Chasm of Chaos// A Hogwarts Legacy Story

{Chapter 14}

Jace

The rain is cold as it drips down my back. Each small droplet travels down my spine in long drags, filling my body with chills. I pry away at my shirt, slinging it on the small hook of the shed as I prop up a small piece of broken glass to scan my torso. The black ink encircling my skin works up my side, stopping at the base of my collarbone. It's a snake, much like that of the green robes my companions often choose to wear. I look to the spot the scar lingered on us both. It's bare now, void of existence entirely. I've played out every scenario in my head on how to avoid either of us hurting ourselves. How does one stop something that has yet to come into existence? How do I sever a tie with someone who has yet to be born?

At some point, I had managed to stagger back to Althea's after my interaction at the Three Broomsticks. I couldn't bring myself to present myself in my current state. I felt as if this shed was more of an appropriate setting for me. I let my eyes linger on the black ink. The small box containing the Elder Wand sits on one of the many tree stumps, begging me to touch it. It's like a sick song, singing to me as it tries to get me to feed into its call for me. Liliana lies. Whatever it is I saw, whatever future it was that the wand wanted me to see, it is wrong. There is no scenario in which the feelings I felt when I saw Dove are explored. Once Eden safely delivers that's the last they will see of me. I grab my shirt, forcing it back over my head as I quickly grasp the box. I shake my head in the small glass shard, looking myself over with utter distaste.

"Monster," I quietly whisper, ignoring the small wince in my eyes each time I tell myself that's all I am.

***

Rowan

Jace paces anxiously back and forth making sure to bite his nails every opportunity he gets. His eyes are on the Elder Wand and invisibility cloak now spread out on Althea's table. He came in only moments ago, drunker than I expected him to be. He grips the back of one of the many chairs eyeing down each item in front of him with wide eyes.

"You can stop staring at me," he mutters after a few silent moments of me eyeing him down.

"Is there a reason you are shitfaced and just standing in the kitchen?" I question. This is the first interaction I have had with him since he decided to blow up on Eden at the school. The sun is finally starting to set. Eden tried to offer to come out here, but she looked so happy inside the tub, it was easier to just let her be comfortable.

"That wand presents false narratives," he says with a growl, looking at the ancient artifact as if it holds the next plague that will wipe out mankind.

"Are you going to elaborate on what that means-"

"I saw your daughter. I saw Dove when I touched the wand," Jace says. My words struggle to fall from my mouth as I process what exactly he just said.

"That's not possible, we don't even know if we are having a child-"

"Don't be delusional Rowan. You are having a child, a girl. She's as beautiful as her mother and as stubborn as you. I've seen it," Jace says.

My eyes glance at the wand. How could a wand show us something that has yet to happen? I move toward the old relic, reaching my hand out to grab it. Jace grabs my wrist, looking me over with wide eyes.

"There's another part to what I saw... what it showed me took place fifty years from now. She still looked no older than 20, the same could be said for Grayson. Thoran and Ominis were there as well. Despite being older they sure as hell didn't look 68," Jace says.

"Grayson would be well in his fifties. How the hell is that possible?" I question, trying my best to process all of this newfound information.

"I'm assuming the same way I am able to look so youthful. The problem is I've yet to find an answer to that predicament," Jace says, moving to bite his nails once more as I swat his hand away.