Author's Chapter Notes:
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se_spotwood's Fright Fest Challenge. There are many versions of the Bloody Mary legend. This version is close to the one that I knew growing up.
se_spotwood's Fright Fest Challenge. There are many versions of the Bloody Mary legend. This version is close to the one that I knew growing up."This is silly, Harry!"
Ron looked at Harry's reflection in the mirror. Shivers ran down his spine as the candle in his hand, the only light source in the bathroom, cast eerie shadows on Harry, distorting his face.
"Come on, you're not afraid of ghosts!" He waved his arms around. "They're all over the castle."
"This is different! You-you said that this Bloody Mary - Bugger!"
"Ha!" Harry laughed, poking Ron in the back. "You said it once. You have to say it two more times and then she'll appear."
"This isn't fun anymore, mate," Ron said, staring pleadingly into Harry's eyes.
"You picked dare, Ron. Would you rather have truth?"
Ron had the sudden urge to kiss… No, punch the cheeky smirk off Harry's face. But he only sighed; truth was not an option - not with the sort of personal questions that Seamus was asking.
"Tell me again about this Bloody Mary – Fuck!"
When he was done laughing, Harry retold the legend of Bloody Mary. "Mary was a young servant for a very rich family that lived in a beautiful castle. The family had a daughter, Elizabeth, who was betrothed to a handsome prince. When the prince came to visit his future wife, Mary saw him and instantly fell in love with him. So, Mary decided to meet him. She dressed in one of her mistresses' finest dresses that she had stolen from the laundry. She waited until the prince was walking alone in the garden and introduced herself as Elizabeth's cousin. They walked and talked and the prince fell in love with her too. The next day the prince announced that he wasn't going to marry Elizabeth and instead wanted to ask for Mary's hand in marriage. The family was confused and eventually after questioning the prince, they realized that it was their servant that he had fallen in love with. Elizabeth found Mary and forced her to face the prince in her tattered clothes. The prince was furious that Mary had lied to him and told her that he hated her and never wanted to see her again. Mary, distraught and humiliated, ran up to her favorite place in the highest tower in the castle to cry. Later that day, her broken and bloody body was found on the ground. Everyone believed that Mary killed herself… but she didn't. After Mary ran away, the prince regretted what he had done and announced that he wanted to marry her anyway. Elizabeth was so jealous that she found Mary, crept up behind her, and pushed her from the tower. Since then, Mary, dead and lonely, is looking for the reincarnation of the prince – her one true love. On Halloween night, if a boy says her name three times in the mirror and he is her one true love, she will pull him into the mirror to spend eternity with her."
"Bloody Muggle story…" Ron muttered.
"You said bloody," Harry joked. "Now you just have to say Mar–"
"Shut it!" Ron shouted, edging back from the mirror.
"Do you want me to go back and tell everyone that you chickened out?"
"No! Just give me a second." Ron turned around, his face close enough to Harry's that he could feel Harry's breath on his lips. "Stop crowding me!" he spat.
Harry, wearing that annoying grin again, took one step back.
Ron closed his eyes. 'Okay, on the count of three…' he said silently in his thoughts. 'One… Two… Two and a half… Two and three-quarters…'
A deep breath and… "Bloody Mary!"
The last syllable hadn't passed over his lips and he screamed as a hand grabbed his wrist. He knew it was Harry. He had known that Harry was going to do it. Yet, his blood still turned cold at the touch.
"Dammit, Harry," Ron screeched as his eyes flew open and he wretched free from Harry's grasp.
Doubled over with laughter, Harry wheezed out an apology.
"Prat! You're not sorry!" Ron argued.
"You s-s-should've s-s-een your fa-face!" Harry choked out between laughs.
"I knew you were only taking the piss out of me."
"It's just a stupid legend. A story Muggle kids tell each other for fun." Harry slung an arm over Ron's shoulders. "Let's go back down to the Common Room. It's your turn."
"I don't think so," Ron said angrily, walking towards the door. "I've had enough excitement. I'm going to bed."
"Ron!" Harry called out, but Ron kept walking, slamming the door to the bedroom for effect.
~~~
The game just wasn't the same without Ron. Seamus' dares were weakening and Hermione's nagging was growing tiresome.
Feigning a yawn, Harry excused himself and headed up to his room where he found Ron's curtains drawn tight around his bed. Harry began undressing, hoping that Ron would speak up. It was too quiet. Something wasn't right. If Ron were asleep, the familiar sounds of his snoring would be filling the room.
"You still awake, mate?"
Silence.
Harry stormed across the room. "Ron, I can't believe you're angry about a harmless –" Harry froze when he ripped open the curtains to reveal an empty bed. Where Ron's head should've been nestled comfortably on his pillow, a bloody handprint lay instead.
Panic seized Harry. Frantically, he searched around the room, checking under all of the beds and in the wardrobes. He couldn't believe that this was happening. It had been a joke. He didn't even know the story; Dean had been the one that put him up to it. Now, Ron was gone and given the fact that they were in a magical school where real ghosts did reside maybe he had been pulled into the mirror.
Harry raced to the bathroom. Something worse, more terrifying than panic ripped deep into Harry's heart as he stared at two bright red, dripping handprints on either side of the mirror.
Placing his palm on the mirror, he cried out, "Ron, are you in there? Can you hear me?"
The mirror, normally chatty when Harry was trying to tame his wild hair, remained quiet.
Harry ran back into the bedroom and grabbed the closest thing that he could find, Ron's broom, and bolted back into the bathroom. Using the handle, he slammed it into the mirror, shattering it into a thousand pieces.
He looked around at the glass lying on the floor, wondering what he thought he would accomplish.
"What's going on?"
"Harry! Ron!"
Seamus and Dean's voices grew closer; Harry ran out into the hallway to meet them.
"It's Ron," he said frantically. "We did that stupid Muggle game in the mirror and now he's missing and there was blood on his pillow and the mirror and –"
"Harry, mate, relax," Dean said. "It's just a legend. You really don't believe that Bloody Mary appeared and snatched Ron – do you?"
"I-I…" Harry looked back and forth at his friend's faces. "I don't bloody well care who took him! He just isn't here and there was blood!"
Seamus grinned and nudged Dean.
"You think this is funny, Finnegan!" Harry shouted, pushing Seamus in the chest.
"Harry, stop!"
"Ron?" Harry spun around to see Ron, looking sheepish, walking towards him.
"It was just a prank," Ron explained, cautiously approaching Harry. "I made the hands and I hid. I didn't think you'd get this upset."
Harry swallowed the lump in his throat before grabbing a fistful of Ron's shirt and pulling him into a hug.
"You great big prat," Harry said though his voice held no venom.
Harry heard Seamus and Dean retreat to their room.
"I'm sorry," Ron said softly. "I didn't mean to frighten you."
Surprised that he had no desire to let go, Harry rested his head on Ron's shoulder. More shocking was that Ron's arm, holding him tightly, didn't seem ready to let go either.
"Truth or dare?" Harry asked.
Ron chuckled. "I've had enough dares for one night. Truth, definitely truth."
With mass doses of adrenaline still pumping through his veins, Harry found the confidence to ask permission for what he had been thinking about for months. "Will you punch me if I kiss you right now?"
It took Ron a mere second to answer. "No," he whispered.
Since Ron's beautiful, long and slender neck was so close to Harry's mouth, he decided to start there. He placed a soft kiss on the tender flesh, feeling Ron's vein pulsing under lips.
"Oh," Ron gasped.
Feeling brave, Harry ran his tongue along the freckled covered jaw until Ron, breathing heavily, laced his fingers through Harry's hair and pulled his head back. Harry caught a glimpse of the passion in Ron's eyes before their lips fused together in the sort of kiss that was more awkward than Harry had dreamed and just as perfect as he had hoped.
Harry let go first, searching Ron's eyes for assurance.
Ron smiled shyly. "Truth or dare?"
Mocking serious thought, Harry looked up at the ceiling. "Dare."
"I dare you to sleep in my bed tonight."
"I'll take that dare anytime," Harry said, tangling his fingers with Ron's and pulling him towards their room.
Before they got into bed, Ron bent down and peeked under it.
"You're still spooked!" said Harry.
"Better safe than sorry," Ron responded, settling into bed before pulling Harry into his arms.
"You don't have to worry about Bloody Mary coming for you," Harry said with certainty.
"Yeah? Why's that?"
"Because I'm sure that you're not her true love. Only one person can claim you as theirs and… And I can say for sure that you're already claimed."