I keep forgetting to put a disclaimer, but I'm sure you all know by know that I'm not J. ! So before I present the next chapter, I just wanted to point something out; I see A LOT of you reading, but none of you review! please please please please review! If I'm doing everything wrong, let me know! If you like something, let me know! *sigh* okay, just wanted to get that out of my system. Nevertheless, here's the next chapter! :D Enjoy!
It takes a good hour and a half for their excitement to be controlled and an even longer time for it to fade away. After spending three hours in the studious Hogwarts library researching various helpful spells and jinxes, my brain aches from reading and I feel a nap coming on. I'm silently hoping that Rhea is too interested in a book to notice, but of course, my nap does not last long.
"Willow are you sleeping?" she says weakly. I stifle a groan. "Get - up - now!" Every word is followed by a smack on the back of my head. I lift my head to face her. She looks just as tired as I am, but still, determination radiates off of her.
"I'm tired." I yawn bluntly.
"We're supposed to be looking up resourceful spells and jinxes remember?" she says.
"Yeah, I have been!" I mumble. "For three ridiculous hours!"
"It has not been three hours." she defends. Rhea uncertainly looks at the clock that hangs at the end of the library. Sure enough, it was after noon.
"Okay, maybe it has been." She admits. "But it wasn't a waste of time right? I mean, I've memorized a few useful ones. The library at my school, La Grande Bibliothèque, is much bigger, still, we don't read the same books as the students here. What about you?"
"Well I'm not much of a book worm. I only come here if I need to study for an exam.' I reply awkwardly.
"Did you find anything?" Her voice edges.
"Oh, of course." I add quickly. She looks relieved and pushes her silvery red hair behind her ears. I was supposed to be blond. But I didn't get the gene from either one of my parents. Instead I have my great aunt Bellatrix's dark, thick hair. So I'm told. I've seen her in a couple of photographs. My parents don't like to talk about her much. My father doesn't anyway.
"I thought Beauxabaton's was in France." I blurt out before I can catch myself. Rhea gives me a funny look.
"It is." She replies placing books back on their shelves, clearing the library tables.
"Then why don't you have an accent?"
She laughs lightly and smiles.
"My father taught me English at home while I learned French at school. I suppose it disappeared overtime." Rhea stares at me intently, her blue eyes swimming with curiosity. I can already feel what she is going to ask me next.
"You said you come here, right?" I nod, figuring out a way to change the subject. She can't know that I'm a Slytherin. She will just tell Albus. Actually, she might not even know what that means. She's from France, not here.
"In that case, which house are you in?" My heart drops and I knit my eyes in confusion.
"My cousin Rose comes here, and so does Albus, remember?"She clarifies, clearly seeing my bewilderment. "From what I hear, she is top of her class. She rants about Hogwarts all the time." Merlin, I forgot she was a Weasley! Rhea gives a sad smile, "I sometimes wish I cam here." Not knowing what to say, I try to dig my way out of the sticky situation.
"I think you're right. Rose definitely has her mom's brain – from what I've heard." I add promptly. I'm not sure how I know that. I think I remember my father mentioning it awhile back.
Rhea's eyes light up, "You know her?"
"Er – well… not personally. She's just in one of my classes." I invent. It's not a total lie, if you consider lunch a class. Just as she was about to say something, a loud rumbling interrupts her. It's so sudden that I actually pull out my wand, only to find Albus looking at us with a guilty face. I forgot he was here.
"Was that your stomach, Al?" Rhea asks with a laugh.
Albus's cheeks tinge a faint scarlet. "What? I'm hungry!" he says defensively. I'm doing my absolute best to try to hide my chuckles. "It's been, what, nearly three hours? Blimey three whole hours without food!"
"Maybe we should ditch the books and look for some?" I offer. Then a question pops into my head.
"How did you two get food last night? You had to eat didn't you?"
Rhea and Albus exchange hesitant expressions. I swear these two are going to drive me mental. I give them expectant looks. Albus lets out a deep sigh.
"Well, at first," he begins, "we decided to hunt, seeing that as our only option. We didn't know that this was Hogwarts until it finally dawned on us. Our portkey landed just outside the edge of the lake. Since we were already outside, why not right?" I shake my head in agreement. "So, Rhea and I headed towards the forest. In time we saw a couple of animals – "
"Animals?" I interrupt. I thought this Hogwarts was a ghost town.
Albus nods, "Yeah, but not one's we'd usually see – "
"For example," Rhea cuts in, "I could've sworn I saw a turtle, and Albus stopped me to point out an eagle!"
"Here? In Hogwarts?" I ask skeptically. None of this makes any sense at all.
"That's what we were –"
"Oi! I'm telling the story here!" Albus chimes is. Well, more like shouts. After a mumble of "sorry" from his cousin, he continues. "Anyways, after seeing all that, we thought we were going a bit mad, so we made clear of the forest. About an hour later we ran into, some, well… trouble." He lingers on the last word.
"Trouble?" I repeat. Clearly, this isn't going to be good. Albus shifts his weight uneasily, and starts to preoccupy himself with is untidy brown hair. Rhea then takes over.
"We crossed paths with another set of wizards. A girl from my school, Liesel, the little prat," she adds with a scrunched expression, "and a witch from here." Rhea glances at Albus who is still trying to flatten his hair.
"Kimberly Chang." He murmurs affectionately. His ears turn a bright shade of pink.
"Right," Rhea digresses, "so before we could have talked to them, they attacked us and before I knew it, I was blasted away by the Chang girl. When I got up and approached them… I saw Liesel lying on the grass clutching her side. Her robes were an unnaturally… red - for our school colors." she clears her throat. "The other girl fled."
A few moments go by before I ask, "Why didn't you get her Albus?" But I know why, he fancies her. Every boy has at one point.
"I was too busy looking at what I did to Liesel." He says softly. The quiver in his voice frightens me. I look up to see Albus grim-faced and when he speaks, his voice trails miles away. Guilt, and something worse than that, is etched all over his face. "I hurt her. I hurt her very badly." He chokes out.
My heart soaks and is drenched with nothing but utter revulsion and shame on my behalf. How could I have been so insensitive? Albus may have just – ended someone's life. Accidently of course, but nevertheless a girl may have died. This brings up so many questions, but even I am not cold enough to insist on questioning. I can already see the guilt eating him alive. My head is going to explode soon from too many emotions…
Rhea continues, "While the Chang girl left, a large piece of bread dropped from her pocket." She finishes quietly. Through the silence I can hear a sniffle from the Potter boy and I can see the Delaclour representative blinking rapidly. I gently change the matter, "Well, I think it's time for our won little adventure. Let's go look fro our own food, shall we?" I supply a delicate smile. Both cousins nod and we grab our wands as we make our way out of the library.
"Al, do you even know where we are going?" presses Rhea. Our walk down corridors and staircases resulted in Albus taking the lead, claiming that he knew exactly where the hidden Hogwarts kitchens are.
"Of course I do, just relax." assures Albus, still trying to sweep his messy hair from his eyes. We walk down our fourth flight of stairs, and enter our eleventh corridor. Hogwarts without students (at least not one's that are trying to kill each other) or teachers is quite an eerie sight, not even the paintings seem alive. In fact, I pinch myself to make sure that I'm not dreaming. Unfortunately, I'm not. A couple of minutes later, an idea strikes Albus.
"Let's go check out the Great Hall." He proposes. I raise an eyebrow.
"Why the sudden change in direction?" I ask.
He shrugs, "Why not?" and with that (and an aggravated sight from his cousin), we journey our what there, careful on the lookout. It isn't long before I hear something; a flapping of wings. I stretch out my arm to signal Albus and Rhea to halt.
"Do you hear that?" I whisper.
Albus emerald eyes stay still, straining to hear the bird. Rhea cups her ear, waiting. The bird's wings bat again, and the noise echoes through the corridor.
"That way." points Rhea to her right. One after another, we creep our way towards a window, hoping to see a bird perched there. In my excitement of proving my theory of the lack of birds at Hogwarts wrong, I crane my neck to get a glimpse. Albus gently grabs my wrist. I turn to face him, flicking my eyes from my wrist to his eyes, he flushes again and he quickly lets go, unaware of the stirring sensation in my stomach.
He puts a finger to his lips and he draws my attention to something beneath the window. There on the floor is a little canary bathing himself in the memorial that Fred and George Weasley bestowed us here, rebelling the Ministry those many years ago. I look back at Rhea, who is now reading the plaque on the wall adjacent to the swap. She smiles to herself, her eyes wide with admiration.
"You know, I always thought I am a lot like them." She says thoughtfully.
Albus laughs lightly while walking over to Rhea, "I couldn't agree more." He moves over to her and places a hand on her shoulder, as she rests her head on his. They whisper to each other and I can make out certain words like, "Uncle George" and "remember", things of that nature. I suddenly feel very, very alone.
While the relatives reminisce on their favorite memories, my ears pick up yet another noise, the sound of scuffling. I turn ever so slightly to the doorway. Could it be –?
"Hey, psst! " I hiss softly to Rhea and Albus, careful not to give away our names, just in case. "Hey!" I try to get their attention by waving my arms violently. Albus catches my eyes, stops whispering and he takes notice of my urgent whispers and mouths "What?"
I make a pointing motion to the noise.
"Do you hear that?" I barely breath. Rhea turns away from the memorial, confused at my tone of voice.
"Willow, the bird already flew – "
But where the bird flew , I'll never know, because the wall behind us just exploded. Pieces of hard, ancient, stone fly everywhere, one cuts into the edge of my jaw line. Panic abruptly rises fiercely within me, while my eyes search frantically for, well, my friends. Because of the heavy dust layer, my eyes are blinded, but I can hear the spells crashing against the walls, creating more debris everywhere. I decide to wait until the dust settles, I don't want to accidently hit Albus or Rhea, so I quietly creep behind the stairwell with my wand out. Because the thick murky clouds of dust have no affect on sound, thank Merlin, I hear shouts coming from both sides of the fight.
"Rhea, on your left!" Albus yells. More crashing and clanging, even some splashing.
"Think your so quick, potter? I haven't forgotten about out little – exchange, earlier." My blood freezes, It's Kellan Parkinson . I struggle to get up, ready to take him on but before I take a step, he shouts, "Incendio!"
Once again, the place is billowing in smoke. Fire, why is it always fire? I see the flames peeking out behind the stairwell, and I sojourn, fast. Suddenly, I'm back in the forest. The smoke is strangling my throat. I see Vlad standing over me. The flames are rising with every second. Terror fills my every fiber of being. I'm going to die. I start to hyperventilate, and sweat beads cover my forehead. Not the forest, not again. I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for the nightmare to end. Vlad laughs his terrible laugh. Get away from me! I bit my lip and pull my hair back, even though its already in a pony tail. Ugly coughs come out of my mouth, the same feelings reoccur as they did in the forest. I'm going to die.
"Willow? Willow!" Rheas screams hysterically. I need to get out of here, I have to get out of here. I fight the dust without success, looking for an exit.
"WILLOW! WILLOW WHERE ARE YOU?!" screams Albus. "WILLOW!" He screams again, choking on each word.
I turn on my heels, towards his voice. "Albus!" I yell, but it gets stuck in my throat. "Albus! " I try again. My voice comes out weak and raspy. "Agumenti!" I croak, but by now it is too late. The fire is everywhere. There is no escape, but to take the stairs. I frantically run up the stairwell, and I'm halfway up when someone grabs hold of my ankle. They tug at my pants, and I say, "Stupefy" but the attacker ducks.
"Kellan get off of me!" I croak a bit loader. The smoke has reached up here.
"How dare you leave us! I though we had an alliance!" he yells.
"Well, you thought wrong! I'm not on your side anymore!" I counter and I aim a good kick at his shoulder.
"You little, prat." He snarls, "I trusted you! WE TRUSTED YOU!" The provoker seizes my left leg, and I shake him off.
I try to step up with my right leg, while grabbing the edge of the stair, but my sweaty hands slip off, causing me to fall back, right on top of the Kellan. He grabs both off my wrists and drags me through the smoke to the other side, past the memorial, past the doorway, I close my eyes to shield them from the burning sensation. I feel him shove me into a closet, and the he slams the door in my face. I blink my eyes open, all the smoke is gone but I smell brunt hair, clothes, even skin. The scars on my hands are clearly visible, they need some serious remedying. I instantly search my pockets from my wand, thinking I placed it there. Kellan took it. I pull twist the knob of the door, and just as I suspected it was locked. Anger rushes through me as I pound and kick hard on the supply closet door and pull the knob ferociously.
"LET ME OUT OF HERE! OR I BLOODY SWEAR YOU WONT MAKE IT TO SEE THE LIVING DAY WHEN I COME OUT!" I roar.
"I don't know. That didn't seem very convincing, did it Albus?" Rhea's voice is dripping with pure hatred and abhorrence. The voice that I though was Kellan's proved to be my what- once alliance's.
Albus beautiful voice is traded in for one full of hurt and disgust "Goodbye, Willow. If anything this betrayal brought us closer together, as enemies."
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