Unleash The Monster Within

I was panting heavily. My fingernails dug deep into the trunk of the tree behind which I was hiding. I deluded myself into thinking that the tree was my shield, that it can hide me from what was coming, that it can protect me from my worst nightmare, from him. I sat down for a while as my legs refused to carry me any further. I knew I cannot hide for long. I cannot escape from the clutches of the monster that he has become. But I pretended that I was safe, even if for a little while, calming myself and thinking about how things ended up being like this!

One moment, I saw him putting up his bravest fight against You-Know-Who, killing him in the process and the next moment he was looking at me. Looking deep into my eyes, searching for something I could not fathom, and then it was gone. The emotions that were overflowing just a moment ago, was gone. Now, it was replaced by a hard, cold stare that held determination, cruelty and something else. Something alien. Something that I haven't seen in his eyes before. Ever. Then, he looked away from me, as if scared of shattering something unexplainable.

After that moment, I did not see him again, not for another two years. My best friend was gone. He vanished into thin air, leaving no traces of him behind. The ministry, Ron and I left no stones unturned in finding him, but he was gone as if he never existed. I gave up the hope of seeing him again, until that day, when he was standing outside my door, drenched in rain, breathing heavily and asking, no, pleading me to come out. During those two years, I wanted nothing but just to see him for once, hug him like I used to, wrap my arms around him and cling on to him as if he'll disappear again. So why, when he did exactly that to me right then, I stood there like a wall? Not moving an inch. First, I thought it was the exhilaration of seeing him again that numbed my senses but it was not. It was the way he held me, the way he looked at me, the way he promised me that he will not let go of me this time, the way something cold sank a little in my neck when he hugged me again. I pushed him away. And it was at that moment that I realized that he was not my best friend, not the boy that I have loved more than my life, and in his place stood a monster with black orbs, a pair of fangs and a sinister smile on his lips.

Sleep almost overtook me when I heard footsteps. I jerked myself up from where I was sitting and tried to run. But my legs betrayed me, again, and I tripped and fell down, grazing my knee in the process. Then, I knew it was over because when I looked down I saw his shadow, slowly making his way towards me. And then in the next moment, he was kneeling right in front of me, looking at me with those loving emerald green eyes that I have been in love with since forever. And I saw my best friend, my Harry, again. He caressed my cheeks and whispered, "Hermione…".