Calli awoke with a gasp.
Her eyes flew open to darkness, her heart hammering painfully against her ribs. Her hair was stuck to her damp forehead, and somewhere during the night she'd managed to tangle her legs completely in the sheets.
For several seconds, she didn't know where she was.
Ticking.
She could still hear the clocks.
Calli squeezed her eyes shut.
No.
Not clocks.
The dormitory was silent.
She slowly pushed herself upright, dragging the blankets away from her legs. Across the room, Lucy and Stella were still fast asleep, their curtains partly drawn. Neither had stirred.
Calli pressed a trembling hand against her forehead.
It had been a dream.
Just another nightmare.
She glanced towards the clock beside her bed.
Well past midnight.
"Brilliant." She whispered.
She knew what had caused it.
Saturday.
The meeting.
Hearing Voldemort's name spoken repeatedly. Talking about Death Eaters. Listening to everyone debate whether he was really back as though Calli hadn't stood only feet away from him during the summer. Felt his touch.
Apparently her mind had decided to punish her for it.
She could still remember the nightmare far too clearly.
The Ministry had been empty.
Not empty like it had been during her late internship shifts, when footsteps echoed strangely through deserted corridors.
Dead empty.
Calli had been standing on Level Nine.
Voldemort was behind her.
She hadn't needed to turn around to know.
She could feel him.
His presence seemed to fill the entire corridor as he ordered her towards the Department of Mysteries.
The door wouldn't open.
So he'd told her to make it.
Calli had raised her hand.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Until suddenly the door had disappeared and she was somewhere else entirely.
The room from Croaker's mind.
Clocks covered every surface.
Hundreds of them.
Tall clocks. Tiny watches. Grandfather clocks. Hourglasses. Pendulums swinging back and forth.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Then red eyes.
A snake hissing somewhere she couldn't see.
Flashes of green.
She'd tried to run, but the floor beneath her feet had seemed to give way.
She was sinking.
YOU ARE READING
Callidora ☆ Fred Weasley
FanfictionCallidora Nott has always known exactly what is expected of her. As the daughter of one of Britain's oldest pure-blood families, her future has already been carefully planned; alliances, power, and a life shaped by tradition she never chose. At home...
