Cursed (Hogwarts Legacy fanfiction - original in German)

Chapter 08 - Dream on

"What happened? Let me take a look!" As quickly as it had happened, Nathan had already rushed to Anne when she had cried out in pain and had dropped the small garden knife she had been using. Blood was flowing from the small, straight cut on her palm just below her pinky finger. She had accidentally cut herself while trimming the shoots of her growing walnut tree, which she had been planning to wrap in fleece for the winter. Nathan and Clarissa had just arrived in the village and had been on their way to their weekend house when he had spotted Anne humming softly in her garden. She had looked up briefly and had waved friendly at them before returning to her work, which she enjoyed doing to relax. Spending time outdoors and taking care of her plants had always been a soothing activity for her to find peace.
Nathan had returned her warm gaze so kindly that she hadn't noticed the seemingly sour mood of Clarissa. Clarissa had shot Anne a dark look and had been about to say something to Nathan when the sound of Anne's pain had caused him to immediately drop everything and rush to her side. 

Now he was gently holding her bleeding hand in his. Anne's face turned red instantly, but she didn't pull her hand away.
"Don't worry. It's just a small cut. I need to be more careful," she reassured, lifting her shoulders slightly. Nathan reached for his wand without hesitation, but then paused and looked directly at Anne.
"May I?"
Those sea-blue eyes in that flawless face nearly drove Anne crazy. When he looked at her with such care and almost affection, her knees went weak involuntarily. Her voice failed her, so she just nodded, and then watched as he slowly waved his wand with a seemingly practiced movement and whispered a healing spell. It worked immediately, and Anne felt the pain in her hand vanish as the cut slowly closed, leaving only a faint reddish line on her skin that would disappear completely within the next few days. It was obvious that he had used this spell many times before and had mastered it perfectly. With admiration, Anne now freed her hand from his grip and examined his work from all angles.
"Wow, thank you so much, Nathan," she said, smiling shyly at him. Nathan picked up her garden knife from the ground and handed it back to her, handle first, as he returned her smile. He didn't know what it was about the little witch in front of him or why it happened, but he felt his heart suddenly beat faster, and a strange yet somehow pleasant tingling spread in his chest as Anne took the knife and their hands brushed in the process.
"You're welcome, Anne," he said, and the direct eye contact between them seemed to freeze time for a moment. 

It was only Clarissa's insistent voice that snapped Nathan's attention away from his neighbor.
"Nathan, are you coming at last? We have things to do."
Her impatience was evident, and the way she stood on one leg with her arms crossed in front of her chest left no doubt that she strongly disapproved of how caring Nathan was being with Anne.
"Yeah, I'm coming," he called back to her, but he didn't break his gaze.
"See you," he bid farewell to Anne, giving her a playful wink before he turned around and went to Clarissa, who immediately took his arm and linked it with hers, as if to make it clear that Nathan belonged to her. However, Anne had already drifted back into her dreamy state, a soft blush on her cheeks as she returned to her gardening, completely unaware of Clarissa's reaction.

"Should we gather some more goblin-silver, or should we try the spells with what we already have?" Clarissa finally asked insistently as they entered the house and hung their winter coats on the coat rack in the entrance area. Nathan immediately sensed her tension. Whenever she was so insistent about working on the new repository, he knew she was trying to distract herself from something that was bothering her internally. That's why he casually dropped his bag on the floor, turned to her, and placed both hands on her delicate shoulders.
"Clarissa, relax. We've just arrived, and besides the schoolwork and all the Keeper business, we deserve a bit of peace too."
Clarissa savored every moment when Nathan was so close to her that she could sense his pleasant scent, but she couldn't shake off the thought of the emotional look he had given Anne Sallow again. Moreover, the winter was setting in, and snow was slowly covering the landscape, reminding her relentlessly that the day was approaching when she had last seen her father a year ago. The memory of him hurt incredibly, and even though she owed the scar that ran through her left eyebrow to his lifestyle, she missed him painfully. She had been his pride, his princess. No matter how often he had been away and she had been left alone with her nanny, she had always known he had been thinking of her, wherever he had roamed. Until the day she had to learn that he would never return to her, that he was dead. That he had been murdered.