HARLOW WALKED THROUGH THE empty halls of hogwarts, her mary jane heels making light clicking sounds as she walked. shadows were draped on the walls and there was just enough moon light peeking through the windows to illuminate the hallways.
she heard a voice echo through her head, "kill...kill..." it whispered sending chills down her spine.
she stopped short abruptly and looked around, not a person was in sight. "fucking déjà vu." she muttered and continued to walk, this time speeding up.
she turned the corner back into the hospital wing, she saw a group of professors huddling around the closest bed to the entrance.
"maybe he managed to take a picture of his attacker." one of them said. there was a poof and sparks came out of the camera one of them were holding. "what does this mean?"
"it means our students are in grave danger." another one of them said.
harlow began walking into the hospital wing, all of the professors turned at hearing the sound of her heels. they moved just enough for harlow to see what was on the bed, she saw the petrified body of colin creevey.
professor snape walked towards her and grabbed her wrists, gripping them tight "what have you done?" he had a disgusted look on his face, as if he just drank expired milk.
she moved her wrists around, trying to break free, but his grip was too tight, "ow! you're hurting me!"
"why would you do that?" he spat out, acid in his tone.
harlow looked confused, "i don't- i didn't-" her breathing became more rapid. her chest moving up and down hastily, she shook her head. his unbreakable grip made her feel like she was back at the dursleys after just talking back to her uncle vernon.
"severus!" scolded professor mcgonagall, "stop it
this instant!"
dumbledore walked up to severus and put his hand on professor snape's shoulder, "severus, calm down."
professor snape loosened his grip and let go, taken aback by his actions, for a moment harlow thought it looked like he was about to apologize, but no words came out of his mouth as he walked away.
"where were you, miss potter?" dumbledore asked calmly.
"i-i was in the bathroom." stuttered harlow, still shaken. she was rubbing her wrists that had just gotten free of professor snape's harsh grasp.
"oddly suspicious timing." professor snape muttered. he turned to dumbledore, "we should question her."
"cant we do this in the morning? it's like the middle of the night."
"well, miss potter, maybe you should've considered that before leaving after curfew." spat professor snape.
dumbledore side-eyed snape, "i'm afraid we need to do it now, as everything is still fresh in your memory."
"i'm tired." she replied.
"then i hope you like what the muggles call," he thought for a minute "'coffee' is it?"
ϟ
harlow sat in dumbledore's office, opposite to him with a coffee placed on the desk in front of her. on either side of him was professor mcgonagall and professor snape. if looks could kill, harlow would have been long gone.
"if one more person accuses me of unleashing whatever's in that chamber i'm gonna lose my shit." harlow fumed.
"language, miss potter." dumbledore scolded.
"sorry. i will lose my shit, respectfully sir."
"is that what you did to colin? you lost it on him?" he inquired.
"for the last time no. holy shit." she rolled her eyes.
"you're telling me me it is a coincidence that you were the first one at both of the scenes?" dumbledore said.
harlow shrugged her shoulders, "i don't know, maybe the universe just hates me."
snape chimed in, his acid tone still very present. he leaned over on dumbledore's desk and slammed his hand down on it, making harlow jump, "miss potter, i don't think you understand the severity of this issue."
cunt. she thought to herself, "here's an idea, maybe pull out a family tree, do some research on whose the actual heir of slytherin instead of accusing me of shit i didn't do." the lights in the room flickered with harlow's increasing anger.
"miss potter, i hope you understand if we have anymore circumstantial evidence we will have no choice to expel you."
"expel me?" she couldn't help but laugh out of pure anger, the lights were still flickering in the room. "what are you gonna do? send me home to my parents? oh wait you can't they're dead. probably because you weren't strong enough to defeat voldemort."
"you are just as entitled and arrogant as your ass of a father." snape spat.
"severus-" mcgonagall began. harlow would never know what she would've said because she was interrupted by the sudden shatter of all of the lightening bulbs in the room. glass was scattered all over the floor, the only light coming from the candles around the room.
the image of her father's caring, gentle eyes shot into her head, and then the image of his cold, dead, eyes glaring into her soul as the life was drained out of him.
she looked up at him, fire in her eyes. "don't you ever talk about my father." she turned to dumbledore, a tear rolled down her cheek. "are we done here?" she asked.
dumbledore was at a loss for words, "yes."
harlow ran out, she don't know why she snapped at them or why her anger towards dumbledore was so violent. all she knew is she hated professor snape and that she wanted to scream.
she walked through the corridor furiously, she approached the hallway with all of the awards on the walls and the trophies in cases. with tears rolling down her cheeks, let out a yell, with a motion of her hand the glass shattered on the outside of the trophy cases and all of the awards came crashing down from the walls.
harlow closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she opened them again and looked around at what she had done. she looked behind her and saw the shocked expressions of dumbledore, professor mcgonagall, and professor snape. her vision was blurred by tears. she turned around and ran out of their sight, leaving her professor's in horrified shock.
"i haven't seen power like that since-" professor mcgonagall was cut off.
"voldemort." dumbledore finished for her.
harlow went back to her dorm to sleep in her own bed, not bothering to go back to harry's side. she knewharry wouldn't want her there anyways. she sat there restlessly, tears silently falling down off her face. she turned to her side, drifting into sleep.
she woke up the next morning, still on her side, she sat there staring at her wall, emotionless. she wouldn't be surprised if rumors of her destroying the hallway had spread throughout hogwarts already. she turned over to look at her clock nine thirty it read, she turned back to her wall, fixated on it.
ϟ
pansy and daphne sat together in the great hall. pansy was reading through her potions book and daphne was picking at her food, but not eating anything.
daphne put her fork down, "where's harlow?"
pansy shrugged her shoulders, "probably under cedric."
daphne laughed for a moment, "no, but like actually."
"i don't know, when we left she was asleep so i'm assuming she's in our dorm." pansy replied.
"but that's weird. harlow never skips breakfast, even if she's not hungry she still comes to sit with us." daphne said.
pansy thought about it for a minute, "you're right, i don't think she's ever missed breakfast."
"let's go check on her." daphne said.
pansy nodded and got up, taking her book with her. daphne got up to, abandoning her untouched food.
before they could leave draco interrupted them, "or maybe she's recovering from her latest attack on the school and the students."
daphne and pansy looked at each other suspiciously and then both sat down.
"spill." said daphne, intrigued.
"last night there was another attack, this time on a student." draco told them.
daphne's mouth dropped, "no way, anyone we know?"
draco shook his head, "no, just some irrelevant mudblood. there was also an incident in one of the hallways."
"what?" pansy said.
"the trophy cases are shattered and all of our awards were knocked off and thrown around." draco informed them.
daphne furrowed her eyebrows, "and you think that's harlow because?"
"because usually when there's an explosion, there's harlow." draco replied.
the girls looked at each other, then back at him, "fair." they said in unison.
they both got up again, taking their things with them. pansy touched draco's arm, "thanks drac."
"don't call me that." he gave her a disgusted look.
pansy rolled her eyes and the two of them walked away. they went to the dungeon and to their dorm. they knocked on the door, no response. they opened it anyways. when they did they saw the seemingly sleeping form of harlow under her blankets.
"harls?" daphne said. "you awake?"
no response.
"i guess not." muttered daphne.
"harlow!" pansy yelled. "wake up!"
still no response.
pansy walked over to her and looked at harlow's face, she was awake just not moving or saying anything. she was just blankly staring at her wall.
pansy moved back, "what's wrong with her?"
"i don't know, is she like petrified?" asked daphne.
"no, she was still blinking and stuff."
"i think she might wanna be left alone." daphne told pansy.
pansy nodded, she put a hand on harlow's arm, "we'll be back later, harls."
she took her hand off and walked out of the room with daphne, "what the hell do we do now?"
"i have an idea." daphne said.
"oh god."
ϟ
the two of them navigated their way through the castle, entering the hufflepuff common room. they took the hallway down to the boys' dorms.
"which one is it?" daphne asked.
"i don't know."
the two of them looked around and saw one of the dorms doors were opened. the two looked at each other and walked up to the door, figuring they could ask the person in there where the right dorm was.
they looked into the room and saw a guy alone, doing sit ups. daphne knocked on the door, "hello?"
the guy stopped, got up and walked up to them. it was the person they were looking for. cedric stood there in sweatpants and a white tank top, sweat lightly covering his body.
"hey?" he said.
"you're cedric right? like harlow's cedric?" daphne asked.
"is that what they're calling me now?" cedric laughed.
"i'm assuming that's a yes?" questioned pansy.
he nodded, "who are you two?"
"daphne and pansy." daphne introduced them, "we're-"
"lo's roommates." he finished for them.
"yeah." pansy replied. "we think-
"we think somethings wrong with her." daphne cut pansy off, pansy shot her a dirty look, "what? you were taking to long to say it."
"what do you mean 'wrong?'" worried cedric.
"just come back to our dorm with us." daphne told him.
he nodded, "i'll be there in ten i'm just gonna shower first."
pansy looked over to daphne who was about to say something, pansy thought it'd be best to stop her before she said something inappropriate about cedric and showering. pansy covered daphne's mouth, "that's great. thanks."
he gave them another nod and the two of them left. once they were down the hall, daphne gave pansy a look, "what was that for?"
"so you didn't embarrass yourself." smiled pansy.
daphne shook her head, "i wouldn't have embarrassed myself."
"sure, daph."
"what! i wasn't!"
ϟ
after showering, cedric met up with daphne and pansy so they could take him to harlow. the three of them knocked on the door, no noise was made from inside the room.
pansy opened the door, "hey, harls. we have someone here for you."
there was a deafening silence.
daphne stood there awkwardly, "uh, so we'll leave the two of you to talk."
the two of them hurried out, closing the door behind them. leaving cedric standing in the middle of the room.
cedric moved over to her, "hey, lo." he sat on her bed, "what's up?" he put a hand on her arm, "lo?"
her response nothing more than a faint whisper, "go away."
"no." he said.
"please." she let out in a desperate whimper.
"harlow it's one o'clock and you're still in bed, what's wrong?" he asked.
she turned over to him, "please, leave."
"is this about last night?" he said.
she froze, "how did you know about that?"
"rumors are starting to go around, daphne and pansy told me."
she scoffed, "of course, they did."
"lo, i know you didn't hurt that kid."
she sat up finally, "but everyone else thinks i did."
cedric was silent, he didn't know what to say or how to comfort her. if he was being honest with himself it was because he's never really had to comfort anyone before. the only time he had done it was on halloween night, which was easy considering they didn't talk.
harlow's voice cracked, "i break everything i touch."
"that's not true." he said.
"i destroyed a whole hallway last night." she told him.
"that was an accident, they're fixing it right now-" cedric said.
harlow looked down, "you should've seen how dumbledore, mcgonagall, and snape looked at me, like i was a monster or something."
"you're not a monster." he looked at her, his eyes traveled to her wrists. he realized the deep black and blue bruising around her wrist, "who did that to you?"
"snape but it was an accident."
cedric wasn't having it, he clenched his fist, "i wanna kill h-"
"no." she replied, her mind was trailing off, "i'm just so sick of feeling like this and i feel like everyone's just waiting for me to break." cedric didn't say anything, "just like you are."
"you're not gonna break, you're strong and if you do i'll be there to put the pieces back together." he comforted her.
"strong?" she couldn't help but laugh, "i'm a mess. i can barely hold it together and i keep bothering you with my problems."
"with what you've been through i wouldn't be able to hold it together either."
"what i've been through? what do you know about that?" she furrowed her eyebrows.
"dumbledore told me about the dursley's." he informed her, "they're really that bad, huh?"
she wanted to be angry, at cedric for snooping and at dumbledore for telling him, but all she did was nod as a tear rolled down her cheek.
he pulled her into a hug, "i'll kill anyone that hurts you lo, just say the word."