Part 15: Flighty Gift

Vela, hissed Lord Voldemort in Orin’s mind.

            Yes, Master?

            The time is drawing nearer and nearer. You know what you are to do regardless of your feelings?

            Yes. Murder the boy and…Drea Vela. I won’t hesitate again, Master. I am forever loyal to you.

            Good. Leave it that way.

            Once again, the Dark Lord broke contact with Orin. He frowned deeply. He had to, regardless of what he wanted. He had to kill Drea and her boyfriend Hrry Potter. It was only then that the Dark Lord would fully trust him to carry out his other duties properly and rightfully.

            Orin was dressed all in furs as he walked through the Forbidden Forest. Nobody had seen him in days; they all believed him sick. No, it was something muc more. Much more powerful and deadly than a mere illness. The mark on his arm gave Orin a sense of indestructible power; like he was utterly invincible. It made him proud to be a Death Eater.

            Orin was tired of being a no-good goody-two-shoes, being nice to everyone. He knew he was destined to be one of Lord Voldemort’s best and most loyal and trustworthy follower. He would never, ever betray his master. Though…his family would hate and disown him if they ever found out he was a follower of the Dark Lord. They, too, were all damn goodies. He hated the good ones.

            And, you might question, why did a Hufflepuff be loyal to the Dark Lord, a previous Slytherin? Well, it was because his good side out-ruled his bad side in his first year. But that was just because he was innocent and naïve, making friends with everyone. That changed once he hit his third year. He was nice, yes, but…he longed to be something more than a damn goodie-two-shoes. And it was then that the evil began to take root and sprout in him, growing and slowly, bit by bit, taking over him completely. Nothing could stop it.

            So, here he was now, loyal to the Dark Lord. It was probably the best thing he had ever accomplished.

            And Orin didn’t feel one ounce of shame towards it.

 

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            “Drea, you sleepyhead! Get up, will you?” exclaimed a voice in my ear.

            “Unh?” I groaned.

            I opened my eyes and squinted. I blinked again, trying to rid the sleep from my eyes.

            “Get up! God, you’re so lazy, you know that?” said the voice.

            “Cho? What time is it?”

            “Time for you to already be up! It’s lunchtime and you’re still in bed.”

            “Oh…”

            I pulled myself into a sitting position,rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Cho was standing at the end of my bed, her fists placed directly on her hips. She was smirking expectantly at me.

            “Keep your bonnet on. I’m getting up. Jeez…patience, anyone?”

            Cho went over and sat on her own bed. She waited patiently as I dressed in black jeans and a dark purple sweater. I pulled my hair back into a simple ponytail. I inhaled, taking in a deep breath. I sure felt refreshed; new and crisp and clean. I certainly was ready for whatever adventures life chucked at me today.

            “Okay, I’m done.”

            “Finally! What did you do to make yourself so tired last night?” Cho asked.

            “No idea. I went to bed at nine, so you think I wouldn’t have been that tired. For some strange reason I was, though,” I replied.

            “Well, next time it happens, don’t expect me to drag your butt out of bed anymore. I already did it once today, and I’m not doing it again!”

            I laughed at her as we walked out the portrait and down the corridor towards the Great Hall.

            “How’s the band thing going?”

            “Ooh, it’s great,” I replied with unnatural enthusiam. “The boys are so great at what they do. And we’re all good friends already.”

            “Any of them cute?”

            Now it was my turn to smirk at her.

            “Don’t you think about anything besides boys?”

            “Yeah. Clothes,” she quipped at me.

            I snorted at this and jabbed my elbow into her side. She jabbed me back, and this turned into a festival of fun. When we were down, we were positively bursting with giggles.

            Both of us breathless from laughing so hard, we reached the Hall. Cho and I sat down together at the end of the Ravenclaw table near the gigantic double doors that lead out into the maze of corridors. I grabbed some pancakes, eggs, and pumpkin juice. Cho served herself a mere bowl of porridge. The food made me think of Astor and how well he was faring so far with his work in the kitchens.

            I knew he was probably getting on well with the other houseelves just fine. After all, Astor never showed any disrespect or cruelty towards others. And he never showed any behavoriol problems either.

            I soaked my pancakes completely in maple syrup and dug into them. Ah…sugar…lovely sugar. Just what I needed to wake me up completely and get me on the right track for today.

            “Is that enough syrup for you, Drea?” asked Cho.

            “Plenty!” I answered perkily.

            She chuckled at me.

            I was reminded that it was only Wednesday and one day inbetween before the Christmas Ball took place. I think everyone was getting excited. I certainly was.

            “Is anybody taking you to the Ball?” I asked Cho.

            “Ah…that would be Roger Davies.”

            “Him? He’s gorgeous! Good pick, Cho!” I congratulated her happily.

            I wouldn’t be going with anyone because I was the entertainment. But if I was, I’d march straight up to Harry and ask him bravely if he’d kindly go with me to the Christmas Ball. I’m more than certain he’d say yes if I did.

            “Thanks. Pity you’re with a band, or you could go with someone.”

            “I know. But if I wasn’t, I’d go with Harry,” I said with a sigh.

            “You must be real crazy for him. I can tell just that by looking at your face.”

            I blushed furiously, snapping out of my reverie. I grinned goofily and contuned with eating my breakfast. I finished up my sugary pancakes and started on my scrambled eggs, sipping my pumpkin juice inbetween.

            “Yeah, I am�"AAH!”

            I was suddenly frightened by an owl that landed in front of me. It hooted at me softly, nuzzling my hand affectionately with its beak.

            I calmed down. There was a note attached to its leg. The owl stuck its leg out and I untied the piece of parchment.

            “What is it?” asked Cho.

            “I don’t know,” I replied.

            I opened the parchment and read the words, taking it all in.

 

            Drea,

 

            I know this is kind of early, but I thought to give you a Christmas present. Where is it? You’re staring at it. It’s an owl. Hermione looked up its species for me. It’s called a Little Owl. I hope you like her. She’s very sweet and gentle. Just like you, but tough and mean when provoked.

Love her well.

 

            Best wishes,

 

            Harry

 

            I smiled at the note. I stroked the speckled black brown owl. She loved the attention, nibbling on my hand tenderly.

            “Who’s it from?” asked Drea.

            Still gazing with a smile on my lips at the sweet owl.

            “Harry. Sweet thing, isn’t she?” I cooed,

            Cho raised an eyebrow as if she were proving her point before about me liking Harry. I ignored her and kept stroking the owl’s soft feathers. A tiny, miniscule fact read once in a Greek mythology book popped up in my head. Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, had the species of Little Owl as her sacred animal. And I knew just what to name the owl.

            “I’ll call you Athene,” I murmured softly. I smiled at Athene. I stroked her little head.

            I looked up at the Gryffindor table. Harry caught my eye and raised his eyebrows in a question. I nodded and mouth “thank you” to him. He flushed and bobbed his head a little. I chuckled to myself.

 

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            Athene on my arm, I stepped outside. My cloak hung around my shoulders. I headed towards the owlery. I stroked Athene’s head gently as I walked. She showed so much affection to me. She reminded me of a tiny child curling up against its mother. Athene was the sweetest thing; sweeter than words could possibly describe to anyone ever.

            Safe to say, she was much sweeter than candy, though. That I knew.

            She huddled up next to my head, nuzzling me. She perched on my shoulder perfectly and comfortably, warm against the harsh cold. The hard snow crunnched under my feet as I walked. I walked carefully, my boots sinking into the snow. The top layer was soft and fluffy like cotton due to the fact it had snowed earlier that morning; the fresh snow covered the lower, harder level. The lower level’s surface had hardened with ice, so you had to be very careful when you walked.

            Slowly and warily, I climbed up the slippery steps of the owlery. I reached the top and was partly relieved to be in from the harsh cold. I shivered under my heavy, warm cloak that covered my entire body except my face.

            “Here you go, Athene,” I said.

            Athene hopped off my shoulder and onto my lower arm. I lowered her to a perch carefully so I wouldn’t hurt her. I smiled at her; she blinked at me fondly with her big brown eyes. She ruffled her feathers and sank in their warm, heated mass. It seemed she already liked her new home.

            “I’m sorry I can’t let you live in the dormitory,” I said to her. “But you’ll be find here. I’ll visit you.”

            Athene blinked at me with approval. She wasn’t mad with me. I stroked her fine little head and took off down the stairs as carefully as I had when I came up.

 

            “Hey, what song are we going to perform at the Ball?” asked Dale.

            “I don’t know. I haven’t really gotten around to that yet,” I replied. “What do you think we should play?”

            “How about some more Evanescence?” Lex suggested. “That seemed to work out pretty well on Monday.”

            “What do you guys think? More Evanescence?” I said.

            All the boys agreed to this. We seemed to fit well into Evanescence’s kind of style, so I guess we were going to stick with it until the day of the Ball.

            “Which song, though? Don’t they have a new…thing out?” asked Heath.

            “CD,” I corrected.

            “What does that stand for, anyway?”

            “Compact disk. Are we gonna decided on a song or not?”

            “Sor-ry.”

            “I think we should do My Immortal,” said Lex, “and then we’ll follow up with one of their new ones like Call Me When You’re Sober or Lithium.”

            “Sounds go to me,” I said. I shrug.

            Instead of practicing, we were pretty much planning what we were going to do on Friday. I also couldn’t wait to introduce Evanescence to Hogwarts. They wouldn’t have heard of it because it’s a Muggle band. But it’s one of my absolute favorites, though. Way better than the Weird Sisters or any other wizarding band. Maybe it’s because they were unique and had their own individual style. Amy Lee, especially, was hauntingly beautiful. She was my favorite singer of all time.

            After that, we talked more about what songs we were going to play. We all decided on My Immortal (The Original Version) first, following up with Call Me When You’re Sober and Like You. We were pretty much set until Friday. All we had to do was practice and we were good to go.