Memory Lane (Shadow and Holly)

Shadow shook her head slightly.
"I'd rather stand thanks." She said quietly.

Holly nodded.
"Me too..."
She moved her gaze to the floor.
"Been up to much?" she asked after a minute. What a stupid thing to say. Instead of "How are you?" or "How have you been?" she went with the option that you might say to someone after one day.
It had been five years since she had spoken to Shadow.

Shadow shook her head silently.
"I know that you've been up to a lot."

Holly shrugged, looking around.
"Kinda..." she said, looking around the changing room.

"Aw, and I'm modest." normal Holly commented.
"Not really."

Shadow nodded, and turned to leave again. She didn't want to make a scene when Holly started yelling and swearing.

"Hey, where're you-"
"Photo shoot Miss Bristol," the little man said, entering again, "ASAP according to Potter."
Holly sighed.
"Right....yeah ... whatever..."

Normal Holly sighed similarly.
"So that's life if you don't become friends with her again. You get everything you always wanted." the figure said.
Holly nodded. "What's number two?"
"Number two is life if you become friends again."
"Let's go then." Holly said, but the figure had already opened and stepped through a second portal.
Holly took one last glace back at her older self, and stepped through too.

Shadow's mind followed Holly's, thinking about the future herself.

Holly and the figure looked around.
"Fun fun fun...." Holly said rolling her eyes, "An office block."
Indeed, there they were in a busy type office, people rushing about, file pages being thrown about the place.

"Don't tell me I work here!" Holly said sadly.
"I'm 'fraid so." the figure said, "Look, there's you."
Holly glanced over at the slightly taller figure of her future self, eyebrows knotted together, staring at a computer screen, concentrating hard.
"You became a Journalist of Quidditch." the figure said.
"I would hate that!" Holly said, "Not being able to play it!"

"Well see, after you and Shadow fell apart, you made a new friend who's father was the manager of the Irish team. They got you an audition, you made the team and what we just saw in the changing room happened. When you made up with Shadow however... you never got the audition."
"So this happened..." Holly finished, "Where does Shad come into this one?"
"She's about to come and pick you up, considering you're done for the day. Now remember, in this one, you're best friends."
"I'm not an eejit!"

Shadow strode into the building, and over to Holly's desk. Her long violet hair tied in a pony tail, smelling of horse and still wearing her riding boots.
"Which word can't you spell now?" She asked jokingly of her friend.

Holly glanced up and grinned.
"Disestablishmentarianism." she said totally seriously, and glanced at her watch, "You're right on time. Hallo Sugar'o."

"Uhm, sugar'o?" normal Holly asked the figure, eyebrows raised.
"You once said that Shadow was the sugar in your tea....and then you started calling her Sugar'o.... You're weird."

Older Holly stood up and stretched. "MAN I hate this job," she commented thoughtfully, "ANyways, how was your day?"

Shadow leant over Holly and swiftly typed the word before standing back again.
"The usual. I never thought I'd see the day the Ministry decided they needed an army and employed me to teach them how to ride the Pegusi." She said. It was her usual sentence when she got back from work. "And by the way, 'feat' isn't spelt with two 'e's, it's 'ea'."

"Lost without you," Holly said grinning. She fixed the error and saved. "Let's go. Quickly!"
She stood, a lot happier now that she was leaving.
"Pegusi...." she said snorting, and skipped out.
"You coming Sugar'o?"

"And that's life with Shadow." normal Holly concluded, "Awful job ... but Shadow."
"Yep." the figure said nodding.

Shadow pulled out of Holly's mind and realised that she couldn't feel her legs. She stood up to stretch them while pondering her next course of action. She looked round and fell off the branch as she found a green cloaked her standing on the next branch. Hauling herself back up, she looked at Brave.
"What in SYNAIRN are you doing here?" She hissed.
"Brainbox was lookin for ya. Said ya needa work thing out with Brainless down there. She's seen stuff."

Holly stepped out of the portal, looking around the forest. The figure was gone, and evidently so was Shadow.
At the sound of voices, she glanced upwards, and was proven wrong. There was Shadow.
Everything she ever wanted.....or...
"Shad?" Holly called.

Shadow looked down through the leaves.
"Up here, with Brave." Shadow called down again.
"Heya Hol!" Brave yelled.

"Chello Brave," Holly called up smiling, and proceeded (smart word) to join them. (Formailty!)

Shadow and Brave dropped down from the tree.
"Brainbox said you can watch too." Brave said.

"What are we watching?" Holly asked, confused.

"A few 'what ifs' she came up with." Brave said. "But now I gotta leave you in more sympathetic hands." Brave vanished, replaced by two more Shadows, one in black, one in white.
"Holly, meet Hope and Despair." Shadow said, groaning inwardly.

"Hi.....hi..." Holly said to each in turn, a little timidly. Holly decided saying "So how are you?" would be inappropriate, so she remained quiet. "What if...?"

"Yes, basically the same as yours. And yes, I was watching." Shadow said. She looked at Hope, who nodded and teleported them into a scene.

It was dark, and Shadow was sitting in the corner of theroom, whispering to herself quietly.

"Where's this?" Holly whispered to Shadow, looking around.

"Good question." Shadow remarked, looking at her two emotions for guidance.
"This is life without Holly."

Holly shook her head sadly.
"A life not to be lived." she said wisely, as if she were wise, "See you went all ... without me..."

She trailed off sadly.

Shadow nodded.

Older Shadow started to rock gently, as if trying to sooth herself.