"Nicolle's worried 'bout you." I breathed.
"So am I." He flicked me a crooked, uncovincingly casual smile. "Hope we keep in touch, yeah? See you!"
My stomach flipped. The sunlight was metres away but I could feel it, dancing all over me. I cracked a smile hastily and at once faint patches of pink appeared in his cheeks. Oh no, this is bad. No, no… Probably because his face was beginning to take colour from all that running.
"I have to go… Mum's waiting. Nice to meet you!" I held out a hand to shake. Yes, I should have done this when we first met, instead of shooting him those ever-suspicious anaconda eyes.
As soon as we turned our backs on each other, I sped off like lightning, and even so, I gradually gathered speed, for fear of that mysterious boy - Is he even human?! - appearing behind me again bugged me non-stop.
I reached the atrium at the ballet centre soon enough. It was a celebration of the centre's 26th anniversary and it was open to public. Familiar faces of Hermione and Nicolle soon appeared not far away from me. Should I tell them, should I not...Should I? Should I? Would they even believe me? After all, no one has heard of this magic nonsense for...ever since humans were messy business indeed.
I finally settled on telling them another time and now was just too rush. As I greeted them, I pasted a foolproof smile on my face, trying to banish the nightmare that was going on in my head about the what-ifs. If Harry Potter transported here and told us he was floating in the air with the air molecules 24/7. If Harry Potter turned into a frog that wanted to kiss me badly. I flinch at the very thought. Or if he was a ghost-
"Um hello?! Any life on Planet Shelby?" Nicolle waved her arms frantically around me, raising her voice higher. I blankly stared at her and then quickly came back to life.
"Sorry about that. Was worrying about my next piano exam. Ms Evergreen said I was a horrible pianist and I was going to fail my exam. She's so annoying!"
"Ah." Nicolle looked satisfied with my excuse. "Why don't you quit? Easy."
"Mum says my fingers will grow stubby," I shook my head sadly, and then we three burst out laughing.
"It's okay, mine have become stubby but they're still pretty," Hermione held out her ten fingers and stroked them lovingly. "Beautiful." We crack a few more jokes and then our giggles are snuffed out by screams from the other side of the room.
My eyebrows inched closer together in confusion, and I see my expression mirrored on both my friends' faces. Without another word, we rush to the scene, hearts in our throats. Not Harry Potter again! No please, not him again...
Then I see it, over the wild crowd. Oh my gosh, it's that a snake?! Right here in a guestroom!
And there's Harry Potter.
Everyone was screaming. Everyone was running. Everyone was escaping. Except me. And Harry Potter, of course, because he is weird and I think I'm becoming weirder too.
Harry Potter held his ground, and as his lips move, I swore I heard hissing. I could feel colour draining from my face and tempted to run, but as long as Harry was here I felt this compulsory urge to help him.
I stared at him, and as his eyes locked with mine, I saw panic and desperation yelling in his eyes.
"Cissssssss…..Deeresss…" He continued to make strange noises, with his head moving along with the rhythmic movement of the snake. It was funny, but I stifled my snort quickly and tried to be useful. I grabbed a huge cardboard box from the dustbin nearby and flung it to Harry Potter so he could cage up the snake... but it hit the snake sharply on the head instead. Please don't attack me, please please please please! I crossed my fingers and silently wished that all the weird, I mean, different people like Harry Potter could suddenly appear and kill the snake. A second later, I was convinced by this thought and opened my eyes excitedly, ready to see a hundred of them beating up the snake.
But all I saw was Harry Potter desperately hissing, eyes as huge as saucepans, and the snake gliding to me at the speed of light with a grim smirk that seemingly meant "Ooh la la, beautiful way to die!" And no, there was almost no one left inside the room, except an old man, I presumed Nicolle's uncle, raking a hand through his tangled hair uselessly.
The snake was almost dancing towards me in sheer delight, its head bobbing joyfully to the left, to the right, to the top, to the-
"WHY AREN'T YOU RUNNING?!" Harry bellowed, and yanked out a big bunch of his hair in frustration. Whoa.
"Oops. Er, sorry," I scrambled foolishly, dashing as fast as my little legs could bring me, and I had run with my eyes closed because I really didn't want to see the snake spitting venom at me after I trampled on it. When I opened my eyes, I found the old man trying to put out his arms to prevent me from banging headfirst into the wall. I didn't have time to divert my run so I crashed right into him, knocking him over flat on the ground.
Guilt curdled in me, cold and sour. I glanced sideways and saw Harry tackling the snake single-handedly, but, he should be okay. So I ignored the big wrestle over there and decided to give the old man who laid on the floor motionless now CPR. I pumped his chest and blew into his nostrils, because blowing into the mouth was way too gross.
"Stur...Sturp! Sturp!" He choked weakly, his eyelids fluttering open and then closing. Stop? I gritted my teeth and realised with a hard shock that I didn't even check before that if he was breathing or not. Oops. My mind is so not working correctly today. This must be a dream, anyway, of course. This is the human world and duh, no magic exists. And 12-year-olds do not tackle snakes.
"I want.. Baruffio... Brain...Elixir in my b-bag…" He mumbled feebly. Eager to make amends, I unzip his bag quickly and shoved my hand inside, digging around for a bottled cream or something. I felt around, and saw a water bottle, pens, cards, a handphone, some paperwork, a mighty load of clothes, but where on earth was cream?!
"Er…" I stammered, my face flushing. I finally emptied his entire bag and found a small tiny bottle about the size of a gluestick.
"Cream!" His eyes lit up and his hands fumble for the bottle, giving me a rewarding smile. I proudly smiled back, even though I almost killed him. "Take this. I think you'll need it, it'll really help you here. It's Baruffio's Brain Elixir." I hesitated. "Take it!" He suddenly said very forcefully. "It's an emergency, and if you don't know, I know magic too!"
He thrusted the bottle into my hands and I couldn't cower under those scary eagle eyes anymore, so I risked my life and poured the liquid in the bottle in my mouth. Suddenly, I felt smart in a very queer way. Smarter than ever.
"I still need help over here..." Harry's voice rang sharply in my ears and I jolted back to reality, whipping my head around, ready to see Harry using his mysterious power to kill the snake.
But all I saw was a helpless Harry at the verge of death, laying on the floor with his eyes closed. The snake coiled itself around his neck, ready to give a final squeeze.
"AHHHHHHHHH!" I scream, then biting my lip so hard I taste blood. I steadied myself. Think think think think think! That old man's bag must have something, I decide. Old people always have a lot of things, useless or useful. I dig around madly but to no avail. How can a water bottle(with no water), a pen, cards, a handphone(with a dead battery yay), paperwork teaching you how to play Mahjong, and clothes help? I dug some more, convinced old people kept useful things and hopelessly find a long, brown wooden stick. It was not exactly useful, but it feels so good in my hand. Perhaps it could be a source of consolation for Harry as he dies. Dying people like to have nice things in their hands, my grandmother once told me before she died.
This is stupid, I thought to myself as I slid the stick in his right hand. The snake hissed at me threateningly and an idea popped up in my mind. I could use the stick and stuff it in it's eyeballs! Yes, ooh yes I could! Ah, I knew that drink made me smarter. No, it was probably just me. I noticed Harry had wrapped his fingers very tightly around the stick. Ugh. What did he do that for?!
I tugged hard at the stick but it would just not budge. Stupid Harry. "Harry, let go, I'm trying to help you!" I said in frustration, pulling at the stick with both hands now. I could feel my face reddening as I huffed and puffed.
But his hand somehow held on to the stick very tightly. All of a sudden his eyelids snapped open, his green eyes looking at me intently. They were so bright, I felt the world melting away and a warm feeling settled in my heart.
Another pair of green eyes took over the place of Harry's and I found myself staring into icy ones.
"SNAAAAAAAAKE!" I screeched.
"Yes, we all know that," Harry said gently as he jumped to his feet. And I thought he was dying.
The stick struck the snake and I saw the snake blasted off to the corner of the room, turning into an ugly shade of brownish green as it lay defeated and unmoving on the floor.
"Maybe you should go around carrying sticks for the rest of your life," I said thoughtfully.