Freaks: Year Two

Try

Discussions of dying.

Ironically, Harry had a therapy session with Mariam the day he was going to tutor Alabaster Jackson for the (real) first time.

Harry had finally caught him after his flying class which was right before lunch, and unlike the day in the library where he looked far off, this time he looked just plain miserable.

"Er, hi," said Harry unsure how to start. "How are you?"

Alabaster shrugged.

Harry slowly nodded. "So...how about a tutoring session tonight at six?"

Alabaster just nodded.

Harry didn't know what to make of this. "Um...okay. Great."

Alabaster just walked away, and Harry watched him go up the hills, towards the castle, seemingly alone. He was not meeting up with anyone, he was just going alone and Harry wondered if he had ever gotten a chance to speak to his friends like he had said he wanted to.

He also wondered what was up with the kid. One day he was talking and talking and talking and now he wasn't saying a word at all.

Harry sighed, at least thankful they had set the time and he noticed out of the corner of his eye Fiona meeting up with Jordan as it was lunch break and he sighed again, thinking he should get some lunch and started to make his way back to the castle.

The snow was crunching under his boots, and he tried to ignore the starting to pick up snowfall and speed up in his walking as he was afraid it was going to turn into a storm, but he stopped abruptly when he saw someone go into the Forbidden Forest.

His brow furrowed, and he had a brief thought about the rumour at the end of last year about the first year Gryffindors going into the forest, but was that even true? And if it was, why would they do it again? They had some brains, surely.

He was just approaching the edge when a familiar voice stopped him and he turned to see Fiona and Jordan. He waved and Fiona asked, "What are you doing near the forest?"

"I thought I saw someone."

Jordan's eyes scanned the edge of the trees and she signed, "No one is there."

Harry sighed. Maybe he was starting to imagine things. Who would ever go near that forest anyway? Well, besides the Gryffindors.

If that was even true, Harry added as he walked towards Fiona and Jordan, and up to the castle for lunch.

Alabaster Jackson never did show up to his session that evening and Harry couldn't help but think of it as payback for Harry not showing up last time.

Other than Harry's frustrations with this whole tutoring debacle and Jasper's work with the house elves after classes each day, another thing started to happen at Hogwarts. A very peculiar thing.

No one thought it was odd at first. It was only a letter.

In fact, Penelope was the one who got it.

"Who's it from?" Wyatt asked as he always liked to know who everyone at the table was writing. Jasper thought it was just him being curious, and others put it down to him being nosy.

Penelope opened the letter and pulled out a piece of paper. She unfolded it, her eyes scanning it and her eyebrow furrowed.

"What?" Marty asked, seeing her expression.