Where The Sage Shrubs Grow,

Chapter 2

Christmas was fast approaching and Sage could hardly stand it. She would finally be back at home with her brother opening gifts and drinking hot coco. The first term had come and gone with a swish and to be honest Sage couldn't remember most of it, other than 90% of her time being spent in the library with Hallie or by herself and the other 10% hanging out with Hallie elsewhere or in classes, and sneaking glances of Fred Weasley whenever she could.

Sage's POV
    "See, I knew you would be here!" Hallie exclaimed.
Here, I'm always here. Where else does she expect me to be? 'Here' for clarification is curled up on a partially high windowsill that's just deep enough for me to sit on. It's the perfect place, secluded, cozy and perfect enough to make me cry on a rainy day. I hopped down from my little nook to join Hallie on the ground, "You really solved that mystery Hal" I teased. She just rolled her eyes, a very common response to my sarcastic comments. "Cmon " she started while grabbing my hand and dragging me away from my happy place. "You need to finish packing for Christmas break, I will not be kept from my Christmas gifts a moment longer than I need to because of YOU" she joked.

    There were only two more days left till everyone left for Christmas, of course I'm a little sad to be leaving Hallie for three weeks and I wont see Fred during that time either but I'm just really ready to be home. So here I am, packing my things. Alone, of course Hallie had up and left me the second she heard they were serving coffee in the great hall. That best friend betraying woman, I'm gonna dump a bucket of ice down her back the next time I see her. "Sage?" Called some Hufflepuff girl, "Yes?" I replied. "It's almost time for dinner you better start heading to the great hall soon" she stated. I spun around to my clock, 7:25pm it read. "Blimey I've been packing for a while, and Hallie still hasn't come back" I sneered.

    I threw on my converse and ran out of the common room down the hall to make it in time. Before my brain could comprehend my situation I was bumping into someone. The fact that we were both running but in opposite directions caused me to fall over and the other person to loose their balance. Lucky for them they never hit the floor though. "Bloody hell!" I heard them exclaim while I laid on the floor trying to remember how to breathe. "Are you ok?" They hesitated as they came into my line of sight.

    My vision cleared and there he was. Fiery red hair and warm brown eyes, my heart stopped. Now you're probably wondering how I knew it was Fred and not George, well it's simple really. They might be identical twins but there are very subtle differences in their appearance to tell them apart and their personalities are different. "Hello?" He asked snapping me back into reality and the unfortunate position I was in. "I- uhm, well uh-" I stammered. My head was spinning and I couldn't form a coherent word for the life of me. "Let me help you up" he insisted holding out his hand for me to take. Luckily, I got it together enough to grab his hand and let him help me. He held onto my shoulders until he thought I was stable enough to stand on my own.

    "Are you ok?" He asked again, "Did you hit anything important?" I just stared at him with a blank wide eyed stare. I could feel him growing more concerned or more uncomfortable, maybe both. "I'm ok" I whispered, relief passed over his face and he backed away from me. "Ok good, I was worried there for a minute" he laughed, I let out a small airy laugh and he turned to walk away. "Well you seem to be ok, so I guess I'll be going now" he started, "ok" I replied. "Sorry for bumping into you, maybe you should go inside and sit down for a bit" he suggested while gesturing to the great hall. I nodded as he began to run off "see you around!" He called.

    I collected my brain and continued my journey to the great hall. I was drowning in my thoughts by the time I made it to my table and sat down next to Hallie. Oh she's gonna have a ball hearing about what just happened to me. "What took you so long?" Hallie questioned, "I thought you had died or something" she teased. I slowly turned to look at her, it was pretty clear, I just just been through it. "What happened to you? You look like you've seen a dementor" she stated, I sat there blinking at her a few minutes before I Began.

    I told her everything that had happened, she listened the joy on her face increasing every ten seconds of my story. She was never going to let this go, she will haunt me forever with this, and I accept that. When I had finished she burst into a fit of laughter "You are in love with the boy" she teased "Sage is obsessed! It's nasty" she continued. "Oh shut up" I groaned, "I am not 'obsessed" I mocked. "Oh but you most definitely are" she retorted. The rest of dinner was filled with food, drinks, and Hallie's endless teasing, finally we were dismissed to go back to our common rooms.

    "How many kids do you think You and Fred will have?" Hallie joked, "You can go ahead and put that back for me" I laughed. "Fine" she replied, "do you have any good book recommendations for me? I need something new and good to read" she acknowledged. "I think I saw a herbology book in the library that looked interesting" I recalled. "I'll go check it out tomorrow" she trailed off "Ok, night sage!" she whispered

"night" I replied

Time Skip two days

    It was finally Christmas break! Me and Hallie were walking to the Hogwarts Express talking excitedly about what our Christmas breaks were gonna be like. As we boarded the train me and Hallie scurried into the first empty compartment we could find. We sat down with a sigh of relief that we didn't have to share a compartment with someone else.

    As we settled into our seats we heard knocking at the compartment door. Both our heads flew to look at the door, standing there was this alluring girl, her skin was as dark as ebony grafted with gold to make a radiant golden brown, and as fine as porcelain. Her hair was a windswept bundle of fine, golden brown coils that lay delicately over her shoulders and landed perfectly in her face. She had curves in all the right places and couldn't have been older than a first year, wich didn't seem fair. Her eyes were light through a whisky bottle with flecks of the sea in them.

    "Uh, hey can I sit with you guys? Every other compartment is full and everyone else seem like idiots." she began, "Oh, sure" Hallie hesitated. " Thanks! My name is MC by the way, we might as well get to know eachother" She reasoned. She was extroverted, extroverts always amaze me. How do they manage to just talk to people like that with no issue? "So what are your names?" she asked, I was the first to pipe up seeing as Hallie responded the first time. "Uhm, I'm sage and that's Hallie" I said gesturing to Hallie sitting across from Me. "Well, I can tell we're gonna be good friends" she expressed.

    MC actually turned out to be a really cool person, first extrovert to not trigger my anxiety. After a whole train ride of chatting and laughing we were back at platform 9 3/4 and it was time to part. We said our goodbyes to eachother and promised to write, exchanging addresses with MC. Being left alone on the platform, I started walking around looking for Apollo. After about 20 minutes I started to get a bit anxious. Did he forget about me? I decided to go sit down and wait but before I could make it to a bench I felt a tap on my shoulder. I jumped, slapped my hand over my mouth and gasped. Again, it's a problem.

    "Hey kiddo!" he cheered, clearly happy to see me. I didn't realize how much I had missed him till I saw him and I immediately began to tear up. "Don't hit the water works so soon!" he teased as he pulled me into a tight embrace. "I'm sorry" I sniffed "I just missed you a lot"

    Apollo apparated us back to the house and I went up to my room to get unpacked. It's just the same as I left it. My bed in the corner with an extra amount of blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals on it. My windowsill book nook with my bookshelves in the wall on either side of the window itself. All my candles and fairy lights just the way I placed them. It felt good to be home again. Once I had finished unpacking my things it was already evening so I headed downstairs for food.

    When I got to the kitchen Apollo already had pizza ready, we ate and talked. Apollo asked me about my studies and thins I did in my free time at school. I talked of the library with my windowsill nook, of how me and Hallie had been put in the same dorm room, and of meeting MC on the train. I asked Apollo about his work and he told me amazing stories of his experiences. By the time we had run out things to talk about it was well past 2am.

    "Well kid, i think its time you head off to bed" Apollo acknowledged, I nodded and went ton put my dishes in the sink. I went back to the living room to give Apollo a hug and went up to my room. As I got ready for bed I began to think and look forward to the next three weeks. I got in my bed amongst all my pillows and blankets I suddenly realized how tired and worn out I was. Eventually, I was out like a light