( OLIVIA )

HOGWARTS
SEPTEMBER, 2015

    Her heart was beating a mile a minute. Fire surrounded her. The anger she once felt melted away into terror. "Mummy!" Her voice sounded small and far away. Flames licked the walls and floors, crawling up the house. "Mummy!" The little blonde haired girl couldn't see anything through the smoke that encased the room, traveling into her lungs. She tried to cough it out, but to no avail. "Mummy...." Olivia whimpered.

    Arms wrapped around her waist, ripping her from the room. She couldn't make out another noise as smoke wrapped around her lungs. All she smelt was smoke. Even outside, where she now laid on the grass far from the burning house, she only smelt the smoke.

    She could distantly hear firefighters and police officers. "Sir, you can't go in there."

    "My wife is in there!"

    "We know sir, we are trying all we can. You need to get away from the house."

    "Dad..." Olivia whimpered. She heard running before a hand started to run through her hair. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Her dad rubbed her back before she was being set onto a stretcher.

    "Don't worry honey, calm down, breathe." The voice faded from the deep voice into a softer one, one with a higher voice. "Just breathe Liv, breathe."

    She woke up crying in Emery's arms.

    "It's okay Liv, just breathe, you are okay. Breathe." She couldn't hear her own voice, already recognizing that Emery put on a silencing charm. "You're okay, we are all okay, it's okay. Just breathe Livvy." Emery reached down and wiped the tears from her cheeks, holding her tightly. "You didn't do anything, Olivia, it was not your fault. It will never be your fault."

    Olivia knew when Emery fell asleep. Her grip went lack, slowly freeing the blonde. Tears stained her shirt as they stained Olivia's cheeks. Olivia slowly moved out of Emery's arms, pulling a blanket around the sleeping Ravenclaw, before going down to the common room. Olivia always liked the Ravenclaw common room. The stars that were painted on the ceiling, looking all too real, the comfy seating that was perfect to read a good book on, the walls of books of all genres taunting students to read when they should be doing homework or studying. There were several seats, all in different places and positions for what that certain Ravenclaw enjoyed the most. Olivia's favorite was by the window.

    The Ravenclaw common room overlooked the school grounds, the Quidditch pitch, the lake, and even the Forbidden Forest that never stayed very forbidden during the school year. Everyday something looked different, even if it was minuscule and impossible for the naked eye to see, something was different.

    Olivia felt the same way. Even if she couldn't feel it, and other people couldn't see it, she was different. Impossible to notice until it's too late to go back to how things used to be. Too late to travel back in time and change the possibilities. Too late to truly do anything; but maybe that's how it was supposed to be.

    The nightmares of her mother plagued Olivia's nights. Not every night, not all the time, but enough to never forget. She wished she could forget, the same way she forgot to crush instead of cut the certain ingredient -- that she couldn't remember the name of -- like Emery told her to.

    She could remember in vivid detail how the fire started. The words thrown in the air before her mother yelled "go to your room". Olivia remembers running to her room with angry tears welling up in her eyes. She remembered the scream she let out, the words "I hate you!" following, while slamming the door. It was only later that she remember the heat that came from her hand, catching onto the wood door. Small enough not to be noticed. She remembered sneaking out of her room moments later to grab water for her aching throat. Most of all, she remembered the terror when she saw the flames start to travel through the house. Her father wasn't even home from work yet. He was supposed to be home in ten minutes. All Olivia could think at the moment was that she had to find her mum, had to tell her that she loved her.

    She never had the chance.

    Everything was ripped away before she could say another word to her. She was left with nightmares and the fear of fires. She was left with her mum crying because of her. She was left with misery and suffering. Being tortured by her mind as her heart constricted blood and her lungs wept. Olivia was left in pieces and Emery was forced to pick them up; risking getting cut by the sharp sides. She knew it wasn't fair, it was never fair to place a burden on another's shoulders when you could barely hold yourself up; at least that was what Olivia thought.

    Like the outside, with everything slowly changing, Olivia wore a smile that was breaking.

    All she was left with was the burden of trying to be perfect for a dead person.

( NATHAN )

HOGWARTS
SEPTEMBER, 2015

    It was hard to notice at first. The darkness slowly pushing at him, telling him to move, get out of the way. It wasn't till the last day of September that he realized that something was wrong. Something was tugging at him. Something blocking him.

    "Em." Nothing. "Em! M and M's. Emery!"

    Emery's head sharply turn to him. "What? Why are you yelling? I'm trying to read."

    Something gripped at his stomach, tugging him away. Emery never sent him away before, maybe telling him to go away, but with no real power in it he was free to stay if he pleased. It was comforting, knowing someone would always be there for you, even if they find you annoying. He tried to open his mouth and say something to her, but only saw Emery shrug with eyebrows drawn together before turning back to her book.

    "What the hell is going on? Who's doing this?" His questions were left unanswered, and only a deep fear was left of him. Fear for himself, fear for Emery, fear for everyone.

    Then he was back in the shadows, with no one that can see him, and no one could hear him.

Fun fact, when starting this chapter I hated it and was five seconds away from scraping the whole thing, but here we are. It could be better but I'm happier with how it is now compared to what I thought of it at first. Don't get me wrong, I still low-key dislike it, but I don't hate it.

Also, probably by the time I post this chapter, my best friend has posted at least one of the chapters to her new book. The book is called Ballerina Shoes and the plot is by @MsMarauders and @sadiesinkers and the author of the story is @Samoramma1 so go check it out!

I'm planning on chapter 10 to be long because I would prefer this book to end before 100 chapters. Like, way before.

My chapters are getting pretty short, at least some of them are. Like, some chapters will be close to 2000 words while this one is barely at 1000-1100 ( my phone and laptop could not agree on a number. So while my phone said in the 1000s my laptop said in the 1100s. I want to believe my laptop because it makes me feel better ).

I'm tired.

Thanks

-April