Skins Cast go to Hogwarts Chapter 8

Emily Fitch

Despite being in an oversized jumper Emily still shivered as she hugged her shoulders tightly. She watched as her breath left her mouth and disappeared into the dungeon room where she sat alone. In the past, she had only been here along with thirty other bustling students during potions class, but now when she was all alone the place was rather ominous. Somewhere in the room she could hear a water drip every few seconds, she scanned the room for the source but in the dim lighting it would be difficult to find and Emily resigned herself to wait.

It was late, criminally late for a first-year to be out of their dorm. She heard footsteps coming toward her dungeon door, she could hear two women in muffled voices speaking just outside the door, she strained to listen.

"I don't understand," she could hear Professor McGonagall, "half the stories from the students don't add up, someone is telling a lie."

"Minerva, if the children are saying they can't remember, perhaps that is best, Hogwarts does not want a scandal... does it?" Another lady chirped, her voice was shrill and unwelcome to Emily's ears.

"But a child was seriously harmed, is it not your duty to investigate furt-"

"-Come now it's late," The lady interrupted McGonagall. "We still have more statements to take, the Fitch twin is next."

The dungeon door swung open and Emily straightened to attention.

Professor McGonagall entered the room with a lady who had a proud catlike face. They took their seats opposite Emily, Mcgonagall regarded her with a somber look, while the other lady looked at Emily like she was an adorable kitten.

McGonagall made one swift motion her wand and the candle lights brightened, casting dark shadows over the ladies' faces as the flame flickered, nonetheless Emily was appreciative of the small warmth it brought.

"Emily," Mcgonagall started and her quill began scribbling away on a piece of parchment, "I have warned you in the past, that one more step out of line, and you will be expelled from this school. So I need you to answer our questions with utmost honesty... is this clear Miss Fitch?"

Emily opened her mouth to speak, she wanted to say yes but only the faintest murmur came out.

The catlike lady made an amused noise and observed Emily, "Now sweet thing there is nothing to be afraid of, all you must do is not tell lies." She smiled with what seemed like all the affection in the world, Emily had to fight to keep herself from shuddering.

"This is Ms. Umbridge," Mcgonagall cut in curtly, "She is a representative for the Ministry of magic's juvenile social services department and has been called to overseer the situation here. I hope you understand the severity of this."

"Now let's begin at the start of this night, how did you end up in the forbidden forest?" Umbridge asked, leaning across the table, her eyes scanning Emily's face; she looked at her encouragingly, it was as if she thought Emily only understood little English.

Moments ago all Emily could think of was the cold, but now all she could feel was the heat from Umbridge's eyes on her. You look like you're radiating heat, That was something Naomi would have said if she could see her now.

"I-I was never in the forest," Emily stammered.

Professor Umbridge giggled as if she was witnessing a baby say their first word, "But my dear if you were not registered in the Autumnal ball and not in the forest..." she gave a little giggle and Emily thought for a moment she would reach out to stroke her, "then where were you?"

Earlier that night

In the Girls dormitory Emily brushed her hair and observed herself in the mirror, she wore a black dress and her red hair was in a half pony. She played with a few different styles for the front of her hair, but in the end, she opted for her signature fringe which engulfed the majority of her forehead. She was neither pleased nor displeased with her appearance, Safe, she thought.

Emily smiled as she saw Pandora behind her, looking at another mirror and twirling around in her dress. Her dress was made of a heavy woolen type material that dragged lazily on the floor, the dress was not the prettiest in Emily's opinion, but Pandora liked it and above all Pandora wanted to please herself, regardless of what anyone else thought. It was something Emily liked and envied about Pandora, as Emily never felt she did anything for herself, not with a quick calculation of what everyone would think of it.

"Madame Hooch said I shouldn't get ahead of myself," Pandora said as she made poses in front of the mirror, her hair was styled in two little pigtails, "But I have to say, I think I'm catching on pretty quick in this quidditch thing. I know it was only the first practice of the season and we've not had a match, but I'm ready."

Emily smiled, "First years aren't even allowed on the team and they picked you, so you must be good."

"Yeah, I thought me and Cook would step in right ogre shit when we gatecrashed the tryouts, we hid in the stands with our brooms and just flew out when they whistled for the next batch, they didn't see us and we kept going with the quidditch dodgeball." Pandora whirled around from the Mirror to Emily and began gesticulating enthusiastically, "Bloody hell Ems, them bludgers were batting for blood! I just started flying as fast as I could, people were getting splattered left right and center, I didn't even see Cook go down... to think of it I didn't even see Cook go up to begin with I just saw him crumbled up with a broken broom...por sod, any way next thing I knew the whistle was blown and the bludgers stopped, and I was still on my broom with a handful of others; after that I had to come clean and say I was a first-year, but I got special permission from Hooch to play. I'm only as a reserve for now but I'm still on the team." Pandora looked around the room, "... Effs are you nearly ready? I think most people have already left for the ball now."

Effys stepped out from behind the dresser.

Emily's mouth fell agape and Effy stood in front of her, her expression was unreadable to the average student, but Emily could see the mischievous glint behind her eyes daring Emily to say something.

"McGonagall's hair bun Effs! you can't wear that to the ball can you?" Pandora exclaimed.

Effy regarded them cooly, a hot sensation flowed through Emily, like a thousand butterflies finally escaping a closed jar.

Effy really was beautiful, she looked far older than a first year.

Her eyes were colored in a thick eyeliner, her neck was decorated with multicolored necklaces, she wore a black leather jacket and very short denim shorts with raunchy looking tights.

Effy scanned Emily's appearance head to toe and Emily could feel herself blushing under her gaze.

"I'm not going to the ball," Effy said and walked over to Emily, she took hairpins from her own hair and placed them gently between her lips for temporary sanctuary as she ran her hands through Emily's hair when she was finished rearranging she slotted the hair clips in.

"There." Effy said and Emily looked into the mirror.

For a moment she did not recognize herself, Effy had styled her fringe neatly away, and her face was visible.

"I can't... I don't like it." Emily heard herself say and her hands were already searching to remove the hairpins.

"Oh, you do look nice like that Ems, but Effs what did you mean you're not going?" Pandora asked.

"Katie always said I had a big forehead." Emily said, her hands had found the hairpins, she was ready to remove them as she caught another glimpse of her reflection… she didn't look terrible she supposed, just different.

"Katie has the same forehead as you, she doesn't hate your forehead she hates herself." Effy said.

Effy turned around to leave, and Emily watched as her long brown hair flicked violently as she turned.

Pandora shot Emily a the fuck? look and gave chase to Effy, Emily forced herself to keep up and her hairstyle momentarily forgotten.

"Effs What do mean you're not going to the party?" Pandora said, trying to keep up with Effy as they descended the spiral staircase that lead to the common room. Emily was just noting how fast Pandora could run in her dress when suddenly Pandora's upper body lurched forward and there was a short moment where Emily had the choice to grab Pandora, but instead she froze. She saw Pandora trip over her wooly dress and tumble down the stairs, knocking Effy clean off her feet. They both landed in a mess in the empty Gryffindor common room.

Unable to find her voice, Emily clutched her mouth as she saw their still bodies on the floor.

Then she saw movement, and Effy climbed out from under Pandora's dress, Effy turned around and tried to turn Pandora over, it was quite difficult with the wool dress, it was the first time Emily saw a look of alarm on Effy's face.

a disheveled Pandora sat up, her eyes wild and dazed until they focused on Effy.

They stared at one another, then a smile spread across Effy's lips and they both erupted into laughter. Emily sighed in relief and realized she was still standing at the top of the stairs, she didn't help when Pandora fell, she didn't help turn Pandora over. Even now she watched as Effy helped Pandora to her feet.

It happened so fast, Pandora was too far ahead of me. Emily prepared a response when they'd inevitably ask, why didn't you stop her? But it wasn't true, Pandora was well within Emily's reach, and she just froze, and watched.

"Merlin's left sack my dress is ripped!" Pandora exclaimed, observing a large tear from the knee down.

She looked at Effy for help, probably automatically ruling Emily as she did not excel at reparative spells, in fact Emily didn't excel at any kind of spells in her classes at Hogwarts.

"Can you fix it?"

"If you want to come to the party with me, you'll need to tear that dress some more." Effy said.

"How much do you reckon I should rip it… this much?" Pandora tugged gently at the hole in her dress.

With one swift movement of Effy's wand the bottom half of Pandora's dress was gone, exposing her legs.

"I guess I can get that fixed before I go back for the holidays and nan goes mental." Pandora said, observing the remains of her wooly dress on the floor. "So where's this secret party then?"
"The forbidden forest," Effy said. The three stood in silence for a few seconds, then Effy turned to leave.

"We can't go there," Emily said.

"So don't go, I'm not making you. No one can make you do anything."

"I'm coming with you." Pandora said, "I'll stick out like a pygmy infection with this dress in I go to the ball anyway."

"I think that would have happened regardless," Effy said and they turned to leave the common room. Effy was about to climb out of the portrait.

"Wait! You can't leave me!" Emily cried, her throat was clenching up, she could feel tears forming in her eyes and she fought to suppress them.

"Ems we're not forcing you to come, you can go to the ball with everyone else." Pandora said.

"But… but everyone is already gone."

"She's afraid," Effy said from the portrait, her eyes fixating on Emily like she was naked. "She doesn't want to go the ball by herself."

"N-no, that's not why you guys aren't allowed to go to-" Emily could feel her voice making those humiliating sounds that betrayed how close to tears she was.

"Emily, you should get used to being alone; we were born alone and we will die alone," Effy said and climbed up the portrait.

"I wasn't born alone." Emily heard herself say and Effy turned back to her. For a moment a calmness swept through Emily and she met Effy's eyes, "I wasn't born alone." She repeated. Effy regarded her then left the common room followed by Pandora. "I wasn't born alone." Emily said again to the empty common room where there was no sound but the crackling of the fireplace.

Present

McGonagall and Umbridge had let Emily go, informing her that they might need to question her again if any new information was found. Emily knew the situation was bad when they left her, a first-year walk back to her dorm by herself at this hour of the early morning.

As Emily walked up the staircase to the Gryffindor common room it changed direction, locking into the third floor, the forbidden floor. Emily paused, she didn't want to go up, but the stairs had its own mind, it could be seconds or hours before it moved again. White light flickered on and off like a light bulb in the darkness of the third floor. Emily stepped backward, the hairs on her arms standing up. Then again the light flicked on and off, this time right at the top of the stairs, a dark hooded figure moved toward her, Emily opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out, in a rush to get down the stairs she tripped and fell, landing in the square of the stairs where it changed directions, Emily scurried to the banister, her hair dangled over the edge as the figure was running toward her. Emily grabbed for her wand and pointed at the figure, what spell should she go for?

As the figure closed the distance to stand above her, Emily shielded her face and kicked her legs wildly.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

Emily looked up, it was Naomi. She removed her hood, she shook her head at Emily before helping her up.

"I was trying to signal you with my wand," Naomi whispered.

"I thought you were a fucking pedo." Emily said, her heart still beating hard against her chest.

Naomi burst out laughing, "You had a wand but you opted to kick?"

"I didn't know what spell to use!" Emily shot back.

"You're such a weirdo, Okay, I'm sorry maybe there was a better way of getting your attention. Now come on I'll walk you back to your common room, make sure you don't hurt yourself." Naomi giggled again.

"My common room is this way but the stairs moved." Emily protested.

"Yes I am aware of what common room is yours, there's another way this way… have you never been this way before?"

"No," Emily said, as they proceeded to walk through the third floor, she did not appreciate Naomi's patronizing tone.

As Emily followed Naomi, she noted how expansive Naomi's geographical knowledge of Hogwarts was as she guided her down corridors without a second thought, no first-year knew their way around this well yet.

"You know you're nothing like your sister," Naomi said, looking back to survey Emily.

"I hear that a lot," Emily mumbled, thinking of all the times her parents told her to be more like Katie.

"I think that's my favorite thing about you," Naomi said, giving her an impish grin. "Here we are." Naomi stopped in front of the portrait of the fat lady. "What would you do without me?"

The girls shared a sweet smile but only for a moment, Naomi's smile faded. "You didn't tell them about what we…?"

The memory came back and Emily's smile faded too, she shook her head. "They said they might question me again if something new comes up."

"Okay," Naomi sighed, "I will tell them, I promise, just in my own time okay?"

"I don't know if I can do that... We need to tell someone."

"Please? For me? I'll never ask you of anything ever again, just do this for me?" Naomi pleaded and for a moment she looked far younger, like a scared little girl, it was an expression Emily had never seen before.

"I promise." Emily heard herself.

Relief swept over Naomi's face and for a moment she looked so sweet Emily wanted to hug her, but the moment soon passed. "Goodnight," Naomi said giving her a guarded smile and Emily watched as she disappeared into the darkness of Hogwarts.