I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good: The ghost again

I took the chance this afternoon and crept into a nook to work at the animagus spell. Just the meditation part, where you try to commune with whatever your inner animal is. I still haven't figured out what my animal might be, though. I think the reason I'm having trouble is that I've spent so many years hiding with the real me deep down inside, pretending to be something that I'm not. I've never managed to do that bit I succeeded at before, when I made my eyebrow hair grow. It's been eating at me and eating at me, and I was concentrating ever so fiercely, and I sort of lost track of time. I had my wand out, because I was hoping that concentrating on it would help. And then suddenly there was a voice hissing right beside my ear, almost jolting me out of my skin: 'Someone's coming.'

When I opened my eyes it was all I could do not to let out a screech. That ghost, Donaghan Tremlett, was hovering right over me. He faded away and I scrambled to my feet and let go of the wand so it snapped back into the bracelet. Then I ducked around the corner and started down the corridor, so it looked like I was coming back from the exit to the yard. One of the muggles was coming the other direction, and he eyed me as I went past, curious-like, and nodded to me but didn't say anything.

I got up to the floor where the git's rooms are and leaned against the wall and shook a bit. That had been a near thing. The ghost flowed through the wall and hung there, staring at me. 'You need to be more careful,' he said. 'Don't know what he'd do if he knew you had a wand. He might decide to curry favour with that arse wipe by reporting it, and then where would you be?'

Six feet under, just like you, I thought. 'I have an alarm on it to warn me when someone's coming,' I told him. 'But better safe than sorry. Thanks a lot.'

'How'd you manage to get one of those anyway?' he asked. 'That bracelet thing you use to hide it is wicked cool.'

'A friend gave it to me. Some other friends gave me the bracelet.'

He nodded. 'Let me see it again.'

I made the wand reappear and he stared it. 'What can you do with it?'

I shrugged. 'Whatever I can pick up, here and there. I've smuggled a few books that I'm studying, and a few people have given me some lessons. And I'm trying to master the animagus transformation.'

A slow grin curled the corner of his lip. 'So you can escape.'

'Yeah.'

He kept staring at the wand, and I've never seen such a hungry look before on anybody's face. I suddenly found myself wondering whether he'd ever had a wand of his own. Probably not. 'I can keep watch for you. Whenever you want to practise. Just say my name, and I'll stand guard for you. Warn you so you won't be surprised by someone coming.'

That was a surprise. 'Thanks.'

'Anything to spite the git.' The words hung in the air as he faded away.