Miss Mist. (HP FanFic) {Watty Awards 2012}

Chapter Twenty.

In this one year, Holly had gone through more than she had through her years outside of Hogwarts. It was rather overwhelming, in fact. When she started, she was quiet, polite, and on the verge of insanity, then she started to grow more bold as she met Panda, Roxanne and even Draco.

Those three really had a large impact on her life.

But now . . . she's back to her old, quiet, dreamy self, all because she was heartbroken.

It was midnight, and Holly was sitting outside again, at the edge of the lake. It was chilly, but she didn't mind, she just store out into the lake, flicking her wand at it. When she thought of the spell to make a water dragon emerge from the water, and it did. The moon glittered off every detailed, watery scale, while droplets of water rose around it, as if it was held by an aura. It was a beautiful. She watched it intently.

After around ten minutes, it started to move very cautiosly, sensing something, and stared at something behind her. The water dragon then lowered down, and got into an attacking position. Holly turned her head to see what had made the dragon put it's defenses up against.

Less than 50 meters away from her stood Professor Dumbledore, looking at her, then to the dragon. Holly smiled only lightly, before turning her head back to the dragon, and flicking her wand at it, turning it into nothing more than ice-sculpture that wouldn't melt. She then stood, brushed off the dew, that came from the grass she had been sitting on, off her robes, and turned to the Professor, facing him fully.

"What a magnificent creature," Professor Dumbledore complemented her with a nod of his head in her direction.

She nodded in grattitude, smiling lightly. If anything, magic made her feel alive. "Is there anything you need?" she asked in her dreamy voice. When he looked into her emerald green eyes, he saw that she wasn't mentally entirely there.

He smiled. "No, I'm afraid not. I saw your dragon from my office, and I wanted to investigate," he told her, and she nodded abestly, before turning around again, to face the frozen dragon. She waved her wand, following the body of the dragon down until it reached the water, the ice then turning into water, the dragon then coming back to life.

When completely melted, the dragon rose out of the water, and flew around the castle for a while, before sitting right on top of the Ravenclaw tower, curling itself around the tip of the dragon, both Holly and Professor Dumbledore watching it, a faint smile was on Holly's face.

Both of them were amazed at what Holly had created. Even Professor Dumbledore was not strong enough to form a dragon, and not use magic for it to do what it wants to do afterwards. Holly was a bundle of surprises.

"Good night, Professor," she whispered lightly, her voice was only loud enough for him to just hear her, before walking back up to the castle, calling it a night.

“Good morning,” said the Ministry wizard, when all the students had arrived and the Heads of House had called for quiet. Their first apparation lessons had just started, and Holly was reluctant to go, unwanting to shadow-walk instead of apparating in front of everybody. “My name is Wilkie Twycross and I shall be your Ministry-Apparition Instructor for the next twelve weeks. I hope to be able to prepare you for your Apparition test in this time --”

“Malfoy, be quiet and pay attention!” barked Professor McGonagall.

Everybody looked round. Malfoy had flushed a dull pink; he looked furious as he stepped away from Crabbe, with whom he appeared to have been having a whispered argument.

“-- by which time, many of you may be ready to take your test,” Twycross continued, as though there had been no interruption.

“As you may know, it is usually impossible to Apparate or Disapparate within Hogwarts. The Headmaster has lifted this enchantment, purely within the Great Hall, for one hour, so as to enable you to practise. May I emphasise that you will not be able to Apparate outside the walls of this Hall, and that you would be unwise to try.

“I would like each of you to place yourselves now so that you have a clear five feet of space in front of you.'”

There was a great scrambiing and jostling as people separated, banged into each other, and ordered others out of their space. The Heads of House moved among the students, marshalling them into position and breaking up arguments, somebody had even tried to move Holly out of her position that she took, but she just store at the boy who tried to move her without anything in her eyes whatsoever.

“QUIET!” all four Head of Houses shouted, and everybody went silent.

“Thank you,' said Twycross. “Now then ...”

He waved his wand. Old-fashioned wooden hoops instantly appeared on the floor in from of every student.

“The important things to remember when Apparating are the three Ds!” said Twycross. “Destination, Determination, Deliberation!

“Step one: fix your mind firmly upon the desired destination,” said Twycross. “In this case, the interior of your hoop. Kindly concentrate upon that destination now.”

Holly waited, instead of doing as he said just yet. If she was going to concentrate on it, she would wait until he was finished speaking, so she wasn't going to be ignoring Twycross.

“Step two,” said Twycross, “focus your determination to occupy the visualised space! Let your yearning to enter it flood from your mind to every particle of your body!

“Step three,” called Twycross, “and only when I give the command ... turn on the spot, feeling your way into nothingness, moving with deliberation. On my command, now ... one … two … THREE!”

Holly then did as he said, she concentrated on the destination in the middle of the hoop, she then imagined herself in there, feeling the need to be there, she then twirled a little on the spot. A different sensation than shadow-walking filled her, it was somewhat the same, she didn't feel as if she was there for a moment, but then she realized she had landed somewhere. She looked down, and saw that she was standing in the hoop.

She looked up, Twycross was staring at her with a shocked expression on his face. He hadn't thought that anybody would be able to apparate.

As for the students and Professors, they didn't seem at all surprised by this. They had all suspected her to get it on the first go.

“Have you apparated before?” he asked her after apparating where she stood not too long ago.

“Only side-long,” she answered softly. Her water dragon that she had thought had evaporated, raised it's purple, blue, green, and grey (reflected off the clouds) head to look through the window, and students screamed at the dragon. Professor's turned their heads towards the window, wondering what had caused the disruption, jumped. Twycross looked over, and flinched himself.

Holly raised her hand, pointing 'away', and the dragon heeded her silent order, before jumping, and flying upwards. (A/N I love this dragon soo much!)

Twycross was amazed by her, much like most were when they first met her. But what struck him the most, was how easy she made it seem, he had a absent feeling about her as well.

Eventually, the hour passed, and he was getting her to apparate further, and further. He got her to close her eyes, before apparating to another end of the Great Hall. Not once did she ever splinch herself.

After a few weeks, Holly had started wondering the castle alone at night, managing to keep hidden from Mrs. Norris, Filtch and any other Professor who would have been wondering the castle themselves. Holly hadn't been getting any sleep whatsoever for a week, a bad bout of insomnia. It was easy to see that every day she was getting unhealthier. She had dark, under eye circles, she was getting thinner, and paler.

She was a cause for concern amongst those who liked her, and even some of those who hadn't even spoke to her for a very long time, which made up of Harry and Hermione.

Holly didn't realize she had changed again.