Chapter 12
The next morning Alyssa took a few deep breaths, scanning the room as they blinked awake. It was dead empty, and a slight sadness tugging at their heart. They had only been attending Hogwarts for a month, but Alyssa had gotten used to Hermione waiting for them in the morning, assuring them that the dreams wouldn’t hurt them when they got bad. Even if the girl didn’t know exactly what she was doing, it was nice to have her around.
And now she was gone, and Alyssa hated everything. They hated the anger that Hermione had felt, the passiveness of the night before, the fear that they was just going to lose their friend forever.
“Alright Alyssa, what’s going on?” Sally-Anne asked, heading into the dorm, sitting with a small smile. She was small, with warm peach skin, and thick, wavy mousy brown hair. “You don’t normally hold back so much, and Hermione seemed touchy this morning. So, something happened, trouble in paradise and all that.”
“I don’t have any romantic feelings for Hermione Granger.” Alyssa tilted their head. “But I guess she must have been angrier with me last night than I thought she was.”
“Well, what happened?”
“We went out last night. She followed me, Ron, and Harry and got trapped out with us.” They shook their head with a small sigh. “We ended up somewhere dangerous and it was kind of my fault. She has every right to this, and if she wants nothing to do with me, I get it. I was being stupid, and I should have found a better way to prevent them from getting caught.”
“What did you do?”
“I kind of got over eager with things and I suggested hiding on the third floor. We ran into a Cerberus.”
“A… Cerberus?”
“Yeah… Definitely not normal.”
“We should get to breakfast. And trust me Alyssa, I think that you and Hermione are going to figure things out. You and Hermione will work this out.” She smiled, stretching her back as Alyssa quickly changed. “You’ve got several scars, looks like you’ve been through the ringer.”
“That’s one way of putting it.” They shrugged, pulling on their robes. “Thanks for waiting for me. I appreciate it.”
“Don’t worry about it, just talk to her and try to be careful with things.”
“I’ll do my best.” They gave a small nod, following the girl out of the dorm.
“You know, you don’t talk to a lot of people outside of the group.”
“The group?”
“You, Nevil, Ron, Harry, and Hermione.” She gave a nod. “You had your whole thing, and then you stuck to your house.”
“Yeah, I guess things just worked out like that. And I do want to get closer with the others but… I’ve only ever really had Harry. So, I never really had other friends. I’m from Gotham, it’s not a great place. It’s dark, somewhat cursed.” Alyssa shrugged, following her towards the great hall. “But your right, I do need more friends outside of my little group.”
“Take your time, and figure things out.” As they headed into the room, Alyssa felt a chill run down their spine, eyes going wide as they froze.
“Alyssa?”
“Sorry?” They muttered, shaking their head as Sue gently placed a hand on their shoulder. “Did I miss something?”
“Yeah, you kind of froze up there for a bit.” Daphne gave a small nod. “You good?”
“What day is it?”
“It’s Wednesday.”
“Halloween. Things always happen during Halloween, or at least that seems. And I don’t really want to get into it right now.”
“We all know you talk so little.” Daphne teased. She was tall, with a full face, and cool peach skin. Her eyes were round, a bright blue, and surprisingly warm. Her hair was long; lightly waved, and warm golden blond.
“But you seem very interested when brought into things, meaning you’re just not great at holding conversation. Which is part of autism.” Sue shrugged with a small smile. “And that’s okay.”
She was short, with milky white skin, and angular, dark blue-gray eyes. She had black hair, that only reached her chin in a nice bob cut.
“Alright.” Alyssa smiled, joining the two. Quickly they took a plate of bacon, eggs and some toast before sitting next to the kind Slytherin girl, Sue and Sally-Anne sitting across from them. “So… What do you normally talk about?”
“Not much really, it depends on the day.” Sally-Anne shrugged. “But you’re kind of new here.”
“There’s something being hidden on the third floor.”
“Other than the dog?” Sally-Anne chuckled, and Alyssa gave a nod.
“Yeah, there was a trap door. There had to be more to it. Not to mention the fucked up dreams. I’m starting to sense a monster in them, and not one of the little ones. A boss monster.”
“A boss?” Daphanie tilted her head.
“Yeah, like in a game. That’s partly how reality works for me.” They shook their head. “I didn’t actually get to what I was looking for wither.”
“The mirror.”
“With something in it, but it’s more than likely hidden away deep. The red thing I mean. It’s what was attempted to be stolen from the bank.”
“Gemstones have a fair amount of magical potential, I could start looking into those if you would like.”
“Thank you Daphnee, that would actually be a really big help.”
As the daily mail came, Alyssa’s eyes landed on six screech owls carrying a long, slim parcel that they were carrying between them.
“What is it?”
“I’m pretty sure that there is only one thing that looks like that. And I’m not entirely sure why.” They shrugged, watching as it headed towards their ‘brother’. “Did I miss something?”
“Yeah, Malfoy stole Nevil’s Rememberal when he fell, and he caught it after a like 50 feet nosedive.”
“So, he made the Quidditch team, and he’s the only one that’s getting a broom stick. I’m not even saying we all should, I just think that the school’s should be replaced several times over.” Alyssa rolled their eyes. “That’s uh… Kind of upsetting.”
“You’re not wrong.” Daphne gave a small nod. “But it’s not going to happen.”
“Probably not, and I’m never going to fly.” They shrugged, watching as Harry and Ron quickly and giddily rushed out of the hall.
“How did the two of you even meet?” Sue asked.
“Hm?”
“Yeah, how did you and Harry meet?” Sally-Anne tilted her head, as she ate a bit of bacon. “I mean you two seem really different. And your insisting it’s not a crush thing. Even if it was, I would love that story.”
“First of all I’m pretty sure I fall on the aromantic scale. As for the meeting… I mean our parents are really good friends.” They shook their head. “We met that way and we just kind of bonded from there.”
“Oh, that’s fairly simple really.”
“Yeah, there isn’t that much to it.” They responded, stretching before heading out of the great hall, heading off towards the DADA class.
“Wayne.”
Turning Alyssa rolled her eyes as Pansy, Crabbe and Goyal headed up to her.
“What do you want Parkson?” They smirked, crossing their arms as they headed up. “Look, Harry may have a good amount of sympathy, but were from two vastly different places, and while he wants to redeem Draco, I’m not as nice.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not going to pretend you are going to change any time soon, it’ll take something bigger than what Harry is willing to put you through. So, I’m going to say this outright. I stalled for a reason.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“I’m just saying if you try to pull what Draco did with Harry, you won’t get away with it. I don’t bite like that; I won’t even take you up on an obvious bate.” Alyssa swayed on the balls of their feet slightly and smiled. “But if you want a fight, we go through the teachers. Because if you want a back ally Wizarding duel in the middle of the night, we’re doing it out by the forest. I can arrange that, but I need to warn you now. I can’t actually assure you of what would happen. So consider your options, and if it’s that fight that you want-“ Alyssa gently took Pansy’s shoulders. “-I’d consider what you wanted me to tell your family.
As Alyssa headed into Charms they smiled, sitting behind Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
“Hey, I just wanted to apologize about what happened.”
“At least you’re being more civil about things. I still don’t think that he should have been rewarded for these things.” She shook her head. “Now class is about to begin we should actually pay attention.”
“Oi, no need to get snippy, they are still up there with you for the top of the class.” Harry glared back at her, and a chill ran down their spine as the class began.
Everyone was paired off to practice the Levitation Spell; and the moment that Hermione and Ron were paired off their heart sank. They had tried a few times to swap with him, but Flitwick had insisted that they would work fine with Nevil, since they taken to more or less tutoring the boy anyways.
“Why do you seem so concerned?” Nevil asked and Alyssa let out a soft sigh. Without responding they mindlessly flicked their want at the feather in front of her, just thinking the spell. They didn’t expect anything to happen, but it floated a tiny bit before falling again.
“Yeah, that’s… Something I have no idea if I can repeat.” They admitted.
“Wingardum Leviosa!” Ron’s anger resonated in his words, and Alyssa sank into themselves, a small buzzing entering her there as the world faded slipped away from them.
As a sharp whistling hit her ears, Alyssa blinked a few times, shaking their head as they took in the heavy fog that had over taken the class room, the bone chilling dead silence of the now pitch black room and the heavy hissing of their radio.
“Well, no one seems hurt, so there is that. The dark is not a great sign.” They muttered, heading to the center of the classroom. “That could mean one of a few things, but it’s probably best that we don’t light up our-“ Sharp, hot pain blared through Alyssa’s back and they screamed: the entire room lighting up as a ball of light flowing to the center of the room from Flitwick’s wand.
Alyssa could feel blood pouring down their back as silent horror overtook their classmates, willing it to heat and sizzle, small flashes of fire sending the monster back as they rushed forward. Turning quickly, they easily blocked a swing from the monster’s long needle like legs, fixing their stance and backing up as it kept swinging. It was a tall, somewhat feminine with two heads, wrapped in bandages. They had no faces, their heads on completely the wrong way. Upside down and backwards, their arms wrapped behind their back, sewn into place not unlike those of the straight jackets, the top torso twisted the opposite way to the one below it, not unlike the Pendulum though instead of being connected by metal, they melted into each other unnervingly.
Quickly the monster reared back before slamming it’s two legs into the ground where Alyssa had once stood.
Panting, and swinging their buster sword quickly as it went to flip over, cleaving it in two, pulling her gun and shooting each head causing it to completely fade. Quickly the weapons vanished, and they stood trembling in the middle of the room.
“Mx. Nygma.”
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
“You’re bleeding really badly.” Hermione scolded, heading forward with the Patil twins. “You need to go to the hospital wing, and I’m not going to take no for an answer.”
“I’m going to be okay.” Alyssa’s voice slurred as they lurched forward, the twins catching them with ease. After a moment they gave a nod, pulling and ample out of the nothing, quickly downing it, back painfully stitching the wound back together. Their eyes rolled into the back of their head and they lurched forward in a dead feint.