Noyade | Rabastan Lestrange [2] ✔︎

08 | ADVICE

"Shield your body with your arms." Phoenix groaned as she watched Jack lower his fists. "I've told you a thousand times in the past hours, at least part of the message should have made it through by now."

"Perhaps it would, if you actually hit me when I make the mistake over and over again," she pointed out and tried to hit his stomach, but he easily pushed her hands away. His eyebrows were drawn together as his green eyes stared right into her grey ones.

He shook his head, pushing her away from him and returning to a defensive stance. "I don't hurt people without a reason."

"There is a reason; I'm making a mistake." Phoenix ducked under his arm, which made his fist fly in a circle above her head before returning to its position in front of his face.

"Oh please, Phoenix," he huffed, turning around and burying his hands in his brown hair before coming to a stand in front of his desk, which stood in the far back of his office. He sat down on its edge and looked at her with a look of exhaustion. "You can't be serious."

"Actually I am," the petite girl answered firmly. "Do you think I'm too weak to take it?"

"Of course not, but..."

Phoenix interrupted him in the middle of the sentence, raising her arms in front of her body and bending her knees slightly. "Then do it."

"No." Jack's voice sounded stern and a little louder when he answered. "I don't know where that stupid idea is coming from, but I will never voluntarily cause you any pain. Not today, not ever. Understood?"

She growled as an answer and lowered her head for a moment. He didn't get it. She needed to know if the pain would make her emotional pain fade away. Perhaps it would make her forget how everybody seemed to know things about her that she didn't and how Rabastan didn't even want to talk to her anymore. Maybe enough pain would make everything go away.

When she looked back up at him, she felt empty. "Why is it that all of those people out there think I'm a psycho and have enough power to use an Imperius Curse on all of them at the same time, while you, one of the people who actually know me, think I'm too weak and fragile to only pinch in the arm, not to mention be honest towards?"

"I don't think you're weak," Jack protested, coming to stand in front of her.

"Then why do you treat me as if I were?"

Jack sighed, which made her look up at him. "I think you're one of the strongest people in the world. People like you don't have an easy life and not everybody deals with it as well as you do. Just look at..." He interrupted himself and cleared his throat. He looked as if he had taken a bite of a lemon. "But I keep waiting for the moment when it all becomes too much and you lose control. I've seen it happen."

Look at who? Phoenix wanted to ask, but she knew better than to push him into saying things that he didn't want to say. Especially since she knew from Louis that he had been experiencing vivid dreams at night, which made him rather irritable during the day.

"I wish you were right," Phoenix sighed, lowering to sit on the ground. "I feel like everything is crushing down on me, but I can't handle it. There's this constant headache because I'm suppressing the visions, people are talking rubbish about me when they think I can't hear them and..." She couldn't bring herself to admit that Rabastan had taken all hope from her. If she admitted it out loud, it would make her thoughts reality and she wasn't ready to let go.

Jack followed her actions and studied her face for a second. "I've heard what they say."

"Well, I guess that makes even the teachers think I'm a freak, doesn't it?" She pulled her legs towards her chest and rested her chin on top of her knees, her arms tightly closed around her legs.

The young man in front of her shook his head and offered her a smile. "No, actually quite a few of them want to help you, but from my experience it only gets worse as soon as the teachers get involved."

"Did you have people talking about you too when you were a student?" Phoenix asked, disbelief lacing her voice. As she watched Jack rub his arm, she had trouble imagining him as a student in a school uniform, hurrying through the halls to escape other people's laughter. Somehow she pictured him as the good-looking Quidditch player, who rather punched people then let them say anything bad about him. The image had quite a few similarities with Rabastan actually. However, his refusal to hurt people without a reason made that picture difficult. "You were a Slytherin, weren't you?"

"I was, but it wasn't me who got bullied." He lowered his gaze to the ground and his next words were so silent she nearly doubted that he had even said them. "Lyria was." He straightened his back and took a deep breath, which made his voice sound normal again. "She was different too, you know."

"What did she do to make it stop?" Phoenix asked, watching his lips curl up into a smile.

"It was quite impressive, really," he told her and shifted to sit cross-legged. "For the longest time she didn't do anything, which only made it easier for the others to talk about her and pick on her. When we were in seventh grade, however, she lost the nerve for it and started to defend herself. She wore her difference as an armour and used it like it was the most normal thing on earth. I think you can imagine how it intimidated our classmates to see how powerful she actually was."

"So, you think I should talk back?"

Jack nodded with a small smile. "I think you should, but what's even more important; you shouldn't be embarrassed of your powers. Embrace them and be proud to have them and they won't have a reason to talk about you anymore. They are only a weakness, if you see them as one. If your peers think you seduced Rabastan with your abilities, let them. Obvious power makes people nervous to talk shit about the one having said powers."

"I think you and Louis are the worst teachers one could imagine," Phoenix told him with a laugh, making a mental note to think about his advice and trying to keep the pain that came with Rabastan's name as far away from her heart as possible.

The brunette man looked confused as he grinned at her. "Why is that?"

"All summer Louis tried to get me to do mischief and now you give me advice to make other people fear me. I don't think that's the kind of advice teachers should give."

"Then let us get up and try to shape you into a badass warrior again, so I can say I did something a tutor should actually do."

With a giggle Phoenix allowed him to pull her to her feet.

---

I'm back! For those who haven't seen it on my profile: I'm really sorry about my recent lack of updates. I was feeling a little under the weather for several weeks, but last week I actually ended up sick. I didn't have the energy to write, which is unusual for me. 

But since I'm better Phoenix' journey can continue. There's already another chapter ready that I simply have to edit.

Sorry again and have a nice weekend,

Love, Enya