When the alarm went off the next morning, I groaned and pulled my pillow over my head. Percy had drone on to all hours of the night about our prefect duties. When midnight hit, Professor McGonagall came and yelled at him to wrap it up because we all had to get up early for classes. By the time I actually got into bed it was almost 1 am in the morning.
But after a few minutes of hiding under my pillow, I rolled out of bed making both Freya and Freddie, who Hagrid had dropped off to me the night before, extremely unhappy. The second I was out of bed, the two of them were back on my pillow and had already fallen back a sleep.
Both Maggie and Amanda were still asleep when I left the dorm room. I had purposely set my alarm earlier than normal because I wanted to use the prefect bathroom. I had heard so many good things about it, I wanted to check it out for myself. Even if that did mean getting up at 6am in the morning to make sure there was no one else would be there.
Pulling on my fluffy pink dressing gown and my cat slippers, I piled all my things in to an Avengers gym bag and headed down to the bathroom. The castle was peaceful at that time of the morning, there were no students yelling and no one pushing and shoving to get to class. It was quiet with the warm morning light filtering through the windows.
Percy had told us the prefect's bathroom was on the fifth floor, behind a door that was to the left of the statue of Boris the Bewildered. Making sure there was on one else around, I walked over to the door and said the password which was pine fresh.
The door opened to reveal a large room that was made from white marble. There were candles suspended in the air by the most amazing chandeliers I had even seen in my entire life. In the middle was an Olympic swimming pool sized bath with a hundred different tapes that had every type of bubble bath imaginable in it as well as different coloured water. As much as I wanted to fill the bath and jump in, I thought better of it and headed to the showers that were on the right.
The showers were separate into girls and boys' sides and were just as amazing at the bath. There were ten different sized stalls made out of white marble and had multiple different shower heads so you could get the perfect temperature. Picking the last shower, I headed in and turned it on. It turned out that I didn't need to bring my shampoo and conditioner as it was already in the stalls.
As I washed my hair, I started to sing one of the songs from the new Frozen 2 movie that Lila wanted me to watch with her what seemed like a hundred times over the last month of the school holidays. It was a bad habit I had, singing in the shower. I just hoped no one else was in the bathroom as belted out Into the Unknown at the top of my voice.
When I had finished my shower and the song, I walked out to the changing area of the shower stall to get my brush out of my bag only to find it wasn't there. Realising I had left it in my bag in my dorm, I pulled my pink fluffy robe back on and prayed that there was a brush amongst the many hair products in the main part of the bathroom that was strong enough to detangle my crazy curls.
Thinking I was still alone, I started singing Somethings Never Change softly to myself as I walked out into the main area. I was silently cursing myself for letting Lila talk me into watching Frozen 2 so many times as I attempted to sing both Elsa and Anna's part when I walked face first into someone. When I looked up to see who I had walked into, I felt myself turn bright red. Standing in front of me was a still wet Cedric with nothing on but a towel wrapped around his waist. Yes, he was my boyfriend and yes, we had been best friends since we were 11 but I had never seen that much of him and I couldn't help but notice how much muscle he had built up over the holidays that was hidden behind his shirt and jacket.
"Elsa! What are you doing here?" he asked, turning just as red as I felt.
"I, uh, was looking for a brush. I seemed to have left mine back in the dorms," I said, looking anywhere but at Cedric who was pretty much naked in from of me.
"I think I saw one over by the sinks," Cedric told me, running a hand through his thick hair.
"Cool, thanks. I'm just gonna... go get it," I said, walking backwards towards the sink and clutching my robe a little tighter to make sure it didn't come undone.
I knew I shouldn't have but I may have looked back over my shoulder at Cedric when he wasn't looking when I walked back to my shower stall. Hey, what can I say? He was my boyfriend and I could check him out when I wanted to. Right?
"You two are being unusually quiet," Maggie commented at breakfast as she looked over at me and Cedric who had barely spoken a word since we walked into the great hall.
"I'm, uh, tired. That's all," I said, not looking anyone in the eye as I ate my porridge.
"Yeah, Percy was still going on about prefect duties until midnight," Cedric added.
Okay, spill. Something else is up, Danny said through our bond.
Nothing is the matter. I'm just tired.
Yeah, that's why you and Cedric blush each time you look at each other. Look, I know he was going to the prefect's bathroom this morning and I'm guessing you did too... You know what, I don't wanna know.
Odin's beard! Nothing happened, Danny. Just drop it!
When Danny laughed while he was drinking and pumpkin juice came out of his nose, almost everyone stared at him. Well, everyone but Cedric who looked down at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Sorry guys, juice went down the wrong way," Danny coughed, as I shook my head to tell Cedric it was nothing.
"Maybe if you didn't drink pumpkin juice like it was going out of fashion, it wouldn't happen," Hamish commented as he looked down at our new timetable.
"Shut it, McLaggen," Danny laughed as he threw a piece of toast at Hamish that Henry caught and ate.
"Can we keep the food fights to a minimum of the first day," I joked as Danny rolled his eyes at me. "Hey, Hamish. What do we have first?"
"DA with the new professor," he told me as we all looked up at the teachers table where Professor Lupin was talking to Loki who was back in his full Logan Alden glamour.
"He looks a bit...ragged, doesn't he," Maggie said, wrinkling her nose a bit.
"He's probably just going through a rough time. I don't know why but something about him reminds me of Bruce," I said, coming to the new teachers defense.
"That's what I was thinking," Danny said, looking up at Professor Lupin.
"Something tell me I'm gonna like the new Professor," I added as Loki looked over at me and smirked as if he knew what we were talking about.
"Well, we better head up if you want to make a good impression on the new professor otherwise were going to be late," Hamish said, getting up from the table.
I got up to follow my friends but Cedric grabbed hold of my hand to pull me back so that he could talk to me.
"Hey, Elsa. About this morning...," he began to say.
"How about we both just forget it ever happened," I said, still not able to look him in the eye because of the image of him dressed in nothing but a towel that was still stuck in my mind.
"I guess that would probably be for the best," Cedric said, sounding just as embarrassed as I felt. "But I did see you checking me out."
"Oh, please. You were doing the same," I joked as Cedric draped his arm around my shoulder as we headed up to class.
"Okay, guilty as charged," he laughed as we walked out of the great hall. "But I do have to ask, what were you singing?"
"It was a song from the new Frozen movie. Lila made me watch it over and over again. It was a good movie but the songs are stuck in my head," I explained.
"It is going to be another self-fulfilling prophecy like the first one?" he asked.
"Lord, I hope not. Elsa's powers get even stronger and she actually ends up frozen for a while. I really don't think I could deal with that."
Professor Lupin wasn't in the classroom when we arrived, so everyone had sat down at the tables waiting for him. For the first time we didn't share the class with another one of the houses and I was kinds grateful for that. I really didn't think I could stand the looks from Cassy after this morning's little awkward interaction between Cedric and me that she saw happen from the Gryffindor table.
For the first time, Cedric and me were one of the last to get to class. So, we ended up at one of the tables at the front of the room which really didn't bother me. I got a good feeling from Professor Lupin and actually wanted to sit near the front of the class unlike last year with Lockhart. I had just pulled my books out of my bag when Professor Lupin walked into the room.
"Books away everyone. You will only be needing your wands," he said walking up to the front of the class and sitting on his desk.
"Hello everyone! I'm professor Lupin and I will be your defense against the dark arts teacher for this year," he said as he picked up some papers from his desk and flicked through them. "I've been going through your work from the past few years and I can see that neither of your teachers have gone through potentially dark creatures with you. So that's where were going to be starting today."
"Yeah, that would be because of the Cornish Pixie incident with the second year Gryffindor's last year," someone called out from the back of the classroom.
"Yes, I heard about that...unfortunate incident. But I can assure you nothing like that will be happening this year," Professor Lupin told us, trying to hold back a smirk. "Now, leave your bags but bring your wands and follow me."
Everyone shuffled to the door, following Professor Lupin down the corridor into the staff room where Professor Flitwick was reading a book.
"Sorry to interrupt, Professor. But I thought I would show the fifth years the guest we have living in the cupboard," Professor Lupin told him when he looked up from his book.
"Oh, of course Remus. I'll leave you to teach the class in peace. Have fun you lot," Professor Flitwick said with a smile on his face as he walked out of the staffroom.
"Now, can anyone tell me what they think it in the cupboard?" Professor Lupin asked the class as the cupboard started to shake behind him. When no one raised their hand to answer him, I did.
"Yes, Miss Rogers, was it?" he said nodding at me.
"Elsa Rogers, sir," I told him before answering his question. "It's a bogart, sir."
"Very good, Miss Rogers. Five points to Hufflepuff. Now can anyone tell me what a bogart looks like?" he said as Hamish raised his hand. "Yes, Mr..."
"Hamish McLaggen, sir. No one knows what a boggart looks like as it takes on the form of whatever you fear most," Hamish said, making Professor Lupin smile.
"Correct, Mr. McLaggen. Take another five points to Hufflepuff. I'm glad to see that you have been keeping up with your reading even if you have had a few disruptions over the past few years. Now, there is a very simple spell to get rid of a boggart. Repeat after me, without wands at first. Riddikulus."
When the whole class repeated the spell correctly, Professor Lupin smiled at clapped his hands in encouragement.
"Well done everyone. Now, I'm sorry but I'm still learning everyone's name. But you in the back over there with the blonde hair, Mr...?" Professor Lupin said, pointing at Danny.
"Danny, sir. Danny Odinson," Danny told him nervously.
"Why don't you come up to the front of the class, Mr. Odinson," Professor Lupin said.
I watched as Danny stumbled his way up to the front of the class. I knew exactly what his fear was, clowns. When we were little, we were trying to find something to watch on tv when Danny found IT on one of the channels. Thinking it was Ronald McDonald, Danny got excited and started to watch it. Let's just say that it didn't end well and Danny couldn't walk into a McDonalds for over a year without screaming. When the latest IT movie came out and Cassy forced Danny to watch it with her one night when I was sick, his fear of clowns only came back stronger than before.
I could see Danny shake when Professor Lupin asked him to tell him quietly what his biggest fear was so that no one else could hear him. When he was done, Professor Lupin said something quietly back to him and Danny nodded his head.
"Ready, Mr. Odinson?" Professor Lupin asked him as he walked over to the cupboard, getting ready to open it.
"Ready as I'll ever be, sir," Danny replied, trying not to sound scared.
As soon as the boggart came out of the cupboard, Pennywise the clown started to charge at Danny while screaming at him which made the whole class jump back in fright. At first Danny froze and all the colour drained out of his face before be finally raised his wand at Pennywise.
"Riddikulus."
As soon as Danny uttered the spell, Pennywise turned into a small jack in the box and Danny relaxed immediately.
The whole class laughed as they clambered to get into line to face the boggart as soon as everyone started laughing at the jack in the box that was sitting in the middle of the floor, completely harmless. Somehow in the rush, Cedric and I got separated and I ended up a few people in front of him in the line.
As each student faced the boggart, it changed into so many different things from a snake, which I tried not to laugh at because it reminded me of how Loki used to turn into snakes to prank Thor, to Spiders and everything in between. As I got closer to the front of the line, I started to get more nervous because I had no idea what it would turn into. Especially after everything that happened in Sokovia. But it turned out I didn't have to wait long to find out what it would turn into for me.
The first thing that the boggart turned in was both Mum and Dad lying in coffins. I could feel myself hyperventilate when 'Dad's' eyes opened and look straight at me. "You could have saved us," he wheezed, blood coming out of the corner of his mouth.
The whole class gasped when 'Mum's' dead body came to life and started walking towards me looking like a zombie, like she had died that day in Sokovia and hadn't fallen into a Odin's sleep.
"Why didn't you save us, you had the power too. Now we're dead, the Avengers are going to die and it's because of you."
The bogart started to change again and I was terrified that it was going to turn in to Cedric from Urdarbrunnr visons but because I was hyperventilating, I couldn't even bring myself to lift my wand and utter the spell. But Cedric came to my rescue. He ran in front of me and the bogart changed into his father. I knew it was about to tell him how disappointed he was in Cedric but before it had the chance, Cedric had cast the spell and knocked the bogart back into the cupboard.
I didn't stay in the room to hear what the rest of the class was saying, I turned and ran out of the room before I started to make it snow or with how I was feeling, create a blizzard. I had no idea where I was running to, all I wanted to do was get away from that bogart and the nightmare it showed me. It was like Wanda's vision all over again but this time it was actually in front of me and not in my mind.
Tears blurred my vision as I ran through the castle and out the doors into the grounds. But I still didn't stop running, I still needed more distance between that thing and me. I finally stopped running when I was in the forest behind the quidditch pitch. The very same place I ran to in my first year when I told Cedric about my powers. Just like that first year, I created walls of ice around me. But this time the walls were a lot sturdier and more detailed because I had gain so much control over my powers. The walls were covered in snowflake patterns which I absent mindedly traced with my finger as I continued to cry.
It wasn't even five minutes later I heard Cedric calling out to me, making me realise that he must have left the lesson just after I did and had been running as fast as he could to catch up with me.
"Elsa, drop the walls. I just want to see that you're okay," he called out but the ice muffled his voice so it sounded like he was far away from me.
I knew that there was no point in hiding the fact I was crying from him. After all, he was the one of the few people I let myself cry in front of. So, I dropped the walls to let him see me sitting with my back against a tree and with my arms wrapped around my knees. As soon as he saw me, Cedric was at my side and had wrapped his arms around me.
"It's okay, Elsa. It's gone, you don't have to look at it anymore," Cedric said as I continued to cry.
"It was like Wanda's vision all over again but this time it was so much more real. But it was right, I should be able to do something to help Mum, but I can't."
"Elsa, it's not your fault. None of it is. But no matter what, I will always be here for you. I promise."