A/N: Heres Chapter 1 Enjoy. Oh I don't own anything including JK Rowlings characters and the cover photo.
Chapter 1
One year later
I woke up drenched in my own sweat with my hair plastered to my face. The nightmares never really stopped they slowed down and became scarce but they never fully stopped. At one point I went to see a muggle shrink, but after my first few sessions I decided that they are full of shit and not worth my money. The sunlight hadn't made an appearance yet so it was early, but I could still hear the familiar sound of my roommate and good friend banging on the trailer door. I could also hear her yelling in her slight southern accent.
"Mia I swear if you don't open this damn door I'm gunna bust it open!" I lazily rolled out of my bed and stumbled over to the door. I flung the door open with a small smile on my face.
"Forgot your key again Linn?" I asked flashing her a cheeky grin. Linn was the first person I met when I came to the states. I met her in the small town of Brownsville, Texas. She was a bartender at a bar that I had started frequenting. She reached my height at 5'5" with waist length sun kissed golden hair and skin, and she immediately picked me out. She said to me "Hunny I don't know what you're running from but please take me along with you," then she asked my name. She had the unfortunate name of Joline and I had the unfortunate name of Hermione so we decided to nickname each other. She calls me Mia, which I thought was extremely Americanized, and I call her Linn with two n's at the end because just one would be boring. She asked me where I was heading and I said "Nowhere…and…Everywhere." She kept the drinks flowing the whole night and at the end of it she crashed at my trailer and never really left. Ever since that night we've been best friends. She just smiled and rolled her eyes handing me my coffee.
"Cheap gas station coffee?" I asked.
"The cheapest of course and heeeereees your morning bagel," she replied. She didn't comment on my sweaty and slightly frazzled appearance. She never did; she knew I had nightmares and didn't feel the need to ask me about them unless I felt the need to tell her about them. I took a sip of my coffee letting the sweetly bitter liquid warm me from the inside out, and smiled. I already felt better. This was our routine, and it was perfect. Linn being the early riser ran out to get the cheapest gas station coffee and bagels she could find before the sun rises. Then she would come back banging on the door because she always forgets her key. I come let her in and tease her a little and then we hit the road. The trailer was attached to a black ford f150. It magically doubled in size on the inside when Linn came to stay. She was a witch too which is part of the reason why I loved her so much. She had heard about me and read about me, and she still didn't expect anything from me. She just let me be me whoever that was.
I ran to hop in the shower yelling behind me,
"Hook the truck back up Linn! And put my bagel and coffee in the front." I quickly showered and threw on some jean shorts and a tank top and ran to hop in the drivers seat.
"What took ya so long?" Linn asked. She had a sweet southern drawl. Not the obnoxiously annoying accent that makes me completely question the English language just a slight barely there twang that told you she was from the south.
"I just had to take a shower I was all gross. It's not like I took that long," I told her pulling my waist length hair up into a messy bun.
"Is the trailer hooked?" I asked.
"Of course what do ya take me for an idiot?" She replied rolling her emerald green eyes. I just chuckled and pulled out of the park drinking my coffee. We rode in silence for a while. After Brownsville we hit San Antonio and Dallas. Then we went down to Centerville and Huntsville and then Houston we went and did a couple of bar hops worked a couple of odd jobs. For instance, there was this one time when we were hired to clean up a bar after the night was over. We both got drunk that night and stumbled into the bar we had to clean falling out of our minds. We were promptly handed mops and rags and told to start in the bathroom. We stumbled into the gross dingy bathroom and almost threw up at the sight of it. There was puke everywhere. We spent the whole night struggling to clean in our drunken stupors and tripping over each other. The funniest part was when we tried to use magic to clean up the bar our drunken slurs ended up accidentally turning it into a bright neon pink color. We spent the rest of the night trying to turn the bar back to its normal color and cleaning it up. I laughed at the memory.
After the pink bar fiasco we moved onto Louisiana briefly. I honestly wish we could have spent more time there but we were on a deadline trying to make it to Linn's cousins lake house in South Carolina for a couple of parties and a good time.
"So I've been thinking Mia...what if I got a bike?" She broke the silence in the truck. I just shrugged.
"Why do you need a bike we got the truck? Plus bikes are kind of pointless,"
"Not a bike like a bicycle like a real bike a motorbike," she said. I rolled my eyes. This was just like her coming up with crazy random ideas that sometimes really made me wonder about her sanity.
"Linn you don't even know how to drive a bike," I said.
"Yeah but my cousin Leslie's girlfriend Benny has a bike and she could teach me then I wouldn't have to keep unhinging the truck when I wanted to go out by myself and stuff." Linn's male cousin was named Leslie and he had a girlfriend named Benny, which we laughed about constantly. They must have bonded over having gender opposing names.
"As long as I don't get a call someday telling me about how someone had to peel my best friends body from the freeway pavement because she drives like a lunatic. Linn you can barely drive a car what makes you think you can drive a bike?" I asked. It was true she really was a reckless driver .
"Well...I guess you kind of have a point but I just thought it'd be so cool!" She exclaimed practically bouncing in her seat. I just laughed shaking my head and we quickly fell into silence again. I loved this part the wide open spaces, driving down the road, getting to go to all the places on the show diners drive ins and dives. We had a list of all the junky places we wanted to try.
"Are we stopping today?" Linn asked.
"No we are driving all the way through remember we have to meet your cousin today and help them with all the stuff they need before people start arriving," She nodded and pulled out a bag of chips to eat while I drove.
After hours of driving and a couple of pit stops for gas and pee breaks we finally made it to the house. It was just reaching one in the afternoon when we pulled up to the house and honked loudly. We both got out of the truck thankful that we could finally stretch our legs again.
"Oh my goooosshhh!" We heard Benny screaming as she ran at Linn in a blur of flaming fire engine red hair.
"Joline it's been waaay too long!" She said practically screaming at us.
"Actually I go by Linn now Benny. I missed you too girl I love the hair!" Linn turned to me.
"Benny this is Mia. Mia meet Benny." I smiled at the perky tall girl that stood at about 5'10". She was muscly in a very feminine way and had curves in all the right places. In other words she was practically the poster child for teenage masturbation. She quickly pulled me into a hug and squealed in my ear.
"I'm so excited y'all are here. The house is a mess and it's not like Leslie is gonna do any cleaning if we don't help him. Plus it's nice to be around girls. I love les but I need someone to gossip with and complain about him to," I just laughed and pulled away.
"It's nice to meet you too Benny and I'm glad we're here as well," I smiled again.
"Oh my god you're British! They didn't tell me that!" She said beaming and jumping on her toes a little. I could already see the similarities between Benny and Linn they could have passed for cousins themselves at least in personality anyway.
"Leslie get your butt out here and say hello to Linn and Mia!" Benny yelled to her boyfriend.
"Who?" I heard a deep voice call back. I saw a man come out of the house with dirty blond borderline brown hair and golden skin. He was tall he could have been reaching 6'5".
"Leslie!"
"Little cuz!" Linn ran at her cousin and jumped in his arms while he swung her around. She squealed and giggled sounding a lot like Benny. He put her down and we were all smiling and giggling a little. It was just one of those happiness is contagious moments.
"Who's Linn?" He asked suddenly breaking us all out of our happy bubble. Linn giggled.
"That's me silly and this is my friend Mia." I held out my hand for him to shake but he pulled me into a hug instead. I stiffened for a moment. It took me a while to get used to people and touching after the war and I still wasn't used to it from guys. The only reason I was so used to it from girls was because Linn was just so damn touchy. I quickly forced my arms around him, but it was awkward like I had forgotten how to hug guys. At least from my end it was awkward.
"It's a pleasure ta meet ya Mia. My cousin Linn has been talking my ear off about you," He laughed. He seemed nice. His presence was very pleasant like a warm glow that spread all around me. Everyone was so caught up in introductions and reunions that we didn't notice the extra presence.
"Are you going to introduce me to your guests mate?" Said a slightly familiar deep voice. I looked up at the intruder and nearly fell over. The face I saw was the face of a man I hadn't seen since I was fighting a war. No longer a boy his pointy features had angled out and his blond hair had grown shaggy and darker. He had a faint chunk of facial hair lining his jaw. His grey eyes were piercing through me shock written clearly in them. The world felt like it was spinning too quickly and the air seemed to be sucked out of the room, which was a bad sign because we were outside. I stood there slowly suffocating in my paralyzed fear. I kept thinking he's here to taunt me and tease me and take me back. I can't go back I can't! I refuse! I'll scream and kick and claw if I have to, but I didn't do any of that I just stood there dying in shock and pain and fear.
"Oh yeah this is my cousin Linn. Linn this is my friend Luc." I heard Leslie say barely registering that he called him the wrong name. I had to find a way out of this. I had to do something.
"Luc this is my cousins friend…" I stepped forward interrupting in a quiet trembling voice. At least it felt like it was trembling to me but I hoped it was normal, "Mia my names Mia." I held out my hand, and his grey blue pools pierced me analyzing. He finally shook my hand.
"I'm Luc it's nice to meet you," His eyes were trying to send a message. Through my fear I couldn't figure it out. They were slightly threatening yet friendly, slightly mean yet nice. Linn opened her mouth about to say something, but I interrupted.
"I don't…I can't…I'm not…feeling well I have to go," I turned and ran into the trailer slightly slamming the door behind me. I ran to my bedroom sliding the door closed. I stripped my clothes off and jumped onto my bed with tears streaming down my face. I didn't know why I cried it might've been for my pain, it might've been for his, it might've been because I was finally happy and he was here to ruin it, or it might've been because fate had such cruel intentions.