BlueFalcon Heres Chapter 3 III. Lost in Confusion Despite all the odd things happening at Hogwarts, nothing special occurred and for a few months I thought that everything was back to normal again, except for the giant spider, which was still under Hagrid’s care, since I had sworn not to tell anyone about it. I didn’t want Hagrid to get in trouble. Before I knew it, Christmas with all the joy had arrived… “Myrtle, please come out of there!” Ruby begged. She and Scarlet were standing in the girl’s lavatory outside a locked cubicle. Sobs and wails were coming from inside the cubicle. “Myrtle, what happened?” Scarlet asked, her ear against the door, listening. “Olive … Hornby! She was teasing me…!” Myrtle said and a noise echoed through the lavatory as she blew her nose. “I’ve told you to ignore her, Myrtle!” Ruby said. “Well, it’s easy for you to say!” Myrtle snapped and sobbed even louder. “There’s no use…” Ruby sighed to Scarlet. “We’ll leave her alone until she’s calmed herself a bit.” Scarlet agreed and they left Myrtle alone in the second floor lavatory. The two friends walked side by side in silence through the empty corridor. The moving pictures on the walls followed them with their eyes. Ruby and Scarlet made their way down to the Great Hall where dinner was currently being served. The hall was already full with hungry students when the duo entered. The enchanted roof was as sunny as ever and small flakes of snow were falling from the sky. Ruby walked pass the Slytherin table to join her friends by her table when suddenly Tom Riddle stood up and jumped in front of her, making her halt abruptly. “Ruby.” he said. “Tom.” She said. For some reason Tom twitched uncomfortably when she used his first name. He was close, so close that he could count the freckles on Ruby’s nose if he wanted to. They stared awkwardly at each other for a few seconds before Tom finally spoke, his voice gentle and polite, as usual. “I’ve been thinking about you.” Ruby felt herself blush against her will. “Oh, really.” She said. “Yes. I was wondering … if we could … talk?” For the first time ever Ruby was sure that she had detected a bit of nervousness in Tom’s otherwise so confident voice and she raised an eyebrow in doubt. “Talk? Um, well, alright.” She managed to say. A smile graced Tom’s featured. He was particularly shining like the sun above them. He took her hand and led her out of the hall which she had just entered. It was then that Ruby noticed that Tom had something under his cloak. Something that bulged out. When they reached the big marble staircase Tom stopped and looked at Ruby. “I have something for you.” He said and took out the thing he had been hiding under his cloak. It was a tiny box. He motioned for Ruby to take it. She took it in her hands and looked at it. It was beautiful. “Open it!” Tom urged and Ruby did as she was told. Inside was a beautiful golden locket. Ruby looked at it and felt a lump in her throat and she swallowed nervously. Her mouth had suddenly become very dry and her eyes very wet. She looked up at Tom. “Tom … it’s lovely…” She said with a strange hoarse voice. “Allow me.” He said and he helped her put the golden chain around her neck. Ruby shivered as she felt Tom’s hands touch her skin. “Perfect.” He smiled at her. Ruby looked down at the locket around her neck, feeling guilt wash over her. It was so pretty. “But I don’t have anything to give you.” She said with a pout. “Yes you have.” Tom said. With those words he left her and walked back into the Great Hall. Ruby was left confused by his words before she too walked back inside with the locket around her neck. A token of affection. A proof that he did care for me. Reassurance was all I needed. The locket became a symbol of Tom’s love. I was so happy. I was in a blissful dream state for several months. Everything was perfect. But nothing lasts forever. As I wise wizard once said;’ Love is blind, but friendship closes its eyes.’ I was awoken from my happiness in the beginning of June… A gentle wind swept over the rolling lawns around Hogwarts castle. Birds were singing and the summer heat had already arrived. The water in the lake by the castle was as blue as the sky and the giant squid was playing happily with some of Hogwarts younger students. Yes, everything on the grounds seemed to have been touched by the joy of the arriving summer, but for the fifth-years, the arrival of June meant something else than swimming and tanning. It meant the Ordinary Wizarding Level tests, for short OWL’s. The otherwise empty library was now crowded with studying fifth-years. Madame Pince, the old librarian, had a hard time making all the noisy students whisper in her musty old library. Ruby couldn’t believe how fast her fifth year at Hogwarts had passed. Soon the term would be over and the summer would begin. Unlike many of the other tired students, Ruby disliked summer vacations greatly. Summer meant going back to her grandparents who, old fashioned as they were, hated everything about magic. The reason was probably fear of the unknown, Ruby figured. She sighed and gave up her attempts to study. It was too noisy to study in the library so she decided to leave. Ruby, unfortunate as she was, had the bad luck of bumping into the ‘Slytherin Superiors’, as they called themselves (or the Slytherin Sluts as Ruby called them behind their backs). They were standing around someone Ruby didn’t recognize, but she guessed that the boy had to be in her age because he was taller than her and looked very mature, even with the scared expression he was currently wearing as he gazed around at the Slytherins surrounding him. “So, pray tell Vespin … what was it you saw?” a tall girl with dark hair asked the boy, towering over him. “I saw…” The boy with dirty-blonde hair begun, looking from one Slytherin to another. “Well…?” The tall girl in front of him urged. “I saw tales under your robes! You are all forsaken!!” The boy preached, his eyes wide. The Slytherin Sluts … forgive me; Superiors were a group of Slytherin girls from wealthy Pureblood families. Their greater purpose in life appeared to be bullying other students and fail all their exams. At least that was Ruby’s theory. Ruby watched from behind as they laughed at the boy they called Vespin, who looked very serious. Ruby decided it was time to do something, before the Superiors got too carried away. Ruby walked into the circle and placed herself in front of the guy. The girls around her stopped laughing. “Well, well … Boleyn.” sneered the girl with piercing dark eyes and long, shiny black hair. She laid high emphasis on Ruby’s last name, almost spitting Ruby in the face as she pronounced it. “Prince.” Ruby said, for that was actually the greasy girl’s name. Prince was her last name and also her alias. Ruby never called her by her first name Eileen. Very few did. “And what is a Mudblood like yourself doing here all alone, defending a freak like Vespin here?” Prince continued, crossing her arms. “Tough question. What could I possibly have done in the library with a book in my hand?” Ruby snapped staring into Eileen’s eyes with hatred etched on her face. Prince’s upper lip twitched oddly as she moved a little closer to the Gryffindor, her black cloak billowing out behind her. “Trying to be smart, are you?” she hissed threateningly. “I must at least be smarter than you if you don’t even know what a library’s for.” Ruby retorted, refusing to break the eye-contact but in the corner of her eye she saw Eileen’s hand reaching for her wand in her pocket. Ruby was just about to do the same when a determined and angry voice prevented her. “Leave her alone, Prince!” the voice demanded. Ruby immediately recognized the voice and turned around. It was Tom. Tom marched up to them, glaring at Prince. Vespin, who was still standing behind Ruby, peered nervously around him, his hand clutching his wand in his pocket. “How many times do I have to tell you?” Tom spat. Prince looked for a second like she was going to grab her and wand anyway and hex Tom, but something made her change her mind. Her cronies of girls behind her looked like they weren’t sure how to react. “I suggest you leave Prince before I report this incident to Headmaster Dippet!” Tom threatened. Prince looked like she was about to say something, but she remained quiet, glaring angrily at Tom, her face twisted into a hideous grimace. After a few seconds of staring, Prince and her girls left. Ruby breathed out, suddenly realizing that she had been holding her breath. “Thank you.” She said, her voice barely a whisper. She turned around to look at the boy called Vespin, but he was already on his way, mumbling something to himself. “You don’t need to thank me. I’m a prefect, it’s my responsibility.” He replied, like he was programmed to say it. Ruby just responded with a nod, her eyes still following Vespin as he walked down the hall, talking to himself. Suddenly Tom’s expression softened and he gave her a look of concern. “She didn’t hurt you, did she?” he asked, frowning. Ruby turned to look at Tom, her eyes tracing his features, examining him, “Oh, no you got here before she had the chance to do anything.” Ruby explained. “Good. Well um, I’ll see you later Ruby.” “Yes, of course.” Ruby watched him walk away until he was out of sight. He was walking in the direction of the girls’ lavatory. Perhaps he’s going to patrol there, Ruby thought. She then continued to walk up to Gryffindor Tower with her hand clutching the locket around her neck. When she entered the common room through the portrait hole she found that the common room was just as packet with noisy students as the library was. Ruby sighed and decided to give up her studies for the evening. She put down her books when suddenly a familiar sound caught her interest. Someone was sobbing quietly. She found Myrtle in the corner of the room, sitting alone on the sofa and staring into the sparkling fire in the fireplace, her eyes blank. “Myrtle, what’s wrong?” Ruby asked and sat down next to her. Without taking her eyes from the fire, Myrtle replied, “Olive Hornby … she was teasing me about my glasses…” Myrtle’s squeaky voice was, if possibly, even more high-pitched when she then said, “Am I ugly in glasses Ruby?” “No! Of course you’re not! You mustn’t let Olive get to you like this! What she says is not true, Myrtle!” That sentence was supposed to be used to comfort Myrtle, but it didn’t work out very well… Myrtle stood up and glared down at her friend. “And…and how do you know that!?” Myrtle snivelled. “How do I know that you’re not only saying that to make me feel better??” “Myrtle, I am your best friend! We’ve known each other since we were eleven! You know you can trust me.” Ruby said softly and smiled gently up at her friend. For a split second it looked like Myrtle was actually going to stop crying, but for those who knew Myrtle also knew that once she had started to cry, there was no talking her out of it. With a loud wail Myrtle ran pass Ruby and out through the portrait hole to lock herself in a cubicle in the girls’ lavatory. Ruby sighed but decided to leave her alone. It hurt her to see her friend constantly get hurt. She wished that it was something she could do to make it stop. Finally facing the fact that it was probably nothing she could do, as least not alone, Ruby decided to just sit by the fire and wait for Myrtle to return. An hour passed and many of the other students in the Common room went to bed. Ruby didn’t know what time it was but she was determined to wait until Myrtle came back. Another hour passed. Where was she? Maybe she had she fallen asleep inside a cubicle, because that had actually happened once… When two and a half hour had passed and the moon had risen on the sky Ruby decided to go look for her friend. She walked through the dark and empty corridors with her wand lit. Suddenly she saw a shadow of something a few metres in front of her. “Myrtle, is that you?” Ruby called out. The silhouette of something really big stopped. It was definitely not Myrtle. Ruby put out her light, her heart racing. Suddenly a loud noise echoed through the corridor. The sound was hideous, terrible and Ruby knew that the sound of the friendly but slightly worried voice that was now speaking to her would haunt her for the rest of her life… “Ruby?” Ruby recognized the voice immediately and lightened her wand so that she could see the face of a giant thirteen boy standing before her. “Rubeus? What are you doing roaming the corridors at this late hour?” “I could ask yeh’ the same thing.” Rubeus said. His eyes were looking nervously around him on the floor. Ruby frowned. “Are you looking for something?” she wondered, not sure if she wanted him to answer that. “Who, me? No, it’s nothin’…” But Ruby couldn’t help but detect the nervousness in Rubeus’ voice as he looked around him. “Rubeus? Where’s Aragog?” Ruby asked with trembling voice. “He’s … ehrr … in the castle, he is…” Rubeus answered absent-mindedly. “Where in the castle!” Ruby demanded. Fright had now got the best of her. Rubeus tried to avoid her eyes, but failed. “I lost him, alrigh’?! But don’ worry, he’ll come back!” Ruby was prepared for those words, “Ok … listen, you stay here and try to locate the spider. I have to go and look for Myrtle.” Rubeus nodded and Ruby ran as fast as she could towards the girls’ lavatory. She felt her head spin as she approached the door. With her wand ready she stormed through the door and looked around her. There was a surreal silence. A deadly silence. Even the old dripping taps seemed to have stopped dripping. The light of Ruby’s wand cut through the darkness and her eyes scanned the room in a hurry. Time seemed to have stopped. Her heart seemed to miss a beat when she saw something lying on the floor. There, on the cold stone floor outside one of the cubicles was Myrtle, her eyes staring madly out in space and her face as pale as the light from the moon, coming in through the windows. Ruby dropped her wand and threw herself on the floor next to Myrtle, her hand reaching out and touching her cheek. Cold. Hello dear readers. I hope you liked this chapter. I realize that jumping from Christmas to June is a giant leap, but I want the plot to be very focused. What did you think about it? Good? Bad? I would really appreciate if you reviewed. I do reply all my reviews. Thank you all! -----------------------------------