The Slytherin prince

Chapter 8: Meteorite

My body was tingling. I felt warm rays of sunshine on my skin burning through my core. I opened my eyes, blinded by all the light. I was laying at the roots of a big ashy three with long leaves hanging on the ground. Around me where thousands of flowers in colours you cannot imagine. I sat up straight and looked around. I was nearby a lake. The sun let the water glitter in multiple facets of rainbow colours. I touched the grass beside me, everything was extremely soft. The whole scenery had a golden glow over itself, it was an incredible sight. I never felt so at peace within myself. I saw a woman in the distance. She was wearing a big overskirt and had curly hair, something you didn't see every day. I wanted to approach her, but she stayed as far away from me even when I walked toward her. Suddenly she looked up at the sky. There was a huge ray of white light coming our way. It looked like a meteorite, it was beautiful. The white light danced around me before it took me with it. It consumed me completely.

It was cold and the underground was hard to lay on. Cold air brushing against my skin, turning it into ice. Weight pressing in rhythmic strokes on my ribs and lungs. Liquid running out of my mouth, almost chocking on it. My mind was returning to its body. It took me a couple of minutes to locate and reconnect every muscle in my body. Suddenly I felt all of the pain in the world, my ribs were cracking by the weight, still pressing on them. I opened my eyes slightly, All was dark and cold. I saw a mini Lightsource hanging over my head, I followed it with my eyes.

"Victoria, God damnit are you all right?" I didn't understand a single word. I took my eyes of the light and scanned the scene surrounding me. It took a while when my eyes finally adjusted to the dark. Everything was pitch black, wet and cold. "Thought I lost you for a minute." It echoed in my head. I remembered the soft grass in the place where everything was gold. I reached for my hand and tried to stroke the grass beside me. My muscles protested aggressively. I moaned at the piercing pain it came with. "Victoria, can you hear me?" Only now I realized someone was beside me. I looked at the figure. It was a man, no a little younger. A boy. I squeezed my eyes to focus. "What the hell are you doing at the lake this late at night?" He sounded worried and angry at the same time.

"I... don't know." I was startled by the sound of my own voice, I didn't recognize it at all. I sat up straight, gasping for the air I lacked for minutes. I shrunk together by the overwhelming pain coming from my ribs. I looked at the boy more closely. "Malfoy?" I snorted

"Thank god." He was relieved. He gave me his jacked and tried to warm me with his hands.

"What are you doing." I was trying to shake him off. I frowned my eyebrows, still not able to place the event.

"No, what were you doing?" He shouted at me. "If I hadn't been here, you would have died!"

"What?"

"I found you in the damn lake, Victoria." He looked behind him and shot an SOS sign in the air with his wand. A red light stroke coloured the night sky. I started to panic after his words. All the pain, all the memories came back in one heartbeat. How I was afraid of the dark, how cold it was and how it felt gasping pure water instead of air.

"Calm down, you are safe now." He looked around him, still no one in sight. "Not going to lie, I thought I lost you for a minute." He was out of breath.

"You did." I started to cry. Wanting to go back to my golden place. "I was in a very different place, when a meteorite came and took me with it here." I looked at the sky, my eyes filled with tears that burned on my ice cold skin. He stiffened at the thought. "I was here with Fred, he went back to the castle. When I got up I tripped and lost my balance." I looked at Draco, he looked like he was going panic too.

"Why did the git leave you here?" He clenched his cheeks together in disbelieve.

"I was too afraid in the water to open myeyes." I said more to myself than to him, not answering his question. Peoplecame running out of the castle to us. Dumbledore first. My skin was soaking wetand cold as ice. The fact that I was alive, was a miracle. I was in thehospital for the second time this school year and Halloween hadn't even comeyet. Every night, I relived the nightmarish scene from the lake a couple ofdays before. Waking up, gasping for air, thinking I am drowning all over again.Anna said with me the whole time. It was too much to handle alone. I hadn'tseen Draco since. I heard he had it difficult too. I still needed to thank himfor literally saving my life. It's weird, your enemy saving the existence hehated.

"What are you going to wear?" Anna said to me, while eying herself in the mirror. I was day dreaming on the corner of my bed. My consciousness left this world quite often last couple of days.

"I am not going." I am referring to the Halloween masked ball. I brushed my hands through my dark brown hair. A couple of loose hairs came with it. I looked at them.

"You can use a distraction, girly." She turned around and gave me a warm smile.

"I have no date and nothing to wear. Not much of a choice here." She was going with Seamus Finnigan from Gryffindor. I am not sure how they met.

"Don't be ridiculous. You can come with us and I know you brought an outfit from home." She eyed me.

"Have you seen Draco? I own him a thank you." I was completely in my own world. At that moment, a little knock was placed on the door. We both looked at each other. Anna opened it. I couldn't see who it was, but Anna looked at me and smiled.

"Come in." She said.

"Hey, Vic, how are you feeling." Fred came in with a bouquet of wildflowers. He was dressed in all black with colourful fancy socks. His face expressions where rather sad.

"I am managing, Thanks for asking." I gave him a smile to reassure I was okay. He answered my smile.

"I brought these for you." He sat himself beside me on my bed, giving me the flowers. They remined me of the flowers I had seen in my golden place. Both joy and sadness crawled inside me. "Picked them myself, only the best for you." He continued.

"RIP Dumbledores garden." I laughed at him. He laughed with me.

"Thank you, I really like flowers." It was true. I studied every one of them very closely. Fred stiffened beside me, I forgot he was here with me. I looked up, Anna had left the room, also without me noticing.

"I am so very sorry about what happened to you, Victoria." He started. He looked down to his shoes. "I should have never left you alone outside in the dark." He was tortured with regret and guilt.

"It is none of your fault, Fred." I reassured him. "Don't feel responsible, you were not. It was an awful accident." I cringed at my own words. He nodded softly.

"I still want to make it up to you." His face lighted up. He turned his body my way. We were looking straight at each other now. "Would you do me the pleasure to accompany you to the Halloween masked ball?" He asked full of confidence, like I knew him. I couldn't supress a smile.

"You want to take a Slytherin to the ball? "I asked him sarcastically.

"Hell yes, you are my Halloween prop, nothing as scary as you." He gave me a wink. I knew it was a joke. I laughed at it.

"The pleasure would be mine." I said while I gave him my hand. He kissed the top of it very gently, still not breaking eye contact. Anna came back in.

"Not disturbing anything I hope." She didn't look us straight in the face, but saw her peeking through the mirror in our way. "I presume you have a date than?" She turned around to us and gave me a wide smile, full of excitement. Our awkward smile was enough of an answer to her.

"Will pick you up here, tomorrow at 19?" Fred asked me.

"Sounds great." I laughed at him. He let go of my hand and stood up. "See you tomorrow." It was more of a whisper to myself. Anna was full of excitement. I went to bed very early that night. I was cooking up a plan to speak to Draco and thank him for saving me. I couldn't get the thought out of my head. I had to see him.

It was bright outside, I looked at the sky and saw harsh light coming my way. As the light came closer, my surroundings became darker and colder. The light took me to a body of water, darker than the night. The meteorite had visited me again.