❝ i'm chaos walking . . . ❞
❝ then i'll walk with you.❞
「 Liliana Granger knew chaos like the back of her hand.
It confronted her, challenging her to find calm wherever she could.
But some days...
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❝ A promise is a promise. ❞
⋅☾☼☽⋅
October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle. Liliana loved this time of the year because it was the perfect weather to be curled up in a warm blanket with a good book and solid tunes; this kept her sane as she rested from the cold she had caught.
"Have you ever seen Thomas the Train?" Harry asked her when she returned from the hospital wing where her case of the sniffles was treated.
Liliana nodded wearily. "Please don't —"
"Because you look loads like him," Harry interrupted, grinning at his stupid tease.
Liliana blinked at him as smoke poured from her ears. The Pepperup Potion she had been administered worked wonders, but Madam Pomfrey had warned her that its side effects wouldn't be as pleasant.
When Liliana had visited the nurse, she'd run into Ginny. Percy was with her, probably to ensure that she took the potion since she was looking quite peaky. When Ginny did take it, steam poured from under her vivid hair. It gave the impression that her whole head was on fire.
As for Liliana, apparently all it made her look like was a tank engine. She would argue with Harry that Thomas didn't blow pinkish steam like her ears did, but she thought that would be a lame look for her. Well, lamer than what she already looked like.
With the autumn season came rain; its droplets were the size of bullets and thundered on the castle windows for days on end. Outside, the lake rose, the flower beds turned into muddy streams, and Hagrid's pumpkins swelled to the size of garden sheds.
Oliver Wood's enthusiasm for regular training sessions, however, was not dampened. Rather, it was like the thunderous conditions inspired him to have the Gryffindor team train harder than ever. Liliana flew around each practice on her new Nimbus Two Thousand — a birthday, but also congratulations, gift from her parents — fearful that she'd be struck down.
Liliana blamed the Quidditch practice conditions for her cold. Somehow, Harry had escaped the Pepperup-Fate. Liliana wasn't sure how when they would come back to the common room drenched to the skin and splattered with mud post practice. But whatever.
It was no different a couple practices later, on a stormy Saturday afternoon. Robes dripping wet, Harry and Liliana sulked on their walk back to Gryffindor Tower. But it wasn't the weather that had them in such a mood, it was their actual practice.
Fred and George, who had been sent to spy on the Slytherin team — the irony of the situation was lost upon Wood — had seen for themselves the speed of those new Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones. They reported that the Slytherin team was no more than seven greenish blurs, shooting through the air like comets.
As Harry and Liliana squelched through the corridors, they came across somebody who looked just as preoccupied as they were. Nearly Headless Nick was staring morosely out a window, muttering under his breath, "... don't fulfill their requirements... half an inch, if that..."
