Chapter Two It all began…
The brief spring break was drawing to a close and unlike many students, Seamus and I were making the most of the last ounce of sunlight left over from the abnormally warm day. The early March vacation had been primarily sunny, except for two rainy days. This meant the grass of the school grounds was trampled by the many feet that had trodden there.
I sat on the cool ground under a large oak tree overlooking the lake. Wand in hand, I was practicing charming the near by dead leaves to float several feet into the air, then land in a neat pile one on top of the other, on top of the other, on top of the other... I eventually had a pile that was taller than me while sitting.
Losing interest fast, I brushed the pile over with a sweep of my hand and instead, turned my attention to Seamus. His slim figure was outlined by the last rays of sunlight peaking over the great hills of the horizon; a cool night was fast approaching.
Seamus stood at the edge of the lake, the sleeves of his robes were drawn back to his elbows and in one hand he clutched a number of carefully selected stones, each rather smooth, flat. He would take up one, holding it between his middle finger and thumb, with his index finger used to balance, then with an expert flick; he sent each one skipping along the surface of the water. One, two, three and sometimes four jumps, before disappearing with a small 'gloop'.
Holding my wand up, I pointed it at the back of his neck. I watched, mildly entertained as his hood lifted slowly. He looked back at me, but I had already dropped my wand. I smiled at him and he returned an amused lopsided smile.
I look up at his sleeping face, a slight frown on his lips. I wonder if I will ever see him smile at me in that easy way again. I wonder if I will ever see him smile again.
He had turned his attention back to skipping stones and I turned my wand back on him. This time, I successfully brought his hood up and onto his head.
He made no move to look at me, so I stood up and went over to him. Hearing my approach, Seamus turned slightly and wrapped his arm around my waist, but still he continued to throw the rocks until all the stones were spent. People always told us we made a cute pair. This of course is because of our fairy tale height difference. Seamus had been rather short in the first four years at Hogwarts, but after the summer leading up to our fifth year, he has been about a foot taller than me.
He turned to me and I pushed back his hood. He bent his neck and kissed me, lightly at first, but then more deeply and passionately. My heart fluttered as it always did when he was around. He played gently with the hair on the nape of my neck, twirling it around his fingers, sending jolting shivers up and down my spine.
This moment was quite uncommon between the two of us. We were usually accompanied by Neville Longbottom and Dean Thomas, Seamus's best mates. Not that I minded the others. They are great guys, really funny, but I personally prefer privacy for the two of us. Seamus was shy, and wasn't particularly into the whole public-display-of-intimacy thing. I never cared who saw us together, as long as I was with Seamus.
Closing my eyes, I touch my lips lightly with my only lotion free digits, my left middle and ring fingers. Thinking back, I can still remember the feel of that kiss. Tears well up in my eyes, and I think 'that was our last kiss' pushing back that unhappy thought, I force myself to be positive. He will be back.
Our foreheads were now pressed against the others. I looking up and Seamus, bending his neck looked down at me. I smiled at our closeness as he searched my eyes with a small smile. Seamus had always been rather quiet, and thoughtful, talking not just because, but when he had something to say. That's what had always made our silences comfortable, just like then. It did not take long for me to get lost in the deep blue pools before me that were his eyes.
I broke the sentimental moment by opening my mouth and yawning widely. He'd smiled down at me, brushed, not pressed, brushed his lips across mine and said with a gentle nod of his head, "Go on to bed."
I had smiled, nodded and after squeezing his arm lightly, walked by myself across the grounds, up the stone walk way and up the wide staircase leading up to the castle
Before passing through the tall wooden doors to the Entrance Hall I turned back and saw Seamus sit down in a rolling motion under the same tree where I had sat. His knees were bent, his arms wrapped loosely around them. I saw his silhouette blend with that of the tree when the sun finally disappeared behind the horizon. I smiled and, not for the first time, wondered what was happening in his head.
'That was the last time I saw him.' I think, rubbing in the last of the lotion. Bending his knees slightly, I move up to them, taking more lotion, I begin to massage it into the backs of his knees as I had done to his feet. Why would anyone want to do this?
It was not until the next day that I'd found out Seamus had disappeared.
Hermione, Parvati Patil, and Lavender Brown were all sitting with me at our house table for lunch. I was relatively unconcerned that I hadn't seen Seamus all day. Dean Thomas said he hadn't been in the common room all night, but even that didn't overly faze me. Seamus had mentioned a stomach pain the day prior, and I thought he may have gone up to the hospital wing like I had suggested. The other girls and I sat discussing the Care of Magical Creatures class we had just come from. Draco Malfoy, a Slytherin, had been searching frantically through the entire class for the Ashwinder he and his partner Pansy Parkinson were supposed to be watching. It had escaped, and after finding the ashy remains of the serpent like creature, the two had to find its fiery clutch of eggs, before they set the entire grounds on fire.
Professor McGonagall came from outside the hall, and stopped directly behind us. We had all stopped talking, knowing that it irritated teachers when we talked about our fellow students behind their backs. I turned to the professor and she was looking straight at me.
"Have you seen Mr. Finnigan today?" She asked, directing her question at me.
"No," I answered. "I thought he would be in the hospital wing, I was just about to go see him." I realized this was the answer she'd feared. Her face clouded over and she gestured for me to come with her. With an anxious look back at my friends I followed.
"Is anything the matter Professor?" I asked as we walked up the marble staircase.
"Professor Dumbledore will want to speak with you." She answered, as she looked back at me I found a very frightening expression on her face.
It was not though the expression itself was particularly frightening, but the context behind the look. It was one that until now I had thought was solely meant for Harry Potter. A kind of mix between the remorseful look all parents give him and an almost motherly expression. I suspect the motherly expression was because she herself has no family of her own and being that I am a muggle-born, she may have found me to seem a vulnerable child. I was shocked when I saw this expression when she looked at me, but not near as shocked as when she put her arm around my shoulder.
I recognized the gesture immediately. I myself had used it on several too many occasions, like when Lavender Brown's bunny died. I'd done the same to Ravenclaw's Cho Chang when her boyfriend Cedric Diggory met his untimely end. I'd even done the same for Harry Potter when the only remaining link to his parents, his godfather had died last year. When this gesture registered, I stopped.
"Where's Seamus?" I demanded, just barely maintaining my polite composure while talking to the professor.
"Its better we wait until you've seen Professor Dumbledore." Professor McGonagall said, putting slight pressure on my shoulders, urging me to continue walking. I didn't.
"Where is Seamus?" I repeated, drawing myself away from her kind embrace. "I can't go until I know."
"Well dear," Again that look, she called me dear... "We really don't know where he is. He's missing."
In the muggle world, fear sets in now, but I was already way past fear. My legs seemingly disappeared from beneath me and I staggered against a wall, sliding down it. I sat on the floor, staring at the opposite wall, raking my fingers through and pulling at my hair. I had all the reason to be afraid. Though I believe it may be too late to say that I don't take well to these kinds of situations.
There were a number of reasons that I was in this state. One was that I had just been with him the entire day before and it set in early for me that I won't be seeing him... for a long while. I also knew that this isn't one of the common muggle 'lost child' scenarios where he just has to hug a tree, and he will be found eventually. He must have been really lost if I was being taken to Dumbledore. But the primary reason for my distress was that the wizarding world was – and is – at war. Good against Evil if you will, and being that we are on the good side, the possibilities of who took him were drastically narrow.
"Come now girl," Professor McGonagall said; her hand under my elbow. "We have to go before someone" She was cut off by a loud booming bell signaling the end of lunch, ten minutes until class started. Professor McGonagall abandoned me and went to head off the hundreds of footsteps headed our way.
Suddenly Professor Dumbledore was there. He was bending down and his face appeared in my sight path. I hadn't heard him approach.
"Come now," He said, placing his hand on my arm. "We have to be strong for Mr. Finnigan. We need to find him before anything bad happens to him." I'd looked up at him, nodded with a swallow, allowed him to help me up and followed him to his office.
I normally would have inspected a new room thoroughly with a quick but observant glance, but under the circumstances, I only noticed the round ceiling lined with portraits, and a large bird perched beside the professor's desk. The people in the frames had been talking, but stopped when we entered.
Gathering myself, I told Professor Dumbledore everything about the last week I had been with Seamus. Where we'd been, what we'd done, who we'd talked with. Through my entire account, the Headmaster was quiet, nodding while watching me over his half moon glasses. He was kind, wise, and waited until I had collected myself. When he did finally speak, his voice was brisk, though it still held compassion, it made me relax slightly.
"I must send some immediate owls. You are welcome to stay here as long as you wish," He pulled some rolls of parchment and what looked like a small mirror from his desk. "You aren't required to attend your afternoon classes. If you would prefer, Madam Pomfrey will allow you a bed in the hospital wing if you prefer some solitude," He nodded solemnly, gathered his mirror and parchment, and left, pausing only to stroke the bird.
I sat for an indefinite amount of time, watching the fire in the large stone fireplace. The flames licked and jumped at something that seemed just out of reach, never quite getting it, but never giving up. I heard the thunder of hundreds of feet, and realized that the day was over, and it was supper. I wasn't hungry, I felt more ill than anything.
I looked up and discovered that the professor's bird was watching me. It hopped from its golden perch to the back, then arm or my chair.
"Hello there birdie." Said a voice, it couldn't have been my own, because that voice sounded too cheerful and normal. I reached up and stroked the animal's silky smooth feathers. Judging by its size, scarlet feathers, and golden points, the bird was a phoenix. Trust the headmaster to have such an exotic bird.
I have always excelled greatly in my Herbology and Care of Magical Creature classes. I hope to, after Hogwarts, study in the field of Magizoology or Herbology at the Ministry of Magic. I've considered coming back to Hogwarts to teach Care of Magical Creatures, but decided to gain some experience before pursuing that thought.
The bird crooned softly, and rested its head against my shoulder much like a dog would when you stroke it. I marveled at being this close to the animal, knowing full well that the Ministry of Magic classified phoenixes among the second most dangerous creatures. This is only so because it takes a very skilled wizard or witch to domesticate them.
Hearing whispers overhead, I notice that the portraits are conversing again.
I looked up, and realized, judging by all the name plates on the frames that they were all past headmasters or mistresses of Hogwarts.
One specific portrait caught my eye. A witch. Her frame read 'Deloris Quigglebe'. She held my gaze for a moment, then turned to the frame beside her own.
"Poor thing," She whispered. "She doesn't know..." Her voice trailed as she realized I was watching.
"What don't I know?" I asked. All the other portraits quieted, watching myself and the portrait of the lady.
"Well..." Deloris was a bit ruffled at being singled out. "Your sweetheart's gone missing."
"I've gathered as much," I said in an irritated tone.
"You didn't let me finish," The woman said straightening up in her frame. "He didn't just get lost on his way to his dormitory last night; he didn't even make it as far as the castle."
"How do you--?" I started.
"Know?" Asked the woman, "Most all of the portraits in the school know by now. Smith here just informed us all." She gestured to the extra wizard in the frame next to her own. A wizard with long blonde hair and the most colorful robes I'd ever seen shook his head violently, and rushed past the frame and out of sight.
"How do you know? What do you know? Where's Seamus?" I asked, all these questions spilling from my mouth uncontrollably.
"Sir Cadogan, the tactless git," Answered the lady, adding the last bit under her breath, earning her nods and mutters of agreement from the other portraits who were now intent on listening. "Sir Cadogan was down in the Charms corridor, lurking about as he always does, when he looked out the window that was across the hall from his frame. He saw a scuffle down by the lake, so being as inquisitive as he is; he clanked from frame to frame until he had a better view."
"What did he see?" I asked, standing up, and walking over, stopping just below the woman's portrait.
"Well like I said he saw a scuffle, but after a bit, young Finnigan got hit with a stunner and was disillusioned."
"Who was it?" I asked loudly, well over my normal volume. "Who hit him? Where did he take Seamus?"
"Cadogan didn't see the other's face, said he was all in black, and that his face was covered the whole time," The witch answered. "But every one knows who it is."
"Who took Seamus?" I repeated, my voice quivering with fear of what she was sure to say.
"One of You-Know-Who's lot," Answered the witch after a sideways glance at her colleagues. "A Death Eater."