August 19th 1994
"'Rina! Carina, calm down, it's just a dream!"
It took a second for Carina to realize that the voice was right… and that the voice belonged to her godfather. Oh. "James?" she asked in surprise. "What're you doing in here?"
"You were screaming the house down," he said dryly. "I was trying to wake you up. What on earth were you dreaming about?"
Carina frowned, trying to remember the details of her dream. "Voldemort," she said flatly. "And another guy, I couldn't tell who he was, but he was a death eater, that's for sure."
"You were grabbing your forehead," James observed. "Was your scar hurting?"
Carina nodded, "That doesn't make sense, though, does it? Do you think it was real? How would that be possible?"
James looked as unsure as she was feeling.
Carina sighed. "Oh well. It's seven in the morning anyway, we may as well be awake."
Groaning, James said, "Merlin, Carina! And you say I'm insane!"
"And lazy," Carina said dryly, smirking at him. "Seven o'clock is a perfectly reasonable time to get out of bed and start the day."
James wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Fine, if we're staying awake, I'm going to go get dressed and then eat whatever food the house-elves have ready."
Carina rolled her eyes in amusement as James left the room. Honestly, she'd never understand the wizarding world and their inability to eat healthy. Grease, fat, sugar… they gorged themselves on it, and irritatingly enough, most of them never gained weight from it.
But that was another ranting subject, and it could wait until she had an audience that would be willing to listen… or, in other words, Hermione. Because she was the only one who didn't think that Carina was crazy for thinking that the way the magical world ate was disgusting.
"What to wear?" Carina asked herself thoughtfully, only to be interrupted by a shocked and somewhat horrified gasp. "Not you, too!"
Carina spun around in shock, before calming as she realized it was Hermione. "Merlin, Hermione, you scared the knowledge out of me!"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I was trying to scare the hell out of you," she mocked. "I thought James would appreciate it."
The best retort to this that Carina could come up with was to stick her tongue out and pout. She nearly laughed at Hermione's exasperated expression. "Not me, too, what?" Carina asked, remembering what her friend had said in announcing her presence.
"Ella and 'Rea and Ginny have a serious case of teenage-girl-fashion-worries," Hermione said, with her distaste evident on her features. "Why does it matter? I mean sure, you want to look good, but it doesn't take that long to get dressed for an average, non-formal, day!"
Carina grinned widely. "That isn't what I was thinking… I was trying to decide if I should bother with jeans, or if I can just wear sweatpants."
Hermione got a mischievous look on her face. "Why don't you wear that outfit we bought on your birthday," she grinned. "Don't you just want to see his reaction?"
"Which he?" Carina asked dryly.
"I meant James, but I'm sure you want to see Terry's," Hermione said in amusement.
"I'm wearing it to the cup," Carina confessed. "But don't tell James, because I intend to hide it from him until it's too late for him to make me change… and to only bring rather immodest pajamas with me for the night."
An exasperated shake of the head was all Carina got in response from Hermione.
Deciding to stop picking on Hermione, she grabbed a tank top and pair of jeans that she'd picked up on the shopping trip with Hermione on her birthday. After three years in wizarding robes, she had to admit it was relief to wear normal clothes again.
Even the crap that the Dursley's had forced her to wear wasn't as bad as those bulky robes!
Okay, that was a slight stretch. The Dursley's clothes for her had barely been enough that no one thought anything suspicious was happening inside #4. After all, the Dursley family was perfectly normal, thank you very much, and did not stand for anything that wasn't.
Carina gave a slight laugh at her thoughts. Thank god that the Dursley's were behind her now. In the past, and never returning to her life again.
Once dressed, Carina and Hermione walked down the stairs, Carina not even replying when James asked her if she honestly believed that qualified as clothes. "So tell me about this dream of yours," Hermione pressed Carina.
Carina blinked. "Have you become a Seer?" she asked worriedly.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "No, Carina. James said something about it. Now, share with the class, will you?"
"Bad influence," James muttered under his breath, realizing they were both ignoring him. He felt sorry for Hermione's parents… before she'd become best friends with Carina they'd had an angelic little girl… now they had a teenage girl who seemed to be becoming more like Carina every day. While James had no problem (most of the time) with Carina, he figured it would be a hard change to get used to.
As Carina finished explaining what she remembered of the dream, Hermione was deep in thought.
"You don't think…" she said to Carina, who looked puzzled.
"Oh!" she exclaimed softly, "Library!" With this statement made, she dropped the toast she had been eating and jumped out of her chair, running for the library. Hermione quickly followed.
James shook his head in bewilderment. It was kind of sad, in his opinion, that teenage girls only got more confusing as he got older.
Half an hour later, Carina and Hermione emerged from the library triumphant. "So obvious," Carina muttered, shaking her head in self-chastisement.
"You couldn't have expected that," Hermione pointed out fairly.
Carina rolled her eyes. "Maybe not, but it was obvious either way. I mean, how else would you explain this? The Avada Kedavra hit us both, and yet neither of us died. I was left with a curse scar and he was thrown from his body. When I was still at the Dursley's, I got horrible headaches, and no one ever could figure out why. Looking back, they were in the area of my scar. So the dream was real, what Voldemort and whichever Minion were doing at the time truly happened, and I'll probably be getting these dreams until one of us dies."
James blinked. "Huh?"
"It's noted, in some really, really old books," Hermione explained. "Very few people would have expected it, but Carina feels like she should have. A curse scar that binds the victim and the attacker together until one of them dies. It's called a Magus Vendetta Bond… a magical bond between two people, it goes away when the problem is settled… which is generally when one or the other dies."
"Oh," James said, for lack of anything better to say. "Why do you two get to be so smart?" he whined.
Carina and Hermione exchanged looks, turned back to him, and said, "We fell to the Dark Side of Corrupted Young Minds," in unison.
James groaned. "I knew that would come back to bite me!"
Both girls just smirked at him.