Chapter 3 - The Glass Vile
Disclaimer: all characters except Jerica are owned by JK Rowling.
A musty smell hung in the air as incense smoked out any fresh air that had occupied the room before they were lit. Scarlet shawls covered the many lamps in the room, shrouding it in a deep red glow.
Professor Trelawny emerged from the shadows carrying a large parchment. She motioned for everyone to quiet down as she began to speak.
"With my crystal ball I saw myself giving you all a beginning of the term project that you will do in pairs...and as you all know, I never go against what my crystal ball shows me."
A few students in the classroom groaned at the thought of a project and the rest of the students seemed to be asleep due to the heavy incense smoke.
"I will be assigning you partners, and will also be assigning you a type of Rune Magic that you will be practicing and performing for the class in 2 weeks. Now, I will be calling off the names of the partners and then I will allow you to meet up with your partner while I come around and assign you a rune magic." the professor said as she glanced around the room, her beady eyes glinting around behind her large glasses.
"Dean Thomas and Parvati Patil. Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley." Professor Trelawny began, reading off her large piece of parchment.
Harry looked over and Hermione and Ron and smiled at them. His smile quickly faded when Professor Trelawny spoke the next two names.
"Harry Potter and Jerica Hart."
Jerica's smile fell as well, and so did her spirits. Of all people, she had to work with the one who resented her and wouldn't even give her a chance. Harry looked bewilderedly at Professor Trelawny, not wanting to believe that he had to work with Jerica of all people.
That stuck up brat, he thought to himself as he glared over in her direction. Jerica's eyes found the window and stayed fixed on it, not wanting to meet Harry's gaze again.
After the Professor had finished naming off all the groups, she waited for everyone to meet with their partners. Harry reluctantly stood up and stalked over towards where Jerica was sitting. She was still gazing out the window and avoiding his gaze.
"Hi Harry." Jerica said quietly, not looking away from the window.
"Hello." Harry said impatiently.
"Now I will walk around and give you all your assignment, please be quiet while I do this." Professor Trelawny said in her fake misty voice as she began to glide across the room.
When she reached Harry and Jerica, who still hadn't muttered more then hello to each other, she tutted.
"Hmm, I feel negative energy coming from you two, we need to fix that. I have just the project for you."
Harry and Jerica looked up at their professor, eyeing eachother suspiciously.
"Your assignment will be to do a demonstration of Elemental Spirit Magic, you must practice this on your own time and prepare a presentation for the class." Professor Trewlany smiled a misty smile and drifted away.
The bell rang and Jerica turned to face Harry and began to speak.
"We'll begin preparing our presentation tomorrow night after dinner, meet me in the common room then." was all she said before she stood up and walked out of the classroom with the rest of the students.
~*~
To Harry, the next day seemed to fly by before he had to meet Jerica for the project. He had noticed that she had hardly spoken to Draco since the first day back. And, much to his surprise, seemed to be becoming friendly with Hermione and Ginny. The nerve, he thought, taking his friends, what else was she gonna take? His heart wasn't what he had had in mind.
When the time arrived, Harry waited up in the boys dorm while the other boys were busy trying to fall asleep. He didn't want anyone seeing him going down to meet Jerica.
When he at last saw that Ron was asleep, he walked quietly down the long staircase and into the common room. One small lamp was lit on one of the tables by one of the large red sofas. Seated on the sofa was Jerica. She had her legs crossed and had a large book open and was scribbling something on a long piece of parchment.
"Hey." He said softly as he reached the bottom of the stairs. Jerica's head jerked up and when she saw Harry her lips curved into a smile.
"Didn't think you were gonna come."
"Well I did, didn't I?" Harry said hastily, sitting next to Jerica and looking at the parchment. Written on it were a few sentences about some elements and below it were a bunch of tiny doodles.
She saw him looking strangely at her parchment and laughed. "I have a short attention span, my grandma used to get SO annoyed with me...she'd be explaining about 'the old days' and I'd start poking fun at a nearby antique of hers, that upset her too, unfortunatly I guess, she used to always be so keen on sending me away and then missing me when I was gone at school."
Harry couldn't help but smile. She WAS funny...he thought to himself, quickly shaking away the notion and going back to his earlier demeanor.
"Well, what do you have in mind for our project?" He said.
"I was thinking that since to perform this, I've done it before, many times actually, so I know what to do, it's going to take outdoors stuff, so I thought we'd go out by the lake."
Harry stiffened.
"We're not allowed outside after dark." He said simply.
"You know, I've heard about what you've done Harry, and since when did you start following rules?"
Harry winced when he realized she was right. He didn't ever follow the rules, it was like a bad habit. Apparently it was for her too.
"Fine lets go."
~*~
The bright light of the full moon shone down on the moist grass, showcasing a sea of sparkling light. There was a light breeze that tousled the leaves of nearby trees and rippled the glassy lake.
Jerica began to walk towards a tall oak tree that sat right next to the lake. She dropped the book she had been carrying on the ground and her roll of parchment and sat crosslegged on the wet grass.
Harry, not wanting to complain about the grass being wet, sat down across from her. The spot she had chosen was covered with moonlight and was about 6 feet from the large oak tree and about 3 feet from the edge of the lake.
Jerica reached over and opened up the book lying on the grass and began reading over some of the pages. Harry sat waiting impatiently, looking around.
The castle looked dark and scary at night and there was no light coming from it. Everyone was asleep but them in this late hour.
"Okay Harry, I want you to join hands with me and follow my chant, okay?"
"Right." Harry said as he took her hands in his. He looked at her and it seemed like he was seeing a whole new person. Her long blonde hair flowed like a river freely down her back and her shoulders, shining in the moonlight. Her eyes were closed and she was holding her head high, almost turned up to the sky. She was wearing a long deep blue dress that seemed to accent her figure. Pools of light swam over her delicate face and she seemed surreal.
Harry had felt his heart skip a beat when he had touched hands with her, as if her power had stopped it in mid beat. Jerica began to chant now, saying the words slowly once and waiting for Harry to repeat them.
"Three elements pour from mother earth to guide our senses and fullfill our desires, allow us to reveal three spirits: air, earth, and fire."
"Three elements pour from mother earth to guide our senses and fullfill our desires, allow us to reveal three spirits: air, earth, and fire." Harry repeated, closing his eyes and lifted his head like hers.
Suddenly, against the darkness of his closed eyes, bright light appeared. He opened them and looked at the large silver circle that had formed around them. He looked up at Jerica whose eyes were still closed as she prepared to utter the next chant.
"Air from the sky, surround and speak to us, tell as you wish us to see, as we will, so mote it be."
Harry repeated the words after her and suddenly felt the light breeze on the back of his neck grow stronger. He opened his eyes and saw that a powerful wind had engulfed the circle, and was twirling in a hurricane motion.
Jerica's eyes were open and she smiled at Harry, then looked upward and closed her eyes again, letting the wind whip her hair high above her head.
Harry closed his eyes again and listened to the howling of the wind around him. Suddenly, a quiet voice joined the howling but the words were not of recognizable language. They seemed to be of another time, wordy and snake like.
The words grew louder and Harry felt almost engulfed inside this world of wind and voice. As fast as it had come, the voices died down and the wind ceased back to a quiet breeze.
He opened his eyes and saw that Jerica was smiling at him.
"Amazing, isn't it?"
Harry blinked at her. "Definately."
Her smiled grew wider and she closed her eyes again, looking up towards the sky.
"Seeds of the earth, move and grow, push up towards your haven and fill us with hope, guiding our paths so we can believe, as we will, so mote it be."
Again Harry repeated the words. For a second, Harry had thought it hadn't worked. But then he opened his eyes and saw that a dozen flowers and plants had pushed up from the ground in their silver circle.
He couldn't believe his eyes. Flowers of all kinds began sprouting from everywhere inside the circle and even a small tree began to grow. Jerica giggled as a solitary white daisy popped up in front of her.
Suddenly, again, the plants stopped growing and stayed where they were. The power had fulfilled what it set out to do.
Jerica looked over at Harry, her eyes beaming. "We won't be able to do that one in class, no soil or seeds." Harry smiled back at her, unable to tear his eyes away. God, he thought, she really is beautiful.
Jerica closed her eyes again and looked up, thinking over the next chant in her head.
Harry followed, his eyes closing and his mind clearing.
"Fire from the core of the earth, ignite us in pictures and rid us of our doubts, flames of red fusion, surround us and free, as we will, so mote it be."
Harry mouthed the words and opened his eyes. A bright wall of flames began to shoot up from the silver ring of the circle. Red and orange flashes lit up the darkness, lighting up Jerica's face in deep orange glow.
The flames detached themselves from the silver circle and began to form into tiny balls of fire. The flames danced above their heads and Jerica's eyes lit up as she smiled.
Harry tore his eyes away from the fantastic display of fire and looked at Jerica. He felt warmth building in his chest just at the sight of her. Her long blonde hair was flowing freely down her back and her bright blue eyes were entranced in the display.
Orange glowed and lit up her face and seemed to make her immortal. Harry couldn't seem to believe that he was feeling this way about a girl who had befriended his worst enemy. On the contrary, though, she was showing HIM, Harry, more then Malfoy would ever see.
Sudden darkness came over them as the flames disapeered. Harry fell out of his gaze and looked at Jerica who was sitting completely still, staring intently at the door to the castle.
A loud bang told him that someone had stepped out of the castle and was probably on their way over towards them. He saw Jerica pick up her book and grab his hand and run lightning fast behind some trees away from the castle.
Just her touch seemed to send him over the top, Harry thought as he felt himself being dragged away into the forest.
"Oh no no, not in here, if anything were better off out there." Harry said, stopping and holding Jerica back.
"Nothing is more dangerous then being caught OUTSIDE at NIGHT by Snape." Jerica said, half stifling a laugh. Harry's eyes got large at the thought of what Snape would do to them if he found them outside and began to sprint ahead of Jerica.
She giggled after him and met up with him behind a tall tree right by a large pond. Harry listened to any sounds but heard none. Snape had gone back inside the castle.
"Woah, okay, that was close," Harry, looking over at Jerica then blushing when he noticed his hand tightly clenching hers.
"Haha, ya, well it was a good adreneline rush." Jerica let go of Harry's hand and walked over towards the pond. Moonlight cascaded across the surface of the water and gave it an iredescent glow.
Tall trees surrounded them and seemed to enclose and protect the pond. Jerica sat down on a large rock that sat on the edge of the pond and began picking up tiny stones and skimming them across the placid water.
Harry surveyed the scene. A beautiful blonde girl who was adventurous, funny, and just like himself, sat skimming stones across a large pond in the middle of the dark forest. Something about the thought seemed to send chills down his spine. Good chills.
Jerica turned around and saw him staring at her. "So...what do you say we put our differences behind us and become friends?" She looked at him hopefully, lips curving into a seductive smile.
Harry didn't even hear his answer, instead the next thing he knew he was next to her, planting delicate kisses on her lips.
"Harry...Harry I..." Jerica began, feeling trembles down her spine as his lips explored hers. She couldn't doubt that she had had feelings for him since earlier that evening when she had seen him standing there at the end of the stairs, his wild black hair in a mess, his green eyes beneath his black rimmed glasses. He was nothing short of who she was and wanted, and yet she couldn't move so fast when he had been hating her less then a day before.
She gently backed away from him, looking up into his deep green eyes. "Harry...you hated me yesterday...this is so fast..."
"Jerica..." the name sounded so perfect on his lips, it seemed as though he were meant to say it. "Jerica, I didn't hate you, I just...well I don't know what it was but I saw something tonight and it willed me like nothing else has...I'm not good at explaining things like this, but..."
Jerica placed a finger on his lips, shushing him. "If you want...we could give this a try. I'm always up for new things, better things, and this might just fall into that catagory."
Harry felt his heart skip a beat as she leaned her head against the crook of his neck. "What do you say?"
"Yes, yes...lets try it." He said. Harry lifted up her chin and looked into her aqua blue eyes. "For better, or for worse."
~*~