The next day I woke up early to go to the forest before classes. Most people would do the same to play cards, practice spell, etc.. After I got dressed grabbed my notebook-bag. It was a bag I had that kept my writing, school-work notebooks, my lucky pad and my and my fathers sketch book. By now I remembered basically everything from my past in this world, it was strange, but exciting. I opened the window in the dormitory and looked over the courtyard. It was cold so I put on a jacket.
As I put my left arm through the sleeve, it began to sting. "Ouch!" I said. I zipped my coat and rolled down my sleeve. The dark mark on my arm was glowing, so much that it showed through the bandage. I stared at it for a moment then rolled down my sleeve. I feared that paying more attention to it would only complicate things, or just lay plan to Voldemort's purpose to grace me with it.
I grabbed my pack and made my way to the courtyard. When I got there I saw Neville and Ron playing cards.
"Hey, Ron, hey, Neville."
"Hey Jess" Said Neville.
"Hey" Said Ron without looking up from his deck. Neville placed down a full house. Ron hung his head in dismay.
"Bloody hell," he said reaching into his pocket then slapping five galleons into Neville's hand.
"In order to win a game of skill, one must first acquire them, Ronald." I said flashing a cheeky grin at Ron.
"Shut up," He mumbled in response.
"So Jess you feeling better? You gave up all a bit of a scare yesterday." Said Neville.
"Yeah, yeah loads, thanks for asking. Still a bit shaken by it but other than that, brilliant."
"That's good."
"Hey, have either of you seen Harry, I wanted to talk to him about something."
"Humph! Probably up in his room moaning about how the world's against him." Said a boy from behind me. I turned around and it was Seamus, standing next to him was Dean. I rolled my eyes then look at him.
"What more will it take for you to open your eyes to the truth Seamus?" I asked him.
"When I get some proof that he's back. Just one persons word isn't enough to convince me."
"Oh is that so?" I said pulling up my sleeve and unwrapping the bandage.
Ron started to get up and stop me. "Jess..." He said in warning.
"Well then, what do you make of this?" I showed him my dark mark, ignoring Ron's yield. His eyes darted from the mark, to me. Dean stayed silent, he was one of the few that knew what happened. He touched Seamus' shoulder. Seamus looked at him then back at me and they left. "Bloody cowerd."
"Go easy on him Jess, everyone's trying to hope he's not really back ." Said Neville. I turned to him as I re-wrapped the bandage and pulled down my sleeve.
"While it's we shouldn't let go of what little hope we have, if the only thing anyone is going to do is deny what's going on, we might as well be dead already."
I walked to the woods. I passed Hagrid's hut. It was still empty. Just looking at it I could hear the sound of his flute. I could also picture the time, in first year, when I was laying in the sun, staring at the clouds, then Harry joined me and we talked and laughed and chased each other around.
"Ha ha ha ha ha! For the best flyer in our year, your as slow as a slug on land!" I said.
"Oh really?!" Harry said as he fell. "Ouch." He said nonchalantly. I stood over him with my hands behind my back,
"Yes really."
He looked at my ankle then back up at me. Then he grabbed me by the ankle and pulled me to the ground.
"Yeah well you're as wobbly as a worm!"
We laughed and rolled onto our backs, gazing into the clouds. I thought for a moment then sat up bringing my knees to my chest. Harry turned to look at me.
"Do you think he really will come back someday?" I said.
"I hope not."
"Well, just say he does. We'd be the first ones he'd target. Then who knows how many he and his followers will get to. What will we do then?" Harry sat up and looked at me then to the ground and back to me. "
I don't know, we'll just have to wait and see, together." We looked at each other and smiled.
I smiled at this memory, it's one of the first that I've had since I came here. I took another look at Hagirid's empty hut and made my way to the forest. When I reached the forest I heard something a shrieking noise. I poked my head around a tree and before me I saw a heard of thestrals. I walked toward a mother who was caring for her child and smiled. The mother looked up and walked toward me. She nudged my hand to have me pet her, so I did. She then signaled her baby to come to her side and I pet him too.
I had always felt I could relate to thestrals in both realities. As a child here, I was always pushed away from people. Somehow before I even realized it, they knew I was different.
After a few minutes I let the mother and baby be on their way. I walked to a tree, sat underneath it, and took out my sketchbook to draw the beautiful creatures. I heard Luna come along and start feeding them, and not long after, Harry came. They couldn't see me behind the tree. I tried not to be nosy as they talked so I just kept sketching.
Then Luna said something that cought my ear. "Because if there's only you and Jessica you're not as much of a threat"
It made sense. Still I had a feeling that Voldemort was trying to get to me more than Harry. Trying to break me. I just didn't know why.
Luna threw a piece of meat at the baby that I pet before. It ran towards it swallowing it in on e gulp, then it and started walking towards me. I reached out a hand and he nuzzled into it. He started back towards back his mother and I turned back to look at Harry. I grinned at him and he grinned back. He came by the tree and sat next to me.
"Feeling better?" He said.
"Yeah." He then took a glance at my dad's sketchpad. "It's my dad's. It's magic, afer you draw something," I put the finishing touches on my drawing, which began to move. "It animates itself."
"Wow."
"It also never runs out of pages, there are actually some in here that my dad drew of me and my mum. He even drew one of your family." I turned to the picture of him, Lily and James. He looked at it and smiled, then he looked at me.
"So have you remembered who," He signaled to my arm.
"No, but I think you your hunch may have been pretty spot on." I said. I looked away remembering Angus' murder.
Harry saw this and changed the subject, "Hey want to go fly a bit on the Quidditch field?" He asked. I nodded, "Yeah," I said "If you're prepared to get flown circles around."
I got up, while he stayed under the tree. He looked at me, then my ankle then back at me. A crooked smile crept over his face.
I knew exactly what he was thinking, Harry James potter don't you dare!" I started to run but he grabbed my ankle causing me to fall flat on my back.
He crawled over to me, and put grass on my face, "Still wobbly I see."
I wanted to punch him in the face, but instead I just burst out laughing.