The Unknown Potter [COMPLETE]

Chapter Seventeen

         I heard someone shouting behind me, so I whirled around to see who it was. Of course, it was my brother. Hermione and Ron were both at his side, trying to shut him up. I stormed up to him, ready to beat the living shit out of him, when I looked up at who was behind him.

         "Why hello Potters, Weasley, and Granger," Umbridge said in her shrillest voice. "Starting a fight here, now are we?"

          "No Professor," I said, my voice shaking slightly. Umbridge looked me up and down, as if I was a rack of meat she was going to eat for dinner. She then turned to the others, where Ron was eyeing Hermione. Harry was looking at me, half pleased that I wasn't going to kill him, and half scared that Umbridge was going to kill him.

         "What is going on here?" a second voice boomed. I looked in the other direction to see Dumbledore standing, his arms folded. He looked at Harry and I, and then Umbridge. The she-devil wasted no time in trying to throw us under the bus.

          "I was walking down to the Great Hall, when I heard somebody shouting. So I walked up to this very spot, where I saw these three..." She motioned to Ron, Hermione, and Harry. "Wrestling in the hall. And she..." Umbridge motioned to me. "Was storming up to Potter with a clenched fist!"

          I looked over to the other three. Ron looked pissed, Hermione looked afraid, and Harry looked like he was going to kill Umbridge. As he clenched his fist, I saw the fresh scar on his hand. I couldn't let the others get a detention from Umbridge.

          "Professor Dumbledore," I pleaded. "That is not what happened!" I was frantically searching my mind for a reason I would be killing my brother. Just as I was about to spit something out, Hermione's voice broke the awkward silence.

         "We were trying to surprise Harry," Hermione said, her voice steady as a rock. "He has been really stressed out lately, and he needed a break!" Hermione looked as innocent as she possibly could. Ron and I both nodded in agreement. A look of surprise sprung on Harry's face, right on cue.

          "I see," Dumbledore said. "Well Dolores, it looks like a harmless attempt at relaxation. You four are free to go." We all nodded and started running in the other direction. I snuck a look at Umbridge, and it looked like she had been hit head on by the Knight Bus.

           Once we were closer to the Common Room, I looked over at Hermione, who was walking beside me.

          "How did you know exactly what words would come out of my mouth Mione?" I asked.

          "I have no idea! I just know you too well I guess," Hermione said, shrugging her shoulders. But I found it really odd.

         "But you don't know me," I said. "You and I are total opposites. You have never been able to guess what I'm saying! You say it yourself, I am more unpredictable than a twister in the Midwest."

         Hermione's face scrunched up in consideration. "Lucky guess," she toyed with. I was about to argue when I heard Hermione giving the password.

         Once we got to the Common Room, we found it empty. I walked over to a couch by the fireplace, when my face felt like it was lit on fire.

         "I see you discovered my secret! Smart little girl." A snakelike voice said.

         "Get out of my head you git!" I screamed.

         Instead of a response, I got a single image. It was of my parents, Hermione's parents. They were sprawled out on a stone floor, limp. I heard the same voice yelling Crucio! over and over again. I screamed, running to my parents. As I moved closer, they got cursed more, and more, and more. Their screams were breaking the otherwise peaceful air.

         I ran to them. I didn't stop running, even though their screams got louder. I was almost there, within arms length, when I heard Crucio! I saw a flash of yellow light, and I felt as if every limb was being ripped off. I screamed as loud as I possible could, trying to get the pain to stop.

          "Gwen! Gwen wake up!" Hermione shouted. Harry was shaking me like a rattle, and Ron was nowhere in sight.

          "What the hell just happened?! Where did you go?!" Harry asked.

          "Voldemort," I said, trying to get up. My face felt like it had just been ripped off. My whole body was sore. "He got in my head again. Except this time, he wasn't trying to break in places. He was trying to torture me. He showed me Mum and Dad, being tortured with the Crutatias Curse. A-and then I got hit."

         I instantly regretted saying that. Hermione looked on the verge of tears. "It wasn't real Hermione," I said. "It was Voldemort messing with my head."

         "Then why did you disappear?!" She choked through tears.

         I must have looked like a ghost when Ron came back into the Common Room, with McGonagall on his heels. I groaned as she helped me off the floor.

          She asked us to explain what happened, so we did. I couldn't speak. I was still in shock. She listened to Hermione as she used spells to check me over.

         "But it wasn't real, right?" I asked, one last flicker of hope inside of me.

         "I'm sorry Gwenyth," she said. "It looks like you have been attack by the Crutatias Curse."

          The hope was doused like a flame.