Everyone was on the dreamscape except for Hazel. Hermione looked to Harry.
"Is Hazel still with you on Diagon Alley?"
He shook his head and looked to Evervine. Evervine sighed deeply and looked to Marcel sadly.
"She mostly stays in her room so we have not seen her much. There is talk of her taking the semester off and returning to En."
She shrugged sadly.
"My aunt has spoken to her but she is still blaming herself. It may be good for her to take some time off and rest."
They all sat in silence. Neither knowing what to do.
On a dark blue dreamscape deep within the collective dream consciousness
Hazel and George had been visiting the dreamscape often. He loved to talk to her and this was the only way he could have private conversations with her. She had taught him how to get to this area of the dreamscape a long time ago.
Usually it was sunny, with light breezes and birds singing, Hazel had explained it was her personal dreamscape and thusly a more direct reflection of her soul. Looking at it now made George even more eager about finding her.
Now her dreamscape was thunderous and dark. There was no rain but there were gale force winds that George found himself bracing himself just to walk through.
Then he felt his heart twist. He looked around in confusion and his heart twisted again. It felt like someone he loved intensely was in the deepest pain.
That's when he heard the sobbing mingling with the thunder. He found her quickly after.
"Please go George."
He shook his head. "I can't do that. I can't leave you alone, not like this. Let me help you like you help others."
Hazel scoffed. "Who do I help? I am so arrogant!" She slammed her fist on her thigh and the thunder clapped loudly and the wind blew even harder. But when George looked into her eyes he saw the kid that loved to give him gifts, and, more recently, the beautiful girl he always wanted to talk to.
"Where is Shyla?! I can nor believe that she is okay with you like this."
"Of course she isn't. But she has no choice." It came out half furious half pout and they both smiled.
The skies calmed a bit and George put an arm around her shoulders.
"I'm really sorry Hazel. Really I am, but I have to be a bit selfish. I need you. Besides Fred you're my best friend. How can you expect me to go three whole days without speaking to you?"
She had been nuzzling her head into his chest when she had suddenly stopped. The entire dreamscape went quiet. And slowly, very minutely, that usually pink and yellow sky began to peak through the deep purples and blues.
She trembled against him a bit and, at first he didn't know what to do. She then pushed away and hit him playfully. She shook her head and waved her arm through the air and Shyla was before them in mid sentence.
"…. And that is why you need to stop this. You are no regular…" Shyla stopped, frowned, then her eyes went wide.
"You banished me!" She looked around in disbelief, taking note of George and that the dreamscape had calmed consider. She looked at George again and then to Hazel. She huffed and vanished.
Hazel shrugged. "I will make it up to her."
It still took her a few days to come back to their portion of the dreamscape but she gave George the go ahead to tell the others that she was okay. When he first told them Harry frowned and asked how he knew. It seemed like everything went quiet in the boy's common room in Gryffindor House.
Fred had raised his eyebrows, put both elbows on the table, and placed his chin in his hands looking to George and waiting for his answer.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Don't be so obtuse Harry?"
"How is he being obtuse?"
"Of course you wouldn't know Ron. But she is okay right George?"
George cleared his throat and looked at Harry for a split second before looking back to Hermione. "Yes she is doing very well. She has decided to work with Charlie in an exchange program and study dragons for the first half of the semester. It seems she has hired Dobby as well. He will be her assistant and bodyguard."
They all lit up upon hearing she would be working with dragons. Harry looked a bit confused about her hiring Dobby.
"Why would she hire Dobby?"
George shrugged. "Something about keeping him out of trouble."
Hermione nodded. "Makes sense. I hope she has time to visit with us. I am taking divination and I have questions."
"What do you mean 'Makes sense' and I thought you hated divination."
"I did but Hazel showed me just what can be done with it. There is far too much potential not to understand as much as I can about it."
Somewhere in a dark room sat twelve people in a circle and one sat on the center of these twelve. She was young and seemingly unperturbed about having to face such a situation. She sat before them, a slight smile pulling at her lips.
A severe looking woman spoke first. Her eyes were dark and her skin was covered in odd warts. She leaned forward and spoke slowly as if the person in the center may not be able to understand her.
"You understand why you are here?"
The person nodded. The panel whispered to each other and looked about in frustration and confusion.
"Since you understand can you please explain to this tribunal why you seem so very unbothered by the entire situation.?
The person leaned forward. From the shadows Rosa emerged full of confidence a smile still playing across her lips.
"It is not that I am unbothered but it is not my fault" She shrugged. "I can not show emotion that is unwarranted."
"He was your friend? Correct?"
She shook her head slightly. "He was a classmate. I did not know him well."
This time then whispering was angry. Rosa knew that everyone knew Michael had always been around her. But what did that mean exactly?
"I understand the confusion. You see Michael had a crush on me. I continually asked him to stay away from me but he did not, I never reported it because I did not want to get him into trouble."
This divided the twelve. Half felt that this was plausible the other half thought she was handling them. It didn't matter. All she needed was division. With the tribunal divided her family could not be punished.
She had messed up badly. She still didn't know why Michael had died. And his death had hurt her more then she could have ever imagined. She recklessly used up all the men in her life and when they died it meant nothing. But she was not paying attention. She was not seeing the backlash because the ones before had been so weak. The damage to her soul was akin to a scratch, but when Michael died it was like a large part of her soul was ripped and she actually felt like she may have even lost a piece or pieces of her soul. It took a long time to have it stitched back together. Her mother had to beg her father to help. He was already thinking to put her out of the family.
So much had been ruined and all of it was because Hazel refused to know her place and bow to her superiors. It wad time for her to learn more about her succubus bloodline.