CRIMSON
Fred.
That's what was written on the top of the crumbled piece of parchment that was rolled into a ball. I had opened and reopened it a hundred times. I carelessly tossed it from hand to hand.
I had to do it. I had to write it because he had to know before it was late. George had to know. They both did. I was too afraid to tell them. I had to write it otherwise I would choke up and never get it out. Or they would laugh and say I was crazy. But what if they did believe me? Then how would I explain to them how I knew?
No. I can't do this. I can't do this. I can not do this.
I stumbled out of bed, tripping over my cat in the dark. Violet hissed at me as she ran away. "What was that?" Hermione asked from her side of the room.
"Nothing." I said quickly. "I was just going down to the common room to get something."
I escaped the room before she could ask what I could possibly need at midnight. I rushed down the stairs and out past the portrait of the Fat Lady. I ran into Ginny Weasley, who looked like she had been in a hurry herself. 'I can't believe Tom used to go here.'
"What?" I asked.
She looked at me startled, "Sorry, Margo, I- I didn't see you there." She was in her own world, but her face was extremely pale.
"Hey, why were you out so late?" I could practically feel the paper ball digging into my palm. I had to get rid of it.
She looked like she was out of breath. She had been running somewhere. Or away from something. "I-I was writing."
I looked at her hands, thinking she was holding a notebook or homework or something. They were both empty. Except for the blood. The inside of her palm was a dark crimson and her three middle fingers were coated in it. I looked back up at her scared expression, trying to make sense of it. 'I can't believe Tom's making me do this.' Only she never said it. I heard it. It was just like the other day, when I thought George was talking when he really wasn't. Maybe I actually did read his mind. But this isn't right. I'm not supposed to read anyone's mind. Maybe I am delusional.
Ginny rushed past me, rubbing her hands into her robes, which didn't do much to remove the blood. 'Please don't let her tell anyone.' She didn't say it out loud.
This is what she did tell me, "I'm sorry I ran into you, Margo. Um, I was just out, I-I guess I'll see you and H-Harry tomorrow." Her chalkwhite face started to turn a faint pastel pink and she escaped back into the Gryffindor common room.
I turned back towards the vacant stairway, determined to get rid of the note. I needed to destroy it somehow. I couldn't let anyone find it. I raced down the nearest stairway and let my instincts take over. I had to find a place no one ever went.
Minutes later, I ran into a room I hadn't been in since last October.
It was dark, only the moon streamed through the window. "Lumos," I muttered, allowing my wand to guide me.
I hardly recognized it at first. It seemed like any other bathroom to me. Except for one thing, the same thing that had caught my attention the year before.
Crying.
I rolled my eyes and called out, "Myrtle, come out, I need your help with something."
She glided out from behind a stall and brushed away the tears under her eyes, "I see your back."
"I need your help."
She looked taken aback and put her hand to her heart in suprise, "My help?"
"I need you to destroy this." I held out the crumpled paper, that was slightly sweaty. Ew.
"I'm not the Bloody Baron-"
"I don't know what that has to do with anything."
She shook her head, "Either him or the Room of Requirements." She pursed her lips like she was done with our conversation. But I wasn't.
"Murtle, please." I pleaded, "I'm only a second year, I don't know what the Room of Requirements is and I really can't take this anymore. Please just take it."
She flew towards me so fast, she was in my face in a second. "That's who you think I am?" She asked angrily, poking me in the arm, "Some kind of wish granter?!"
Wish granter? Who said anything about that?
"What's it about then?" She demanded.
"Sorry?"
"What's it say?" She waved her ghostly hand at my solid one.
I swallowed nervously. "N-nothing."
"If you're not willing to tell me, then leave."
"No, but-"
She kept moving closer. Her being a ghost meant that she radiated a smell of smoke and had a body temperature that felt like I had stuck my hand in a bucket of ice. I stumbled back.
"Don't come back and just demand of me. I didn't come back as a ghost to do others bidding! You have your debts to pay I have mine!"
Did she just say that she chose to be a ghost?
"You mean that you used to go here?" I asked, ignoring her persistence to get me to leave. "Why did you die so young? It was something about- about-" about what? I didn't know. I had seen a vision a little bit like this last year, when I first met her. All I learned from it was that Murtle had died in this bathroom. She had looked at something- or someone- but I never knew who. It was a weird way to die.
"Leave!" She said again. This time I took the hint and ran from the room. Away from Murtle. Away from the bathroom. Away from- a chamber. Wait, what?
I tripped on a missing step on the stairs- it had been their for thousands of years, broken by Gryffindor himself. We had learned to jump over it. But clearly, I wasn't paying attention.
My forehead smacked against another step. Oh snap, I'm so stupid. How the heck did I not see that coming?
I pushed myself up as my head spun. I had the biggest headache. I rubbed my palm into my head. As I did it, my scar seared with pain on my wrist and I winced. What is going on right now?
The pain was making my eyes water and I successfully got my foot out of the crevice. I slid down a couple steps, trying to will the pain to go away. My leg caught on a step for a second and I bit my lip to keep from crying out in pain. Geez. Man, up, Margo. I never cry. And I've been in worse pain before. Why am I freaking out now?
Okay, breath. Just take a deep breath. Okay, great. Now open your eyes. My eyes flew open and I clamped my mouth shut to keep from screaming. I closed my eyes again. No, please no. This can't be real. Please tell me that I'm only imaging this.
Slowly, I opened my eyes again. It was still there, but I knew I was only imagining it. It was only another one of my weird future seeing talent things.
Across from me, on the wall, written in dark red paint- wait, that wasn't paint. I shook my head in disbelief and tried to stay calm.- it was a short sentence, but still horrifying all the same, 'Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever'. As I read it, the words slowly started to fade. Wait, they weren't fading. They were flowing down from the wall as if it were paint dropping down instead of drying. The paint-blood- was completely off the wall now. It began to dissappear completely.
That was when I ran from the imaginary words. It wasn't real. But it felt so real.
By the time I collasped into my bed in my room, I was sobbing. I couldn't stop and I had to stiffle the sound with my pillow. I didn't know why I was crying, but I couldn't stop.
That was going to happen sometime in the future. I don't know what the chamber is, but it has something to do with Myrtle. I don't know who it was talking about though, but someone was definitely going to be in huge trouble if they found themselves in that chamber.
Or someone would find them when it was too late.
