Dangerous Fellows (Imagines)

harry :1

The tips of your fingers were stained pink from the countless berries you'd collected into your mugs. Forest strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, they were all for the cake you planned to make. The cake was your mother's favorite and, even if she wasn't here with you, you still wanted to celebrate her birthday somehow.

Making your way back to the cottage, you took care to avoid stepping on any plant as you balanced the mugs in your hands so as not to spill and waste any of the precious berries.

Smiling bitterly as the cottage turned into your view, you let your thoughts drift. When you were little, you hated this place. It changed when you got older, the surrounding forest enchanted you, it looked magical in winter, when the whole of it was covered in thick snow blanket, in autumn, when all the leaves turned multiple hues of color, in spring, when the first flowers started peeking out, and in summer, when flowers turned into fruits. You loved taking strolls through the forest.

Even now, after all that's happened, you couldn't bring yourself to hate it here. Your father built this as an act of love for your mom, and not even the unfortunate events could make it any less romantic. Even if your parents weren't there to see it anymore, you knew they'd be proud.

Shaking off the thoughts in your mind, you unlocked the door and stepped in. This was where you lived now, after your dad and mom passed away, when a sudden storm broke out and a tree fell on their car on the way here, you didn't want to abandon it. So instead, you had abandoned your previous life, dropping out of school and coming here, leaving everyone you ever knew behind. During the week, you went to the city to help at the local bakery (after all, you weren't any saint and needed as much money as you could get to live), but the weekends you had all for yourself.

Now being Saturday, and your mom's birthday, you wanted to bake a berry cake. You knew the recipe by heart seeing as you had already done it a million times before, so you worked quickly.

My headscarf!

With the cake being in the oven, you were cleaning up the kitchen and washing all of the used bowls, when this realization hit you. You must've forgotten it in the forest, when it got too hot and the sweat made your hair stick to your face. You took it off so that you'd feel the light breeze blow by, and as you picked out the berries, laid it on a nearby rock.

I left it there!

Glancing at the clock, you still needed to wait at least ten minutes before the cake was done. You spent these minutes nervously bouncing up and down, you hoped your headscarf will still be where you left it, and in one place. You wouldn't forgive yourself if you had lost it - your grandmother gave it to you on your fifteenth birthday, her last gift to you before passing away of old age.

The timer beeped and you took out the cake, delicious smell filling the room. Leaving it on the kitchen counter, you grabbed your key and rushed back outside, trailing your own footsteps.

It took you about forty minutes walking to get to the place where you had left it at. To your relief, it was still there, undamaged and clean. Wrapping it tightly around your arm, you turned around to go back.

Suddenly, you heard a loud noise from the distance. It sounded almost like a human scream, but you knew that, for as long as you've been there, you were the only person around. You weren't sure what to do and for a few minutes, you only gazed somewhere far between the trees, where the noise had come from.

Deciding it would be better - and safer - to go home, you made the first step forward. Then you stopped, you were far too curious about what had happened. Chances are, the animal (or a person?) left long ago and you won't find anything, but at least trying to satisfy your curiosity and find the answers was way more exciting than coming home not knowing anything.