Hello... Again

Distressed Envisages

Author’s Note: I would like to thank my 20 month old son for falling asleep in my lap so that I was able to write the majority of this chapter last night.

She wiped her wet hair out of her face. She sniffled and rubbed the tears off her cheeks. She came to a stand and tossed the sheet covering her naked body to the wall. She put her hair up in a ponytail and looked to the mirror to see if she was publically presentable (hair wise). Her eyes fell to her bare body. she tore her gaze away in disgust. She busied herself with the task of getting dressed. Before leaving the inn room, she donned a hooded cloak and shrouded her identity.

-

Agnes had been walking in the wilderness for hours. Night had already fallen. She approached a lake in a clearing. She kneeled by the water’s edge and looked at the glimmering surface. Moonlight danced over the laughing ripples.

The image of a ravenette man looming over her invaded her vision. His face illuminated by the night’s orbed light source coming in through the sheer drapery. His eyes seemed to look at her with so much love.
Seemed. But did they?
Agnes shook the image away. It couldn’t be. He loved that Lily girl. Not her. Not Agnes Blackwood - Death Eater Agnes Blackwood. He was drunk - under the influence of alcohol; nothing more.

There she sat - at the lake’s bank. Agnes didn’t know how much time had passed since she had arrived at this hidden reservoir, but neither did she care.

Agnes lost herself inside the visible currents on the face of the water. The trees blocked any and all rays the moon showered onto the Earth below. But yet little twinkling lights burned in the distance. And… they seemed to be getting closer.
Whispering wisps floated over the body of water. Agnes watched their light reflect back to the dark forest.

“Rain clouds come to play? Has no one told you that she’d rather not be breathing? Hello. We are your mind. Giving you someone to talk to. Hello.”

Agnes closed her eyes and pretended not to hear them. Wisps could be nasty little things. With them technically being undead and all. It’s best not to interact with them. It could be deadly.

The air around the lake began to grow colder. The sound of Hogwarts’ school bell rang through Agnes’s ears. Her hands covered the sides of her head as her eyes tightly closed.
“Don’t try to ‘fix me!’” she shouted to the undead creatures. “I’m not broken!”

Soft, tickling chortles caressed her mind.
“Hello! We are the lie. Living for you so you can hide.”

“Go away!” Agnes’s brain screamed. She shook her head trying to dispel all thoughts from her mind. She had to disengage.

“Hello, we’re still here. All that’s left of yesterday. Come, darling. We see you’d rather not be breathing. We are the lie, living for you so you can hide.”
An image of Severus’s face shoved its way through. Agnes’s chest felt as though it would burst from the tornado of emotions within. They were threatening to implode.
“Don’t cry.”

Agnes opened her eyes to see the wisps were dangerously close. Slowly, Agnes pulled her wand from her right boot. Under her breath she said, “Expecto Patronum.” Her wand’s tip burst into a pale blue light. The light transformed into the form of a large feline. The wisps were blown back by a few feet toward where they had appeared.. The patronus light faded enough to reveal the body of a snow leopard.

Agnes turned to the snow leopard pleadingly. “Lead me.”

The snow leopard tilted on its hind legs and pointed with it’s paw before springing in the direction it had indicated. Agnes jumped to her feet and gave chase to the large feline.

-

Agnes apparated to the main gate of Hogwarts. Her patronus had safely led her to Hogsmeade. She had been able to calm down enough to apparate.

Agnes trudged through the castle’s halls and arrived at the door of her personal safe haven. She opened the door and was greeted by Beatrice. The calico rubbed the side of her body against her owner’s leg. Agnes ignored the cat and tossed her hooded cloak to the left onto the floor below. Beatrice turned her ear to the side in offense as she stared after the witch.

My Patronus is a snow leopard, huh…?
Agnes collapsed onto her bed and summoned the image she conjured to call forth her Patronus.

Agnes fell into a deep sleep with the memory of her thirteen year old self sitting with a younger Severus in Hogwarts’ courtyard. They had laughed at each other’s jokes then.
As she drifted off, a smiling Severus greeted her in dreamland.

Author’s Note: Thank you for reading! I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. Coming up, we’re going back to Severus.
I would like to thank everyone who stuck with this story even when I didn’t update it for a several months… at one point a year.
I would also like to thank the new readers for reading Agnes’s story.

~ DJ-Kyoto