CHAPTER TWELVE: MARISA

"I wonder whatever happened to her," he grumbled to himself. He looked down at his hideous, transparent hands. He had become a monster. He used to be handsome once, but it seemed like a long time ago, and there were times that he would be satisfied with just being human, but shut out the idea. But he couldn't help but wonder why he was building an empire that he didn't even want. He thought he did, a long time ago. The song of immortality drew him to his destiny like a siren, and there was no turning back.

But oh, she was beautiful, with long black hair and ivory skin, and she felt so warm in his arms. He remembered when he could feel warmth…

The hostage had stopped his muffled screaming, and was just intent on glaring at him with burning brown eyes. He wasn't entirely sure why he had taken this one either. He was fighting against the very people that had persecuted he himself so many years ago, but he knew the boy would cause him nothing but trouble. He hadn't even bothered to learn his name. He just felt that there was some significance to the child, and he was intended to be the only significant one, but he envied the child. The child had fight and red blood flowing through his veins, the things he would never have again.

Oh, but she was so beautiful then… so beautiful…

He walked down the dark corridor again, but somehow it seemed so different. He felt there was something else behind that door, something important. He ran toward it with blinding speed, and grasped the handle, throwing it open.

And he saw a strange glass orb on a high shelf. It was a red glass heart, spilling water that turned red as it splashed against the ground, but the glass heart slowly tipped over, and fell to the ground, shattering into a million pieces. He looked ahead and saw the bench again, with two figures sitting there.

One was a handsome, but cruel and vain looking man he knew he'd seen before, the other was the girl. They both looked up at him with sad, hopeless eyes, his brown and seemingly cold, and hers golden and full of rage. A single tear rolled down her face, and mingled with the puddle, swirling with red dye. The dye separated from the water, like oil, and drifted away, leaving a somehow sickening clear liquid, and the shattered heart turned grey, then became transparent, before disappearing entirely.

"Hello, Harry," Cho said, catching him by surprise.

"Oh… hi…" he said, looking awkwardly down at his feet. He looked up and saw her deep brown eyes. They held a sadness he had seen in his dream last night. He felt as though that sadness was within him too, but he wasn't sure how or why.

It had been four months since Cedric had died. He had barely had a chance to live, but he supposed, with Voldemort being back, he may have been one of the lucky ones. The Brooks girl passed them by, making sure not to lay eyes on him.

"Well that Brooks girl is acting strange, don't you think?"

"Yeah… I mean I guess so. Wasn't it weird how she was at the bottom of the list during the sorting?"

"It feels like she doesn't belong here, you know. Feels like she's hiding something from us."

"I don't know, I never thought about it. She's kind of like you, you know… mysterious…"

Was she flirting with him? Of course she wasn't… but maybe she was. Oh, how he hoped she was. It could be just a coincidence, or they could be soul mates. What was he doing just standing there?

"I guess so… she's also a little like you… umm…"

OF COURSE SHE WASN'T! What was he doing, comparing her to the little girl that lurked wherever he went.

"I'd better be going… nice talking to you, Harry."

"Yeah… uh…see you…"

He cursed himself for how stupid he was. She was flirting with you and you ruined it! What if she really wasn't flirting with you. Ugh!

Those dreams where throwing him off. When would the Brooks girl get out of his mind?

Marisa wandered, dazed still, through the pitch black streets of town. She was frightened and alone, and felt like a little girl in one of those stories people told to teach children lessons, "and you should never go out in the dark alone", she heard her grandfather say.

Oh, but she was alone. She felt she had been stumbling for miles, with no intention of stopping. After what seemed like an eternity, there was a light in the distance. It was an old shack with smoke in the chimney and a fire blazing inside. She walked up to it and knocked on the door.

"Hello?" said a gigantic, hairy man who had answered the door. An equally gargantuan dog stood behind him, barking like mad and snarling. She cringed at the sound.

"Now behave, Fang!"

"Um… I'm sorry to bother you, but I seem to be lost, and its very dark out," she said, leaning in toward the glow behind him.

"Marisa… is that you?"

"Yes… how do you know me."

"Rubeus Hagrid! I had already been expelled when you came, but I remember you. You were the prettiest lass from Beuxbatons, how're you?"

"Umm… well not very well at the moment. I can barely remember who I am.

What was she doing, revealing her weaknesses to a total stranger. He seemed trustworthy enough…

"Well come on in, we can't have you out here in the cold."

"Thank you very much, sir."

And, for that moment, despite the austerity of the shack, as she found it full of monstrous things… she had a feeling, at least for now, that she was safe at last.