The Founder's Missing Piece

Chapter 8: What the Hell is Happening?

Cécile's POV

I had finally convinced George that I would be fine and he had hugged me tightly before leaving, a concerned look on his face. To be honest, I wasn't actually sure if I would be fine but I needed some time to think. Way too much stuff had happened in the last three hours. George was better now, Leslie had caught us making out, she had told Fred, Fred had publicly told all of Hogwarts...

Oh, and to top it all off, I had a stupid fucking Dark Mark showing up on my arm. Stupid Voldemort with his stupid marks on my arms. I had never even met him in person. He had touched my arm in a dream and now I have the mark of his stupid followers. Did this mean I was a Death Eater now? My stomach twisted at the thought. What the Hell do I do? I can't talk to anyone about it either because they'll think I'm an evil muggle-hating murderer. 

Now would be a great time for Jane to be around, but she was nowhere in sight. She forces all kinds of crazy information on me anytime she sees me, but of course, when I actually want information, she disappears. Merlin, I am so screwed. 

My mind was spinning way too much. I decided to take a shower hoping that it would give me a chance to calm down and sort out my thoughts. I grabbed some pyjamas and headed to the bathroom. Thankfully classes were over for the day now because if not, I would be skipping all of them and Hermione would have a fit.  One of Smurf's lectures would definitely put me in an even worse mood. I thought back to when I gave her that nickname. That weekend at her house before the Quidditch World Cup. What would she think of me now that I have this awful mark on my arm? I snapped myself out of it. Thinking about things like that would be disastrous in my current state of mind. 

I continued my walk to the bathroom, and grabbed some towels from the closet on the way there. I stripped out of my clothes, feeling like I was only half conscious. I seemed to be moving in a zombie-like fashion, my body moving by sheer muscle memory with no direction from my terrified brain.

 I caught a glance of myself in the large bathroom mirror. I looked like shit. I looked paler than usual, which is quite the extraordinary feat considering how pale I am usually, and I had dark circles and bags under my eyes. I looked like I hadn't slept well in days, which is weird since I haven't really had any trouble sleeping lately aside from the nightmare I had had after I passed out this afternoon. I also appeared to have lost a tonne of weight. You could see and almost count all of my ribs. This didn't make sense either, because I had been eating the same amount I usually do and hadn't done any extra exercises or skipped any meals or anything. My glance eventually made it to the mark on my inner arm. Even though only the skull had appeared so far, it was an incredibly dark contrast to my extremely pale skin and still seemed to twist and writhe like a snake with every movement I made. I hated it. It made my entire body look tainted. 

"Good heavens, Child!" 

Jane's outburst scared the shit out of me and I jumped, tripping over the pile of towels on the floor and falling on my butt. "Merlin, Jane!" I shouted back, "couldn't you have cleared you throat or something?!" 

She ignored my question. "Child, what have you done?" 

"I haven't done anything," I replied. 

"Well that despicable mark does not appear for no reason."

"Yes, Jane. I'm fully aware of that."

"Well then what has happened?"

"I think it happened in my nightmare earlier today," I explained. 

"What nightmare?" She questioned. 

"Can I put some clothes on first?" I questioned, not really wanting to have  along, deep conversation with my cat while I was naked.