Courage is what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're
scared. –Eddie Richenbacher
The flat is silent, as I knew it would be, but I don't flip on the speakers that I normally keep on to flood the place with music. Instead, I walk over and curl up in his favorite chair. The worn leather creaks and groans but molds to my curves.
The afternoon sun has been beating down on the yellow brick of the building and the interior is warm. A tiny tail waves from the other side of a tall basket.
"Are you going to come out and play, Mistoffelees?" The kitten peeks his tiny head over the edge and mews before jumping out and strolling over to investigate my toes. "Have you been sleeping since I left you this morning? No, it looks like you at all your breakfast. Soon you'll be big and strong."
I imagine that he will just shake his head when he returns, murmuring something about yet another stray that has made its way into our lives. This little thing won't take up much room and will someday be strong enough to be introduced to the others in the menagerie. Most of them are in the garden, enjoying the sun.
"Jump up here. I need to cuddle with something right now and you are the perfect fit. Come on." I coax the kitten up onto my lap and settle him into my arms. For such a little thing, he has a mighty purr.
Yeti's have a surprising purr, too. Not many people know that, but, having met one up close and personal, I can say for sure that they do.
I fell asleep that night, my face pressed into the curve of his neck. For hours, he kept a constant vigil as the night deepened around us. At one point, I woke to pull at the blanket as it started to slip down my shoulder. He tucked it in and pulled my free hand under his arm to keep it warmer.
A howl brought me out of my slumber quickly. "What was that?" I ask quietly without lifting my head. He shakes his head and I carefully pull the blanket free of his body so he can move forward.
The tree trembled against my back as the sound got closer. I whipped out my wand at his hand signal, my body silent as I concentrated my entire being on him. I'd never spent much time in a forest so the sounds were new to me but I tried to block them out as I had when I fell asleep.
He signals me to go back and over to the left and I comply, not eager to be away from him like this. It was obvious he wanted to divide and conquer this new threat.
Snow can be an easy thing to get through when there isn't a crunchy surface or the drifts don't become too deep. Unfortunately, I had to deal with both as I tried to get to the cover of another large tree. In my haste, I misstepped into a soft spot and tumbled into a sea of white that threatened to swallow me. Stop panicking. Stay still.
When I stopped thrashing about and listened, I heard nothing. The howling had stopped and there wasn't any indication of movement from my strange cradle. Very slowly, I sat up using just my stomach muscles and trying to resist the urge to find a handhold. Still no sound. The edge of the depression loomed above me and I looked around at the scenery. With my wand, I brought a tree branch closer and grabbed it for leverage.
The silence was heavy as I found my spot and looked around. If I was in the right place, I should've be able to see him but he wasn't under the tree I thought would be the one I just left. Another quick glance proved that no one had moved so I stay put, getting slightly spooked.
"Come out, Nymphadora. Let's get this over with here and now."
Who calls me Nymphadora? I scanned the area but nothing seemed amiss. The only person to ever use my full name is my mother...or my aunts! It takes all of my control to not scream out in fear. What is she doing here?
"Don't bother hiding, darling. I can smell your fear. Besides, you come out or he dies."
"Stay where you are! Stay-" I hear him order before his voice is muffled.
"After all I've heard about you over the years, I almost wondered if they would let you come on this mission. This one I picked out especially for you, darling. You hate being cold but you have that Black spine that keeps you from admitting your weaknesses. You love animals but you're frightfully clumsy. So clumsy that you left your partner open. One little Crucio curse and...." He screamed in pain as I fought back the tears.
He's trained to handle this. This is what he does. I know what that noise was now, though. A giant hand scooped me up, almost breaking a rib. The white fur was warmer then the snow but I found that I was having trouble breathing. Obviously, I wasn't going anywhere soon.
"Very good. Make him set her down next to the man." I heard a strange dialect but felt the creature pull me back away from the group at the end of the clearing. There were two options open at the point, I felt, and I weighed both of them briefly.
The creature, I was assuming it was truly a yeti and the reports hadn't been as false as we thought, was warming up to his new toy and didn't want to let go. I could use this. The man who was controlling the animal was obviously incompetent and mean.
The other option was to be taken. Where my lovely aunt was, the Dark Lord was never far behind.
"Such a pretty boy. So pretty," I crooned, struggling to get my wand hand out of his grip. "Let's go play, shall we?"
I swear on a stack of Sanskrit scrolls that the animal giggled. Really. A yeti can giggle. He started across back across the clearing before the hex hit him and we both landed in a pile of snow.
"Get him back here! Don't think you can run, Nymphadora. I'll kill this man before you even leave this clearing. Wouldn't want that on your precious little conscience."
I shook my head to clear the snow that had packed into my ears. "Come on, boy. Get up." He was groggy but the spell hadn't been strong enough to knock him out completely. Nice to know that I had a strong shield for the time being. I didn't know how much more he could take or if she would start to strengthen her spells, but I knew this was something to start with.
"You wouldn't dare kill him, Bella. Not that quickly. He knows too much and it would be too boring. It's not me that you really want."
"Oh, my dear. It is you. I've wanted to kill you for years. I'd kill Draco, too, if Voldemort didn't have plans of his own for the brat. With Sirius gone and Narcissa merely a hand puppet, the Black family fortune will be mine. All mine."
The yeti attempted to get up but I wrapped my hand in his fur and spent a great deal of energy keeping him in place. It nearly wrenched my arm out of socket but I found I could scratch at him as if he were just a really big dog. That when I nearly got blown over from the force of his purr.
"I'm not standing in your way. Mum and Dad have been disowned and I'm assuming that means I'm out of the family as well."
"I don't want to take any chances. You can't die out here, though. The circumstances are all wrong. I want you to die at home, in your bed, where you can be found with him." I heard his scream again, weaker this time. Stupid woman! She'd push him to the edge of what she thinks is his endurance. He'd been trained to handle things like this and I wasn't fooled by that last pathetic sound. If she hadn't moved his wand far enough away, she was going to be in a world of hurt.
"So what? That won't surprise anyone. We've been an item for weeks now. Months. Go ahead. Check out his memory." I prayed to the deities that those hot glances the last couple of days had been what I now assumed they were. He's a guy, right? All guys have dreams like that, don't they? I certainly hoped I could inspire them or he could come up with some quickly.
He groaned again and began to shriek, "No, not that one. Not that one. No, no, no." I specifically count the no's. Four minutes? How was I supposed to distract her for four minutes?
"Show time," I crooned once again to the yeti. "I think I will call you Griffle. You look like a Griffle." The animal nearly salivated on me as I stroked his ear. "Let's go show the mean old lady she can't keep calling me Nymphadora and get away with it."
The flat is silent, as I knew it would be, but I don't flip on the speakers that I normally keep on to flood the place with music. Instead, I walk over and curl up in his favorite chair. The worn leather creaks and groans but molds to my curves.
The afternoon sun has been beating down on the yellow brick of the building and the interior is warm. A tiny tail waves from the other side of a tall basket.
"Are you going to come out and play, Mistoffelees?" The kitten peeks his tiny head over the edge and mews before jumping out and strolling over to investigate my toes. "Have you been sleeping since I left you this morning? No, it looks like you at all your breakfast. Soon you'll be big and strong."
I imagine that he will just shake his head when he returns, murmuring something about yet another stray that has made its way into our lives. This little thing won't take up much room and will someday be strong enough to be introduced to the others in the menagerie. Most of them are in the garden, enjoying the sun.
"Jump up here. I need to cuddle with something right now and you are the perfect fit. Come on." I coax the kitten up onto my lap and settle him into my arms. For such a little thing, he has a mighty purr.
Yeti's have a surprising purr, too. Not many people know that, but, having met one up close and personal, I can say for sure that they do.
I fell asleep that night, my face pressed into the curve of his neck. For hours, he kept a constant vigil as the night deepened around us. At one point, I woke to pull at the blanket as it started to slip down my shoulder. He tucked it in and pulled my free hand under his arm to keep it warmer.
A howl brought me out of my slumber quickly. "What was that?" I ask quietly without lifting my head. He shakes his head and I carefully pull the blanket free of his body so he can move forward.
The tree trembled against my back as the sound got closer. I whipped out my wand at his hand signal, my body silent as I concentrated my entire being on him. I'd never spent much time in a forest so the sounds were new to me but I tried to block them out as I had when I fell asleep.
He signals me to go back and over to the left and I comply, not eager to be away from him like this. It was obvious he wanted to divide and conquer this new threat.
Snow can be an easy thing to get through when there isn't a crunchy surface or the drifts don't become too deep. Unfortunately, I had to deal with both as I tried to get to the cover of another large tree. In my haste, I misstepped into a soft spot and tumbled into a sea of white that threatened to swallow me. Stop panicking. Stay still.
When I stopped thrashing about and listened, I heard nothing. The howling had stopped and there wasn't any indication of movement from my strange cradle. Very slowly, I sat up using just my stomach muscles and trying to resist the urge to find a handhold. Still no sound. The edge of the depression loomed above me and I looked around at the scenery. With my wand, I brought a tree branch closer and grabbed it for leverage.
The silence was heavy as I found my spot and looked around. If I was in the right place, I should've be able to see him but he wasn't under the tree I thought would be the one I just left. Another quick glance proved that no one had moved so I stay put, getting slightly spooked.
"Come out, Nymphadora. Let's get this over with here and now."
Who calls me Nymphadora? I scanned the area but nothing seemed amiss. The only person to ever use my full name is my mother...or my aunts! It takes all of my control to not scream out in fear. What is she doing here?
"Don't bother hiding, darling. I can smell your fear. Besides, you come out or he dies."
"Stay where you are! Stay-" I hear him order before his voice is muffled.
"After all I've heard about you over the years, I almost wondered if they would let you come on this mission. This one I picked out especially for you, darling. You hate being cold but you have that Black spine that keeps you from admitting your weaknesses. You love animals but you're frightfully clumsy. So clumsy that you left your partner open. One little Crucio curse and...." He screamed in pain as I fought back the tears.
He's trained to handle this. This is what he does. I know what that noise was now, though. A giant hand scooped me up, almost breaking a rib. The white fur was warmer then the snow but I found that I was having trouble breathing. Obviously, I wasn't going anywhere soon.
"Very good. Make him set her down next to the man." I heard a strange dialect but felt the creature pull me back away from the group at the end of the clearing. There were two options open at the point, I felt, and I weighed both of them briefly.
The creature, I was assuming it was truly a yeti and the reports hadn't been as false as we thought, was warming up to his new toy and didn't want to let go. I could use this. The man who was controlling the animal was obviously incompetent and mean.
The other option was to be taken. Where my lovely aunt was, the Dark Lord was never far behind.
"Such a pretty boy. So pretty," I crooned, struggling to get my wand hand out of his grip. "Let's go play, shall we?"
I swear on a stack of Sanskrit scrolls that the animal giggled. Really. A yeti can giggle. He started across back across the clearing before the hex hit him and we both landed in a pile of snow.
"Get him back here! Don't think you can run, Nymphadora. I'll kill this man before you even leave this clearing. Wouldn't want that on your precious little conscience."
I shook my head to clear the snow that had packed into my ears. "Come on, boy. Get up." He was groggy but the spell hadn't been strong enough to knock him out completely. Nice to know that I had a strong shield for the time being. I didn't know how much more he could take or if she would start to strengthen her spells, but I knew this was something to start with.
"You wouldn't dare kill him, Bella. Not that quickly. He knows too much and it would be too boring. It's not me that you really want."
"Oh, my dear. It is you. I've wanted to kill you for years. I'd kill Draco, too, if Voldemort didn't have plans of his own for the brat. With Sirius gone and Narcissa merely a hand puppet, the Black family fortune will be mine. All mine."
The yeti attempted to get up but I wrapped my hand in his fur and spent a great deal of energy keeping him in place. It nearly wrenched my arm out of socket but I found I could scratch at him as if he were just a really big dog. That when I nearly got blown over from the force of his purr.
"I'm not standing in your way. Mum and Dad have been disowned and I'm assuming that means I'm out of the family as well."
"I don't want to take any chances. You can't die out here, though. The circumstances are all wrong. I want you to die at home, in your bed, where you can be found with him." I heard his scream again, weaker this time. Stupid woman! She'd push him to the edge of what she thinks is his endurance. He'd been trained to handle things like this and I wasn't fooled by that last pathetic sound. If she hadn't moved his wand far enough away, she was going to be in a world of hurt.
"So what? That won't surprise anyone. We've been an item for weeks now. Months. Go ahead. Check out his memory." I prayed to the deities that those hot glances the last couple of days had been what I now assumed they were. He's a guy, right? All guys have dreams like that, don't they? I certainly hoped I could inspire them or he could come up with some quickly.
He groaned again and began to shriek, "No, not that one. Not that one. No, no, no." I specifically count the no's. Four minutes? How was I supposed to distract her for four minutes?
"Show time," I crooned once again to the yeti. "I think I will call you Griffle. You look like a Griffle." The animal nearly salivated on me as I stroked his ear. "Let's go show the mean old lady she can't keep calling me Nymphadora and get away with it."