48 hours

The Unseen

The room gave them another door.
This door was different from the rest- they had been normal- dark oak with clean metal handles. This door was extravagant. It was a wood so dark it appeared black. Silver whorls and stems decorated the lining, it was beautiful. But cold. There was something different about the door that she couldn't quite put her finger on..
The thought left her as Blaise shoved past and opened the door- not noticing the cold feeling in the room. He ran inside, shouting with joy at the large dueling mat in the middle of the room. The mat looked exactly like the one they had used in Hermione's 2nd year when Harry and Malfoy had their duel. She smiled with the memory, now that she was older and.. More experienced, she could remember things that she originally hadn't played attention to: the obvious fear on Lockhart's face, The secret smile Snape had his away, Harry had actually told the snake off.. She'd studied Parseltongue since that day and could speak it quite well if she did say so herself..
  Harry however, had lost that ability. He noticed after the war that he was quite unable to remember a single thing in Parseltongue, and was rather distraught to the point Hermione ended up actually teaching him Parselmouth.
He'd been a bit embarrassed that Hermione had understood it so well from the two or twenty something books from the library. But he had eagerly taken to it and for once, was quite the learner.
   Hermione shook off the thought and looked around to find Blaise right behind her, waiting for her to get ready. He was watching her with a half smile on his face
"Do you remember when-"
"Blaise! Remember 2nd year when-"
They started at the same time, cutting off and laughing
"Lockhart!" They finished together, smiling and remembering the good old times.. Eventually Blaise walked forward and turned to face Hermione.
"Are you ready? Cause I'd hate to accidentally hurt you with my talents!" He taunted, watching her cheeks turn red. She marched up onto the dueling mat and took her position, facing him.
"Wands up!" She said, a small smile coming to her face as the color slowly drained from his face.
  "Hermione.. Maybe this isn't a great idea." He said slowly, eyes focused on something behind her.
Hermione rolled her eyes
"You can't back out now! I've just gotten ready!" She complained.
  Blaise was stark white now. He looked terrified. She just couldn't see why, she wasn't THAT amazing at dueling and its not like shed kill him. She realized he wasn't actually watching her and slowly turned around to look where his eyes were focused.
There was a pooling shadow. Theres really no other way to describe it. Complete lack of light. It was about the size of a person, a bit taller. The darkness seemed to swirl and wash forward and recede, vaguely reminding Hermione of waves. She could feel the hairs stand up on the back of her neck as she watched the shadow slowly creepy forward as if it were alive, yet it was not attached to anything..
Suddenly, the pool of darkness froze, and started receding. Flowing through a wall until there was nothing left.. Hermione turned to face Blaise only to get pushed out of the way as he moved forward to pick something up from the ground.
"What was that?" Hermione asked, trying to calm her nerves. Blaise didn't answer, his hands trembling while he held a piece of ancient looking paper. When finished reading it, he handed it to her quietly. His face almost as white as the paper in her hands, his eyes darting all over the room, wide and terrified.  Hermione glanced down and quickly read the note, shivers racing up her spine
  That of which you seek,
Lies down beneath
The room of hidden things
Buried deep
Still asleep
Hurry up you must
Try to gain it's trust
Before it wakes
You life, to fate
Forfeit what you hold dear
For I see your end is near.
Hermione Granger, I see your fears.
 
They were not alone.