The Past and Present Collide

An hour passed, and the gray morning light turned bright and golden. Breakfast was over, and the dishes had disappeared from the tables, but no one moved from their seats. No one really spoke, either. A few scattered whispers were audible, but the usual laughter and loud, boisterous conversation was missing. This alone unnerved Mandy, and she squirmed in her seat as she waited for Dumbledore to announce that it was safe for everyone to return to their Common Rooms.

But she wasn't waiting to go back to the Common Room, really; as soon as she knew it was safe, she was going straight to the hospital wing. She didn't want to think about Adrian, but he kept floating through her mind. She sighed and watched the Head Table for any signs that things were safe.

Terry had his chin is his hand, and was tapping his fingers against his temple. Padma was biting her nails and staring at the ceiling, which was currently bright blue with a few fluffy clouds drifting lazily across. It was cruel, she thought, that such a beautiful morning would immediately follow such a horrible night. The tension in the warm, sun-soaked room made her feel as though the sun was mocking her.

Padma wasn't the type to be easily frightened, but today, she couldn't help but feel the cold fear creeping slowly up her spine. She was usually the type to find the silver lining on any cloud, but today . . . today was different. Padma liked knowing everything that was going on, but she didn't have a single clue what might be lurking in the castle. That was what scared her most. Her hand dropped from her mouth and her fingers began to absentmindedly trace circles on the table. A few black curls fell onto her face as she shifted position, but she didn't bother to brush them away. She was too busy thinking about the attacks.

If only she knew more about them! She wanted desperately to get up and talk to some of the Slytherins about what they had seen or heard, but Dumbledore hadn't announced that the castle was safe yet. Her patience was nearing its end. In addition to her fear, just sitting here in silence was very boring.

Suddenly, like an answered prayer, Dumbledore's voice rang out through the air.

"Prefects, please gather up the students. It is safe to return to the Common Rooms. As you may or may not know, today is a Saturday," he said with a hint of dry humour in his voice, "and therefore no classes are scheduled for today. However, all students are to stay in the Common Rooms, or an area supervised by a teacher, and no one, under any circumstances, is allowed to be on the grounds. Quidditch practices are postponed until further notice." There were quite a few groans at this, but Dumbledore took no notice. "Rest assured that we are getting to the root of this problem. All the victims of the attack are healing quite nicely, and they will all be perfectly fine. Now, Prefects, please take the students back."

Lisa Turpin was walking towards the Ravenclaw table, motioning for the students to follow her. Padma, Terry, and Mandy all stood up, but Mandy didn't follow Lisa. Padma spun around.

"Where are you going, Mandy?" she said.

"To visit Adrian in the hospital wing," Mandy replied, trying to sound casual.

"We'll come with you," Terry offered. Mandy shook her head, so Terry shrugged and said, "All right. We'll see you later, then."

Mandy waved and then continued on her way to the hospital wing. She got to it without incident, but as soon as she reached the doors, she was welcomed with Snape's suspicious glare.

"Well, hello, Miss Brocklehurst," he said.

"Good morning, Professor Snape." Once again, she was fighting to keep her voice nonchalant. "I came to visit Adrian. Is that all right?"

Snape studied her curiously. He didn't particularly dislike Mandy; although her grades in his class were average, she tried her best and wasn't an irritating know-it-all like Hermione Granger. He didn't like her, either, but she didn't grate on his nerves like many of his students did. He studied her expression. Her mouth was forced into a bright smile, but it didn't reach her eyes, which were both sad and hopeful. With a sigh, he decided to let her visit Pucey.

"Yes, it's all right. You have ten minutes," he growled.

Mandy smiled again, and this time it was genuine. "Thank you, Professor Snape." She glanced at her watch to check the current time before walking into the hospital wing.

Madame Pomfrey was bent over a brunette girl with her arm in a sling. Half of Slytherin house was laying on cots in the room, most of them bruised and bandaged, and almost all of them complaining. Mandy bit her lip. The sight of blood didn't usually make her queasy, but she didn't like it, and there were splashes of it on the students' bandages, robes, and mattresses. She stood stock-still for a moment, not seeing Adrian.

Thankfully, Madame Pomfrey noticed her and finished with the student she was tending to, then walked over to Mandy.

"Hello, dear. Are you looking for someone?" she said, keeping her voice down.

Mandy nodded. "Yes . . . A-Adrian Pucey." The scent of blood in the air was making her head spin.

"Ah. He's right over here." She led Mandy to a cot in the far corner, where Adrian sat, staring blankly ahead.

He wore a simple white shirt, which was unbuttoned most of the way, so that the bandages on his ribs peeked out. Another bandage was wrapped around his head, partly obscured by his thick, dark hair. A mostly healed gash ran from the edge of his mouth up to his temple. Mandy couldn't help but be thankful that whatever had done it had missed his eye. She shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if it hadn't missed.

"Adrian, someone's here to see you," Madame Pomfrey said.

Adrian turned his head and stared up at Mandy and the nurse.

"You have ten minutes," the nurse said to Mandy. "And please, try not to be too loud." When Mandy nodded, Pomfrey left.

"Hello," Mandy whispered.

"Hi," Adrian replied, giving her a grin that made him wince. He ran his fingers across the gash on his face. "This is going to leave a scar," he muttered, almost to himself. "Sit down."

She sat on the edge of the bed, and then smiled softly as Adrian leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.

"I'm glad you came. I've been up all night, and it's boring as hell. I was worried about you. No one told us what had happened. Did they tell you?" he asked.

Mandy shook her head. "All they said is that they were 'getting to the root of the problem.'" She turned her head to look him straight in the eye. "Did you see anything?"

"During the attack?" She nodded, and he shook his head. "Nothing. Well, that's not really true; I could see things being knocked over, and these weird grey shapes passing over the lights . . ." He furrowed his brow. "But nothing real, nothing solid. No monster . . . nothing."

Mandy frowned. "What did you hear?"

"I couldn't hear anything besides the screaming, the crashing..." he trailed off and shuddered, looking away.

Mandy pointed to his scar. "How did you get that?"

"Glass." Mandy winced. "I was sitting by the window when it broke, and a shard got my face." He ran his fingers across it again. "It barely missed my eye. I guess I'm lucky, then, even if I'm out of Quidditch . . ." The thought caused him to put his face in his hands. "I don't know what I'm going to do. This is my last year to play, and if I'm out for the season, that's it. I won't be able to play professionally at all. I guess I just have to work on my studies . . . hope to get drafted by the Ministry . . . ."

Mandy leaned over and hugged him. He buried his face in her shoulder, and she kissed his head, completely unaware of the other Slytherins in the room, who were apparently well enough to snigger through their hands, until Draco Malfoy decided to speak up.

"Please, stop, I feel ill enough already," he said, and Mandy jumped when she realized he was right behind her.

She let go of Adrian and turned around to see the icy blonde smirking at her. His usually sleek hair was a mess, he had a black eye, and his arm was in a sling, but that didn't stop him from looking haughty and superior. Mandy was about to say something sarcastic back to him, but unfortunately, his announcement had also reminded Madam Pomfrey that Mandy's ten minutes were up.

The nurse rushed over, looking flustered.

"I'm sorry, my dear, but your time is up."

Mandy nodded slowly, still glaring at Draco, whose smiling was spreading maliciously.

"All right," she said, standing up. Then she whirled around to face Adrian again. "When do you get to leave the hospital wing?"

"Three days."

She nodded once again, then mouthed, "I'll come back later," and followed Madame Pomfrey out of the hospital wing. Snape was still standing outside the door, stone-faced and rigid. He barely acknowledged Mandy as she passed with so much as a glance. Despite his blank expression, his dark eyes gave away the fact that he was completely lost in thought. Mandy tip-toed past the professor. Once she was sure that she was out of his sight, she broke out into a jog and went all the way back to the Ravenclaw Tower.

When she reached the Common Room, the lack of noise was still startling. Cho Chang, who was known for her loud, easy and sometimes obnoxious laugh, turned to look up at Mandy with frightened eyes. She said nothing. Terry and Padma were sitting on a couch by the fire. Padma was asleep and resting her head on Terry's shoulder; although he didn't look too happy about being a human pillow. Still, he looked like he was about to fall asleep himself. Stewart Ackerly, a second year, had actually fallen asleep on the floor. A group of Ravenclaw fourth year girls, who were the biggest gossips this side of Pansy Parkinson, were reading or staring idly at the ceiling.

With a heavy sigh, she trudged across the room and threw herself onto the couch next to Terry. He seemed to notice that the silence was making her uneasy.

"This is a bit odd compared to what you're used to, eh?"

Mandy nodded vigorously and she briefly but desperately wished for her mother's crowded, noisy house again. The incomprehensible babble of her Scottish aunts, the music of an ancient grand piano that hadn't been tuned in years, her grandmother's crazy shrieks, and the bang of pots and pans as her mother cooked up enough food to feed a large army normally drove her crazy, but at the moment, it seemed like sweet relief. She hated this; hated it with a passion. Part of her wanted to scream, part of her wanted to laugh, but most of her just wanted to curl up in someone's arms and sleep until life was noisy and normal again.

"I'm not used to this...I want it to be loud again," she murmured to Terry, and moved closer to him. As her head drooped onto his free shoulder, he jerked away.

"Come on, Mandy, my other shoulder's already numb," he whined.

"Well, then, I'll even it out," she murmured, and settled herself against his warm body. "Besides, it'll be good for your reputation. You're sleeping with two girls at once."

He snorted and shifted his weight, and then tilted his head back so it was resting on the back of the couch. He took off his glasses, tucked them in his pocket, laughed at the two girls sleeping on either side of him (Padma was drooling and Mandy was breathing heavily through her nose), and then fell into his own fitful sleep.

Padma found herself dreaming almost instantly. Her subconscious tossed around ideas of what could be hiding in the Slytherin dungeons, from a flame-haired medusa to a massive manticore with teeth spanning from ear to ear. Her favourite image was of a huge Hungarian Horntail dragon with ruby eyes. It breathed fire, scorching everything in sight, and the air shimmered around the twenty-foot flame.

Like any dream, this one had a surreal, disoriented quality to it. People spoke and screamed in slow motion. The manticore talked merrily in a voice that sounded like a midget on helium as it gleefully munched away on various professors. Colours were off, the rules of time and gravity did not apply, and yet, it all made perfect sense to Padma as she dreamt it. It was vivid and clear, and when she awoke at four in the afternoon, her first waking thought was that it had all been real.

She was lying sprawled on the couch by herself, staring at the ceiling. Terry and Mandy had apparently left her long ago. The fire behind her crackled and roared, and she sat up and spun around, prepared to face the dragon from her dream. When she was greeted only with the sight of the white marble fireplace, she laid back down and sighed deeply.

Her stomach moaned for food, and she realized that she hadn't eaten for eight hours. Although she was sorely tempted to go down to the Great Hall and try to find a snack, her dream was still fresh in her mind. Instead she opted to conjure up a plate of cookies and some hot chocolate.

Magically created food would only sustain you briefly, because after a short time, it disappeared. This was a pain in the arse if you weren't planning on eating again anytime soon, but if you were watching your weight, it was a saviour. And in Padma's case, if all you needed was a snack to tide you over until dinner, it was a blessing.

She took a bite of her first hot, gooey cookie and looked around the room. It was oddly deserted, except for a few sleeping first years that no one had bothered to wake. She took a long swig of the scalding hot chocolate and savoured the invigorating pain, but when it subsided, she was left wondering where everyone else had gone.

After all that was left of the cookies and chocolate was a few crumbs, sticky fingers, and dregs at the bottom of her mug, she stood up and muttered a simple incantation to clean up her mess. She pulled a ribbon out of her pocket; tied back her frizzy, mussed curls, and then began to climb the stairs to her dormitory.

Whispered conversations drifted through the chilly November air and Padma sighed in relief when she pushed open the door and found Mandy, Cho, Lisa, and Alexis Moon were lying on their stomachs on beds, sharing theories. Cho wore black pyjama pants and a grey sweatshirt, Lisa was wearing her navy dressing robe and her hair was sticking up at odd angles, Alexis still had her uniform on and her mascara was smudged everywhere, and Mandy's dusty blue dressing gown was falling off a bony shoulder. All of them looked tired and frightened.

Alexis was short and chubby, with unruly black hair cropped short and beady brown eyes. Lisa was tall and regal, with long, dark blonde hair, blue eyes, and a hawkish nose, but her mouth was made for lipstick ads. She had about the whitest teeth known to humanity, even if her canines stuck out too far and made her look like a vampire with a tan. Lisa noticed Padma first and then the other girls followed her gaze.

"Hey, Padma," Mandy said weakly. "We were just talking . . . ."

"Is everyone in the dorms?" Padma asked.

"Yeah," Alexis said. "There were so many sleeping people that we had to come up here if we wanted to talk without waking anyone up. We left first, and then everyone followed us."

Padma nodded and put a hand to her cheek, and was surprised to find that it was slick with sweat. And her curly, dark hair was a horrible mess; she knew that. A mirror, which was usually her friend, would have cracked had she looked into it this morning.

"I think I'm going to take a shower," she announced. The other girls nodded, but none of them said anything, so Padma brushed past them and grabbed a change of clothes, brush, and towel.

She left the room, feeling entirely bewildered. The girls had said that they were talking, but they had been simply sitting in silence the whole time she'd been in the room. Was there something they didn't want her to know? Mandy was a little bit overprotective of her friends, that was for sure, but if she was on to something, she'd let Padma know. And why hadn't the normally obnoxious Cho jumped on the chance for gossip? Padma frowned and walked towards the girl's bathroom.

She pushed open the heavy door and headed over towards the nearest shower. The bathroom was always kept clean, although the floors were constantly wet because of a leak that no one could find. Padma had to edge along the wall and grab onto sinks to keep from slipping. The mermaid in the painting that hung on the opposite wall giggled at this and flashed her shining fins.

"Oh, shut up," Padma said; the mermaid scowled in return.

Padma skidded across the white and blue tiles and finally reached the shower stall. She stripped off her clothes, threw them in the laundry chute, and then locked the stall down and turned the water on as hot as it went. It scalded and turned her skin pink, but she didn't mind. It kept her mind off things.

A shelf underneath the showerhead held rows of bottles half-filled with magical shampoos, soaps, conditioners, and lotions. Padma adjusted the heat of the water so it was lukewarm, grabbed a purple vial labelled 'Mr. Frizzee's Shampoo For Curls,' dumped a liberal amount into her hand, and scrubbed it into her scalp. It smelled of lavender and made her skin tingle. As she rinsed it out, she left her thoughts wander again, and they ended up on Mandy.

Mandy. She'd known Mandy for almost six years now, since her first day on the Hogwarts Express. They hadn't always been friends. Padma had a tendency to be frivolous and careless, and Mandy was normally practical. But they lived in the same dorm, survived through Harry Potter-related tragedy upon tragedy together, and, at first, had a crush on the same boy. It was a little-known fact that Padma had always liked Adrian, but once he'd finally become something of a friend, he oddly didn't mean much to her anymore. He meant too much to Mandy.

He'd changed Mandy, that was obvious. Mandy laughed a lot more now, and she did stupid things. She didn't clash with Padma so much anymore. Padma missed that. She liked arguing, which was why her mum labelled her a born lawyer. Well, that and the fact that she'd been a compulsive liar since birth. Mandy used to be a born professor, but now her only goal in life was to get married. Pathetic, it was, but if Mandy wanted that, Padma couldn't stop her.

I'm losing my best friend everyday, and I don't care enough to do something about it.

That realization slapped her right then as the hot water ran out and an icy stream poured from the faucet. Padma screamed and turned the water off, then, shivering, wrapped a towel around herself and walked out of the stall to the mirror.

Her wet hair hung around her face and dripped down her bare back as she wiped the steam off the mirror. Her reflection was the same as always. Dark and beautiful. Her skin was smooth, except for the spots on her cheek that she constantly fought with. Her eyes were big, brown, and framed with long lashes. Her lips were full, her nose was straight, her cheekbones were high. She was gorgeous and she knew it. But someone else shared the same face, and she knew she'd never outshine her Gryffindor twin.

With a sigh, she moved away, dried off, and slipped on her shirt and jeans. She brushed out her hair and braided it, wrapped the towel around her shoulders, slipped on her shoes, and left the room with one last glance in the mirror.

The hall was still empty. Padma walked along slowly, still thinking, and then whirled abruptly around. She had heard footsteps, but no one was there.

"Hello?" She called. There was no response.

I imagined it. She kept walking, this time humming cheerfully. The footsteps came again, louder and closer than before. Padma turned around again, and they stopped. There was no mud on the ground, nothing. Her mind was playing tricks on her, it seemed. She broke into a run, and the footsteps got louder and louder, and came faster. Panting, Padma stopped again, and gasped as a disembodied shadow passed over the lamps. The hair on her arms and the back of her neck stood straight up, her throat tightened, and her heart skipped in fear. She ran again, and didn't look back until she had collapsed inside the girl's dorm.

"What happened, Padma?"