Being His Daughter CONTINUED

Admitting

"Son..." Crouch gasped, the knife Junior had stabbed him with still sticking out of his chest. The moon reflected in Couch's eyes, laced with utter betrayal.

"Hello, father," Junior said, smirking devilishly. With one last stab, the light from Crouch's eyes was gone in a flash, and he was dead, staring straight at me like he knew it was all my fault, but he wasn't really seeing because—

"Stop! Stop!" someone screamed, their voice frantic enough to startle me out of my sleep.

"Sierra! What's wrong?" Someone hopped up onto my bed and placed their small hands on my shoulders, making me shriek. Then I realized I was the one who had been screaming in the first place...

"Can you two shut her up?" someone snapped, then they yawned widely. "The damn sun isn't even up yet and she's screaming her head off—"

"Shut it, Pansy," another voice snapped. I recognized that was as Jalen, so the other one holding me had to be—

"Airam," I breathed, grabbing onto her forearms tightly.

"Y-Yeah, I'm here," she said. It was dark and my eyes hadn't adjusted—I wasn't even sure if they were open—so all I could do was feel her dainty hand move some sweaty hair off my forehead. "What's wrong?"

"Did you... You saw..." I couldn't bring myself to say it. Ever since Luna had told me about the Thestrals—that only people who've seen death could see them—I couldn't stop thinking about if Airam had been able to see them... If she had seen death... She was so innocent...I prayed she hadn't, because then she'd be how I was now, screaming into the night.

"I saw what?" she asked. My eyes hadn't been open, because now I opened them slowly, and her concerned face loomed into view. How could I even ask her? She would probably just lie since she obviously didn't want me to know if she could see them...just like she didn't want me to know why she felt the way she did about the dresses. I couldn't be mad at her for lying to me, though—for wanting to keep secrets—because I had been doing the same wretched thing to her—to everyone—since I arrived at Hogwarts.

"Nothing," I said, my voice cracking. I moved my damp hair out of my face with trembling hands and shifted on my pillow. Airam hesitantly moved her hands from my shoulders, glancing worriedly back at Jalen, whose eyes were darting around my face, searching for an answer that I couldn't give her until my father and I succeeded.

"Are you sure?" Airam asked. "Did you just have another bad dream or something—?"

"Yeah," I responded quickly. "That's it. I always have those so—"

"I know you do," Pansy snapped, stomping over to the three of us where we were positioned on my bed. Her hair was about a foot tall in knots and she was clutching her blanket in her fist. "And you wake me up every time. I need my beauty sleep!"

"You sure do," Jalen mumbled, rolling her eyes. Pansy squealed angrily and grabbed a pillow, chucking it right at her. As soon as the pillow came in contact with Jalen's head, knocking over her red bun, the fire-red-head shot up out of my bed, snatching one of my pillows along the way. Pansy started screaming bloody murder as she ran straight for the bathroom with Jalen hot on her heels. She rushed in and slammed the door behind her so Jalen collided with it roughly.

"Coward!" Jalen bellowed, hitting the door with the pillow. When it made no sound since it was so light, she erupted into a fit of laughter with Airam. I could distinctly hear Pansy sniggering from inside the bathroom, too.

When Airam looked over at me to see if I was reacting to the somewhat violent banter between our two roommates, all I could do was offer her a weak smile. She placed her hand on mine and squeezed it before continuing to giggle at the fact that Jalen was now trying to coax Pansy out of the restroom, the pillow up and ready if she was dumb enough to open the door.