RubeusHagrid34: Tis rough for the people, but I'm glad to know you're still enjoying and excited about this fic. Hope all is well on your end.
Chapter Two: In Another's Hands
Dawn had not yet shown her sunlight along the Romania landscape by the emergency meeting's end, causing the regular artificial lights to be at full strength in all the corridors and rooms. Drifting from crowded corridor to packed place, there was no one person without worry of war clouding his or her mind. While some were still ranting on the unfairness of the travelling ban imposed, others were still allowing the initial shock to sink into their souls, their silence dominating the air.
"Have you ever felt such tension, Simeon?" Bella whispered as she drew closer to her boyfriend as they sat together on the floor of a carpeted hallway. "I haven't heard such quiet before."
With his firm hand running over her hair Simeon merely held her close, his lips keeping shut. Letting her head find a niche in his chest, they watched as a group of men walk by them, all of their eyes adrift as they marched robotically together.
"Do you remember the First War, Simeon?" Bella asked out of the blue, pulling herself upright and against the wall. "Do you remember You-Know-Who's reign at all?"
Simeon sighed. "I only heard of his terrors. He had followers in Bulgaria, but none of this vas known until after the var. I vas far from danger."
"We were just so young," commented Bella, tucking a loose curl of hair behind her ear before resting that side of her face in the open palm, "and so far away from any real harm. I can't imagine what growing up in the middle of war must have been like for Charlie. I celebrated his downfall with everyone else in the world, but I know I didn't understand that I was celebrating the end of massive bloodshed, the halt of a potential genocide and the fall of the evilest wizard to grace the world."
Pausing at the end of the sentence, she found herself frozen as she stared at her palms, the shimmer in her eyes suggesting she would burst into hysterical tears in the next second. Breathing deeply she prevented hyperventilation before daring to continue with her speech.
"It's frightening to imagine I'll live to see a war in the world," she breathed heavily.
"You vill live to see it end as vell," the dragon keeper reassured carefully, putting his own hands gently onto hers, "because the vorld will not stand aside to let him take over and purify the race of vizard."
"You can put your money on that one," a third voice interrupted before Bella could respond to Simeon's claim.
"Oh, Charlie," exclaimed the Italian researcher as she quickly sprung onto her feet, not hesitating for a second while holding him in her arms. Slow flowing water came down her cheeks, moistening Charlie's shirt. "It was very brave of you to speak like that tonight. The truth is finally known by everyone here."
The man in her embrace could only nod as she backed away, her fingers brushing against her cheeks and removing the tears she had unconsciously shed.
"Are you all right?" Simeon questioned once his feet had found the ground.
"I'm fine," his roommate answered almost too quickly for comfort, his eyes blinking fast in an attempt to fight the sleep they wanted so. As much as his body was worn and ready to collapse on the spot from the restless night, his mind could only recognize the missing component of the moment.
"Where's Abby?"
The only source of illumination in the infirmary was a glowing candle hanging in midair above the doorway. It was kept there every night for the purpose of safety should someone in need of medical attention stumble in late at night without a wand to light the way. The source wasn't the best, certainly not appropriate for an extended period of time, but it was sufficient for the first few steps into the room.
And even though the Healer knew all that, she had preferred to hide in the shadows of that single candle, standing in front of the window and looking blankly at her own image against the black sky.
Not even the beauty of the night was of any comfort to Abby. Though the stars and moon were still constant and unchanged in spite of the world, it didn't help to think it shone down on a land where the possibility of bloodshed was growing.
"I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me," Abby quoted the twenty-third psalm in a faint whisper, hoping in vain that hearing the words themselves would help. "Easier said than done."
Closing her tired eyes, she couldn't see the reflection in the window, where a figure was shown over her shoulder entering the dark infirmary.
"I wondered where you'd gone to," the figure spoke, not bothering to turn the lights of the infirmary on, keeping cloaked in the darkness. "What are you up to?"
"Just thinking," replied Abby, not needing to open her eyes or turn around to know who was addressing her as her forehead bowed to rest in her hand.
"About anything I should know?" the voice answered back, slowly drawing closer to where she stood by the windows.
"Only if you think you should know," Abby came back coldly shaking her head.
Gently, a pair of freckled arms wrapped around her chilly shoulders, holding her close enough to share heat as a beating heart was held to her back. The softness of a fleshy cheek pressed against the side of her head, her hair getting in the way of a familiar feeling nose.
"As your boyfriend, I make an effort to know anything you tell me," the man pressed against her body said, kissing the top of her head lightly.
Abby allowed the side of her face to find the nook she knew well between the neck and shoulder of her beloved. Leaning inward, she rested her forehead into that place of familiar comfort, allowing her hands to hang onto Charlie's arms as if they were holding her in place. Unmoving for a moment, it was difficult to tell if she was just silent or had fallen asleep in his embrace.
"I'm worried," she finally admitted, her eyes cast downward as Charlie brought one hand up to stroke her long brunette mane, bringing the loose bits back so they sat behind her delicate ear.
"Everyone is entitled to doing that," he assured sweetly, holding her a bit tighter in the darkness of the room, "things being the way they are."
Abby nodded, still not brining her grass-green gaze any higher than it was as she pulled herself closer to Charlie's radiating warmth, her own body heat fading while she shivered in her thin summer pyjamas.
"What exactly are you afraid of?" her boyfriend inquired curiously, leaning lightly against her head.
"It's not so much about what there is fear of," Abby replied, her eyes rising as they turned away from Charlie. "It's whom I fear for: Anna and mum."
A sigh escaped Charlie's lips, rustling the mane of Abby as his cool breath grazed her left ear. It was good reason to worry.
"I'm not there to protect them," she continued in a hushed monotone voice, shaking her head in shame. "War is being waged, those of non-magical heritage have the largest targets on them, and I'm here when I should be there protecting them."
"I know," Charlie tried to comfort her, speaking sweet and low. "I feel the same way about my family."
"But your family has magic," Abby rationalised calmly, finally bringing her eyes to look at Charlie for the first time that night, taking her grip of his arms off as she turned in his embrace. "They can defend themselves fairly, at the least, magic against magic. When You-Know-Who wasn't acting and biding time, I didn't have to worry about them so, but now what? What is there to help mum and Anna?"
"Something very powerful will watch over them," he answered, not having to think twice about his answer as he removed his arms from her shoulders. "The Lord."
In the light of the moon, for a split second, Charlie thought he saw a glimmer in the corner of Abby's green eyes. It was unknown whether or not it was a trick of the light or not, but in a single blink, the glisten had vanished and no longer mattered. Instead, she merely nodded, inching towards her boyfriend, resting her hands on his chest and sliding them upwards so they wrapped around his neck. The nestling of her head into the familiar nook let him know he could hold her again.
"I still think I should be with them," added Abby with a defiant sigh.
"I know."
"Hot chocolate to sooth the nerves," Nisha proclaimed softly, pouring everyone a cupful as she walked between the tables of the mess hall. "Even if you aren't hungry, it can do a world of good."
Dawn was just beginning to show as the foursome of friends sipped their hot drinks by the window, watching the sun's light slowly peek out in the distance. The sky had become an array of different hues between the start of day and the end of the night, but even the colourful palate of a warm summer day didn't lift the spirits of the group any higher than they could be.
"So this is the dawn of a war," Bella thoughtlessly whispered to the windowpane, wrapping her delicate hands around her warm cup with a pitiful moan. "This is when it all starts: the bloodshed, the pain, and the death."
Simeon, Charlie and Abby didn't open their mouths to respond; unable to find the words to fill that empty silence after Bella had stopped talking to the glass. The only noise to follow was the sound of hot chocolate going from a large pot and hitting the empty bottoms of mugs across the room. There was nothing that could follow Bella's dark observations.
"I should owl Mama," Bella spoke again, looking away from the window and rising from the chair, "and see what the Italian Ministry of Magic has published about all of this."
Without a second glance to her friends or boyfriend, she whisked out of the mess hall, leaving the group with their state of silence and hot chocolate.
Taking sips from their hot drinks, the air around them that was once ignited with life lay as still as the war's anticipated deaths. Abby had taken over Bella's task by staring blankly out the window as the two men could only look at the brown liquid swirling about in their cups.
"On the bright side," Simeon started, breaking silence for the first time instead of creating it, "the truth is now out. You are proven correct, Charlie. Everyone knows."
Charlie smirked for a second, his grin quickly fading into a frown. "Oddly enough, I'd rather be a liar than have this war upon us."
"But now that they know, they have a choice," explained his Bulgarian friend. "They can fight for vhat they believe in, or they can stand idle by. It is out of your hands now, and in another's."
The lack of words between the two friends said more than anything else could; there was no arguing against Simeon Slovensky, only a polite nod and reassuring glance as one sipped their drink.
"Mr Weasley," a clear female's voice called across the mess hall.
The entire mess hall looked up as Tamara Cohen made her way towards Charlie's window-seat table, fully dressed for a full day of archival work in contrast to everyone else who still wore pyjamas. Her sharp eagle-like eyes bore down through her thick glasses into the one she sought as she approached, looking right over Charlie like a piece of prey.
"I understand that you're with a reputable organization," she began, crossing her arms over her pressed white lab coat, "involved in the current situation in the U.K. and attempting to put a halt to this uprising."
It took a moment for the dense vocabulary to sink into his head fully. "Are you talking about the Order of the Phoenix?"
"Yes," Tamara straightened up a little, clearing her throat and taking in a long breath. "I wish to take part in this effort in any possible way I can, by joining the Order you speak of."
Charlie paused. Opening his mouth to say something, he found no words could find their way to his lips. It had been his mission from Dumbledore to find people to support the Order, and over a year of failed attempts it had become a lost cause. To hear an open statement like Tamara's, speech had become inhibited by pure shock and the only thing he could do was look from Simeon to Abby to Tamara.
"I would too," another voice came across the room.
From one of the long tables stood Raheem Jabbar, one of the newly recruited Iranian dragon keepers. Proudly holding his chin high he walked from his seat in the middle of the bench
to stand next to Tamara, raising his hand as if to give her a high five that wouldn't be reciprocated.
"Count me in too, Charlie," Tristan Porter ejected loudly as he rose.
"Me too," a few more shouted in unison.
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named must become He-Who-Shall-Never-Terrorise- Again," Tamara added as the entire mess hall began to stand and rally around the little table, "and it is our duty to help that become reality."
"And it shall be," Charlie nodded, smiling at the growing crowd.
A/N: Another update in the chronicles that started out as one and somehow grew into three stories. I don't think there's anything explicit to mention about it. It's fairly straight forward.
Abby does quote a Biblical passage, so perhaps to re-affirm that if I get references wrong you can feel free to correct me, but by using religion I'm not attempting to convert or anything. To me, it's the way of life for characters.
Enjoy!