Black Stained
Chapter 12: Hope
Her first dinner at the reserve had been rather... uncomfortable. News of her arrival seemed to have spread across the place and everyone gazed at her. But they quickly turned away if her eyes met theirs staring. She shifted uncomfortably in her chair and scrambled her food with her fork and once again met someone staring at her. She turned to her plate with a pile of uneaten food and sighed. I guess I still have to find my place, after all. She thought.
'Pay them no mind.'
She looked up to find Tuck sitting down across from her. His plate filled with a freshly cooked and baked meal. He took out his fork and knife and started eating. In less than a minute his plate was less filled than Aral's, while she had been trying to eat for over ten minutes now. He noticed her uneaten food.
'They always check out the new ones.'
She scoffed.
'Do they always stare as tedious and blankly at new ones, or is just me?' She asked boldly.
He swallowed his food and took a long sip of water. He was prolonging his time to answer. She looked right into his eyes, daring him to tell the truth. Although she already believed to know it.
'No.'
She nodded at him, understandig perfectly well her reputation had followed her.
'I had hoped to keep things to myself, to keep a low profile, but I guess even far away in Romania my reputation 'proceeds' me.'
She said with a thick layer of sarcasm on the word 'proceeds', leaning back on the back of her chair.
'So you really are Aral Potter.' A statement, no question.
She gave him a fake smile, sarcasm overflowing.
'The one and only. What gave me away?' She asked curious.
'Well, you were introduced to us as Aral and no surname was given. We were also briefed on the fact we did not need to know your surname, unless you gave it to us willingly.'
He took another sip. She waited patiently. After a moment he continued.
'We may not have seen many photo's of you or have seen you in real life, but your brother on the other hand...'
She didn't react, she waited for him to continue his story.
'Your features are much alike and if you put that together with a rare name -Aral-, you can put things easily together and figure out it had to be you.'
Aral smiled, truly now.
'Thank you, for being honest.'
He looked surprised at her.
'Many people lie to try not to hurt someone or upset them, as if I can't take it.' She explained.
'I've experienced a little too much from this.' She added and bowed over her plate. She tried to eat, to occupy herself with something and to ignore his gaze. It didn't linger for long, she was thankful for that.
They sat and ate their meals together, Tuck even had gotten a second plate, Aral was content with just one. When finished she excused herself and made for the entrance. She felt their eyes pricking in her back. She had the urge to turn around and ask them publicaly to stop, but she restrained herself from doing so. Before she could leave the canteen someone stalked over to her and stood between her and the entrence. Aral wasn't pleased by this, she wasn't in the mood for any talks. But her annoyance dissapeared when she realized it was Nicki.
'Want to walk back together?'
She referred to the cabins.
'Yeah, sure.'
Aral didn't dare to decline the offer. Together they left. Before the canvas of the tent closed Aral gave one look back at the eyes staring at her and quirked her brow, making them all suddenly very interested in their plates of food.
'Settling in alright?' Nicki asked.
They were walking down the gravel path and Aral pulled her goat tighter to leave out the cold.
'More or less.'
'More more or more less?'
Aral thought for a moment.
'Probably more less.'
'And why is that?'
'Well, with everyone looking at you when you walk by and whispering in hushed tones while you can hear them nonetheles isn't quite calming is it?'
Nicki laughed at her comment and Aral joined after a moment. They were almost at her cabin.
'I tried to make them stop staring at you, but with someone like you near... A war hero.' She shook her head.
Aral trained her eyes on her feet.
'I'm not a war hero.'
Nicki frowned, she wanted to ask further about the matter, but chose not to upon seeing Aral's negative reaction to it. They continued walking and parted ways when Aral arrived at her cabin.
Before Aral entered her new home she quickly turned around to call out to Nicki, but she was already out of sight. Sighing, Aral closed the door behind her and picked up the bag she had dropped off in the beginning of the day. She inspected the cabin, seeing it was small but cozy. Just a bit empty. She quessed it was better if she started unpacking immediately and threw her bag on her small bed. She pulled out her clothing and placed them in her closet. She scrambled through her bag and pulled out some stuff and decorations. She didn't own much, she never really valued things. She valued moments and laughs, even if she had just few of them. On the bottom of her bag she found a picture. She picked it up and looked at it; it was a picture of her and Harry. They were only twelve years old in this one, still happy and not so much affected by the darkness, not aware of what the future was bringing for them. She had had another picture of them both, but it had disappeared. She placed it next to her bed and turned to her bag. There were several books and material things like a quill, ink and parchment. She pulled out some books and wanted to turn around and find a place to put them, but then something fell on the ground with a soft thud and she turned back. She bent down and picked it up. The light wood felt familiar in her fingers and she traced the patterns of the carved wood. She hadn't used her wand for a very long time. Not wanting nor needing to use it. She bit on her lip and slowly placed it on her bed. The tingling in her fingers returned. She inhaled and exhaled deep and slowly. This wasn't a good time to loose control. The tingling didn't increase, nor did she start to tremble, but it didn't stop either. The tingling stayed. She forced herself to focus on something else and turned to her books, she picked them up and stalked towards her 'living room'. A small couch was pushed against a wall, a table was neatly placed in front of it. She scanned the small place for a good place to put her books, but her attention soon drifted from her books to her fingers. Although she was holding the books, they felt like they had started to tremble. She inhaled sharply. The book on top of the pile in her hands was a book about the power of dragons. Wasn't it working? Did their theorie not aply to her? Maybe it was too strong and the strong magic around her couldn't decrease its power? Questions were swirling around in her head and she couldn't stop it. No, no! She had been wrong to think this could help her, that this idea could cure her. Why had she come here? What if she hurts someone? A knock on her door interrupted her inner war.
'Who's there?' She asked with a trembling voice.
'It's me, Charlie.'
She dropped her books on the table and calmed herself a bit. She stalked over to the door and pulled it open. Charlie was standing on the other side leaning against the wall. He pushed off the wall and turned towards her. First he smiled then, after seeing her paling face, he frowned.
'Everything alright? You look like a ghost.'
She cleared her throat and rubbed a hand over her face.
'Yes, I'm alright.'
Charlie quirked a brow, questioning her response.
'No, I'm not alright.'
She confessed quickly. She stepped back to allow him in. He didn't allow himself to waiste time by looking around the place or sit down on the couch. No, he immediately turned back to her and watched her intently.
'Tell me.'
He didn't need to tell her what exactly and she took a deep breath before letting it all out.
'I was unpacking and I found my wand and my fingers started to tingle like they always do when something bad is about to happen. I tried to work it off and kept unpacking, but then I started to tremble and-' She paused to catch her breath. '- I got anxious and everyone has been staring at me all day and it really has gotten on my nerves.'
She exhaled and turned around, her back now facing Charlie. Her hands were still trembling and a headache started to come up. Trying to make them both stop she clutched both hands on either side of her face, covering her ears and her fingers tangling with her wild hair. She let out a shaky breath and closed her eyes. She forgot what she just told Charlie and forgot he was even there in her cabin and focussed all her attention on making things stop. She just wanted it to stop so she could leave Romania and forget about her mistake of coming here in the first place. But it didn't stop and she had no power or knowledge on how to stop. She felt like crying, but she would never cry, she would never show weakness again. In the back of her head something screamed at her of listening to the dark lords words, but she ignored it.
Before anything could happen, Charlie knew what he had to do. He had to calm her down. Not with a hug, or reassuring words. No, he had a feeling none of that would work at this moment. He needed to do something... He got an idea. He slowly walked around her and stood in front of her, slowly he raised his hands and pulled hers down. She froze when his skin touched hers, but she didn't open her eyes nor spoke. He took her hands and gently pulled them as he walked backwards. He guided her slowly of the steps and made sure she didn't walk into something and guided her over the grass, not bothering to use the gravel paths. She still looked very pale and her eyes stayed shut. After a minute or two walk, he arrived at an arch and they stepped through. She let out another shaky breath.
'Where are we going?'
He didn't answer her. Instead he pulled her a couple of meters forward and then came to a halt. She heard him do something, but she couldn't guess what.
'Don't be scared.' He said suddenly.
'I'm not scared.'
She couldn't see his face, but she could feel him grin.
'Should I be scared?' She asked.
Once again he didn't answer her question. She frowned. He took hold of her hands again and pulled her forward. She gasped when her feeth touched the freezing water. She gritted her teeth.
'It's freezing!'
'Yeah, sorry. I don't think my warming spell is applied properly.'
'Well, you aren't wrong.'
He muttered some words again and her feet suddenly felt a bit warmer, though they were still a bit cold.
'Will you open your eyes?'
He asked soflty, but she could feel his breath tickle her cheeks, he was standing close. She tried to think of were they were, but her mind didn't seem to want to do such a thing as thinking. Her mind was one blank space and she sighed. And then suddenly something struck her; they were at a dragon reserve, which holds every sort of dragons, including water dragons and they walked through something that felt awfully a lot like a protection barrier. She gasped and at the same time as her eyes flung open a loud roar in the distance erupted from the water surface.
'Water dragons.' She breathed, eyes widened.
'Yes.' Charlie chuckled.
'Are you trying to get me killed, because if so there are much easier ways to do so.'
Charlie rolled his eyes.
'I'm simply testing our theory. If I wanted to kill you -which I never would- I would not do it by feeding you to the dragons.'
'Well that's reassuring.' She said dryly.
'By the way, there's no danger standing here. There still is a protection barrier between us and the dragons.'
Although the sky had already darkened, she could see a glimps of the barrier. She thought back at what he had said about testing our theory.
'The theory was wrong.'
She said staring into the dark, where just moments ago a dragon had roared.
'How can you give up that easily?' He asked, with a bit of disbelief hidden in his voice.
'I don't give up that easily!'
'Don't you?'
His words made her rethink everything, from the moment she had tried to fight the dark within her. She didn't want to admit it, but he was right. She had stopped hoping, stopped believing things could go right again. She had lost her hope.
'I lost hope.'
'There will always be hope.'
'Will there be?'
She turned her head to look at him. She saw curiosity and sadness in his eyes, no pity, no anger.
'In the darkest moments of life, can there still be hope? When everything you hold dear is cut away and replaced with madness and darkness?'
She looked at him intently and he looked back. She turned to face him fully. Something in her fluttered making her nauseous.
'When there is no life left to live, only pain, suffer and anger?'
She saw him stiffen at her words. He was at a loss of words. She turned back facing the large lake. She couldn't see any of the dragons, but she was sure they could see her. She felt her freezing feet and the cold wind around her. She wanted to turn around, walk away and sit in front of a good fire with a blanket, a hot mug of tea and a book. But she couldn't move a muscle, she stood frozen in a lake. With dragons. She mused to herself.
'Do you feel tingling?' He suddenly asked.
She was startled by this sudden question. She turned to look at him, but he was staring over the lake.
'No.'
She replied after a moment.
'Are you trembling?'
'From the cold.'
He turned to look at her. He didn't need to say any words, for his eyes spoke for him. He had just proven himself right, she had calmed down, she was in control again. She looked down at her feet and the rippling water. She had wrapped her arms around herself from the cold, but it hadn't worked. The cold left her when Charlie's coat was draped around her shoulders. She looked up at him again, into his beautiful dark grey eyes.
'There's still hope, Aral.'
She nodded at him in response, not able to do much more.
'I'm thankful for this calming and encouraging session in the lake, but I'm kind of freezing my toes off.'
'Oh, no! I'm sorry! I should really work on my warming spells.'
He looked very regretful. Just when she wanted to move, he scooped her up. Effortlessly he carried her back. She opened her mouth to complain, but he was quicker.
'Don't say I can't carry you all the way back, because -lets be honest- we've already done this.'
Aral shut her mouth and blushed, lucky for her it was dark and he could not see it.
'We should stop ending in these situations.' She commented.
'I can't quite agree.'
She quirked a brow at him. He smirked down at her.
'I quite like saving the day.'
She rolled her eyes.
They walked back together, well, Charlie walked with Aral in his arms. They didn't say another word and enjoyed the silence.
