Bulla Aurea Puerorum

Just a Dream

Just a Dream

I never found out what had happened between Eddie and Lucy. They went about their lives as if that night had never happened, teasing and smiling and all the things I'd gotten used to expect from them. The days went by and I began to wonder if I hadn't dreamt it all. But
since that one Saturday night, the second weekend back from break, it didn't seem to matter as much.

Let me take you back to the beginning.

I sat up late Saturday night, so late it was early, two o'clock having just passed. A cool breeze floated in through the slightly open window, just enough that I started to shiver under my blankets. It was just when I stood up to close the latch when I heard it.

"Ophelia." That familiar voice whispered into the night, accompanied by a creeping tingle along my spine, the feeling of someone's eyes on me.
I whipped around, whispering "Who's there?" into the dark.

Like I'd expected, the blackness stared back at me, no one there except my reflection in the mirror. On the desk next to the mirror, I faintly recognized the red cover and shape of Malleus Maleficarum.

A hiss shot through the air, cracking across the room like lightning and the familiar panic rose back into my chest, my breathing gaited and heavy.

I stepped forward, my eyes squinting to see the shapes in the mirror. I slowly walked towards it, the floorboards creaking with each step. As I approached it, my heart beat fast, hard enough so that I could hear the blood rushing in my ears. Three feet away. Two. I squinted, the light from the crescent moon not enough to fill the room.

The panic shocked my body again and left my legs tingling when I noticed the bright-eyed figure just behind me in the mirror. My blood froze in my viens and I had to work to keep the air flowing in and out of my lungs. In the split second that the panic shot through me, I whipped around to see nothing standing before me. Stars flickered at the edges of my vision and I took an envoluntary step backwards. I stumbled, trying to step back where my bed post was, and fell onto my behind messily, pulling my curtain with me.

The next thing I knew I was still on the floor but facing the mirror again. Nothing reflected back. No figures standing ominously behind me, no bed, no light streaming in from the window, no me. Just seemingly empty glass. Someone began to scream.

A blood curdling, broken, scream.

And it wouldn't stop. It just kept going and going to the point where I pulled my knees into my chest and clapped my hands over my ears.

It took a long time to realize the scream was coming from my own mouth.

My fight or flight kicked in and I stood up, rushing to get on my feet. Stumbling in the dark, I found the door and threw it open, tumbling into the hall. I raced as fast as my feet would take me out of that bedroom, away from that voice, away from that thing in the mirror. The bright silver eyes still burned behind my eyelids.

"Ophelia." Whispered the wind, sounding as if in my own head. I held my hands tighter over my ears as I ran, a deep chill spreading through the halls.

Before I knew it I was slamming out the front doors of the castle, tripping down the stairs and collapsing onto the wet grass. I began to sob.

Beside me, I was sobbing too.

My eyes widened in shock as I recognized the figure next to me. It was like my reflection that had been missing from the mirror was now here before me, copying the sobs that wrecked through my body. But it was not a reflection. There was no cool glass barrier, nothing to reach out and touch, to prove that I wasn't seeing things.

It wasn't long until I noticed the dark body underneath mine. The unrecognizable figure I was sobbing over. The colour drained from my face.
An involuntary urge to comfort took over me, my Id taking over for my Superego, aching to know what it was, for instant gratification.

And as I watched myself sobbing there on the grass, I reached a hand out.

My hand met my shoulder, and as it did, cold fingers tensed around my own, hard and hurting. They froze the blood in my viens all over again.

And that was the last thing I remembered.

* * *

I woke up with a great gasping breath, sweat sticking to my forehead and soaking my shirt. I checked the watch on my nightstand, the hands pointing at the twelve and two position.

Just a dream. There were no eyes. The book is safely locked in the closet. Nothing to worry about.

I told myself over and over again, pulling the comforter over my head and snuggling as far into the mattress as I could.

I sat there for fifteen minutes, unable to even get close to sleep with the images that ran through my head. I slipped out of the bed, clutching my wand tightly in front of me.

20 minutes later I was whispering the password to the Fat Lady and slipping silently into the Gryffindor common room.
Up the steps to the girl's dormitories and into the third door, shutting it slowly behind me.
Tiptoeing to the bed across from the door and sliding into the covers.

Ginny stirred in her sleep, rolling over so she was facing me. Her eyes were closed and I assumed her to be asleep, so I simply tucked myself into the space around her.

"Ophelia?" She whispered into my hair.

"Mm."

She said nothing, but planted a soft kiss on the top of my head. I turned my head up to face her and kissed her on the lips. She chuckled and slipped her arms around me, pulling me close and allowing my forehead to rest between her collar bones.

I fell asleep to the smell of her, to the warmth that radiated from her skin.

Back in my own dorm, the red cover of Malleus Maleficarum lay open to the Third Part, the title and content of the chapter handwritten in blood red ink;

Question XIV

Of the method of sentencing the Accused; and how she must be questioned on the first day; and whether she may be Promised her Life.

The Ninth Action