Up and Down

Memory and Imagination

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't nervous.

In the middle of the Room of Requirement, her planters and decorations cleared away under the main glass dome, stars twinkling up above, soothing cool moonlight kissing her face.

"Alright..." Sebastian is fidgeting with his wand. Anna feels Ominis' warm breath on her ear as he is standing behind her, arms around her waist, ready to catch her if she faints, which the book declared a distinct possibility during the first attempts at Legillemency, "ready?"

"Do it," she closes her eyes, not fighting any thoughts passing through her busy mind.

She hears him draw a deep breath.

"Legillemens!"

At first, it doesn't feel any different. Then, pain shoots behind her eyes and she winces, tensing. Faces and voices and sounds and screams flood her mind.

The yawning skies below, the crimson blood on her hands and on blue robes, the mother dragon leans close enough for her to feel its breath smelling of death, Isidora's stunned face as her breath goes out in a flash of emerald green, troll swinging down the club as she cowers, the scratch of nails through the parting ground, Highwing's screech as they weave and dodge in the night air and she is falling, she is falling-

"Anna!"

She opens her eyes, seeing the stars above, along with two concerned faces hovering over her.

"Are you alright, love?"

"She fainted, no she is bloody not!" Ominis actually takes a swing in the direction of Sebastian's voice, which the latter of course easily ducks from.

"I mean-"

"I'm fine..." Anna can't help but groan as she sits up, blood thumping heavily through her head once before calming down, "actually better than when Olesya did it. She wasn't even trying to be gentle."

Sebastian runs his fingers through his messy hair, guilt radiating off him.

"I saw... I saw... something. Fig, I think. The dragon, and Isidora... killed."

"Yeah," she whispers, her voice weaker than she wants it to be.

"If you want we can continue later..."

"I'm fine," Anna gets back up on her feet, smoothing her skirt, wobbles a little bit but rights herself quickly, "again."

"Are you sure it's a good idea?..." Ominis also stands up and finds her arm again.

"It wasn't bad, Ominis, I swear. Sebastian needs to practise this. I know he is already better than her."

Sebastian can't help but puff up a little bit at her praise, a pleased smirk curving his lips.

Ominis sighs and readies to catch her again.

"I will try to be more cautious," Sebastian says, though hesitation tinges his voice.

"I will try to focus on something," Anna responds, rubbing her temples, the ghost of pain still there, deep within her skull.

Focus on... on what?

"Alright then..."

His voice. She thinks back to their first meeting right as Sebastian's wand swishes through the air, the incantation leaving his lips.

Warm sunlight pours through the windows, shouting, sounds of explosions and excitement, cheering, bets being made. A tall boy, cloak trimmed in emerald, casts a powerful spell that makes the air scalding hot and a deafening bang rings through the classroom, and then he turns and she is struck by the sight of his freckled face and dark eyes and dastardly smirk, forgetting everything down to even her own name as she stares-