Dreams of Reality

It was one of those days in late August when the weather was warm and chilly at the same time. The sun's rays were lukewarm, but when the wind blew, chilliness spread through the air. The early evening sunset cast a gold tinge on a stone manor and the rolling fields surrounding it. In the crisp early-Autumn air, the sounds of laughter could be heard faintly from the fields hidden behind the manor. In a secluded clearing surrounded by trees, three large circular rings were pitched at both ends, tall and gleaming. Astride broomsticks, two girls soared through the air passing a red ball between them, feeling totally at ease. Their cheeks were rosy from the roaring wind and their long hair tangled around their faces wildly. After a particular series of risky maneuvers involving the near crash with a gigantic redwood tree and a spectacular upside down goal through a circular hoop, one of the girls did a few loops through the air triumphantly, her gray-green eyes sparkling.

"Woohoo! Another incredible goal by the legendary Rain Maddocks!"

Doing a little victory dance, she pointed her broom toward the far end of the field and flew to the other girl who was retrieving the red ball from the inner branch of a redwood. Turning around with a challenging smile, the second girl threw the ball as hard as she could downward and streaked after it, yelling back over her shoulders.

"Oh yeah Rain? Let's see you get that one!"

Flattening herself on the Silver Arrow, her state of the art racing broom, Rain effortlessly shot pass her friend headlong into a sixty-foot dive and snatched the quaffle out of the air, closely avoiding a collision with the ground. Swerving up and around, she stuck her tongue out.

"What's that you were going to say Cally?" She teased her friend, smiling at her mock defeated expression.

A slow grin spreading across her face, Cally responded with her head thrown back. "Slytherin for the Cup!"

Laughing, Rain nodded in full agreement. "We are so gonna kick butt this year!"

The two girls drifted towards the ground lazily as the last rays of the sun disappeared through the canopy of the trees, leaving the sky laced with silver and crimson ribbons. Rain dismounted gracefully and sat down with her back against a huge redwood that was at least twice as wide as the others in the grove. Placing her broom gently next to her, she turned in time to see Cally collapse unceremoniously on the dry grass next to her and gaze at the darkening sky with a content smile on her face.

"I hope summer never ends," Cally sighed in a wistful voice.

Rain grinned at her friend's spaced out look. Cally often got this way when she was in an especially happy or dreamy state.

"I'm actually looking forward to going back to Hogwarts," Rain replied quietly, her grin fading into a sad smile. "Can you believe it's going to be our last year there? It seemed so far away seven years ago."

Cally propped her head up on a hand and turned sideways to study her friend. Shrugging a little, Cally nodded. "Yeah, I'm gonna miss the stuffy old place. Not to mention the bitter cold down in the dungeons or those sufferable Gryffindors who think they're all high and mighty. Not to mention NEWTS. Not to mention..."

"Okay, okay," Rain cut in, laughing. "I get the point. You're trying to get me to stop being all sentimental."

Cally winked a sapphire blue eye and raised herself to a sitting position next to Rain. "Yup. You being all sentimental isn't very Rain-like," Cally joked. "Actually, I kinda feel the same way," she admitted, sighing a little forlornly. "This is going to be our last everything: our last train ride there and back, our last midnight parties, our last chance to annoy Professor Livarden, our last chance at the Quidditch Cup, our last chance to hex the Gryffindors..."

Rain shook her head, amused at Cally's ability to always bring her hatred of Gryffindors into the conversation.

"We should head to Diagon Alley soon," she said, changing the subject. "I still need to get my school supplies, and Mom's been a little off lately."

Cally saw Rain's slight frown and squeezed her hand. "How're things at home?" she asked gently, knowing full well that rain's stepfather, Callahan, was one of Voldemort's closest supporters.

"Not very good," Rain answered blankly, voice taking on a dead quality. "Callahan's been out on nightly raids that we usually hear of the next day on the Daily Prophet. Mom's pretty sure he's involved in most of the Muggle torturing and terrorizing, and she's trying to keep the facts hidden from me." Suddenly, her voice rose angrily. "I'm going to be seventeen in a month. Does she not think that I notice my family is in the middle of all the trouble going on in the wizarding world? Just because she thinks I'm going to be safe in Hogwarts for the next year doesn't mean she will be at home! Does she think I don't notice how pale she's been lately and how off she looks? She thinks she can just blow me off when I ask about anything that has to do with Voldemort, but she doesn't realize how much worse that's making everything! She's the only family I have left. I don't want to lose her..." Rain trailed off in a tiny voice.

Cally hugged her sympathetically and waited until she calmed down. Cally hadn't seen Rain this emotional in an extremely long time. Rain usually kept her feelings to herself and always displayed a cheerful appearance, making everyone at Hogwarts like her despite the fact she was in Slytherin. The last time Rain got this angry was when a particular group of troublesome Gryffindor boys started a fight with Severus and Regulus, fellow Slytherins who Rain was pretty close with. Things must be pretty bad at home for her to become this worried.

Eventually, Rain broke away from Cally's hug and bought her knees up to her chest, laying her head on the top of her knees. "What about you?" she asked softly. "How're things with your brother?"

Cally made a devil-may-care face and waved a hand airily. "Oh you know how Lucius is. There's no doubt that he's involved with Voldemort, but my parents are too busy with the ministry to care. I pretty much keep out of his way, and the only time he ever bothers with me is if he's extremely bored, which isn't all that often considering how badly things have been going these past years. Voldemort's growing in power, and he needs all his supporters to help him."

Rain glanced up at the hint of worry in the last words of Cally and felt relieved to know that she wasn't the only one who thought things were picking up for the worse around her. Looking up at the almost black night sky, she stood up and pulled Cally up with her.

"I better go in before Mom comes looking for me," Rain said, smiling ruefully. "I'm surprised she hasn't already."

"Yeah, I'd better get going too," Cally said, gathering up her broom and the quaffle. "Not that anyone would even notice if I'm gone," she laughed, sounding perfectly happy with that arrangement. Pausing for a moment, she glanced at Rain and nudged her with an elbow. "Hey, you know you can always crash at my place if things get unbearable at home right? The door's always open at the empty Malfoy manor."

Rain nodded and smiled. "Thanks Cal," she said, hugging her friend. "I'll keep that in mind. Diagon Alley tomorrow morning?"

"Sure," Cally answered, nodding. "I'll swing by at ten."