Next Chapter!!!
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Chapter 12: Dreams and Trees
I raced through the Forbidden Forest, running away from a growling, barking noise behind me. There was light ahead of me, and I pushed my aching muscles faster to reach it. My heart beat against my chest so hard I thought it would explode out of me and I would die. Yet on I ran. Whatever was pursuing me could tear even me apart and I knew very well that I wasn't invincible.
The barking followed be, invading my ears and making me squeal in fear as it chased me at a pace I found to be even more exhausting.
"I'm going to get you, Angel," came the voice I knew as Dirken's. "And you can't escape me once you've become mine."
"No!" I shouted back at him. "I'll never be yours! Never, I tell you! Never!" I paused a moment to catch my breath and felt arms wrap around me tightly.
"Angel, you're mine," it growled, hot breath that stank of meat and blood caressing my face. "You'll never escape me!"
"I will escape, Dirken," I growled heatedly. "I'll never join you! Never!"
"Angel...Angel..." Trunks shook me hard once again and finally tore me away from the horrid nightmare.
"Dirken!" I shouted out loud and punched out blindly to whoever held me.
"Angel, snap out of it!" Trunks shouted from his place on the wall.
"Trunks?" I asked with a shaky breath. The dream had been so real. So incredibly and terrifyingly real. "Oh my gosh, Trunks, I'm sorry!" I leaped out of the bed and knelt beside him as he rubbed his shoulder with a painful-looking grimace. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry-"
"Angel, I'm fine," He managed to grunt out. "But what about you? What was that?"
"I'm all right now," I told him softly, thinking back to the dream that was still replaying itself vividly in my head.
"No you're not," he retorted as he stood up, still rubbing his sore shoulder. I think I was sort of glad he was still a lot stronger than me, because if I was as strong as he'd told me I was back in the Z dimension, he'd have a lot more than just a sore shoulder. "What was that all about, Angel?"
"D-Dirken was chasing me," I whimpered as I recalled his new appearance. "He-he looked like a werewolf instead of his normal self. He said I was his and that I'd never escape him...but I told him I would and I wasn't his and never would be."
"Angel, get off of Dirken, I'm serious," Trunks told me. "Just leave it neutral for now. Forget him, he'll never be able to do what he wants. He's too ambitious for his own good." I grinned at him meekly at this.
"Sounds like Caesar," I told him. He looked at me skeptically. "Never mind." I looked at the ceiling and saw the clearest night Hogwarts had seen in a while. It had been a week since the Quidditch match and the night we had received our room.
We were quite happy with the arrangements and had been well-impressed upon by the upper classmen about how the lovebird's nest may quite be the best living quarters in the castle, aside from the teachers. Percy had to admit upon his observance of the room that it even outweighed the prefects' quarters by a substantial amount, a fact that had left the Weasley twins jeering their elder brother for the past three days.
But Trunks had found out what Albus had meant about my dreams quite quickly, as this had been the sixth time in five days he had to wake me up from a nightmare.
"You've got to get Dirken out of your head," Trunks told me firmly. "He hasn't shown himself in nearly a week. And this room is well-guarded. He won't get to you in here, everyone has told you that. You only need to convince yourself."
"That's not it," I sighed as I avoided his gaze by looking up into the stars. "Every dream I've had yet is about him chasing me in the Forbidden Forest at night."
"We can't go into the Forbidden Forest, Angel, how is he going to get you out there?" Trunks retorted with a confused look upon his face.
"Sometimes people with detention have to help Hagrid out in the Forest," I said, still avoiding his eyes. "And I know that we'll get one with Snape breathing down our necks."
Our dear Potions teacher had been on us for the longest time to find something we were doing at fault enough to punish us. He docked points on us as often as possible and almost always found us at fault in our classes, which was with the Slytherins, unfortunately. If Snape didn't catch it, Malfoy, Goyle, and Crabbe kept an turned toward us at all times and told him immediately of anything that could possibly get us into trouble.
"Don't worry about it," he told me. "Don't worry about the future that may not even happen."
"I have to," I told him with an incandescent smile.
"I have a mind to ask Shin to erase your memories of the book part of this dimension," Trunks growled under his breath. "But I won't." I looked up sharply at him, alarm written all over my face. "I won't, Angel, don't look at me like that!" He laughed.
"You'd better not," I told him firmly and with a deep edge of seriousness to my tone. "There are several things to come that Harry needs to have happen and I've got to make sure at least some of them do." He cocked his head at me before laughing under his breath and shaking his head.
"There are some things I'll never understand about you," he told me. "And one of them is this 'things that must happen' theory of yours."
"You know, Goku said the same thing to Mirai Trunks," I told him, looking up at the sky again. "And Mirai Trunks was talking about how your parents couldn't learn that he was their son, because you wouldn't have been born then. I wonder what would've happened if they had found out." Trunks' face contorted into shock again.
"You mean that-"
"Yeah, Trunks. That's why I have to make certain things happen. I want Harry to lead as close a life to the one he had in the books as possible, not because it's more familiar to me, but the good things that come out of it. And I'm going to try and prevent the bad things that came out of his choices wherever I can." I sighed as I saw that the sun was rising now and checked my watch. It was five in the morning. I wasn't going back to sleep any time soon. "Might as well get started on our Herbology homework."
"Yeah."
Trunks and I sat down on the plush carpet in our room, poring over our books and homework until it was completed. I glanced at my watch again.
"It's only six. Breakfast isn't ready until seven. What do you want to do?" I asked Trunks. He thought for a minute to himself, standing next to me, our bare feet sinking into the red carpet. He looked as though he'd come up with an idea when he turned to me and I waited patiently for his voice suggestion.
However, it was not voiced. His eyes danced with a mischief I had seen only too often, but I wondered what he was doing exactly, when he stepped up close, much closer that comfortable.
"Trunks, what are you doing?" I asked, backing a few inches away.
"How about we try something?" he asked, but before I could answer, he had wrapped his arms around my waist. On instinct, I put my own around his shoulders.
"And what should we try?" I asked teasingly. I licked his cheek like the little cat I had been named after. (Seriously, my mother and father named me after their cat! My real name was the name of mom's pet cat when she was little. [Note: Sarah was not the name of the cat, different name, peeps] I thought it was sweet when I found out.) He knelt down slightly and I felt his arms loosen around my waist. I wondered what he thought he was doing, but was surprised to find his arms around the juncture of my knees and lifting me up into the air.
"How about this?" He asked up to me. I put my hands on his shoulders for balance as he swung me around in a wide arc. I flung myself out of his grasp with a small bit of levitation and lowered myself onto his shoulders, holding his eyes with my hands and my legs wrapped around his throat. "Hey! I can't see! Let go, Angel!"
"No way," I giggled at him. "Try and make me!" I felt his eyes crinkle in amusement and pondered the proposition of a plan in his head. I didn't have long to guess, however, because I was suddenly flipped over his head and landed in his arms like a child. He caught me in a warm kiss before I could utter even the slightest peep of surprise.
"No fair!" I gasped as he finally released me for a breath of air. "I couldn't...breath!" I took several deep gulps of air and waited for my heartbeat to slow down.
"So?" he asked with feigned innocence. I punched him in the arm out of my fury at such a comment and he scowled as he rubbed the same arm I had punched him in after the dream.
"Aw, poor Trunksie," I crooned. His scowl deepened as he glanced at his own watch. He suddenly gripped his arm as if a spasm of pain had overcome him. "Trunks?! Trunks!" I knelt beside him, looking at his arm with the gentlest of care. He suddenly launched out and I found myself pinned to the ground once again. "You faked me out!"
"I sure did," he grinned, "You're not so hot now, are you?"
"Maybe," I smirked as I threw him off with a kick in a not-so-nice place. "But you made yourself vulnerable." He grunted in both pain and acknowledgement to my words and I snickered as I waited for his pain to pass.
We made our way down to breakfast as if nothing had happened.
***
Christmas was on the fast approach and we had only one day left. I woke early that morning, giving Trunks a kiss on the forehead (to which he only moaned and turned over, muttering something unintelligent) and made my way down to Hagrid's hut. I knocked on the door, expecting a loud crash inside followed by Fang's furious barking.
However, what I heard inside was not the usual crash and bark. Instead, it was a calm, steady creaking sound, accompanied by growls. And the person who opened the door was neither Hagrid nor Dumbledore, who was the only person I knew who went to visit Hagrid and was comfortable enough to open the door. It was Juu, with Hagrid and Snape standing behind her.
"Angel, what are you doing here this hour of the morning?" Juu asked kindly.
"Um...I wanted to help Hagrid get the Christmas trees up before class and breakfast started," I offered, suddenly feeling cornered by Snape's presence in the room. Hagrid too seemed uneasy by the greasy-haired, hook-nosed man's presence in his slightly shabby but comfortable shack.
"Oh, then come on in," she told me, "The three of us were just discussing that very prospect."
"Yes, come on in, Angel," Hagrid told me hurriedly, with a glance toward the gruff-looking Snape. Neither Snape nor Juu saw the glance.
"Okay..." I said and walked inside. "I don't think many of the others are up. Trunks was still sound asleep when I left. He's normally up when I am."
"Well, that's a comforting thought," Snape said aloud.
"We were hoping to have the Great Hall decorated before most of the students were up," Juu explained. "And with you helping, I'm sure we'll get done sooner than we expected. Why don't you come help me and Professor Snape can assist Hagrid."
"All right," I said, rising from the table. My Defense of the Dark Arts teacher led the way into the woods and I followed. She found a tree and asked my opinion on it. It was surprisingly perfect for a first find and she took out a hatchet on my approval.
"Wait, I can get it," I said softly. She cocked her head lightly before putting the hatchet back down and I looked, measuring optically, at the base of the tree. I took careful aim and sliced the tree trunk with my hand in a neat movement. It toppled to the ground, but I caught it before it hit the snow-covered floor.
"Well done, Angel, my, I forgot you had such powers," She smiled at me and continued along the path upon my assurance that I could find her again. I flew up into the sky, racing back to the castle with my find.
***
I had helped find a total of six trees and carried back four of the ones Hagrid and Snape had found. I smiled as Professor McGonagall, Juu, and Professor Flitwick (Snape had already gone) used their wands to decorate the trees beautifully. I looked into the ceiling and was glad to see a clear sky. Mistletoe was spread at random all over the Great Hall, bewitched so that anyone caught beneath them had to receive a kiss before they were released again (Juu's addition). Holly was placed at even intervals below the huge windows that the morning mail came through each day.
And it had all been finished before the students came down for breakfast. For certain, it was even before Dumbledore had awakened, for I felt his ki up in his tower still.
"Thank you so much, we couldn't have done it without you," Juu smiled at me. She waved a little before heading off to her chambers to get cleaned off before classes began. I followed her example and did the same. It wasn't until I had finished my bath and been completely dressed again that Trunks woke up.
"Good morning, sleepyhead," I grinned at him with a small kiss on his cheek.
"Sleepyhead?" he asked in surprise.
"Yeah, I've been up since dawn, helping Juu and Hagrid bring in the Christmas trees," I told him with a giggle. "Time to get up and get ready to see our work. Get ready for our classes, too." He stood up and stretched his muscles, which I admired as I had already been ready for quite a while yet. He went into the bath (which we had been using to change in) and got dressed while I gathered his books for the day in his pack.
"Thanks, Angel," he said as we headed out the door and into the common room. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Bill joined us (Charlie had to go back to work on urgent business, which he couldn't tell us. "It's top secret, I'm sorry."). Tom and Jupiter had already gone downstairs, as well as my sisters.
I finished breakfast as fast as I could so I could be ready to attach my Christmas list to Penny's claw. I had made it out the night before, telling Shin to get each thing for my friends. I had already sent ahead and told him how to get into Diagon Alley so he could get the things. He would get Penny to carry the things one by one to me into the Griffindor common room and leave them where I could find them.
"Hey, Penny, how are you?" I asked the owl kindly. She hooted pleasantly and I attached my list to her claw. Pan and Chee had done the same thing, only a few days ago.
"Good morning, Angel, I see you've freshened up since our little trek," Juu said as she passed us.
"Yeah, thanks for taking me with you, Juu, it was fun," I told her with a smile. The others looked at me inquisitively as she continued up to the Head Table.
"She and I went and got the Christmas trees, with Hagrid and Snape." I told my friends after she'd gone.
"Wow, you and those three went and got all those?" Tom asked, glancing around as he ate his sausages.
"Yeah," I answered with a smile. I moved to stand up, but found that I couldn't. "Uh...oh."
"What?" Pan asked, looking at me strangely.
"I'm caught." I attempted to stand again but let out a grim sigh as I failed once again.
"Caught?" Trunks asked.
"The mistletoe. Juu bewitched them to keep a person in place until they are kissed." I sank back in my chair. The Great Hall was mostly empty now of people who would object to seeing two people kiss, but most of them were also finding themselves caught under the mistletoes' grips. Pan and Chee laughed at me, as did Jupiter and Bill. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Trunks remained serious and seated as the others left me to my own devices.
"I'm stuck too," Hermione realized grimly. Ron looked up sharply and was gone before Hermione could request his help. "Harry, please help me." She clasped her hands together and pleaded with him. He scrunched his nose up slightly as Trunks kissed my lips, releasing me instantly. He looked over at Hermione and around the room to see how many were watching. No one was.
He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and pulled away as she stood up, a crimson flush on both their cheeks. I laughed at them as I knelt to pick up my books.
"Don't worry about it, you two, a kiss is nothing compared to some of the things I've seen Vegeta and Bulma do," I grimaced at the awful memory of accidentally walking in on the two of them. "Never mind." I shook my head, shaking that memory off in my haste to get to our first class.
Ron was apologizing constantly to Harry and Hermione all through the halls as we walked to our class. He'd waited there for us after leaving. Even I found the halls chilly as I saw my breath swirl out of my mouth and felt the cold bite through my robes. I powered all the way up to Super Saiyan before I had enough warmth to protect me. Trunks stood close as we walked, also at Super Saiyan. We walked into the much-warmer Transformation classroom, still powered up.
"Who are you?" Professor McGonagall asked Trunks. It was then I realized she'd never seen Trunks go Super Saiyan.
"Trunks, power down," I told him, giggling as I let my hair fall and my eyes return to blue instead of the brilliant aqua.
"Trunks?" She asked, taken aback. "Well, that's a shock. Please, take a seat." She pointed to the front row, where we had sat since the day Trunks had arrived at the school.
The worse class by far was Potions. Snape wouldn't allow me to keep my Super Saiyan stage in class, so I kept as far up as I could. I got paired with Malfoy, of all people. The class was pure torture throughout the entire time and Snape had gotten on Trunks' case because he'd accidentally powered up all the way, sending a little of his spine of lionfish flying. Luckily, no one was near besides Pan, and she could take it even if it had landed on her, which it hadn't. I had a mind to punch Snape right in that hook-shaped snout of his, but I resisted the urge.
"Aw, little Angel's boyfriend got in trouble," Malfoy hissed at me tauntingly.
"Knock it off, Malfoy," I growled.
"Make me."
"Right now, brat."
"Brat?!" He seemed appalled I would call him such a word, as though I had said a bit of profanity.
"Yes, you're a spoiled little brat, now keep your mouth shut or you'll find yourself without one!" I whispered fiercely. His mouth gaped open and I giggled silently as I added the lionfish to my cauldron.
Because of the holidays, no one was really paying much attention in class. I was glad the next day to see Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and many, many others off.
The common room was now dominated by our small group, with the exception of Jupiter, who had gone home with her mother. Pan and Chee had gone to visit Shin, but I decided to stay with Harry and the others at school, which was fine with Shin. I sent him his present and the others ahead of time, telling them not to open them until Christmas morning. Percy and Bill had also left to see their brother (Charlie) in Romania, along with their parents, whom all five Weasley brothers had told them about me and Trunks and Harry and Jupiter and, most specifically, Tom.
This left Trunks, Harry, Hermione, Ron, the Weasley twins, Tom, and I left in the Griffindor Tower. There weren't many others in the other Houses, either, but I wasn't worried about it. I was certainly surprised the next morning (not Christmas yet) to see a single table set up in the middle of the Great Hall, the others pushed against the wall.
"I thought since there were so few of us here, what's the use of the House tables?" Albus said. I was quite surprised by this, seeing as the students outnumbered the teachers by only one or two (there were only eleven, us eight and one first-year from each of the other Houses). It was Christmas Eve and we had loads of fun sitting with the teachers and other students, no one intimidating anyone else. Hagrid took up the majority of one end, and Albus sat on the other. I sat next to Trunks and Professor McGonagall, whom I found to have a good sense of humor despite the book's description of her.
"Ooh! I know a good joke to tell," the Hufflepuff, a boy named Jake, spoke up (I'm making them up here). "How many half-wizards does it take to screw in a light bulb?"
"As many half-Saiyans as it takes to screw in a light bulb," I said with a giggle. "Two, because two halves equals one."
"Right," his face seemed to fall slightly. But everyone at the table laughed at the answer anyway and he perked up noticeably.
"Well, if we want to get up early in the morning, I suggest we get to bed," Albus said, standing up a few minutes later. All were full and none contradicted him.
"Early to bed, early to rise, I always say," the squeaky Professor Flitwick put in. I was glad that even Snape appeared to have loosened up quite a deal (Hagrid had slipped him a little wine, though) as he had laughed at Jake's joke. The Ravenclaw girl and the Slytherin girl (Shana and Michelle) headed for bed afterwards, both frightened of being in their common rooms all alone.
Us Griffindors, however, were planning a small bit of fun. Albus had lent me a set of chessmen and Juu had lent Trunks hers. We were planning a game when we got back and we weren't the only ones. Harry and Ron were playing right beside us.
Of course, with these chessmen, things were slightly different, but I knew what I was doing. For Trunks, it was a different story, as he had never played before. Fred stood behind him, telling him rules and game plays as I struggled to beat them both. I looked over and saw that Harry was having as hard a time as I was, because both our borrowed sets were telling us different suggestions that clogged our judgment. Trunks and Fred were having similar troubles, but with an experienced player like Fred helping him, Trunks was doing better than me.
After about three hours of playing through this, I finally beat Trunks. Albus's chessmen were applauding me loudly and Juu's were slumping or shouting angrily at Trunks. We put the chess sets away and went over to see that Ron had also beaten Harry. All of the others had gone to bed already, but none of us were tired.
"You know, it's really weird to see you without George," I said to Fred as we sat by the fire, just making small talk. I sat in Trunks' lap despite myself and everyone else.
"Yeah, well it was weird for a while there seeing you without Pan and Chee around," Fred countered. "And George and me can be separate people whether anyone can see it or not."
"Just like Pan, Chee, and I are completely separate," I said, cuddling closer to Trunks as a breeze found its way into the common room and past the fire. I was glad I was so much smaller than him, because his body heat alone was enough to keep me quite warm. I stopped short for a moment. "Just what did you tell your mother and father about me?"
"Oh, everything," Fred told me, "Ron probably did too. Why, is something wrong?"
"No, no, I was just wondering, is all," I told him nonchalantly. He nodded and stood with a loud yawn.
"I'd better get up to bed. Coming, Harry, Ron?" Fred asked, scratching his head a little.
"We'll be up in a minute, Fred," Ron told his brother, waving him off. I suddenly realized that I was completely surrounded by boys now, friends or not.
"Angel, are you worried about something?" Harry asked gently.
"Sort of," I grumbled, "About the Stone. If Dirken gets his hands on that Stone, we're done for, the lot of us." (I've been living in England for nearly six months, of course I'm going to adopt some of the words!)
"There's something else bothering you, besides that," Ron spoke up. "I can tell when there's something dangerous scaring someone or something ulterior." I sighed as I looked at him.
"To tell the truth, I'm worried about Shin. He's all alone during the intervals between times and we aren't going back there until summer holidays," I smirked. "It's kind of weird, he's been my best friend since I first died. He's the one who gave me all these chances at life, even though he won't tell me what I did during those ten years on Vegeta. It scares me, really, that he has to be alone all this time."
"Angel, you know Shin can handle being alone," Trunks told me. "You said so yourself that he deserved some down time."
"Yeah," I smiled. "I'll have to ask him about it when Penny gets back with the last present."
"She's still delivering presents?" Trunks asked, surprised.
"Yeah, and she had to get some help from one of the school owls to carry back to last one," I smirked at him. "You'll find out in the morning. Let's get to bed, I'm tired now." Ron and Harry rose and left, but I stayed where I was until they were gone. Trunks looked at me inquisitively before smiling and picking me up. We stepped through to our room and I fell asleep before Trunks reached the bed.
Unfortunately for him, I still had my arms around his neck. He looked uneasily at me before laying me on his bed and following, also falling asleep within seconds.
***
No, we didn't do anything we shouldn't...jeez, people keep asking me that. Next!