TRULY REALITY [A Harry Potter Fanfiction]

47| Cursed

I thus went to a person who I knew might know about cursed things. Draco Malfoy. I wrote him a note telling him, to meet me in the Room of Requirements. 

I reached there and he too soon reached. But when I went to talk to him, my mind got fuzzy again. A hi was all I could say. 

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes." I heard myself say.

"You don't seem to be. I heard you flunked your tests. People in the Slytherin common room were talking about it. And you seem way too happy."

"I'm always happy. And who cares about a test?" I said. This was not going well. What did he mean by tests. Plural. How many tests did I fail?

"That's it. Who are you?"

"You don't know who I am? I'm Cassie Smith."

"Well Cassie Smith would never not care about her studies. She's not like top class. But definitely not happy with failing too." he eyes were strained, and was looking at me as if he could figure out if I was an imposter or not. 

I have to stop thinking about the necklace. That's the only way to snap out. I breathed in and out, and moved my thoughts. But it was harder than I thought. "Well I better get going then. I have detention."

I looked one final time and Draco's confused face, and then got out of the room of requirements.

------- 

I have knowledge of my surroundings now. But I just can't control it sometimes. McGonagall had asked me if anything was troubling me, and I shrugged it off. Well technically my dazed mind did. 

I just realized something though. The only thing I can't control is what I say. So I can still maybe, go to the library and try to find something about this. And that's where I went. I got permission to go to the restricted section from McGonagall, as I lied that it was for the order. 

I went through shelves after shelves, but couldn't find anything about this. I did find something related, which explained why the curse might've affected Alice. Some curses can pass on from mother to child. And when it passes on, it becomes stronger. The person who casted the spell, can sometimes, very rarely, tell when the child can get severe. 

Writing down all this was a task. In order to connect the information with what happened to Laura, me an Alice, I had to think about the necklace. Also, me making plans resulted in me being dazed and loosing about 2-3 hours this way. 

I couldn't really write much, so I tore the page out of the book. I know it's not a good thing to do, but I could come back and stick it later. I put it in my pocket and decided to give to the next familiar face I see. 

----- 

Giving it to her proved to be harder than I thought. It's almost like the necklace sensed when I was going to bash it. I couldn't talk to her for a week, because I kept moving the other way or talking random things.

There must be some other way right? And the only answer that came to my mind, was to sneak back to Walburga's house, at the end of Hogsmede. It was not easy though. It wasn't a Hogsmede weekend, but being friends with Fred and George came with it's perks. I knew many (but not as much as the twins) secret passages throughout the school. I decided to use one, that ended right next to the gate. Filch wasn't there thankfully, but was busy on the other end talking to Mrs. Norris. As I got closer to Walburga's abode , I could feel myself again. It felt as if the necklace wasn't really controlling me, or waiting for my actions.

Something was fishy, but I still went inside. Walburga turned her head at the sound, and I was quick to cast a petrificous totalus, and a spell which made her eyes shut. I ws honestly surprised because I was never that good with spells that quickly. The necklace wasn't controlling me anymore, probably because the 'owner' was not able to think. I ran to the bookshelf and frantically looked for the book which would give me the answers. I was nervous, and I didn't know when the spell would wear off. 

I found the book, on a table near by. She was probably reading it, and one thing which was underlined, caught my eye. Temporary cure. I read through the 6 line paragraph, and now I could see her slightly turning; gaining consciousness. I grabbed the small bottle next to me, which had two long leaves, just like in the picture. I dashed out the door, hoping that it was the right thing, and ran back to the castle; missing a spell by just about 1mm from my foot. 

I had to do this soon, I observed the leaf just to be sure, and then ate it. I felt completely free. And thus, I speed read through the book. The underlines that she had put on the keywords definitely helped, and I was able to read through the medium sized book in about 30 minutes, by taking 1 and a half leaf. I couldn't name it though, because it was quite a huge name for a small leaf. 

One gave 20 minutes, and since I took half from the other, I only had 10 minutes to frame my answer and convince Anne to help me. It was quite a hard spell. And the only person in the whole of Hogwarts that I trusted with my life was Anne. I don't know why, but whenever I'm in trouble her face comes to my mind first. 

I looked around for her, and found her walking in the halls, it was 5 in the evening and classes were over. And yes, I did miss some classes. 

I put the strange leaf in my mouth and swallowed it. And then ran to Anne. "Anne!" 

"Cass! I was trying to reach out to you. But you seemed troubled, so I thought I let you be for some time. What happened?"

"I'll tell you everything. Please follow me?" I asked, in a whisper. 

"You didn't kill someone did you?"

"No! What makes you say that?"

"The way your acting? I mean you were day dreaming half of the time, flunked you test. And now your taking me somewhere to show me something? Sounds like one of those muggle murder mystery thingies."

"No I didn't. I don't have time. Please?"

----

I took her to an old classroom, which was no longer in use. I closed the door and casted a muffliato, before telling her the whole story. 

I told her about how I followed Laura, and then got stuck myself. I told her about Walburga Black, and what was happening with me for the past month or so. If my necklace was removed, I just had to gave her the piece of parchment on which I wrote the spell and the wand moment. 

"No. I can't." She said, and handed me the note. 

"Why?"

"Ask Dumbledore. This is a huge spell. Not something small like in charms class or DADA."

"I know." I said. I held her hand and gave her the note with the other. "But I trust you. More than anyone else. And you're really good at spells. Please? There isn't much time left. 

"What if I hurt you?"

"You won't."

"What if-"

"Now. We're doing it now."

She nodded her head, and looked at the note trying to perfect the hand movement. 

"Here." I said, handing her a rope, and then sitting down on the chair. 

"What are you doing?"

"Tie me down. I might run away otherwise, squirm, try to attack you... Oh! And here's my wand."

She did as told, and took a deep breath. "Ready?" she asked.

"Ready. No matter what, don't stop until this wretched thing is off me, on the ground."

And then I she casted the spell. It was burning. A lot. And I wanted to scream. My mind became foggy, and I could hear me tell things. But I wasn't able to comprehend it. My eyes were blurry, and my ears were clogged. And after a while of pain, everything became dark and quiet.