Chapter 387 - To hug or not to hug? (1/2)
The marsh glowed an eerie green under the misty moonlight. The shadows were long and thick and the silence heavy. Rowan blinked at wondering how on earth she had gotten her. Had she teleported herself in her sleep?
Something large moves behind her causing Rowan to reach for her wand to only find that she was wandless. A large, giant black shape slithers out of the mist to reveal a familiar glittering giant pale white albino snake glowing in the moonlight. The blue sapphire glows especially bright on the Great Horned Serpent as her horns curve neatly back.
”Pardon me, mother snake, but aren't you already dead?” Rowan whispered in disbelief.
”Yes, and no, snake speaker,” whispered the Great Horned Serpent. ”This is the dreamscape neither the past, present nor the future.”
”Okay then,” Rowan slowly said, ”just what am I doing here?”
”Your friend is dead at the hands of the Hydra,” the Great Horned Serpent angrily hissed.
”Alphard's dead then,” Rowan softly whispered out loud.
Raising her gaze to meet that of the giant magical snake, Rowan asks, ”For what purpose am I here then?”
”The Hydra will come for the Princes. You must be ready, he will come, soon,” the Great Horned Serpent muttered as she kept an eye on the edge of the shadows.
”Mother snake, you said time moves strangely here,” Rowan muttered. ”How soon are we talking about? Months, a year, or more?”
”I can't say,” the Great Horned Serpent whispered. ”But it is time to awaken, he's coming.”Something powerful moved in the distance as the Great Horned Serpent stood up as Rowan woke up to a loud, ”Meow,” right in her ear.
Startling awake, Rowan blinked to find the purring form of Alchemy next to her on her bed. Letting out a sigh of relief, she mutters, ”You're lucky, you're so cute.”
Alchemy's tail swishes as if to say, ”Why of course. I'm handsome, charming, and did I already mention handsome?”
It was Boxing Day and since it was the night right after the Yule Ball everyone was still in bed. Putting on her bed robe, she wandered out only briefly glancing at the clock that read, seven o'clock. Rowan sat down in the common area as she knew it was only a matter of time until Professor Slughorn came in to grab Regulus. Bram would need somewhere to stay during Regulus's absence. That and she was enjoying a nice hot cup of tea to wake her up that morning from the snack table conveniently located in the common room that the house elves had already prepared early that morning with the usual piping hot, varieties of tea and platters of snacks.
Not long after Professor Slughorn hurried inside and let out a rather high-pitched squeak at finding Rowan sitting in the shadows. ”Goodness me, child! What are you doing awake at this hour?!” Slughorn gasped as he clutched his painfully beating chest.
”Alchemy woke me up,” Rowan replied like that answered everything. Professor Slughorn nods his understanding as Alchemy was the unspoken ruler of the Slytherin realm. Everyone knew that.
”Well, breakfast will be served soon, Miss Prince,” Professor Slughorn said, before pulling his warm thick robe around him and hurried up the boy dorms. Not long after, he returned with the sleepy, rather bewildered from of Regulus.
Yawning Regulus easily spots Rowan in the common room. ”Rowan, will you look after Bram for me? Professor Slughorn says, my parents are waiting for me upstairs in Professor Dumbledore's office. I wonder if my grandfather finally passed away?”
Waving goodbye, after having cleaned up after herself, Rowan went straight upstairs into the boy's dorms. Luckily Regulus's roommates were still asleep as Rowan wrinkled her nose at the mess. She much preferred her tidy area. Not that all girls were tidy, but with Bethanie around, it always was. Grabbing the basket of the adorable sleeping white cat, she takes Bram with her. Tiffany was going to be so pleased.