Chapter 17 (The promise )
The trees were silent that afternoon, its branches swinging softly back and forth. The gentle breeze caressing its shapely leaves. The sound of crickets could be heard, calmly resonating through the vast and mysterious forest that lay bearer of its home. Yes, it was indeed peaceful. And only one girl dared to witness nature in all its wondrous glory. Raine. She was sitting on the grass, in a small clearing inside the forest, her legs tucked neatly in front of her. Beyond her was the legendary lake, rumored to be the home to the lot of mystifying sea creatures. This was her special place. Whenever she needed the time to think or when she is experiencing emotions at its extremes, she would go to this special place and just stare at the infinite horizon in front of her. Its beauty was so great, so pure that she hoped she had the same thing. She wanted to embrace it, to be a part of it. Nature was where she found her peace. That was the one thing that no one can ever take away from her.
Suddenly, a voice that sounded so familiar interrupted her thoughts. Hands reached out and covered her eyes which resulted with the girl giving in with a growl.
"Guess who…" The voice said humorously as it awaited the response of the girl it had grown to respect and love.
The owner of the voice looked at the girl good-naturedly as he listened to the names one-by-one that the girl managed to give him, feeling triumphant that she could not recognize him.
"Hmmm… Let me see…" The girl said, giving in to this game she knew so well. She in fact knew who it was that was behind her but she wasn't going to admit it straight out loud, not just yet. She had some plans of her own. She smiled to herself as she purposely placed her hands gently on the arms of her captor, "Is it you Henry? No? Well, I know who you are… Frederick! No? Peter? I know! Adam! It's you, isn't it?" The smile on her face became wider as she heard the person behind her groan in frustration, its hands loosening from the place it held on top of her eyes.
"Oh I'm terribly sorry! I forgot to mention the name of this one man. Hmmm… This man… I may have even forgotten to say that this man is the only one I have ever loved and will forever do so." She turned around instinctively, facing the man that was her own. The one man who accepted and loved her for who she was. She laid a hand on his right cheek, caressing it slowly. "Mort…"
Mort could only beam in great satisfaction as he heard those thoughtful words that were directed at him. He had certainly never felt this strongly for anyone before. He was deeply in love with this girl. She was everything to him. She kept him sane and alive at the same time. She was the one person that changed him. She made such a great impact in his life and for that he would forever be indebted to her.
"I love you," he said softly as he placed his hand on top of hers that was lying momentarily on his cheek. He looked at her with foregone passion and ardor in his eyes.
"I love you too…" She said as she felt him close the gap between them when he leaned in for a kiss. It was slow and deliberate. Everything was perfect. She finally felt blessed.
"Have I ever told you how much I love those sea green eyes of yours?" She giggled as he then proceeded to blew air softly to her neck, tickling her. "I could stare at it forever you know."
"You have. A lot of times by the way." He grinned as he gently laid his head on her lap as he too looked at the horizon. The sun was setting. The skies were enveloped in orange and yellow pigments. It was exquisitely beautiful. He was extremely glad to have witnessed this wondrous work of nature with no other than the girl he loves. "You know they say life is short. Let's say you wake up one day and I'm not there. All your dreams, everything you wished for and all you wanted – gone just like that. People get old and you know, things change and situations change. What I want is – I just – I want this moment, right now, this day and my feelings for you, the way you look right now, the way I look at you. I just want this to last forever you know."
Raine soothingly ran her hands through his hair, slowly caressing his head. "Well they will. I mean no matter what, we'll always have this, we have each other and nothing can change that. I just want you to know that no matter what you'll always have somebody here for you. Always. I'm never gonna leave you. I'm never gonna leave you," she said as she looked intently at him.
"I love you…" She said, absorbedly.
"I know…"
"Promise me something…" She trailed off as she continued to look over the horizon, the magnificent sun setting.
"Anything…" He said truthfully as he too looked at the beauty unfolding in front of him.
"Don't ever leave me…"
"I won't."
"Don't ever leave me."
"I won't… I won't… "
"Where is he? Tell me where my boyfriend is! " The blonde-haired girl was practically screaming as she tried to get some truth out of her boyfriend's friends.
"Boyfriend? Don't you mean ex-boyfriend?" Derek sneered as he watched the very beautiful girl make a scene in front of them.
"He is still mine! Now tell me where he is!" She shrieked. If these two idiots don't give me an answer, I swear I'm going to rip those mouths off their disgusting heads.
"Are we our friend's keeper? No wait… You're his keeper and now he's escaped from your zoo!" Craig said snootily as he and Derek then laughed at the poor sight that was in front of them.
"Why you…" She said, angrily. No one had the right to talk to her that way. The nerve of this man! She jabbed her wand to his chest and hissed, "I will give you one more chance to tell me where Mort is. If you don't cooperate with me, I will not hesitate to hex you to oblivion. Got it?"
"Whoa, whoa. Easy, tiger." Craig could only smirk back at the girl who was only a head shorter than him. The girl was strikingly pretty with her long straight blonde hair that fell onto her slender waist. She had a much defined nose, high cheekbones, and a normal-set mouth. Her eyes were deeply cerulean. She was taller than most girls of her age. She was beautiful and she knew it. She never let anyone forget about it.
"That's it!" She yelled. She muttered an incantation under her breath but the man only side-stepped to avoid her hex.
"Pathetic. Now that's what I call amateur." Derek said, laughing his head off.
"Quit it, Celine. Move on. Besides, have you forgotten that it was you who dumped Mort in the first place? Mort likes someone else now although I must admit; he doesn't know what he's missing." Craig smirked as he walked closer to the girl.
"Ha! You honestly believe that he likes that freak? I mean, look at her and look at me. We are nothing alike! She is but a plaything to him! He will come back to me! I will make him mine again and that long-haired freak will regret the day she was born after I'm done with her." Celine said determinedly as she took a step forward and looked at Mort's friends distastefully.
He is mine.
Draco was walking on his way to the library. He had an assignment for Transfiguration that no one could help him with and so he wanted to do some research on the topic. He was deep in thought as he rounded the corners of the fourth floor. The event of his last meeting with Hermione still stuck in his mind. The bruises in his arms were healing but a specific bruise on his face, particularly near the right side of his mouth, was still purple from the fight. He remembered it all to well. A figure clad in dark robes had tried to kill both him and Hermione. He was able to draw the attention of the figure away from Hermione, who was already at her way to complete suffocation.
Avada Kedavra… If Potter didn't come, I would have been dead by now. He sighed in frustration. Having your worst enemy save your life was not really in Draco's agenda. His thoughts then shifted to the girl who was the cause of it all.
Granger… She is too weak yet I sense great evil that surrounds her. There is someone, someone that haunts her and she is terrified. I am sure of that.
Why would anyone want to take her life? What does she have or better yet, what has she done in the past that would make someone despise her enough to kill her?
This is all too much and if I valued my life, I would stay away from her. However, I have gotten too much of myself involved and for some reason, I can't find it in myself to just abandon her and act as if nothing happened. She called out to me. And if I don't do something, I know I'd go crazy. I don't know why but there is something, something that pulls me close to her. I can't get away from it. It won't let me.
He turned the large brass handle to open the doors to the library. Pleased with himself, he found a nice location behind the 7th shelf of books on the left side of the library. There he sat on one of the cushioned chairs that scattered around. When he first entered, he had found the place deserted except for someone who was behind a long desk situated at the far end corner of the library. It was where Madame Pince usually stayed in to keep an eye on all the students that bustle to and fro with her books. But it wasn't Madame Pince that Draco saw. It was someone else, a very unfamiliar face. Draco could tell that it was a woman by the way she moved as she took large volumes of books in her hands and tried to put them in a pushcart. He heard her groan in frustration as two large hard-bound books fell from her grasp. Her hands were already occupied with enough books that she could muster.
Those books are awfully heavy. Draco thought as he too grimaced when another book fell off her hands.
"Let me help you." Draco managed to speak as he took long, brisk strides towards her. He scooped out some books from her arms and placed them slowly in the cart. He helped her gather the last of the books that was scattered on the floor, fixed them up and placed them too in the cart.
"Thank you…" The young woman said embarrassedly as she smiled gratefully at Draco.
"Where is Madame Pince?" Draco asked as he took no notice of the fact that she had just thanked him. He took a good look at the person in front of him. Indeed she looked young, Draco however was certain that she was in her early 20s. She possessed medium-length hair, the color of honey. Her hair fell in waves behind her back. She was very attractive. He could see that. But what really stood out from her well-defined face were her eyes. They were exceedingly in a dark shade of blue, a grayish tint in the center of both bore manifested in them. It seemed as if that whenever she spoke, the strange color in her eyes would grow wide and consume everything. There was another thing that caught his eyes and that was a soft tinge of discoloration in one of her cheekbones. Draco could tell that it was hastily covered up by white powder. He knew it was a purple bruise that graced her fine features.
"She's not here as of the moment. It seems that an important matter has come up and that there are some things she needed to take care of. I'm taking her place but only until after she comes back." The woman said as she smiled gently at Draco.
"That's weird… I never knew that she would someday leave the library. She seemed so much… attached to this place," he remarked.
The woman laughed, winked at Draco and said, "Tell me about it, before she left, she told me to care for her books as if it were my own children that needed tending to and that if I found anyone sabotaging a book of any kind, I was to give that student a month's time of library work."
Draco shrugged as if he didn't find it all too amusing.
"My name's Cecille by the way. And you are?" The woman introduced herself.
"Draco…"
"Thank you for your help Draco."
"Lumos." He muttered as a strong fiery light emerged from the tip of his wand.
"Where is it? I know it was somewhere here…" Mort said helplessly as he tried to look for the place that they once shared. He went from tree to tree, inspecting them. He was to look for the one that had their names carved on them. That particular tree would mean that he was near that fateful place.
"This is hopeless… They are just too many…" He said as he surveyed the area before him. He was in the forest and so; one could imagine the number of trees that greeted him. They weren't that many when it was during his days. But now, as he looked at his surroundings, he knew that everything had changed and the worst part was, he felt that time has robbed him of the place that deeply reminded him of the person he held so dearly in his heart.
Tick Tock
Tick Tock
Tick Tock
She looked at the magnificent clock that stood in the corner of the room. It was a little past 6 in the evening. Outside a window, she could see the dark skies that seemed to lull her to sleep. She was in the Gryffindor common room, sitting on one of its soft and comfy armchairs, doing nothing. She chose to sit by the fire and stare at it aimlessly, gazing at the way the flames danced inside the fireplace.
All of a sudden, the door to the common room opened, in went Harry and Ron who were soaked in both sweat and rain. They have just come in from Quidditch practice.
"Oh! Hermione…" Ron said, startled when he saw her sitting by herself in the common room. "You're all by yourself?" He asked as he flopped down a chair, his clothes still dripping.
"Ron!" Hermione wrinkled her nose as she took a look at both of her best friends. "Go upstairs and change. You and Harry are going to make the carpet wet."
Ron sat back up, startled. "But..." He said in protest.
"Ron, Hermione's right. Let's go," said Harry, taking Ron by the arm and leading him out of there.
"I'll wait for you guys to be back, alright? Now go."
It wasn't until after they had taken a bath that they did come down, both found the girl still sitting on an armchair by the fire.
"Let's go to Hagrid's house. We haven't paid him a visit since we've got here. What do you think?" Harry asked Hermione as he took a seat next to her.
Hermione shrugged, "When do you want to go?"
"Now, if you're not busy." He said in reply.
"Let's go."
The three went down the castle grounds and made their way to Hagrid's hut. Soft spatters of rain fell down on them as they huddled close towards their destination. It didn't take long for them to see the smoke coming out of the house's chimney.
Knock Knock Knock
"Hagrid, it's us. Can we come in?" Harry asked as the three of them waited outside, in the rain.
"'Arry? Is that you?" A voice said behind the door. Hagrid's voice.
"It is." Harry said.
Hermione was tapping her foot impatiently. She was getting wet and she didn't like it one bit. She adjusted her cloak to protect her body from more exposure to the rain, at the same time, she looked at the ill-driven path that led to the forbidden forest and was surprised to see something moving behind those tall hedges. What the…?
There was definitely something behind those hedges but what could it be? She thought.
Hermione drew out her wand cautiously and motioned for the others to go on ahead without her.
"What's wrong?" Ron asked as he held open the door, waiting for Hermione to go inside.
"There's something I forgot to do. I'll see you and Harry later." Hermione said distractedly. Her eyes never leaving those hedges.
"You're already here. Why don't you come in for a while? It won't take long." Ron suggested, his eyes trailing off to where Hermione's was.
"Stop being a pest, Ron, and just close the door." Hermione hissed.
"Ok, ok. Sorry!" Hurt and confused, Ron did as he was told and closed the door.
Now that Ron was out of the way. Hermione slowly walked towards those bushes. Her wand cast out in front of her. "Who's there?" She said, unwaveringly.
She heard a soft groan.
"… I can't see…"
(A/N: I tried my best in making this chapter long. I guess I'm really more of a short chapter author-type. It works for me. By the way, there's a particular small dialogue above that I based from a music video. It was so sweet and I couldn't resist putting it here. It conveyed the exact same thoughts that I planned to write for that specific scene. Anyway, please be kind and review! Ü)