“Miss Granger, please take a step forward. Your turn.”
I take a deep breath, frightened of the scene that may unfold.
It's ok just breathe, control yourself. Control it.
I walk closer to the chest. With each step I felt a greater resistance for the upcoming task.
“Wand at the ready!” exclaims Lupin.
With shaking hands, I take my wand out. I grip and regrip the hilt one last time. I close my eyes.
It’s ok, it'll be over before you know it.
I open my eyes then with a deep breath and with a slight nod, I signify to let the boggart out.
As soon as the chest opens, my stomach drops, I can hear my heart beating, pulsing in my throat.
I stood frozen. Standing in front of me were my friends.
They all stared back at me. Their faces full of pure malice. They looked at me as if I were their worst enemy. Draco stood there as well. Also with the same daggered glare.
“Guys?”
How could they be upset? I am their friend. I love them.
It’s just a fear, it's a fear… just cast the spell.
Riddi-
Harry roared, “Don't pretend like you actually like us! you couldn't protect us! You're worthless!”
“What do you mean?” I couldn’t help the smallness in my voice.
Ron ignored the pathetic question. “You've got all of us bloody killed!! That's what happened!”
“Because of you, we all suffered more than you,” Ginny added.
How is this happening?
“you're not just worthless. You're a monster, you're a freak… and to think I trusted you. You made me believe we were friends. I thought you were better!” Draco exclaimed
“No… no- Guys I- i can protect you I can save you, I'm not worthless-”
My throat tightened. There was a sting at the base of my throat. That's when I feel the tears coming down, trailing down my cheeks in waves fueled by hurt.
I can only see Draco. His hate filled eyes. His tense posture and closed fists ready for the moment to strike me.
“Look at you! can’t even say anything to the people you betrayed! Do you hear that? You betrayed me! Made me think you were good, when in reality, you're a monster!”
Still frozen in fear, I looked away from him. I couldn’t bear to see the hate in his eyes.
They found out. They know. How could they know?
With that realization I hear sobs. They’re from me.
“I’m sorry, I didn-”
A change of scenery stopped the sobs with a hiccup.
Suddenly a dark smoke spread harshly throughout the room, filling every visible place and replacing it with a gray blanket. Now it was just me in… well no where I recognized. I turn around, wiping the fallen tears from my face, wondering where I was. Is it over?
That's when I see him, lying on the clouded gray floor, bloodied and hurt.
He laid still on the floor, almost lifeless. Multiple spots along his white shirt were slowly being soaked in blood.
A horrid sound pierces my ears. My lungs burned.
I ran to him. Draco.
What kind of sick joke is this?! I need to fix this… the spell… I can’t remember.
“No! This isn't-”
I cover my mouth in a poor attempt to hold in my gasps.
“This isn't supposed to happen! I-I was supposed to save you!”
As I raised my head, I looked past him seeing Ginny, Hermione, & Ron in the same wretched condition.
I scour towards them checking all of them for any feeling of a pulse. I feel none. All I could feel was cold skin on my finger tips.
“Come on! Please! Please, get up! Get up!”
None of them did.
“Help!”
My head whips around fast.
I see Draco running towards me.
Oh, he’s okay. He’s okay. Relief floods through me like a strobe of light.
He has his arms across his stomach, and a wand in the other. His shirt ripped and bloody.
He was hurt but he’s alive. I will kill whoever hurt him.
Next thing I hear is the last thing I had ever wanted to hear in that moment,
“Avada Kedavra!”
It all happened so fast yet I could see it so clearly. With a flash of green light. A quick look at the source of the spell… no, it can’t be… killed by my hand, the curse hit.
I bellowed out an ear piercing scream for the millionth time.
“No!!!”
I dropped my wand, running as fast as I could before he could completely hit the ground.
I grabbed his head, crumbling down as I did so.
“Dr- Draco, please! Please wake up! Please! Y- You can't die, you, you can't, please! I need, I need you here! I didn't… i didnt say… Draco… I love you”
“Aww how sweet” a voice draws out.
I turn to face draco, he’s not there anymore.
I turned my head to the voice, prepared to kill the person who took what I loved, everything I cared about, the people who made me feel like my existence was worth it.
Who I saw was someone I never thought I would see again.
“Mother?”
“Hello Dear”
The thing inside of me started to rise.
“Oh look, still not able to control that I see”
My veins started turning black.
Holding back a sob filled with pain I point my wand at my psychotic mother.
“You, you killed him, you're the one that did all of this” I said, my voice switching to a darker tone.
My mother, with an unfazed look, chuckles and rolls her eyes as if someone told an indecorous joke.
“Oh dont be so stupid, of course not. I had help from your father.”
She's insulting you.
I tensed again.
“What do you mean my father?”
She flashes her teeth, conveying a crazed smile then she slowly turns to her right. Right then, my father in all his un-honorable glory walks forward.
“Hello demon”
I could feel myself losing the battle between me and the thing inside that I've been trying to keep at bay.
We can kill both of them easily, it said.
Suppressing the thing, I replied. “Why did you do it? I thought parents were supposed to protect their children, and love them”
He chuckled, “and who put that thought into your mind? You were only supposed to be alive to aid us, not for us to treat you as a pet”
“You both are sickening, you know that? Having a child just to be used as a weapon, and then when your plan backfires you try to kill her!?”
My vision was blurring,
don’t take over.
My parents started walking closer.
“Yes well, obviously we also failed at killing you the first time, so we came to fix this little mishap”
I could barely breathe. It felt like my whole body was burning, blood rushing to my head as if trying to escape.
I was confused.
Taking a dizzying pace forward, feeling on the verge of unconsciousness I looked straight into their eyes alternating between the two. My anger and desperation for blood was flying through the roof.
“If you only came here to kill me, why did you kill all of them?”
“Because you weren't meant for such things as caring” my mother said in a condescending tone.
I clenched my jaw, taking a big gulp holding back my tears.
“You are a monster”
“You deserve to die”
“You can't control it, it will eat you alive, in a few years you will be non-existent and all there will be left is your body”
I couldn't control it anymore. I had to find a way to control this thing inside me.
We work together. I clarified in my mind
The demon chuckled. You pushed me back for all these years, what makes you think I’d work with you?”
Because if you don't, I die and my body along with it, meaning you'll die as well.
Who said this isn’t my body? Growled the demon.
I did! This is my body! You're in it. I control myself. My body, my rules and you're inside of me meaning you are me, meaning you follow what I say. I control me, so I control you.
With one last growl from the demon I let the tie lose. Except this time I can control it. Instead of tying it on a post with a leash, I hold both ends of it as I take the reins.
A surge of power and adrenaline courses throughout my body, starting at the tips of my fingers and slowly electric pulses fill my entire body. My eyes turn a deep green --almost black- and veins fill my hands stopping at the edge of my face. I look at myself and see that my hair color is no longer brown but a raven black.
I smiled. It was terrifying… I liked it.
Looking at my parents, then thinking back to Dracos body on the floor I felt my anger pulsing inside of me, becoming my heartbeat.
“No” My voice boomed with power and strength.
“You're wrong. I do deserve love, I do deserve to live, and I can control it.”
“The mistake was mine, allowing both of you to torment me all this time.”
My father, finally showing a little seriousness walks a step back, “if you kill us you wouldn't be any better than either of us, and the thought of killing your own parents alone would eat at you”
I chuckled, a deep vibration rumbling through my body to the floor, “I'm not like you, I know what love is, I know that anyone can change if they're willing, and I know that you both would never,” my voice raised in volume.
With that, I picked up my right arm and with my fingers spread I called the power towards my father and lifted him up. Then with my left arm I did the same to my mother.
“You had your chance to change, you could have saved yourself but you chose to side with the dark lord. That's your fault”
The lady, in sharp breaths said, “this isn't real you can't actually kill us. We’re just a figment of your imagination”
I smirked, ‘well then that means i get to kill you twice”
With that I shut my eyes, squeezed my hands shut and took their heads right off their shoulders. Unable to look, I turned and dropped to the floor feeling all the strength that was once palpitating in my body slowly start to dissipate.
This was a boggart, so why was it so harsh and why didnt i need the charm? I wonder.
I then realized there was Draco lying ill on the gray floor. I’m still stuck.
Holding Draco’s hand I put my wand up.
What's the spell? Come on, come on…
For merlin's sake! Something funny.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes and think about something amusing.
I remember.
His laugh. He laughed because I was laughing at his face covered in butter beer after a minor mishap.
With tears streaming down my cheeks I chuckled and wiped my tears. With one last sniffle I breathed in and took in that entire moment. The sound of his laugh, the warmth in her heart, and the hysteria that filled the air…
“Riddikulus!”
I lifted my wand to the sky and with one movement a bright light filled the dark place. I closed my eyes from the drastic change from the dark to light.
When I opened my eyes I was still on the floor and everyone was staring at me with a mix of shock, worry and… fear.
That's when it hit me. They saw everything. They saw my deepest fear.
They saw me kill my parents, and they saw me, with the demon… and oh my god, I said I loved Draco.
I Stood up abruptly still crying like a maniac and turned to see that all of my friends were ok. And there stood Draco. My heart beat sped up again. He took a step forward, I took a step back. I turned to Professor Lupin then ran out of the classroom.