Worlds Collide (crossover fanfiction)

Chapter 25

Alistair spluttered, insulted. "Just because I'm older than you are doesn't make me too old! And okay, I admit, you're smarter than I am, but that doesn't make me stupid either!" He huffed, turning back to Kia. "Oi! Stop! You're saying the word wrong! You're going to make something explode like Seamus Finnigan does all the time!"

Berniss grinned at the three older kids. "Y'all are completely, utterly ridikulus. Thea, the hate between you and Alistair is like outta this world! Honestly, the last time Alistair was ever this pissed at me was ages ago when I ate all his favorite cornflakes. I was five at the time, and was obsessed with cornflakes. Don't ask. And Kiki, I don't even need to read your mind- or Alice's- to know that you guys are head over heels for each other." Thea lunged at the younger girl from behind, and Berniss elbowed her in the face. Niss yelped, spinning around. "Merlin's knickers! Are you okay?"

"Rule number three of fighting. Don't apologise." Thea grinned. She hardly felt the blow, since the thirteen year old wasn't exactly the strongest person she had known. "That was a good hit. And to why I hate Alistair so much, he didn't tell you how we first met, did he? Probably not, since that was only two days ago. He showed up on Half Blood Hill, and me being the mind reader I am, could instantly tell why he was here, and that he was here for Kia. I so gratefully told him where Kia was, even offering to bring him there, and him, being the insecure dunce he is, freaked on how I was reading him so easily, and in turn attempted to fire a bat-bogey hex at me. I knocked him unconscious and brought him to Kia, and he called me a bitch." Thea cracked her knuckles. "Again. This time, hit me like you mean it." The younger girl nodded, Thea disappeared, before appearing behind her. She grabbed Berniss around her arms, and as the girl hunched forward, she leaned forward with her, and she twisted, elbowing Thea in the chest. Thea caught it, and flipped her over her head, before cursing. Crap, didn't mean to do that. Thea created a pillow underneath just in case, but instead, Berniss landed smoothly on her feet, before launching a back-kick. Thea pretended to trip over in pain, and Berniss, sprinting, hooked her arms around Thea's neck and smashed her face into her knee. As Berniss released her, Thea smiled. "That was excellent."

Berniss' eyes hardened. "Don't call my brother an insecure dunce." Unbeknownst to everyone, Berniss had witnessed a terrible thing one Christmas Eve, a year before she went to Hogwarts. She and Alistair had shared a room, because Cole, their older brother was still in seventh year, and took up the other bedroom. She couldn't sleep, so she had remained awake, staring at the silhouette of her peacefully sleeping brother. Well, peaceful until he started thrashing and screaming in his sleep. She'd never forget the scene, Alistair screaming to the empty night air, tears streaming down his face. That was the second time she saw him cry. The first was when Kia left, but she was too young to understand it then. Alistair had spilled to her willingly, the reminder of Jensen's betrayal fresh in his mind. They'd kept it between themselves for years, but Berniss could never forget it. "He's not exactly an insecure dunce- he's just too afraid to trust."

"I know that. When I found out that Tom was the general of the Armies of the Night, I split. Also because he stabbed me in the abdomen, mind you I was a normal girl then, not as overly powered as I am now. I didn't trust after that, not when Reyna turned out to be a traitor as well. But then after I was released from my coma, and I learnt that I could destroy mental barriers, exploit people's minds... I could trust again, because I could sift through their thoughts in an instance." Thea said, sighing. "Okay, sentimentality time over. Let's try if you're fighting a bigger opponent. Let's put some of that magic to good use, eh?" She conjured a ball of silver, and then shot a beam of light towards the dummy they had practiced on. The dummy split in half from the intensity, and the heat from the beam was so high that the entire dummy burned and melted into a pile of ashes and melted rubber. "Try that. No words, just in your head, from your mind. You have a powerful mind, so use it. Think flames. Or as I say it, uro."

Berniss nodded, focussing intently at one of the chairs. If she did set it on fire, she could always put it out with an 'aguamenti'. Come on, she thought to herself, gimme some fire.

Meanwhile, Kia was failing miserably with her spells. She could finally say it right, but she just couldn't get the hand movements done. She closed her eyes, covering her face with her hands in frustration. However much she tried, she always flicked her wrist like disarming an opponent with a sword. "Alistair, I really don't think I'm cut out to be a witch."

Alistair frowned, turning to the younger girl. "Hey," he whispered softly, "look at me." He gently pulled Kia's hands away from her face, kneeling down to her level. He gently pulled her hands away from her face, revealing tears of annoyance in her dark eyes. "Not everybody's good at everything." He held her hands in his, subtly realizing that his hands were a lot larger, but they fit together perfectly. He made an attempt at humor to make the younger girl laugh. "Back when I was a first year, we all had Astronomy class." She cocked her head curiously, staring at him with wide eyes. He swallowed, continuing. "Professor Sinistra made us name all the moons of Jupiter. Most of the class could do it."

"And then?"

"I failed." Kia snickered, and Alistair loosed a sigh of relief. Kia didn't look like she was about to cry anymore, and that was good, right?