Let's go back in time, shall we?

I hope you like it!

*****B*****

Chapter 11 – Flashback

He doesn't want to hit the ducks, just scare them. He knows he isn't allowed to do it but he just doesn't care. Searching for some good and small rocks, he starts to think about the argument he had with his parents. So unfair! Just because he wanted to change the colour of one of the walls in his bedroom! He knew that his father didn't need anymore red paint and the bucket was just laying in the garage…

After finding five or six rocks, he walks around the pond, trying to find a better spot, close to the ducks. Not having any luck, he decides to use the bench for some height. Storing the rest of the rocks in his sweater pocket, he takes the first one. There's a duck not 15 feet away from him. On top of the bench, he doesn't have a lot of space to get his feet in a good position, but it's not impossible. He raises his arm, ready for the first throw.

"Mark Henley, what are you doing here?"

He turns around quickly, dropping the rock on the ground.

"N-nothing Mrs Campbell."

"Where are your parents?" the old woman asks, looking around the park.

"At home." he says, getting down from the bench, looking at the ground.

"Are you allowed to be here alone, dear?"

"Of course, I'm 10!" he answers looking offended.

"Yes, you're becoming quite a young man." she says with a sigh. "But remember, a man doesn't lie…"

"I'm not lying." and without another word he turns away from the old lady, deciding that he should save the throwing of rocks for another day.

He should've guessed. If he wanted to go unnoticed in the park, he shouldn't have chosen the pond but instead… the playground. Full of kids of his own age. No one would ask.

So he starts to run towards the playground but stops in his tracks when he is just a couple of feet away from the playground entrance. He surveys the place, trying to see if any of his friends are in there. He recognizes some of kids from his school: there's a group of boys with a football but they're older than him and there's Jessica and Cassidy too, both from his class, on the swings. And then he notices her.

Granger.

She's seated on a bench, beside her mother and both of them are reading. Not surprising. Only Granger would read in a playground. Maybe Tom was right; maybe she really lives in the local library.

He decides to get behind a tree, in order to see her without being seen. Minutes later, her mother talks with an outstretched hand. She's asking for her book and she doesn't look happy. He smirks because that only means one thing: she's going to join the other kids on the playground. And that gives him a perfect opportunity to mess with her.

Sadly, he is alone. None of his friends are nearby and it would be really easier to annoy Granger if he had company.

The girl looks annoyed but gives the book to her mother nonetheless. She walks slowly around the playground giving glances in her mother's direction, who's looking at her intently. She approaches the girls who are near the swings. They start looking at her with some disdain and at the last moment, she runs away from them and go towards the clump that surrounds one of the sides of the local park.

He looks at her mother and notices that the woman is distracted with her magazine. She mustn't have notice where her daughter went.

What is she doing? Why is she going there? She just gave her book to her mother so he can't think of a single reason someone like Granger would go to the middle of the trees. Only boys do that. Sometimes he goes to the clump with his friends to find sticks and pieces of wood in order to build huts. But girls don't do that. Much less Granger.

Smirking to himself, he decides to leave his hidden place and follow her. Granger just made things easier for him. No one would be around and there are a lot of muddy things at that clump. On her bushy hair would be really funny! And even if she complained to her mother about him, she would be in trouble too because she went to a place she wasn't supposed to. Perfect.

Looking back to the playground, trying to see if anyone notices him, he starts to enter the clump slowly, trying not to do much noise when his feet hit the leafy ground. He knows the clump better than her, he's sure of that, so he's not very worried when he doesn't see her at first. He decides to take the path less likely for her to take and bends a little: that way it'll be easier to hide in the bushes.

Minutes later and without finding her, he starts to get bored but he doesn't want to give up. The other boys wouldn't waste an opportunity like this, with no parents and no teachers around.

"Where are you, Granger?" he whispers to himself, "maybe she went back to the playground…"

Raising to his full eight and looking around, something caught his eyes.

It's her.

She's seated on a rock, legs folded in front of her, one hand holding her leaned head and the other touching the ground and she really looks like a easy target.

Mud in her hair? Yes, that will be perfect! He looks at the ground underneath his feet and notice that it's not very muddy. He can only find mud beside the pond. Surprisingly, he's not in the mood to go so far just to get a portion of mud. Maybe he should stick to this leafs. They wont be so interesting to throw and he has to get closer to her in order to throw them on top of her head but still, watching Granger get angry and with her air looking funny it's to good to decline.

Slowly, he gets closer to her, surrounding the area where she is seated and approaching from behind, with a smirk on his lips. When he is just a couple feet from her, he gets on his knees and takes that moment to quietly get some of the broken leafs on the ground inside his sweater pocket, one by one, without making any noise louder than the wind that blows through the trees.

"Move…please…"

He stops on his tracks, without breathing, and looks up at her. She hadn't moved. For a moment he thought that he had been caught but then she whispers something else…

"I don't understand…"

It's strange to hear Granger whispering. Usually she talks with her annoying and shrill voice, when she's trying to prove that she's smarter than anyone else.

He decides to wait for something else from her, trying to understand what is she doing.

"Just a bit, please. You did it a couple days ago…"

Who was she talking to, a bug?

Suddenly she gets straighter and crosses her arms behind her back, closing her hands tightly.

"Come on…" she moans, almost desperately.

He bends to his right, trying to catch what's in front of her and notices the old glass bottle. He releases a tiny sigh and shakes his head. Was she really talking with an old bottle? Granger is barmy. Maybe he should just get it over with and throw the handful of leafs he caught on top of her. What was he waiting for?

He puts one hand on his pocket, preparing himself, without getting his eyes away from her, when suddenly, he hears a crash.

Without thinking he stands up in a second and his jaw drops. The bottle, that used to be whole, is shattered in front of her in tiny pieces. When he is wondering about what just occurred, something starts to happen: the pieces start to jump, as if an earthquake making them do it. He blinks a lot of times, not believing in what he is seeing but it never stops.

Seconds later, Granger starts panting and that's when the pieces of broken glass stop. This is when he looks at her and realizes that now she's looking up at him with wide eyes.

What just happened? He could be thinking that it was his head playing games if it wasn't for her scared face. But he is completely sure that the green glass pieces that are now scattered on the ground were moving by themselves.

"How…how did you do it?" he mutters, looking between her and the remains of the bottle.

She gets up from the floor and slowly, faces him.

"I-I don't… I don't know." she stammers.

He releases a loud gasp. Granger knows everything and doesn't know about this?

"Please, don't tell anyone."

That's when he stops breathing and, with his mouth open, he knew that it was truth: she had done it! She broke a bottle and made the remains jump up and down, without moving them. Has she done it with her mind? Who cares? That wasn't normal!

He starts to retreat, wanting to go back to the park, where at least people were normal.

"You are a freak, Granger." He simply says, wanting to get away from her as fast as he could. He had to warn the others. When he turns around she speaks.

"You will be a freak too if you tell anyone. No one will believe it, you know?"

He turns around and looks at her face, insecure but with a little resolution. He knows that she is right.

"Does anyone know?", he whispers, loudly enough for her to ear. He doesn't want to approach her.

"No."

The response leaves him unsettled. He would rather know that her parents knew about her… what? Powers?

She bites her lip, looking nervous.

"How long have you been doing it?" he asks, approaching her, but not too close.

She looks behind her, to the shattered glass.

"The first time it happened was a couple months ago…"

He gets beside her, looking at the same spot.

"How did it happen?"

"I'm not sure…" she says after a sigh, "I was having lunch and suddenly the cup of glass I used shattered in front of me. I remember that I was starring at him, but I wasn't thinking about breaking him. It just did."

"What were you thinking, then?" he asks, looking at her.

"School", she says, looking pointedly. He gets uncomfortable.

"You can't control it, can you?" Maybe that's why she was so different. Peter Parker was weird too.

"I don't think so."

He closes his eyes and opens them again. Then he pinches himself. He couldn't believe it. That really happened.

In that moment he starts to understand that he is the only one who knows about this. Granger doesn't have friends and maybe she chooses not to, because of her secret. He sighs.

"Please don't tell anyone."

"I won't." The truth his, he can't tell anyone or he will have to go to the psychiatric again.

"Thank you."

"What's the lunch today?"

"I dunno, something with mashed potatoes…"

"Mashed potatoes?" Tom asks. "Hey, Greg, today we'll have mashed potatoes!"

The boys start plotting something but Mark wasn't paying attention. Two days ago he discovered something about Granger and that had troubled him ever since. First, he was afraid that someone saw them together. Then, he was afraid that Granger thought that they were friends just because they talked to each other. And just this morning, he started to get uneasy because he wasn't sure if she was going to greet him when he got to school and embarrass him in front of his friends.

But she ignored him the all day, like it never happened, and that bothered him a lot. Like nothing was different. But everything was different.

He wondered what would he do if he had the same powers as her. He wouldn't keep it a secret, that's for sure! Even the older boys would be afraid of him.

They enter the canteen and sit in the usual places. He starts to forget about his troubles and engages in one conversation about the cartoon he saw Sunday morning, while eating. And that's when Tom interrupts him.

"Are you going to eat that?" he askes him surprised.

"Yeah, why?" he has a feeling why, but doesn't want to suggest it.

Tom leans forward.

"Let's throw it at Granger! You could add your portions with our portions…."

The other three boys beam at him, looking excited. He looks behind him, where Granger is seated alone, eating her carrots with a book in her lap.

"Let her be." He says, looking at his lunch. No one speaks for a moment and he starts to get uncomfortable.

"Well, if you don't want to, we'll do it without you." Tom says suddenly, shrugging.

"No!" he says loudly. Greg gets nervous and he knows that he just did a mistake because he just defied Tom.

Tom gets up and leans on the table with his arms supporting him, challenging.

"Why Mark? Are going to beat me up if I do it?"

" I just don't think that it's funny anymore." Mark says, without looking away from Tom's eyes.

"Why?" he asks with a cold laugh "Is she your girlfriend?" and then he laughs louder, looking around, trying to get supporters. "Granger is Mark's girlfriend! I can't believe it!"

Oliver is laughing too but Greg is very uncomfortable.

"Let it go Tom, Mark must be sick or something." he says almost desperate.

Tom ignores him and leaves the table, grabbing his stomach because of his laugher and approaching the place were the bottles of water are.

At this moment some other kids of his class are looking. Tom is coming back to the table and it's late when he realizes his intentions, since Oliver is already holding him down on the chair, waiting for Tom.

Greg tries to delay Tom but he can't do much or he will have his pants wet too.

Suddenly, there's a loud gasp and silence follows. Everyone is looking at Tom, even the canteen ladies.

Tom has water running down his pants and the bottle of plastic at his feet, opened and deformed. No one says anything for minutes and Tom is just looking at the floor, with his mouth open.

Suddenly, a woman approaches him with mop and a bucket and that's when everyone starts to whisper about what just happened.

"Don't worry kids! It must have been the pressure inside the bottle. Go ahead, there's nothing to see here…" the woman says.

Oliver and Greg quickly approach him and get him out of the cafeteria but he just stands there, looking at the bottle.

She used her powers!

When he turns around to look at her, he notices that her chair is empty but he gets a glimpse of her hair, getting out of the door that goes to the school playground.

Since everyone is gossiping about what just happened no one notices him following her. The moment he gets outside, he starts to run, when he sees her just turning around a corner.

"Hermione!" he shouts just before turning the corner himself.

She peeks from behind the little shed they had just outside the school garden and hides herself again, but he notices her. Walking quickly, and looking behind, making sure that he isn't being followed, he gets behind the shed too.

"You did it, didn't you?" he asks, whispering.

She is biting her lower lip, looking ashamed and worried.

"Don't worry, they think that it was the pressure inside the bottle."

"Really?"

"Yeah, no one will know."

They get quiet and uncomfortable, playing with the dry mud, using their feet, when they decided to speak at the same time.

"Thank you."

And they sealed it.

In the future they wouldn't talk much again, until the day she made 11 years old and she called to his house, telling the good news.

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Thank you for sticking up with me until now and please, comment, review and ask anything you want to :).