The Wizard's Guide to Timelords and Other Demons Book 1: The Forgotten War

The Cat Comes Back

The dream with the shouting man returned as Elise slept that night, only it was different this time: There was pain, unbearable pain. Her head felt intense pressure within as though it would burst open from the inside. Waves of searing heat flowed through her body and not even an inch of her was spared the agony which seemed to explode from every cell. She had experienced this type of pain only once in her life, quite recently in fact, though it wasn't nearly as severe.

Then the dream dissolved to a new setting, where she found herself once again in the smoke-filled Divination classroom where a spellbound professor Trelawney repeated, over and over again, the strange words she had before spoken.

"The Destroyer has awakened, and he approaches...He will enter the Dark Lord's lair and unleash his fury upon him that he succumbs.... They must not make alliance for in their union is our doom."

Elise awoke abruptly from the dream to the sound of her own heart pounding in her ears, as if it were fighting to escape her chest. Her breathing was rapid and shallow, and her clothes were saturated in sweat. It took about a minute for Elise to calm down, and she was grateful that the pain had ceased the moment she woke up, though the memory of it remained fresh in her mind.

She thought of mysterious man, still trying desperately to tell her something that she could not hear. Was he trying to save her from the suffering? Or perhaps he was pleading with her to see it through until the end—whatever that meant. Regardless, she did learn something new this time. Elise now recognized her mystery man, and he had a name. It was Captain Jack Harkness.

Unable to fall back to sleep, Elise decided to get an early start to her day. She needed time to think about things and felt that Herbology was a perfect place to focus her thoughts. She made her way down the hill behind the castle to Greenhouse Three, where she found her friends Kendra and Bathilda filling large clay pots with soil to assist Professor Sprout, who was not present. The fresh, earthy aroma of damp mulch combined with the beauty of strange and exotic flora had a wonderfully calming effect on Elise, even if her friends did not.

"Where have you been?" Kendra shouted angrily as soon as she noticed Elise had entered the greenhouse. "We've been looking all over for you!"

Elise grinned sheepishly, then said, "I'm really sorry you guys, I've been pretty tied up since yesterday afternoon and..."

"Bathilda here has been worried sick about you, haven't you Bathilda?" Kendra interrupted, glaring hard at Bathilda to encourage the proper response.

Bathilda hadn't really given much thought about Elise's disappearance until now. Professor Sprout had been keeping her rather busy preparing Mandrake pots for the upcoming classes after the holidays. Still, she was not eager to face Kendra's wrath later should she fail give the proper response.

"Yes, I have been...very worried," Bathilda responded, hesitantly, her eyes focused more on Kendra than Elise.

"You see?" said Kendra, gesturing towards Bathilda's feeble attempt to feign concern, "At the very least I think you owe it to us to tell us what's going on."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Elise lied.

"I'm talking about all of these secret meetings with the other professors," she said, "don't deny it! Professor Sprout is at another one of them right now. All the teachers are there, we checked. I'm surprised you're not there with them."

Elise was also surprised. Perhaps Dumbledore had had second thoughts about how much she could be trusted. Then she recalled some of the words Professor Trelawney had spoken to her just hours ago. But does he still trust me? She quickly dismissed the thought. In all likelihood, the headmaster simply wanted her to get as much rest as possible. Today was going to be a taxing day no matter how it played out.