Crossroads of Two Worlds

48- Nighttime Escapades

Above is Amelia

The weeks passed far quicker than they ever had before. As he'd promised, James stopped giving me strange looks and our friendship slowly mended.

Before I knew it, final exams were approaching, but more importantly, so was the Quidditch cup. We ha debentures training harder than ever, harder even than we had last year. Of course I was probably the most in shape of everyone on the team, but still. Tristan Shirst was our Captain this year and he had us up early and staying out late. We had practice in a thunderstorm one night. And despite the fact that I was the daughter of the god of the sky, I had to suffer through the wind and rain with everyone else.

The final game of the Quidditch cup was on Friday, and it was Gryffindor against Ravenclaw this year. That meant that we'd have to play smart, or we'd have to play so without strategy that the Ravenclaws wouldn't know what to do. So of course we'd chosen a mixture of the two options.

Between the seven of us, we'd come up with a whole new set of plays that no one in any of the teams had done before. To the opposing team, we would seem to be playing without strategy. We hoped that would make them cocky and confuse them. Of course, this strategy would only work if we didn't get cocky and confuse ourselves.

Rose, Kaley and I avoided talking about my other life as much as possible because as much as James had stopped staring at me like a mystery novel, we knew that sooner or later someone would see something that prompted questions.

And that something happened far sooner than I'd expected it to.

One night I was flying above the Forbidden Forest, admiring the starry sky and the shadows that the moonlight cast on the landscape below. My friends had long since gone to bed but I couldn't sleep, so I jumped out of my dorm window. I flew for twenty minutes, then lowered myself to land near the main entrance of the school. The window to the left was cracked open, and through it, I could hear someone whimpering.

I climbed through and followed my ears to find a seventh year Slytherin pinning a first year girl to the wall. The girl was pale and blonde-haired, her limbs trembling in fear. I'd walked right into the middle of the hall, so there was no backing out now. Both the attacker and the girl turned to look at me.

The boy smiled cruelly, "Come to join us, little Gryffindor?"

I scoffed, "Hell no, I heard her crying and figured I'd come see what I can do to help."

In truth, I wasn't much bigger than the first year he had at his mercy, but I was definitely stronger and more experienced in combat.

I fearlessly walked closer to them and smiled at the girl, "Are you alright?"

She only cried more, and I took that as an answer. The boy scoffed at me, "Run along now, we don't want you here."

"She seems to want me," I spoke boldly.

"Come get her, then."

I shrugged, hoping he couldn't see the shifting of my feet into a fighting stance as I walked closer. He immediately tried to grab my neck when I got close enough but I ducked under his arm and chopped his neck to cut off the circulation. He dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes and the girl, still shaking, peeled herself from the wall.

I smiled at her, "I'm Alana, I'm a second year. I'm in Gryffindor. What's your name?"

She stared at the boy that I'd knocked out but whispered, "I'm Amelia, Ravenclaw. It's my first year."

I nodded, "I'm not going to ask why you were out of bed, Amelia, but I'm going to recommend you don't do it again."

She finally looked to meet my eyes, "I saw something flying outside my window. I didn't know what it was so I came down to find out. Then he found me. How did you do that to him?"