(HOGWARTS MYSTERY) Janelle Morgan -- Year 1: The Forbidden Corridor

Chapter 9: Mysterious Visions

The night before Halloween, I had another dream; but this time, it was one of the most disturbing to date.

I was running through the dark, icy corridors of Hogwarts again, which was no different than my previous dreams. As I passed certain rooms in the castle, I saw several large blocks of ice, some of them containing people frozen inside, many with horrified expressions on their faces. Knowing I couldn't do anything for them, mainly because I didn't know any melting spells, I just continued running, looking for...something...or someone. At the time, I wasn't sure what or who I was searching for, but one thing was certain: I was desperate to find whatever or whoever it was. For all I knew, this thing or person I was looking for may have been the cause of the blocks of ice mysteriously appearing all over the castle, and I had to stop whoever or whatever was doing this.

As I continued running aimlessly through the castle, I heard a distant male voice call out to me in the darkness, "Jane..."

"Jacob?" I called back, recognizing that the voice belonged to him.

"Jane..." Jacob said again, this time a bit more clearly, like he was standing right in front of me, but I couldn't see anything. For some reason, I didn't think to use Lumos, even though I was very familiar with the spell by now.

"I hear you, but I can't see you," I said, looking around and squinting through the darkness. "Where are you?"

I suddenly gasped as I saw Jacob, dressed as he looked the last time I saw him before he disappeared, on the far side of the corridor. He gestured to me and whispered, "I am here. Come to me..." He then disappeared into a nearby room.

"Jacob! Wait!" I yelled, chasing after him.

When I entered the room, the room was dark, much darker than the corridor outside. Also, when I entered, I felt a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, like I had just run into a trap. I turned my head to the corridor behind me, but there was nothing; the corridor had disappeared. Panicking, I glanced in all directions and discovered that I was standing in...nothing. Absolutely nothing. There was just an empty void, like the whole world had vanished under my feet.

"Jacob!" I called, my voice echoing through the void. "Where are you? I can't see."

I heard a response say, "Lumos Maxima!" and then I saw my brother—or who I thought was my brother—standing in the middle of the dark void under a bright ball of white light, but he was different this time. Under the glowing light, he was wearing a heavy black cloak that covered his whole body, except for his face, which was still visible under the hood of the cloak.

"Jacob?" I asked him, suddenly getting the sense that there was something very not right about his presence. "What's going on? Why are you wearing that?"

Then I immediately felt something strange wrapping itself around my waist and pulling me back aggressively into a thorny wall. Gasping in pain, I looked down and saw the familiar vines that had almost killed me on my first day at Hogwarts, slithering over me and holding me tightly against the wall.

"Jacob! Help!" I cried. "This is Devil's Snare! Use your light to let me loose!" But Jacob didn't move; he only smiled, but it was a sinister-looking smile, which was one I had never seen on his face before. The expression sent chills up my spine, for now I knew I was in a trap. "Jacob, what are you doing?" I yelled at him, in utter disbelief that he was just standing there. "Help me!"

He then shook his head and said, "Sorry, Pip, I can't do that. My Lord told me not to."

Normally when he'd say my nickname, it made me feel joy inside, but this time it made me feel fear, mainly because of how he'd said it. He said my nickname with neither love nor hate, but that was all I really knew how he'd said it. I honestly didn't know any other words that described his tone, but it terrified me to my core.