Blood Traitor

3.

Ana feels like an idiot, her eyes slide over the empty dark courtyard. Her cape doesn't exactly offer much resistance against the icy cold. "Lily this isn't going to work." Ana's eyes almost roll out of their sockets when Lily comes up from the bushes dressed completely in black and a pair of binoculars in her hands. Lily found the idea of a stalker very interesting, she had a hundred plans ready and this was the least extreme to give an idea of her other plans. "Sebastian said this would work......" Ana focuses her eyes on Lily who looks out over the empty courtyard somewhat disappointed. "You told Sebastian???" There is a rumbling in the bushes and next to Lily another head appears above the leaves...... He comes up and waves friendly to Ana who looks at the duo with wide eyes.

Sebastian is also dressed completely in black clothing, Ana doesn't know how to react, to laugh or to get angry. Lily smiles carefully now that Sebastian is also involved and with one hand she gently pushes his head down so that he is hidden behind the bushes again. "Do you think I came up with all these plans by myself.." She then says carefully. Ana can't help it and bursts out laughing at the duo that has been hidden behind a bush for two hours. Albus and Scorpius kindly declined Lily's plan and in hindsight Ana should have done the same but she didn't want to offend her friend and secretly she was also curious about who her stalker really was since everyone rejected her theory about Mattheo .....

"Lily I think we should abandon this mission before I get frostbite.." Ana stands up and walks to the bushes where the duo was hiding. "Seriously Lily? How long were you planning on staying here?" Behind the bushes there is enough food and drinks for at least two nights and Ana is somewhat touched by the effort they both made which is probably more out of self-interest than anything else. Lily would have preferred to have the same adventures that her father had here at Hogwarts. Ana listened with interest during the first year of their Hogwarts education to all the stories about Lily's father who defeated Voldemort and saved many a wizards and witches from a fatal end.

The duo load their backpacks with the food and drinks that covers the ground behind the bushes and walk together with Ana into the somewhat warmer corridors of Hogwarts. It is striking how the paintings do not pay attention to them as they walk through the corridors. The paintings keep an eye on everyone and if you are looking for the latest gossip or facts about students, you just have to ask a portrait. They will happily tell you what they have discovered or seen, they also listen to your conversations without shame and sometimes they even join in your conversation if you are within their hearing range. Lily doesn't seem to notice anything as she is too busy with her own story about what she would do if the {stalker} attacked them and how she would defeat him but Sebastian also notices that something is up.

He makes eye contact with Ana and stops walking "Do you also find this strange?" Ana nods in agreement and Lily who has walked a few steps further finally falls silent and turns around. Ana and Sebastian stare at the portraits that appear in each other's paintings and whisper busily in each other's ears before they move on to the next painting. Lily's eyes have also found the paintings and after a while she also notices something strange. "What is wrong with them?" Ana and Sebastian shrug their shoulders at the same time. The fat lady who normally guards the Gryffindor common room passes by and Ana follows the fat lady who runs through the paintings to the painting at the end of the hallway of  an old man leaning on his hand and writing in a book. He slowly lifts his head as the fat lady whispers in his ear and leaves his painting for the first time since Ana has been at Hogwarts.

"Fat lady...... Fat lady!!!!" The lady in the painting stops and looks at Ana, her face has turned white and the red blush that normally covers her cheeks has disappeared. "What's going on??" The fat lady looks anxiously around the hall before she leans forward and Ana automatically bends her head forward towards the painting. "Darkness, a darkness...unknown..." Ana hangs on the lips of the fat lady in the painting. "What's with that darkness?" Sebastian accompanies Ana and is just as interested in what the fat lady has to say as she is. A short pause before the fat lady takes a big breath of air and says with wide eyes "Death is apparently an illusion, it feels the same, something is going to happen." Another portrait appears behind the fat lady and without saying goodbye she follows.

Goosebumps cover Ana's arms and Sebastian seems to experience the same feeling judging by his body language. Distracted by a cracking noise behind them they both turn to Lily who is devouring a bag of flavored beans. "That woman is a bit dramatic..... ulgh...... Puke flavor." Sebastian chuckles and seems to find it endearing while Ana tries her best not to show her face how she feels about Lily’s behavior.

The trio continues their way through the silent corridors of Hogwarts while Ana's eyes can't ignore the paintings on the walls, it feels like something invisible keeps pulling her to look at the paintings. As if a cold wind blows over her back Ana stops and turns around, Sebastian does the same and then looks at Ana with wide eyes. "That fat lady wasn't that crazy." Ana nods and Lily also seems to have felt it, she clearly swallows a lump in her throat. "What could that darkness be?" Lily's eyes sparkle at the question to the duo, finally a bit of excitement in her life like her father once experienced...

"Death is an illusion..... what did she mean by that." Sebastian thinks out loud while Lily hangs on his lips and Ana slowly realizes what was meant by that sentence. "I hope it doesn't mean what I think it means." Sebastian understands what Ana is trying to say and turns white as a ghost. "Maybe your train of thought about your stalker wasn't that crazy Ana, it's all very suspicious." Lily looks at Ana who looks back anxiously. "Ana, if I follow it and Mattheo is indeed your stalker and what the paintings say is true .... something very serious is about to happen and you have a big part in it..."

It feels like the ground is being pulled out from under Ana's feet, an unprecedented fear takes over her thoughts. "Why me?" This time Sebastian and Lily shrug their shoulders at the same time.... "Whatever it is we have to figure this out and we won't tell anyone about you and Mattheo." Lily and Ana nod in agreement at Sebastian's words.” Don't do anything to anger him in the meantime, we don't know what he's capable of”. "It'll be okay Ana I promise! We're here for you." Lily hugs her while Sebastian smiles at her kindly but with some doubt. Ana doesn't know the Ravenclaw boy at all but at this moment she's glad Lily does. He seems to take her seriously and sees that something is very wrong... the past few days have brought her more in contact with the Heir of Slytherin than all the previous years.

"He found my thoughts interesting..." Ana confesses. Lily lets go of her and looks at her searchingly...

"Mrs. Longbottom, Mrs. Potter, and Mr. Goldstein.... What do you think you're doing?" Out of the darkness the large man emerges, his cape behind him like a whirlwind and his black hair hanging  around his face like a shield. The headmaster of Slytherin house looks at Lily who is clearly one of his favorite students despite her loyalty to Gryffindor house, Albus on the other hand is having a hard time with Professor Snape despite being a Slytherin.

Lily's eyes wander to the paintings on the wall that still seem hysterical, the professor follows her eyes and looks at the paintings before looking back at the trio. "I valued you more than trusting a few drawings at their word, Headmaster Dumbledore can confirm that there is nothing wrong and so can I." The trio nods submissively "And now back to your dormitories before I give you three weeks worth of dettention." He watches the trio say goodbye at the end of the hallway and continue their way to their own dormitories.

Ana is deep in thought as she walks down the hallway of the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. She is scared, scared of everything that is going to happen and despite Professor Snape's words the feeling that hung in the hallways is enough to know that something is actually going to happen.

[ Bloodshed go to bed]

A male voice sounds through the hallway like a whispering wind, Ana doesn't wait to see who the voice belongs to and breaks into a sprint, her wand falls from her shaking hands as she tries to open the Hufflepuff common room door. The whispering voice sounds again and seems to be getting closer. Ana picks up her wand from the ground and taps the barrel to open the door but the door remains closed. The voice comes closer and now sounds more like a scream than a whisper, a shadow comes towards Ana who closes her eyes and screams for help.

"Ana? Are you okay?" Rosie stands in the doorway and looks wide-eyed at Ana who is sitting against the wall of the hallway with her knees drawn up. Rosie reaches out her hand to help Ana up who takes it and looks around and sees that there is nothing unusual to see in the hallway. "What happened? I heard you scream?" Ana, with tears in her eyes, looks at Rosie who is staring at her with concern. "I had a nightmare, I think I sleepwalked.... sorry."