There's Crows In The Garden | 3rd Life AU

.: Castle Life :.

TWs: mentions of death, mentions of war

***

Spring arrived sooner than I thought it would, and with it came the close of the reconstruction of the Dogwarts castle. Ren and I were alerted of it on a fine April morning, and we spent the entire rest of that day packing up our belongings so we were ready to move into the castle the following day.

"I'm so excited!" Ren said to me that night. "We're gonna live in a castle!"

"We are," I affirmed. "Pretty good for a traveler, if I do say so myself!"

"Yeah," Ren agreed. "Pretty good for a shopkeeper, too!"

The next day was grey and cloudy. I was afraid it would end up raining while Ren and I were on our journey to the castle, but, thankfully, the precipitation held off until later.

"There it is!" My King announced at the first sight of stone on the horizon. "Our beautiful castle!"

I snorted. "You can barely see it from here; how can you judge its beauty?"

Ren shrugged. "I don't need to see it well to know it's beautiful."

"Whatever you say, my liege." I looked around at the rolling hills surrounding us. This place was sort of nice, as long as you ignored that it was a battlefield that dozens of people had died on less than half a year ago. 

We walked in silence until the castle was more clearly in view. "You were right— it is beautiful." I said to Ren.

He puffed up in pride. "See, I told ya!" 

I smiled and shook my head, but didn't say anything else.

Before long, we were crossing the river that Ren and I had waded through on our first night of knowing each other. I turned to Ren. "I'm glad we get to use a bridge this time."

"You really hated wading through that river," Ren noted. "Looking back on it, it was kinda funny listening to you complain."

"What?!" I exclaimed. "What do you mean it was funny to listen to me complain?!"

Ren was laughing so hard he could barely explain. "Well, it was such a big deal to you! I'd swam in freezing water before, so I knew what to expect, but you hadn't and you acted like wading through it was the end of the world!"

I crossed my arms, pouting extravagantly. "It was! I haven't been the same since!"

Poor Ren was struggling at this point. "Gods above, my stomach hurts," he coughed out. 

"Sorry," I said, but it didn't come out very sincere because I was laughing now, too. I turned my head to see what our attendants were thinking about all of this, and their confused and annoyed expressions only served to make everything funnier. 

"Jeez," Ren panted out when our laughing fit finally wound down. "That's the hardest I've laughed in years."

"Same," I told him. "Our attendants probably hate us."

"Oh, yeah!" Ren peeked behind us. "They had to be so confused!"

"Oh, they were," I said. "It was hilarious."

"I bet it was." 

We were at the top of the hill now, right in front of the magnificent Dogwarts castle. It was hard to imagine it was only a pile of rubble six months ago. 

"I can't believe we live here now," Ren whispered, soaking it all in. "It's insane."

I draped an arm over his shoulders and stayed silent, letting him have his moment.