The Fire You Touch

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Chapter 39: The Order Of The Founders

The night air drafting across the lake was uncommonly cool. Sitting on a hummock of damp grass beneath the brilliant stars, Aeryn buried her head in her hands.

AzkabanÂ….

It was well past midnight, and although the rest of Hogwarts was wrapped in slumber, Aeryn could not sleep. She had been wandering the grounds since the verdict, the words of the headmaster ringing dolefully in her ears like funeral bells.

“Following the end of this school year, you are hereby sentenced to incarceration in the wizard prison of Azkaban….”

And then her own voice, pale and trembling: “I wish to inform you that I am withdrawing from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry….”

She gave a little groan and dug her fingers into her face, feeling her cheeks flare hotly. Now, with the privilege of twenty-twenty hindsight, she realized how very foolish it had been for her to announce her decision at the trial. Neither the time, nor the place…she should have waited to tell Dumbledore and the Heads in private, instead of making a scene, that’s my problem, I’m always making a scene, but—but—

Aeryn heaved a sigh and dropped her hands from her face. What was done was done—there was no taking back words already said. She looked out over the lake, the starlight dancing weirdly across the ripples of the water, and she remembered fleetingly her first journey across the lake in the boats with the first years, and how blindingly simple everything had been back then….

Snape.

She closed her eyes, feeling her heart twist painfully in her chest. It was over, the verdict was over and pronounced; within two days he would be taken to the wizardsÂ’ prison of Azkaban to serve out his sentence. Signed, sealed, delivered, done.

It was what I wantedÂ….

But was it? How was she supposed to feel, now that it was all said and done? Neither regret nor relief seemed entirely to fit the situation, for the former suggested that she found his punishment totally unfair, and the latter implied that she was completely happy with the outcome.

Instead, she merely felt a dull ache.

Another breeze rippled the glassiness of the lake, and Aeryn shivered, feeling very alone.

* * *

A little bit longerÂ…I can still sleep for a little bit longerÂ….

With a languid yawn, Aeryn burrowed deeper into her bed, enfolded in sleepy warmth. She should be packing, but not yet…not yet…she still had all day before the Final Feast…she could relax for just a bit—

The covers over her were suddenly and violently pulled off her. Aeryn squeaked at this outrageous invasion of her privacy, and she curled into a little ball as the colder air of the room assaulted her body.

“Is it true?” exclaimed a familiar voice, jerking her out of her fuzzy reverie.

Aeryn sat up slowly, blinking furiously to clear her blurred vision. A boy’s face floated into sight, a face with a shock of jet-black hair, bottle-green eyes, and an expression contorted with fury. “Harry…what are you doing in here?” she croaked.

“Is it true what they’re saying?”

Aeryn stared blankly at him, trying to force the rusty wheels of her mind to turn. She had finally collapsed into her bed at six oÂ’clock that morning, letting the weariness in her bones overtake her. She shifted her gaze to the clock sitting on her bedside table. One in the afternoon. Aeryn gave an inward groan. She should be packing. The Hogwarts Express would leave the next morning at nine oÂ’clockÂ…but there still was all afternoonÂ…and she was so tiredÂ….

“Is it?” Harry demanded, his voice harsh, and Aeryn suddenly remembered that she had a visitor.

“You’re not supposed to be in here,” she said, swinging one leg over the side of the bed. Her eyes fell on a clump of second year girls, busily packing up their own trunks. They were not looking in her direction, but Aeryn could tell by their overly-casual movements that they were paying extremely close attention to everything going on. She gave a sigh and searched around on the floor with her foot for her slippers.

“They say that you’re leaving.”

His words cut into Aeryn like a knife. Very slowly, she straightened and looked up at him. The boyÂ’s arms were crossed, and there was an odd rigidity locking his shoulders. His bottle-green eyes were very bright behind his glasses. She drew a deep breath and stared tiredly at her friend.

“Yeah,” she answered finally.

His lips tightened into a thin line.

Aeryn sighed and stood up, sending the second year girls into a flurry of whispers. She walked over to the foot of her bed and kneeled by her trunk. The sooner she started packing, the sooner it would be finished. “I am.”

“Why?” Harry asked between clenched teeth.

She flipped the lid of the trunk open. The interior was a complete disarray of jumbled robes and haphazardly thrown-in textbooks, no longer needed now that classes were over. Aeryn rolled her eyes and disentangled a rose-colored robe from the depths of the trunk. Several textbooks and one crystal phial dropped to the floor in response. “Because.” She gave the robe a shake and began to roughly fold it. “I can’t stay here.”

“Why?”

With a muffled curse, Aeryn plunged her hands into the depths of her trunk and threw everything out across the floor. The second year girls stopped and stared as she extracted a handful of textbooks from the multicolored fabrics and began to stack them in the bottom of her trunk. Flat things first, the malleable items can be shoved into corners if need be. “I just can’t,” she muttered. She heard one of the second year girls whispering confidingly to her friend, and Aeryn’s cheeks flared in response. She tossed her collapsible telescope into the trunk and wedged it between her copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2.

“So you’re running away?”

She bit her lip and looked down at the glossy cover she held. A cheerfully grinning picture of Gilderoy Lockhart beamed up at her from beneath the scrawling words Gadding with Ghouls. She suppressed a shudder.

WonÂ’t be needing these.

With a vicious push, she sent LockhartÂ’s books skidding beneath her bed, one after the other. There was an odd pricking at the back of her eyes, and she blinked, drawing a deep breath. She wondered fleetingly, as she dropped her brass scales into the trunk, whether those books she had so carelessly tossed away would exponentially increase in value now that the author was deceased.

“Is that it, you’re running away?”

“Harry,” Aeryn cried.

The dress she was holding fell from her hands, and she looked up him. The boy had not moved from where he stood, but a sickened look was written across his features. Aeryn exhaled, rubbing her hand against the back of her neck. “You know what they think of me. You’ve seen it.”

He merely stared at her.

She shook her head and turned back to the trunk. “It will only get worse if I stay,” she murmured. She blindly grabbed for A History of Magic and wedged it into her trunk. “I have to leave.”

His shadow fell across her as he stepped to her shoulder. “You can’t leave,” he said tightly. “I won’t let you.”

Aeryn’s shoulders drooped. “Harry, don’t do this to me,” she begged quietly.

“I won’t!” the boy yelled.

As Aeryn looked back up at him in shock, Harry clenched his hands into fists at his sides. His face was screwed up in anger, and his breath was coming in short little bursts as he stared at her. “I’ll go to Dumbledore, tell him that he has to let you stay here, tell him—”

“Harry!” interrupted Aeryn tearfully, holding out a hand. She rose to her >feet and gazed pleadingly at him.

“Please,” she whispered. “Please, Harry, don’t make this harder on me than it has to be.”

Their eyes locked. Then as she watched, the boy’s face crumpled into a mask of misery. “I won’t,” he exclaimed, but the sound was surprisingly like a whimper. His green eyes became vibrant behind his black-rimmed glasses. “I won’t—let you go—”

Harry suddenly launched himself forward and wrapped his arms tightly around AerynÂ’s waist. Then, with a half-sob, he buried his face in her shoulder.

Slowly, Aeryn put her arms around her quivering friend. The second year girls buzzed in the distance behind her, but she ignored them. She closed her eyes and gently stroked HarryÂ’s black hair, his muffled sobs tearing her heart into pieces in her chest.

But there is no other way.

The pain was unbearable behind her eyes, but no relieving tears fell from them. Perhaps, she thought idly, she had no more tears left to cry.

She rested her cheek against his head. “I can’t heal here, Harry,” she murmured over his fading sobs. Reluctantly, she pulled away from him, lifting his chin to look into his eyes. The boy ripped his glasses from his face and gave a loud sniff, wiping a hand across his face. Aeryn tried to smile.

“Someday…maybe someday I can come back.” She looked deep into his glistening eyes, wishing she could make him see what she felt in her heart, that this was the only path she could take if she wanted to preserve the shred of innocence that still lingered in her soul.

She gently stroked her fingers against HarryÂ’s cheek.

“It’s just too soon right now,” she whispered.

Harry sniffed again and wiped his nose on his sleeve. He looked at her, and his lips tightened, and for a moment she was afraid he was going to burst into sobs again. But then his shoulders drooped, and he gave a little sigh.

“It’s not fair,” he mumbled.

Aeryn leaned forward and rested her forehead against his. “I know.”

She drew a deep breath, feeling the warmth of his skin against hers. The whispering of the second year girls had died away, and a warm breeze wafted through the open window, fluttering the skirt of her robe.

Aeryn sadly shook her head and stepped away from Harry. With a sigh, she turned back to her trunk and sank to her knees, her eyes falling over the half-folded robes and the stack of books only partially packed away.

“I need to pack,” she said softly.

With jerky movements, she resumed placing her things in the trunk. After a moment, there was a rustle behind her and footsteps on the stone floor as Harry walked slowly from the dormitory.

* * *

“And so, another year draws to an end,” said Dumbledore, surveying the tables before him like a king regarding his domain. His blue eyes twinkled merrily over his half-moon glasses, and his voice rang joyously through the Great Hall. “And what a year it has been! Hopefully, we have filled your heads with enough knowledge that the ensuing summer holidays will not totally empty them!”

“It’s pretty much the same speech he gave last year,” Ron whispered to Aeryn confidingly. “Fred and George say that’s pretty normal—doesn’t much matter, anyway, all that’s important really is the presentation of the House Cup.”

Aeryn nodded, her eyes wandering around the Great Hall as the headmaster continued his speech. The Great Hall was completely decorated in the scarlet and gold of Gryffindor House. A huge banner emblazoned with the proud Gryffindor lion stretched across the front of the Hall. AerynÂ’s gaze swept across the staff table, regarding the familiar faces. But as her eyes fell upon Professor Snape, sitting pale and quiet in his chair, she made a little noise in her throat and quickly glanced down at the table before her.

An enormous feast of every type of food imaginable weighed down the House tables. She wondered fleetingly when she would again be able to eat so well as she had here at Hogwarts. She snuck a peek at Harry, Ron, and Hermione sitting around her. Their faces were fixed on Dumbledore, their faces very serious in their school blacks and standard-issue hats.

“The moment has arrived for the presentation of the House Cup,” Dumbledore exclaimed. “In fourth place, Ravenclaw, with four hundred thirty-five points. In third, Hufflepuff, with four hundred seventy-seven points.” There was a ripple of applause from the respective tables as their Houses were named.

“In second.” Dumbledore nodded to the Slytherin table. “Slytherin, with four hundred ninety-eight points.”

Polite applause filled the Great Hall as the Slytherins brooded amongst themselves. For the second year in a row, they were not receiving the House Cup, a fact that Aeryn noticed had failed to please almost every single one of them. Malfoy, sitting as usual between his goons Crabbe and Goyle, looked positively heartbroken.

Dumbledore motioned with his hand towards the Gryffindor table. “And in first place, Gryffindor House, with eight hundred fifty-three points.”

All around Aeryn, wild applause and hoots of excitement arose from the pride of Gryffindors. Harry, Ron, and Hermione clapped loudly, grinning at each other, and Aeryn remembered how Dumbledore had awarded them four hundred points for their defeat of the Creature of Slytherin. She grinned at her friends and gave them a thumbs-up.

As the applause died down, Dumbledore held up both his hands for silence. “Before the celebration commences,” he exclaimed as the students hungrily regarded the piles of food before them. “There is one other presentation I would like to deliver.”

A murmur rippled through the Great Hall, and Aeryn and her three friends looked curiously at each other. Dumbledore waited for the confusion to die down, and as he clasped his hands behind his back, waiting to speak, his bearded face was suddenly grave.

“There are some types of strength that cannot be measured in terms of might or power,” he began, and his voice rang clear and strong through the silence of the Great Hall. “And sometimes the bravest of us all is the one who acts, not from courage or duty, but from love.” His blue eyes, now somber, slowly regarded each House table in turn, his gaze lingering over the faces of the students.

“Over this past year I have seen unfathomable bravery and unmatched strength in the depths of one human heart.” A sad smile twitched his lips, and he bowed his head slightly before continuing. “A human heart that, to do what she believed was right, risked—and lost—many things that she once held dear.”

The headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry stretched forward one hand towards the Gryffindor table. His blue gaze caught and held AerynÂ’s face.

“Miss Aeryn Blake, please rise.”

AerynÂ’s heart screeched to a sudden halt in her chest as all eyes turned and rested heavily upon her.

Slowly, with limbs that felt as if they had been carved out of marble, Aeryn rose clumsily to her feet. She was instantly aware of the muttering as the students turned to whisper amongst themselves, but the whispers were swiftly silenced as Dumbledore held up a hand.

Aeryn swallowed hard.

Dumbledore gazed calmly at her, and she read warmth in the depths of his eyes.

“For your courageous deeds in unlocking the riddle of the Chamber of Secrets,” he said, his voice filling the Great Hall, “I am proud to award you with a Special Award for Services to the School.”

There was a moment of stunned hesitation, and then a cordial ripple of applause wafted amongst the tables. Aeryn stood still where she was, feeling a little more than puzzled but slightly pleased. She snuck a look back at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and was not surprised to read something akin to her own emotions on their faces. Harry, especially, looked perturbed, which Aeryn had expected.

“But you and I already got those,” he muttered furiously to Ron, in a voice loud enough for Aeryn to hear him. “I mean…Aeryn deserved one too…but she did….”

“So much more,” finished Ron in an undertone, raising an eyebrow at Aeryn as the applause died back down again.

Aeryn gave a little shrug.

A slow, brilliant smile lit Dumbledore’s face. “And for your spectacular rescue of Mr. Harry Potter, and your aid in saving Professor Severus Snape’s life….”

All the muttering still lingering in the Hall was silenced as if it had been sucked from the air.

The headmaster paused and gave a little chuckle. “Well, to tell you the truth, this is an unprecedented event even for Hogwarts,” he confided, sounding a bit more like his normal self. There was a slight wave of smiles from the teachers sitting at the Great Table.

AerynÂ’s eyes widened.

“Because of the unusual circumstances of your deeds,” Dumbledore continued, “we collaborated with the Ministry of Magic to come up with something suitably appropriate.”

Aeryn looked helplessly over at her friends. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were quietly mouthing comments to one another, their faces confused. Biting her lip, Aeryn cast her glance around the Great Hall. All the students were staring at Dumbledore with looks of pure puzzlement on their faces, but most of the teachers were smiling wisely at one another. She dared not look at Snape.

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at the collective confusion, and he chuckled again, the twinkle in his blue eyes returning. As Aeryn tilted her head to regard him, one of the headmasterÂ’s eyes fluttered shut in a quick wink.

He raised his voice until his words rang resoundingly from the stone parapets. “The Four Founders of Hogwarts built these walls to preserve the values they cherished above all, and the trials that you have endured have proven you to be a student above and beyond their expectations.”

He held out a hand to Aeryn.

“For enduring strength through your unspoken hardships, you have shown the fortitude of a badger….”

At the Hufflepuff table, the students gave a little start, and then turned to stare disbelievingly at Aeryn.

“For unraveling the mysteries of the Berserker’s Mead, you have shown the wisdom of an eagle….”

The Ravenclaws collectively regarded her, but an admiring warmth was in their eyes. Aeryn bit her lip, feeling her cheeks burn in response.

“For uncovering the underlying evil corrupting Hogwarts, you have shown the cunning of a serpent…”

There was a murmur from the Slytherin table, and an uncomfortable shifting as they turned to look at each other, pointedly dropping their gaze from Aeryn. But Aeryn paid no attention to them. Her gaze was riveted to the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

“And for your unbroken spirit through it all,” he said, and in his voice were the bell-clear tones of pride. “You have shown the courage of a lion.”

There was a collective indrawn breath from the Gryffindors around her, and AerynÂ’s heart gave a great leap in her chest as Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked up at her with radiant faces.

At the Great Table, Dumbledore raised both hands, as if preparing to give a blessing.

“Aeryn Blake.”

Aeryn lifted her chin, and was rewarded by a warm smile from Albus Dumbledore.

“I am honored today,” he exclaimed, “to induct you into the newly-created Order of the Founders.”

His words hovered in the air like sparkles of light, and were swiftly absorbed into the stunned silence that descended like a curtain on the Great Hall.

AerynÂ’s breathing sounded very loud in her ears, and her eyes darted to either side of her, concerned at the overpowering stillness about her. Her thoughts were whirling in her head like a flock of confused birds.

Order of the Founders? Is that a good thing?

She dared not look at the faces of the students.

For a long moment, dust could be heard gathering in the corners of the Great Hall.

Then, beside her, Ron Weasley began to clap, slowly and respectfully.

Almost immediately, Harry and Hermione joined him, and the sound echoed joyously through the stone rafters.

One by one, the students of Gryffindor House began applauding, the sound merging into a growing cacophony. From the Great Table the teachers began to clap, and Aeryn stared, amazed, as Professors McGonagall and Sprout wiped away tears from their eyes.

Unbidden, her eyes flickered to the Potions master, and for an instant, their gazes locked. SnapeÂ’s lips flickered in an acknowledging smile, and he graciously bowed his head in her direction.

Like a tongue of fire through a drought-dry forest, the applause swelled through the Great Hall, growing louder and louder, until the sound was almost deafening, and at the Gryffindor table the Weasley twins leapt to their feet, hollering at the top of their voices, and were immediately joined by the Gryffindor Quidditch team—and the rest of Gryffindor House—

And Aeryn gave a small, thankful smile.

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