Title: Lusitania (11/12)
Author name: siriuswhite
Author email: siriuswhite@schnoogle.com
Category: Romance
Sub Category: Mystery
Keywords: Artio Sperios Patrick Dolphin Lusitania
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF, FB, QTTA
Summary: Artio is a girl who goes to a magical school, like Hogwarts. She is going for the first year and very strange things happen. Patrick is a boy who people don't like. Why?
DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author notes: Thanks to my beta-readers Jo and Trinity, who beta-ed this chapter attentively. Thanks to Nentari who reviewed the previous chapter (twice!), and Anise.
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Lusitania
BY S I R I U S W H I T E
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ELEVENTH CHAPTER
UNEXPECTED THINGS
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He approached her, his lips wanted desperately to touch hers, that seemed to be thousands of kilometres away. He was kissing her, Cynthia knew it but she could notdo anything, she thought about every moment they had passed in the academy, those three days observing him sleeping. Now she was sure, she loved him too. She kept thinking of him as his lips approached hers, there were millimeters between them. Cynthia was still thinking of the way they had met, trying to remember when she fell in love and suddenly the image of her best friend and Jeremy's girlfriend Artio came to her head.
Cynthia turned her face and he kissed her cheek, "Jeremy you love Artio, not me!" she said, thinking she was screaming but in fact she was whispering.
"Artio?" he asked, a confused face, "Who is Artio?"
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Cynthia was shocked. How could Jeremy pretend that he didn't know who Artio was?
"What do you mean by that?" asked Cynthia, a surprised look on her face. She just couldn't believe what he had said; he just couldn't forget Artio in one day.
"What do I mean by what?" he asked. If someone had been listening to them, that person would swear he was telling the truth, his expression was full of truth. In fact, either he was saying the truth or he really knew how to lie.
"Jeremy, she's your girlfriend. You are crazy about her, you said you loved her forever and everything!" she paused, he was looking at her without saying anything, "Now I see what kind of person you are," she continued, "whenever you have a chance you kiss every girl you can. I should have known this! You don't deserve Artio, you're the worst thing for her!"
Cynthia pushed him and walked away, joining Andrew at the other side of the room. Jeremy stood there, his arms still in the air as if he was holding Cynthia's hand. His eyes were looking in her direction, although actually he couldn't see her because of other people in his line of sight. He was standing up miraculously, he was about to faint. He still didn't understand what Cynthia meant, he didn't know any girl called Artio indeed. And he didn't have a girlfriend.
When Cynthia came near Andrew, he was with some other first year Seagull students, talking. He seemed not to be angry but he wasn't normal either.
"Hey, you're back," he said, pretending to be happy, when Cynthia arrived.
"Yes, let's dance," she said. Cynthia wasn't about to give him any explanation for the fact that the dance that she was supposed to dance with Jeremy hadn't stopped yet and she was still there.
He agreed, took her hand and they moved to the center. Cynthia couldn't think about anything but Jeremy's actions. How could he be that way? She was thinking about the way he had pretended that he didn't know Artio; he was the kind of boy that wants to be the best, who has the greatest number of girls at his feet. How could Cynthia love him too? That was indeed the question on Cynthia's mind every two seconds. He was simply her best friend's boyfriend, how could he try to seduce her?Her! If she were any other girl on the school he could be okay, but Artio's best friend?
During the dances she danced with Andrew, she hurt him with her feet. He didn't say anything, he could just stand it. It was a worthy sacrifice, if that meant he could be with her, feeling her heart beating, her nose breathing and her eyes blinking.
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In another place, quite distant from Cynthia's thoughts, Artio, Cho Chang and all the other Hogwarts' students, Professors and staff were assisting the Goblet of Fire choose the three competitors for the Triwizard Tournament.
Cho Chang was very happy when her beloved boy's name was released, Cedric Diggory would certainly win the Triwizard Tournament, she was sure.
The three competitors, Cedric Diggory from Hogwarts, Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons and Viktor Krum from Durmstrang, had walked to a different room, where they would know the details of the tasks, the schedule itself and some other classified stuff.
When they prepared to leave the common room someone noticed that the Goblet of Fire was trembling again, it would release another name.
'Harry Potter!' the name was announced to the room, full of people.
Cho Chang whispered to Artio, "He must have been chosen, of course, a star isn't a star when it's not on the light."
Artio saw the boy standing up, a dazed expression of confusion. He avoided her eyes; she looked at Cho where his eyes wouldn't certainly look into hers.
"But how can he be a competitor?" Cho continued, "He is not old enough!" she was protesting. Artio knew that she was more upset for the fact that her boy wasn't the only competitor from Hogwarts; he would be in the shadow of the younger one.
"I don't know," Artio said, and when he entered the room she did not have to be preoccupied with not looking at his eyes, "Someone had trapped the Goblet of Fire, that person wanted him in the tournament, even if he wasn't old enough. You know that what the goblet chooses is what counts," this she had heard from Dumbledore some seconds ago.
"Yes, no matter if Hogwarts had a player or not. but I'm sure Cedric will win this, will win to the Boy Who Lived, finally someone will be better than he is."
Artio nodded, when he turned to look at another place, she felt a shock of pain on her left arm, she knew that the snake was appearing on the same place of the pain. She avoided looking at it, Cho would notice. She almost fainted with that pain but then but then she realized that Harry couldn't be making that, and looked through the room to see if someone was looking at her.
There was a person, an old man, looking in her direction and, as the other time, when he looked away the pain stopped, like if it hadn't been there. Artio became preoccupied, so far two people made her feel such pain, and now she had to avoid one more person.
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Cynthia and Andrew were too tired to continue dancing, they had not sat down for more than two hours and they felt they needed to do that now.
Cynthia has already woken up from her thoughts, she had whispered some words in Andrew's ear, although not much, and some thoughts were still in her head.
Many people was gone now, it was late. Cynthia herself was about to tell Andrew that she would go to the dorm, only Monica and Ariane were there, at least they were the only ones she could see, the others should be upstairs. But she didn't, because she saw Captain Dolphin, who was talking to Professor Stormd'sky, who was really his sister.
"Cynthia, how are you?" he asked, and turned to his sister, "Professor Stormd'sky, this is Cynthia Tropelt, a good Dolphin student, at least in my class."
She knew that he was just finding some an excuse for the fact that he was introducing her; in fact she was not a good student at Astronomy at all.
"Ah, yes, I know her," said the woman, "She's a good Dolphin, yes."
Cynthia nodded, smiled, and finally the woman went away saying she would be right back.
"So how's he doing?" asked Captain Dolphin, no need to say who was him, she knew it, "Have you seen any difference since before and now?"
"He's doing well," she said, "But I've asked him about Artio, some unimportant things and I was surprised that he said he didn't know her." Cynthia wouldn't tell him the truth, he was not supposed to know about Artio and Jeremy's relationship, but that was a way for knowing what was going on.
"Oh, of course he doesn't," he said, as if it was the most normal thing on the world, "I have cast the Oblivio Personalle spell on him, haven't you seen?"
"What?" she hadn't seen anything; she didn't know what was that, "What does that means?"
"How don't you know? Cynthia, remember that this spell broke the effect that he, when he was Patrick, made on Artio. He wasn't supposed to be affected by the thing so I make him forget everything related with Artio, he had never seen Artio and every conversation he and other people had about her, he just doesn't remember, for him, those conversations had not happened. As Artio was here just a few days there is no problem with that, is there?"
Cynthia was stupefied, how could he do that to a person? And how would she deal with it now?
"No, there's no problem, I just have to avoid talking with him about Artio," she said.
"Okay. That's a good idea. Both he and Artio won't be affected by the Controlactus spell anymore, just like if it hadn't been cast on them."
"And. Has Artio forgot about him too?" Cynthia asked.
"No, we just broke the spell on her, we didn't cast the other. She'll remember Patrick and everything. She didn't know that she was under the Controlactus or did you tell her?"
"No."
"So, I had told her that Patrick could have that effect on a person, I didn't say that it would have. So she thinks that I was wrong, that the thing I said wouldn't happen. It's easy, and it's safe for both of them." He was proud of his cleverness; Cynthia could see that in his eyes.
Now she had to stand that, she didn't know how, but she would. Her next step was to make Jeremy love Artio again, and that was a difficult task indeed.
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Sitnalta Island, 1st November 1994.
Last night I learned of a most cruel thing, Captain Dolphin made Jeremy forget Artio. I don't know how he can be so cruel, he just cleaned up every memory he had of Artio. He says that it's good for both of them, I don't know what is good in the whole thing, but if he says so, it must be some good anywhere.
I'm afraid I almost kissed him in the Halloween Ball, and that means that I have some feelings for him. I don't know how but I have to tell him that I don't love him.
I thought he was a bad person, that he just wanted to kiss me as all the other girls on the face of Earth.
I know that since he woke up he had tried to be near me, he almost talked to me every day, but I thought it was just because I was her girlfriend's best friend. That time he didn't know who she was anymore. I was stupid. I didn't really ask him anything, now that I think about it I remember that I haven't asked him anything about Artio. I received her owls, as I thought he did too, so I needn't to ask him about Artio. How could I be so stupid?
This afternoon I received her last owl, she said that Jeremy haven't written back to her for almost one week, she thought that the owl he sent had lost her way, the distance between the two places is huge for an owl to fly, she says. I will write back to her saying that I will tell that to Jeremy, and I'll explain him the whole thing that happened. Then he'll have to write her back like if everything is normal.
There's also another bad thing, Artio said that during the Ceremony of the Goblet of Fire she felt a shock of pain, exactly as the other time when Harry Potter was looking at her. But now she is sure it wasn't him who made that, she said that Dumbledore was looking at her. She'll have to avoid his looking too, and she's preoccupied, thinking who else will make her feel bad like that.
I myself think that both events have a reason, related with what Stella let me know about Artio, her father and both Artio and Stella's marks. As Harry Potter made Lord Voldemort disappear, there is a between link between the two of them. As Artio has His blood, when Harry looks at her she feel like that. The same happens with Albus Dumbledore, he's the one who the Dark Lord fears, so the same pain makes Artio feel bad. I'll report my theory to Stella, tomorrow, if I see her, and I'll see if she thinks the same as me or not.
Ah, I almost forgot, Artio reports about the sorting of the Champions for the Triwizard Tournament. The Goblet of Fire was supposed to choose three students, one from each school, Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. She told me that the Goblet released another name, Harry Potter, and she says that the thing was planned; a trap was made. She and Cho Chang think that it was someone who doesn't want The Boy Who Lived not to be a Champion of such an event, and so that person found a way of putting him in.
I haven't talked to Jeremy yet but I'll talk to him tomorrow morning, as well as Stella, and I'll let him explain everything, he'll understand.
P.S. - Andrew and I have been having meals together, in the afternoon, talking about the previous night and I think he isn't angry with me. Well I know that no one heard Jeremy and I talking but he could have not liked my dance with Jeremy.
P.S. 2 - Amanda keeps her nocturnal chess games with Barbara. This week I haven't attended every day because of Jeremy and everything. I've heard that normally Professors organize a Chess Challenge here in the academy; I heard that it is during the spring months and so it's possible. I'll have to ask Anaras as she was here last year. That'd be good for Amanda.
Cynthia T.
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That Sunday was the hardest in Cynthia's life; she still had no way to talk with Jeremy. Now she knew why Jeremy was looking stupid, he didn't know why Cynthia treated him that way, by his point of view she had been so rude! Now she knew indeed he had reasons for being angry with her.
Cynthia walked down the stairs for the Common Room; Jeremy was having lunch with the other Dolphin boys.
Cynthia noticed that some Dolphin girls were having lunch too and she joined them in the other side of the table.
"Hi," she said, "May I sit here?" she asked. They were in Cynthia's house too but they weren't her best friends though.
"Sure," said Susan Amparo. She was talking with Sarah Wolf, Katie Turner and Madeleine Pustrin.
Cynthia tried to understand what they were talking about but it was in vain, they seemed to have a code, Cynthia didn't understand any word they were saying, they were certainly insane.
Cynthia ate quickly. When she finished her soup, her friends appeared on the Common Room, Amanda, Monica, Natasha and Ariane.
"Cynthia!" exclaimed Ariane, sitting near her, "We are late but as it is Sunday and we have no classes there isn't trouble," she grinned.
The other girls sat next to Ariane, they almost didn't talk to the other 'group'.
"Amanda won this game against Barbara," Natasha let Cynthia know, "finally. But it took longer than they were expecting so we are late to lunch."
"Yes," Ariane agreed, "Um, what will you do during the afternoon?" she asked, they seemed to have planned the entire day and they would invite Cynthia to go with them.
"Me? I, Um, I don't know, I have to finish my Transfiguration homework and then-"
"Cynthia, today is Sunday, Sun-day!" Amanda interrupted, "Are you going to be locked inside this old building?"
"I know it's Sunday. Okay, where do you go?"
"We were planning to go explore the fields out there. In fact we noticed that we only went to the fields to have Flying, Herbology and a few other things, we don't know our own schoolyards, that's unacceptable!"
"Okay, I'll go with you," said Cynthia, remembering about the tree house. She wouldn't tell them she knew about tree house, very cool. They would kill her for the fact she hadn't told them before.
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Jeremy was sitting on the tree house bed when a black haired head appeared on the wooden ladder, followed by other four, with different colors.
"Jeremy!" exclaimed the last girl climbing the ladder, "what are you doing here?" it was Amanda.
"Well," he began, taking a look at Cynthia, "I have been coming here. with Cynthia."
"What?" asked Natasha looking to Cynthia, "why didn't you tell us about this tree-house? This is fantastic, how could you hide it from us?"
"I." Cynthia knew they were right, but it was Captain Dolphin who told her about it, and she was supposed not to tell anyone, but how would she explain that to her friends? "I had come here some months ago, in the beginning of the term, I just forgot about this because this starts to become boring when you come here often," it was the best explanation she could make up.
"Boring? How can you call this boring?" Amanda demanded, looking to the tree-house roof, which had some tree leaves, "this is fantastic!"
"Yes," Jeremy seemed to agree, "we went here some time ago and we almost forgot about it, I was around here when I remembered and then I climbed the ladder." He was trying to change the subject so the other girls wouldn't ask Cynthia why she didn't tell them about the tree-house.
"Oh, by the way," Cynthia began, it was the moment for the chat she was expecting to have with Jeremy, there could be any other moment better than that, "I wanted to talk to Jeremy in the morning, could you leave us alone?"
Natasha was going to ask some thing, Cynthia noticed, but Amanda cut her thoughts. "Okay," she said, "we'll be searching for some other cool places, see you later."
Cynthia and Jeremy stood there, seeing them climbing down the ladder and, when there was no sign of the girls, Cynthia turned to Jeremy. "We have to talk." It wasn't a question; he couldn't say that he didn't want in that moment, she wouldn't let him go.
His eyes were shining, Cynthia seemed different from the Halloween ball night, "Alright." He said and sat on the wooden bed waiting for her to talk.
Cynthia prepared herself mentally to let him know everything.
"I will try to tell you everything about Artio and you and what happened," she began, "Artio was the target of the Contrulacus spell which was cast in her by Patrick who was, in fact, you."
"Me?" he asked, not understanding anything or why he didn't remember about that.
"Yes, let me continue," she said, "someone cast a spell on you, then you went to Artio and gave her a drink, which had the potion of the spell. As you were also some secondary target you were in danger almost as mush as she."
Jeremy was looking at her, and listened her words as if it was a tale, his eyes were saying that the story wasn't true but, well, he loved Cynthia and so he would do anything she asked him to.
"Captain Dolphin explained me what happened to you both and, as the person who cast the spells on you and Artio could control her, that might affect you too. So he asked me to learn a spell to break the spell that was cast in you, and that would also break the Controlactus spell on Artio."
"So she and I were being controlled?" asked Jeremy.
"Yes, kind of, you weren't but you could be, anytime that person wanted. I agreed with what Captain told me, I would help him to break your and Artio's spells. But he didn't know, I mean, he doesn't know that you and Artio were in love." She took a brief look at him to see if he was still listening. "I had to win points which I would trade in the Library for the spell book. Captain Dolphin wanted me to do everything on my own, he didn't want to teach me the spell because if someone discovered, he would never be seen as the one who helped me, if someone discovered everything would fall on my shoulders."
"But it was his idea, right?" Jeremy asked.
"Yes. Well, you and Artio have been sending owls each other for more than two months; I thought everything was all right with you two. One day in September Artio's mother appeared in the academy."
He raised his eyebrow. "How?"
"She is an Animagus, a Glumbumble."
"Is she the Glumbumble that Amanda offered you?" he asked.
"Yes, she told me that Artio was in danger because she was the one who has the Lusitania artifact, it was born with her-"
"What?" he asked, surprised. "Is she the one? Lusitania is with her?" he knew as much about the artifact as the other students, he had been in the History of Magic classes and he had been paying attention to that subject.
"Yes, it is because she's in danger, it is because she has been the target of the spell, and you too. The power of the artifact can help the Dark Lord to revive, if the Death Eaters take it away from Artio, I mean, if they kill Artio," a tear appeared on her right eye, Cynthia sustained it, she wouldn't cry.
"I don't believe this!" He said. "You're saying that I was the Lusitania owner's boyfriend? Oh my god!"
"Yes, you are her boyfriend," Cynthia said, a special tone on the 'are', "Jeremy, she loves you, I am sure you love her too, you just don't remember. She needs you, she doesn't know anything about this, she doesn't know about the artifact, she doesn't know about the legend."
"Yes, I know, you've just said," said Jeremy.
"Yes. let me continue. Before we arrived at the academy, on the ship, Artio found out that her parents had divorced. As she was going to live with her father, she went to London and she's now attending Hogwarts. In the last month Stella, who's Artio's mother, went to the Library and copied the spell for me because the points I had won wouldn't be enough for borrowing the book and, if I didn't learn the spell you would pass this entire year under control of someone. Then I practiced how to do it for weeks and when I was ready I let Captain Dolphin know. Some days after, he and I cast the spell on you, which break the other spells on you and Artio. But he also made sure, oh I won't forgive him for that, he made you forget everything about Artio."
"What?" he couldn't believe in what he was hearing, "I. I was her boyfriend and he made me forget Artio?" Jeremy knew that Captain had no right to do that but it wasn't the most important thing. In fact, she had not a single image of the girl, for him he loved only one girl, the one who was in front of him. He would do anything she asked him, and he was pretending to be upset with what Captain Dolphin had done but actually he wanted to love Cynthia.
"Yes, he did. So, after that you know everything. Now, do you understand why I did that in the Ball?"
"Yes, sure," he said.
"Good. Now, you must write to Artio, she told me that she wasn't receiving your owls; she thinks that the owl died, the distance is huge between the two places. Actually you weren't sending her any owls, and as she is waiting for you to reply she didn't send any too."
"What do you want me to do? Write to her?" he asked, "but I don't know anything about her!" he protested.
"I know. Actually, we are going to write to her every time it's needed. I will tell you what to write, don't worry. So, will you do it?" she smiled.
How could he say no to that smile? "Sure."
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It was Tuesday and Artio was worried about Jeremy, she hadn't seen a single owl from him for almost two weeks and now one was knocking at the window. She hoped it was from him.
My sweet Artio,
Cynthia told me that you weren't receiving my owls. I'm sorry, it must have died of exhaustion, you know the two places are too far away. Why didn't you write me letting me know about that? I didn't know, and I was simply waiting for an answer from you.
So, how was your week? I myself went to the Halloween Ball, I have been dancing with Cynthia, we were having fun for a while. It was when he let me know about the owl she received from you.
Artio, have I ever told you that I love you? I do.
I miss you so much! I want to see you in the Christmas break; we have to manage it. I just noticed I don't have any image from you, I mean, not in my head because there are millions in my mind! Can you send me a photograph? It can be you, with or without your friends; I just want to see you near my bed.
I am waiting for your owl every day.
Love,
Jeremy
If Artio knew how hard it was for Cynthia to put Jeremy writing what she was saying she wouldn't like that owl as much as she did.
"Cho!" she called, "Jeremy has finally written me, he said that Cynthia told him about the missing owls."
"Good, what else does he say?" asked the oriental girl.
"He and Cynthia went to the Halloween Ball, they were having fun for a while and that he misses me."
"Oh, he and Cynthia?" asked Cho, "They attended the ball together? I myself would keep an eye on them." she made a weird face.
"Oh come on, I know Cynthia wouldn't do that," Artio knew what Cho Chang meant with that 'together', "she knows that he and I are in love."
"I know, I was just joking!" said the black haired girl, "what else?"
"He wants me to send him a photo. Do you know someone who has a camera?"
"Perhaps." Cho said, smiling.
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Cynthia looked tired that Saturday morning, she hadn't been sleeping for the most time of the night, she had nightmares about Artio and a man whose face wasn't visible, he must be the image that Cynthia had of the Dark Lord. Plus, she had to invent every love declaration for Jeremy's owls, which were sent every four days, the time that one owl passed going to Hogwarts and back, to Lusitania.
She had already written some owls, the Christmas break was almost there. Although due to climate it wasn't usual to snow in the Azores archipelago, the Professors made sure to enchant it every year, there was no Christmas if there wasn't snow, they usually said.
More than twenty days had passed since the conversation between she and Jeremy in the tree house.
Jeremy himself was in love with Cynthia, the idea of the photo hadn't helped. Cynthia remembered the day when Artio sent the photo; there were she and Cho Chang, her Hogwarts best friend. Sometimes they were flying on their brooms, practicing for the Ravenclaw Seeker position, the oriental girl won much more times than Artio did. Other times Artio looked alone, reading, singing.
Jeremy owned the photo, Cynthia made sure he looked at it in that day but now she doubted that Jeremy still remembered about Artio's face. The owls they sent Artio were a complete lie, he didn't feel anything written on the letters, at least not for Artio, but for Cynthia.
He had tried to kiss Cynthia as many times as a Dolphin jumps in the sea, she had lost the count. She had never let him do it, remembering him that he loved Artio. Actually, asking him to love Artio. And the most difficult thing was that Cynthia herself had some feelings about the boy, which she tried to forget twenty million times a day but they always got back. She wouldn't kiss him, it would be worse for the three, she knew it and Artio was already suffering much in those days because of Lusitania artifact, it wouldn't be fair if Cynthia had some kind of relation with her friend's official boyfriend.
Stella was still there; Cynthia didn't know how she was still alive, eating Glumbumble food. She believed there was something else at the academy that she should know and, as she always said that Artio was safe under Dumbledore's eye, she kept living there and talking to both Jeremy and Cynthia. Cynthia had told her that Jeremy knew everything, she had been upset but finally she accepted the idea. And there was one more lie there, Cynthia made sure that Jeremy asked Stella every time about Artio, the woman was supposed to know that Jeremy and Artio's relationship was going well.
Andrew was still there, unfortunately for her he hadn't vanished from Lusitania, which made her have one more problem to think about, their relationship. In fact Cynthia loved Jeremy, not Andrew, but Jeremy had to love Artio again and Andrew was a good card to play. Cynthia had kissed him some times, when Jeremy could see them; she made sure about that. She was sad because she was using Andrew too, she didn't want to, as she didn't want to do the most of the things she did. He looked happy when they kissed, hoping that it was that time when Cynthia finally decided to tell him the truth, at least those things he thought were true. He asked her if she loved him every time he had a chance and almost every time she simply replied something coded, confusing, about her doubts, their age. She normally asked him if he wasn't feeling good as the thing was going. He was. So she said that she was too, and that things would stand all right as they were.
Cynthia remembered every lie she had been telling, every stealthy move she had made. She wasn't like that. She had known it for ages but she had to keep doing everything like before, everything that was needed for Artio to be safe and happy. The same question spun around her mind at least one million times per day, 'When would she stop lying?'
Cynthia was living with a complete dilemma.
But now it was time to get up and fly away from her thoughts about everything.
Monica opened her mouth to say 'good morning' when she noticed Cynthia was waking up, the Brazilian girl was also looking sleepy. She and the other girls had gone to the Chess Room or other empty one to play chess, Amanda and Barbara were good friends outside the chessboard, they had had good moments, sharing their things, doing homework together. The Whale girl helped the Dolphins many times; they were good friends. On the other hand, when she and Amanda were playing, it seemed like they had never seen each other, they put everything away and fought their own battle. Monica was still attending the Chess games, as well as the other Dolphin girls bar Cynthia. Cynthia had left their group from day to day, not noticing what she was doing but because she had needed to go to the Library, or outside the castle to talk to Stella, or to be with Jeremy to write their letters for Artio, or to be with Andrew making Jeremy forget her.
She stood up, went to the bathroom besides their dormitory. After brushing her teeth, she had a quick shower and did everything a fourteen-year-old girl would do in the morning.
When she walked downstairs to have breakfast in the Common Room, she found Andrew in the Great Hall.
"Hey," he said, "did you sleep well?" he smiled.
"Not very well," she replied, "you?"
"I did."
Cynthia made her way to the Common Room; she was hungry. Andrew followed her. When they entered, Jeremy noticed she was with Andrew and he was jealous. The boy made his way to his own table and Cynthia went to the Dolphin table, where Jeremy was, but she didn't sit near him.
After breakfast, when it was time to receive mail, an owl left a small roll of parchment in Cynthia's place. She opened it and read.
Come find me in the tree house. Don't bring Jeremy, you can explain to him later. There is no good news. Hurry up!
Stella
Cynthia kept looking at the words for a while and then realized she could go outside at that moment, it was Saturday and there were no classes.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Hogwarts had woken up with some craziness that morning. The first task of the Triwizard Tournament would be in a few days and there were defined positions above a great percentage of the students.
Artio herself was going for Cedric, also because Cho was in love with him, but mainly because Harry made her feel pain in her mark and she didn't like the Boy Who Lived at all. She still believed that the Goblet of Fire had been rigged because the most famous boy of the world hadn't been chosen for such an event and he must be there apart from everything.
After breakfast she decided it was today, she must convince Cho giving her beloved boy the letter she had written more than two months ago.
"Cho, come on, what would you lose?" she said.
"My pride?" the other guessed, "I don't know. Artio I have no sign about his love for me. What you've said is not enough."
"What?" that was a good opportunity, it would work, "don't you believe what I say? I saw how he was looking at you the other night. I see how he looks at you every day. If he's not in love with you, then he knows how to pretend, he must have attended some theatre group!"
"It's not that I don't believe in you, I do-"
"So.? It's decided, you'll give him the letter, okay?"
The other girl smiled, she wanted to do it much more than Artio, she really loved the boy, but she would die if he said 'no'. That was her problem.
After a while remembering his face she said, "okay."
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Cynthia went out of the castle. She made sure that Jeremy hadn't seen her.
Before she reached the tree house, almost in the middle of the road between the tree and the castle, she found Carldonne.
"Hey," she greeted, "how are you?"
He didn't look fine, "Good," was the word that came out but his eyes showed other feeling. Cynthia noticed that but as she didn't have time to talk to him she just said, "see you later."
She thought it could be something between him and Anaras, they weren't very good lately although Cynthia had done everything she could to see them happy.
In the tree house Stella, still in her Animagus shape, was waiting for her, thinking that she could've lost.
When Cynthia climbed up the ladder Stella transformed into human, now she was safe, no one would see her as a woman.
"You finally show up," she said furiously, "do you know how hard it was for me to wait for you to come?"
"Yes," the girl seemed to agree, "but I didn't have a chance to come before now."
"I have no good news," the blonde woman looked to her eyes making sure she was prepared to listen.
Cynthia nodded as a sign of 'speak', and it was what the woman did.
"Things are not running as I have planned," she began, "Hogwarts is not the safest place for Artio to be right now."
"But how? You guaranteed to me that it was-"
"It was; it is not. Her father can't find her there, I know that, but-"
Cynthia didn't understand, "So how is she in danger, if he can't reach her then there is no problem."
Stella smiled, "It is more complicated than you think it is. I also thought that way, and it made my life turn around completely. there is no problem if it was only the Dark Lord the one who could hurt her."
"What do you mean?" asked Cynthia, "What is only supposed to mean?"
"I meant it. Artio isn't safe at Hogwarts, I've discovered that just some hours ago, no matters how. Dumbledore accepted her at the school because there he could keep an eye on what she was doing. But it wouldn't be enough, not for him, he wanted to make sure that Voldemort would never take Lusitania."
"How? What is he going to do?"
"He. he will kill Artio, then he'll take the artifact from her and keep it."
"I can't believe!" Cynthia was kind of. disgusted, "how can he do that? He's supposed to protect people from the Dark Side, not kill people!"
"I know, but remember. if he kills Artio he is protecting people from the Dark Side!"
Cynthia couldn't understand how Stella, Artio's mother could say that as if to kill Artio was like to kill a fly.
"What can I do?" she asked.
Stella looked at Cynthia; the girl was really smart, "How did you know that I was going to ask you to do anything?"
"Well. it's easy. You wouldn't tell me those things if I didn't have to know them, which means that I have to do some thing. Right?"
"Right. We have to save her from Dumbledore. Now she's in the middle of the year but anyways I can ask lawyer to talk to Archibald and call Artio to come live with me, and study here at Lusitania academy.
Cynthia's eyes shined happily, it would be great, "I'd love to have Artio here at the academy, it would be fun! What do I have to do?"
"We have to wait for Christmas break. I know that Dumbledore is planning to do it in the beginning of the New Year, which means that she's safe now. I know that Archibald told her about my lie. Artio doesn't like me as before because he told her it was my fault, the divorce. But I'm sure she will make an effort to come pass the holiday with me. because you'll be there!"
"Will I?" asked Cynthia.
"Yes, that's what I was going to ask you, come to my house in the Christmas break, you'd meet Artio-"
"Of course, yes, I will go." She had no doubt.
"Great!" the woman said. Then she smiled at Cynthia and flew away, after becoming a Glumbumble.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
"Hey."
Cynthia turned as she heard the voice behind her. It was Andrew.
"Hi," she replied.
"I haven't seen you since Saturday. What happened?" he asked.
"Nothing," she replied, it was true. She had finally said something that was really true!
"So what have you been so occupied with?"
That Thursday had been kind of complicated, Jeremy had tried to kiss her in the morning; Monica had had some accident after lunch, breaking her ankle and at that moment she was in the Hospital Wing. Two hours ago Stella had told her that she had just sent a letter to Artio's father, which would arrive in London in about two days; and Artio's owl had arrived just ten minutes ago, talking about the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.
"Many things," she finally replied, he would appreciate a simple answer, that was the most simple she thought about.
Andrew was always so cool, he really cared about her, but she didn't love him, not anything else but a friend only. She knew he deserved her to love him, he was the greatest person she had met and she didn't like to see him sad.
"Oh," he knew that she didn't want to explain anything else about those many things so he didn't insist.
"I have to go to the Hospital Wing," she said, "do you want to come with me?"
"Yes," was the answer. He didn't ask why or who was there, he simply would go wherever she wanted him to.
In the third floor, Monica was laying down on a bed. As they entered, she turned in their direction. "Hey, finally someone comes to visit me!" she said.
"Well," Cynthia began, "I thought Amanda was with you here, and then Natasha, they had told me they would be here-"
"Yes, yes, they had been, in the last century." she smiled, "this is boring here. I want to get well soon!"
"I hope you get well soon! Madame Shalbourn will fix your ankle with a spell or will you have to stay here and wait for time?"
"No, she'd already done the spell, my ankle is almost good. It only hurts a bit. I will stay here until tomorrow for observation."
"Oh, that must be boring." Andrew finally opened his mouth.
"Yes, it is." Monica agreed.
"So. do you want me to lend you anything?" asked Cynthia.
"Ah, if you don't mind." she smiled evilly, "err, I have subscribed to the TeenWizard magazine. it should have arrived this morning. Can you take a look on the dorm to check who has it?"
"TeenWizard?" Cynthia hasn't heard about that one.
"Yes, it's not very popular. but it has some cute boys!"
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Sitnalta Island, 30th November 1994.
Today was chaos. Mondays were not full of classes, for the contrary, we have the morning free of classes. It wasn't classes, it was. Jeremy.
I avoid him more than ever. Artio writes to him but I think I'm the one who reads her owls. This way he will never love her, ever! I've told him about what Stella told me; he agreed to come with me but just because of me, not because of Artio. I think she'll notice that he doesn't love her anymore.
Why did Captain Dolphin have to do that Obliviate? Dammit!
Monica is fine now, it seems that nothing happened to her. I don't need to say about Amanda; if I had to call her with a code name, then she would be 'pawn'.
Andrew found me yesterday, we were having some fun, I showed him the tree house; I thought he deserved a discovery. I didn't let him kiss me.
Cynthia T.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
The third day of December was cold, the snow spell was still working, and now it snowed almost every time, except on the Quidditch fields, because of the Flying lessons.
It was almost dinnertime and Cynthia walked downstairs with her friends.
Anaras was reading a book in the Common Room. In fact, she was looking over the book, waiting for the first year girls to go out.
When the other group of girls exited the room too, she went to the first year girls' dormitory. As she hoped, no one was there.
She had to be quick.
After searching for a while, she finally found it. It had a blue cover and in its front was written Diary.
She took it and went out of the first year girls dormitory, just in time; when she entered the Common Room Susan Amparo entered from the corridor. She seemed to have forgotten some thing because she went out in seconds and went outside again.
Anaras entered her own dormitory, left the book and hoped that Cynthia didn't want to write in it that night. Then she walked downstairs and joined the others to have dinner.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Cynthia woke up early that morning; it was the first time she had woken up so early on a Sunday.
After going to bathroom and arrange her things she was going to have Breakfast when an owl entered by the window of the common room.
There were only five people there, fifth years. They were looking sleepy because they had been studying for all the night. Cynthia took a brief look at them and then back to the letter.
Dear Cynthia,
My exams have already started; I had some free minutes from a study break so I wrote you this owl.
Jeremy is so sweet! He just sent me quotes of romantic books, I must say that they're beautiful sentences. What is more is that he said that he made them up! I must confess that I had read every book which he quoted. Well, what counts is his intention.
My trainings with Cho have stopped for now, because of exams. She didn't have enough courage to tell Cedric Diggory that she loved him. I try to convince her to do it every day but she doesn't.
And you? You've just told me about your friends right there. isn't there any boy? I'm sure there is!
I'll have to go back to study, I'll write you back when your owl arrives.
Your friend,
Artio Sperios
Cynthia was angry, what a bad morning, she would have been better off to not wake up.
Artio said that she knew every quote in Jeremy's owls! Dammit, it had been so hard for Cynthia to find that quotes to rewrite in Jeremy's owls!
She wrote some quick note to send to Artio, perhaps the words didn't make sense but she didn't care.
After having breakfast she walked to the owlery and chose another owl to make the journey to Hogwarts.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Cynthia wasn't the only one waking up early that Sunday. Anaras herself had finished reading Cynthia's diary. It had lots of secrets, Captain Dolphin was right when asked her to take it. After having breakfast she made her way to his office, where she was in the moment.
"I read it," Anaras said, "she wrote lots of interesting things in it." she took the diary and put it on his desk.
He took it and started reading, it would certainly be boring, Anaras thought. She had passed almost three days reading it.
"I will call you when I've finished reading this," he said, not taking his eyes away from the yellowed pages.
She went outside and walked down, to the fields. The sea was not calm at all, December was a bad month for fishing, there was wind and rain and thundering.
She would receive an owl asking to go to his office in two hours, and then she would come down again, sad, irritated, tired and feeling guilty.
Although it was true, if someone had told that to her in that moment, she wouldn't believe.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Cynthia had found Carldonne some days ago; he and Anaras were not completely all right.
Carldonne thought that Anaras was strange in the last months, she was stressed and she was always scared with some student around them.
He already loved Anaras, and so did she; he was the one she would search for if she had a problem, she was sure he would accept her.
That was what she did.
That beautiful snowy December afternoon became very sad for both of them and some other people.
After hugging her for almost ten minutes he finally asked what was going on.
She couldn't reply, she was crying.
After a while, when she calmed down, she opened her mouth.
"It's all my fault." She said.
"What happened? What was your fault?" asked Carldonne.
"Artio. Your cousin is in danger and I wasn't able to do anything for her, I helped him doing it! God, where was my mind when I did that?"
"Who? Will he hurt Artio? What have you done?"
"Captain Dolphin." she finally said the words.
Carldonne looked at her without thinking, he couldn't believe that Captain Dolphin, 'the one who was never sad' had done something to his cousin. She had written him some days ago; everything seemed to be all right.
"Can you tell me everything, step by step?" that was the only way he could understand what Anaras meant.
"Artio owns the Lusitania artifact," she said, "We learnt about that last year in History of Magic, remember?"
"Yes."
"You know about the legend, right? Voldemort's followers want to kill Artio and obtain Lusitania. If they can do that, they will make him come back and the Wizarding world will be destroyed. She has not enough strength to face the Death Eaters."
"And what had Captain Dolphin done?"
"He cast a spell on Craig, in the ship, and he made up something about a spell and Patrick. everything was made up by him. With that, the boy made Artio become under Captain Dolphin's control. I helped him, because he told me it would be good for you, as your cousin wouldn't be in danger anymore. He promised me he wouldn't do anything with her, he just wanted to make sure that he could control her if someone attacked Artio."
She paused for a while and then continued, "more than one month ago he realized that the first year boy, his name is Jeremy, shouldn't be target of something that happened to her. As they had some link because of the Patrick incident, Captain Dolphin convinced Cynthia to cast another spell on Jeremy. The girl just did it, with his help. Captain Dolphin lost Artio's control because he broke the boy's spell but he thought it was preferable; if something happened to her now, he wouldn't even notice. He also made him forget about every memory he had about Artio. I thought everything was all right, and so did he; Suddenly, a week ago, he asked me to search for some kind of memorable thing that Cynthia had written, he was sure there was something he didn't know."
"What did you do?"
"I walked into the first year girls dorm and took her diary, she really had one. I read it and I discovered that Jeremy was in love with Artio. That was a new thing, Captain Dolphin didn't know about that. The spell that Captain cast on the boy made him forget Artio and then Cynthia had a lot of trouble dealing with them; she wrote in the diary that she had tried to make Jeremy love Artio again but she had no success. In her diary there is also written about Artio's mother, who is somewhere in the academy. I told Captain Dolphin about that and he was upset."
"My aunt?" asked Carldonne, "Stella?"
"Yes. She's somewhere in Lusitania. She is an Animagus, a Glumbumble. Now, Captain Dolphin knows that Dumbledore, Hogwarts' headmaster, wants to take Lusitania from Artio. His plan is to kill her and take the artifact in a safe place, where Voldemort's followers can't get it. They also plan an attack on Artio so the Captain doesn't know who will catch her first."
She started crying again, Carldonne hugged her.
"Carldonne, I. Captain Dolphin will get her, he."
The tears were falling like rain, she couldn't continue talking about Artio's fate like she did. Carldonne was worried about what would happen to Artio but he respected Anaras's feelings and didn't ask her anything. He knew she would talk again in good time. He simply kept hugging and comforting her.
Now he understood why she was strange during those months, she had been helping Captain Dolphin to do a horrible thing.
"He will kill Artio himself," she said. Carldonne was looking at her and made an effort to ask her only, without asking questions. "He. he told me that Artio would be killed by the Death Eaters or by Dumbledore. He said that it would happen, sooner or later. It is Artio's fate. so he decided that, if she would die anyways, at least the Lusitania artifact should come back to the academy. He would do the job by himself, if it meant that Lusitania would be at its rightful place, inside that castle," she raised her hand, pointing the entrance door of the castle with her finger.
Carldonne was crying; his girlfriend had gone through all those things alone. He had been out of touch with her; he hadn't asked her what was going on. He simply didn't like how she was acting and didn't make any effort to talk with her. It was his fault too.
"When will he do it?" Carldonne finally asked.
"He's gone. I don't know where he is now."
"We have to alert Cynthia. As you said, she knows about my aunt Stella. They must have some idea."
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
"I knew he would find out," said Stella, "I just didn't expect that he would do it! Oh my god!"
"It can't be true," said Cynthia, "he told me that we would cast the spell on Jeremy so that they wouldn't be in danger anymore! What will we do now?"
"We have to tell. Gilbert," Stella didn't want to tell him but she had no other choice.
"What if we ask Uncle Archibald to send an owl to Hogwarts asking them to let Artio come home sooner than the Christmas break?" asked Carldonne.
"No!" Stella cut him off, "Archibald. just no. I don't want to talk to him, I don't want to explain him everything, and he won't forgive me."
"I should have told you about Captain Dolphin's plans before! It's my fault!" Anaras wouldn't forgive herself; she was acting like a house-elf.
"No, he would go on with his plan any way, even if you haven't helped him." Stella didn't want Anaras to feel guilty.
"Stella, I think that we should advise Mr. Sperios," Cynthia said, "and Jeremy. Perhaps he can help in some way, Artio loves him."
"Please, don't," Stella asked Cynthia.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Gilbert Stormd'sky showed ready to help, his passion for Artio's mother had been more than that, for him. When he read who had signed the letter he just said okay.
Stella's plan was, in the first phase, to find out where Robin Stormd'sky was. That was the name they - Cynthia, Anaras, Carldonne, Jeremy and Stella - called Captain Dolphin; they felt that he didn't deserve the title of 'captain'.
Professor Shayra had told the entire school that they wouldn't have Astronomy for an unknown period of time. Cynthia had listened to her without saying anything. She suspected that Professor Shayra didn't know where her brother was but anyway she couldn't know about anything related to Artio.
That week had passed fast, the school was reaching the end of its semester, which meant final exams. Cynthia didn't have very bad marks, although she knew she could have done better. Natasha had helped her a lot as well as the other Dolphin girls.
The beginning of the second week of December was calmer than the previous in terms of school work and exams. But on Tuesday they learned something horrible. Mr. Sperios sent Cynthia an owl saying that Artio had gone to Portugal, to spend the Christmas holidays with her mother. In fact, Stella had asked Archibald to let Artio go to Portugal, as she has asked Cynthia to go too, but the problem was that Stella didn't say anything else to Archibald about that, she thought Artio was still at school.
Someone had forged Stella's owls to Mr. Sperios. In the name of Stella, Archibald and someone else combined every detail of Artio's travel to Portugal. He sent Cynthia an owl letting her know that Artio had already gone there, but that she wasn't delivering owls as per normal.
The news made a complete revolution between the 'Rescue Group' and the other academy students and staff. They started packing their things and prepared to leave in the first ship that would go to Azores. No one understood why they, especially the four students, were going earlier than the other students, in the Lusitania ship. As the exams were already gone they had no problem in having permission from Professor Shayra and Captain Shark to go away. When they arrived to the Azores archipelago, they took a Muggle plane and flew to Portugal.
The aeroplane was a strange thing. Cynthia knew that it was much quicker than flying on a broom but in the wizard mode it was much more exciting. The tour took almost three hours, as it had had some trouble because of the weather.
She didn't really have any idea of what they were going to do, or where they were going to stay. Cynthia only follow Stella's orders, she trusted the woman.
When they arrived at the airport, in Lisbon, Gilbert Stormd'sky was waiting for them. He looked strange wearing those Muggle clothes.
He hugged Stella and then greeted the students. They followed him. They went by bus to an old building, which was deserted. He had left his dragon there.
"I've been in Italy these last weeks. If I had been at home, in Azores, you could have come with me but I wasn't able to get there," he explained, "how was the flying machine?"
"Not very good," said Stella, "I'm kind of annoyed. Do you know where he is?"
Cynthia suspected that 'he' should be Robin Stormd'sky, Gilbert's brother.
"I have an idea. Let's go."
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
A dragon flying cage looked very cool at a first impression but it was boring if someone stayed inside of it for six hours, especially if there were six people in it.
They went flying over Portugal until they reached the mountains, near Spain.
"We were born in this area," said Gilbert, "I know a place where Robin could have hidden from us. I'm afraid he's forged your letters," he looked at Stella, "I'm afraid Artio is with him."
Stella's eyes became full of tears; she hoped he hadn't done anything to her daughter.
They left the dragon and walked some meters in the direction of the rocks, to what seemed to be a cavern.
They entered the darkness of that place and the four students murmured, "Lumos!"
The cavern was quite big. When they turned a corner inside the stone 'building' they saw what remained of a green light.
They feared the worst, and started running in the direction of the light.
"He can run for the other entrance," said Gilbert.
In fact, when they walked in front they heard some voices murmuring many spells, then some of them said 'up!' and vanished with the sound of a broom flying near a tree.
[Author's Note: the following scene can be disturbing to some people, so if you are faint of heart, do not read the next few paragraphs]
It was a devastating scenario; two bloody bodies were lying on the stone, which was also full of blood.
Jeremy took a step in front. He wanted to be sure that it was really the girl in the photo. Her blonde hair was unforgettable.
"P. Jeremy!" Her eyes were almost closed but she still saw him and murmured those words with a smile. Her pain had vanished when she saw him, the boy she loved.
He looked at her. He had the sensation that he knew her but he didn't love her, as Cynthia wanted him to. He had only come with the 'Rescue Group' because Cynthia was a member of it. He hadn't come because of Artio.
Artio smiled at him until her eyes lost their light.
The others were now near Jeremy, looking down at Artio's body.
They had arrived too late.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Read? Review!
As you should have noticed I don't like happy endings very much.
Next chapter (Epilogue): Did it really happen? Will Artio survive? If she does, how will Jeremy deal with that? If she doesn't what will they - her parents, her brother, her cousin and Cynthia - do? What about Captain Dolphin? Has he died?
Stay tuned for the Epilogue, which will come out soon.
Be a responsible reader, review this chapter. Thanks for reading.
***
Lusitania is at AstronomyTower, part of the FictionAlley community. Join us here; see Art at Lusitania Website and post reviews here.
***
Author name: siriuswhite
Author email: siriuswhite@schnoogle.com
Category: Romance
Sub Category: Mystery
Keywords: Artio Sperios Patrick Dolphin Lusitania
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF, FB, QTTA
Summary: Artio is a girl who goes to a magical school, like Hogwarts. She is going for the first year and very strange things happen. Patrick is a boy who people don't like. Why?
DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author notes: Thanks to my beta-readers Jo and Trinity, who beta-ed this chapter attentively. Thanks to Nentari who reviewed the previous chapter (twice!), and Anise.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Lusitania
BY S I R I U S W H I T E
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
ELEVENTH CHAPTER
UNEXPECTED THINGS
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
He approached her, his lips wanted desperately to touch hers, that seemed to be thousands of kilometres away. He was kissing her, Cynthia knew it but she could notdo anything, she thought about every moment they had passed in the academy, those three days observing him sleeping. Now she was sure, she loved him too. She kept thinking of him as his lips approached hers, there were millimeters between them. Cynthia was still thinking of the way they had met, trying to remember when she fell in love and suddenly the image of her best friend and Jeremy's girlfriend Artio came to her head.
Cynthia turned her face and he kissed her cheek, "Jeremy you love Artio, not me!" she said, thinking she was screaming but in fact she was whispering.
"Artio?" he asked, a confused face, "Who is Artio?"
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Cynthia was shocked. How could Jeremy pretend that he didn't know who Artio was?
"What do you mean by that?" asked Cynthia, a surprised look on her face. She just couldn't believe what he had said; he just couldn't forget Artio in one day.
"What do I mean by what?" he asked. If someone had been listening to them, that person would swear he was telling the truth, his expression was full of truth. In fact, either he was saying the truth or he really knew how to lie.
"Jeremy, she's your girlfriend. You are crazy about her, you said you loved her forever and everything!" she paused, he was looking at her without saying anything, "Now I see what kind of person you are," she continued, "whenever you have a chance you kiss every girl you can. I should have known this! You don't deserve Artio, you're the worst thing for her!"
Cynthia pushed him and walked away, joining Andrew at the other side of the room. Jeremy stood there, his arms still in the air as if he was holding Cynthia's hand. His eyes were looking in her direction, although actually he couldn't see her because of other people in his line of sight. He was standing up miraculously, he was about to faint. He still didn't understand what Cynthia meant, he didn't know any girl called Artio indeed. And he didn't have a girlfriend.
When Cynthia came near Andrew, he was with some other first year Seagull students, talking. He seemed not to be angry but he wasn't normal either.
"Hey, you're back," he said, pretending to be happy, when Cynthia arrived.
"Yes, let's dance," she said. Cynthia wasn't about to give him any explanation for the fact that the dance that she was supposed to dance with Jeremy hadn't stopped yet and she was still there.
He agreed, took her hand and they moved to the center. Cynthia couldn't think about anything but Jeremy's actions. How could he be that way? She was thinking about the way he had pretended that he didn't know Artio; he was the kind of boy that wants to be the best, who has the greatest number of girls at his feet. How could Cynthia love him too? That was indeed the question on Cynthia's mind every two seconds. He was simply her best friend's boyfriend, how could he try to seduce her?Her! If she were any other girl on the school he could be okay, but Artio's best friend?
During the dances she danced with Andrew, she hurt him with her feet. He didn't say anything, he could just stand it. It was a worthy sacrifice, if that meant he could be with her, feeling her heart beating, her nose breathing and her eyes blinking.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
In another place, quite distant from Cynthia's thoughts, Artio, Cho Chang and all the other Hogwarts' students, Professors and staff were assisting the Goblet of Fire choose the three competitors for the Triwizard Tournament.
Cho Chang was very happy when her beloved boy's name was released, Cedric Diggory would certainly win the Triwizard Tournament, she was sure.
The three competitors, Cedric Diggory from Hogwarts, Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons and Viktor Krum from Durmstrang, had walked to a different room, where they would know the details of the tasks, the schedule itself and some other classified stuff.
When they prepared to leave the common room someone noticed that the Goblet of Fire was trembling again, it would release another name.
'Harry Potter!' the name was announced to the room, full of people.
Cho Chang whispered to Artio, "He must have been chosen, of course, a star isn't a star when it's not on the light."
Artio saw the boy standing up, a dazed expression of confusion. He avoided her eyes; she looked at Cho where his eyes wouldn't certainly look into hers.
"But how can he be a competitor?" Cho continued, "He is not old enough!" she was protesting. Artio knew that she was more upset for the fact that her boy wasn't the only competitor from Hogwarts; he would be in the shadow of the younger one.
"I don't know," Artio said, and when he entered the room she did not have to be preoccupied with not looking at his eyes, "Someone had trapped the Goblet of Fire, that person wanted him in the tournament, even if he wasn't old enough. You know that what the goblet chooses is what counts," this she had heard from Dumbledore some seconds ago.
"Yes, no matter if Hogwarts had a player or not. but I'm sure Cedric will win this, will win to the Boy Who Lived, finally someone will be better than he is."
Artio nodded, when he turned to look at another place, she felt a shock of pain on her left arm, she knew that the snake was appearing on the same place of the pain. She avoided looking at it, Cho would notice. She almost fainted with that pain but then but then she realized that Harry couldn't be making that, and looked through the room to see if someone was looking at her.
There was a person, an old man, looking in her direction and, as the other time, when he looked away the pain stopped, like if it hadn't been there. Artio became preoccupied, so far two people made her feel such pain, and now she had to avoid one more person.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Cynthia and Andrew were too tired to continue dancing, they had not sat down for more than two hours and they felt they needed to do that now.
Cynthia has already woken up from her thoughts, she had whispered some words in Andrew's ear, although not much, and some thoughts were still in her head.
Many people was gone now, it was late. Cynthia herself was about to tell Andrew that she would go to the dorm, only Monica and Ariane were there, at least they were the only ones she could see, the others should be upstairs. But she didn't, because she saw Captain Dolphin, who was talking to Professor Stormd'sky, who was really his sister.
"Cynthia, how are you?" he asked, and turned to his sister, "Professor Stormd'sky, this is Cynthia Tropelt, a good Dolphin student, at least in my class."
She knew that he was just finding some an excuse for the fact that he was introducing her; in fact she was not a good student at Astronomy at all.
"Ah, yes, I know her," said the woman, "She's a good Dolphin, yes."
Cynthia nodded, smiled, and finally the woman went away saying she would be right back.
"So how's he doing?" asked Captain Dolphin, no need to say who was him, she knew it, "Have you seen any difference since before and now?"
"He's doing well," she said, "But I've asked him about Artio, some unimportant things and I was surprised that he said he didn't know her." Cynthia wouldn't tell him the truth, he was not supposed to know about Artio and Jeremy's relationship, but that was a way for knowing what was going on.
"Oh, of course he doesn't," he said, as if it was the most normal thing on the world, "I have cast the Oblivio Personalle spell on him, haven't you seen?"
"What?" she hadn't seen anything; she didn't know what was that, "What does that means?"
"How don't you know? Cynthia, remember that this spell broke the effect that he, when he was Patrick, made on Artio. He wasn't supposed to be affected by the thing so I make him forget everything related with Artio, he had never seen Artio and every conversation he and other people had about her, he just doesn't remember, for him, those conversations had not happened. As Artio was here just a few days there is no problem with that, is there?"
Cynthia was stupefied, how could he do that to a person? And how would she deal with it now?
"No, there's no problem, I just have to avoid talking with him about Artio," she said.
"Okay. That's a good idea. Both he and Artio won't be affected by the Controlactus spell anymore, just like if it hadn't been cast on them."
"And. Has Artio forgot about him too?" Cynthia asked.
"No, we just broke the spell on her, we didn't cast the other. She'll remember Patrick and everything. She didn't know that she was under the Controlactus or did you tell her?"
"No."
"So, I had told her that Patrick could have that effect on a person, I didn't say that it would have. So she thinks that I was wrong, that the thing I said wouldn't happen. It's easy, and it's safe for both of them." He was proud of his cleverness; Cynthia could see that in his eyes.
Now she had to stand that, she didn't know how, but she would. Her next step was to make Jeremy love Artio again, and that was a difficult task indeed.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Sitnalta Island, 1st November 1994.
Last night I learned of a most cruel thing, Captain Dolphin made Jeremy forget Artio. I don't know how he can be so cruel, he just cleaned up every memory he had of Artio. He says that it's good for both of them, I don't know what is good in the whole thing, but if he says so, it must be some good anywhere.
I'm afraid I almost kissed him in the Halloween Ball, and that means that I have some feelings for him. I don't know how but I have to tell him that I don't love him.
I thought he was a bad person, that he just wanted to kiss me as all the other girls on the face of Earth.
I know that since he woke up he had tried to be near me, he almost talked to me every day, but I thought it was just because I was her girlfriend's best friend. That time he didn't know who she was anymore. I was stupid. I didn't really ask him anything, now that I think about it I remember that I haven't asked him anything about Artio. I received her owls, as I thought he did too, so I needn't to ask him about Artio. How could I be so stupid?
This afternoon I received her last owl, she said that Jeremy haven't written back to her for almost one week, she thought that the owl he sent had lost her way, the distance between the two places is huge for an owl to fly, she says. I will write back to her saying that I will tell that to Jeremy, and I'll explain him the whole thing that happened. Then he'll have to write her back like if everything is normal.
There's also another bad thing, Artio said that during the Ceremony of the Goblet of Fire she felt a shock of pain, exactly as the other time when Harry Potter was looking at her. But now she is sure it wasn't him who made that, she said that Dumbledore was looking at her. She'll have to avoid his looking too, and she's preoccupied, thinking who else will make her feel bad like that.
I myself think that both events have a reason, related with what Stella let me know about Artio, her father and both Artio and Stella's marks. As Harry Potter made Lord Voldemort disappear, there is a between link between the two of them. As Artio has His blood, when Harry looks at her she feel like that. The same happens with Albus Dumbledore, he's the one who the Dark Lord fears, so the same pain makes Artio feel bad. I'll report my theory to Stella, tomorrow, if I see her, and I'll see if she thinks the same as me or not.
Ah, I almost forgot, Artio reports about the sorting of the Champions for the Triwizard Tournament. The Goblet of Fire was supposed to choose three students, one from each school, Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. She told me that the Goblet released another name, Harry Potter, and she says that the thing was planned; a trap was made. She and Cho Chang think that it was someone who doesn't want The Boy Who Lived not to be a Champion of such an event, and so that person found a way of putting him in.
I haven't talked to Jeremy yet but I'll talk to him tomorrow morning, as well as Stella, and I'll let him explain everything, he'll understand.
P.S. - Andrew and I have been having meals together, in the afternoon, talking about the previous night and I think he isn't angry with me. Well I know that no one heard Jeremy and I talking but he could have not liked my dance with Jeremy.
P.S. 2 - Amanda keeps her nocturnal chess games with Barbara. This week I haven't attended every day because of Jeremy and everything. I've heard that normally Professors organize a Chess Challenge here in the academy; I heard that it is during the spring months and so it's possible. I'll have to ask Anaras as she was here last year. That'd be good for Amanda.
Cynthia T.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
That Sunday was the hardest in Cynthia's life; she still had no way to talk with Jeremy. Now she knew why Jeremy was looking stupid, he didn't know why Cynthia treated him that way, by his point of view she had been so rude! Now she knew indeed he had reasons for being angry with her.
Cynthia walked down the stairs for the Common Room; Jeremy was having lunch with the other Dolphin boys.
Cynthia noticed that some Dolphin girls were having lunch too and she joined them in the other side of the table.
"Hi," she said, "May I sit here?" she asked. They were in Cynthia's house too but they weren't her best friends though.
"Sure," said Susan Amparo. She was talking with Sarah Wolf, Katie Turner and Madeleine Pustrin.
Cynthia tried to understand what they were talking about but it was in vain, they seemed to have a code, Cynthia didn't understand any word they were saying, they were certainly insane.
Cynthia ate quickly. When she finished her soup, her friends appeared on the Common Room, Amanda, Monica, Natasha and Ariane.
"Cynthia!" exclaimed Ariane, sitting near her, "We are late but as it is Sunday and we have no classes there isn't trouble," she grinned.
The other girls sat next to Ariane, they almost didn't talk to the other 'group'.
"Amanda won this game against Barbara," Natasha let Cynthia know, "finally. But it took longer than they were expecting so we are late to lunch."
"Yes," Ariane agreed, "Um, what will you do during the afternoon?" she asked, they seemed to have planned the entire day and they would invite Cynthia to go with them.
"Me? I, Um, I don't know, I have to finish my Transfiguration homework and then-"
"Cynthia, today is Sunday, Sun-day!" Amanda interrupted, "Are you going to be locked inside this old building?"
"I know it's Sunday. Okay, where do you go?"
"We were planning to go explore the fields out there. In fact we noticed that we only went to the fields to have Flying, Herbology and a few other things, we don't know our own schoolyards, that's unacceptable!"
"Okay, I'll go with you," said Cynthia, remembering about the tree house. She wouldn't tell them she knew about tree house, very cool. They would kill her for the fact she hadn't told them before.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Jeremy was sitting on the tree house bed when a black haired head appeared on the wooden ladder, followed by other four, with different colors.
"Jeremy!" exclaimed the last girl climbing the ladder, "what are you doing here?" it was Amanda.
"Well," he began, taking a look at Cynthia, "I have been coming here. with Cynthia."
"What?" asked Natasha looking to Cynthia, "why didn't you tell us about this tree-house? This is fantastic, how could you hide it from us?"
"I." Cynthia knew they were right, but it was Captain Dolphin who told her about it, and she was supposed not to tell anyone, but how would she explain that to her friends? "I had come here some months ago, in the beginning of the term, I just forgot about this because this starts to become boring when you come here often," it was the best explanation she could make up.
"Boring? How can you call this boring?" Amanda demanded, looking to the tree-house roof, which had some tree leaves, "this is fantastic!"
"Yes," Jeremy seemed to agree, "we went here some time ago and we almost forgot about it, I was around here when I remembered and then I climbed the ladder." He was trying to change the subject so the other girls wouldn't ask Cynthia why she didn't tell them about the tree-house.
"Oh, by the way," Cynthia began, it was the moment for the chat she was expecting to have with Jeremy, there could be any other moment better than that, "I wanted to talk to Jeremy in the morning, could you leave us alone?"
Natasha was going to ask some thing, Cynthia noticed, but Amanda cut her thoughts. "Okay," she said, "we'll be searching for some other cool places, see you later."
Cynthia and Jeremy stood there, seeing them climbing down the ladder and, when there was no sign of the girls, Cynthia turned to Jeremy. "We have to talk." It wasn't a question; he couldn't say that he didn't want in that moment, she wouldn't let him go.
His eyes were shining, Cynthia seemed different from the Halloween ball night, "Alright." He said and sat on the wooden bed waiting for her to talk.
Cynthia prepared herself mentally to let him know everything.
"I will try to tell you everything about Artio and you and what happened," she began, "Artio was the target of the Contrulacus spell which was cast in her by Patrick who was, in fact, you."
"Me?" he asked, not understanding anything or why he didn't remember about that.
"Yes, let me continue," she said, "someone cast a spell on you, then you went to Artio and gave her a drink, which had the potion of the spell. As you were also some secondary target you were in danger almost as mush as she."
Jeremy was looking at her, and listened her words as if it was a tale, his eyes were saying that the story wasn't true but, well, he loved Cynthia and so he would do anything she asked him to.
"Captain Dolphin explained me what happened to you both and, as the person who cast the spells on you and Artio could control her, that might affect you too. So he asked me to learn a spell to break the spell that was cast in you, and that would also break the Controlactus spell on Artio."
"So she and I were being controlled?" asked Jeremy.
"Yes, kind of, you weren't but you could be, anytime that person wanted. I agreed with what Captain told me, I would help him to break your and Artio's spells. But he didn't know, I mean, he doesn't know that you and Artio were in love." She took a brief look at him to see if he was still listening. "I had to win points which I would trade in the Library for the spell book. Captain Dolphin wanted me to do everything on my own, he didn't want to teach me the spell because if someone discovered, he would never be seen as the one who helped me, if someone discovered everything would fall on my shoulders."
"But it was his idea, right?" Jeremy asked.
"Yes. Well, you and Artio have been sending owls each other for more than two months; I thought everything was all right with you two. One day in September Artio's mother appeared in the academy."
He raised his eyebrow. "How?"
"She is an Animagus, a Glumbumble."
"Is she the Glumbumble that Amanda offered you?" he asked.
"Yes, she told me that Artio was in danger because she was the one who has the Lusitania artifact, it was born with her-"
"What?" he asked, surprised. "Is she the one? Lusitania is with her?" he knew as much about the artifact as the other students, he had been in the History of Magic classes and he had been paying attention to that subject.
"Yes, it is because she's in danger, it is because she has been the target of the spell, and you too. The power of the artifact can help the Dark Lord to revive, if the Death Eaters take it away from Artio, I mean, if they kill Artio," a tear appeared on her right eye, Cynthia sustained it, she wouldn't cry.
"I don't believe this!" He said. "You're saying that I was the Lusitania owner's boyfriend? Oh my god!"
"Yes, you are her boyfriend," Cynthia said, a special tone on the 'are', "Jeremy, she loves you, I am sure you love her too, you just don't remember. She needs you, she doesn't know anything about this, she doesn't know about the artifact, she doesn't know about the legend."
"Yes, I know, you've just said," said Jeremy.
"Yes. let me continue. Before we arrived at the academy, on the ship, Artio found out that her parents had divorced. As she was going to live with her father, she went to London and she's now attending Hogwarts. In the last month Stella, who's Artio's mother, went to the Library and copied the spell for me because the points I had won wouldn't be enough for borrowing the book and, if I didn't learn the spell you would pass this entire year under control of someone. Then I practiced how to do it for weeks and when I was ready I let Captain Dolphin know. Some days after, he and I cast the spell on you, which break the other spells on you and Artio. But he also made sure, oh I won't forgive him for that, he made you forget everything about Artio."
"What?" he couldn't believe in what he was hearing, "I. I was her boyfriend and he made me forget Artio?" Jeremy knew that Captain had no right to do that but it wasn't the most important thing. In fact, she had not a single image of the girl, for him he loved only one girl, the one who was in front of him. He would do anything she asked him, and he was pretending to be upset with what Captain Dolphin had done but actually he wanted to love Cynthia.
"Yes, he did. So, after that you know everything. Now, do you understand why I did that in the Ball?"
"Yes, sure," he said.
"Good. Now, you must write to Artio, she told me that she wasn't receiving your owls; she thinks that the owl died, the distance is huge between the two places. Actually you weren't sending her any owls, and as she is waiting for you to reply she didn't send any too."
"What do you want me to do? Write to her?" he asked, "but I don't know anything about her!" he protested.
"I know. Actually, we are going to write to her every time it's needed. I will tell you what to write, don't worry. So, will you do it?" she smiled.
How could he say no to that smile? "Sure."
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
It was Tuesday and Artio was worried about Jeremy, she hadn't seen a single owl from him for almost two weeks and now one was knocking at the window. She hoped it was from him.
My sweet Artio,
Cynthia told me that you weren't receiving my owls. I'm sorry, it must have died of exhaustion, you know the two places are too far away. Why didn't you write me letting me know about that? I didn't know, and I was simply waiting for an answer from you.
So, how was your week? I myself went to the Halloween Ball, I have been dancing with Cynthia, we were having fun for a while. It was when he let me know about the owl she received from you.
Artio, have I ever told you that I love you? I do.
I miss you so much! I want to see you in the Christmas break; we have to manage it. I just noticed I don't have any image from you, I mean, not in my head because there are millions in my mind! Can you send me a photograph? It can be you, with or without your friends; I just want to see you near my bed.
I am waiting for your owl every day.
Love,
Jeremy
If Artio knew how hard it was for Cynthia to put Jeremy writing what she was saying she wouldn't like that owl as much as she did.
"Cho!" she called, "Jeremy has finally written me, he said that Cynthia told him about the missing owls."
"Good, what else does he say?" asked the oriental girl.
"He and Cynthia went to the Halloween Ball, they were having fun for a while and that he misses me."
"Oh, he and Cynthia?" asked Cho, "They attended the ball together? I myself would keep an eye on them." she made a weird face.
"Oh come on, I know Cynthia wouldn't do that," Artio knew what Cho Chang meant with that 'together', "she knows that he and I are in love."
"I know, I was just joking!" said the black haired girl, "what else?"
"He wants me to send him a photo. Do you know someone who has a camera?"
"Perhaps." Cho said, smiling.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Cynthia looked tired that Saturday morning, she hadn't been sleeping for the most time of the night, she had nightmares about Artio and a man whose face wasn't visible, he must be the image that Cynthia had of the Dark Lord. Plus, she had to invent every love declaration for Jeremy's owls, which were sent every four days, the time that one owl passed going to Hogwarts and back, to Lusitania.
She had already written some owls, the Christmas break was almost there. Although due to climate it wasn't usual to snow in the Azores archipelago, the Professors made sure to enchant it every year, there was no Christmas if there wasn't snow, they usually said.
More than twenty days had passed since the conversation between she and Jeremy in the tree house.
Jeremy himself was in love with Cynthia, the idea of the photo hadn't helped. Cynthia remembered the day when Artio sent the photo; there were she and Cho Chang, her Hogwarts best friend. Sometimes they were flying on their brooms, practicing for the Ravenclaw Seeker position, the oriental girl won much more times than Artio did. Other times Artio looked alone, reading, singing.
Jeremy owned the photo, Cynthia made sure he looked at it in that day but now she doubted that Jeremy still remembered about Artio's face. The owls they sent Artio were a complete lie, he didn't feel anything written on the letters, at least not for Artio, but for Cynthia.
He had tried to kiss Cynthia as many times as a Dolphin jumps in the sea, she had lost the count. She had never let him do it, remembering him that he loved Artio. Actually, asking him to love Artio. And the most difficult thing was that Cynthia herself had some feelings about the boy, which she tried to forget twenty million times a day but they always got back. She wouldn't kiss him, it would be worse for the three, she knew it and Artio was already suffering much in those days because of Lusitania artifact, it wouldn't be fair if Cynthia had some kind of relation with her friend's official boyfriend.
Stella was still there; Cynthia didn't know how she was still alive, eating Glumbumble food. She believed there was something else at the academy that she should know and, as she always said that Artio was safe under Dumbledore's eye, she kept living there and talking to both Jeremy and Cynthia. Cynthia had told her that Jeremy knew everything, she had been upset but finally she accepted the idea. And there was one more lie there, Cynthia made sure that Jeremy asked Stella every time about Artio, the woman was supposed to know that Jeremy and Artio's relationship was going well.
Andrew was still there, unfortunately for her he hadn't vanished from Lusitania, which made her have one more problem to think about, their relationship. In fact Cynthia loved Jeremy, not Andrew, but Jeremy had to love Artio again and Andrew was a good card to play. Cynthia had kissed him some times, when Jeremy could see them; she made sure about that. She was sad because she was using Andrew too, she didn't want to, as she didn't want to do the most of the things she did. He looked happy when they kissed, hoping that it was that time when Cynthia finally decided to tell him the truth, at least those things he thought were true. He asked her if she loved him every time he had a chance and almost every time she simply replied something coded, confusing, about her doubts, their age. She normally asked him if he wasn't feeling good as the thing was going. He was. So she said that she was too, and that things would stand all right as they were.
Cynthia remembered every lie she had been telling, every stealthy move she had made. She wasn't like that. She had known it for ages but she had to keep doing everything like before, everything that was needed for Artio to be safe and happy. The same question spun around her mind at least one million times per day, 'When would she stop lying?'
Cynthia was living with a complete dilemma.
But now it was time to get up and fly away from her thoughts about everything.
Monica opened her mouth to say 'good morning' when she noticed Cynthia was waking up, the Brazilian girl was also looking sleepy. She and the other girls had gone to the Chess Room or other empty one to play chess, Amanda and Barbara were good friends outside the chessboard, they had had good moments, sharing their things, doing homework together. The Whale girl helped the Dolphins many times; they were good friends. On the other hand, when she and Amanda were playing, it seemed like they had never seen each other, they put everything away and fought their own battle. Monica was still attending the Chess games, as well as the other Dolphin girls bar Cynthia. Cynthia had left their group from day to day, not noticing what she was doing but because she had needed to go to the Library, or outside the castle to talk to Stella, or to be with Jeremy to write their letters for Artio, or to be with Andrew making Jeremy forget her.
She stood up, went to the bathroom besides their dormitory. After brushing her teeth, she had a quick shower and did everything a fourteen-year-old girl would do in the morning.
When she walked downstairs to have breakfast in the Common Room, she found Andrew in the Great Hall.
"Hey," he said, "did you sleep well?" he smiled.
"Not very well," she replied, "you?"
"I did."
Cynthia made her way to the Common Room; she was hungry. Andrew followed her. When they entered, Jeremy noticed she was with Andrew and he was jealous. The boy made his way to his own table and Cynthia went to the Dolphin table, where Jeremy was, but she didn't sit near him.
After breakfast, when it was time to receive mail, an owl left a small roll of parchment in Cynthia's place. She opened it and read.
Come find me in the tree house. Don't bring Jeremy, you can explain to him later. There is no good news. Hurry up!
Stella
Cynthia kept looking at the words for a while and then realized she could go outside at that moment, it was Saturday and there were no classes.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Hogwarts had woken up with some craziness that morning. The first task of the Triwizard Tournament would be in a few days and there were defined positions above a great percentage of the students.
Artio herself was going for Cedric, also because Cho was in love with him, but mainly because Harry made her feel pain in her mark and she didn't like the Boy Who Lived at all. She still believed that the Goblet of Fire had been rigged because the most famous boy of the world hadn't been chosen for such an event and he must be there apart from everything.
After breakfast she decided it was today, she must convince Cho giving her beloved boy the letter she had written more than two months ago.
"Cho, come on, what would you lose?" she said.
"My pride?" the other guessed, "I don't know. Artio I have no sign about his love for me. What you've said is not enough."
"What?" that was a good opportunity, it would work, "don't you believe what I say? I saw how he was looking at you the other night. I see how he looks at you every day. If he's not in love with you, then he knows how to pretend, he must have attended some theatre group!"
"It's not that I don't believe in you, I do-"
"So.? It's decided, you'll give him the letter, okay?"
The other girl smiled, she wanted to do it much more than Artio, she really loved the boy, but she would die if he said 'no'. That was her problem.
After a while remembering his face she said, "okay."
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Cynthia went out of the castle. She made sure that Jeremy hadn't seen her.
Before she reached the tree house, almost in the middle of the road between the tree and the castle, she found Carldonne.
"Hey," she greeted, "how are you?"
He didn't look fine, "Good," was the word that came out but his eyes showed other feeling. Cynthia noticed that but as she didn't have time to talk to him she just said, "see you later."
She thought it could be something between him and Anaras, they weren't very good lately although Cynthia had done everything she could to see them happy.
In the tree house Stella, still in her Animagus shape, was waiting for her, thinking that she could've lost.
When Cynthia climbed up the ladder Stella transformed into human, now she was safe, no one would see her as a woman.
"You finally show up," she said furiously, "do you know how hard it was for me to wait for you to come?"
"Yes," the girl seemed to agree, "but I didn't have a chance to come before now."
"I have no good news," the blonde woman looked to her eyes making sure she was prepared to listen.
Cynthia nodded as a sign of 'speak', and it was what the woman did.
"Things are not running as I have planned," she began, "Hogwarts is not the safest place for Artio to be right now."
"But how? You guaranteed to me that it was-"
"It was; it is not. Her father can't find her there, I know that, but-"
Cynthia didn't understand, "So how is she in danger, if he can't reach her then there is no problem."
Stella smiled, "It is more complicated than you think it is. I also thought that way, and it made my life turn around completely. there is no problem if it was only the Dark Lord the one who could hurt her."
"What do you mean?" asked Cynthia, "What is only supposed to mean?"
"I meant it. Artio isn't safe at Hogwarts, I've discovered that just some hours ago, no matters how. Dumbledore accepted her at the school because there he could keep an eye on what she was doing. But it wouldn't be enough, not for him, he wanted to make sure that Voldemort would never take Lusitania."
"How? What is he going to do?"
"He. he will kill Artio, then he'll take the artifact from her and keep it."
"I can't believe!" Cynthia was kind of. disgusted, "how can he do that? He's supposed to protect people from the Dark Side, not kill people!"
"I know, but remember. if he kills Artio he is protecting people from the Dark Side!"
Cynthia couldn't understand how Stella, Artio's mother could say that as if to kill Artio was like to kill a fly.
"What can I do?" she asked.
Stella looked at Cynthia; the girl was really smart, "How did you know that I was going to ask you to do anything?"
"Well. it's easy. You wouldn't tell me those things if I didn't have to know them, which means that I have to do some thing. Right?"
"Right. We have to save her from Dumbledore. Now she's in the middle of the year but anyways I can ask lawyer to talk to Archibald and call Artio to come live with me, and study here at Lusitania academy.
Cynthia's eyes shined happily, it would be great, "I'd love to have Artio here at the academy, it would be fun! What do I have to do?"
"We have to wait for Christmas break. I know that Dumbledore is planning to do it in the beginning of the New Year, which means that she's safe now. I know that Archibald told her about my lie. Artio doesn't like me as before because he told her it was my fault, the divorce. But I'm sure she will make an effort to come pass the holiday with me. because you'll be there!"
"Will I?" asked Cynthia.
"Yes, that's what I was going to ask you, come to my house in the Christmas break, you'd meet Artio-"
"Of course, yes, I will go." She had no doubt.
"Great!" the woman said. Then she smiled at Cynthia and flew away, after becoming a Glumbumble.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
"Hey."
Cynthia turned as she heard the voice behind her. It was Andrew.
"Hi," she replied.
"I haven't seen you since Saturday. What happened?" he asked.
"Nothing," she replied, it was true. She had finally said something that was really true!
"So what have you been so occupied with?"
That Thursday had been kind of complicated, Jeremy had tried to kiss her in the morning; Monica had had some accident after lunch, breaking her ankle and at that moment she was in the Hospital Wing. Two hours ago Stella had told her that she had just sent a letter to Artio's father, which would arrive in London in about two days; and Artio's owl had arrived just ten minutes ago, talking about the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.
"Many things," she finally replied, he would appreciate a simple answer, that was the most simple she thought about.
Andrew was always so cool, he really cared about her, but she didn't love him, not anything else but a friend only. She knew he deserved her to love him, he was the greatest person she had met and she didn't like to see him sad.
"Oh," he knew that she didn't want to explain anything else about those many things so he didn't insist.
"I have to go to the Hospital Wing," she said, "do you want to come with me?"
"Yes," was the answer. He didn't ask why or who was there, he simply would go wherever she wanted him to.
In the third floor, Monica was laying down on a bed. As they entered, she turned in their direction. "Hey, finally someone comes to visit me!" she said.
"Well," Cynthia began, "I thought Amanda was with you here, and then Natasha, they had told me they would be here-"
"Yes, yes, they had been, in the last century." she smiled, "this is boring here. I want to get well soon!"
"I hope you get well soon! Madame Shalbourn will fix your ankle with a spell or will you have to stay here and wait for time?"
"No, she'd already done the spell, my ankle is almost good. It only hurts a bit. I will stay here until tomorrow for observation."
"Oh, that must be boring." Andrew finally opened his mouth.
"Yes, it is." Monica agreed.
"So. do you want me to lend you anything?" asked Cynthia.
"Ah, if you don't mind." she smiled evilly, "err, I have subscribed to the TeenWizard magazine. it should have arrived this morning. Can you take a look on the dorm to check who has it?"
"TeenWizard?" Cynthia hasn't heard about that one.
"Yes, it's not very popular. but it has some cute boys!"
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Sitnalta Island, 30th November 1994.
Today was chaos. Mondays were not full of classes, for the contrary, we have the morning free of classes. It wasn't classes, it was. Jeremy.
I avoid him more than ever. Artio writes to him but I think I'm the one who reads her owls. This way he will never love her, ever! I've told him about what Stella told me; he agreed to come with me but just because of me, not because of Artio. I think she'll notice that he doesn't love her anymore.
Why did Captain Dolphin have to do that Obliviate? Dammit!
Monica is fine now, it seems that nothing happened to her. I don't need to say about Amanda; if I had to call her with a code name, then she would be 'pawn'.
Andrew found me yesterday, we were having some fun, I showed him the tree house; I thought he deserved a discovery. I didn't let him kiss me.
Cynthia T.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
The third day of December was cold, the snow spell was still working, and now it snowed almost every time, except on the Quidditch fields, because of the Flying lessons.
It was almost dinnertime and Cynthia walked downstairs with her friends.
Anaras was reading a book in the Common Room. In fact, she was looking over the book, waiting for the first year girls to go out.
When the other group of girls exited the room too, she went to the first year girls' dormitory. As she hoped, no one was there.
She had to be quick.
After searching for a while, she finally found it. It had a blue cover and in its front was written Diary.
She took it and went out of the first year girls dormitory, just in time; when she entered the Common Room Susan Amparo entered from the corridor. She seemed to have forgotten some thing because she went out in seconds and went outside again.
Anaras entered her own dormitory, left the book and hoped that Cynthia didn't want to write in it that night. Then she walked downstairs and joined the others to have dinner.
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Cynthia woke up early that morning; it was the first time she had woken up so early on a Sunday.
After going to bathroom and arrange her things she was going to have Breakfast when an owl entered by the window of the common room.
There were only five people there, fifth years. They were looking sleepy because they had been studying for all the night. Cynthia took a brief look at them and then back to the letter.
Dear Cynthia,
My exams have already started; I had some free minutes from a study break so I wrote you this owl.
Jeremy is so sweet! He just sent me quotes of romantic books, I must say that they're beautiful sentences. What is more is that he said that he made them up! I must confess that I had read every book which he quoted. Well, what counts is his intention.
My trainings with Cho have stopped for now, because of exams. She didn't have enough courage to tell Cedric Diggory that she loved him. I try to convince her to do it every day but she doesn't.
And you? You've just told me about your friends right there. isn't there any boy? I'm sure there is!
I'll have to go back to study, I'll write you back when your owl arrives.
Your friend,
Artio Sperios
Cynthia was angry, what a bad morning, she would have been better off to not wake up.
Artio said that she knew every quote in Jeremy's owls! Dammit, it had been so hard for Cynthia to find that quotes to rewrite in Jeremy's owls!
She wrote some quick note to send to Artio, perhaps the words didn't make sense but she didn't care.
After having breakfast she walked to the owlery and chose another owl to make the journey to Hogwarts.
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Cynthia wasn't the only one waking up early that Sunday. Anaras herself had finished reading Cynthia's diary. It had lots of secrets, Captain Dolphin was right when asked her to take it. After having breakfast she made her way to his office, where she was in the moment.
"I read it," Anaras said, "she wrote lots of interesting things in it." she took the diary and put it on his desk.
He took it and started reading, it would certainly be boring, Anaras thought. She had passed almost three days reading it.
"I will call you when I've finished reading this," he said, not taking his eyes away from the yellowed pages.
She went outside and walked down, to the fields. The sea was not calm at all, December was a bad month for fishing, there was wind and rain and thundering.
She would receive an owl asking to go to his office in two hours, and then she would come down again, sad, irritated, tired and feeling guilty.
Although it was true, if someone had told that to her in that moment, she wouldn't believe.
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Cynthia had found Carldonne some days ago; he and Anaras were not completely all right.
Carldonne thought that Anaras was strange in the last months, she was stressed and she was always scared with some student around them.
He already loved Anaras, and so did she; he was the one she would search for if she had a problem, she was sure he would accept her.
That was what she did.
That beautiful snowy December afternoon became very sad for both of them and some other people.
After hugging her for almost ten minutes he finally asked what was going on.
She couldn't reply, she was crying.
After a while, when she calmed down, she opened her mouth.
"It's all my fault." She said.
"What happened? What was your fault?" asked Carldonne.
"Artio. Your cousin is in danger and I wasn't able to do anything for her, I helped him doing it! God, where was my mind when I did that?"
"Who? Will he hurt Artio? What have you done?"
"Captain Dolphin." she finally said the words.
Carldonne looked at her without thinking, he couldn't believe that Captain Dolphin, 'the one who was never sad' had done something to his cousin. She had written him some days ago; everything seemed to be all right.
"Can you tell me everything, step by step?" that was the only way he could understand what Anaras meant.
"Artio owns the Lusitania artifact," she said, "We learnt about that last year in History of Magic, remember?"
"Yes."
"You know about the legend, right? Voldemort's followers want to kill Artio and obtain Lusitania. If they can do that, they will make him come back and the Wizarding world will be destroyed. She has not enough strength to face the Death Eaters."
"And what had Captain Dolphin done?"
"He cast a spell on Craig, in the ship, and he made up something about a spell and Patrick. everything was made up by him. With that, the boy made Artio become under Captain Dolphin's control. I helped him, because he told me it would be good for you, as your cousin wouldn't be in danger anymore. He promised me he wouldn't do anything with her, he just wanted to make sure that he could control her if someone attacked Artio."
She paused for a while and then continued, "more than one month ago he realized that the first year boy, his name is Jeremy, shouldn't be target of something that happened to her. As they had some link because of the Patrick incident, Captain Dolphin convinced Cynthia to cast another spell on Jeremy. The girl just did it, with his help. Captain Dolphin lost Artio's control because he broke the boy's spell but he thought it was preferable; if something happened to her now, he wouldn't even notice. He also made him forget about every memory he had about Artio. I thought everything was all right, and so did he; Suddenly, a week ago, he asked me to search for some kind of memorable thing that Cynthia had written, he was sure there was something he didn't know."
"What did you do?"
"I walked into the first year girls dorm and took her diary, she really had one. I read it and I discovered that Jeremy was in love with Artio. That was a new thing, Captain Dolphin didn't know about that. The spell that Captain cast on the boy made him forget Artio and then Cynthia had a lot of trouble dealing with them; she wrote in the diary that she had tried to make Jeremy love Artio again but she had no success. In her diary there is also written about Artio's mother, who is somewhere in the academy. I told Captain Dolphin about that and he was upset."
"My aunt?" asked Carldonne, "Stella?"
"Yes. She's somewhere in Lusitania. She is an Animagus, a Glumbumble. Now, Captain Dolphin knows that Dumbledore, Hogwarts' headmaster, wants to take Lusitania from Artio. His plan is to kill her and take the artifact in a safe place, where Voldemort's followers can't get it. They also plan an attack on Artio so the Captain doesn't know who will catch her first."
She started crying again, Carldonne hugged her.
"Carldonne, I. Captain Dolphin will get her, he."
The tears were falling like rain, she couldn't continue talking about Artio's fate like she did. Carldonne was worried about what would happen to Artio but he respected Anaras's feelings and didn't ask her anything. He knew she would talk again in good time. He simply kept hugging and comforting her.
Now he understood why she was strange during those months, she had been helping Captain Dolphin to do a horrible thing.
"He will kill Artio himself," she said. Carldonne was looking at her and made an effort to ask her only, without asking questions. "He. he told me that Artio would be killed by the Death Eaters or by Dumbledore. He said that it would happen, sooner or later. It is Artio's fate. so he decided that, if she would die anyways, at least the Lusitania artifact should come back to the academy. He would do the job by himself, if it meant that Lusitania would be at its rightful place, inside that castle," she raised her hand, pointing the entrance door of the castle with her finger.
Carldonne was crying; his girlfriend had gone through all those things alone. He had been out of touch with her; he hadn't asked her what was going on. He simply didn't like how she was acting and didn't make any effort to talk with her. It was his fault too.
"When will he do it?" Carldonne finally asked.
"He's gone. I don't know where he is now."
"We have to alert Cynthia. As you said, she knows about my aunt Stella. They must have some idea."
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"I knew he would find out," said Stella, "I just didn't expect that he would do it! Oh my god!"
"It can't be true," said Cynthia, "he told me that we would cast the spell on Jeremy so that they wouldn't be in danger anymore! What will we do now?"
"We have to tell. Gilbert," Stella didn't want to tell him but she had no other choice.
"What if we ask Uncle Archibald to send an owl to Hogwarts asking them to let Artio come home sooner than the Christmas break?" asked Carldonne.
"No!" Stella cut him off, "Archibald. just no. I don't want to talk to him, I don't want to explain him everything, and he won't forgive me."
"I should have told you about Captain Dolphin's plans before! It's my fault!" Anaras wouldn't forgive herself; she was acting like a house-elf.
"No, he would go on with his plan any way, even if you haven't helped him." Stella didn't want Anaras to feel guilty.
"Stella, I think that we should advise Mr. Sperios," Cynthia said, "and Jeremy. Perhaps he can help in some way, Artio loves him."
"Please, don't," Stella asked Cynthia.
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Gilbert Stormd'sky showed ready to help, his passion for Artio's mother had been more than that, for him. When he read who had signed the letter he just said okay.
Stella's plan was, in the first phase, to find out where Robin Stormd'sky was. That was the name they - Cynthia, Anaras, Carldonne, Jeremy and Stella - called Captain Dolphin; they felt that he didn't deserve the title of 'captain'.
Professor Shayra had told the entire school that they wouldn't have Astronomy for an unknown period of time. Cynthia had listened to her without saying anything. She suspected that Professor Shayra didn't know where her brother was but anyway she couldn't know about anything related to Artio.
That week had passed fast, the school was reaching the end of its semester, which meant final exams. Cynthia didn't have very bad marks, although she knew she could have done better. Natasha had helped her a lot as well as the other Dolphin girls.
The beginning of the second week of December was calmer than the previous in terms of school work and exams. But on Tuesday they learned something horrible. Mr. Sperios sent Cynthia an owl saying that Artio had gone to Portugal, to spend the Christmas holidays with her mother. In fact, Stella had asked Archibald to let Artio go to Portugal, as she has asked Cynthia to go too, but the problem was that Stella didn't say anything else to Archibald about that, she thought Artio was still at school.
Someone had forged Stella's owls to Mr. Sperios. In the name of Stella, Archibald and someone else combined every detail of Artio's travel to Portugal. He sent Cynthia an owl letting her know that Artio had already gone there, but that she wasn't delivering owls as per normal.
The news made a complete revolution between the 'Rescue Group' and the other academy students and staff. They started packing their things and prepared to leave in the first ship that would go to Azores. No one understood why they, especially the four students, were going earlier than the other students, in the Lusitania ship. As the exams were already gone they had no problem in having permission from Professor Shayra and Captain Shark to go away. When they arrived to the Azores archipelago, they took a Muggle plane and flew to Portugal.
The aeroplane was a strange thing. Cynthia knew that it was much quicker than flying on a broom but in the wizard mode it was much more exciting. The tour took almost three hours, as it had had some trouble because of the weather.
She didn't really have any idea of what they were going to do, or where they were going to stay. Cynthia only follow Stella's orders, she trusted the woman.
When they arrived at the airport, in Lisbon, Gilbert Stormd'sky was waiting for them. He looked strange wearing those Muggle clothes.
He hugged Stella and then greeted the students. They followed him. They went by bus to an old building, which was deserted. He had left his dragon there.
"I've been in Italy these last weeks. If I had been at home, in Azores, you could have come with me but I wasn't able to get there," he explained, "how was the flying machine?"
"Not very good," said Stella, "I'm kind of annoyed. Do you know where he is?"
Cynthia suspected that 'he' should be Robin Stormd'sky, Gilbert's brother.
"I have an idea. Let's go."
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A dragon flying cage looked very cool at a first impression but it was boring if someone stayed inside of it for six hours, especially if there were six people in it.
They went flying over Portugal until they reached the mountains, near Spain.
"We were born in this area," said Gilbert, "I know a place where Robin could have hidden from us. I'm afraid he's forged your letters," he looked at Stella, "I'm afraid Artio is with him."
Stella's eyes became full of tears; she hoped he hadn't done anything to her daughter.
They left the dragon and walked some meters in the direction of the rocks, to what seemed to be a cavern.
They entered the darkness of that place and the four students murmured, "Lumos!"
The cavern was quite big. When they turned a corner inside the stone 'building' they saw what remained of a green light.
They feared the worst, and started running in the direction of the light.
"He can run for the other entrance," said Gilbert.
In fact, when they walked in front they heard some voices murmuring many spells, then some of them said 'up!' and vanished with the sound of a broom flying near a tree.
[Author's Note: the following scene can be disturbing to some people, so if you are faint of heart, do not read the next few paragraphs]
It was a devastating scenario; two bloody bodies were lying on the stone, which was also full of blood.
Jeremy took a step in front. He wanted to be sure that it was really the girl in the photo. Her blonde hair was unforgettable.
"P. Jeremy!" Her eyes were almost closed but she still saw him and murmured those words with a smile. Her pain had vanished when she saw him, the boy she loved.
He looked at her. He had the sensation that he knew her but he didn't love her, as Cynthia wanted him to. He had only come with the 'Rescue Group' because Cynthia was a member of it. He hadn't come because of Artio.
Artio smiled at him until her eyes lost their light.
The others were now near Jeremy, looking down at Artio's body.
They had arrived too late.
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Read? Review!
As you should have noticed I don't like happy endings very much.
Next chapter (Epilogue): Did it really happen? Will Artio survive? If she does, how will Jeremy deal with that? If she doesn't what will they - her parents, her brother, her cousin and Cynthia - do? What about Captain Dolphin? Has he died?
Stay tuned for the Epilogue, which will come out soon.
Be a responsible reader, review this chapter. Thanks for reading.
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