My Beater Senses are Tingling

Author Note: Welcome back, dear readers, to another installment of the Awesome Adela variety! :D I think I've finally sorted out all my ideas into what looks like a plausible fanfic/sequel/and a possible companion as well. The only problem is actually finding the time to write all of them! xD

Seriously, Al? I muttered angry thoughts to myself (most of them involving Al in some sort of physical pain) as I crashed past various partygoers who had left to get some "privacy" (in other words, snog in the dark corridors and wake up the next day full of shock/guilt at what their drunken selves had done) and stumbled into several disgruntled paintings in my haste to get to him.

What? Oh, you're wondering where he went?

The git was heading straight to the main doors of Hogwarts. Oh? You don't know why that's such a big deal? I'd forgotten you weren't a Ravenclaw. How do I put this is simpler terms…?

Well, the BLOODY IDIOT WAS GOING TO THE FOREST.

Honestly, I should have expected this. After the whole Dominus meeting thing, Al was furious. It was all I could do to drag him out of that office before he yelled at Dominus and got expelled. I'd sat Al down in a classroom and listened to him rant for thirty-two minutes before he got eerily quiet. It was odd, but I was too relieved that he'd stopped looking like a madman to question it. Looking back, I probably should have known better – I've known him for six years, and in those six years I've learned that Al is definitely not the type of person to know when to quit. He'll just keep going until he either achieves his goal or dies trying. Whatever happened to Slytherin self preservation?

Which, of course, was why I am so bloody freaked out right now. Al had just been waiting for the right moment to slip out to the Forest and find the creepy stalker himself. He was going to get himself killed.

I cursed my slow legs (maybe I should have laid off of that third rasher of bacon), my arms pumping by my sides as I ran. What if he was dead by the time I got there? A sudden image of Al's bloodied body flashed through my mind, leaving a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. I'd never be able to tell him about the Obliviate incident. He'd never reconcile with his brother. He'd never even get to grow up, for Merlin's sake.

No. I'd get there in time – I had to.

I pushed past the heavy wooden doors, hissing softly when the edge caught my shoulder; that was going to leave a mark.

Pausing just outside of the door, I panted heavily, scanning the grounds for Al's lanky form. No…no…there! I could just make out the top of his dark hair flashing momentarily in the moonlight as he approached the eerily dark forest. A huge weight lifted from my shoulders; I wasn't too late! There was still time to change his mind.

"AL!" I bellowed. He turned, his mouth dropping open when he saw me.

"Adela?"

I ran forward 29 feet before flinging myself at him. He staggered back, surprised by the sudden onslaught.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, his voice clouded with disbelief. I withdrew my arms from his body, swung my right hand back, and punched his arm as hard as I could.

"Ow, damn it Adela!" he yelped. I glared, pushing all of my anger, worry, and guilt into that one look.

"What were you thinking, Albus Severus Potter?" I hissed, jerking my head in the direction of the dark forest just eighteen feet to our left. His face closed off, and he set his mouth into a firm line.

"Go back, Lancaster," he said coolly.

For some reason, his use of my surname incensed me even more.

I scoffed, a bitter laugh ripping itself from my throat.

"Oh, so it's back to Lancaster now, is it? Al, what in Merlin's name were you thinking? Did you even know what day it is? It's Halloween – a full moon. If that isn't the makings for a horror scene where you get mauled by a psychopath, I don't know what does!"

He looked uneasy at this and averted his gaze. I gasped, my eyes widening as I realized what he was doing.

"You knew all this, didn't you? Al, why would you possibly think going into the Forest in the middle of night is a good thing? If you had to go, why couldn't you go tomorrow during the day?" to my horror, my voice cracked in the middle of my whole speech, but I refused to back down. My hands clenched at my side; didn't the idiot know what his death would do to his family, his friends, even me?

He remained silent, still avoiding my eyes.

"God Al, just look at me! I thought we were friends!"

He looked up at this, his eyes flashing. "We are friends, Adela!" he said hoarsely.

I laughed at this.

"Friends don't keep thin-" I stopped, a huge sucker punch of guilt whamming itself into my stomach. Because that's what I was doing right now. That's what I had been doing every second since the Obliviate incident. Merlin, I'm a bloody hypocrite.

Al mistook my sudden silence for anger, and he said, "Look, Adela, I'm sorry, okay? I just…I need to do something. Dominus certainly isn't going to do anything, and I can't just sit there knowing someone is out there with questionable intent!"

I searched his face, frantically looking for any sign of guilt, remorse, anything. There was a tinge of guilt at keeping this from me, but there was also an overwhelming look of stubborn determination. My heart sunk; he wasn't going to back down.

"I'm going with you," I said firmly. Al immediately began to protest, but I raised a finger to shush him (ha. Look who was shushing who now!).

"You have a major hero complex and/or death wish, and Numberita doesn't really have the energy to psychoanalyze you right now. So for now, I'm just going to follow you and make sure you don't get killed," I said calmly. He spluttered for 34 more seconds before a look of resignation passed over his face. He nodded slowly, his emerald eyes catching mine.

He held out his right hand, his left hand occupied with holding his wand.

"So we don't get separated," he explained. I nodded, slipping my left hand between his fingers.

"Let's go."

And so, we stepped through the trees and into the darkness waiting within.

xxxxxx

"Got a plan?"

"Yeah. Don't get killed."

"Sounds like a rubbish plan."

"Hush up."

"Prat."

Al chuckled softly, his eyes still fixated on our surroundings. I adjusted my grip on my wand, holding it tightly. Shoot, I was sweating. The wood was slippery underneath my fingers, and I brought it to my shirt to wipe it off.

"DUCK!"

I flung myself to the ground, my hands clenching and crushing the brittle remains of the last leaves of the autumn season. A jet of scarlet sizzled above my head and slammed into the tree directly behind me.

Alright, now I was mad. I scrambled to my feet, my hand tightening my wand as I whirled around, looking for the attacker.

"Al!" I hissed.

"It's okay, Adela. I'm here. Do you sense him?" he whispered back. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding; thank Merlin he was alive. We arranged ourselves so that we were back to back. I could feel his comforting warmth through the thin material of my Quidditch jersey.

I forced myself to close my eyes even though every atom of Numberita was screaming at me to keep them open. Calm, Adela. Calm.

The hairs at the nape of my neck prickled, and I quickly opened my eyes and shouted, "LEFT 39˚!"

Al flung out his wand, sending a spark of golden light in that direction. I heard a muffled grunt as the spell hit its target. Al and I both ran in that direction, our legs crashing through the bramble. The full moon shone on above, casting everything in eerie shadows and lights.

My right ear twitched as my Beater senses went into overdrive. Damn it, there were two of them!

"RIGHT 12˚!"

Al answered almost as soon as the numbers left my lips, shooting a quick Stupefy.

Another muffled grunt, this time accompanied by a brilliant flash of pearly blue light; shoot, he'd gotten a Shield charm up in time to deflect Al's spell.

Silence.

Al and I crouched, our wand arms held out and our breaths coming out in ragged spurts that raked painfully against our throats. 12 agonizingly slow seconds passed.

"Anything?" Al whispered hoarsely.

"No!" I hissed back.

"I can't stand this," he muttered. What? Was he going to...? No!

Suddenly Al sprinted ahead in the general direction of where the shield charm had occurred. I cursed him before running after him. The idiot was going to get us both killed!

A large black form hurled from the shadows to my right and slammed into me. What..?! I hadn't even sensed it! It tipped its head up and howled, an eerie, echoing sound that made my blood run cold. I screamed, the sound tearing itself from my throat before I could stop it.

"Adela!"

No! Al could not come here! I recognized the beast as a werewolf. Cursing my stupidity (how could I have not connected the full moon to the risk of werewolves!), I backed away from it until I could go no farther; my back slammed into a tree. The beast smiled, revealing rows of glistening teeth tipped with…scarlet. My stomach protested as Numberita identified it as crusted over blood. At least it wasn't fresh blood…if Al came crashing into here, the beast would go after him. How could I live with myself if he got killed because of me?

I flung my wand up, traced a quick rectangle, and concentrated all of my remaining strength in a single word: "CONFRINGO!"

A spurt of brilliant yellow-white light exploded from my wand tip and crashed into the beast's midnight fur. I sank to the ground, breathing heavily as I watched the beast yelp as it got blown fifteen feet away. It crashed into a thicket of oak trees before sliding motionless to the ground. I blinked slowly, struggling to keep my eyes open. My right hand unclenched, my wand rolling away.

I watched another large form lumber into the small clearing. This one was much larger than the last one, its eyes blood red and its body rippled with lethal muscle. Was this how I was going to die? Numberita gave in to her fate and thought about her grief about never telling Al the truth about the library…while my stubborn heart protested, yelling at me to just pick up my wand. I craned my neck 2 cm to the right, violent stars popping into my vision in protest at the slight movement. Yup, I had severe spinal damage all right. The wand lay two inches away from my right index fingers…a distance that might as well have been two miles at this point.
The beast padded over to the motionless form of his companion before huffing in annoyance (annoyance? Numberita vaguely felt surprise at this; he felt no remorse for his fallen companion) and turning towards me, his lips curled back to reveal razor sharp teeth.

"You have made me annoyed, little one," it snarled, the words crunching out in a grating and altogether uncomfortable jumble. I blinked; werewolves could speak in their wolf form? Maybe its vocal chords were still intact…Numberita cross-referenced our mental image of a human's vocal chords to a wolf's. Two seconds later, I laughed – trust me to be thinking of that at a time such as this.

The sound wheezed out, fluttering from my mouth weakly. The beast growled, angered that I had the audacity to laugh.

"Foolish child!" he snarled, bounding forward and crossing the fifteen-foot gap with a single leap. I quieted, eying him fearfully. If I could just reach my wand…my right hand quivered helplessly, sharp pain shooting up my arm at the slightest movement. Shoot. It looked like my arm was broken as well.

The beast bent down to sniff my wand. I froze at its close proximity, struggling not to vomit as the smell of rotting carrion and blood accosted my senses.

The beast pulled its lips back in a terrifying semblance of a smile.

"I know your scent now, little one," he said. "Maybe I'll play with you a bit before killing you." I glared back at it defiantly. It snarled, moving to bite my hand off.

"Adela!"

I had never been so happy to see a person before. I almost choked in relief as the beast whirled around. Al shot a quick Stupefy at it, but the beast merely shook it off and advanced slowly towards Al.

Shoot! I couldn't let Al be killed. I eyed the wand; in its haste, the beast had knocked it an inch closer to me. Come on, Adela, focus. You're not Awesome Adela for nothing!

Closer…closer…there!

Smiling triumphantly, I grabbed the slippery (with what, I didn't want to think about) wand with trembling fingers. Ignoring the white-hot pain, I brought it up and whispered, "Expulso." I was vaguely aware that Al had shot a curse at the same time, and I heard a muffled growl and the sounds of a heavy animal running…

It was funny…everything was blurred now, almost like I was underwater.

Ha…underwater…made me think of Seth. There was one time when I was…six? Seven? Oh, the specific number didn't matter…it was alright to be a bit off…anyway, we were at the beach and he got stung by a couple jellyfish a few times…not sure of how many…

My brain hurt…

The dark trees melted together to form a single black wall that pressed closer and closer. It muffled all of my pain, leaving nothing behind. Ah, sweet bliss…

A single white light slammed into my eyes, bringing intense pain. No! I didn't want pain! I looked longingly at the black wall, but it had begun retreating. The white buzz began screeching at an unbearable level…Numberita hurt…

"-la! ADELA NICOLE LANCASTER IF YOU DIE I SWEAR I WILL DUMP ALL OF YOUR QUILLS IN THE OCEAN!"

I blinked blearily, Potter's emerald green eyes swimming into focus.

He breathed in relief when he saw my eyes open, wrapping me in a rough hug.

"I thought you died," he whispered hoarsely, his voice rough with emotion. He drew back, his eyes hungrily drinking in my face.

"Merlin, Adela," he breathed, his warm hands cradling my bruised cheeks. I offered a weak smile before croaking out, "the beast?"

A dark light extinguished some of the light that had shone so brightly in his eyes; "Ran away. I tried to hit it…but I missed." He was clearly beating himself up about it; anguish shone clearly in his eyes.

"Not your fault," I murmured, each word a struggle to get out. I groaned as Al's finger brushed over a particularly sensitive spot. He drew back instantly. No! I needed his warmth…

I had to tell him about the library – this was my chance to set things straight. Even if it meant he hated me and never spoke to me again…he deserved to know the truth.

"Al, listen. I need to tell you something," I whispered.

"Shh, Adela, I need to get you to the Infirmary," he said worriedly, eying my lower body. I couldn't look down; whether it was from the spinal injury or just pain, I couldn't tell.

"No, Al-" I struggled to get more words out, but my lungs wheezed and were seriously protesting my speaking.

He suddenly bent down and captured my lips with his. In this kiss I tasted desperation, grief, and fear…but also hope. My heart stopped beating for a split second as Numberita caught up; oh Merlin. Al Potter was kissing me – me, the girl that had obliviated him. Al sighed in my mouth, his intoxicating scent magnified times a thousand. All rational thought fled Numberita as I gave in.

And suddenly I was kissing him back, each precious, treasured second imprinting itself in my mind.

"Adela," he breathed after an uncountable amount of time. His eyes searched mine, an anxious expression on his face. I smiled nervously back as guilt slammed into me once more. Oh Merlin – how could I tell him now? I couldn't – not after what he'd just done. I blushed furiously, realizing finally what should have been clear before – I fancied him. I loved how he knew me well enough to really see me. I loved how he cared enough to show me his hidden place. I loved how he could get me to talk when no one else could. And he fancied me back – or, at least, this false version of me. He loved a lie.

My heart was singing, my heart was dead.

My heart was dancing, my heart was frozen with guilt.

My heart was…

And suddenly everything went dark.

AN: Sorry it wasn't very light hearted! This chapter was an emotional roller coaster to write. Anyway, please please please review!