Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
————————————
Aurora Areli
THE LOOK OF HORROR hadn't left Harry's face since we left the hospital. Now as we swayed with the train through the dark tunnel, I watched him worriedly, especially because he didn't even seem to notice. He just kept staring blankly at the ground in front of us.
"Are you all right, Harry, dear?" Mrs Weasley whispered, leaning across Ginny and me to speak to him. "You don't look very well. Are you feeling sick?"
It looked like this was the first time he realised everyone was watching him. Harry shook his head rapidly and stared up at an advertisement for home insurance.
"Harry, dear, are you sure you're all right?" Mrs Weasley asked in a worried voice, as we walked around the unkempt patch of grass in the middle of Grimmauld Place. "You look ever so pale . . . are you sure you slept this morning? You go upstairs to bed right now and you can have a couple of hours of sleep before dinner, all right?"
He nodded, and as soon as she opened the front door, he hurried up to his and Ron's room without saying a word to any of us. I frowned, and looked over at Ron and Ginny, who shrugged.
I decided to pass some of the time by writing to my brother. Atticus was probably confused on why we just disappeared, but I had to make sure not to give anything away, just in case the letter got intercepted.
Instead of sitting in the living room with everyone else, I went up the room Ginny and I were sharing, partially because I needed quiet to write, but also because I wasn't really in the mood to talk to anyone. I barely remembered sitting down at the worn-down desk with a quill and parchment, but soon enough I was staring down at the blank yellowed piece of paper without a clue on what to say.
How on earth was I supposed to explain everything that happened? It seemed impossible that less than twenty-four hours ago all of us were still at Hogwarts, without a clue as to what was to occur. It scared me upon realising how quickly everything can change; that much was proven, from when Cho tried to kiss Harry, to when Mr Weasley was attacked suddenly. To top it all off, I was terrified at how accurate my dreams really were. Tonks had mentioned Seers, but they saw the futures themselves, and for some reason, my dreams didn't feel like something I was doing. But how I knew that, I didn't know. Perhaps it was the same reason that I had any dreams in the first place.
I set down my quill and put my head in my hands, squeezing my eyes shut against my palms. I felt like I wanted to cry, or scream, or something, but all I could do was sit there and try not to let my brain explode. I just wanted everything to go back to normal. At that point, though, I wasn't sure what normal even was.
A few hours later, I was still up in the bedroom, though I had moved from the desk to my bed. I had wanted something to distract me, so I decided to read a book, which was something I, sadly, hadn't done in a while. Reading was one of my favourite things to do, yet this year, it was hard to find the time to. Although I found it hard to focus much on the story anyway.
