ENJOY THE SILENCE
Chpt. 2: Lost
AUTHOR'S NOTE: arrrg! im trying reeeeeeally hard to make this... completely original and...different from HG/TR fics... feedback and critism is highly apreciated.
Freezing...
Darkness...
The girl tried to open her eyes to see, but the pressure of the atmosphere around her immediatly made her eyes squeeze shut.
She was suffocating. She needed air.
She tried to breath, but a cold fluid seeped into her lungs instead of what she needed.
As soon as she inhaled the liquid, the girl furiously began coughing precious air bubbles out.
The girl was drowning. If she didn't get out soon, she wouldn't make it... Her head started to spin; she needed air.
She squinted to see how she could out of this abyss. Bellow her was darkness.
She looked up, her eyes still casted. Light. It was a good sign.
She pushed her body up as fast as she could go; but a heavy material billowed around her, causing the girl to be dragged down.
Her head was pounding her lungs felt like they were going to exploding. She had to keep moving up, but every movment cause precious cost air. The surface seemed so close...
With a quick motion, the girl broke from the surface. Her hair clinged to her face; She came up and gasped for breath coughing and sputtering. She gazed at the blurry scene.
It was not dark. It was a fracture brighter than dark. But the girl couldn't tell the difference. She didn't know where she was.
She struggled to keep her head above the surface. The material that clung to her was still adamant to bring her back into the cold darkness.
She was in a state of trepidation, fearing the material wanted her to drown. While kicking furiously to stay afloat, the girl fumbled with the material and ripped it off.
It floated besides her. She couldn't see it well, but she could feel it coming back to her. Frightened beyond all belief, the girl squeezed her eyes shut and wished she was somewhere else...
"Come on children, don't run off now." A tall, handsome young man called idly.
"Tom, Tom!" A young boy cheered. "Look at whatI can do!"
The young man, now known as Tom, looked over at the child. "Hm?"
The small boy grinned and did a gaseous cartwheel.
"Very good." Tom said.
The small boy smiled, not noticing Tom's lack of enthusiasm.
It was a warm summer day. Mrs. Cole, the matron of the orphanage, decided that today all the orphans would take a trip to the seaside.
She had asked Tom (since he was a very responsible young man now) to help watch over the younger orphans. He agreed.
They were passing through a forest in order to get to shore. Tom was in front, leading the children, and Mrs. Cole was in the back, making sure the children did not run off.
"What are you holding, Tom?" A young girl bounced besides him.
"A book." Tom answerd plaintively
"What kind of book?" The girl asked.
"Not a picture book, thats for sure." Tom said, trying to shake off her interest.
"So. Whats it called?" The girl looked at the black book. There was no title.
Tom looked at the girl and tapped his chin. "Good question." He raised the book and looked at it, then looked back at the girl. "I'm afraid it doesn't have a title."
Indeed, the book did have a title. Tom had concealed it, realizing someone might ask questions about his book. It was called Magick Most Evile, and Tom planned on reading it in peace while all the other orphans played in the ocean.
"Oh. Why are you reading a book without a title?" The girl asked.
"Why not?" Tom countered feebly.
The girl shrugged and ran off with another orphan. Tom rolled his eyes and continued to walk down the path. He could already smell the salty air of the ocean along with the abundant smell of seaweed. He kept walking forward, making sure the children were keeping somewhat in line. He did not want to be involved in anymore funny buisness, now that he had already set a perfect image for himself.
"I can see the beach!" The small boy said happily.
Before Tom knew it, the young children went running past him and torward the sandy shore of the ocean.
"Thank you Tom for watching over them." A skinny, harassed looking woman said as she caught up with Tom.
"It was my pleasure." He answered. "Mrs. Cole.. would it be alright if I stayed in the forest while the children played in the beach?"
Mrs. Cole thought for a moment. "Alright, I suppose it would be fine. Just come back with us when we leave."
Tom nodded. "Thank you, ma'am."
Mrs. Cole smiled. "Not a problem, dear."
That boy has turned out to be such a fine gentlemen after going to that school... Mrs. Cole thought lightly, and walked out of the forest.
Tom smirked. Finally, he could read that book in peace without being disturbed.
He turned around walked through the forest, trying to find a nice spot to sit. Or maybe he could go into the cave he discovered when he was young, the cave where he took Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop a few years ago...
Tom laughed coldly at the memory.
He decided to sit down and read at a spot against a tree where the light was pristine. Not too bright. The shade was perfect. Plus it was relatively quiet-
At that moment he heard the distant sound of harsh coughing and the sputters.
Curious, Tom followed the sound a few meters into the forest.
Must be one of the children. He thought.
Then he saw a body lying on the ground. Definetly not a child.
It was a woman. She was wearing a rather revealing shirt without sleeves, and a pair of dark jean trousers. Her hair was matted to her face, and her eye were closed. She had a vague expression on her face, and it looked as if she had just stepped out of the ocean.
Tom was about to walk away, but she sat up and look around. She looked at Tom with the most befuddled expression on her face.
She looked very lost and confused.
Tom stared at her.
"What's your name?" He asked after a moment of awkward silence.
She turned her gaze to Tom and looked bewildered. She didn't say anything.
As Tom stepped closer to her, the young woman just stared.
"I said, what is your name?"
She blinked.
"Do you speak English?" He said slowly.
The girl glanced at Tom, then gazed at her surroundings.
While completely ignoring Tom,she slowly stood up on her feet. Her wet clothes tightly clung to her body.
She just be foreign. Tom concluded, since he never saw a British woman wear cloths like that.
The girl took a step forward and stumbled a bit, and coughed into her hand. She had no idea where she was, who she was, or what the boy infront of her was saying. To her, it all sounded like "Blah dopy blah lala hoba..."
Getting impatient, Tom was about to leave her when he saw writing on her hand. It looked English.
"What do you have written on your hand?" He asked.
She stared.
Tom took a few steps over to her and grabbed her hand. The only reaction the girl had was a vague stare.
The writing was very smudged, but he was positve it was English writing. He moved her hand closer to his face.
The first letters were badly smeered, Tom ignored them.
But there were a few letters we could make out. "M", "I", smudge, "N"... the next letter he could barely tell. What it an "a" or an "e"? Tom went with "a".
Mina.
There was another word. "G", "R", and an"A", the rest was a faded ink smear.
Mina Gra. How about... Mina Gray.
That would be her name. Or perhaps Mina Grey, since that was the proper spelling of the name.
"Mina Grey..." He said aloud, and the girl looked up at him.
Tom was about to just leave the poor girl in the forest when he realized how perfect she would be for his future plans. A totally lost girl, doesn't know a word of English, doesn't seem to have a family.
He smirked and pulled her hand to follow him. She had a leaf in her hair and dirt on her cloths, but it didn't seem like she had the slightest idea it was there.
Tom would take her to Mrs. Cole and say she was totally lost and without family, that her parents died from the muggle war and she does not want to talk about it. Mrs. Cole would nod her head and accolade Tom for being so honorable. That way, the girl would stay in Tom's sight.
With that in mind, he revealed the slightest simper and walked to the beach, leading the girl stumbling along behind him.
The book could definitely wait.
Tom had done what he wanted. Everything had gone according to what he had planned. The girl was put in the orphanage with him and been questioned by Mrs. Cole. The only response she ever got from the girl was her usual bewildered gaze. She told Tom that later she would alert the police of a found girl, and said it was a very good thing he found her.
It was clear the girl had no idea what people told her. She didn't even make an effort to talk back, which was just fine with Tom. She didn't have much of a personality (unless you count utterly clueless as character) so no one would get attached to her. If she suddenly disappeared, people would wonder, but no one would actually care.
Now... if he knew how to carry through his plan properly, he would. But the book Magick Most Evile described Tom's interest as "the wickedest of magical inventions", and spoke nothing more of it.
He was back at the orphanage. His summer days were a complete bore, all he wanted to do was go back to Hogwarts, his home. Tom studied for school in private as much as he could, since it was the only thing he could do, besides watching the younger children and helping clean up, of course.
It had been two days since Tom had found the girl. As far as he knew, she had not said a word and usually slept most of the day.
But there was something odd about her that Tom sensed. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it was there.
So for the next three weeks he had until having to go to Hogwarts, Tom decided to watch her. It appeared to be a more interesting pass time than re-reading his old text books.
In the orphange, there were a lot of other people around Tom's age. Amy Benson was an odd girl. She would do odd things, like get up during the middle of the night and soliloquize when everyone else was sleeping. She hadn't been that was all her life. It started when Tom Riddle took her and a boy named Dennis Bishop into a cave when they were younger.
It was quite obvious that Amy was conpletely frightened of Tom and she was paraniod of his every action. Even though Tom had beome a very fine young man, Amy still ran away from him whenever she saw they might cross paths.
When she found out that Tom had found a mute girl in the forest, she was suspicious. Amy thought that Tom had did sometime to the girl to make her so quite. Especially since the girl would always follow Tom around whenever she was awake. So on the third day of the girl's stay at the orphanage, Amy decided to talk to the girl when nobody was around.
It was the middle of a particularly warm day, and Tom had just helped clean all the dishes in the kitchen. He stealthly walked over to the girl's room. The door was open.
He saw Amy Benson sneak up to her.
The girl was sleeping, like she usually did. She looked like she needed all the rest she could get. Tom raised his eyebrows and watched for what Amy was planning to do.
She walked up to the girl and slowly tapped her shoulders until she woke up. The girl rubbed her eyes and sat up. She looked at Amy.
Tom watched and listened in amusment as Amy tried getting answers from the girl. He crossed his arms and casually leaned against the doorframe unnoticed. Amy kept asking the girl questions about Tom, and all the girl did was stare blankly at her face, as if trying to understand what she was saying.
But thats when Tom noticed a change in the girl's expression. It went from dazed to- to something else. It appeared as if something in her mind had clicked, and the realization of a lifetime finally dawned upon her.
She understood.
When Amy asked what her name was, the girl replied in a weary tone.
"Mina Grey."
Tom raised his eyebrows and marched further inside the room. "You can talk!"
Amy saw Tom and immediatly darted out of the room.
Mina nodded, yawning."You can too."
AN: whoa... hermio- i mean... 'mina' remembered how to speak english! yaay!
Thanks for the reviews! Pychodoughnut(gaack! you saw that?) DragoNorgard, mrsamiipotter, Tranquil Hurricane, mrs. skywalker, Elineil, claricexherman(yaay... i was hoping it would be different...)... YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!