. She looked at the face. No. Not horrified. Not disgusted. Only concerned.
"It made me act weird. People noticed. And when I was younger, when I saw things, people got scared. They thought I brought bad luck on them. That if I knew them, then I'd see them in a vision. That I'd make bad things to them."
An eyebrow went up.
"How could you? It's not your fault. Besides you only see, you don't get to choose or change the future."
"I know. It's just no one ever understood it like that before. I was scared everyone would hate me. Be disgusted with me."
She'd barely finished the sentence when she found herself engaged in a tight hug.
She smiled. Tears of relief in her eyes.
+++++
##Hermione##
She'd wondered about going to the orchards but the cold wind outside had soon changed her mind.
Diagon alley it was.
The favoured choice for a bit of browsing.
She had to pick up supplies too. Ink was hard to come by in the muggle world; the magical inks were also often good for writing in, in some cases.
She thought of Flourish & Blotts but saw the crowded streets in its direction and decided on checking out the lesser-visited shops.
Mystical magical. Hapsworth hexing. Longhorns clothing.
The last sounded good. A relaxing choice. Colours galore, the range of fabrics, textures. The pleasure of taking time to choose the correct garment for the occasion.
What occasions had she to buy for? She muttered as she made her way down the cobbled path.
Christmas break? Not really anything much to dress up for.
Graduation? Long time away, would have changed by then.
But yes. It would be nice to get a dress. Something stunning. Just incase an occasion arose.
At Longhorns there was no littler a group of wizards and witches outside and around, but this time it did not put her off shopping. She had a goal. A desire to find that perfect dress that would define her. Elegant hopefully. Not too showy. Not to brash. Not glittery. Not Barbie pink.
So many things she could not let it be, she trawled the hangers of samples. Searching for inspiration. Wanting to have a design in mind when she walked up to the counter and ordered.
In the end she'd come out of the shop with what she believed was close as possible to the perfect gown ever made, made with her in mind.
She would look beautiful for once. On the occasion it would be worn she would be almost an angel.
This meant as she went to gather up other odds and ends that she was smiling radiantly, sweeping her feet off the floor and stalking the street proudly, confidently.
Until she caught a glimpse of a dark haired figure running off, by the side street.
Her smile faded.
She walked on.
And then again, after getting the ink. She'd escaped the crowded store to witness what looked like him.
A few seconds she thought it was. Then gone.
Her imagination playing with her.
But him, she kept thinking she'd seen him. Out of the corner of her eye, or passing her by. Running off somewhere, hiding under a cloak. Turing away from her.
Every time she looked back. Every second glance. He wasn't there.
It wasn't him.
Her imagination was torturing her.
He was never there.
She knew he wasn't
But each time her heart flipped at the hope.
Her breath catching in her throat.
She couldn't stand it.
One thing said he was dead
Another said he's alive
Whispered hopes and
Desires
Belief being all she had
And
Not knowing where to place it
In shadows
Or in stone
Every person unknown
To each other
~~