Chapter 28: The Truth Comes Out
Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 28: The Truth Comes Out
The days following Harry's encounter with Mister Filch were tense and quiet.
Harry kept his head down in classes, answered questions when called upon, and did his best to avoid Ron Weasley's glares.
He received no punishment for having been seen in the forbidden corridor, so he had to assume that Weasley chose to keep his mouth shut.
Perhaps seeing the ghost had scared him into silence, or maybe he was waiting for a more opportune moment... who knows.
Harry didn't feel like he truly understood Ron Weasley.
The ghost didn't make any more appearances, but he could still feel its presence as a cold breath at the back of his neck, a shadow at the edge of his vision, or a whisper that vanished when he turned.
Harry no longer thought the ghost was doing those things to scare him. For some reason, he was yet to find out, this ghost appeared to have trouble communicating.
However, even with this lack of response, Harry already knew what he had to do next.
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The lake was very vast, and he had no idea where to begin looking for clues.
It was obvious that he needed help in this task, but he was terrified of asking for it.
It was Draco who finally pushed him.
Sunday morning arrived, and it was bitterly cold. Snow had fallen overnight, blanketing the grounds in a fresh white layer that sparkled under the weak winter sun.
The common room was nearly empty because most students were still in bed, enjoying the last day of the weekend.
Harry sat by the fire, staring into the flames, when Draco dropped onto the sofa beside him.
"You're doing it again," Draco said.
"Doing what?"
"Staring into space. Looking kinda...somber." Draco studied him. "What's going on, Harry? You've been strange for weeks. First, the nightmares. Then the wandering off by yourself, and now this."
Pansy appeared on Harry's other side, a book in her hands. She sat down without asking. "He's right. You're not acting as you used to."
Crabbe lumbered over and settled into an armchair, his massive frame blocking the fire's warmth from everyone else. He said nothing, but his dark eyes watched Harry with quiet concern.
Harry looked at his friends for a long moment. They trusted him and had stayed by his side, despite his distant attitude and all the secrets he had been keeping from them.
'Maybe it's time I tell them something,' he thought. 'Maybe I don't have to do this alone after all.'
"Okay, fine...I need to show you something," Harry said. "Or rather, I need you to help me look for something."
"Look for what?" Pansy asked.
Harry stood up. "Put on your cloaks. I'll explain on the way."
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Snow crunched under their boots, and their breath turned into mist when it hit the cold air.
The grounds were deserted...no students, no professors, no sign of Hagrid or Filch. The castle loomed behind them, its towers dusted with snow.
Harry led them down the sloping lawn towards the shore. The lake stretched before them, its shores were covered by a thick layer of ice, and further out, the ice gave way to dark, open water.
"Harry," Draco said, pulling his cloak tighter, "we've been walking for ten minutes. It's freezing. What are we doing here?"
"Yeah, you just said that you needed our help finding something important...but what is it that we are looking for?" Pansy asked.
Craabbe nodded in agreement, covering his head with a winter cloak.
Harry stopped at the water's edge before turning to face his friends.
"I need to tell you something, but...it is very strange," he said. "And I need you to promise not to interrupt until I'm finished."
Draco and Pansy exchanged glances. Crabbe nodded.
"I've been seeing a ghost," Harry said.
Draco raised an eyebrow.
"That's it?..." Pansy asked.
"Harry...we all have seen ghosts already. There are four of them in Hogwarts." Draco pointed out.
"No," Harry shook his head. "I didn't mean those ghosts!" Harry exclaimed. "The one I saw was different...it started a while ago, I began hearing hisses in empty corridors, a shadow floating at the bottom of the lake, a figure following me through the castle."
"Wait...is that why you said you couldn't sleep?. Is this the reason for your nightmares?" Draco asked.
"Yeah..." Harry admitted.
"Why didn't you tell us about this before?. We could have done something." Pansy said.
"I just didn't want you to believe I was being weird for hearing voices or something..." Harry felt a bit ashamed of admitting that.
"We all thought you were being weird anyway." Crabbe pointed out.
"Vincent!" Pansy glared at her friend.
"What?. Nothing wrong with that. We are all weird." Crabbe shrugged.
"He has a point," said Draco. "But...this story about the ghost feels off, Harry. Ghost dont just follow people for no reason. It must have wanted to tell you something."
"He did," Harry responded. "I mean...the ghost didn't say much, but he kept pointing at the lake and saying the word...water and help."
"Water," Draco muttered.
"Help?" Pansy glanced at the frozen lake. "You mean that..."
"I think his body is in the lake," Harry said. "And I think the ghost wants me to find it. I..." he stopped. "I believe that something terrible must have happened to him when he was alive."
"That is obvious, Harry." Draco sighed. "Most people dont become ghosts after they die, only those who have suffered unjust deaths or left very important things unfinished have a chance of remaining in the mortal realm. At least, that is what I once read in a book, years ago."
The wind howled across the ice. No one spoke.
"What can you tell us about this ghost?" Pansy asked.
"Did it die too long ago?. Because if it's been decades, I doubt we will find anything here." Crabbe commented.
Harry shook his head. "No...it should be very recent. The ghost, he...well, he is wearing a modern Hogwarts uniform."
Everyone glanced at him.
"A student then," Draco said. "What else can you tell us?"
Harry hesitated. He had not planned to reveal this much about the ghost, not yet at least. But the words came out before he could stop them." He is a boy, older than us, maybe sixteen or seventeen."
"Are you saying that this ghost belongs to a student who was killed in this lake?" Vincent asked.
They all turned to look at him.
"What?. That is what it's being implied, right?. Draco said it first... ghosts don't just form every time someone dies, they need to have a very traumatic death, like...being murdered."
Draco's face went pale. " That's...that's serious. If someone was murdered on school grounds…"
"I know." Harry nodded.
"Why didn't you go to a professor?" Draco asked.
"Because I don't know who to trust." Harry didn't want to straight up say what he was thinking...that at least one of the professors may have been involved in this. He doubted someone could get killed inside Hogwarts without the Headmaster being aware, which would suggest that either Dumbledore knew and did nothing or...something worse.
Harry glanced at the water. "The ghost pointed to the lake, and it wants help. I can't just ignore it."
Pansy had gone very still and not said a word in a while. Her hands were clasped in front of her, white-knuckled.
"Harry, what did this ghost look like?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Harry turned to look at the girl. He could imagine what she was already thinking. She must have been putting the pieces together as the rest of them were speaking.
There was no point in holding back now, so he gave a clear description of the ghost. Long black hair, sharp face, dark eyes, a tattered black cloak that looked as if it had been underwater for too long, and...he had also noticed a scar below his left eye.
Pansy's face had gone white.
"Pansy?" Draco asked. "Are you alright?"
She did not answer. Her wide eyes were fixed on Harry. "Black hair," she whispered. "Dark eyes. A scar under his left eye." Her voice cracked. "Harry… that's Alistair. That's my brother. You just described my brother."
The silence that followed was heavier than any Harry had ever known.
"I didn't know for sure," he said quietly. "Not until you described him to me. But when I saw him… when I first saw the ghost… I thought he looked familiar. He had your eyes and your nose, Pansy."
Pansy's hands were shaking. "You've been seeing my brother's ghost for over a month? And you didn't tell me?"
"I didn't know it was him!" Harry said. "I didn't even know his name until you told me. And I didn't want to hurt you...not until I knew for sure what happened."
Pansy shook her head. "So I guess the story about him wandering into the Forbidden Forest was a lie...I knew it!. I knew my brother would not be so foolish!"
Draco approached her. "Pansy, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I mean...none of us has seen the ghost except for Harry."
"Are you saying that he is making it up?" Crabbe raised an eyebrow.
"Of course not!" Draco hurried to say. "But he never met Alistair in person. He could be mistaking him for someone else entirely."
"I won't deny it is a possibility," Harry admitted. "The ghost never spoke its name, which is why I didn't want to say anything yet."
"Then, let's keep looking around the lake. If something happened to Alistair here, there may be some clue left. It's only been a year, and students dont come here often." Draco suggested.
Before the others could respond, Pansy had already begun walking around the shore. Her dark eyes examined every detail of the shore like a hawk searching for prey.
"Let's go too. Maybe we should split apart. It would make it faster." Harry said.
Draco nodded.
They spread out along the shore, searching the snow-covered ground and the tangled roots of the dead trees that leaned over the water. The wind cut through their cloaks, numbing their fingers and faces.
Harry's breath came in short, white puffs.
Fifteen minutes passed. ...then twenty. Nothing but snow, rocks, and dead leaves.
Then Draco called out. "Guys! Over here!"
They hurried to where Draco stood, at the base of a gnarled old tree that leaned out over the water like a crooked finger. Its roots were exposed, half-submerged in the frozen shallows.
Draco pointed to a cluster of roots near the waterline. Tangled in them, caught on a sharp, splintered branch...was a torn strip of green fabric.
"Is that…?" Harry began.
Pansy dropped to her knees and reached for it. Her hands trembled as she pulled the fabric free from the root. It was long and thin, faded and water-stained.
A Slytherin tie.
Pansy clutched it to her chest. Her shoulders shook.
"It's his," she whispered. " I'm sure of it..."
"Pansy, we..." Draco was about to say something when he suddenly froze.
This caught Harry's attention, who followed his sight towards the center of the lake.
And there it was...a dark figure hovering over the waters.
"Is that?..." Draco muttered.
"Oh my..." Crabbe went pale.
Pansy slowly moved her eyes away from the tie and towards the lake, where she saw the figure as well.
"That's him!. That's the ghost I have been seeing." Harry exclaimed.
"Alistair?... is that you?" Tears began to fall across Pansy's face.
The ghost seemed to react to hearing that name and seeing her. He extended his hand towards her and opened his mouth as if he was about to speak, but no sounds came out.
And then...he disappeared into the waters of the lake, as if something had suddenly dragged him down.
"No...come back," Pansy muttered.
Harry was the first to notice that she was about to do something and hurried to grab her before she could walk into the lake. "Stop! If you go like this, you are going to freeze to death."
"I need to see him, he is here, in this lake!. Someone hurt him...someone put him in the water." She looked at Harry...her eyes were red. "You said he asked for help...he wants us to find him."
"And we will, I promise," Harry said. "But we must do this right."
"Harry is right," Draco and Crabbe approached her. "Give us a bit of time, and we'll figure this out."
"We'll find out your brother, Pansy," Crabbe added.
Pansy nodded, clutching the torn tie like a lifeline.
The wind howled across the ice.
And somewhere beneath the frozen water, Alistair Parkinson waited.
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