The Future

Chapter 3

Chris was getting ready to spend her say with her sister Ella. I don't really want to do this, but I'll have to in order to get information. She walked down to the common room. She was just about to leave when someone started to talk to her.

"Where are you going Potter? I didn't think you would have anywhere to go because you don't have any friends."

"Ha ha, very funny Malfoy. Why is it your business and why do you care?"

"Everything is my business and I don't."

"Then why ask?"

"Because, Potter, I feel like it."

"Whatever. Can you just leave me alone?"

"What's the fun in that?"

"You know what?" Chris stopped. She decided that he wasn't worth it. "Forget it. Just forget it." She turned and started for the door.

"You're chicken. Why don't you just tell me what you were going to say, Potter?"

"Fine I will. I have four words for you. Look at the birdie." She gave him the finger and then left for the entrance to go to the Gryffindor common room. When she got there, she didn't see Ella. Where could she be? Thought Chris. All of a sudden the entrance opened and out came Ben and Alex.

"What are you doing out here?" asked Ben.

"Thanks. Your really sound glad to see me."

"Oh, sorry Chris. I didn't mean it like that."

"Sure you did. Do you know where Ella is?"

"Yeah. She left to go down to the Great Hall about a few minutes ago."

"Are you sure?" asked Chris.

"Positive."

Chris was so mad that she was about to scream. She decided no to. She didn't want to make them think that she didn't really change.

"Are you OK?" asked Ben with sympathy.

"I'm fine. Thanks for the help. Talk to you later."

"Bye."

***

Chris was in the Great Hall looking for her sister. She couldn't fine her anywhere. "When I find her, she'll be in big trouble." She turned and left he Great Hall and started for the Slytherin common room. She felt like crying. She didn't think that her sister would forget this day. She thought she had remembered it when she wanted to see her this morning. Ben even forgot it and that is really unlike him. She would think someone would remember her birthday, but they didn't. She felt so terrible. She had never felt like this before. She was wondering what was happening to her. She dais the password, went through the entrance, and ran to the girl's dormitories with tears streaming down her face. She threw herself on her bed and really started letting the tears flow. Even though I hate spending time with my family, at least I want to see them. She didn't know how long she was crying, but she was crying for a long time. She got up out of bed and wiped the tears away. She went down into the common room and found out that no one was there. She left the common room to go to the Great Hall. Everyone was eating. Oh no, I am in so much trouble. Did I really miss all day? She went to go and sit at her table.

"Hey Potter. Skipped school all day, huh? If I were you I wouldn't have even shown up here. If you make us lose points, I'll never forgive you."

"Malfoy, do you want to see the birdie again? If not I suggest you shut up and leave me alone."

"Some one has a temper," taunted Malfoy.

Chris sat down, ate, and left as quickly as she could. When she got back to the Slytherin common room, she found someone's potions homework on a table. "Whose is this?" she said aloud. She looked at the paper to see whose name was on it. It was Derek's. She laughed to herself then took it, along with the ink and quill and hurried to the girl's dormitories. She hoped no on saw her. When she got to her bed she hid it in her trunk at the end of her bed. "He deserves this," she said aloud. She was just about to sit on her bed when she found her mail on her desk. She found 8 letters on her desk. "How come I have so much mail? It said this:

Dear Chris,

I know what happened today, and I excused you from class, even though you are in Slytherin. I know your father very well and I hope that this won't happen again. Before I forget, happy birthday. I will be expecting you in class tomorrow, your homework for the whole day is on your desk. No points will be lost from Slytherin. If it happens again, I will not excuse you next time.

Professor Dumbledore

She folded the letter, put it in her trunk and opened up the next one.

Dear Chris,

It's about time we heard from you. I hope you are doing well and I wish you luck. Thank you for telling me about Ella and continue doing a great job. If you get this on your birthday, Happy Birthday. I'll give you your get when you get home. I hope to hear from you son and do well in school.

Love,

Dad

She carefully folded the letter back up and put it in the envelope and went to go to put it in her trunk. She walked back to her desk and picked up another letter.

Dear Chris,

I am so glad to finally hear from you. I hope everything is going good. It's nice to hear about Ben. Keep up the good work. If you get this on your birthday, Happy Birthday. I will give you your present when you come home. Roy and Anna are asking about you. They are wondering when you are coming home. They love you so much. Can't wait to see you again. Love you!

Love,

Mom

She also put that one back into the envelope and into her trunk. "At least they remembered my birthday," mumbled Chris. She went to go open up another letter. This letter had messy handwriting, but she could still read it.

Dear Chris,

Please come home. I miss you so much. Happy Birthday. I love you. Bye bye Chrissy.

Love,

Roy

She did the same with that letter as she did the others. "Why does my brother and sister love me so much when I treat them like dirt? I might be loosing my touch. I'm also getting all emotional too. I hate puberty." She picked up the next one. This one also had messy handwriting.

Dear Chris,

Happy Twelfth Birthday. I miss you. I love you. My birthday present for you is I stayed out of your room. Bye.

Love,

Anna

She put that one in her trunk and smiled. I actually like being loved so much. Now lets see what these other letters say." She picked up the next one and opened it. This one had much better handwriting.

Hear Chris,

Since I don't see you much, I decided to write a letter to you. How have you been? I hope you have been good. We should hang around sometime. You know, bond and stuff. We don't do it at home so we should at least do it at school. I hope to see you soon. Love you.

Love,

Ben

She threw that one in her trunk. "Thanks for remembering my birthday." She stomped over to her desk, ripped open her next letter.

Dear Chris,

Sorry about not meeting you today. I completely forgot about it. I'm so sorry. I hope we can plan it some other time. Love you. Bye.

Love,

Ella

She also threw that in her trunk. "Love me my ass." She was really mad. She almost didn't care what the last letter said. She opened it and her mouth dropped open as she read it. It was in the most beautiful handwriting she had ever seen.

Dear Chris,

When I see your light brown hair glow, it makes me think of a beautiful sunrise. When I see your warn green eyes, I smile. Your gorgeous face brightens up my day. I would really like to talk to you and get to know you sometime. If you would like to respond, please send your letter by this code name: MAD Your owl will know who to send it to. I can't wait to see you again.

Sincerely,

MAD

She put that one in her trunk. She was so stunned. She didn't know what to think. She decided to go out to the common room and sit in a chair by the fire until people started coming back from supper. The fire was warm and cozy. It made her think of home. She was alone for quite a while until the entrance opened, and in walked Derek Malfoy and some other Slytherin people. Derek walked up to the table his homework had been sitting on. He stopped dead in his tracks and started yelling.

"Where is my homework? Who took it? I want to know now! I worked hard on it and not it vanished, disappeared! I want to know the culprit!"

Chris was laughing. She tried not to show it, but she couldn't help it.

"Why are you laughing Potter? You think this is funny? I suspect you were the one who took it. What did you do with it? You better tell me now!"

"I didn't do anything with it," laughed Chris. "Maybe it got legs and ran away. If I was your homework, that's what I would have done."

"Ha ha, very funny. Now tell me where you put it." Derek's face was getting red with anger and starting to yell louder than before.

"I didn't do anything to it." Chris was still laughing. She had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard. " You should see yourself! Your face is beet red. You should also hear yourself."

"Well, I wouldn't look or sound this way if you would just give me my homework back!"

"Why do you automatically assume it was me who took your homework? Why not blame someone else?"

"Because you're sitting over here laughing like a wizard with helium."

"That shouldn't be your reason for accusing someone like that."

"Well it is, Potter. Now can you give me my homework back now?"

"No can do, Malfoy."

"And why not?"

"Because I don't have it."

"Yeah right."

"Do I have to spell it out for you? I know people stereotype blondes, but now I'm starting to believe that some blondes can be stupid!"

"I'll just go and find it myself then. Better hide your undergarments because I'm going to be looking through your stuff!" Derek started to head for the girl's dormitories. Chris shot up and ran after him.

"You can't!"

"Why can't I Potter? You said you have nothing to hide."

"Yeah, but the other girls do and they may not be hiding them at this moment."

"Fine then, I'll give you ten seconds to get everyone dressed and then I'm coming in."

"No you are not! That is final!" Chris ran up to the girl's dormitories. and ran to her trunk to get out his homework. She decided to just give it to him. She took it out and opened the door and threw it on the floor. "There happy?" She slammed the door shut and went back to her bed. She didn't realize that a piece of paper slipped out of his book when she took it out of her trunk. She was getting tired and decided to go to sleep. She put on her pajamas, crawled into bed, turned off the light and went to sleep.

***

Ella woke up, got dressed, and waited for Connie to get ready, so they could go down to the Great Hall and get breakfast.

"Connie, I feel like I'm forgetting something. What am I forgetting?"

"I don't think you're forgetting anything, El. You look fine and I'm sure you have all of your homework. Now lets go and eat. I'm starving."

"OK, OK, I'm going! You don't have to rush me. It's too early to rush me."

"Well sorry, El, but I'm hungry! So kick it in the butt and let's go!"

"I'm coming. All right, lets go."

"Finally." Connie rushed out of the girl's dormitories."Walk faster, El!"

"Fine." Ella started walking a little bit faster to satisfy her friend. When they were walking through the common room, they ran into Ben and Alex. Ella loved Alex's dark, short, brown hair and his nice, warm, brown eyes. She was absolutely mesmerized by his face. She couldn't believe how hot he looked. He changed to such since last year.

"Ella? Are you here with us today?" said a faint voice. "ELLA! EARTH TO ELLA!"

"Huh?" She suddenly snapped back to reality. "What?"

"I said hi, but apparently you'd rather be in your own world than this one right now."

"I'm sorry Ben, I'm just tired that's all."

"And day dreaming about sleep makes you have a goofy grin and drool?"

"Just forget it Ben! My gosh! Does it matter what I think about? Isn't that my business and not yours?" snapped Ella.

Ben had never heard her like this before. "I'm sorry El-"

"Don't Ben, just forget it. Come on Connie, let's go to the great hall."

"OK. Bye Ben, bye Alex. Talk to you guys later!"

"Bye," said Alex and Ben at the same time. After Connie and Ella left Ben and Alex started talking.

"Don't worry Ben. I don't think she is mad at you. Maybe she is just having a PMS day. I'm sure that's all it is. You know how girls are," said Alex.

"Yeah, I know, but it still just doesn't seem right some how."

"I guess. Come on, let's ago to the Great Hall and eat."

"OK," said Ben. Him and Alex walked out of the common room into the hall. Standing in that hall outside the Gryffindor entrance was Chris. What are you doing out here?" asked Ben.

"Thanks. You really sound glad to see me."

"Oh, sorry Chris. I didn't mean it like that."

"Sure you didn't. Do you know where Ella is?"

"Yeah, she left to go down to the Great Hall about a few minutes ago."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

Chris looked like she was about to blow. She looked really mad.

"Are you OK?" asked Ben with concern in his voice.

"I'm fine. Thanks for the help. Talk to you later."

"Bye."

Chris ran off. She looked hurt.

"What was that about?" asked Alex.

"I'm not sure, but she looked mad."

"We should ask Ella about later. After she had some time to cool off."

"I agree. Lets go and eat, Alex."

***

"What was all that about?" Connie and Ella were eating breakfast.

"What was what all about?" asked Ella with a mouth full of food.

"Why did you talk to your brother the way you did?"

"He had no right to tell me what to do."

"I thin k you just took it the wrong way."

"Come on Connie, me? Take it the wrong way? Have you ever heard such a thing."

"El, seriously, I don't think he meant anything by it."

Ella was starting to yell now. "Look, just because you like Ben doesn't mean that you have to take his die!" Ella stormed off somewhere.

Connie just sat there stunned. She didn't understand why Ella would say something like that. She couldn't understand what was wrong. She quickly looked around to see if Ben and Alex was there. She seen them a little ways down they table, staring at her. Oh no! she thought, now he know! I don't know how I am going to be able to forgive her. She hurried off to her class which started in 5 minutes.

***

"Ella has a really bad temper today, don't you think?" said Alex.

"Yeah, Alex, I do," said Ben.

"I wonder what is wrong with her," said Alex with a solemn look on his face.

"Probably hormones."

"Well, at least now you can ask out Connie."

"What?"

"Well, you heard what Ella said, didn't you Ben?"

"Yeah, and your point is?"

"My point is if you ask her, she'll say yes."

"I'm not going to ask her right now. I'll may be ask her when she comes for Christmas vacation."

"Nice time to ask her. Come on, we better get to class."

"All right," said Ben. They got up, left the table, and started heading for class.

***

Ella was in the girl's dormitories on her way to her bed. I had been a long day for her. She wasn't in the best of moods. She didn't know why, but she just was. She wasn't feeling the best either. "I am so mad at myself!" she thought. "I can't believe I said that in front of everyone. Connie is going to totally hate me now." Her face was now buried into her hands with low sobs escaping. Her long, brown, silky hair falling over her hands. She heard footsteps approaching the door. She quickly wiped her eyes. Then one of her classmates came in. Her name was Nancy. She was a gorgeous blonde with a perfect figure. Ella could see why any guy would want her.

"Hey El, there is someone here to see you," said the girl.

"Thanks Nancy." Ella slowly got up and walked down to the common room. When she got there, she saw Alex sitting on the couch by the fire.

"Hey El," he said.

"Hey Alex."

"I wanted to make sure you were OK," he said with sympathy in his voice.

"Why?"

"Because you looked like something was really bothering you."

"Really?"

"Yeah," said Alex.

"Wow."

"Do you want to go outside so we can talk?"

"Sure." Ella was really surprised, yet happy. She also felt kind of bad because of the way she embarrassed Connie. What she didn't know was that the worst was yet to come.