To Kill You With a Kiss

Chapter 11

Harry sat under a large, shady oak tree and looked out over the glittering Hogwarts lake. The spring day was growing warm now, and the sweet fragrance of lilac and flowering hawthorn wafted through the air. A profusion of golden berberis and marsh marigolds grew by the water, and the scents were making him a little dizzy.

The headmaster of Hogwarts is dead, the potions master became a murderer last week, the wizarding world is crumbling, and yet it makes no difference to these spring flowers; they would bloom the same even if Voldemort and his death eaters were to kill us all. Inside the castle, everything is chaos; the professors have given up on teaching and on enforcing rules. But out here by the lake, everything is the same as it has always been. Here, under this tree in spring, the world seems to be as it should be. I can almost imagine a boy with dark curls and silver eyes sitting next to me... I wonder if Tom ever sat under this tree on a spring day like this? Does Voldemort still remember the scents of spring?

Even the evergreen holly was in bloom now; tiny white flowers glistened among the dark-green leaves. Harry twirled his wand slowly between his fingers as he sat thinking. My wand was once a branch from a holly tree. How different it is now! My wand is powerful, but yet so lifeless compared to the blooming branches of the living tree! And Voldemort was once just Tom Riddle, before his transformation began. I wonder if my magic wand remembers being alive. I wonder if Dark Lord remembers that he loved me once?

Oh, Tom, how will I ever find you again? If only I could find a way to go back, to the time when you were still just Tom. If only I had Hermione's time turner!

Harry saw two figures down by the lake now, a boy and a girl. From here, the girl looked like Ginny, but he couldn't tell who the boy was. They were walking close together, much closer than friends ever would. Harry smiled to himself. Perhaps Ginny had fallen in love... He remembered that he once thought that he was in love with Ginny, but it seemed to him now little more than a sweet and fragile daydream. They had played at being in love; they had kissed each other and gazed into each others' eyes, and they had imagined that love was no more than that.

In the distance, he could see the red-haired girl kissing the boy down by the lake. The boy was tall and lanky and curiously familiar, but Harry could not place him. Harry scrambled to his feet and walked slowly towards the school; it appeared that Ginny and her friend were in need of some privacy.

...

Several students were packing their belongings now. Neville's open trunk was filled with tangled stems, quivering leaves and snapping flowers; it looked like a dire floral arrangement put together by Peeves. A dainty blue-green orchid was biting little holes in Neville's school robes, while a plant with delicate green tendrils was inflicting some considerable damage on his broomstick.

Harry sifted carelessly through the contents of his own school trunk. School books, potions ingredients, clothes, quills... What use were any of these things? Where was he supposed to travel when school ended - Little Whinging? The silver locket, his wand, and his invisibility cloak - those were the only things he needed.

Hermione was in the boys' dormitory as well, rearranging Ron's belongings neatly in his trunk, discarding his used chocolate frog wrappers, and slipping a few ancient leather-bound books that looked suspiciously like volumes from the Restricted Section in between his robes. Ron himself was nowhere to be seen.

Hermione smiled at Harry. "Here. I've got something for you. It's the spell you wanted."

They both flushed a little as she handed him a small piece of parchment. Harry read it silently and slipped it into his pocket.

"Thanks."

"Harry? Are you going to tell me who-?"

Harry shook his head and rearranged the mess inside his trunk clumsily so that it ended up looking even worse. "Maybe... Maybe later..."