Black Stained

Chapter 14: New faces

She had decided to eat her breakfast at the small table in her cabin, not in the mood for the prying eyes. Although the amount of eyes had decreased since last week it still got on her nerves. Her food lay on her plate, half eaten, and her tea cupped in her hands was momentarily only used for the heat. The damp ascended under her chin and tickled her skin with heat, while she just stared in front of her, book on her lap, unread. Her eyes watched through the window opposite her and saw the morning commence. Although her eyes were looking, nothing -or maybe very little- registered in her mind. People passing, starting their shift or just coming off. Dew on the grass dripping and disappearing into the ground. Her breathing was slow and her heart beat calm. She could almost hear her own heart beating in the silence of her surroundings. This place, Romania, was so peaceful... She had finally found a place of peace and peace in her self when she had arrived and the days after. But somehow, no matter where she was, reality was able to find her and catch up with her. Letters arrived for her, by owl, knocking on her windows. They were from Harry and Ginny, Hermione, Molly, even Ron -Though short- and other members of the Weasley family.

Weasley family... Am I no part of it anymore?

She had always been welcomed, since they -Harry and she- had been young the family had exepted them, but know she felt... parted. She shook the nagging feeling in the bottom of her belly away. She didn't want to read the letters, but Charlie had urged her to, he said it would be better if she did. She had sent them a letter telling she was alive and kicking, but she didn't tell them where exactly she was and what she was doing. Only a sign of life. Life. What kind of life was she living? Her trail of thoughts got interupted by an owl knocking on the window glass. Fresh air filled her longs when she opened the window. She recognized the big, black owl, Harry's new owl.

'Hello there.'

She tended to start talking to animals nowadays, maybe because it was her main job nowadays. Talking and bonding with dragons. She gave it some nuts and let it nibble on them while she read her newly arrived letter. Harry, again. Her troublesome brother never gave up. Sighing she unfolded it and started reading.

Dear Aral,

I've been trying to reach you. -'Oh really, all those letters were from you?' Aral thought sarcastically.

As I've told you in the last couple of letters... We are worried sick. Please tell me -or us- where you are?

I'm not even sure you're reseaving these letters. For all I know you could be kidnapped. Except for -of course- the letters you sent us.

Your 'signs of life', as Ginny nicknamed them.

Speaking of Ginny, she's been excepted to the holly head harpies, not the main team of course, but I believe she can make it eventually.

And Ron is doing alright. Were both doing great with our auror training.

To be honest, I have no idea what I'm supposed to write you. I don't even know if you will read this, it could be these letters are all dumped in a lake.

God, Aral, please...

I have no idea what to do without you!

Where are you?

Please, Aral... -She could picture Harry writing this letter, sitting frustrated in a chair, hands in his hair and grunting.-

-Harry

She dropped the letter on her table. She could still see traces of tears on the dried paper. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart started aching. He was worried and desperate. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. She let go of all the feelings that pained her and formed a wall around her heart. But it wasn't a solid wall. She turned to the owl and moved it towards the window. She could feel the small magic surrounding the owl, meaning Harry had once again put a tracing charm on it. But Aral knew she was save, the magic around this place altered and some times even deflected small charmes. He couldn't trace her all the way here. She picked up the letter and placed it on a rapidly growing pile of letters in the corner of her 'living room'. It was time to go to work and she took a last sip of her tea. She swallowed it with disgust, it had cooled down. She threw the rest in the sink and set out to the baby dragon centre, with a feeling of sadness and wariness filling her heart.


Her day at the centre had been tyring, she had to give lots of attention to lots of dragons. Lucky for her one of the dragons was being transferred to the larger holdings today. It was supposed to be Nicki and Levi's job, but Nicki had become ill this morning and had asked Aral to replace her. She was nervous about the job. Once Levi returned -which could be any moment- they would bring Saph and meet other care takers at the entrance of the hills. Secretly she hoped Charlie would be there. Levi had assured her that there was no magic supposed to be involved -he was aware about her troubles with performing magic. But she could only hear the word 'supposed' echo in her head. What if it went wrong? What if she had to do something?

Get yourself together!

She mentally screamed at herself.

Levi and others will be present.

That thought helped a bit with her anxiety. She straightened up and looked at herself in a reflecting piece of furniture in the surgery. Some wild hairs were dangling in front of her face and she pushed them behind her ears, a hopeless atempt, they almost immediately fell back. She stared herself in the eyes, watching them, inspecting to see some dark shimmer appear, but they stayed green. Maybe the place did help her after all. She had found to have more control here, she was less afraid of losing control and make bad things happen. She looked down at her hands and turned them over. A lamp on a desk caught her eye. Would she do it? Would she experiment and see if she could do something without breaking it? She didn't even notice moving herself over to the desk until she was so close to the lamp if she bent down her nose would touch it. She hastily turned around and stalked to the other side of the room.

Have you lost your mind?!

Now she didn't do anything, but wait for Levi and stare at the wall opposite her. She fell into a doze and closed her eyes. A squeaking sound startled her and she pushed away from the wall to face the noise-maker. She regained a relaxed pose when she realized it was Levi coming up to her.

'Hey, sorry, didn't mean to startle you.' Levi apologized holding his hands up.

'You didn't.' She quickly replied.

He gave her a small smile.

'Good, are you ready to go?'

'Yeah, of course.'

They moved to the air room and picked up Saph, who had grown large, almost the size of a small pony, even bigger when it spread its wings. Gemi happily came from her hiding place and hopped over to Aral. She felt a bit better when her eye caught the happy little Gemi. But sadly she had no time to play with Gemi and had to leave when they had finaly and savely apprehended the larger and stronger dragon. With the size and capabilities it had now it could do a lot more damage than the smaller ones, therefore they had to be extra careful. She quickly glanzed over to Gemi and saw her look a little disappointed, but Aral had other matters to attend to. Saph was being coaxed into a magical cage and levitated in the air by Levi. With a last look of goodbye to Gemi they left and walked out of the centre.

They walked passed the big lake containing the water dragons Aral had met before. Thinking back at that night made her smile a little, but she quickly hid it. The gravel beneath their feet gave a crunching noise with every step they took. It was warmer that day, no clouds that hid away the sun and heat. There was a silence between her and Levi, but it was a pleasant one, not awkward at all. But eventually Levi broke it.

'The dragons have made great improvement.'

She didn't understand how he meant it and therefore gave him a simple reply.

'Really?'

He looked back over his shoulder at the dragon currently curled up in his cage and then looked at her again.

'Ever since you arrived we have less sick and weak ones.'

She was surprised by what he said, she never imagined to be the source of something good. She gave him a look of surprise.

'You have even -somehow, I don't know how- affected the full-grown ones.'

'Well, it pleases me very much to know I am able to help.'

'You're being too shy.' He chuckled.

'Not as shy as you are.' She teased him, wanting to change the subject.

'What do you mean?' He asked.

Aral smiled, she had seen the way he looked at Nicki, not only admiringly... He fancied her. Although she was guessing, she was pretty sure she was right.

'I mean, I'm not sure, but...' She smirked up at him. 'You seem rather fond of Nicki, don't you?'

He avoided her gaze and instead watched his feet moving over the gravel. A shy shade of pink coloured his cheeks, giving away his shame.

'No need to be ashamed, Levi! She's very nice.'

He was still watching his feet.

Are all dragon trainers tough on the outside and softer than feathers on the inside? She thought.

She stept in front of him making him stop walking and look up at her. She had the urge to grab his shoulders and shake some sense in him, but was able to restrain herself just in time.

'Levi, you are a dragon tamer-'

'Care taker.' He corrected her.

'You work with dragons, one of the most dangerous species on this earth and up-close work too. How can you be afraid of asking Nicki on a date?'

It was a very direct question on the matter and it made him swallow and shift on his feet, uncomfortably.

'What if- What if she doesn't-... like me?' The question came out very difficult, she didn't blame him, she was attacking him with questions about a private matter. She made a mental note to apologize later for barging into his personal life like this.

'You save little dragons and help others to give them a better life, how can she not love you for that?'

She said, hoping to encourage him. She stepped aside and continued walking to the hill entrace again. Levi quickly caught up.

'So you really think I- Should I ask her? On a date I mean?'

He sounded so shy, it was almost cute.

'Yes, I think so. Hiding your feelings can have terrible effect on your future.' She knew this out of experience.

He nodded and said, more to himself that to her:

'Alright then, I will.' He swallowed again.

They finally arrived at the entrance and joined the other group at the foot of the hills. To her disappointed she saw Charlie was not there.

'Right on time. Everything went alright?' An older man with dark eyes and brown hair asked with a thick accent.

'Yes, everything went perfectly well. Saph was no trouble at all.'

'I didn't mean the dragon.'

Aral raised her eyebrows. Before Levi could reply she cut in the conversation.

'If that's a way of asking if I did my job right than I say to you: you should be able to see we have all three arrived, without any wounds or burns and without breaking a sweat. And might I ad it went perfectly well, like he said.'

She crossed her arms for dramatic effect. The older man looked a bit perplexed at her sudden snarl.

Probably not the best way to make a first impression, Aral. She thought to herself and once again mentally punished herself for it.

The silence builded and the pressure added with every passing second. She shifted in her pose and sighed. What she was about to do was going to leave a small scar on her pride and gryffindor self. She took a deep breath and very quickly, wanting it to be over as quickly as possible, she apologized to the man.

'I'm sorry, sir, I'm not having the best morning of my life.'

There, it was said. Wasn't that hard. She dared to look him in the eye. He seemed to except her apology and nodded at her understandingly.

Thank Merlin.

'We all have those once in a while.' A stranger said.

She turned to the new voice and saw a handsome young man. Handsome was the first word that came to her mind, he truly was. If he would want to he could probably end up in Witches Weekly number one every week on the list of most handsome wizards. She shook those thoughts out of her head.

What the hell are you doing?

She looked at him, but didn't let her eyes linger. She could tell from the way he was standing and how he looked he recieved much attention from ladies, and she didn't want to be one of them. She wasn't like that, she never was.

'Lets get going. I rather have this done before christmas.' Another said, with a heavy scottish accent.

They followed him through the entrance and up in the hills. Distant roars and the sound of flapping wings informed them of the dangers that lay ahead. Aral could not help, but be very excited to meet the full-grown air dragons.