Chapter 6

Author's Note: I realize that much of this chapter feels like a collegiate non-sequitur, but please rest assured, we will return to the HP universe quite shortly. Also, I don't have anything against Harvard or Harvard Finals Club, but I had to pick somewhere for that scene to happen.

20-year-old Wellesley College senior Hope Marshall was ready for winter break to start.

By her senior year, she'd become captain of the Wellesley Hockey Team, a double-major in mathematics and philosophy, AND student body vice-president. Needless to say, she was quite ready to take a break from how busy her life was, even if she was enjoying ever last second of her college experience.

There were weird and magical moments, to be sure, but they didn't interfere too much with Hope's happiness. Like, when she was taking a nap before going out to a party on Halloween, Hope dreamed that her own name flew out of a goblet full of blue fire. She wasn't sure why this was happening, but it made her happen. Or the moment she'd felt bursts of adrenaline on Tuesday November 24 as she had a vision where she was pelted with fire coming out of the mouth of a dragon. Thank God that vision ended quickly, or else someone would've mistaken her reaction to it for a panic attack.

But now, it was nearing Christmas break and since Hope was a bit ahead on her final assignments (a minor miracle), she decided to go out with some friends on Saturday night. She'd had a nebulous dream about asking someone out on a date to a ball the night before, which had her wondering if she might get asked on a date while she was out and about tonight. Or maybe she'd find someone she'd want to ask on a date – she was a modern, bisexual woman after all.

After she and her friends had gone into Boston and had enjoyed a delicious dinner at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Little Italy, Hope wasn't ready for the night to end.

"Should we go back to Wellesley?" asked her friend Andrea tentatively.

"Well, there are improv comedy clubs all over the place here, there are dance clubs in Boston, and there's supposed to be a party at Harvard tonight. Maybe we could check out one of those?" suggested Hope.

Thirty minutes later, she and her friends stood in the middle of a dance rager at Harvard Finals Club as the bartender poured them drinks.

"Wow, we must look soooooo goooood tonight!" exclaimed Candace. Finals Club was notoriously picky about only letting in pretty girls, after all. Hope thought it was silly, but a part was a party and her friends did enjoy parties.

A tall blond man approached the bar next to them. "You do look so good tonight," he commented, and somehow, the complimentary remark wasn't creepy.

"Thanks," said Candace flirtatiously.

"And what are you ladies up to?"

"De-stressing before the last week of finals, duh!" piped up Andrea.

"That's the spirit! So… care to dance, beautiful?" he asked and extended his hand to Hope.

Hope wasn't sure what to say, but both Andrea and Candace were shoving her toward Andrew, so she just replied, "Oh. Ok."

Three hours later, Hope was walking around the Harvard Quad with Andrew, the tall blond graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Her arm was linked through his as they huddled in the cool weather. They were both pleasantly buzzed from the drinks at the party and sated from the cannolis they'd ordered at Mike's Pastry for a midnight snack.

"You know what's funny?" Andrew asked.

"What?" asked Hope.

"That I met you at Harvard Finals Club."

"What does that mean?" Hope laughed.

"Well, you know what kind of girls end up at Harvard Finals Club… they're pretty… but dumb. They're just there to try to date the spoiled heirs to all the major Fortune 500 companies. Like, what even brought an angel like you to Harvard Fucking Finals Club?!"

Hope shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, my friends and I thought we'd de-stress one last time before finals start, and, uh, there were free drinks. What about you? With an opinion like that, I'm dying to know why you were at Finals Club."

"Please don't judge me…"

"Ok, you know the cannolis we had at Mike's Pastry? Those were my third dessert of the evening. I don't think I have ANY right to judge."

Andrew laughed. "Ok, so you know what I said about the spoiled heirs to all the major Fortune 500 companies? Here's the part where I need you not to judge me."

Hope laughed despite herself. "Seriously?"

"I'm from the Sigourney family. Mom's a Republican senator from Georgia, Dad runs a top investment firm in Atlanta. Are you appalled?"

Hope carried on laughing. "You can NEVER introduce me to your parents! I'm of mixed race, I'm the WORST kind of bleeding-heart liberal, AND I'm bisexual!"

"Relax… my mom's just on the Republican ticket because she has been for 2- years. She totally won't mind me dating a bi girl. Hey, you want to meet her for New Year's? My family's having this huge gala and I can totally fly you out to Atlanta to join us!"

Hope laughed even harder.

Andrew squeezed her hand. "I'm dead serious, Hope."

She saw the look in his eyes, and then diverted her gaze to the ground. "Oh. Wow."

"What?"

"Forgive me. It's the most painfully stereotypical question in the world."

"Well, if you're wondering why I'd pick you, the answer is because I saw you conversing with your friends and you seemed so sweet, and you were such a good listener…"

Hope needed no further encouragement. She simply leaned in and kissed him.

Christmas came and went, along with a dream about dancing with a beautiful girl with soft black hair and the most entrancing hazel eyes. Hope had even kissed the girl, and the dream had ended with her on Cloud Nine. She still had a dopey grin on her face when she skipped downstairs in her family's ski chalet to prepare breakfast before hitting the slopes at her favorite mountain resort.

"What's up, Hope? Were you dreaming about Andrew?" teased her cousin Laura.

"Uh…" Oh, dear. She absolutely hadn't been dreaming of Andrew.

But then, the day after the dream, Andrew had called her to arrange for his family's private jet to pick her up and take her to his family's New Year's party. Surely, she couldn't say no to that?

Over the course of her last semester at Wellesley College, Hope had a couple more odd dreams. One involved swimming past merpeople – but she forgot what it was about or what the other details of the dream were, because the memories from her dreams always faded before she could even jot them down. Another involved a cheesy Valentine's Day date in a tea shop full of heart-shaped confetti – a date that should've been torture, but ended up being hilarious.

As she finished her classes for the final semester, Hope thought about her future and the kind of career she wanted to pursue. After completing a statistics project on the effects of restorative justice, she'd decided that she wanted to apply to law school. But it was too late to apply for the coming term, so she'd take a gap year while applying for law school, and then figure out what she wanted to do within the field of law.

As for her gap year, Andrew's mom had offered to hire her as a legislative aide in her office – an amazing opportunity for someone just out of college! Plus, she'd be living with Andrew in an apartment in DC. The living arrangement had her thinking that Andrew might propose marriage sometime soon.

Before Hope knew it, graduation arrived. It was all so surreal. Hope was just a girl from Vermont, and yet this whole glamorous life awaited her!

Then, the day of June 24 dawned. Hope was due to attend her last day of legislative aide training, and Andrew was out. It should've been fine and normal. But it wasn't, because Hope felt her head going positively haywire.

Her head then took a full nosedive out of reality in the afternoon, when Hope suddenly felt that she was standing outside a giant maze of hedges. The Asian girl she'd kissed in an earlier vision – the one with silky black hair and bright hazel eyes – was holding her close. "You'll always be my champion, no matter what happens. I love you so much." And then Hope felt herself being drawn into another mesmerizing kiss that (she had to guilty admit) was far more intoxicating than anything she'd experienced with Andrew.

Then, she could feel herself saying something very strange. "Sweetheart, I love you so much. Even if we died and were born into another life, I'm sure we'd find each other. And then we'd fall in love again." It was the sort of romantic thing Hope wouldn't be inclined to believe, but in that moment, her heart was totally in it.

Then, it was time to enter the maze and things got really weird. Even though she didn't know what she was supposed to be doing, Hope could feel herself moving forward, casting spells at obstacles in the maze. She could feel the rush of adrenaline through her system as she progressed further and further.

Suddenly, a human figure loomed ahead of her. Even though the figure looked different from the man in a turban who'd attacked the unicorn, there was something so strangely familiar about him – perhaps it was the evil glint in his eye?

"Hi," said Hope nonchalantly, "Viktor, I'm sure it's an accident that we ran into each other, so I'll just…" She made to slip away.

But before she could fully escape, the figure raised his wand and yelled "Crucio!" and then Hope was screaming, writhing in indescribable pain. She didn't even have the strength to scream.

Then, a voice yelled "Stupefy!" and the pain stopped. Hope got up. Thank God she'd been on her way to the bathroom when she'd gotten her panic attack.

"Hey, are you ok?" asked another staffer whose name she'd forgotten.

"I'm not feeling too well, can I just go outside?" asked Hope. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, no worries. Get some fresh air, you look really shaken or scared or something."

"It'll be over soon," Hope reassured him.

Then, she wandered outside. There was a park nearby, just across a wide street full of traffic coming in all directions. Hope pressed the button for the crosswalk to start. Her hand shook even as she pressed the button, because something was still making her really apprehensive.

It seemed to take an eternity for the light to change and once it did change, Hope didn't notice it until it started counting down the seconds in which she'd be able to cross.

Then, all at once, Hope felt a tugging sensation, followed by the feeling of landing hard on the ground. She was confused by all this, but she couldn't see what was happening around her.

She did, however, hear a cruel, high-pitched voice. "Kill the spare!" it cried.

"Avada Kedavra!" cried another voice.

Hope didn't even have time to wonder what those two voices meant, because she suddenly saw a flash of green light all around her, and then she fell backward, sprawled out in the crosswalk.

As Hope sprawled back in the flash of green light, the light over the intersection also changed to green. A reckless driver,who hadn't even looked at the young woman in the crosswalk, sped forward and rammed into her with the bumper of his fancy sports car. By the time he realized what he'd done, Hope went flying over the roof of his car and over his windshield, to land in another sprawled position in the intersection. When EMTs were called to the scene, arriving a few minutes later, they found no pulse in Hope Marshall's neck.