Author's note: Hey everyone! I am so sorry that it took me so long to update, I hope some of you are still reading or checking for updates. I lost my muse temporarily and didn't have enough time to look for it. I had this chapter partially written but I wouldn't feel right giving you a uninspired chapter. Well I have found my muse finally, so without further adieu: Chapter 12; Flying Through Rainstorms I hope you enjoy it!!
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Chapter 12
Flying Through Rainstorms
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When Celia and Ginny entered the Great Hall, Ron, Harry, Hermione, Fred and George were already there. When they saw the girls at the door, they waved them over to where they had saved them both seats. Celia, who suddenly realized that she was hungry, was extremely pleased to see all the delicious-looking food.
"So," Fred began to ask. "Tell us about this legend." For a second, Celia froze. She wasn't sure why, but for some reason, she felt as though the legend was some sort of secret; something to speak about in hushed voices. She felt then a strange connection among the group of them concerning the legend. Maybe it was just their friendship. Quietly, she began to fill them in with whatever Hermione had not already said.
"The way I figure it," said George when she told them what she had found out. "The dark wizard is Voldemort, and the chosen one is Harry. I mean, think about it, it all fits."
"Almost all fits." Hermione began. "The hat's song said that the 'savior' never came." She finished.
"Professor Binns said so too." Harry added.
"But who else would the savior be?" Fred asked.
"It could be anyone." Celia responded. "There are millions of people in the world, any one of them could be the one."
"Well, that's gonna be loads of fun to try and find!" Ron said sarcastically.
"I don't think so," Ginny began "I mean, the hat chose this year to tell us about the legend, it's probably because the 'savior' is finally here. If it's just noticed then whoever it is much be young." She paused here thinking. "Still, I guess it would still be hard to find him or her." The seven of them pondered this for a minute until Celia thought of something.
"Unless you know what you are looking for." The group watched her waiting for an explanation. "You remember what the hat said about the others joining the 'savior' when he arrived? Maybe the ones that are meant to find the savior will just be drawn to her, or him, kind of like how I met all of you." Celia ended her sentence and froze. 'No way,' she thought. But looking around at the group, she remembered what Professor Binns had said about the Aude Arlene. They were made up of 4 wizards and 2 witches…Celia counted in her mind, and then there was the one savior…and as far as being in the wizarding would was concerned, she was a baby to it. That would explain why this year…Celia looked around at the others. The connection was way too close. For a minute, the seven of them just stared at each other, they seemed to be all looking at each other at the same time.
"Nah!" They said all at once, but Celia knew she wasn't the only one who would be thinking about it later on.
That night, before going to bed, Celia sat on her bed waiting for Hermione to finish getting ready. When she was done, she came in the room and sat on her own bed, facing Celia.
"Something wrong Celia?" She asked, wondering why she was waiting for her.
"Hermione, why did George assume that Harry would be the savior at dinner? Who is Voldemort? And why is everyone afraid of him?" The expression on Hermione's face turned serious as she realized that no one had told Celia about the darker parts of their world. Slowly she began to explain to Celia about what had happened 15 years ago, and what had been happening ever since. When she had finished, Celia was a little in shock.
"So, that's where the scar came from, and all his family is dead?"
"All except Sirius, Sirius Black. He is Harry's godfather, but he is wanted for a crime he didn't commit, and so he has to stay hidden. A lot of people lost their families to Voldemort, and last year, a boy was killed by him, Harry barely managed to escape from Voldemort this time. And now he is back in a body of his own. It's really a very dangerous time for all of us. But we're safe as long as we're here. The only wizard Voldemort ever feared is your uncle, and as long as he's here, Voldemort won't touch Hogwarts."
Celia let this all sink in. 'How horrible,' she thought. 'Imagine, someone that could kill that easily, and poor Harry, to lose his family like that, before he even could remember them fully.' But something didn't seem to fit.
"Wait, but how did Harry survive? I thought you said that Voldemort tried to kill him too." Hermione shrugged.
"I don't know, no one is supposed to be able to survive the Killing Curse. Once Voldemort decided to kill someone, they usually died."
"Wow, so, what happened in your first year, how did Harry win that time?"
"Well, I am not really sure what happened that time, but your uncle explained that because of the sacrifice his mother made for him, Voldemort couldn't stand to be touched by him. She died to save Harry, and that left him with a mark of love, and it flowed through his blood. That's why he couldn't stand to have Harry touch him. But now, Voldemort has a new body, and took some of Harry's blood for it, -er it was a complicated process, but bottom line, that trick won't work again."
"I see." Celia said, solemnly. "Well, that explains a lot. Thanks Hermione."
"Sure," Hermione said.
The rest of the week went by smoothly. By the next day, word of Celia's points from Snape had gotten around to all the Gryffindors. When Fred and George joined them for dinner on Wednesday, news had spread to the whole school.
"Have you seen the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?" Fred asked sitting down.
"Oh, you mean Alas?" Celia asked "Yeah, she's really nice isn't she?" Celia earned stares from Fred, George, Harry and Ron. "What?" she asked. She could see that she was getting glances from the other Gryffindor boys as well.
"Alas? You're on a first name basis with her now?" George asked, somewhat impressed.
"Yeah, she came up to me after class on Monday, she said that Uncle Albus is like family to her and she said that if I needed anything I could come to her. She said that she understands what it feels like to be so new here." With her friendship with professor Alastriona adding on to her fame from her points from potions, Celia was quickly earning a name for herself at Hogwarts aside from 'the new girl dating Fred Weasley,' A name that Celia was now getting used to.
Despite her excitement for lessons, Celia was just as happy as the rest of the Gryffindors when she came into the common room Friday night. Seeing her friends by the fire, she went over to join them and plopped onto a chair next to Fred and George. She yawned as she sank into the cushions and stretched out her arms.
"Friday…" She sighed happily, resting her head in Fred's lap.
"Friday…" Ron echoed.
"Amen." Fred and George toned.
The group of them laughed. They stayed up talking for a bit longer before going their separate ways to their rooms. Getting into bed, Celia noticed her pillow was exceptionally comfortable that night.
The next morning, Celia woke up early and headed to the owlery. She wanted to send her parents a letter with Pegasus telling them how her week went. She also knew that they would probably have news for her and Pegasus could bring their letter back to Hogwarts back for her. Attaching the letter to her leg, she pet Pegasus affectionately and sent her on her way. Then she make her way back towards Gryffindor tower. On her way back, she ran right into Draco Malfoy.
"Alanus." Malfoy said coldly.
"Malfoy." She answered, matching his tone. He moved to go on his way when she grabbed his arm. "Wait." She said, making him stop. "I-I guess I wanted to thank you." She saw his face lose it's icy demeanor and he looked at her curiously. "It's just, well, I heard what you said to Pansy on Monday, with the wart cap potion, and I wanted to thank you for defending me." She saw that Draco understood and he nodded at her. "I was just wondering," She continued. "Why?" He paused for a moment and then seemed to decide on an answer.
"I didn't see a reason to take revenge on you."
"But that day, in Diagon Alley. I heard that you-"
"For one thing Alanus, if I want revenge, I'll take it on Weasley, for another, I won't have someone else taking the pleasure away from me." Celia noted two things in his voice. The first was his usual cold demeanor, the second was an unusual undertone…it was warmer than his usual self. She couldn't figure out what it was, but she knew now that he would always hide it. And because of that, she decided she would keep quiet too.
When she got back up to the tower, Fred and George were standing by the notice board talking excitedly about something.
"And what are you two doing?" She asked sneaking up behind them. Without missing a beat the twins turned to her with smirks on their faces.
"Quidditch tryouts this week!" George exclaimed
"McGonagall just put this up." Fred said, indicating a flyer that had been pinned to the wall. "There's a meeting tonight to announce who the new captain is going to be." Celia smiled widely at them.
"I wonder if one of you will be captain."
"I hope not," said George.
"You don't want to be captain?" Celia asked, surprised.
"Let someone else do the dirty work." Fred explained. "Leave the playing to us, it's better that way." He finished.
"Besides, how would they ever decide between us? It's not like you could have two captains." George added.
"Heh," Celia let out, "Who'd have thought?" She thought out loud. "So who can try out?"
"Anyone above first year that has a broom. We've only got one spot open on the team though, it's gonna be rough."
"You gonna try out Celia?" Someone asked form behind. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had all come back from the library where they had gone upon Hermione's insistence that they should at least try to get some work done early in the weekend. The two of them put up a big fuss about it arguing that the human brain was not meant to be used on a Saturday but they went along with her just the same. It was Harry how had asked if Celia was planning to try out.
"Oh- well, uh, I'm not sure, I mean, there's only one spot." She did want to play, but she knew that Ron had grown up with the sport, and He had wanted a spot on the team since he was a child, she didn't want to make his chances worse. The rest of the group didn't seem to catch her meaning.
"That's alright! You've got as good a chance as anyone on the Hermes!" Celia smiled. 'It's better that they think that is the reason anyway.' She thought to herself. For the rest of the morning, the group of them sat around in the common room talking. Sometime in the afternoon Ginny came in and Pegasus showed up at the window carrying the response from Celia's parents.
Deciding at lunch that it was too nice of a day to stay indoors, the group of them took to the outdoors. They found a tree by the Lake and all sat around it. Quickly getting bored, Harry, Hermione, and Celia convinced the Weasleys to try out some muggle games. After some protest, the group of them began a rough, and somewhat confusing game of dodge ball. To make it more challenging, the group of them decided to play with 3 balls. They played all day, allowing students who were passing by to join in. When there were at least 12 of them playing, they decided to split into teams. Fred and Celia alternated using each other as shields when on the same team, and when they were split up, the two of them and George constantly targeted each other. In a few hours, a group of over 20 had gathered and none of them noticed the storm clouds that were rolling in until the sky opened up and drenched them all with buckets of rain. The sudden downpour caused their numbers to dwindle, but a few stuck around. When they were all thoroughly soaked Celia, Fred, George, Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny decided it was finally time to go in. They gathered up the balls, they were now playing with about 8, and brought them back to Hagrid's hut.
"I was wondering when you lot would call it quits." Hagrid said, amused at the seven drenched teenagers in his hut. They just smiled and the boys shrugged their shoulders.
"I was surprised that you three stuck around." George toned, pointing at the girls.
"Hey, it was fun!" Ginny declared. "Besides, it's only a little rain." The girls smiled behind her, agreeing, and Hagrid laughed.
"I love the rain." Celia said, now looking out the window. "It's so peaceful."
"That it is," Hagrid agreed, watchin' It come down an' give everything the water it needs, washes away the bad it does. Wonderful thing, rain."
Celia sighed in agreement still watching the rain. Then something caught her eye, There was a woman out in the rain. Celia straightened and started watching. There was a familiarity about her, she had seen that dress before…
Celia gasped in realization. 'Alas?' she thought, ' What is Alas doing out in the thunderstorm?' As she watched, Alas spread her arms and looked up at the sky. 'What in the world is she doing?' Celia thought. She looked as thought she was concentrating on something, and then she began to glow blue. 'What?'
"Celia!" Harry's voice broke her from her thoughts. She turned around to see everyone standing by the door.
"Come on, we're heading out." Fred said waving her over. Taking one more glance out the window, there was nothing there. Surprised by this, she quickly scanned the area, all she saw was a large blue/green bird flying through the rain.
"Celia," she turned to see Fred standing next to her, his hand extended. "Let's go." Celia took his hand and let him guide her out the door.
"Bye Hagrid!" she called as they stepped out.
"See you tomorrow Hagrid." Harry said.
"Goodnigh' now." Hagrid bid them following them to the door. "Dun go getting' sick now ya hear?"
"We won't Hagrid!" Ginny called. "Goodnight!" Hagrid waved at them and went back into his house, while the seven students made their way back up to the castle.
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Author's note: Well, what did you think? I promise that I will continue to write for as long as my muse sticks around, so hopefully you should have another chapter coming soon. I would leave you a preview but to be honest, I have no idea what will come next. I hope you're enjoying it so far! Please review and let me know that you are still out there. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed. Thanks to Prongz, David M. Potter, and Saffarii-Phoenix, I really appreciate it.
