Marmoris | Rabastan Lestrange [1] ✔︎

11 | EXCITEMENT

"If we could only have this life
for one more day."

★

IT SURPRISED PHOENIX how easy it was to open up to Rabastan. Seeing that different, silent side to him somehow did that to a person. Although he apparently hadn't changed at all, as he was still spending his time jinxing people and making out with a number of different girls, he had changed a lot in her eyes. The popular Slytherin boy had a silent side, which loved to read and actually made her smile and laugh, not with those immature jokes he usually yelled at Regulus, but with what he did. She couldn't deny that she liked to see that side of him and somehow it got her to trust him in some weird kind of way. Of course she didn't tell him everything that was going on in her mind or heart, but she talked to him about things more personal than she had ever before.

It was in one of the first few days of December when she sat down with a wide grin in a window seat on the sixth floor, where Rabastan was already waiting with a book placed on his legs.

He only looked up for a second before he resumed his lecture and asked absentmindedly, "What has got you in that mood to make you smile like Maureen when she ate too much stuff with sugar in it."

"Guess what Dawn just told me," Phoenix ordered, taking her own book out of her bag.

Rabastan looked back up at her and shrugged. "I would have guessed that she's pregnant, but I don't think you would be that enthusiastic about that considering our age."

"Not funny," Phoenix told him and nudged his arm, which led him to grin.

"I honestly don't know, but I have the strong feeling that since you're so giddy about it, you're going to tell me in a matter of seconds anyway."

Phoenix rolled her eyes. "You're boring."

"I've heard different," he told her with a confident smirk.

"How can you be so full of yourself?" she asked, but couldn't stop herself from smiling too. "Anyhow. So you know that my brother's friends James and Lily are head boy and girl. I have also heard that they are together and that's probably why they came up with the idea to have a dance for Christmas. There has only ever been one when there was a Triwizard Tournament, but somehow they were able to convince Dumbledore to let them organise a dance without any special occasion."

"That's what you're so excited about?" Rabastan questioned and turned his full body towards her.

Phoenix shrugged. "I guess, although I don't even know. I mean I don't plan on attending it. Those huge crowds of people are not really my thing, but Dawn's enthusiasm kind of affected me."

"Why not? You're great with people," he questioned and tilted his head, his lips raising into a small smile.

Phoenix looked down at her hands, her euphoria suddenly gone. "I'm not. I like to read about people that are good with words and other people, but to be honest, doing it myself scares me a bit. I've never been good at choosing the right words whenever a family reunion came around. Reg and Sirius were always good at it, but I'm constantly worried about saying the wrong thing and what people might think about me, if I do."

"It shouldn't be. It's easy. Remember back in first grade when Regulus approached me and I was already about to throw my book at him until I realised he simply wanted to sit next to me? I seemed to be a hopeless case back then and look at me now."

"Now nobody ever gets you to shut up."

Rabastan laughed. "Exactly. Most of those people around here are idiots. You could tell them anything and they would believe it."

He started to tell her about how had been invited to one of their Potions professor's parties, which only the best Potions students were invited to, and had been thinking about other things all evening until the professor had asked him for his opinion. He claimed to have stood there completely frozen. What he did in the end was telling them some ridiculous story and nobody had seemed to mind.

He often did things like that. Phoenix told him something personal and he offered her a story of something he had once experienced, but never spilled any information about what his personal life outside of Hogwarts looked like or how he felt. It made suspicion concerning his intentions grow in Phoenix mind. It was like a huge red light, but she still tried to turn away from it and trust him. It just felt too good to be around him.

However, that little hint of suspicion, which she so desperately tried to ignore, was enough to keep what happened that evening away from him.

★

PHOENIX WAS LYING flat on her stomach on her bed in the dormitory with a book placed in front of her while Maureen and Dawn were chatting excitedly. She only caught pieces of their conversation as she tried to concentrate on the words in front of her. Still, those few pieces were enough to know that Dawn was telling Maureen about the Yule Ball.

It was nothing special, really, until Phoenix felt her chest tighten and for a second the air was pressed out of her lungs. She gasped when she felt something crash into her chest form the side. But when she glanced sideways there was nothing or nobody that could have hit her. That's when she felt the excitement flood her and she saw Maureen clap her hands excitedly. She tried to fill her lungs with air but she only ended up coughing, gripping her throat. It took another few seconds until finally she felt her lungs fill again.

"Phee, are you alright," Dawn inquired, worry evident in her voice.

As if someone had opened a drain, Phoenix felt the excitement subside. She glanced at her friends, who both seemed equally confused by her actions. She nodded, "I'm fine. I just need a sip of water."

She pushed herself onto her feet and walked, with shaking legs, to the bathroom door.

"Are you sure?" Maureen asked, apparently knowing her best friend all too well.

Phoenix turned back around with a bright smile. "Of course I am."

Her friends didn't question her further and let her close the door behind her. She placed her hands on both sides of the sink and stared at herself in the mirror. She blinked, but there was nothing unusual about her. Just the same grey eyes and dark curls.

She had not expected anything else, but she still splashed her face with cold water to gather her thoughts before leaning her back against the washbasin.

Maureen's emotions had been the first that she had been able to feel on that particular evening. The following day it happened more often. Her reaction wasn't as frightening as when her best friend's excitement had hit her. She only felt her chest tighten for a second and had a lack of air for the same amount of time while she felt other people's emotions for as long as they had them. It didn't take her long to decipher a pattern between the feelings. She only felt the really strong emotions. Still, they were the emotions of other people. She wasn't supposed to feel them at all.

No ordinary witch had these kind of powers.