"What do you mean welcome back? I've never been here before. I promise you tha…"
Hailey's eyes widen in astonishment as Dumbledore pulls out a wand and flicks it ever so lightly causing, out of nowhere, a glass and a pitcher full of pumpkin juice to appear.
"Thirsty Miss. Verdandi? Its quite delicious if you're curious." He hands a mug over and pours himself a glass as well.
"My names Hailey Alill" She mumbles sipping all the while on her pumpkin juice.
"Yes, yes you're quite right, please forgive me, my memory isn't like what it used to be."
Hailey never noticed the look of worry on his face as he said that, but Dumbledore was indeed worried for the pumpkin juice wasn't just pumpkin juice. It contained a potion for her too remember again. The thing though was that it wasn't working, it should have kicked in right away.
"Would you like to take a look around the school?" Dumbledore asked, springing out of his seat. He figured that maybe a look around would help trigger her memory.
The two of them went through hallway after hallway and room after room. All the while Dumbledore spoke highly of the school , explaining every detail of the room and the history behind it.
"This is the Gryffindor common room." he gestured as they walked through a doorway enclosed by a portrait.
The room was filled with red and gold and the emblem of a lions head was everywhere. As Hailey looked around a burning sensation took flame in her chest. For the oddest reason she despised the room. Honestly it was cozy and welcoming, but it was like it was her enemy. She looked around with a feeling of disgust poking things here and there to see what they'd do. Dumbledore watched her and waited for her next move. This had to be the girl that was declared murdered, it just had to be.
"So, you've seen the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and the Ravenclaw common rooms. What did you think of them? Did anyone particular room interest you?" He asked with pure curiosity after the two walked out of the last common room.
An odd expression covered Hailey's gentle face and she stared at the ground hard as if it would tell her what she had forgotten but known all along.
"That's all the rooms there are? Only three common rooms?" That barely seems like enough though.." she trailed off.
"Oh, really. Would you care to explain?" He asked with a serious look on his face, but with looking close enough there was a smile dancing on his lips.
Suddenly something clicked in Hailey's mind and she broke out into a run. She never even realized that she had gone anywhere until she was standing in the dungeons of the school. Out of breath she walked into to a rather dark place, It was a common room though, she knew that. There was a fireplace, and couches, chairs, armchairs, and tables. To the left were dormitories leading to the boys rooms and to the right were stairs that led to the girls dormitories. Silver purple and green were pretty much the only colors to be seen except for a few odds and ends. Walking through the common room she lightly touches everything she comes across as if that would help her to remember. The velvety soft touch of the couch seemed un-mistakenly familiar.
"This is the Slytherin common room." Dumbledore spoke softly pulling Hailey out of a daze, causing her jump.
"The mind is a funny thing isn't it? It can hold so much information, but so easily forget. It's never lost, the memory, but it chooses to at times come and go as it pleases."
He sat down, expecting Hailey to do the same.
"Now with that said there are some other rather important things we should discuss. Such as how you got here, and possibly why?"
There was a long silence and with a dry shaky voice she finally spoke. She told and re-told her story several times and each time the knot in her stomach tightened as she watched the look of worry and concern on the old wizards face.
Unexpectedly Hailey's stomach gave a loud growl of protest from hunger.
"What time is it?" She half laughed. It felt as if a life time had passed her by.
Draco stood there for a moment on the street staring, with his hands balled in a tight fist. All the world laughed and smiled, life for them went on, they weren't stuck in a living hell, but they weren't what was driving him to the edge of insanity and making his blood boil in rage.
"So… Harry, that's your name right? How come Dumbledore sent me here…with you? Do we know each other?" Hailey asked with all the curiosity of the world.
"Oh… well he thought that you'd like to meet someone your own age you know to.." Harry paused for a moment in deep thought. "Well I don't know. Dumbledore has his reasons and he wanted me to show you around."
"Oh. Ok…" Was all she was able to say
Harry stood there taking in all the features of this girl he was supposed to look after for the day. She had long dark brown hair that flowed to the small of her back. Her eyes were a stunning dark green with flecks of grey and gold that every so often changed depending on her mood. Her complexion was fair and smooth and when she smiled his heart would pound faster in his chest, threatening to explode. To makes things brief she was mesmerizing. But she was oddly familiar. Every time Harry would try and remember where he had seen her before his mind became blank. He knew her, he had to, but the name Hailey Alill sounded so unknown to him.
Ever so gently it started to rain and Hailey smiled and took a deep breath. Her anguish disappearing with every drop that hit her.
"It's so pretty here." She exhaled, lifting her face to the sky and extending her arms.
It all happened so fast that without even thinking Harry pulled her to him, the feeling of her body against his sent a chill down his spine, and he kissed her, right there in the middle of Diagon Alley in the rain, in front of everyone.
Hailey couldn't think, her mind froze, stopping her from reacting to what just happened. She could feel eyes boring into the back of her head. As she turns around to see what's making her blood run cold all the noise around her dies down and all the color drains away. The only thing she sees is the boy who had been haunting her dreams for the past year.
He stands there never taking his eyes off of her. His glare is deadly. He takes out his wand and aims it Hailey's way. The wand noticeably shakes in his hands as they trembled in pure outrage. Without warning the trance he held her in disappears and the noise of life explodes in her ears.
"CRUCIO!" he snarls so deadly it could make anyone's blood freeze over. A light shoots from his wand hitting Harry in the chest causing him to fall and writhe in pain.
So many scenes flash before Hailey's eyes, she knew him.
"DRACO!" she screams, her words cutting through the air like a knife as tears flow from her eyes.
She runs to him, but he disappears into the crowd leaving her to suffer. With him out of sight she collapses to her knees and cries. The pain in her heart is unbearable. Lightly a hand touches her shoulder.
"It's time we should go." Dumbledore declares helping a very tired and weak Hailey up.
The two walk over to a crowd enclosed Harry still trying to recover from what just happened.
Draco paced back and forth in his room and it was the only thing to keep him from hurting himself or anybody for that matter. His mind raced over what happened, what he should of done, and that was dragging him deeper into the depths of the water.
"How dare she. Out of all people it was Addie and Potter! MY Addie! No maybe it was just that mudblood Granger! Ahhhhrg! NO it wasn't!" He ran his trembling hands through his hair and tried to calm down, but his nerves were on edge and Addie's face was everywhere he looked.
"I should have talked to her and brought her here, something was wrong. I'd be disgusted if Potter kissed me too, but it seemed as if she didn't know me. They told me to bring her to them when I found her, why? My father was even in on it and...no." Draco stopped abruptly at a new thought.
"My father only works for The Dark Lord and a matter like this is nothing unless finding Addie would be something The Dark Lord himself asked my father to do. Why else would he care? There's no other explanation!" He shouted out in anger at the thought.
"I wont see her again if they get a hold of her, but if only she lasts four more days and school will be back in session. If she's with Potter than she's with Dumbledore and she's safe with him. But what if that's not even Addie and the girl they're talking about is someone completely different? STOP! She's dead Draco! DEAD! You saw her with your own bloody eyes. There's NO way she's back from the dead like this and just alive as ever before! I was at the funeral. I saw her buried and the coffin covered in dirt! I've been to the tombstone and she's dead. I'm losing it… I'm completely out of my fucking mind!" At that last thought he laughed a low laugh amazed at what was happening to him.
Suddenly without warning his father barged in with his wand out and ready to use.
"What do you think you were doing?" Lucius hissed, grabbing Draco by his collar and pinning him against the wall.
"The word is that pathetic Potter was with a girl and guess who that girl was! ADELE! and YOU were THERE!" A vain in Lucius's head pulsed.
"And when you see them together what do you do?" Now he threw Draco to the floor, kicking him hard in the ribs.
"You let your STUPIDITY get in the way! You have no idea how greatly displeased The Dark Lord is, our lives are on the line!" Again and again he furiously kicks Draco in the stomach, the ribs and his side. He grabs him by his hair and pulls him back up so they're eye level with each other.
"You will find her and bring her back here!" With a final shove Lucious walks away leaving Draco to fall to the floor in pure pain.
He tried to breathe, but it hurt too much. One of his ribs was broken, well one if he was lucky enough. After a moment he dragged himself off up from the floor wincing in pain as he took his shirt off to see the damage that had been done. As he gazed into a mirror he saw that there was a huge, purple, black bruise already forming over the left side of his rib cage and was swelling up. Gingerly he touched the bruise and cringed in pain. What his father said suddenly clicked in his head. "Adele was there"
"This is serious" he breathed going over what happened just then. He was used to outbreaks like that, heck he grew up to this treatment from his father! "What does Addie have to do with anything though? She's not even a death eater at least...not yet. They want her though so she's alive.. Addie's really back.."
It was an unspoken rule in the house to never heal whatever pain Lucious inflicted upon anybody, it would only cause more pain.
"Just four more days, just four more days, just four more days." Draco would repeat to himself throughout the rest of the day trying not to move, or breathe, causing him to dwell in the dark recesses of his mind.