The Vortex: Rectification

Chapter Fifteen.

Chapter Fifty-Five.

Our legs are stretched out across her bed, interlinked as she rests against her headboard and my back rests against the wall going the other way, Aleera's cheeks are flushed with awareness and her long hair is braided down her shoulders. Golden eyes narrow in my direction when she makes the age-old mistake of smelling the dark liquid, I have handed her.

"Aurora!" She groans, throwing her head back. "How you not come up with a solution for these awful smells and tastes?"

Hearing her laugh still doesn't feel real, every morning I wake up and think that when I walk into her bedroom again, she won't be awake and waiting for me. In five days, this is the most awake she has been. Hence the new potion that I have been working on while she sleeps, "Your magic is working overtime now that it's main focus is keeping you alive and I'm keeping you awake so that you can get all your answers so, no more complaints"

She knows I'm teasing, nudging my legs with her foot as a resigned smile breaks over flushed cheeks. I thought it would be best to start at the beginning, and if she felt up to it, I know I would have gotten more than a deadly glare.

"Once my energy comes back, I just want you to be aware that I am kicking your ass for that comment" Instant karma for her comment comes in the form of the disgusted gag that comes after she throws back the potion. "Going back to the story, you were never dead, but you did come back half-dead four months ago?"

"Yeah, it was a seriously fun experience as you can imagine" I deadpan, "But in all honesty it hasn't been a smooth adjustment and with the lack of magic on my end and then... you. I feel like I'm a hermit when really, I want to be out doing what everyone else is, they all say I'm doing my part, but I don't really feel like I am"

"Sorry but am I not sitting here talking to you right now?" Aleera scoffs, "So what if you aren't going out into battle like the rest of them, I don't think any of us ever saw that for you"

"I saw that for me" I admit, "I kept dabbling in darker magic and reading all these blood spells and so getting out there and using it made sense for me. Even though it was stressful when I got to focus on you and helping Harry at the hospital it felt better but still not right, I still don't think I have figured it all out"

"I guess it's a good thing that Harry and Nessa didn't let me just die a couple of years ago then" Aleera shrugs.

My mouth drops open, "Aleera!"

"I feel like I am allowed to make jokes about my almost death" She grins, "Besides, imagine the kind of trouble you would have gotten yourself into if I wasn't here to keep you busy"

I wince at the thought, "Yeah I probably would have gone insane trying to get my magic back and then regardless of whether or not I was successful, I would have gone into somewhere dangerous with a dumb plan and gotten myself killed or injured"

"Precisely" She agrees, not even blinking at the over exaggeration. "Onto more exciting topics, I assume the cute boy you are constantly blush at is Jamie?"

Amusement glows in her eyes as my cheeks heat, memories of his goodbye kiss still feel seared into my skin. "That would be him" I mutter, "But I don't want to hear any teasing about it because you'll both turn to a puddle of mush when Harry sees you again"

Aleera's scoff is far less convincing this time, she wedges the empty vial in the comforter and begins to fiddle with the split ends of her hair. "That is never going to happen"

"Oh yes, please elaborate on that delusion"

"Well, if the information you have provided me with is correct then it's been well over twenty years since we have spoken to each other and it's not like the last time I saw him we even spoke"