Pure

Dementor's Kiss

After freshening up in my room, I hurried down to dinner. I didn't want to see Riddle again, especially this quickly, but frankly, I was famished. Riddle and I had left so many questions between us, questions that I would never have needed to face had I left when I wanted to. I hoped that he wouldn't be in the Great Hall so late in the evening. The clock chimed nine o'clock, and I faltered on the stairs as I thought about home. I would be with Harry and Ron right now if it weren't for Abraxas. It made me hate him a little bit, but I knew he was right just the same.

My reverie broke when a few students burst past me shouting down the hall with newspapers in their hands.

"He's here! He's been sighted!" one of them screamed. They yelled more, but I didn't catch it as they jutted around the corner into another hall. Not my problem, I thought to myself, and I shuffled along.

The Great Hall doors were still open when I got to them, and I peered around the corner to the Slytherin table. No Riddle. I sighed in relief and rushed to the end of the Gryffindor table where there was still never ending pots full of mashed potatoes and chicken.

I ate in a rush, looking over my shoulder periodically out of paranoia, and in only a few minutes I was finished. I stood to leave, or at least I would have had I not seen a young second year Hufflepuff run over to someone, whispering in that loud excited whisper that people do when they have delicious gossip to spill.

"I just saw someone going into the forbidden forest!" The boy's friend dropped his fork and spoke in a hurried voice.

"Oh, they're going to get in so much trouble! What house were they in?"

"I couldn't really tell... It was dark, but they were really tall, at least a 5th year. I could have sworn I saw green, but I'm not sure," the boy replied and scratched the top of his head.

"Well it doesn't matter as long as they're not us! Let's go tell someone," the second boy replied. They rushed off without a second thought to tell the first professor they could lay eyes on.

I was already kicking myself. I should just go to bed. If I went to bed, I could stay there until tomorrow when I could talk myself back into leaving. I rested my palm against the table and let out a sigh of frustration. Of course I knew who the second year was talking about. Who else would go into the Forbidden Forest alone at night?

After a final moment of deliberation, I went to stand and braced my arm against the table to push myself up. I hit my palm against the table a little too hard. The heads of the remainder of the students in the Great Hall shot up and eyed me curiously, but I stalked out of the room without giving them a second glance.

I trudged through what an hour ago was snow, but had turned to slushy mud that soaked my socks and shoes within my first few steps outside. Sometimes I loathed my stubbornness and curiosity. At least it wasn't raining, but the wind howled and I was chilled to the bone for the second time that day.

By the time I reached the trees, my resolve to find him had faltered. The forest was a large place, and the only light was the nearly full moon above me.

I called out a tentative "Riddle?"

No response.

"Tom Riddle!" I called out louder this time. Still nothing. I walked further into the forest and was surprised by how concealed it was compared to the grassy fields behind me. The rustle of the canopy was the only movement around, and there even seemed to be a little pocket of humid warmth towards the ground. Some parts weren't even wet where the trees were protecting it. A light fog reflected the slivers of moonlight that managed to get past the entourage of trees. Regardless, I pulled out my wand to light the way.