Chapter Text
Everything is so bright…
What is that brightness?
Oh… it's the sky. More like the clouds covering the sky. And the eventual small cold touches on her face were… snowflakes, yeah, that was the name. She was starting to remember the names of the most common things.
Slowly, she noticed she was lying down on the cold snowy floor, feeling that ruthless cold crawling inside her skin and muscles. It was not pleasant, of course. The girl also felt something on the back of her head… warm… but quickly turning cold.
Automatically, she raised a hand to touch her nape, but as soon as her hand went up - a cord was around her pulse. She looked at the cord and it was a bit long, also bonded to a… white stick? The girl held it with her other hand and felt the strange texture of the object… it certainly wasn’t wood.
It certainly was not a stick.
Her thoughts were slow, and slowly she started thinking about the situation she was in:
She was laying on the ground, more specifically on the snow. Her body was freezing and the numbness was starting to go away- everything started to hurt. She had a strange object on her hand and… well, she never stopped to see specifically where she was.
The girl slowly rose up and looked around, facing something worse than a battlefield.
Corpses. Lots of corpses, men, women and children… no one was spared, not even the animals. Not even the tents…
The snow fell slowly over the bodies, turning red over the smallest contact with the lifeless silhouettes stirred over the mounts of snow. The fire devoured the tents and children's toys like a toddler eating their favorite snack - without leaving a crumble forgotten.
In a clumsy and slow pacing, the girl walked in a straight line while observing the destruction ahead of her. She wondered what happened to those people, what happened to the animals, and more importantly… Why were there so many cloaked figures standing and scavenging in only one place? Cloaked and masked like death itself when it comes slowly.
The only standing cloaked figure said something in a commanding and deep voice, he seemed to be coordinating the ones who were crouched and looking for something. Unassumingly curious and deprived of whatever survival instinct, the girl walked to the cloaked figures. The standing one heard the steps and quickly armed himself with his wand and turned, pointing the wand above the girl, waiting for a bigger target.
“Woah…” The figure murmured, but the girl could hear the smile under the mask when he said something that sounded like a greeting. He crouched and grabbed her face… She could feel his clawed fingers against her soft cheeks and, despite the roughness of his act, the next words he said carried a sick comforting tone after she let out a painful little sob when his fingers pressed harder. He let go of her face and grabbed her arm, dragging her to the group while exclaiming words that made the cloaked figures look at him and walk to his direction. However, only one remained.
She didn't notice that one before. She should've, because it was on a cart with two big creatures pulling it - black and skeletal equine creatures, with big bat wings and beaks that breathed long puffs of vapor-, trotting towards her and the cloaked group before coming to a stop. Different from the strangers, he had no mask and the dark old cloak did nothing to hide his decrepit and old face. And in his hands, a big and majestic scythe… But it seemed like only the girl could see it and feel scared, because the cloaked strangers didn't flinch nor look at him.
The next words the old man said were the only ones that she understood since she woke up:
“Arabat kaout aon, bugel. Ho touar a zo aet pell, met ho buhez ne echuo ket amañ..”
The girl nodded and a sudden dizziness took over her before she lost consciousness.
….
…
..
“Dihuniñ…”
“Loren?”
Her eyes snapped open, she could feel everything and nothing at the same time: Her heart beating fast, her quick breathing, her burning head and skin… where was she?
As she wondered, Loren snapped her eyes shut as she rubbed her face with her hands. She felt exhausted and destroyed, even though she just woke up from… whatever sleep she was having. “Thank Merlin, you woke up.” The feminine voice spoke again, carrying a heavy tone of relief that would resemble a mother that just witnessed her moribund son coming back to life.
“Mrs. Pomfrey?” Loren mumbled while regaining her environmental awareness, regaining sense, little by little, of where she was and what happened. So, she opened her eyes and looked up at Madam Pomfrey, meeting those same sweet old eyes that found her when she arrived at Hogwarts for the first time. Good old days. “Mrs. Pomfrey, what happened?” Loren asked while looking around. She was lying down on a bed, in some bedchamber that was inside Hogwarts’ property-if you have attentive eyes, you would notice the school’s peculiar furniture.
“ You fell from your steed, Loren. Well, almost…” Madam Pomfrey turned to the nightstand and handed over the thin package that was lying in there for quite the time. “ Your feet got stuck in the stirrup and your mount dragged you to the Prohibited Forest.” Loren thanked her for the package and opened it. It was her bone wand, the only thing she had that could link her to her past. It only had a few scratches… Thank Merlin.
“Well… Is Lorkan okay?” Loren asked, worried while placing her hand on her bandaged head, wincing when feeling the place she touched hurt.
“Yes, untouched.” Madam Pomfrey pulled the blankets over Loren a bit and, with a wave of her wand and a mumble of Aguamenti, she filled the jug and the cup on the nightstand. “Now, you should return to your sleep. Although you are a tough woman, your wounds were… not the best, dear.”
“I understand.” She lied, of course she understood but she wouldn’t rest. Loren had things to do and people to see, important ones even
“Great, I won’t take long but it may be sufficient for a good rest. See you soon, Professor Hawthorn.” Madam Pomfrey walked out of the bedchamber and closed the door, locking it behind her. Loren clicked her tongue when listening to the sound. One would say that she could use Alohomora, but how would you use Alohomora when you can’t cast the simplest spells? She always had that in mind, and it almost limited her life amongst wizards and witches - truly almost.
Loren sat up, but paid a high price for it. The muscles from her back hurt like hell and the bandages around her torso made things difficult to turn around and hang her legs on the edge of the bed. With things done, she waved her bone wand and a spectral beast appeared from thin air. An unicorn, but bigger, with long mane and coat - a winter unicorn. It walked towards Loren, getting close enough for her to lean on him and get up from the bed. The beast helped her to walk towards the window, in the way, Loren glared at the mirror, seeing her eyes glare at herself: round green eyes that resembled the greenest leaves from the Prohibited Forest, the wildest wavy red hair you would see in these corners, and a build that few would hardly describe as delicate or strong - maybe a bit of both. Some would say that her traits were rather uncommon, rare, even.
Loren continued her course to the window and let go of the unicorn, muttering a thank you before she leaned herself against the lower window frame. She opened the window and looked down , concluding that if she missed a step she would fall from a tower 30 meters above the Black Lake - because that would indeed happen. Feeling the need for fresh air and the urge to walk, Loren crawled out of the window and, as if she wasn’t wounded because of a literal horse dragging her for an unknown number of meters - or kilometers, who knows? - climbed up towards the roof. When she reached her destiny, the redhead sat down and winced at her hurting back, almost regretting the decision she made. The vision of her home made her stop the regret:
The students flying in their broomsticks at the Quidditch camp, the Black Lake reflecting the midday sun like a mirror, the birds flying, and the castle imposing all of its ancient glory.
The same glory that adopted her when she needed it most.
“So good to be back at home…”