Chapter 09
The weather got colder. Bloom looked over the grounds of the school. Red and orange leaves flew through the air. The surface of the lake was rippled with waves and seemed darker than in the warm summer sun. Dark grey clouds were hiding the sky and forbid the warm rays to reach the ground. The grass was wet. While trying to stay on the not so slippery path she searched her way down to the hut were the lessons of Care for magical Creatures were held. Nobody really seemed to think the man teaching was good at it. He seemed to be too far away from the sane mind to realize the need to choose animals not a danger to student and helpful for the exams. She wanted to see this for herself. The students looked at her curiously when she reached them a short time before the lessons started. The man –'Hagrid' if she remembered correctly- seemed very enthusiastic to see her in his lesson. The animals were…different if she tried to say it politely. Some of the students seemed to know them. They jumped back. She kept herself behind them. When one of the animals seemed to spit out explosions and burned a few meters of grass uncontrolled she bid the man goodbye to find something not so dangerous. Many of the other students seemed to want to disappear, too, and eyed her departure with envy.
Dumbledore had a lot of patience. But he would soon reach the end of it. He wanted results. He wanted results from the murder of the Dursleys! But they ministry didn't find anything! Nothing at all! His eyes caught the perch, which had been used by the phoenix when it had been here. The stupid bird could have found out the source of the fire easily being a being of fire. There weren't many sources for such fire. And phoenixes could take away the darkness out of beings easily. A reason the bird had been at this school for so long, a beacon of the light to drive harmful minds away from children. It had been an act of his cunning he could shield Riddle from it until it was too late and the seed of darkness was deeply rooted into him. He looked out of the window and blinked. That-That couldn't be! He opened his window and the song of the phoenix waved into the room after blessing the ground once more. Then it stopped. And the bird wasn't there anymore.
He felt numb. He had seen the phoenix when he wanted to leave the last trees of the forest behind when he had seen it. And he followed it back to the near trees. And then he looked up to the branch it was on. He stared at the beautiful bird and tried to understand why the bird came to him. He wasn't nice. He wasn't light. He didn't want it. But the bird sung. It sung to him sitting in the red leaves of the trees and taking the exhaustion of the lack of sleep away. Slowly he smiled. Without any need of his real strength he pulled himself up into the tree to sit next to him. "I don't know why you are here again. I don't even know what to call you without your bond to Dumbledore. But there is someone that could need your help," he whispered slowly, his head near the one of the bird. The rare rays of sun were reflected in something. Tears dropped from the beak of the animal. "Why do you always cry for me? Why even after all this years? I am broken. I was always broken. There isn't anything to heal. There are persons who need your help more. There is someone touched by your dark kin. Help her," he looked at the tears. Why did he feel guilty when the bird took off? He felt the darkness inside snapping at the feeling almost like it wanted to eat it. He stayed on the tree until the sun started to leave the sky and the red rays let the leaves glow in them. He stayed there until everything was dark. Bright light illuminated the night. A few seconds thunder growled far away over the forest and grounds. The first raindrops fell down. He jumped from the tree and left the last protection against the cold rain. Looking up the cold water met his face. If tears wet his face he didn't feel it. Tears were hot. And the cold rain numbed his face and body until he felt nothing anymore.
|The moment a few grown wizards rushed into his 'room' was the moment he looked up from his burned hands. They froze at the sight of him before one of them casted spells at him. He didn't move until the pain numbed itself. He didn't hear them speak. He just looked. Looked how they tried to question him. And slowly he started to smile. Then he started to laugh until he couldn't breathe anymore. At sometime there was another spell and his whole mind left him in the blessing of painless sleep and dream worlds filled of fire and darkness that burned everything not from there. And there were scales and claws and bones and blue fire burning inside empty eye socks of a human skull changing to the skull of a dragon. He didn't remember the dream after waking up.|
Snape didn't know what to expect when he heard steps together with the sound of water dripping on the hard stone floor. He didn't expect his new colleague completely wet closing the great portals of the main entrance of the school behind him without a sound. The last sounds of a repeating thunder rolled through the hallway before the door was fully closed. "Mr. Prevell. What did take you outside this time of the night?" It seemed it took the younger one by surprise. Light blue eyes fixed him. "I was outside the whole time. The thunderstorm let me think twice about staying there. I got a bit…surprised, you could say," the voice of the younger man was strangely calm. "I am sure Poppy would love to have you in the hospital wing. You look like a cold is already catching up to you," Snape hadn't known somebody could look so horror stricken when someone talked about the nurse. "I think I won't take the risk. Good evening." He had fled the scene before the potion master could even think about offer a potion against colds himself. He snorted. The man had looked like the Potter when forced to the nurse. His mind stilled. The Prevell had looked like Potter. He knew so many secret ways in the castle without learning even one year here. And the goblins said the boy was alive. Prevell was clearly older. It couldn't be.
Bloom was sure that someone who clearly had fever shouldn't teach. At least he was responsible enough not to start any training for the duels. The students from Gryffindor looked more bored every lesson. They clearly wanted to duel. The other students liked the preparations. She sighted. The clock at the wall let out the sound of a bell and the students started to leave. She saw how he rubbed his head. Did he have a headache? She stayed behind and waited until the door was closed. "I didn't know you should teach if ill," she said not looking away from him. Blue eyes looks up, clearly dim from fever. Then he snorted, "If a cold would strike me down I would have been dead long ago." She sighted and went to him, laying her hands at his temples. "What-?" "Stay still," she hadn't thought copying the nurse from Alfea had such an effect. The man froze like she had threatened to cut his throat open. Not opening her eyes she called on her magic to sooth the pain in his head and drive the cold away together with the fever. Something inside him brushed against her fire before she could move it out from him. Like taking a searching look on her. The connection broke. She stared at him. His eyes were blue and clear. And sharp. "You have-!" her voice broke, "How?" Did he smile? That shouldn't be something to smile about! "Sometimes you survive were normal people die. And something in you awakes and grows and stays with you. It stays always. Yours is different. It isn't yours. Isn't your own," his eyes looked far away. "You-You said you could take it away!" Why felt it so cold to say it? And he smiled. His hand grabbed her chin, forcing her to look into his eyes. Light blue eyes glowed in the dim lighted of the room. She felt his presence whispering into her mind, felt his searching gaze through her fire and pure being. And then he grabbed the shadows buried inside her. But it didn't force it out. He lured it out. He lured it into the sea of darkness inside him. And the shadows let go, left her body and mind. Left her alone and her mind her own. She felt her own flame burn brightly inside her. Then she looked at his eyes. Behind them blue flames burned. The flames were in front of her burning like fire did. But it was cold without any warmth. And then the darkness around her moved and started to whisper. It whispered of pain drowned in it, of thoughts not their own the feeding them and a broken mind held together with pure will and the urge to not give up. It wasn't her mind. It was his. And she couldn't shield herself from it. She didn't look away from him even after she let herself pulled back out. The darkness was in him, now. And it was drowned in other shadows. Drowned in the shadows born of his own mind.
The weather got even colder and soon there was a thin cover of ice on the sea, no leaves on the trees and tiny ice crystals on the grass to let it glitter in the first rays of the sun, which didn't spend much warmth anymore. November changed to December and the first snow fell down. Bloom felt like dream walking. She went through her life and sometimes she couldn't believe the darkness was gone until she reached into her flame and felt. There was only pure light fire burning brightly like a candle flared up to a camp fire. And when she walked past Professor Prevell in the hallways she felt how his fire drew shadows to itself to hide in the darkness and to let nobody see its power until it decided to strike back. The flames felt familiar in a way she couldn't describe and different in a way she never felt before. Then the castle got decorated for Christmas Eve and her thoughts went from dark shadows to snowball fights between the other students and chocolates. And when the holydays came she went back to Alfea.
|He was in St. Mungo's, the magical hospital in Britain, for the rest of the holydays. Bones and Malfoy had act together surprisingly to let nobody know it. He had a private room to rest while complicated spells and potions were used to let the burns disappear slowly. Nobody visited him for most time. One day Malfoy came to him and to take a look at him how he healed. He brought Draco with him. It was nice to have someone else to talk to than nurses and healers. He met Neville a few times. Now the burns at his face were fully gone and his hair had grown back. His arms scarred. Well, it wasn't as if he would wear short sleeved things. It was Draco who brought the new school supplies to him and told him about Lockhart. Then he grinned and took a small package out of his bag. "It had been under the things Dad tried to destroy for years without any success. I didn't dare to open it but you are very good to describe the spells on things somehow without activating it. Do you have any ideas? No danger touching the paper but no opening," he explained. Harry blinked and looked at the white paper glowing with runes. He reached out with one hand and held it over the package trying to feel something. Something in him screamed in his mind and brushed against his will, trying to get him to open it. He snatched his hand back, his scar was throbbing. "Throw it away. Give it back to your father. It is sentient. It wants to be used!" he snarled and threw a murderous look at the little thing. The boy paled and nodded. He took it away. "Ideas for destruction?" Draco tried. Blue fire danced in his mind. He shook his head.|
