A Familiar Stranger

I noticed that Sammy looked as if she was living a dream pouring into reality… and a bad one at that.

That look, that sentiment, I knew it all too well - figuring if she blinked hard and fast enough, any moment she'd wake up and this strangely vivid nightmare would hopefully come to an end.

When this all first started, Sammy could hardly look at Harry without having her skin crawl and immediately averting her eyes a second later, unnerved.

Here and now, she looked at him, still unnerved, still wanting to veer her gaze away, but there was something else now - something I'm not so sure she was even sure what it could be.

But I knew it was. Instantly, I did. I've seen that own look in my eyes too many times to count now - that feeling, that uncertainty… sympathy.

"Te… Terestra…" Sammy quietly uttered the name, her blue eyes gazing at a familiar slender figure, and yet finding only a stranger.