A Twice Born

Chapter 2

I woke up lying on the ground. The sun momentarily blinded me as I opened my eyes and I had to close them again. I squeezed my eyelids shut and waited for the sharp pain to go away. The second time I was more carefull and managed to keep them open. As my eyes got into focus, the first thing I could see were the tree branches gently moving in the breeze above me, but despite the wind it wasn't cold, instead I felt warm for the first time in months. It was something that I had thought I would never feel again. After Voldemort had been resurrected, the cold along with the grief had seemed to seep into my very bones, never to leave me. I felt the ground under me; the needles from the pine trees prickling my skin but never piercing it. The blood on my hands mixed with the dirt I was laying on, but all my wounds seemed to have healed. After realising I wasn't in danger of bleeding out, I stood up slowly and carefully to further inspect the state of my body. My skin and clothes were still stained with blood -some of it mine and some from others- and bruises were still scattered on my skin but the cuts that were of most danger to me had healed leaving me in no immediate danger.

Now being sure that I had no reason to worry for my health, I lifted my gaze to inspect my surroundings. Clearly I was in a forest as one could reason from the trees, but this was nothing like the forbidden forest or the ones where we hid from the death eaters during the past year. It was bright and warm and it felt inviting. The trees weren't as close together and the sunlight could easily filter trough the leaves. I could only hear the birds and the small stream that was a few steps away from me. I walked up to it and kneeled down to rinse my hands and face from the blood and dirt they were covered in. Cupping my hands together under the surface I brought them to my lips to satisfy my thirst with the cold water. Strands of my hair kept falling in front of my face and I had to constantly tuck them back behind my ear. My hand froze just as I was about to swipe another strand of hair from my face; my hair wasn't long enough to tuck behind my ears. I looked at the water that had now mostly stilled. Even from the bruises covering my face I could tell that my face had softened and my hair -that was now darker- had grown down to my waist. I lifted my hand up to feel my ears that seemed to have grown into a point. My eyes were brighter, almost like a glowing avada kedavra green and no longer being hidden behind the ugly frames of my glasses. Death had said I would be a toddler to the elves and sure enough I was the size of a four years old child. I had always been short due to the malnourishment I had suffered at the hands of the Dursleys and I had stopped growing early compared to the other blokes in Gryffindor. Even now you could still see some of my bones through my skin. I had never managed to fix the damage from years of neglect and being on the run for so long without proper food just made it worse. My clothes were the same as before, but due to the change in size they barely stayed up.

I turned around to look for something that I could use to keep my clothes up, but instead noticed a bag on the ground next to where I had woken up. Suprised that i hadn't noticed it earlier I went to take a closer look. This must have been what Death left for me. I kneeled down next to it and opened it to take a look inside. The bag was obviously bottomless, which explained the small size. I started laying out the contents of the bag on the ground in front of me, to have a better look of what the it contained. 

First to come out were two sets of clothes, a cloak, one black belt and black leather boots that went up to mid calf. The first outfit had a dark grey tunic that went down to my knees and lighter grey trousers that had to be fastened with several buttons. The tunic was tighter on the chest and arms and looser on the bottom and had two silver clasps with intricate carvings on the top close to my neck. There were also leaves and vines made of silver thread circling around my neck, wrists and the hem of the tunic. The second outfit was very similar, only this one had dark and light green with golden embroidery and clasps. I dressed myself in the first outfit along with the boots and wrapped the cloak around me, fastening the silver clasp that was placed on my left shoulder and leaving the hood down. 

Continuing to empty the bag I took out the invisibility cloak, the sword of Gryffindor, two daggers with holsters, a bag of coins, a book and both of my wands. I also found the Resurrection stone from the bottom of the bag, it had been made into a ring once again. Now that I knew what I had and they were all laid out before me, I could sort trough them. Placing the cloak, the sword, the ring and the Elder Wand back inside the bag, I left the daggers with me and strapped them to my thighs. I didn't necessarily know how to use them, but I figured they were good to have in case I ran into trouble, which I most likely would. I strapped my own wand onto the holster I still had for it and opened the bag of coins, taking a few out. They looked very similar to galleons, only missing the Gringotts emblem. The book turned out to be a guide to 'Middle Earth' as I learned this place was called, but I didn't delve too deep into it yet. I found a map between the pages of the book, but it was of no use to me at this time, as I didn't know where I was. I had to start moving, as I had no idea how far I would have to walk until I found shelter, perhaps a village.

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At this point I had been walking for hours and the sun had already started to set. The forest didn't seem to have an end. My journey had been calm so far, although I had heard some howling in the distance earlier. The weather was getting cooler and the sky was covered in pink and orange hues, some faint stars could be seen in the distance. I had realised that my cloak had a heating charm on it, I had felt it getting warmer as time passed and the air got colder. I wanted to find at least some sort of shelter. Altough I could put up wards to make sure that no one found my camp and my dads cloak would easily hide me from view, I wasn't fully confident in my warding and I didn't want to depend only on magic. One thing I had noticed during my time in the wizarding world was that those who were raised there, seemed to take their magic for granted. It was a gift and yet they used it to do even the most menial tasks. Just as the light was starting to disappear behind the horizon, the forest ended and i was out in the open. Small lights could be seen in the distance.

I had stumbled upon a small village. The homes were quite odd; they seemed to have been built into the ground with round doors that had a knob right in the middle of it. The roofs -if they could be called that- were covered in moss and grass with a chimney sticking out, small swirls of smoke raising up from some of them. Small fenced gardens were scattered around the area and I could see pumpkins and other vegetables growing in them. I ended up next to a home that had a green door with a golden knob and yellow walls. The windows were all dark, so whoever lived there must have gone to bed already. The home was placed in a good spot, right at the top of the hill overlooking everything else in the village. It had a small front yard with steps coming down from the door up to a brown wooden bench. A letterbox had been placed next to a gate. By this time I was clearly exhausted after hours of walking, I was dragging my feet and my eyes were drooping. I was no longer thinking clearly, the night had fallen and I was tired, so I curled up next to the gate, pulling the hood of my cloak over my head and falling asleep.

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I'm so sorry that it took me this look to get the second chapter out. 

During the Christmas holidays I travelled to my home town to see my family and didn't want to worry about updating.

And after I went back to school I've had so many different projects and presentations that I didn't have a lot of time for this.

I've been writing this in small sections for the past month and it's finally finished.

Not a lot happened in this one either, but chapter three is really going to get things going.

Anyways, I'll try to be more consistent from now on.

~Author