✔️ 𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐓&𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 → 𝑓. 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑦

54 | P A I N

•••
the house was awake
with shadows and monsters,
the hallways
they echoed and groaned.
•••

January passed by quickly and February came. It was amazing how Zabini left Lynnea alone ever since Draco threatened him. Still she was a bit nervous when she walked the castle alone, but with every day she felt more eased. But instead of feeling anxious, she felt really sick lately. It was a hammering headache thumbing against her temples and an even worse pain running down her neck. At times she had a quiet realisation of how Harry must feel whenever his scar hurted, but unlike her brother's pain, hers was a permanent agony and not going away after a couple of minutes.

"You look like a Erumpent ran over you", a charming Ron greeted her in the library, where she met up with him and Harry.

"Nice, Ronald", she dryly replied. "I don't feel that fine either. But never mind. Maybe it has something to do with those disgusting lovebirds all around preparing for Valentine's day."

"What's the problem? You have a boyfriend!", Ron snorted. "Not a good one, but you have one."

"Coming out of the boy's mouth who's dating Lav-Lav." Lynnea rolled her eyes. "By the way, when will you finally talk to Hermione again?"

Ron blushed from head to toe, a dumb look on his face, mumbling words no one would ever be able to understand.

"I see", Lynnea laughed.

Talking of the devil, she saw Hermione walking down the isle of bookshelves, the two boys had turned their backs on her, while she was carrying some heavy leathery books, before vanishing behind a shelf.

"May I - er - ask you something?", Harry asked, and Lynnea's eyes snapped back at him.

"Fire away", she said, leaning back in her chair.

"You - you are close to Malfoy."

"You say it like it's a bad thing", Lynnea retorted, her mouth twitching.

"It is a bad thing", Ron chimed in, rolling his eyes.

"I think he's up to something", Harry said, before Lynnea could fire back at Ron.

"And that something would be what exactly?", Lynnea asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"He's something to do with Katie's accident", her brother replied. "I think, he gave her that necklace."

"Don't be stupid", Lynnea snorted, thinking of the dreadful curse that could have killed Gryffindors' Chaser easily. "Draco might be a badass, but he definitely is not a murderer."

"I saw him at the Three Broomsticks before it happened."

"I saw many people at the Three Broomsticks before it happened. One of them was Ronald here. Maybe it was him?" Lynnea chuckled at the sight of Ron's flustered face. "I know you two don't like Draco, but he's not a murderer", she repeated, before she got up. "See you later, guys."

Harry opened his mouth to protest, but she left him like that.

"Hermione!" Lynnea found her beneath the shelves of some thick old potion books. "Long time no see. How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine, yeah, fine", she replied in an unnatural high voice. "What about you?"

"Alive", the redhead plainly answered and sat down with her. "You look tired. Still dating McLaggen? I guess you hit Ron right in the nuts with that." She chuckled. "Stupid Weasley Boys, huh?"

"I heard, there's everything fine with your Weasley now", she said with a small smile.

"It takes them all a bit longer. Also Ron."

She frowned. "I don't care about Won-Won", she hissed.

"The way I didn't care about Fred, yeah?", Lynnea laughed and Hermione blushed. "He'll soon notice, that Lavender is a dumbfuck. That won't last long. Also I've seen his face, when Harry told him, you've been to Slughorn's party with McLaggen. It was hilarious!" The Gryffindor smirked and turned her nose back into her books.

A couple of hours later, Lynnea made her way back to the common room. It was near curfew when she entered the dungeons and the castle was as good as empty. The maze of isles always amazed her, but right now she had a bad feeling, like the shadows turned darker and longer than usual, and so she fastened her steps. Her head ached and she wanted nothing more now, than lay down in her bed and sleep. The strange feeling wouldn't go away, her heart started racing and her head was feeling, like it was being knocked down with a sledgehammer. All of a sudden she felt awfully dizzy; she stopped and had to lean against the cold wall, to not fall head over. One hand pressed against the stones, Lynnea tried to catch a breath. But then it felt like her neck was ripped open by a sharp burning knife down her spine. She was trying to get a hold onto something, but there was nothing but the bare wall, she felt my knees hitting the floor, hearing a scream escape her own throat, before her eyes rolled in the back of her head and she fell into darkness. The last thing she heard, was a high pitched and cold laughter, before the same voice said: "You're mine." And she knew that voice all to well ...