October 23rd, 1940,
As I entered the Great Hall today, I was met with an unexpected quietness. On Saturday mornings, the Great Hall is usually noisy and filled with activity, but today it was the exact opposite. The only sound I heard as I made my way toward the Gryffindor table was the sound of people whispering.
I felt like I was at a funeral.
---
She found a seat next to Minerva and sat down. Owl post had apparently come very early that day as a brown barn owl was already sitting on the table holding out Miriam's copy of The Daily Prophet. After paying the owl, but before she unrolled her newspaper, she looked around at her fellow Gryffindors. Many Sixth and Seventh years were hovering around Abby as she looked at The Daily Prophet. All of them were wearing sad expressions on their faces.
Before Miriam opened her paper, Sophie and Marcella sat down next to her.
"I've never seen the Great Hall like this," Sophie commented. She looked over at the Hufflepuff table and saw a few of First year girls were weeping.
Miriam opened her newspaper and gasped at the headline.
"The daughter of the Minister of Magic missing"
Sources have announced that the daughter of Minister of Magic, Mr. Antoni Goodspell, has been kidnapped. Reports have suggested that the kidnapping was executed by the Knights of Walpurgis, who were retaliating against the Ministry's new crackdown policy on Grindelwald and his Knights.
Her mother, Muriel Goodspell, who was planning on visiting her daughter for the day, reported Celestyn Keara Goodspell, nineteen, missing on Thursday. No signs of forced entry were found.
"We hope that whoever has our daughter will bring her back to us safe and sound," a sobbing Mrs. Goodspell said to Daily Prophet reporters.
Mr. Goodspell was unable to be reached for comment.
Miriam, Sophie, and Marcella looked nervously at one another. Between the awful Muggle war that was going on and the current unrest in the wizarding world, it seemed, in Miriam's eyes, that the world was simply falling apart.
How could one world hold so much evilness?
October 31st, 1940,
I have good news and bad news. The good news is that today I am officially a teenager, but the bad news concerns the whereabouts of the missing daughter of the Minister of Magic...
---
"Did you hear the news?" Abby asked Miriam as she and her friends walked down the hallway to the Great Hall. Miriam and her friends shook their head no.
"I just heard it from one of the Ravenclaw Prefects that Celestyn was found murdered. Apparently, someone used an Unforgivable Curse," Abby noted.
Miriam, Sophie, and Marcella looked at each other. "What's an 'Unforgivable Curse?'" Miriam asked.
Abby looked uncomfortable. "The first thing you must know is that the three Unforgivable Curses are completely and utterly banned from use by the Ministry. Anyone caught using them on another human will have his or her wand broken and be sent to Azkaban for life. Secondly, I only know what I learned about them in Defense Against the Dark class," Abby continued. "There are three curses: the Cruciatus Curse, which inflicts an unimaginable amount of pain on a person. The Imperius Curse can control a person entirely. And finally... Avada Kedavra, the killing curse. This was the one used on Celestyn."
"How were they able to determine for a fact that the killing curse was actually used... besides the obvious fact?" Miriam asked.
"Well, there were no marks on her body," Abby answered. "The killing curse doesn’t leave a mark on the body."
Upon entering the Great Hall, which was once again in a state of depression, Miriam remembered to ask, "What's Azkaban?"
"It’s a wizard’s prison," replied Abby. “I hear it’s an awful place. There are things there called Dementors that can suck out your soul.”
Once owl post had been delivered, Miriam hurriedly opened The Daily Prophet and saw that the Celestyn case was the main headline.
“Missing daughter of Minster of Magic found”
In a sad twist of events, Celestyn Goodspell, daughter of Minister Antoni Goodspell, was found murdered last night in an abandoned Muggle store south of London. After receiving an anonymous tip, special Ministry wizards went to the abandoned store where they found the body of nineteen-year-old Celestyn.
"We can't give out too much information at this point," Rachel Abbott said. "But we can confirm that the cause of death was by use of an Unforgivable Curse."
The Daily Prophet will continue to bring up-to-the-second coverage as this story continues to unfold.
Miriam set the paper down and looked at her friends, who were sitting on either side of her. Neither of them said anything; they were in just as much shock as she was.
November 6th, 1940,
Tonight is our first Quidditch match of the year. We're playing against Hufflepuff. Abby told me that the Hufflepuff team has a new captain, Henry Diggory. He's a fourth year, and as Maria Bell has stated from watching (or spying) them practice throughout the week, Henry is a formidable opponent....
---
"... but he's really nice... and cute," Maria Bell announced, giggling. Carl Potter and Aaron Wood rolled their eyes and snorted.
The entire Gryffindor team was huddled in the locker room before their game against Hufflepuff, listening to Maria who had been telling them about Hufflepuff's new captain.
"Well, we'll see how good he is against the all-powerful Gryffindors," Abby replied seriously as she struggled to hide a smile on her face. "Now let's go out there and win!"
The team clapped their hands together and shouted, "Rah! Rah! Gryffindor!" as they made their way out to the field amid loud applause.
~*~
"Let's be sure to have a friendly game tonight," Professor Luchtig said as Abby and Henry shook hands. Miriam looked over at the new Hufflepuff captain and sighed as her heart skipped a couple of beats. She couldn’t help but think that he was the cutest boy she had ever seen. But before she could ponder this new feeling that came over her, Professor Luchtig had released the balls, and she had to push Henry out of her mind.
"Hufflepuff has the Quaffle, the three Gryffindor Chasers, Abby, Maria, and Miriam are om hot pursuit," Patrick Jones announced. "Hufflepuff is still in possession of the Quaffle, but Chaser Estella Tikhonov has thrown it to her teammates in order to escape the grasps of the Gryffindor Three."
Abby, Maria, and Miriam closed in on Estella, forcing her to throw the Quaffle to one of her teammates, but Abby intercepted it and high tailed it back to the other end of the field to score.
"Gryffindor is the first to score. They're leading ten to zero."
Much of the game continued following the same aspect: Gryffindor would score, and then Hufflepuff would even it out. Cute Henry Diggory turned out to be quite the fierce player. For much of the game, Miriam couldn't help but find herself gazing at him. He had the most beautiful blue eyes, and the way his brown hair fell over his face... it was too much. He was absolutely gorgeous! Thoughts about whether he had a girlfriend or not starting filling her head... until Abby's voice broke her euphoria.
"Earth to Miriam!" she yelled. "Let's focus on the game, please!"
"Sorry." Miriam turned a few shades of red much deeper than her Quidditch robe.
For rest of the game, Miriam was able to shut Henry out of her mind, but occasionally she would catch herself staring at him. The game eventually ended with Gryffindor winning, but only by a small margin. Hufflepuff had put up a heck of a fight.
Just as the Gryffindor team was exiting the field, someone called out to Miriam... it was Henry Diggory!
She turned around, but her foot wouldn’t cooperate and swung out to the side, causing her to fall to the ground with a loud thump!
Being the perfect gentleman he was, Henry reached down and helped up a profusely blushing Miriam.
"You, uh, played really well tonight," he said, avoiding her face and keeping his gaze at his shoes. Miriam couldn't bring herself to look at him either. It was much too embarrassing.
I’m such a klutz!
Unfortunately, her ability to speak slipped from her as fast as her foot had done. She was feeling very uncomfortable at that moment, and a strong sense of just how sweaty and dirty she must’ve been gnawed at her.
I must look horrible.
"You... you are great! I mean that you played great, and... and..."
Ugh, I probably sound like a MORON!
At that moment, someone from the Hufflepuff team called out to Henry.
"I'd better be going," he mumbled, finally meeting her eyes. He gave her a small wink and went to rejoin his teammates, leaving Miriam feeling dumbstruck and totally angry with herself.
How stupid am I? I sounded like a fool!
As she continued to mentally berate herself, an arm went around her and she looked up into Abby's smiling face.
"I think someone likes you!" she giggled, a huge grin appearing on her face. If Miriam thought she had turned a deep shade of red before, it was nothing compared to now.
He likes ME! she thought. Insignificant, not very attractive... ME!
Contributing to her already reddening face, a huge smile slowly wormed its way onto her.
Just as if someone had enchanted her with a levitating charm, she felt like she floated on air back to the Gryffindor common room.
November 13th, 1940,
I just received two of the biggest surprises in my life, and they both happened within the same day...
---
"Miss Riddle, why aren't you getting ready to head to Hogsmeade with your brother and fellow students?" Professor Jamison asked after breakfast that day.
"Pardon me?" she asked.
"Didn't your brother tell you? At the end of last year's term, Dumbledore gave him two permission slips for you and him to have signed, allowing you to go to Hogsmeade. He had gotten them signed and returned to me almost as soon as he set foot back here again for this term."
Miriam looked across the Great Hall and over at her brother who was talking animatedly to Carrey and Murdoch. He must have sensed her looking at him because he stopped and looked up. For the briefest of moments, their eyes met.
That's so sweet of him, she thought, beaming.
"That's wonderful news!" Marcella exclaimed. The girls headed back in the Gryffindor common room, bundling up for their trek to Hogsmeade. "We're so glad you could come with us. It'd be really boring without you."
"You're gonna love Hogsmeade!" Sophie added. "My parents remember going there when they were at Hogwarts, and they said it's absolutely amazing."
"That was really sweet of Tom to do that for you," Marcella added.
~*~
As they finished putting on their gloves and made sure their scarves were coving their necks, they got ready to leave the common room when they heard a booming voice calling out from the top of the stairs.
"Where yeh goin'? Everyone's bin leavin' today." A giant student appeared at the top of the stairs leading to the boys' dormitories.
"Hello, Hagrid," Miriam replied. "We're heading to Hogsmeade today."
“What’s Hogsmeade?”
“It’s a wizarding village,” Sophie piped up.
"Oh. I wish if I could go," he replied gruffly, with a hint of wistfulness clearly evident in his voice.
"We're really sorry Hagrid, but going to Hogsmeade is only allowed to students in third year and up," Sophie continued.
"Oh, well, have fun then."
The girls knew that if Hagrid was even old enough to go, they wouldn’t have allowed him to go anyway. Poor Hagrid had gotten into serious trouble the other day as Professor Panes, the Potions teacher, had caught Hagrid getting into an intense argument with two Seventh year students.
Of course, the punishment came out very one-sided as Professor Panes was also the head of Slytherin house and the two seventh year students were also from Slytherin. The professor believed the “we were just innocent bystanders” story that those two students fed him, and Hagrid took the entire blame for causing trouble. He was forbidden to leave the Gryffindor common room, except for classes and meals, and Gryffindor had been docked twenty points.
Even in the short time Miriam and her friends knew Hagrid, they knew he wasn't the type to just pick fights with anyone. It was the unfortunate reality that Hagrid was so different from the rest of the students that he spent most of his time trying to defend himself against those who took it upon themselves to make fun of his differences.
Miriam looked up into his dark eyes, waved good-bye to him, and ran back down to the Great Hall where Professor Jamison was checking off the names of the students who would be going to Hogsmeade that day.
"Bell, Maria?"
"Here!"
"Black, Murdoch? Boot, Daniel?"
"Here!" they both yelled.
Miriam, Marcella, and Sophie stood around with the other students, waiting for their names to be called so they could leave the castle. While they were waiting, Tom made his way over to Miriam. He looked rather bored and impatient.
"It slipped my mind, I guess," he mumbled rather dully, answering the question that had been plaguing Miriam's head.
“You... how... how did you get Madam Westyn to sign?” she asked warily. “You didn’t... hex her did you? You know that they do not allow us to use magic.”
Tom looked away rather uncomfortably, wringing his hands. Miriam shook her head in disbelief. How exactly did he get her to sign it?
“You know you can’t do magic away from school ““ she began, but Tom waived his hands rather impatiently and cut her off in mid-sentence.
“I didn’t use magic,” he hissed.
“Well then, how did you ““ (she trailed off as she watched the familiar form of Henry Diggory make his way through the crowd of students to where she was standing) "“ make her sign," she managed to finish. Tom turned around and looked up at Henry.
"You’re that Quidditch player everyone was talking about the other night."
Henry looked rather embarrassed.
"So, um, what brings you here?" Tom continued, eyeing Henry with a peculiar glower.
"I was going to ask Miriam if she'd like to walk with me to Hogsmeade."
Right at that moment, Miriam thought her heart had stopped beating completely. The blood froze in her veins....
"You want to ask my sister... out?" Tom squeaked, barely croaking out the words, and appeared rather sickened at the very idea. Henry simply nodded.
Miriam, on the other hand, wasn't too sure what to say as her stomach was suddenly doing somersaults and banging around her innards. On one hand, Tom was being an enormous prat, but Henry on the other hand... she sighed inwardly. He wanted to ask her out on a date! So she hadn't made a complete fool of herself that night at the Quidditch game. Completely giddy, she felt like dancing around the Great Hall and kissing everyone in sight. However, she didn't want to make a fool of herself (nor did she really want to kiss Carrey or Murdoch), so she abstained and kept her feet securely on the ground while her heart did all the dancing inside her chest.
Henry extended his hand toward Miriam and she took it. "Would your brother and friends like to come along, too?" he asked politely.
Tom flat out refused, muttering something to the effect of he wouldn’t be caught dead going with a “Dufferpuff” and mumbled he was planning on going with the Slytherins instead. Marcella and Sophie, though, both accepted his offer to come along.
"Prewett, Sophie? Thomas, Marcella?"
"Here!" yelled Sophie.
"That's us! Oh, I can't wait! Let's go!" squealed Marcella, apparently bursting with excitement.
"Riddle, Miriam? Riddle, Thomas?"
As they walked off ready to leave the Great Hall, Miriam felt a bizarre sensation on the back of her head. It felt almost as if she were being stared at. Turning around briefly, she saw Tom watching her. Their eyes met, and and they looked at one another for an entire minute. His green eyes didn't blink once. Miriam's head felt like someone was trying to force his way inside, and she felt a sharp throbbing sensation in her temples. The moment she turned away from him, the feeling had subsided.
"Hogsmeade has a great joke shop called Zonko's," Henry stated, breaking Miriam out of her state of confusion. "Then there's the Honeydukes shop. They sell all sorts of smashing things there like ice mice and pepper imps....”
November 18th, 1940,
We received a surprise after our Defense Against the Dark Arts class today....
---
“Class, I’d like to speak with you all for a moment, if I may,” Professor Williams told his students at the end class that day. "In light of, uh... recent worldly events, Hogwarts will now be starting a new Defense Club. It will, or course, be open to any student who wishes to join.”
The idea, which was intriguing to the students, caused a mild uproar in class. Marcella raised her hand an asked, “What will we do in the Club?”
“In the Club, you will have the chance to practice the spells you’ve learned here in class and be able to learn some new ones as well.”
Her interest already through the roof, it was Miriam’s turn to raise her hand. “When will this begin?”
“This coming Tuesday. It will take place in the Great Hall after dinner.”
Professor Williams looked at his class before continuing. “Beginning next semester, we’ll also begin a Defense Competition. You’ll be able to take what you’ve learned and go head-to-head with other students to earn points. Then at the end of the semester, we’ll name four students from each house who have the most points. Those four students will go head-to-head against each other. Only one student out of the whole school will be victorious and earn two-hundred and fifty points for his or her House.”
Murmurs traveled through the crowd. It was an exciting prospect, and many of them were already picturing themselves as victorious. Miriam couldn’t help but find herself sharing that elusive fantasy.
~*~
“It definitely sounds interesting,” she noted as they walked out of their Defense class.
“You should really think about entering the competition, Miriam. You learn things incredibly fast. Besides,” Sophie chuckled, “I would enjoy seeing a Gryffindor win it the very first time it’s held.”
November 20th, 1940,
There still has been no sign of Professor Dumbledore. Everyone in Gryffindor house is beginning to worry. We’ve asked the teachers to give us some sort of information of any kind regarding his whereabouts, but nobody will tell us anything.
---
“Maybe he got lost wherever it was he was going?”
“What if he’s been hurt?”
“Maybe he’s been captured by Grindelwald!”
“Oh, I hope not! That would be just awful!”
As Dumbledore hadn’t been seen, nor heard from, for the last few months, rumors were spreading around the Great Hall like a raging wildfire. Just as Miriam and her friends made their way to the Gryffindor table, they could hear snippets of conversations as they passed by the students.
“Poor old Dumbles probably got himself killed.”
The three friends turned around to see who had said such an awful thing. They weren't surprised to find that it was none other than Carrey Malfoy, who was wearing a smug look upon his face.
“Ugh! There goes Carrey again, spewing his proverbial hate,” Miriam retorted, rolling her eyes as Sophie and Marcella snickered behind their hands.
“Hey guys! Over here!” Abby was yelling for Miriam and her friends to come over to the Gryffindor table at once, and she had a deeply worried look on her face.
“What’s wrong Abby?” Sophie questioned. Abby held up the front section of The Daily Prophet.
“All-out battle with Grindelwald leaves both sides exceptionally decreased”
After a surprise attack on Grindelwald and his Knights of Walpurgis earlier last week, both sides are finding themselves with a reduced number of fighters, as reported to The Daily Prophet.
Many people have been confirmed dead, and many more are injured. One of the injured was Hogwarts Professor Albus Dumbledore, who is suffering from a badly broken nose and other combat injuries, including a nasty hex to his right leg.
Nobody said anything while reading it they were too much in shock to even breathe normally.
It was Dumbledore who spearheaded the initiative to strike against Grindelwald and the Knights.
A Daily Prophet reporter headed over to St. Mungo’s for a quick interview with him but was turned away by the healers in charge.
The Daily Prophet did learn through its sources that they will release Dumbledore from St. Mungo’s within the coming week or so to return to his teaching position at Hogwarts.
Everyone at the table looked absolutely horrified. “So that’s where he went,” muttered Sophie, completely taken aback. Miriam glanced over at Marcella who still had her hands clasped tightly over her mouth.
“At least we know he’s okay... and alive,” Abby said quietly as she gently folded the paper back and continued reading the article. Miriam and her friends slid onto the bench, although none of them felt hungry anymore.
“We should do something nice for him when he comes back,” Sophie commented quietly, poking her eggs absentmindedly with her fork.
“Like what?” Marcella asked, with the same air of distraction in her voice.
“I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far in advance,” Sophie admitted.
“What if we made a banner? Something that says ‘Welcome back, Professor Dumbledore’ and everyone in Gryffindor could sign it?” Miriam asked.
Sophie and Marcella thought hard about it.
“That’s really a good idea. We should ask Abby and the other Gryffindors to help with planning it,” Sophie replied, smiling.
~*~
After breakfast, Miriam and her friends decided to head back to the Gryffindor common room and pitch her idea to the rest of their house mates.
Standing on the long table where many other students were either working or goofing off, she cleared her throat loudly and began to speak. With all eyes were upon her, Miriam began to feel a bit nervous. The blood was rushing to her face, which she guessed, must have been turning a brilliant crimson color, but she remained calm and tried to force the staring eyes out of her mind.
“I’m sure most, if not all of you, have read this morning’s Daily Prophet.” Echos of ‘yeah’ went through the common room. Miriam cleared her throat again and continued.
“After reading it, my friends thought we should do something nice for Professor Dumbledore when he returns. I suggested making a banner, but seeing as how he is the head of our house, my friend Sophie suggested this should be a collaborative project among all the Gryffindors.”
Everybody in the common room began to cheer. Miriam’s heart began to race excitedly. The hot flush she felt in her face began to subside. A chorus of voices began speaking all at once.
“What should we do?”
“I like the banner idea!”
“How about a mural instead?”
Miriam smiled an ear-wide grin. Whatever her and her fellow Gryffindors decided upon, she knew it would be absolutely wonderful and the perfect surprise.
November 21st, 1940,
‘Project Dumbledore’ has begun, and after much discussion, we agreed upon that a banner would be the best course of action to take. We decided to make a huge one so everyone would have enough room to write a message. It’s so large, it spans from one end of the common room to the other.
---
“Order, people! ORDER!” Abby yelled over the chaos that had suddenly overtaken the Gryffindor common room. It was a cold Sunday afternoon, and the common room was exceptionally busy that day, which was why the girls’ had enlisted Abby to help with overseeing the project. It was a madhouse, and Abby couldn’t stand to watch such disorder continue any longer.
“ORDER!” she shouted again, only louder this time. Thankfully it worked as some of the chaos began to slow down in the common room.
Everywhere one went, students were scurrying about working on the banner for Project Dumbledore. This was turning out to be a much bigger project than Miriam had ever expected. While Abby was acting as crowd control, Miriam, Sophie, and Marcella worked diligently on penning ‘Welcome Back, Dumbledore!’ at the center of the banner.
~*~
“There!” they announced proudly once it had been finished, some time much later. Thoroughly exhausted, they took a step back so they could get a better look at it. Miriam sincerely hoped it looked all right as she had tried to make sure that they wrote legibly and didn't drip any excess paint from the paintbrushes onto the white canvas. They wanted to make sure it looked absolutely perfect.
“It looks wonderful!” Sophie exclaimed, clapping her hands together excitedly.
“I’m sure Dumbledore would feel really honored to see it,” added Marcella. Miriam smiled broadly.
“I sincerely hope so,” she replied.
November 24th, 1940,
Dumbledore is back at Hogwarts again! He arrived shortly before dinnertime tonight. Though he seemed very weak, he was able to give a small speech before dinner.
---
“I... I must say, I feel very honored to be here again,” Dumbledore began slowly. He gazed around the Great Hall, taking in the site of the students before proceeding on.
“As probably most of you already know from reading The Daily Prophet, I was leading an opposition against Grindelwald and the Knights of Walpurgis.“
Some of the Slytherins began snorting quietly as he continued.
“Although we weren’t exactly successful, we have gained an advantage over them.”
Applause thundered from the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff tables The Slytherins halfheartedly applauded. A few merely frowned and scoffed.
How inconsiderate of them, she thought scathingly. Leading a battle against the most evil wizard who ever lived must have been a positively gruesome. Thinking about the horrors of what he must’ve seen turned her blood cold. Looking over at the Slytherin table, she noticed Tom slitting his throat with his finger and nodding his head over at Dumbledore. His eyes looked to be teary as he continued to ridicule the professor’s speech. Miriam wondered what was so funny, as this was truly no laughing matter.
January 16th, 1941,
It has been an exceedingly lengthy time since I last wrote. I just haven’t had the time or energy with all the extra work and whatnot from following Professor Jamison’s homework schedule.
From the last time I wrote, so many things have happened here. Henry and I are officially dating, so to speak.
In Quidditch, things have not been going too easily for the Gryffindor team. We lost a game earlier this month to Ravenclaw, and we were almost facing elimination. Luckily, Hufflepuff pulled an upset win over Slytherin; so Gryffindor is back in the chase -- although we have to win our remaining games if we want to defend our title.
The new Defense club has proved to be the most difficult thing I’ve done so far, as I must constantly memorize new defense spells and stuff. And just last week they commenced the new Defense competition. I was one of a few Gryffindors to sign up for it. Sophie and Marcella decided against joining it, saying they didn’t want to have to compete against me.
Amazingly, Tom has joined the Defense club as well. I remain hopeful that we won’t have to compete against each other.
Speaking of Tom, he gave us all quite a scare back in December. He passed out one day in the middle of Herbology class and was taken to the infirmary by the professor.
When he awoke two days later, he seemed greatly weakened by it.... Whatever it was, it must be really serious as he's been in the infirmary a month now....
---
It had been a very cold and snowy December morning when Miriam headed to the infirmary to visit her ill brother. Three days prior to her visit, he had passed out in Professor Wymann’s Herbology class. Sophie and Marcella had also visited Tom, but they thought it be best for Miriam to go alone this time when visiting her brother.
Knock, knock. Footsteps sounded and Michellina Agave opened the doors to the infirmary.
“Hello Miriam,” she addressed, “your brother is resting now, but you can come in.” She held the door open, and Miriam walked through. “Please try and keep the noise to a minimum,” Michellina added as she led Miriam over to a bed where the young boy slept. Miriam pulled up a chair to the bed and sat down.
“Tom,” she whispered, “I’m so relieved you’re all right. I was so worried that something really terrible had happened.”
Her words didn’t wake him, nor did they even make him stir. He was in such a deep sleep that if it weren’t for the occasional rise and fall of his chest, Miriam would have thought him to be dead.
Sitting and watching him, she didn’t want to leave. Sighing, her gaze fell upon the bedside table where flowers and get-well cards sat. Sophie and Marcella had made a beautiful get-well card and had situated it adjacent to his bed the other day. There were other cards there, as well, mostly from his house mates. One card in particular was from her boyfriend Henry. A small smile and a warm sensation went through her when she saw it. It was a testament to the kind of person Henry was. Nice, considerate, and really sweet.
The minutes expired, and eventually she wasn’t sure how long she had been sitting there, but it seemed as though an eternity had passed.
Feeling it was time to leave, she got up slowly from her seat and gave one last look at her brother. Tom snorted and rolled over to his side. Miriam breathed a sigh of relief as she had worried for a moment that she had awakened him.
Quietly backing up as she prepared to leave, something next to Tom caught her attention: He was lying on a small green and silver book. As far as she knew, Tom didn’t own a journal, so this perplexed her quite a bit.
Miriam gritted her teeth and quickly looked around the infirmary. Michellina was busy in her office and there was nobody else around.... Thoughts were swirling around her head, debating whether to glance inside the journal or not....
I shouldn’t. It just wouldn’t be right.
Just one quick glance couldn’t hurt.
But if it is his journal, I have no right reading it.
You’re his sister. What possibly could he write that you don’t already know?
Ugh, decisions, decisions....
After debating for a few more seconds, and severely biting her lip, she finally gave in and decided that one teensy-weensy, insignificant little look wasn’t going to hurt, especially if Tom never found out.
What he doesn’t know can’t kill him....
Delicately pulling the book out from underneath him, she silently sat back down on the chair and cracked opened his journal.
“December 15th,
I’ve been in the infirmary for two whole days now. I must say that it is very boring here. I could scream bloody murder. The only thing I have to pass the time is writing in this small journal that Stephane brought for me.
Everyone seems to think I’ve been over working myself, but nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve been having these “attacks” quite frequently, but none have been as severe as this one. Generally, it only happens at night while I am sleeping, but this time it happened while I was awake, and in the middle of class.
During my episodes, I find myself encircled in a murky shadow.... I hear a soft hiss... like from a snake.... a voice unlike any other I’ve ever heard before. It’s harsh and cold and it keeps telling me I’m to be his successor. Two blood-red, luminescent eyes appear in the darkness before I wake.
I do not wish to tell anyone about my onsets, they’d most likely think I was mad, especially Miriam. She’d probably tell her Dufferpuff boyfriend, who would probably feel the same way, and word travels fast here in the school.
I have strong suspicions on who’s doing it. I think it’s Grindelwald who’s been possessing me.”
Miriam dropped the book as if it were suddenly burning her hands. In a state of mild delirium, she watched it as it fell to the floor with a soft thump.
Grindelwald. He’s possessing my brother.
Miriam looked wide-eyed at the diary on the floor, almost as if she were waiting for it to explode or something. Checking to make sure no one was around after all that, she gingerly picked it up, set it on the night stand, and dashed out of the infirmary... her mind racing with what she just read.
Why would Grindelwald possess Tom? Why him?
Miriam knew she couldn’t talk to Tom about it. If she told, then he would know she read his journal. She wanted so badly to talk to him and tell him that he wasn’t the only one having these horrible dreams. Secretly, she wished she could have told him all about the frightening dreams she’d had, which now that she thought about it, must’ve been Grindelwald's work, too.
Making it safely back to the common room and into the girls dormitories, she collapsed on her bed and cried for hours.