Black Stained
Chapter 9: Reversed
Aral's arm was stinging and she regretted what she had tried to do to it while in her... -well, let's just say- unstable state. Charlie brought her a glass of water and some food from the kitchen -which took a while, considering almost everything was covered in little over a month weeks old mold.
'Thank you.' She said weakly.
Charlie was still very concerned and watched her cautiously from the chair opposite the couch.
'I need to bring you to st Mungo's for-'
'No.'
Charlie's face was pure astonishement.
'Have you seen what you look like?' Charlie paced over to her. 'Your skin is paler than paper, you're underfed, dehydrated and wounded, that cut needs to be treated!'
He pointed his finger at the wound wrapped in bandage.
'By the way, the magic around here may affect you. It's dangerous and dark. I have never felt anything like it.'
His face turned very serious and Aral dared to look him in the eye. She couldn't stop herself form blurting out the words.
'Well, if I left this place it wouldn't help me get rid of it.' She snapped.
Confusion grew in his eyes and she saw it. She sighed and took a sip of water, avoiding him.
'You need to get to the hospital.' Charlie urged her.
She kept her mouth shut for a moment, avoiding his gaze. She was acting like a child, but she had good reasons to do so.
Charlie suddenly moved away and slapped himself on the forehead.
'I totally forgot! How stupid... I need to inform Harry.'
'NO!'
Charlie couldn't believe the woman; she didn't want to go to the hospital and wouldn't let her brother know where she was! Was she going insane? The papers did say so, maybe the media would for once predict something that was coming true.
'Please,' She pleaded, now looking in his eyes again. 'If I told you why, if I told you... will you listen to me and let me choose what to do?'
Charlie stood frozen and considered the offer. He would finally know what was going on, but he made her choose for herself, which could turn out pretty bad.
'I'm not insane, Charlie.'
Those words convinced him and he returned to his former seat, indicating with his hand to make her talk.
She played with her greasy hair for a moment and then started talking.
'What do you know about what happened to me in the war? What's the story?'
Charlie remembered some of it, there was a great distance between him and England before he joined the battle. He rested his elbows on his knees.
'You were captured, probably tortured and they made you do things...' He played with his hands. 'No one should have gone through such horror.'
He looked into her eyes, he thought the memories of the war would scare her or at least something else, but her eyes were firm and determination lingered behind them.
'Is that it? No specifics or anything?' She was surprised.
'No one dares to talk about it really, they have all seen you and you were forced,' He noticed her flinch. 'but then you broke free of them, you became a war hero.'
She flinched again. Charlie wanted to ask her why it seemed to affect her when he adressed to her like that but she left no time for him to ask.
'The first two are not wrong, the third...' She couldn't finish the sentence, she couldn't speak the words she knew to be true.
She just shook her head.
'After I was brought at Malfoy Manor they liked to play with me, torture me and such. But Voldemort,' Charlie was surprised she could say his name without flinching or a trembling voice. 'had other plans for me.'
She put her emptied plate and glass on the table and leaned back against the couch.
'In my fourth year I started showing some strange symptoms. I could do things, magical things... without the use of a wand.'
She paused for a moment, Charlie was still listening interested.
'Of course wandless magic is known and not that strange, but mine felt more like that. I hid this, but Dumbledore knew it and some others. Somehow the news had travelled a little further and reached the darkest corner of the earth. He -Voldemort- believed it was a sign of 'true power' and he wanted it for himself.'
She stopped talking, memories traveling down to her mind. She rubbed her neck, her hands were trambling and she tried to stop it. The pressure in the room increased and it felt like she wasn't able to breathe normally. Her heart started pounding as if it had grown astranged of her body, not able to control it.
'You don't have to tell all of it, yet, if you don't want to.' Charlie assured her, she was thankful for that.
'He couldn't have it. So he tortured me and drained me. And when I was competely drained and weak, they let something loose...'
Her eyes turned dark. The room got darker. Charlie felt that wathever she was feeling was affecting him too, and the room around them. He waited for her to continue the story, his heart pounding fast, he stayed silent.
'It consumed me. It crawled inside of me, took controle.'
She looked directly into his eyes, she wasn't scared of his judgement, not anymore. The urge of showing him, spread all over her. But she knew she wasn't ready to show him everything, but she could show him a little bit. She could trust him, she knew this because he was a good listener and was friendly, his presence seemed to calm her down.
Slowly she reached for the bandage. Charlie had seen the cut and wrapped it. But there never was any need for her to go to st. Mungo's. She already felt her arm and the process it had begun to fix the mark she had tried to get rid of. Slowly she unwrapped it. With each layer she peeled of Charlie's face became more frowned, a couple seconds more and Aral thought the wrinkles would never leave their place on his face. She removed the last layer, presenting the half dried blood. Charlie wanted to stop her, say she had to leave it on, because otherwise she could bleed out. But none of his muscles reacted and no words left his lips. He could only stare at her, glancing from the wound to her face and back. She revieled the cut and turned her arm to make it easier to inspect the wound. He couldn't find it, underneath all the blood. Still he could not move, nor talk. Only stare. She saw his look of concern and his eyes puzzling, not able to understand what was happening. She stared in his eyes for a moment and then took a piece of fresh cloth and started rubbing her arm. Charlie's eyes widened.
'You shouldn't-'
'Shh.'
She cut him off, accompanied with a glare that made him shut his mouth and stare at the wound again. The blood disappeared and his eyes widened even further. She stopped rubbing her arm and turned it a bit further to Charlie so he was able to see it clearly. She dropped the cloth on the table.
'How can that be?'
Charlie broke the silence, looking up into her eyes, with the most puzzled and dark grey eyes Aral had ever seen.
'How is it possible,' Charlie exclaimed. 'I saw the cut only moments ago!'
Aral frowned at him. He had responded to her mark first, but commented about the wound not being in its place anymore.
He glanced back at her arm again and than he noticed. He saw the black ink, imprinted on her skin and the skull with the snake staring back at him.
He stopped breathing.
She rolled her sleeves down. And looked up into his eyes, but he could only stare, only stare at her arm. She felt the air being ripped away from her lungs again. She shouldn't have told him, she shouldn't have! She jumped up from the couch, causing her head to go fuzzy and black and white spots to appear in front of her eyes, this however didn't stop her from moving away from the room. She fled again, remembering she wasn't strong.
Charlie's frozen body melted and he reacted quickly at her attempt. He took one step and grapped her wrist. She stared up at him, he was a head taller than her. Her eyes were widened and scared. Her breathing uncontrolled and her heartbeat fast. She made a weak attempt of freeing herself by pulling. But his grip was too strong and his eyes were piercing into hers, the dark silver burning away her defence. He slowly turned her arm to face up again. He looked down and reached for her sleeve. His fingers delicately shoved the sleeve up and revieled the dark mark. She didn't want to look at it, but her eyes got cought by the skull and the snake, it almost looked like it was actually moving... Her eyes got foggy and with a lot of effort she managed to tear her eyes away. She did not dare to look at Charlie, but felt is eyes burning into her. Time stood still, there was no smell from the kitchen and no sound from the outside street, no touch from the ground or air. She did however smell him... and she heard his breathing and felt his hand and fingers. His breath reached her skin and goosebumps appeared all over. His judgement, she had first thought not to matter to her, was burning her. She felt it, through his eyes and wanted to break free to flee once again, to try to not to excist. She felt the whole again, that always greeted her when she was sad, the dark that consumed her and took over when she didn't want to anymore. But instead of all that happening, Charlie spoke.
'It does not matter.'
She was shocked by his judgement on the matter, yet again surprised. He stroked the skin with his thumb, the touch made her heart skip a beat. It had been a long time since she had been near anyone, let allone someone touching her in this way.
'How can it not matter?' She anguished.
'Because it doesn't change the person I met a few months ago.'
'But that person isn't here, not anymore.' She looked into his eyes again, she surprised herself in the movement, courage flickering inside her a little.
'Than it will be my quest to find her.' Charlie said, with a hint of a smirk on his lips.
'I wish you all the luck in the world, you will need it.'
They both became aware of their close position and moved away from each other. Aral quickly pulled her sleeve down, Charlie saw the movement and nodded at her understandingly.
'What do you want to do now?' He asked. She clearly had no need of a hospital and what had happened to her was still a bit of a mystery to him. But what he had said to her he had meant; he will fix it, whatever there was to fix.
'I- I don't really know.'
Aral thought about what the possibilities were, there weren't much. She slowly walked over to the window in her livingroom, she looked down to the almost abandoned street. Her mind was to shaken to really think.
'I don't want to- I can't go back to the life I had.'
Charlie staid silent, listening. He is such a good listener. She thought to herself.
'Can you help me?'
'Of course I can. And I will.' Charlie responded.
Aral gave him a small smile.
'I promise.' He said, winking at her mockingly.
