That evening Faith changed into a long white linen dress. It was silly, diaphanous and far too pretty, but it was also the loosest and coolest thing she owned. It wouldn't stick to her and that was all she cared about in this heat.
There was barely anyone about as she walked through the castle, life had stopped, been suspended in the heat like a creature floating in formaldehyde.
Outside it was utterly deserted. She didn't really know where, if anywhere, she wanted to go, but just drifted through the heat that pressed around her. You could drown in it, she thought, if you let yourself. If you closed your eyes, and only breathed in this sodden air, surely you would drown?
She sat down and hunched her legs up to her chest. Don't think. Don't breath. Stay absolutely calm, the epitome of self control. It will be okay then. She could feel her shoulders shaking, but no tears leaked from her dry eyes.
"Don't think," she whispered to herself. Don't think about this new nagging worry about Remus. Don't think about the guilt he's inflicted on you by mentioning the one other friend you have and the way you haven't written to her in months, one more thing to be guilty about in a life saturated with guilt. Don't think about your father. Don't think, don't think, don't think.
From somewhere in the distance came a low rumble of thunder. She looked up and a streak of silver lightning stabbed down through the sky. There was another blast of thunder, but much closer this time, rolling through the hills.
A splash of rain hit her forehead. Then another, then another. All these drops of cold water were suddenly falling around her! They came quicker, harder and in a minute they were pouring down.
The thunder smashed and the lightning split the sky like a scream. The landscape shook as the heat of the Summer was thrown violently out of the atmosphere, and smashed into the World.
Faith knelt up and raised her face to the rain. It ran down her face, into her eyes, her mouth, across her cheeks. It ran down her chest and soaked her dress.
She could something strange stirring inside her, bubbling up in her lungs and her heart. The new feeling made her throat swell and she tried to swallow it, but then it escaped in a belch of noise…
Laughter! Real hysterical, insane laughter! She felt her head fall forward and wrapped her arms around her stomach, her whole body was shaking!
She hadn't laughed, really laughed, in this deep, cathartic way for so long, so unbearably long. She didn't even recognise this irrepressible feeling.
She stood up shakily and, still laughing at herself, at everything, at the thunder, at the glorious, free, wild, pouring rain!
She held out her arms and let the rain drench her. The dress stuck to her, closed on her waist and clung to her legs. She couldn't stop laughing!
She began to spin round and round in the rain. Dancing with the sheer joy of the freedom! She kicked off her sandals and squelched her toes in the mud. She splashed in the rapidly forming puddles, she kicked up jets of spray, she laughed!
It was utterly ridiculous of course, this dangerous loss of control, utterly stupid. But oh it was so good, so right! The cold, gorgeous drops of water. The dress that moved against her like an extension of her body, the soft mud under her feet, and the bubbling, deep laughter that made her body shake.
She tripped then, fell in the mud and lay there panting. The rain began to fall less forcefully now. The cleansing after the exorcism. She staggered back to her feet, put her hands on her hips and giggled childishly at the sight of herself.
Soaked, dripping and muddy. She gave one final, defiant laugh, picked up her sandals and made her way shaky way up to the castle.
She didn't realise it of course but her laughter had just caused a new storm. The laughter and dancing had created new clouds that were gathering in the air.
Nothing was ever going to be the same again and she didn't even know it yet.
************************
It was too hot to be doing this Snape thought, as he drifted around the outskirts of the forbidden forest. He had to collect some Hydra Moss for tomorrow's lesson. It had to be picked fresh.
The humidity was so intense he couldn't cope with robes. He had made sure he was invisible before leaving his chambers without them. You don't spend years prowling around like a vampire to then throw the image away when the weather gets hot.
The heat was painful. His mind felt like it was full of cotton wool. His damp silk shirt clung against his skin, and he'd had to awkwardly tie his hair back to keep it out oh his eyes.
He began to walk back, trying to think, but the heat drained coherence away. As he trudged forward he noticed a white figure curled up in a ball. He began to move closer, but then the thunder cracked through the air. He stopped, frozen, silent. The lightning sliced the sky apart. He watched the figure raise its head, and as the red hair tumbled down realised it must be Faith. The second role of thunder jerked him forward and he began to walk quickly towards her.
The rain began to hit him and he was about five metres away from her when she began to laugh. And the laugh pinned him to the spot. He may as well have been hit with the lightning that was smashing around them.
He had never heard her laugh before. If this was her real genuine laugh, every other chuckle, snigger or scornful bark was a shadow of this. It was as if he had never heard anyone laugh before.
She stood up. Rain was drenching him completely but he didn't even notice. Her laughter was so hysterical, from somewhere so deep inside her. She looked so young!
And then she began to dance, twisting and spinning in the rain. Innocent and childlike, but the soaked, clinging dress showed off just how clearly she wasn't a child. The dress clung to her like a second skin in the downpour. His mouth was totally dry. He could watch her dancing, laughing, splashing like this forever.
He watched her hands run across her arms, her stomach, her legs. Watched her revelling in the freedom. He didn't think he had ever seen anything so sensual, so unconsciously erotic. He wondered if he could actually stand up any longer. Would she realise if he just collapsed, slid down into the brand new mud? Would she care if he dragged her down with him? Was he breathing? Yes he was, his breath was rasping in time with her helpless, burning laughter was this real?
He felt like he was on fire as she seemed to pick up the pace of the dancing. His blood was boiling and every breath of wind, every drop of water was like fire on his sensitised skin. She threw back her head and it was too much, too like she was crying out, and then she spun one last time and collapsed.
Somehow he forced himself to breath quietly, to not move. He watched her heaving chest, the little gasps escaping from her lips. She slowly, shakily picked herself up and seemed to look straight at him before surveying the state of herself.
Her hair was plastered against her face, her cheeks were flushed burnt pink. He gulped as he saw she may as well have been naked, the dress was wrapped around her so tightly. He could only stop himself making some reaction by biting down on his lip so hard the blood spilled into his mouth. His eyes took in her neck, her shoulders, her arms, oh God, her breasts with the perfect dark nipples showing through the sodden, her waist that must have been made for his hands to close around, her hips, thighs, calves and bare, tempting, naked feet…
The last, defiant laugh that seemed to discard the entire Universe, managed to send another jolt of lightning hot heat through him.
He watched her walk away. And then let himself breathe out. Eventually he managed to move.
The storm had come, and it had struck, and it had blown everything normal away.