Shifted: Book One

Chapter Ten - Nightmare

It was dark, almost pitch black. And cold, not just in temperature, but the ominous feeling in the atmosphere was chilling. A wide, silver mirror sat in front of Hazel, who was frozen, staring into nothing. Her entire body was like stone, she couldn't even move her fingers. Her reflection walked into the mirror, it looked almost exactly like her, but something seemed different. Her hazel eyes were filled with black ink, as though someone had stolen her eyes and replaced them with two infinite voids. The clone stared into Hazel's eyes, with an evil grin on her fair skin that had cuts and scratches.

"They know your secret", the clone spoke, with a deeper voice.

Hazel, with shocked eyes, could only move her mouth, allowing words to tremble out.

"What? Who?", Hazel questioned with curiosity.

"Who are you?", she asked, slightly afraid.

The clone laughed, and spoke two words harshly.

"I'm you".

The clone suddenly grabbed Hazel's neck, almost choking her. The clones hands were strong, stronger than Hazel's herself, it was as though she was encountered by a possessed version of herself. Hazel felt her neck tightening, she started to lose her breath. But before the clone could suffocate Hazel, everything disappeared within a second, and she shot up in bed, gasping for air.

Hermione, who was already awake and dressed, dashed to Hazel, who was safely sat in bed in the Gryffindor common room. Hermione's face showed shock, she quickly grabbed Hazel's shaking hand, and comforted her.

"Nightmares?", Hermione asked, she swiftly grabbed a glass of water from her bedside table and softly passed it to Hazel.

Hazel's heart raced, she had never felt a nightmare so real like that before. Still trembling, she took the glass from Hermione and slowly sipped the refreshing water, taking slower and calmer breaths.

"Yeah, just a nightmare", Hazel responded, wiping her forehead and sitting up properly in bed.

Hermione squeezed next to her on the edge of the bed, rubbing Hazel's back and comforting her.

"I used to get them too, what happened?", Hermione said.

It took Hazel a few moments to really recover from her rapid heart rate. She shuffled, facing Hermione, with an uncertain expression.

"I was in a room, it was dark and cold, I could feel how freezing it was", Hazel began to say, picking at her fingers nervously.

"I was frozen, looking into a mirror, a huge mirror. And what was staring back at me was my reflection, only possessed and aggressive", she said, before clearing her throat and taking another sip of water.

"Did your reflection do anything, say anything?", Hermione asked patiently.

Hazel remembered word for word what her possessed reflection said, but she wasn't sure what to tell Hermione.

"She said nothing," Hazel lied.

"She just took a hold of my neck and attempted to suffocate me, but I guess I woke up before she had the chance", Hazel said in a slight sigh of relief.

Hermione, with a worried expression, moved Hazel's dark and silky brunette hair behind her shoulder, revealing her reddened and ever so slightly bruised neck.

Hazel flinched, she felt a slight bruising pain on her neck as Hermione gently stroked it, rubbing her thumb over the pale purple mark.

"What is it?", Hazel asked.

Hermione looked almost afraid, in a curious way.

"Are you sure you was dreaming?", she asked with uncertainty.

Hazel looked at Hermione in disbelief.

"Of course it was!", Hazel said.

She swiftly got out of bed, grabbed her uniform and went to the girls bathroom to get dressed. After putting her uniform on, she looked in the mirror, revealing her slightly bruised neck. She froze, she felt uneasy and hung her head over the bathroom sink. Hazel's breathing intensified, her mind was completely empty. All was silent until a distant sound was calling her voice.

"Hazel", it said.

"Hazel are you alright?", it said again.

At first, Hazel thought she was imagining voices in her head, until she heard a light knock on the bathroom door. She looked up to herself in the mirror, her face grew pale. She couldn't bare to look at herself in the mirror, in worry that her possessed reflection would return and take her life for good. She quickly splashed some cold water on her face, patted it dry on a fresh towel, and hurried to the door. Behind the door was Hermione and Ginny, with concerned faces.

"Are you alright?", Ginny asked, patting Hazel's back as she left the bathroom.

Hazel nodded with a hint of uncertainty, but didn't want to dwell on her nightmare.

"Harry is looking for you, he's downstairs", Hermione said.

Hazel thanked them both, and headed down to the common room to meet with Harry. Harry saw the uneasy feeling in Hazel's eyes when she approached him by the fireplace.

"What's wrong?", Harry asked, with a concerned voice, as he guided Hazel to sit by him next to the toasty fire.

"Just a bad dream", Hazel said, brushing her hair over her shoulders, covering her neck.

She sat down next to Harry, and instantly felt a sense of warmth, and that wasn't because of the fire. Harry cleared his throat, and faced Hazel.

"Dragons", he spoke.

Hazel looked to him with confusion, he was so blunt with his reply and she didn't really understand what he meant.

"Dragons? I don't understand", Hazel responded, with confused, furrowed eyebrows.

"That's the first task, they've got one for each of us", Harry said, looking into Hazel's, now slightly surprised, eyes.

Hazel was in disbelief. Dragons! She had never imagined coming across creatures as intimidating as those. But was it something to fear, or feel excitement over?

"Wow.. that's-", Hazel began to say, before being interrupted by Harry.

"Absolutely crazy?", Harry finished, with shocked eyes.

Hazel giggled.

"Challenging", she corrected, smiling at Harry, in which he copied.

"When does our first task start?", Hazel asked.

Harry rested his back against the knitted red and gold blankets that were hung over the sofa, he let out a sign of annoyance.

"Not until another a few hours after midday", he said.

"We've got to get our interview over and done with first," he added, rolling his eyes.

"Interview?", Hazel questioned.

Harry shot back up.

"With Rita Skeeter", Harry said, expecting Hazel to know who she is.

Hazel had never heard of this woman. By Harry's reaction, she seemed to be... a pest. And not too long after her morning conversation with Harry, she found out how Rita Skeeter was really like.