Chapter Eleven
The world around her was hazy with moonlight, and the air was cold against her skin. She was outside somewhere. Grass was wet on her feet and she looked down to see she didn’t have shoes on. Holly knew what this was and she choked back a gag. In the distance a howl shattered the silence of the night, and a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold ran down her spine. Looking to her left she saw what she assumed was the place the howl came from, a run down shack. Against her better judgment she began to walk towards it. Something about the howl made Holly feel bad. It felt pained, agonized, closer to a human scream then she would have liked. The creature, whatever it was, seemed to need help. Curse her and her Hufflepuff nature.
Just as she began making her way closer to the shack she was met with the feeling she was being watched. Looking towards the trees, she saw a stag. It was a large animal, but she wasn’t afraid. She took a step closer.
Holly woke up in a cold sweat, shooting up in bed so fast she felt instantly nauseous. It was dark in their dorm still, and she got the sense she hadn’t been sleeping terribly long. The Hufflepuff rooms had a lot of windows, though no one could really tell if they were real or not. They felt real enough, summer breezes flowing through them when they were open, but no one really knew what parts of the castle grounds they faced. Or how they existed considering their dorms were in the basement. The students of Hogwarts were long used to not questioning the workings of the castle.
Pulling a muggle watch from her bedside table, Holly checked the time. 4:30 AM. She in fact had not slept long, but she knew going to bed again would be impossible. Wisps of the dream she had had floated around her head, intangible. When she first woke up she never remembered her dreams, though she hoped this one would come back to her. Something about this was familiar, but she couldn’t figure out how. She needed to remember it, it was important that she remembered.
Pushing the thought from her head for now, she pulled her trunk out from under her bed. Sifting through it she chose a skirt, and a yellow and black striped sweater. Now that Autumn seemed to be picking up the castle was getting colder. Her socks, purple things with constellations decorating them, and her tie were the last bits of her ensemble. Moving to the bathroom, she debated taking a shower. The warm water seemed like it would be nice, but it wasn’t worth the possibility of waking up her friends. Sighing, she moved to the mirror.
Her eyes stared back at her, but she didn’t feel like she was really seeing anything. She was still caught in the fog of sleep. Her hair, a mess as always, went into a little half up half down bun. It was too short to do much else. She debated doing some makeup, but ultimately decided she was exhausted and didn’t have the energy for it. She washed her face, and got dressed, calling it a day. It was about five by the time she was ready, and slipping on her watch, she snuck out the door with her book bag.
Holly had not been expecting to appear at the doors of the library. They were closed, but she knew they were unlocked and pushed her way in. Really she hadn’t meant to end up here. Her feet had carried her to the doors, subconsciously as she didn't have much of a destination in mind herself. Her feet continued to carry her now, but she knew where she was going this time, and she chewed her lip nervously.
Coming around the end of a large shelf, Holly was met with a sight she had only half wanted to see. Regulus Black sat in the window alcove they both seemed to have claimed. Steeling herself, and deciding she was in fact mad from lack of sleep, she made her way over.