Ache No More

September 1, 2166

"Look at me."

Green eyes, consuming his pain with their brightness, absorbing slowly him from inside out as his consciousness obscured. The aching heaviness of limbs was a prison; his body became only the frustrating obstacle between him and the freedom he yearned for. He could feel himself falling inside those pale, welcoming depths. Losing himself....

Ezra woke with a jolt and all he saw before him was a pair of amused green eyes, staring straight into his darker ones. Embarrassed, he clutched his large Charms book to himself, far too aware that it wouldn't serve to hide him from the girl grinning impishly from the seat across from his. Great, his first day at Hogwarts had not even begun and he was already making himself ridiculous.

"Sorry if I shook you," the girl said, sounding anything but sorry, "but I didn't think you'd want to miss our first ride on the Express."

Glancing around, Ezra was relieved to find the compartment empty except for the two of them. He might have dozed off, but at least there was only one spectator to his misfortune. It occurred to him that the girl had said our first ride, not your first ride; she looked as if she might be about his age.

"You're a first year as well?" Ezra asked.

As his pale eyes seem to size her up, she sat up straighter. It was weird, but she felt the intensity of his gaze; it reminded her of dark, bottomless tunnels. Although his scrutiny was not friendly per se, she felt as if it welcomed her after a long absence. Suddenly it felt imperative to gain some sort of approval from this scowling newcomer.

"Yes," she answered, curling her lips in a brighter smile, "I'm Ariel Malfoy."

She extended her hand to him, but his scowl just got deeper, as if there was something about her he couldn't quite make up his mind about. Ariel decided it must be because she didn't look like a Malfoy at all. She hadn't the willowy, ethereal figure of her older sister Selene, nor the regally sharp features of her older brother Darius. Her hair was bright red and curly rather than the trademark straight, silvery blonde. Instead she looked as if her parents had taken her from a streaming cauldron into which someone had poured a drop of blood from every one of her pureblood ancestors: she inherited the Bones' heart-shaped face, the Weasleys' legendary hair and freckles, and the Malfoys' anaemic pallor and eyes. Darius always made a point of teasing her about it.

"Malfoy? Are you related to Scorpius and Rose Malfoy, authors of the biography Severus Snape: The Hero Behind The Legend?"

The expression of greedy enthusiasm on the boy's face was a vivid contrast to the vaguely pompous tone of his voice; it somehow became him.

"They were my great-grandparents," she said eagerly, very pleased when he smiled back, finally accepting her proffered hand. His palm against hers felt almost unnaturally cool, yet the contact was somewhat warming.

"I'm Ezra Ollivander."

"Ollivander? My dad said that family line was extinguished in England when the last one moved to Germany. "

Ariel would never have guess she would think such a thing, but right now she was grateful for all the boring hours spent listening to her uncle and father going on and on about wizarding genealogies. Who knew this ancient rubbish would actually be of use? Besides, to be honest, she would use anything as an excuse to just keep on talking. Getting acquainted with potential new friends wasn't as easy as she'd anticipated.

"Yes, my grandfather went away after marrying a Muggle. He was a Squib, you know. I'm the first wizard in our family."

Ezra sounded so proud that Ariel didn't want to say she knew all about it; her uncle had been intrigued to learn all about the infamous Ollivander's Diaries Of Studies On Wand Making, where the inheritance was left to eventual the next eventual magical spawn that should recur in the bloodline -and to nobody else.

She felt his enthusiasm as if it was her own. While they discussed the book, the train compartment filled up with older students with gloomy faces, who the two new friends were all too happy to ignore. At some point Ariel noticedthat talking with Ezra had suddenly become easy, natural, like remembering something you'd known well but had forgotten. She learned that Ezra admired Severus Snape a lot more than Harry Potter and that reading Snape's biography was what had kept him so enthralled the previous night that he had forgotten to go to sleep. Laughing in disbelief, she assured him that she didn't need to wonder which House he was aiming for.

"Slytherin wouldn't be bad," he admitted, nibbling at his Chocolate Frog, "but if I can choose, my mind is set on Ravenclaw."

"Really?"

"Think of it: Slytherin is the path of self-fulfilment, Gryffindor is the path of self-exultation, Hufflepuff is the path of self-acceptance. Ravenclaw pursues the knowledge that enables you to reach all three. It sounds like a sensible choice."

Somewhere in his words Ariel recognized the echo of a text she had recently read, but that didn't prevent her from being impressed by the adult way he spoke.

"If you've already memorized the author's notes on the epilogue of Hogwarts: A History, I bet you'll get your wish," said Ariel as she wrinkled her nose a bit, disappointed.

The Malfoy family had been sorted into Slytherin for as many generations as the Weasleys had been sorted in Gryffindors; it didn't take a lot of imagination to suppose that her choice would be limited to those two alternatives.

"If you know enough to recognize that quote, we'll probably be housemates," replied Ezra.

Flattered, Ariel took a few moments to imagine herself in Ravenclaw robes, sitting by Ezra in the common room. The mental picture pleased her; it would be nice to put some distance between herself and her overbearing family's history - to be her own person.

"I'd like that."

For some reason, warmth flushed her cheeks as she admitted it. She pulled aside the thick purple drapes to get a better view of the countryside, seeking a distraction from the weird embarrassment. Sunlight seemed to filter in to gently kiss her ruddy head, making her look more earthly, almost fiercely warm.

Ezra observed the odd girl with curiosity; he had never had a real friend before. Kids at the other school always considered him freakish because of his greyish complexion and large, moonlight-coloured eyes. "Little grey owl," they used to call him behind his back. But Ariel seemed determined to act like he was cool, and her appearance was no more common than his. Her eyes, he noticed now in this new light, were not green but gleamed with the unmistakable sheen of silver. Oddly, some fraction of his brain was still irrevocably certain it was supposed to be green and not silver.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seven years later, Ariel accepted his proposal in the same train compartment, laughing giddily in his arms as he explained why the beautiful stone in her engagement ring was an emerald.

THE END

AN - I'm sure A LOT of people will be wondering why I'm ending the story this way (i.e., with a chapter which has almost nothing to do with the previous ones), but since this was meant to be a tale about the distance between two people, it felt right to close it when this gap between is mended.

Also, I admit I'm dying to write my Sev/Lily AU, where I'll be free to expand many scenes that tempted me while I wrote these, without being limited by canon. The deeper I dug into canon, the more I realized the potential for rewriting their history from childhood on. It would be repetitive to exploit the very same themes in both my fics. So if you are interested, stay tuned for 'Lily Evans and the Half-Blood Prince'.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.