-The Wind Barer-
Days passed through July, nearing up to the end of it. Studies had been going rather fast, and we found that we'd made our way through basics. We were up to the third year level by the last day of July, when we were given a day break.
I was dreading this break, for the fact that all our studies had been what was keeping my mind and my body away from Frosty, and keeping Frosty away from me.
But on this day, as we all hauled ass down to the lake in our tankinis and bikinis, with our towels and beach balls and floats, my mind was anywhere from relaxed. The boys all said they would join us, but they were going to get us lunch from the kitchen. I needed to find a nice, isolated spot where Frosty couldn't get to me…and I knew just the one.
Although he would be able to talk to me, I could fit up here by myself. I set my black and red floral towel down on my special rock, setting some books down beside it and a matching towel for drying off. I slipped a giant black scrunchy into my hair, forming a pony-tail, which trailed down to the base of my neck; a few pieces dangled in front and curled about my ears.
"Did you want to be secluded?" Sarah said, bonding up in a white bikini, dotted with cute, cartoon strawberries. Her towel was plain white with a few blue stripes, and was slung about her arm, while one of her hands held a boom box and the other held a CD case.
"Meh…" I said, flipping my red, square sunglasses over my eyes. Sarah gave me a scooting motion, and I sighed, picking up my things so they weren't flat dab in the middle, and moving it off to the right. She set her towel down next to mine, and sat the boom box up in the tree with the CD case hanging from a branch. I arranged my books and other towel by our heads, making my other towel into a pillow. I know I'd regret that, though.
"Scared about Frosty, right?" She asked, sitting Indian style on her towel, facing me. I sighed with a shrug, applying water proof, SPF45 sunscreen. "Tell me," she said, looking me straight in the eye.
"…I guess it's that. I dunno…I've just been avoiding him for awhile now, so it's like…weird, I guess…" I mumbled, meekly. I didn't feel like talking about it. Everyone knew what had happened, for I had told them, and they knew I was avoiding him. I never sat next to him, and always made sure my friends were around me on every angle possible. I was always in a conversation at meals, and I would go to sleep before anyone else. I never gave him a chance…
"I don't see why you're avoiding him," Ren said, popping up at the end of our rock where our feet were. Seeing the body parts, she fled back into the water, and began chasing after Maggie who had hit her in the head with the giant, rainbow beach ball.
"Seriously, he's so in love with you," Lucky said, popping up where Ren had just been.
"He's not in love with me," I said, distastefully. I disliked when people used love so freely. If anything, he may like me, and I may like him back. But I don't see love anywhere in the relationship.
"Fine, fine, he…'likes you a lot'," Sarah said, quoting with the use of her fingers. I gave her a look, and sighed, burying my face in my hands.
"…why am I avoiding him?" I asked my hands, knowing full well they wouldn't answer me. They never did, before, when I'd asked them questions.
"The food…and fun…has arrived!" Frosty yelled, sliding down the hill on a towel.
"Frosty! Give me back my towel!" Tom called, running down the hill after him, a large cooler rolling behind him. Before he knew it, the cooler had gotten the best of him and sent him flying down the hill. There was a crash, and all of us turned to look. Tom lay sprawled, the cooler tipped over beside him, with sodas rolling all over the place. Sarah grinned at me, hopping off the rock and running over.
She picked up an orange soda, and turned to look at the rock where I was perched and where Lucky was beginning to scoot away from. I wish I had caught on as fast. Opening the soda, she aimed it at me, and I began to roll off the rock as it hit me. I fell into the shallow bank off the end of the rock, and glared down at the water. My body was now soaked with lake water, while my head stank of orange soda. Not to mention it was sticky. I was going to kill Sarah…
However, for some reason, I never got around to it. For the fact that I didn't dunk under water, I laid on my back and let my hair rinse in the water. I began to float along the lake, and forgot about Sarah's surprise attack.
"Hey…" said a voice from behind me, a bit too late. I collided with them, and felt my body collapse into the water. I gasped, keeping my head above the water, and feeling as my ears filled with water. I squinted my eyes, beginning to hit the side of my head to knock the water now lodged within my ear cavity. "That doesn't work," the voice informed me, and I looked up. I should have recognized the voice before.
Frosty stood there, so I was guessing the water wasn't very deep yet. His hair dangled down in his eyes, dripping with water, and the water streamed down his chest as well. I almost felt my mouth fall open, but stopped it. I began to swim around him.
"Please stop," he said, grabbing my arm. I let my body fall beneath me, letting my knees set in the sand. I had stopped. "Why are you avoiding me?" He asked, and I began to open my mouth. "But!" He called, interrupting my coming words, "don't you dare say you aren't avoiding me because I know you are." He crossed his arms for added effect.
"I…I don't know," I said, and broke my arm away from him. I stood up, turned around, and began back to my rock. I needed to think more before I confronted him.
"I think Mickey needs some therapy," Ellie said, slipping a grape to her mouth as she sat on the shore next to everyone else. They'd laid out all the snacks, and recovered the sodas, too.
"Why do you say that?" Ren said, wiping some frosting from a leftover piece of cake. Sarah and Chris eyed it, nauseously.
"Because she's avoiding a guy who's crazy about her, and she's crazy for him, too," Lucky said.
"Hear hear!" Called Red, taking a swig of root beer, and slipping his arm around her. Lucky rolled her eyes. He was such a guy.
"Maybe she's just confused," Maggie offered. They all looked at each other, seeing if this was (in anyway) a plausible answer. They shook their heads.
"Someone should talk to her," Sarah said. Everyone looked at her, and she stood, wiping the sand off of her. She knew what that look meant.
"May I ask for eavesdropping privileges?" Ren said, setting her head (frosting covered lips and all) in her palms.
"No, you may not…just what we need is for her to stop talking to us all together," she said, walking into the water.
I walked up, heading back for my rock. Sarah grabbed my wrist for a detour, and we began down the shoreline instead, towards where the rock pools had been those days before.
Frosty dragged himself up to the beach, sitting down beside Chris who gave him some sympathetic pats on the back.
"She doesn't hate you, so don't worry about that," Daniel piped up, and Frosty nodded. He wasn't even listening, but watching as the two girls walked down the shore.
"Things will get better. Mickey gets confused a lot," Lucky nodded.
"Her thoughts get jumbled very easily," Ren said.
"And so she mixes things up," Ellie piped in.
"For all we know, she may be mad at someone else and she may be thinking that you're them, so…yea," Maggie said. Everyone looked at her, for she'd made the ending sound very confusing.
"Maybe…" Frosty said, catching a can of coke as Nathan threw it his way. "Sandwich, too, please," he said, and felt a sub hit his cheek. He glared at Nathan, but took the sandwich, turning back to his view.
"So you feel like you should be mad at him?" Sarah asked, as we reached a pretty far spot. Once again, I picked up some green pebbles.
"Yea…even though he didn't do anything and I want to be close to him. It feels wrong, you know?" I said, throwing one of the pebbles into the water.
"Maybe you're predicting something…maybe you're looking too far into it," she said, picking up some pebbles of her own.
"Maybe…but if I am predicting something, wouldn't I just be putting myself in danger by getting close to him?" I said, rolling one of the stones in my hand.
"Perhaps, but you shouldn't worry about the future. Whatever you're seeing will happen, Mickey, so don't make the worst of it. It could be that someone is giving you false images…to make you think something bad is going to happen. To keep you away from him. Don't forget book five, now," Sarah said, as she threw all of her pebbles in the lake at once. I dropped mine in the sand, instead, and we began back.
"You're right…I'm reading into something that someone wants me to think. Which is bad…so, I'll have what I want. Screw these negative feelings," I cried, hoisting my fist in the air. Sarah lowered it.
"Don't go getting too riled up…you might hurt yourself," she laughed, and I smiled at her. We walked back to the shore.
Things with Frosty got better from that point on. As studies went on through August, I would save him a seat next to me, and we would be partners for some experiments. Sometimes. It was fun, being taught by Dumbledore. I didn't want to meet any of the teachers until I had to, especially Snape.
I found myself getting very attached to transfiguration, and saw that Frosty was falling in love with Defense Against the Dark Arts. He was good at it. Very good. Maggie found herself excelling there as well, while Ellie found her strong point in magic history. She was very disappointed. Ren was in love with divination, while Sarah was doing great with charms. Lucky, however, found that her strongest point was in potions.
"Duck!" Maggie called, and I thrust my wand at the scurrying mouse on the table. Duck it turned to be. I clapped my hands, glad to be so up there in this already. I tapped the duck a few times, and it swiveled into a silver goblet, and then filled it with water.
"This whole…magic thing is awesome," I said, spinning my wand in the water. It turned a vibrant red, and I took a sip. "Mmm, Shirley Temple," I smiled, drying my wand with a flick in the air.
"Yea, and it's a good thing we've finished. School starts in a week, you know," Ellie said, looking up from a rather large book she was reading with Tom.
"Yea, yea, we know," we all droned, and I tapped the goblet once again. It morphed back into a napkin, which I dabbed at my mouth.
"I can't wait to meet people," Frosty cried, as him and Maggie walked in a circle, their wands drawn.
"No fighting, please," Lucky and Daniel called, fervently, dipping some leaves into a liquid. It bubbled for a few minutes, before settling into a pale green color. They both gave each other excited nods.
"Oh, why?" whined Maggie, plopping next to me. Frosty plopped next to me on the other side.
"Because you're going to ruin someone's experiment," Sarah said, twirling Ren's cards in the air as she desperately tried to snap them back, glaring at Sarah all the while. Nathan, who sat next to Ren, was grooming Kitsune, a large Magical Beast book opened in front of him. Chris, seated across from me, was showing off how he could turn the needle from a pine into a snake. I turned an olive into a mongoose, which then ate his snake. I smiled at him, innocently. Red was off near Lucky, being a little annoying as he levitated random things around their work area. Chairs, napkins, silverware, plants…whatever it was, it was not welcomed.
"What are we to do for a whole week?" Ren asked, finally retrieving her cards and shuffling them back into a small, silver bag she had.
"Be anxious?" I offered.
"Excited?" Frosty smiled.
"Scared?" Lucky said, glancing around.
"Funny?" Sarah said. We all looked at her, and she shrugged.
"Okay, Sarah…" Ren said, in that way, and Sarah stood, yapping her hands together as she stalked up the isles between the house tables.
"I want to be sorted…" Maggie said, sort of dreamily, rolling her wand from hand to hand.
"Mmm…me too. I hope I'm in Gryffindor," I smiled.
"Duh, we all want to be in Gryffindor," Sarah said, sitting down next to Chris.
"Though it probably won't end up that way," Chris informed us.
"Yea…I don't belong there, anyways. Maybe I'll be in Slytherin," I winked, twisting my body like a human snake.
"No, you just ate my snake, remember," Chris said. Frosty and Sarah both made faces, laughing under their breath. Chris and I shared a moment, both rolling our eyes, staring at the centers of our affection.
"You guys are so perverted," we chorused, and then sent each other looks. We seemed to glare at one another, and then look away.
"…ew, you guys, that was sick," Maggie said, getting it. Sarah laughed out loud, standing up and laughing down the isle again.
"Where are you going?" Chris called after her.
"I dunno…going to explore. Find something exciting. Get kidnapped or something," she said, opening the doors.
"Don't even joke about that," we all called, and she made yapping hands again. We all sighed, returning to our studies.
Sarah did show up for dinner, which was good. We'd gotten kind of worried about her, but she was fine. Afterwards, we were all pretty tired and worn out. It had been our last day of learning, and a lot of energy had been used. We ushered one another back to bed, where almost all of us were asleep instantly. Almost all.
Even though I had used a lot of my energy that night, I found myself awake. My wand was gripped in my end, a small light gleaming off the end as I held it behind my ear. A book was sitting in my hand, a history one, since it was definitely my weak spot and I thought I could do to memorize more. Plus, maybe it would help me sleep. I stopped as I read over the word 'redcaps' over and over. Something was moving in the room. I didn't want to peak, but I closed the book and extinguished my wand. Tapping the book, it turned into a major league baseball bat, and I gripped it, lying still in my bed. The footsteps got closer, and I gripped the bat even more.
The footsteps stopped beside me…I could hear breathing. I could hear their muscles moving, practically, as they reached for the covers. I wanted to disappear within the mattress. I gripped the back, and as the blankets were peeled away for me I swung at my attacker.
"AH!" They called, though it was quiet. Quiet and familiar. I lit my wand, letting the bat sink back into a book, and stared at the man on the floor. Frosty. Why did this stuff always happen between us?
My hands flew to my mouth, and I crawled out of bed. I held him, and apologized quietly over and over again.
"Where does it hurt?" I asked, looking him over, my wand now glowing from behind my ear again. He didn't seem able to move, and I thought of where I could connect from my low spot in the bed. I began to lift up his shirt, and saw the growing purple bruise on his lower stomach. I'd missed ribs, thankfully, but could have damaged something. I put my hands over the bruise, putting a small amount of pressure on it. He stiffened; teeth gritted, and pushed my hands away with a jerk of his body. I brought my pillows down, propping his head up, and then I laid my head on the bruise, feeling terrible for doing this.
"I'm so sorry…" I said, rubbing my cheek against the bruise. I seemed to have forgotten the bruise was a part of his chest. "What were you doing, anyways?" I asked, looking up at him. His eyes were slightly open, always a good sign.
"I…saw your light…I…couldn't sleep either," he said, and I could tell talking was a bit painful for him. "I wanted to…ask you…if you wanted to…go for a…walk," he grunted out.
"A walk?" I asked, lifting my head a bit. He nodded, finding it easier then words. I felt worse, and I kissed around the border of his bruise. He shook with tingles, and I smiled a bit into his bruise. Despite the circumstances, knowing you can do that is always a good sign. I sighed a bit, and then looked at him. "What can I do for you?" I asked, and he looked at me. I almost felt stupid asking that question, especially to a guy like him.
"Just stay with me," he said, and I felt myself blush.
"For how long?" I asked, quietly.
"Till I fall asleep…" he nodded, and I nodded back.
"Well then..." I said, tapping his body with my wand. The light disappeared, and instead his body began to float. I set him on my bed, which I then tapped. It expanded, and I put the new pillows underneath his head and picked my own off the floor. Tucking him into the covers of the now queen bed, I laid beside him, under the covers as well. I was tired now, too tired to think of what could happen. To guilty to think of what everyone would say the next morning. I positioned myself so I could keep the bruise in sight, and kept one hand over it, focusing magic slowly on the spot. Healing wasn't anything we had learned, but maybe it would come naturally. That's what I was hoping.
I don't know when he went to sleep, or when I nodded off, but I knew we were next to each other, within each others auras, the whole night…
I seemed to dread that night for the rest of the week, now avoiding everyone else with Frosty. The taunting was nonstop, the tormenting. But we had explained, and I'd tried to show them the bruise…but it was gone. I mean, I knew they believed us deep within themselves, but I guess they wouldn't stop their testing, no matter what.
I rubbed my head in despair, as I sat on my rock by the lake during dusk on the day before school started. I was enjoying my clothes while I could still wear them, and had gone with my favorite pair of pants that were so old that little white threads stuck out of the cloth. I picked at some, flicking them off onto the ground. Frosty wasn't with me, for one time this week, which was sort of refreshing. It made me feel free. Free from his watch, and free from the taunting. I stood, throwing my hands out into the air, my black and red striped shirt clinging to my every whim. My eyes were closed, and I felt like I was flying, but suddenly, I did feel my feet lift from the ground. I screamed, as I was hurled backwards off the rock and towards the tree. Wind wasn't supposed to carry people like this! I braced myself in fetal position, waiting the hit with the tree. But it never came. Feeling myself touch the ground, I looked up, scared at what had happened. I was on the other side of the tree, now. I blinked…this was very weird. I was very weirded out.
"What the hell…?" I said, standing and dusting dried grass from the seat of my pants. The wind was blowing gently now, swirling my loose air around the base of my neck and down my back. I climbed back onto my rock, desperate to try this again, but this time I turned my back to the water. I threw my hands back into the same position, but nothing happened.
I dropped my hands to my side in fists, disappointed. Maybe it was a lucky chance. I walked to the edge of the rock, the wind tugging my hair in the other direction. As I reached the edge of the rock, near the base of the tree, I turned around. The wind seemed to beckon me, and I began walking back in that direction. I began running towards the edge of the rock, and then I jumped. Sure enough, I glided a bit along the water. I laughed, touching the water with my fingers, and then clapped my hands above my head. I fell into the water, simply three inches deep, with small waves rolling up. But the splash had gotten me significantly wet. I stood up, walking onto the shore, laughing. That was fun, very fun, but very confusing.
I stood on the shore, as the wind played with my close, squeezing the water from my clothes. It was drying me off, but I didn't seem to notice.
"So wind, we have a connection, huh?" I said, walking about. I now knew that I was dry, but I didn't question why. It was better then being wet. The wind twirled my hair about my neck, and I smiled. "My power, huh? Are you the only one?" I asked. It tugged playfully at my hair, pulling it back towards the castle. "I see…I suppose I'll figure out the others soon…but for right now, I'll keep this a secret," I said, putting a finger to my lips. If anyone had seen me, they would have thought of me as crazy. I knew they would. But the wind wasn't just a figment of nature anymore. It was a person, walking right beside me. Always.
