Author's Note: Wow...we've officially hit double digits! Party! I'm getting impatient with myself, I want the tournament to start, since I have all these awesome ideas! So I'm trying to skip as many Hogwarts days as possiable. There's only five more days! And I think I'll try to hack through them in this chapter...any suggestions? Comments? Please message and review, I always reply, and if you get lucky, I may send dirty pictures. Later! -
Revenge of the Misfits
Chapter 10
The next morning, Sarah woke up well before sunrise for no apparent reason. She sat up, rubbed her eyes and put in contacts, and was suddenly wide awake. First she tried to go back to sleep, but kept tossing and turning, unable to stay comfortable. Then she started pacing until Pavarti woke up and sleepily told her to either go back to sleep or go down in the common room. Sarah chose the latter, and began to rummage through her trunk for clothes. She balked at the touch of the gray wool uniform, and looked at the clock, which read four a.m.! The blonde witch then pulled on a black mini skirt and fishnet tights, then a forest green sweater that had thumb holes cut in the sleeves. She tugged on her Coverses, then quietly tip-toed down the stairs so not to wake anybody up.
Down in the common room, it was suprisingly clean. The house elves must have cleaned overnight, Sarah thought, looking over to her books and homework which were neatly stacked on her usual table. Walking over, Sarah picked up the novel she had been reading, a copy of Shakesphere's Hamlet, then slipped nimbly out the portrait hole. The corridor outside was completely empty, and the windows dark. All the portraits were sleeping, and the torches mere embers from the previous night. Sarah tugged out her wand and muttered "Lumos," and continued walking until she reached the Grand Staircases.
They were almost all unmoving, and no miniscule black dots of students were seen at the bottom, or anywhere. Sarah carefully set foot on the staircase running up and across to the ninth floor, and began to walk across. This was one of the most dizzying staircases, since it went on a very steep slant, and right across the entire cathedral like streach of the never ending upward floors. Upon reaching the ninth floor, Sarah wound through a passage to the tenth, which came out behind a rather ugly tapestry of a dead knight. The corridor was long, and had windows on the left side arching up around the ceiling, and at the end lay the large doors to the Owlery.
Sarah looked up, and saw thousands of stars twinkling around her. She gasped in wonder, having never seen so many living right across the Thames River from London. The city lights blotted out almost everything. The only time she could remember having seen so many stars was when she went on a camping trip with her aunt when she was nine. The Milky Way was even visible then, since the drove literally out to the middle of nowhere in northern England. It was the best (and only) vacation that Sarah could remember.
Quietly padding down the stone floor, Sarah's sneakers squeaked a little as she leaned all her body on the large, wooden doors to the Owlery to get them open. The floor was littered with droppings and feathers, hundreds of sleeping owls were perched in the rafters, a seldom few fluttering around. Sarah craned her neck up, and spotted the snowy white owl that she recognized as Hedwig sleeping with her head tucked under her wing.
Sarah smiled, then walked out to the very edge of the owlery, which was totally open to wind and snow, or even rain. It was literally like a wall had been knocked out. Sarah brushed the droppings and feathers off the floor, then sat down, letting her legs dangle over the edge. She enhaled the crisp autumn air, and opened her eyes to see a tiny yellow line along the black horizon. Above her, the stars were still there, and it was the most beautiful sunrise she ever saw. Across the grounds, thin rays of golden light wove across the sweeping fields of grass, casting long shadows with every blade they met. The trees were turned black with their own shadows, birds fluttered out from them in an enourmous flock, flapping around in circles in the sky. The lake sparkled clear, Sarah had to squint her brown eyes to look at it. She even thought a tentacle rose above the surface, but after she blinked it was gone.
The sky was slowly turning into a fantastic painting of pink, yellow, and black that was slowly receding into a deep navy blue. Sarah's breath quickened in excitement as the sun burst over the horizon, casting everything into broad color and daylight. She flinched as the bright light hit her, bathing the witch in yellow sunlight, coming from darkness into sunlight. Sarah smiled softly, and leaned on the side of the Owlery in the shade, closing he eyes and drifting off to sleep.
"Sarah..." a foggy voice broke into her counciness, no...she didn't want to wake up, Sarah felt so warm, and the air was so darned cold.
"Come on, wake up time..." now the rude person was shaking her, and Sarah opened her eyes to become thin brown slits, but she couldn't see a thing.
"Arg!" she howled, as a sharp pain poked at her eyelid. "Damn contacts!" she yelled, rubbing and pulling at her eyes until they felt better. Finally able to see, Sarah looked up to see her red haired friend balanced on his heels in front of her.
"Good morning," Ron greeted her, smiling lightly. He easily rose to his feet, and offered a hand to Sarah to get up, which she gladly took. "What are you doing here?"
"I couldn't fall asleep, so I watched the sunrise." Sarah answered, motioning at the sky, which was now a clear, azure blue with a white sun sparkling above them. The clock chimed six thirty, ringing fast through the cold air. "You?"
"Oh, I forgot it's my mum's birthday today." Ron answered, holding up a parcel. "Harry's letting me borrow Hedwig, I just can't find her."
Sarah looked straight up, and pointed to the sleeping owl. Ron whistled to rouse her, and Hedwig grumpily floated down to rest on Sarah's forearm, obviously not happy about having to start out so early. When Ro tried to tie on the package, she bit him, then Sarah poked the owl in the stomach with her forefinger until she held out her leg. The friends walked over silently to the missing wall, and Hedwig began to flap her long white wings, the wind blowing Sarah's and Ron's hair around a bit before she took off into the sky with amazing speed. They both watched her until the snowy owl until she was no longer visible, then looked simotaniusly at each other, staring for a split second into each other's eyes.
"Guess we should go to breakfast now," Sarah chirped, picked up her book, then started journeying down the stairs once again. Ron shook his head briefly, slightly confused, before following her down to breakfast.
The rest of the day dragged on, the most intersting thing that happened was Hannah Abbot getting too close to the Venomus Tentacula in herbology, which earned a trip to the hospital wing. That night, Sarah was found curled up near the fire, carefully completeing her bowtruckle drawing for Care of Magical Creatures. The air around the fireplace was warm, and almost everybody in the common room had on an extra sweater or was wrapped in a blanket.
"Hello," Ginny greeted, taking the chair opposite of her brother's friend.
"Hey, Ginny." Sarah absently answered, not stopping her careful sketching. Her blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail and clipped up with a large barette to keep it off the back of her neck, and her mahogany wand was tucked behind her right ear. Ginny was still dressed in her school uniform, minus the long black robes.
"So...what's up with you and my brother?" Ginny quizzically asked, and Sarah kept on drawing for a moment before digesting what the younger girl had just said.
"Eh?" she asked, a bit shocked.
"You heard me," Ginny answered, leaning back in the chair and putting her legs up on the table. "Frankly, I don't really care, it's just nice to know."
"Uh...we're just friends, at least I thought so..." Sarah answered, her mind slightly boggled.
"Then why does Hermione act like she hates you whenever you're both together?" Ginny pestered. "I know she can be an obsessive bitch sometimes, but what exactly did you do?"
"It's none of your business, and watch your mouth, young lady!" Sarah shot back, shaking her quill at the Weasley. Ginny rolled her eyes at the last part, then looked over Sarah's shoulder at the drawing.
"The arm's crooked," Ginny remarked, leaning on the chair from behind with both hands. Sarah smacked her fingertips, and Ginny gave a small squeak of outrage.
"D'you think I don't know that!" Sarah snapped. "Don't you have somebody better to go pester? And why do you care so much about me and Ron?"
Ginny shrugged, and replied in an annoyingly light voice "I just don't want Ron to get involved with the wrong people."
Sarah's dark eyebrows contracted in a light frown under her bangs. "What's that supposed to mean?" But Ginny had already strutted across the common room to sit on Harry's lap, shooting a smirk over to the older witch, like she knew something that Sarah didn't. In Sarah's opinion, Ginny was treacherous, and Sarah didn't want to get too involved with the girl.
Sarah blew a piece of hair from her eyes, then set back to work on correcting the bowtruckle's arm.
Later that night, Sarah was busy packing her trunk for Australia. A knot of dread had settled in her stomach, for many possiable reasons. Thunder sounded in the distance, rattling the glass panes of the window in the seventh year girl's dormitory. Sarah only momentarily looked up, to see lightning flash in the far distance.
The ground was void of all animals and people, the birds in the forest had stopped chirping, always a sign of a large storm. Sarah pushed the window open, and leaned out, her hair blowing around her thin face. The sky was a peculiar color, blood red from the sunset, though the sun had died from the sky fifteen minutes prior. The storm was coming from the north, across the lake in large, threatning black clouds. The black clouds made fantastic stains across the blood red, but it was a rather frightening image of darkness and war to Sarah.
The stars were hardly visible, but from her astronomy class Sarah recognized Mars, planet representing the god of war, shining bright red above them. She snorted, who really believed all that crap anyways? She pulled her thin body back in the window, shutting and locking the window and pulling the drapes tight across it.
Entering the bathroom to prepare for bed, Sarah looked into her reflection, and into her large brown eyes. People always say that eyes are windows to the soul, she thought. But why when I look into mine do I see nothing but darkness?