Splitting One's Soul

Albanian Forest

It was still dark when Tom woke you up, the harsh light at the tip of his wand blinding you. He held a lump of bread up to you, it was hard and dry but the rumbling in your stomach convinced you to eat it regardless. While you were still naked, only hidden by the blankets, Tom was already buttoned up to the throat as usual but no less handsome.

"Aren't you eating?," you asked.

"I'm done."

"I'm still not convinced you ever sleep."

He merely shrugged and lit up the little fire in the glass, his body casting a long shadow over you. With his back turned to you, he was a black figure whose outline was bathed in golden light, from your point of view it looked like he himself was the light.

Once you were done eating, Tom tossed your robes over to you. They were cold, slipping out from under the warm blanket into your robes was like jumping into ice water, your breath got caught in your throat and the small flame in the glass gave only light, no heat. You sat by it regardless until Tom had packed all his belongings and ushered you out of the tent.

"We have to hurry if we want to have a proper lunch," he said and the prospect of a real meal refreshed your spirits.

Merely the tip of his wand let you see what lay before you and once again you felt lost without your wand. You clung to Tom's arm and he gently guided you along the way over the half-frozen leaves crunching under your steps. Overhead, peeking through twigs, you saw countless stars twinkling in the dark blue sky. Soon the sun would rise and hide the stars, robbing you of their beauty and instead giving you the safety of daylight. The darkness was what made you miss your wand the most. Every time you heard something in the distance, a rustling in the leaves, cracking of twigs on the ground or a howl of a beast, you clung tight to Tom, eyes searching the darkness between the trees while your heart pounded against your ribcage. Tom didn't seem bothered at all by the noises, evidently knowing this area very well he appeared to be used to this despite warning you of the danger in these woods. What exactly the danger was he kept silent on, you just hoped you wouldn't have to face a manticore alone, however unlikely it was to stumble upon one in Albania.

As the sky overhead had taken on shades of orange and pink, the forest became quieter, no more howls or other weird noises. Just the two of you and occasionally the wind blowing through the trees while you kept walking. For all you knew you could have been walking in a circle for hours now, everything looked the same, just naked trees and mud.

A loud crack behind you was followed by another and Tom whirled around, you turned to face two wizards, both having their wands raised and pointing them at you.

"Sir, please step aside," one of them said. "She is a highly dangerous witch."

"I'm what?," you asked, more surprised than anything.

The wizards stepped closer. "You are under arrest for murder and evading arrest."

"Is she now?" Tom's voice sounded legitimately curious, he grabbed your upper arm but instead of apparating away, as you expected, he led you towards the aurors.

"What are you doing?," you asked, unable to hide your panic as you frantically try to pull your arm away.

"Helping the ministry of course."

The smile on his face was bone-chilling, reminding you of the first time you saw him. Lips frozen in place and eyes simply impassive, by now you have seen his fake smile thousands of times, especially with customers. His wand was behind your back, pressing into your flesh until both parties met between the trees, his hand lifting from your back and over your shoulder you saw a flash of green hitting one of the aurors. He dropped dead immediately. Before you could comprehend what had happened, Tom pushed you to the ground and a red bolt of light, a stunning spell, rushed over your head, nearly hitting you and rushing into a tree, the bark exploded and covered the dead auror's face, his pale eyes staring right at you. Bile rose up in your throat, the remaining auror yelled something that was drowned out by Tom casting one spell after the other, the auror busy with casting Protego over and over. You crawled away from the corpse and hid behind a tree to get out of the battle. Instinctively you reached for your wand, hand slipping into an empty pocket. You kicked up some mud in frustration and looked around to find anything that might be helpful in some form. As you took a look around the tree you saw Tom whirling his wand over his head, spinning it around, the wind picked up around him, carrying up the leaves from the ground and creating a barrier around Tom, the auror's spells could not penetrate it. You watched in astonishment, never have you seen nor heard of a spell like this.