in the dead of night ((Abigail))

[Rosaliz Hernandez G6]

Halfway down one of the less well known small streets that branched off from Hogsmeade, Rosaliz made her to an abandoned building not to far from the shrinking shack. Ever since people believed that the shack was haunted people of the surrounding area moved out as well...many abandoned buildings today were still left in mint condition. A houses door that was slightly ajar though not by a lot. It would have been extremely easy for someone walking past to completely miss the fact that the door was even slightly ajar if it wasn't for the light that drifted out through the crack in the doorway and across the corridor from the candle within. This small amount of light was able to, in the dead of night, light up the area brightly despite only coming through a small crack and unknown to the figure inside the room it would be extremely easy at this time to spot that someone was inside there that shouldn't be. Any passers by would spot the door easily and straight away be able to figure out what was going on. This thought was however as far away from the front of Rosaliz's mind as it was possible to be as she stood inside the building in the center of what looked like to be the old dining room. She was looking down at the parchment in her hands. The floor of the little room that she was inside was covered in tiny shards of glass and broken pieces of furniture as the entire room looked as if it had been struck by some kind of earthquake. Not a single piece of furniture stood in the correct place, every single piece having been smashed to pieces and now laying around the room, broken and destroyed. Though none of this seemed to be registering to Rosaliz as her eyes continued to focus on the paper in her hands and his grip tightened slightly. The page that she held in her grasp had been magically enhanced so no matter how roughly she held it there would never be any damage to the paper made visible and she growled loudly as she raised the page up towards her face. As it moved into the small amount of light that was coming from a candle that seemed to be hung from the ceiling it was clear for anyone to see that the bottom section of this particular page had been wiped almost clean, only the odd word being visible to see and even with Rosaliz's good eyesight there was no way she could figure out what the rest of it said.

"How the hell did this happen! I thought this page was untouchable!" She screamed out, her voice echoing easily around the room and down the corridor outside as her mouth open wide with the shout of anger that followed her words. It would be obvious to anyone that managed to hear it that the shout was filled with nothing but pure anger as it seemed to extend for longer than expected, there was a reason that the book, which the page Rosaliz now clutched in her hand belonged to, had been banished from the wizarding world. Well two reasons really, the first of which being that wizards feared that these kinds of spells that had the power to take control of the wizarding world, overthrow the humans who feared and wished to control them and they were right to fear this fact, the spells within could clearly cause more destruction to the human body than any spell that the wizarding world had yet to conceive, outside of the unforgivable curses of course and with these spells learnt you could indeed cause havoc amongst any human and eventually give them the power, once the entire book had been learnt, which was impossible to do for all but the most powerful of beings, to become stronger than any wizard known. It was this that had caused the destruction to the room around Rosaliz and as she looked the bottom of the page over once more her frustration at not being able to see what the final spell on this one page that she possessed was seemed to erupt from inside and she swung around, grabbing hold of the chest of drawers next to her and throwing them powerfully to the floor in a smash that would no doubt be heard from outside. However it was this action that caused the destruction to stop and inevitably saved Rosaliz. As she threw the chest of drawers to the floor the note caught on it's corner and was pulled from her hand before floating on top of the chest of drawers calmly. Almost as soon as the page left her hand Rosaliz felt the anger and hatred drain from her body but at the same time her strength seemed to fall with it and he fell backwards, dropping from her standing position and landing hard on her back on the concrete floor of this little room.

She could feel blood seeping through her shirt ... no ... there was no blood in here. Rolling her head sideways but not bothering to sit up as he simply lay on his back Rosaliz spotted a vial smashed on the floor next to her and realised she was laying in what was no doubt one of the potions that she had tried to use to recover the lost text. There were at least six of these lying around her body and Rosaliz felt her eyes slowly shut as she thought about the page ... that one page that was driving her insane. She had already found that the three spells she could read were helpful beyond belief to her and she couldn't stand the fact that one of the spells from this most sacred of books was so close and yet she still couldn't read it. To even have the page was something that most people that knew about it dreamed their whole lives of being able to say and she had it. The idea of this fact and then coupled with the fact that the last spell was useless to her was driving Rosaliz slowly crazy as she closed her eyes shut and rested her head backwards. "There must be a way to figure it out ... there must be." She slowly began saying out loud, repeating herself over and over again regardless of the fact that she would look absolutely crazy to anyone that entered the room, being drawn by the noise of her destruction only to find her lying on the floor in a mix of potions muttering to herself. However Rosaliz didn't care, she wanted to find out what this last paragraph said and this was the only thing she could think of doing right now.

[Abigail Manque R4]

Sneaking out, what a thrill Abigail thought to herself, although she didn’t know if you could call leaving a note on the table for your aunt to see sneaking out. She felt guilty for deceiving her aunt slightly but she needed to get out of the house for a bit. She hadn’t had a good thorough practice in ages and it was killing her. Sure she practiced here and there but nothing long enough to do any good. If she wanted to perform her piece in front of the judges to know whether or not she would be programmed in next summers dance again or not she really needed to put in some good practice time. She had never been denied a spot and shuddered at the very thought of it. Dance was easily one of the most important things to her in her life right now the only other two even near it was her aunt and her precious kitten Crissy. She adored that cat. Unlike people no matter what you said or did she would always be there for you. One of the very few loyal things in Abigail’s life. It was a shame people were so hard to trust now a days. It was so easy to be deceived now a days. She had seen it happen many times to her aunt especially by men. She seemed to have the worst luck in that category.

Her aunt had been married once but that marriage had ended fast like most marriages now a days. She married her high school sweetheart right after her eighteenth birthday and like most marriages they realized how different they really were and within a year of saying ‘I do’ they split. She often reminded Abigail of this and always told her not to make the same mistakes she did when she was young. To be bluntly honest Abigail wasn’t even sure if she would get married someday. It wasn’t that boys didn’t spark a interest in her it was just that it seemed as though she had no time. She was always very busy. If not with dance then it was school work and if it wasn’t schoolwork it was some other random project she was working on at the time. She had to admit though finding a guy who shared her passion for dance or even music for that matter would be a nice change. That way they could practice together or even write together.

Shaking her head slightly with all these rambled thoughts she once again tried to clear all these unnecessary thoughts from her head and concentrate on the task ahead. She always got sidetracked so easily and it was one of her very few weaknesses. Once she actually got into practicing though she had disciplined herself enough to know concentrate mainly at what she was doing. Although there were the occasional slip ups but
Before she could do that she needed a place to practice. Looking around slightly to see where she had wandered she smiled. She had been walking around aimlessly while lost in thought but seemed to have come upon a deserted wide space perfect for what she needed to do.

Sitting down on the grass Abigail slide off her ballet flats and preferring to dance barefoot she smiled to herself as the cool dampness of the grass touched her feet. Spinning slightly on the ball of her right foot she put her left foot near her knee and was off in her own world. Practicing the routine she had written over and over again till she hit every move precisely with as much grace possible on the slippery grass. Laughing slightly every time she would slip slightly and smiling when she hit it all the moves perfectly Abigail finally ended after once again performing a perfect routine. Letting her body relax she laid down on the cool grass. “Wow dancing under the moonlight, now that’s something new. “ She murmured to herself as she felt her lids grow heavy but she couldn’t allow herself to fall asleep.

Sitting up briefly she looked around to find her shoes and heard a huge crashing noise coming from the street not even 200 yards or so from her. Jumping to her feet and feeling the adrenalin pumping threw her veins. No one lived in the houses from where she heard the noise. Everyone that even lived near the supposedly haunted shrieking shack had moved away. Shuffling over to grab her shoes she quickly slipped them on. Walking Causley but not slowly over to the street where she heard the crash she silently took out her wand. She new she couldn’t use it but it was a comfort to have out.

When she reached the street she glanced down to see if anything unfamiliar stuck out. Then she heard another crash. Freezing slightly she glanced to her left and saw an abandoned house not to far down the street with a pale light coming from it. Not sure what to do she walked silently towards it and peeked in threw the crack. She saw laying there a girl maybe a few years older then herself laying in the middle of a destroyed room covered in some liquid that she guessed as potions mumbling something to herself that Abigail could not pick out. Pushing her wand away in her pocket once again she opened the door and walked in slightly worried that the girl was injured. In a cautious but friendly voice she asked the girl “Are you all right?”

[Rosaliz Hernandez G6]

Rosaliz's ears picked up the sound of her falling to her knees again once more before her mind once again shut off from the outside world and she was plunged into the depths of her mind. Nothing from the room was entering Rosaliz's mind and she would have appeared unconscious if it wasn't for the fact that she was still muttering the same two sentences over and over again quietly. It was almost impossible to hear the words but her lips were moving unstoppingly as the rest of her body lay as motionless as ever on the cold stone floor. Her shirt was getting soaked with the different potions that littered the floor around them and Rosaliz's chest rose and fell softly with each inward breath she took between sentences. Inside Rosaliz's mind however she was more active than ever. The curse of the page that now lay five feet away from her body had cause the voice within her mind to once again gain strength and be able to overthrow the barriers that were placed around it by her from the last time she had heard it. Now it was openly speaking to her and Rosaliz was fighting as hard as she could to get it locked back up again. Normally this wouldn't have taken much effort but the added strength that had come from touching the page was proving more effective than Rosaliz had at first thought and her eyes twitched slightly as she mentally fought again the voice inside. "Rosaliz ... I know you can hear me so there's no point pretending ... You can feel it can't you? The strength I've been given by that mere page. You can get as strong as you like you're still not taking over you pathetic little creature. I don't care how strong you've been given it's only a charm. Plus you know what else I can feel? I feel the power slipping away with every second. I'm not touching the page anymore so it's effect is weakening. Before long you'll be perfectly calm once again and I'll be able to lock you back up in that cage of yours. Rosaliz you know these spells are going to be giving me strength everytime I use them don't you. You must have noticed in your duel against your aunt. The use of that spell tipped you over the edge. My power rose and I was able to take control so unless you want me to cause a lot of problems I think you better remember that little deal we made. You've been doing well so far so don't mess it up now."

Rosaliz was starting to feel dizzy, for the voice was right she had been giving it more strength everytime she used one of these spells but it wasn't as if anything bad had happened. After all they did have a deal made a long time ago that seemed to be workng perfectly well so why should Rosaliz change anything? It had been going well so far. It was just this page. It was causing trouble for Rosaliz just like it had been enchanted to and she cursed herself inwardly as she thought about this fact and a she stopped repeating the phrase over and over again. However other than this sudden stop in the speech there were no outwardly signs of any change in Rosaliz as she continued the conversation in her mind slowly. "You're right I know what we agreed and I'll stick to it. We're only arguing because of that stupid enchantment so let's stick to what we said." She thought…..Rosaliz didn't receive any reply to what she had said in her mind and as she waited patiently she slowly came to realize that the voice had once again lost it's strength, giving her the power over her mind back again. That was easy enough solved but Rosaliz had another problem. Though she had control over her mind again her body was still tired and no matter how much she tried she couldn't move. Rosaliz was also unaware what had happened around her in the room since she passed out and she struggled to listen or open her eyes to see around her but none of this worked. She was effectively a corpse right now and she inwardly cursed herself for allowing this to happen. She was weak right now and anything could be happening to her body without her being able to fight back against it and she struggled again to try and moving but just like before nothing happened whatsoever. In her current state Rosaliz couldn't protect herself from something such as this and she struggled again to try and gain control of her body.

It seemed that this new danger was enough to boost Rosaliz's strength just enough so that she could start regaining her consciousness. The first things to come back to Rosaliz were her senses and almost instantly she sniffed the air to try and pick up the scents around her. These thoughts however were blown out of her mind as the feeling in her body started coming back to her and Rosaliz felt something holding onto one of her hands. She could feel the anger brewing inside of her suddenly and she opened her eyes and they flicked around the room. Jumping to her feet Rosaliz with her emotionless face….That was when the voice reached her ears and she looked over to the doorway where there was now stood yet another girl looking inwards in the room. It surprised Rosaliz to find somebody walking around at this time of night, let alone the fact that she had all walked down here to meet her. As Rosaliz wondered what was going to happen next she was struck but a sudden thought. She could use this gathering to help her find out that last spell from the page. She was sure that she could convince this young girl to help her in some way, even if that did mean using her for her own needs what did she care? Tell her that she would help solve whatever problem it was that was making her look the way she did once she had found the last spell. After all once she had learnt it Rosaliz could be extremely dangerous she was sure of it. The spells were becoming more and more powerful as the page went down so the last one would obviously be better than the others she had learnt. As this thought came into her head Rosaliz realized that this could work out very well for her and she resisted the urge to smirk at this thought. She needed to do this properly and that meant first of all an explanation ...

"Did any of you see anybody else flee from around here?" she asked the girl.

She said suddenly as she kept her face emotionless " A cowardly scum that did this. He attacked me from behind and ran before I could regain consciousness." She added looking past the girl standing in the door as if trying to see him. Sure the lie wasn't the best she had ever told but she could live with it. After all how would she know she wasn't telling the truth? For all they knew she had merely missed it and she watched her carefully as she waited for a response from her. Her plan relied on the girls belief of this and she stood calmly as she waited to see what the girl would do. However as she thought more about it. Rosaliz had probably drawn her here by all the noise she had made….She stood there waiting for her reply.