Eternal Patience

Going Home

The castle was lively. Students filled the corridors, running back and forth to spread the news that the latest curse had been broken. The teachers were apparently too busy caring for the students who'd been released from portraits to enforce the curfew. 

Barnaby eventually found Sarah on the top floor, hiding under a desk in an unused classroom as a Labrador. 

He sat down next to it, just waiting to see what she would do. After a moment, the labrador scuttled out from the desk and sat next to him. He stroked it's back a few times, until he was no longer petting a dog, but rubbing Sarah's back. He'd been worried she would recoil at his touch, but she leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. 

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean any of that. I shouldn't have said it. I was just so scared when you left."

She sniffled, and it was a least a minute before she responded. "I can't do this alone. I'm not strong enough. I wish I could, but I can't. I don't mean to use my friends as tools."

He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into his lap. She nestled down to rest the back of her head on his chest. 

"We don't think that. We're all happy to do what we do to help you, because we love you and we know you'd do the same for us. Look at me. I'd probably be expelled by now if you hadn't knocked me on my arse in that duel third year." 

She let out a tiny chuckle. 

"I suppose I should apologize for not taking you to the vault with me," she said. "But I just wish none of us had to go in the first place."

"I understand that." He thought about what Rowan had said about the cursed vaults changing Sarah. "Do you think you'd be different if they weren't any cursed vaults?"

"I suppose so, but its difficult to say. The vaults have been intertwined with my life since before I came to Hogwarts. I can hardly remember much of my life before them."

"What about if the vaults were real, but your brother hadn't been trapped? Do you think you would've still gone after them?"

Sarah paused, thinking. "I don't know. When I first arrived at Hogwarts, I wanted nothing to do with the vaults. I just wanted to keep my head down, do well in school, and hope everyone forgot I was Jacob Spellman's mad sister. But when I actually saw evidence of a vault for myself..."

She shook her head. "Sometimes, I think its my destiny to go after the vaults. Like I'm a character in a story and the author's pushing me on. I've got no choice. So maybe I would've gone after them anyway."

"So, now that your brother's free, will you keep looking for the next vault?"

Another pause. 

"Yes."

Barnaby nodded. "Then I'll help you." He sighed, then forced himself to continue. "Even if I can't go with you."

She turned to look up at him.

"I shouldn't worry about you anyway," he said, shrugging. "If you can take on a Hungarian Horntail by yourself, I don't reckon anything in the world can stop you."

She smiled at that. 

"I suppose that's one way to look at it."

"I think I love you." 

Like before, the words had been vomited up from his stomach, and there was no way to take them back. But he wasn't sure he wanted to. He knew he was only sixteen, and he had never really seen love from his family so he wasn't sure how it was supposed to feel, but he couldn't think of any other word to describe what went on in his head and his heart every time he saw her.