A new year… A new beginning.
As the hills and fields of London rolled past the train’s windows, Demetria Graves’ piercing blue eyes stared blindly at them. Whereas the brunette would normally admire the beauty of the passing scenery, today was an exception. It was September 1st: the first day of her sixth year at Hogwarts. In all past years, Demi felt nothing but excitement at the promise of a new school year filled with adventures, lessons and memories to be built. This year, a cloud of sadness had hung around her as soon as she’d received her Hogwarts letter, and had only grown bigger as the amount of days until the first day shortened.
During that last semester of term, Demi had fallen in love. It had started off innocently enough: little looks here and there, small smiles, getting caught looking at each other a few times… Then they were each appointed team captain of their respective houses, and that was when things got interesting. They were both very competitive: two very relentless players with the passion and ambition to lead their team to victory. In the end, it was Demi and her Gryffindors who rose to the challenge; and in a surprising move, he had caught up with her to privately congratulate her for her win. The pair spent hours talking that day, going against what they had been taught about how they were supposed to treat each other like enemies because they belonged to rivaling houses. They had enjoyed the conversation so much that they agreed to continue meeting in the same spot at the same time every other day. As the time spent passed by, Demi and noticed there was a spark between them: an instant connection that she’d never felt with anyone else before. Soon enough, every other day became too little, and so their secret meetings became a daily thing. Young Demi counted the seconds leading up to their encounters. It was safe to say that it had been a very hard goodbye to say when the Winter Holidays came around.
But their connection knew no boundaries. Then came the letters during Christmas break, going from a small town in Rhode Island, United States and all the way to the Europe, specifically from the posh Isles of Scilly. They arrived every three days without exception, via their respective -and rather exhausted- pets. In each one, they shared a few pictures, spoke about their daily adventures, their upcoming plans, but always made sure to let the other know how much they missed being together. In case their letters were found by prying eyes, they used their initial as a signature: D or K. Demi eagerly waited the arrival of these letters, smiling brightly as she read them, and quickly began to write a response back as soon as she had finished reading. Though she was a bit saddened that they were apart, she happy that he’d kept communication with her.
On Christmas day, Demi awoke to a ‘mysteriously’ unsigned gift that bore her favorite British chocolates and a beautiful silver necklace with a diamond pendant in the shape of a key. The only hint as to who the sender was a card lying at the end of the box:
‘She who holds the key can unlock my heart. Demetria Raquelle Graves: my heart is yours.
All my love,
K.
All my love,
K.
And when they had arrived back to Hogwarts after the holidays and met in their secret spot, he’d wasted no time in spilling his heart out to her. By this point, there was no doubt in Demi’s mind that she felt exactly the same way about him, and so she spilled her heart out to him as well. It was then when, under a sky full of stars and a full moon, he had asked her to be his girlfriend. Demi, with tears in her eyes and a beaming smile, had accepted.
Their time together had been the most beautiful dream. But when she least expected it, he had cut things short.
Lost in the sad memories as she was, Demi didn’t notice they had reached their destination until she felt the train come to a halt at the station. No sooner had they been given the instruction to vacate the compartments and the train, the long-haired brunette gathered her belongings and went on her way, following the growing crowd of students in the direction of the carriages. She’d politely declined her friends’ invitation to join their compartment: the last thing she needed was them asking questions about anything. She was placed with a couple of Hufflepuffs she didn’t know, so she had the chance to be as quiet as she wished without seeming rude. But once they had arrived just outside the imposing castle’s double doors, Demi knew it was time to start pretending. And so, the young woman put on her best face, stepped out of the carriage and made her way to the Great Hall.
A few of her fellow classmates greeted her along the way, and stopped to talk to her for a few seconds before going back to whatever they were doing. This continued all the way to the Gryffindor table. With the mask of contentment still in place and saying her hellos, Demi took the seat next to her older brother Luke and began chattering with him and her fellow Quidditch team members about possible plans for this season. Her side of the chatter was being done as in auto pilot: her mind and focus was on something else. In truth, Demetria Graves was simply trying her hardest to not so much as glance at the Slytherin table. She knew what could happen if she did… And yet here she was, lifting her sight up for a single second in what probably was a masochistic search for pain. That one second was enough for her to get a glimpse of a handsome, very familiar face: the face of the man who had so mercilessly broken her heart. One look at him, and her heart was aching all over again.
