"Harry come catch me," called out a girl in glee as she ran, her feet padding down on the grass as a nine-year-old boy ran after her with a smile on his face keeping his distance and gradually letting it grow.
"Ilya stop I'm too tired." mock panted Harry as he leaned on his knees letting out exaggerated breaths of air.
"You're too slow Harry." said the little girl laughing as the boy mock gasped in offence.
"You won't get away now," Harry said "menacingly", his previous running speed, far eclipsed by his new speed as he started to run after the white-haired girl.
Ilya squeaked at Harry's burst of speed, and no matter how hard she tried, she was caught too soon for her liking.
"Ok you caught me lets go inside now Harry, I need some water." Ilya said her face scrunched up in slight annoyance at being caught so easily."
"Changed the topic did you now Ilya." teased Harry knowing his best friend very well and that she was annoyed.
"The weather is awfully nice today isn't it Harry," she said still trying to gloss over her loss much to Harry's amusement.
Harry just laughed to the consternation of the white-haired girl to his side as they moved back to the orphanage.
Ilya had come to the orphanage last year, not as someone with no guardian but because there were some issues with her family at the time and since the orphanage was sponsored by Ilya's family, the Father had taken her in, coupled with her unique looks had made her a target for the bullies.
Harry hadn't liked that, he had gone through something similar for his maroon-coloured hair and deep green eyes and had to stand up for himself, subsequently, he had been a loner keeping to his books, or sneaking out after dark or just disappearing so the bullies weren't prepared for him to intervene, and he hadn't been nice about it.
Since then, they had been inseparable, spending the past eleven months glued at the hip.
Harry sat down, on the grass and stared at the sky, hearing a figure plopping down next to him, he looked over, "weren't you thirsty?" he said quirking an eyebrow.
"Nope," said Ilya nonchalantly looking up at the sky, "Harry, I have a question, would you still be my best friend if I was a cloud?" she questioned seriously
Harry looked at her incredulously, "where exactly did that come from he asked her?"
"I heard Sarah ask John if he would love her if she was a caterpillar, caterpillars are gross though, I would never be able to love you if you turned into one so a cloud, would you love- I mean would you still be my best friend if I was a cloud." she rambled on before coming to a stop her cheeks flaming red at her slip up.
Harry laughed at her rambling before looking at her and smiling with amusement, "yes I'd love you if you turned into a cloud," he said, causing her to smile before he jumped towards her, pulling her cheeks even as she pouted at his actions.
Pulling away laughing Harry also lay on his back next to her as Ilya nursed her now red cheeks, still pouting.
They stared at the sky for a while, the silence comfortable, looking at the open sky before Ilya spoke up.
"Harry," Ilya began and then stopped, hesitating, suddenly anxious."
"What's up?" Harry asked his face curious at the rare sight of hesitation from the girl before him.
She took a deep breath and said, "I'm leaving tomorrow the sister just told me today morning," she bit out."
Harry didn't know how to respond, his best and only friend was leaving, life had been... monotonous before Ilya had dropped into it and now, she was leaving.
Lost all Harry let out was an "oh" even as his face turned blank and he turned away from her.
"Harry, I promise I'll come visit, I won't give them a choice every weekend, heck I'll ask them to adopt you so we can be together forever." said the white-haired girl passionately, even as she wrapped her hands around his back burying her face into his back.
Harry smiled at that, knowing it was unlikely but Harry couldn't bear to be the one that broke that to her, so he put up a smile for her even as he turned to her and hugged her back, hmming his acceptance towards her.
They went inside, splitting up to change and take showers in the common areas, before going to the church for their mandatory prayers before dinner.
The dinner was some Gravy rice with a side helping of chicken sitting down he started eating lost in his thoughts.
He felt powerless, this wasn't something he could solve at his young age, and he couldn't keep his best friend, his helplessness started to lead to anger, something responded to the anger and the Burtons chair, a kid on the chubbier side to be polite, who was also the main antagonist towards Harry and Ilya found that his chair gave out to the amusement of the kids.
Before he could continue his thoughts Ilya sat next to him, she instantly knew what was going through his head as she held his hand and started rambling about the most mundane things.
Not willing to ruin their last day Harry decided to forget about the upcoming event and decided to enjoy their last evening together, responding to her ramblings with quips, yet neither could shake the undertone of sadness present in the air
At night Harry lay down in bed, thinking, he was feeling melancholic and usually, that meant little to no sleep, his emotions had always been strong and he would need to slip out to enjoy the night's cool air and maybe spend some time with Ilya to calm himself down, but today his eyes were drooping and drooping till they closed, even as they closed something felt wrong to Harry, but resist he could not as he was pulled into the realm of Morpheus.
Harry woke up with a start and he was scared, not much scared him anymore, he had been bullied for his odd combination of hair and eyes, the red and the blue labelling him as a freak.
But one day he had decided he had enough and ignored them and had absolutely smashed his elbow onto the lead bullys face, breaking his nose.
He had managed to stand up to them, overcoming his fears. That had done wonders for his confidence, and he had been the bravest out of all the kids, standing up to the older kids and for Ilya.
But as he stared at the rows of children's bodies, all unmoving he wasn't feeling an ounce of braveness.
The hall was laden with kids all from the Christian orphanage, almost a hundred kids all strewn around in heaps and piles.
Near the edge, Harry could see carvings in some weird language he couldn't begin to fathom.
His body was weak and sluggish, and it was clear they had all been drugged or even worse poisoned, but for some reason Harry was awake and he could feel strength returning to his body.
Slowly and quietly, Harry dragged himself up to a sitting position, but still leaning against the body giving the illusion that he had been placed in an upright position by whoever had placed him there, catching his breath, he looked around the room.
The room was dark and damp with a high ceiling with moonlight pouring in from a gap in the roof. the surface beneath Harry was rough and the moonlight was the only source of light, lighting up a spot quite a distance away from Harry, near the centre where he could just about make out another child, judging from the size of the figure, from gaps left between several hooded figures all surrounding him or her.
The place felt wrong, very wrong to Harry and he let out an involuntary shudder at the ambient energy in the air, it was dark, nay it was black, and grimy and left shivers down your spine as if you were surrounded and submerged in a pool of the most awful things in existence.
Harry then noticed the figure turned around and muttered something while holding out a stick, and to his horror the stick lit up and flames poured out of it lighting the bodies on fire and it was fast coming towards him.
His body still wasn't strong enough to do anything about it, the fire started coming closer and he started panicking, then his blood ran cold as the girl in the middle started screaming, it sounded like... Ilya.
He tried to struggle, to move, but couldn't, his body was unwilling to listen to him, the fire came closer creeping up to his feet and the screams started to resound louder and louder till, the fire crept up to him, it burned, like nothing else, Harry tried to scream but nothing came out.
He felt useless, in his childish ego and arrogance he had thought himself tough and ready, he wasn't, the screams reached a crescendo, and something inside Harry snapped.
His eyes which had closed due to the pain opened, and the fire, surrounded him, but it was healing, not burning as the screams came to a halt, all the fire that had been consuming the burnt bodies rushed towards him.
Harry's eyes were glowing, the green mixing in with a new amber color as the fire left all the dead bodies around him and converged onto him, the hooded figures in the centre were in a panic letting out lights from their sticks, all bouncing off harmlessly against the flaming form that was Harry.
One of them had enough and levitated a piece of loose rubble with his stick and threw it at Harry, this seemed to be the wrong thing to do as Harry's eyes snapped open, grabbing the rock with a flaming hand before sending it crashing back at speeds which were too fast for them to react to, killing the man and the one right next to him.
Next, he made a grabbing motion, grabbing two of the men and held them till they burned alive.
"Untangle the wards quickly" screamed one of the four hooded figures panicked for his help, at this boy, nay this demon's handiwork.
Harry looked at the screaming figure even as his throat worked, letting out a guttural sound, "You think I'm demonic, when you've killed a hundred children with no remorse, and I'm the demonic one." ending his words with a roar.
"They're down" screamed the figure who had been working on a stone, but before they could make a move, to apparate they found the hand holding their wands severed causing them all to scream in unison.
Harry, since the moment, he had awakened for the lack of a better word, could see into their minds, the depravities they had committed and their utter disregard for all life that wasn't born pure. He had seen their selfishness and had seen their next moves.
They had wanted to teleport out, but Harry had other plans, he grabbed all four of them, and while wanting to give them a slow death, Ilya was more important and snuffed them out quickly not giving them a chance.
Harry collapsed in exhaustion, he looked towards the centre in worry hoping he was not too late, he dragged his body towards the centre, where there were several burnt corpses and a living breathing body of a girl who opened her eyes, however, the eyes weren't red but blue and her hair was black.
"You're not Ilya," Harry said, the girl jumped up and grabbed him in a hug, she was slightly hysterical from the pain as she constantly said something in what he unconsciously assumed was Russian.
Moving out of her embrace, Harry looked towards the dead bodies, which meant Ilya was in the pile.
His world seemed to stop, even as he walked towards the bodies in a zombie-like state, and started to move the bodies frantically, even as they collapsed in on his hands, he went on for a while before he collapsed, finally accepting her death.
The tears came and this time when the embrace came, he leaned into it even as his mind gave out from the mental stress of the day registering cracks in the air as he drifted off.