*August 1998*
The next day, the sound of that 7AM bell blasted Kaylina's eardrums, making her eyes shoot open.
She blinked her vision clear and only now she realized she was still in Draco's bed. She was still in the position she fell asleep in, but the blonde boy was on his back.
Hands behind his head as he stared at the bed above them. His hair was messy, his features sharp. He looked really fucking exhausted, mentally and physically.
"You didn't sleep?" she said, her voice heavy with sleep.
He turned his head to her and shook his head.
"Aren't you tired?" she questioned, propping her head up on her elbow, in her palm.
He huffed slightly, sounding more as a bitter laugh. "I'm fucking exhausted," his tone remained blunt, "But I just can't sleep."
"I get it," she murmured gently.
She debated whether to hug him or some shit like that, but she decided not to since she didn't want to cross any lines with him.
Not knowing what else to say, she got up from the bed and went to the bathroom to get ready.
~
She woke up for the second time this morning, but this time, she woke up in some sort of house. She sat up immediately, a little too fast to the point where her head spun. She scanned the room, all her peers were around her, all just waking up.
The house seemed new, untouched.
All her peers were in training clothes and she doesn't even remember what happened after she got ready back in the underground shithole.
Kaylina stood on her feet, walking to the redhead twins she saw laying on the floor, groaning. She knelt down beside George, who was sitting up, the heels of his hands rubbing his eyes.
"Are you both alright?" she asked softly, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"As good as we can possibly be in the given situation," Fred joked, huffing a slight laugh as he scratched the back of his head.
"Where are we?" Dean asked, helping Ginny to her feet.
"If I had to guess, I'd say a house," Theo concluded, knelt to Pansy's side as said girl rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands.
Kaylina stood, scratching the back of her head as she scanned the untouched home. They were all in the living room and the house had a new smell. Like brand new, no one stepped foot inside.
The house was aesthetically pleasing, if you may.
A modern sort of aesthetic.
She saw a white piece of parchment on the table, so she walked to it and picked it up.
'Task two: Survive in that world and the Dark Lord will decide if he's pleased or not with your group's effort to come back to our world.'
"There's a note," Kaylina spoke, turning around to face the rest of her peers.
"Well, go on— read it," Blaise spoke, walking up to her.
Blinking slowly down at the parchment in her hands, "task two: Survive in that world and the Dark Lord will decide if he's pleased or not with your group's effort to come back to our world," she read out loud.
"Survive what exactly?" Ron scoffed, helping Hermione to her feet.
"I don't know," Kaylina shrugged, scrunching the note and putting it on the table.
"This house is nice," Luna chimed in calmly, her tone was soft as her blue eyes scanned their destination.
Luna, love, you're so adorable.
Kaylina smiled softly at the blonde Ravenclaw.
For some reason, Kaylina was always so protective over Luna. During their years in school, Kaylina never hesitated to stick up for Luna.
For starters, Hermione had introduced Luna to Harry and Ron as 'Loony Lovegood' and it made Kaylina beyond livid.
She actually did a swirly on Hermione for that.
Just a good ol' sticking her head in the toilet as she flushed it.
There were other times when Kaylina actually got into physical fights because Luna constantly got picked on for her differences.
Kaylina won most of the time, even if she had to get dragged from the fight by a Professor or her friends.
Sometimes she'd walk away with nothing so much as a nose bleed and then there were times where she walked away with a swollen eye, busted lip and a nose bleed, but she did it for the greater good.
Kaylina always put up a good fight, she always did it for her pure friend Luna.
The blue-eyed girl was unique and that's one of the many things Kaylina loved about her.
Luna would always encourage Kaylina to stop getting into physical fights for her, but she actually enjoyed having fist to fist contact with whoever was being a bitch to the blonde girl.
Luna always thanked her with a kind smile or a handcrafted gift or a crystal even.
Being a Gryffindor actually benefited Kaylina because Dumbledore favouritized them. She got away with pretty much all her fist fights during her school years.
The worst she'd get was probably detention for a week.
"Do we have to survive in this house?" Pansy questioned confusedly, a scoff fleeing her lips as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"I don't know," Kaylina repeated as she scanned the house.
She saw Draco sitting on the floor, leaning on the wall with his knees up and elbows resting lazily on his knees. He was already staring at her, expression was unreadable, maybe blank.
"Let's check to see if there's other fucking clothes to wear— I'm sick of these clothes," Daphne hissed, finding her way to the stairs.
The rest of the girls followed, Kaylina included. The several footsteps of the boys followed behind as everyone scattered into the six different rooms the house had on the second floor.
The house had lightwood floorboards and light grey walls with white details on the railings. The house was welcoming looking, but she knew this task wasn't going to be good.
Kaylina walked into the room where most of the girls were and they were all changing into different clothes. She walked to the dresser and searched for something.
She pulled out a pair of jeans and just a white t-shirt with a v-cut. She changed, most of the girls were changing in the same room.
The girls left the room, but Kaylina searched it just a bit more. After a while of snooping and exploring, she finally walked down the stairs.
She saw the boys had found some clothes too. They all wore cargos, jeans or track pants and some sort of t-shirt.
"We should go see what other things are outside of the house or maybe find out where the hell we even are," Hermione suggested, arms crossed in front of her chest.
"I agree— let's go," Cedric's head nodded in the direction of the front door.
Everyone walked out the front door, curiosity taking over them.
Kaylina walked out and she instantly felt the warm sun beam on her skin. She doesn't remember when she felt this.
It felt searing, something she wanted to feel forever.
Her dark brown hair fell beautifully down her back, the sun making the tint of brown appear more to the human eye. Her brown eyes glistened in the yellow sunlight as her skin literally sparkled.
She wanted to make a pact with the sun.
Have it's glory beam on her for as long as she lived and breathed.
Everyone was doing their own things, wandering, but still keeping close with the group. Kaylina scanned the area.
There was a swinging chair on the porch. The porch was a light wood with white railings. The sky was a gorgeous light blue with white clouds wandering about. The house they got sent to was literally in the middle of nowhere.
All she saw was an open field, the green colour of the grass was probably one of the most beautiful things she's seen in a while.
Actually— that's a lie.
Draco Malfoy is the most beautiful thing she's ever seen.
The grass wasn't too long, only about ankle length on Kaylina.
She walked down the stairs of the porch and walked to the open field which was only a few meters from the house itself. She looked to her left and she saw a forest just across the empty road where the house sat alongside.
The most beautiful forest she's ever seen.
The leaves of the trees were so bright, so real.
The trees were glowing, they looked so healthy and so happy, if you may. The grass beneath the trees were green, not a single spot of yellow or dead grass in sight. In the grass were flowers.
Oh— beautiful flowers.
She doesn't remember the last time she ever saw flowers this beautiful.
From where she stood, she saw red, purple, pink, white, yellow.
All so beautiful.
The sun was shining on the leaves of the trees in the forest so beautifully as the faint sounds of birds chirping filled the air, she actually thought she was dreaming. She basked in the beautiful sight of nature and peace around her.
For a second, she could finally breathe.
Her lungs inhaled and exhaled.
But then she realized, everything around her was perfect...
too perfect.
"Kay! Come here!" she was ripped from her thoughts by a voice that belonged to Fred.
Kaylina's eyes snapped to the redhead who was rummaging in the shed of the house with his twin. She walked to them, her eyes scanning as she walked.
She saw Ginny and Luna running down the open field, the smiles on their faces.
Oh, wow— Kaylina never thought she could miss seeing such genuine smiles.
She saw Theo, Blaise, Pansy, and Daphne talking in a group as they chuckled and looked around their destination. She saw Dean, Cedric, Hermione, and Ron all talking somewhere along the road near the forest.
Her eyes snapped to a certain blonde boy.
He was sitting on the swinging chair back where the porch was. His legs were lazily rocking himself back and forth with his hands lazily resting on his lap, his head knocked back as he shut them.
She knew he wasn't sleeping and she knew he was tired. He just couldn't sleep and she understood the feeling of being so fucking exhuasted, yet not being able to sleep.
She found it beautiful how the sun beautifully beamed on his pale skin. He was glowing. His blonde hair appeared more blonde than white in the sunlight.
"Kaylina, come here!" she heard George's voice call.
Shaking her head out of her thoughts, she walked to the ginger twins. "What is it?" she questioned, arms crossed in front of her chest as she peered inside of the shed they were inside of, exploring.
Fred and George exchanged grins as Fred yanked out a soccer ball from a storage bin. "How about we play some Muggle soccer, eh?" George wiggled his eyebrows at the brunette girl.
Kaylina softly chuckled. "You guys go ahead, I'm going to sit out," she insisted.
"Suit yourself," George snatched the ball from Fred and stormed out of the shed. Fred gave a wicked smile to her before running after his twin, calling out for the rest of the group to play.
Kaylina explored a bit more of the shed. The shed was attached to the house, no garage, but a shed instead.
It was full of storage bins and shelves with smaller storage bins. She opened one of the bins and just saw old tools, some wood and old outdoor toys.
She closed the bin and walked back out of the shed. She walked to the porch and sat on the steps, her head leaning on the columns of the railing.
She closed her eyes, inhaling deeply as the sun brought warmth to her. She reopened her eyes, exhaling and she saw the group on the open field playing Muggle soccer.
Theo was kicking the ball and kicked it straight into the goal where Fred guarded, Fred blocked it.
She saw genuine smiles from some of them, some people like Hermione were moping, just walking as she pretended to play.
Kaylina looked over her shoulder at the blonde boy on the swing chair, his eyes were still closed as the sun hit his pale skin like art. He was wearing a black t-shirt with black jeans.
"Obsessed, are we, Santos?" he spoke, his eyes still shut.
She rolled her eyes. "No," she scoffed, looking back at the open field to watch her peers play Muggle soccer.
"There's something weird about this place," she mumbled, her elbow on her knee with her chin in her palm as she scanned their destination once more.
There was no other building or houses for miles and miles.
She saw nothing.
It was a ghost town, but it was beautiful at the same time.
Draco ripped her out of her thoughts. "Come closer, so I could hear you properly," he opened his eyes, still sitting sluggishly on the swinging chair.
Kaylina stood, walking up the last step and walking to the swinging chair. She leaned on the railing of the porch, her back to him as her arms draped lazily over the railing.
"This—" her hand lazily gestured to the place around them, "This is all too perfect— too new and too weird," she stated, shaking her head as her eyes continued to scan their destination.
"If you say so," he lifted a lazy shoulder, his eyes fixed on the forest to the left of them before looking down at the field.
What could the second task be?
Task two: Survive in that world and the Dark Lord will decide if he's pleased or not with your group's effort to come back to our world.
Survive what?
Kaylina walked down the porch steps and with slow steps, she walked closer to the forest. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest as she took small and slow steps closer to the forest.
She saw the flowers up close, they were so pretty.
She walked closer until she was off of the road and now walking on the grass of the forest. She crouched down in front of a bed of tulips, smiling softly at the bright colours of them.
Red, purple, pink, white, yellow.
It was a twig snap that made her neck snap up.
Her heart began to race as she slowly stood up straight. Her eyes were rapidly searching the forest from where she stood, trying to make-out where the noise came from.
Another twig snap.
And another.
She heard faint groaning and spitting hiss of some teeth, as some sort of footsteps dragged.
It wasn't just any groan or hiss. Kaylina's eyes widened at what stood only a few metres away from her.
It was a groan and hiss of the undead.