gaia_angelleft gaia_diamond gaia_angelright
The warmth of the crackling fire drew me into a peaceful trance. I should have been up in the Great Hall eating dinner but food just didn't sound appealing; hadn't all day. I was just starting to loose myself in the dancing flames when my housemate, Bianca Delacroix, burst through the dungeons doors and into the common room releasing me from my reverie.
"Jem! Jem! You're never going to believe what's happened," she exclaimed rushing over to me, "The headmasters' been kidnapped! Professor Lobiesk made the announcement just a moment ago. That's why he wasn't at breakfast! He's been missing since this morning and they don't even know who took him. The whole ministry and school is searching for him and the culprit."
I looked at her as if she had two heads before something inside me started feeling at unease. Rising sharply I quickly excused myself and ran to my dorm room.
"Jem? Are you ok?" The truth was that I wasn't ok. Something was very wrong. And I was soon to find out why.
Pacing my room trying to shake the feeling that I had done something I would regret I felt myself starting to loose my mind. I needed to write down my thoughts. Writing in my journal always helped me organize my thoughts and deal with the stress that student life entailed. For as long as I could remember I've had my head clogged with my thoughts , racing around so fast that I couldn't think straight. I eagerly dug through my trunk finding not only my own journal but a second one beneath it.
'That's odd,' I .thought, "I haven't bought a new journal yet.' Opening the second journal tentatively nothing could have prepared me for what I would find. Printed in the headmasters' elegant scrawl was 'Property of Ulol Kimil' on the front page. I dropped the incriminating book as if it was on fire and jumped to feet. My feet hitting my roommates trunk stopped my backwards decent across the room.
"There's no way," I said to no one, "That can't be possible."
I stood there shocked and wondered how the headmasters' journal could have found it's way into my trunk. The slam of my own journal hitting the floor halted those thoughts. Shaking my head and taking a deep breath I reasoned that it had to be some kind of sick prank. Reaching down and picking up the fallen book I noticed a few scattered pieces of loose leaf paper had fallen from between the pages. My breath caught in my throat as I saw the contents held on those stray pages.
The first page was a map of a long since used part of the dungeons that had been forgotten. The second page were plans for the Headmasters' kidnapping. The third held his normal daily schedule. I didn't understand. Why would these things be among my belongings? Was was the hand-writing so very close to my own? It all just didn't make any sense. I needed to go for a walk.
I shoved the offending items back into the bottom of my trunk and headed for the door. Before I could make it all the way out to the common room I could hear Professor Ashlee Sully addressing the house sternly. "In the wake of the Headmasters' kidnapping and subsequent search of his sleeping quarters the Aurors have found this; a Slytherin house tie. Anyone with any information about the professors whereabouts are urged to come forward immediately. Till such a time as the Headmaster is found and the culprit behind this heinous act is caught all of Slytherin will be in lock down. Think carefully and have a good night."
Knowing my walk was now ruined I returned back to my dorm and once again took to pacing the room. I knew I had to get my thoughts out yet I couldn't, no, wouldn't dare retrieve my journal once more. My pensive. That will have to do. 'I'll put this memory to rest,' thought desperately.
At the side of my bed I dropped to my stomach and rummaged through the dust bunnies and assortment of belongings till I found my own travel sized pensive. Hearing footsteps outside the door sent my heart beat into an erratic pace and my already labored breathing shallowed. Ripping off the lid in a panic and fumbling for my wand I nearly didn't notice a memory floating there that I did not remember entering. My already shallow breathing nearly caught in my throat and I painfully swallowed nothing at all with this new discovery. How could there possibly be a memory in my pensive that I did not enter myself? In fact it shouldn't be possible at all.
Curiosity may have killed the cat but there was no way I could ignore this of all things. I had to find out what lay inside that memory. Diving into the memory it swirled around me like ink in water before finally taking form. Finding myself in a dim corridor of the castle I noticed a dark, hooded figure sneaking between the shadows ahead of me. A tug in my navel prompted me to follow the figure around the courner right to the Headmasters' office door. Realization hit me and I knew what this memory was about; the kidnapping of Headmaster Ulol Kimil. The figure mumbled the password, pumpkin pasties, opening the door and disappearing up the stairs.
The strength to once again move from the spot I had been rooted to once I realized what was happening returned and quickly I pursued the phantom up the stairway. I called out to them knowing it was foolish to do so as I would not be heard inside the memory and likewise my please for the figure to halt feel to uselessness. I picked up my pace take the stairs two or three at a time. ' This staircase sure seems like it's bigger than normal,' I thought as I finally closed the distance and caught up with the culprit as the crossed the threshold of the the professors sleeping quarters. A simple Alohamora spell would suffice in gaining the culprit and subsequently me entry. Ironic that such a simple spell would have been the undoing of the night.
The headmasters' room was dim; only glowing embers to give the intruder and I any light to see by. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dimness and shadows and the movement of a Slytherin tie being hung on the headboard banister was proficient in causing the sleeping teacher to begin to stir. If I hadn't been in a memory I would have fallen over a rather large pile of books on my way across the room hoping there was someway I could break through the memory and change the outcome. A silly notion, yes, but I felt that I had to try. It was of no use.
"Petrificus Totallus," the culprits whispered aiming their wand. The headmasters' stirring ceased and what had to be a sleeping draught was forced between his slightly parted lips. I was powerless to do anything, stuck in a memory, as the culprit levitated the headmaster off his bed. Somehow the culprit managed to keep their back to me as if they knew I was there, and continued out of the private chambers of the headmaster. In a hurry the main office had been crossed and the professors head narrowly avoided being crushed on a bookshelf near the exit.
Escaping the office and keeping to the shadows the culprit swiftly made their way through the castle somehow avoiding being confronted by Peeves, Mrs. Norris, and Mr. Filtch along the way. The air began to turn colder against my skin as we made our way to the dungeons. I struggled to keep up as the culprit weaved through a part of the dungeons I had never before taken a step much less knew even existed. A left turn followed by a right and then a sharp left through the maze of tight halls left me lost and struggling even more too keep the culprit in my sights. Suddenly they came to a stop at a lone door, the headmaster still levitating above them and miraculously unharmed.
The door was opened with a squeal that was surely heard all the way up in the Great Hall it was so loud. Depositing the headmaster none too gently on a small cot the culprit placed a letter on his chest and removed the petrification spell. Pausing for a moment longer beside the cot the culprit finally turned to leave, their face coming into view for the first time. I stood frozen as my own face, twisted cruelly as it was with a wicked smirk half covered still in the darkness casted by the hood faced me. How could this twisted face really be my own? Everything in my being nearly stopped, my eyes widened in horror and shock as I heard the door lock leaving me in the room as well.
My blood ran cold then and I whispered "How," before being pulled out of the memory. I was thrown back from the pensive, my hands gripping the rim kept me from falling backwards. I stared at the memory still floating in the pensive not knowing what the think. I couldn't believe it.
To know one buy myself I spoke, my voice breaking. "The culprit. The culprit was me."
gaia_angelleft gaia_diamond gaia_angelright
