{UNDER CONSTRUCTION}
I am currently editing and making changes to the story. Read at your own risk!!
" I have seen what the darkness does
Say goodbye to who I was
I ain't never been away so long
Don't look back them days are gone
Follow me into the...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
--CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE--
April 15- June 9, 1978
The centaurs weren't joking when they said that Arabella should not be looking forward to starting water training. The first day, they had her swimming for hours. Why? Arabella still hadn't figured that part out yet. Bane kept telling her to be one with the water, but how does someone do that? She was also sure that the giant squid was trying to drown her; it kept pulling her leg, literally.
She thought that the swimming would be only for one day, having her get in touch with the water but she was sadly mistaken. After every session, Arabella would go back to the castle, smelling like various lake plants and overall like a fish, and she did not enjoy it one bit. She could only hope that they would stop it soon. Bane and Firenze had also told her what she needed to do to control the element of water; she needed to tap into her sincerity within. They said that another reason they were throwing her in the black lake almost every day was that she needed not to be afraid of the water and be at peace with it. However, Arabella didn't know how she could be at peace with a lake that was always below freezing. Overall, the sessions had been extremely tiring, so most of the days, she would be in her classroom before her training, napping, or helping the students.
Weeks and weeks went by in Hogwarts, and it was soon graduation month. The seventh-year students were buzzing with excitement and fear for their last month in the castle before starting their new lives. It had been an incredibly hectic couple of weeks for Arabella, not just because of the training but also because the seventh years were preparing for exams. And not just any exams, exams that would dictate your future in the wizarding world. Every day, she would be greeted by nervous train wrecks hoping to get in at least a few hours of studying and revision into their day. All the teachers started fussing over the students and how they should be preparing, which meant more work for Arabella. Though, it would all pay off in the end. The students would finish their exams and be ready to welcome summer with fresh minds and a clean slate.
It was now the second to last week of school, and Dumbledore had announced a month prior that there would be a ball for the sixth and seventh years, in honor of the graduating class. Arabella, like the other teachers, was asked to chaperone said ball. It was going to be a grand event, a proper formal ball. Arabella had only ever been to one ball in her life, and that was for the Triwizard tournament, which she attended with her then-boyfriend, Theo Nott. She was just excited to see the students that she had grown to love immensely have one last fun night with their friends, something she never got to have. It made her wonder if the whole second war hadn't happened if she would have had the same celebrations with her friends and family.
