Noyade | Rabastan Lestrange [2] ✔︎

12 | OLD HABITS

Phoenix couldn't even react in any other way but reaching her hand out to him.

Thankfully he grabbed a hold of it and steadied himself. Phoenix stared at him with her eyes wide with shock, while he let out a shaky breath. "Sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry for," she insisted and shook her head. She softly grabbed his forearm, trying to make sure that he wouldn't fall again. "Are you alright?"

Jack ran a hand over his pale face and nodded. "I've been better, but it's nothing to worry about."

His appearance definitely proved otherwise. Not only was his face still white as a ghost, but his hands were also shaking. Phoenix feared that he'd collapse completely once she let go of his forearm.

"Jack, you nearly collapsed." She caught a hold of the hand he had just run over his face, in what she supposed to be an attempt to regain control over his body. "And your hands are still trembling. You should go rest for a bit or ask Madam Pomfrey for help. For my sanity I'd prefer you do both."

"I don't need any medicine. It was just a circulatory collapse. I must have been drinking too little. It happens," Jack countered almost angrily and snatched his hands away.

Phoenix eyed him suspiciously as he walked back towards the broom closet, most likely to get something he wanted to take back to the castle. Yes, circulatory collapses happened and nobody really made a fuss about them, but if it was nothing worse, why did he snap at her like that? She knew he got irritated pretty quickly these days, however, he hadn't yet expressed himself like that towards her before. She huffed when she realised that he was walking without her towards the castle and annoyance fumed up inside of her. Apparently helping him wasn't much appreciated. Quickly she jogged after him, careful not to slip on the snow. It had nearly happened to Regulus the weekend prior and while she had laughed at his surprised expression, she didn't want to take chances of it happening to her. Thankfully Jack didn't walk as fast as he could have with his long legs and she caught up to him relatively quickly.

"Look, I just wanted to help you. There's nothing to get angry about," she told him with a soft voice.

"I'm not angry," was the only thing he said in response.

The youngest Black was quite unsure of how to answer him. She felt like she was walking on thin ice around him and any wrong sentence could make her break into the cold water beneath it. Originally she had meant to ask him about Lyria's powers in hopes of getting more information about her own ones, but it didn't seem like the best idea because of his unusual behaviour. She put her hands into the pockets of her cloak and blew out some air, which resulted in a small cloud in front of her face. "That's good."

They walked in silence until they nearly reached the huge portal and Phoenix occasionally glanced over at him, making sure that he wouldn't collapse again. Then she cleared her voice. "I know we said we'd meet up to spar, but there's this assignment in Potions, which is due tomorrow. Maureen has quite some problems understanding the topic and she asked me to help her with it. Could we practice tomorrow instead?" It was a lie and Phoenix knew from her brothers' constant teasing that she was awful at lying, but she hoped Jack wouldn't suspect anything. It didn't feel right to her to force him to practice her fighting skills with her when he was obviously so exhausted. However, she knew that he would never ask her to skip practice on his own accord. "Actually, I should get going. We're meeting up in the library in ten minutes."

"Sure, as long as you don't miss practice tomorrow," Jack agreed as they were enveloped by the warmth of the castle.

"Thanks."

Phoenix smiled at him and already wanted to hurry towards the stairwell to make it look like she was actually meeting up with Maureen in the library, but Jack grabbed her wrist. "Just one thing. You told me once that you had this vision of a Greek woman called Ariadne before you took off your necklace. Do you still see or hear her?"

She furrowed her eyebrows and answered, "No, not since about a year ago. Why are you asking?"

"No reason." He let go of her wrist and shrugged.

She slowly turned around and walked towards the staircase, confusion still written all over her face. However, Jack called out to her once more, "And Phoenix?"

Phoenix looked over her shoulder to see him smile. "Thank you."

"Any time," she answered, returned his smile and finally made her way towards the library.

The hallways were crammed with students, as the last afternoon lessons had just finished and she had to walk around groups of pupils to even get through. The portraits were also adding to the slight buzz of voices and, despite the bullying, the crowd gave Phoenix a sense of safety. She didn't know what she would have done, if Jack had fully collapsed when they were completely alone on the training pit. Her whole life she had depended on adults or school books to tell her how to act in certain situations, but since she had learned of her abilities she had to make decisions of her own. If she had known more about it then she would know what was right and would an idea of the extend of her powers, but with Jack not telling her, she felt like she was trying to learn how to brew a difficult potion without instructions. Among all the other students she was at least just one face, normal and not standing out in the crowd.

The library was warmer than the rest of the castle and Phoenix already spotted her favourite spot by a window being empty. She quickly walked towards it, but only a few feet into the room when Rabastan walked out between two shelves and nearly walked her over. They both stopped at the last second and stood so close to each other that Phoenix thought she heard him breathe. He didn't move while her cheeks were heating up and she slowly lifted her gaze to meet his. Instead of the sparkle in his icy green eyes which she had come to love, she was met with a cold glare and annoyance. "Would you move out of my way?"

"Why don't you just walk around me?" Phoenix talked back, anger and sadness battling over her heart.

Rabastan's eyes narrowed. "Well, you nearly walked me over."

"I was not the one walking out of an aisle without paying attention," she pointed out, glaring at him before taking a step aside. "But look, it's not that hard to walk around people. I think it's actually less painful for your pride than starting childish bickering."

She almost felt sorry for throwing these words at him, as she feared the impact they could have on his health. Although she hadn't talked to him in weeks, she was sure that he hadn't fully recovered yet – or, in the worst case, not got better at all. Was it wrong that she still cared?

Without another look at him, she made her way to the window seat, pulled a book out of her bag and shrugged off her cloak. She didn't know what to feel. She wanted to focus on Jack, as he obviously wasn't doing well, but somehow Rabastan had that way of taking up her whole mind. For weeks he had avoided her or simply done his best to ignore her. Phoenix had found ways to deal with their separation and to make peace with her destiny, but only one confrontation – and quite an unusual one at that, considering their unfriendly way of talking to each other – might just have set her back on square one.

A tap on her shoulder pulled Phoenix out of her thoughts and she looked up. A blonde girl in a Slytherin uniform stood next to her. She wasn't much taller than Phoenix when she was sitting in her seat and the youngest Black guessed that she was either a first or a second year student.

"Are you Phoenix Black?" she asked, her voice light with excitement.

Phoenix nodded slowly and answered, "Yes, I am and you are?"

"Elle," she quickly glanced behind her, where Phoenix noticed three other girls watching them. "My friends and I heard about how you healed your best friend. We think it's really cool."

A smile made its way onto Phoenix' lips and her heart fluttered out of joy as she answered truthfully, "Thank you, Elle. It means a lot."

Elle returned her smile and started back towards her friends. Phoenix followed the blonde girl with her eyes, but someone standing behind them caught her attention. Her eyes met Rabastan's, who stood next to the door and immediately turned on his heel to leave.

Perhaps she wasn't the only one who still cared after all.