EERIE SEPTEMBER / CH. 19
"So what if the person you like happens to be a woman? So what if it's a bit out of the ordinary? If you liked a damn unicorn, you shouldn't care! It's not something to be ashamed of, Hermione. This feeling—it is the most precious of gifts and if anyone's too dumb to understand it, it's their fucking problem, all right?
Don't go thinking for A SECOND I would hate you over something so beautiful; I am genuinely flattered that such an intelligent young woman finds me interesting—of course, I'm not implying you should pursue it: honey, I've known you since you were basking your little bum in the incubator, not to mention your mommy would sever both of my hands if—"
"I swear, Granger, you are one box of a weirdo." Draco's voice interrupted the memory.
"Sorry?"
"I just asked you if you'd consider naming your and Weasel's children after my parents and you said okay."
"Well, it's not that bad of an idea, is it?" Hermione focused her eyes on the boy, quickly catching up. "Your mother is a saint and I cannot imagine anyone who wouldn't want to be named Narcissus."
"So you want a boy?"
"A unicorn, Draco, a damn unicorn would be enough."
The two of them were sitting in a cosy compartment of the Hogwarts express, sharing a small talk anytime the boy managed to catch Hermione's slipping attention. She tried so hard to concentrate and stop her mind from wandering back to those summer evenings, filled with salty waves and uncontrollable laughter, but it proved to be a job of quite a difficult nature.
Ever since she came back from Greece, she hadn't been able to get Blair out of her head and she was dubious the feelings would pass anytime soon. Her heartache was still very much present and there was nothing she could do except to stay strong and wait for some sort of a miracle to happen.
"So, how was the rest of the summer?" Draco asked, hoisting his legs up on the unoccupied seats right next to him. "Much better than mine, I suppose," he added, making the girl glance towards her knees.
"Was it that awful?"
"You'd be surprised."
Hermione parted her lips but subsequently closed them again. She couldn't help feeling ashamed. While she was crying in the corner over the unrequited love, the boy had had to face real issues and she hadn't even thought about sending him a letter asking how he was doing.
"Well, well, well!" The door to their compartment flew open and their eyes turned towards the tall frame of Blaise Zabini. "If this isn't our new couple!"
Frowning, Hermione shook her head, averting her gaze to the lake behind the window. She wasn't in a mood for his teasing.
"I told you once," Draco started patiently as if trying to explain something particularly difficult to someone particularly dumb. "I value my life too much to waste even a second of it on looking at your ugly face, so do me a favour and get the hell out!"
"Don't be rude, Malfoy!" Zabini tsked, his voice full of fake offence. "Mommy wouldn't be proud."
"Let me break it to you." The blond boy sounded amused. "I don't do things in life to impress my mother, Blaise, okay? I know it's hard to comprehend, but some of us just don't have mommy issues."
The girl almost choked on her own saliva.
"Yeah, some of us just have mudblood issues, right, Granger?"
"What did you say?" Draco barked and it was clear Blaise finally hit the nerve.
"Let it be," Hermione said, sensing it was about the time to get involved, "getting detention the first day just because somebody," she gave Zabini a contemptuous look, "doesn't know what to do with their spare time is not worth it."
Blaise laughed. "Listen to this, guys, she's already ordering him around!" He turned his head to the group of boys slouching behind him.
Draco jumped to his feet, searching his pockets, but before he could do anything, Hermione swiftly stood up as well, walking over to Zabini, and locked her flaring eyes with his. "If I were you, I'd back off before I tell everyone how you promenaded naked through Malfoy Manor in the middle of the night," she whispered, making his smile falter.
Strike.
He was looking at her without blinking for a good five seconds before turning on his heel and pushing the grinning Goyle peeking from behind him out of his way.
Hermione let out a sigh, closed the door, and got back to her seat.
"I am very impressed!" Draco complimented her as he, too, sat down, glaring at her in awe. "You've handled that with such a grace of blackmailing that even I have to tip my hat to you."
"Oh shut up! I'd much rather know why Goyle was laughing at you. You're his everything, for Merlin's sake, I can't imagine why he would hang on Zabini?"
"Well, there is a lot you don't know yet," Draco said placidly, checking his nails. "You've missed all the fuss by running so late."
Hermione frowned. "What do you mean by fuss?" she asked, bringing her hand up to shield her eyes from the blinding sun rays hitting their window as the train took an unexpected turn.
"I'd very much like to spare you the details but I'm afraid that's all the important stuff, so I apologise in advance."
Hermione adjusted in her seat, straightening her back. What was he talking about?
"You remember how the prick, Zabini, was ill back then? I'm not sure what happened, but I think he had drunk some old-ass potion he'd found, thinking it was alcohol. Mother gave him the antidote but he was still not getting better so she had to send him home," Draco started explaining, finally having Hermione's full attention. "Of course, she asked him to be discreet about your stay, but you know him—the first thing he did when he got back was ratting everything out to his precious mommy and—well, things sort of took a nasty turn." Draco took a deep breath, preparing to continue, but paused as the trolley lady opened their door.
"Anything from the—?"
"No." He waved her off impatiently, making the woman frown.
"We're good, thank you." Hermione gave her a quick smile and turned back to Draco, already fearing what was coming next. It was getting close enough to the scenario she had outlined at the ball when they argued about being careless with their friendship. Surely, Hermione was proud of the boy, but it was clear coming forward like that could cause quite a stir among their circles.
Draco waited until the old lady moved to another compartment and continued.
"So, rumours started spreading and mother had to deal with a lot of letters coming from her fake friends. Long story short, people are avoiding her, my father too, and now this bunch of idiots started making fun of me as well," Draco finished as if he couldn't give fewer damns. "Should have seen them whispering when we got to the station. My parents couldn't bear the attention and left earlier. Merlin, they were so embarrassed, you cannot imagine! Might as well be burning my name off from the family tree right now."
Hermione was watching the boy silently with widened eyes. "But how come people took notice just now?! I thought they kind of knew—your friends," she made air quotes with her fingers, "must have told their parents long time ago."
"Apparently," Draco smirked, slightly flipping his hair, "they thought I was just pretending to be your friend so I could pull some brilliant prank on you and was just refusing to admit it for dramatic effect."
"They've been thinking that for two years?" Hermione raised her eyebrows, kind of losing faith in human intelligence.
Draco shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say, you know about the tradition. If there are no more purebloods left outside the family, marry your cousins—no wonder they're thick."
Hermione opened her mouth, taken aback. Did he just say something offensive about purebloods? She locked her eyes with his, not knowing how to react, but he spared her the trouble.
"It's true," he went on. "I cannot believe how blind I was. Thank Merlin this whole thing is over and I'm rid of those morons. I don't even care if they wanna make fun of me. I'd much rather have them pointing at me for having a half-blood as a friend than a half-brain as one. No offence."
Hermione gave him a small smile. "None taken. I am kind of proud, you know. My granny always used to say half-bloods and muggle-borns must be actually really special because their magic appeared out of nowhere."
"As pathetic as I may sound, it's a beautiful thought and—" Draco coughed and his cheeks went slightly pink.
"And what?" Hermione asked, trying to get the rest of the sentence out of him.
"Nothing, forget about it." He shook his head. "Let's talk about your summer for a change. You're kind of dark, where have you been? Africa?" He chuckled nervously.
It was clear he was trying his best to change the subject by this weird random observation but the girl decided to let it be. She pursed her lips together, shaking her head. "No, I went to Greece with my mom to— to visit our friend." She gulped, feeling a great deal of discomfort settling in her stomach.
"You got friends in Greece?" Draco raised his eyebrow, casually showing Nott his middle finger as the boy knocked on their compartment door.
"Well, not really." Hermione frowned, crossing her legs. "She's American, actually, only owns a place down there."
Draco nodded thoughtfully, ignoring the laughing onlookers from the corridor. "Sounds fun. Next time you might consider taking me with you so I wouldn't have to wonder what might have possibly happened to make you look so... odd."
Hermione's breath hitched. "I'm sorry?"
"I don't know." The boy shrugged his shoulder, putting a searching look on his friend. "You look different—and not in a good way."
"Thanks."
"I didn't mean it like that, it's more of— for Merlin's sake, give me some motivation not to hex them!" Draco closed his eyes as if praying when a roar of laughter from outside made it all the way to their ears.
"Well, you may get a detention and be forced to feed some creature in the Forbidden Forest," Hermione smirked, pointing to that night when she had kind of saved his arse for the first time.
"Laugh all you want but bloody Filch deserves a medal. Hadn't it been for him, I'd be among the idiots right now, losing all my healthy brain cells."
"Fair enough, maybe you should get another detention then, I see it helps you grow. Though I think you should give some credit to me as well," Hermione said, wondering whether it would be a good idea to lock the door and draw the curtains, but realised it would probably do more harm than letting them observe the situation and see for themselves nothing was going on.
"Okay, okay, you deserve some credit too—but back to my question."
"Nothing happened," she replied, trying to justify her lie by finding a loop in nothing happened between her and Blair. "I'm just tired because I overslept, that's all." She shrugged, wondering whether she was being fair. Draco was honest with her and she—she was becoming this lying machine that didn't know when to stop— but she couldn't just tell him— it wasn't a good time, the right place and— damn it, she just wasn't ready!
"Oh look! We'll be at Hogwarts soon!" she noted quickly as the familiar surroundings started to make an appearance. "We should get changed. Would you believe they were trying to sell me a Gryffindor robe at Madam Malkin's?!" she said indignantly, glad to have something to close the debate.
They made it to the Hogsmeade station safe and sound—not counting Nott's broken nose and a few Bat-Bogey Hexes missing Zabini and Crabbe by mere inches. Of course, Draco earned a detention, but he claimed it was worth every sleazy snail he'd have to sort out starting tomorrow afternoon until the end of the week, the weekend included.
"You should have let it be as I told you, Draco." Hermione clenched through her chattering teeth as they waited for the carriage to take them to the castle.
"No, I should have aimed more to the left! That way I'd—"
"Oh, finally! Come on, it's freezing!" she interrupted him as the horseless carriage stopped in front of them. They quickly climbed inside, hiding from tiny raindrops.
"Mind if we join you?" A freckled face appeared in the open window and Hermione immediately recognised the features of Ronald Weasley. "Oh," he sighed as his eyes, too, sent his brain a note as to who exactly it was inside.
"Whatever," Draco replied, smirking at Hermione. "Look, it's your future husband!" He quickly leaned in, whispering.
"Not in a million years," she gritted back quietly, managing to kick Draco's leg before Ronald plopped down next to him and made some space for another passenger—of course, his best friend, Harry Potter.
"Hey, thanks for the ride!" He gave them a thumb-up and sat down next to Hermione. "We didn't want to wait, it was starting to get cold."
Hermione pursed her lips as if trying to smile. It was odd having them here after all those dreams, which miraculously stopped as soon as she got to Greece and reappeared with the first night once back home, taking quite an unexpected turn: Hogwarts joined a Triwizard Tournament, the same way it had two years ago, but with a slight change—id est, with Harry becoming the fourth contestant, which was, according to her, absolutely ridiculous. Everyone knew it was against the rules and the Ministry would never allow anything like that to happen. Ever.
She turned to him and put a searching look on the same scar which had been haunting her dreams for so long, not even realising she was probably being too bold. The boy sensed her attention, turned his head to her, and smiled.
"May I ask you something?" she blurted suddenly. Maybe it was worth a try.
"Sure, go ahead."
"Where did you get that scar? It looks like a bolt of lightning. Such scars are caused by strong cu—"
"By strong curses," he spoke over her, smirking. "Well, as much as I'd like to come across as a badass, I can't. This," he brushed his bangs aside to show off the scar, "wasn't caused by any curse, I was simply born with it—don't know why. It looks cool though, doesn't it?" He ran his hand through his hair and messed it up a bit, turning back to Ron, who'd been quiet like a fish the whole time.
"May I ask you another question?" she spoke again, earning a weird look from Draco, but she ignored him.
"Yup."
"What's your uncle's name?" She didn't even care she must have sounded like a complete lunatic asking such bizarre questions, but if the boy told her the name, it might solve a problem or two. She couldn't have possibly known the real answer, though in her dream, the name was—
"Vernon, Vernon Dursley," Harry replied, slightly taken aback. "Why? Do you know him?"
Hermione froze, chills running down her spine. "I—" she coughed, quickly trying to recover, "no, not at all! It's just that I went on a vacation and overheard some man talking about his nephew and I thought he mentioned your name. He was there with his wife, Petunia, I believe, and their son—"
"Dudley?" Harry added instead of her and she nodded. "Must have been Dursleys, then. Funny people, I don't really know them, though. They want nothing to do with the likes of us." He issued a chuckle but Hermione was too busy trying not to faint to form a fake one. "Oh, here we are!" the dark-haired boy announced after a while. "Thanks again, I guess we'll see each other around." The carriage stopped and he got off.
"Bye," Ronald murmured in a hoarse voice, quickly following his friend. Hermione, too, was trying to get out when Draco put a hand on her shoulder.
"'Where did you get that scar? What's your uncle's name?' What on earth were you on about?"
"I have a tiny confession to make, Draco."
"Oh, don't tell me you like Potter now! Damn, and here I thought Weasel was the worst option possible. Clearly, I was mistaken."
"Can't you be serious for a moment?"
"I can."
"Thanks. Now hurry up." She was pulling him by the sleeve of his robe aside from the last students lingering around into the shadow of a big bush right next to the carriage.
"I mean, I'm not complaining, but are you trying to fuel the rumours or what?" he whispered as soon as she let go of him.
Hermione gave him an annoyed look but realised he couldn't see her. "Listen, Casanova, do you remember how I told you about those dreams I have almost every single night?"
"What's Casanova?"
"Do you?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I didn't meet Harry's family on a vacation. I—I dreamt about them," she whispered feverishly.
"You dreamt about Potter's uncle?"
"Draco, please!"
"All right, all right, what was it about?"
"I don't even know where to start, there have been thousands of dreams already—it's like a bloody storyline and it's driving me mad! I've been dreaming about all of us ever since I was thirteen and I just don't get it! It's like some peculiar parallel universe."
Draco sighed. "Don't worry about it, it's probably just some—"
"Some what?"
"Most likely nothing alarming, Granger," he whispered, trying to calm her down. "Just a bunch of, I don't know, a bunch of crazy dreams."
"Bunch of crazy dreams, you say?" Hermione locked her jaw. "Come with me, then," she said firmly, looking around, making sure they were all alone. The idea came as abruptly as a lightning strike and she was determined to go with it no matter the cost. She grabbed the hem of Draco's sleeve and started pulling him towards the Hogwarts yard but took a sharp turn as they began approaching the entrance of the castle.
"I don't know how about you, but I'm not familiar with another entry." Draco pointed as he walked by her side, frowning at the gates.
"Oh, there are plenty of them," she let out, lengthening her steps. "Hurry up!"
She started jogging down the hill, barely recognising Hagrid's shack in the distance—it was getting late.
"Granger, would you do me the courtesy of explaining where the hell we are going?" Draco called after her but she wouldn't answer, only began to run faster.
She heard him curse.
They had been running for a few more minutes, inhaling the fresh scent of wet pine trees, when Hermione braked, blindly reaching for Draco's wrist to stop him as well.
"Are you bloody out of your mind?!" the boy whispered when he realised where exactly they had appeared and what exactly was in front of them.
"You see that crack right over there?" She pointed at the dark hole in between the roots of an odd-looking tree. "I had a dream that right under the Whomping Willow is a passageway leading into the Shrieking Shack."
"For Merlin's sake!" Draco whispered desperately, covering his eyes and turning his back to her. "You—I don't even have a name for the level of your insanity!" He turned back to her. " You wanna fight a furious tree, ten times stronger than you, for what? Just to find out whether there's a secret corridor leading into a haunted shack?!" He yelled in that whispering voice. "Hello, is anyone there?! It was just a dream! There's nothing underneath that bloody willow!"
"What if there is?"
"Weren't you listening, Granger?"
"Come on, keep quiet now!" She pressed a finger to her lips, pulling Draco by his robe. He widened his eyes, shaking his head, refusing to move, but gave in after a while. His sweaty hand grabbed Hermione's as they slowly approached the sleeping tree, trying to make as little noise as possible.
One step at a time, one step—crack.
"Damn," Draco whispered in a crying voice, "damn, damn, damn."
"Shush!" Hermione scolded him desperately, her eyes following a few leaves falling off of the slightly moving branches. "We cannot wake it or we're—"
"Screwed?" Draco yelled and violently pulled her aside as all of a sudden the tree came to life and smacked its biggest branch hard across the spot they'd just moved from. Hermione screamed, tightening her grip on Draco's hand as they had to bend their backs so that another thick limb wouldn't slap their faces.
"This way!" she yelled, pushing the boy to the right, but unfortunately, failed to see a long twig which smacked the boy straight across his chest like a whip. Hermione heard him yelp as he fell to the ground, clutching the pained spot. "Draco!" She quickly kneeled down, desperately pulling him by the arm. "You need to get up, come on, come on!" She was forced to let go of him and threw herself aside, hitting her spine against a big pointy rock. A searing pain cut through her skin, filling her eyes with tears, but she couldn't allow herself to pay the wound any attention.
"Granger, you all right?" Draco was now beside her, pulling her to her feet, but subsequently shoved her to the side to get her out of the willow's reach, while he himself had to jump over the tireless twigs, chasing him.
"Look, we're so close!" Hermione shouted as she noticed the hole just a few feet away from her.
"Brilliant!" Even in danger, Draco managed to let some kind of cynicism enter his words.
Hermione stood up but had to swiftly lower her head to avoid another punch. Hastily, she moved towards the boy, grabbing his hand and pulling him forward. Wrong move. The swishing twig hit their legs, making them fall to the ground just when the willow decided to use its entire force to mash them like bananas.
"Get over there, Draco, quickly!" Hermione got to her feet, almost slipping. Clumsily, she jumped over another furious branch, taking three steps towards the climbing boy and was forced to almost lie down on him to dodge another attack. Draco moved a step forward and they both felt a sudden pull as they started falling.
Hermione crashed into the blond boy the same way she had into Harry in her dream, just as they landed on the flat ground.
"Ups, sorry!" She apologised, quickly getting off, settling right next to him. The place was pitch black and it was impossible to tell where exactly they had arrived. A damp breeze, strongly reeking of mould, hit their faces and Draco let out a disgusted grunt.
Reaching into her pocket, Hermione took out her wand.
"Lumos!"
Blinding light hit the hole, exposing a long tunnel in front of them and quite a bit of space just above their heads. It wasn't enough for their full height but with a little bit of slouching, they could manage.
"Ha! I told you there was a corridor!" she let out victoriously, turning to Draco's pale face.
"Should I clap my hands?" he hissed, the irises of his eyes unbelievably wide. "You could have gotten us killed, do you realise that?! The bloody tree almost killed us!"
"Sorry!"
"'Sorry'?! I've always thought you were mental but I've never actually realised the full range of it!" Draco dusted the front of his robe off and he, too, took out his wand.
"Look, I'll make it up to you later. Now we have to find out if this tunnel truly leads into the Shrieking Shack."
The boy almost stuck his wand up her nose as he angrily turned to her.
"No bloody way! You've proved your point—the weird-ass dreams are not at all dreams. I believe you. Period. Now your smart brain needs to come up with a plan how to get us out!"
"I'm trying to get us out, we just need to follow the—"
"Think of something else!"
Hermione sighed, pulling a damp leaf out of his hair. "Look, in those dreams, the shack isn't haunted! It's just a place where Harry's father, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and your uncle, Sirius Black, kept meeting up during their school years. Lupin's a werewolf and every time there was full moon—"
"A werewolf! I'll bloody kill you, Granger!"
"Calm down, Draco— people thought it's haunted because of the terrifying howling but—"
"Do you realise that instead of making things better you're making them worse with every word your mouth breathes out?"
"It's not full moon!" Hermione emphasised impatiently. "Remus Lupin lives only Merlin knows where! Might not even be real in our timeline or whatever this is!"
Draco's face, lit by both of their wands, seemed hesitant for a while. "Fine," he agreed finally, "but if something kills us, your afterlife shall suck, I promise you that!"
Hermione gave him a small, encouraging smile and took the lead. The boy was grumbling the whole time as he walked behind her, jumping at the slightest of sounds, but it was mostly just rats nibbling at the roots sticking from the sides.
"Bloody stinking creatures!"
"Look! There's a staircase!" Hermione pointed with her shining wand in front of her after almost fifteen minutes of walking. Truly, there was a shabby staircase and a damp-looking door ahead of them.
"Oh, thank Merlin!"
They carefully tried the first few steps and despite the eerie cracking sound, they decided to climb up to the wooden door. Exchanging glances, they took a moment before grabbing onto the handle, pulling it all the way down.
A room lit by beaming orange flames greeted their expectant faces together with none other than Albus Dumbledore, sitting on a rocking chair right next to a cosy fireplace.
Both of them froze.
"Ah, Miss Granger, Mr Malfoy." The old man bowed his head, observing the duo with those exceptionally blue eyes and Hermione had to do a lot not to scream. She pressed her hand to her mouth, her missing sense of responsibility finally getting back to her.
"Well?" Dumbledore lifted his snowy eyebrows, pressing the tips of his fingers together. "Fun, wasn't it? I must say, some of your jumps were very impressive, Mr Malfoy."
Hermione turned her head to Draco who seemed either appalled or angry. At this point, she couldn't even tell, for she herself had kind of similar mixed up feelings.
The man had let them wrestle the insane tree and hadn't done a thing about it? Unbelievable, but honestly—served them right.
"Take a seat, take a seat." He presented the dusty couch to them with a graceful gesture of his right arm. The dust slowly started to disappear and by the time they approached it, the fabric looked completely new.
"Care to explain what you were doing, roaming around at such an hour? You haven't even been inside the castle and yet, still managed to get a detention," he nodded slightly, looking at Draco, who seemed to be shrinking in his seat—she, most likely, was too, "provoked a fight with the poor Whomping Willow and tried to sneak out back into Hogsmeade. Impressive—not even the Weasley twins made it this far on their first day, but as I say, there's still time, right?" he let out calmly but Hermione felt like he was yelling. She screwed up big this time. What was she thinking?
"I am so sorry, professor!" She bowed her head, unable to keep the eye contact any longer. "It's all my fault, I talked Draco into it."
"That's true."
The girl shot the blond boy a frowning expression.
"But," he went on slowly. "I'll take half the blame because I should have talked her out of it but didn't."
"You tried," Hermione uttered weakly, blinking as the first tears started forming in her eyes. Disappointing a teacher, let alone the headmaster, was her biggest nightmare, which even her alter-ego from the dreams shared with her.
"Should have tried harder."
'Oh, Draco!'
"Marvellous! Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to Hogwarts. I still feel like having another cauldron cake." Dumbledore suddenly clasped his hands, smiling, having both of the kids looking at him as if he had lost his mind. "Don't you?" He slowly stood up, towering over them, looking hauntingly impressive with his white beard coming all the way down to his knees, while still managing to sound like a madman.
"Come along!" he said cheerfully, already making his exit.
"We shall wait for the carriage to arrive," the man stated, swaying on his feet as they stood on the road, shivering from cold. Hermione must have admitted, she felt kind of disappointed the headmaster wouldn't use some other way to get them to the castle. She'd heard he owned a phoenix which was known for—
"Oh, but where's beauty in that?" Dumbledore asked abruptly, dreamily looking at the trees in the distance. "The most magical things are often just the most ordinary," he concluded and Hermione blushed furiously. She looked at Draco, who gave her a look full of 'Run like hell, the man's mental', but she knew perfectly well he was the complete opposite of that.
"Oh Merlin, how lucky we are," the old man laughed as a carriage appeared out of the dark and stopped right in front of them. He opened the door and both Hermione and Draco climbed inside for the second time tonight.
They took another ride to Hogwarts, but this time with a merry-looking headmaster sitting opposite to them, humming the Hogwarts school song's melody. For the rest of the journey, nobody said a word, except for Draco's growling stomach.
When they finally arrived at the Great Hall, the food was already gone.
"Oh well, that is unfortunate," Dumbledore pointed. "Luckily, I carry sherbet lemons with me most of the time." He put one into her hand and one into Draco's. "There you go—well, I think you've had enough adventures for tonight. Head straight to your dorms and no running late tomorrow morning!" He frowned, raising his index finger. "Mr Malfoy, I'd strongly advise you to visit professor Snape: he shall tell you the password and while you're in there, you may as well arrange the conditions of both of your detentions." The blue eyes were smiling.
"And when it comes to you, Miss Granger," he walked with her towards the stairs as the frowning Draco marched down to the Dungeons. "The password you're looking for, I believe, is Venor Floccus." He winked, humming the same melody, leaving a stunned Hermione alone.
So, listen, I was really trying my best to wait until 28th, but I just couldn't! I don't want to flatter myself too much, but I know how happy I get anytime my favourite fanfiction gets updated, so... Anniversary or not, there you go! This Sunday it's gonna be precisely one year since I posted the first chapter of this story and I wanted to celebrate with a new chapter which I wrote specifically just for the occasion as a thank you, for, uh, EVERYTHING. Every review of yours gives me such a boost and I just wanted to let you know that if it wasn't for you, I would have probably abandoned this story hundreds of times already /like all five of those stored in my computer/ but because I have such amazing support, I wouldn't have the heart to do that!
So thank you so so much and let's just celebrate sooner!
/okay, maybe I'm not posting tonight because I'd be that eager / maybe I'm just leaving for a few days and might kind of die of an unexpected death and leave a whole-ass chapter in drafts / or maybe... I'm just freaking excited about writing something special very very soon /