Cool leaves brushed against her skin as she held her hand out along the hedges that lined her on either side. There was nothing to light the path ahead of her except for the dim glow of the moon and stars above her. Dark grey shadows swayed in the surrounding area. Step by step she meandered through this seemingly endless maze.
Her hands began to shake, and the rest of her body followed close behind, but she didn't feel cold. A long sleeved uniform covered her body enough to trap in what little heat it could against that cool night air. Still, she continued to shiver so hard she had difficulty keeping her hand outstretched.
As she continued further into the sharp corners of the maze, a white glow began to emanate down one of the paths she found herself on. It started off faint at first, and she had almost passed it, thinking it was only the reflection of the moon. Yet she began to follow it, and it only grew stronger and stronger, lighting the area around her. The maze opened into a small clearing, where she found some sort of trophy on top of a pedestal. The very silver of the trophy itself seemed to be glowing.
She reached for it. She wasn't exactly sure why, but she knew she needed to grab it. It was alluring in a way. And the closer she got to it, the more she could feel the buzz of energy behind it. There was something more to it than just being some simple trophy. Yet as her hand neared it, she seemed to move slower and slower, until she came to a complete stop. She couldn't move, something was blocking her, she…
Oriane woke up.
There was no more maze or moonlight shining above her head, there was just her in her dormitory, accompanied by the light sound of scratching. She slowly rose in her bed and blinked away the sleep from her eyes as she glanced around the room. The sun was already up, and she knew they would have to rise for school in a few minutes, but everyone else was still asleep.
Everyone except for Charlotte, anyway. She sat upright in her bed still in her nightgown with some sort of book in her hand. In her other hand was a bright orange pencil, something Oriane had seen the girl carrying around every now and then, and she scratched away making what sounded like quick and short lines.
Oriane swung her legs over the side of her bed and her bare feet hit the cold stone with a soft pat. She approached Charlotte's bed, but the girl's full attention was casted towards Emerald bed, and as she neared, she quickly figured out why.
Milo, Emerald's obnoxious demon in disguise of a cat, was completely passed out on the foot of her bed. He had stretched himself out as long as his little body would go, laying on his side with his full belly completely exposed. He was so limp and unmoving Oriane would have thought he was dead if it weren't for his chest moving up and down with each breath he took.
Charlotte's amber eyes watched the creature carefully, turning her attention back and forth between him and the sketchbook in front of her as she carefully drew every detail. With the way the beds were positioned, Oriane wasn't able to look over her shoulder to see what she was drawing, but she didn't really need to ask to know what she'd find on that paper.
"He's such a cutie," Oriane whispered with a giggle.
"Sure, now that he's not trying to chomp my toes at four in the morning," Charlotte muttered. She sighed and her sketchbook went limp in her lap. "He's lucky he's handsome."
With the paper fully exposed, Oriane couldn't help but steal a glance at what Charlotte had been working on. Just like she had expected, it was a drawing of Milo. Every detail was caught perfectly, from the frizz of his fur, to the angle of his whiskers. Even the folds of Emerald's blankets underneath his small weight were done without flaw.
"I never got the chance to thank you for your letter," Oriane suddenly realized. "The shells and drawing you sent were beautiful."
She could make out a small hint of a smile curl the corners of Charlotte's lips. "Yeah, well, I spend most of my free time drawing, and I was getting sick of looking at most of them. Figured I'd pass that burden on to you."
"They were lovely! It was no burden at all," Oriane assured her.
"Maybe for you."
A terrible, ear ringing alarm sounded on Emerald's nightstand, sending a terrible echo throughout their confined room. It was the same shrill alarm sound they were used to waking up to, yet Calista still threw herself completely upright. Even Milo, who was dead asleep, woke up rather annoyed.
"Rise and shine," Charlotte muttered to herself. Her sketchbook was quickly closed before she tossed it onto her nightstand.
And there it went. Whatever fleeting moment of connection Oriane was going to make with Charlotte was gone. She could almost feel the chord being severed. Yet, she refused to bother the girl any further, and instead joined the others as they got ready for their first day back at school.
Morning classes went smooth enough. Herbology was the very first class the girls found themselves in, a subject they ended up sharing with the Gryffindors that year. A majority of their time was spent collecting pus from bubotubers, something a majority of the student body was less than thrilled to do. But Oriane, who wanted to do her best to impress her Head of House, bore the disgusting task with a smile.
Luckily the rest of their classes weren't nearly as gross, albeit a bit boring. Especially History of Magic, which was taught by Professor Binns, a long dead ghost who was notorious for being less than engaging. Once their morning classes were finished, the girls enjoyed a quick lunch before their afternoon electives began.
Oriane had made the mistake of choosing to stay in Divination with Calista, and though the class was rather easy (as long as you were good with making a believable lie) she couldn't stand her professor. Professor Trelawney was a nice enough woman, but she was such an airhead it was almost painful. Still, the two girls marched up the several flights of stairs it took to get to the Divination classroom.
The room was just as nauseatingly fragranced as it was the previous year, and both Oriane and Calista found themselves quickly taking their seats. But no matter how quick they were, it was almost as if Professor Trelawney had locked onto them the very moment they entered the door. As soon as they were seated she drifted over with that same, knowing yet empty look in her eyes.
"My child," she spoke, eyes locked onto Calista, "I am happy to see your safe return to Hogwarts. Have you been heeding my warning from last year?"
Calista looked up, her dark eyes quickly glancing at Oriane before she let out an awkward laugh. "What warning, professor?"
Professor Trelawney let out a gasp so loud you would have thought Calista had offended her. A hand reached up to grasp at the shawl around her body, and she quickly took the empty seat at the table.
"Oh, my dear! The scar! The one with the scar on their lip! You must be very cautious of them. They will steal something very dear to you from right under your nose!" the professor warned.
Calista, who had to clear her throat in order to suppress her laughter, nodded at the teacher. "Oh, yes, of course. I remember now. Right, no scarred people taking anything from me, I promise."
"A promise isn't enough to ward off the inevitable future! You must be prepared! Take extreme caution when moving forward in your life, my child," she finished.
Calista was still holding in her laughter by the time Professor Trelawney finally left their table. Even Oriane had completely forgotten about her 'premonition', yet that series of events was enough to get her to realize it was almost exactly what Calista had been warned about word for word their previous year.
"Do you even know anyone with a scar on their lip?" Oriane whispered.
"No," Calista answered with a giggle. "Though, I suppose that new professor, what's his name? Moody? He's got a scar on his lip, doesn't he?"
"That doesn't count," Oriane retorted with a laugh, "I honestly think he's more scar tissue than wizard at this point."
"Well, even a broken clock is right twice a day."
"Better watch out. He'll probably steal your quill or something."
As the girls collected themselves from yet another awkward interaction with their teacher, Professor Trelawney called the class to attention to begin their lecture.
"My dears, it is time for us to consider the stars," she said with an airy tone. "The movements of the planets and the mysterious portents they reveal only to those who understand the steps of the celestial dance. Human destiny may be deciphered by the planetary rays, which intermingle…"
Eventually, after a long winded introduction, the students were given some odd circular chart that Oriane had never seen before. They were instructed to fill in the position of the planets at their moment of birth, which ended up being more dull than it sounded. Lots of calculating angles, among other things; something Oriane and Calista certainly weren't interested in taking seriously.
And so, as usual, Calista began to fill the terrible silence with chatting about whatever came to mind, and Oriane, well, she wasn't really listening to any of it. Her mind had begun to wander elsewhere. The Hogwarts Express, the rain, Charlotte's drawing of Milo, the ribbon around her wrist, thestrals…
"So, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say having three Saturns in your birth chart is very incorrect," Calista said with a giggle. "Can't be taught everything over the summer, I guess…"
"What are thestrals?" Oriane suddenly blurted out.
The question caught Calista so off guard she stopped talking. With her half finished (and mostly wrong) chart in front of her, she looked away from her work and turned to Oriane.
"Really strange to go from talking about Saturn to thestrals," she said, and it felt as if there should have been a joking tone to her voice, but there wasn't. Instead, she came off dull and flat.
"Sorry," Oriane quickly apologized, "it's just, well I was just thinking about yesterday when we arrived here. Charlie was acting a bit strange and you said I wasn't familiar with thestrals. And well, you're right, but I still don't quite know what that means."
Things between them were still for quite some time, and for the first time ever, Oriane thought that Calista looked rather nervous. The girl couldn't stop tapping her fingers on the table in front of them as she thought through her words. Eventually she let out a sigh, and leaned back in her chair as she adjusted her ponytail.
"Thestrals are magical creatures that remain mostly invisible except to certain people. In order to see them, you first have to witness death." Calista paused, and her eyes wandered off to the textbook in front of her. "During our second year here, I thought at first our carriages were just enchanted. But then Charlie mentioned something about the creature pulling us along. That was all I needed to know exactly what creature she was talking about."
It was difficult to describe the feeling Oraine felt in her stomach. Pain? Churning? She felt utterly sick hearing those words. That someone like Charlotte could have ever witnessed someone die.
"You're joking," Oriane whispered. "I mean, that's terrible. Aren't second years only twelve?"
"It's not like you grow into watching someone die or anything," Calista retorted. "Realistically death is all around us, and it's not like it's some big tragedy or anything. It's inevitable, but…" She bit her lip.
"But what?" Oriane pressed.
And there it was again; the gears turning in Calista's head. She bit into her lip so hard Oriane was afraid she'd see blood when she finally released the clenching of her jaw.
"Look, don't repeat anything I'm about to tell you. I don't know how much of this is true, it's just a… theory that I have," Calista warned. Then the girl leaned forward with her elbows on the table, close enough to carry on their conversation in a low voice. "When we first started Hogwarts, Charlie wasn't exactly your normal kid. I mean, no one's exactly normal, but even then she was always a little off.
"She's a halfbood, yet when she first arrived here she knew nothing about magic at all. It was almost like she was a Muggle. Not that I don't believe her or anything, I mean, she's mentioned that her uncle works as an Obliviator for the Ministry in a conversation or two, but this girl seriously was totally lost.
"Our first year here she was quite pitiful. I think I caught her crying a handful of times, though she wouldn't mention what the matter was. She hardly ate, and spent so much time tossing and turning at night it was keeping Emi and I awake. She only really spoke when someone else spoke to her first and she was just so… small. Yeah, I think that's the best way to describe it.
"But come our second year it was like a switch flipped or something. She was more cold and less forgiving when people were rude to her. At first people viewed her as just some pushover, a girl that fit into the stereotype of Hufflepuff, but then she… I don't know. Like this was the year she punched Draco Malfoy in the face for insulting Emi. And she's been like that since. Still won't talk much about her past or anything, but she's hardened up or something."
Calista paused a moment to look around the room, double checking that no one was attempting to listen in on their conversation. Once she was sure everyone else was fully preoccupied, she leaned even closer to Oriane.
"And, well, all of this sorta leads me to believe she lost a lot of people before coming to Hogwarts. She doesn't mention her mom or dad at all, and has always gotten extremely uncomfortable when we talk about family. She'll bring up her uncle if anyone asks, but that's it. But if she's lived with her uncle her whole life, someone who's worked for the Ministry of Magic, how was she so ignorant about our world when she first arrived at school? It doesn't make sense.
"Halfblood girl arrives at Hogwarts, cries all the time, flinches at any loud sound, I mean… Doesn't it make sense that she's seen something terrible? I know you weren't there in the beginning, but it's honestly been eating away at me for a while now because I consider her a good friend. She really is a remarkable person. But how do you just… ask someone about that? Even if I could figure out a way to word it, she's built these walls up so high I'm scared she's going to suffocate before she can ever ask for help. The idiot won't even share her birthday."
That was… a lot for Oriane to take in. And despite Calista's explanation, not a lot of it seemed to add up, not that she claimed it ever would in the first place. But for something that was just a theory, she had to admit it was more than anything Oriane could ever piece together about her backstory by herself. Even without all that extra information that was shared, seeing someone die wasn't something Oriane would ever wish on anyone.
"It's normal to want to keep things private," Calista continued, "but I think this is too much. And I'm not sharing this with you because I think there's anything we should be doing about it, I just think it's good to be aware of what might be going on. Charlie likes you. If she does ever end up needing help, we'll probably be the first people she comes to."
Out of everything Calista had shared with her, that bit of information was the most reliving. That Charlotte would ever trust her enough with whatever it was that Calista was convinced she was hiding. Though, she wasn't sure which was worse; that something so terrible could be plaguing Charlotte Hawthorne, or that it was nothing at all; something that they, not even Charlotte herself, could ever fix.
"Thank you for telling me this," Oriane said quietly.
"Yeah. The same thing goes for you too, by the way. If you ever find yourself needing help, with anything… we're here for you," Calista finished.
All Oriane could do was smile and thank the girl once more. But what she was asking of Oriane was too much. Calista didn't know it, of course, but the woes of Oriane Morissette was not something she wished for anyone else to bear. Not because she thought they wouldn't understand, or that they'd think she was a freak, but because it was becoming increasingly more dangerous to know who she really was.
But for the time being, she would smile and nod her head, and pretend she had no more issues than your average school girl.
A quietness fell upon the castle after classes finished. Some students were still ecstatic about the day, namely many of the first years, while others seemed a bit more exhausted. Oriane fell right in between those energy levels, with her mind having been fried from looking at star charts and blast-ended skrewts for most of the day, she was surprised she could hold a single coherent thought at all.
Calista, however, remained the life of the group as the four girls walked to dinner. As her and Emerald took up the front, all she did was talk about their new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
"I caught up with Fred and George earlier. They had that new professor, you know. The one with all the scars? Apparently he's the real deal, sorta like Professor Lupin but with more experience. Honestly, I was a little worried after Lupin left. Afraid we'd end up with another Quirrell or something…"
"I don't know…" Emerald added. "Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he's a brilliant teacher but doesn't he seem a bit off to you?"
"What gave you that impression? His missing leg? Or the bulging eye in his skull?" Calista retorted.
"I was going to say his mannerisms," Emerald defended.
"Yeah, well, I'd go mad too if I had to face the Dark Arts every day of my life…"
They rounded the corner that led to the Entrance Hall where they were met with a long queue of students waiting to enter. It was just like Hogwarts students to rush off all at once and bottleneck the doorways.
"What did I say last year?" Calista sighed as she crossed her arms. "We gotta let the school go to meals by house or something. I swear, half of these people have two left feet…"
The girls didn't even get a chance to join the queue before an ear ringing bang echoed throughout the hall. Instinctively everyone covered their ears, each groaning a slight bit as they turned to where the sound had come from. Oriane had expected to find that some firework had gone off (perhaps one of the Weasley's Bomtastic Bombs) but she found something much worse.
Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, both notorious for being 'good friends' stood by one another, along with Ron and Hermione. Harry appeared to have his back turned to the boy, yet Draco's wand was out and aimed just to the side of his head. It only took everyone a few seconds to realize that Draco must have casted some sort of spell aimed for Harry, yet the boy looked unharmed.
As soon as everyone processed what had happened, another loud bang echoed throughout the hall, and suddenly Draco was no longer standing behind Harry. Or, at least not as tall. In Draco's place sat a white, fluffy ferret.
"No you don't, Laddie!" the gruff voice of Mad-Eye Moody shouted from the other side of the hall.
The man stood with his wand out, and his fake leg thudded against the floor as he made his way over to the two. His scowl was so fierce Oriane could have sworn she saw steam coming out of his ears.
Just as the ferret began to skitter away, Moody caught him in some sort of levitation charm. The creature flew a few feet into the air before quickly coming down onto the stone floor, almost as if it was a bouncing ball.
"I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back is turned," the man growled. "Scummy thing to do… never do that again!"
As the ferret continued to bounce up and down against the stone floor, Calista's laughter joined in with the other students watching the show. She laughed so hard that she was doubled over and holding a stitch in her side.
"I'm gonna pee! Oh my… Malfoy's a… Look at him!" she exclaimed between breaths.
Oriane herself couldn't even suppress her laughter. Though the punishment was rather odd, and she felt slightly bad watching a creature be tossed around like that, knowing that it was Draco Malfoy himself was nothing short of sweet.
"Come on," Charlotte said. Professor McGonagall had shown up by that point and was chastising Moody on his interesting take on punishments for a student. "I'm hungry."
"What! But we're getting dinner and a show!" Calista giggled.
Even as Charlotte dragged the girls into the Great Hall, Oriane caught a glimpse of the girls' own smirk.
Once they neared the Hufflepuff table, the girls were met with a concerned look from Cedric. He stood up next to the table, a few of his quidditch mates next to him, but the moment his eyes landed on Calista, his concern seemed to fade.
"What's going on out there?" he asked as the girls seated themselves.
"Malfoy! Professor Moody's…! Turned him…! Into a…! You should've…! Seen it…!" Calista gasped between laughs.
Charlotte patted the girl on the back, trying to coax her into breathing normally.
"Draco Malfoy aimed some sort of spell or jinx at Harry Potter," Emerald spoke up as she began to load her plate with food. "Professor Moody caught him and… sort of turned him into a ferret. The ferret was doing a jumping act with the help of Professor Moody as we were leaving."
"You're joking!" one of Cedric's friends spoke up.
Calista vigorously shook her head.
"I don't know if Transfiguration is the right punishment for something like that," Cedric said, but he was unable to hide the smirk that was beginning to form on his face.
"Oh shut up!" Calista giggled. "It totally is! Oh goodness, I don't know which was better! Him being transfigured, or Charlie punching him in the face our second year!"
"Had I known proper Transfiguration that year, I would've transfigured him myself," Charlotte spoke up.
More laughter erupted from their small section of the table as the girls began to describe the series of events in great detail for the boys. That familiar warm atmosphere of the Great Hall began to wash over Oriane. The suppressed giggles, the roaring laughter, how each side of the table would lean closer, wanting to soak up every bit of the story… She was beginning to feel at home once again.
