Noyade | Rabastan Lestrange [2] ✔︎

34 | GOODBYE

The next week went by in a blur. Phoenix as well as all the other students that had known Jack personally had been questioned by the teachers and later even the ministry. Obviously they thought a crime was the cause of his disappearance, but Phoenix knew better. She had read Jacks letter – more than once in fact – and despite not wanting to believe it, she knew that he had left on his own accord. As she let her eyes roam over his crooked handwriting, which Rabastan had thrown from him in a fit of anger and worry, she could almost see Jack write those words, his feather gripped tightly in his shaking hand.

Rabastan,

I'm sorry for doing this the way a coward would – by letter. I have considered saying all this to you in person, but then you might not have let me leave. But the truth is, if I don't leave now it won't do anyone any good.

Because I'm not clean.

My body is depending on demon blood to keep it going and what happened yesterday, is that I forgot to take the substance that's slowly killing me. Apparently I can't survive without it, but even with it, the healers gave me only one more year to live. And what is one more year, if it only destroys other people's lives? You see, one stupid decision made in despair can affect your whole life. I don't want you to go down that same path as I did.

That's why I'm leaving.

Maybe in the past I've been able to help you, but last summer everything went to hell. What you had with Phoenix, it didn't heal you from everything that has happened. How could it? It's no secret that I didn't want you to be with her because it's against our principles and possibly dangerous, but then I realised, she changed something inside of you. She's good for you, Rabastan. And you're good for her too. I'd be a monster, if I took that away from the both you any longer. What I will do, will break our engagement and then you two can be happy again. You most of all people deserve to be happy.

Please, don't come looking for me. This is my chance to do right. Don't waste your chance.

I'm sorry for all the heartbreak that I've caused you.

Your brother,

Jack

What truly scared her about the letter was the way it sounded like a permanent goodbye, not like one of those unimportant ones, but farewell for eternity. He definitely seemed to intend to sacrifice himself for the greater good, but what he hadn't taken into consideration while doing what he thought was right was the effect it would have on the people he loved. Rabastan seemed completely lost, not knowing how to behave or what to think, Louis often found himself absentmindedly staring out of the window while he was supposed to be teaching his students and Phoenix was so afraid of something happening to Jack that she didn't just let her eyes roam over the newspaper every morning, but carefully read every single name on the list of people that had vanished or died.

On the sixth day after his disappearance her finger suddenly stopped on a name towards the bottom. Jackson Avery, twenty-four, missing. She sighed and handed the paper over to Maureen. "He's finally been named a missing person."

The pink-haired girl took a sip of her coffee, which was the only thing to get her to wake up in the morning, before she asked, "Have your parents contacted you yet?"

"Yes, I got a howler from my mother last night. She said it was my responsibility to keep my fiancé happy and all. Apparently his disappearance would put us all in a bad light, as if he had vanished because marrying me was something he couldn't live with," Phoenix admitted, stirring her untouched cereal with a spoon.