Do You Come Here Often?

(( OOC: Yes, my other posts won't be as long. XD I kind of got lost trying to portray Sabriel's confusion, and the process he went through to find Khaat. Done, finally!! ))

Sabriel felt hard earth pressing into his back. Blades of grass stroked his face, and the telltale sounds of nightingales tore through the air and burrowed into his sleep-hazed mind. Cold, crisp air soared inside and escaped his lungs. An overall sense of openness also brought forth an overwhelming sense of exposure, and Sabriel found himself awakening swiftly. Gray-blue eyes snapped open. They gazed up at a starry sky. Automatically he drew himself upright. He was still befuddled. Something was very wrong. Although Sabriel couldn't quite place his finger on it, he was sure he was not dreaming.

His subconscious was already processing information a mile a minute. His poor outer-conscious was slowly going insane from lack of comprehension, however. Sabriel stood and looked around, eyes widening with each detail, both minute and significant.

The Garden of Eden sprawled before him, somehow luminous even in the throes of twilight. He realized that he woke beside a tree. It flowered even in the midst of autumn. Delicate blossoms peppered the deep green, reminding him of how the raspberry bushes in his backyard blossomed just before summer. A path cut through the forestry in front of him, spectacularly lit somehow. Sabriel assumed the light to be magical in nature, for he caught no sight of torches or even fireflies.

All the trees were the same. There could have been thousands of them, all bearing flowers or different kinds and colors. He could see them as clearly as if it were day, and he found his neck craning higher and higher until he was capable of counting the multitude of stars in the night sky. There were never as many stars in London.

Sabriel began to follow the trail. He did not know if he was going east, north, south or west. His hair was still in its ponytail, forelocks and bangs unsecured, however. He still wore his nightrob--wait!

Sabriel stopped dead in his tracks. He understood now! That overwhelming feel of wrongness. He did not belong here, in this beautiful garden. He belonged in the Ravenclaw dormitories, snuggled under a quilt and dreaming.

Perhaps he was. The unease that crept inside him started to dissipate, and Sabriel let it; if he were dreaming, it did not make sense, but he had to believe it.

He walked until a clearing came into view. Torches lit the perimeter, and it was here the feel of wrongness disappeared and instead there came a sensation of complete and utter serenity. The silence only comforted him. He had no idea how he had gotten here, but he found that he enjoyed it so. Smiling softly, now, he continued onward, exploring the clearing with his eyes and moving little. Finally, his gaze fell unexpectedly upon a woman. She was sitting on a white stone bench, and she was quite beautiful.

Sabriel paused. This woman wore stiletto heels, and cradled a mug of a hot, steaming something. He slunk back a little, feeling very out of place in his flimsy nightrobes and unkempt hair. The presence of this woman was so very unexpected, he had to regain his bearings for a moment. How would she react to him? Would she be able to offer some kind of explanation as to why he was there?

Sabriel took a deep breath and stepped from the shadows.

Sabriel listened to the woman speak. Some phrases got mixed and jumbled together in his mind, as if the world was moving very fast. He got the picture, however. This woman, this divine person, was a seer and named Khaat, and she was also his friend. This place was not the Garden of Eden, but rather a special memorial erected in the honor or the wizards that fought at Hogwarts those hectic months before. He was in no danger here.

Sabriel drew closer. Timid, tentative. He wondered if he should speak.

"I am Sabriel."

Sabriel winced. He was right not to trust his voice. The sentence came out much too soft and, where he managed not to stutter, his voice trembled tumultuously. He clutched the sleeve of his robe with his left hand, his wand hand, as he drew closer. Absently, he had to wonder what made him so nervous. He sat beside the woman, taking in her appearance with much curiosity whilst trying not to seem rude.

There was something about Khaat that made him want to trust her, so he gave her a smile of his own. It was forced, but it was a smile. A soft gust of wind blew, throwing wisps of silver hair into his eyes and making him shiver.

(( OOC: Oh Jesus I hope I'm right with the whole Khaat having to go into hiding thing . XP ))

Excitement. Elation. Khaat might label him insane for such excitement over a mere cup of cider. He grabbed at it, delicate hands encircling the mug with eagerness. He did admit; he was cold, but he loved drinking hot beverages overall. Just the feel of the warmth, spreading throughout his body, put him in a dreamlike bliss and reminded him of all those times his mothers and sisters nursed him when he was younger.

"Thank you," he told the woman. Was it Khaat? Khaat. Sabriel recalled hearing the name before, but he failed to summon the memory. The cider scalded his tongue only somewhat, but the night air was cooling it quickly. He seemed to lose himself as he drank, forgetting his current predicament, and before he knew it Khaat was speaking again:

"My guess is that its the fact that its Halloween that allowed you to get off school grounds at all. The security there has been pretty ruthless since the dark arts followers have taken over so much. I'm hoping that doesn't last much longer. It's just taking awhile to raise up enough aurors to help fight the dark wizards who would like to own and run our world."

A warm smile. She was beautiful.

"But we're working on it. We don't give up easily. We'll get enough to stand with us. And we'll take a stand against him and his cronies."

Sabriel nodded. "Thank you," he said again.

Suddenly he was disoriented. Again, his subconscious had progressed much faster than his outer conscious had, and reached a startling revelation. For a moment, Sabriel fought to figure out what it was, and when he did, he let out a tiny gasp.

What she'd said, why her name was so familiar! It was all coming back to him, now. This woman, Khaat. She was all over the Prophet. She was a criminal and therefore she had to go into hiding. Truthfully, ever since Hogwarts itself became corrupted, Sabriel nor the rest of his family trusted the media all that much. Being part of the higher-class, pureblood social rank, Bellrose and Ferris heard of almost every event that occurred.

He was sitting next to one of the most powerful witches in England.

"You are that lady!" he exclaimed. He did not want to startle her, as he had been silent, deep in thought for a few moments. "You are Khaat Lupin!"

Sabriel listened with rapt attention. He knew her words were true; his father and, by extension, his mother were always swift to cry "blasphemy" when it came to all of Grindlewald's propaganda, but his grandmother labeled them as paranoid and took everything in stride. He supposed she desperately wanted all these dark times to truly be over. But that certainly wasn't the case. Not when her grandson currently attended a school swarming with Death Eaters.

"I wish you the best of luck," said Sabriel, and he meant it from the very depths of his heart.

He was quiet for a small moment, gingerly sipping the cider. He felt very at ease with this woman; she reminded him of Bellrose, his mother, but stronger. He guessed she was more synonymous to Daphne, his sister: she was temperamental, but kind when she saw fit. She had children of her own. And when she spoke of them, she got the same light in her eyes Khaat did. Even her voice changed similarly. Daphne considered Sabriel to be her child as well. When he would visit, she would take him out to ice cream. And when he was sick, she would tuck him in and sing to him, as all his family did. Even in his delirium, he heard her voice, and knew he was quite all right.

Suddenly, quietly, he said, "I want to become a medic when I get older. My father wants me to be an Auror, though. Mother says I can be both, but I'm not sure if I could bring someone from the brink of death one moment, and hex someone within an inch of life the next." He shook his head. "I've been very confused lately. I think that's how I ended up here. To find some peace."