Part Eight

Three days had past since Marden had visited. Ailene was mentally drained, not knowing what to think of any of this. Everything that led up to that day was perfect.

Marden was right, however, but was she really going to want to be with someone like him?

The owl made no fuss, other than pecking on the window when he was hungry or needed to stretch his wings. He was quite pleasant company, and enjoyed a rub on his chest. But she knew she'd have to let him go eventually. Her tiny flat was no place for an owl. Especially of his size. Besides, people were bound to notice that an owl kept flying to and from her window.

On the third night, Ailene found herself asleep on her sofa while she listened to the evening news on the radio. Her flat was pitch black save for some light that came through the window on the opposite wall. Something woke her, but she wasn't so sure what. She moved onto her back and stared at the cracked ceiling.

The light in the window seemed to glow brighter, and when she turned, there was a white mist that twisted and turned like vapor right above the floor. Her eyes widened and she sat up quick. It began to form into a large blob, quickly solidifying into something large, something massive.

The mystifying form became clear to Ailene as a great Lion. Its mane was majestic and kingly, it's eyes as silver as the rest of it's fog-like body.

Ailene was frozen in place. She sure felt like she wasn't dreaming, blinking a few times, and each time, the lion remained, large and tall. As it watched her intently, all she could think of was Marden. Was it him? Was it magic?

Ailene reached out and gently tried to touch its nose, but her fingers went right through it. However, a warmth radiated from the form, the kind of warmth that would embrace her on a clear summer's day.

She rubbed her eyes, swearing up and down that she was dreaming. However, the image of the lion was still in front of her, no matter how much she convinced herself that none of this was real.

"Marden?" She whispered, reaching out one more time. However, this time, the mist dissolved within seconds into thin air. The room went back to dark as it's illumination disappeared with it.

She got no sleep for the rest of the night.

On the night of the incident, Marden found himself at the Leaky Cauldron for a drink...or five. He was not normally a drinker, but that night, he wanted to numb the excruciating pain that radiated from his heart. There was a constant sour feeling in his chest, as if it were slowly filling with poison. At that point, he'd felt that death would be better than to feel such heartache.

Maybe his parents were right. Maybe Muggles weren't worth it. Maybe they didn't want anything to do with wizards, and that it was best to keep separated from them. But if that was the case, why was he so in love with her? He had never felt this way about anyone else in the world, not even the girls he dated in school. They were nothing compared to Ailene.

He wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her, to share his warmth with her and kiss her lips again.

Three and a half pints later and he was further gone than he should have been for a work night. His mind filled with the lust for her scent, the soft touch of her lips, the radiance of her eyes. She was so clear in his drunken mind that he couldn't see anything else. That is, until everything had gone black.

The next morning, he woke slowly to a pounding migraine. The sun lit up the room he was in and his eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his skull. Staff must've placed him in a room for the night, knowing he was 'three sheets to the wind'. The front of his pants were damp, and he was sure that the room was spinning. Never before had he found himself in such a predicament as this. Marden was not one to lose control over anything let alone his own body. Now, clean cut, good boy Marden McKinnon was a total mess.

All because of a woman.

Once he was able to stand and not cower from the light, he paid and left. He did not speak to his parents, no matter how much they tried to press. One thing that Marden did like about his parents is that they knew he was incredibly busy. The McKinnons also believed that once children become adults, certain issues were worked out on their own. Of course, it didn't stop them from asking whether he was still mingling with Muggles. But he ignored them completely, spiteful of the fact that they may have just been right about Ailene all this time.

Work was no better. He kept to himself, only speaking to his colleagues when he had to, and opting out of missions if he had the chance. On the third day, after not hearing from Ailene, he decided to contact her. After lying awake for hours, he sat up and began to conjure the best memory he had with Ailene, after all, that was when he was at his happiest. Their first kiss.

"Expecto Patronum..." He whispered, and a long, silvery wisp extended from his wand, continuously swirling in the air until the abstract orb turned into the detailed image of a lion. With a shake of it's mane, it greeted Marden.

"Go to Ailene, find her, see if she is okay."

The next morning, Ailene woke with a start, it was 11 a.m. The final day of her Christmas Holiday. She had thought of the image of the Lion was all just a dream. It had to have been, right?

She slowly sat up, slumped back into her sofa. The large owl hooed at her, and she looked over at it. It stared back with an expectant look, and she blinked a few times. She sat up and realized that, yes it was really giving her that expression.

"I'm losing my mind!" She shouted. "I have an owl living in my apartment and I'm having strange visions!"

She stood, made tea, and decided that enough was enough. She walked over to the window and opened it wide.

"You," She pointed to the owl. "Out!"

The owl looked at her again with the same expression before swooping to her sofa and nuzzling into her blankets.

"No, I don't think so. You need to leave now. I'm over this! All of this!" She took a step forward as it shrank lower.

Then, the owl's head turned and began to screech frantically. She turned and standing before her was the same, silvery lion that was there the night before. Her eyes widened and she froze solid.

It stared at her intently, and then it spoke. "I am downstairs if you wish to talk." She recognized the voice instantly.

For someone who was supposed to be angry at Marden, she threw on clothes rather quickly; a skirt and some stockings, a blouse, her coat with a scarf. She quickly descended the stairs of her building to the lobby where she looked all over for him.

Once out on the freezing street, she spotted him instantly.

He looked rough, bags hung from his eyes and he was showing stubble. He was definitely not in his best robes, and his hair was messy. He pushed himself off of the wall and slowly approached her.

Ailene stood tall and proud, still keeping her demeanor in check. "That owl needs to go." She said to him.

He looked up at the windows of the apartments before looking down. "I'll take him back. He's my only owl, got him as a pet on my eleventh birthday."

Ailene studied him, and Marden looked back down, his eyes briefly looking at her lips.

"I'm sorry about the other day." He said softly, "but I'll keep repeating myself. You deserved to know the truth. You deserved to know the real me."

Ailene was silent, she just continued to study him and his blue eyes.

"How do I know I can believe you?" She asked. "How can I know you're not being dishonest again?"

"Would you like to go on a walk with me?" He asked her, hoping with all of his heart she'd say yes. "The only thing I can do is show you."

She looked back at the building. "I don't know, Marden." She felt sad now, seeing him there made her feel lighter inside, but she felt it was best if things between them discontinued.

"Please, I wish to show you something. What I was going to show you the other night. We'll be gone for an hour at the most."

Something inside of her told her to say yes, just do it. Take his hand and go. Ailene wanted this more than anything, for someone to take her away for a little while and make her forget about her quiet life.

"Fine, only for an hour." She finally gave in, listening to her heart. Marden's smile grew on his face, turning and walking beside her down the street.

They walked in silence for a while, Ailene with her arms still across her chest. The wind picked up and brought the chill along the pair. Marden saw that Ailene had tensed up and tried to put an arm around her, but she moved away from him.

"Are you in any trouble?" She finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Not sure yet. No one has contact me from the Mini- I mean, the government. You were the only Muggle that witnessed my magic this time, so they might not find out." He said softly, glancing over at her. "It's only when it's really in public that it causes some disruption."

"Well, that's good them. But what if I were to blab to everyone that I saw you do magic?" She asked, playing Devil's advocate out of spite.

"Well, an entire group of people is much more believable than one person." He argued, matching her spite.

She stayed silent, not saying much else as they kept along.

"Are you cold?" He asked, taking off his cloak and placing it around her shoulders. Ailene didn't answer him, this time giving in to her shaking knees and letting him keep her warm. She thought she looked absolutely silly, but it did help.

"Stay close to me." He said when he placed his arm around Ailene, leading her to a dusty old pub. She looked up and saw a metal sign hanging over the door in the shape of a giant pot.

There weren't a whole lot of souls in this pub. "Where are we?" She whispered, feeling very apprehensive, wanting to turn back home and let Marden be on his way. Inside it was dark and decrepit, almost like the place hadn't changed in centuries.

"You'll see." He whispered softly into her ear, leading her down a dark hallway with an equally dusty old brick wall at the end. As they approached, Marden drew his wand and tapped on a brick.

Before her very eyes, the brick wall shifted itself apart and opened up to a completely separate street, but a street she had never seen before.

Marden took her hand and linked her arm around his before leading her along. Her eyes were wide in amazement. Crowds of people wearing the most outlandishly colored robes with big, tall pointed hats. Cats slinked through their feet and owls soared overhead. It was loud, the humming of conversations buzzed all around them. There were shops lining the road selling all sorts of things that Ailene had never seen before in her entire life. Broomsticks, cauldrons, things that she only associated with Halloween. Her head turned in all sorts of directions, taking in this new environment. Ailene also saw that she was getting stares from people as they walked by and noticed her. The bewilderment on her face surely gave away the fact that she was an outsider.

"Now can you tell me where we are!?" She asked Marden, raising her voice over the crowd.

"We're in my world now. This particular place is called Diagon Alley. It's a popular place to come and shop."

They continued on slowly, shifting through the crowd. "This is where you would come to buy school supplies, too."

"School, what school?" Ailene asked, though her mind was racing. "There's a school for people like you?"

"Well, of course. It's where we learn to control our magic, manipulate it. Hogwarts. Every wizarding child in the United Kingdom attends there for seven years, starting at eleven and ending around seventeen." He explained to her, absolutely enjoying her curiosity.

"And, I'm guessing that's where you went to school? Some boarding school in Scotland, right?" She smirked, repeating his words from a few months ago.

He laughed. "Yes, actually, that's exactly that. I was in Gryffindor."

"A what?"

"There are four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Named for the founders of the school. Students are divided by their personalities, and what attributes they feel are most important to them."

"Oh yeah?" she asked, completely enthralled by this new world. "What house do you think I'd be in, if I had been a wizard?"

"A witch." He corrected her. "And... that's a good question. Definitely not Slytherin, you're too nice."

Ailene raised her brows.

"Probably Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. Kind and smart."

She watched him before nodding slowly. She certainly liked the sound of that.

Now it was she took the lead, practically dragging Marden behind her to a shop with robes. Outside of the shop, on displays, were dozens of the tall, witches hats she's only seen in books and drawings and movies, but now surrounded her on the thousands of people in this tiny street. The were decorated with lace veils, flowers and other accessories. There was a pretty, ocean blue hat that caught her attention and she tried it on. On the brim of the hat were white hydrangeas that surrounded the base of the tall point. A smile radiated from her face and Marden caressed her cheek as he tucked hair behind her ear.

"You look beautiful." He said to her, so relieved at her positive reaction to everything. He was scared beyond anything that she wouldn't like Diagon Alley, or that she wouldn't have come with him at all.

Ailene felt her skin shiver under his touch. Marden then reached into his pocket and pulled out some of those golden coins, a long with a few silver ones. He left with the hat and came back a few minutes later, placing it back on her head. "It's yours now." He said to her. Ailene couldn't believe the turn of events. Just a few hours ago, she was ready to expel him from her life, and now he was back, buying her hats and making her heart melt.

She leaned up and kissed him lightly on the lips, the sensation invigorating to her. Marden felt the sour feeling in his chest creep away. She pulled away as fast as she had kissed him, she felt her face was hot. He took her hand and slowly pulled her a long.

They now strolled along until they found a huge, tall white building.

"That's Gringott's, the bank for wizards. It's got thousands upon thousands of vaults. There's also rumor of a dragon."

Ailene turned and looked at him for a very long time. "A...a what?"

"Dragon. Yes, they exist."

"Well...what else exists...?"

"Ah well, a lot. Everything. I couldn't exactly tell you... ah, unicorns, knifflers, hippogriffs...I can let you take a look at one of my old textbooks from school..." He offered

She turned back and looked at the towering building. They kept walking until Marden pointed out another building.

"That is Ollivander's. That's where every witch and wizard in the country gets their wand." He explained. "Eleven is the age where you officially start school and begin to learn magic."

"What's down there?" Ailene asked, pointing down a dark alley.

"You don't want to go down there..." He said, leading her a long.

They sat down and had some ice cream at Florean Fortescue's when they continued their conversation. "That's what I do. I'm an Auror."

"Auror?"

"We're like the police. We keep the world safe, and stop anyone who uses magic in the wrong ways. There's been a few wizards in the past that have gotten away with some serious crimes. A war just ended a few years ago, actually. The same year your war ended, too."

"You mean, wizards fight in wars, too?" All she kept thinking of was her experience with the war. Men with lost limbs and mortal wounds. Blood was abundant, and she took care of all sorts of people, not just soldiers.

"Of course. The last wizard to start a war wanted to kill Muggles. All Muggles. He felt they were not good enough to share the world with." She listened to him intently, slightly nervous as she kept thinking back to that dark alleyway.

"Are we talking about the same war?" Ailene sat up, setting her spoon down. "Hitler...He wasn't a wizard...was he?"

"Who?" Marden asked, looking confused as he ate his bubblegum ice cream. "You mean Grindelwald? No. No. Muggles use machines that cause destruction and chaos. I heard an entire city in Poland was leveled because of Muggles. Thousands of Witches and Wizards died because of people called Nazis." Marden explained softly. "Sometimes I understand the frustrations that my fellow kind have with yours. But if Muggles knew what Grindelwald wanted to do, what he attempted to do, what he got away with...I'm sure yours would be, also."

Ailene stayed silent after this, unsure of what to say or do. The most important people in Ailene's life were lost in the war, but to know that there was another war going on at the same time, without the knowledge of her kind...it raised even more questions. But where to begin? Where to start?

When Marden became too uncomfortable in the silence, he spoke up once more.

"But, my job is to bring people like Grindelwald to justice, and to ensure that a war of that magnitude never happens again. For the betterment of everyone, wizard or not."

"Well, that's pretty brave of you." She whispered to him, looking up and finally meeting his blue gaze. "Is it dangerous?"

"Extremely." He answered her.

She nodded and fell silent once more, taking a few more spoonfulls of her ice cream before pushing it away.

"Do you still think I'm a lunatic?" He asked her, reaching out and holding her hand.

Ailene looked up at him, slowly smiling. "No, I guess not. I guess you proved yourself." She said, still looking around at the strange new world in front of her. She then looked back at Marden, who beamed at her. Ailene smiled back and looked away again, playing shy.

Soon, they began to make their their way back to the to the pub. "It looks like there's so much more to this world. Are there other places you can take me?" Ailene asked.

Marden pondered for a second or two. "Well, I could take you to Hogsmeade, but that's in Scotland, and we'd have to Apparate."

She looked at him, and he continued. "Wizards have the ability to travel, disappear and reappear where they please, within reason." He explained. "I don't know how much you'd like it." He said, and she thought for a while.

"Maybe another time, remember, we only have an hour?" She said, smirking at him. They left through the entrance of where they came and through the Leaky Cauldron.

The two of them then headed back out to the streets of London, and back to their apartment.

"I'll show you other places, if you'd like. Maybe we can practice Apparating so you become used to it."

"Is it that bad?"

"Well, I did throw up the first time I did it, and things can go wrong if it's not done properly."

Her eyes widened and she kept walking. "At school, we have to practice for months in order to get it right. But you won't have to worry, I'll do all the Apparating, you'd just have to follow directions." He smiled down at her, wrapping his arm around her waist.

Chills went up her spine when he touched her this way. He was so gentle with her, and made her feel like a woman. No man has ever done that before.

Once outside of her building, she looked up. "Would you like to come up for some coffee?"

"I thought I only had an hour?" He teased.

She laughed and shook her head before turning and walking into the building, he following close behind.