What the Room Requires

Chapter Nine

VVVV

DAY TWO

DRACO

            The next “day,” or whatever it was, dawned with pink light spreading across the sky and illuminating the clouds with all sorts of rich, unfathomable colors. I sat just outside the edge of the willow room, watching the sun rise, the cool breeze washing over me.

            As the sun got higher, the barley turned from gray to brown, and finally to that stunning gold I was used to. The sky lit up into a brilliant blue, and the white clouds rolled and tumbled with a high wind. It got warm again, but not uncomfortable. I stood up, dusted off my trousers, and started out into the field. The bright sun felt good on my shoulders and the top of my head—it helped get rid of the shadows that had come in the middle of the night. I left Granger behind me. She was still sleeping.

            I kicked rhythmically through the barley, noticing that it didn’t look like anyone had ever walked here before. I stuck my hands in my pockets, lowered my head and began to think again, like I’d been trying to do yesterday before Granger wanted to start an argument about pig tails.

            What had happened to the forest? When I’d stepped outside the other night to see what was going on, it had just disappeared. Poof. And replacing it was now an endless field and a spectacular sky—but what did that mean? I couldn’t figure it out yesterday, and I wasn’t hopeful for today—and the only thing I did know was that the door was now very hidden. We’d had the forest path before. Now…nothing. I could be walking past it at that very moment and have no idea.

            “Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, too-ra-loo-ra-li,” I murmured to myself, in a tune that had just entered my head. I didn’t remember where I’d heard it, but it went well with the sound of the rushing wind. That is, until I heard the grass crashing behind me. I spun around to see Hermione storming toward me, arms swinging, face tight with consternation and anger. My eyes went wide.

            “What did you do?” she cried.

            I frowned at her, indignant.

            “What do you mean, what did I do?”

            And suddenly, I saw that her face was streaked with tears, and her eyes were filling up with more that tumbled down even as she walked. She jerked to a stop, swiped her sleeve across her cheeks, but her brow twitched and her lip trembled.