A Lighter Shade of Black

Awakening

Taylor snapped her eyes open and gasped. It had felt like she was swimming. She was trapped under the water, she couldn't get out or scream for help. But now, looking around, she saw that that was exactly what she had been doing. She stepped out of the waters in the pool to find her body completely dry.

"T.J.?"

She turned around to see Gin standing there with a shocked expression on her face. The two ran together and embraced each other.

"What happened?" they both asked at once and then smiled.

"I dunno, Teej, but I think there's something going on… And I don't like it."

Taylor nodded. "What's up with the pool, anyway?"

Gin shrugged and sat down on the ground, legs tucked up under her. "I touched it earlier and got all of these pictures in my head… Like a vision or something."

"Well, bloody hell, I was swimming in it! Tell you the truth, I feel kind of… I don't know, different. Like… complete."

Ginevra's eyebrows hit her hairline. "We've gotta get out of here."

"Well, let's see… I was swimming and then you touched the water and I came out, right?"

"Right... So?"

"So, we're walking now, all we have to do is get out of the woods!"

"Of course! You're brilliant, Teej!"

She grinned. "I know."

And so, they began to walk.

…

Hermione ascended the stairway up to her room, her whole body numb with shock. She was too stunned to think.

Harry had broken up with her. He'd said something about how they wanted "different things".

Well, Hermione wasn't stupid; she knew exactly what those different things were… Or, rather, who. She'd known the moment Ginny walked down the stairs in her new style the previous summer. Ginny had thought no one noticed her, Hermione knew how that went, but Hermione had noticed… And she had not liked it. She'd seen it as a threat, a threat to her and Harry's relationship.

Harry didn't want her. Hermione could deal with that. Harry wanted Ginny. She could handle that. She would not fly off the handle like a mad woman. She would not yell or shout or get mad.

Because Hermione didn't want Harry.

…

Ron creaked open his door at the first knock. He looked down into Hermione ivory face and she flung her arms around his shoulders, silently crying into his shirt.

"Mione? C'mon, luv, what's the matter?" he asked, gut twisting as she cried.

"Ron, I'm so stupid!" she whispered, "I thought he really loved me, but he doesn't… He loves some one else and I thought I loved him but I don't!"

Ron scooped her up in his arms and lay her on his bed next to him. She lay there, curled into his chest, just breathing and thinking. She looked up in his face as he tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. She slid her hand up to his neck and pulled his head down closer to hers and he held her tight against his body. Their lips met and now long after, his tongue slipped into her mouth timidly.

Hermione wanted to smile; he was nervous about her. She knew damn well that Ron Weasley was no pure virgin boy, so why should he be nervous around her? She should be the nervous one…

But she'd never been so sure of anything.

…

Just as T.J. saw the sunlight shining through the tree branches, she felt herself being pulled. Pulled from Gin, from the ground, from the world…

And into the waters again.

She tried desperately to scream, to save herself. To reach the air again… But she couldn't… She couldn't do anything but sink… She sunk down to the very bottom of the waters and felt her eyes shut and her mouth open. Bubble erupted from her lips and floated up to the surface, carrying her words into the sky.

"Help…"

…

Draco held her delicate, graceful hand in his own callous and rough one with all the care he possessed. He loved her so dearly…

He was a rich man, this much was true, but if Ginevra would simply open up those golden orbs of hers and give him that room-brightening smile… He would give every last penny for that smile right now.

She was the light in his life, the only good. If she was gone, there was no hope for Draco Malfoy.

Ginevra arched her back and let out a small scream. It was most painful thing to return one's soul into their body, but when said body was sore and tired, it was much more exhausting.

The redhead looked over at Draco and smiled. "Draco..." she whispered, he leaned down and pressed his lips over her own softly.

"I love you, Weaselgirl."

"I love you, too, you effing ferret…" she murmured, eyes slipping shut.

Draco choked up a smile. He pressed his lips to her knuckles and curled up beside her in bed, her head snuggled into his chest.

…

Tracey had nodded off sometime around three in the morning. In all honesty, could you blame the poor kid? Gin and Laura had woke up yesterday and were sitting up and chatting already, while his T.J. was still unconscious and he was still hurting. And all he needed right now was either sleep or Taylor.

He decided to settle for sleep.

He was sitting at the edge of the lake. He was simply staring out at the water, dark and blue, waiting. The air was changed, and he knew something was about to happen.

Tracey's eyes shot to the waters as a pale, slender hand shot out of them, groping for something… anything.

His body jumped forward without a thought to what may happen and grabbed the hand, hauling the body out of the icy blue depts of the lake.

The girl was dead-weight in his arms with midnight black hair hanging wet in her face. He lay her on the ground and pushed the thick mane from her face and gasped.

"Taylor?"

…

They both snapped awake, looking into the other's eyes.

"You saved me." she breathed.

"I-I did?"

"You pulled me out." she said, tears brimming, "If you hadn't, I would never have woken up, luv."

Tracey wrapped her up in his arms and breathed her scent in. He smiled, despite himself.

She smelled of the ocean.

End Chapter