Marmoris | Rabastan Lestrange [1] ✔︎

43 | FACES

                   

Phoenix didn't sleep that well that night - or that much for that matter - as she kept waking up and being unable to fall back asleep afterwards. As an effect of that wasn't a pleasant circumstance that the first lesson was Defence against the Dark Arts with Professor Avery, who seemed to have found pleasure in picking on students for even breathing at the wrong time and thinking his jokes were actually funny, which, to be fair, they were at times. That morning it wasn't just beyond annoying but caused her a nasty headache.

"Are you alright?" Dawn asked for the millionth time, as the Professor was rummaging through his backpack in search for something unknown to all the students.

"Just as good as I was when you asked five minutes ago," Phoenix replied, pressing her palms against her forehead.

Dawn didn't ask further questions but since Phoenix was unable to shut out other people's feeling due to her exhaustion, she could sense her best friend's worry and a pain, which she would have inquired further hadn't she felt that bad, both mentally and physically.

Professor Avery continued his explanations about angry spirits, haunting their houses or people, who had done them wrong. Normally Phoenix would have found it interesting, but that morning she had to use all her energy to prevent herself from falling asleep rather than paying attention to the professor. Her headache seemed to get worse and worse, to a point where she believed she had passed out for a few seconds, seeing her cousin Bellatrix' face and a green light.

But then everything was back to normal and she heard Professor Avery's voice - for once sounding serious. "Miss Black, is everything alright?"

Phoenix let out a deep breath and replied, "Of course, Professor."

The younger man with almost shoulder-long brown hair nodded and continued his lesson.

"You just went as pale as a ghost," Dawn informed her, concern swinging in her voice.

Hoping to assure her there was nothing wrong, Phoenix gave her brunette friend and Maureen, who watched her with concern from Dawn's other side, a soft smile. "I really am okay, please stop questioning me. I'm just lacking a little sleep, that's all."

Even though they didn't seem to be convinced, Maureen and Dawn left her with that answer. As soon as Phoenix felt less watched she started to take deep breaths. Her head was throbbing and she again pressed her palms against it, while the air around her seemed to get warmer. How was she supposed to manage a complete day like that?

Gladly distraction came along in form of a snippet of parchment being placed in front of her. Careful not to catch Avery's attention, she unfolded it and was met with a single sentence written on it in a bad handwriting.

'I'm sorry!'

Lifting her head, her gaze locked with Rabastan's. It took her a second to wrap her head around what he was apologising for. So, he wasn't good with what he had said the evening prior. Although the gesture was kind of sweet, she shook her head and tried to focus on the professor's words once again.

But only a few minutes passed until another snippet was paced on her desk. She looked up to catch Rabastan staring at her, mouthing 'please'.

With a sigh she opened the piece of parchment. 'I am truly sorry for what I did yesterday. I said a lot of awful things, and I know I can't make it okay by just apologising, but I want you to know that I didn't mean it, none of it. Please let me explain it to you, although I am sure I won't find the right words to make you give me another chance. Please Nix, I want to at least try to make it up to you.'

By the time she had finished reading it, her head felt as if it was about to explode. She couldn't take any more letters like that, considering they seemed to make her feel even worse as they brought back the memory of his words. Monster.

Along with an aching head, she caught another glimpse of a face in front of her eyes. It was only during a second, but it was enough for her to memorise the unknown man's face with green eyes and brown hair, which looked strangely familiar.

Suddenly Phoenix knew what she had to do.

She turned the piece of parchment around and scribbled words of her own on it before passing it on. She believed to see concern in his eyes, when he stared at her and nodded slowly. The pain in her head seemed to increase, as she watched him pull something out of his bag.

Next thing, the room was filled with the sound of an explosion and grey smoke. People started to cough and scream or laugh, but to Phoenix all of it was strangely muted. She felt dizzy, as a hand softly touched her shoulder and she looked up to see Rabastan standing next to her desk.

"Can you walk?" he wanted to know and she slowly got up with a nod.

She had no clue what he would have done if her answer had been different, considering he still walked on crutches, but another wave of pain wouldn't let her think about it. She saw flashes of different faces - Bellatrix, Dawn, Rabastan with his eyes filled with tears and the unknown man. Breathing heavily, she stumbled after Rabastan, only able to see her surroundings for a few seconds in-between the faces. She didn't really know where he was taking her, but when the pain in her head became unbearable, she groaned and pressed her palms against her forehead, leaning against a wall. Out of the distance she heard something shatter and Rabastan calling out her name as she lowered herself to the ground. The faces were changing more rapidly and she barely felt her friend gripping her shoulders.

It was too much.

She whimpered and allowed tears of agony to escape from her eyes.

"Phoenix? Can you hear me?" Rabastan inquired, shaking her slightly.

She grabbed his forearms and whispered, "Make it stop. Please, just make it stop."

But he didn't, he did nothing while one of the scenes lingered in front of her eyes. The unknown man was shouting something she was unable to hear before he threw something that looked like a dagger.

"Please," she whispered again.

This time he did something. Something totally unexpected, however, as he kissed her for the second time in the timespan of a month.