1906 [h.s.]

eighteen

I looked up as Harry stood up, giving him a confused glance as he offered me a hand.

We'd been there for a few hours already, that we'd spent in silence while we waited for time to pass.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, not understanding what he was getting at.

"Midnight is coming" he said quietly, the hidden meaning behind his words sending a shiver down my spine. "I don't know what will happen, but if it will not work out for me, I would like to do something still" he continued fast, making me understand that he'd probably thought of that for a while, glancing quickly from my face to his hand.

I felt a weight on my chest at the mention of what I knew was probably about to come, but nodded, clearing my throat to make sure my voice wouldn't have broken while I spoke. "Sure" I said, eager to do all I could to help him, taking his hands and letting him help me to my feet. "What do you want to do?"

He glanced at me in the mild darkness of the room we were hiding in. "It's almost midnight, so the lights will be turned off soon" he said quietly.

I frowned, even more confused than before. Why would he tell me something like that? He knew I already knew. "And?" I asked, hoping he would've clarified.

"My whole life, I played it safe at best. If it truly will all end tonight, I would still like to do something wild" he simply said, stepping past me and wrapping his fingers around the handle of the door.

I widened my eyes when I realised what he was about to do. "Wow, so you just decided to give them a reason to keep you locked up in here?" I asked, sarcasm dripping from my words.

He just shook his head, pushing down the handle and slowly opening the door. He glanced into the pitch black outside, making sure nobody was around, before walking out of the room, dragging me with him from our intertwined fingers.

I stepped closer to him, grazing his arm, as he started walking to our right, the faint sound of his hand brushing the wall being the only thing I could hear in the deep silence surrounding us. We walked for a while, my heart beating fast inside my chest as I tried my best not to think of what would've happened if we'd met a guard.

"Against the wall, fast" Harry murmured into my ear all of sudden, and I was fast to comply, just in time to avoid someone that rushed past us.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath, trying to get over how close we'd been to being discovered, before following Harry, that had pulled me lightly forward as he'd gone back to walking. I kept my eyes shut, discovering that it made me way less nervous than staring into the darkness surrounding us, walking close to him for not more than a few minutes.

"Open your eyes" I heard him say all of sudden.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, realising that we'd stopped, and slowly opened them, discovering that Harry was standing in front of me, closer than he'd ever been. I stared at him in the faint moonlight coming from the windows on our left, trying to understand why he'd taken us there.

I looked to the side, finding out that, as I'd supposed, many large windows were on my left. I stared at the full moon through the glass, inadvertently stepping away from Harry, in amazement. I'd never seen the moon there before. I looked at the small circle of light outside, that was enlightening the perfectly cured gardens outside, putting my hand on the glass. A little smile curved my lips as I realised that it was exactly the same as how I'd often seen it from the window of my room. It should've been obvious, considering that it was indeed the same, but there, surrounded by a completely different world, it seemed somewhat odd, as if I hadn't expected to find such a constant between the two periods of time. Looking at it, in the complete darkness of the asylum, I felt as if I was back at home.