Ambrosia • TMR

C.18

Mostly blue eyes stared up into the open sky, irises spotted with green. Irene was content as she blinked lazily at a grim shaped cloud with a small smile. But when she opened her eyes, she could've sworn someone had turned the lights off.

Darkness. She was surrounded in darkness as far as the eye could see. Or couldn't see. It was so dark that her eyes, that were fairly used to seeing in the dark with her upbringing, couldn't adjust. In short, the room was dark as fuck. A hand itched toward her pocket where she kept her wand, Lumos already on the tip of her tongue.

Empty. Her pocket was empty. She didn't have her wand on her and didn't dare use wandless magic. Someone was around and she could feel it. A suffocating presence surrounded her on seemingly all sides. She didn't dare call out. She was sure something might just call back.

Taking a tentative step forward, she moved silently. Years and years of sneaking out of her cupboard had honed this skill. Some things were just like riding a bike and sneaking around was one of them for her. Irene walked around aimlessly in the dark. She tried to be cautious but after what felt like 30 minutes of walking around on guard, she began to relax when nothing happened.

The silence and darkness was becoming comforting and that presence, now that she had calmed down, felt strikingly familiar. It was extremely unnerving at the same time because she couldn't see who it was. Or anything else for that matter. It was weird to not have a person next to her. She was used to brushing gently against person limb when she walked. Which was 9.5 times out of 10 going to be Tom's. But now, there was only empty space.

"HIarreyne." What sounded like two voices speaking sounded around her. From nowhere but from everywhere at the same time. 'Harry. Irene.' Although, the words overlapped horribly, she still understood. That scared her. No one knew who Harry potter was except for Tom. The only person in the world who knew that she was Harlene or 'Harry' before she was Irene, was Tom.

"Who are you?" She questioned, voice quiet but stronger than she felt in the situation. The disembodied voice laughed. And laughed. On and on the voice laughed. The sound was like a power drill dragging down a chalkboard. She covered her ears with her hands and squeezed her eyes closed tightly. Silence. The deafening laughter abruptly cut off, as if waiting for something. She slowly opened her eyes. And when she opened them, she could see what looked like a million pairs of eyes staring at her. All the same blood red color with an obsidian bleeding from the pupil.

"Don't hide from me, Harlene." The red eyes hissed at her, black and red seeming to fight for dominance in their depths. "Dont leave me, Irene." The black eyes begged her, voice fading from familiar to unfamiliar and back again.

She shut her eyes.

"Please." She breathed out into the darkness as if her words were the longest prayer. "Please." He pleaded with her, voice sounding so familiar her heart almost crumbled. But when she opened her eyes back up, she spotted the Slytherin common room. The magically enchanted green fire, crackled on imaginary wood. The lights were off and everyone who stayed for Yule break were already in their dorms probably fast asleep.

For all she appeared calm, she could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She's never had that nightmare before and if she were into divination, she would've thought it to be a vision of the future. But she wasn't. And it wasn't. Or at least, that's what she told herself as she placed a hand on her chest.

She stayed down in the common rooms the whole night, knowing there'd be no point of going up to her dorm. She wouldn't be sleeping anymore anyway. So she sat and periodically glancing at the giant squid as it swam passed the windows, opened a book full of brainwashing light ideology, and listened to the cracking of the fire.