Lives and Loves of Ravenclaw Girls
Chapter 27 – So Close Yet So Far Away
By: Megan and Julie
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Shannon liked Rick's parents. They were extremely nice and seemed to get along which was a stark difference to her own family. She could see the love in their eyes as they talked to each other. Glenda and Richard had made a delicious Christmas Eve dinner which Rick's sister, Shelley, and her boyfriend, Landon, had turned up for.
After dinner the family talked and then opened the traditional Christmas Eve presents. After that Richard and Glenda went out to go for a walk leaving Rick and Shannon to their own devices. Shannon smiled as Rick's parents left, "They're...nice." Rick smiled and kissed her passionately.
"I'm glad you liked them," he smiled. "You are the best girlfriend ever."
"Mmmm ..." she moaned as he kissed her neck, "Only because you're the best boyfriend ever." She pecked his cheek lightly making him laugh. They stood there kissing for a couple of minutes until they were interrupted by Shelley clearing her throat.
"Well, we have to go, Rick," she said giving him a hug and ruffling his hair. "It was nice meeting you Shannon." Landon put up a hand to say goodbye and wrapped his arms around Shelly as they left.
"Sorry for the interruption," Rick said, pulling her close to him again. "Now, where were we?"
Shannon kissed him, slipping her tongue into his mouth. She pulled back and bit her lip, smiling. "Oh, that's where," Rick said smiling and kissing her again.
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Christmas came the next morning to find all the girls sleeping. Megan awoke someone bouncing on her bed shouting, "Its Christmas, its Christmas!!!"
Megan sat up and grabbed Mark, tickling him until he squealed with joy. This attracted the attention of Mike and Charlotte, who came in carrying a giggling Daniel.
"C'mon, Mayen," Daniel said. "It Kis'mas!" Him and Mark grabbed her hands and pulled her out of bed. She walked with them down the stairs, still bleary eyed.
She sat down and opened presents with them all morning. They showed her toy after toy. When Caleb got a pocket knife from Anthony it was all Megan could do to not break down. If only Tag had been here, then she could give him his gift. She bit her lip all through the rest of the present opening, thinking all the time about how Tag was supposed to be here with her. She got up and left, worried looks followed her out.
She quickly wrote a note to Julie.
Dear Julie,
I can't take it anymore. Everything seems to remind me about how Tag was supposed to be here. I need someone to talk to, please come over so we can talk.
Love,
Megz
She sent it off with the family owl and went back to her room to read up on location spells ... again.
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Julie awoke to find Remus snuggled against her and smiled. Last night had been the most wonderful night of her life. She looked at him, just watching him sleep. His hair fell across his forehead and his eyes were shut gently. He looked like an angel. There was a tapping at the window and Julie, wrapping a sheet around herself, went to open it. She immediately recognised Megan's owl. She ripped open the parchment and read the tearstained note. "Oh, poo," she whispered. She crept back to the bed and started picking up her clothes, putting them back on. Her movement on the bed woke Remus.
"Hey," he said, his smile turning into a frown. "Where you going?"
"Megan is having some problems, she needs me," Julie said, slipping on her shoes and pecking him on the cheek. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
With that she left the room leaving a very confused Remus behind.
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Megan was sitting in her window seat reading a thick book when Julie came in. She looked up and smiled, "Thanks for coming," she said and Julie could see her tearstained face.
"No problem, sweetie. C'mere," Julie said, pulling Megan into a hug. "Do you wanna go for a walk?" Megan nodded and the two of them bundled up before heading outside.
They walked up the all too familiar path that was their childhood memories, remembering all the games they used to play.
About 30 minutes into the walk Megan came across something unusual. There were footprints in the snow, as if someone had been walking down the path. "That's weird," Megan said, pointing it out to Julie.
"Where do they go? They just stopped," Julie said, looking around the path for some sign of life.
"Naw, they turned back," Megan said. She pointed it out to Julie, "I suspect a mystery is afoot."
Julie laughed, "We're not playing Sherlock Holmes again are we?"
"Well not if you act like that," Megan said, "But I do want to find out who was walking on our path."
"Okay, okay," Julie said following Megan up the path, she bumped into Megan as she suddenly stopped, "What the hell, girl?"
"Please tell me I'm just seeing things," Megan said, pointing to a lump on the ground. "Please tell me that is not someone's body."
"Megan, look. Another one," Julie said and pointed to another body. Megan looked around seeing many more bodies scattering the ground. Julie bent down and felt the nearest one's pulse. "He's alive," she whispered, but Megan wasn't listening. She was making her way, as fast as she could through the thick snow and bodies all around, towards one body slightly apart from the rest. A body that had blonde hair. "Megan, what the ..." Julie started as Megan collapsed on the ground and turned the body over. She started sobbing uncontrollably.
Julie made her way up to Megan, being careful where she stepped. "Megan ..."Julie stopped when she saw Megan hunched over an all too familiar body. "Is that Tag?" she asked, nearly speechless.
"Yes," Megan said, she felt his pulse. "It's still strong. Julie, go get help," when Julie didn't move she yelled, "NOW!"
Julie took off as fast as she could down the path, as she disappeared Megan turned back to Tag. She planted a kiss on his lips, "It's okay, baby," she whispered touching one of his bruises gently, "I'm here now, I'm here now."
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Julie ran into the house without knocking and ran to the fireplace. She got several weird looks from Megan's family but ignored them as she threw the floo powder into the flames. They immediately turned green and she stuck her head in. "Dumbledore's Office!" she cried. She felt her head whirling around while the rest of her body stayed concrete, firm on the ground. When she stopped spinning she was looking into a big room directly at a desk in front of her. "Dumbledore!" she yelled, "Dumbledore!" She vaguely heard a door open and footsteps come running. Dumbledore squatted in front of her.
"Miss Walsh, what is it?" he asked rather calmly.
"We found them, sir," she said out of breath. "We found those missing kids from the attack. They're unconscious up a path not to far from Megan's place. They don't look too good, sir."
"I'm on my way. I have to alert some people then I'll be there. Stay where you are, Miss Walsh," he said sternly and disappeared.
Julie backed away from the fireplace, crawling up into a ball. She shook violently, bluntly ignoring Megan's brothers around her.
"Walsh, what's wrong? What happened? Where's Megan?" asked Braden, shaking Julies shoulder.
"Ta ... Tag," Julie stuttered, suddenly unable to communicate to them.
"What about tag?" Caleb asked, confused.
"You were playing tag?" asked Mike.
"I wanna play tag," complained little Mark.
"No," Julie said with as much force as she could muster.
"We ... found ... him ..."
Jeremy tensed slightly, "that's not funny."
"I don't think she's kidding," said Anthony solemnly.
"Stunned ... breathing ... pulse … don't know what happened," Julie choked out. Anthony pulled her into a small hug.
"Dumbledore... stay...don't move..." Julie said, slumping against Anthony, completely out of breath.
Everyone stood there for a minute, tensions running high. "I'm going up there," Braden said, walking towards the door and pulling on a cloak.
"Wait up," Caleb said, following suit. When the door snapped shut Julie jumped slightly at the noise.
"No worries, Walshy. Be happy. He's found!" said Mike, trying to cheer her up. Julie cracked a smile in return.
"It's about time too," she laughed.
"What's taking Dumbledore so long?" asked Jeremy, wringing his hands in anticipation.
"Didn't he say he was getting some people?" said Mike, bouncing little Daniel on his leg.
A sudden pop sounded in the room, causing Julie to send Anthony to the ground as she jumped. Dumbledore swept into the room, his cloak flowing behind him and a very powerful aura surrounding him.
"Let us make haste, Miss Walsh, take me to them."
Julie nodded and picked herself up off the ground. She took no time in leading Dumbledore up the steep trails, towards the relatively flatter terrain. Dumbledore matched her stride for stride as they followed the now footstep worn paths. "Right there," said Julie, pointing up wards a little. Dumbledore sped ahead of her, getting to the clearing first.
Julie was greeted to the scene of Megan still clinging onto Tag for dear life, not letting herself be pulled away. The other 7 missing were turned over, by Caleb and Braden, no doubt. The two brothers sat by their crying sisters, trying to calm her down.
Dumbledore evaluated the scene briefly before pulling out his wand and muttering a spell. A brilliant jet of crimson red and gold light flew out of the tip towards the Docura's home. Dumbledore returned the wand to where it came and walked over towards Megan.
"Miss Docura, please let me take a look at him." Megan sniffled slightly as she shook her head violently into Tags chest. "Miss Docura, I will not ask you again. You can do nothing for him, you are only preventing him help. Let go of him Megan."
Megan stiffed for a moment before extracting her arms delicately. She clawed a little ways away before Julie ran up and began hugging her.
Dumbledore looked over Tag's form before pulling back Tags eyelids. The eyes inside whizzed around inside, searching for more dark. Dumbledore muttered to himself gravely, but the others couldn't make out the words.
A few more people came over the ridge, some huffing and puffing. The girls didn't know exactly what happened, as a lot of action happened quickly. All of a sudden, the two found them relatively alone. The bodies of the victims had been taken to the hospital for immediate examinations, Megan's brothers had returned to the house, to tell the others of what happened. Dumbledore had given different instructions to the new comers, whom Megan and Julie hadn't recognized. Finally Dumbledore turned his attention on the two girls.
"Miss Docura, Miss Walsh, I now this is hard for you –" Megan scoffed a bit at this, "but I need you two to return to Megan's house."
Megan stood up in outrage. "I want to be with him!" she yelled.
Dumbledore gazed at her calmly before replying, "I know you do, but the hospital will not let you. Return to your house, and i will send word when you can go visit him later today." Megan opened her mouth to respond before he cut her off. "Everything will be explained then. I don't want you two to go off wandering, understand."
Megan looked ready to physically attack their headmaster, so Julie grabbed onto her arm and nodded slightly. Dumbledore bid them a good day before disapparating.
Megan let out a huge scream of frustration, causing the birds in the nearby trees fly away suddenly. Megan gripped her hair in frustration, trying to make sense of everything that had just happened. Julie put her hand on Megan's shoulders, trying to comfort her. 'No.' was all Megan mumbled as she brushed off Julie's hand.
"Come on Megan, let's go back."
"It makes no sense! Why were they here? What happened to them?" asked Megan, tears streaming down her face.
"We can't know for sure until they wake up. Let's go back and we can pig out on some mashed potatoes. You favourite," tried Julie.
"No. I want to know what happened to them."
"How are you going to do that? Megan, stop smiling at me like that, you look crazy."
"The tracks are fresh," said Megan, point towards the opposite direction.
"No, Megan lets just go home."
"Come on, what happened to playing detective?" asked Megan, trying to convince her.
"What happened to 'not wondering' and going home to get news on Tag?"
"Don't you want to know where they came from?" asked Megan, raising her eyebrows. Julie made no response, so Megan turned and began following the 8 tracks of feet, walking towards them.
Julie ran up and grabbed her arm and yanked her backwards. "Home. Now." she growled. She pulled Megan to the edge of the ridge, but accidentally took an extra step back, causing the two to start rolling down the hill towards the ground.
When they finally stopped rolling, they both stood up and stumbled a bit from dizziness. Megan began walking back up the slope before Julie grabbed her and pulled her towards the house.
As they finally reached the front door Megan was almost in full tears from frustration. Julie finally let her go, which proved a big mistake as Megan whipped around and punched Julie as hard as she could in the gut, which was hard. Julie doubled over in pain as Megan walked into the house, slamming the door in Julies face.
Julie groaned as she slunk down into the snow. She sat there for a few more seconds until the door re-opened and Anthony walked out.
"Come on, Julie. You know she didn't mean it," he said, pulling Julie off the ground and leading her into the house.
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Megan meanwhile plowed through all her brothers in anger. She ran up all the steps, practically throwing herself into her room. She paused only slightly to slam the door behind her, causing all those on the main floor to look up towards the stairs.
Megan grabbed her favourite teddy, which Tag had given to her when they were younger, and squeezed it tightly to her chest, letting a few tears go loose.
She didn't know why she was crying so much. It was something she rarely did. She was so happy to have Tag back with her, which brought the tears of happiness, but those feelings had her asking why he was taken in the first place, which had led to her frustrated tears. Hitting Julie had also made her feel sort of bad too.
She lay there in the darkness of her room, as the heavy curtains let in none of the light from outside. She had guessed a good half an hour to an hour had passed before a knock had come at her door.
"Come in," Megan said just loud enough to be heard. The door creaked open and Julie stood in the doorway.
"Hey," she said quietly.
"Hi," replied Megan quietly.
"Megz," started Julie, still in the doorway. "Do you want me to leave?"
Megan sniffed a bit before sitting up in her bed. "No."
"I'm really sorry for pulling you back here, but you know i had to," started Julie. Megan opened her mouth to speak, but Julie cut her off, "We've been friends for years, so i know not to expect an apology from you. I just want you to feel better."
Megan smiled warmly, as Julie jumped onto Megan's bed. "So how has your break been going?" she asked.
Megan filled Julie in on the locating books she had been looking through, the ball and everything else that had been happening. Julie, in return, told Megan a few of the things her and Remus had found or done in the castle, and filled her in on the previous night's events.
Megan couldn't help but laugh after Julie had told her. "You little slut," Megan joked. "Oh shit, you shouldn't have come here after that."
"Shut up you, you know I would have, no matter what."
"How did Lupin take you leaving?" asked Megan. Julie blushed as she looked down, not answering. "You did tell him, right?"
"Well kind of. You were really upset, and he looked so cute sleeping, and ... well he woke up as I got my clothes on. I told him I had to go and I would talk to him later."
"What did he say?" pressed Megan.
"Nothing. I left before he could."
"Bad move, Walsh," sighed Megan, flopping back on her bed.
"Well, sorry i'm not a sex expert like you," retorted Julie, rolling her eyes. "I guess I should owl him," she trailed off.
"I think so. Can I ask you a question?" asked Megan, sitting back up.
"Indeed," replied Julie, lounging back on Megan's bed.
"Well, you know how I get sick of having the guys around, and they don't really know how to really talk girl talk and what-not ... you know. I just ..." trailed off Megan.
"Want someone to talk to, other than family?" finished Julie, grinning.
"Yeah. Can you stay for a few days? We can go visit Tag together."
"Of coarse I'll stay hunny." Julie pulled Megan into a hug before pulling away.
"I guess you should owl him," said Megan, propping herself up on her arms.
"I guess you should be the happiest girl in the world. You did just get your Christmas wish after all."
"Yeah. I guess I did," sighed Megan, picking up and hugging her teddy once more.
--End Chapter 27
