CHAPTER 13
FRIENDS FOR LIFE
"Good, now we can really talk." Draco sat down and Aeryn turned off the TV.
"So he's really back?" Aeryn asked as she sat down once again.
"Father won't say anything, but Potter says he is. He says he saw him come back." He sighed.
"Still playing the bad guy at school?"
"Can be anything else, not while Father has eyes and ears in Hogwarts. Still, I can't help the way I am. I hate myself for treating everyone so cruelly. Got cursed on the train home. Right and proper." He closed his eyes. "Potter is right though, the Dark Lord has returned. Father wants me to stay here for the whole summer. He says he got work to do, and doesn't want Mother around me too much, it might soften me up. Too late for that don't you think?"
Aeryn let out a quick laugh. "Come on it's nearly midnight and I am dead tired let's get some sleep then catch up in the morning. I have got the whole summer with you!!" they picked up the crystals put them back into the box and back on the shelf. Then left the room.
"Aeryn are you ok?" the voice of Frank Wyndam was heard from downstairs.
"I'm fine Frank." She called over the railing. "Did Altair get rid of that Boggart?"
"Yes he did, it is now safe to walk into you dressing room." He answered.
"Draco and I are headed of to bed. In separate rooms might I add? Tell Altair I said thank you."
"Ok when are we?" Harry asked.
"Summer before our fifth year I believe." Hermione answered.
FLASH!
They were outside the mansion again. It was still night. But Aeryn sitting on a blanket out in the yard.
"Ok different night?" Ron implied.
"I think." Harry said.
Aeryn was looking at the stars. She was crying. Then with a flash Draco Malfoy was standing on the opposite side of the yard holding and old shoe. He ran up to Aeryn as she stood up. They embraced.
"I got your letter. I had to come." He said to her.
"I don't know what to do. I have to leave to go back to school tomorrow. Our Minister of Magic is coming for protection." She let out faint laugh. "Once again I'm at the top of my class. Of course Frank know all it. And if he knows, You-Know-Who knows. Frank said my time as come. He wants me to pledge loyalty to Him and get tattooed and everything. He said he was going to wait until I was 17, but since I have the good grades, he feels that I can be trusted." She paused. "I'm going to get killed if I don't."
"Don't say that. You are strong. You can survive anything." He told her.
"I want to run away, but I can't, I have to stop the attack on my school next week." She said.
"Well if you should survive, WHEN you survive find your way to Hogwarts. Dumbledore will give you a safe haven there. Besides, I'll be there when school starts up." He forced a smile out of Aeryn. "I have to go now. Mother will worry, she checks up on me every half hour. Ever since Father got jailed." He gave her a square envelope and then embraced once more.
Suddenly the whole scene froze. The trees stopped moving and could hear no sound at all.
FLASH
They found themselves in a white room. There was a big tree in the middle of the room. Hanging down from a branch was a swing. And on the swing, Aeryn was sitting, swigging back and forth.
"You know sometimes it is your own mind that is the hardest to control. It took me this long to stop you three from looking into my memories." It was the real Aeryn.
"What do you mean stop us; we're only trying to help." Ron said.
"Help? How? By invading my mind? It's bad enough that Harry can read my thoughts, but all three of you reliving my memories." She looked pissed.
"We had no choice, you had gone catatonic. Dumbledore was the one who suggested this." Harry said.
"Yes, I know all that. I may have gone catatonic but my ears are working fine." She stopped swinging and walked over to a door that appeared. "This is the door I have to break through, to exit this crazy place I like to call my mind." The door was wielded, bolted, and nailed shut. "How are you going to help me? The truth is that you can't. Now correct me if I am wrong but I did hear someone say `Call me when you want her catatonic free!' And if that isn't a clue to help solve the mystery of how to get out of here maybe this will."
FLASH
The trio found themselves back at Windom Manor. Harry recognized Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy walking up to the door where Frank Wyndam and a woman came out to greet them. Behind the Malfoys was a little bleach blonde about the age of five.
"Frank, Patricia." Lucius greeted them.
The little boy tugged on his mother's sleeve. "Mommy when can I see Aeryn?"
"I don't know Draco why don't you ask Mrs. Windom?" Narcissa said. Patricia Wyndam knelt beside the boy.
"She's in the backyard, but I don't think she can play right now." She said.
"Why not." But no one answered for the boy ran off to the back yard.
"Another Boggart." Frank implied "Moved in last night into one of her toy chests. Don't know how long this one will last. Last time it lasted a whole week."
Harry, Hermione and Ron followed the young to-be nemesis into the backyard where they saw the tree with the swing on it. The little girl was sitting very still on the swing. Her face was blank and her eyes were empty. Young Draco walked up to her.
"Hey Aeryn, you want to play?" she gave no answer. "Come on Aeryn, stop playing like this." He reached into his pocket "I'll give you a chocolate frog." He pulled it out and waved it around her face. Still no response. "Fine, then I am going home!" Draco started to stomp off. Reality snapped back into the little girls face.
"No Don't Go!" she yelled after them. She ran up to him and pushed him on the ground grabbed the chocolate frog "Your `IT'!" she said as she ran off eating the chocolate frog.
FLASH
Harry, Hermione and Ron went flying backwards in the empty class room and thankfully hit no walls. They got up and walked back to the center of the room Dumbledore had conjured a chair and had fallen asleep. Night had fallen as the three noticed Aeryn's eyes were black, then returned to the catatonic empty look.