Chapter 29

"Non-magic people (more commonly known as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times"HP3

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In the morning she needed some time to understand what happened. She was into Tom's arms again after so many nights of loneliness. She couldn't be happier.When she opened her eyes, she saw him watching her. He looked so perfect he looked like a Greek God."How long have you been awake?" She asked stretching herself, just to feel her legs getting intertwined with his in the small bed."A while" he confessed softly "I was enjoying watching you sleep"."Is it something enjoyable?"."It is" he confirmed with a smile, then added "Thank you. For letting me stay here".She inhaled enjoying those precious little things "Thanks to you for wanting to stay"."We shouldn't join the battles of this era".She couldn't read his expression "So we should find a way to go back?"."Or just stay here. Do you really want to stand up and go out there?"."No, I would stay here in your arms forever if you'd allow me" she hugged him, resting her head on his chest, so she could hear his heart beating. His heart was still beating like a human, also after all the mess they had been through."I'm sure I know how to entertain you if you decide to stay here with me" he provoked her kissing her hair "I forgot to tell you thst you're so beautiful also with golden hair".Evelyn swallowed hard "I thought you would enjoy getting the opportunity to kill some more muggles".Her words froze him. She cursed herself for willingly destroying that moment of bliss they had."Let's not talk about it, please" he begged keeping her trapped against his body "I would never trade being back with you like this with anything else"."I don't believe you" she teased him."I can show you, if you..." He tried to move to be on top of her, but she stopped him laughing."Alright, kidding. I'm not sure the people out there wouldn't enjoy hearing us making fun again when it's time for battle"."Then we will make more noise so they leave sooner" he leaned to kiss her and she allowed him to do that, then forced herself to stand up.They got dressed watching each other. They wanted to enjoy that moment as much as the could.

A loud knock broke the enchantment and a voice shouted from behind the door "Guys, get up quickly or you stay here".Evelyn opened the door, coming face to face with a perplexed Godric."We already are ready" she announced."Very well" Gryffindor said simply, glancing between the two students.The wizards were having a quick breakfast and then were ready to march to put the plan into action.The muggle allies joined them.Evelyn stayed close to Tom. They were like visitors who won the possibility to witness something rare."You look better than I imagined" Salazar appeared next to her with grumpy temper "I thought you would have been sleepy"."I'm wide awake" she said feeling nervous."That's impressive. I feel guilty for caring to check what was going on" he said upset "I had doubts on what kind of assault you were victim of"."It was my fault" Tom confessed without shadows of regret, placing himself between them."Of course it was" Salazar hissed shooting a bad glance to the boy "If it wasn't, I would have killed the responsible by now".Tom wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulder in a protective way while Salazar fastened his pace to leave them behind.Evelyn felt deeply embarassed, but she was grateful for not dealing with that alone.

Their group reached a muggle village where the cursed girl was said to be hidden. But the enemy muggles came there before them.The muggles from opposite sides started to argue, until the wizards decided to intervene. A girl was forced out of a hut.She looked younger than thirteen and looked just like an innocent lamb, with red hair and freckled cheeks.She was clearly scared, but when she found herself in the middle of a battle and some wizards attacked the muggles who wanted to use her as weapon, everything changed.Her eyes turned white and her figure started to fade while a dark smoke started to spread. It just confirmed that Evelyn's theory was right.She felt proud of herself, but she couldn't enjoy it. Tom pulled her far from the battle."It's slipping out of control. You must leave. I'm not sure I can protect you from that"."I'm not leaving you!" She complained grabbing his arm, when suddenly the dark smoke made the village explode and muggles and wizards were all running away for their lives."No time for discussing" he cut her off "It's their job, not ours. Run down the hill while they attract that thing upper so they can try to trap it".He placed a hand on her side, where she was keeping his ring safe, while she glanced up to see with horror the sky turning of the color of blood."What about you?"."I'll keep your back safe. Don't worry, I won't be too far" he pushed her to make her run and she obeyed.But soon she felt lost and couldn't see Tom behind her. She kept running until the hill was replaced by a huge lake. Evelyn looked up at the small Hogwarts castle. There weren't far enough to keep the castle safe.The red sky turned dark and Evelyn shivered for the cold wind that accompanied it.She stopped by the bank of the lake, panting and hiding her hands into her pockets. Her fingers touched the ring, so she took it out and observed it. She was used to see the same ring on Salazar's finger. He, who couldn't know that an older version of his ring was turned into something darker than whatever was storming around them.Evelyn was disgusted for how dark that ring became. She wanted to throw it into the lake, so nobody would ever deal with it again.But then she recalled that people died for it. Tom ripped his soul for it. Throwing it away would just make all those sacrifices useless.With tears in her eyes, she closed her fingers around the ring and placed it again in her pocket. She recalled that also the Chamber of Secrets had its price in blood. Myrtle Warren died for a mistake, but her death had been useless. The muggle borns didn't abandon the castle, the Chamber hadn't been destroyed, nothing changed, expect turning Tom darker.Also Myrtle had a troubled past. She was bullied for her being clumsy, but she has magic powers, so she couldn't be pushed away from the school.Evelyn compared her to Lyanne, who was just another victim, another muggle with magic, just another useless death.

She looked back at the hill she just came from and cursed. In front of the dark magic of the Obscurus everyone was scared and ready to kill that innocent girl just to make that battle end. Nobody would care to help that girl instead, in order to turn the Obscurus weaker and make it easier to catch it.Evelyn inhaled deeply and rushed back up the hill, unsure on how to find the Obscurial girl, but she couldn't give up. Otherwise the parasite would hurt someone she cared of.The dark wind was making trees falling. Evelyn had to run trying to skip the big plants that could crush her like an insect.She followed the lights of the spells to find the wizards."Where is Lyanne?" She asked to Rowena."She vanished in the dark wind. We can't fight it back. We have to leave"."No, we need to find the girl"."We can't approach her until the Obscurus is unleashed"."We must give it a try!" Evelyn insisted rushing towards a whirlwind she had spotted."Evelyn, no! Come back!" Rowena's voice vanished in the distance, while Evelyn fought against the strong wind that was able to make her fly away, wand in hand and the other arm in front of her face.She started to call Lyanne, looking totally insane, but she had to try.Some spell gave her a short relief and she turned to see Tom behind her who waved her to step back from the whirlwind and extended his hand to her, but she moved on the opposite direction, taking advantage of his protection spell to approach the whirl."Lyanne! We need your help!" She repeated at the top of her voice, feeling her own voice getting hoarse.Her strenght was running out and she felt about to surrender and fall, when she saw a face in the middle of the dark whirlwind."What are you doing?" Evelyn heard an unreal voice saying."Lyanne, please, help!" Evelyn staggered but before she could lose balance, the wind stopped blowing only against her. She felt protected into an invisible small bubble."I can't, it's stronger than me" Lyanne's inhuman voice whined."Yes, you can, I trust you" Evelyn was barely able to understand what was going on. The wind was screaming around her, giving her a bad headache. She just wanted to surrender and get some sleep."You're a fool" Lyanne said after hesitating.Evelyn chuckled weakly "Yeah, people are used to tell me that. But I know you can help me. You can help all of us"."How? I can't stop it. It's stronger than me!"."It's your magic!" Evelyn snapped "Of course you can control it! I feared it too, that I couldn't control my unusual skill with the color of my hair, but I learned to do it. I feared I couldn't learn advanced magic like non verbal spells and occlumency, and then I mastered them. You just have to believe in yourself, Lyanne. I believe in you. Now you have to do the same".Evelyn extended her free hand towards the whirlwind, bending over her knees for her tiredness.Suddenly she felt a cold hand shyly grabbing hers.She looked up and saw the little red haired girl out of the whirling, that was still turning around them."You did it" Evelyn said smiling.The little girl was shaking "No. We can't get out of this. It won't let me go. We are trapped here"."It can't do anything unless you take control of your power" Evelyn leaned to come face to face with the girl "Lyanne, you are special. We are so blessed to have you. We love you as you are. I'm sorry for the misunderstandings that caused all of this. But be free to be yourself, please. You don't have to do anything else, just be yourself".Evelyn could clearly see the fear, the panic into the girl's widened eyes. She recognized her own old fears, when she was a little girl and was bullied for her weird skill. She knew that loneliness only feed those fears, turning them into something destructive."Do you want to get out of here?" Evelyn said sweetly "Then let's go".She felt it was like a suicide, still she tightened her grip to the girl's hand, who looked panicking, then made them step into the whirlwind.The strong wind could easily take them away, but after some efforts to place her feet on the ground, she felt the whirlwind losing power, while a dark breeze blew against them, struggled and gathered the darkness."You see? You are making it, Lyanne" Evelyn looked at the surprised face of the little girl, seeing finally the positive feelings replacing the negative ones she was used to have.The noise of the wind was then replaced by orders shouted by the wizards who were surrounding them dozens of meters away.The Obscurus became clearly a black orb hovering them.The wizards casted their spells all together, trapping the parasite into a strong cage.Evelyn pulled Lyanne into a hug to protect her from the powerful wind caused by all those spells."You did it. You're incredible" she complimented the girl, who smiled, but when Evelyn released her, she noticed her getting weak."Lyanne? What's wrong?".Lyanne fainted into her arms. Evelyn struggled to keep her up, feeling her own knees surrendering "Lyanne!"."It's alright" Lyanne whispered opening weakly her eyes for a moment "We did it"."Help!" Evelyn shouted panicking, then said softly to the girl "Hold on. You will be alright. We will help you".Lyanne seemed not hearing her.Evelyn stared at her with incredulity. She was about to celebrate their unexpected victory, she didn't expect it to turn into that way."Thank you" Lyanne's lips mimicked trembling, then they turned still.Evelyn gasped, the tears making her vision blurred.She felt hands pulling her away, she couldn't hear nor understand anything. There was only a huge hole into her heart, because she just tasted how sweet that victory was and immediately had to face the fact that it couldn't be a full victory. She believed she could save that tiny muggle born girl first of all. Instead she had to see her dying in her arms.Darkness made her drift away.