Little Memories

Draco slowly blinked open his eyes, drawing in a deep breath of air. His cheek was resting against something damp and the air around him was calm and crisp. He could hear the sounds of birds and it took a while for Draco’s eyes to focus. He was in a thick forest, resting against the bough of a tree. He sat up slowly, looking around at the forest for any sign that might tell him why he was there. The light occasionally broke through the canopy of leaves and branches above, the rays streaking to the ground and lighting small patches of dead leaves, branches, and the occasionally branch or squirrel.

There was a sudden hissing noise in his ear and he jumped a bit before looking wildly around for the source of the noise. A large, dark green snake slithered from a branch higher than Draco was sitting, just past his right shoulder. The snake sent Draco a look from it’s yellow eyes before continuing down the trunk of the tree before it hit the leafy ground with a hollow sort of sliding noise. Draco knew the snake well and had seen it in his own house multiple times. The snake, whose name was Nagini, was a pet to the Dark Lord, and Draco associated it immediately with the death of Charity Burbage. He never liked the woman, nor had he ever taken Muggle Studies, but he knew one thing. Her death was one way he most certainly didn’t want to die.

Nagini turned it’s yellow, knowing eyes to Draco before continuing on through the forest. Draco slowly lowered himself from the tree and followed behind the large snake, knowing instinctually that the reptile wanted him to follow. His black dress shoes crunched over the forest floor, while the snake merely rustled over the leaves and branches, nearly silently. Draco followed Nagini for what seemed hours and eventually the bright, unthreatening forest passed away and they wove between the large grey trunks of trees in near darkness. The light that filtered into that particular area of the forest was blue in color, and Draco recognized his surroundings almost immediately. Nagini had lead him into the Forbidden Forest.

The air had grown cold and Draco’s breath rose before him in plumes of steam. The snake, however, seemed unaffected by the change in temperature and continued forward before slithering up one of the trees. Draco let out a heavy sigh and glanced around, wand in hand. He was completely lost and didn’t know what direction he needed to go it to get out of the Forbidden Forest. Something about the place seemed too still, too deprived of anything that looked alive. As he spun slowly, a flash of white fabric on the blue-black ground caught his eye.

‘Lumos,’ he thought and immediately shed a bit of bright white light around him on the thick tree trunks and the hollow ground around him. He slowly and quietly began to walk toward where he had seen the bit of white fabric. Draco didn’t want to bring attention to himself, lest whatever it was that he was following turn out to be less-than friendly with him. There was a loud, hollow thud suddenly, causing Draco to jump in surprise, nearly dropping his wand. The noise reverberated off of the trees around him, the delay making it seem like the sound had come from any direction away from Draco. His brow wrinkled with confusion, but he merely pressed on, curiosity getting the best of him.

He passed by a particularly thick tree trunk to his left and his eyes immediately darted to the large, white shape on the forest floor. Feeling more confused than ever about the light, gossamer blur of a shape that lay completely still. The closer he got to it, the more he began to see more of the detail of it, the light from his wand shedding even more light onto it. It was a woman; he could tell that much from the soft curves under the thin white fabric. The chest was moving up and down slowly, gently breathing in and out. He stopped about a foot away from the woman, noticing that one of her pale white, slipper-like shoes had fallen off, exposing a milky-white foot. A pale, slender hand reached out, open palmed, as if grasping for the red rose bouquet that lay just beside it. He took a step forward and it was like the final blur had finally been lifted, giving him so much of a jolt he dropped his wand. The light that had been coming from it extinguished itself as soon as it hit the ground.

Blonde curly ringlets lay sporadically across the dark forest floor, peeking out from beneath a gossamer white veil. The veil, however, couldn’t hide the identity of the glowing, ethereal face of the woman. Draco’s breath caught in his throat as he stared down at Charlotte, realizing that she was dressed for a wedding where she was the bride. Her eyes were closed, long black eyelashes just barely brushing the tops of her slightly flushed cheeks. Her lips were painted a deep red and were parted just a bit, delicately drawing in air. She looked completely irresistible, completely innocent; like a princess in a fairytale.

Draco slowly pulled at the corners of her veil, lifting the thin fabric up and over her head. He looked slowly over her features before gently cupping his hand on her jaw, tenderly running his thumb over the apple of her cheek. Her brow furrowed and her lips pursed a bit, as if she were coming to, but didn’t wake. Draco suddenly heard an awful hissing noise at Charlotte’s feet and his focus was torn away abruptly from the beautiful, angelic woman before him.

Nagini lay coiled just beside Charlotte’s feet, watching Draco with an almost humanlike inflection, like the snake was taunting Draco for his clear love for the blonde-haired sleeping beauty. Draco kept his eyes on the snake as it slowly began to slid toward Charlotte. It’s tongue flicked out a few times, almost seeming annoyed with the situation. The giant snake slowly began to wind it’s body around Charlotte’s torso. Inside, Draco began to panic a bit as Nagini’s muscular form began to squeeze tighter around Charlotte’s already thin frame. He searched the forest ground for his wand blindly, without taking his eyes off the snake, but couldn’t find it.

Charlotte began gasping for air and her body slowly began moving; her fingers began to twitch, her expression grew distressed, yet her eyes remained closed. Nagini continued to slither around her slender neck, cutting off her air supply even more. The snake wound itself around her neck and slowly slid across Charlotte’s mouth, blocking out the sounds of her frantic gasping. The murderous serpent rested it’s pointed head on Charlotte’s now colorless cheek and looked up at Draco with the same taunting look as before. Draco felt frozen in place as he stared down at the slowly fading bride before her eyes flew open wildly and her hand suddenly reached out and grasped the collar of his shirt.

Draco opened his eyes with a harsh gasp as he suddenly found himself staring up at the ceiling of Charlotte’s cottage. He lay there, breathing harshly for a few moments. His face was wet, but he couldn’t tell if it was sweat or tears. A rumble of thunder shook the house around them it was so loud, causing him to jump a bit. A flash of lightning illuminated the room for a moment before it darkened once more. It didn’t completely darken; there was an orange glow that drew Draco’s eyes to the baby grand piano in the corner of the room and the partially lit form that on the bench. The candle barely illuminated her features as she leaned over a letter, paying no mind to the thunderstorm that blew the rain violently against the single window in the room.

Charlotte’s eyes suddenly darted over to Draco, he could see that much in the dim light of the single candle. She placed the letter aside suddenly, picked up the candle, and walked over to him. A worried sort of wrinkle had formed between her eyebrows as she placed the candle on the bedside table and she sat down on the bed.

“You should have told me the reason you can’t sleep is because of these nightmares,” she said softly, brushing her fingertips soothingly over his forehead and his cheeks. Draco merely stared up at her and let his eyes wander over the lively features of her face before he reached up and crushed her against him in a hug, burying his face in her neck. Charlotte merely wrapped her arms around him and turned her head to kiss his temple. “I could have brewed you a potion to calm them down if you had only told me,” she whispered in his ear as she gently ran her fingertips through his hair.

Draco remained quiet for the longest time, reveling in the fact Charlotte was so close to him. The dream had seemed so real and he had seemed so helpless to Charlotte. He hoped beyond anything that the metaphoric meaning of this dream, whatever it may be, wouldn’t come true. His past nightmares had meant bad things and he could only pray that this one was different. Most of the time, he couldn’t remember the dreams when he woke up. It was only the really bad ones that seemed to make a deep impression on him.

When he finally pulled away and lay back down on the pillow, Charlotte was still watching him worriedly. He took her hand in his and looked up at her before smiling a bit. He needed to change the subject and keep that look off her face as much as he possibly could.

“I saw you reading a letter…” He said in a deeply groggy, soft voice. The corners of Charlotte’s lips turned up at the corners slightly and the wrinkle between her brows seemed to smooth itself out.

“It was one of the letters you wrote to me. I‘ve read them all a few times now,” she said in a near whisper. Her eyes were twinkling slightly in the dark, with the flicker of the candle. She gently squeezed his hand and her smile grew, yet she didn’t say a word.

“What do you think of them?” Draco asked suddenly. Now he was the worried one, taking her lack of speech as something wrong. Then again, she was smiling, so he thought she must not have thought them too bad. She laughed lightly, shaking her head a bit.

“Don’t get me wrong, I know you love me,” she said, the smile never leaving her lips, “I was just…unaware of how deep your feelings were.” Charlotte bit her bottom lip as she stared at Draco for a moment longer, watching as a smile curled his lips as well. “Now I feel like I have to tell you my feelings for you…or find some intensely romantic way of telling you them…” Draco let out a small laugh. “I don’t think I could top your letters, since you seemed to have tapped into my thoughts about you and written them down.” Another laugh escaped Draco and he brought her hand to his lips. She sighed lightly and gave him a wide smile, exposing her straight white teeth. “I suppose I can just suffice by telling you that I love you every opportunity I get.”

“That’ll be enough for me,” he said, sparing Charlotte at genuine, rare smile.