Black Stained
Chapter 8: Promise from the Scar
The apartment was at the outskirts of muggle-London. The numbering system wasn't that complicated, yet for a wizard it takes some time and cleverness to find the right adress.
'28th... 28th...' The wizard muttered to himself.
After looking for a couple minutes he found the entrance. In the hallway stood another wizard, Harry Potter.
'Harry,' He nodded. 'You didn't have to come, you know.'
'But I do, Charlie, I do.' He pressed the button on the lift. 'She's my sister and I have no ability to find her, my auror training included.'
He sounded so helpless. Charlie put a reassuring hand on the sad brother's shoulder.
'She just doesn't want to be found. But you will, I'm sure of it.'
Harry sighed still looking down to the floor. Then he looked up.
'What are your reasons to believe she might be here?'
'When I heard she had... disappeared, I started writing some letters.' The lift doors opened, revielling a plain hallway.
'My owl returned the first six letters, but the last time I wrote he never returned. I used a tracking spell on my owl.'
They stepped into the hallway and made their way over to the door with the number 28 on it. The letter was still plastered on it. Charlie scanned it quickly and took it of the door.
'It's a very smart move.'
Harry frowned at this comment.
'I believe she is hiding in plain sight.' Charlie explained.
He took out his wand and pointed it at the lock. Harry stopped him before he could act.
'Do you really believe I haven't tried? It doesn't open to magic.'
Charlie put away his wand again.
'I even tried bombarda and other spells, but none worked. And I'm an auror!' He mocked himself.
Charlie frowned. 'You could have said sooner.'
'Yeah, sorry, I didn't give it any thought.' Harry looked as if he was screaming at himself for being stupid.
Then something dawned on Charlie.
'It doesn't open to magic.'
'Yes, I said that.' Harry shuffled around. 'So what are we going to do now?'
He looked behind him to check for muggles and peeked around the corner.
'I suggest we-'
A loud bang came from the front of Harry and he twisted his neck so fast it was a miracle he didn't break it. Harry stared wide eyed at the sight of Charlie, who had forced the door open with his broad shoulder. He stood there for a moment, perplexed.
'Like you said, 'It doesn't open to magic, so I figured,' Charlie stepped into the narrow hall. 'maybe it does to strenght.'
Harry slowly followed him into the apartment. Once they reached the kitchen they stopped quickly and gagged a little. A terrible smell drenched the place, moldy damp and stinking food. Harry never could stand a horrible smell well and he stayed at the door for a moment, hand in front of his mouth and nose.
'Well, maybe she wasn't still here.'Charlie commented upon seeing the horrible mess in the kitchen and the smell.
Who would ever live in a place like this? The kitchen was, besides being filled with rotting things everywhere, not decorated much. The only thing he could see between the mess was a knife block, five knives in a perfect row only missing one. He stepped out and went through a door, he entered a living room. It was empty, only plain and simple furniture. Something in the corner of his eye got his attention and he slowly turned. He saw a knocked over table, it was next to another door. Harry now came to living room too. Charlie turned to see Harry. He looked so tired and broken. His hair was like it always was; wildly peaking everywhere, it had grown rather long and covered his scar, but it couldn't cover his eyes. Which were hollow and with bags under them. Ginny had owled Charlie, something she did when she didn't know what to do in situations -just like this one-, that Harry wasn't doing good. Of course with his sister gone, but it was more than that, everything had gotten bad; his mood, his work, he never sleeps and was just... broken, broken by his sister's disappearance. Harry picked up a picture frame at the window, it was from him and Aral, waving happily. He clutched the thing so hard, he wanted to hold onto his sister, he hoped this would drive him and he would be able to find her.
'Harry.'
Harry looked up at Charlie.
'Yes?'
Charlie understood that loosing family was hard, he had lost Fred, but he also knew false hope wasn't going to help the lost brother.
'Go home.'
Harry didn't answer at first, still holding onto the picture.
'But-'
'You were right, she isn't here.'
Harry looked down at the picture again.
'She's been gone so long... The papers have theories about her being dead.'
Charlie could see Harry breaking down to pieces.
'She can not be dead! She can't!'
'And she isn't, but you have to get some rest.' Charlie pressed on.
'You don't understand, Charlie-'
'But I do! I do understand. I do know how it feels to loose family. And I will promise you Aral isn't dead. She's a fighter.'
Harry stared at the picture for a while. Silence filled the space between them.
'Notify me if you find anything okay?'
'I will.'
Charlie noticed Harry didn't let go of the picture, but took it with him. They said goodbye and Harry left. Charlie had to admit he was really disappointed his theorie wasn't correct, she wasn't there. But the tracking spell he used on his owl let him here, why? He walked to the door and noticed something else; there was a dent in the wooden surface of the table, as if something had fallen against it. He opened the door, but waited for a moment before entering the next room. It was so dark, he couldn't see anything. He took out his wand and muttered 'Lumos'. But the room staid dark, he still couldn't see anything. This was strange, he felt something else too; something dark and powerful. There was magic in this place, a lot of it. Working with dragons gave him a lot of experience with powerful and magical creatures, but he had never felt anything like this. He shuffled through the dark untill his feet bumped against something, a bed probably. He hurt rustling from behind him and he turned. First there was nothing, then suddenly wings flapped around his ears and feathers were everywhere and a bird was screeching. He yelped and covered his face. The screeching stopped and the feathers stopped hitting him. Charlie dared to peak from behind his elbow and saw a brown owl. His owl.
'Baltimore?'
The owl looked at him, recognizing his owner and screeched softly.
'What are you still doing here?'
The owl tilted his head and then spread his wings. He flew to the other side of the room and answered Charlie's question.
Curled up in a corner, next to her bed, laid Aral. He was so shocked he could not speak, nor make any sound. He sprinted towards her, leaping over a broken lamp. When he reached her he thought for a moment she was dead. Her face was turned away from sight and her hair hid her features. She was smelly and extremely dirty.
'Aral!' Was the first thing he could say.
He took her pulse and a deep sigh of relieve left his lips when he felt her heartbeat, weak, but it was there. He cursed himself for sending Harry away, while he had been so close apparently.
'Aral!' Charlie tried again.
'You're alive.' Charlie whispered, holding onto the happy thought.
'Aral. Please, can you hear me?' He tried, but no reaction came from her.
He brushed her hair away from her face and turned it towards him. Her eyes were opened. It shocked Charlie to see her like this. Her eyes were open, but she was not there, they were dark and staring away from him .
'Aral.' Charlie tried. He took her hand.
I should lay her down on the bed.' Charlie thought to himself.
Charlie stood up and wanted to pick her up, but he felt the ground, upon he was standing, feeling strange; hobbly and bumpy. Quickly he lid his wand. He took a few steps back when he saw what he was standing on; plants. Large tentacles of plants spreading across the room. Not just on the floor, but also on Aral's bed and walls. Charlie followed the black leaved plant strings and found their source; Aral.
'What the hell?' Charlie muttered out loud.
What's happening to her? He didn't know and just stood there.
He was breathing heavily, not knowing what to do. Eventually Charlie bent down on one knee and looked into her eyes. He hesitated, he had an idea... sort of. He turned her head so her eyes stared into his.
'Aral.'
He concentrated on her eyes and imagined her waking up, he pictured it and played it over and over in his head. He concentrated all of his power and magic on it and stared down at her. Her eyes were black orbs and had a depth, he felt like sinking into them, falling and falling. It felt like he was looking deeper and looked right into her soul. He heard whispers, but ignored them. Something else was attracting his focus. A soft voice... humming. It seemed to be a melody or something. His focus drifted away and he found himself just staring at her, sinking further and further down into those black orbs.
They both snapped out of their trance at the same time. She gasped for breath, as if she had held her breath the whole time. She saw his eyes, those eyes... someone familiar. She blinked and felt numb for a moment. Her hart quickened and she wanted to push away the person in front of her. She did what she always did, what she could do best. Her speciality at Malfoy Manor -the memories even made it worse- :
She screamed.
Images flashed behind his eyes. Horrifying images poured through his mind like water. He wanted to scream too. No words were able to discribe the horrible things he saw. But as quick as the images came, they left. He saw right into her eyes again, now she was really looking back, conscious.
They were both breathing heavily now and he blinked fast a few times.
'Aral.'
She was shaking and cold. In one smooth motion he picked her up and intended to lay her down on her bed, but seeing all the creepy plants covering it, he decided the couch would do. Even better; there was much more light. When he stepped out of the bedroom, a dark and heavy feeling left him and he embraced the lightness of the livingroom. Aral, however, not so much. She yelped and covered her eyes with her thin and bony hands. When he put her down, he felted his shirt being wet. He looked down and saw bloodstains covering it. Immediately he knew she was wounded and he crouched down beside her to inspect her. She was covered in blood, something he hadn't noticed in the dark room. He traced the blood to a wound on her arm. Her flesh was cut in a strange shape.
'Aral, I will be right back, okay?' He said, but she didn't respond, she just stared at the ceiling.
Charlie was scared, the woman he had met some time ago wasn't anything like this. He gagged a little again when he entered the kitchen and started looking through the drawers for supplies. He didn't find much but enough to help him clean and wrap the wound. Although he lived on the dragon reserve and had encountered many wounds, he never really was a star at healing spells. She was in the same position he had left her in and he quickly began cleaning the wound with a simple spell; the only thing he dared to do with his wand. Even if he was going to try and use some healing spells he wasn't sure about the effect it would have; for the magic around Aral was powerful and dark and could bent the spell, not giving the wanted effect. With a wet towel he removed the blood and saw something vaguely familiar, but he gave it no thought. He was concentrating on healing her.
She was breathing more steadily now, he finished wrapping her wound in a bandage and leant back against the table behind him. He sighed deeply, the adrenalin left his body and he felt tired. But he wasn't done yet, he had to now what had happened and of course bring her to the hospital. He leaned forwards and made sure she noticed him.
'Aral, what happened?'
'I'm so sorry.' She whimpered.
'About what?' Charlie asked, glad he had finally made her talk.
'So sorry.' A tear dropped from her eye onto a pillow.
Charlie didn't understand her.
'You don't have to be sorry.'
He tried to calm her, but it didn't help; tears started streaming down her face like waterfalls.
'Aral,' He crawled closer to her. 'Do you remember your promise? The promise you made me, under the tree at the Burrow?'
Slowly she nodded.
'Than don't feel sorry, okay?'
She shook her head and her face pulled into a pained and horrible scared look.
'You- you don't understand.' She sobbed. 'I'm a horrible- horrible per- person.'
'Of course not! Aral, you are amazing!' He had a feeling this had something to do that has been with her for a while. The war.
'Aral, listen to me. Whatever happened, you don't have to tell me, but everyone has something in his live he would rather change. And yes, some things are more terrible than others, but it's all about who's guilty and who is not.'
'I am gui-'
'No, you're not Aral! And do you want to know how I know?'
She waited in anguish.
'Because I know you are strong. And whatever you think you have done, can't be. Because you are capable of love. And someone who feels love cannot be able to do a horrible thing without someone else being responsible for it. So don't blame yourself.'
His speech made her calm down, but she still didn't forgive herself.
He clutched her hand and squeezed it.
'Promise?'
'Promise.' She whispered.
