Title: Those Unseen
Author: Hafthand
Summary: A look at someone not seen from in a while
A/N: I must personally thank lorett who has been an amazing inspiration and a wonderful friend. Also to 'a', your wonderful pestering forced me to put something down on the computer to get my creative juices flowing again!
Thank you so much everyone who reviewed the last chapter and everyone who is still following this little story of mine! I love you all and promise to finish this story, no matter how long it takes!
She sat gazing at the white, bare wall not really seeing anything, not really noticing the movement around her. It had been this way for years but she was unaware of the time. The nurses who tended her would whisper to themselves about what a beauty she had once been, what a life she had once led. But it was all no more.
She was unaware of anything past, present, and future. Unaware of any memories but for one. He stood out like a shining beacon in her troubled mind. He was the light in a world that had never known good. He had been the only thing she had done right. But he was lost to her now and it was her fault. She couldn't remember why, or even how he had been taken from her, all she knew was that something bad had happened and then he was gone. Or maybe she had gone? Maybe she had done something that had caused her to leave.
Either way she was sure she would never see him again or feel his presence. It didn't matter. She was locked within her own mind, terribly unaware of the world around her. Had she been even the slightest bit aware she would have heard the mutterings and understood. She would have heard the nurses whisper as they read over The Daily Prophet. She would have understood that he had been sighted. Had she been able to remember the past, she would have understood the danger he was now in.
But Narcissa Malfoy was horribly unaware of anything around her. Even as the creature in black slithered his way past the nurse's station unseen, she sat staring at the white, bare wall unblinking. Even as he circled her twice as a hunter circles its prey, she sat unmoving. Had she been aware of the world around her she would have seen him lean over her, his cold breath freezing the skin by her ear. Had she been able to process any kind of thought, Narcissa Malfoy would have heard the words he hissed to her. Had she been able to scream, her cries would have echoed through the halls.
Amazingly something of the woman she had once been must have remained in the shell of her body, for as she sat thinking the same thought she had been thinking for the past four years, a single tear rolled down her cheek.
As the creature in black slithered his way back out of the ward at St. Mungo's, only one person beside Narcissa Malfoy was witness to his passage and his warning. Unfortunately he too was in St. Mungo's for a reason. Unfortunately he had no way of communicating what he had just overheard.
Patricia Alabaster shivered, as momentarily, all lights in the ward seemed to dim. She wrapped her shawl around her body tighter and checked the hall, not really knowing what she was looking for. Nothing. She shook her head slightly, the beads in her graying hair the only noise. She turned and walked back to her chair when a slight noise from inside the ward behind her made her turn back around. Grabbing her wand she pushed the curtain aside and gazed into the dark room. Everything seemed the same. "Lumos," she muttered and followed the light of her wand further into the room. As she approached Mrs. Malfoy, she sighed in pity.
Had the woman been able to resurface for a single second, she would be aware that her son had reemerged into the land of the living. As Patricia came face to face with Mrs. Malfoy's unseeing eyes she gasped quite loudly. There on the poor woman's once beautiful face was a single tear. "Mrs. Malfoy?" Patricia asked, not really expecting an answer. When none came she took a handkerchief from her pocket and gently wiped the tear away.
Resettling the woman in her blankets she turned her attention to the only other occupant of the ward and for the second time that evening, gasped in surprise. The usually still and calm patient was opening and closing his mouth in such rapid movements that his actions could not be mistaken. He was apparently trying to tell someone something, but alas, the poor boy would never be able to speak again. All anyone could do was offer him comfort. His usually distant eyes seemed to focus on Patricia in an almost shocking way. But a second later they rolled back into his head. Poor lad.
Tucking his blankets back around his tired body. She turned and prepared to leave the room when she suddenly froze. Shock was something that Patricia Alabaster did not experience, but apparently tonight she was going for three out of three. Mrs. Malfoy was currently sitting up and staring straight into her eyes. There was no doubt in Patricia's mind that Narcissa saw her.
"He is going to kill my son," she uttered from a dry and unused throat before dropping back onto her bed, her eyes returning to their normal state.
For ten minutes Patricia Alabaster stood there unmoving as though she were one of her patients. She should by all rights inform the head healer. She should by all rights be doing anything other then just standing there. But by all rights what she had just witnessed should never have happened.
Love, Ally
"Dead eyes, do you see me?" -unknown