'his eyes were the sea.
this is how people drown,'
[jodi picoult, the book of two ways]
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Addie looked around, and at first, the empty streets nearby seemed completely bare of anything that could help her, when something glinted in the corner of her eye.
She looked toward the source—and found it to be a payphone she hadn't noticed before. It looked quite new and shiny—so much so that the light from the streetlamp hit the glass of the booth at the perfect angle that it shone directly in her eye.
Not quite sure of what exactly drew her to it, Addie held her breath and stood—which took too much effort than normal and hurt more as she moved than anything should. It felt as though her chest was on fire; as though small blades dug into her lungs whenever she tried to breathe. She staggered as she walked with a hand over her ribcage. Each step felt like a mile as she focused on just putting one hurting foot in front of the other as the rain gushed down in a seemingly endless downpour.
Slowly, but surely enough, the payphone came closer and closer as she neared it. Addie really had no idea what she would do with it—she only knew they existed in the first place because, one Christmas, she had listened as Mr Weasley had Harry and Hermione tell him all that they knew about muggle payphones with his characteristic fascination for the ordinary.
Even then, she had never actually seen one until now.
Addie finally reached the payphone and slumped against its booth, wheezing for breath as she grabbed the phone from its hook and held it to her ear. She made to press one of the numbers when she realised two very key things about payphones.
One, as the name dictates, you have to pay, and it wasn't as though she had any sort of currency to her name or change in her skirt pocket. Two, she didn't know anybody's phone numbers in the first place. Harry in particular didn't even have a phone, let alone a number that she could reach him with. A painful ache grew in her chest, but not because of her broken ribs.
All she wanted was to talk with him—to hear his voice tell her that everything will be okay. To tell him that she's scared and everything hurts and to please, please come get her. To tell him that she doesn't know what to do or how to find him or where to go next. To tell him that she needs him more than anything else right now.
The only sounds around her were the falling raindrops intercepting the pavement and the low hum of the red phone she still held against her ear.
But then there was a small spark followed by the loud crackle of static.
Unsure of this was normal or not—Mr Weasley had never asked about static or sparks—Addie moved away from the phone slightly. She feared for a moment that it would burst into flames or something right in the palm of her hand, and considered letting go, when she heard something above the noise of the static.
Voices.
They were muffled and wavy and barely audible but they were definitely voices. She pressed the phone tightly against her ear, trying to discern any words beneath the constant hiss of static. Addie covered her other ear to drown out the shhhh of rain around her.
"...Hello?" she spoke tentatively. The voices stopped momentarily, but then she heard:
"—the hell is up with the radio?"
"Hello?" she said again.
"You said you fixed it!"
"Wait, wait—shut up for a second. Listen."
The voices grew quiet again.
"...Who is this?" She said louder into the phone.
"Is that—"
"ADDIE?"
"...Harry? Ron?" Her voice broke a little, holding back a sob. "Is that you?"
"It's her—holy shit—HERMIONE!" the voice grew faint, and she pressed the phone closer to her ear just as the other voice grew clearer.
"It's me, Addie, it's me," he said. "It's Harry."
"Oh my god," she cried. "Oh my god—"
"Stay on the line—"
"But I don't know how I'm on the line in the first place, I—"
"It's okay, just keep doing whatever you're doing. Your voice is coming through our radio!" two other voices became louder in the background, but he shushed them. "Where are you? Are you hurt? How do we get to you?"
"I don't know, I don't know, I'm at a payphone," she struggled for breath. "I escaped from the manor—Draco helped me escape—I got hit by a car—"
"A CAR—?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Addie tried to assure him, cringing at the worry she caused in his voice. "Seriously—"
"Does anything hurt? Did you break something?" he continued to ask despite her words. "Are you bleeding?"
"I don't know—it's hard to breathe—I can't tell if I'm bleeding, it's too dark to see—"
Harry's voice got lost in the noise of two more voices suddenly speaking with him, and though Addie couldn't hear what they were saying, she could tell he was freaking out—which only made her start to freak out, too. Her hands started to shake, but she worried that losing concentration would mean she wouldn't be able to tap back into their radio. A new voice met her ear.
"It's okay, Addie. We'll figure it out."
"Hermione! Are you okay?" she asked, remembering her screams from those days ago at the manor.
"I will be once you're here," Hermione spoke. Addie could hear the boy's voices in the background. "Are you safe?"
"I am right now, but I don't know for how long." She looked over her shoulder nervously, but there was no one there.
"Okay. That's okay. Do you know where you are?"
"No—it's just this muggle town near the Malfoy Manor."
"Look around," Hermione spoke, and Addie did. It was just the same empty pavements and sleepy houses as before. "Are there any signs that you can see? Street names? Landmarks?"
"Uh..." she glanced around, looking closer. In the distance there was a church with a tall steeple that had a bell in it, and then, pointed to the road, there was a sign. She squinted to read it. "Yeah—yeah. There's a church a little bit away and there's a sign. Nightwood Hill. It says 'Welcome to Nightwood Hill'."
"I know where you are!"
"Really?!" Addie felt she could melt into a pool of relief right there—but she still feared that something could go wrong. She put her back against the phone booth to give herself a clear view of everything around her whilst she listened intently to Hermione; eyeing the dark streets.
"Yeah—I have a map out right now! Okay, Addie, here's what we're gonna do. I want you to hide somewhere nearby and stay there. We'll apparate in the town and send Harry's Patronus to locate you since it shares a connection with you. It won't work if you use any concealment charms, so just try to find a really good hiding spot, okay?"
"Okay. Got it."
There was a warm silence for a moment as the two processed this hopeful reality of finding one another.
"We're gonna get you back," Hermione said firmly, her voice emotional, and Addie felt her lip start to tremble at just the idea of being with them again after so long. "And because you can't see him at the moment—Harry's here and he's been listening this whole time. He's just quiet because he's crying."
"Hermione—" Addie heard him complain, and she laughed a little through her own tears as she heard the raspiness of his voice, even if it hurt her ribs to move.
"It's okay," she said to him, sniffing. "You can't see me but I've been a blubbering mess this whole conversation."
She heard his laugh above the static.
"We'll leave right now, okay?" Hermione interjected."It should only take us twenty minutes tops to reach you—Nightwood Hill is pretty small."
"Okay," she replied, nodding even when they couldn't see her, not wanting to hang up the phone and be without their voices. "I'll wait for you. I'll find a good hiding spot...is Harry still there?"
"I'm here."
"I love you."
"I love you too. Promise me you'll stay safe. I need you back."
"I promise."
"We'll see you soon, Ads. Stay put." Ron's voice chimed in. Addie waited for one of them to speak again, but when no voices returned, she figured they had left—and reluctantly hung up the phone. She looked around warily, eyeing the shadowy night and quiet streets; paranoid that something would snatch her before they could reach her.
Slowly, Addie stepped back from the phone towards the tree she had been sitting by previously. Behind it was tall leafy bushes, and she quickly crawled beneath them—holding back a wince as she bent over—so that she was eclipsed in their cover on all sides with a small gap at the front that she could peek through. It even sheltered her from the rain.
All she had to do now was wait.
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The first thing he noticed once they apparated to Nightwood Hill was the rain.
Instantly the downpour started to soak through his sweater and cover his glasses in its drops, but he didn't care. He ran a hand through his—now wet—hair and turned around in a circle as he surveyed the small town. The walkways were deserted given the late hour, and the light of dull street lamps created sparkles on the road's saturated surface. He jumped as a loud sound suddenly met his ears—but found it to be just the chime of a bell from the top of a church they stood near.
The three stepped away from the road to a narrow gap between the church and the wall of a neighbouring house. Hermione and Ron watched as he pulled out his wand.
"Think of her as you cast it," the former said as she tugged the hood of her jacket over her head, but he already was. He had been for months. After all this time, Addie had never once left his mind.
Harry took a breath and concentrated, closing his eyes to picture her more vividly. He thought of her voice, of her smile, of her laugh. The pure joy on her face as her patronus, a small butterfly, fluttered around her head. The fuzzy feeling he got in his chest when she first held his hand so long ago. He saw her in the snow—with rosy cheeks and the jacket that was too big for her as everything seemed to fall into place. He saw her sitting by the common room fire in his quidditch sweater, unaware of his gaze as she wrote an essay for Potions. He thought of her back in the library—with vanilla chapstick and warm lighting, sneaking him kisses behind the bookshelves.
He thought of her, her, her.
"Expecto Patronum," he whispered, opening his eyes. A whisp of silver emerged from his wand, brightly glowing against the shadows of the night, lighting their faces. A stag formed from the whisp—but then it started to change.
The stag bowed its head and turned back into the misty whisps. Harry moved to speak, but he wasn't sure what to say, or what to make of what was happening—until something different emerged from the whisps; something smaller.
A butterfly.
"That's Addie's patronus," he breathed, looking to the other two for an answer as it softly fluttered around him. Harry held out his hand, and it landed gently on his finger. It's thin, glowing wings moved slowly.
"Patronuses are highly influenced by love," Hermione said quietly as she and Ron eyed the little silvery butterfly in awe. "Send it for her."
Harry nodded. "Find Adeline," he said to the small patronus, and it flew off of his finger and fluttered forwards. They waited a moment, watching the small light fly quickly into the darkness, before trailing after it into the rain.
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Addie didn't know how long it had been, but she had been quiet the whole time; sitting and listening for any sound other than the rain. She didn't realise how cold she had been until a gust of wind drew goosebumps on her skin beneath her soaked clothes. It was unnerving being alone in the midst of such a dark, rainy night, and she tried not to be scared, but she was.
She hugged her knees tightly, resting her chin on top of them. Her shallow breath came out in puffs, and her body flinched unnecessarily hard as something brushed against her arm—but when she turned around, saw that it was just a leaf. Addie felt her breath hitch, then, as when she averted her gaze back to the gap in the bushes, something was different outside.
There was a faint, small glow up ahead, but she couldn't tell what it was. It moved up and down a little, fluttering through the air, slowly growing bigger—it was heading straight towards her, but she stayed hidden.
What if it wasn't a patronus? It clearly wasn't a stag, nor an otter, nor a dog. What if it was something the death eaters had sent out to track her?
But it kept coming towards her. Addie couldn't take her eyes off of it. It was like the focal point of a painting; the full moon on a clear night; a candle in the darkest room—her gaze always returned to it.
Hope burned in her heart, but still, she remained cautious—even as three silhouettes quickly followed it, their heads looking around frantically. She was so sure that it was them, but not sure enough. Addie waited a little longer.
The glow came closer now, and it was then that she saw it was a butterfly patronus, just like her own, fluttering gently towards her.
Addie stretched her finger out tentatively, still a little unsure, but once it landed on her finger, warmth flooded her chest in a sense of safe familiarity. She could faintly hear voices above the noise of the rain and then she knew it was them.
She didn't care that it hurt to stand and it hurt to crawl out of the bushes, she didn't care that it still hurt to breathe, or that it hurt to stand on her feet, or that she was shaking from the cold because Addie forgot all about the pain once she saw him.
The butterfly flew around her in circles and then moved between them. Its glow lit up the falling rain and Harry's face from just a few steps away before it dissolved into thin silver whisps.
For a moment, as their eyes adjusted, all they could do was take each other in—and then they moved closer and closer and then his arms were tightly around her and she was sobbing into his shoulder. Ron and Hermione's arms wrapped around them and Addie's knees buckled and the four of them sank to the wet ground in each other's hold, and then Harry was crying too and then they were all crying because she was finally, finally home.
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a/n:
cryingcryingcryingcryingcryign dwwjkd webidjqkl ,\][l;lnk
i love this chapter sm. easily one of my all time favourites that i've ever written
i love love love harry's patronus changing to addie's. i always see in fanfics that the oc's becomes a doe (a trope that i love tho, dont get me wrong), and originally i had planned to do that, but i feel that this way it pays better homage to addie's character.
cryingcryingcrying
-g <33333