Mysterious | Edmund Pevensie ✓

12 | The past

"Isabelle?" He furrowed his brows after he slowly recognised the person next to him.

The girl was sitting with her shaky hands on the floor, looking around with wide eyes full of tears, and Edmund heard that she clearly had a problem with breathing.

"Nan- Nancy," she whispered as she looked around.

"What happened?" Edmund asked and put his hand on her shoulder.

The girl looked at him, her eyes went wide like she hadn't noticed him before. She looked like an innocent animal frightened to death by a predator. "Nancy," she gulped and tears escaped her eyes.

It scared him because he had no idea what to do. Before he could even blink, Isabelle jumped up and ran into her room. He got up quickly and went after her without a second thought.

As soon as Isabelle entered her room, she fell to the ground, sobbing. She could feel her heart shattering. The pain she felt was too much for her. She saw her sister after many years, and she was far from happy with that. The words that left Nancy's mouth were too painful for her, although she knew the mist created the scene.

She raised her wand up defensively when she heard footsteps. She couldn't see anything through her tears and the darkness. She tried to stabilize her shaky hand, but it was unsuccessful.

"It's just me," someone said softly.

She recognised Edmund's voice in a second. "Lumos," she whispered after she rashly wiped her tears away.

When the dim light filled the room, Edmund noticed how red her eyes were. He noticed the little details he hadn't before. He noticed how long her eyelashes were which were then wet from tears. She had never really worn makeup, she rubbed her eyes too much and would have messed up the makeup in minutes, although, she had always watched the daughter of Fleur, Victorie, do her own makeup and admired the beautiful looks she created. That was the reason why Edmund noticed the dark circles under her eyes by the little amount of sleep. He had seen them before, but the wand caused dim light brought them into the limelight.

"It's okay. It's just the mist," Edmund said tranquillizingly. He put his hand uncertainly on her back, and when he realised that she won't freak out about it, he began to move his hand up and down slowly.

"I-" Isabelle started, but her voice cracked, and her tears multiplied. She hid her face in her palms and tried to calm down. "It hurts," she whimpered. "Make it stop. I don't want to feel it." She grabbed Edmund's upper arms and looked into his eyes desperately.

When their eyes met, the boy held his breath for a second. He saw so much suffering in her eyes, he almost felt it, as good as the pain was radiating from her. He hadn't seen her cry since they met, he hadn't even seen her sad actually. He had always seen her with a smile, and those cute dimples surrounding her gorgeous smile. Although he wouldn't have told anyone, he found her quite beautiful. She was a natural beauty he hadn't really seen before.

But this time, her usual wrinkled eyes from large smiles looked into his eyes wide opened, and she reminded him of a doe with her huge brown eyes. Without a second thought, he pulled her into an embrace and continued stroking her back. Minutes had passed when she finally stopped crying hard.

"I'm sorry," Isabelle told him after she pulled away.

"You don't have to apologise," Edmund replied. "What happened? Would you like to- talk about it?"

Isabelle sighed, thinking about the past. Then she tardily nodded. A couple weeks earlier, she would have slapped herself rather than talk to the boy about her past, but her feelings towards him changed. She trusted him.