Marmoris | Rabastan Lestrange [1] ✔︎

61 | DISCONNECTED

"You know, I could get used to this," Rabastan remarked.

His comment made Phoenix move her book aside to look down at him, as his head was resting in her lap and he was reading a book of his own. She gave him a soft smile. "Used to what exactly?"

He lifted one of his hands and softly brushed a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. "To just being somewhere with you and watch you read. It's oddly relaxing."

"You couldn't even see my face," Phoenix laughed, but he was right. When the two of them were alone she felt like a huge weight was being lifted off of her chest. She didn't have to pretend to be anyone she was not and neither did he. Rabastan always found some silly reason or cheesy words to make her smile and laugh. He was disconnecting her from her worries, although she doubted that he actually noticed, and made her heart flutter weirdly. 'Could get used to this' was definitely an understatement.

"I could!" Rabastan persisted. "Just like I could see the smile that curved up your lips whenever something romantic happened."

Phoenix couldn't hold back a laugh, as she placed the book on the pier behind her. She was well aware of the two faces of the youngest Lestrange boy. Him saying cheesy things and cracking jokes took a lot of trust. He hardly ever showed that side of himself at school, which saddened her at times, but for the time being she was just happy that he had opened up to her. "You're weird."

"You like weird," Rabastan answered with a smug grin pushing himself up until his face was only a small distance away from hers.

"You wish."

He placed a hand over his heart and made a mockingly hurt grimace. "Now I'm offended."

He laced his fingers through hers, which made her look down. Her smile faltered, as she caught sight of his dark mark, which was perfectly visible because of his short-sleeved shirt. Suddenly she felt the weight coming back and she couldn't ignore her surroundings anymore. She couldn't ignore that they were sitting in front the Avery mansion where she was expected by nightfall to practice her magic with Jack like she had done it every day over the past week or the fact that she had made the most important decision of her life within a few hours and was now damned to do whatever the Dark Lord wished her to do. She couldn't ignore that she was now his strongest weapon in a war that was about to break out.

She sighed and whispered, "Do you ever get used to it?"

"To the dark mark?" He asked, obviously having followed her gaze to his forearm. Phoenix nodded slowly. "Not really, I fear. Sometimes it makes me proud because my parents finally seem to acknowledge me as their son and at times I can't think about anything but Will's death. It's a constant reminder of an awful mistake that I made. So, no you don't really get used to it."

"Will you ever tell me what that mistake actually was?"

Rabastan softly caressed her left forearm, where her own dark mark was perfectly visible. "I guess now that you joined him, you'll find out anyway, one way or the other." He took a deep breath before continuing, "I found a way to get them into the room of requirements, which kind of makes me responsible for the attack, considering it was my idea to scare students into supporting him."

He got up, obviously embarrassed of his own actions. Phoenix silently watched him as he made his way to the edge of the pier and looked out to the ocean. The sun that hit the water made it sparkle like a diamond-like surface, which made it an oddly picturesque view. Despite the serious topic it made the corners of her lips tug up at the realisation that he stood at the edge of the thing that she had used to compare him to - that she kind of still compared him to.

She followed him and took his hand. "Do you know that I used to compare you to the ocean?"

She wouldn't act as if what he had done was right. However, she had made awful mistakes herself, which made her relate to how he was feeling. There was no use discussing the topic.

"You did?" Rabastan glanced down at her.

Phoenix shrugged, although she saw the comparison as something pretty stupid to admit out loud. "Yes, you always had that certain way of how you would act, but when you talked to me about books for the first time I got the feeling that there was more to your character. Kind of like the ocean. We can see the surface but we have to dive to see the true beauty of animals and plants. Turns out I was right."

"You should become a writer," Rabastan suggested facing her and pulling her to him by her waist.

"I just told you one of my most stupid thoughts and that's what you say?" Phoenix giggled.

"Why not? It sounded pretty poetic to me. Also it would mean I could be your muse," he offered her with a smug grin.

Phoenix playfully hit him against his chest. "You're so full of yourself."

"And you like it."

"That line is slowly getting old, Lestrange."

"I know, Black. Good thing it was only a distraction." With those words he took her aback by pulling her towards him and both of them fell into the cold water, which muted Phoenix' scream of surprise.

Happiness was a fragile thing and one had to enjoy it for as long as they could before it shattered into a thousand pieces within a few seconds. Phoenix knew that and while she was under water she promised herself to cherish every single one of those happy moments.

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OMG I can't believe this is the last real chapter of 'Oceans Deep'. Thinking about the fact that there's only the epilogue left is crazy. The epilogue will be published tomorrow or a few days later and I'll do my best to publish the next part of Phoenix' story as soon as I can.

Thank you for reading!

Love, Enya