Voices

Chapter 2: 9:00am

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Last Chapter - I sighed placing the knife on the table and rubbing my eyes with my hand, a heavy, silent gloom had fallen upon us and all sat contemplating our lives, some staring into the flames of the flickering fire and my head continued to pound. A far off clock didn't help this, the same I woke up to, chiming the ninth hour of the day.

9:00am

As the chimes subsided, but still ringing through my thoughts, I picked up the bowl of fruit salad, it was slightly heavy to carry, but the cool, smooth glass on the outside helped to dry my slightly sweaty palms.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply my head still thumping painfully. I inhaled again, ignoring my surroundings and the oppressive atmosphere in the room, mainly from the heat still radiating off the fire next to me. The pain eased off but only slightly.

I opened my eyes again, it took a moment for them to adjust to the light in the room and I could hear Jordan telling everyone that breakfast was ready but it sounded far off and distant like a faint call out away at sea.

I looked around me; people were beginning to get up, slightly disgruntled, facing yet another day of a life they deeply despised. Sighing I placed the bowl on the table we use to eat, a slight clang sounding when it made contact with the hard table.

I slipped into the seat that had been allocated to me at the table all those years ago, the wooden bench hard and uncomfortable underneath me, not the best bit of transfiguration in the world.

I held my head in my hands, my forehead still slightly clammy from earlier, my fingers gripping my long dark hair at the roots. My eyes were closed, as were my ears, blocking out the sounds of people helping themselves to the usual amount of food for their breakfast.

It was heavenly, no one else but me and my thoughts to occupy me, the only feeling being the hard table beneath my elbows and the bench on which I sat.

Pictures rushed past my eyes, buying my first wand, my father had been so proud of me that day, it had even brought a tear to his eye, his little girl had grown up. If only he could see me now.

The memory shifted to darkness, a closet, screams of torment and agony seeping slowly through the small gaps in the door, me huddled into a ball in the corner, rocking and shaking in fear.

The memory sped up, I was standing with my wand lit in my hand, the small, weak beam of light breaking the never ending darkness surrounding and onto the dead forms of my parents, the light slowly flickered out and died, just like my life on that day.

I felt a light tapping on my shoulder, my grip on my hair slackened slightly and I withdrew my hand from my hair, letting it fall casually, gracefully around my face, framing it.

I turned. Next to me was one of the elder men, his beard had gotten long over the years but his smile remained the same. He held out a bowl to me. I looked curiously at him, why did he serve me my breakfast, it was all for one and one for all in times like this.

"Here, eat." He said, I tore my eyes away from the bowl and they travelled up to meet his. I couldn't help but notice that his smile did not reflect in his stony brown eyes. "Merlin knows we all need our strength, the world is at war after all." His smile faded slightly at his own mention of the war we were in.

I looked away from his eyes and back at the bowl that had been thrust towards me. I slowly raised my hand and took the bowl gently from his grasp.

"Thanks." I muttered under my breath but I knew he had heard me through the silence that smothered the room like a cloth

I saw him nod briefly out of the corner of my eye before he turned back to his food.

I looked down at the bowl held limply in my hands. I placed it on the tabled, a hollow felling imbedding itself within me, manifesting and taking control of my weak body.

I put my hand inside the bowl of fruit I had just been given by the old man, picking out various chunks that lay inside the spherical piece of crockery. The juices slipped down my fingers before running off my hand and back into the bowl.

I placed it in my mouth, but the sense of taste had long deserted me. I could hear raindrops hitting the ceiling out side in a fluid, thud, thud motion, repetitive as it was it soothed my mind as I bit down hard on to a piece of fruit that, from the texture, I assumed to be an apple.

Around me Icould see people staring into to space as they also ate the food which I had made but no one noticed anymore what they were given, when and who it was made by, each and every day just passes by in a flurry of fear and hope that everything will be over and the hope not that the war will be over but that the death eaters will finally come and rid us of what we are forced to call a life.

A sharp pang suddenly pierced my heart forcing me to drop the bowl I had unconsciously picked off the table so as to eat with a sharp clang, the fruit falling out and landing in various places on the table as the bowl innocently spun on its bottom half in circular motions.

I rubbed my heart, the moment of pain subsiding and I could only assume it was heartburn. I had not the time to ponder however as every eye at the table was fixated upon me, glaring at wasting perfectly good food and it was not the first time I had done it either but the thought that they would not have food if it wasn't for me rang through my mind, making me more than slightly uneasy.

I heard Jordan growl out of frustration and I gulped, after what had just happened and what had happened earlier I was certainly in for it.

I raised my head, my hair flowing down my back like water and I saw him motion to me to follow him into one of the old wards, off the waiting room we used as our main living area.

I stood up slowly, stepping over the wooden bench so as not to trip over it and walked, my head down facing the floor so as to examine the dirt that sat in layers upon in, towards the door to the ward.

My footsteps squeaked as I walked across the lino floor but they did not slip as I was wearing a pair of shoes half a size to small.

I pushed open the heavy doors to the now empty wards before it swung shut behind me with one final look at the faces of my fellow survivors before the bang of door on wall sounded and I was left alone to face Jordan's wrath.

I glanced about the room, there was a rain-washed window in one corner, the rain slowly dripping done the glass and falling off onto the already wet ground. The sky was a dark stormy grey, dark even for mid-winter in central London at quarter past nine in the morning.

I looked around the room itself, tearing my gaze away from the rain-drenched windows. This room was furthest west that had not been fully effected by the fire the death eaters had started that destroyed the rest of the west wing but that did not mead that no damage had been done – quite the contrary.

All the beds were burnt and mangled, the once immaculate, shining silver frame twisted and covered in dust six and a half years old. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls and I swear if I looked hard enough I would find a doxy or two within the half burnt sheets.

I looked up to see Jordan standing by the window, looking out of it at the remnants of the mighty buildings that had once surrounded St Mungos. I could see, even from where I stood, the remaining half of the English muggles big Ben I remember when it had been burnt down - a celebration party for the death of Harry Potter had resulted in half of muggle London being burnt down but half of the infamous bell tower had been salvaged and the bell still rung every hour on the hour.

I walked towards the window, stopping next to Jordan. He turned to me, his eyes full of pain.

"What has everything become?" He whispered, surprising me, not yelling but talking about the dreary grey scene outside the window. The next thing I did I do not know why I did it, but I did. After all Jordan was always there for everyone else but no one was there for him. I placed my hand on his shoulder as I realised that, over the years, Jordan had become like the big brother I never had. Sure he was on edge and ready to snap most of the time, but so was everyone. We were at war.

I heard him inhale deeply and my hand still rested limply on his shoulder, I dare not try to give any more comfort than I had already given him, it would only end badly.

Slowly I saw him turned to me, his face slack as if he had finally given up on everything, his world had come crashing down around him and I felt sorry for him, we were in everything together.

"Lets go, it's your turn to clean everything up this breakfast, someone else will do it at lunch." He shrugged off my hand and I nodded blearily, barley noticing as he walked out of the door to join everyone else.

I followed him out the door, barely registering the clap of lightning behind me, outside the window followed by the low rumble of thunder sending waves of low frequency sound throughout the surrounding area.

I walked slowly over to the corner where we cleaned up our bowls, plates etc we always kept a wand there – it belonged to one of the older wizards who passed away after reaching the almost derelict St Mungos building – and we used it to wash up using the water conjuring spell that we learnt during the attempts to teach us new spells.

I rubbed my eye with the palm of my hands before pinching the bridge of my nose and taking a deep, calming breath.

I opened my eyes and picked up the wand, pointing it at the crockery that had been piled up while I was with Jordan in the other room.

Water, glistening in the weak light spurted out of the end of my wand, directed by my magic onto the crockery before me.

As I moved onto the – what seemed like at least – fiftieth bowl I put down my wand arm, it ached slightly, pain pulsating up and down my arm in spasms due to me holding it up for so long.

I rubbed my arm, my fingers massaging the throbbing muscles. My head whipped up suddenly as I heard a whisper surrounding me. I whiled around, turning on the spot, feeling slightly dizzy, my brain failing to register the ten chimes that sounded throughout the building marking the coming of another hour

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A/N: Seriously, I wasn't originally going to have Jordan being an important character in this chapter, or any for that matter – in my original idea he never actually existed :) – but the chapter wrote itself! On another note I actually have no idea where St Mungos really is so for the likes of this story we will say it is situated some where near big Ben!

Also, sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out but my gran died recently so I was unable to get on the computer!

Thanks to -

Emma Barrows and godricshollow for reviewing the last chapter!