Chapter 22: "Trunks! Tom!"
The news of what had happened in the dueling club spread rapidly throughout the school and things just kept getting worse. The entire school was now completely certain it was either Harry or I that was the Heir to Slytherin. Not only would anyone refuse to speak to us, several played jokes on us as we passed through the halls. The only ones outside of our small clique who believed that it was ridiculous that Harry and I were the heirs were the Weasleys and the teachers.
The next day, Trunks went to see Justin to tell him that Harry and I had been deflecting the snakes before our last Transfiguration class of the semester. I smiled as I saw Tom go with him and sighed as I finished up the homework that still wasn't finished.
I gathered up my books once I was finished and dreamily opened the locket Trunks had given me earlier. I missed his lavender hair and running my fingers through it. He had such nice hair for a guy and I was reminded of what my brother had called him long ago. A "pretty boy". I shook my head to get rid of the despicable memory and closed the locket with a quick snap and pulled my pack over my shoulder and went out the portrait hole.
I was quite early, so I took the long way around the castle to Professor McGonagall's class. I spotted Hagrid coming toward me, a rooster in his hands.
"Well, good morning, Hagrid," I said to him brightly, "Haven't seen you in a while. How's Fang doing? And..." I took a glance around before saying in a hushed tone, "Fluffy?"
"They're doing just fine, Angel," Hagrid smiled at me, his eyes crinkling merrily.
"What're you doing with that rooster, Hagrid? Did something kill it?"
"Yeah, it's either foxes or a Blood-Sucking Bugbear," Hagrid answered, "I need to get the Headmaster's permission to put a charm around the coop."
"Well, it was great talking with you, Hagrid, but I've got to get to Transfiguration or Professor McGonagall will have my head," I waved back at him cheerfully as I made my way toward the classroom.
I rounded the corner and nearly ran into Harry.
"Harry, you scared me, what are you doing here?" I asked him quickly. His hand raised and pointed to four humps on the floor before us. My eyes widened. My mouth dropped. I moved away from the bodies, dragging Harry with me before letting out a terrified scream. Trunks, Tom, Justin, and Nearly Headless Nick had been Petrified.
"Trunks!" I cried out as the crashes of opening doors rang throughout the school. "Trunks! Tom? Tom! Answer me, one of you!" Harry stood back, horrified as a group surrounded us all.
"They did it!" Ernie Macmillan shouted out. "Them two, they're working together!"
"That'll be quite enough, Macmillan!" Professor McGonagall said harshly. She gathered together six people to carry Trunks, Tom, and Justin up to Madam Pomfrey and gave Parvati Patil a fan to get Nearly Headless Nick up there as well.
"Angel, Potter, follow me," McGonagall told us.
"But Professor-" I began.
"This is out of my hands, Angel," she said, rather gently, "Come along, both of you." We glumly complied, following her to a statue where she told the gargoyle the password ("Lemon drop") and we climbed onto an escalator of sorts that went in spiral fashion up and perhaps down as well.
She left us in the office and both of us gave a rather curious glance around. Of all the teacher's offices that I'd ever visited, this was the most peculiar. (See book for full description, I don't want to type that all out) I looked around the room, which was a giant circle. Portraits of the past headmasters hung on the walls and on an overflowing bookshelf was the old and battered Sorting Hat. I saw Fawkes on the other side of the room and waved at the old and dying phoenix.
"Wow..." Harry breathed next to me. I gave him a grin and nodded my agreement.
"Look, Harry, there's Fawkes," I told him knowledgably. "That's a phoenix. He's a cool bird." Suddenly, it burst into flames, contradicting my words immediately.
"You mean hot, don't you?" Harry asked uncertainly. "Will it be all right?"
"Don't you know what a phoenix is famous for?" I asked him. "It dies in an inferno of flames and is reborn from the ashes. Its tears have healing powers and they are very strong and make very faithful pets."
"Quite right," Dumbledore said as he entered the room, smiling at me. His smile disappeared and he locked his eyes on me as he sat behind his desk, blue eyes darting from me to Harry and back again. I'm in trouble! I thought in my mind.
Are you all right, Angel? I heard Trunks' voice in my head.
"TRUNKS?!" I shouted out loud, jerking both Dumbledore and Harry out of eye contact. "Sorry," I said sheepishly.
"Are you all right, Angel?" Albus asked me, looking quite concerned.
"It's Trunks!" I said, "He can talk to me still."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked. "He's been Petrified!"
Suddenly, Hagrid burst into the room, waving his dead rooster over his head as he shouted hoarsely.
"It wasn't Angel or Harry, Professor, I was talking to them both seconds before those four were found!" Dumbledore tried to say something but was cut off by me.
"Hagrid, Professor Dumbledore knows it wasn't Harry and I," I told him gently. "Let him speak, you know it's so."
"Angel well knows what I do, Hagrid," Dumbledore told him gently. "I'll speak with you in a moment." Hagrid nodded and exited the room, looking highly embarrassed.
"How'd you know that, Angel?" Harry asked.
"Professor Dumbledore knows I'd never hurt Trunks or Tom," I told him, "And besides, the book has this same scene in it anyway." I stared off into space a moment before simply bursting into tears. I couldn't help it. Trunks was gone, Tom was gone, everyone but those who were my true friends thought I had Petrified them. Dirken was after me and the only person who could stop or stall him before me was gone.
Harry stared at Angel. He couldn't help but stare, because it was a very rare thing to see such a strong-willed person break down into tears right in front of anyone. He looked at Dumbledore but was surprised to see that he was gone!
He looked at Angel again and slowly walked over to her. Harry put his arms around her and she cried into his shoulder, no longer able to contain herself at all.
"Angel, it'll be all right, we'll get Trunks back," Harry told her, not really knowing what else to say. "Trunks will come back, don't worry."
"How can you stand there and say that?" I asked as he tried, in vain, to console me. "That stupid demon, why can't he just leave us all alone?!"
"Angel, stop looking at the problems and look for the solutions!" Harry scolded me, "We'll never get anywhere when our leader is without her rational mind!"
"I'm not the only leader in this group, Harry," I smiled as I wiped the tears from my eyes. "You're one too. And we'll get my Trunks back and we'll be better than ever." He grinned and helped me dry my tears with a tissue.
"And don't you ever forget that," he told me.
Yeah, Angel. I'm with you in spirit and heart even if I'm not their in body and mind. Trunks told me in my head once again.
I gave a start as I recognized the four states of a person.
"The body, the spirit, the mind, and the heart," I whispered to myself with a brilliant smile across my face, "It is with these that a person is made under the Yin-Yang Theory."
***
When I went to sleep in an empty room that night, my nightmare haunted me once again. The Forbidden Forest, Dirken, and my friends all seemed to be even more real than ever before. Trunks consoled me in my mind as I tried to get back to sleep.
At last, the night ended, and then so did the term. We played Exploding Snap, wizard chess, and practiced our dueling technique until late into the night on Christmas Eve. I missed Trunks even though I could talk to him telepathically any time I wanted. It just wasn't the same to not have his arms wrapped around me shoulders as the cold winter forced its way into the common room.
Ron, Hermione, Harry, and I were the only ones at school besides Trunks, Tom, Justin, and Colin, all of whom were upstairs. I decided to save Trunks' presents for him by putting them into our cloak closet. The five of us decided to sleep in the common room, as there were so many couches and such that were quite comfortable enough to sleep in.
***
I woke the next morning to no screams of fright. My dream had not haunted me and it made me wonder whether it had anything to do with a bond with the others.
Hey, guys, wake up, it's CHRISTMAS! I yelled as loud as my mind could. To my surprise, the entire dormitory (four kids) woke with startled faces and muttering something stupid.
"I guess we did bond," I said, not grimly or happily, but more of a neutral expression.
"Wha?" Harry asked, one eye opened from the floor.
"Talk inside your head, Harry," I told him, "Go on, try it."
Um...like this? I feel really stupid.
"Yep, just as I suspected!" I said with a wide grin. "Friendship bond! Strong enough to be able to talk through our minds, but not strong enough to kill us if we separate."
The others found this quite unusual, of course, but they shrugged it off as we went back to our dormitories to open presents. I was delighted to see that I got a present from Trunks despite everything and that he'd gotten plenty of gifts as well.
Once again, I got an aqua sweater from Mrs. Weasley, as well as several delicious home-baked goods. I sent Penny out immediately with a thank-you note for her and smiled as she gave a hoot and left. Hermione had given me a luxury phoenix-feather quill, made from a wonderful phoenix with a beautiful reddish-gold tint to its wings and a slight warmth to its center even though it had been detached from the bird months ago.
Ron had given me a book this time as well, all about interesting spells he thought could aid me in my quest for better and more complicated spells.
"You should try the last one," he told me softly when we were alone in the library later on in the week. "It's a spell that even most adults would find very complicated, but it'll help you feel a lot better." To my utter shock and disbelief, it was the Expecto Patronum spell, which made a Patronus. This was the one spell that Harry learns in the third book to ward off unwanted "visitors"(To those who haven't read the third book, you'll have to wait a while on that information).
The Christmas feast that followed was magnificent. None, not even Snape, could have not enjoyed the wonderful food, the decorations, the enchanted snow (warm and dry) that fell from the ceiling. I think it was Dumbledore who was in for a surprise, however, when I offered to play to old piano that sat in the corner of the room, unused for nearly a century.
"I haven't met a witch or wizard yet who could play a piano!" Dumbledore stuttered out. "Absolutely astounding, really, too many of our number depend on magic so much that they've forgotten the simple things in life."
"Believe me, it wasn't for fun that I took piano lessons," I growled. "It was to get away from my dad and Tiger."
"You haven't really said much about your brother, Angel," Harry pointed out.
"Well...it's nothing, really," I told them, but all who remained (Snape and a few of the other teachers had left) were unconvinced. Only McGonagall, Dumbledore, and us four kids were left.
"Angel, be serious," Ron said.
"All right, I will be: I don't want to talk about it," I jested and no one contradicted me. Well, everyone that is, except Trunks.
Angel, tell them. They don't know that Tiger was Dirken's host for that many years. He told me with a hint of kindness behind it.
I'll tell Harry, Ron, and Hermione when we get back to the dormitory. I don't want to tell Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall.
He didn't reply.
I began to play the piano for them and sang sweetly for them the lead of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman and Jingle Bells. After we finished, everyone headed up to bed. We sank into the cushions of some of the seats in the common room and I sighed.
"Okay, what do you guys want to know about Tiger?" I asked exasperatingly.
"Everything," Hermione said as she sank into a couch across from me.
"Well, he was my brother by dimensional rebirth, but it feels like he really was and still is my little brother. I think that he still is even if I've been reborn here and from another dimension before that. He's got brown hair and eyes and was fourteen years old, seventeen months younger than I was..."
About fifteen minutes later...
"...and Dirken was inside my brother the whole time." I finished, drinking my water that I'd brought with me.
"Wicked. Wish my brothers liked me the same way," Ron grumbled.
"They do, they just don't show it the way you'd expect," I consoled him.
"Expect the unexpected, right, Angel?" Harry said, giving me a wink.
"Where'd you find that out from?" I growled slightly.
"Trunks," he answered and rolled over onto his back. "I'm tired. I'll see you guys in the morning."
***