Third Floor Corridor

[JadieLou]

[Frankie Redfield]

Frankie sat on one of the windowsills gazing out over the Lake below. In her fingers the stone turned and turned.
The term was dragging by slowly. Hogwarts had become so quiet these days and increasingly she found herself alone. Hogwarts had once been her solace. Now it was like limbo. But would home be any better with a Father who acted like she didn't exist?
Ever since her Mother had gone she had been a ghost to him. A freak to be denied.

Her fingers tightened on the stone as her pain and anger sent a tear rolling down her cheek.
"Everything was better when you were here." she whispered.

Suddenly she became aware of a presence. A familiar and long-missed presence. She didn't dare look to begin with, but the prickling feeling on the back of her neck made her turn...and look into the sad eyes of her dead Mother.

[Justin Morson]

Justin wondered aimlessly down the corridor. The DADA lesson he'd just had, had been really tough and energy consuming. He decided to go back to the common room and have a bit of a snooze before dinner. As he turned round the corner, a familiar figure caught his eye. It was Frankie. He was about to call her name, but something next to her made him stop. It was a tall woman who was standing next to her. Only her skin was white, almost see-through and the smile on her face was a really sad one. Frankie looked as if she was in a sort of a daze, so he didn't dare to take a step closer. He didn't want to interfere, but he felt like he still had to do atleast something.

"Frankie?" he whispered quietly.

[Frankie Redfield]

Frankie had been gazing into her Mother's face for what seemed like forever, but in reality was mere seconds. It was like the world outside this space had ceased to exist. She felt cold, goose pimples prickling down her arms.
"Mum?" she whispered. Her mother gazed back with a tired, sad smile. She nodded slowly and a tear rolled down Frankie's face.
"But..."

The spell was instantly broken with a foreign whisper. Frankie's head snapped around to see Justin loitering uncertainly several feet away. He looked almost frightened. She gasped and the world came rushing back. All sounds from the world around her suddenly deemed deafeningly loud and she blinked hard.

It was like waking from a dream only to find you were in an other dream. A flash of what could only be described as guilt and confusion crossed her face and she turned her head back to her Mother almost expecting her to have vanished. She hadn't.
The world span and Frankie dropped to the floor in a faint.

[Justin Morson]

Justin's heart stopped when Frankie's head turned towards him. He wasn't expecting the feelings he saw. Guilt and confusion? "What's going on?" he thought to himself. But he didn't get time to linger on that thought, because in a matter of seconds Frankie fell on the floor. He raced to her and pulled her up into his arms. He had forgotten all about the pale figure standing just inches away from him. All he wanted was for Frankie to come back round.

"Frankie" he called in a loud voice that echoed from the walls "wake up, Frankie!" He held her in his arms, hoping that she was alright. Then it hit him. "What an idiot you are!" he cursed himself and muttered a spell that would wake Frankie up. "Frankie!" he kept calling her name, till she finally opened her eyes.

[Frankie Redfield]

As fFrankie came round she sincerely expected to find herself in her bed waking from an horrific dream. But the ground was too hard and cold and she could hear Justin's voice. This was definitely not the dorm room.
"What?" she muttered. And then it all came flooding back. She had been staring into Justin's face with a look of pure terror stinging her eyes. She could feel the presence behind her, but she daren't turn to look. She gently shook her head looking beseechingly into Justin's eyes.
"Please...tell me she's not there." she begged in a whisper.

[Justin Morson]

Justin felt so relieved when Frankie finally came around. He knew this wasn't the right time to tell her what he'd wanted to say for such a long time. But even now, with this look of horror on her face, she looked so gorgeous. He stroked her hair gently. "I don't look that bad, do i?" he tried to lighten the mood. When she asked him about the figure he let out a sigh. "Yes. It is still here. What is it? And how did you do it?" all he wanted, was to know how to get rid of it, so Frankie would smile her usual sweet smile again.

[Frankie Redfield]

Frankie was trembling and as Justin confirmed her fears she let out a sob.
"No, no, no it's not real, she's not here, she's dead, she can't be here." she wailed, burying her face in his shoulder and shaking. She clung to him in a desperation, hoping that somehow if she couldn't see the apparition it would cease to exist.
But it did. She did.
Frankie shook her head, refusing to accept it, to turn and see. Still her Mother hadn't spoken and she daren't turn to look now to see into the sad pools of her eyes, almost accusing in their gaze.

"Make her go away. Please." she whimpered into his neck. Behind her she could feel those empty eyes burning into her back. "My Mother died 5 years ago. That can't be her. It's a trick, a cruel cruel trick."
Suddenly she was angry.
"Why would someone do this?" she demanded. She pulled away and turned furiously towards the pale spectre. "I don't know what kind of sick joke this is, and I don't know what or who you are, but you're not my Mother!" she accused viciously.

[Justin Morson]

Justin held her close as Frankie clung to him. He stroked her hair, trying to calm her. He could feel the pain she was feeling, seeing her dead mother right there next to them. He looked up at the figure s it was just standing there. Not moving, not speaking. Ghostly. As Frankie turned towards the image of her mother, he looked around, half hoping that someone was just playin a prank. It's alot easier to beat up someone of flesh and bone, then something that's out of this world, he thought to himself. When he couldn't see anyone or anything, he took Frankie's hand and pulled her back into his arms. "Calm down, hon, and tell me exactly what happened. I don't think this is a joke, but I need to know how you did it, to make it go away." he kissed her forhead "Come on, think. There has to be a reason for this."

[Frankie Redfield]

Frankie was still shaking with anger and shock. She tore her red eyes away from her 'Mother' to look at her friend. It was becoming painfully clear that this wasn't a prank.
"I don't know. I don't! I was just sitting on the windowsill thinking about her and...she appeared." she explained inn a trembling voice.
She suddenly became aware of a hardness in her fist and looked down to see the stone she'd found in the forest. As she looked at it it tumbled from her fingers and dropped to the floor with a sharp crack.

The moment it it the hard stone ground everything changed. Her Mother had vanished. Frankie gasped as she looked at the empty space where the spectre had stood and then stared at Justin with surprised questioning.
"What happened?" she whispered.

[Justin Morson]

Justin watched in slow motion as Frankie's finger opened, revealing a small grey stone. It slipped from her fingers and fell towards the floor. His reflexes weren't fast enough, so the rock hit the ground with a loud noise. As soon as that happened, everything went back to normal speed with Frankie staring up at him with a scared and questioning look. He turned his head to see that the white figure had disappeared. He turned back to Frankie. "I don't know, but I'm going to find out."
He kneeled down next to the stone and muttered something under his breath. They stood there for ages, but no matter how hard he tried, the stone would not give him any answers. He picked it up ever so carefully and brought it to his eye level "Well, we know that he;d make a brilliand spy" he noted jokingly. Then he saw the judgmental look on Frankie's face and shut up. He turned his attention back at the stone.
"Where did you get it from?"

[Frankie Redfield]

frankie raised an eyebrow at Justin's "spy" comment but didn't say anything. She looked at the stone in Justin's hand with a puzzled expression on her face.
"I-I found in the forest ages ago. It's just a stone, a random stone I picked up off the ground." she explained with a shrug. She shook her head. "For some reason I kept it. It felt good in my hand. I was holding it earlier. I was just hinking about how things were better when Mum was alive and....she appeared." she explained further, her voice trailing off at the end as the image of her ghostly Mother repeated in her head.
She looked at Justin.
"You don't think...that the stone did it do you?" she asked uncertainly.

[Justin Morson]

"How could a stone have possibly done that?" Justin said in a worried voice "I mean, nothing can bring back the dead, but to conjure a perfect image of them can onlybe done by black magic." He held Frankie close to himself, letting out a sigh. He couldn't come up with a good explanation for this. He let out a sigh and kept on thinking. Black magic the last time he heard of something like this happening was years ago. He stopped breathing for a couple of seconds. Could it be? No, it was said to have been destroyed, had it not? She looked down at Frankie, not trying to sound too worried. "Where exactly did you find that stone, hon?"

[Frankie Redfield]

Frankie opened her mouth, but shook her head.
"Just out in the forest! It was quite a way out. I know I shouldn't have been out there, but..." she trailed off. What was she going to say? That she was so depressed that she had wandered into the darkness of the trees because they reflected her own aura?
"...I just wanted to be alone for a bit." she muttered in a low voice. She suddenly felt ashamed. She didn't want Justin to know how she'd been feeling lately. She wasn't sure why but she felt like it would lessen his opinion of her. He'd been spending so much time with his little Italian friend, she already felt like she was losing him.
"I was just sitting against a tree and I picked it up off the ground. It's just a stone! At least...I think it is." she added looking at the stone curiously.

[Justin Morson]

He laughed "Why would you want to be alone, if you know you have me?" Justin sent Frankie a warm smile. "You know you can always come to me, when you need someone to talk to. You always used to." he took her hand ad squeezed it gently. He looked into her eyes "I've always been your friend, even though I've wanted more" he thought to himself. He gazed back down at the rock. "I don't think it's just a rock, hon." he took it out of her hand. It felt warm and familiar. And powerful. "As scary as it sounds" he said, closing his fingers around the stone, "if you found it deep in the forest, it might just be.." he looked around ".. the resurrection stone" he added in a whisper. "How else would you explain your mum's presence?"