Getaway Car

DAYS MORPHED INTO ONE ANOTHER, yet no scorning words were heard from my grandmother. After a while, I wondered whether she ever recognised our disappearance from the Avery House. I assumed not. Or else, she would've shredded the eerie stillness that heaved over the Grimmauld Place long before.

     The days were dull, and it was empty in the house, and it was silent. Many owls brought posts, and all were burned as soon as they arrived, no exceptions. Never a chance to read.

     At the dinner, we sat silently, surrounded by expensive china, courtesy of our name. "I have purchased your supply list," she said. "You do not need to leave the house."

     She didn't want me outside; that much was evident. But I could not blame her. The Ministry was failing, miserably for weeks, to track down Sirius Black.

     "D'you get the brush I wanted for Daisy?" I asked.

     Daisy was a white Persian cat with eyes as bright as the emerald ring Grandmother kept on her finger. I remember the first time I ever saw her, in The Magical Menagerie. It was the first fall of snow, glistening as it touched the ground, and she was staring at me through the shop's snow-covered window. Something instant flared between us, and since then, since I was barely eight, Daisy had been my most faithful companion within the sealed doors of the Grimmauld Place.

     "Yes," said Grandmother. "Kreacher has taken it up to your room."

     I nodded; there wasn't much to say. Shortly after, I excused myself from the table to pack my trunk for Hogwarts. Merely a week was left, yet Sirius Black was still running wild, nowhere to be found.

     I expected Kreacher to follow me up to my room, but he didn't. I saw why once I opened the door of my room.

     The room was neatly tidied, and my trunk had been packed, undoubtedly by Kreacher, and placed beside my nightstand. Daisy was curled up on my bed, her fur glistening under the city lights piercing from the window. There was an eerie calmness in the air, and I feared it was the calmness before the storm.

     Days went by with a book in hand, and soon it was time to board the train to Hogwarts. I woke to a grimacing Kreacher carrying my things down to the hall. I was cold, my right shoulder exposed to the breezes of the window, the one that faced the city.

     I had spent so many mornings alone in this room, in silence, I did not think it was strange to find it silent once more. The birds were up, and the Muggles, and even the portraits. I could hear their chatters filling the house. I sat up. Today, I was to leave for my fifth year at Hogwarts, one filled with excitement and pleasure and pressure.

     I left my room, and got greeted by the stillness of the rooms across mine. Cold and gaunt, I wondered whether the sun ever reached up to their doors.

     Once downstairs, Kreacher bowed to my sleepy figure, his nose nearly touching the ground. Grandmother stood beside him, dressed in all black, almost leaving for a funeral. "The sooner you get on the train, the better," she said. I nodded.

     Many were present by the time we reached the station. A scarlet steam engine, puffing smoke over a platform packed with witches and wizards seeing their children onto the train, shone within the wall of platform nine and three-quarters.

     "I wish you the best of luck this year, Daphne. I bear no doubts you'll make me proud," said Grandmother. "But I want you to give me your word —"

     " — that I'll be good and remain in the castle?" I spoke gloomily. "I know. That's why you didn't sign my Hogsmeade slip, Grandmother."

     She straightened her posture, looking stern. "That's one way to put it. No matter. You shall never leave the castle. Do you hear me?"

     I blinked. "... Yes."

     "Good," she said, her tone lighter than earlier. "Then I shall see you in Christmas."

     "Of course. Good-bye, Grandmother." I bid my goodbye, and entered the train, pointed fingers following me behind.

     I strolled down the compartments, searching for friendly faces. They had not arrived, I guessed. Neither was known to be punctual, Adrian and Cassius. I entered the first empty compartment that came across, and settled down, hoping they'd come to find me within the sea of students.

     I had taken Daisy out of her basket when the compartment's door slammed open. At the doorway stood two familiar boys. "Oi, Black!" said the one with eyes like the sky.

     "Ah, so you're finally back from playing with your broom set in France?" I said jokingly, and he grinned. The Pucey family much prefered their quiet in the outskirts of France.

     Cassius snorted as they settled into the compartment. "The git broke his Nimbus two thousand and one while trying to impress that one Parisian. His parents forced him to return to England, Mia. As a punishment, they bought the old Firebolt."

     "What — no — hold on," Adrian Pucey interjected, his face growing a light shade of pink, "That's not how it happened! Not at all!"

     "So you did break your Nimbus two thousand and one?"

     "Erm — well — yes, but it was a very windy evening! Anyone could have lost control under those conditions!" he protested.

     "You hear that, Mia?" Cassius questioned, a smirk forming on his lips. "The excuses rolling in? Wonder whether Flint will accept that to the team."

     "Oh, quiet yourself, Avery," Adrian rolled his eyes. "Like Flint's any better."

     I gagged at the sound of his name, Marcus Flint, and they laughed. The horrible found body within him.

     "I better leave for the prefect cabin." My eyes fell on the green badge shining over Adrian's robes.

     "Can you believe that?" Cassius stretched his legs over the seat. "Adrian, a prefect?"

     "I most certainly can. He deserves it — our golden boy."

     "That, I agree with," said Cassius. "Now that Adrian's a prefect —"

     "Oi! Don't you dare think for a second that I would —"

     " — we can do whatever we please under the guidance of school authority. Isn't that just marvellous?"

     "Unbelievable," Adrian muttered with a shake of his head. "I'm out of here — and will do no such thing, Cassius!"

     Cassius and I roared with laughter, the peals of our delight echoing throughout the corridor and receiving a groan from our friend.

     "Keep dreaming of it. Adrian would do no such thing. He's better than both of us combined."

     That's why Grandmother liked him so much. And she loathed everyone, so that must've meant something.

     "Nah," Cassius interjected, "Give it a week or two, and he'll be the one begging us to break the rules."

     "I wonder who's the other Slytherin prefect."

     "I bet on Crystal Sullivan. She's the next best thing after Adrian."

     "I'm nice too, Cassius. I would've made a great prefect," I said mockingly as the Hogwarts Express bleated its horn, stilling the loud chattering flowing through the train. And soon, the express began to pull out of the station as families frantically waved at their darling children.

     "No offence, but you're not, Mia."

     I cocked a brow at his statement. "What's that supposed to mean?"

     "Remember our second year when you turned Cassius Warrington's head into a pumpkin because he jinxed Daisy's fur to match the House colours? Or when you jinxed Flint's robes to be permanently yellow because he insulted a first-year Hufflepuff? Or that time you exploded George Weasley's cauldron because he pulled your hair —"

     "Alright! I get it!" I said with a feigned embarrassment, "At least I looked good doing it."

     Cassius threw his head back, laughing. "There's no doubt on that, is there?" I smacked his arm, and he looked amused.

     "It's good to see you're —" He began with an unusual seriousness but came to a sudden halt on his words, somewhat bouncing on them. "— you're looking well. You seem better than the last time I saw you, Mia. And I'm glad for it."

     I did not need to say that my panic bulged, that it became a living thing, slippery and deaf to reason as I remembered that night. My father, nudged a part of my head that found delight in taunting me. He's still running rowdy — and I am the last of his flesh and bone.

     "Why, thank you. I always look good." I stiffened a laugh and leaned back in my seat. Daisy quickly curled up on my lap, and I watched as the sun bartered places with the hurling storm raging outside the train's tiny window.

     The trolley-lady arrived, and the treats in her cart furnished a delightful scent to our compartment.

     "D'you want Pumpkin Pasties?" asked Cassius.

     "It's an insult that you ask."

     As the sky darkened and the rain thundering over the windows thickened, a blonde with a pale, pointed face appeared at the compartment's door, his cronies accompanying him much like the subtle sneer painted on his lips. A blonde I knew all too well.

     "There you are, Daphne. I was beginning to worry that Aunt Walburga had decided to have you continue your education at home."

     "Nice to see you, too, cousin. How's Aunt Narcissa?"

     "She's... well." Draco drawled. "As well as she can be while Sirius Black's outside, doing who-knows-what."

     I hummed, and he appeared dissatisfied by my response.

     "She's worried, you see. For me. For you. For Aunt Walburga. But mostly for you."

     "That's nothing new."

     "Daphne," Draco spoke with such intensity that his face flickered, for a moment, into something other than a sneer. "He's dangerous. Much more dangerous than what the Minister lets on."

     "I know!" I snapped, the fire I'd long tamed slowly sprouting — a fire my father had sparked. And it died just as quick. "I know, Draco."

     He nodded slowly. "Alright then. I'll see you at the feast." He turned his head to Cassius, and gave him an acknowledging nod of his head. "See you, Avery."

     And then he left, and Cassius directed his concerned gaze over my slumped figure, for once, appearing agitated.

     "D'you want to talk —"

     "No."

     "Okay."

     The sky darkened until lanterns flickered into life on the corridors, illuminating the train.

     "I wonder when Adrian will be back," Cassius grumbled. "I worry those prefects might have abducted him."

     "I doubt that. You know how busy —" I was silenced by the cry of the pistons fading away to be replaced by the storm rumbling against the pitch-black windows. I drew my brows together.

     "What's happening?" The words had barely left my mouth when the train came to a stop with a sudden jolt, distant thuds and bangs of the luggage tumbling out of their racks echoing throughout the hall. Daisy propped her head up to peek around.

     Then, all of a sudden, all the lights went out, and we got plunged into complete darkness.