Candescent

I went to see Madame Pomfrey the second day into exams. My concentration was so off during my Charms practical that I was pretty sure I got a lower mark than Seamus Finnigan who only just managed to levitate his candle without it exploding wax across my school robes.

She left me as I sat by the door and waited. Blaise and Malfoy walked past me deep in conversation before they noticed me and back-tracked as Madame Pomfrey came back with the potions.

“Thanks,” I muttered, downing one as soon as I held them. The pain began to cease immediately and I leaned against the brick wall behind me in relief. Malfoy and Blaise simply looked at me curiously in the doorway as Madame Pomfrey left quickly to attend to another student who had entered. “Are you two quite all right?”

“What are you doing here?” Malfoy inquired, not phased at all by having been caught just standing there staring at me.

“Exam stresses seem to equal a headache,” I replied evenly, hopping off my stool and joining them in the corridor. “Looking forward to Defence Against the Dark Arts tomorrow?”

Their pained expressions told me otherwise and I smiled smugly now that my headache had gone. That night I went to bed expecting to sleep soundly. I was sorely mistaken.

I awoke in the early morning once again with green light imprinted on my eyelids. Tears sprang to my eyes and I scrubbed them away hastily. It wasn’t going away. Why? Why hadn’t Dumbledore found anything to fix me?

I wanted to know what was wrong. I wanted out.

That was the defining thing, I realised. All of this business with voices and abnormal intelligence hadn’t started until I came to Hogwarts. So maybe it wasn’t me…It was something here…

For having such intelligence, I sure felt stupid for the next few days.

Hermione was awfully quiet as we finished lunch after our final exam. Potter and Weasley were equally silent and after a while I put down my knife and fork harshly on either side of my plate and folded my arms. “What’s wrong with you three?” I demanded.

“Dumbledore’s gone to the Ministry,” Hermione muttered finally while Harry and Ron looked at her with wide eyes, shaking their heads negatively.

“What?!” Hermione continued, ignoring them. “She’s the one who found out about the stone in the first place. The thing is…we think someone’s going to steal it.”

“Today?”

“No, tonight.”

My brow furrowed as she said those words. Even more so when I realised what she was going to do about it. Hermione Granger was not one to sit around and watch.

“You’re going past the dog?!” I hissed in astonishment. “How on earth…”

“We have our ways,” she shrugged. “Just please don’t tell anyone.”

“Course I won’t,” I muttered. “I'll just be hanging around the third floor, I assure you.”

“It would be appreciated,” Hermione admitted.

“If you find yourself about to be killed please send up a message of some form. I don’t want any of you dead.”

I saw Ron gulp as the thought crossed his mind but Harry merely answered, “We have to do this or we may as well let Voldemort walk in and take over the world again.”

“Agreed,” I said as I heard someone calling my name from across the hall. “Gotta go. Good luck! Drop by the dungeons before you head upstairs.”

“I'll try and remember.”

“Try hard,” I answered, getting up and running over to Blaise who was jumping up and down trying to get my attention from the Slytherin table.

“What is the matter with you?” I hissed as I pulled him down to the seat. “I was in the middle of a conversation.”

“Well sor-ry,” he replied, sticking his tongue out at me. “Malfoy was looking for you. Said something about an apology.”

“Did he now?” I said in surprise. “Strange. Do you know what brought it on?”

He shrugged. “Does anyone know what goes on in that boy’s head?”

“Fair point,” I answered, removing myself from the table and saying goodbye before I made my way to my dormitory, expecting to run into Malfoy at some point.

“Hey Tyler!” his voice came across the common room as I walked through it to get to my dormitory. “I wanted to talk to you.”

“So I heard.”

“I wanted to say I'm sorry for calling Granger a –”

“Ah!” I held my hand up to silence him before he continued, but he waved it away.

“I'm sorry for calling Granger a name that was indecent and inappropriate.”

“And incredibly rude,” I interjected.

“And incredibly rude,” he conceded. “Forgiven.”

I looked at him for a while before saying begrudgingly, “Fine.”

Turning away to walk up to my dormitory, I knew for a fact that he had been lying. But it would seem petty to say no when he asked for forgiveness. It wasn’t like we were ever going to be friends anyway.

So I pulled out Hogwarts: A History and tried to finish reading it on that lazy afternoon. But really I was training and preparing myself for tonight – as well as concocting a plan to aid the trio should something go wrong – because I had a bad feeling. And with me, a bad feeling was the equivalent of a government warning.

I skipped dinner and stayed in my dorm – too nervous to keep anything down. It was passed the time and I knew that Hermione had either forgotten me or intentionally left me out. Either way, it was by myself that I made my way up to the third floor. I didn’t want to open the door to where the three headed dog was, but I did so incredibly reluctantly.

Slipping inside, the dog was slow to realise that I was there. But the grumbling and barking started up not a second later than I'd stepped into the feint light. There went the idea of sneaking.

Searching around furtively for some way to get to the trapdoor which I assumed could be the only way through, I saw a broken harp in the corner which had quite obviously been trampled.

“Reparo,” I said strongly, my wand pointed towards the harp. It pulled itself into the air and back together until it was as good as new. “Locomotor lyra!” I called out, as the giant dog began to advance upon me. Just as I had hoped, music began to play from the harp. It wasn’t fantastic by any means but it was good enough. I was hoping it would provide distraction enough for me to avoid the dog. What I wasn’t expecting was the drooping of the dog’s eyelids as it fell into a dead slumber.

“That is very strange,” I muttered to myself as I tiptoed around the sleeping dog without taking my eyes off it. Pulling up the trapdoor I muttered, “Lumos,” to try and shine some light into the tunnel, but nothing was visible.

“Here goes nothing,” I said to myself as I jumped. Wondering all the way down why on earth I was even here and hadn't just stood guard outside the door like I was supposed to.