Hogwarts.
November 12th.
It was dark in the castle, especially the 6th and 7th floor.
Two Hogwarts students quietly moved through the halls so as not to attract attention, either from the professors still awake, or the prefects on duty.
“Can’t we just sneak into one of the broom cupboards?”
6th year Hufflepuffs Brendon Halkirk and Trudy Galston walked around the darkened paths of the hallway that night a few hours past Hogwarts curfew, hand in hand as Brendon tried to assure his girlfriend.
“It’s okay, Trudy. Really. No one really goes to the 7th floor anyways.”
“But… Sirius Black!”
Trudy whispered a bit unsure as they walked through the darkened path, Brendon’s wand lighting their way up.
“It’s alright love. I can guarantee Sirius Black isn’t in Hogwarts at the moment. He’s probably running from here what with dementors and Albus now on his tail more than ever. Now… here we are.”
They entered an empty class with no chairs or table and he immediately spun her against the wall, his hand on her waist as she let out a startled giggle.
“See? No one can get to us here. Not even pesky prefects like Percy Weasley.”
Trudy smiled sweetly at her boyfriend as he brought his lips closer to hers and she soon found herself lost in his kisses.
It slowly began to get heated as his hands moved to rest on her butt and he placed kisses down her neck.
She was about letting out a moan when a sound reached her ears and her eyes smacked open.
“What was that?”
She spoke up suddenly and Brendon stopped his administrations with a confused look on his clouded face.
“What?”
Trudy looked around but she couldn’t see much, what with the empty room being dark and creepy.
Suddenly, Trudy was feeling unsure about the whole thing.
“Brendon, I think I heard something.”
She whispered and he looked around, his breath holding a bit in the hope that they wouldn’t be caught by anyone, especially Filch.
A moment passed and a sigh of relief escaped his mouth and he looked down at his girlfriend.
“See? No one is here. Now… where were we?”
To prove his point, he squeezed her butt making her shriek but before it could get too loud, he kissed her, and they soon for lost in their own world.
Suddenly, Trudy stopped, crouching down and moving to unzip Brendon’s trousers much to his surprise.
“Wicked…”
He whispered with glee but before Trudy could do anything, they both heard the sound of something unfurling.
Something that sounded heavy… like wings.
“Did you hear that?”
Trudy whispered in panic, straightening back up and grabbing Brendon’s forearm and he nodded, removing his wand from it’s holster and casting a lumos charm.
The room was very large and empty which was unsettling now that they thought about it.
“Brendon…”
“Shh…”
He whispered to her as he moved forward, pointing his wand as much as he could and taking careful steps around the room.
Trudy swallowed a bit, goosebumps suddenly on her skin and feeling the urge to shiver like she was in the presence of a dementor.
Seconds passed and he was halfway across the room, and nothing could be seen.
He turned to his girlfriend, a smile on his face.
“See? Nothing’s here.”
He said as he waved his wand around amusedly and Trudy sighed, but then she stopped as she saw something moving on the ceiling above Brendon.
It was big.
And it seemed to be upside down.
It had curling horns on its head and the… thing, looked long and slender. It had whale-like skin and a long barbed tail, and it’s wings… oh they were so long and large. From what she could see… it was almost as tall, as Brendon himself who was at least 5’10 in height… and it had no face!
“Brendon! Look out!!”
She screamed in pure terror, her hand moving to grab her wand.
Brendon though was a bit slow and confused but he followed her eyes and slowly looked up and a feeling of primal fear filled him.
“Shit!”
A loud piercing screech filled the air and it’s wings spread apart and grabbed at him before he could run, lifting him towards the beast, his wand falling to the ground.
“Trudy!!”
He screamed out as the thing let out a shriek and bit him in the neck, eliciting a loud cry of pain from him.
Trudy let out a wail as she pointed her wand in the darkness towards where she suspected the thing was.
And with a powerful shout, screamed out.
“INCENDIO!!”
________________________
November 13th.
Sally-Anne sat that morning in the Great Hall, enjoying her Saturday.
It had been exactly a week since the whole night terror thing and having to stay in the infirmary.
Nothing has happened again, thankfully… of course except for the headache she still had.
She hadn’t bothered using her mage sight because she knew it would worsen the pain.
The hall was quiet except for chattering here and there.
It was about a quarter full and more students seemed to be entering which was understandable because it was past 10 and breakfast would end by 11.
Sally herself had left her roommates and headed off on her own as she did most of the time.
Luna was nowhere to be seen, as usual.
Biting into a toast, the sound of owls screeching made her look up at the ceiling just in time to see owls fly in and swoop down towards their respective owners.
Sally-Anne watched as a brown tawny owl which belonged to her mum landed by her side and she smiled.
“Hello there, Tammy. Mum finally wrote back hm?”
Tammy screeched, his eyes on Sally-Anne’s breakfast and she giggled a bit, before giving a small piece to the owl who hooted gratefully and Sally focused on untying her package.
It was a bit fatter than expected and a small rectangular size.
Untying it, she spotted a letter first and quickly opened it after taking a small sip of pumpkin juice, reading it.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Sally-Anne,
I’m really sorry for writing back late, honey.
When I read your letter, I had no idea what to do, as you know the sight skipped me when I was born.
Your grandmother did leave a journal of sorts where she documented a bit of her reactions and I know she used to complain about headaches once in a while when she strained herself. Perhaps something happened?
Maybe if it gets too much, you complain to the school healer, even Flitwick, seeing as he’s your head of house.
Mage sight is not a disease, sweetheart. It’s a gift that not many have. I’m sure they’ll know more on it and if you want me to send them a letter, don’t hesitate to write me on it.
The journal is in the package, also I got one for you as well.
Better to start keeping tabs on yourself too. You never know when a descendant of yours needs it.
It seems to have skipped Betty-Anne from what I can see.
Take care, honey. Keep away from those pesky dementors and stay in groups till Sirius Black is found.
Dad and Betty say hi.
Love you,
Mum.
Sally put down the letter, exposing the remaining package which was indeed two journals.
One was slightly old with a brown leather cover, the parchment pages half filled up from what she could see as she lazily browsed through the almost calligraphic writing of her grandmother.
The second one brought a small smile to her face.
Her mother must have had a hand in designing it.
It had an aquamarine green leather cover and gold swirling paints on the front and back, her name written in the color as well at the back.
She opened it to clean well arranged parchment papers, before stopping in the middle when she saw a pressed Esperanza flower and her smile widened.
Her mom was a wizarding artiste who painted beautifully for a living.
She mostly did still life, but it didn’t mean she never dabbled in portraits too.
She was absolutely good at what she did too. Even her still life paintings were… magical. With the blue skies of her open land paintings seeming to move and the trees seemingly being brushed by imaginary air.
She had a small, cozy and quaint studio in Horizont Alley, a cross street of Diagon that intersected Knockturn and Carkitt market.
She was a flower enthusiast which had definitely passed onto Sally herself. Her mum was an art lover, better yet.
She picked the Esperanza, studying it with a smile, idly noticing her roommates walking in and sitting not too far from her though scattered around too.
Tammy flew off as more students flooded into the Hall and Sally hastily began packing her things so she could leave faster.
But before she could so much as move, two 1st year Gryffindor boys ran into the Hall hastily, their hair in slight disarray as the moved towards the Gryffindor table.
It wouldn’t have meant much if not for how their squeaky voices resonated around.
“We saw it! We saw it all!!”
“Yeah!!!”
The noise died down in the hall as everyone seemed to focus on the boys.
They soon realized they had everyone’s attention and the slightly taller one puffed up and eagerly climbed on the seat of the Gryffindor table, startling some who sat there but he focused on the crowd.
“There was a lot of blood!! I think he’s dead!”
The second boy, wanting the attention as well, eagerly joined his friend up.
“They say a vampire is in Hogwarts!!”
He shrieked out and the noise in the Great Hall increased once more.
________________________
Infirmary.
Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape and Sprout stood around an infirmary bed as Pomfrey finished what she was doing.
A boy laid unconscious on the bed, gauze wrapped around his neck and skin pale.
His name was Brendon Halkirk. And the girl gingerly holding his hand, sitting on the side of his bed and tears dripping down her face was Trudy Galston.
Both were 6th year Hufflepuff students, and one was currently fighting for his life.
Pomfrey sighed, turning to look at Dumbledore and McGonagall soon up.
“How is he, Poppy?”
“I have no idea how to say this but he could have died, Minerva! Part of his neck is missing! A chunk of it being bitten off! Not to forget… he doesn’t seem to be healing as well!”
A look of concern appeared on the professors faces, and Sprout placed a hand on the quietly weeping Trudy’s shoulder.
“Why isn’t he healing?”
Snape finally spoke up, a curious look on his face as he stared at the boy.
“I honestly do not know. I gave him some potions that could help grow back the destroyed parts of his neck and strengthen the nerves but… my diagnosis shows it’s not working as it should. It is as if… something is stopping it. And it’s not good for the boy’s health. I’m barely helping him as it is… if this goes on after 48 hours of not knowing what’s wrong with him, then I’m afraid I’ll have to involve the healers of St. Mungo’s.”
She finished tiredly as she starts putting some empty potion bottles into a basket and Snape glared at the Hufflepuff girl.
“You! Girl! Tell us exactly what happened, and leave nothing unsaid!”
Trudy flinched but Sprout kept her hand on her shoulders to calm her, a disapproving glare on the woman’s tired face though Snape couldn’t care less.
She sniffed, cleaning her eyes, finally looking up at the teachers for a second, and then back at Brendon.
“It was… really dark last night… we just… we weren’t really thinking—”
“Yes. We obviously know that, seeing as a curfew was placed for a reason and there’s also the fear of Sirius Black, and yet, you two saw it fit to gallivant around the 7th floor… in the dark!”
McGonagall admonished as the girls shoulders dropped, Snape giving a sharp nod and Poppy sniffing in support.
Dumbledore finally cut in, raising his weathered hand to stop McGonagall from ranting further.
“It is quite alright, Minerva. Perhaps you can tell us more, dear girl?”
Trudy nodded shakily, needing a moment to continue before she spoke up again.
“We went into an empty classroom on the seventh floor. I thought… I thought I heard something at first but… Brendon said he heard nothing. But I… we, heard it again and… he casted the lumos, walking around the room and…”
Her voice cut here as her sobs slowly began to increase.
“And there was something above him… on the roof. It was… it was like a giant bat maybe… maybe even a vampire… I don’t know! It was dark, but it had huge wings! And it… it grabbed him and bit into his neck. I…”
She burst into tears here, her hands grasping Brendon’s hand and Sprout sighed sadly.
“It’s okay dear. He’s going to be alright.”
“There will of course be punishment for this… silly disregard for rules and regulations set in Hogwarts! I’m sure Pomona will see to it.”
McGonagall nodded at Pomona who whispered softly to the still crying girl and Dumbledore sighed.
“Miss Galston. How did you and Mr. Halkirk escape with your lives?”
Trudy sniffed, looking up.
“Brendon… he dropped his wand as the thing picked him, and so I immediately fired incendio at the thing.”
“Did it get hurt?”
Dumbledore asked curiously, peering down at the girl over his glass but she shrugged helplessly.
“I don’t know. It shrieked, yes. And it dropped Brendon. He was still sort of awake though blood was… gushing out of his wound. I grabbed him and rushed out as fast as I could. I still heard it’s shrieking and like… wings fluttering rapidly. But I didn’t turn back. I had to get him away from there. I didn’t even grab his wand.”
She finished quietly and Dumbledore hummed, hand on his beard and seemingly in thought.
Poppy soon cleared her throat.
“Alright. My patient needs some peace and quiet. Pomona, why don’t you help the Miss Galston to that bed. She looks exhausted on her feet as it is. I’ll see what I can do about Mr. Halkirk.”
Pomfrey spoke in a stern voice and Dumbledore took some steps back from the bed, McGonagall and Snape doing the same as Pomona guided the exhausted looking girl into the bed next to her boyfriend.
McGonagall turned to Dumbledore as they began speaking quietly.
“What is this, Dumbledore?... Is there really a vampire in Hogwarts??”
A contemplative look appeared on Dumbledore’s face though Snape snorted.
“I can guarantee I’ve never heard of vampires having wings and looking like bats. No matter how much some books exaggerated about their kind, they do not have the ability to transform into monstrous bats.”
Dumbledore nodded.
“Indeed. I have a few guesses, but I’d rather not mention them at the moment so as not to spread fear across the school.”
Snape’s eyes sharpened at that.
“Do you mean…?”
McGonagall’s head snapped towards the headmaster, her skin pale as a grim look appeared on the old man’s face.
“I’m hoping I’m not, and it’s probably just a magical creature. A dangerous, magical creature. The only thing we can do at the moment, is to investigate the matter. I don’t know if we can do that ourselves, but if we have to… then we will. For now, we close off the 7th floor from all students.”
“And what if it’s what you suspect?”
“Then we will have to involve the Unspeakables. Even though they’re seemingly spread thin, trying to find ways to mass hunt…”
Snape’s eyes widened a bit.
“So, they have seen things…”
Dumbledore nods.
“Hm. There have been some reports around magical Britain… even some parts of France… let’s hope nothing of that sort is in Hogwarts.”
________________________
“—we were heading to the owlery to send letters and James said he knew a short court—”
“I did!”
“—that would take us directly there. But we ended up walking through and past a tapestry door that led us a few feet next to the infirmary. As we were about to close the tapestry, we heard cries and feet’s and well… we hid.”
“Why though?”
Angelina Johnson asked the two with a frown and the slight shorter one named James sighed.
“Well we obviously didn’t want to stumble into someone like Filch! And we may have been out a little too early. Anyways, that’s when we saw them! They’re probably somewhere in their 5th to 7th year. The girl was basically dragging the boy, blood on both their outfits. And the boy…”
His voice went into a whisper here, and Sally seemed to lean closer, some students doing the same subconsciously.
“His throat was absolutely destroyed!!!”
He screamed out dramatically and some gasped.
“What?! How??”
Hermione Granger spoke up from where she’d been sitting, her hair frizzier than ever and a book in her hands.
“We don’t know, but he’s probably dead. His neck was gushing out a whole lot of blood! I’m telling you, it’s a vampire!!”
“Perhaps it’s Sirius Black!!”
Someone cried out and slight panic began building up in the hall.
“Sirius Black must be a vampire now! Maybe that’s how he escaped from Azkaban!”
“What if it’s someone else though?!”
“Oh God! I need to write to my parents!!”
And just like that, panic settled in the students.
Sally looked around the hall, a worried look on her face as even her roommates had looks of fear on their faces.
“Do you think it’s true?”
Mandy Brocklehurst asked and Padma shrugged.
“Maybe… I don’t see most of the teachers around today.”
And it was true.
Sally-Anne looked to the staff table and no one was there, except Hagrid whose head was on the table, seemingly snoring away without a care for what was going on in the world.
Sally quickly stood up, packing her things and heading out of the hall, some doing the same and some walking in to start their day.
As Sally headed back to the dormitories to keep her things, she felt goosebumps on her skin as she wondered if there was indeed a vampire at Hogwarts and if it was Sirius Black.
Was there also an injured or dead student in the infirmary.
She immediately shook her head.
She didn’t want to know… not one bit.
Entering the dormitories, she immediately places her empty journal on her desk, holding her granny’s own instead.
She sat gingerly on her bed, glancing through the journal.
They were short notes in them, less that 6 or so lines at most and most of them talked about seeing out of the ordinary. The beauty of it all, and what those who didn’t have the sight were missing.
Grandmother also talked about hoping to find out more on the mage sight when she was older. Travel the world while at it.
Too bad she hadn’t been able to. But from what Sally-Anne’s mum had said, her Gran didn’t seem to have minded that one bit.
On some pages though, she talked about having the occasional headaches and how the pain relief potion seemed to walk wonders for her.
It also had to do with honing the sight. Using it and being able to control it.
But Sally didn’t even know how to do that, so pain relief would have to do at the moment whenever she had an headache.
Besides… it was probably a good idea not to use her sight at the moment if it would risk more head trauma, which she wasn’t interested in. Especially when she suspected her sight had something to do with the night terror she’d had.
The fact that such a beast called the Shoggoth existed, and she’d seemingly seen it without ever knowing about such a thing… it obviously had to have something to do with the sight.
She didn’t appreciate it in that moment.
________________________
By noon, a 7th year prefect had placed a notice on the Ravenclaw notice board.
The 7th floor was now out of bounds for all students, punishable by detention or even suspension for a whole month.
Because of that, the rumors spread even more dramatically, as everyone immediately knew, something had happened, and the staff were not being too forthcoming with explanations.
________________________
Sally-Anne walked outside the Hogwarts castle that early afternoon after doing some light work.
She wrapped herself a bit as the cold season had begun, and the Dementors were also not being huge helps.
If only she had some chocolate. Ah well, Hogsmeade weekend was coming soon.
She passed some fellow students as she strolled, not entirely caring of where she was headed. She just needed a little breather from Hogwarts and all it’s magnificence.
Right now, she was mostly looking forward to the Christmas period if she was being honest. Thoughts of going home and hopefully having a quiet holiday filled her with excitement. After all, perhaps Hogwarts was the only place seemingly beginning to give her the creeps?
Night terrors… Shoggoths… now, some… vampire’s here in Hogwarts??
And what was this…
Sally-Anne stopped, a small frown appearing on her face as she suddenly felt slight tingles all around.
She looked up, and a wary look appeared on her face as from afar, she found herself staring at the elusive dark forest.
She’d never been in there before, and she didn’t want to either.
What with her dream having been in a forest… the dark forest was even creepier than ever to her.
It seemed to have a haunting feel to it, worse yet was how seemingly different it… felt.
She shouldn’t, but she felt the need to use her mage sight on the forest.
Something about it just felt… different.
Fisting her hands and taking a slight breath in, she closed her eyes and opened it immediately, her pupils suddenly bright and glowing. The blues and greens beautiful and the gold seemingly glittering.
But it was only for a second as she crouched down with a pained shout, holding onto her head as pain trickled in for a few minutes.
Taking a deep breath, her eyes still clenched shut, she did some breath exercises, counting up to ten and tentatively opened her eyes, though she focused on the ground.
But slowly and surely, she began looking up, and then she was staring at the forest again.
The way mage sight worked was that the world seemed brighter… more beautiful, in your eyes. You could literally see magic in the air, as unexplainable as it sounded.
It was like music only you could understand. Like a beat only you could follow, and like a sound only you were privy to.
She saw, heard and saw more than most whenever she activated her sight.
But this time, she was staring at the forest that was giving off a more haunting tone that it ever did. And there was an aura coming off of the edges… so different… so abnormal.
With steady steps, she turned to stare at the school and her jaw dropped.
She found herself almost stumbling to he ground as she stared at the castle in all it’s mightiness.
The same aura was wafting around Hogwarts in bits and pieces… Like it was trying to increase its dominance over the castle herself while the castle magic seemed to fight it.
The music wafting from both was a terrifyingly haunting one, and Sally-Anne felt fear, that this was where she’d been staying… this was where she would have to walk into again.
The dark aura, trying to intermix with the bright red, blue, green and blue aura of Hogwarts.
It was terrifying!
What was happening…
She heard footsteps approaching but she still could not find it in herself to look away in fear that it would latch onto her.
“Sally?”
The strawberry blonde immediately turned to her blonde friend who had a grim look on her face and Sally-Anne immediately knew… Luna must know something.
“Luna… are you…”
Sally-Anne paused, staring not at Luna, but around Luna for a moment. The aura her friend had always given off was a weird one .. but now… now, the air around her seemed to… glitch.
And for a second, she thought she saw something float into existence around her before it was gone.
Luna sighed.
“Sally… I think there’s something wrong with Hogwarts… something very bad.”
There was no need to tell Sally-Anne though.
She could already feel in.
Down to her very bones.