From the Stars to the Stars → Draco Malfoy

xxvii. Orion

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     Grief was a funny thing.

     Everyone experienced and overcame grief differently, it could last for hours or years, even decades; no one could be quite sure, after all, it's not like grief had an expiration date.

     Cassiopeia has been locking herself in her room since she got home, Orion hadn't seen her in a week; she even only let her own twin come into her room two times since they got home. Although she missed her cousin, Orion was quite glad not to have to face Cassiopeia in her grieving period. There were a lot of things that Orion would not know, one of the things sitting on the top list would be grief.

     Grief was an unknown territory for Orion Mikaelson. She did not know how it happens, somehow after her parents died, the grieving phase she had been waiting for never came. No, not once did she feel sadness, or even feeling the need to mourn. Rage was the only thing that filled her lungs the moment she stepped into the Mikaelson Mausoleum. No denial, she accepted death's hand when death came into her parents' funeral that day, giving him a faint nod, trying to tell him he was more than welcome to leave without a simple apology.

     But, everyone should've known; if grief personified was a mother, rage personified would be the daughter she's hiding in the attic, before they knew she was the monster that has been dragging her claws across the walls, demanding to be heard.

     The Mikaelson Manor has never had so many people living under their roof together in such a long time. Orion saw Vincent Griffith the first day she arrived back home, she saw him talking to Freya and Rebekah in such discretion mannerism before Elijah closed the door shut–the moment he heard Orion walking closer. Everyone seemed to be avoiding her for some reasons, Kol Mikaelson and his wife, Davina, have been the only people in the house that tried their best to keep her busy. They've been showing her their grimoire collections, Davina even showed her some magic tricks that Hogwarts never taught her.

     "Orion?" she heard her Aunt Freya coming to her room. "There's something we need to talk about, would you please come with me?"

     Orion put her book down the minute Freya stepped into her room. She has confusion written all over her face, but all that Freya did was nod slowly at her.

     "Did I do something wrong?" Orion asked as she stood up, walking closer to Freya who immediately put both of her hands on Orion's shoulder. "Is it the incidents that I've caused in Hogwarts, is that what you wanted to talk about?"

     Freya let out a soft chuckle before she shook her head. "No, it's not that," she gave Orion a reassuring smile. "Let's just come, yeah? Everyone's waiting downstairs."

     Freya and Orion walked to the study room together in silence, her mind came rushing through her. Orion hated when people say they want to talk without giving her an actual context of what they're going to talk about, her mind kept rerunning everything that she might have done wrong when she was in school.

     Oh my, what if Cepheus told them what happened to her and Higgs? The thoughts kept running through her head.

     "We're just going to introduce you to Vincent, that is all, Orion," Freya said with a laugh when she sensed Orion was still trying to solve the puzzle in her head.

     "You could've just told me that!" Orion slapped her aunt's arm playfully.

     "God, I missed you, Orion," Freya said, pulling her niece in a tight hug as they began to arrive in front of the study room doors.

     "You have a funny way of showing that," Orion murmured, she kept trying to look at everything but Freya in front of her. "You and everyone kept avoiding me, not really the best way of showing someone you miss them, don't you think?"