Secrets in Dreams
Some secrets need to be kept
Some stories should never be told
Some reasons shouldn’t be understood
They just might turn your blood cold
Who needs all the answers?
Who takes all the chances?
Who said the truths gonna save you
When the truth can be dangerous…*
Millie woke with a start and stared over at Giselle who was snoring lightly, a lock of raven hair rising and falling with each breath.
‘Giselle…Giselle?’ she whispered, half hanging out of bed. She gave up when all she got was a snore in reply and rolled over to her left.
“Halle? Sweetie wake up!” she said more urgently, now getting completely out of bed and sitting down gently on Halle’s bed covers.
“Hrmphph…gurr…mmm….Millie?” she said sleepily, blinking her wide brown puppy dog eyes innocently.
She glanced over at Millie’s Muggle clock and gasped.
“Tell me you did not get me up at three-thirty in the morning for a little chat? If so, you can say goodbye to those plaid pyjamas of yours quick smart,” she said jokingly. She was reaching for her wand as she spoke.
Millie let out a bark of laughter then quickly muffled it as Giselle’s snore pitch changed and she rolled over.
“It’s pretty serious, if you can stay awake along enough to hear it,” she said only half sarcastic.
Halle sat up straight and stifled a yawn. “Okay, shoot,” she said folding her hands behind her head on the headboard.
Millie sighed and smoothed out the bedclothes, meticulously flattening every wrinkle in the down quilt cover.
“What’s Giselle’s problem? I mean, what did I say while snoring my head off to offend her?” she asked Halle desperately, seeking any answer that would at least explain her hostility.
A dawning look of understanding came over Halle’s face.
“Oh you know it’s probably nothing…you know…PMS or something. We all get that way,” she laughed nervously glancing over at the mass of blankets that was now Giselle.
Millie raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Come on, you think just because your brain is so tired at three-thirty in the morning, mine is too? I’m not gonna fall for that one, even though it does make a good excuse for all your little shitty moods every so often.” Halle reached behind her back and pulled out a triangular pillow which she proceeded to hit Millie with.
“Okay, okay, I get it! Now shut up before Giselle wakes up and tell me! What did I say that was so awful? Was it some deep dark secret?” asked Millie in a goofy voice, and was surprised when she saw Halle’s face fall and darken.
“It’s not my trust you’ve broken, or our friendship you’ve wounded, it’s Giselle’s. She thinks of you as a sister. We both do. But then last night you come out with all these really hurtful things in your sleep. Something about not needing us as sisters anymore. I can’t believe you’d actually say something like that,” she said in a hurt tone, sinking back into her covers and drawing them up to her eyes so that her voice was muffled.
Millie’s eyes widened in alarm and she thought of the verse she had heard in her head. It was an echoing, awful voice, and it filled her head and reminded her of something. Something to do with that song.
Millie gasped and brought her hand to her check. ‘Now’s the time to be a dramatic,’ she thought. But nothing she thought could ever come across as remotely funny at the moment because realisation had just struck.
The girl.
When would she stop haunting her? She had truly gotten to her. In her dreams. Where her subconscious took over and she had no idea of what she murmuring for the world, including Giselle and Halle to hear.
“Oh God! Did I happen to say anything about Wendy? Anything at all? Tell me Halle, please! Everything!”
Millie lunged forward and grabbed Halle by the shoulders shaking her.
Halle’s already wide eyes grew to the point Millie thought they would pop right out of her head onto the Gryffindor scarlet sheets.
“Millie! You’re insane! Wendy has been gone for like, ten years! She’s not coming back! All you said was ‘She will come, Giselle and Halle…not important…real sister… don’t need them....’” she said breathlessly, running her hands through her already bed mussed hair, making the bushy fringe stand on end.
Millie got up and walked over to her bed, white as a sheet. She couldn’t believe it. She was so close to giving away her deepest, darkest secret. So close even she couldn’t believe her luck. She sat down and ran her fingers through her own hair and pushed the palms of her hands into her eyes. She gave up thinking and lay down where she drifted into a soft, dreamless sleep.
Wendy was bent almost double for the precious ingredient to her potion. She was standing waist deep in the grass surrounding the Great Lake. A full moon hung overhead as the broke off the last strands of fluxweed. She added the bunch to the calico bag around her waist and turned back to face the doors of Hogwarts Castle. The first part of her plan was just about to begin.
Giselle slowly uncovered her legs and looked swiftly around the dorm. Laura Lal was sound asleep in her bed with the hangings drawn, and Tegan Tattersall was snoring loudly, mumbling about sausages in her sleep.
“Sausages…no…not sausages….mrrph…”
Giselle stopped and stood very still while Tegan went on mumbling and turning in her sleep. Slowly she crept forward and walked slowly down the spiral stairs to the Gryffindor Common Room.
She tripped slightly down the bottom step and fell onto her posterior with a resonating thud. She clumsily pushed herself up and sat propped up on her elbows, half staring at the fire blazing brightly even in the middle of the night. She absent-mindedly began to hum
Together nothing was secret
Together we were complete
Who needs all the questions?
Who lost their direction?
Who said a lies gonna break you?
When a lie could be dangerous? *
She stopped humming abruptly. Slowly she turned herself around to face the fire properly and was shocked to see a familiar elf standing there.
“Dobby?” she asked incredulously, “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at home?”
The house-elf wrung his hands distractedly.
“Dobby thought, for mistresses own well-being that she and Miss Wheezy should be friends again. You see mistress, evil magic is afoot.”
The elf looked around nervously and his great round pale eyes were growing watery. He turned to a shocked Giselle and whispered in her ear, before jumping up and disappearing with a whip-like crack.
“Mistress must take Dobby’s advice for her own good. Only the power of friendship can help her with what is about to happen. Mistress must understand Miss Wheezy, and forgive her.”
Giselle whipped her head around and saw Millie coming down the stairs silently looking at a spot fixed above her head.
“Millie,” asked Giselle tentatively, “can we talk?”
“Why?” said Millie breaking her silence, “I thought you didn’t want to talk to me.”
Giselle thought for a moment then uncurled herself from the ground and got up. She walked slowly over to Millie who was clad in her plaid pyjamas, the lengths of the pants worn and ragged from wear. Giselle made a lunge and grabbed Millie’s hand.
Millie stared at her in confusion but didn’t remove her hands from Giselle’s.
“What the hell is going on? ” she thought.
“I… I… Millie…I’m so sorry. Can you forgive me?” Giselle begged. She stared at her fluffy Crup slippers, dreading what she thought to be Millie’s rejection.
Millie stared at Giselle as though seeing her for the first time. Giselle? Apologising? Why? What had she really done that needed an apology? Millie was the one who needed to apologise. And this was exactly what she said.
“Why? Why are you apologising? It’s my fault. I shouldn’t go to bed with things on my chest. I should share them with my best friend. My true best friend. My pillow isn’t exactly a good listener. You and Halle are, and there is nothing I wouldn’t give to spend every minute with you guys. It’s really a pity we have to sleep isn’t it?”
A slow grin came over Giselle’s face and she lifted her face to Millie’s and saw the identical smile on her cousin’s face. The same freckly, sliver hair framing a face with brown eyes Giselle had known all her life.
“You know what? Let’s let bygones be bygones and go get some food. I hear Dobby’s back, and he makes the best éclairs. Let’s go check it out, shall we?”
Millie giggled and lowered her voice mischievously.
“Isn’t it a bit late to be taking a midnight stroll? Wouldn’t Filch be strolling around the corridors with his cane? Doesn’t it make it a little harder to get food back up here?”
Giselle giggled. “My thoughts exactly. I’ll get the Cloak.”
Millie laughed and went to open The Fat Lady’s portrait and waited for Giselle to come down the stairs. She suddenly got hit by and invisible force and got thrown onto the couch where she was tickled by and invisible person whose locks of midnight hair escaped the folds of the cloak.
Millie pushed her off and ran up to the dorm where Halle was lying once more half-in-half out of bed.
“Get up Hal! Time for a midnight stroll!”
Halle immediately sat up and her eyes glinted and sparkled. Millie could tell she’d been lying awake waiting for one of them to apologise.
“Let’s go!”
Giselle reached out from under the fold of the cloak and tapped the back of the Fat Lady with her wand. Millie pushed it forward and all three climbed out and ran quickly down the hall muffling their giggles while the Fat Lady indignantly called out to see who was there.
“Hello? Anyone there? Oh my, I can’t believe the rudeness of the students these days!”
Wendolin sat in shadows of the very same bathroom that Aunt Hermione, Uncle Ron and Uncle Harry had sat and brewed the Polyjuice Potion.
Moaning Myrtle was long gone, having been driven out in Wendy’s rage at finding someone there, and now instead hid herself in the staff toilet next to Harry’s classroom. She was still quite taken to Harry, and threw dirty looks at Ginny whenever she passed. She never did quite forgive Harry for not dying down in the Chamber of Secrets in his second year, Wendy thought wryly.
She added the lacewing flies and sat back on her heels while the potion simmered and swirled widdershins. She added the last of the ingredients including a silvery hair then un-curled herself and stalked around the toilets, taking in the scene.
It was dank and dreary, the taps dripping slowly and water trickling slowly out of an unused toilet at the end, the water forming a puddle large enough for Wendy to see herself reflected in it.
She stared into the water, stared at her hair, the exact same shade as her mothers. And her sisters. She saw her hardened mouth, twisted with hate and her eyes cold, deep and lifeless.
A lock of hair slipped loose from a haphazard ponytail and dropped into the puddle, causing a rippling effect and startling Wendy.
She stood up abruptly and walked over to the cauldron where the potion inside had thickened and turned into a cloggy mess which Wendy unceremoniously poured into a glass she just produced from within the folds of her black cloak.
“Cheers,” she said to no one in particular except her reflection in the nearby mirror. Her cold eyes stared back at her as she raised the heavy glass to her thin lips and drank deeply. She never stopped looking at her blank reflection until the pains in her belly, hands and feet were almost unbearable.
The pain in her head was the last thing she remembered thinking about before blacking out into nothingness, steam rising all around her unconscious body, enveloping the bathroom in its mysterious cloak of fog.
The steaming cloud lifted and Wendolin roused herself and felt her face.
This was not her face, she thought triumphantly.
She got slowly to her feet, unsteadily swaying slightly and slipped over to the mirror where she wiped away the condensation and stared unsurprised into a familiar face.
The face of Millicent Prudence Weasley.
A/N: *Song by Hilary Duff. It’s called ‘Dangerous to Know’ on her album; I thought it reflected what the girls were feeling. Also it seemed to fit in with what Harry’s always carrying around on his chest in the books, as in why he didn’t want to take Ginny to The Department of Mysteries. Millie doesn’t want the other girls to get involved in her problem, so she’s dangerous to know.
Okay, this chapter might seem a bit pointless, but of course the last scene has some meaning in the next Chapter, (watch out for it!) and honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if they rejected it say the first… seven times, but I only wrote it to show Giselle wasn’t perfect. She was a bit Mary-Sue at the start, and I had to do something that showed her in a temper.
- Lurid.
Malicious Intentions by Lurid
Chapter Notes: Edit: So, it's 11:44pm on the 9th of Janurary 2007. One of my New Years resolutions was to perfect this story in some way, so grammatically correct 'tis! I apologise for the bad lyrics and the crossoverishness >.>