Name: Air Elemental
House: Gryffindor
Spring Challenge #1 – Enduring Hardship
Euphoria Lies
As the sun rose up lazily into the sky, its beams lit up the whole cavern. Every nook and cranny shone with grey light and the rusting saucepans piled up along the floor left long shadows along the ground. The cavern floor was a strange mixture of soft sand and gritty mud, with faded rugs spread across the ground in intervals. Small piles of clothing were lined up along the walls and chipped plates and cups were littered around the floor. All the colours in the room were faded and it smelt horribly of smoke and sewage. A fire smouldered at the mouth of the cave and a cold breeze chilled the air.
Curled up under a thin blanket in the corner slept a boy. His hair was a greasy and matted brown and his cheeks were pale and grimy. The sunlight stroked his face and his eyelids flickered. Groaning, the boy sat up and rubbed his eyes wearily. For one wonderful moment he thought he was back at Hogwarts; then he remembered.
“Michael, you prat,” he muttered, groping for his glasses. Slipping them on, he peered at the wall beside him. It was covered with lines scratched into the surface. Every line represented a day. Sighing, he picked up his wand and whispered: “Diffindo.”
Another line notched itself onto the wall. The boy counted them: one hundred and twenty three: one hundred and twenty three days.
He turned around and began rolling his bed to the cavern wall. There were four of them in the cave: Anthony Goldstein, Mandy Brocklehurst, Cho Chang and himself: Terry Boot. There used to be five, until Michael Corner decided to wander off. Terry glanced down at the other three beds. Anthony was in his favourite purple rug; Terry recognised the tuft of blond hair. Mandy was there too, her face free of worry and anger for once. He felt his heart thump feebly in his chest. He loved Mandy, but the circumstances made it more and more difficult each day.
The last bed was empty; he knew that before he even looked at it. Cho rarely ever came into the cave these days. All she did was sit outside and stare at the horizon, waiting for Michael…
*****
Cho was lying at the edge of the cliff that lay several metres in front of the cavern mouth. She had sat there every day since he’d gone. The grass had been flattened around her from sitting for so long. Several metres below her was a dying field full of dark yellow grass that waved to her everyday. It was always windy on the cliff. Cho’s lips had become dry and chapped, and her eyes stung from the dust. The field seemed to carry on forever until it hit the mountains in the far distance, which the sun was peeping out from. Cho stared at the sunrise and wondered if today would be the day. She cast a look at the flowerbed nearby. The stalks and buds of the incoming snowdrops stood up proudly, but they didn’t bloom. One of the reasons Cho refused to go back into the cavern was because she didn’t want to miss the snowdrops blossom.
*****
“But I don’t want you to go!” cried Cho, grasping Michael’s hand firmly. “I don’t want to lose you!”
Michael looked into Cho’s sad eyes and whispered, “but I have to. I need to find out who’s won. The final battle’s over and there’s no news, so I need to find the news myself. If Voldemort’s won, I’ll come back and tell you. If Harry’s won, I’ll come back and tell you! Don’t worry.”
“But what if you get killed?” Cho whispered, tears already sliding down her face. “What if you never come back? Let me go with you at least, then -”
“No,” Michael shook his head sadly. “If I let you go and you die, how could I face anyone ever again?”
“How would I feel if you left me here and you died on your own? What if You-Know-Who won and killed you without a second thought? I’ve already lost Cedric; I don’t want to lose you too! Please -”
They were standing on the cliff exactly where Cho was sitting now. Michael looked down and saw the snowdrops. They were in full bloom, as beautiful as the girl who stood next to him. Letting go of her hand, he gently knelt down and plucked one of them from the stem. He handed it to Cho and said: “Winter will come and the snowdrops will fade away, but the moment that they bloom again, I will return.”
“You promise?”
“I promise,” and he was gone. Cho was left standing on the edge, clutching the snowdrop and letting the wind brush away her tears.
*****
“Cho?”
Cho wiped her face with the heel of her hand and turned to face Terry. He was getting thinner and thinner every time she saw him. His glasses looked bent and his once rosy cheeks were leaked of colour.
“Oh, hi Terry,” she whispered.
Terry felt the sadness radiated from Cho slowly worm its way into him. Her glossy black hair was now matted and faded, and large black marks outlined her tired and sore eyes. She barely ate or drank. It worried Terry a lot.
“I’m going to get some food, OK?” Terry’s wand was clutched in his hand. Cho felt envy streak through her. She’d lost the energy to do magic a long time ago. She’d seen Terry at night, struggling to light a fire. Even he was finding it hard to cast the simplest of spells.
Cho watched him walk away. Terry hadn’t been the same since he’d witnessed the Battle of Gretna Green. Neither Cho or Anthony or Mandy knew what had happened, but Terry had lost his smile. He’d been hiding here ever since, waiting for news of the final battle. Terry had been there when Michael and Cho had arrived. Mandy arrived a few days later, and Anthony arrived last, also eager to hear news. Now none of them wanted to leave, in fear that Voldemort had won and the world that they had called home was gone. Better to live a poor, free life in the cavern than to suffer under Voldemort’s rule.
Cho turned her attention back to the horizon below her. It had become so familiar to her that even when she closed her eyes, she could still see the landscape. Sometimes she’d see an outline or flicker and her heart would twist in excitement, only for it to be a trick of the light or the wind tossing a rock aside. It was never Michael.
*****
Mandy thought about leaving every day. Every evening she would pack her bag and get ready to sneak off in the night, but as she fastened the draw string on her pack, Terry would spring into her mind and she’d lose her nerve. It was almost like a ritual.
Mandy would promise herself that tomorrow would be the day. It never was.
“Anthony,” she whispered, shaking his sleeping body, “Anthony wake up. It’s morning.”
Anthony groaned and turned over to face Mandy. His face broke into a smile.
“Good morning, Mandy,” he said, sitting up and scratching his head. “It feels like a beautiful day!”
Mandy grunted. Anthony was always so optimistic. She didn’t know how he did it. Turning away, she began collecting up the plates scattered along the ground.
Something caught her eye and she looked up. Cho was sitting on the cliff top, as usual. Mandy bit down on her tongue as pin-pricks of anger tingled inside her. Cho never did any work. She just sat on top of the cliff, feeling sorry for herself. Mandy never really liked Cho; she was too much of a drama queen. What was worse was that Terry seemed to be spending more time with Cho than with her. All the more reason to leave the cavern, she thought miserably.
There was a scrambling sound by the mouth of the cavern and Terry clambered in holding a dead rabbit. Once the site of a dead animal would’ve horrified Mandy, but not anymore.
“I’ll get the fire going,” she said, grabbing her wand and crouching beside the lump of twigs that was the fire last night. She smiled at Terry. He didn’t smile back.
*****
The sun was well above the horizon and Cho’s sight was started to blur. First it was the ground beneath her, and then it was her hands in front of her. Her sad heart thudded fearfully, was she dying?
“Terry!” she yelled. “Terry! Help me!”
*****
The moment Cho cried out, Terry dropped the dead rabbit and ran out of the cavern. Cho was in danger! He needed to help her!
“Terry!” it was Mandy. She grabbed hold of his arm and screamed. “Stop it! Stop running to her!”
“What?”
“That’s what she wants you to do!” Mandy dug her nails into Terry, making him yelp with pain. “Keep away from her!”
“You’re insane!” Terry snatched his arm away from her and ran, his head ringing. In front of him, Cho was waving her arms like a windmill, a huge smile plastered across her face. Terry almost jumped; he hadn’t seen Cho smile for years.
“Terry, look!”
*****
“He’s coming, I know he is!” Cho could see the snowdrops clearer than ever before. Their drooping petals were swaying in the gentle breeze and the lush green stalks stood proud from the Earth. The perfect white of the flower stuck against the browns and yellows around them. Cho had never seen such a beautiful flower. Her heart pounded and euphoria made her light headed. He was coming back! Michael was coming back!
Terry looked so confused. She wondered why he wasn’t happy too. He should be happy! There suffering was finally over! They could leave that smelly cave and live back in London again, or Birmingham or Manchester. It didn’t matter where!
“Terry, look!” she cried again. Something caught her eye; a speck of blue on the dead grass below. It was Michael! Cho laughed with joy; he was alive! He was here!
Terry was saying something, but it didn’t matter. Cho wanted to run to him; run and wrap her arms around him and never let go. She could see his face so clearly, as handsome as the day she met him after that horrible Quidditch match. Cho had never felt so happy. Michael was spinning around within the yellow field. Around and around and…
“CHO! SNAP OUT OF IT NOW!”
The world of Euphoria cracked into a thousand tiny pieces and Cho was teetering on the edge of the cliff, Terry’s arms around her; stopping her from falling. Michael faded into the grassland below, as if he had been a ghost.
“What…” Cho’s question echoed inside her mind. Where was Michael? Where had he gone?
She turned her head and looked at the flowerbed. The snowdrops were encased in their green leaves again. It had been a hallucination.
“Michael…”