The Fools Who Dream

Chapter 11

Weeks passed. Nothing Cynthia did would make James or Sirius or Remus or Peter leave her alone: they tripped her up in the hallways, shot spells at her back, and had so far managed to steal and destroy around twenty three of her books, including her favourite series. She had been given the seven Narnia books as a present from her grandmother when she was six and had read them all at least a thousand times. But she had been stupid enough to carry them all around in her bag, and was constantly the victim of James, usually with Sirius, jumping out at her and taking all her things.

She had taken to hiding away in her dormitory or common room, staring out at the Black Lake, but no one can hide forever. There were times when Alice and Verity dragged her out and down to the lake or around the grounds to get some fresh air and run about like lunatics, shrieking, but it wasn't those times that she minded. She could be herself around them. Laughing, playing chase, just generally having fun. It let her forget her family.

Halloween came around quite quickly, Cynthia thought, especially after how slowly the first few days had gone. Her classes were going well, and she had so far had no detentions. Flying was still her favourite class, and she excelled above all the others, which particularly annoyed the boys.

Thanks to Verity's older siblings, the girls in the first year Slytherin dorm had learnt everything there was to know about Halloween at Hogwarts. The feast, the pumpkins, the live bats, and the exciting event that always seemed to happen sometime around then. Apparently one year, one of the bats had started attacking Dumbledore's beard and tangled it all up, and all he said was, 'oh bother, now where's my hairbrush?' in response. The five girls were all very much hoping for some kind of the same excitement to happen.

But they were soon going to regret that.

The day started off quite well. Classes were as normal, and then Cynthia and Alice decided to go and watch the quidditch practice like they usually did, and finally, it was almost time for the feast.

"I'm just going to go put away my bag." said Cynthia as they walked back into the castle. "Want me to take yours?"

"No, it's fine." said Alice. "See you in the hall."

"Save me a seat." Cynthia grinned.

Alice nodded and the two separated, walking in different directions. Alice headed casually into the Great Hall and Cynthia went the opposite way, to the door that hid the stone staircase the Slytherins used as a shortcut to the dungeons and their common room. It was quite dark, dimly lit every few metres by some very weak torches that cast an eerie glow over the steps. No one else was walking up or down, and her footsteps echoed on each stair, a dull clattering around her, as she went down. Despite having walked up or down the stairs over two hundred times in the two months she'd been there, she suddenly felt very spooked and couldn't wait to get out and into the common room.

At last, she reached the bottom and pushed open the creaky wooden door to emerge into the frigid dungeon hallways, which were also empty. Apparently everyone was at quidditch practice or already up at the feast.

She said the password to the blank brick wall (it was now 'Salazar', like their house founder) and went inside. It was much warmer in here than it had been in the hallway, with a fire blazing in the corner under the mantelpiece, but sadly, she didn't have time to enjoy it. She had to quickly run down to her dorm, hang her bag up on its hook and then run right back up the stairs to the common room. Having not had much exercise in the past few weeks (she hadn't had to run away for a while), she had to stop and catch her breath before going back into the hallway.

As soon as she stepped out of the brick wall and felt it morph back behind her, she knew something was wrong. It seemed darker than it had been before, although perhaps that was just because the common room had been fairly well lit for a change, and it was taking her eyes to adjust. Yes, that was it, she thought to herself, trying to keep her breathing steady as she walked nervously down the hallway.