Chasing Shadows

Chasing Shadows

Chapter Two-The Missing

The next morning, I headed down to breakfast. Harry and Ron were already there. They looked up.

"Hey," Harry said, brightly. "Sleep well?"

I plopped down at the table. They were sitting across from me.

"Actually, not really," I confessed as I helped myself to some toast, sausages and eggs.

"Why? What happened?" Ron asked.

"I felt like something was watching me as I slept," I said, shivering.

That feeling wasn't going away.

"I still feel like that now,"

"I'm beginning to think that maybe Hermione's stress isn't to blame," Harry said, solemnly.

"What do you think is going on?" Ron asked.

"I don't know, but I intend to find out," Harry said, narrowing his emerald green eyes.

Our first class of the day was Care of Magical Creatures. The Slytherins and Gryffindors headed out onto the grounds. Hagrid was standing by a paddock.

"Aw man...I hope it's not the Skrewts again," Ron moaned.

"Will you get off the Skrewts?" I said, rolling my eyes. "I think we're safe in assuming that we're done with them for quite a while."

Harry shook his head and grinned.

"What are we learning about today, Hagrid?" I asked, brightly.

"Minet's," Hagrid said, beaming.

Minets were a cross between a wolf and a snake. They had the body of a wolf, except the fur was green and it spat venom. The ears were thin and pointy. The eyes had vertical slits and were yellow. They really weren't too dangerous, except when provoked.

I leaned over the railing. One of the Minets looked up at me and panted. The tongue was also forked and the canines and incisors were sharp and thinner.

I extended my hand. It licked me.

"Ah, he likes yeh, 'Ermione," Hagrid said, brightly.

I felt a smile forming on my face. The Minet got up on all fours and allowed me to scratch an ear.

The fur on the ear felt soft. Malfoy and Crabbe were talking amongst themselves, no doubt trying to ruin another lesson.

Malfoy leaned over the railing and began poking one of the Minets in the back. It turned around, parted its jaw and spat the venom at Malfoy's face.

He cried out and dug his fingers into his eyes. White venom was sticking to his eyes.

"My eyes are burning!" he cried frantically.

"Serves him right for provoking it," Ron muttered.

"Goyle, Crabbe, take him up to the hospital wing," Hagrid said in an almost exasperated tone.

I narrowed my eyes as Crabbe and Goyle helped Malfoy back into the castle.

"He is such a git," Harry said. "When will he ever learn? He's a glutton for punishment."

"Absolutely," I said, sighing.

The Minet looked back up at me. The sunlight reflected off its eyes. Suddenly, a flash went off before my eyes. I felt my body go rigid and I grabbed the top of the railing.

I saw flashes of green light and I heard screams. I saw strange metal objects being poked into fuzzy and blurry objects. I heard the wailings.

I heard hammers being slammed into something. My body jerked backward.

The flash vanished and I felt my body falling backward.

"Hermione!" Harry's voice shouted alarmed.

I was lying on my back on the grass. My wrists were lying near my ears.

Harry was hovering above me. Ron's face appeared beside Harry's concerned face.

My skull felt like it was splitting in two. I moaned.

"Hermione? Are you alright? What happened?" Harry demanded.

He slipped his arm under my neck and helped me sit up. Hagrid was even standing over me worriedly. I was now sitting up, but Harry kept his arm behind my neck.

"My head feels like its splitting in two," I moaned cringing.

"What happened?" Ron demanded looking pale.

I looked around. The Gryffindors were looking pale and worried. To my surprise, even the Slytherins were watching apprehensively.

"A flash went off before my eyes. I saw strange things," I said, shutting my eyes as I tried to remember what I had seen.

"What things did yeh see?" Hagrid asked, gently.

"Flashes of green light and I heard screaming. Then, I saw metal objects being poked into blurry objects but I couldn't see what those objects were," I said, opening my eyes again.

"Take her up to Madam Pomfrey," Hagrid said, gently. "Maybe you need a lie down."

"Let's go," Ron said as he and Harry helped me to my feet and we headed into the castle.

I was lying on my back on one of the cots staring up at the ceiling.

"Something's going on here," Harry said in a low voice.

"Like what?" Ron asked.

"I don't know exactly, but it's time to start checking things out," Harry said, feverishly.

"But Harry, we don't know where to begin! All we've got is some blurry visions, a strange shadow and screams that only I can hear," I said, sitting up.

"I know," Harry said, calmly. "All we have to do ask the ghosts."

Ron nodded.

That seemed perfect. Maybe they knew what was going on here.

A few hours later I was allowed to leave the hospital wing. We managed to track down Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost.

"Good evening, Hermione, Harry and Ron," he said.

"Nick, we need to ask you something," Harry said, seriously.

"Sure," Nick said.

"Hermione's been seeing strange things. A dark shadow, plus she's been hearing screams, being hit with a strange blast of air that Ron and I have not felt and just now, she had a vision," Harry said.

Nick looked at us. He was transparent and we could see right through him to a group of first years hurrying to get down to lunch.

"Hmm," Nick said, thoughtfully. "It's probably Peeves. You know him. He loves to pull pranks on students."

"Yeah I know," Ron said, his lip twitching. "But how come Hermione's the only one who's been seeing this and hearing it?"

"Maybe Peeves thinks its funny to pick on one particular student to drive them mad. It's nearing Halloween. So, it's probably a new trick he's doing," Nick said.

"Could you please ask him? If it is, tell him to knock it off," I said, hugging myself.

"Sure. No problem. Don't worry about anything," Nick said, softly. "Time for lunch."

"We'll be right down," Harry said.

Nick floated down the corridor.

Harry turned to me.

"Does it sound like Peeves?"

"No. It sounds totally different...human," I said.

"Okay. We'll let Nick ask Peeves. If it's not Peeves, I say we go to the library," Harry said.

This time, my lip twitched.

"That's the first time I heard you suggest the library," I said, grinning.

"We've got to find out what's going on here. Something's not right," Harry said winking.

We headed down to lunch.

After lunch, we headed to Potions. Malfoy hadn't returned from the hospital wing. The venom of a Minet will take 24 hours to go away with the Lycis Potion.

I added the ingredients to the potion.

Suddenly, the dungeon got incredibly cold. So cold that I could see my breath coming out in puffs of steam. I froze with my hand over the cauldron. I was just about to add the Oltert Wing, which was similar to a bat.

It got even colder that I began shivering and I swore icicles were starting to form on the tips of my hair. I slowly turned my head toward the dungeon's entrance. I saw the shadow this time. It was floating several inches above the floor. My breath was even starting to freeze in my chest.

Just then, Malfoy walked right through the shadow and it disappeared. So did the coldness. I gasped and fell forward.

"Hermione?" Ron demanded.

HARRY.

Hermione had her face pressing against the surface of the desk. She was gasping for breath. I grabbed her arm. She was ice cold.

"God! She's ice cold!" I cried.

"Mr. Potter! Is everything okay?" Professor Snape asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Hermione's ice cold! She needs a blanket," I said.

"There are no blankets here, Mr. Potter. Might I suggest tightening her robe?" Professor Snape said.

Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle began sniggering.

"Please return to your potion," Professor Snape said.

Feeling angry, I took off my rob and wrapped it around Hermione.

She began warming up.

"T-thank you," Hermione stammered.

She raised her head.

"What happened now?" I whispered.

"The shadow was here. It got really cold in here. Didn't you feel it?" Hermione asked.

Ron and I shook our heads.

"Okay. This is really starting to annoy me," I growled. "We've got to find out what the hell is going on here."

Hermione nodded.

"Thanks for your robe,"

"No problem," I said.

She went to take it off of her, but I shook my head.

"Keep it for a bit. Make sure you're warm," I said.

She smiled gratefully.

We finished our potions and then headed to Divination. Hermione headed to her Muggle Studies.

Ron and I began talking about what could possibly be going on.

"I don't know...it's weird. If it's a ghost, it certainly doesn't look like the house ones that are here," Ron said.

"I know. It's different. And what about how Hermione said how it got ice cold in the dungeon? You and I didn't feel it, and I'm sure everyone would've said something if they had. Why is Hermione the only target here?" I mused.

"Don't know," Ron said.

"We're going to have to go to the library after this and find out. Do some research or something," I said.

"Good idea," Ron said nodding.

After that class, we had a 10-minute interval before our last class before dinnertime.

We met Hermione and headed to the library.

We took out a few books and began reading.

So far, there was nothing that we could come up with. Even Hermione was stumped.

None of the textbooks offered a reasonable explanation as to what Hermione was seeing and hearing.

"This bites," Ron muttered slamming a book shut called "Ghosts, Legends and Ghouls."

"I know. I can't believe there's nothing in here!" Hermione cried.

She seemed upset that a book couldn't help her...frankly, so was I.

"We're going to just have to wait and see what Nick says. It's probably more than likely Peeves with some kind of new trick," Ron muttered.

"Some new trick!" Hermione cried. "How on earth could he make the dungeon so cold and only I could feel it?"

"That's pretty intense for a trick," I said, slowly.

"Yeah. Well, let's get to Charms," Ron said.

We left the library and headed to Charms.

We noticed that Neville wasn't in class.

"Where's Neville?" I asked.

"Don't know. He took a little walk up to the fourth floor and hasn't returned yet," Seamus Finnigan said.

"Weird. Maybe he got lost?" Ron suggested.

Seamus shrugged.

Professor Flitwick began teaching us the lesson.

Around dinnertime, we headed down to the Great Hall. Neville still hadn't returned.

"I bet he did get lost," I said, helping myself to some tuna casserole.

"Poor Neville," Hermione said, shaking her head.

"Yeah. Maybe he forgot how to get back?" I suggested. "I say someone go up there and get him."

"Good idea," Ron said, nodding.

Professor Dumbledore must've realized something was wrong, because he stood up and faced the Hall.

"Has anyone seen Neville Longbottom?" he asked.

"He went up to the fourth floor and hasn't come back!" Seamus called.

"Oh dear. Would someone kindly go and fetch him?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"We will!" I said.

Professor Dumbledore nodded.

Ron, Hermione and I got up and left the Great Hall. We headed up to the fourth floor. It was dark. We pulled out our wands and said, "Lumos!" The tips of our wands lit up and cast a orange glow over the walls and floor.

There were spider webs on every corner.

"This is where I heard the banging," Ron whispered, nearly clinging to me.

"Peeves," I hissed back at him.

We walked down the corridor. There were empty classrooms. The doors had spider webs on them also.

"Where could Neville be?" Hermione whispered, also clinging to my arm.

"I don't know...but I could understand why he might've gotten lost. This is a huge corridor," I said, scanning both sides of the corridor.

The light from our wands made it pretty easy to see things.

We reached a section of the corridor where it split in two, creating two corridors in a fork.

"Which way do we go?" Ron asked.

"Let's try the left," I said.

So, we began walking down the left corridor.

"It's really creepy here," Hermione said.

"I know," I said.

"NEVILLE!" Ron shouted.

We listened for him to call back. There was no reply.

"NEV?" I called.

Still nothing.

We reached the end of the corridor. Hermione screamed.

Neville was spread eagle on the wall...but it looked like he had literally become one with the wall...like something had lifted him up there.