✓ | RECKLESS AND BRAVE | Draco Malfoy

17 | QUAINT

QUAINT
(adj.) attractively unusual or old-fashioned

TESSA WAS WORRIED AFTER HARRY TOLD HER WHAT HAPPENED THAT DAY. A month had already gone by since school started, and it was already October. That night that she, Harry, and Ron had detention, she'd gone back to the common room to find Harry pacing in front of the fireplace. He'd asked her relentlessly if she'd heard a voice saying it wanted to rip and kill, but she hadn't. And she's been worried ever since.

     She didn't even want to celebrate her birthday when the day came. She was too busy with Quidditch training to bother doing something else. Uncle Kasi had sent her a present, and Philip did so as well. Her friends gave her some gifts and hung around her in the Great Hall during dinner, but that was basically it. No celebrations, no parties, no fun and games.

     Except for another strange present from someone who apparently doesn't matter.

     That night of her birthday, Tessa walked in her dorm room to have Lavender, Parvati, and Rhea squeal and shove a box into her arms. Apparently, they found it in the common room and looked at the note to see it was for her. True enough, the note read:

Happy Birthday
I hope you still have some sunshine despite the rain.
From: doesn't matter

     Tessa bit back a smile, finding the greeting rather interesting because it was, indeed, raining these past few days. Setting the note aside, she turned her attention to the box and opened it. Inside the quaint, white box lay a single sunflower.

     She was perplexed with who this person was and why they were so adamant on keeping their identity a secret. With a small, defeated sigh, Tessa slid the flower into a vase filled with water and set it on the nightstand beside her carved stag and tiger, and the moving photo Harry had given her of her mother and James Potter.

It was a few days before Halloween, and Oliver called the team out for training despite the massive storm brewing outside. He'd been working them hard in all the practice sessions, especially after knowing just how fast the Slytherin team's new brooms were.

Training was now over, and Harry and Tessa were making their way back to the castle. Flinging open the front doors, Tessa stepped in and started to talk about how excited she was for all the candy and chocolate on Halloween, when she found herself walking in the common room instead of the main hallway. She blinked in surprise, swiveling around to see if Harry had followed her from the front doors to the common room, but found no trace of him. "What the hell is happening?" she muttered bewilderedly, shutting the door and slowly making her way upstairs to shower and wait for Harry.

Now that she was clean, Tessa skipped the stairs by two as she entered the common room again. She sidled next to Hermione who was bickering with Ron about studies as she propped a book on her lap and started to read. She'd finished Wuthering Heights a week ago, and was starting on Great Expectations. She was really enjoying all these classic Muggle books.

Harry finally slipped in the room, eyes falling on Tessa as he said, "Where did you go? One second we were stepping in the main hall, and the next you disappeared."

Tessa frowned and shook her head. "I'm sorry, it's this strange thing that's been happening lately. But I'm starting to hate doors."

Harry gave her a weird look before shaking his head and launching into a story about agreeing to go to a party.

"A deathday party?" Hermione repeated. "I bet there aren't many living people who can say they've been to one of those — it'll be fascinating!"