(A/N) Adding this in just before I upload this, but it's going up a day early because last night fucking sucked for work. Stressed to the highest of heavens, and I wanna blow my brains out :D but I figured if my day is stressed, maybe I can make yours less so, or if it's not, then maybe I can make it a bit more fun XD Enjoy :)
Hermione awoke some time in the middle of the night, a feeling of something not right. She pushed back her curtains on her bed and looked around at her dorm-mates; they all had their curtains drawn, so she figured they must still be asleep. She grabbed her wand and whispered, "Lumos," and a light shined from the tip of her wand.
She swung her feet out from under the covers and stood up, her nightgown flowing down to her ankles. She exited her dorm and descended upon the Common Room. It was eerily quiet to the point of being unsettling. "Hello?" She called out, but as expected, got no response.
She walked into the Common Rooms center and felt her feet step in something. She looked down, her wand lighting the floor, and she recognized it to be droplets of blood; there was a trail of it leading towards the exit. She knew she shouldn't be out at night, but her curiosity overpowered her rational thought.
She walked towards the portrait hole and walked out. As the portrait closed, she turned to see the Fat Lady gone, "Great..." she ventured forth, having no real option now, other than to wait, but she wasn't going to do that. She held her wand low so she could see the blood trail she was following. It wasn't spattered all over the floor, though, it was sparse and you had to really be looking for it to follow.
She didn't know how long she'd been walking for when the trail just seemed to disappear. She looked around for any obvious signs of a hidden wall or something, but a quick check proved there wasn't one. She sighed and turned to see a silhouetted figure about thirty meters away. Even with her wand light, she couldn't make out who it was.
"Hello?" She called out again, not finding it very funny, "Who are you?" She began walking forward to get a better look at the hidden figure's face. When their face came into light, she almost dropped her wand at the sight. The face was cut to ribbons, but she still recognized who it was, "(Y/N)?"
He spoke in barely a whisper, she had to strain to hear him, "Run-" his head suddenly rolled backwards off his body and his body fell to the knees and eventually the floor to her left.
Hermione let out a blood chilling scream and now in front of her was a masked person, holding a bloody kitchen knife. Hermione's first instinct was to run; if this person killed (Y/N), she had no chance against them. She ran through the corridor and stopped to turn and look at her pursuer; he was walking slowly after her. The soulless look in the blank eyes was spine rattling.
In desperation, Hermione casted Incendio at him, but when he caught fire, he continued unfazed. All it did was burn the mask and his clothing a bit. She turned and continued to run from him.
She didn't know how long she had run for, but exhaustion was starting to set in. She slowed some and panted painfully; her lungs felt like they were on fire. She glanced around and decided to hide in a classroom. She carefully opened and closed the door quietly when she didn't see her pursuer anywhere. She hoped that he lost her. She found herself in the Arithmancy Classroom and she hid herself under Professor Vector's desk. "Nox," she whispered, extinguishing the light from her wand.
She did it too late, though, as the door to the classroom opened a moment later. She should've put the light out before walking into the classroom, but now she was trapped with a murder, and he brushed off magic like it was nothing.
Hermione placed her hand over her mouth to try and quiet her breathing. She started to think her hiding place was too obvious, which proved to be true when the desk was thrown away like a useless piece of parchment. Hermione turned and looked at her attacker and screamed as he brought his knife down.
She awoke in her bed screaming. Her dorm-mates woke up and rushed to her to make sure she was okay. She looked at all of them, seeing they were okay. After she calmed down, they went back to bed and Hermione threw her head back onto her pillow. She sighed, not able to sleep easily for the rest of the night.
(A/N) Yes, since Halloween is only three days away at the time of this going up, I wanted to do something special, so you get this scene, and what better music to go along with it then Michael Myers theme? :D Halloween Kills that released two weeks ago was fucking fantastic, by the way, and it's got me excited for Halloween Ends in 2022 but I will say that because of the knowledge that Halloween Ends is an idea that exists, the ending was predictable for Kills. Unfortunate, but still hyped!
Happy Halloween! *insert evil laughter here*
*******
Draco Malfoy hadn't shown up for classes until late Thursday morning, when the Slytherins and Gryffindors were halfway through their Double Potions class. He staggered into class, his arm wrapped in bandages and bound in a sling, like he was All That. In (Y/N)'s honest opinion, he was almost hoping he'd have died, but that would've looked bad on both the school and Hagrid, so it's for the better that he didn't.
"How is it, Draco?" Pansy simpered, "Does it hurt much?"
"Yeah," he said, putting on the most obviously fake grimace (Y/N) had ever seen. It was confirmed when he winked at Crabbe and Goyle after Pansy looked away.
He looked and saw Pendragon just shaking his head, "Settle down, settle down," Professor Snape said idly, giving the laziest amount of effort he could into his voice.
'What a biased fuck,' (Y/N) thought to himself. If anyone that wasn't a Slytherin walked in late, or caused any sort of disruption, he'd have not only taken off points from that House, he'd have also given them detention. Malfoy proved to be Snape's favorite. (Y/N) proved last year that Snape was not above calling at least Crabbe and Goyle out on their stupidity.
Today they were making a new Potion, the Shrinking Solution. Malfoy set up his cauldron right next to Harry and Ron, instead of anyone from Slytherin. (Y/N) kept looking over at them as he worked with Hermione, keeping an eye on the situation, "Sir," Malfoy called, "sir, I'll need help cutting up these daisy roots, because of my arm-"
"Weasley, cut up Malfoy's roots for him," Snape said without even bothering to look over at them.
(Y/N) looked and Ron was brick red. He said something, but it was so low, (Y/N) didn't hear what, "Weasley, you heard Professor Snape, cut up these roots," he did hear Malfoy say.
Draco Malfoy was the most spoiled brat (Y/N) had ever seen. If it wasn't for Snape, Malfoy, and probably most Slytherin, wouldn't even pass Potions. He saw Ron take a knife and begin to cut up the roots unevenly and basically making them not useful.
"Professor," he heard Malfoy's annoying drawl, "Weasley's mutilating my roots, sir."
He saw Snape approach their table, and he could barely make out a crooked smile, "Change roots with Malfoy, Weasley."
"But sir-"
"Now," Snape said in his most dangerous voice he had to use on Ron. It wasn't anywhere near the tone he had used last year when he was 'teaching' (Y/N) how to duel.
Ron begrudgingly shoved his daisy root across the table to Malfoy, then took his knife up again to cut a new one, "And, sir, I'll need this Shrivelfig skinned," Malfoy said, his voice full of malicious intent.
"Potter, you can skin Malfoy's Shrivelfig," Snape said to Harry before he walked away.
He saw Harry quickly skin the Shrivel without saying a word. They began to talk in low voices, so (Y/N) couldn't make out what they were saying.
The rest of class passed without incident from what (Y/N) could tell. Snape really wanted to fault the Gryffindors for their Potions, but all must have been satisfactory enough that he couldn't complain. Any talking was out of his hearing range, and everyone seemed to be doing alright on their potions from what he could tell. He saw Neville working with Pendragon, and Snape must not have an issue with Neville's potion, meaning Pendragon was pretty good at Potions.
After their Double Potions, (Y/N) and Hermione had to go back to before class started and attend Ancient Runes for a Double period, so they hurried to the classroom and went back in time, "A feeling I don't know if I'll ever get used to..." Hermione said after they came out of the rewind.
"It's not so bad, I've experienced worse..." he trailed off.
Hermione looked at him and realized she said the wrong thing, "(Y/N), I-I'm sorry..."
"You have nothing to apologize for, Hermione," he reassured her as the other Ancient Runes students for the period piled in.
After class, they hurried to catch back up with Harry and Ron, making sure to not run into their past selves. This whole week had Hermione feeling rather exhausted from the extreme workload they both had. (Y/N) didn't feel any different, but his concern for Hermione was evident, "Hermione," he got her attention, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, fine, fine I'm fine," she smiled at him. She was clearly not fine. She didn't want to continue talking about it from the tone of her voice, so he didn't ask her about that again.
"Hey," Ron said as they got to them, "What happened? Where did you two go?"
"I forgot something and Hermione wasn't going to take no for an answer, so she went with me," (Y/N) lied.
"Okay..."
"Oh no," Hermione suddenly said. She was looking at her bag, and a seam had torn on it.
"Hermione, why are you carrying all of your books? You don't have most of these classes today, all we have is Defense Against the Dark Arts," Harry brought to her attention.
"You know how many subjects (Y/N) and I take. Of course we are going to have all of these books," she said breathlessly.
"But (Y/N) doesn't have his bag about to tear itself apart," Ron pointed out.
They all looked at his bag and sure enough, it was holding together, and didn't even look strained, "Uh... yes well, I'm just better at space management, you know..." he didn't even convince himself, surely he couldn't have convinced them as well. "Well, I'm starving, who wants some lunch?" He asked and hurried off towards the Great Hall. Hermione hurried after him.
"Hey," she said, coming up next to him.
"Hey," he replied kindly.
"So, how do you have all your books fitting in there really?" She got right to the point.
"I'll explain later when we are alone, okay?" He asked.
"Okay, you better tell me, though," she tried to sound assertive.
"Maybe," he tried to not smirk, but when she playfully slapped his arm, he lost all control.
*******
When they arrived in their Defense class, which they unfortunately had with the Slytherins, Professor Lupin had yet to show up. (Y/N) and Hermione sat in seats that were next to each other, as they always did. Hermione couldn't begin to imagine what Professor Lupin had in store for them. He couldn't be worse than Quirrell and definitely couldn't be worse than Lockhart. She just hoped they actually learned something useful this time around.
She had gotten her Quill, parchment, and book out, but noticed (Y/N) hadn't, "Are you not going to get your stuff out?"
"I've got a good feeling about Professor Lupin, from what Ron explained during the Dementor boarding, he seems like a hands-on Professor and will get right into Practical lessons," he explained.
Hermione agreed with that line of thinking and put back all of her stuff. When Lupin came in he looked as shabby as ever, but he looked healthier than he did on the train. He placed his tattered old briefcase on the large desk and turned to address them, "Good afternoon. Would you kindly put your books and stuff away?" He asked them and they began putting away their stuff, Hermione looked at (Y/N) in awe, "Today will be a practical lesson and you will only need your wand."
Hermione looked around and saw that many of them were curious about this, and they had good reason. Except for Lockhart's failed Pixie fiasco, they had never had a Practical Defense class before, which when thought about, seemed utterly bizarre.
"Hmm, classroom needs to be a bit bigger for what I have planned, and I will need you all to stand up," he brought out his wand, gave it a wave, and the room expanded by about ten feet on all four walls, "There we go." The class was on their feet and in awe at how easily he did that, "Now then," Lupin waved his wand again and the chairs and desks flew to the edges of the room. He looked over and saw something he needed, a large Wardrobe off in the corner, "Wingardium Leviosa," he said with his wand pointed at it and levitated it towards the center of class. "Does anyone know what's in here?" To no one's surprise, Hermione and (Y/N) raised their hands, "Yes, Miss Granger?"
"A Boggart, Professor," she said with a smile.
"Correct, Five Points for Gryffindor, and who can tell me what a Boggart looks like?" He asked them.
(Y/N) raised his hand and answered, "No one knows, sir, as a Boggart takes the form of our deepest fears."
"Precisely, take Ten Points for Gryffindor," Lupin was smiling. "Now, Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces; wardrobes, cupboards, or under a person's bed to name a few examples. As Mr. (L/N) so kindly pointed out, no one knows what a Boggart looks like because it is a shape-shifter. The one in here," he said, hitting the wardrobe which caused it to shake, "has yet to take a form, but the moment I open it, the closest person that it sees will be subjected to something they dread to see."
The class was quiet, waiting with bated-breath for him to just suddenly open the wardrobe without warning. Hermione stood there in thought, 'What am I afraid of? There's failing every class... that would be absolutely terrifying. There was also that night terror I had-'
"Now, there is a simple way to deal with the Boggart, a charm that was created exclusively for this, however," he paused to reiterate, "the charm alone is not enough to finish off a Boggart. Harry, do you know what is enough?"
"Er..." Harry paused for a moment. Hermione knew that he knew, because he told her he'd looked over some Dark Creatures, and if he actually did, he should've read up on the Boggart, "Laughter is what finishes it off."
"Exactly! You need to force the Boggart to take a form you find amusing, and when it's turned into it, you will laugh, as will your classmates I'm sure. Now the charm is Riddikulus, okay? Repeat after me, without wands first, Riddikulus," Lupin said to them.
"Riddikulus," said one, not so in unison class.
"This class is ridiculous," (Y/N) heard Malfoy say behind him.
"Very good, but that was the easy part... Neville," Lupin startled the poor boy, "could you come here, please?"
Neville nervously walked up to Professor Lupin, and almost tripped over his own feet on his way up to the center of class.
"How are you, Neville?" Lupin asked him.
"Fine..." Neville squeaked.
"Good, good, so tell me, who or what are you afraid of?" Lupin asked him.
"Prof... Sn..." he mumbled.
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
"Professor Snape..." he said to humorous laughter.
"Yes, yes, Professor Snape. Scares the lot of us, now it's my understanding you live with your grandmother?"
"Yes, but... I don't want it to turn into her either!" He said suddenly.
"Don't worry, it won't. Now I want you to picture what your grandmother wears," Lupin instructed.
"Okay, she always wears the same hat-"
"No no, don't say it, we will see what you see when you cast the charm at the Boggart. Okay, now I'm going to release the Boggart, and when it emerges, it should take the form of Professor Snape... okay, ready?" He asked and Neville nodded.
Professor Lupin released the Boggart and it did in fact waltz out of the wardrobe looking like Snape. Neville raised his wand and said the charm, "R-Riddikulus," but it didn't work. He tried again, managing to not stutter as Snape kept walking menacingly towards him, "Riddikulus!"
It worked that time as Snape's clothing changed into a Vulture topped hat, a lime-green dress, and a bright red handbag. Everyone in the entire class burst into raucous laughter. Embarrassed, the Boggart flew back into the wardrobe, which Professor Lupin locked quickly, "Well done, Neville, excellent. Everyone line up, you'll all get a turn. Once you're done, just migrate over to the back of the classroom."
Neville hurried to the back as everyone lined up. (Y/N) was unfortunate enough to get the far back of the line. Hermione was a few places ahead of him, and no one else was budging to make room anywhere. He lamented his luck and carefully moved up with everyone else. He tried to pay attention to what everyone was afraid of, but being so far back made it difficult until he got closer. Eventually he got close enough to see Dean's Boggart be that of a Severed Hand, which crawled around like a Crab. It was creepy, but not really scary.
(Y/N) then began to wonder just what his Boggart was going to be. There were plenty of things to be scared of in his life, but there was one thing that terrified him right to the core.
"Riddikulus!" Dean shouted and the hand became caught in a Mousetrap.
The line moved farther and it was eventually Hermione's turn. When the Boggart came out of the wardrobe again, it was a tall, masked figure with a bloodied knife.
Hermione felt her heart rate quicken as she backed up into the person behind her. She raised her wand, "Riddikulus!" She yelled and the masked figure suddenly became a Bedsheet with holes for eyes and it was suspended from the ceiling by a wire.
She smiled to herself, thankful she was able to handle the Boggart well enough. She went to the back of class and saw there were four more people ahead of (Y/N). Harry was the one she had bumped into and when the Boggart saw Harry, the figure it took the shape of was a Dementor.
Professor Lupin had jumped in front of it seconds after it changed, and it suddenly turned into the Moon, which she found bizarre, as she couldn't understand why he would be afraid of the moon, "Riddikulus," he said lazily, and it turned to a balloon and flew back into the wardrobe.
He helped Harry up off the floor and told him to go to the back of class. It eventually got to (Y/N) and he stood there, worried. The last person had the Boggart retreat into the Wardrobe. His head started to pound, his breathing quickened; a pair of hands came out and were on either side of the wardrobe, and the figure pulled himself out into the open, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?"
(Y/N) backed up. It was exactly what he feared; his father was what he was most afraid of, despite being dead. Back before his magic fully awakened in him, he wasn't able to stop the beatings he took whenever his adoptive father caught him doing something he couldn't even control.
"DON'T YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME! WHEN I GET A HOLD OF YOU, YOU'RE GOING TO BE SO FUCKING SORRY!"
(Y/N) placed his hands on the side of his head, having dropped his wand. His desire to stop this was growing exponentially, his survival instinct kicked in, and he wanted rid of the threat in front of him.
Hermione could feel the power exuding from him. He was going to lose control soon. She saw his Boggart be shoved back by a force unseen and she heard a screaming, coming from right where (Y/N) stood. It wasn't high pitched, but it was loud and forceful. She saw his fists clench and he raised his head to look right at the Boggart.
There was a sudden explosion, smoke covered the classroom. Hermione began coughing, as did everyone else, and Lupin called out, "Is everyone alright?" He asked through a coughing fit.
Soon the smoke cleared and (Y/N) was left standing near the center. The Boggart and the wardrobe were both gone; the Boggart was blasted to smithereens, and the Wardrobe had splintered, wooden pieces lay all over the classroom.
Hermione hurried over to (Y/N) and gasped when she saw him, saw his face. Tears formed in her eyes when she saw the damage. He stood there, a large piece of wood had lodged itself into his left eye, "(Y/N)!" She yelled. She also saw that his face had small lacerations all over it.
Lupin hurried over as well. He had been checking the other students since Hermione went to check on her best friend. When he saw (Y/N)'s face, he paled, "My word... come on, to the Hospital Wing. Class dismissed! Your assignment is to read up on Boggarts and give me a brief summary of them, due on Monday!" He ended the class ten minutes early, which gave everyone a slight head start on their homework, had they been anything like Hermione or (Y/N), at least.
Hermione accompanied Lupin as he took (Y/N) to the Hospital Wing. Harry and Ron weren't far behind, she heard them talking to themselves, but her priority was making sure her best friend was going to be alright, so she didn't pay attention to them.
When they arrived, Madam Pomfrey was in shock, but thankful that his adrenaline hadn't dissipated yet, otherwise he'd be in excruciating pain. She quickly numbed the area anyway and removed the wooden piece. She frowned upon looking inside his socket.
"What's wrong, Madam Pomfrey?" Lupin asked her.
"His eye... there's - there's nothing for me to regrow his eye back from," she lamented.
Hermione let out a whimper and collapsed into a chair, crying her eyes out.
"(L/N), I need to stop the bleeding... this is going to hurt, even with me having numbed the area," she told him and he nodded lightly. "Adurendem," she said and a fire ignited for a second inside his socket. He let out a shriek of pain and hunched forward. "Remus, what happened?"
"A Boggart," he said with a look of regret in his eyes. "He became so enraged, he destroyed the Boggart and the wardrobe it had been hiding in."
Madam Pomfrey was at a loss for words on the subject. She turned back to (Y/N), "I will need you to stay here for the evening and maybe the night."
"Okay..." he said meekly, "but... only if Hermione is allowed to stay... past visiting hours," he bargained.
"Fine," Pomfrey said reluctantly and began to heal up the cuts on his face.
"Of course... if she wants to..." he said, unable to see her, as she was on his left.
"Of course, I'll be with you for as long as you want," she said, wiping her tears away.
"You remember what Professor Trelawney called him, right?" Hermione heard Ron ask Harry, "The Harbinger of Destruction-"
"If you think even for a second, Ronald," Hermione had stood up and marched her way over to him, "That Trelawney is correct on this, then I don't want to see you right now. Everyone in this room is aware of (Y/N)'s ancestry, and we all know what kind of power he is capable of, so don't you think even for a second that Trelawney calling him such nonsense is going to go over well with me around," she was fuming as she stood less than a foot away from him, daring him to say anything more.
She saw his ears turn red and he made a face of frustration before stomping out, "Don't mind Ron, after that business with Trelawney seeing the Grim in my teacup, he kind of has it in his head that she's right about a lot of things."
"He just better watch what he says in front of me from now on, or we will have a problem," she looked at Harry without shifting her head, and he nodded and walked out to follow. She turned around and went back to (Y/N), "Sorry about that."
"No need to be sorry... it's Ron, I expect it..." (Y/N) said, his breathing slow and steady.
"But you shouldn't have to-"
"Hermione," he cut her off, "how much homework did we have to get done before next week?"
"Quite a bit, why?" She went to sit on the other side of him so he could see her. She knew she was in his view when he smiled at her.
"You want to go ahead and get started?"
"Of course," she smiled at him and got her stuff out, him getting his own things out and they happily got to work. She did notice that (Y/N)'s writing was a bit off, and the only explanation she could think of was the loss of half his sight. She felt a pang of anguish in her heart, 'Don't worry, (Y/N), whatever you need, whenever you need it, I'll be here for you, always.'