Mercy | D.M

Seven

Aster's POV

The room was dim, the only light coming from the opened blinds I had just flicked open in the kitchen. The full moon was making the room eerie, as if we had abandoned the house for years and not just a few months.

"What room should I take?"

I flicked my eyes over to Blaise, he was standing idly at the kitchen table, his eyes sullen and tired.

"Just take the spare room. Before you do that, can you help me make sure the protection enchantments are still up" I replied, giving him a small smile for reassurance. 

It took a lot of convincing to get Blaise to agree to coming here. After giving Theo and him a complete run down on the protection enchantments wrapped around the house, they finally asked the Order if it was ok for me to move back home. Blaise had insisted in joining me, leaving Theo at Grimmauld place to keep up to date with the order.

Leaving Theo alone at that harrowing town house wasn't ideal but when I asked him to join us here, he shook his head and left the room. Ever since Draco's birthday party, a little light had left his eyes and his conversations were usually short and snippy. Blaise said he was coming to terms with the fact that I was officially with Draco.

As we silently strolled through the empty house, Blaise's wand waving and waxing over the enchantments covering my dad's study and the perimeter of the house, I couldn't help but think about how calm I was about being away from my family. My mother was, from what I understood, to be safe. Her fragile heart was being kept calm by Blaise's mother somewhere in Europe. I had no idea how Blaise's mother was actually keeping my mum alive, the separation from my father was probably making her have nightly fits. My father was stronger than my mother, being a Flint, but that ache and sharp pain I felt in my heart was being covered by my occlumency. I wasn't keen on opening that door any time soon. For now, I had to focus on keeping myself alive so I could get him out of there.

After pointing out the perimeter of the garden, I watched as Blaise paced the edges with his wand. He was a fine wizard, calm and steady, ambitious but not too cunning. It was that moment, in which I truly felt the enormity of pride in which I felt for him.

He was a completely different boy to the one I grew up with. I suppose he wasn't even a boy anymore, a man. The fact he joined the Order, helped protect my mum and saved me from possibly making a fool out of myself and getting myself blown up the night that Dumbledore died. It was inexplicable how overwhelmed I felt towards him. He was more of a family member than my own parents were.

He twirled his wand between his long fingers as he strolled towards me, his face a bit more relaxed now.

"All good?"

"Feel much better now that those wards are definitely working" he replied, giving me a small smile.

I grabbed his arm and looped it round mine to steer him back inside.

"Thank you for everything" I mumbled, keeping my eyes on the carpeted floor in the living room.

"You really don't need to thank me for anything. I would do anything for you and I know you would do the same for me. We've got to be there for each other, especially in times like these."

I felt his large hand cradle my own, the warmth settling the discomfort I had been feeling.

"We're going back to Hogwarts right?" I asked, finally bringing my eyes up to his.

"Yeah, the order wants me there just in case. It will be different thought. Dumbledore being.... Well I don't know whose going to take his place but I have a feeling it won't be the same Hogwarts were used to" His dark eyes dropped and the relaxed expression he wore before had vanished.