The One That Got Away {Book One in The One Series}

Chapter Nine ~ Promises of a Dead Man

Chapter Nine

Promises of a Dead Man

            Platform 9 ¾ was packed as usual, not that anyone noticed an extra person; if they did happen to notice her, they were left with the impression of forgetting something they wished desperately that they could remember.

Adalyn stood pressed up against the wall, hood up as she tried to melt into the scenery; her silvery-blue eyes slid from stranger to stranger until they landed on Harry. It was the second time she’d seen him since…that day and her heart didn’t fail to pound violently at the sight of him. The light caught his glasses, blinding Adalyn for a second as her heart continued to beat against her ribs, it’s cage; it longed to escape it’s enclosure, to beat only for Harry.

But Adalyn was already in enough danger. She couldn’t let herself run to him, beg him to hold her and kiss her as if nothing were wrong and Sirius was waiting for them at home, laughing, joking with them as if he’d never been gone. For all she knew, there could be Death Eaters lurking in every corner, saying goodbye to their own children-and Adalyn couldn’t afford another run in with a Death Eater, not after the last time.

On one of her restless walks among the city, like a ghost with unfinished business, Adalyn had come across several Death Eaters. Of course, she had escaped with nothing but a slight pink scar on her ear-the Death Eaters had gotten worse, anyway-but you never knew. Dumbledore had told her not to wander, to leave Fred and George’s flat as little as possible.

‘Are you trying to drive me mad?’ she had screamed at him ‘Push me to my breaking point, like Dad? Push me and keep me cooped up until I’ll do anything for a bit of action?’

‘Of course not Adalyn,’ he’d assured her ‘I just want what’s best for you. Dear child, come here…’ and he’d hugged her, told her he just wanted her to be safe. He couldn’t be losing her, not now.

He’d also told her he was dieing.

All this ran through Adalyn’s mind as she watched Harry get kissed goodbye by Mrs. Weasley, then take Arthur aside and talk to him. Dumbledore had made Adalyn swear –swear on her parent’s graves- not to tell Harry about his condition, not to explain anything about his hand. Adalyn and begged her professor to take the ring off, to do anything and everything to make the curse from spreading. Dumbledore had just smiled, patted her hand and said: ‘Dear child, just being around you makes me feel better already.’

The thought of Dumbledore’s kind words to her over the years –the lessons, the grandfatherly hugs, warm words of advice and encouragement, everything- made tears come to Adalyn’s eyes once again. She had known Dumbledore for a very long time, since before average age for learning magic; Dumbledore had said she was like no one else he had ever met, no other student her had ever taught-and that’s what he said made her special.

She was like no one else.

This single thought ran through Adalyn’s mind, sharp as a knife as it pricked her thoughts and dreams. She was like no one else, and that’s what Dumbledore said made her special, but really, it made her wrong. She had such trouble remembering how to smile sometimes, how to laugh when she found something funny. In the middle of the night she dreamed of what she didn’t have, which was normal for any human being, but she worried she would mess it up.