❝ i'm chaos walking . . . ❞
❝ then i'll walk with you.❞
「 Liliana Granger knew chaos like the back of her hand.
It confronted her, challenging her to find calm wherever she could.
But some days...
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❝ I'm not nervous. ❞
⋅☾☼☽⋅
In the blinkof an eye, summer had arrived. The second week of June welcomed mild sun and occasional rain. Liliana sat at the bay window in her room, knees drawn to her chest, staring out at the summer sky. The sun shone down on her, its rays like a warm hug against her skin.
Her ears echoed with the music blasting from her walkman, the world around her silent and still. The Smiths played in the tiny machine, her head bobbing along. With hands drumming and voice humming in tune to the beat, she found peace. Her mind was as clear as the sky she watched.
When she was little, her dad used to play her music to calm her when she cried. The Beatles, The Smiths, Fleetwood Mac, and every other artist under the sun had soothed her when nothing else could. When her abilities appeared, she would sneak into his study, slip a CD into his cassette player and listen, the drums and bass overtaking the warbles in her mind.
Eventually her dad discovered her secret, and on her ninth birthday, he bought her a walkman. She started to accrue an impressive collection of CDs, something they bonded over. So when Hermione and her mum would read stories out back in the garden, her and her dad listened to music upstairs, dancing around without a care.
This Charming Man ended and Dreams by Fleetwood Mac started. She started to sing along, but a tap on her shoulder sent the notes running. She clicked pause on her walkman and turned her head.
"Hey, Lili," Hermione said with a smile. "Miss McGonagall is here."
"Oh." Liliana pulled the headphones off her head with shaky hands. "Okay."
"Everything okay?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah."
Hermione sighed. Her sister had the stubbornness of a tangled knot.
"I do not," Liliana argued, poking her in the side.
"I know you're nervous," Hermione insisted, letting the aggression slide. "Twin telepathy."
Liliana eyed her sister, annoyed. She then stood up to put her walkman away in her desk drawer. Hermione watched her absently fiddle with her dainty silver earrings, but under her knowing stare, she quickly dropped her hand to her side. She took a seat in her desk chair with an air of casualness and spun herself around. When the world stilled at last, she let out a shaky sigh.
"I'm not nervous," she clarified, voice small, "but I am scared. I like what I already know about my abilities — I understand them. I have since I was little, and" — she twisted her hands — "these lessons could change all of that."
Hermione weighed her words, then said, "We don't shy away from challenges."
"What —"
"My little sister told me that when I was scared to write an extra credit book report last winter," she continued with a serious look. "She told me that sometimes we need to dive into the unknown and do it without fear."
