Becoming The Muse

Genre: Fan fiction

Of The Ghost of Hogwarts Past

“Are you afraid of the dark?”

That is the question I ask first years on their first night at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Oh what fun it is to hear them squeal in fear as they run away from dear old me. No surprise at all because you see I am one of the ghosts that you could say haunt the halls of Hogwarts. I am mostly harmless and besides that, the whole school grounds have wards, spells and such that prevent malevolent beings from reeking just that malevolence. Dumbledore done did a right proper job at fixing them rest is soul. He too is here, not haunting corridors like us but in a painting in the headmaster’s office together with the rest of the past headmasters and mistresses of Hogwarts. When you go in there you can feel the weight of their disapproving eyes starring deep into your soul, judging you; it is downright creepy mind you. They don’t talk much, matter of fact, they don’t talk at all only sleep but it’s rumoured they counsel the current headmaster, but between you and me I think the new head is a bit batty, who wouldn’t be, everyone at Hogwarts is.

You are a brave one aint ya? You haven’t run away like the rest of your little first year friends. Oh how great it must feel to be so curious as to seem brave, I could tell you stories that would make you never want to sleep again. Funny though I don’t remember what sleeping feels like. Ghosts don’t sleep. I have been a ghost for so long I don’t remember being alive but I am sure I was as curious as you, I guess that is why I am a ghost now. I dare say I have been a ghost longer than Moaning Myrtle, crying in one of them bathrooms up there somewhere; but Nearly Headless Nick he been dead much longer, head hanging all precarious like.

Which house are you in? Your eyes are rather shifty and far too close together and you hold yourself with a certain, erm serpentine regard you must be in house Slytherin. I didn’t have a lot of smarts but I had heart, I was in House Hufflepuff. The boy who lived well he is certainly not a boy any longer, he is a man now, wife and three kids. I must say I always hoped that he would end up with that Hermione girl, but well Ginny Weasely, he could have done far worse, couldn’t he? Imagine if he had been charmed by Romilda Vane’s love portion. You wouldn’t know anything about portions would you?  Thats second year students classes. You haven’t even started class yet, have ya? Just you wait till you meet Mr Longbottom in Herbology Class

One never forgets their first Portions Class especially if you accidentally bite off a piece of baby mandrake root and swallow it, while trying to get it to stop screaming.They scream ever so loudly like tiny constipated babies; they are really bothersome little buggers and off to the sick ward I was rushed. Do you know who I met there? Of course you wouldn’t know, there is no one to tell ya, good thing I’m here ain’t it?

When I was sick as a dog….., ever seen a sick dog? Not a pretty sight I tell ya. This one time during the Care of Magical Creatures Class they made us take turns taking care of a sick dog that had been poisoned by Thorn. Thorn is a pure blood Elient. That just means he is a dragon of some royal line and once upon a time they could shapeshift into peoples like you and me, well mostly you since I am dearly departed.

Not so dearly departed as You-Know-Who must not be named. I met him once, before he was all evil bent on world domination and the like. He was house Slytherin, just like you. Eyes just like yours and curiosity, just like yours, you see here I am going with this? Evil walks and talks just like the next regular bloke until they start calling themselves Death Eaters. But when I met him he was just a little older than I was, we shared a room in the infirmary wing, when I was sick in hospital on account of the mandrake root.

We talked, he was still named Tom Riddle then and his name could be spoken. Tom had a fascination with the purity of one’s bloodlines, and immortality he didn’t want to die but then who does? He had a very morbid liking to that dragon, he probably fed it and although no one could prove it, all the owls that went missing, I can bet you the Quidditch World Cup Snitch that him and Thorn happened. You know why we was in hospital together, he didn’t do anything as silly as bite a screaming mandrake he was far too clever to make a mistake like that, instead he had drank the blood of the Elient, he didn’t tell anyone else though, only me so that I could witness.

The thing about Elient dragons is they do not die unless you kill them, they are infernal or is it eternal I forget, same difference though, nobody wants everlasting nightmares. He drank its blood and he fed it his which made it a part of him. Do you understand? They think they got rid of all them Horcruxes right?  But no one knew the very first one he did with no help from nobody, almost by instinct and I was witness to it. He said to me do you want to see something cool, I said yes, and out we went to the forbidden forest, we passed by Hagrid’s cabin while he slept like a rock, a giant hairy rock that snores.

He pulled off thorn that hung on a leather thong around Thorn’s massive neck and used it scratch a symbol on my hand, the Deathly Hallows. After that everything pretty much gets foggy. I remember him though, whispering to me as I died I guess, that “on the first night of the red moon after the Deathly hallows have been mastered but never used, a boy too curious for his own good will wander into this part of the Hogwarts and he will be a descendant of the Tom Marvolo Riddle bloodline and he will awaken Thorn the Elient and bring back Lord Voldermort.” I was compelled to haunt these grounds and to witness until such a time came to pass.

“That night is tonight and that boy is you, Lord Voldemort will return and you are going to summon……….All is not well.”

The End

~B

My BlogBattle entry this week. A  fan fiction story, if you are not PotterHead enough to figure out based on Harry Potter novels, I wasam a great fan of JK Rawling.

Photo credits: harrypotter.wikia.com