In Pain's Shadow //Hogwarts Legacy//

The vision

"No! She can't know! It's better off if she stays like this. She'll be safer."

"Darling," the man sighed. "She'd be much safer if she knew. Then she could prepare. And what about William? He could be the same as well."

Tears fell down the woman's face as she held her husband's hands. Her breathing unsteady as she pleaded with him. She loved her children. She'd love them no matter what. Their safety mattered the most. "If they do have it, then we shall tell them the full truth. If not, they must never know."

"Very well, Darling." The man frowned. He stood from his chair, noticing his daughter watching from the door. "Aya," he sighed. The girl entered the room as he knelt to her height. "Gemstone, I will be going away for some time."

"Where are you going?" Aya asked her father as he looked away. She couldn't quite make out why he had turned his face away from hers. That was something he never did. If only he didn't have to feel so ashamed. If only he didn't have to look away to hide tears of his own.

"There are important matters that I need to attend to. I will be back in three days' time."

"No!" The girl cried, wrapping her arms around her father. "Don't go, I don't want you to go!"

"Oh Aya," he frowned, lifting her up. "You know that I wish more than anything that I didn't have to go. But I do. And I promise, everything will be well. You have to be strong. If not for me then for yourself. Okay?"

"Yes, father." Aya sobbed. Her mother stood behind her, silently crying with her. She helped the girl stand as her father got ready to make his leave.

"Take care of your mother and brother for me, will you?" He spoke, receiving a nod in response. Aya wiped her eye and watched as he opened the front door, taking a deep and shaky breath. "I love you, Aya."

"I love you too, daddy."

It was a painful goodbye. One that she would never forget. She and her mother spent the rest of the night distracting each other from the man's grim exit. Aya didn't even know why she was so sad. It was, however, the last time Aya would ever see her father again.

*****

You have to be strong. Five words that Aya lived by her entire life. The memories she had of her father were faded. His voice barely even memorable in her mind. He was like that of a song that you'd only heard once. One of the most beautiful songs to ever bless your ears. You'd only heard it a handful of times but you couldn't remember it. Not it's name, not how it went, not even who composed it. A simple faded tune that played in the back of your head. Haunting you for the rest of your life.

She never knew why he left or what had even happened. It was a depressing goodbye that she wished she could go back to so that she could change his mind. When he didn't return three days after he left was when she knew something was wrong. He had always kept his promise. Her mother then received a letter to which she retreated to the back of their home and cried. She had told Aya that her father had been killed in a mining accident, but Aya never truly believed her. Not after the conversation she had overheard the night he left.

"And after that your family began to relocate multiple times?" Sebastian commented after Aya had told him the story. "You could be right," he glanced at her, "maybe there was a different factor that resulted in his- passing. Or maybe your mother just didn't want him working in a mine."

Aya nodded. She didn't speak much on their trek. She had been far too focused on not tripping over the rocks that littered the path they walked. The once sunny sky had turned cloudy, threatening rain. Their walk from Hogwarts to the ruins had been silent save for their small talk and the thunder.