Part 16: The Last Time

It was Thursday, and I was excited as hell! Tommorrow was the Christmas Ball! I couldn’t wait to perform and hang out with Harry and everyone else. And Cho! I so had to check what she was going to wear. It had to be decent, but knowning her that wasn’t very hard. She’s literally a fashion addict!

            I jumped out of bed that morning, my heart pounding with anticipation and nervousness. If I wasn’t careful, I’d pee my pants. Though, I haven’t done that since I was five. Too much info! Sorry!

            “What’s with you?” asked Cho at breakfast. She raised at eyebrow at my super perky behavior.

            Yeah…it’s super spooky when I’m really hyper and perky. I’m really giggly and bubbly (happywise, of course).

            I grinned at her super happily.

            “Just thinking of the Ball tomorrow!”

            “Well, can you tone it down a little bit because you’re really scaring me,” she replied, returning to her omelet.

            See? Told you so.

            “So they say,” I quip.

 

            “What are you gonna wear tomorrow, Cho?” I asked her as we walked outside together.

            She smiled widely.

            “It’s SO pretty. You’ll love this,” she exclaimed. She clasped her hands together and closed her eyes; imagining it, I suppose, “It’s a sparkly silver-blue dress the color of ice. It goes all the way down to the floor. It’s strapless and sparkles every time I turn. What do you think?”

            I widened my eyes.

            “Oh my gosh, Cho, it sounds gorgeous! Where’d you get it?”

            “This fancy dress place where near I live. I ordered for it (it’s a wizarding place) and it came just in time by owl. So…yeah!”

            “And Roger Davies is going to go absolutely GA GA when he sees you tomorrow night!”

            “You think?” Cho asked timidly.

            “Of course! Why not?” I said, placing my fists on my hips.

            “Heh…thanks, Drea!”

            I grinned at her.

            “You’re my best friend. I’m supposed to be nice to you! Comes with the package!”

            Cho pretended to pout. I closed my eyes and lifted my eyebrows as if I were right.

            “Oh you!”

            “I’m just saying�"HEY!”

            I opened my eyes to see a snowball flying at me. It hit me right smack dab in the middle of my face. I was thrown off-balance and landed right on my butt in the cold snow.

            “No fair!” I shouted at her.

            Cho laughed at me, pointing at me and closing her eyes. I took the chance to roll up a ball of snow and chucked it at her. She gasped.

            “Drea!”

            “GOT YA!” I laughed.

            And it went on like that for a while We threw snowballs at each other, laughing our heads off like complete idiots. But you know what? We didn’t care a bit. Having fun and forgetting all our worries was all we cared about. Actually, we didn’t have a care in the world.

            It was just a shame that this would be one of the last times that I’d see her. Things were about to heat up in the next day.

 

_______________________________

 

            “Harry!” I shouted, hoping to get his attention.

            Thankfully, I did. He turned at the sound at the sound of his name. He smiled widely at the sight of me.

            “Hey, Drea.”

            “Hey. Listen…um…thanks for the owl. I love her.”

            “Name her yet?”

            “Yeah. Athene after the Greek goddess of wisdom. Listen…about You-Know-Who…?”

            Harry immediately turned serious.

            “What about him?” Harry asked.

            “If Orin is serving him…that means he knows about the both of us…you know…being friends.”

            “Good thinking. And that means he’d know to strike us when we’re…close to each other…”

            Harry trailed off. He looked into my eyes. I blushed. He didn’t. Harry leaned in.

            “I care about you, Drea…I don’t want you getting hurt by him,” whispered Harry in my ear. “I’ll protect you if he ever tries to even get near you. I promise that.”

            My blush fades and I return his gaze. I gently touch his face; his skin was warm from his body heat.

            “I care about you, too, Harry. But I can take of myself.”

            “Then we’ll fight him together. Whether or not you agree to it.”

            I smirked at him. It was his turn to blush now.

            “Oh I agree,” I said softly. I kissed his cheek. “More than you’ll ever know.”

            He smiled at me, and I smiled back.

 

            “All right, guys!” I called. “This is our last and final chance before the Ball to practice! So are we ready to rock?”

            They all shouted “YES!”

            “Then let’s ROLL, people!”

            I smiled, trying to mask my worry. I was more stressed than you’d ever believe.

            “Hey…hey…can you see me? I bet you do. Do you care? Oh you do. I know it.”

            Aaron pounded on the drums as I sang a stupid song I began to make up. What I was trying to do was get into the feel of our music, shaking out the stress that literally hovered over my pretty little head.

            “Come over here. Get close to me. You’ll see yourself…you’ll see the truth before you. Your own damn relfection. It isn’t cool, isn’t it? No, it ain’t.”

            Heath and Dale strummed the guitars lightly now as I gracefully tittered my voice around on the melody. The boys seemed to go into a trance at that very moment.

            “Oh sweet…my sweet…please come to me. I’ll heal your eternal pain. I’ll heal the wounds that scarred your tender heart. Come to me. You won’t feel pain anymore.”

            Lex tinkled a light, ethereal tune on his keyboard. It chimed throughout the room, echoing eerily off the hard stone.

            “Lovely dear…don’t despair. I’ll embrace you. Don’t cry your bittersweet tears. The venom will only last for so long. Fall asleep forever within my arms. I’ll take away the pain of the day.”

            Heath and Dale broke out of it and jammed hard on the guitars.

            “Come over here. Get close to me. Then you’ll see the reason we should be forever with each other. See the truth within your reflection and feel Death’s icy grip. Be numb and lose your pain…and come to me…”

            On the last four words, I wound it down to an enchanting hum, and the boys wound it down to a mere striking of the intruments.

            “Wow…that was good,” said Dale, looking awestruck at everybody (mostly me).

            “Yeah,” agreed Heath. “That was cool. I’ve never done anything on a guitar like that.”

            “You were good, Drea,” compliemented Lex.

            “Thanks. I can’t wait to perform in front of everybody tomorrow,” I replied. “We are so going to rock the house!”

 

_____________________________

 

            When practice was over, I walked through the corridors to the portrait. Peeves was zooming around the ceiling, being annoying as usual. I guess the Bloody Baron wasn’t stopping him from torturing others because it was so close to Christmas.

            It got to be enough when Peeves dropped a water balloon on me, though.

            “PEEVES! QUIT IT!” I shrieked at him.

            “Oh…ickle Veela is getting…Peeved….heehee!”

            “Peeves! I MEAN IT! QUIT IT! GET LOST, OKAY?”

            Reluctantly, Peeves stuck out his tongue at me, giving a good rasberry. I returned it, frowning deeply. I wrung the water from my soaked skirt. I was going to be all right…Peeves just got me real…well, peeved.

            “Drea, what--?” asked Cho.

            “Peeves,” I spat sourly. I shivered and sat down in front of the blazing fire.

            “Oh,” she said. “That explains it. Maybe you should report him to Filch?”

            “You know Peeves doesn’t listen to Flich. If Flich had his way, Peeves would be banished from Hogwarts for all eternity!”

            “You have a point there.”

            “I’m going to bed. I’m tired and I have to get up early tomorrow morning.”

            “’Night, Drea,” said Cho.

            “’Night, Cho,” I said back.

            Once I was up in the girls’ dormitories, I dropped on my bed exhaustedly and changed into a warm pair of nightclothes so that I wouldn’t catch a cold.

            And I fell alseep. Nevertheless, I didn’t know what such dangers the next day would bring. That this would be the final time I ever saw Cho…and even Harry.