Marmoris | Rabastan Lestrange [1] ✔︎

45 | TRUTH

The next week was spent in empty classrooms and with their noses buried in books, as Rabastan and Phoenix tried to find out more about the youngest Black's mysterious powers. It could be considered similar to when they had searched for information for the first time. Nonetheless, this time a lot things were different. The two of them had a deeper understanding of each other, although they both seemed to be unsure how to act in certain situations, especially when it came to the two of them accidentally touching. In a silent agreement they avoided talking about personal issues and concentrated fully on investigating Phoenix' powers. Another thing making a huge difference was the fact that Phoenix was ready to experiment and practice her powers, as long as Rabastan stood next to her with his wand drawn to stop her in case of her not being able to control it anymore. She didn't know why he was helping her, especially since she wasn't fully sure how he truly felt about her powers.

However, after having a lot of time to think about their fight in the bathroom she had realised that he had done more than just insulting her. He had basically admitted that he wasn't fully alright. The thought frightened her, although she had been aware that it would take time for him to heal, and she had tried to talk to Regulus about it, but he seemed to be really busy with some secret activity he wouldn't tell her about and had told her they would talk some other time. Still, she couldn't help but want to help Rabastan, although he had told her he didn't want to be fixed. Phoenix knew she couldn't just glue him back together like a broken toy, but perhaps she could at least help mend parts of him. However, she hadn't meant it as literally as it actually occurred when he came to tell her that his back seemed to be much better because of what Madame Pomfrey called a wonder, only a day after their joined use of her powers, and asked her if she had ever observed any healing powers of hers. It seemed to improve his confidence a lot to be able to limp without crutches again, so she didn't dare to think too much about the strange occurrence.

Due to her spending a lot of time investigating she hardly spent any time with her best friends only, which she realised when she caught Dawn staring at her during class. Guilt struck her like lightning and she was really glad that Rabastan wouldn't have time to investigate anyways as he joined Regulus in one of his secret meetings with other Slytherin boys. Phoenix was beyond suspicious about their meetings, especially as word travelled through the castle that the Dark Lord was stretching out his hand to the school to gain young followers.

Phoenix' attitude towards Muggle-born witches or wizards had wobbled a little in the past days after Crystal seemed to have gained more people to join her in hexing or insulting Slytherins, which made Phoenix wonder whether her father had been right after all when he had told them about Muggle-borns putting their society in jeopardy. Still, she was much more content with sitting with her two friends in their dormitory instead of plotting how to get back at Muggle-borns and half-bloods.

"Phoenix?" Dawn called out her name after some time of them chatting over all sorts of things.

They were all lying or sitting on Maureen's bed, Phoenix leaning against one of the bedposts. "Yeah?"

Dawn pushed herself into a sitting position and wrung her hands. "I meant to ask you for a while now, but I didn't quite know how." For once Maureen didn't interrupt her, which made Phoenix curious as to if they had already spoken about the subject before. "When Crystal, well, when she attacked you the other day, she said you were dangerous. You seemed to be upset afterwards, so I wanted to ask what she meant. How could you be dangerous?"

Phoenix' heart started to beat faster in her chest. She had feared the moment they would start asking questions. It wasn't that she didn't trust them – she would lay her life in these two girl's hands – but she didn't know how to tell them. In fact, she had considered telling them a few times, but as it had already been hard telling Regulus, she had always backed out. She stared at her hands, feeling her friends' gazes linger on her.

"I... um... I have these powers. I don't really know how to explain it actually," Phoenix confessed, looking at everything but her friends.

"Well, how about just showing us," Maureen suggested. "What do you need?"

Phoenix stared at the pink-haired girl for a moment, unable to tell if she was being serious. "I'm not really sure if I should do that. I've been practicing for a few days, but I'm not good at controlling it."

"You don't need to work a huge spell or anything," Maureen begged. "Just do something small to get us an idea of your powers."

"Maureen, don't force her to do something she doesn't want to do," Dawn chimed in, smiling apologetically at Phoenix.

The girl with black curls shot a quick glance at the door and used her wand to lock it to make sure the other two girls, which hadn't returned yet, wouldn't burst in. "No, I guess there is something I can try to show you." She pointed at a book lying on her own bed. "Have you got some other books lying around?"

Although they seemed confused by her question the girls helped her to collect a few books and placed them next to the original one.

"And what now?" Maureen inquired, staring at the pieces of literature. "You collecting dust catchers isn't really something extraordinary."

Phoenix couldn't help but giggle at her remark. "Just watch."

She closed her eyes for a second concentrating on the ball of light which she had learned to imagine when using her powers, freeing it from the wall surrounding it. She opened her eyes back up and slowly rose her hands in front of her. At first the only thing the books did was shake and then they slowly started to rise into the air with a golden glow covering their surface. She heard Maureen gape next to her, while Dawn's eyes, which were fixed on the objects in front of her, were filled with fascination.

"Have you been practicing wandless magic?"

To Phoenix surprise she heard Dawn chuckle at Maureen's question. "I don't think what we're seeing is wandless magic. It takes wizards years to learn how to do it and not even students which study as much as Phee could do that."

The books slowly returned to their original positions and Phoenix sat down on Maureen's bed, feeling a little tired all of a sudden. Dawn excitedly turned to face her. "What else can you do?"

Phoenix shrugged. "I'm not sure of the extent yet, but I can make people do things – not that I ever did it on purpose – and feel or see some emotions."

"That's awesome," Maureen exclaimed.

"It isn't, really." The youngest black shook her head and looked down at her hands once again. "I've been struggling to control a power I shouldn't even have for more than half a year. Rabastan and Reg say I could use it to do good but it scares me. See, the reason why Crystal called me a psycho is because I accidentally attacked her in December. I think it's more monstrous than awesome and it scares me quite a lot. You can't tell anyone about it."

Maureen sat down next to her, taking her hand and squeezing it reassuringly. "You should have told us. I don't think you're dangerous, you're just scared and that's why you can't control it."

"I think she's right," Dawn added, studying her friend's face. "Because I'm pretty sure that I know what you're dealing with."

"You what?" Both of her friends stared her in disbelief.

"I know what you're going through because your powers fit a legend of my kind."