The Girl Who Vanished

Chapter 13: Jelly Slugs

Fred and George were rounding the corner of one of the long corridors when they heard a high pitched yelp coming from ahead of them. They mirrored worried glances and began to slowly skip down the halls just to find Ana leaning over a bench and rubbing at her knee. Aeron was chuckling quietly at the girl until his eyes met the same pair from earlier in that day; then the boy's laugh was replaced with a harsh stare directed at the twins.

            Before Ana could look up, George pulled Fred back around a nearby corner to stay out of their sight, but they weren't the most discreet.

            "What was that?" Ana loudly whispered to Aeron, not wanting to get caught after hours. She gre tired just from thinking about how she had to sprint down the halls the first time that prefect saw her roaming at night.

            Fred and George had their backs to the wall as they waited to make their next move. There was the very high possibility that they were about to be discovered and would have to haul themselves down the hall, so they held their breaths.

            "Probably just Peeves," the boys heard Aeron replied with an unbothered tone. "Come on, let's go."

            And as the sounds of footsteps grew more and more distant, the boys let out a sigh of relief. Without a word, the twins twisted through various corridors to get back to Gryffindor tower, and much to Fred's dismay, he missed his chance to eavesdrop on the pair. It bugged him, but he knew that there would be another time to drop in on the two of them. The only sound that came from the room was the soft whistle that was George's snore and Fred fell asleep with the map beside him.

~

            Seven o'clock. She was to meet him at seven o'clock, but Ana swore time was going in slow motions as she kept glancing down at her watch. It was a beautiful watch given to her by her mother for her eleventh birthday; her mother insisted that it would be nice to have when she started her first year at Hogwarts. The face was decorated with tiny diamonds and the silver band complimented her fair skin nicely. Ana smiled at the gift, remembering how happy she was to receive it. She often forgot to where it though, since she never wanted to get any dirt or potions on it. But, Ana was not going to be late for this meeting.

            Gargoyle Tower was exceptionally quiet despite it still being relatively early in the evening; the silence that surrounded her only made her aware of how panicked her breathing sounded. She hadn't had much time to prepare for this meeting, given that she was made aware of it only a few hours ago. This was not a part of the castle she had been to before so she started to distract herself from her own nervousness by counting the stone blocks that lined the corridor walls.

            Once the time on her watch showed it to be seven, she approached the statue of a gargoyle and looked at the little note that had arrived to her during lunch. All it said was:

            Join me at my office. Seven o'clock. I would like to speak with you.

            -Professor Dumbledore

            A word of advice, I quite like Jelly Slugs.

            Ana had no idea what to do with this information until Lucian informed her that Dumbledore always had a sweet as his office password and that jelly slugs seemed to be his new obsession for the moment. She found it strange that his office would be safeguarded by a sweet, but she figured that Dumbledore was a bit out there to begin with.

            With shaky hands, she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as she chanted to the statue, "Jelly Slugs."

            The large stone bird began to swivel and as it moved a staircase became available to her. The steps rotated until she was led into the doorway of a large room with arched ceilings and mixed matched picture frames. Each one of them held the portrait of very old men, each one of them more ancient than the next. His office was filled with artifacts and books and from the far end of the room, Ana could see the sorting hat was sitting on top of one of the many bookshelves.