Bound Together (Fred Weasley)

Chapter 3- The Drawings

One of Scarlet's birthday presents had been an expensive set of drawings pencils and notepads. She had her mothers artistic talent, and would draw all sorts of extraordinary things.

Other than she was a good artist like her mum, there wasn't hardly anything extra special about her drawings and sketches.

Until one downcast morning, several days after her birthday, Scarlet was bored, and decided to go sit outside and sketch the wet earth.

Sitting on the back porch, she stared hard into the woods, trying to form the perfect image in her head. Once she had captured the image, she set the tip of the pencil on the paper, and began sketching. The picture forming flawlessly under her fingertips; smooth strokes and soft angles.

After about ten minutes or so, Scarlet looked back up at the woods. Something was rustling around in the undergrowth.

Excited, she stilled herself and held her breath, waiting for the animal to emerge. First a brown ear, then a spotted leg, then the whole body.

It was a baby deer. Brown and be speckled with white dots. Directly behind it, was its mother. Completely milk chocolate in color.

They stopped and stared at her, eyes wide with fear, before dropping their heads to nibble the grass.

Ecstatic, Scarlet watched as they gracefully moved around the edge of the woods.

Setting the tip of the pencil to the paper, she began adding the deer to her sketch.

A few minutes later, and she was done. She had successfully added the fawn and its mother to the middle of her sketch. Splashes of color lit the woods behind them, here and there, just as they did in real life.

She had perfectly captured the deer and the woods; the way the watery light slanted down through the trees and they way the shadows danced at their feet. It almost looked real, like a photograph.

Smiling, she held up the sketchpad to compare it to the real thing, but when she looked up, the deer were gone. Disappointed, she closed the notepad, packed up her pencils, and headed inside.

During dinner later that night, Scarlet was telling her parents about the deer she had seen and drawn.

"It was so beautiful mum. They just stood there and.." She paused, sighing. "When I went to compare my sketch, they were gone... Can I show you the picture?"

"Sure honey, but first finish your broccoli." Her mother said.

Grinning, Scarlet wolfed down the last bites of her broccoli before jumping up and running to grab her sketchpad.

Coming back in, she flipped through the pages until she found the one.

Her face fell and confusion rippled across it.

"What's wrong honey?" Her father asked, setting down his fork.

"The deer are gone!" She shoved the book under her fathers nose, "See? What happened?"

"Maybe you only thought that you had drawn them. Maybe you imagined seeing them walk out of the woods, and imagined drawing them, but in reality you hadn't." Monica suggested.

"But I didn't imagine it! I had really seen and drawn them.." Scarlet insisted.

"Well sweetheart," Derek handed her sketchpad back to her, "Drawings just don't come to life and leave the picture. That'd be absurd." He looked at his wife.

"Scarlet darling, your fathers right. Maybe tomorrow you can go back out and draw some deer, okay? Now put the book up and come finish your dinner."

And with that, the matter was closed.

Later in bed that night, Scarlet couldn't stop thinking about the drawing. She knew that she had really seen deer in the woods, and she knew that she had added them into her sketch.

So why then, were they not there?

Unable to sleep, she got out of bed and grabbed her sketchpad, sitting cross-legged on the floor. Maybe sketching something will help her sleep.

Flipping it open, she lands on the page of the woods she had drawn earlier that morning.

There, in the middle of the paper, were the two deer she had seen.

Open mouthed, she stared at the paper.

How? She asked herself, They most definitely weren't there earlier.

As she stared at the baby deer, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why they'd disappeared earlier, the baby deer lifted its head, and blinked at her.

Gasping, she flung the sketchpad across the room.

Did the deer really just move?

Crawling towards the upside down book, she picked it up with trembling fingers.

The deer were gone.

Puzzled, she sat back down on her legs and stared hard at the picture.

A moment later, the baby deer walked into the picture, just as it had when she'd first seen it. And directly behind it, was its mother.

She sat there, mesmerized as the drawings moved about the picture, eating the penciled grass, and nibbling the graphite bark, before the baby looked up at her, blinked, and took off running to the left, its mother close behind. Then they were gone.

A moment later, the baby reappeared on the right again, and she watched them do it all over, as it were an old time movie of sorts that she had drawn.

That was the night that Scarlet discovered her drawings could come to life.

Squealing in delight, she grabbed her pencils, and set to work experimenting.

First, she drew a bunny in a grassy meadow. After a moment, the bunny came to life and hopped about the picture.

Next, she drew a mermaid sitting on a rocky coast, combing her hair. After a moment, the mermaid came to life, as did the waves splashing merrily about beneath her tail.

Delighted, Scarlet closed her sketchpad and got back into bed, suddenly very tired.

Falling asleep a moment later, she decided to keep her newfound secret to herself.