The Long Journey Home [Dramione Sequel] TEMPORARILY ON HOLD

Chapter One - Clean

Chapter One ~

19th September, 1999

3 months, 9 days since graduation

Dark clouds covered the sky as the sun began setting behind them. A woman with dark brown hair walked up the winding street, pulling her coat closer to her as the wind chilled her skin and licked at her face, exposed through the gaps in her hood. She walked up to the house at the end of the street, the run down double story with a single light shining through the bottom story window that she called home.

                The shutters that hung crookedly from the windows had come loose in the gale and slammed loudly into the rustic walls. As she walked up the creaky porch steps she pulled from her pocket a wand made of vine wood with a dragon heartstring core and waved it over the door handle.

Quickly she pocketed it before entering the house with quite a lot of help from the wind and forcing the door closed behind her. Inside the air was still, warm from the fire that she could hear crackling in the other room. She pulled her hood down and began unbuttoning her coat so that she could hang it on the coatrack.

She heard someone enter the room from the kitchen, his heavy footsteps causing the trick floorboard to creak under his weight.

“I’ve been waiting for you.” He said.

She spun around to look at him; he almost didn’t recognise her in her ice blue contact lenses.

“Well I had errands to run.” She said as she walked past him and into the small dining room.

She rested a hand on the table as she looked around at the candles floating by the stormy windows and hovering over the centre of the table. It looked like he had put a lot of effort into this.

“I’m aware.” He said, following her into the room.

“Well some of them turned out to be more difficult than others.” She turned her back to him as she removed her contacts.

She blinked as her eyes adjusted.

“I don’t like it, you out there alone. Especially on a night like this.”

“You don’t need to worry about me. I’m perfectly capable of protecting myself under duress.” She took another look around the room, it was clear, neat.

The books that had been sprawled over the table were tidily arranged in the corner and the coats were all hung so nicely on the rack beside the door.

“Why the change in scenery?” She asked, turning to look at him properly.