Hunted AIAOY 3

Chapter 8

Rebecca slept fitfully.

That was the shortest way to describe the agony she found herself put through over and over.  Her dream was a loop, a loop she couldn't break herself out of.  She was back on the pitch at the match and forced to fight through wave after wave after wave of dementor to get to Harry only for him to fall again.

But this time, in her dream, there was no Fred and George to stop her.  She raced against impossibility and got to Harry seconds after he struck the ground only to find herself back on the broom racing up again.

Rebecca had lost track of how many times she had seen the horror reset when she sat up in her bed with a gasp.  She was damp with sweat and near ill with fear.  

And worst of all?  Rebecca had an idea--An idea that couldn't wait until morning and wouldn't wait until someone more rational was awake.  It was a challenge: Creeping out of the room without waking Hermione or Ginny.  But a challenge wasn't entirely new.

The common room was as empty as it should have been for the hour, which was also a relief.  Even more relieving was the fact that Sir Cadogan was asleep on his horse.  She could practically hear his shouts, knowing how ridiculous they would be.  'Wherefore art thou leaving so late?  I shall report thine disobedience to the king!'

Rebecca went down the stairs to the body of the castle, down the corridors seeped in familiarity and dressed in strangeness as the stars used their last hours to light the way.  Rebecca stopped in front of the Charms classroom and she opened the door after unlocking it.

Her idea?  Take what was stuck inside of her, the images she couldn't help but see every time her eyes closed, and take them out.

Rebecca grabbed some of the practise slabs from the pile in the front of the classroom and lit a lantern on the wall before placing both at her usual spot.  It's not like anyone was awake to mind if she sat elsewhere, but she wanted something routine.

Rebecca closed her eyes and made her first attempt.  "Infunde."

The first rendering was always the worst.  That's what she comforted herself with, at least.  The lightning bolts streaked across the slab brightly while the dementors looked like little more than grey splotches.  And Harry?  He was off proportion and far from the focus.

Rebecca paused, remembering the words of the lessons they had had no the topic so far.  It wasn't just about the details, it was about the big picture too.  Rebecca took a little longer for her second try, smoothing out some of the errors plaguing her first.

A brighter light than flashed across the marble and Rebecca was relieved to find the sizing issues fixed though it still wasn't right.

Rebecca set the second slab with the first and put her head to the desk, closing her eyes and teetering on the edge of breaking down.  Rebecca could see the storm, the dementors, Harry.  She could feel the helplessness and the growing knowledge that no matter how fast she flew or how hard she fought, she would not reach him in time and she would fail him.

Rebecca wiped at her eyes when she lifted her head again and she did not pause before casting the spell out of fear of losing the grasp she had on it in her mind.  "Infunde."  Another flash of light across the slab and the slow spreading of the lines as Rebecca's memory was made permanent.

Harry's kit was maroon and gold, specked with mud as she remembered.  The lightning was illuminating the dark clouds above.  The dementors there in all their wretchedness.  And Harry...Harry was suspended in the air below the grey hands reaching for him.

Rebecca knew this final product was the best she could get it because it was her memory in its entirety.

Slow clapping echoed through the room.  "Brava!"  Professor Lupin said, looking horrid in the dim light.  Shadows stretched under his eyes and his cheeks seemed hollow like he had been ill.