𐌱𐍁𐍂𐍀 the witch

The Day After - Pt. 3 A Blueberry Lunchbreak

About part three:

9.8K words

Warnings: guilt-tripping.

Mentions: desires, warmth, cold, confusion, curiosity, interest, temptations, admiration, rapprochement, flirt, slight longing, caution, forming love.

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[ me ]

The trace of a smile was forming on my lips, as he actually thanked me for helping him. I didn't expect anything like this, thought that my deed will just be taken for granted.. like usual. But what did he thank me for? For reading out the names, or for ending his void state of being trapped in his own thoughts. Or both? None of this did matter, as it was after all way more than I had expected.

My eyes followed the man in his black robes, as he was walking around his desk and took off his black cloak. It was cold down here. Why would he take his cloak off? My body tensed slightly, as I felt his presence behind me. I didn't dare to turn my head to him, even though I did not feel particularly comfortable with him being behind my back. There wasn't much to read out of the first years' faces as well, as they were all watching him, eyes still glistening terrified. Yet again apart from those two pairs of honey-coloured eyes that were applied to the two twins in the first row.

Some of the students shivered, snuggled up into their slightly too big robes and watching them I got aware of the chill wind that came through the crack in the broken window and had crept up underneath my clothes, adding up to the cold that I still felt as a last remain of my own memories. Out of the corner of my eye I suddenly saw something black move and I flinched slightly, as I felt this black thin touch my arms and shoulders, wrapping around me like a snake wraps around its prey. For a split second not only my heart, but also my thoughts raced, until I felt something more.

Warmth. Not the warmth that would warm your heart from the inside out, that would set your whole body on fire, but simply warmth, similar to the warmth a stranger's smile can make us feel. A nice gesture without any intentions but to be for once nice.

It was his cloak, that black thing that kept me trapped, without keeping me trapped and the warmth was issued by his hands that rested on my shoulders, this time indeed not to put me down, but rather in a caring way. It was all him. I was cold and he obviously had realised it. Weird, isn't it, how our mind can sometimes not differ between reality and interpretation. Maybe I had wroged him by comparing him to all the other men I had met, even though I already knew that he was not like them, but different in his very own way. However, his rudeness and the way he had simply tried to deny my existence was just as real as the fact that his hands now rested on my shoulders to warm me. It did not make sense and it was in this second, I knew that this thought wouldn't let go off me too soon, that the quest for the "why" behind his behaviour would keep my mind busy to the point were my own thoughts would make me feel dizzy. But those thoughts could wait, at least as long as there was a bit of warmth to enjoy.*

Thank you.

I whispered quietly, merely putting voice into those words, as I didn't want to interrupt his lesson. Slowly the warmth crept over my skin, not really making it inside me, as I could not allow this. It did not make sense and even though I was craving for a little warmth, I needed to be careful with him. I needed to protect myself from him, as those heavy and strong hands, that rested on my shoulders so tenderly, could only too easily shatter this frozen heart of mine and extinguish that weak flickering flame inside me once and for all.

Still the feeling of his touch, the soft warmth that had reached every art of my skin by now, was leaving me with slight goosebumps that nobody could see, as I was safely protected under this soft black fabric that had, other than I had thought, no intentions to trap me, but only to trap that flimsy warmth and shield me from the cold.