"I know indeed what evil I intend to do,
but stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury,
fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils." ~ Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Medea, 431 B.C.
September 1st, 1944
I can’t believe I’m sitting here in the Great Hall as a seventh year. It's almost boggling to think that I’ve been coming here to Hogwarts for seven years, and after this semester, I won’t be coming back anymore.
I had a lovely summer, though. Spending the summer holiday with Sophie was truly wonderful. Marcella came in August, and she spent a few weeks with us.
Tom, meanwhile, got shuffled back to Mme. Westyn’s for the summer, and well, let's just say that he hasn’t made a point to even notice me. Though, low and behold, not even a half hour ago, I find out he got named Head Boy, and yours truly was made Head Girl. I was surprised greatly by this, but the downside is that I have to spend extra time with Tom.... Ugh. It really astonishes me that Dippet, the utter moron he is, would make Tom Head Boy. Had the choice been up to Dumbledore, Tom wouldn’t have had a snowball's chance in Hell, as Dumbledore doesn’t trust him one bit.
What a shame the truth still hasn’t come out. Tom deserves a good long stay in Azkaban....
---
The start of term feast was its usual pleasant self. The Sorting ceremony had started the process and ended (much to the delight of the hungry students) when Dumbledore moved the chair and Sorting Hat and the food began to appear on their plates. Though a recently appointed Head Girl, she was still a Prefect, and as such, it was still Miriam’s job to help Ben escort the First years to the Gryffindor common room after the feast.
September 7th 1944
Terror has once again stuck the wizarding world. Grindelwald murdered an innocent goblin family out in the countryside. He is such an evil, unpleasant man, that I can’t seem to bend my mind around why Tom would even want to associate with someone like him... even if he is our... uncle. Ugh. I can’t believe I just wrote that....
I haven’t seen much of Tom these past few days.... It’s like he just disappeared off the face of the earth....
---
It was true: There were some days when Tom would go missing for hours on end, but then he would mysteriously turn up right before dinner. Miriam watched this trend for about two weeks, and everyday was the same: He'd appear almost out of nowhere and then, as if nothing had happened, he’d go and join the Slytherin table and proceed to stuff food into his mouth as though he hadn’t eaten in weeks.
One afternoon during Defense Against the Dark Arts, Miriam quietly stole a glance over at Tom while the teacher had his back toward them. Almost as if he knew she was watching him, Tom turned to face her. She received quite a surprise when, as she looked into his green eyes, they took on an eerie blood-red gleam. A hint of a sneer tugged on his lips before she turned away.
Once class had let out and the students were filing out of the classroom, Carrey Malfoy leaned in close to Tom and asked, “You’re still associating with her?”
“No, not any more,” he calmly replied, fully aware that the person they were talking about was well within earshot.
Not that she cared anyway. Tom was dead to her; she was now an only child in her mother’s memory. But even though she now hated everything her brother stood for, the words couldn’t help but sting her heart. It seemed almost final now; after all they had endured in their short lifetime, it was now over in a mere matter of a few seconds. To her, it felt as if a close friend had died, and she was never going to see him again. Sure, Tom had been distant and aloof toward her the past few years, but Miriam had secretly hoped that he would come to his senses and return to the same boy she had known during their first year, yet it wasn’t to be. Tom had completely severed the ties between them, and for the first time she could ever remember, Miriam sorely wished she wasn’t related to him.
October 1st, 1944
Being a Head Girl demands a lot of commitment, responsibility... and a lot of.... PATIENCE. Patience especially, as I have to be in the same room with Tom for hours on end, arranging Prefect duties, school activities, and other whatnot.
---
Miriam stood before the door that would lead her, she imagined, to an almost certain fate... a fate worse than death. Being stuck in closed quarters with... him... ugh. She could have thought of a whole host of other things she’d rather do than be stuck in this room with her... her... she couldn’t even force herself to think of the word brother.
Sighing, she reluctantly turned the handle and the door creaked open.... Cringing, she walked forward and into the darkened room. In the middle sat a table with a dark-haired figure sitting behind it, pouring over a stack of papers. The figure looked up... a wicked grin venturing onto his face.
“Glad you could make it,” he smiled, watching her closely as she sat down, grudgingly, next to him.
“Here,” he added, shuffling a stack of papers in front of her. “Take your time.”
Miriam looked over the papers before her, slowly taking in what was required of her.
“You’re... you’re making fifth year Prefect Agatha Weatherby do toilet inspection duty?” she exclaimed, raising an eyebrow over her paper. Tom merely nodded his head while Miriam scanned down further down the list. “You’re also tutoring?” she asked, even more surprised than before. “What are you teaching them... Dark Arts?” she sniped. Tom threw her an extremely dirty look.
Forty-five relatively quiet minutes passed by; the sounds were the shuffling of papers and the scratching of quills. After another hour had passed, Dumbledore poked his auburn head into the room.
“Ah,” he said, placidly, “I see you two haven’t tried to kill each other yet. Certainly a very good sign.” He causally strode into the room, his robes billowing behind him. “If you don’t mind, I’ll just take a glance over at what you’ve finished so far.”
Miriam pushed forward some of the paper she had finished toward Dumbledore, but Tom had to be difficult. He just shook his head, but nonetheless, he gave Dumbledore his finished papers. Quietly, Dumbledore went into the corner to inspect their work.
“This is quite a good idea,” Dumbledore said after awhile, handing back the papers, all except for one. He placed it in front of Miriam, where she saw her handwriting. She had written a proposal for letting the seventh years have a small graduation party in Hogsmeade after the last week of term.
“You... you like it?” she asked.
“Of course, but it will have to be brought up with Headmaster Dippet. Do you mind if I take this to him and show him?”
“Oh, certainly sir!” Miriam replied, smiling.
As Dumbledore walked out of the room, Tom gave a loud snort. “‘Oh, certainly, sir!’” Tom mimicked, his voice high and squeaky. “Honestly, do you ever listen to yourself when you speak?”
“What? What are you getting on about? You’re just jealous that you didn’t think of it first.”
October 12th, 1944
Headmaster Dippet liked my idea of having a graduation ceremony for us seventh years. Tom hasn’t mentioned anything about it. He just grumbles and complains to his friends. Unfortunately, planning this little celebration just adds to the amount of work I still have to fulfill.
---
Word of Miriam’s plan for a graduation party spread quickly throughout the school. Whenever she walked down a corridor on her way to class, people coming by would always applaud her or whistle loudly. All the attention embarrassed her quite a bit. The only thing that had spoiled her day was, after leaving Charms class, she found a first year Gryffindor sobbing by the entrance to the Great Hall.
“What’s wrong?” Miriam asked, kneeling down toward the distraught girl.
“I’ve... I’ve got detention!” she wailed, sobbing even harder.
“What happened?”
“I was walking... I didn’t see where I was going... and... and I walked into your... your brother, and he... he gave me detention! Says it’s against school rules to walk into the Head Boy!”
“That’s not true!”
“It’s... it’s not?”
“No!”
Suddenly the girl's eyes grew huge, and she began wailing even louder. “He told me that if I said anything to you, I’d lose Gryffindor house fifty points!”
“Gryffindor won’t be losing any points, trust me, and you won’t be going to detention,” Miriam replied grimly. But trust me on this. I’m going to be an only child by the time I get through with him, she mentally added. The girl looked somewhat relieved and meandered off, happy to be free of detention.
Miriam knew she was in for a trying evening... speaking to Tom was not high on her priority list....
October 14th, 1944
Well, I did it. I had a little “chat” with Tom over the “abuse of his new power.” He looked as if he would have wanted nothing better than to strangle me if given the chance. But I held my ground and threatened to tell Dumbledore “everything” if he continued to violate his position like that.
---
Though she threatened to tell on him, it didn’t stop Tom from dishing out the unpleasant chores to the lower Prefects, or in other words, the Prefects he hated, much to the annoyance of Miriam. The only good thing was that he stopped trying to give detentions to first year Gryffindors.
October 30th, 1944
There has been another attack executed by Grindelwald. There has been an attack nearly every day since the 14th, as reported by The Daily Prophet. The teachers are becoming worried about it, none more so than Dumbledore. I fear he may leave the school again and fight Grindelwald if given the chance.
---
That day in Transfiguration was one of the bleakest lessons Miriam had ever attended. A shadow seemed to follow around Dumbledore, and his once pleasant face appeared worn and tired as if predicting that something bad was going to happen.
“I’m afraid I have some rather difficult news to tell you,” Dumbledore announced at the end of class. “It is with great regret that I will not be able to see you all through your NEWTs.” This statement was met with a hushed surprise. Slowly, a hand shot into the air.
“Why are you leaving, sir?” a voice called out from the back of the classroom. Dumbledore looked at the student with a somber expression on his face.
“The wizarding world is, I’m afraid to say, in a very dangerous situation right now. As I’m sure you’re all aware, Grindelwald is back again, bringing with him discord and violence. It is up to me and many brave witches and wizards to bring his evil tyranny to an end.”
Dumbledore sadly looked around at the classroom, almost as if it were going to be the last time he would ever see their faces again.
“We have a wonderful substitute teacher who’ll see you right through your upcoming tests.”
"It's like you're a drug
It's like you're a demon I can't face down
It's like I'm stuck
It's like I'm running from you all the time
And I know I let you have all the power
It's like the company I seek is misery all around
It's like you’re a leech
Sucking the life from me
It's like I can't breath
Without you inside of me
And I know I let you have all the power . . ."
November 1st, 1944
I am so very glad Dumbledore hasn’t left the school yet. I feel like he is the only person who can properly explain what has just happened to me.
I no longer fear Grindelwald any more, for I have now seen the epitome of fear, face to face....
---
This rather odd day had begun with the feeling of something that just wasn’t right, something that Miriam couldn’t quite define. Tom was almost beside himself, quite pleased over something. Aside from the uneasy feeling she had, it was a relatively quiet Sunday. The Gryffindor common room was busy with many seventh years studying furiously for the impending NEWTs. Miriam simply didn’t feel like studying at the moment, so she headed up to bed early.
The girl's dormitories were vacant, which she was thankful for. She slumped down onto the bed, not even bothering to change into her pajamas. Closing her eyes, she had the sudden feeling like she was falling through the night sky... further and further she continued to fall through the chilly night air. When she felt a sudden impact, for a second, she thought she had hit the ground. Yet when she opened her eyes, she found herself on the floor beside her bed. Dazed and completely befuddled as to how she could have fallen out of bed, she clambered back onto it where she fell asleep once more. Almost instantly she was walking... walking down a narrow pathway lit by torches places sporadically throughout. The shadows left by the torches gave her the eerie impression that something was following her every time she looked over her shoulder. Her footsteps echoed with every step she took, each one sounded much louder than the last. She continued toward the end of the corridor where a heavily padlocked door awaited.... Something was telling her to open the door, but it wasn’t her instincts.... Bringing her hand up to turn the handle, the door swung open automatically.
Reluctantly walking in, a feeling of dread settled over her. There were at least a couple of dozen hooded figures standing in the shadowy room, but in the center stood a particularly tall figure. Though its hood was up, covering its face, Miriam felt as if it’s eyes were watching her very closely. A hostile sensation flowed through her; her subconscious was trying to warn her... warn her to get out of there... quickly.
Backing up, she felt around for the door. Feeling the knob, she tried turning it, but it wouldn’t open. As the tall figure began coming closer to her, Miriam’s heart began beating faster and more nervously.... The figure extended its hand, revealing long, pale, bony fingers. A sudden burst of cold air swept over her, but the figure didn’t grab her. Instead, it pulled down it’s hood. Miriam stopped breathing as she looked onto the pale, skeleton-like face, its red slit eyes clearly livid.
“We’re so pleased you could make it,” Grindelwald hissed.
Swallowing deeply, Miriam felt herself slowly starting to breathe again. As if he were a magnet, he began pulling Miriam closer to him, dragging her to the center of the room. Another cloaked figure walked forward, pulling down his hood... it was her brother Tom. He wore a shadowy expression on his face, his lips were pursed tightly together, his eyebrows furrowed deeply. He took one look at Miriam and then turned to look at Grindelwald.
“Are we ready, then?” he asked, his voice as cold as ice. Grindelwald nodded.
Miriam didn’t like the sound of this. Tom walked before the Dark Lord, a twisted grin spreading across his face. Grindelwald snapped his fingers, and Miriam suddenly appeared right behind Tom, as he knelt down in front of his master. Grindelwald turned to look at the people behind Miriam.
“Today, we add another member to the esteemed Knights of Walpurgis. It is with great honor for me to include my very own nephew into our little group.”
A few of the Knights shifted nervously around. Miriam felt anxious herself.
"I'm ready, sir!" Tom said.
Grindelwald pulled out his wand and yanked up the sleeve of Tom's robe. "Estandarte!”
The spell cut deep into his arm, its ugly cuts tracing a pattern into his arm and leaving its path raw and dripping with blood. Tom winced, but he didn't scream as the mark soon took the shape of a skull and dagger: the mark of the Knights.
The crowd of hooded figures drew closer as Tom scrambled up to his knees. Grindelwald pulled back his wand as Tom gripped his arm in agony. His face was contorted with pain. From where she was, she could see an enormously proud look on his face as a laugh unlike his own voice emerged from his mouth: It was cold and heartless.
One of the cloaked figures suddenly grabbed Miriam by the arms and brought her, or more likely dragged her, forward and stopped just mere inches from where Grindelwald stood. Miriam refused to look at the monster before her and kept her head down, looking directly at her feet.
"We shall celebrate the addition of our new member..." (the Knights moved closed toward her) "...with the murder of my niece," Grindelwald announced as casually as though he was merely talking about the weather.
An icy cold hand reached forward and touched her own hand... a horrible shiver went through her, shaking her to the core. It was almost as if Grindelwald were transplanting the dreary emotions around them into her head as a black fog began to swirl through her mind and tears began spilling from her eyes. It was as if death itself were touching her. The feeling overwhelmed her so much that she couldn’t endure it anymore and wished that she would die right there on the spot.
Another hand reached up and grabbed her arm, but this one felt sort of clammy as it began moving her forward. Everything was hazy and began moving in slow motion as she looked to her side at Tom and pleaded with him to not let it happen to her.
Grindelwald raised his wand to her, and as he opened his horridly pale mouth to recite the killing spell, a bright light shot out from behind her. Everything in her sight was washed-out in the glow of the light. Almost as suddenly as it had gone bright, it turned pitch black, and she could feel Tom losing his grip on her arm as she fell backwards. She could barely make out Tom's face in the darkness, but what she did she, his eyes were glowing red like the creature right beside him.
"You've ruined everything..." he hissed, his voice growing more high-pitched and cold. It was the last thing she heard before she passed out.
~*~
Her head was pounding and all her energy felt like it had been zapped, which made even something as simple as opening her eyes take a great deal of effort.
If this was what a migraine was like... she grumbled to herself. Slowly she opened them and through bleary eyes, looked around her strange surroundings. It appeared she was in a room. There were no hooded figures, or Tom, or even Grindelwald around. Wherever she was, she wasn’t alone.
"W - What... what just happened? Where am I?" she whispered.
"You're safe now," a voice called out. "You're in my office, back at Hogwarts." The person walked closer, and Miriam saw at once that it was Dumbledore.
"How'd... how'd I get here? I thought you left Hogwarts?"
"I was keeping an eye on you. You were in serious trouble, so I transported us here."
"But what about Tom? Is... is he all right?"
"It’s too late now, you should rest," Dumbledore answered, looking morosely at her. Miriam looked up at his friendly, but saddened face and noticed a small trickle of a tear in the corner of his eye. As he walked away, Miriam closed her eyes again, rubbing her left hand over her right arm. She looked at her arm and saw that no mark had been left on her. Dumbledore returned a moment later with a large brick of chocolate.
“Eat this,” he said. Miriam looked at the chocolate, then at Dumbledore. Finally, she carefully took it out of his hands and slowly nibbled on it. Once she finished it, Dumbledore returned carrying a bottle of something filled with a silverish liquid. “Go back to your dormitory and drink this,” he ordered. “So you won’t have to dream about it tonight.”
~*~
The hot liquid felt good going down her throat. Lying down on her bed, she fell instantly asleep.
It seemed that she had only closed her eyes for minute before she sat bolt upright in her bed, her heart pounding feverishly. "What was that?" Was... was it all just a dream?
Looking down, she was still dressed in her school robes. Had it all been just another dream? A dream within a dream?
A/N: Lyrics used above are from the song "Addicted" by Kelly Clarkson