No Turning Back Now.

I lay flat on my back; my joints feeling stiff, as if I had been sitting still too long. I licked my lips, which tasted weird. I could hear people walking around and talking. I slowly opened my eyes, sitting up. I was in the hospital wing, in the bed on my left was Justin Finch-Fletchley and on my right was Hermione.

I racked my brain, trying to remember what had happened. How did I get here? The last thing I remember doing was turning to look at Nearly Headless Nick, and seeing the yellow pair of eyes... But how was I here now? I looked around, looking for someone to explain everything to me.

Outside the window the moon shone brightly, surrounded by golden stars; not a flake of snow in sight. The air was no longer cold, instead it was rather warm. On the table between Hermione and I sat a vase with freshly picked flowers in it. Along with the vase were also a mirror, and a pink envelope with my name on it.

I grabbed it, noticing how stiff I felt for a second, before feeling like normal again. I opened the envelope and pulled out a very pink, very cheesy Valentine ’s Day card. It was a deep red, and had a crystal ball on it, with the words, ‘I predict...’ written in curly writing. The crystal ball shone, and white smoke swirled around in it.

I opened it curious who it was from. The inside of the card was plain white; with only a couple of words.

‘Samuels,
I can’t get your smile out of my mind,
if only I could spend this day with you,
but there’s always next year.
-H’

It wasn’t much; not to sappy. In a way, it was a good thing; I’m not really one to appreciate that sort of thing. I was surprised I had gotten any Valentine’s Day cards at all, seeing as I had, obviously, been Petrified in the hospital, but I was even more surprised to have gotten one from someone I didn’t know.

Next to me, Hermione was sitting up, looking around confused. Her eyes widened when she took in where she was and what was happening.

“It was a basilisk! It’s been using the pipes!” she nearly yelled at Madam Pomfrey who was just across the room, dealing with Colin.

“Oh, dear, calm down,” Madam Pomfrey said. “It’s all been sorted out; your friends Potter and Weasley did it all...”

“Ron and Harry?” I asked. “But how?”

“Why don’t you go ask them, dear? There’s a feast in the great hall.”

I slipped the letter into a pocket of my robes and Hermione and I left the hospital wing. We didn’t talk till we got to the great hall. I have been to several Hogwarts feasts, but never one quite like this. Everyone, apart from Hermione and me, were in their pyjamas.

As soon as we walked through the Great Hall doors, Hermione took off, screaming, “You solved it! You solved it!” before flinging her arms around Harry and Ron. I stood in the doorway for a second, searching, before I, too, went running through the hall.

“Blondie,” Fred and George chimed, as I smashed into both of them.

“It hasn’t been the same without you around,” said George, once I’d pulled away.
They sat back down at the Gryffindor table, but before I sat down, I caught sight of Chase, who was staring at me from the Ravenclaw table. I smiled and gave a small wave, which he returned, but then gave the twins a weird sort of look.

I sat down in the middle of them, and instantly started piling things onto my plate. The feast lasted all night, and Justin hurried over from the Hufflepuff table to wring Harry’s hand and apologise endlessly for suspecting him. Hagrid turned up at half past three and cuffed Ron and Harry so Hard on the shoulders, that they were knocked onto their plates of trifle.

They had earned Gryffindor four hundred points, securing us the House Cup for the second year running. Professor McGonagall stood up to tell us all that the exams had been cancelled, causing everyone, but Hermione, to cheer loudly. Dumbledore also announced that Professor Lockhart would be unable to return next year, owing to the fact that he needed to go away and get his memory back. Even some of the teachers joined in the cheering that greeted that news.

“Shame,” said Ron, helping himself to a jam doughnut. “He was starting to grow on me.”

---

The rest of the summer term passed in a haze of blazing sunshine. Hogwarts was back to normal, with only a few, small differences: Defence Against the Dark Arts classes were cancelled and Lucius Malfoy had been sacked as a school governor. Draco was no longer strutting around the school as though he owned the place. On the contrary, he looked resentfully and sulky.

Too soon, it was time for the journey home on the Hogwarts Express. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Ginny and I got a compartment to ourselves. We made the most of the last few hours in which we were allowed to do magic before the holidays. We played Exploding Snap, set of the very last of Fred and George’s Filibuster Fireworks, and practised disarming each other by magic.

We were almost at King’s Cross when Harry asked Ginny something.

“Ginny – what did you see Percy doing, that he didn’t want you to tell anyone?”

“Oh, that,” said Ginny, giggling. “Well – Percy’s got a girlfriend.”

Fred dropped a stack of books on George’s head.

“What?”

“It’s that Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater,” said Ginny. “That’s who he was writing to all last summer.”

I didn’t catch the last of the conversation, because Calandra came flying through the window, dropped a letter on my lap and left again. I opened the letter, confused, while everyone kept talking. I felt myself go cold all over; my lifeless hand letting the letter slip between my fingers. Time seemed to stop as thick, huge tears rolled down my cheeks. I somehow ended up on my knees on the compartment floor.

Sobs erupted from me, while everyone else looked at me in shook. I felt my chest rise and fall rapidly; my tears falling continually. It felt like I would never be happy again, like the tears would never stop. I felt like there was never going to be a reason good enough for me to move again, because, surely, my mother could not be dead.