« DOUBLE MEANING »

It was supposed to be a peaceful night in Hogwarts, especially in the Gryffindor's girls dormitory.

The sky was cloud-free and the reflection of the moon on the window appeared as a slight halo above Lillian's bed as she laid under the sheets with no particular expression on her face as she had sunk into her dreams for some hours already.

But this night was especially rough for the teenager and she was just about to find out why.

In reality, her nights had usually been shortened abruptly because of nightmares, some of them scarily realistic, such as watching her friends die in front of her, and others were plain confusing. She had written some of them down in a notebook, in order to think a little less about what seemed to consume her rapidly and because she didn't have the strength to tell anyone.

However, this night's dream was about to get much scarier.

Lillian kept opening and closing her eyes as the darkness didn't seem to fade away. It took her a few seconds that felt like hours to understand that she was standing in complete oblivion.

The black color of wherever she was currently in was almost so powerfully dark she felt like she was blind, as if she had been snatched up in some sort of endless limbo and that she would stay stuck in the absolute nothing forever.

Though, soon, a presence could be felt all around her, creating a stronger sensation of confinement, her feet screeching on the floor as she unconsciously moved around, something was telling her to run but as she did nothing changed, it was still all black.

And the presence blocked Lillian's movements as a shape slowly formed, made of white, contrasting with the darkness that suddenly became so much more reassuring.

Lillian couldn't quite picture what it was but the white shadow was so big it turned out to be a wall of moving dust in front of the girl. With a shaky hand, she reached forward but, as she barely brushed her fingers through it, she jumped back, putting her other hand in front of her mouth to muffle her shriek.

"You deserved that pain."

The voice came out of nowhere and Lillian jumped one more time, bringing her hands to her ears as the sound itself was painful, her breaths ragged and her heart pounding in her chest.

"That pain," the voice muttered. "You should give to others."

This time, Lillian dropped on her knees on what felt like a puddle of water, her face contorted because of the unbearable distress that the voice was able to create in her mind.

"Wh—What are you talking about?"

Without her noticing, the white shadow surrounded her as to create a force shield so that the teenager could not move.

"You, young lady, have the endless possibility to purify your dark soul, to embrace it. The Gloom is part of you."

As the word referring to the darkness was pronounced, the suffering came to a halt, as if it tried to make her believe everything this voice was saying.

"The light I produce hurts you, the darkness is here to welcome you."

Lillian brought her hands in the liquid on the ground as she desperatly tried to grab something she could throw at the shadow but there was absolutely nothing, she was alone in this.

"No! Never!" she shouted with anger, already prepared to feel a rush of pain overtake her.

But, for a very long time, nothing happened. The shadow disappeared and Lillian stayed on her knees, wondering what would come next.

Then, the moon appeared above her head, captivating her for an instant before the texture of the liquid on the floor slowly changed, becoming viscous. Feeling like she was in a trap, Lillian ever so slowly brought her eyes to the floor and felt all air be stuck in her throat.

She was bathing in a puddle of blood, the crimson color sticking on her hands and clothes as she stumbled over and over again to stand up.

"You chose your side, be prepared for the consequences."

The hiss of the sound made her scream so loud she fell unconscious in the blood, her heart stopping for longer than it should.

Lillian opened her eyes abruptly with tears prickling in her eyes, automatically looking under and around her. And there she found her bed, in her dormitory, with Hermione sleeping peacefully in front of her, Ginny on the other side of the room.

Slowly, the blonde got down, her legs so weak as they kept shaking almost making her fall, only her hand holding the bedside table preventing her body to crash down.

Dark thoughts over dark thoughts scrambled in her head as she put on a coat over her bare shoulders and left the room, thundering down the stairs leading to the common room.

A light fire was still burning in the chimney and the memory of Sirius Black appearing through the flames back during their fifth year reminded her of what had happened to him the exact same day she had let the darkness win over her reasoning actions.

In just a few minutes, she was standing in front of the wall leading to Dumbledore's office. She needed to see the Headmaster, something inside of her, in her guts, was warning her. Something was about to happen. Something bad. Something she might be able to stop.

But she needed Dumbledore's help.

However, she stood stuck in front of the wall, trying desperately to find the password to get to the stairs.

The memories of old conversations she had had with Harry about this passage had already faded away and she found herself saying complete non sense and non related magical words to get it to open.

She was about to give up when one last inspiration came to her mind.

"Wizarding War."

Lillian sighed heavily out of relief when the wall creaked open to reveal a large case of stairs that she took no time to walk on, watching the wall close on itself.

In her six years at Hogwarts, Lillian had only been in Dumbledore's main office twice and she had never been alone. Both times she was with Harry and she had already felt privileged. This time, it felt like torture just to walk until the office since it was not for a good thing.

Some candlesticks gave a warm atmosphere to the enormous room and Lillian approached gently the phoenix that was perched above the bed, its bright feathers almost glowing with the flames reflection on it.

"Lillian?!" Dumbledore exclaimed as he took in the appearance of the student he had grown to appreciate with the years.

Her hair was messy and it could easily be seen that she was sweating, her entire body shaking from both the cold and fear as her entire self looked more fragile than ever, draped in a light coat over her red pajamas, bare feet, the tears that had dried over her cheeks giving her eyes a swollen look.

Worriedly, Dumbledore slowly pushed the student to sit down on an arm chair, giving her a glass of water.

"What is going on?"

"Something bad is going to happen, Sir."

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Guys, it's about to go down! Be prepared and tell me what you think will happen in the comments, it'll be interesting :)
And don't forget to check out my new fanfic called Ascendancy pls pls <3