A Bump in the Night

Chapter 6: Body Count

You might ask yourself how five people could go missing for two days without anyone noticing it. The morning after Ginny and Draco's "adventure", Caroline Dell, a small little 1^st year, however, noticed. She walked into the unused greenhouse, that morning, and found the three Griffindors and two Slytherins. Later that year Caroline suffered a breakdown and had to leave school. She never married and lived in a small apartment with one light. She died in an asylum.

Anyway, the girl screamed bloody murder in the chilly morning air. Ten minutes later, Dumbledore, and the teachers were out investigating the scene. The students were not allowed outside and were sent to their respective houses. When they were let out of their dorms for lunch, they found the mirrors were covered with black this time. Dumbledore gave a speech. He said they might have to close school. The dead were: Colin Creevy, Blaise Zambini, Dean Thomas, Stephen Borrelio - a Slytherin 2^nd year, and Roberta Lopez, from Ginny's year. Many students were beginning to become anxious and people yelled up at the Head Table that the students should leave. No one wanted to die the way the others had. The Slytherins and Griffindors argued that the other two houses had nothing to worry about. No "attacks" had happened in those houses. Ginny became worried. She caught Draco looking at her pointedly and she followed him out. They weren't noticed in the uproar of protesting and hysterical students.

Ginny and Draco walked outside near the lake. The greenhouses had been roped off.

"What will we do?" asked Ginny. "They are talking of closing the school. It's like 1^st year all over again." She shivered. Draco was silent for a while.

"I say tonight we go to greenhouse 5 and look around," he suggested. They agreed to meet at 10 p.m. They walked for a while around the lake.

Ginny suddenly stopped and her eyes rolled into the back their sockets so only the white showed. She gasped. Ginny had never felt anything like it. Draco gaped at her.

"G-Ginny?" he stammered.

"I can see her," Ginny whispered her voice worlds apart.

"Estel?" Draco asked, but he received no answer. Then with a blink of Ginny's eyes they were back to normal and the sensation was gone. She crumpled to the floor. Draco reached out and they sat on the ground.

"I saw...Estel. She was- with a boy- older than her," she swallowed. "They were in the greenhouse talking. And then I snapped out of it."

***********

That night Draco and Ginny walked into greenhouse 5.

"Think we'll find anything?" asked Ginny.

"It's worth a look."

They carefully opened the glass doors and walked in. Empty flowerpots and dead vines littered the tables and floors. The air began to grow colder. Ginny shivered and the room grew with plants and she found herself to be Estel. She glanced over at Draco and found him to be the boy from her vision that afternoon.

"Daniel, they know we did it," she said reluctantly.

Draco's features contorted into a rage so much out of character.

"You told the Headmaster didn't you? You stupid girl! Now we'll be kicked out of school, probably sent to Azkaban!" He angrily advanced towards Ginny-Estel.

Ginny backed up into a table. She crashed into a watering can and fell, drenching her robes. "I thought you loved me," she cried cowering from him.

Draco-Daniel lashed out at her, "I never loved you! You muggle-lover! I needed you to plant the poison. I used you and you ate every word!" She sprang up, kicked him, and ran out of the greenhouse.

"Comeback here you whore!" screamed Draco-Daniel, as he ran after her. He caught her outside the Entrance Hall bathroom.

"You think you can just leave? I'm not done with you yet," Draco-Daniel hissed and pushed Ginny-Estel into the room. Draco-Daniel pulled out a knife and pointed it at her teasingly, an insane smile played on his lips.

FAST-FORWARD:

Ginny-Estel lay on the floor, blood pooled around her torn body. It felt to Ginny that she was being forced to do these things. She didn't know why she didn't just open her eyes and get up. She felt that the blood was not hers. Someone else had control of her body and she could only watch. But if the blood was fake wouldn't the ropes be also? Couldn't she just stand up? She had to find Draco. His body had been "taken over" too; what if he needed help?

Slowly she opened her eyes and stood up. The ropes tried to hold her back at first but Ginny was determined that Estel wouldn't overpower her. She slowly walked to the door, despite her "wounds" she found she could walk easily and the pain seemed numbed. She walked slowly, as fast as Estel would let her, down the hallway. Where would Draco-Daniel be? She was moving but she knew not where. She realized in her sub-conscious that Estel was taking her to the Astronomy Tower. The school seemed dead but felt newer to Ginny than her Hogwarts did. She looked up.

There was the door. She twisted the doorknob and walked in.

"Draco," Ginny whispered, though Estel said "Daniel".

The boy standing on the ledge turned and hysterically cried, "What have we done?" Ginny could hear through these tortured words, Draco's telling her to fight Estel. Estel moved toward Daniel.

"Many things, Daniel," Estel answered.

"It's too hard!" Ginny cried to Draco. "She's too strong!"

"We shouldn't have done it, Estel!" Daniel moaned. Draco-Daniel's eyes grew horrified as he remembered, or rather, realized.

"They killed people!" Draco cried to the girl in front of him. "Five or six who realized that they were practicing Black Magick."

"We had no choice, Daniel, they got in the way."

Ginny-Estel slowly walked over to Draco-Daniel, and climbed on to the ledge. Looking down, the blackness swirled beneath them, the ground too far away to see.

"I love you, Ginny," Draco whispered as the spirits prepared to jump.

"This is the end?" asked Daniel.

"There was never a beginning, especially with us," Estel answered as Ginny whispered back. "I love you too, Draco."

Ginny and Draco willed their bodies to come together. Their lips met and the darkness began to fade. Inside and out. The night air was lit with red and yellow light, illuminating the surrounding area. With a blink of an eye it was all over. Ginny and Draco pulled apart, as a wave passed over everything and they knew: they were back in their time.

************

Later the people who died were buried on the school grounds. The students who had died, all Slytherin and Gryffindor, were not separated into houses. They were laid to rest among each other, no longer segregating the houses.

Draco and Ginny realized that Estel and Daniel, who had jumped, had never revealed their feelings, thus ending their lives and the lives of others. Unfortunately, Ginny and Draco never found out what the Black Magick was all about, and Ginny didn't want to stir up any other memories.

"I suppose their souls were laid to rest," Ginny commented a few days later. Draco smiled gently and kissed her scarred wrist.

************

Hermione's dorm room was deserted. She now slept in Ginny's dorm. The beds were made. The wardrobes were empty. There thick layer of dust over everything. Under the bed, Estel lay in waiting.

The End