Reading Between the Lines

I snapped up to attention, my face on a cold, stone floor. I gave quite a start, feeling around the floor for my copy of Half Blood Prince… nothing. I pushed myself up to standing and looked around. I was in a dark stone hallway, with a single torch burning a little ways down. I walked towards the torch, finding a tall set of stairs on my left. There was the noise of
hundreds of voices and footsteps that met my ears as I left the staircase.

I found myself in a huge stone hall with hundreds of people walking about it. They all wore black robes, with some kind of design on them. Inspecting the closest person, I found theirs had a lion with a big “G” on it. “Oh my God…” I said, shocked. “I’ve died and gone to Hogwarts!” I jumped in the air, whooping.

Suddenly, someone tackled me to the ground, covering my mouth with their hand. “Shut up will you? Do you want do die?” the mysterious girl hissed, checking around us before dragging me back down into the dungeons. She had brown hair and a Slytherin insignia on the front of her robes.

“P-Pansy Parkinson?!” I asked in disbelief.

“What?” she snapped, leading me further down the dark and cold corridor.

“What... what the heck? What are you doing?”

“Saving your ass. You are a Slytherin, after all,” she said, pointing down to my chest. Sure enough, there sat the Slytherin crest, on the black robes I was wearing. I was confused to the extreme.

“Saving me from what?”

“The Headmistress got mad at everyone who isn’t a speaking character and turned them all into zombies. So now, we have to make sure one of them isn’t around before we can talk, otherwise they try and steal our wands,” she said, exasperated.

“Wait, Headmistress? I though Dumbledore was a man!”

“What are you, stupid? Of course she’s a man!” Pansy snapped. I shook my head, even more confused. “What’s your name, anyways?” she asked as we approached an open door.

“Bently McQuinn,” I replied as I followed her through the door.

“Well Lightning, enjoy your Potions lesson,” she said before leaving.

“My name’s not Lightning, it’s Bently!” I shouted after her.

“CROAK!”

I jumped and turned in mid-air, facing a giant toad in brown robes. My eyes went wide and I began edging away as the frog began surveying me tastily.

“NO! BAD PROFESSOR SLUGHORN!”

Out of nowhere, Neville Longbottom flew at the giant toad, tying him up with a flick of his wand. Stunned, I stood there while Neville threw the toad into a rather large cauldron and then turned back to the door.

“Pansy, get back in here! You can’t just leave like that!”

Pansy sulked back into the room, holding a machete. “Damn it Neville, I was about to just end his miserable life…” she muttered, sheathing the machete on her belt.
Neville smiled slightly before turning back to me.

“So, what’s your name again?”

“Bently McQuinn,” I answered shakily. “And what the hell happened to Hogwarts?”

Neville sighed sadly. “Well, ever since Professor Dumbledore started experimenting with worm holes, lots of hyper teenage girls started showing up all over the place screaming something about “sparkly vampires.” Then they started writing, and now the story has gone to this.” Here, Neville gestured around the room, where several students just stared at the front of the room, showing no signs of life.

“How can you talk in front of them?”

“I cast Muffliato. It’ll hold for a little while. Now, there’s got to be a reason you’re here, Lightning. Come with us,” Neville said, and he and Pansy walked out of the room.

I followed them, muttering, “My name’s not Lightning!”