Gypsy

Chaper Eighteen

"Little Nymph... Little Nymph... Time to wake up..."

The deep black nothingness I was seeing gently faded to colour as a soft voice flittered through my consciousness. My dream slowly morphing into the image of a small brick house, a little pig with curly hair was inside. She slammed the door shut and as I watched two wolves appeared at the locked door, one pale gold and the other pitch black.

"Antoinette..." The pig took my shape, and suddenly I was seeing everything through her eyes. I braced myself against the door, through the window I could see the wolves change from animal to man and start banging on it again, this time with closed fists.

"Why won't she wake up?" Frowning slightly, I wished the voices away and watched as the door broke down between myself and the men.

"She's dreaming..." The once-wolf-men circled around me, strange garbled sounds coming from their mouths.

A chuckle resonated around the room and the walls started melting and fading away slowly. Sensing something was wrong the wolf-men snarled at the roof and rushed towards me, screaming I jolted back.

Hands gripped my shoulders and it took me a moment to realize I had woken up. Shoving the touch away I shuffled backwards in the bed, my back smacked against the headboard behind me. Panting heavily I stared at the snakes standing at the foot of the bed.

"Interesting dream." Riddle's fingers tapped against the wooden frame, "We're wolves in her eyes."

"What?" Clearly confused, Malfoy frowned at me. "I know we haven't exactly been pleasant to you, but we intend to change all of that."

Still Wolves, wolves that creepily watch in on other people's nightmares... throat dry as a desert I rubbed my eyes, trying to stop the world from spinning. "Why am I here." Glancing around I could see my trunk and personal items stacked against a wall, "why are my things here?"

"For the same reason mine are little Nymph." Malfoy gestured towards the other side of the wall, a black trunk with silver serpent buckles was leaning against it. "Tom thought it might help your... condition, if we were to stay in close proximity to you."

"You and Malfoy will stay in the Head Dorms from now on." Riddle sat down on the bed, a seemingly harmless look on his face.

"What about the Head Girl?" My voice came out in a sad little squeak, reminding me again of my dream. There be wolves about...

Chuckling Malfoy flicked an imaginary piece of lint off his robes, "Miss Irons will be staying in the Slytherin dorms from now on."

"It wasn't difficult to figure out a way to get you to still appear to be living in your Hufflepuff dorm." Riddle placed a small silver ring on the duvet, waving his hand at it he muttered under his breath. The ring seemed to melt and then reform in the shape of two snakes twirling around one another, they met in the middle and opened their mouths. Tiny fangs shot out and between them a black stone appeared, it was perfectly balanced between the sharp teeth.

Malfoy huffed under his breath, "show off."

Smirking Riddle picked up the snake ring and held it out to me, warily I held out my hand and let him drop it onto my palm. It was freezing.

"This ring, when worn, will instantly apparate you to this room when you say the word 'Aenigma'." I glared down at the little silver band, promising myself I would never put it on. "All you need to do is close your bed curtains and say those words, and you will find yourself here. Your fellow Hufflepuff's will simply assume that you have retired for the night, I imagine you often close those curtains and they don't see you until the morning."