Author's Note
So sorry it took this long. I'm a bum, I know. Well, down to the point, this chapter is sort of personal. These characters, though new, defenseless, and at times, selfish in this world, they are important and dear to me. Anyone beyond my circle of friends should know and understand this, before writing to me. Thank you for reading.
Chapter 26. Bittersweet Symphony
The young blonde prince was sitting up in his bed, crouched over the figure leaning over the side. His hand gently brushed a few fallen black hairs from the calm pale face of the girl who rested her head at his bedside. He leaned over and kissed her soft skin.
"WHOWAHH?!" screamed Cat Cannito springing out of her slumped position from the bedside, knocking Draco's chin against his upper teeth. He clasped his jaw and fell backward on the bed.
"OW!" he groaned. Cat immediately noticed Draco's consciouness, and flew to his side.
"Draco! You're awake!" she exclaimed, joyfully.
"I'm in pain!" he corrected. She rolled her eyes and smirked at the young boy caressing his sore jaw.
"Crybaby," she mused, taking his hand from his face and holding in hers. Draco opened his remembered how beautiful the woman who held his hand was. He leaned up and tried to kiss her but rudely and without much effort, she pushed him down. "Easy now, charming! I'm not even supposed to be here, and I rather not be caught smooching as well."
"Silly little girl, they'll never know-" began Draco leaning up again with a smirk. But just as easily as before, Cat pushed him back but more roughly.
"Silence, foul mortal," said Cat with more debonair and a smile.
"Foul mortal?!" Draco demanded, but Cat climbed into bed with him, laying her head on his shoulder and draping on arm across his chest. He could settle for the cuddling.
"Does nobody obey school rules anymore?" Draco asked into the dark.
"Psh, what school rules?" Cat answered smartly. Draco chuckled and breathed in the scent of love, compassion, and green apples.
"The bet," he sorrowfully remembered. "I've probably lost it."
"What was it?"
Draco recalled.
"I don't remember."
"Ah, well, sorry for the person who you lost to." muttered Cat. "Sorry about earlier."
Draco recalled.
"WHAT WAS THA-" Cat shushed him, laying a finger on his lips.
"Shush shush shush! I was just playing!" she whispered with a smile.
"That was SOME playing!" Draco said angrily, and Cat laughed it off.
"Don't laugh at me!" Draco hissed, so Cat bit her lip terribly to stifle her amusement in his suffering.
"I'm glad it provokes you," Cat replie, sitting up to rest on her forearm to gaze down at him. "Because if it didn't, I would not feel wanted."
The blonde boy raised his hand to trace her soft cheek, from the peak of her hair to the curve of her chin, and something about that gentle motion, that fragile feeling, that once pouting face turned kind and distant, that made the closed off girl remember walls and how sometimes, instead of crumbling.
"I love you."
They simply vanish.
"Are we taking the scenic route?"
"Maybe."
"You're a goofy goober, Harry."
If there was ever something considered suspiciously magical to both muggles and wizards, it was the night sky. The two children no longer childishly holding hands made their way in the pale shade of moonlight around the school grounds. Their easy quiet between them brought warmth into their cold forms, with smiles on both their faces it was clear that all was well.
"Did Cat ever pass Slytherin tryouts?" asked Harry.
"I think they're tomorrow. She's amped up, though. Ready for them," Karen replied smoothly. She looked up at him, admiringly. "I'm ready for practice. When's ours first, Captain?"
Harry beamed in the darkness and smiled at the new girl.
"Pretty soon, after I get new glasses," he replied.
"Of course!" added Karen. "Thought up a rallying speech for a first game? You've got to have something! Like 'HOIST THE COLORS!' or 'TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL!' you know. Something ridiculously dramatic!"
"What like 'Speak the Speech, I pray you-"
"Ee gads, the boy knows Shakespeare, who'd of thunk in England even."
Harry laughed and turned back around to see the path, they heard a crunch.
Karen gasped, and silence passed as they stopped.
A few moments, and they turned to look at each other and nervously smiled about it.
"Just a raccoon," spoke Karen to Harry. He nodded, and they continued walking.
Crunch.
They stopped, and Karen instinctively grabbed Harry's hand. It was clammy and cold.
Crunch.
Harry whipped out his wand into the night. Karen groped for hers and silently cursed to herself.
Silence passed and so did a lifetime. Harry squeezed Karen's hand, and she squeezed back.
"I think it's far too late for a walk now," whispered Karen. Harry lowered his wand and looked over at Karen./
"Right-"
Upon that moment, the night was what it was.
"……James…."
Harry broke their hands, and grabbed Karen by the waist, pulling her closer as the voice swam around them, raising his wand again to the night.
"MOM!" screamed another in a whisper, echoing toward them.
Karen clenched Harry's jacket in her fingers.
"…how could you…how could you go off with that MUDBLOOD!" screamed another around them.
"Harry!" whispered Karen.
"..noo..no please!……you… will beg to me!!!….my first….it's only a dark alley…….no please!…..I'm sorry….. I don't… beg… disgrace… only…. Ames…shame..blood….. I don't… no… please, no.…shame… it's only."
The voices swam, in whispers and screaming.
"it's only.."
Around them, in dark places.
"James…"
Rising like a crescendo in their ears until suddenly.
"James…"
It was clear.
The silence of the forest, and a distant light coming toward them.
"POTTER? HARTHOLMES?"
Karen and Harry spotted the light and as it grew nearer, saw it revealed the face of their red head Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Miss Gingernox.
"Professor!" started Harry.
"What the heavens are you doing out here?" began Gingenox.
"Well, you see," began Karen. "There was this rockslide, and an avalanche and this stampede going on at the same time, and we were trying to make it down on the back of sea turtles lassoed together with rope made from the hair on Harry's back, when-"
"-immaturely thought going for a walk would be a great idea….to… to explore great conversations on how to get….. better aquainted! With, um, the differences of our sexes!" finished Harry with an uneasy look upon his face.
The young professor looked at both of them with a blank, unamused expression. Suddenly, against all odds, the teacher clapped her hands, leaving the lantern to float in mid air, and gave a tired squeal.
"AWW! Yes! See! This is all that matters! Friendship!" she cried. "Differences made up! Exactly! Big hug! Please!"
One step awkward forth, and then more as the professor took them both into her arms in a big, huddled hug.
"This is cozy," murmured Karen in the human sandwich.
Human sandwiches usually are.
"Well, then!" as the Professor broke from the hug. "I best continue my rounds."
"Rounds, professor?" questioned Harry.
"Yes. Ever since the ministry confessed to Voldemort's return, Hogwarts has been under strict security, even requiring faculty to take turns, one night a month, walking the grounds at midnight," Prof. Gingernox replied, taking the lantern from the air.
"Seriously?" asked Karen. The teacher nodded and gave a yawn.
"Well, yes, of course. It's just a precaution," reiterated the red haired teacher. "But it's probably for the best if Voldemort's most desired enemy be not walking the school grounds alone at night."
"He's not alone," said Karen with a smile, taking Harry's hand in hers. Harry felt the corner of his lips curl into a smile.
An odd look passed across Professor Gingernox's face, like a flash of lightning. Then she smiled kindly with her face, but not with her eyes.
"Of course. Harry James Potter is never alone," she spoke. She cleared her throat. "Well. Best to be on my way, and best to be on yours. Back to the dorms, the both of you!"
"Right," half laughed Harry, and Karen agreed, they watched Gingernox light leave them, and then began making their way back, cutting across the Quidditch field.
"For a minute there, I thought we were about to put Gryffindor a million points in debt," spoke up Karen.
"Yeah?" wondered Harry, leading her across the field. Crossing the quiet field, the young wizard felt like he had experienced a lifetime there, between both goal posts. He must've made some outward sign of nostalgia because Karen stopped, pulling him back.
"Know this place, too well, do yah, Cap'n," she spoke. He nodded, gazing up, admiring the thin hoops against the brilliant night sky.
"I hope to, as well," she replied, smiling. Silence passes in four seconds, because she added, "…maybe not right now! But anyway, let's go! Impending danger! Always evident!"
Harry agreed, and together they made their way. Harry remembered the grave they had discovered not to long ago. He looked over to where they had discovered it.
And saw nothing.
Walls went up.
Seconds passed, more than Draco expected before he finally had to ask, feeling a strange lump in his throat as the words came out.
"What? No reply?"
Cat's wide eyes rested and she looked away, getting up. Draco sat up.
"Caitlin?" he spoke so calmly as she sat on the side of his bed near his feet, looking toward her stuff lying on the ground. "Please say it."
Cat got up from her seat, and began gathering her things and tossing her bag over shoulder, collected her robe from the chair and hung it over her arm.
"SAY IT!" shouted Draco, not afraid to wake up Madame pompfrey or anyone else in the hospital wing. Cat stopped. Not for a moment did she turn to look at him and, with that, began to walk away. She got to the door, and quietly, left.
Leaving the most miserable in the most unkind way.
"Well, this is where we part," began Harry.
They stood in the common room before the two winding stair cases, a boy and a girl.
"Yeah," agreed Karen. She stood in her opened coat, removing the scarf around her neck, twirling the tassles in her fingers. Harry found buried lent treasure in his pant pockets, but didn't reveal it. An awkward quiet passed, and being the oddball of the school, Karen decided to skip the milddle man.
As Harry examined the number of loops in the carpet, Karen reached up and took Harry's face in her small hands, touching the roots of his hair on the back his neck, his eyes ran upward to meet hers, gazing softly in the dim room into her hazel ones.
"Harry…." she began, and Harry thought for sure it would come so their lips would lock, but contrary to his thinking, Karen did what she mostly did.
"HYAH!"
Surprised him.
In one fluid movement, she smack both their heads together in a loud coconut sound, and Harry fell, stumbling back.
Harry groaned and reached for the bruise that began to appear near his lightning scar, then looking up at her as if she were in dire need of a strait jacket, she responded.
"Well. Let's not make this an on going gag or anything."
With that, she smiled and made her way up the steps, leaving the Boy Who Lived very shocked and oddly enough, very excited.
"Well. This is awkward," he pondered.
He stood there for a while contemplating what had just happened, then afterwords, growing a small smile, began walking the steps up to his shared room.
When Karen entered the room, she discovered a crying figure sitting in her bed.
"Hello?" she quietly called out. A soppy wet face looked up to her.
"Oh, Karen," cried Cat. The friend went to her side, sitting down and placing a hand on her shoulder. "I hate this place."
Two friends wrapped themselves in each other arms in the middle of the night and the night wrapped it's arms around them.
That night, unfortunately, his mind could not be in the place he wanted, as much as he tried. He closed his eyes again, his head resting on a pillow of thoughts of lips and sensations, his mind wandered back to the Quidditch Field.
Back to the missing empty grave.
Where nothing was.
"Hooray! Hooray! Quiddith tryouts, today! Today!" sang the young Asian American as she danced her way to the showers, gathering some clothes to take with her.
"Not ours, is it?" asked Cho, brushing her teeth in a towel over the sink. Lisa paid no attention as she jumped behind the curtain and began throwing her pjs out, hitting a few random girls cleaning up.
Finally, the Slytherin tryouts had arrived, and Lisa Minne was excited to see if would be connections or hard work that would get her fellow American on the team. Truthfully, it was not much to be enthralled about, but ever since their Hufflepuff friend's oposition on the subject and Karen and Skye's passing their tryouts, it was just another challenge to see if she would make it.
Lisa got ready, dressing up in the normal comfortable(which, in her opinion, was hard to come by), and ran downstairs, straight into a Luna Lovegood, and both stumbled backwards in the collision.
"Oh, sorry, Li-Li," expressed Luna in her soft voice, pressing her skirt down and getting onto her feet.
"Ow," groaned Lisa, and took Luna's outstretched hand with great gratuity.
"Where are you going so fast so early on a Saturday?" asked the bright eyed Ravenclaw.
"Um, going to see my friend try out-"
"Come Lisa, you're going to greatly enjoy this!" and with that, the mysterious Luna Lovegood immediately took Lisa's hand and led her in a run toward the Ravenclaw portrait hole without a moment to lose.
In another part of the castle, Professor McGonagall was enjoying her weekend. She had risen from her bed that morning without the ache in her spine and graceful ease. She dressed in casual robes, but of deep maroon, and brushing her graying brown hair 50 times, she pulled it into a tight bun and proceeded to make her way down to Hogsmeade to meet her fellow professor over tea and brumblecake.
As she left her room and descended down her few steps to her office, bubbling thoughts of delightful conversation entered her brain and a small smile spread across her face in earnest. But as she opened the door she was astonished to see Harry Potter standing before her front door, squinting in red sweater "H" over yellow collar shirt and jeans. Standing next to him on each side appeared to be a bitter Hermione Granger in a knit dress and scarf and an annoyed Ron Weasley in a old flannel shirt and jeans.
McGonagall was instantly flooded with nostalgia.
"Once, a thousand times over. Snape is not after the Philosopher's Stone."
"What?" piped up Harry, suddenly awake from a blurry gaze. Hermione looked surprised, and her cheeks reddened in embarrassment.
"No, Professor," began the bushy haired girl, "we need permission to leave grounds this morning."
"What'd she say?" whispered Harry to Ron, and the red head gave him a shrug.
Irritated with this sudden visitor, McGonagall replied, bringing a delicate, firm finger to her brow as if she possessed a cursed scar of her own that burned, "Excuse me, Miss Granger?! Leave school grounds?! Preposterous! The audacity that'd you dare employ my approval is astounding!"
She suddenly noticed Harry was still squinting to see her facial reaction, and she remarked, "Are you telling me it is to purchase this brave but stubborn young man eyeglasses?"
"Yes! We were hoping you might be able to lend us a carriage or portkey to leave and an eyeglass shop we could go to…"
She began to realize how dependent and great the favor she was asking, not only the approval to leave, but the means and the destination of their journey.
Professor McGonagall considered the expression on Hermione's face as regret and recognized the hopelessness in Ron's and the helplessness in Harry's. She blinked and a kind chill climbed up her spine as sign of weakness and old age.
"You realize we are at war with Voldemort," she said abruptly with a cold air. "You are putting you and your friends at great risk by leaving school grounds."
A desperate and lonely silence was the reply of the three 16 year olds.
"There are Dementers out there. Werewolves. Deatheaters hidden in shadows and their evil eyes in beasts. If he were to ever find out you intend to leave this protected place…" She drifted off implying the danger and fear of the surroundings outside of the Hogwarts Castle. Then she cleared her throat and folded her arms, finding the old teacher's strict soul.
"I suppose someone from the Order shall have to accompany you then," replied McGonagall. The children's face immediately began to brighten. "To ensure that you arrive safely at your destination and back to Hogwarts."
"And I know exactly who should take you."