The last week of April is rather warm with scores of students studying on the grassy lawns or in the shade of the courtyards and trees. There is excitement in the air as the final Quidditch match of the year would be held between Hufflepuff and Slytherin that weekend. There is an ardent hope in the Slytherin common room that the Quidditch Cup will belong to Slytherin this year.
Incidentally, this weekend would be May 1st, May Day called by some others Beltane, Majoma, or Maiuma. There would be a festival held within the Great Hall. The students very much looked forward to celebrating the newly added holiday at Hogwarts.
There would be a Maypole for students to dance around. There would be streams of colored ribbons in green (representing growth, abundance, and fertility), red (for strength, vitality, passion, and vibrancy), white (for cleaning, clearing, the power to disperse negative), and many more colored ribbons. They would be led and taught by Professor Buchanan how to dance around the maypole.
There would be a table filled with brown and white eggs. The brown-shelled egg for wishes for familiars, a Patronus, or even an animagus form, and improvement in Care for Magical Creatures. A white-shelled egg for wishes involving others or plants such as a better green thumb in Herbology or in Potions.
The egg would be blown on and then pierced by a needle on both ends. Then from the other end, the egg would be gently blown on to permit the yolk to slip out. The egg talisman would then be painted in colors symbolizing the desire. And lastly, it would be hung by a thin thread fastened to a tree branch. A little charm made of a sea or snail shell to make all things grow and flow. A tiny blessing asked of Gaia, Mother Earth.
There is also the option of a wish box charm. A small wooden case would be prepared with an array of flower petals and seeds. The selected flower petals and seeds will represent the inner wish. The small wooden case will be buried in the depths of the earth. The hope is that seedlings will grow and thereby grant the earnest wish. A wish was made to Gaia requesting it is fulfilled.
There would be countless wonderful things to do, but Rowan had very little interest in May Day (also known as Beltane), she had far more pressing things to do. Naturally, the Prefects had to prepare to help and decorate. It is a task she was not looking forward to in the least! Nor did it help that after her (wedding &) honeymoon, Professor McGonagall practically glowed. Revitalized with youthful vigor, now more than ever Professor McGonagall had the energy to grade and assign heaps of homework and essays.
With mounds of homework from all of their professors, the week easily slipped past Rowan. Exhausted from a night of patrol, Rowan closed her eyes for just a minute. She had come down to research in the Chamber of Secrets, but she felt as though her eyes are filled with sand. She set down her book and just rested her eyes for the slightest of moments.
Eerie sounds can be heard nearby, while the heavens are dark with the stars offering only dim lighting. There is not a single trace of the moon in the sky, it is the night of a new moon. There is a heavy, thick fog clouding the marsh from sight. Large and small shadows stir hungrily in the depths of the fog.
The marsh abruptly falls silent causing Rowan to blink rapidly. Her tired mind processes the situation sluggishly indicating that the marsh is familiar. It was the marsh she had only seen once long ago in her dreamscape. The marsh of Great Mother Snake.
Rowan's hand immediately reaches for her wand, but she finds non at her side. Here in this dream void, she never has a wand. Feeling uneasy at the silence, she scans her surroundings, but she cannot glimpse anything past her hand. The green fog is far too dense to be seen through.
Great Mother Snake is gone, Rowan knew that much. They had truly parted ways this time. Yet that still did not explain why she was here in this familiar place.
Uneasy, Rowan steps back to abruptly see a small shadow dart from the thick mist. A stranger serpent with geometric patterns on its back like that of an Asian Vine snake emerged from the green mist. Yet unlike the Asian Vine snake, the serpent is multi-colored in shades of brown, black, and white with shaded lines as that of the San Francisco Garter snake. It was a serpent she had once seen before in her dreams and in life, a dead, dried serpent nailed to the door of the Gaunt cottage, a Fenny snake.
In incredulity, Rowan leans closer to study the snake, but it was indeed the same serpent. "Aren't you," she quietly asked, "dead?" She had even privately mourned the grumpy serpent and yet here it was before her again!
The serpent flickers its long tongue at her in annoyance. "Not dead here," the Fenny snake replied as if that explained everything. It slithers forward hissing, "Come."
Knowing better than to be left behind, Rowan follows the serpent through the marsh. It is a dangerous place as more than once the treacherous bog attempted to suck her down into the suffocating bog. Each time, she barely managed to pull her foot out having evenly dispersed her weight.
The marsh night air is chilly. Rowan shivers wearing only a pair of thin pajamas. Keeping her arms close for warmth, she remains alert to her surroundings. The green mist begins to dissipate as time passes lying low on the ground like smoky ashes. They are near a clearing that is free of mist.
The serpent enters the clearing first with Rowan much more cautiously stepping forward. At the edge, she halts and glances back to see the fog becoming thick behind them. Inside the green fog, things seem to move and draw closer. There are terrible creatures twisting inside eager to hunt, but unable to leave the safety of the fog.
Rowan steps into the clearing and is reprised to find the clearing is clear of fog. The green mist seems unable to enter lingering at the edge of the woodland marsh. It is as if there is something keeping the mist at bay. Perchance, something so terrible that not even the green mist dared trespass.