Chasing Shadows

Chasing Shadows

Chapter Eight-Back

I carefully got to my feet and went over to Sam.

"Sam? Are you alright?" I demanded worriedly.

He moaned and sat upright.

"What happened?" Sam asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"This shadow flew at you. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Let's get out of here," Sam said.

"Good idea," I agreed.

We hurried back down to the third floor.

Lindsay cornered us on our way to Transfiguration.

"Oh Fox! I'm so sorry!" Lindsay apologized as she threw her arms open and hugged me. I hugged her back.

"Apology accepted," I grinned as we released each other.

"You okay, Sam?" Lindsay asked turning to him.

"Absolutely!" Sam said, brightly.

"Let's get to class!" Lindsay said brightly.

We were all excited about the Trio coming to visit the school tomorrow. I was so excited about meeting Hermione Granger. We were sitting in Potions. Professor Snape was teaching us the Tyrol Potion, which was used for seasickness.

Just then, the shadow appeared in the corner of the dungeon. I froze.

"What's wrong?" Lindsay whispered.

Sam's eyes were locked on me.

"There's something in the corner of the dungeon," I whispered, terrified to move.

"Where? I don't see anything," Lindsay said.

"It's there," I said.

Sam followed my gaze.

"Lindsay's right...there's nothing there,"

"I'm not lying," I said, breathing heavily.

"She's definitely terrified," Sam whispered to Lindsay.

Just then, the room got ice cold. So cold that my breath came out in puffs of steam.

"Fox?" Lindsay asked, alarmed.

"Professor? Something's wrong with Fox!" Sam said, raising his hand frantically.

My breath felt like it had caught in my chest.

The minute Professor Snape walked through the shadow, the feeling vanished and so did the shadow. I sucked in air and was bent over, gasping for air.

"Take her up to Madam Pomfrey," Professor Snape said.

Dropping everything, Lindsay and Sam helped me up to the hospital wing.

"I'm telling you! There was something there!" I argued.

Lindsay looked at Sam. I was lying on one of the cots. Madam Pomfrey checked me over and asked me to spend the night there just in case.

Sam had an expression on his face that I couldn't make out...it was concern mixed with belief.

"Maybe she really did see something?" Sam offered.

"But then how come you and I couldn't see it?" Lindsay asked.

"I dunno. Maybe others could see it and we would never know," Sam suggested.

Lindsay frowned thoughtfully.

"That's possible,"

"Come on...time to go. She needs rest," Madam Pomfrey said, gently ushering Sam and Lindsay out.

"But there's nothing wrong with me!" I protested.

Madam Pomfrey didn't listen. Sam gave me a smile and wink before he and Lindsay left the hospital wing.

That night, I fell into a troubled sleep. I dreamed of blurry objects being poked with silver blurry objects and I heard screaming. I snapped awake, sweat clinging to my neck and forehead. My breathing sawed in and out.

I looked at my watch. The time was 4:22 AM.

I looked out the window and saw a strange light coming from the fourth floor. I had a feeling something definitely weird was going on.

Sighing, I laid back down and fell back asleep.

The next morning, I was allowed to leave finally and I headed down to the Great Hall. Today was the day we met the famous Trio. I was totally excited.

Sam and Lindsay were at the table.

"Hey! How are you feeling?" Lindsay asked, brightly.

"Better, but I saw something else weird last night," I said, leaning forward.

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"I saw strange light coming from the fourth floor...and no, it didn't look like a torch's light," I said, quickly turning to Lindsay.

"Weird. As I said, maybe it was Peeves?" Sam said.

"It's possible," I said, frowning.

"It's just totally weird," Lindsay said, shaking her head.

"Oh. Now you believe me?" I snapped, rounding on her.

Lindsay seemed taken aback.

"I'm not saying I didn't believe you...I'm just saying maybe there's a reasonable explanation for it,"

"Ain't I annoying to you?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"I already said I was sorry! And you forgave me!" Lindsay cried.

"I did...but it still hurt!" I shot back.

"Guys, stop it," Sam said, in a firm tone. "It's over so let's just forget about it okay?"

I fell silent. I really didn't want to ruin the happy mood I was in.

"Fine,"

Just then, Professor Dumbledore rose up at the head table. Silence filtered across the Hall like a wave.

"I'm so please to announce that three of our most memorable students have come back to discuss careers. Please give a warm welcome for Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and of course, Harry Potter,"

Well, the cheering was deafening. Everyone stood up and cheered as three people walked into the Great Hall. I felt so happy.

Hermione's trademark bushy hair was smooth and wavy. She was dressed in dark blue robes. Harry's features sharpened and he had grown taller than when we've seen him in pictures. Ron had even grown. He slightly towered over Harry. But he wasn't lanky and thin. He had filled out more.

We've seen pictures of them in books and they changed slightly.

They walked up the center aisle and stood in front of the Head Table.

They faced us.

"We're so thrilled to be back here to see a fresh group of witches and wizards," Harry said. His voice sounded deep.

"We had some wonderful memories here, as well as not so wonderful, but we miss the school," Hermione said next looking around at everyone.

"And there have been pranks," Ron added.

Laughter rang out. Everyone heard of the Weasley twins' famous prank during their fifth year. Hermione's eyes moved onto the Gryffindor table.

"And the Gryffindors," she replied.

Our table was the only table that cheered with pride.

"There's more wonderful news," Professor Dumbledore continued. "They will be staying with us for a bit. They're going to speak to everyone in each house for careers tomorrow."

More cheers rang out. Again, mostly from our table.

"They don't mind speaking to over 200 students?" Sam asked, awed.

"Apparently not," I replied.

"We'll be starting with our old house," Harry replied.

Sam, Lindsay and I exchanged happy glances.

The bell rang, signaling that it was time to go to classes.

"I want to say hello to Hermione," I said.

"Okay. We'll wait for you," Sam said.

I got up and walked toward the Head table. My legs felt like jelly. Hermione, Harry and Ron began talking with Professor Dumbledore.

I nervously stood a few inches from Harry. Professor Dumbledore's blue eyes twinkled behind his half moon spectacles and they landed on me.

"Ah, and here's our scholar," he said, warmly.

Hermione, Harry and Ron turned around.

"This is Fox Ramone. She's a first year, but already got outstanding marks on her homework and reports,"

Hermione gave me a warm expression.

"Hi Fox," she said kindly.

"Hey," Harry said, sticking his hand out. I shook it.

"Nice to meet you," I said.

"Nice to meet you too," Harry said.

Hermione was beaming. Ron grinned and also shook my hand.

Hermione's eyes moved over my shoulder.

"Is that your friends?"

"Yeah. That's Sam and Lindsay," I said.

"We don't bite," Harry said, grinning.

I turned around and waved them over. They stood beside me.

"Hi! It's nice to meet you!" Sam said, cheerfully, shaking Ron, Harry and Hermione's hands. Then Lindsay shook their hands.

"Sam here," Hermione said, kindly.

"She's your biggest fan," Lindsay said, gesturing to me.

I felt the heat rising in my cheeks.

HERMIONE.

I caught Fox blushing. I smiled.

"We've got a lot in common then," I winked at her.

She beamed.

I still miss the school, even though we faced the real evil three years ago. There haven't been any stories or anything of strange noises from the fourth floor.

Since graduating, Harry and I have been dating seriously. Ron was dating Luna.

In one way, it felt good to be back. These three seemed like such nice kids.

"Yeah, she's even seeing shadows," Lindsay said, putting an arm around Fox.

Immediately, I snapped to attention.

"Shadows?" I asked, alert.

Harry and Ron's expression changed as well.

"Yeah. I saw something weird on the fourth floor. Plus, I've been hearing noises on the fourth floor," Fox replied.

"It's probably just Peeves," Sam said.

But his tone sounded unconvinced.

"Listen. Could we possibly talk to you?" I asked Fox. "And Sam?"

"No problem," Fox said.

"Good. Ron? Why don't you and Lindsay go to the common room. I'm sure she's got a lot to ask you," I suggested.

Ron, cottoning on, nodded and he and Lindsay began heading out of the Great Hall. The teachers had left to begin teaching their classes. Harry, Sam, Fox and I sat down at the now empty Gryffindor table.

Harry was sitting next to her. I was sitting across from her next to Sam.

"Okay. Please tell us what exactly happened," I said, seriously.

"Well, we heard banging on the fourth floor, so Sam and I went to investigate it. This dark shadow flew at him and that was it," Fox said.

Harry and I exchanged glances.

"Did your parents ever tell you about your ancestry?" Harry asked.

Fox frowned.

"Like my grandparents?"

"A little further back than that,"

"No,"

Again, Harry and I exchanged looks.

"Why? What's going on here?" Sam asked, looking from Harry to me.

I sighed. It'd be best to tell them.

"Do you remember three years ago when Harry, Ron and I were at school and we had the strange occurrences?"

Sam and Fox nodded.

"Well we learned that it wasn't Peeves doing those noises," Harry said.

Fox and Sam looked a little worried now.

"It turned out that it was a 1000 year old ghost by the name of Lord Davis who hated magic and tortured people, hoping to get the magic out of them. It also turned out that I was related to a Lord Scoris, who wanted to put a stop to a mental hospital from being built. You see, before Hogwarts was built on this land, there used to be a mental hospital here in the medieval times. Lord Davis tried to kill me, but didn't succeed," I said, gravely.

Fox looked terrified now.

"At first we thought it was a six hundred year old ghost, but we looked further into the books and it was a thousand years. Are you the only one who's able to see this shadow? Was this the first time?" Harry asked.

Fox nodded. "Yeah. That was the first time. We just normally heard the banging,"

"Okay. I'm transferred here from the Aryan Magic School in Manchester. Professor Dumbledore has my papers. So, I'll be teaching History of Magic since Professor Binns retired to haunting the school with the other ghosts. I'm starting today. Harry and Ron will be spending time here as well for a bit, beside talking to you about careers," I said.

Fox and Sam nodded.

"What's your first class?"

"Charms," Sam replied.

"Let's go,"

We followed Fox and Sam to the Charms classroom. Professor Flitwick was thrilled to see us again. Harry and I stood at the back of the classroom and watched the first years learning the same charms we learned when we were first years. Harry leaned against me.

"Why on earth would she be the only one able to see it?" Harry whispered.

"Because I'm apparently not the only descendent," I replied.

"You think she's a descendent of Lord Davis?" Harry asked, surprised.

"Well, since that was the only time she saw it, I really don't know. Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait and see if any more odd occurrences happen," I said.

Harry nodded and gently bumped shoulders with me, signaling that he understood.

I gave him a grateful smile and returned my eyes onto the students.

About a half an hour into the lesson, I looked over at Fox. She was staring at the corner of the classroom with a terrified expression on her face. I nudged Harry and he followed my gaze.

We watched as Fox's terrified expression turned into pure terror. We saw her tracking something with her eyes over to her friend Lindsay. We saw her grab Sam's arm.

I saw the shadow as well.

"Bloody hell," Harry whispered. "I see it too!"

The shadow then floated in front of Lindsay. Fox was watching intently. We saw the shadow reach into Lindsay's chest. The room got ice cold. So cold that our breaths came out in puffs of steam, but as usual, the other students didn't seem to feel or notice anything unusual.

Lindsay's body jerked forward violently before it relaxed and slumped off the chair to the floor. The shadow vanished.

"LINDSAY!" Fox screamed leaping to her feet.

Sam and Fox rushed over to Lindsay, as well as Harry and I.

I kneeled down beside Fox. Harry was kneeling down beside Lindsay. Sam was next to him.

Harry felt Lindsay's neck for a pulse.

He raised his eyes to mine.

"She's gone,"