Rainbows (A Hogwarts Mystery Story)

Chapter 21

I would have liked to believe that things would get better from here. However, expectations could only satisfy so much of our desires. It would take an inhuman power to bend fate in our favour, and especially when it came down to hoping that the drama would just stop.

The sting from Merula's slap still lingered in my memory, the wound fresh on my cheek. Clearly visible to the others sitting around me in the Great Hall, yet not an issue that many people whisper over. Still, her argument had shaken me from smothered comfort. I had been sheltered too long in the arms of those who cared to even notice the storm brewing beyond their embraces.

"I'm sure it was a trap," Rowan said to me, picking up a breakfast roll and handing it to me. "Something's bound to break all of us at some point..."

"And who anticipated it to be now?" I countered sadly. "Just when everyone thought that the situation could be handled, something else comes up. Why can't all this be someone else's problem? Or better yet, not exist in the first place?"

The screeches, the tears. The violet sparks that flew from her wand.

"Both of my parents are worse than dead!"

Why did it have to be me?

It was like all my senses had shut down after the argument with Merula. She openly blamed me for not teaching her the Patronus Charm in time, because now both her parents had become victims to the Dementor's Kiss in Azkaban. With their souls sucked out, they were reduced to nothing. I knew she would be distraught, but not to the degree where she would slap me hard across the face. Was I really becoming the villain?

The day rolled by with minimal chatter around me, though no one dared to meet my eye. Apparently the news about the Snydes had got across the entire student body, and they may have thought I had something to do with their demises. I had people react in ways almost unimaginable before, but this was probably most unfavourable. It felt as if I was being shut out from a home I was once welcomed into, confined to only the cold that came with loneliness.

Cold. Bitter. Frigid. Perhaps it was a feeling I should get used to.

Besides, the further we went into the school year, the more impossible the prospect of it going away seemed.

---

The snow crunched under my feet as I went out alone to Care of Magical Creatures after dinner. Or at least that was where I would have supposedly been going before making a detour to the Forbidden Forest. I wasn't sure what to expect. Probably a beating for breaking the rules again, or ending up dead for my recklessness. When Cecil didn't return after days of investigation in the Forest, and Rakepick didn't bother me as much anymore with new updates, I began to suspect something was wrong.

With Tulip's annotated map clutched tightly in hand, I sucked in a breath from my teeth and forged into the Forbidden Forest on foot.

I knew it was a bad idea the minute I entered the dark forest. Tall trees towered over me plunging me further into the pitch black. Cold winds brushed past my exposed skin, numbing my nerves turning my flesh into the palest white. I felt my teeth chattering beyond my control, my eyes tearing up with the harsh bitter frigidity. How did I not think to even wear any warm clothes this time?

There was no sign of human life in here. No wonder it was Forbidden to all of us as students. All around, I could hear other dangerous growls, ominous sounds that would have sent even the bravest of us all running for the closest bathroom.

I steeled myself and kept going.

Just then, I heard a loud yelp from my left, along with the unmistakeable bark of a wolf. I quickly turned around, lighting my wand...and there stood Cecil Lee, his face ashen and his hair all over the place. His purple hat was gone.