❝"I want to save them."
"You're just saying things that I already know, Nellie."
"You're not going to try and stop me?"
"On the contrary, my little Witch. I'm going to try and help you."❞
***
Viatorem Atramento: Ink Travellers. That was what Noell...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Noelle, wait up!"
Noelle skidded to an abrupt stop when she heard Harry calling after her, and forced herself to wait for him to catch up to where she stood just a few feet away from the castle entrance leading out to the court yard. "Hey, Harry, sorry I'm in a bit of a rush right nowㅡ"
He cut her off, stopping in front of her with a nervous frown on his face. "Sorry, it's just..." Harry leaned in with a low voice despite the fact that no one was around. The castle had emptied out of it's one hundred and eighty inhabitants as most students had returned home for the holidays. "When will we tell Ron and Hermione about... you know?"
"Ah." Even though they'd had the conversation last night, it had escaped Noelle's mind completely. Her mind was plagued with the urge to test out her new theory, to see if it was true... "How about after dinner?" she suggested. If Harry noticed her fidgeting, eyes darting to the frost covered grounds distractedly outside, he didn't mention it.
"Yeah, that's fine," he said. "But are you alright? Is something bothering you?"
Noelle turned her attention back to him, startled. She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, it's just that I wanted to try something out. A new spell that I read about. Thought it would be safer to try it outside where nothing will catch on fire," she joked, starting to shuffle backwards already. She hoped he hadn't noticed that her wand was nowhere to be seen. "But I'll catch you later, alright?"
Not waiting for a response, Noelle turned on her heel and ran through the castle halls, stepping with a crunch onto the frosty grass towards the Black Lake. Amira would kill her if she found out what she was doing, but she had to try. The girl was currently napping up in the dorms, and believed Noelle was also sleeping in because of their late night shenanigans just a few hours prior, but Noelle couldn't wait. She didn't entirely believe Amira when she said the lake wouldn't work both ways; she had spoken far too quickly and changed the topic to the pile of homework essays waiting to be completed straight after Noelle had asked if she could visit her mother.
But she wanted to try to get back.
Noelle caught her breath as she paused in front of the tree situated just outside the Black Lake. Scanning the branches, Noelle positioned her hands on the rough bark and used all her strength to pull herself up high enough until she could stand on a sturdy branch fifteen feet from the ground. She suspected that simply walking into the lake would not produce the same effect as jumping in, and all she would do was disturb the Giant Squid. Or it wouldn't work at all ㅡ but she would rather try and fail than not try at all.
It had taken a while; she had several scratches running up her arms and had fallen on her backside an embarrassing number of times, but twenty minutes later Noelle found herself peering into the still, dark waters of the lake. It had surprised her that it hadn't frozen from the wintery chill that had pervaded every inch of the grounds she set her eyes on, but presumed there must have been some kind of magic involved.
