An Otherworldly Experience (Tom Riddle Era)

Chapter Fourteen

Kelli could feel Dobby on a spiritual level this year. Going to Hogwarts knowing about the Chamber of Secrets and not being able to say anything about it unless she proves it? And Dobby didn't even have that kind of stress relief because he straight up couldn't say shit. Then again, he did tell Harry, and just beat himself up.

Kelli would prefer the chance of beating herself up as opposed to be muted from telling the truth.

She was dreading this year so much she didn't really speak to Katie or Tom. Katie was bouncing off the walls enough and talking about how cool it was going to be and how she was going to make so many wizarding friends. Instead, Kelli felt sick. Sicker than when she had food poisoning and was dying all night and day that one time.

Oh hell, Kelli was going to be first and she knew it because Kelli knew everything. Well, not everything. But knew enough that she would tell.

She made it on the train, found her friends, picked up a book and stared at it.

"You okay?" Lauren asked and Kelli looked up.

"No," Kelli replied softly, before looking back at the words that weren't even English. Well, they were English, she just couldn't read them.

"You want to . . . talk about it?"

"I . . ." Kelli tried several times trying to say something, to even give them a bit of a warning, but could only end up saying, "I feel like this is going to be a bad year. It's like a bad dream. I don't . . . I don't want to go to school."

There was a laugh, a nervous laugh but Kelli didn't really want to hear that. "But you . . . always loved school."

"Not this year," Kelli replied, leaning back against the compartment seat and staring at the ceiling. "I better . . . I better go. Prefect stuff." Kelli dropped her book onto the side of her seat, took her robes and pinned the prefect pin to the front of them and head off to change into them. She made a trip back to dump her clothing back amongst her stuff before wandering off again.

She sat down in one of the front compartments where all the prefects usually sat for the first meeting of the year, assigning work to everyone.

Her fellow prefect was Ernest Smith. Kelli knew he was an Heir of Hufflepuff and wondered if that was one of the reasons that he even became a Hufflepuff in the first place, because he most certainly didn't have most of the traits. Then realised that was an extremely unkind thought.

The Head Boy and Head Girl were seventh years, Slytherin Head Girl Claudette Greengrass and Ravenclaw Head Boy, Webster Boot. Looking between the pair of them, Kelli wondered how they'd work together. Greengrass was practically a blood purist who had her eyes on Riddle, as did most of the Slytherin female population to be frankly honest which made Kelli annoyingly jealous about it. And Boot was a half-blood who could not care any less about blood purity, or many things else to be frankly honest.

"Traditionally it's fifth years who show the first years back to their common rooms," said Greengrass, then looked at Kelli with an angry look. "But on your first day you started a fight and argued with your prefect so, in Hufflepuff's case, sixth years will do it again."

"Oh, that must hurt you and your traditionalist ways," Kelli replied coolly. Kelli was the type of person who often got into fights when she didn't have a book in hand. And she didn't have a book in her hand. Kelli defended what she believed in with fervour and Greengrass had just insulted her.

"Hey, Watson, there's no need for that," Smith told her.

"You wanna say that again, huh?" Greengrass asked, getting back to her feet.