…I have "homework block"…so I'm writing this. :) Enjoy!
O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O
Those four days were excessively dull. Dinner that night was eaten in awkward silence, broken only by Cormac asking me to come closer so he could practice making the copy of my memories again. The processes was as uncomfortable as the first time and I doubted that it would get any better. The next day, I started several of my textbooks, which… well, even though they were magic, they were still textbooks. They weren't exactly made for light reading. I did finally find out what was on page three-hundred and ninety-four, though. And I tried out a few of the spells. I accidently lit the rug on fire in my bedroom on the third day (I was aiming for the fireplace). While I was leafing through the books in a panic for the spell for water, Trill popped up, extinguished the flames with a flick of her finger, and told me that lunch was ready. I thought I saw Cormac hide a smile when he watched my memories that evening, but he didn't say anything.
Just as I was about to leave, however, he spoke. "I have a meeting with some… colleagues of mine in London tomorrow."
Colleagues? I thought, pressing my lips together. Are they members of the rebellion?
"Consequently," Cormac continued, "I can't be here to see you off to Hogwarts via flew-powder."
"I could do it myself," I said under my breath.
He frowned slightly and narrowed his eyes at me. "No. It'll be too much of a temptation for you to get…lost. And I'd rather not have you put through that temptation – there aren't many replacements for a spy in Hogwarts."
My stomach churned and I looked down at the floor.
"So you are going to have to take the train."
I felt my heart skip a beat. "But isn't Kings Cross Station a tourist attraction now?" I asked.
He snorted. "Yes, after that woman wrote those books. There's a barrier when you get close to it. Once you pass it, everyone with magical blood all of a sudden doesn't seem to be of interest. It does help the ministry find muggleborns – if someone is immune to the barrier and sees you walk through stone, then it shows that they have magical blood. Not too unlike your circumstances."
Except most people don't see someone dying when they see past that barrier, I thought.
"We will leave the mansion tomorrow morning at nine. The train departs at eleven. I will drop you off at the platform and you can keep yourself occupied – without lighting anything on fire, if you will – until the train arrives." Then he turned his attention to a stack of papers on his right and was silent.
Why don't I just light you on fire? I thought at him. Perhaps it was too specific if Cormac couldn't read minds word-for-word, but Cormac chose not to respond. Or maybe he had his thought-antennae off.
"Leave," he said suddenly, looking up at me with a scowl. "Your presence is irritating."
I grimaced at him, turned on my heel, and left the room. That was uncalled for, I thought as I walked – well, stomped – back down the hallway. My thoughts drifted back to the conversation in front of the fireplace. Is it really jealousy that makes him act this way? I thought. He's using me as a spy. I'm supposed to be a tool. It would make sense if he was frustrated if his "tool" had more privileges than he outside…our contract. But then… I remembered his patient instructions behind me when I was performing that test for Ms. Hall, his teasing at Olivander's, the way he protected me from the shadows, and then the other night, with his hand pressed over my eyes… He had hesitated to take away my consciousness for convenience. It wasn't like it would have caused me harm and, as he had just stated so bluntly, my presence was "irritating" to him. He didn't hesitate to show it. But at the same time, these small gestures weren't as impassive as perhaps they ought to be, considering the circumstances. If he was supposed to be treating me as a tool, he was failing.
I reached my room and slipped inside, closing the door softly behind me. Is that the reason for his confusion? I wondered. I crossed to my bed and lay down, staring up at the ceiling. He's treating me… well, as if I'm a human. I laughed to myself at that. Whereas others who have fallen in his power… The sharpness of another memory came back and all humor died. I covered my mouth as bile threatened to rise – the image of the witch's neck breaking, the blood spraying, the frothing mouth of the kelpie…
I shouldn't be worried about him, I thought, turning onto my side, my mouth still pressed shut. The woman who died…that is what Cormac does. He's probably murdered more than a few witches and wizards himself. But I can't let myself forget. My eyes closed and I strained to push the images of blood from my mind. He's the enemy.
O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O
If I watch a horror movie, I don't have a nightmare that night. It takes a few days for the images to sink in and for my mind to warp them into something gruesome enough that the filmmakers of said horror movie would be screaming at. So after witnessing the murder of the witch, it took me until the night before I left for Hogwarts for the nightmares to begin. Of course, the first nightmare was not experienced as the innocent bystander whose life was overturned into chaos. Instead, I was the witch.
I could almost sense I was in a dream at first. I was walking the streets of London – although how I knew it was London, I had no idea. Although my body in my dream seemed strode with familiarity, these were streets I had never seen before. Then there was a small "pop" behind me. I didn't bother turning – my heart began pounding then. They've found you, was the thought that came before I was running. Any sort of distance I had from the dream-self was closed in our shared panic. I bolted down the street, dodged the corner, and twisted, apparating about thirty feet before a mansion. I relaxed, but there was another pop and this time I caught sight of it before I started running. It was a short man dressed in a dark green suit, his sharp, yellow teeth gleaming. "The boarders will be lowered," he called. His short legs must have been pumping at a ridiculous pace because his voice suggested he was not far behind me. "Regardless of whether or not you have any say of it."
"Monster!" I hissed, turning again. I apparated again, this time appearing in front of a small, red-brick hut placed at the end of a muggle alleyway. I looked behind me and relaxed. They can't have found all the safe houses, I thought with satisfaction, turning back to face the hut.
"We don't have to."
My eyes widened. "You," I whispered.
Cormac leaned back against the brick, rolling what appeared to be a small glass ball over his hand, his cane resting against his leg. "Aren't we past the clichés already?" he said calmly. He met my eyes and I was filled once again with that terror as I saw that refined hatred in his eyes. Not even a glimmer of anything like mercy lay in their blue depths.
How? was the only thought that came to mind, and he addressed the thought with ease, continuing to spin the crystal.
"Humans aren't the only ones that can place tracking devices on those they deem inferior," he said, the loathing creeping through his calm.
My hand darted to my wand. How dare this creature claim that he is superior to mankind! The thought screamed. I had no words as I thrust my wand in his direction.
Cormac paused and tilted his head. "How are you superior, human?" he asked, the crystal resting lightly in his palm. "Continuing on clichés – you are powerless. There is nothing you can do to stop me." He tossed the crystal at me almost playfully.
Furiously, yet confidently, I flicked my wand, hissing, "Reducto!" The crystal should have shattered, but my wand didn't even let loose a spark. The crystal hit me in the face and suddenly Cormac's voice filled my mind, chilling amusement tainting his voice as I screamed in pain.
"Run, run, run, little witchy," he said mockingly. "Kin or kindred, friend or foe, no one can protect you now that you've been marked."
I was scrambling blindly away in panic, running into the walls as I fled, but I could feel him behind me. Could he follow me out of the country? My sister had married an American – perhaps I could find him. I mustered my strength and twisted, thinking of the college I had to walk through to get to their reception.
The crack in the night as I appeared faded into silence. I caught sight of a pair of startled eyes – human, hazel eyes – watching me from beneath a tree. A muggle, I thought. Well, if obliviating her memories is the worst of the damage–
Then something erupted behind me. I didn't even have time to turn. Pain shot through me, a sickening crack coming from behind – somehow I knew it was the crack of my own bones. There was a brief sensation of wetness slipping down my shoulders. Then I faded, Cormac's triumphant laughter heralding me into the darkness.
O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O
I jerked awake, panting, my hand instinctively going to the back of my neck. It was intact. I covered my face, not sure whether the relief or lingering terror was the dominant emotion moving me to do so. That poor woman. My mind was slowly coming back to reality. Were those… her memories? I never saw what they did with her body. But if Cormac copied her memories, maybe there's some sort of… cross-contamination from copying mine as well.
I fumbled around in the dark for my suitcase and dug out the watch. After another moment of fumbling, I fetched my wand from the bedside table and concentrated. As I felt the hints of power move through me, I whispered, "Lumos." The tip of my wand flared too brightly for a moment, but it dimmed quickly to the light I intended it to have. I checked the time. It was just half-past four in the morning. I sighed and held up the light, staring as it shimmered. There was no way I was getting back to sleep.
I put my wand away and crawled over to the trunk beside the suitcase. Trill told me the morning after our trip to Diagon Alley that she would reorganize the trunk before we left so that the suitcase would fit in there as well, but it didn't look like it would need reorganization. The trunk was bigger on the inside, ridiculously so – even after all of my Hogwarts equipment was placed inside, it still looked like I could fit inside with the space left in it. I pushed through the books, holding my wand beside me.
Then I paused. There was something pressed up against the side of the trunk that I hadn't noticed before. At first, it just appeared to be part of the wood, but… I pulled it slightly back. It was a large, thin package – the back must have had some sort of illusionary charm put on it. The package was long and wouldn't have fit inside the trunk without magic. I guessed that it must have been about a foot taller than me, and twice as wide. There was a neat stamp at the top of it. I focused, willing the light from my wand to brighten just a bit. "Borgin and Burkes," I mouthed. So, Cormac had gone into the shop for more than just to transport us back to his mansion. I tried to guess what it was doing in my trunk. Then I remembered what he had told me when I was begging for an owl:
"I've got my own surprise method for our communication."
I felt curious, which I knew by now was a dangerous thing. I already wished I hadn't stayed to witness the death of the witch. If I opened this package now, I probably would regret that action as well. I pushed it back against the trunk, where I had found it, and pulled out the book that I had been looking for.
But of course the curiosity didn't go away. Neither did my sleeplessness. So I sat in my stubbornness, my eyes fixed blankly on the page before me, until Trill came to call me to breakfast.
I didn't eat much. I had too many emotions giving going through me for me to think clearly. I was going to Hogwarts, but I was going there to spy. Cormac's "present" worried me. And my exhaustion by that point had me swaying a bit in my seat as I poked at my food.
Five minutes to nine, Cormac stood up. "Let's go," he said, pulling on his suit jacket.
I stood up mutely and followed him through the hallway to the next room. My trunk was waiting beside the fireplace and I reached for it, but Cormac beat me to it. "You'd drop it," he said with a note of disgust. "You haven't figured out how to use flew powder well enough yet."
I pressed my lips together and watched as he tossed the powder into the flames. "Kings Cross Station," he said calmly, stepping through the flames, his trunk grasped his long fingers.
I sighed and waited a moment, then stepped through as well.
We came through in a fireplace inside what looked like an abandoned warehouse. There was a wizard standing watch next to the fireplace. Well, he was either a wizard or a very good cosplayer – he was dressed like Sir Conan Arthur Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and the clothes looked antique. "Move aside," he grumbled around a gritty looking pipe. "There's another lot coming in from Dover."
I stepped quickly out of the way, trailing after Cormac as he hefted my trunk onto a trolley and held it out for me. "Come on," he said.
You're just acting all sour because you'll miss me, I joked to myself, not daring to let the words out of my mouth though.
"Hmph."
Well, I finally got a reaction out of him, I thought.
We rounded the corner and joined the throng of people streaming towards the train. As I had thought, Kings Cross station was crowded with tourists, which increased as we got closer to the place between platforms nine and ten. There were so many people dressed with round glasses and lightening-bolt scars, I could have walked passed Harry Potter himself and wouldn't have known. Just to the side of the fake cart attached the brick, where the majority of tourists were gathering to pose for pictures, was another oddly dressed man. This one was dressed almost to the T like John Lennon. Cormac approached him and paused for me to catch up.
The John Lennon look-alike grimaced at Cormac and turned his eyes to me. "Do you have your ticket, miss?"
I glanced at Cormac and he pulled it out of his jacket and passed it to me. I held it up for the wizard to see, and he inclined his head. "Very good," he said. He moved aside and gestured for me to walk through the wall.
I turned to say goodbye, but all I caught was a glimpse of Cormac's dark hair fluttering in the breeze before he disappeared into the crowd. I frowned slightly. "Jerk," I muttered.
"Don't expect too much from the Fae," the John Lennon wizard said quietly, looking after Cormac as well. "I don't know what kind of relationship you two have, but you're bound to only be hurt in the end. Remember – they're not human."
I flushed. "We don't have any kind of relationship," I snapped, pulling the trolley back slightly. "I'd rather have nothing to do with him." I launched myself forward, plunging through the wall. There was a moment of darkness, then I stepped out onto a platform that was the perfect mirror of the one behind me, although this one was devoid of any crowds and held only a single, scarlet steam engine shining beneath the glassy dome above us. I stared in awe and glanced around. No one else was here yet. Well, I thought to myself, What do you expect? You're nearly two hours early. I sighed and pushed the cart forward. It felt a bit weird not having Cormac around. It felt better without him, without the constant reminder of my bond with him, but I wasn't used to it quite yet. I can't wait until I am used to not being around him, I thought, smiling suddenly. Perhaps at Hogwarts, I can find a way to get out of this bargain. Besides… My smile broadened. Magic. I'll be learning magic! Nothing can beat that.
Of course, that didn't mean that nothing couldn't beat me. About five minutes after I had found a compartment in the train and pushed my trunk into place above me (I was really liking this trunk – not only did it fit so much inside, but it wasn't heavier for it either), the sleeplessness of the night caught up with me and I slipped into unconcsiouness, sprawled comfortably across several seats.
I don't know how much time had passed when I heard the sharp click of the compartment door shutting. Something scampered across the floor, ducking under the seats. I blinked, squinting against the bright light. The train was moving, rumbling through the countryside. I sat up, dazed, and stared out the window. It was beautiful. I yawned and pushed my hair back, glancing under the seats. A small figure was huddled there, his black robes hiding him quite well in the shadows. The boy turned slightly and I found myself peering into a pair of excited, green eyes, half hidden beneath a mop of blonde hair. His tan face beamed at me. "I'm playing hide and seek," he said, pressing a finger to his lips.
"Really?" I asked, smiling at him.
Footsteps sounded outside the doors and the boy giggled, covering his head with his robes.
I straightened up in time to look casual as another person pulled open the compartment door. He couldn't have been much older than I was, and his green eyes and blonde hair was almost identical to that of the boy's, although he was a bit less tan. He was wearing robes as well, over a Hogwarts uniform: a white, long-sleeved shirt tucked into black slacks with a green and silver tie peering over a dark grey sweater vest. He glanced at me, then at my feet. "My younger brother has been running around the train," he said, leaning against the door, still staring at the bottom of the seats. "Have you seen him?" There was a smile playing across his lips and he lifted his eyes to meet mine.
My heart skipped a beat. He's cute, I thought, glancing away quickly. "Your younger brother?" my voice was slightly dry from sleep.
"Yeah," he said. "Looks something like me, but pint-size, probably with a mischievous expression and dirty nose to boot…"
I smiled as I heard a mumbled protest under the seats. "Not here," I said cheerfully. "I thought I saw someone run past to the next compartment over, though. Check there."
He smirked. "Alrighty," he said with an overdramatic sigh. He stomped his feet a few times, took a large step so he was standing on the seat next to me, and closed the door with a snap. The room was silent as he pulled out his wand, staring at the floor with a grin on his face. He glanced at me and put a finger to his lips with a wink.
"Is he gone?" the boy beneath the seats asked, sticking his head out to peer up at me. Then he caught sight of his brother and his eyes widened.
"Levicorpus," the man commanded, and suddenly his brother was yanked by his leg up into the air. The boy hung there for a moment, suspended and spluttering, his own green and silver tie slipping from under the sweater vest to dangle in front of his nose. The man burst out laughing.
"Terrance!" he protested. "You used magic! That's not fair!"
"What's your basis for comparison?" The man – Terrance – grinned. "I would have caught you anyways, Jude."
"Put me down!"
"Alright, alright." Terrance raised his wand again. "Liberacorpus," he said, and Jude collapsed on the floor. "Sorry about the noise," Terrance said, turning towards me while Jude climbed to his feet and brushed himself off, grumbling under his breath. "I'm Terrance Noble, and this is my brother, Jude."
"Nice to meet you," I said. "I'm Erin Marwick."
"Charmed," Terrance said with a grin. "Is it your first year at Hogwarts, then?"
"I'm not pint sized!" Jude said, glaring at Terrance.
Terrance rolled his eyes. "Let me know when you can prove it."
"Yeah, it's my first year," I said, looking at Jude. "But I thought that only the Lost are at Hogwarts for the summer."
Terrance shrugged. "Special circumstances," he said. "Jude is staying with Hagrid for the summer semester."
Jude jumped up in excitement. "Yeah! Hey, Terrance! I bet Vike got bigger!"
"It's been a month, so I'm sure he has," Terrance said, rolling his eyes.
"Vike?" I asked Jude, curious.
"Hagrid's puppy!" Jude said, his round face shining with excitement. "Vike is short for Viking. Hagrid got him during my first year – well, last year I guess – and he's so much fun! He likes to tackle Terrance."
"And I have the bruises to show for it," Terrance said, smiling at me.
I laughed. "So is there a reason you are in your uniforms now?"
"Terrance told me I needed to be ready," Jude grumbled. "Even though we have four more hours until the train arrives…"
"You would wait until the last minute to change," Terrance said, frowning at him. "The train almost left with you still on it last year."
"I was eleven!"
"Twelve isn't much older."
"Yeah it is!"
Terrance shook his head as Jude continued to protest.
"Do you have to wear uniforms every day?" I asked.
"The full uniform is required for classes and feasts, but otherwise you're allowed to wear casual clothes otherwise as long as you wear your robe."
"Except on weekends," Jude pied up.
Terrance nodded.
"Huh." That made me feel a bit better about bringing so many pairs of jeans. "Do you get your uniform after you're sorted?"
"Yeah. It's included in your tuition."
"Okay… Thanks for letting me know," I said, smiling. "I'm… a bit nervous, I guess."
"Not as nervous as Terrance was," Jude said, turning to me with a grin. "He almost threw up on the train."
Terrance looked embarrassed. "Jude," he said in a low voice.
Jude only laughed.
"So you started Hogwarts together?" I asked.
Terrance nodded. "We discovered we had magic around the same time."
Jude nodded, his face growing solemn. "Yeah," he said.
There was an awkward silence. I wanted to ask what had happened, but I had finally caught on – it wasn't something pleasant, whatever it was. I glanced out the window. "Is that a dragon?" I gasped.
Jude gasped too and ran to the window, searching for it. "Where?" He launched into another babble about what he had learned from Hagrid about dragons and his favorite portrait in Hogwarts being a dragon and did-you-know-dragons-come-from-eggs and my-favorite-dragon-is…
Terrance relaxed and gave me a sly glance. "A dragon?" he asked.
I shrugged. "They're fire-breathers, right? I thought it'd melt the ice."
He burst out laughing as Jude continued chattering away. "Thanks," he said, smiling.
I shrugged. "You're not the only one that has stuff they keep to themselves," I said, smiling back. "I just wasn't sure how else to get rid of that uncomfortable atmosphere."
"It was a good cover-up," he said.
"Thanks."
He gestured towards the seat beside me. "Mind of I sit down? You did bring up dragons after all. Jude might keep us here for a while."
"Go right ahead," I said.
Jude's voice filled the majority of the silence and I enjoyed the bits of conversation Terrance and I had in between Jude's ramblings. Although we had just met, it was comfortable being with them. They were friendly, and friendliness was something I had been needing even before I was taken away from Cormac. Perhaps we'll become friends, I thought idly, smiling as Jude tried to reenact a Quidditch match he had seen last year, his arms swinging wide as he pretended to block the goal. It would be nice.
Little did I know that in the future, meeting them would be another item on the list of what I wish I hadn't done.
O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O
Yeah, I kind of stink at coming up with good endings… So, how do you lot like Terrance? Or Cormac? Any thoughts/predictions of what will happen next? Any requests for things you want to see in the next chapter? Oh, and please comment! Comments are better than cheesecake right now! I mean it! PLEASE COMMENT! :)
