A leaf dropped on top of the brunette's forehead, and she slowly opened her eyes. She was laying on something cold and hard. It felt like a hard floor, but appeared to be the forest ground.
For a moment, everything was peaceful and the sun blazed, before evening fell, and a new source of light was there.
It wasn't the moon, or stars. It was a fire, blazing hotly against her body, though it was far away. She sat up, confused, before pushing up. Leaves scrunched as she touched them, and she started walking, wobbly, to the fire.
She slowly made her way to the fire, unaware of the danger.
A boy was sitting by it, a snake sitting next to him. Hesitatingly, she looked over at the brown haired boy. He seemed older than her, and the way he was sitting by a snake, completely calm... A chill passed through her spine. It unnerved her.
"Are you shivering from the cold?" the boy wondered, and she looked to him in surprise. His dark eyes seized her up, the same way she seized him up. Hesitatingly, she nodded. "Join me," he offered. "It's warm here."
Nodding once more, she slowly walked over.
The snake turned to give her a look, and she paused. "Nagini, she means no harm," the boy's words held unknown meaning to the two, as the snake relaxed. Sawyer walked over, sitting opposite of him.
The two looked at each other for a long time.
Dangerous, a voice buzzed in her ear, faraway.
"What are you doing here?" the boy asked, and Sawyer was surprised, before speaking carefully.
"I am lost. Woke up some way from here."
"I see," he hummed.
"You?"
The boy looked her over, glancing from the fire to her. "I am lost too, in a way."
"Is it so?"
"Lost in thoughts," he continued, something in his voice luring her, despite the chill she had to fight each time he spoke.
"Thoughts about?"
"Everything," he spoke, and it was no casual way of putting it. The way he spoke, it was like he really was thinking about everything there is to this world.
The red of the flames danced in his eyes, and he seemed much older than he was.
"I'm Sawyer Wilde," she introduced after a long silence.
"Tom Riddle."
Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, the buzz in her head was nagging and faraway, but it made yet another shiver pass her spine.
Tom was watching her as well. He wasn't scared of any man alive, but Dumbledore. But that girl, something about her frightened him. It was like a shadow that loomed over her.
Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, his mind called him, warning him to get away from the girl. But what scared him, made him so curious. Why would his body feel the need to flight, when he's never felt anything but a need to fight?
"It's dangerous to be here all alone," he pointed out.
"You're here with me."
"Who says I'm not dangerous?" he smirked, threat in his voice.
"And who says I'm not?" Sawyer said in reply.
They both knew. The other was dangerous. And both weren't about to back away.
"Aren't you scared? You might die."
"Aren't you scared?" she shot back, and her shadow shifted ever so slightly. "I'm Death."
↕
A gasp escaped her lips as she sat up, far too quickly, looking around her. Her heart was beating rapidly, fear pumping in her veins.
Danger, danger, danger, the voice still nagged, screaming, before whispering, shouting, and the disappearing.
"Sawyer?" Snape's voice questioned.
She turned to give him a look, and she realized quickly she was asleep for a while. "It's two a.m.?" she wondered, "have I been out for five hours?"
"You've been out for months," he spoke carefully, making her eyes widen. "What is it?"
"The Heir?" she remembered.
"The Basilisk is dead," he informed. "You knew it was a basilisk, right? That's what you meant when you warned him of the serpent." Sawyer nodded, and her heart suddenly started beating quickly.
She saw fire, and a snake, and a boy.
"Voldemort," her voice inaudible, but Snape somehow knew. He flinched, and she blinked her eyes, each time she closed it seeing a forest.
I'm death. I'm death. I'm death.
She blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to wash away the vision.
"Sawyer?" a voice asked, and she recognized it, as she would recognize it everywhere. She threw her legs over the bed, watching the man. She wobbled to her feet, a smile decorating her dry, pale lips. Snape's frown was visible, but ignored.
"Remus!" she cheered, stepping closer, hugging him.
"You bloody idiot, I've been dead worried!"
Dead.
"Sir, Remus," she stepped back, voice tense, recalling the conversation with Tom Riddle, with Voldemort before he was truly Voldemort. "Seeing... being a seer, isn't it... different than what I do?"
"What do you mean?" Remus asked, confused, supporting her. She raised her eyes, glancing around.
"We're alone," Snape assured.
"Don't seers see the future? In visions? Read it in leaves, or tea? Or stars?"
"I don't see your point, sweetheart," Remus spoke, confused and scared. What was she leading them unto?
"Do seers really have affinities to things?"
"Are you implying you aren't a seer?" Snape sneered, that was ridiculous.
She sat down on her bed, deep in thought. Snape and Remus realized at the same time she was implying that. "While I was... petrified... I found myself in a forest. Apparently, I've been there the whole time I've been petrified. There was a fire there, and when I came closer, I saw a boy... and a snake." she raised her eyes, eyeing Snape. "Nagini," black eyes wide, Snape watched with curiosity. "I reckon you realize who the boy is?"
"If you're saying you've met the Dark Lord--"
"We've spoken." she continued, "briefly. He asked me if I'm cold, which is usual, but I didn't want to make theshiver that passed my spine suspicious, so I nodded, and he offered me to join him. He introduced himself, Tom Riddle, and after a while... He made a warning, or a threat. He said it's dangerous alone."
"Did he do something?" Remus asked, concerned.
Sawyer shook her head. "I said I'm not alone, he's there, and he gave me a threat again. He said he was dangerous, and asked if I wasn't afraid to die." With a sigh, she continued. "In reply, I asked if he isn't afraid."
"Of what?" Snape asked, incredulously looking at the girl. She was good at potions and charms, and transfiguration, but a thirteen years old girl could never harm the Dark Lord.
"I'm death," she whispered, and silence settled, the fire that danced on the torches around them blowing away. Eyes wide, she turned to look around. Snape quickly lit them again.
"That's a coincidence," Remus assured. "You're not... Death! That's ridiculous, Sawyer."
She watched Remus, half hopeful.
"You are a seer. You had a vision, remember?" he asked, "you saw this guy that shoved you in Diagon Alley dying three days before he did."
"Did I see him dying?" she wondered. "Or made him die?"
"That's honestly ridiculous, Sawyer! Listen to yourself! You'd never hurt a fly."
"I used the killing curse." The two adults froze up.
"How do you know how to do it?" Snape inquired. "No teacher would teach that-- not Quirrel, not Birmingham. Defintely not Lockhart," he scoffed. "How did you know to use it?"
"I don't know," Sawyer said. "I stood in front of the basilisk, and I just said the words, I barely realized it was the killing curse until it hit his eye."
"You've got affinity to death, Sawyer," Remus said sternly. "You're not Death. You just, familiar with it more than most people. You know what? If Death is an Entity, like you think, you aren't him... It. You're affiliated with it, that's it.
"You're not Death."