Begin to Hope

The next morning I stirred in my sleep and almost fell out of the bed. I had expected Orlando to be beside me.

Startled that he wasn't, I sat up and looked around the room. "Orlando?" I said, looking under the bed, wondering if maybe he was playing a joke on me, "Where did you go?"

After we had kissed last night (and it had been for a decently long time, mind you), we had lain down together and I had fallen asleep in his arms. It had all been rather comforting, being so close to him. The consolation of his arms around me had made me forget all problems of the necklace and Voldemort and everything else. I had felt... safe.

"Orlando, where did you go?" The room looked just as it had last night, meaning he must have just left during the night. I sighed, thinking about him, and got up to leave.

I wandered into the spare bedroom we had set up for him, but the bed looked untouched, as if he hadn't slept in it last night at all. I frowned, wondering where he could be.

"Tally. Annabelle. Have either of you seen Orlando?" I asked as soon as I met them in the kitchen.

They shook their heads.

"I haven't seen him since last night at dinner," Annabelle said. She had recently taken up knitting and was attempting to sew together a colorful scarf. "Why?"

"Well, we were together last night, and I woke up this morning and he was gone," I watched as Maverick, Klaus, and Princeton wandered into the room, stretching and yawning.

"Together?" Tally asked suspiciously. "Together as in --what?"

I froze, realizing what I had just revealed. Annabelle looked up from her knitting and raised an eyebrow.

"I--I--"

"Yes, do tell, Kerry." Maverick took a seat at the table and poured himself a bowl of cereal. He started to shovel it into his mouth and then looked up at me, his hair falling into his eyes. "Why were you together?"

"I--we were just talking, and he might have fallen asleep, in my room--"

Maverick snorted, Princeton's mouth dropped open, Annabelle dropped her sewing needles and Tally gasped. Klaus turned a funny shade of red and he looked away.

"--In my room," I finished, blushing crimson. "But now I haven't seen him."

"You were with him last night? All last night? In your bedroom?" Annabelle asked sternly, getting up to glare at me.

"It's not like we did anything..."

"Oh, sure," Maverick replied sarcastically, "That's what they all say." He chuckled uproariously into his cereal bowl.

"Well, personally I think whatever Kerry does is her business, and her business only." Tally said, nodding slightly in my direction. I smiled at her.

"Thank you, Tal--"

"And if she wants to go around being a raging whore, well, that's that!" And before I could stop her, she ran out of the room shrieking. Maverick and Princeton elapsed into a fit of giggles and Annabelle sat back down and picked up her sewing, her needles flashing quickly.

"He probably got tired of you," Maverick said, getting up to put his bowl in the sink. "He'll probably move out tonight, anyway. He got what he wants, and now he's done with us."

My mouth dropped open. Could that be true?

"You're lying!"

He shrugged. "Anything's possible."

"What's possible?" Farley asked, fairly interested as he strolled into the room.

"Orlando slept in Kerry's room last night!" Princeton blurted out, pointing at me and holding back a laugh.

I slapped my forehead with my hand and shook my head.

Farley turned slowly to look at me, his mouth open.

"Is this true?"

I nodded, looking down at the floor.

"But--but we didn't do anything!" My words went unheard as Farley leapt up and went into a rampage.

"Despicable--taking advantage of a young naive girl--how utterly careless--reckless-pregnancy! What was he thinking? Where is he? I'll throw him out of the house!" He slammed a fist on the table and meant to turn and leave but Maverick's next words stopped him.

"Kerry can't find him now. He's disappeared."

He whipped around. "Where's he gone? You know, don't you?" Farley asked, narrowing his eyes at me. "Where's the fool gone?"

I shook my head. "I haven't seen him since last night!"

"Search the house! We'll find that little rat, and we'll throw him out on the streets! He can't have gone far... move out!"

With Farley in war-like mode, he quickly gathered the entire house and made everyone run around like mad-men, searching desperately for Orlando. Several hours later, however, we still had not found him anywhere within the confines of the house.

"Could he have just left?" I asked Kimberly desperately as we took one last swoop around the house, stopping to look in an unused bedroom.

She looked at me hesitantly before carefully choosing her words. "Did you guys really--did you do anything last night?"

"Well," I turned away so I didn't have to look her in the eye, "We might have kissed, a little..."

The sharp intake of breath I heard made me realize she hadn't been thinking we'd done anything at all, and for a second I felt bad springing this news on her.

"Well--maybe, he--" She stopped speaking and I turned back to her. This time she was the one avoiding my eyes.

"Yes, just go ahead and say it," I urged.

"Maybe he wasn't... satisfied... with you."

I looked at her, trying to determine what she was thinking. "What are you saying?"

"Maybe he was only pretending to like you, and then he ran away when you made a move towards him."

I turned my head, disgusted at her. "I didn't make a move towards him! He went after me. I just... went along with it."

She didn't reply. She came closer and set a hand on my shoulder. I turned back to her.

"Maybe you should stay away from him for a while. Well, if he comes back, that is."

I sighed and moved out of her grasp. "Fine, I will." I muttered under my breath. I didn't know if she'd believe me or not, but she left the room quietly, closing the door behind her.

I knew she was wrong. Orlando liked me, and I liked him. There was nothing anyone could do that would change that!

I laid down on the bed and put my heads behind my head, relaxing comfortably on the lumpy bed.

"They're just jealous of me," I said aloud to myself, trying to convince myself Kimberly wasn't right in her assumptions. "Just because he chose me--"

Farley threw open the door and was startled in find me sitting in there quietly.

"What are you doing in here?"

I sat up to look at him. "I--just came in for a lie down. I got tired."

He looked at me sharply, as if he didn't believe me, but didn't mention it again. He went to leave, but I called him back.

"Farley! Didn't you say that last night we could leave today and go look for the necklace?"

"Yes, and I was going to take Orlando, but now if he's going to take advantage of you--"

"We didn't do anything, Farley, I promise."

He looked skeptic, but he nodded. "Well, even if you're telling the truth, I don't want to leave without him. We'll need him in order to--er--get there."

"Where do you think he could be? It's not like him to disappear like this."

He studied my face for a moment before responding. "You may think it's not like him to disappear like this, but, really, how well do you know him?" He raised a hand to shush me as I tried to argue. "You've only know him a few months, Kerry. Just a thought." He shook his head, and called backward as he left, "Maybe he went for a walk or something. Hopefully he'll be back shortly."

I sat there for a while longer, wondering where Orlando could possibly have gone. I hoped to Godric he hadn't left for good.

Later that night, after we had finished dinner, Orlando still hadn't showed up. Most of us were getting worried about him, and Princeton and Humphrey suggested we send out a search party. Farley, however, firmly squashed that idea, saying that Orlando was old enough to take care of himself, wherever he was. We finally all headed toward our rooms for the night, completely dejected.

As I picked up a book to read before I went to sleep, I heard a knock on my door.

"Come in," I said softly.

Klaus quietly opened the door and closed it behind him.

"Hey, Klaus." I sat up and he came and sat next to me. "What's on your mind?"

"Kerry, I think I know where Orlando could be."

"Really? You think so?"

"Yes." He took a deep breath before finally saying quickly, "He's at Voldemort's lair, telling him everything we know."

I stared at him blankly for a moment before beginning to laugh. "You're joking, right? You can't be serious."

"I'm dead serious."

I stopped laughing at the look on his face. "Klaus, I thought I told you to give this up. He's not a Death Eater!" I was nearly shouting, I was so irritated with him and his theories. "Just go away."

"Kerry, but now he's not here, where else would he have gone?"

"Maybe he just wanted to get away for a little while."

"Yeah, get away from us so he could go to Voldemort!"

"Klaus, shut up! Just go away! I don't want to talk to you anymore!" I pushed him off the bed and he stood up, a hurt look on his face.

He started to walk out the door, but stopped and looked back at me. I picked up my book and refused to look at him.

"Kerry, did--did you really kiss him?"

Without looking up from my book, I nodded curtly and out of the corner of my eye I saw his jaw drop. He swallowed hard and left the room.