Seeing a Stranger

Chapter 7

Aridan d'Berwyn stood in the gardens of her Aunt Arsinoe's castle, staring off into the dark oblivion. It had been years since she was a child, spending her summer holidays here, where her mother though her safe from Voldemort, laughing and chasing her friends around the vast gardens, and during her last years at Hogwarts, stealing kisses from her love behind the massive oak tree planted in the center. She wondered at the changes that had occurred over the years: her friends, all dead or dying inside, and she, left to pick up the broken pieces of her life and shield her daughter from a truth which would destroy her. I was right in not telling her, she thought. Eranne has enough to deal with, without this. Her daughter was the light in the darkness of her world, and for thirteen years she had clung to that light, afraid that she would go mad with grief otherwise. All the decisions she had made in those years were to protect her daughter, all the pleading, and the bribing to keep the truth hidden was madness. But it was necessary madness.

Aridan leaned up against the oak tree and could almost hear his voice, a voice she had not heard in thirteen years...

"What do you think is going to happen?"

"I don't know, Aridan. They say this Dark Lord is even more powerful than - - oh, what's-his-name?"

"Grindewald. Honestly, don't you pay any attention in class?"

"Nope. I'm too busy staring at your beautiful face. Anyway, we only have a few months before graduation, and I don't think it is going to help to start paying attention to History of Magic now..."

"What do you want to do after graduation?"

"Don't know, really. Haven't thought about it really. Do you think that I would make a good Auror?"

"You have been thinking about it, then. You were always such a horrible liar. You just wanted me to tell you that you would do a good job with it!"

"Are you going to?"

"I think you know what my answer is - you'll do a wonderful job with whatever you decide to do. I wish - I wish things didn't have to change, I feel like I want to stay in school forever, never grow up..."

"Who told you that you ever had to grow up?"

"We can't act like children forever, you know. The world is growing dark out there, and no amount of joking will stop it from happening."

"That's exactly why we need to keep laughing and joking! You're right, the world is going to be very scary when we leave the castle, but we can't hide behind that. We have to live each moment with laughter - or else Voldemort's already won. Laughter and love and hope - we can never loose them, Aridan."

"Was that a confession, finally?"

"What?"

"Are you saying that you are in love with me?"

"What would you do if I said yes?"

"Tell you that it took you long enough!"

"Maybe it did, but I wanted to be sure - I'm not so good with the ladies after all. They all seem to break my heart."

"Well, you went through enough, to be sure. I'm also sure that you broke their hearts. I told you earlier that you were never a good liar."

"It wasn't a lie, it was a joke! Aridan, I did break their hearts, and now I realize why. I didn't know it then, but something was always in my way - you. It's always been you, from the moment I saw you when we were eleven. I couldn't live without you with me. I waited to tell you because I wanted to make sure that you felt the same."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't want to make a fool of myself when I asked you to marry me."

"What did you say?"

"Man, I wanted to do this right, Aridan - I love you and will never love anyone else like this. I want to spend forever with you - I want to marry you, if you'll have me..."

"Forever doesn't seem like long enough, when I look into your eyes. How could I say no? I love you, and I always will - shall we be each other's laughter and hope as well then?"

"So, you're going to make a joke of my feelings now?"

"No, but it's hilarious to find that even you can't take one, once and awhile..."

"Good one, Aridan."

"Thank you, Sirius."

Aridan shook her head free of the unwanted memories, and wiped the tears from her eyes. Tears came so easily to her now; she had wept for so many people, and the wreck of so many lives. Lily had been Aridan's best friend at Hogwarts, balancing Aridan's wit with her kindness and compassion. The two were as inseparable as the two men that they loved. Ironic, really, that two best friends should fall in love with two other best friends - it had been Lily that fell first for the black-haired Quidditch heartthrob James Potter, and had soon introduced her to Sirius Black. She knew him before, but only by reputation, of which he had a substantial one. He had been the one that countered her sarcastic comments with those of his own; he who had volunteered to stay with her at the castle during the holidays before she came to her Aunt's; and he who had been at her side when her mother died.

And I didn't even really know him, she thought. And the daughter borne from that love had grown up fatherless, and living a lie that her mother had created to protect her.

Aridan touched the necklace at her neck - a blue and white stone, resembling the sky surrounded by a silver mounting of flowers - her husband's last anniversary present to her before, well, she didn't like to think of what happened.

"Sirius..." she whispered into the darkness, "why?"

It wasn't as if Eranne was ever uncomfortable around her family. However, tonight at the dinner table, she could feel a definite tension within the room. Her grandfather was animatedly talking with his sister, her Great Aunt, but her mother was silent, and only picking at her food.

"Mother, are you alright?"

"What? Oh, yes, dear. I'm fine. Just remembering staying here during my old school days, during the First War. As we get older, it seems, we begin to live through our memories more and more."

"If one lives that way, my daughter, one cannot see the present as clearly," Eranne's grandfather chided.

"Sometimes the present is harder to want to see than the past."

"Aridan, please. All this prophetic talk! I didn't invite you here to reminisce; I invited you, your father, and Eranne here to have a nice family holiday, don't spoil it."

"I'm sorry, Aunt."

Arsinoe laughed richly, "You are forgiven, child. Now, Eranne, how did the rest of your term go?"

"Fine, thank you for asking. Once classes started and all, it felt as though I had never been away."

"What do you mean, the rest of the term?" her mother questioned.

"Well, mother, I..."

"I went to visit Eranne earlier this term, when she was..."

"It happened again, didn't it? Why didn't you tell me, Eranne?"

"I thought you would bring me home, mother! I didn't want you to worry!"

"Worry! I have been sick with worry since you got onto the train in September! The least you could have done was written! Why did none of the professors write to tell me what was going on! Dumbledore will have words from me now, that is sure!"

"Aridan, hush," Arsinoe began. "I requested that they not write you, because I feared that indeed, you would take your daughter out of school. I felt her slip, and went to the school at once, to help. She experienced a Jump, which happens only when a Searcher comes into close proximity to someone that she is connected with in some way - they jump into the other's mind. I never prepared Eranne for this because, honestly, I didn't think that it would ever happen. It's very rare, and I haven't Jumped myself since your mother died. It generally only happens when there is a great need..."

"What happened?" Aridan snapped, eyes wide with anger.

"I was walking back to Gryffindor Tower with Percy and Oliver after the Halloween Feast. Something had ripped the Fat Lady's portrait to shreds. I don't remember much else, only that I felt like I was dreaming for some time, and a man was laughing, and there was fire..."

"Who do they think did this?" Eranne's grandfather asked, with growing fear on his face.

"They think," Arsinoe began, "that it was Sirius Black."

"What!" Aridan screamed, rising from the table. "I told you all that this would happen! He's destroyed my family, and now he's come back to finish off his godson, the daughter of my nest friend, and after that he'll come after my daughter! Eranne, you are not leaving this house until that man is caught! I will speak to Dumbledore in the morning...this has to stop!"

"Aridan -" her father began.

"I will not hear another word about it!"

"Eranne, darling, why don't you and I take a walk out in the garden," her Great Aunt suggested. But Eranne was seething with anger.

"Do you know how long it took me, mother, to ignore all the stares from the other students? I felt like holes were being drilled into me with their eyes! Everyone knows what I am, and just now they are beginning to accept me for it - no, I am going back to school, back to my friends, and I am going to finish my education, and I don't care if Black drags me off into the forest and slashes my throat! If I stay here - he's already won, because I will be as good as dead anyway!"

Arsinoe grabbed her great-neice's arm, and pulled her back from approaching her mother. It was times like these, Arsinoe thought, that the girl resembled her father completely. However, whilst the Black temper was legendary, the d'Berwyn temper was far worse.

"Eranne, child, come with me. No, no arguments, dear."

Eranne allowed herself to be pulled out of the dining room, her eyes never leaving her mother's. When she had been pulled into the sitting room, her great aunt finally released her.

"Your temper, my child, gets the better of you too often."

"I know - but I can't do it, Aunt. I can't stay here, away from my friends, and my life. I wish I was normal - just a normal seventeen year-old witch, excited about graduating and starting work. Why do I have to be different?"

"Child, I never said that your path was going to be easy, even without all this Black nonsense. Searchers are rare for a reason - it takes great presence of mind to be one. Many centuries ago, there were many Searchers, and great schools for them to go and learn about their abilities. They all died off, one by one, and were not replaced because there wasn't anyone among the ancient families strong enough to carry the burden. We, the d'Berwyns, survived because we were strong. You have the ancient strength in you, as I do, and as your grandmother did. Use it now - the world is growing dark again, and there will be enough trials ahead of you. Don't waste your anger. Your mother doesn't want to hurt you; she wants to protect you, and she knows no other way. You will understand, one day. I will speak to her, if you wish it: she will listen to me, and if you truly wish to go back to Hogwarts, having considered the danger there, I am quite sure that she wont prevent you. Is that enough?"

"Yes, Aunt."

"Good. Now, I received an invitation from Arthur and Molly Weasley today; they want you to come and stay with them for a time. I contacted them earlier, and told them that you would be coming by Floo this evening. Why don't you go for a few days, cool your temper, and when you come back, everything work itself out."

"You're going to let me go, with all that Mother said?"

"I am indeed, and what is more, I want you to go - you are right, you do need to keep on living through all of this. Your mother knows that too, I think. But she's scared child, scared of her past and the effect it will have on you."

"What is everyone not telling me? The professors, you, mother, and grandfather have been hiding something from me since this whole thing started over the summer! What is it?"

"Child, the answers that you seek will be revealed to you in due time. You need to exercise more patience." Eranne knew that the conversation was over with that, and bowed her head. Her great aunt placed a hand on her shoulder, and continued,

"Now, go pack some of your things, you can stay for two days, but I am expecting you home for Christmas. I have quite the gift for you this year!"

Eranne raised her head and smiled. "Thank you," she said, "thank you for everything."

"Go now, child. You don't want to keep the Weasley's waiting!"

And Arsinoe watched the young Searcher run quickly from the room, her silvery-lavendar robes trailing behind her, matching her long dark hair and tall stature, wondering if it really was such a good idea to keep the truth from such a girl.