Noyade | Rabastan Lestrange [2] ✔︎

01 | FINE

Phoenix woke up with her heart beating rapidly and her skin covered in sweat. A hand was resting on her shoulder and as soon as her eyes adjusted to the darkness she recognised Jack's features in front of her.

"What are you doing here?", she murmured with a sleepy voice and propped herself up on her elbows.

Jack tilted his head. "You may have put a muting spell over your bed, but I was perfectly able to hear the mirror shatter into pieces."

"I'm sorry", Phoenix apologised almost immediately, as she glanced at where she knew the mirror must have been lying on the floor.

"You're good." He removed his hand from her shoulder and ran it through his dark hair. "Have you been having nightmares for a long time now?"

"For a little more than a month", Phoenix confessed with a sigh.

She knew exactly when the visions had started, but she didn't see a use in telling him that they had started the night they had been engaged against their will. He already blamed way too many things on himself and she didn't want to add her visions to that list.

Jack's voice was soft when he asked, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's not your burden to bear, it's mine." She sat up fully and drew her legs to her chest. "You wouldn't even have found out, if my parents hadn't gone on some kind of stupid mission for the Dark Lord and I hadn't been forced to disturb you on your last weekend before leaving this place."

"You don't disturb us. If anything Louis is happy that I for once don't try to reason with him about his opinions", Jack chuckled and Phoenix couldn't help but smile either.

"You're sitting at my bed in the middle of the night. That's kind of what I see as disturbing."

In the darkness she could see him make a gesture with his hand. "I prefer night over day any time. You're always welcome here, Phoenix."

"Thank you."

"How about you try to go back to sleep and we'll talk about this in the morning?", Jack suggested, gently patting her knee. "I can stay here until you fall asleep if you want me to."

Phoenix immediately shook her head at his offer. "I'm five years younger than you, not ten, Jack."

"Okay, okay," he chuckled and rose his hands in defence while getting up. "I just wanted to make sure you're fine."

"I am fine. Thank you for waking me."

"Any time", Jack answered and silently closed the door behind him.

It was when Phoenix sat alone in the darkness that the tears came. As hard as she tried to stop them from rolling down her cheeks, they still did. Her nightmare hadn't been just any dream; in fact, it hadn't even been a bad dream like the other ones that she had been having. She had lived through a comfortable picnic with Rabastan at the shore of the black lake, but now that she was awake, she knew very well that it would never happen again. The feeling of missing him grew even worse after spending that imaginary time with him.

And the emptiness that she felt was tearing her into pieces.

★

The next morning when Louis Avery entered the small kitchen of their flat, Phoenix sat on the table, her head resting in her hand and a steaming cup of morning tea standing in front of her. She only glanced at her Defence teacher before going back to staring at the liquid.

"Good morning to you too," Louis joked, crossing the kitchen and fetching his own mug to fill it with coffee.

Phoenix still didn't answer. At first she had considered it weird to spend time with one of her teachers, but over the summer and especially after the engagement, the oldest two Avery brothers had become something like her friends – or more like weird older cousins. Therefore, she didn't feel obliged to answer to all of his questions or statements anymore.

However, she still couldn't picture herself marrying Jack. She had found out that he couldn't possibly have influenced their bonding because their parents had arranged it when she had been just a few months old, which meant he hadn't been much older than five years. Her parents had told her that they had often arranged for them to play together when they were children, but Phoenix had always been too shy to interact with them and had stayed close to her twin brother and soon Jack had seen it as silly to play with children that were a lot younger than him. She only wished it had worked out and she would now have a bit more of an idea who she was marrying, because despite getting to know him very slowly there was still so much that she didn't know about him.

"Cheer up, shorty. It's your last year, the year of mischief. You're supposed to be excited."

"Leave her alone, Louis", Jack ordered his older brother as he too entered the room, with his hair sticking out in all possible directions, and yawned.

"You look like crap", Louis remarked, glancing at Phoenix and adding. "In fact you both do."

"Thanks", Jack answered ironically at the same time as Phoenix muttered, "Charming."

"Merlin", Louis murmured and left the kitchen witch his mug of coffee.

Phoenix heard Jack rummage through a few drawers and cupboards before he sat down on the other side of the table and the two of them sat in silence for a moment.

"When are we going to leave?", Phoenix finally asked, not moving her gaze from her tea.

"Whenever we're ready. Dumbledore said he would arrange that the chimney in Louis' office will be open for us to travel through", the young man answered.

She felt his heavy gaze on her as she nodded and took a sip of her tea, only to burn her tongue and place it back down on the table. She wasn't yet ready to go back to Hogwarts and neither would she be ready when the other students would follow one week later. It had always been her second home, but now it felt like a prison to torture her. She was sure that word about her engagement to Hogwarts' new flying class teacher would spread fast and that people would talk, just like they would talk about her powers, and although she had thought about it a lot over the past weeks, Phoenix had no idea how to act around Rabastan. Hogwarts didn't offer the safety and warmth of a home anymore.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she felt a warm hand on hers, which made her head jerk up. Her grey eyes met with Jack's green ones, which were filled with warmth and concern. "Are you alright?"

Phoenix nodded almost immediately, resisting the urge to pull away her hand. He was her fiancé; they would have to touch each other at some point. She swallowed and forced a smile on her lips. "I'm fine."

- - -

I'd like to dedicate this chapter to cIeopatras . You might have noticed it already; the Oceans series got new covers. A huge thank you for creating them. I'm absolutely in love and can't stop admiring them like the weirdo I am.