Flagstones and Fire

The first thing I heard was a tiny trickle. Just drip drip drip. Slow and steady, unlike the radical beating of my heart.

Why was I so scared?

Why would I be scared at Hogworts?

Why would I be lying on the ground, arm tucked under me, which was burned, and my head covered in sticky blood?

And splinters of wood, covering everything.

I lay in golden light coming from above. Was this heaven? Was I- dead?

No; I was in too much pain for that.

But what happened?

All I remembered was someone saying, "You hurt him, I hurt you. Got it?"

Someone I hated.

Did I hate anyone?

Did I?

I started playing around with the words in my head.

I did, didn't I? I. Did. Did I. Hmm. No matter which way I put it, it makes sense. Wish everything was like that. Did did did did. I- I- I did? Did I? I did!

Then, like the water dropping onto the stone beside me, I started to remember. And wonder. Why would someone want to burn me in my sleep? And why did Malfoy come to help me?

But, there was no use with questions like that; I already had a headache.

"Halloo...." The vice called from above.

"God? Is that you?"

A chuckle. "No. But, your bedroom is a mess!"

"While you're up there critiquing my bedroom, I'm stuck underneath the floor! Do you mind helping me up?"

"Fine." A rope smacked my face.

"Owch! Be careful!"

I grabbed onto the rope, and started to climb.

It was Neville. He stood in the middle of the half-burned room, wearing a blue striped nightshirt, and a red tasseled nightcap. Why he decided to look American, I didn't know.

"How did you find me?" I asked, shaking out Malfoy's cloak, which I was horrified to find I still had. But, it was warm, and he night was cool, so I kept it.

Neville looked abashed.

"I won't ask." I said. I stood there for a moment, watching Neville, as he was watching me. "Well?"

"Nothing- Goodnight." He strode off, the pom-pom on his cap bobbing gaily.

I swallowed a bubble of laughter. I had weird dreams, Malfoy threatened me, I actually had fun getting turned into a cat, I had gotten burned by a fire someone had set, I had fallen into a hole, and Neville wore a nightcap.

And some students thought that teachers didn't know what funny meant?

***

The next morning, I was stiff all over, from sleeping on the ground all night. The couch Malfoy had Transfigured had fallen into the hole with me, and my wand was burned.

Not a bad start for the second day of Holidays.

Fred and George would had congratulated me.

But, they weren't there, and I wasn't happy, after gallivanting around all night, and my arm was plaguing me terribly.

Breakfast was not very good.

My owl knocked my juice over, the food had burned (The House Elves had a day off, and one of the other teachers decided to try her hand at Muggle cooking.) and Neville kept asking me stupid questions, like, "Are you all right? Can I get you anything? Can I?"

I finally snapped and told him to go away, I was fine, and go get a dog if he really wanted someone who would listen to that all day.

His smile quavered only the tiniest bit.

I spent the day sitting in the Library, unwilling to go explore, as I might find another place like that maze.

I really wasn't all that bad; as I was a teacher, I had full run of the other sections I hadn't before.

Come lunchtime, Neville was still chattering. My ears started to hurt.

I couldn't go outside, as it was storming.

The fire in the Library went out, and wouldn't be relit. I froze.

Then, to complete my day, during dinner, Neville sped away like the night before, and Malfoy threatened me again.

I had to sleep in Trelawny's old room.

Then, I had another dream.

Worse.

I stood in the maze, like the night before. Except, I felt- tired. Heavy. I no longer trotted so lightly. I never came upon the fountain.

The maze just went on and on, in a straight line. Clouds obscured the end- was there one?- and made it hard to tell whether I was getting closer, every, it seemed hours, that I walked.

Then, I was inside this room. A person was standing on a stage saying something about the sun, and the South Pacific Ocean. These kids were sitting in the front row, and went up to sit with them.

A guy came into the room, and led us away. The room where we stopped was empty but for two long tables and chairs.

I sat at one with another guy.

The man who brought us there didn't like that for some reason, and started yelling at me. I moved to the other table.

That kid just sat there, looking all alone. I started to cry.

"Why? Why must you do this? I'll tell, I will!"

The man started to look panicked. "If you tell," he warned. "I'll have you expelled!"

I kept on crying and saying, "If you do that to him, I'll tell! Can't you see what you're doing? Are you that blind?"

The man got angry and took all of us away. The boy I had been crying over wasn't there. The man locked us into separate little doors.

Although the doors were close together, we couldn't talk to one another. The rooms weren't really rooms at all, but mazes.

I tried to explore, but soon gave up. The maze twisted. The walls were lined with windows, but were all closed

Then, I came upon several desks. Two were taken. I sat down, and took out a notebook from a pile of books I hadn't known I had been carrying. Since we couldn't talk, I wrote a note to them, saying, "The war is a lie. It isn't real."

This girl, who wasn't there before, moved some of my books, although she said she didn't. Her name was Jennifer.

A boy I passed the note to was at the desk, deleting something. He wrote, 'don't let them see about the Concentration Camps.'

Then, Jennifer opened a door in the wall, saying she had to use the bathroom. Then, a girl named Heather had to go, and I held the door shut.

While I was waiting for Heather to finish, I noticed a small crack in a window. I picked up a piece a paper, writing on it, 'The war isn't real', and shoved it through.

The man came back, and was very angry. His guards pulled me away. I started to cry again. I screamed, "Why? Why do you do this? It reality such a terrible thing? Leave him alone...Leave him alone!"

They pushed me into another cell, and I was outside, hanging onto the face of a cliff. The storm around me raged, thunder crashing, lightning striking the ground so far below me, the rain tumbling because of the wind.

I struggled to hang onto the rock. Music started playing somewhere, low and sad. Someone screamed above me, "Oh my god!"

Slip from the pocket of the goddess, and into the sieve of Hell, stripping the goodness out, out, out...

I fell onto the ground. The storm was over. It was- deep, and dark. I hated the dark. It crept up to me, evil, and glowing with profane bugs, and others.

And then the voice beat upon the form of my riddled body. Hunchback.

Then, I started to fall again, and I woke up, to find myself leaning over the edge of a staircase.

It went, drop, then down, down, down......

"Hello? Are you alright?" It was Malfoy again.

"I- I don't know. Am I? I seem to have been sleep-walking. Sorry. I'll just go now..."

I fairly ran away. Up a couple of floors, I leaned against a cold stone wall.

First a fire...Malfoy threatens me....I lose my wand...I get stuck in a hole... Malfoy teaches Muggle studies...I sleep-walk.

What had I done?

I breathed in the chilly air to calm myself. I started my way back to the tower.

I never got there.

Even if I had, I wouldn't have been able to go in.

It wasn't there anymore.

How, you ask.

Purification by fire.

Someone thought it best to rid the castle of someone.

Was it me? Or was into someone else?

Or was it everyone?

I spent the rest of the night in the Library.

Maybe I should have become a hermit. Shut myself up.

But no, that would have been too much like my dream. I shivered, remembering.

"Why? Why do you do this? It reality such a terrible thing? Leave him alone...Leave him alone!"

The sun rose. I was glad to see it chasing away the shadows.

All the things that go bump in the night.

I was not comforted because I knew that you couldn't really ever kill something.

They'd be back.

Oh, yes, they'd be back.