Spellbound

Chapter 3

She was shown to her dorm and her room. The common room was too cozy to be real. The secret passage, the planters everywhere, the decadent underground feeling, it all felt so comforting, like the rooms were giving her a hug, and Ea loved it. She could get down with the House animal, the Badger; he totally lived well.

She shivered at remembering what the Slytherin House animal was. Ea wouldn't be okay with an animal that was as cold and calculating as the snake. No, she much prefered the warm Badger or even the brave and loyal Lion of Gryffindor. She was mildly surprised that that boy with such a jovial warmth would be from Slytherin. He didn't seem evil or even remotely foul, like Shirley had earlier described.

Determined to not let preconceived notions of anyone cloud her mind, she went straight to bed and hoped that this year would be much quieter or even just calmer than her last year. With that at the forefront of her mind, Ea curled into a small ball and made sure that the hot pan was securely on her bed before drifting off to sleep.

Ea walked quietly through a large garden. The blossoms from different trees danced through the air, scenting it with a gentle fragrance of sweet flowers. Light filtered lazily through the plants and enhanced the mysticality of this beautiful place.

Feeling a soft weight against her leg, Ea looked down and saw the most precious looking kitten rubbing on the length of her dress. Startled that she would wear a dress at all, she took a better glance at it.

The end of her skirt was a gorgeous green, like that of an emerald, but spun by spiders. The beauty stretched up to her hips, and as the fabric flowed over them, it slowly faded into a rich brown that sharply accentuated her pale skin and her own brown hair. The dress stopped below her arms and held itself there, as if it had been spun onto her body.

Her wrists were adorned with delicate, silver serpentine bracelets that wound around them, and they both had deep jade eyes embedded into their wolf-like heads. She noted how warm they were against her skin.

Reaching up, as she had noticed the lack of hair on her neck, Ea felt her hair, which was piled on top of her head with small little pins. She walked over to a small bird bath and looked into it. The pins made her hair look like it was covered in dew, the crystals at the end of the pins catching the warm rays of sun and projecting them like mirrors.

Ea took hold of the pendant around her neck. It looked simple compared to the rest of her get-up. It was a small golden crystal that looked to have naturally shaped into a small bird. The bird seemed to have its head under its wing, as if sleeping.

Sleeping.

The realization leaked into Ea like lead. Of course this wasn't real. She would never look like this outside of her dreams. Sighing, she moved away from the bath and looked around again.

What she hadn't expected was a woman to be standing there when she turned around. She jumped a foot into the air and gasped.

"Who are you?" She asked quietly.

"My name means little, but if you so desire, little firebug, you may call me... Dusk." The woman was beautiful. She was also very tall, taller than Ea by several inches.

"What are you doing here?" She almost felt bad for the hostility in her voice, but she certainly did NOT dream this woman, which meant she invited herself.

"For now, I simply watch. You will have questions, and I am to provide answers."

"You're off to a dreadful start." Ea said gloomily. Even her dreams wouldn't listen to her.