Lumos (Book One)

Chapter Ten ~ That Blithering Idiot Draco Malfoy

The party went on all day and well into the night. Fred and George disappeared for a couple of hours and returned with armfuls of bottles of butterbeer, pumpkin fizz, and several bags full of Honeydukes sweets, but I barely noticed.

I sat in a corner with Laura venting about Draco for a few hours. She understood; she had a girlfriend who was the same way when she went to Muggle school. She kept me from completely falling apart.

"Hey," she whispered, pulling me close to her, "it'll be okay, alright? He'll realize he's nothing without you and come running back with tears in his eyes and roses in his hands. I've seen how you look at each other. It's puppy love, the lot of it, but it's love." I sniffed, her sweet perfume filling my lungs. She ran a hand through my hair. "Are you gonna be okay?"

I nodded, pushing off her. "Thank you," I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. "You're a good friend."

A hint of a grimace flickered on her face for a moment. "Anytime."

By the time I was tired and wanted to go to bed it was well past curfew, and if I went into the halls Filch would catch me and try to get me put in detention.

"You can sleep on the couch," Laura offered. "I'll sleep down here with you, if you'd like."

I smiled at her. She ran to her dorm and grabbed her blanket before we both laid on the couch and fell asleep.

I was running. Branches whipped at my cheeks. I felt blood running down my arm, a large rip in my shirt where Sirius Black had managed to get me.

Harry appeared in front of me. His shirt was soaked in blood.

"C'mon Avery! This way!" he yelled. I was tempted to follow, but something didn't feel right. I ignored my gut feeling and followed him. The trees got thicker and thicker as we ran.

Cold metal was thrust into my spine. "You shouldn't have followed your brother," Sirius Black whispered.

"AAARRGGHH! NOOO!"

I fell off the couch, bolting upright. The man I had had nightmares about for months was flying down the stairs at top speed. He hesitated when he saw me and cast me a small smile, and I noticed the glint of silver metal in his hand as he started walking towards me.

I screamed.

His smile dropped and he ran for the portrait hole. I collapsed into a ball just as Laura woke with a start and the Gryffindor students came thundering down the dorm stairways.

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?"

"I'm telling you, I saw him!"

I was still crumpled on the floor, no one taking notice of my shaking body.

"What's all the noise?"

"Professor McGonagall told us to go to bed!" A few of the girls had come down their staircase, pulling on dressing gowns and yawning. Boys, too, were reappearing.

"Excellent, are we carrying on?" said Fred Weasley brightly.

"Everyone back upstairs!" said Percy, hurrying into the common room and pinning his Head Boy badge to his pajamas as he spoke.

"Perce--Sirius Black!" said Ron faintly. "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!"

The common room went very still. I looked up at Ron through my panicked haze.

"Nonsense!" said Percy, looking startled. "You had too much to eat, Ron--had a nightmare --"

"I'm telling you --"