➥COMPLETED
Nova Black hadn't thought she would ever set a toe behind those thick castle walls she had fought to forget about during the past thirteen years, but here she was at Plattform 9¾, staring at the scarlet train in front of her with wobbly k...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
BOOKS HAD never betrayed Nova, not a single time in her life. Books had not only saved her sanity during the years. They'd been friends in need, and friends when she didn't even need friends.
Now said friends were turning their back on her, refusing to share their secrets with her, and Nova grew more and more desperate as she skipped page after page, returning books to shelves, just to settle high hopes on the next literature, that again was only another source to add on her disappointment.
It seemed the Wizarding World had straightly forsaken those dangerous creatures, not once in history having considered to give them a second chance, while they were so easily granting the very same to human beings. How else could it happen that Buckbeak, the Hippogriff, was destined to lose his life, while cruel people like Snape were still walking this planet as free men?
Nova hadn't seen Harry Potter and his friends in the library for days after what has happened on the Quidditch pitch, though Harry had left the hospital wing on Monday. Nova had visited him — not only for the sake of visiting him, but also to check for Remus' attendance again, just to get disappointed once more. The new teacher, though being excused sick, was nowhere to be found.
Not until the upcoming Friday, where he happened to sit in a hidden corner of the library, eyes flying over written pages, inhaling words, as he did, and Nova watched him in silence, until she couldn't take it no more.
"You are back", she stated, not even forming a question, and his head jerked up, book clasped shut, his hands placed upon the cover.
"I am", he replied with a coy smile. "Have heard you've had a rough weekend again, huh?"
"Obviously not as rough as yours", said Nova, watching his pale face whiten even more, as the smile dropped. "Where have you been? They said you were sick, but the hospital wing was empty."
"Did you intend to visit me?", Remus asked, the corners of his mouth twitching.
"I visited Harry", Nova replied in a cold voice.
"Then you've missed me by just one day."
He lied, but confronting him with that, Nova would have to admit that she more than once had checked the hospital wing for him. Just the thought about it had a warmness creep up her face.
"Too bad", she therefore dryly replied. "You still don't look fit. Maybe you should consider another day of rest."
"Don't worry, I'm fine. I don't want to waste another day. It was a really inconvenient time to get sick, there's a lot of things I need to get done."
"Then I don't want to further disturb your working", said Nova, trying to get a glint of the book, but it was still covered under his tall hands.
Turning around, Nova walked down the aisle between those high shelves, feeling her heart faltering with every step she took ...
"Nova?", Remus suddenly said, and as she turned around, she found him having left his seat. The book was gone and he was looking at her out of his jade green eyes.
"Uhm-hm?" Blinking at him, as he approached, her palms became sweaty and she pulled down the sleeves of her dress to get them dry.
"Aurora told me what has happened during the Quidditch match", he suddenly said, having her stomach tumbling. "The Dementors seem to affect you more than they do to other people."
"Do you want to tell me I'm weak?!"
"Wha— no, of course not!" Shaking his head, Nova noticed some grey strains in his otherwise brown hair. "I know a thing or two about Dementors. The way they affect people ..." Running his fingers through said hair, his eyes then locked with hers. "I can only imagine what you had to have been going through after Regulus' death and Sirius being —"
"Believe me, whatever you are imagining, is far from reality", Nova snapped, cutting him off. "This isn't about grief or something like that. Regulus and Sirius had asked for this, all of this. They had a choice." She made a pause, trying to control her shaky voice, as the pictures started to rise inside her mind again.
Regulus' funeral, without a body to bury, just the knowledge that he was gone.
The burning sensation all over her skin, when she had been chosen to take her brother's punishment ...
The news about Sirius' imprisonment, for whatever decision he had made, it was far from right, far from all good ...
For the Wizarding World, it had been over. Years of war had come to an end with the fall of You-Know-Who, with the capture of his most loyal man, Nova's eldest brother, the mass murderer.
But Nova had known back then, just as she still knew today, that it would never end, nothing would ever end for her. It weren't just the memories burning her alive. It weren't just memories at all. To Nova, the past was her present, and so she could never leave it behind. Her future was painted in black, her pure blood being cursed, and fate wouldn't rest, until it got her soul as well.
"They had a choice", she repeated, pressing her own arms against her body, her voice nothing but a tremble. "But I hadn't."
When turning her back on him on the second time for today, she half-heartedly hoped he would hold her back again, but also feared that he could. Hopes and fears, however, remained unanswered, as her footsteps echoed from the walls, as she entered the corridor outside and didn't stop until she reached her room, letting the door fall into its lock right behind her. Her back pressed against the wood, slowly Nova slid to the ground, taking in shallow breaths, until the trembling stopped rattling on her bones after a while.
When Nova returned to the library, Remus was gone.
