Hi everyone!
This might be a little confusing down below so I'll just go ahead and let you know that she's essentially having fever dreams about bits and pieces of her past. That means it'll just flow into the next dream, a lot like people's dreams usually just keep coming with no rhyme or reason behind the transitions.
Thank you all for the reviews and favourites and follows. This chapter is actually a little longer because of it!
Dragondancer: Super drama bomb! Though if they do get together, that'll probably be the bigger one.
TheWonderfulShoe: Thats probably the whole reasoning behind this chapter, so good job on picking up on that!
bluefrost15/inperfection: I'm glad you guys are excited for this chapter! I think it gives her more of a background.
"Mum?" I raced up the stairs of our cottage in Ballycastle, the faintest sound of waves crashing reached my ears as I ran up past an open window. I loved the sound of the sea outside our home. It rocked me to sleep every night.
"In here, darling." I bounced into their room, taking in her posture with curiosity. She'd been dressed for a while obviously, but had dark circles under her eyes. Seemed like she hadn't slept at all last night.
"Whats wrong?" I peered at her, coming closer to sit down on the edge of their bed. She shook her head, smiling tiredly at me.
"Nothing at all. I'm just going to miss you." She came around to where I sat, wrapping a soft hand around my jaw line.
"You've hit eleven so fast." She sighed with some melancholy. My mother's blue eyes looked teary in the sunlight, making me frown a tad.
"Come now, Addie. You'll all be cryin' before we even get to London." My da's voice broke me out of the trance I felt I'd been in, I looked over her shoulder, trying to see through the dirty blonde hair.
"Leave me be, Malus. My baby is off to her first year in Hogwarts." She defended with a bit of might as she looked back at my father. He stood tall enough with a serious looking face. It was only when he'd smile that you could see the warmth through the paleness and freckles. He ran a hand through his hair, it wasn't light like ours. His glinted back at you with the dark sheen that seemed to be forever done up in a half up style.
"Right right." He nodded, taking a few easy-going steps towards us. "Who knows when she'll wake up though." He sighed, looking back at me.
"I'm not asleep." I stared, bewildered at him.
"You are, cricket." He peered back at me, with a look that screamed 'how do you not understand this'. His nickname made me almost want to cry, confusing me even further. We were just on our way to Hogwarts. I'm not asleep for goodness sakes!
My head spun back to look up at my mother with incredulousness, "Mum. Tell him I'm not asleep."
"Darling, it's just a simple cut." She merely shook her head back at me, with a tsk. "If you don't sleep, it'll hurt more." She reminded me though now her hair turned an even sandier shade of blonde than the pale I was accustomed too.
"What?" I furrowed my brows with complete bewilderment as I watched her lean forwards with her wand posed. Following her eyes, I found she was looking towards several gashes in my shoulder and neck.
I blinked, panic building as I tried to look back at my father. He was gone, making me look back around to see if my mother was still here. Neither were here anymore, I looked down at my hands to see them a touch burned from a bubbling cauldron.
"I'm sorry to have pulled you out of your potions class, Miss Maximae." The oaky voice of my headmaster Phineas Maqourt, did not echo in his oval office despite how empty it looked to be in here. Each item had it's own place, a drawer, cabinet, and clip for everything.
With all due respect, where are my mother and father, sirs? I was told this was a family matter." I pursed my lips together, the worry building in my stomach as my eyes took in the muted atmosphere. My hands gripped my blue and black sweater, nerves were getting' to me. Professor Dumbledore stood silently by the door, having escorted me from my N.E.W.T Potions course just a few minutes earlier.
They looked at each other for only a second. It only took a second for me to drown out any idea I'd had that it would be fine. That they were just running late. Something had happened in St Mungo's.
"There...was an accident in your parent's work earlier this morning." Maqourt seemed unsure as to how to go on now.
"A particularly nasty case of a improperly preformed imperious curse on a particular patient. It seemed to have led to him not only...killing your father but to also end your mother's life." Professor Dumbledore surmised with some amount of pity.
Their words fell on deaf ears as I turned and walked past his place near the door, hoping to simply pretend this didn't happen. That they would still be there to get me at the trainstation in a week. Who did I have now? Empty words with friends that would just as quickly pat me on the back as they would shove me under them for an advancement.
I heard shuffling as I paced down what I'd thought to be an empty passageway and paused. Turning my head to the side, I found the strange boy I'd heard had been expelled a few years ago and watched him as he rearranged his position on the stone bench and continued to rustle his robe. I watched, oddly fascinated as he pulled out what looked to be a little shiny egg.
"A-are...are you okay?" I looked away from the egg to find that he'd noticed me standing there, staring.
"I don't really know." I smiled warily as I stuck my hand out to greet this sandy haired boy. "Ara." I introduced myself.
"Newt." He responded just as quiet as before. Strangely, I felt fascinated even more by knowing this boy's name. It's something to focus on outside of being alone.
"Did you know you're asleep?" His head tilted, as he held out the silvery egg to me. He suddenly looked a lot older than what I'd first thought, confusing me a bit. He'd seemed to age to about 25, thats incredibly odd.
"I'm not. I just wish I were." I looked down at the egg and sighed, this had just been a draining day.
"No. Really." His insistence threw me as my eyes scanned up his mussed up shirt and tie, sporting the gold and black colours of Hufflepuff.
"I'm not." I pursed my lips, getting angry now.
"It's time to wake up, Ara." He spoke gently as I furrowed my brows at him. What was his problem?
"I don't want too." I retorted grumpily. Turning, I found myself staring back at a much more masculine looking Ara. A long dark beard with scarring on my face and close cut black hair, the glamours had done absolute wonders. Raindrops splattered across my handheld mirror, forcing me to look up at the smoky sky.
Sandbags blocked some of my vision, along with a camouflaged netting above us. An attempt at obscuring any incoming strangers with a touch of curiousity at what was nearby. I think there used to be a lot of trees around here...but. The artillery shells since this god forsaken war started had grounded them into mud, rubble, and ashes.
This passchendaele had been beautiful at some point, it'd had to have been, right? Whistles and loud bangs accompanied the thought, bringing me back to reality. This was the price of me thinking it'd help. Nothing would help me now. I did this to myself, I wasn't even supposed to be out here.
"Move, Maximat!" An officer yelled my cover name at me as I took into account just how close the whistling was getting to be. This was probably not my best idea ever.
"She's gonna be a daisy-cutter. How much you wanna bet?" Williams grinned across from me, crouched up against a wall of stones in our trenchline. I pressed my chin down further to obscure the wand I'd hidden inside my itchy jacket while my throat was close enough to be touched.
"I hope not, mate. Dunno how much more we can take." I responded resolutely, a deep voice charmed to obscure my own slightly higher and feminine voice.
"Right you are." He nodded, peering up over the dirt mound that sat behind me. I watched his face turn from patience to panic, his mouth was only able to open a pinch before the blow's force smacked into my back. I hit the stone with tremendous force, bouncing my head against it.
"Shit!" I cussed as I moved trying to get away from the sharp sensations prickling into my shoulder, ribs, and neck. I panicked now, struggling to get up with my wand out of my pants loop. A small creature made a noise of panic before I felt it scurrying over my leg. I pointed my wand fearfully at the man that stood before me.
"Ara? You're okay. Theres nothing thats going to hurt you here." A blonde man held his hands up to my stance and wand. I blinked quickly as I took into account how much this little area and this man in front of me wasn't like the trench in Belgium or Williams.
"Wh-...What? Where am I?" I whispered to myself, looking around at this warm shop of sorts with confusion. It was messy in a well-lived in way with papers stacked haphazardly in the center of a desk. Labeled vials with wet and dry ingredients sat crowded in dark shelves and a few plants spread out amongst them, each enclosed in glass.
"You were hurt. I attended to your wounds, its 1921 and we're in Switzerland." This soft spoken man continued, drawing my attention further away from this warm area surrounding me. This was when I took him in fully, noting the freckled dusted skin, and dirty blonde hair. He looked like an older Newt Scamander...Mr scamander.
"Sorry." I murmured uncomfortably, as I slid my wand back into it's holster on my hip. Well this is a little awkward. Now you definitely seem like you're crazy, Ara. Great job.
"It's fine." He shook his head, slowly coming closer with short and soft steps. A soft touch to my pants had me glancing down rather quickly as I tried to keep Scamander in the corner of my eye. The little Niffler sat below me, looking up with an almost wondering stare that greeted me with soft waves of concern. It was a little off putting to me, realizing the amount of emotion this creature could communicate with his eyes.
"He insisted on staying near you as I tried to patch up your wounds." Scamander's voice was soft still, as though he were trying to not startle a wounded animal. I watched the creature nod resolutely to his care taker's words with a bit of amusement.
"I got him to stay back under the illusion his fur might get into them though, and cause a fever...Of course even that didn't last very long." He continued, leaving me a space to reply, to show I was still lucid enough to contribute to this conversation.
"Why not?" I raised a brow, looking back towards my mentor with curiosity.
"He elected to bathe." Scamander concluded with a warm smile. I nodded slowly, leaning down to the Niffler's level.
"Did you enjoy the bath?" I asked him, trying to keep out any sign that I'd been sleeping from my voice by clearing my throat after.
The Niffler shrugged moving to climb up my pant's legs to find his way somewhere. I instead put my hand down, with my palm facing up for him to sit in so I could place him wherever he'd liked. He seemed to motion towards my shoulder and so I sat him there, taking a second to notice that this was not the shirt I'd had on when we left the boarding house.
"Mr Scamander..."I started, wondering if perhaps I was mistaken. I didn't want to infringe on his virtues or anything similar, it'd leave an awful taste in my mouth if I did so.
"Yes?" He answered my call rather quickly, seemingly waiting for when I would ask.
"Did you change my shirt?" I looked away from the material, back up to him as he nodded.
"I did. I had too in order to fully tend to your cuts because of how deep they were and you were having a bad reaction to the magic. I promise it wasn't anything perverted! You kept waking up and talking to me, I kept telling you that you were asleep and you always said 'No, I'm not.' which is a double negative by the way." He began to speak quickly now, holding his hands up in surrender as I stood slowly.
He took in one deep breath, seeming to have realised he'd spoken a little too quickly. "Truly, my intentions were simply to be able to heal you before your fever turned for the worst."
I stood there quietly for a second, watching his cheeks turn ever so slightly pink and decided to have just a bit of a laugh with him. "Did you like my knickers?" I raised a brow, looking serious.
"I...I didn't notice them." He sputtered, his ears and cheeks turning a bright pink with every second ticking by.
"I'm just having a go at you." I intoned with a small grin, trying to lighten the atmosphere a little after my freak out.