Drying in the rain

His Words

"It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace." - Chuck Palahnuik

~S~

"Do you realize what you have done? What am I to do? The amount of work you have just shoved at me from your foolishness!" I hissed, she shriveled into herself like a plant dying from too much sunlight. Her mouth quivering, too scared to speak. "You can serve your detention with some other unfortunate person, clearly you do not have the discipline to-"
"Professor it was an honest mistake, and I'm sorry. But your reaction isn't my fault. I am not responsible for the way you act." She protested. It went silent, little drops of rain splashed along the sidings beyond the dungeon as we sat in a fighting match.
"The amount of disrespect."
"Yeah no, I know, I'll be leaving. You won't have to deal with me any longer Professor, I know how absolutely horrible it must be." She began collecting her belongings. I moved out from my ink stained desk.
"I have not dismissed you miss Hollows." I snarled.
"I think this is the kind of situation where I should excuse myself. So excuse me." She shoved past me, stepping away and gracefully shutting the door. I looked back to where she had been sitting.
Slowly I stepped over to her seat, I was sure it was still warm. As I scanned about, I saw a small etching engraved into the table. My favorite potion is shampoo, you should try it Professor.

~A~

I paced through the dungeons, I saw the blurred faces of my classmates as they walked around me. I blended in so perfectly, just another student among countless other students. I was not some different girl, the girl I'm sure they were all curious to meet. I was a damaged and deflated ego strolling through filled halls whilst inside suffocating. Maybe it was how fast I was going, or the tears burning within my eyes that smudged their faces. Like blobs they conversed with each other, flirted with each other, fought with each other. And in the end I would never be one of them.
I made my way out from the cold longing of the professors prison, finally entering into the sunlight, and it was bright. The rain from a few moments prior had simmered into a mist covering the mountains in the distance, making little rings above the treetops. It was out there in the highlands that I needed to be, just now. Just this once.
"Anna right?" I felt a hand land upon my shoulder.
"What." I replied, I knew where I wanted to be, and it was anything but here.
"You okay? The first day can be kind of stressful." I looked up, Malfoys face hovered over me.
"Yeah. Look I really have to go, it was nice catching up."
"No no no you are up to something. Where are you off to?" He stopped in front of me, annoyed I attempted to shimmy away however he moved again blocking me from continuing onwards.
"Is this really necessary?"
"Where to?"
"I don't know outside? Like, in the highlands." His face lit up.
"You don't say, may I accompany you? It could be dangerous out there." He began to walk by my side.
"No. I need to be alone right now, so if you don't mind.." I started up an even speedier walk.
"I'll tell snape."
"God damn you! Fine!" I huffed. "So how do we even get down there? Is there a path or something?"
"Basically, come on let's go." He lead the way, bringing me through a bunch of back alley corridors and offices until we finally reached the grass. I felt my lungs inflate with the heavy mountain air, if I didn't look behind me, all I could see was the purest of the world.

The sun was only just beginning to lower, it wouldn't set for another hour or two. I knew the sun, it was an old friend of mine, a timeless sentiment waiting always in the sky. I had watched it rise and set upon the ocean a thousand times over and over, I had seen its rays invade the darkest forests and rooms, I had seen it warm up my planet and leave it frozen. I had seen it burn, I had felt it's flares like candles and rum. The most powerful being, millions of light years away, floating in the sky like perhaps a light house guiding a ship disguised as a cloud. Like a renaissance painting, fluffy sails of condensed water meeting with the light blue sea. Today of all days I saw it so grand, bending and outstretching it's arms, saying farewell to the highlands.
"So. You and Evan?" His words spoke sharp as we trudged through the downhill path into the fields. I saw the blades of grass shift with golden strains, the trees swaying as the birds inhabiting them flew away. The late September flowers hinted with flitters and specks of amber, the butterflies swooping in and out of pollen pockets as a gentle breeze blew my hair.

"I'm talking to you."
"You've never been ignored huh." We neared the entrance to an enchanted like forest, ivy hanging off of the tree branches hiding whatever magic lived inside the branches of the pines.
"All of my life. You and Evan? Are you and him close?"
"How could I be close with someone after knowing them barely two days?"
"Just wondering... did he say anything about me?" He peeled back some of the vines, opening up the mouth of the woodlands. The little sprites and fireflies gliding in between fallen logs and sparse patches of grass in between moss twinkled around us.

"There are more important things in life than whatever is going on between you too, and personally I don't want to be in the middle of it." I sighed, tilting my head upwards under the canopy.
"Why are you so cross?"
"I don't think that's any of your business, you forced yourself here with me."
"You're not the only one that needs a break from Hogwarts." He sat himself down upon a rock overlooking a cliff out from the edge of the tree line.
"You know what I think. Sometimes people grow away from each other for whatever reason, their flower sprouts towards a different beam than yours." I sat down beside him on the ground, watching the rippling waters below us. "I miss the ocean."
"What are you a poet?" He laughed, stretching out his legs and reclining.
"No, just an avant art lover. But Hogwarts as magical as it is holds a very tight strictness over what is imaginary and what is not."
"Do you like your classes?"
"All except potions, the one class I'm best in and I can't seem to keep myself behaved."
"Snape is really really really difficult. He's far too young to command respect but far too old to not want it." His eyes traveled over to the light indent of the crescent moon as it began to rise, ready to take over shift.
"Yeah yeah poor snape. Honestly he can kiss my ass, I've never met such an intolerable person before and yet he acts as if we're the scum. I mean really whoever told him he was worthy enough to act like a tyrant king was full of absolute horse-" His eyes grew big as a twig snapped from behind us, a dark figure stood within the amassing shadows of the forest. "Shit?"
"Well well, I was wondering where my two missing Slytherins had ventured off to. And Miss hollows your statement is almost correct, however I did not have a need for another to tell me my place, I made my place." The potions master appeared in all his glory from the thickets.
"Professor!" Yelped Draco as his previous demeanor of tranquility disappeared.
"Get back to the common room, Filch will deal with you Malfoy, Miss Hollows I believe we need a conversation." He flicked his wrist at Draco.
"Draco don't just leave me!"
"His words, not mine. Thank you professor." He turned his heel, heading back towards the castle. The sun still dangled on, the sky bright, strips of light orange and pink mixed with blue. Everything still remained the way it had been, beautiful. Even when he was there.