Little Memories

Draco was laying in that pitch black room once more, the air around him hot and humid, like his skin would burn off right then and there. His lungs felt moist and heavy, like he had difficulty breathing and the heat scorched at his sensitive eyes. He blinked a few times as he stared up at the endless, inky black above him and let out a heavy sigh. It felt like he was standing too close to a flame, yet there was nothing in sight, let alone a fire.

Then, it started up again, that low rumbling in the distance that had occurred so often before. His chest rose and fell, finding it pretty difficult for him to fully breath under the circumstances and the impending noise was not helping him at all. He pulse began to race, causing him to feel even warmer than he had before. Swallowing hard, he tugged at the collar of the black shirt he wore, needing more room to breath and relief from the damp clothing he was wearing.

A flash of light caught his attention to his right and he slowly turned his head, being drawn to the flickering light beside him like a bug to a flame. There Charlotte lay, bathed in flames that never burned or marred her skin. In fact, it looked like she was glowing, her skin pearlescent with sweat from the heat of the room. Her eyes were shut, her features were relaxed, and it was as if she were merely sleeping. A long, gauzy white gown fluttered around her waif-like form, the hems and edges oof it charred slightly by the flames. The tiny imperfection, Draco noticed, couldn’t diminish the perfection of the girl that lay beside him. Even the intense heat of the room could not keep his eyes away from her.

Then, slowly, she began to pull open her eyes, keeping her profile to him for the moment, until she fully opened them; the reflection of the flames danced in the blues of her eyes. And when those thick, dark eyelashes pulled back to reveal those crystal, dear blue eyes of hers, Draco felt his breath catch in his throat. With the same amount of speed as she opened her eyes, she slowly turned her eyes to him, a small, pleasant grin curling those clover-shaped lips of hers. Draco found himself mimicking the gestures, despite the feeling of unease bubbling in the back of his stomach. When their eyes locked, finally, the rumbling that echoed throughout the void of a room that surrounded them hushed abruptly, and it was just the two of them, staring into each others’ eyes, and the bright fire that surrounded one of them.

“I’ve had dreams similar to this one before, Charlotte,” Draco told the woman softly, his voice echoing in the darkness that surrounded them. He found the gesture to nearly drained all the oxygen from his lungs, like the room itself was robbing him of breath. Charlotte let out a bright little laugh, those blue eyes of hers twinkling pleasantly.

“Have you now?” She asked softly, her voice smooth and musical, echoing just the same as his. Draco nodded slowly, looking lovingly into those beautiful eyes of hers. “And you think I haven’t noticed you’ve had them before?” Draco’s smile fell a bit, his brow furrowing with confusion and thought, yet Charlotte’s expression remained the same.

“What do you mean by that?” He asked as the flames around Charlotte gave a resounding “pop”. Charlotte merely let out another one of those musical laughs, the echoes of which sounded darker as they fluttered around the two of them, almost sounding like sobs instead.

“Because you are close to me, dearest Draco, a bit of the magic within me has placed itself within you. I have a gift, therefore, a bit of that gift embedded itself without you.” Charlotte slowly reached forward, her slender white hand engulfed in placed, and her eyes remaining locked on Draco’s. “Because we share the same heart-” The moment Charlotte’s palm came in contact with Draco’s shirt, the flames that once surrounded her began to blacken her skin, eating away at her gorgeous, curly hair, and rapidly killing her. She made not a sound as she continued to stare into Draco’s eyes, her burning hand remaining on Draco’s shirt, yet the flames never touched him.

Soon, all she was, was fire, but two particular and peculiar spots glowed brighter in the flames. They were no bigger than the tip of a wand, floating midair above her form as she slowly dissolved into ashes. The hovered over her smoldering and crackling form, twinkling and taunting Draco. He felt like his chest was caving in, that his heart had curled in on itself and was wringing itself and writhing in his chest. Though, the beauty of those two little dots somehow diminished the heavy blow of watching his beautiful Charlotte reduced to ashes. Then, without warning, the two spots of light lunged at Draco, hitting him directly in the chest.

For a brief moment, darkness consumed him and the intensity of the heat around him grew to be almost unbearable. Suddenly, the world around Draco grew still, quiet, cold, and damp. There was the sound of water lapping against the shore of some sort of land. A cool breeze brushed past him and the sound of rustling leaves was added to the quiet mix of noises around him. Draco kept his eyes closed, relishing the humid, yet brisk environment around him. It was like that for a while, peaceful and relaxing, until a low, gurgling hacking sort of noise cut through it harshly. Draco’s eyes shot open and immediately found the source of that horrible and ill-sounding noise. Hunched over beside him was a thin, bony form, draped in black, flowing, yet rough-looking fabric. The form drew in shuddering breaths of air, their lungs crackling and popping.

“You again,” Draco said softly, as he sat up. The form, who had a shadowy hood up and over their features, slowly turned to look at Draco. Their face was hidden, but Draco didn’t need to see it to figure out who was right beside him. Besides, the long, matted, lackluster and ashen blonde waves that spilled from the hood was indicator enough of who sat beside him, on the small island in the middle of the lake they had met once before on, in a dream. The sepulchral woman beside him drew in a raspy, throaty breath of air before letting out a chilling laugh, shaking her head a bit.

“Yes, me again,” the form said in response, her voice quiet and raspy, “and this time should be the last time you’ll see me.” Draco merely stared over at her and shook his head a bit, brushing his blonde hair back as those spindly, bandaged hands unveiled themselves from that black, wispy fabric.

“What do you mean by that?” He asked softly before merely listening to the shaking inhaling and exhaling of air, entering and leaving the lungs of the slightly shuddering woman beside him. One of those skeletal hands reached out and curled itself around Draco’s hand. He could feel the bones and tendons beneath the thin skin and gauze, stretching and moving in a way that made Draco’s stomach churn slightly. The form let out a cough, lifting her other hand to her mouth to muffle the horrible sound, but didn’t do a very good job at it. He could hear her swallow hard afterwards, trying to wet a dry trachea that was probably damaged beyond repair.

“I mean…that this is the last one of these dreams you’ll ever have,” the woman said, slowly turning her head to face just over the tall, rocky mountains that surrounded them. He could hear the vertebrae and cartilage in her neck and spine give of a few crunches and loud cracks as she moved. “You’ve been warned enough of what’ll happen in the future, dearest Draco, and it’s time I stopped haunting your dreams.” Some parts of what she was saying made perfect sense to him, while the majority of it just left him stumped and confused.

“What are you?” He asked, since that’s all his mind managed to come up with. The woman beside him let out another one of those grating laughs, her cool hand still wrapped securely around his.

“If I told you that, dear sir,” she started, with a dry, dark amount of playfulness, “there would be no fun in it. You best figure that out yourself before it’s too late.” There was a long pause and Draco could feel the being’s eyes boring into him from beside him. The feeling was a bit unnerving to say the least and Draco felt a coolness wash over him that had nothing to do with the weather nor the lake around them. “I feel that you’re smart enough to figure this out on your own, even if you are a little late in doing so.” Draco didn’t like the way this skeletal, shrouded figure was taunting him, the way her eyes seemed to bore straight through him even if he couldn’t see them.

“I shouldn’t have expected you to be any other way,” Draco murmured, shaking his head a bit and turning to look ahead, his eyes darting over the jagged mountaintops that cut into the starry night sky like daggers.

“No,” the voice cut through the air around him sharply, “you shouldn’t have.” Draco drew in a deep breath of air just at the same time the woman beside him did, before she let out another one of those horrible sounding coughs that echoed harshly around them. “But then again, I shouldn’t have expected any less from you, Draco.” She paused, drawing in a scratchy breath of air before she continued. “Your precious time with people is rapidly drawing to an end. You best be prepared for them to make sudden and drastic departures from your life and you must be prepared to say goodbye to them, regardless if you wanted to or not.” Draco slowly turned to look over at the being beside him nervously, confusion clearly written on his features.

The woman, however, dropped his hand and pointed a shaky finger to the sky just beyond the mountains. It had begun to flicker with oranges, greens, and reds, yet not a noise reached the two of them. She began to laugh slowly, the fluids in her lungs popping and crackling even more as she began to full out laugh at the situation.

“It’s going to all end sooner than you think,” she said through her maniacal laughter.

Draco jolted awake in his bed at Hogwarts, a surprised Gregory jumping back from the bed and staring at the blonde boy with wide eyes. They both merely sat there for a few moments, Draco breathing heavily and fisting his hair in his hands and Gregory watching him nervously. The eldest Goyle was the first to break the tense silence in the room, though he broke it tentatively.

“You’ve got to get up soon or you’re going to miss the train,” he said slowly, watching Draco intently with a furrowed brow. Draco swallowed hard and nodded numbly, glancing over to Gregory for a moment before drawing in a shaky breath of air and letting it out again. They were to be off on their Easter Holiday that afternoon and Draco would bet he had slept through breakfast.