Let Me Go (Sequel to Rescue Me)

Chapter VIII

            Fred, George and I end up having a long conversation by the water. We plan on stealing gillybweed for the twins to go swimming in the lake during the weekend. I haven’t seen Apanie in a while. I wonder if everything is still going great for her down there. When the conversation starts to drift away, a question pops in my head.

            “How’s Umbridge?” I ask them as I pull grass out of the ground.

            “She’s pretty terrible if you ask me.” Fred says as he slides off of the trunk of the tree and sits on the ground near me.

            “She doesn’t let us use magic.” George explains.

            I’m puzzled. How can this be?

            “Isn’t the purpose of Defence against the Dark Arts to learn spells to defend ourselves?” I ask them.

            They look at each other and shrug. I think Dolores is as bad news as I thought she would be. I open my hand in which the pieces of grass are in. They fly up to our eye level and, with a simple thought, they burn up and stay like this, looking like little candles that never turn off.

            “Since when can you do that?” George asks.

            I shrug just so I don’t have to explain myself. I found out I had a lot of talent with small pyrotechnic tricks during the past few weeks. I can make few small explosions that look like fireworks but that’s as far as I can go. When I see them, I realize that I haven’t shown them the surprise I worked on last year for their birthday. I was so caught up in the Triwizard Tournament and the entire heart problem. I get my wand out and try it out.

            “What are you doing?” Fred asks.

            “Giving you a late birthday gift.” I tell them.

            “Or early.” George says as he sits down on the ground as well.

            I smile at him and concentrate. I try desperately to call for my patronus but it doesn’t show up. Right, I forgot the good memory I had was an illusion. I can’t even exchange it for another because all the people I love are either scared of me, distant or dead. The frustration still manages to build up and send me on edge. I can’t even give them a simple present. When I let it go, the grass burns up completely and suddenly.

            “You’ll show us another time.” Fred tries to cheer me up.

            “I don’t think it’ll be possible.” I reply as I rub my forehead in panic.

            “How come?” He asks.

            I start to cry a little bit but only because I fear what I have always feared would happen.

            “Because it involves my patronus and I can’t cast it.” I tell them.

            I end up having to explain the situation. I tell them about the task in the Ministry and the encounter in the dark room and my original happy thought. Everything was made up from my imagination even before it happened. I think I have an idea of who could have created that imagine and, by the look on their faces, I guess that they found out as well.

            “I’m sure there’s something we can do about it.” Fred says.

            “There is.” I say which catches their attention as if my answer will be a miracle when it isn’t. “Wait until something can outmatch everything bad that happened during the past few months.”