Under the Willow Tree | Draco Malfoy

chapter 64: please help

Lorelei Jones | 6th Year

It was Christmas Eve, and Lorelei was tired of all the schooling right before the holidays. At Hogwarts, they didn't have classes a couple days before Christmas, but when the train came fluctuated. Here, they attended classes up until Christmas Day.

Lorelei was exhausted as she settled into her seat in maths class. She was so completely lost, but she kept trying her best, and Gran told her that was enough. Lorelei wasn't going to skill to perform for anyone; she was going to give her something to do.

The distraction only worked for so long. Eventually, her thoughts crowded her mind again, and she could no longer focus on her schoolwork. None of it seemed to matter when she knew that her friends were hurting.

It was the worst at night.

In her dreams, she had haunting visions of her friends. Most of the time, they were about Draco and Theo. She figured this was because she was always closest to those two, so her worries circled around them most.

Over the summer, her nightmares woke her up screaming. She'd dream of an unfamiliar man with long blond hair screaming at Draco. She'd shout and try to get closer to help, but she was always paralyzed in her place, unable to move or make a noise.

In her worst nightmare, she dreamt of a disgusting creature with no nose and a smooth, grey head. It was so hideous that Lorelei could only assume this was her mind's depiction of Voldemort. Draco was there, averting his eyes and sitting perfectly still at a large wooden table. A beautiful woman who looked like Draco was sitting beside him and clutching his hand. That blond man from before sat on the other side of the table from them.

Even he looked afraid.

After the ugly creature paced around the room for a few tense moments, he lifted his wand and shouted the unforgivable cruciatus curse. He started with the woman beside Draco. Her screams were horrific and echoed throughout the room.

Next, he turned on Draco, and Lorelei tried so hard to move closer, to help, but she was stuck where she stood on the edge of the room. She sobbed and screamed as Draco writhed. She could tell he was already hurt, but this monster was hurting him anyway.

Lorelei had never wished death upon someone so strongly before, but she wished it upon the vile creature and upon the blond man. She prayed they would die. She begged the universe to destroy them if the dreams had any truth to them.

Eventually, the dreams changed. Her earlier nightmares of Theo fighting off intruders in his house or of Draco's torture transitioned to a scene that was only vaguely familiar.

It was Hogwarts, but darkness had consumed the castle. It was a horror movie depiction of her second home, and Lorelei wondered if this was what the school truly looked like now.

However, even if the setting was more familiar after this shift, the dreams were just as nightmarish. She cried along with Draco when he screamed into the night in his dorm bed. She thrashed and kicked when she watched either boy get tortured by another student who had been forced to hurt them.

As a result of these nightly shows of horrors, the bags under her eyes were heavy, and Lorelei struggled to stay awake in her Muggle classes. In fact, it was in this half-asleep state that Lorelei heard her classmates mocking her again.