The Fifth Marauder - A Harry Potter Fanfiction (Completed)

Twenty-Two - Nightmares

Pandora's POV
May 3rd, 1976, 2:00 AM

My heels clicked through the grey Hogwarts halls, and every time my foot hit the ground the sound rang through my ears. Books were clutched against my chest, including my journal. My hair was up and away, and my tie was neatly tied. "Pandora, my sweet.." I spun around, recognizing the old voice from years ago.

"Dad?" I asked. He stood in front of me. His face was stubbly, his auburn hair outgrown and robes tattered. "You left, Mum kicked you out because of your drinking... how are you here?"

He sighed, stepping forward, "That needn't matter, my dear. I need your help." He reached out his arm to me, but his shirt sleeve rode up to show the detailed lines of a tattoo. Immediately I gasped and stepped away. "What have you done? Joining... him?"

"I need your help, you stupid girl!" I pushed with all my might to run away but his gripped my arm, and pained raged through it. I whimpered as he apparated us to a dark, ghastly room lit with purple and green burning torches. "Your muggle-sympathizing mother didn't kick me out because of my drinking." He spat as I looked around me. The walls were a cement brick and their didn't seemed to be a door. It could be cloaked. As my father spun around I checked my pockets for my wand. It wasn't there. "I asked her to join me, he promised eternal greatness for our family.. Do you know what kind of honor that is?!" His eyes were wide, the same violet shade as mine. But they looked more intense, more hysterical.

At this moment he gripped his wand from his robes, and waved it in a circular motion around him. Black threads emerged from all around him, forming a cloak that made me shudder. Bits of metal formed in front of his face to make the mask that it covered. The metal pushed itself together with a hiss, and the hood sat itself on his head. "I can't believe you've been gone because of this, you, you coward! You left your family and tried to seek out evil power that it never belonged to!"

He laughed. But it wasn't a normal laugh, it was throaty, the sound that would come from a wounded beast, "Do you know what the Dark Lord wants to achieve, Pandora?" He grabbed the mask from his face and held it in one of his hands.

"The extermination of muggle borns!" I raged back.

"Yes!" He cackled, "They don't belong here! We are the worthy! Just look what you could become!" He pointed his wand to me. I screamed running across the room, back against the brick. He cornered me and spoke something incomprehensible. Pain flared up my arm, and I saw the petrifying mark appear on my arm. The skull writhed, trying to seep into my veins.

"NO!" I shouted. Hot tears flared down my face, "SOMEBODY, HELP!" I a bright light appeared next to my foot, and my wand, in all its glory glowed before me.

My father growled, "Don't you dare pick that up." I ignored him and reached for it instantly.

"Petrificus totalus!" He froze instantly. I hexed him and and kept at it until I was satisfied. He wasn't moving. The tears were dried. My clothes were dirty. And my arm, my arm, was demolished.

I shot up from my bed, sweat across my forehead but no one woken up. From the pale light that streamed through my window, it was night. I needed help. I needed help. I needed help. Breathing was getting harder, my vision was blurring. With my last surge of strength, I took my wand from my bedside drawer. "Expecto Patronum." I imagined a brown haired boy in my head. Scarred face, and soft eyes. I willed my jaguar to find the wolf, and then, everything was black.

"Dora. Come on. Wake up." My eyes fluttered open, and I could feel my head resting on someone. "What happened? I was terrified, you were passed out in your bed, drenched in your own sweat and your wand right on the floor." I rubbed my eyes but didn't will myself to sit up. Looking over me was Remus. He found me. Thank Merlin.

"Terrible dream. N-need Dumbledore." I could sense him, for some reason. I knew he would be awake.

Remus took his hand and put it on my cheek. "Okay, if that's what you need." I tried to get up, but my muscles were too stiff. With that, Remus scooped me up and began to make his way out the common room. He was surprisingly strong, and all my mind could focus on was the tattoo.

"Moony.."

"What?"

"My-my arm, tattoo.."

"What tattoo? You don't have any."

I looked down, and sure enough, there was nothing there. In another two minutes, we were at the posts surrounding Dumbledore's passage.

"Password?" The statue grumbled.

Remus was Head Boy, so he knew it in a second, "Mandrake."

With the sound of shuffling stone, we rounded the staircase, and I manage to make the last few steps with Remus holding my arm. Knocking on the door, Dumbledore's voice sounded through, "Enter."

"Headmaster Dumbledore?"

"Why hello, Remus, what brings you to-" Dumbledore looked up from a paper and saw me, half standing on Remus' arm. He rushed from his desk and pulled the chair for me to sit down on, "Mister Lupin, what happened to Miss Alexanders?"

"I'm-I'm not sure Professor, she said she needed you. I found her passed out."

"How did you find her? Surely you were asleep," Dumbledore handed me a strange pink liquid, but I took it, and instantly I felt better. I could open my eyes.

Remus coughed, "Uh- we have a protocol to send our Patronus' to each other if we're in danger. The light woke me up from her's, and I followed it, sir."

"Clever. Very clever. Clearly something isn't right, she's dehydrated, and not completely conscious." They looked at me as if I was a broken object.

I cleared my head, I looked into Dumbledore's half-moon glasses, "Headmaster, I had a dream. A dream about my father. My mother didn't kick him out because of his drinking. He's a Death Eater. For him." At this point both of them were shocked, and I retold the whole nightmare, and specifically the scar.

"Your father somehow connecting himself to your subconscious, Pandora. That's how he was able to appear to you. He was making a rather large statement. I will discuss this with the other staff and we will discuss safety procedures as well as a way to track him and keep him from harming you."

We thanked him as we left, but I felt myself growing more tired by the second. Remus and I walked into the common room, but he was about to leave. "Remus?" I asked.

"Yes, Dora?" I was sat on the couch and he was near the door.

"Can you stay with me?" Without a word, he quietly slipped onto the couch. I rested my head on his lap. All I could remember as I feel asleep were his hands in my hair, soothing me to not be afraid of the darkness.