➥COMPLETED
Nova Black hadn't thought she would ever set a toe behind those thick castle walls she had fought to forget about during the past thirteen years, but here she was at Plattform 9¾, staring at the scarlet train in front of her with wobbly k...
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DARKNESS WAS slowly approaching as long shadows started to grew taller over Hogwarts' snow covered grounds, but Rebecca James had not for once left the hospital wing, nor has anyone but Madame Pomfrey entered it since Nova had exited hours ago. Still lingering around fourth floor, Nova's eyes fell upon a fiery red ball slowly sinking behind the Forbidden Forest's tree tops, and still nothing did happen in this lonely corridor.
Under normal circumstances, Nova now would return to her room, lock the door behind her and sink into bed, especially with her supplies on draught of dreamless sleep being restored. But for the first time in a while, Nova felt something like excitement, and though the source of this curiosity remained unknown to her (- because it definitely hadn't anything to do with Remus Lupin might being involved in this), she decided to give in and follow this new found urge for something else than numbing her nightmares.
It was close to dinner, when Madame Pomfrey left the hospital wing again, and also again, she did it alone. Rebecca James was still behind this double-winged door, and probably Nova should feel guilty, or at least a little bit bad, for acting this nosy, after the young healer had just let her walk out of Madame Pomfrey's office without even attempting to figure out what Nova had searched for in there. But as it was slowly upwelling inside her like soft waves on a calm sea before the storm, finally something happened, that caught Nova's attention.
Rebecca James was leaving the hospital wing as the last remainings of the sun were nothing but a gleaming ember against an otherwise dark and cloudy sky, and Nova didn't hesitate to follow the young healer into this burning night, always careful to leave enough space between herself and Rebecca, remaining unnoticed like a shadow.
The healer made her way onto the grounds, and Nova's eyes needed some seconds to adjust to the darkness around her. A silver moon was hidden behind the clouds hanging heavy from a starless nightsky, drenching the meadows and hills around her in black.
"I almost thought you have forgotten about me."
Almost did Nova screech, as the familiar voice sounded way to close to her, but she quickly gasped in a breath, that was muffled by Rebecca's snorted laughter.
"It had been a strange day, I can tell you", Rebecca said, eyeing Remus stepping out of the shadows of the castle walls. "Have you taken your potion?" Remus gave a brief nod, and Rebecca said, "Fine, then let's go, I'm pretty late and we shouldn't waste more time."
They moved into the night, and Nova waited a second, before she chose to follow. Involuntarily, her eyebrows furrowed as she watched the backs of their heads. Both, Remus and Rebecca, remained silent on their way - wherever they were going.
Crossing the grounds in a whole, as it seemed, they made their way alongside a hill. In front of the forest, Nova could see the lights in Hagrid's hut, and with a painful stitch she remembered the trial for Buckbeak the Hippogriff that she had shoved into a dusty and dark corner of her mind for too long now ...
Suddenly, Remus and Rebecca stopped in front of a large tree - and almost had Nova called out to warn them, as she noticed they had reached the Whomping Willow. The tree, as expected, sprung to life at their disturbance, but the teacher and the healer stood apart enough to not get hit by the thick branches and cutting little twigs.
"Let me", said Remus, as Rebecca had raised her wand, and in confusion, Nova watched Remus point his own weapon at the angry willow. A white light for the split of a second got the tree glowing in the night, before it got frozen in movement, only it's smallest twigs swaying with the wind.
"Lady's first", Remus chuckled, and Rebecca threw him an amused sideglance, before she walked towards the willow's thick trunk with Remus on her heels.
All of a sudden, she was gone, and it must have happened in that blink of Nova's useless eyes. She shook her head in disbelief, watching Remus, as he threw a glint over both his shoulders - then taking a step forward and be gone as well.
"Wha-?"
Nova didn't know what had just happened. If she hadn't read every single book about Hogwarts, she would have guessed they had just apparated, but of course this was impossible on these enchanted grounds.
Carefully and slowly, Nova stepped out of the shadows she had been hiding in, and approached the still immobilised tree. Whatever spell Remus had casted on the Whomping Willow, it did a great job. That didn't mean, though, that Nova wasn't nervous to step under those bone-crashing branches. Eventually, this was really none of her business and she should just leave now. If Remus was about to have a date with this woman inside a tree branch, that indeed was very uncommon, but it wasn't Nova's to stick her nose into his business, was it?
Nevertheless, not only curiosity, but also an uncomfortable ache in the pit of her stomach forced her further, and this time she couldn't hold back the noises of surprise, when she spotted a hole in the ground just between the willow's winded roots, merely big enough to let slim person slip in.
Nova - like Remus had done before - threw glances over both her shoulders, before she knelt down in front of the leak, feeling like Alice in front of the rabbit hole. She pointed her wand into the dark, muttering, "Lumos", and the bright light revealed -
"A tunnel ...", she whispered to herself, slowly getting back to her feet.
With a racing heart, Nova stared into the hole, hypnotised. Should she follow them? Where did this tunnel even lead to?
The night enlightened, as the clouds moved past the bright full moon above her, and Nova blinked against it, as if it was the blazing sun itself. The twigs and branches above her resurrected, but Nova froze instead, and so she could only watch the brutal tree hauling off -
Nova was thrown off her feet before she knew what was actually happening, but it wasn't the tree that had caused this impact. As she hit the ground, she could feel herself being pulled away, her back was being moved easily over the snow covered ground, her robe getting drenched in cold. She looked up and screamed, as her eyes locked with a pair of gleaming yellow ones, and teeth as long as her fingers had grabbed hold of her robe.
A bearlike dog was shoving her over the ground, as if she was weighing not more than an owls feathers, pulling her further and further, until suddenly it let go of her and a loud crash shook the floor underneath her, as a branch the size of a troll's bludgeon slammed into the ground.
Nova sprang to her feet, getting more space between her and the Whomping Willow as fast as she could, then turned around, looking for the dog that was big enough to maul her.
