After the Rain

It wasn't immediately noticeable, but as more and more time passed, the Wizarding race became indistinguishable from people they once called Muggles. More and more magical folk married non-magical folk, and eventually, the blood was diluted, in a manner of speaking. Now, people weren't Muggles or Wizards - they were neither and both at the same time. People had magic etched into their very skin, rather than having it flow through their veins. Not enough to harness it with a wand, but enough to do small things without noticing. Small cuts and bruises were healed by their bodies themselves, and people could continue small tasks using their minds for a short amount of time without the help of their hands. But only for a small amount of time, and only small tasks. Thoughts could sometimes pass between people who were really close, but Quidditch was no longer played, as the art form of building a broomstick had been long since lost, and the ancient school called Hogwarts no longer taught Transfiguration and Charms, but Math and English instead. As explained before, no true witch or wizard had been born for more than a century. Until Alex came along, that is.

Cass sat contemplating all this as she piled ketchup on her sausages. Everyone's magical power was tested before you entered kindergarten (although she didn't see the point, as everyone's was almost the same anyway) along with his or her IQ. Her own had been fairly high on the normal scale, as had her brother's, but Alex's had gone off the scale. Alex was the first wizard to be born in over a hundred years.

How that could have ever happened, no one knew, because no one knew who Alex's parents were, or where they were. He had simply been found on the doorstep of a Richard Browning, barely a week old. Tests had been run, and as it turned out, he was related to Mr. Browning not so distantly. The only problem with that was how. The only relative Richard Browning had was a half sister named Sara he hadn't seen in a decade. His parents had died many years earlier, and he had no cousins or other siblings. Several fruitless searches only managed to turn up the fact that Sara had virtually dropped off the earth several years earlier, and had never been seen since. It was even a mystery as to how Alex had gotten on the doorstep in the first place.

She often pondered this, but didn't ever speak of it to him, and it never changed their friendship in the least. She picked at her eggs a little longer, still wondering what on earth had happened the night before. She sensed it had something to do with Alex, but she pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind as her twin brother Cary walked in, scratching his head and yawning.

"Something wrong?" he asked, stopping as he caught a flash of her thoughts.

Cass told him about the night before, and the strange mist that had so disturbed her.

"Well, that's a bit strange, isn't it?" he said, helping himself to an omelette.

"No, really?" she said sarcastically. "Is that all you have to say about it?"

Cary ignored her first remark. "Well, what do you want me to say? I've no idea what it was, but I know it's nothing to get so excited over. Natural Magic occurs all the time."

"Yes, but have you ever read about it happening like that? About it taking that form?" she said, picking up her fork again.

"Well, no," he admitted, "But what makes you think you can read about everything? Humans haven't solved half the mysteries out there."

Cass didn't respond. Outside, Alex was walking in the garden, bending over something, which she assumed was a flower of sorts, something that had always interested him.

"Mmm, Cass, I have to say, these pancakes are really good," he said, taking another off the plate in front of him. Cass and Cary's parents left for their workplaces long before they ever got up, so Cass had taught herself to cook long ago.

"What do you want?"

"I have to want something to pay a compliment?" he asked her.

"Yes."

"You're such a cynic," he snorted. "For your information, I was serious. It's always good, but today's is exceptional," he said, shovelling down another monstrous bite.

But Cass wasn't listening. She'd already pulled on her shoes and was presently making her way out to the garden.

~

Alex was still bent over the rosebush, as if there was something fascinating about it.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked as she approached.

"Come here and see for yourself," he said, waving her over.

She gasped. The roses were normal, but the water droplets on them were golden. "Is that what I think it is?" she asked.

"I think so," he said, looking clearly amazed.

She sprinted back to the house, and ran into the kitchen panting. Cary, who was still wolfing down food, quirked an eyebrow over the rim of his juice.

"You have to see something," said Cass.

"Can it wait until I've finished my breakfast and had a shower?" he said, unenthusiastically.

"No," she said as she pulled him to his feet and dragged him to the door.

"Cass! Can you wait for me to put on a shirt at least? I don't want to be parading around outside with nothing on other than my pyjama pants!"

Cass let go as if he was too hot to hold on to. "By all means," she said.

He laughed and pulled his shirt from the chair he'd set it on. "Now come on," she said to him.

Outside he stared at the water on the flowers and grass. "You really weren't making it up, were you?" he breathed.

"What do you think?"

"Always the cynic..." he mumbled, as he did every time she got sarcastic with him. Cary straightened and stared at Alex. "It's you, isn't it? You're the reason for it, aren't you?"

"How do you know that?" Alex asked him very softly.

"Because ever since I first met you, I knew you would be different, as would your path in life. The fates revolve around you, the future will hinge on your actions, and you know it as well as I," he said, staring into his friend's eyes unblinkingly.

~

Cass stared between her brother and Alex. Had Cary really just said that? How could he have known that?

"Yes Cass, I really did say that, and you know too. I know you do." He was still looking at Alex, though his expression had softened. "I don't know what that gold stuff is, but is important, and it will affect all of us, I can guarantee you." He looked down at his sister.

Alex shook his head. "You deserve far more credit than I give you credit for, my friend."

"You can say that again," Cary said to him, smiling.

"Don't be a prat, Cary," Cass said in exasperation.

"A little too late, don't you think?" he asked her, grinning, as she swatted him playfully.

They walked back to the house, not speaking. Once in the kitchen, Cass made Alex sit down and eat. "You look too unhealthy to be skipping breakfast," she reminded him again. Cary went back upstairs and had his shower, and Cass took a nap as Alex continued to pick at the breakfast that had been forced upon him.

~

Alex sat watching Cass as she slept peacefully on the couch in the sitting room, wondering how on earth he had managed to get such good friends. Cary had been exactly right earlier with his estimation of Alex's future. Alex felt it himself. A time of change was drawing near, and he sensed he would be at the centre of it. The only problem was that he knew his friends would be involved too, which he didn't want for the simple reason of protecting them.

Cass, with her sarcasm and dry humour, always picking at her brother, was gentle inside, he knew. She had a rough exterior, but she wasn't as tough as she seemed. She was still a girl, for all her grown-uppish qualities. He wanted nothing more than for her to live a good life - to fall in love and raise a family, for he knew she would be good at that. She was worried about him, he knew she was, but how could he tell her of his dreams of rushing, howling winds, and the falling through nothingness that left him so empty and meant so much, while not telling him anything at all? He would save her from such hopelessness, for now at least.

And Cary, the best friend he had (there were just some things he couldn't tell Cass), who buried himself in books and manuscripts, wanting only to know as much as what was out there. Whose kindness and perception amazed all who met him, and who was always there when he woke up in the night, sweating and crying. He had always been there, even if he hadn't understood what he was there for. He knew so much, and remembered so many facts, but knew so little of the world. Alex vowed he would do as much as he could to keep it that way, because it was the fact that Cary was so naïve that made him different. Cary had dreams of accomplishing great things, going to places, and discovering gold mines of knowledge, and Alex wanted this for him because it was his dream.

The world was a darkening place, a fact that Alex was all too aware of, and he hoped and prayed silently, as he sat there watching Cass sleep, to whatever or whoever was up there, that these two people should never be a part of that darkness.

~

Cass drifted in and out of consciousness for a while, before she finally decided she needed to wake up. Across the room from her, Alex was sleeping in an armchair, looking utterly exhausted. She smiled to herself as she realized how sore his neck would be when he woke up. She picked up the blanket she had been using and spread it over him, tucking in the corners slightly. In the background she heard the screen door slam shut.

"That's funny," she murmured to herself, looking at the front door. She could have sworn there was someone there...

"Hello?" she moved away from the sleeping Alex and toward the door. She wasn't imagining things...there were footsteps running lightly around the house to the backyard. Pulling on her trainers, she followed them as quietly as she could. As she closed the door as quietly as she could, she realized with a wave of dread that her feeling of foreboding had returned.

~

Upstairs, Cary was buried in his latest periodical, Prophesies Of the Last Millennium, a book so old he had to scrape off the dust that had collected on it's cover just to see the title. He had found it in the library, which he had just discovered a back room in that had all the really old books he'd never read before. Some were over two centuries old. It had been like discovering a goldmine to him. He was about halfway through the book, having started it last night after the party. He was fascinated by it, he had to admit. According to it, there had been a room in the old Ministry of Magic that held recordings of old prophesies in glass bulbs. Department of Mysteries, it said.

Cary would have loved to explore that room, but he knew there was no way. The old Ministry of Magic had died out, and the secret of how it was found was lost along with it. If he could be the one to find it... He mused about this for a while, dreaming of possibilities until he snapped back into reality and went back to his book.

"Where have I heard the name Sybil Trelawney before?" he asked himself, looking at the figure of a willowy woman with lots of bangles and spectacles that made her eyes magnified. He gave up finally, resigning to the fact that he didn't remember.

"Three strangers from a different place will come, bearing knowledge beyond their years, yet unknowing of the ways of the world. They will discover themselves and the change the world as we know it in their brief time here. One will be a saviour in his own time, and the others will save him..." he read the prophecy out loud to himself, hoping to trigger a memory or something. "Why does that remind me of something?" Cary swore under his breath. He hated it when there was something he just barely couldn't remember...

Cary was pulled out of his thoughts by a noise he couldn't quite place. There it was again...someone was calling his name. Was it Cass? No, he would have known for sure if it were Cass. Book still in hand, he made his way down the three flights of stairs to the bottom floor that had the entrance hall, kitchen, and sitting room. The back door was swinging.

Wondering who could have called his name, Cary made his way outside, past the initial hedges and deeper in the garden. Turning a corner, he could have sworn he saw a swish of golden hair that was most definitely not his sister's or his friend's.

" Is someone there?" he called. No one answered, but he distinctly heard footsteps now. He hurried on, the book still clutched in his hands.

~

Alex woke up sweating, with a crick in his neck and wondering how he'd allowed himself to fall asleep. He'd had a dream again, only the two he normally had were combined.

"It's close," he muttered to no one in particular, not realizing what he'd just said.

He sat up, rubbing his neck and realized the blanket Cass had fallen asleep under was now on him. He smiled to himself, smoothing some of the wrinkles.

"Good friends indeed," he murmured.

Making his way into the kitchen, he pulled a cold pancake from that morning out of the cooling module and proceeded to munch on it. It was good even cold, he noticed. He froze when he heard footsteps. If Cass caught him eating out of the fridge again...but no one came inside. He could now hear whispering, and more footsteps. He moved slowly toward the door.

"Cass? Cary? Who's there?" More giggling.

Outside there was no one. If anything, it was far too calm and quiet. It was as if someone had turned off the sound. Then he heard the footfalls again, only this time they were running. He followed them deeper into the heart of Mr. and Mrs. Stratton's extensive garden.

~

Cass slowed as she realized she was in the very centre of their garden. She seen a swish of long golden hair, but she still didn't know who was trespassing on their property. "Probably those annoying neighbour kids," she muttered to herself, turning around and seeing her brother come hurtling out of one of the paths.

"Did you see -"

"I didn't see anyone. I only heard them running away, and I think I might have seen them swish their hair..."

"That's them," he muttered. "I don't like this..."

Cass shook her head. Overhead, Thunderclouds were starting to form again and there was a very loud crash of thunder.

"That wasn't very nice, guys," came an irritated voice from behind them. They whirled around to see an aggravated looking Alex.

"Did you follow someone here too? Footsteps and giggling?" she asked him, brushing off his words.

"Don't play stupid, Cass. You're not very good at it."

"I'm not playing Alex. We were following someone too."

"Y-you were?" he asked, clearly stunned. There was another clap of thunder and lightning streaked across the sky.

Alex looked up. "We'd better..." But whatever he was going to say was cut off, as another roll of thunder sounded. A single drop fell, evaporating strangely into vapour as soon as it hit the ground.

"What the -"

Another fell, and another. They were coming faster now, and all three noticed that the raindrops had that strange golden substance in them once more, only it didn't fall as a mist this time, but as part of the rain drops themselves.

One hit Cary on the shoulder, but instead of steaming, sparked and made a sharp cracking sound.

"What the hell -" said Cary again.

The rain was falling even faster, hitting all three of them repeatedly, filling the air around them with sparks and cracks. The rate it was falling intensified more and more, until they couldn't see anything other than a sheet of gold and the occasional colourful flash.

She opened her mouth to shout something at the boys, but the wind was knocked out of her as she was all of a sudden pulled off her feet and into the storm itself.

~

Around and around she swirled, her eyes unable to close but not seeing anything. She was going faster and faster. Her ears were filled with laughter and screams, sounds of explosions and clapping, louder and softer, louder and softer, as she plummeted into nothingness. There was the sound of rushing wind trying to overpower it all, and her eyes teared up from not being able to blink and going faster than she ever wanted to imagine.

She caught flashes of moments, speeding by too fast to really see, as if from someone's memory. They were distorted and blurred, or abstract and far too angular to be real. She plummeted faster and farther, and she lost all sense of time.

~

The strangest feeling came over her: she had stopped in mid air, if that's what you could call it, and she felt tingling all over her body, as if it had fallen asleep without her noticing. She felt like she was floating, though there was a feeling of gravel under her back and hips. Light burned against her eyelids, and she suddenly hurt all over with indescribable pain: the floating sensation was suddenly gone.

Opening her eyes, she found herself looking into the brightest, and most beautiful pair of green eyes she had ever seen.