Star-Crossed

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Writing on the Wall

In a few minutes, Harry and I had packed our things and left Lockhart's classroom. But the odd feeling didn't leave me as we got out into the corridor.

"You heard it as well, didn't you?" Harry leaned in and whispered to me as we walked.

I nodded rapidly, "I did Has, I told you I did." I glanced at him and he pursed his lips, nodding tersely.

"Right, yeah...but-" he trailed off with a sigh, "I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going mad."

I shrugged, "I dunno, you saw the look on Lockhart's face...he was concerned. Off-put even...maybe-"

Then I stopped in my tracks. A shiver going down my neck as that horrible hissing voice filled my head again. Harry turned to look at me, his eyes impossibly wide in terror.

Blood.

My breath hitched and Harry paled.

I smell blood

Harry and I stood in the hall, rigid as stone as we listened. Then the voice grew softer and Harry and I found ourselves racing after it. Desperately chasing after the haunting whispers that filled the walls.

Let me rip you...let me kill you...

I couldn't help the staggered gasp of shock that left me as the mutterings grew darker, the hiss turning into snarls and growls.

Kill...kill...kill

"Harry.." I choked out nearly finishing the sentence when Hermione and Ron appeared out of nowhere from the corridor coming in adjacent to us.

"Harry, Natalie-" Hermione addressed us, getting cut off directly when Harry interrupted her, the two of us staring slack-jawed and pale at the ceiling as the voice drew further and further away yet again.

"Did you hear it?" He immediately asked, without hesitation, slowly growing frantic.

Ron frowned and narrowed his eyes at us, "Hear what?"

"That voice," I breathed out, my eyes flashing about in panic.

"Voice?" Hermione's tone grew nervous, "What voice?"

"We heard it first in Lockhart's office." Harry revealed, "And then again, just-" He was cut off and I jumped, my shoulders tensing as the echos started up again, just dimmer than before.

It's time

"It's moving..." I whimpered, "I-I think..." My breath shuddered out of me as an awful wave of fear washed over me, but it wasn't my own.

"You think what?" Hermione peered at me, her large brown eyes wide.

"I think it's going to kill." I finally managed to choke out as my brother took off running down the adjacent hallway, following the distant whispers of the voice.

"Kill?" Ron bit out, his voice pitched upward nervously.

"Harry, N-Natalie, wait! Not so fast," Hermione begged as the two of them jogged after us.

We followed the hisses closely, rounding corners and ducking down hallways until we skidded to a stop in the middle of one. I looked to our left and found the stone floor glistening with water, reflecting like a glass pane. Then we walked to the right, Harry having caught sight of something near the window leading to one of the courtyards.

Ron and Hermione caught up to us, stopping abruptly as they noticed the swarm of spiders scurrying away through the arched sconces of the window.

"Strange..." I mused, "I've never seen spiders act like that."