𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝; 𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐡.𝐩

𝓨𝓮𝓪𝓻 2, 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 5: 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓦𝓱𝓸𝓶𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓦𝓲𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀

~ chapter five: the whomping willow ~

The end of the summer vacation came too quickly for my liking. I was looking forward to getting back to Hogwarts, but mine and Y/N's month at the Burrow had been the happiest of our lives. It was difficult not to feel jealous of Ron when I thought of the Dursleys and the sort of welcome Y/N and I could expect next time we turned up on Privet Drive.

On our last evening, Mrs. Weasley conjured up a dinner that included all of our favorite things, ending with a mouthwatering treacle pudding. Fred and George rounded off the evening with a display of Filibuster fireworks; they filled the kitchen with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least half an hour. Then it was time for a last mug of hot chocolate and bed.

Except I couldn't sleep. Whether it was because of my nerves for the upcoming school year or something else, I didn't know. So I decided to go see if Y/N had fallen asleep yet.

I snuck out of the room I shared with Ron and stepped onto the landing.

'Now, if I'm not mistaken, Y/N shares a room with Ginny.'

The first night we had been in the Burrow, Mrs. Weasley had assigned Ginny and Y/N together since, in her words, 'Ginny needed another girl to talk to.' I would be lying if I wasn't slightly upset about the fact that we wouldn't be sharing a room like we do in Privet Drive, but it wasn't too bad.

I walked up to the third landing to see the door to Ginny's room standing slightly ajar. I slowly crept over and peeked in. Ginny was fast asleep, but Y/N was nowhere to be seen.

'Huh.'

My next thought was to go downstairs.

Hey, I get random thoughts sometimes, okay?

I crept downstairs, trying not to make a sound so I didn't wake anyone up; not that it really mattered; if someone by chance did happen to wake up, I'd just blame it on getting thirsty randomly in the middle of the night and getting a drink of water.

I stepped out onto the first landing to go check the kitchen first, but then I realized I didn't need to. The front door was slightly ajar, but I could see Y/N sitting outside, her back to the door.

'Huh,' I thought as I approached the door and slipped through it outside. "Shouldn't you be inside?"

Y/N chuckled. "I should be asking you the same thing."

"I... uh..." I looked to the side. "Couldn't sleep."

"Me neither. I came outside so I could... think, I guess."

"About?" I asked, looking back at her.

"Well..." She looked to the side. "Y'know... how crazy the past year has been. I mean, last year, we were told we were wizards, and that just... turned our lives upside-down. And don't get me wrong," she added quickly, "I don't regret meeting you or Ron or Hermione at all"—when she said she didn't regret meeting me I felt my heart do loop-de-loops—"but it's all just so... surreal. I feel any moment now, I feel like I'll wake up back in the orphanage and it'll all just be some crazy dream. Y'know what I mean?"

"I do." And that wasn't a lie. I truly did know what she meant. Everything that had happened to us over the course of last year was so unbelievable I thought I was going to wake up randomly and it would all be some dream that I made up in my head. But everything that happened so far had been so crazy and unbelievable that I just couldn't help but believe that everything that'd happened was true. "And what kind of dream lasts, like, one year? Unless we're both in comas or something," I added as a joke.