Stars in Her Eyes {Wolfstar's Daughter}

Chapter 74: Truth Unveiled

"I can't watch her have the life we had"

"We won't let that happen"

"We can't promise that. Look at us, we couldn't even protect her from me"

"Don't say that. She's here and she's safe"

"We need to keep looking"

"We will. We won't stop until we find it"

Nell drifted over that line of consciousness, teetering into the unchartered waters where reality memory and mind all became one. She felt herself floating down a black river, curving and winding with the waters as they rolled over rocks and weeds and worries beneath her. The harsh words of reality jarred up through the surface, scratching her skin as she passed over them, only just drawing enough blood to leave a gentle trail of colour behind her.

She was sure she saw a wolf running alongside her on the river bank, hiding behind the surface of trees. And then a boy dressed in yellow, a woman dressed in pink. They stood tall beside her as dark ferns, reaching high into the sky as she flowed past them. She wanted to reach out, to grab some, to force others away. But all she could do was let the river carry her onwards.

Then, as if the water had been flowing backwards all along, the river reached the base of a waterfall. She began to be pulled upwards with the stream, the water climbing higher and higher, enveloping her body in a liquid harness.

Then water turned reality and a pair of arms laid her down to rest in the safe waters of feather and cotton. She sank slow and heavy to the river bed, her head landing on her pillow.

It was only once she opened her eyes she remembered falling asleep on the sofa with the comfort of her parents watching over her. But with this realisation came rushing back the pain of the boy in yellow that stayed with her always, and the anger of the women in pink, the fear of the wolf and the war and the death and all at once her escape came to an end.

"Pads?" She rubbed her eyes, sitting up slightly as her dad was trying to make as little noise as possible after setting her down on her bed.

"Go back to sleep darling, everything's okay" he whispered, kissing her gently on the head.

She let her eyes close again, rolling over slightly to get comfortable and in doing so letting her hand flop onto her pillow, just in time for the faint red tracing of her own handwriting to catch Sirius' eye before he turned to leave.

The sharp intake of breath he took was enough to bring her crashing back to consciousness faster than she had left in the first place. At once she felt wide awake as she realised what a mistake she had made. Amongst all the chaos of the full moon and past day, she had forgotten to cast a dissillutionment charm on the scar on her hand that the countless detentions with Umbridge had only worsened.

She whipped her hand under herself, keeping her eyes closed in the hope that he hadn't really seen anything and would think she was still asleep.

"What was that?" Sirius said, his previous tone turned cold as stone.

She kept her eyes closed, hoping, praying, he would just leave but knowing far better than that.

"Nell" he said, louder this time, his tone dangerously low.

"What?" She blinked, speaking groggily and trying to play dumb as if she had just woke up. But her heart was beating so loudly in her chest she was almost afraid he would be able to hear it.

"Your hand." He reiterated. "What was that."

"I don't-" she feigned confusion, but he knew his daughter far too well for that to ever work.