Chapter 8
Beautiful People
Harry had stayed by her side until Madam Pomfrey threatened to kick him out. He went to bed that night with so much on his mind, he was sure he'd never get to sleep. Yet somehow, he had drifted and was surprised when he felt Ron shaking him awake a few hours later.
He dressed, got ready, went down to the common room and ate breakfast in complete silence. Still in deep thought, he could barely focus on anything around him. It wasn't until Hermione shook him at breakfast that he finally began to come back to the conscious realm.
"Harry, are you all right?" she asked fearfully.
He shook his head of the fog and then looked at Hermione. He laughed, digging into the breakfast he didn't even know was on his plate. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Should we really list it, Harry?" Ron piped up, talking with food in his mouth.
Harry sighed, leaning his head in one hand while he played with his food. All he could think about was Cadence, but what he was thinking about didn't have to do with her being in the hospital.
He couldn't believe what she had told him. Not only had he wanted to tell her, but he had been hoping she felt the same way too. In fact, he was praying that she shared the same feelings he did. He admired her courage for saying it first, because he had spent all day trying to work up the nerve to even talk to her.
All he was concerned with was the fact that if she loved him as much as he loved her, why couldn't she share her life with him? He had told her everything. and she had told him bits and pieces. How far did he have to go to learn the truth?
He let his eyes gaze over to the others at the table. They settled on the spot where Cadence usually sat. It was empty, and staring at it made Harry feel empty. It seemed so odd to him to feel that way just staring into thin air. He couldn't stop it from settling deep inside of him.
He sighed. To only know Cadence. To have it be so easy as to just waltz up to her and say, "Tell me about your life." He had already tried that and obviously, it had not worked.
So he had made the solemn promise to himself that he was going to try his hardest to figure the mystery that was Cadence Cartwright out.
Every day between classes he made sure to go visit her. The end of class could never come soon enough. He impatiently tapped his feet, twiddled his thumbs, packed up his books, opened and closed his things several times and stared at the clocks hanging on the wall.
"Mr. Potter, is there a problem?" McGonagall snapped at him one day. "I assume you have better things to do than listen to my lesson on transfiguring today? So please. Share."
Harry felt his ears flush red and his face got hot. He mumbled something inaudibly and stared at his books.
"Excuse me? I don't believe I heard that."
Harry could feel the many pairs of eyes burning into the back of his head. "I'm going to go visit Cadence." The word Cadence drifted slowly and he could hear the snickers.
"Who, Mr. Potter?"
"Cadence."
Professor McGonagall stared at Harry over the rim of her spectacles. "She can wait five minutes in the hospital wing until the end of my lesson, Mr. Potter."
He stared down at his feet the remainder of the class and flew like mad out of the room to the hospital wing.
Cadence was sitting up in bed, awake and full of life. She was anxious to leave the wing and get back to her normal routine.
"Hey, you!" Harry greeted when he saw that she was awake.
"On time, as usual," she welcomed cheerfully.
"I've finished my last class, and until seven, I'm yours," he said, a wide smile on his face that he otherwise wouldn't have recognized.
"If I can stand you that long," she scoffed, rolling her eyes. An unrecognizably broad smile graced Cadence's face as well.
He sat down on the edge of her bed, setting down his books. "You know you love me."
She sighed jokingly. "Yeah, I guess I do."
"So. did Ginny bring you your work for today?"
Cadence nodded, pointing at a stack of books and papers next to her bed. "Half of which I am too incapacitated to do."
He laughed and smiled adoringly at her. How could it be that he had never felt this way about anyone before? It was a wonderful feeling to have deep inside, to laugh and smile and feel light all over when just one other person did the same. How could he have missed out on something so wonderful?
But as he looked at her, he knew. He knew that deep into his very soul, the only way he could have ever felt like that, was if Cadence had entered his life sooner. There was no one else in the world that could make him smile and make him feel as light as he did at that very moment.
She must have felt it too, all over her body, because she suddenly took his hand and he could feel her pulse throb into his own.
"I know how it feels now. and I don't know how I missed it."
It was as if she was reading his exact thoughts. It amazed him. "I don't know how either," he finally whispered back.
"Hey," she broke the silence after a few seconds and reached down under the bed.
"Are you sure you should be moving around so much?" he asked, furrowing his brow.
She only laughed. "Harry, don't worry about me. I'm not going to hurt myself. I'm only a bit sore. I didn't break any ribs. this time."
Cadence reappeared with a box in her hand and saw that Harry hadn't found her last comment to be very funny. She chuckled and put her hand on his cheek. It warmed him in no way he had ever known. "Lighten up! I'm kidding!"
He suddenly couldn't resist the temptation to smile. Cadence watched as his face broke out into a miraculous grin and she relished in it. He shifted his face over to kiss the palm of her hand. "What is this?" he asked, looking down at the box in her hands.
"Oh," she said, as if forgetting it was there. She sat up further in her bed and Harry shifted as well. She unlocked the small antique box that was wrapped up in fancy lace ribbon. The lid popped open and Cadence smiled as if a faint memory had touched her.
"It's all so beautiful," she whispered. She lifted out picture among picture and set them on the bed. Harry took it upon himself to look at the photos, and smiled as if he had been touched by the same memory as well. The pictures were obviously of Cadence's family, he saw her in many of them.
As he sorted through the family treasury, Cadence pulled out a framed picture and set it on the cabinet next to her. Harry let the other pictures drift to his lap as he stared at the frame Cadence had put on the nightstand.
The frame was exquisite. It was bronzed; obviously an old heirloom through which had been passed down in Cadence's family. Yet the frame was not the most admirable part of the treasure. It was an old wedding picture, very obviously of Cadence's parents.
"Are these.?" Harry asked, leaning forward to get a better look. It was almost as if she was finally answering his prayers, and opening up a bit of herself to him.
"Yes," she whispered, watching him with delight. It was finally time to start letting him in. She hoped that within all efforts, he wouldn't become frightened and leave. She didn't know how she would deal with losing not only her parents, but Harry as well.
Harry dared to lift the picture off of where Cadence had set it. He stared at it for so long she didn't know what he was going to do.
"Harry?" she whispered.
"Wow," he breathed back in awe. "This is remarkable."
A warmth crept inside of Cadence. "What do you mean?" she asked, relaxing against her pillow and sighing.
"Cadie. it's so obvious now."
"What is?" A bit of fear started to seep into her. That comment had so many different angles.
Harry only touched the picture lightly with the tips of his fingers. "It's no wonder you're as wonderful and beautiful as you are. All you have to do is stare at this picture long enough to understand."
Cadence dropped her eyes down to her hands. It was what she had always wanted someone to say, yet the words not only filled her with hope and love, they filled her with an empty sadness. Tears stung in her eyes and she felt them drip out of her eyes onto the blanket.
Harry heard her sniffle and set the picture back down on the nightstand. "Cadie?" he whispered gently, leaning in and taking her hand. "What's wrong?"
Cadence didn't want to look at him, but knew that if she was going to finally start letting him in, she shouldn't be afraid to let him see her pained. "I feel so empty without them, Harry."
Harry stared at her, his eyes feeding off of everything she was so bravely allowing him to see. He still didn't know how to do it. He wasn't sure how to let her see that he could cry. He wanted to, but didn't know if he ever could.
"I never knew life without them. I had no friends, Harry. they trained me at home for so long to become the perfect witch daughter. I just never knew why. They wouldn't tell me. I didn't understand it," she rambled through her tears. "I never had anyone except for them. Then they were taken away from me. I wasn't sure where I was going to go after that. And then I came here, and the first time I saw you, Harry. it just made sense."
Harry didn't know what to say. All he could do was listen. Truthfully, he wanted to cry right along with her. For so many years he had wondered where his parents had ever gone, what they were really like, why they had left. A lot of his questions had been answered, but none of it ever truly made sense to him. not until the day he saw Cadence on the train. Suddenly, it seemed like everything had fallen into place. It was almost as if it was all a set up plan from a long time before. leading up to the day he and Cadence would meet.
"I just. I miss them so much," she said, breaking into a fresh burst of tears, and this time, Harry knew what to do. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a close embrace, allowing her to sob on his shoulder.
"I. I can't say I know what it feels like," Harry whispered, finally finding his voice to speak. "But I know what it's like to have no one around that cares."
Cadence sobbed, holding him tighter. "I thought I was going to remain an unloved orphan my whole life," he said, speaking uneasily. "Then I got accepted to Hogwarts and I finally found my real home. It was a life I had never known. I made friends and had more information than I had ever wanted to know thrown at me. Yet, I would give all of it up to talk to my parents one time. just once."
"To see them once more," Cadence whispered after she was through sobbing. "Would be worth everything."
"We have a lot in common," Harry whispered back, lifting Cadence's chin in his direction to look into his eyes. "But if we help each other. if we can overcome it, we'll be better off than most people I know who have full families. As long as we have each other."
Cadence stared into his jade green eyes, twinkling behind his large, black- rimmed glasses. She took one look at the picture of her parents sitting so closely next to her and knew that everything was finally as it was meant to be.
She looked back at Harry. "I love you."
"Cartwright. C. Cart. where are you?"
"Harry James Potter!"
Harry nearly jumped out of his skin while studying the many shelves in the Hogwarts library. It was only Hermione, but she had said his name forcefully (and fully) enough to know he was in trouble.
"What is it, Hermione?" he asked, turning back to the shelves.
"Ron told me you'd be down here," she said, approaching him fiercely.
"Yeah. So?" Harry shrugged, looking through the books.
He felt her tug at his sweater and turn him around so vigorously that he was sure for a second it wasn't Hermione behind him.
"He told me about what you asked him and I am not impressed!" she yelled, a severity in her voice that he had never heard before.
"Hermione! Calm down!"
"I will not calm down!" she screamed at him. "I know what you're doing Harry, and it's not going to get you anywhere!"
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, trying to escape from her surprisingly firm grip.
She backed up finally, letting him go and staring at him, this time a softer look coming about her face. "You'll lose her."
Harry closed his eyes and set his head against the books. "There's something about her that I can't figure out, Hermione. I don't know what to do. I've asked her, I've talked to her. I need to know."
"She'll tell you when it is time for you to know," she told him, her voice gentler than before.
"It's not as simple as that," he said exasperatedly, looking away from her.
"Well then you're going to have to give her some patience. Harry," she said, stepping closer to him. "I know what it's like. believe me. I know what it's like to be in love so deeply that you need to know every single thing about that person. Inside and out. I would never, in my entire life, go sneaking around behind Ron's back. I'd confront him. I could never risk losing him. You need to learn that as well."
Harry sighed, staring at Hermione. "It's different with you and Ron. You were friends for so many years and you already knew everything there was to know about each other."
"No," Hermione argued. "Love is not different, no matter how many times you mix up the situation. Love is love, and when you betray the trust of love, it is not as easily obtained again."
Harry stared down at the girl looking at him. The first time he had ever met Hermione, she had only been a small, youthful girl with bright brown eyes and bushy light hair. She was all about books, getting her homework done, and over exceeding what was necessary of her to make the grade. Yet now as he looked at her, it was hard to tell that it was the same Hermione Granger he had met five years ago. She was now a much more mature woman of sixteen who had more important things on her mind than books and homework. She was a girl that made his best friend happier than he had ever seen him and for so long he had envied Ron. He had never dreamt of finding someone he could love as much as Hermione and Ron loved each other.
Yet for whatever reason, he had found one person to share his love with. He would go to any extremity to make sure she never left him. There was one thing he couldn't handle however, and that was the fact that she held back the truth.
"Harry, don't do it. Don't risk it. I would never do anything to jeopardize my relationship with Ron, just as I recommend you do nothing to do this with Cadence. I know what love feels like, I know how badly it would hurt to lose the person you love more than anything, so listen to me. Give it up and let her tell you. You'll lose her if you don't."
Hermione stared at him for a few more seconds, brushed her dark, curly hair behind her ears and turned around to leave.
Harry finally found his voice and yelled, "Hermione!"
She stopped and whirled around. Harry stared at his feet and then looked back up at Hermione. "Thanks."
She smiled and turned around again, leaving the library.
Harry sighed heavily, looking all around him. It was time to leave. Hermione was right. He couldn't risk losing her to something she would eventually tell him anyway and had come so close to saying earlier that day.
He turned around to leave, gathering the books he had gotten as a means of disguise, and set out of the library. He had Quidditch practice in ten minutes, and tons of homework to attend to.
What he hadn't counted on was walking three or four short paces and tripping over a loose floorboard. The books in his hands went flying forward and he tumbled down.
"OW!" he screamed, pulling his knees up to his chest. He cut open his black pants and there was a small gash where he had fallen.
However something else out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. The floorboard he had tripped over had come loose. He pulled up the floorboard. Darkness crept out underneath.
Beautiful People
Harry had stayed by her side until Madam Pomfrey threatened to kick him out. He went to bed that night with so much on his mind, he was sure he'd never get to sleep. Yet somehow, he had drifted and was surprised when he felt Ron shaking him awake a few hours later.
He dressed, got ready, went down to the common room and ate breakfast in complete silence. Still in deep thought, he could barely focus on anything around him. It wasn't until Hermione shook him at breakfast that he finally began to come back to the conscious realm.
"Harry, are you all right?" she asked fearfully.
He shook his head of the fog and then looked at Hermione. He laughed, digging into the breakfast he didn't even know was on his plate. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Should we really list it, Harry?" Ron piped up, talking with food in his mouth.
Harry sighed, leaning his head in one hand while he played with his food. All he could think about was Cadence, but what he was thinking about didn't have to do with her being in the hospital.
He couldn't believe what she had told him. Not only had he wanted to tell her, but he had been hoping she felt the same way too. In fact, he was praying that she shared the same feelings he did. He admired her courage for saying it first, because he had spent all day trying to work up the nerve to even talk to her.
All he was concerned with was the fact that if she loved him as much as he loved her, why couldn't she share her life with him? He had told her everything. and she had told him bits and pieces. How far did he have to go to learn the truth?
He let his eyes gaze over to the others at the table. They settled on the spot where Cadence usually sat. It was empty, and staring at it made Harry feel empty. It seemed so odd to him to feel that way just staring into thin air. He couldn't stop it from settling deep inside of him.
He sighed. To only know Cadence. To have it be so easy as to just waltz up to her and say, "Tell me about your life." He had already tried that and obviously, it had not worked.
So he had made the solemn promise to himself that he was going to try his hardest to figure the mystery that was Cadence Cartwright out.
Every day between classes he made sure to go visit her. The end of class could never come soon enough. He impatiently tapped his feet, twiddled his thumbs, packed up his books, opened and closed his things several times and stared at the clocks hanging on the wall.
"Mr. Potter, is there a problem?" McGonagall snapped at him one day. "I assume you have better things to do than listen to my lesson on transfiguring today? So please. Share."
Harry felt his ears flush red and his face got hot. He mumbled something inaudibly and stared at his books.
"Excuse me? I don't believe I heard that."
Harry could feel the many pairs of eyes burning into the back of his head. "I'm going to go visit Cadence." The word Cadence drifted slowly and he could hear the snickers.
"Who, Mr. Potter?"
"Cadence."
Professor McGonagall stared at Harry over the rim of her spectacles. "She can wait five minutes in the hospital wing until the end of my lesson, Mr. Potter."
He stared down at his feet the remainder of the class and flew like mad out of the room to the hospital wing.
Cadence was sitting up in bed, awake and full of life. She was anxious to leave the wing and get back to her normal routine.
"Hey, you!" Harry greeted when he saw that she was awake.
"On time, as usual," she welcomed cheerfully.
"I've finished my last class, and until seven, I'm yours," he said, a wide smile on his face that he otherwise wouldn't have recognized.
"If I can stand you that long," she scoffed, rolling her eyes. An unrecognizably broad smile graced Cadence's face as well.
He sat down on the edge of her bed, setting down his books. "You know you love me."
She sighed jokingly. "Yeah, I guess I do."
"So. did Ginny bring you your work for today?"
Cadence nodded, pointing at a stack of books and papers next to her bed. "Half of which I am too incapacitated to do."
He laughed and smiled adoringly at her. How could it be that he had never felt this way about anyone before? It was a wonderful feeling to have deep inside, to laugh and smile and feel light all over when just one other person did the same. How could he have missed out on something so wonderful?
But as he looked at her, he knew. He knew that deep into his very soul, the only way he could have ever felt like that, was if Cadence had entered his life sooner. There was no one else in the world that could make him smile and make him feel as light as he did at that very moment.
She must have felt it too, all over her body, because she suddenly took his hand and he could feel her pulse throb into his own.
"I know how it feels now. and I don't know how I missed it."
It was as if she was reading his exact thoughts. It amazed him. "I don't know how either," he finally whispered back.
"Hey," she broke the silence after a few seconds and reached down under the bed.
"Are you sure you should be moving around so much?" he asked, furrowing his brow.
She only laughed. "Harry, don't worry about me. I'm not going to hurt myself. I'm only a bit sore. I didn't break any ribs. this time."
Cadence reappeared with a box in her hand and saw that Harry hadn't found her last comment to be very funny. She chuckled and put her hand on his cheek. It warmed him in no way he had ever known. "Lighten up! I'm kidding!"
He suddenly couldn't resist the temptation to smile. Cadence watched as his face broke out into a miraculous grin and she relished in it. He shifted his face over to kiss the palm of her hand. "What is this?" he asked, looking down at the box in her hands.
"Oh," she said, as if forgetting it was there. She sat up further in her bed and Harry shifted as well. She unlocked the small antique box that was wrapped up in fancy lace ribbon. The lid popped open and Cadence smiled as if a faint memory had touched her.
"It's all so beautiful," she whispered. She lifted out picture among picture and set them on the bed. Harry took it upon himself to look at the photos, and smiled as if he had been touched by the same memory as well. The pictures were obviously of Cadence's family, he saw her in many of them.
As he sorted through the family treasury, Cadence pulled out a framed picture and set it on the cabinet next to her. Harry let the other pictures drift to his lap as he stared at the frame Cadence had put on the nightstand.
The frame was exquisite. It was bronzed; obviously an old heirloom through which had been passed down in Cadence's family. Yet the frame was not the most admirable part of the treasure. It was an old wedding picture, very obviously of Cadence's parents.
"Are these.?" Harry asked, leaning forward to get a better look. It was almost as if she was finally answering his prayers, and opening up a bit of herself to him.
"Yes," she whispered, watching him with delight. It was finally time to start letting him in. She hoped that within all efforts, he wouldn't become frightened and leave. She didn't know how she would deal with losing not only her parents, but Harry as well.
Harry dared to lift the picture off of where Cadence had set it. He stared at it for so long she didn't know what he was going to do.
"Harry?" she whispered.
"Wow," he breathed back in awe. "This is remarkable."
A warmth crept inside of Cadence. "What do you mean?" she asked, relaxing against her pillow and sighing.
"Cadie. it's so obvious now."
"What is?" A bit of fear started to seep into her. That comment had so many different angles.
Harry only touched the picture lightly with the tips of his fingers. "It's no wonder you're as wonderful and beautiful as you are. All you have to do is stare at this picture long enough to understand."
Cadence dropped her eyes down to her hands. It was what she had always wanted someone to say, yet the words not only filled her with hope and love, they filled her with an empty sadness. Tears stung in her eyes and she felt them drip out of her eyes onto the blanket.
Harry heard her sniffle and set the picture back down on the nightstand. "Cadie?" he whispered gently, leaning in and taking her hand. "What's wrong?"
Cadence didn't want to look at him, but knew that if she was going to finally start letting him in, she shouldn't be afraid to let him see her pained. "I feel so empty without them, Harry."
Harry stared at her, his eyes feeding off of everything she was so bravely allowing him to see. He still didn't know how to do it. He wasn't sure how to let her see that he could cry. He wanted to, but didn't know if he ever could.
"I never knew life without them. I had no friends, Harry. they trained me at home for so long to become the perfect witch daughter. I just never knew why. They wouldn't tell me. I didn't understand it," she rambled through her tears. "I never had anyone except for them. Then they were taken away from me. I wasn't sure where I was going to go after that. And then I came here, and the first time I saw you, Harry. it just made sense."
Harry didn't know what to say. All he could do was listen. Truthfully, he wanted to cry right along with her. For so many years he had wondered where his parents had ever gone, what they were really like, why they had left. A lot of his questions had been answered, but none of it ever truly made sense to him. not until the day he saw Cadence on the train. Suddenly, it seemed like everything had fallen into place. It was almost as if it was all a set up plan from a long time before. leading up to the day he and Cadence would meet.
"I just. I miss them so much," she said, breaking into a fresh burst of tears, and this time, Harry knew what to do. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a close embrace, allowing her to sob on his shoulder.
"I. I can't say I know what it feels like," Harry whispered, finally finding his voice to speak. "But I know what it's like to have no one around that cares."
Cadence sobbed, holding him tighter. "I thought I was going to remain an unloved orphan my whole life," he said, speaking uneasily. "Then I got accepted to Hogwarts and I finally found my real home. It was a life I had never known. I made friends and had more information than I had ever wanted to know thrown at me. Yet, I would give all of it up to talk to my parents one time. just once."
"To see them once more," Cadence whispered after she was through sobbing. "Would be worth everything."
"We have a lot in common," Harry whispered back, lifting Cadence's chin in his direction to look into his eyes. "But if we help each other. if we can overcome it, we'll be better off than most people I know who have full families. As long as we have each other."
Cadence stared into his jade green eyes, twinkling behind his large, black- rimmed glasses. She took one look at the picture of her parents sitting so closely next to her and knew that everything was finally as it was meant to be.
She looked back at Harry. "I love you."
"Cartwright. C. Cart. where are you?"
"Harry James Potter!"
Harry nearly jumped out of his skin while studying the many shelves in the Hogwarts library. It was only Hermione, but she had said his name forcefully (and fully) enough to know he was in trouble.
"What is it, Hermione?" he asked, turning back to the shelves.
"Ron told me you'd be down here," she said, approaching him fiercely.
"Yeah. So?" Harry shrugged, looking through the books.
He felt her tug at his sweater and turn him around so vigorously that he was sure for a second it wasn't Hermione behind him.
"He told me about what you asked him and I am not impressed!" she yelled, a severity in her voice that he had never heard before.
"Hermione! Calm down!"
"I will not calm down!" she screamed at him. "I know what you're doing Harry, and it's not going to get you anywhere!"
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, trying to escape from her surprisingly firm grip.
She backed up finally, letting him go and staring at him, this time a softer look coming about her face. "You'll lose her."
Harry closed his eyes and set his head against the books. "There's something about her that I can't figure out, Hermione. I don't know what to do. I've asked her, I've talked to her. I need to know."
"She'll tell you when it is time for you to know," she told him, her voice gentler than before.
"It's not as simple as that," he said exasperatedly, looking away from her.
"Well then you're going to have to give her some patience. Harry," she said, stepping closer to him. "I know what it's like. believe me. I know what it's like to be in love so deeply that you need to know every single thing about that person. Inside and out. I would never, in my entire life, go sneaking around behind Ron's back. I'd confront him. I could never risk losing him. You need to learn that as well."
Harry sighed, staring at Hermione. "It's different with you and Ron. You were friends for so many years and you already knew everything there was to know about each other."
"No," Hermione argued. "Love is not different, no matter how many times you mix up the situation. Love is love, and when you betray the trust of love, it is not as easily obtained again."
Harry stared down at the girl looking at him. The first time he had ever met Hermione, she had only been a small, youthful girl with bright brown eyes and bushy light hair. She was all about books, getting her homework done, and over exceeding what was necessary of her to make the grade. Yet now as he looked at her, it was hard to tell that it was the same Hermione Granger he had met five years ago. She was now a much more mature woman of sixteen who had more important things on her mind than books and homework. She was a girl that made his best friend happier than he had ever seen him and for so long he had envied Ron. He had never dreamt of finding someone he could love as much as Hermione and Ron loved each other.
Yet for whatever reason, he had found one person to share his love with. He would go to any extremity to make sure she never left him. There was one thing he couldn't handle however, and that was the fact that she held back the truth.
"Harry, don't do it. Don't risk it. I would never do anything to jeopardize my relationship with Ron, just as I recommend you do nothing to do this with Cadence. I know what love feels like, I know how badly it would hurt to lose the person you love more than anything, so listen to me. Give it up and let her tell you. You'll lose her if you don't."
Hermione stared at him for a few more seconds, brushed her dark, curly hair behind her ears and turned around to leave.
Harry finally found his voice and yelled, "Hermione!"
She stopped and whirled around. Harry stared at his feet and then looked back up at Hermione. "Thanks."
She smiled and turned around again, leaving the library.
Harry sighed heavily, looking all around him. It was time to leave. Hermione was right. He couldn't risk losing her to something she would eventually tell him anyway and had come so close to saying earlier that day.
He turned around to leave, gathering the books he had gotten as a means of disguise, and set out of the library. He had Quidditch practice in ten minutes, and tons of homework to attend to.
What he hadn't counted on was walking three or four short paces and tripping over a loose floorboard. The books in his hands went flying forward and he tumbled down.
"OW!" he screamed, pulling his knees up to his chest. He cut open his black pants and there was a small gash where he had fallen.
However something else out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. The floorboard he had tripped over had come loose. He pulled up the floorboard. Darkness crept out underneath.