diffindo: a hogwarts fanfiction || fred weasley || draco malfoy

desperation

There are certain events and occurrences in one's life that can drastically change it in such a way that what was before felt barely ever real. They are rare - some might never encounter them in their lives, others - to their misfortune - a little too much. Such a conflict was now happening in Aline's life, and somehow it was so drastic that it was influencing multiple parts of her life and other lives as well. 

Everything changed after Aline's clearly magical encounter with herself and Kayla's witnessing. The two were still on strange terms due to their fight in the bathroom and at the words that were exchanged - not because what they said were lies but because they resonated with the two of them and both knew each of them was speaking the truth. 

Over the following week Aline, Damien and Kayla distanced themselves from every person around them. Hogwarts seemed nothing but a lifeless, dull facade to them. They were finally grasping the seriousness of the situation and adjusted to it accordingly - even if it was hard on them. Kayla missed talking to the Golden Trio - Hermione especially-, Damien - to his own distaste - missed everything about Cedric.

Aline was in a strange state of limbo, she clearly missed Fred, his bright fiery orange hair, his dark brown eyes, and his whole easy-going and cheeky personality that always managed to calm her down and make her laugh - even in the darkest of times. It was hard to stay mad at him for too long and after all their misfortunes Aline wanted to trust him, wanted to tell him everything but knew it was better for everyone's stake if they'd just stick to themselves. 

There was another feeling swirling inside her that she was trying to push away, as every time she thought about it, she felt sick to her stomach, the thought piercing her heart at the same time. She was missing Draco. Not romantically, not in the way she was missing Fred, that was clear, but she was indeed missing him - why or how she could not describe. She felt sick at herself with this - feeling as if she was betraying herself, her friends and everything they stood for. 

No matter what her friends associated with the silver-haired boy, she couldn't get him - and all their strange but electrifying encounters - off her mind. But once again, Aline pushed the thought away. There was no time for this childish behaviour. In truth - they were all frightened. Aline especially - she couldn't wrap her head around how something this powerful, how an ability this addicting could have been inside her for almost two decades without her ever noticing the slightest hint of it. 

Since the trio knew they couldn't trust anyone at Hogwarts, they wrote to the one person that came to their mind: Sirius. Aline was still hesitant about the decision, but what choice did they have? They surely needed every help they could get, especially from someone who had all kinds of experiences with the Dark Arts - Sirius came from the Noble House of Black, after all. They wrote to Sirius about the incident with Remus but held back on Aline's new discovery about herself. Furthermore, they could go into that another time.  

Sirius would take his time to answer and while they waited for his reply, they took it upon themselves to sneak out of their dormitories and Hogwarts one night, disappearing into the edges of the forbidden forest, just deep enough that they could not be seen but still close enough, so they could escape if needed. 

They decided to take matters into their own hands and were trying to trigger Aline's power, so they could learn more about it and help Aline in her quest of controlling it. Damien sat down on a moss-covered tree stump, his arms on his thighs, lightly stroking his chin as he spoke:

"Okay so...it happened every time you got overly emotional right?"

"Right", Aline answered, standing opposite him, leaning against the thick tree trunk of a Maidenhair tree. Kayla was observing them carefully and Aline felt a slight hinge of anger brush through her at Kayla's pitying facial expression.