The Founders

Chapter 21

They were quiet as they walked quickly back to the changing rooms, the rain making up for their silence. The changing rooms were in a wooden hut on the edge of the pitch, and the shape rose up out of the darkness. Opening the wooden door quickly, Kyra ducked inside and held it open for Alexander to come in. It swung shut behind them. She walked between the wooden benches and pegs, shivering. The room was badly insulated and it barely felt warmer inside. The rain made a hollow, clattering noise on the roof. Her wand lay in plain sight below where she had hung up her satchel before.

"Got it," she said, tucking her wand into her bag. She pushed her wet hair, now dark gold and heavy from the rain, back from her face; her lips and cheeks were very red from the cold and water still clung to her eyelashes.

He glanced at face and looked away, nodding. "Let's go," he said. He held the door open for her and they went outside again. The rain felt colder now that they had been under shelter for a moment. Hurrying across the sodden ground, which was now reduced to one great stream, Kyra peeled her robes from where they were clinging to her legs and squinted up through the darkness towards the lights of the castle.

They were still a good ten minutes' walk from the castle, and Kyra was pretty sure that Hagrid's hut was just to the left of them. Ever since Hagrid had retired, the new groundskeeper, Tom Brentworth, a man who looked like he could have been the cook on a naval battleship, had chosen to reside in the castle instead. No-one had been inside the hut for over two years now.

"Do you want to go to Hagrid's hut instead?" she stammered, her teeth chattering uncontrollably. "Just to warm up quickly," she added quickly. She didn't want him to think that she was trying to seduce him via hut.

He glanced down at her again and his throat bobbed. "Okay."

They changed course and hurried down the short decline, slipping on the grass and mud. Reaching the hut, Kyra's ran up the stone steps and fumbled with the handle before Alexander cast alohamora from behind her and the door swung open. Nearly falling forwards, Alexander instinctively reached out to steady her, his hand sliding on her waist.

She swallowed and shut the door behind him, cutting off the sound of the rain. It was now a pattering on the roof and windows. Clearing her throat, she murmured "Thanks," in the relative quiet.

The two rooms of the hut were completely dark, with only the shapes of furniture moored in the darkness; the shifting boughs of trees cast moving shadows through the window, which fell on the table and floor below. Alexander lit the candles with a wave of his wand as Kyra peeled off her soaked cloak and hoodie, so that she was just dressed in a t-shirt and Kat's trackies. The ends of her hair dripped water onto her t-shirt as she slowly wandered around the room, picking up objects carefully.

Hagrid had taken most of his belongings with him when he moved to France with Madame Maxime, but he had left a few interesting items, presumably because they wouldn't have made it through magical customs.

On the windowsill of the thick mullion windows, Kyra found half a cracked shell that was made of a shimmery black material; the shed skin of what looked like a large crab, with translucent traceries covering it; a white curled horn that had large gold cracks running down the side of it. She put the horn back on the shelf running below the window and turned to face the room again.

Kyra saw that Alexander had barely moved from his position beside the fireplace. He stood carefully, with his arms crossed. His eyes were lowered as he watched her movements, water dripping from the ends of his hair. The shadows gathered in the hollows of his throat and temples, and his eyes looked very dark green in the dim light, like a candle held below a pond.

Kyra cleared her throat again and went to sit down on the bed placed in a corner, covered by a colourful quilt. She rubbed the thick fabric between her fingers for a moment. "Should I start a fire?" he asked.