Chapter 10
Where the gap is still too wide for us to cross
She was sitting in the nearly empty breakfast table at dawn, watching as the students slowly drifted in, still grumbling to herself about what had happened the night before. The nerve of those stupid little humans! How dare they corner her like that. Now she was stuck with the pact she had made and had to wait four months to be completely rid of them. How she wished she would have never had to come here in the first place. It was all because of humans and their stupid wars and their arrogance towards other magical creatures. Like they were the only ones who had the right to live in this land, to have their freedom to have the kind of life they were supposed to, even when it meant ripping it from the backs of others.
When she was little she had never really thought about it too much. She knew of course that humans were the reason why they had to live in the Dark Fields, to live in hiding. Of course she loved her home dearly, but it was still just a mirror image of the reality, its beauty was always fake no matter how breathtaking it was. The frequent visits to the Old Lands for their rituals had always been a source of excitement to her, something she had anticipated for. Now the very thought of the rituals evoked a sickening feeling at the pit of her stomach. Cold sweat spread on her skin and her head started spinning lightly. Her hand that was holding a goblet of summer wine was shaking so much that she had to place her glass back on the table before her.
"Nice to see you up and about." Kia said, sitting down across from her and swiftly loading her plate with various food items. Her hair was as messy as usual, and she seemed to be in a good mood, moving so fast that she was almost just a blur in her eyes. There was a smudge of something blue near her left ear. How she managed to make a mess of herself this early in the morning was left a mystery.
"Ummh." Valerian muttered something affirmative as a response and picked at her food. Her mood was a striking contrast to the girl sitting before her and it didn't go unnoticed either. Kia was much more observant than people gave her credit for. It was true that she had a tendency to miss the obvious stuff that was staring at her straight at her face, but she was good with the smaller stuff, the kind that other people didn't notice. To her, Valerian was usually easy to read, even though to others her facial expression stayed seemingly unchanged no matter what the situation was.
"What is it?" she now asked. Her question came out rather muffled because her mouth was half full of toast and she was practically under the table digging something out of her bag.
"Sirius." Val answered sourly, placing her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hands, giving up on breakfast completely after watching the other girls nonexistent table manners.
"He can be a complete brat sometimes. A handsome one, but still a brat." Kia confirmed after returning to the surface holding a stack of different colored square papers. Val watched in fascination as she started folding them, her fingers moving rather skillfully making tiny detailed folds while quickly destroying what was left of her breakfast. It didn't take long for the first colorful butterfly to flap its wings and beginning to flutter around them aimlessly.
"Don't forget that he is also stubborn and arrogant and a total swindler." Valerian added bitterly and caused Kia to glance up at her in surprise.
"Wow, you really must dislike him to use so many words in a row to describe him." she mused. Val just wrinkled her nose at her and grinned a bit. They didn't talk much after that. She watched as Kia folded a couple of more butterflies, a little orange dragon that actually breathed fire and a small purple and lavender colored cat that strutted around the table between them. It was a comfortable silence. The kind that she had not expected to find in this castle when she first arrived here.
"You are going to be late again if you keep that up." a deep voice came behind her rising up the hair at the back of her neck. She turned around slowly, not at all surprised to see Sirius standing there grinning wolfishly at her. James and Remus were both looming around a bit further away, clearly watching the exchange not knowing what kind of outcome to expect.
"It's not like it's any of your business Sirius. I am perfectly capable at taking care of my self." she answered to him coldly pronouncing his name with distaste she didn't bother trying to hide.
"Aww. Don't be like that. Didn't we agree that you would give us a chance. Four months remember?" he pouted at her. Val just scowled at him and turned her back on him, starting to purposefully collect what was left of her food back to the silver box locking it securely when she was done.
"I'll see you around." she told Kia before picking up her bag and standing up.
"Uh huh." Kia lifted one of her eyebrows at her meaningfully.
"Try not to bite anyone's head off when I am not around. I would hate to miss the show, all that blood and gore. I do like that particular shade of crimson I think. " she told her with a serious expression, like this was a common everyday occurrence to her. It was disturbing how much she sounded like she really meant it. Nodding with grim agreement Val hurried out of the hall.
"Hey! Wait up!" Sirius shouted after her, catching her up before she had reached the marble staircase.
"You are not being very fair Valerian." he frowned at her keeping up with her effortlessly with his long legs. A detail that Val found rather infuriating.
"How so? I am not the one who enjoys tormenting people by shutting them in to confined places full of poison." she refused to look at him or letting her emotions show at her tone. Her words made Sirius falter a bit before grimacing frustratedly.
" I already told you that that was not what we intended, and I'm sorry that we did anything at all in the first place. I am trying to make it up to you if only you would let me. Let us prove to you that we are not as bad as you think we are. If you keep avoiding us you are not giving us a fair chance." he tried to reason with her. By now, they had already traveled half way to their Charms classroom the other two boys dragging somewhere behind them. It seemed that they didn't want to crowd her, thinking that Sirius was their best bet at having their way with her. What ever it was that they really wanted. Val hadn't figured out that part yet and it disturbed her. If she knew their true agenda, dealing with them would be a lot easier. She didn't trust for a second that they really meant it when they talked about forgiveness. Vermin like them didn't really care for such things.
"I have no reason to trust you." She stated, thinking that it would be a good thing to remind him that she was not fooled by them. Sirius sighed deeply, tugging at his hair.
"I know you don't, and that's precisely my point. You already promised us time. The pact binds you as much as it binds me." he said, agitation showing through in his voice. He stopped her by cutting ahead of her and lifted his right hand in front of her face, showing the small mark placed on his palm. The mark. She couldn't deny that it was still there, still binding them and telling her that she could not run away forever. It looked like there was no escaping the matter, and it was only four months in the end. To her such a time was nothing, it would pass before she would have time to even notice. Yeah, you keep on telling yourself that and maybe then you even start to believing in it, she told silently to herself.
"You don't have to tell me how it works. I know the rules better than you ever could." she hissed at him, her eyes burning with anger. And Goddess was she angry! There was so many things for her to be angry about that she didn't even know where to start counting. The problem was that she couldn't really take it out on anything, not really. No, she had to behave and be a good girl to make things easier to her father, to all of them. Now was not the time to act out and she knew that, she would have to let out some steam soon though. Maybe a little night flight wouldn't be such a bad idea.
Retreating somewhere deep inside of her, collecting her emotions and shoving them into the darkest corner on her mind she slowly lifted up her hand, palm facing the boy standing before her. Exactly in the same place beside her thumb there was an identical mark of intricate flower design in indigo blue. It was the flower of the nightshade plant. Beautiful but deadly just like their family - it was their family's seal after all. Her mother had been a part of the Alhena clan and maybe that was the reason she had died. Vidar had once told her that he thought it was stupid how some of the families didn't want their blood to be mixed. Alhena clan was one of the old ones that still were completely seelie, even when most of the clans within the three Night Courts were already mixed. That was the reason why they had survived this long, they kept themselves strong. Nothing like the daylight wimps.
Sirius watched her hand in amazement for a moment, not really sure about what he was supposed to think about what he was seeing.
"I know the rules better than you." Val repeated softly but firmly at him. He was silent for a while and then his rigid posture relaxed, like he had finally accepted something he had been reluctant to face.
"You are not going to make this easy on us are you." he stated defeatedly, watching somewhere over her shoulder not meeting her eyes anymore.
"No." she said simply, before stepping around him and arriving to the classroom just barely making it on time. The boys would get in to trouble for being late, she thought with a pleased smile that did not reach her eyes.
This was kind of an in between chapter. Not very long either but think of it as a bonus or something ^^ Just felt like writing a bit about what Val is thinking right now. I think Sirius is being really nice and patient here, even thought he thinks he is doing it just in order to fight Voldemort and all that ^^ Well he was a total dickhead to her before so some major sucking up is in order don't you think?
