Marmoris | Rabastan Lestrange [1] ✔︎

06 | OCEAN

"I cannot fix on the hour,
or the spot,or the look,
or the words, which laid the foundation.
It is too long ago.
I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."

★

FOR ABOUT TWO weeks Phoenix refused to read the book Rabastan had lent her. It was placed on her nightstand, since that day not even moved once. She already started to wonder how the other girls in her dorm couldn't have noticed the thick book, which was so different to the things she usually read. She had expected Rabastan to bother her with questions considering whether she had yet read his precious piece of literature or not, but he didn't, not even once, in fact. Instead he went back to his usual ways, which meant teasing Phoenix whenever he could.

She should have been confused about that, but it had actually made her realise something while the last few days of September passed like mere hours. Rabastan Lestrange was like the ocean; wild and strong, but also deep and most of all unpredictable. Usually she was pretty good at analysing people's personalities, but with Rabastan it was confusingly hard. If she thought she had finally figured it, he would do something completely unexpected and Phoenix would be right back at the start, which made her wish to understand him grow even stronger.

So as the leaves of the trees outside of the castle slowly started to change their colour and in circles made their way to the ground, there seemed to arrive more colour in the students' hearts. While it was growing colder outside, there were heated discussions going on about the upcoming Hogsmead-weekend and the first Quidditch match – Hufflepuff against Ravenclaw.

Phoenix sat on her bed in the dormitory and listened to Maureen's bickering about not having a date for the trip.

"Come on, you don't need a date. We can go there together, perhaps the boys will tag along too," she remarked, putting away the potions homework, which she had been working on.

"But I don't want to spend the day in the book shop. I hate it there, too much knowledge and dust," the pink-haired witch cried out like a child, a look of horror on her face.

Sometimes even Phoenix herself wondered how two people that were so different like Maureen and her could possibly be best friends. They were like night and day or like fire and water, but still they considered each other sisters. It was a miracle, but she was glad it was that way. She turned around, seeking for Dawn's help, who was lying on her stomach and flipping through the pages of the newest edition of Witch Weekly.

"But Dawn will be there too. You can go somewhere else while I quickly check out the book shop."

"No, she won't"

"What? Why? Wait a second." Phoenix turned around to look at Dawn once more, who suddenly seemed to be very interested in one of the articles. "You have a date?"

"Of course she has. And the lucky somebody has to be very special, considering she rarely ever agrees to go to such an official kind of date. Look at her cheeks. Dawn Prince is blushing."

"Wo is it?" Phoenix questioned, truly excited for her best friend.

"I... It's nothing, really, but I wanted to give it a chance. I'm probably just another girl to him, it really is nothing special," Dawn told them, brushing a few strands of her light brown hair out of her face, but Phoenix saw it too. Dawn was definitely blushing.

"Now tell us who it is!" Phoenix ordered, but the slightly older girl simply shook her head with a grin.

Maureen groaned, letting herself fall with her back onto her four-poster bed. "Give up, Phee. I've been trying for days and I still haven't got a bloody answer. A flubberworm would tell us more than this stubborn girl."