1996: The Beginning of the End

2: Understanding and Unusual

Theo:

"well that was a whopping waste of time" Blaise sighed dropping into the seat beside me, I chuckled looking to my friend,

"what? You didn't enjoy smoke being blown up your backside?" I asked with a laugh,

"merlin does he love to hear the sound of his own voice". It was then that a thought walked across my mind and I looked to one member of our group who also loved to hear the sound of his own voice, but for once was unusually completely quiet. "my Dad was right, the man hasn't changed a bit since our own parents were in Hogwarts". Blaise continued on about his Dad and stories about the new potions teacher who I was yet to meet when I looked back towards the mute sat across from me.

"how was your summer, Draco?" I asked the unusually quiet Malfoy sat across from me. His skin had somehow gotten paler. Rather than casually clothes, he was impeccably dressed in suit of the darkest back with a tie and undercoat compared to our jeans and t shirts. Pansy looked at Draco expectantly for his answer but it never came, "hello, Draco are in there?". I waved a hand in front of his face and Draco seemed to physically jerk from whatever dream state he was in moments ago.

"you know, the normal boring things you do over the summer with your parents" he swallowed and then returned into his day dream seeming uninterested in casual chit chat with his friends. No. I didn't know. I hadn't seen Dad since the day I returned on the Hogwarts Express at the beginning of the holidays. I didn't know what the normal things were that normal people did with their parents over summer. As per usual I had spent it alone. But something had been different. The house was empty, it had always been empty but it seemed unlived in. Like dad had never been there at all, not even once since I left for school last September. An uneasy feeling set into my stomach as a suspicion that I had been brewing over all summer had another piece fit into it. Draco who normally bragged about trips to foreign countries and visits to the Minister of Magic had nothing to stay. Something wasn't right, something wasn't right..

"aren't you coming Draco?" Pansy asked as the train carriage emptied out. He hadn't sad a word for the entire journey and every single one of us had noticed this uncharacteristic behaviour.

"I'll be there in a moment" Draco said in a strange voice. Blaise and I looked at each other, raising our eyebrows.

"come on Pansy" Blaise said, "let's get a carriage". The others left and I kept watching Draco, he was like a statue, motionless and almost dead inside.

"waiting on someone Theo?" Draco asked without looking up from the position he had been in since the train had left Kings Cross,

"no, no one" I said harshly grabbing my bag and heading to the end of the carriage not wanting to stand that that horrible heavy silence for much longer. As I opened the door at the end of the carriage I spotted a girl further down in the next carriage car. Her hair was shorter than it had been last term falling just below her shoulders, her skin paler, more grey. She was thinner and for some reason seemed smaller. Seemed smaller within herself. Her bag was on the floor beside her as if she had just dropped it in shock, her eyes were wide as she looked out the window "waiting on someone?" I asked and Eloise Vance turned her head to face me. She seemed gaunt in the shadows, her eyes dark underneath and her eyes were wide as if she had just seen something that shook her and had made her stand still to take it in.

"no, I have no one to wait for" her voice wasn't sad or angry. It was blank and uninterested but understanding tone, as if she was stating a fact that was plainly obvious to everyone except me. She pulled her bag up higher on her shoulder before turning on her heel and walking away from me. It wasn't for some reason that Eloise seemed smaller and the fact that she was so obviously stating me was that she had no one to wait for, her mother was dead. She had died in July, she had been protecting the muggle Prime Minister for the Ministry when they were attacked and killed by followers of the Dark Lord. My stomach churned and I got off the train. Her Mum was dead. She had come home to a mother who loved her last summer. Someone who cared about her and loved her and then it was all taken away from her. Death Eaters had taken her Mum away from her. She was only doing her job and then she was dead. A very guilty feeling began settle in my stomach. Where was my Dad? Where had been all summer? What had he done? I would never forget the look in Eloise Vance's eyes that night as she had looked out the train window and seen something that she had never seen before. Never been able to see before that day in July. The gigantic beasts that pulled the carriages from the platform to the castle. Horse's that seemed to have no skin and gave off a god like aura. Thestrals. No one else stopped to look at them because no one else could see them. Only me and now Eloise. She could see them, which meant. I didn't let myself think about it as I watched the Thestral in front of my carriage. It's beautiful wings tucked in tightly beside its body as it walked us towards the castle under the starlight. Everyone talked about new teachers and summer gossip and I watched the stunning beast that pulled our carriage. No one else could see them, no one else could see them unless they had seen somebody die. I thought about the way she had spoken. That understanding tone, she knew, she understood. Eloise Vance could see the Thestrals for the very first time. Eloise could see them and so could I