(SCENARIO : HARRY POTTER FRANCHISE)
(Reading Time : 10 minutes, 15 with a cup of coffee)
Honestly, I have no idea how it all happened. But I like to believe that it was none of our fault. I used to blame it all on her, but, the more I think about it now, the more I know that it wasn’t her. Hi! If you haven’t made it out till now, I am Malfroy. I am not the happiest wizard out there and never have been. And, things have not been exactly good for me lately. I clearly remember it was December 13th of last year, it must have been half an hour past the usual bedtime. I heard footsteps going to the forbidden section and so did I follow.
The next thing I remember is seeing myself being dragged into a pleurigloss void, feeling extremely weak and Hermoine Granger, unexplainably fragile and pale, being dragged with me but with an uncanny purple aura surrounding her. Then my eyes started to droop and that’s the last sight I remember before getting my senses back.
I didn’t know where I was. Well, now I know what those vast stretches of droughted land are called - the unexplored land of Lamtar. As I said it before, it was a droughted land, with no one to be seen anywhere. Look as far as your feeble vision could allow - it was ghastly grey ground with cracks and trenches irregularly distributed all over. There was no sign of life, just a few Umdrags growing here and there. The sky was so uncharming as if silence was weeping out its sorrows. And there it was, this constant shrill buzzing in my ears from that grand fall, I suppose. Before I could acknowledge it all, my eyes fell on Hermoine. She must have been hardly 6 feet away from where I found myself and her sight was already making me nauseous. It was this awful stench that I couldn’t contain. Her hair, once untamable, now looked fragile. The stern and confident face deformed to look like that of a corpse’s; the hands - they curled up. It was a hard fact, but it was her. All I could think of then was to wake her up. I reached for my wand to my coat, just to find out that it wasn’t there.
“Astrobrass megorá!”, I blurted. Yes, I can do basic wandless magic. I have learned that from uhmm...uhmm... somewhere. The silver lining is that, it worked out. Soon she squirmed and started to open her fearless brown eyes.
“Astrobrass megorá!”
“What IS this ?”, asked Hermoine while feeling a spurt of healing crawling
through her veins.
I let off a smirk - after all, I was glad to see another and perhaps the only thing that seemed to show a sign of life there.
“ What is this? Where are we? Don’t tell me this is another one of your wicked tricks!”, she said, with a sense of frown, totally puzzled.
“Well, you don’t seem to acknowledge the fact that I saved you from rotting like a far-forgotten fig. Besides, I suppose that you are to be blamed for all this.”
She didn’t say anything to that. I am pretty sure she was drawn back to memory lane and recalling it all.
“Wait for a second! Where-is-my-WAND!”, while frantically looking for it in her trodden and shabby cloak.
“Wait, what! You don’t have it either?”
“No! I clearly remember bringing it here.”
“ That can’t be it. I don’t have my wand either.” “ So, is that -?, Do you-”
“ Yes, I know some basic wandless magic.”
“Impressive”, she said, with a sense of disinterest.
As unconventional as it may sound, I was scared. I was always taught to be the tough one. But no matter how hard one may try to stay stern, when you get beaten up with no time to heal, you become weak. One blow after the other and there comes a time when it becomes futile to hide your cracks. And, I saw Hermoine doing it too. I knew she was doing it- hiding it all with her cloak of toughness and her cloak was trodden enough now.
“ Are you feeling okay now? I-I- mean, you won’t know, but, actually, ummm... you were seriously pale and looked hideous when I found you.”, I said, trying to sound as formal as I could.
She didn’t respond.
“... and, would you like to know tha-”.
She cut me off.
“ I think we’re in Lamtar.”, she was confident, yet couldn’t believe her own words. She continued explaining.
“ It dates back to the third century, there was no such thing as Hogwarts. There were not many rules and regulations as we have now. At that time, there used to be portals to the other worlds - the other magical worlds. This is one of those worlds. It was a beautiful place, filled with joy and love; and fast evolving. But most remarkable of all is the vision that Queen Merryweather had. She always believed in inclusiveness and that led her to -”
She was interrupted. In no time, she got surrounded by a blue aura, similar to the one I saw surrounding her in that void. “Astrobrass megorá!” “Astrobrass megorá!”, I repeatedly chanted and she fell off with a loud thud, looking paler than before. My feet almost froze.
“ Are you REALLY okay!! Wh-What was that?’’, I asked concerningly.
She couldn’t speak through all those gaspings, but her agile pounding heart could be heard in all that silence. She somehow made herself sit beside a boulder. With her shivering hands, she rubbed her eyes, then blinked twice to reveal her dilated pupils- what a misery.
If you know me well, you know my spite - and that’s all that you’ve ever known about me. I know that’s me, but I know that’s not all of me. I took a few steps and sat beside her. We didn’t exchange any words for a few minutes.
“ You don’t seem much scared with all that”, she whispered, breaking the silence of the air.
“ Uhm! Well I wasn’t the one being clamped in that aura”, said I, trying my best not to sound ill.
“ Yes, I am feeling better.”
“ What about Queen Merryweather?”
“ I will tell you. But before that, we need to move from here and find a way out before the 3rd Calamity.”
“ 3rd Calamity?”
“ Come on! Help me up!”
“ You see those Umdrags? We have to move away from them, as soon as possible”, she sounded serious.
“ Do you know what you’re doing? What are we even doing?”
“ Trust me. I know what I am doing,” she said while shushing me down.
We quickly gathered our things and started moving away from the Umdrags, following her lead. As we paced, she continued her story.
“Queen Merryweather was a visionary leader who believed in inclusivity and diversity. She had a dream of a world where all magical beings and muggles could coexist peacefully. She later established the Academy of Magic, which taught magical arts to both - squibs as well as muggles.”
“ The idea, however, couldn’t be sustained. Soon, the clouds of gloom took over Lamtar. Internal rebels and spite started to pile up to form an avalanche. These shortcomings were the opportunities for a rogue wizard to arise and dethrone Ms. Merryweather.”
“Watch out Hermoine!!’’ I squeaked at the top of my lungs as I sensed that the ground near us was about to explode. BOOM!! That was an unpleasant crash, very loud. We both started to run while saving our heads from the falling rocks.
Painful and intolerable shrieks started to come from the side we were running from. It overpowered us so much that we became numb for a moment. Hermoine grabbed me by my arm and dragged me away from the noise. We hid behind a huge boulder. The noise somewhat diminished.
“That’s the third calamity. Just don’t look into their eyes.” She said
“Who’s eyes?’’
Before I could say anything more, some creatures started to emerge from the broken ground. Their bodies seemed brutally mutilated and they were carrying their rotting flesh with a sense of pride. Moss was covering their brittle but weirdly shaped nails. Humanoids, but a strange way of walking - hastily reaching towards us with the unbearable sound of theirs. We started to run as fast as we could.
“I don’t think we can outrun them’’, said I, gasping heavily.
“ The only thing we can perhaps do is distract them for the time being.”
“ I know Confringo, but it cannot produce enough strength to break down these creatures.”
“ Can you break that boulder with it?’’ she said while pointing to a huge boulder to our right.
“ I can try.” “CONFRINGO”, I screamed loudly, focusing it all on the boulder. Within seconds the boulder split into pieces. The creatures, surprisingly, began to follow the direction of the explosion.
We knew what we had to do then- the explosion was on the right, so we had to run towards the left.
“ You see how these Lamtargians respond to loud cracks? They will, however, soon realise and get back to us.” She said.
“Only if we can somehow distract them to that trench. I think they wouldn't be able to get out of there.” She added.
“CONFRINGO!!” and a fireball was sent to the trench. Soon, the herd followed the site of the explosion and they all fell into our plan. We took a breath of relief and started to calm ourselves, then only I started to feel hallucinations.
I frantically tried to control myself, feeling more trapped with every motion I made. In a blink of an eye, it all became bright in front of my eyes; everything around me, including Hermoine, seemed to stop. Then a silhouette appeared piercing through the sharp light. As soon as it appeared, the place turned dark, darker than one can imagine. As soon as it started to speak, it laid off a putrefying smell, but more putrefying were the words it said.
“ Delusion often helps kill delusion. Oh! but delusion killed Merry. She really thought of muggles, never thinking it would be scary. She climbed the stairs butcaught my stares and I laughed when they did cry. Now all their weeps and all their tries, weep more when their allies die.” He whispered secretively.
Then with a great force he yelled maniacally, “You’ll kill that muggle.” “NO”, I asserted.
With a lunatic laughter it came near me and started to screech its nails over my arms mercilessly. I let out a wail. My arms were bleeding crimson. Then it took out a bright red amulet out of the dark just to flash it to me and grinned evilly just to disappear into nothing.
I sniffled hysterically, thinking about how death was so close to dethroning me from life. I caught a breeze and then she came toward me, calmly placing her cold forehead on mine, firmly holding my arms. The kindness started to ripple through my head. For the first time in forever, I could see what those confident brown eyes meant - they were the mirror upon which the truth of my life reflected. I could see a faint light quivering in the fear of shadows - that was me. And when I gently closed my eyes, I could see the echoes of me blaming myself - much in me is still me, but more of me is not me yet. Then I found myself floating through the broken chains that were once fastened around my understanding. I felt like a blooming sunflower with infinite petals, paying heed to the golden sun.
“You know, the dews, they leave the fields at the break of dawn. You think that they are gone with the mist, but they rise and gather into a cloud and then fall down in rain. I am scared but I am just a dew.” She whispered gently.
She started to cough heavily. Then her warm breath started to fall weak, her grip started to loosen around my arms, and her cold forehead began to stray from mine. Her eyes were filled with agony wanting to say something. The last thing I remember is my hands turning wildly red with a burning red aura resembling that amulet, surrounding me.
As soon as I woke up, I found myself in Hogsmeade. I was surrounded by the Aurors and the members of the Ministry. I was accused of killing Hermoine. My mind started to race through all the events. But, all in vain. I got dragged through the mud in the press.
And now, I am in this Prison of Azkaban, way past the phase of wail. And every time it rains over the North Sea, I become surer that it wasn’t me who killed her.
Submission by: Divyanshu Tewari (div.tew), MBBS I
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