Black Stained

Chapter 15: True or False?

A small group dragon tamers walked up to the tent in centre of the reserve. The canteen was swarming with people like an ants nest. They made small talk with each other while getting their food and walking over to the tables and benches.

'That's your theory? Don't make me laugh.' A younger woman with a hooked nose said to a middle-aged woman with blonde hair.

Two other man sat down across from them, sharing a look with each other.

'Tsk.' The blonde disagreed. 'As if your theory is any better.'

'But I have a reliable source! Nothing you can say.' She argued.

This caught the interest of the other and the rest of their company, whom had first ignored their bickering.

'I received a letter from my mother, with an artical from the daily prophet.'

In Romania they hardly received the widely known newspaper.

'So what was it about?' One of the man dared to join in to the gossiping.

Her eyes glittered with excitement when she shoved the small piece of paper over the table for the rest to read. Their eyes widened in shock and the blonde even gasped.

'I still don't believe it.' The older man said.

'How can you not after reading this?' The hook nosed woman exclaimed.

'Because it is written by Rita Skeeter.' The man stated turning back to his lunch and continuing to eat.

'And what's wrong with that? She is a formidable writer.'

'That woman makes up the stories she writes. She's better at it than Gilderoy Lockhart faking his fame.'

'On the contrary, she writes the truth! She isn't scared of admitting to the facts. She discoveres liars who try to burry their nasty little secrets, such as miss Potter.'

The man only shook his head. He muttered something incomprehensible, which sounded a bit like:

'Has her brain been sucked out by nargles or something?'

Only the other man next to him was able to hear it and he silently chuckled at his comment, while the two women proceeded in their bickering.

The younger man turned to the older and was curious about the way the latter had responded to Rita Skeeter's article.

'How come you don't believe Rita Skeeter?'

He watched the older man intently. The older man's face contorted into a grumpy expression, clearly not fond of the subject. When he finally finished chewing and swallowing his food he turned to the younger.

'You remember I'm a widower, right?'

The younger nodded. He has been friends ever since he came to work with the man and they had shared some stories and secrets. The older looked around to check nobody was listening to them, he didn't want to share such information as this except with his friend.

'She died in an accident. The ministry had made a mistake, a huge mistake. It's too long a story to tell all of it now, but the result of their mistake was her death.'

He looked down at his plate, obviously still hurt by the loss of his wife and angry at the ministry.

'My wife was perfectly innocent, she had nothing to do with any of it. And yet Rita Skeeter - the foul liar - had made her responsible for the accident. Ever since the article came out in the Daily Prophet people started to judge her and memories of her were spoiled by lies.'

He shook his head.

'Don't believe a word of what that witch writes or says.'

The younger nodded at him. They continued eating in silence for a couple of minutes.

'So...' The younger started. 'What do you believe happened to Aral Potter?'

The older thought for a moment.

'I don't have a theory specifically. But I don't believe that she killed muggles or followed you-know-who willlingly, nor that she is his child. Those are ludicrous ideas.'

'Do you think she still has her magic?'

The older frowned.

'How could she not? You are born with magic, you don't receive or take magic, nor can it be taken away from you.'

'But have you seen her practise magic? Because I haven't, never.'

'She doesn't have to she only takes care of the little ones, feed them and such. By the way, you don't even work with her so how can you know?'

'That's true, but that doesn't mean I haven't seen her.'

The younger grinned at the older, the latter sighed.

'Why can't you just leave the knew one alone? Why do you always have to -how do you phrase it?- check them out.'

'Because it isn't very common for a newby to be a girl, pretty, famous and to like to work with dragons.'

The older rolled his eyes.

'Well, you should watch out. I heard she is a snappy one.'

'But no one can resist the charm of Sebastian.'

The blonde woman interfered, apparently the women had stopped bickering and had picked up on the the men's conversation. She winked at Sebastian.

'Well, thank you. Helga.'

Sebastian responded, it was very clear this comment stroked his ego.

'Everyone knows you only speak the truth.'

The older sighed at the younger's comment.

'Your ego is bigger than the biggest Ironbelly.'

The women laughed and Sebastian blushed.

'Thank you, Ben.' Sebastian said to the elder.

'Come on, we have to go to work.'

They got up and parted. The women worked at the hospital and the men set out for the entrance at the hills. They had a dragon to transfer today.


'I think I can see them.' The scot said.

'Good, I've waited long enough now. You think they had trouble?' A men said.

'Dunno.' The scot responded.

'Nicki and Levi never have trouble, they are a remarkable team.' Ben commented.

'Nicki isn't working today. She got ill this morning.' Another said.

'Than who replaced her? Surely Levi didn't go alone.' Ben asked.

'No, she told me Potter replaced her.' The scot told the group.

They all turned to him and raised a brow. The scot raised his hands in a defending gesture.

'Sorry, I didn't think it was that important to tell.'

They shook their head and turned back to the approaching dragon care takers.

Sebastian bent over to Ben.

'I finally have the privilege to meet her.'

'Don't go mess with her. Remember Julie?'

'I wasn't the one to blame!'

'She had a mental breakdown and had to resign.'

Sebastian chuckled, but quickly caught himself and coughed.

'I won't.' He promised his friend.

'Good. Here they are.'

Ben took a step forward.

'Right on time. Everything went alright?' He asked.

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

He knew it went alright with the dragon, but that wasn't exactly what he was interested in and had intended with the question.

'I didn't mean the dragon.'

He looked at Aral Potter. He saw her brow raise and her face contorted into an expression of disbelieve. Levi had opened his mouth to respond, but Aral was quicker.

'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.'

Crossing her arms as she spoke the words. He was perplexed by her response.

'Snappy.' He heard Sebastian quietly murmur behind him.

After a moment of silence and an awkwardness building around them, she surprised him even more by what she did next.

She shifted her pose to something that looked more humble and less snippy. She took a deep breath and apologized. She apologized.

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

She looked him in the eyes and he could only find sincerity. He nodded at her excepting her apology. She seemed releived. Of course Sebastian couldn't keep his mouth shut in the presence of a -like he put it- pretty, famous, dragon-interested girl. Woman-, Ben corrected himself.

'We all have those once in a while.' He smirked at her.

Ben had the urge to turn him around and tell him to leave her alone, but she seemed able to handle him perfectly well on her own. She looked at Sebastian, taking in his features, but her gaze did not linger, thus ignoring his charms. Wise choice. Wise woman. Ben thought to himself, he couldn't help, but chuckle silently.

'Lets get going. I rather have this done before christmas.' The scot said.

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 laid ahead.

'Maybe you should follow your own advise. She is snappy.' Sebastian chuckled.

'Ha-Ha. Keep walking, we're working. There's no time for your sad 'love life'.'

Ben kept on walking, but Sebastian paused, his ego was a little scarred by his friends comment.

'My love life is not sad!'

Ben only laughed at him. It is, my friend. He thought, but he kept silent.


Charlie was glad his shift was finally over and he returned to the canteen for lunch. He'd just had a long shift, working with the Earth dragons was very tyring, sometimes they were hard to find in the caves and mountains. He got his food and returned to his usual table. He sighed when in the corner of his eye he could see Britney walking up to his table. The annoying woman always tried to get his attention, which he hated. Everyone knew she fancied him, but he didn't like her, she was the most irritating person on the whole reserve.

'Charrrrrlie.' She purred.

He could almost hex her for pronouncing his name like that. Sometimes she even called him Charles, and no one was allowed to do that except for his mother!

'Long shift?' She asked.

'You tell me. You know my timetable from memory, do you not?' He said not even taking the effort to look up.

She now just stood there at his side. When he didn't invite her to sit down, she sat down her self. Right next to Charlie, too close in his opinion. When he scooped a little to the side to leave at least eleven inches between them, it didn't help, she just moved closer to him. He chopped his food angrily, focusing all his attention and irritation on his food. When she reached to touch his hand he quickly reached for some napkins on the table, she pulled her hand back, Charlie was releived by this.

'So...' She started.

Charlie didn't want to hear whatever she had to say, but he always acted as much as a gentleman he could to a woman, no matter how infuriating they were. So he let her speak.

'You know that knew girl, Aral, don't you?' She drew closer to him.

He could smell her perfume, which was way too sweet and she seemed to be drenched in it.

'What about her?'

'Well, I'm just curious, Charl. Will you tell me?'

He dropped his fork and sighed.

'First of: don't call me Charl. Second: What are you talking about?'

'Okay, Charlie,' The sound of his name said by her still irritated him, but it was better than before. 'I'm talking about the rumors that are going around.'

He looked up, curious at last. This pleast her, so this is how I get his attention?

'I mean, no one really knows where she came from and how she is right now.'

He frowned. Her eyes gleamed with excitement.

'You know; does she still have her magic or where was she before she came her? Was she with death eaters after the war? Is she really you-know-who's child?'

She rattled in excitement. Charlie jumped up.

'What?!'

She chuckled at his reaction.

'Don't you know about the rumors?'

'I know there are rumors, but those rumors are- are... insane! I didn't think they went that far.'

'So they are not true?' She asked curiously, with a smirk still plastered on her face.

'Of course not, you daft cow!'

The moment the insult fell from his lips he regretted it, but he found a bit of pleasure from it. Such a gentleman. Charlie sneered at himself.

Her jaw dropped and her eyes were widened, he had never insulted or rejected her like this.

Apparently a few surrounding people had also heard him lash out at Britney. You could scrap 'a few'; everyone in the tent had heard him. Her gaze fell from his eyes and was now concentrated on her shoes. He still felt angry inside and he didn't care about anyone's oppinion at the moment and so he grapped his jacket and stormed out of the tent. Leaving behind a perplexed and shocked crowd. He could still picture Britney's shocked and ashamed face, he couldn't help but grin, maybe now he had finally gotten rid of her. He stalked off to the cabins on the south side. He needed to speak to Aral, right now.


He had knocked on her door for two minutes and then mentally slapped himself for his stupidity. It's the middle of the day, she is obviously working. He then quickly went to the centre, but he didn't find her there either. Who he did find there was a half sick Nicki.

'Nicki?'

Nicki turned around, showing him her tired, pale and slightly green face.

'Hey, Charlie. What's up?'

If she had felt better, she would have stood up, but she didn't feel better and stayed seated.

'Are you alright? You look a little pale.'

She put down the pen and paper she was holding.

'No, but I don't like lying down in my bed all day and I have some paperwork that needs to be finished. Also, Levi and Aral are not here and I figured someone should keep an eye on-'

'Wait, Aral isn't here?' Charlie interupted her.

'No? What is it, why do you need her?'

'It's just... I need to talk to her.'

'Well, today we had to transfer a dragon to the hills, but because I got sick I asked for Aral to take my place.'

'The hills?' Charlie asked.

Nicki noticed his slightly widened eyes, his hair was more wildly than normal and he seemed to be breathing heavily. He really wanted to speak to her.

What's this? She thought.

Did a woman finally catch the wild bachelor?

But her thoughts got interupted when he asked again.

'The hills?' He took a step forward, urging her to answer.

'Yes, I just said that.'

Without a word of goodbye he left. Nicki frowned and was still a bit confused at her friends behaviour, she will ask Aral about it later, she figured.


Charlie tried calming himself.

It's not that urgent to run.

But it is urgent.

Stop.

Calm.

The rumors. The gossiping sisters of the hospital, they are the ones to blame.

Mean. Mad rumors. Mental, completely mental.

Aral... Poor Aral.

You have brought her here, stupid Charlie.

Where else could she go? Nowhere.

But here, with you.

I want to see her more. What has she been up to...

Rumors. Urgent.

The thoughts whirled around his mind making him dizzy and not aware of his surroundings. He was now walking quickly, not yet running.

The hills, the hills.

He wanted to talk to her so badly. The last time he had spoken with her must have been almost a week ago.

A week!

You haven't spoken to her for a week.

Stupid. How lonely must she have felt?

With the rumors.

Why do people always have to gossip.

He was panting. Not because he was too walking fast. No he was a very fit guy, even played quidditch every now and then with friends. No, he was panting because he wasn't calm, he was angry and felt quilty, sad. He was almost there. He crossed the barrier and hiked up into the hills. The path took a sharp turn and he couldn't see anything beyond the bend. He was so focused on his sight that he didn't hear the distant roaring or the flapping wings. After the bend the hill got steeper. He knew that once he reached the top he could overlook the other hills. It was the same place were the second protective barrier was placed. And also most likely where Aral would be.

He reached the top. The green grass and bright blue sky was the first thing he noticed, then it was the group of people standing just on the other side of the barrier and last -but definitly not least- he noticed the huge dragon in front of them. His eyes widened. The transfer clearly wasn't going as smoothly as planned. At the same moment, orange sparks came out of his wand, meaning there was a dangerous situation, second there came purple sparks, meaning the hills. The message: immediate help requested, danger: a hostile dragon. Without even thinking or analysing the situation he sprinted down, with only one thought -or person actually- in his mind.

Aral.


Author's note:

Cliffhanger!

I usually don't do these, but it seemed right for this chapter to end like this. I really want to know your opinion and thinking about this chapter, or actually, about the whole story. So please let me know!

I enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Thank you,

-Jody