ʜᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ ᴏʀ ʜᴇʟʟ ⟶ ɢinny ᴡeasley

viii

Darkness.

Dark as when she closes her eyes in her bed every night.

Darkness and emptiness.

It was a difficult feeling to explain. Around her there was no objects, no person, just a deep void, as if she were locked in a room. But there were no walls, no floor, and no ceiling. Everything was empty black.

Jude felt like she had experienced this before: that feeling of anguish in her chest from not knowing where she was, or how she got there, or how she was going to get out. A feeling of overwhelm came over her, because she did not know how to escape from a place that she did not even know what it was. She struggled to improve her vision in the darkness, but her attempts were in vain.

"Hello?" The girl tried. Her voice boomed out of nowhere, being heard repeatedly by the echo. As expected, no one answered her, but what would have been better? Meet someone there? What was this place?

She concentrated. This is just a dream, she thought. She put all her efforts into controlling that image so that she woke up in her bed, probably bewildered, wondering what it had been and why she had had full control over her mind.

But that moment did not come. What did come were a few steps behind her, which made her shiver at knowing she was accompanied. She turned abruptly, impatient to find the source of the sound. A woman in a black corset and a long skirt of the same color stood before her, a small black umbrella in her hand and a relaxed expression on her face, very different from what was seen on Jude's features.

"Hello, Jude."

The Slytherin felt her blood freeze in her veins again. She reached into her pocket for her wand, feeling threatened, but found it —again— empty.

"You have no wand, but please, do not worry. I will not harm you."

"Who are you?" Jude demanded. "Where am I?"

"You are nowhere, Jude, but everywhere, at the same time. I have the feeling you have already seen this place before, haven't you?"

Jude didn't like that at all. She decided to give a vote of confidence to that woman, whom she did not know at all but who did not inspire evil either, but he had the feeling that he would soon regret it.

"How do you know my name? Do we know each other?"

The woman smiled a little, and it turned into a soft laugh. "You already asked that questions before. When you were five, when you were eleven, when you were fifteen... Do you not remember me?" Jude shook her head, the color in her face slowly fading. "I know you, but you don't know me, it seems. You will know me soon enough."

The woman in black snapped her fingers, and suddenly the cold, dark nothing became a physical place. The Great Hall loomed before her, its four long empty tables, no plates on them, no people sitting. The chandeliers lit the room anyway, the night was seen through the windows of the Great Hall. Jude looked around her in amazement.

"This is a dream, right? You're saying what my brain makes you say."

The other person slowly shook her head. Her eyes glittered for a few moments, or so it seemed to see Jude. "This is not a dream. You are wide awake, my dear. Sit down," the stranger ordered. Jude looked at her, then looked around. Silence reigned, there was not a soul in the Great Hall, and yet the young Slytherin wondered if this woman was right and she was really awake. "Trust me one more time and sit down, Jude. I will prove it to you."

One more time?, the stranger's words echoed in her head. Jude felt dizzy, felt like she was gaining too much information in such a short period of time. After all, the woman had said that they had already seen each other on up to three different occasions before that day. But the Slytherin didn't remember anything, she felt that she was going crazy, and every time the thought that this was not a dream terrified her.