UNTOLD | D.M (UNRAVEL BOOK 3)

[ 07 ]

Through the gates of the Hogwarts Express, Aine and her friends were led to carriages like aways. However, the sight of the thick black-rimmed metals and the tiny lit headlamps attached at the front of the vehicles along with rather strange looking creatures— Each carriage was lined with one of those mysterious creatures. She halted so suddenly that Ginny and the Weasley twins looked at her, "What?" Fred asks and Aine gulped, still looking at the familiar creatures. It had a sleek black coat of hair, with a skeletal framed body, and two pairs of large wings emerged from it, their eyes glossed with a shade of pure white, similar to her— She gasps softly— There was no mistake. It looked identical to her Patronus.

"Aine?" Ginny calls, popping her head in front of Aine, blocking the girl's view on those Horse-bat-like creatures. The raven-haired female blinked out of her intense staring and glanced at her friend, "What's wrong?" she asks her.

"Nothing. Just..." Aine mumbles, eyes trailing to the strange creatures again. All three of her friends whipped their heads to the direction Aine was staring at earlier and raised a confused brow. Fred and George simply shrugged while Ginny cocks her head, "What— What are we supposed to look at?"

"Don't you see them?" Aine asks, and George questions, "See what?"

Strange. Weird, and very confusing. Aine furrows, Don't they see them? Why can't they see them? Are they unable to see them? Why was she the only one that was able to see them?

Shaking her head, she plastered a quick smile, "Never mind. I thought I saw... It's fine." She brushes them away, making their way to the carriage in which Aine spotted a navy coloured hair who looks up to them as they crawled into the coach. "Hello, Azuli." Aine politely greeted her schoolmate who was sharing their coach. He simply cast a forced smile, nodding his head in return, "Hello," he said in a soft voice.

"Seems like we're always sharing a carriage when we head back to Hogwarts, huh?" She chuckles and he looks to her, before his eyes shifting to the Weasleys, "Yeah... Hm, what a coincidence." he says stiffly, looking away almost instantly, and Aine stares at the boy, who was cursing mentally about how uncomfortable it was for him here. As much as it was for him, Aine was equally awkward about it since none of her friends seemed to know him, well, all except Ginny that is. But even she was not close with the boy.

Cyrus Azuli was in the same year as Ginny and Aine, alongside Luna too, of course. She didn't know much about this boy in front of her other than he was in Slytherin, and friends with Draco and his little circle of friends. However, she did notice Cyrus was rather close with another Slytherin boy, Blaise Zalbini. Besides all this information, she knew nothing more about him because the blue-headed boy was very secretive and extremely quiet as if he was forcing himself to stay silent. 

The carriage finally began moving, Aine looks at the weird horses once more, the voices of her friends slowly faded out as she recalls the first time she conjured a Patronus that looked exactly like the horses in front of her, right now. Their skeletal legs clip-clopped on the wet pavement as they pulled the carriage filled with students. "They're called Thestrals," she heard someone say and looks to the owner of the voice. Cyrus was facing them too, and his eyes softened as he mumbles, "They're very gentle, despite their appearance..." 

"Wait— You can see them too?" She whispers back, not knowing why she was whispering in the first place. 

Cyrus nodded again as Aine studies the Thestrals figure and wings. "Why can't the rest see it?" 

"They can only be seen by people who have seen Death."

Aine's eyes widened, her mouth gaped as if wanting to say something, but all that came out was the word, Death. But Aine hasn't seen anything like that in her whole life, sure she has imaginations of what Death looked like, but to actually see it was a whole new level. She merely smiles, if this was about having witnessed Death, did the sight of watching Buckbeak getting killed before count? She remembered seeing the Hippogriff, surrounded by massive pumpkins, Hagrid and the other ministry officials, and an axe swinging down— Her breath hitched at the gruesome memory. She recalled the last moments of Buckbeak, circled with the breeze and trees and his home, and the last deep chirp he had before he was executed.