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Day: July 31
All I can see is black. The darkness ahead of me quickens my pulse. I'm being chased and can feel leaves crunch under my bare feet. I didn't know that I had walked upon something dangerous. I was drawn towards the light I had so desperately looked for. Now I was running fast away from what I didn't know. I had been in detention now I was lost being chased and hoping I was headed in the right direction. The pounding of the hunter seemed to be getting closer. Is this death? Will I die in the forest like an animal? The thing that's hunting me is now upon me. I can feel heat and lots of it. Turning to face, what I'm sure will kill me, I wake up and I'm lying in my bed, but it felt real. Everything felt real to me, the leaves, and the sweat from running and the heat most of all felt real.
I start to realize the room is hot and I could feel a lot of air space between me and the person next to me. His hair shined in the moonlight, against my light blue sheets. It's been three summers since I had last slept next to him. I couldn't fall asleep; our bodies seem to radiant heat making laying there worse. Every time I closed my eyes I could feel the heat as it slowly consumes me. I can't take it! I got out of bed and looked at him. He almost seems to be... I trail off knowing he couldn't be normal or at least a decent person. He was after all Draco Malfoy and I couldn't change that. Regrettably I was one of a few who truly knew him from childhood. The only time he didn't drive me mad was when he was asleep. Too bad you couldn't live life asleep then maybe things would be better. I decided to sit in a chair in my room. I fell asleep slowly. I felt my body being lifted out of the chair and for a few seconds I seem to be floating. I open my eyes to see the dawn of the day and a crow outside my window. Almost an omen to mean my day is doomed. Light blue cotton comes up softly around my form quickly taking me back to sleep. A curtain is drawn and I feel I'm imagining things but don't care as green flashes escape my sight.
knock "Lydia open up!" knock
I awake to the sound of my mother's voice. I'm no longer in the chair but in my bed. I look at the clock and realize I've slept most of the day away. It was already two in the afternoon. This was a bad beginning to a long day.
Time: 5:30 p.m.
"Yeah, the party starts in 30 minutes." I said sitting down in a chair. "Draco is so lame Cata. All he talks about is potions and Quidditch. Ugh...why do our families have to be friends? I wish you were here we'd have fun." I looked up to find my door opening. "Let me call you later." I hung up my cell phone as Draco came strolling through the now open door. He perched himself on my dresser.
"What's that in your hand?" he sneered.
"A cell phone, Cata gave it to me for my birthday." I said.
"Your mudblood friend gave you that contraption for your birthday present? And you like it?" He said moving from my dresser back to the doorway.
"Don't call Cata that name! Of course I like it; she spent a lot of money and time to get it for me!" I said as I neared the now vacant dresser. "Plus I like using it!" I said.
"You're almost worse than Wesley. You hang out with mudbloods and have muggle things everywhere." He stated disgusted.
Anger started to swell inside of me. I felt something metallic and cool beneath my fingers. "Well at least I'm not a brat who cringes at every little thing." I said then my hand mirror went flying through the air towards Draco's head. It met the door and shattered against the impact.
Draco merely laughed at the action done in vain. "Is that all you can do?" he asked mockingly. Rage seemed to be a demon blinding me. I felt something hard and slightly heavy underneath my palm. I threw the book at him. The pale boy caught it and started to open it. To my horror I realized that I'd just thrown my journal at him. I was stupid to leave it out in the first place. "Stop it! Stop reading that!" I yelled at him.
"You want something to scream and yell about? Here!" Draco began to tare pages out of the book. I started to scream for bloody murder as pieces hit the floor. Audrey and Narcissa came running into the room. "What's going on here?" shouted Audrey above my screams. In seconds her cold fingers were over my mouth muffling the screams. Ten minutes later I calmed down. Neither Draco nor I spoke a word about the question. "I think we should leave. I'll talk to you later, Audrey." Narcissa said as she pulled Draco out of the room. After they disappeared down the hallway Audrey turned to me and said "You broke an antique hand mirror, Lydia." She turned and left the room. This was a rare time when she was cold to me, but she was my mother and she was upset.
I got up and took my time picking up the pieces of my former journal. There were entries from when I was eight and Draco was almost human. To my joy the most current entries were safe and unread.
"I guess we're not having the party any more." said a voice above my head. I looked up to see the male version of myself looking down on me.
"Layton don't tell me you're disappointed." I said returning to my task. "He just went to far this time. He pushed things and I-I did what I had to do."
"Well next time choose a different night. I was going to try and talk to Blaise tonight." my twin said as he went and sat on my bed. Crash, my cat, came up to him immediately begging for attention. The pieces of paper tried to escape my fingers. I put the pieces on the dresser. I crossed the room and sat opposite of my brother and cat.
"So you were going to talk to Blaise about what?" I inquired
"Just to see if he wanted to come over before school starts. Maybe play a pratice game of Quidditch and other things." Layton said ignoring my gaze.
Layton would never tell me if he liked someone but I could guess just as easily about who he liked. He was also the only person that ever really calmed me down.
"Layton?" I asked as he looked up at me from petting Crash's stomach. "How do you think things will go when the war comes?" I looked him directly in the eyes.
"Don't worry you and I will always be safe." he said like an older brother. Truth to be told he was only five minutes older than me. He was born on the fifteenth of July. I on the other hand was born on the sixteenth. "What's wrong?" he said interrupting my thoughts.
"Well, I just have a bad feeling about everything that's been going on lately. I'm just so worried about everything I can't sleep. I know I shouldn't worry but I just can't help it. I'm actually scared to return to Hogwarts, Layton." I said.
Finally someone knew why I hadn't been myself over the past month. Cata had caught on some during her visit but knew better than push for answers. Layton shimmed himself across, the queen size, bed to me. He hugged me tightly and said "Don't worry Cata and I'll be there to help you." When he released me from the embrace he said "Let's go see if we can get some food. I'm hungry and I left Lawrence downstairs." Layton said referring to our older brother.
Lawrence was three years older than us and had been out of Hogwarts for almost two years. He was pretty much the family's golden boy. Slytherin house was his, perfect, good grades to boot, and captain of the house's Quidditch team. Layton was anything but our brother. First off he did not end up in Slytherin; Layton was actually in Ravenclaw while I was stuck in Slytherin by myself. He didn't like Quidditch and choose to sing in the school chorus. He did get good grades but was not a perfect, neither was I. Needless to say Lawrence had set us up to be failures in our parent's eyes. We head down the hall took a right down to the staircase, and one left into the dinning room. All the decorations for the party were gone but dinner had been set out for the family.
"Good you two are just in time for dinner to start." said Norton, my father
Layton and I took our seats across from Lawrence in the middle of the table. Layton was seated towards our father's end of the table while I sat towards our mother's end of the table. We sat silently eating our dinner. The scrape of the utensils against the dishes were the only noise that filled the cold room. After fifteen minutes of silence my father broke it by saying "That was quiet a noise you made young lady. I could hear you from my study. Is there anything you have to say for yourself?"
"It was my journal." I whispered while staring at the near half eaten food.
"Tomorrow I'll have to smooth things over because of what you did."
"It was my journal he tore up." I said in a normal tone.
"That doesn't make a difference you're going to have to apologize for everything you caused to go wrong tonight, young lady." Norton finished saying. I couldn't respond knowing that duty to my family had bound me to keep quite. Dinner continued with idle discussion on current events. I mainly remained silent and left the table after the meal was complete. In my room I placed the torn pieces of paper in an old scarf I never used and swore to put the pages back together. When that was done I looked around for glass from the mirror, that seemed to gone. My house elf Lyfe must have cleaned the mess, while I was at dinner. A knock came at the door and I knew which family member it was. "Lawrence, I don't need a lecture right now." I said opening the door a fraction.
"Lydia, I won't lecture you but I do have something I need to tell. Please let me come in." he said. I hated to admit it but he'd lecture me than tell me something my parents would not tell me.
"Okay fine." I said as I opened the door to allow entrance into the room. He took a seat in one of the chairs that occupied the room. I sat on the edge of my bed with Crash in my lap for comfort.
"Lydia, you should not have made a spectacle of the family like that. You need to be careful with how you represent yourself. It was almost disgraceful..." Lawrence continued to lecture me while I was busy petting Crash. After ten minutes of being lectured I said "Lawrence, Draco isn't the golden boy like you. He went too far and instead of doing things right I act hastily. I'll do better to control my temper. Now what is it that you need to me?" I said not even looking him in the eye.
"Well I actually need you to keep a secret for me." I nodded my head in response as he continued. "I-I did something that someone in our family needs to know. I got married about two weeks ago and haven't told a soul." He said. My head spun with excitement and curiosity. "What's her name? Did you knock her up or something?" I said
"No I didn't knock her up. I married my girlfriend I've had since fifth year at school. Her name if you recall is Renee Matheson. I don't know what came over me. I just couldn't wait until next June to marry her." he said
"You know Audrey and Norton are going to kill you, Lawrence. You're lucky though that she comes from a pure blood family. They'll probably go easy on you. You could invite her here and tell her that you haven't told your family. If she's present they're less likely to make a scene over the news." I said trying to sound mature at the news he'd just told me. I felt a sick satisfaction at knowing a secret about the family golden boy. Lawrence just smiled at me. "I hope you realize that some day you may feel the same way and marry just because you want to. Also go easy on Draco he does to some extent like you." With that said my brother patted me on the shoulder and left the room. I put Crash on the bed, grabbed my pajamas and got ready for bed. Half an hour later I was lying in bed wide awake. "This isn't going to be easy." I said to Crash, who was sleeping curled up happily. I laid there until sleep took me away from the real world.