You’re my Candle

Next thing Kayda knew, she was sitting in Dumbledore's office with McGonagall, Remus, Oliver and Snape – all waiting for the Headmaster.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Remus whispered to her in the silence.

"I wasn't." She snapped back.

Remus continued talking for a moment, she didn't listen, nor did she respond. Half an hour ago, she'd been explaining to all of them exactly what had happened several days ago, for fear of sounding like a broken record, she didn't part her lips again.

She knew she'd broken the most important rule both her Uncle and Dumbledore had given her two years ago – 'nobody can know' they'd both reminded her. Then again, she'd broken that rule not eight months into her first year.

Oliver was beside her, holding her hand tightly. They'd already spoken about it, minutes after it'd happened, and it didn't go well. Which meant that she wasn't in a very 'talking' mood with him – but he was still the only person she felt like was somewhat on her side.

The door to the circular room opened loudly and Dumbledore walked in with the Minister of Magic directly behind him. Kayda rose from her seat instantly upon seeing him.

He laughed, "sit, child. It's alright, I'm not royalty – you needn't bow."

Slowly, Kayda sat back down. McGonagall stepped closer to Kayda, placing her hand on the girl's shoulder gently.

"Surely, the Ministry has better things to be doing, than...managing a child?" She breathed, her fingers digging into Kayda's shoulder as she grew tense.

"You understand very well that this child is related to our 'other issues', Minerva." The Minister raised his eyebrows at the woman. "We have good reasons to want to keep an eye on Miss Black and I rushed here as soon as I heard a dragon had interrupted a class."

"What do you mean 'good reason'?" Remus stepped forward now.

The Minister sighed, glancing at Dumbledore.

"The Minister and I have discussed the matter at hand already, and we have decided the next course of action." Dumbledore spoke evenly, sitting at his desk and ruffling a few papers which had Kayda's name written all over them. "After speaking in length with both Kayda and Hagrid – we both believe it is about time that Kayda's peers know what their classmate is." The headmaster winked at her. "A situation like this will come as less of a shock if they all know."

Snape cleared his throat loudly. "Headmaster...if I may," Dumbledore nodded, "I don't think that is wise."

"And why is that?" The Minister said, standing up a little straighter.

"I think we all...recall," he glanced back to Remus, "what happened last time you took in a half-breed and its peers discovered him."

"Speak plainly, Severus." Dumbledore didn't raise his eyes from his papers to look at Snape.

"Yes," Remus chuckled, "please, do."

With a glare at Remus, Snape coughed again. "A Fabeldyr is even more dangerous than a Werewolf. Minister, please consider that."

"But a fabel has control." Oliver spoke quickly, taking a step forward towards the Minister. "A werewolf does not. That would make Kayda less dangerous."

Kayda stared up at him, her own voice dying in her throat.

Dumbledore grinned at the boy. "It's good to know somebody listened in the Dark Arts last year. Thank you, Mr Wood."

"This fabel has control?" Snape scoffed, gesturing to Kayda and laughing. Kayda tried to rise from the chair to speak but McGonagall's hand pressed on her shoulder, preventing her.

McGonagall spoke instead, a heavy sigh leaving her lips before she did. "I think we're all forgetting the reason Miss Black had to transform in the first place."

"Yes, that was Hagrid's beast's doing." Snape snapped. "Should be put down as Lucius requested."

"It wasn't!" Kayda said loudly, pushing the chair back as she rose from it suddenly, catching McGonagall off guard, along with herself. "I spoke to Freya – she said Draco provoked the hippogriff and he got slashed because of that." Her eyes were scanning every face in the room as they did the same to her. "Frey was only trying to protect him and all I knew was my best friend was seconds from being impaled!"

There was nothing but silence for a few moments.

"Miss Black, I think we can all agree that what you did was incredibly irresponsible." Dumbledore sighed, adjusting his glasses. There were mutterings in the room, all parties confirming his statement.

"Sir, I–"

He silenced her. "But I think it was brave – which is a quality I'd worried you'd lost in this decade. You saved your friend's life, in the fastest way you knew."

Snape muttered something under his breath, it sounded vaguely like a curse word.

Kayda only stared at the headmaster, part of her wishing she'd done things differently so she could just be laying in the common room listening to Draco whine about how much his numbed arm hurt.

"And I certainly do not doubt that in the same situation," Dumbledore chuckled, "with the same abilities – both your father, and your godfather...would've been reckless enough to have done the same."

It sounded like Remus didn't even dare to breathe. Kayda's jaw had gone slack too, and Oliver's hand held her own when her balance wobbled for a moment.

"This isn't about Sirius Black and James Potter. It's about–" Snape spat, taking a few steps forward – he halted when Dumbledore raised his hand to the man, his eyes still locked with Kayda's.

"Miss Black, I have one condition and you will be allowed to finally stop all this from being a secret."

Kayda remained silent, waiting patiently.

"You must continue to be brave." He smiled, but his tone was serious. "Do what you think is right, Miss Black. Only ever that."

"Your punishment system is a strange one, Professor." Kayda smiled, her chest rising at a more even pace now.

"Indeed." Snape sighed. "As your Head of House, you will have detention with me, for not thinking properly before acting."

She shrugged, glancing at McGonagall when the lady opened her mouth to speak.

"Professor Lupin, I suggest you please conduct a series of classes to educate everyone on what a Fabeldyr is?"

"Yes, Min...McGonagall. I think that would be wise."

"I have to tell you, Miss Black," the Minister stepped forward, his hands clenched together at his chest, "your every move, breath and word are being closely watched."

Oliver squeezed Kayda's hand tightly, her head turned in his direction but her eyes stayed locked with the minister's.

"Especially after this outburst." He continued. "Consider this your...first warning, perhaps. Anything else and the Ministry will have no choice but to detain you until certain situations have been resolved."

"Detain?!" McGonagall gasped. "For whatever reason?"

He sighed loudly, ignoring her, "is that all, Dumbledore?" The Minister asked. "As Minerva pointed out earlier; I have important matters to get back to."

Dumbledore nodded and without another look to anybody else in the room, the Minister of Magic left.

Nobody spoke, nobody even moved.

Kayda was the first to part her lips, but the words that left it would've disappeared under even a light breeze.

"He thinks I'm helping my father. Doesn't he?"

Dumbledore sighed, taking his glasses off slowly. "Yes, he does."

─ « ⋅ » ─

She sat on the crimson sofa with a knitted blanket thrown over her legs to keep the winter cold from biting her up in the high tower. The pages of the book in her hands being turned and the crackling of the fireplace were some of the only sounds in the circular common room that evening – until a very loud and joyous pair came crashing through the portrait hole on the far wall.

"Mousetrap!" The taller one called to her, his arm wrapped around his brother. "You're not gonna believe what Snivillus said to us just now."

Kayda sighed, rolling her eyes and leaning over the back of the sofa to look at James and Sirius laughing with their hands on their stomachs.

"Try me, Prongs." She lifted her arm over the large cushion between them as he came stumbling over, almost appearing drunk.

"Right, ok," he fell to his knees, leaning on the sofa with Sirius right behind him, "he went–" James descended further onto the floor wheezing uncontrollably, Sirius collapsing right after him.

"Where's Moony?" Sirius cackled, standing up and putting his hand on Kayda's shoulder to take her attention from the, still laughing, James.

Kayda shrugged, "upstairs with Pete, I think. Why?"

"I need to tell him." Sirius smiled, glancing down at her before jogging up the stairs.

She laughed, shaking her head and leaning back into the cushions on the sofa again. "You haven't even told me, idiot."

"I'll come back for you!" He shouted down the stairs, his voice muffled and barely carrying to her ears.

Attempting to read with James' wheezing laughter right behind the sofa she was sitting on was impossible.

"Right," she threw her book down and leant fully over the sofa to look down at the boy behind it, "c'mon Prongs, get up now." She laughed with him, unable to resist.

Her hands reached out to him, and his gripped hold of them. His weight followed, almost yanking her off the sofa and onto the floor with him – but then he was on his feet, his hands on either side of her face.

"He has been there the whole time – the man at my door on the Hallow's night." James whispered, his eyes blurring by how fast they were dashing around the room. The hold he had on her face grew tighter with every repeated word he whispered to her. "The form he is yet to take in this memory, is the one he has been hiding in."

"James..." She croaked, trying her best to pull away from him. "Stop it, you're scaring me."

He didn't stop, he pulled her closer to him. His voice was strained, as if the words weren't meant to be spoken at all.

"Needn't find him...he won't do harm," his irises had disappeared – all that was left was the white, "but revenge, for some, must be had."

"James!" She cried, her heart racing. "Stop it, James! Please." Shouting louder only seemed to tighten his grip on her face. "SIRIUS!" She yelled, hoping he'd come running back down the stairs and knock some sense into the version of James she no longer recognised.

"Yes. Sirius. Find Sirius." His voice wasn't human anymore, it wasn't even close. It repeated the last two words over and over again.

She was sobbing, her nails digging into the backs of his hands in a desperate attempt to get them off her.

"Find Sirius...find Sirius...find–"

"OW!" A female voice shouted. "I'm tryna help you, dumb bitch."

James' mouth stopped moving. Kayda blinked and Freya was above her, pale blonde hair pouring over her shoulders and brushing against Kayda's jaw.

"Thank Merlin," she sighed, her chest heaving as her hands fell from the sides of Kayda's face, "it's about time too."

As she looked around the room, blinking hard, she noticed Daphne and Pansy stood a few paces from Kayda's bed and Freya rubbing the backs of her hands.

"Find Sirius?" Kayda muttered to herself, her eyes dashing around the room, past the girls surrounding her.

"Black?" Daphne stepped forward. "What'd you say?"

"Hm?" Kayda locked onto the girl's face. "Nothing, I didn't say any–" Her voice trailed off into heavy breaths.

Pansy swallowed loudly. "Should we speak to Pomfrey? They're getting more frequent. Aren't they?"

"Yeah, that's the fifth one this week." Freya shook her head at Kayda as the girl was still taking in her surroundings.

"I'm sorry, Frey – about your hand." Kayda sat up suddenly as Freya rose to her feet, hands still rubbing the four bleeding cuts down the backs of them.

Freya just shook her head again. "It's ok, Black."

─ « ⋅ » ─

The girls didn't speak much on the way to their third class that day, it was pitiful small talk so Kayda refused to get involved with it – there was also still a low tension between Kayda and the rest of them. It was thawing slowly.

"I wonder what Professor Lupin has planned for today's lesson." Daphne smiled, trying her best to get the zoning out Kayda to speak to them.

"Fabeldyrs." She responded, her eyes narrowed to see only the few feet in front of her.

"Fabey-whats?" Pansy chuckled.

Freya stared at Kayda, her words quiet under her breath, "dragon shape-shifters."

Kayda nodded, and she said nothing else until they were sitting in Remus' classroom and he came over to her desk.

He knelt down when her eyes failed to lift and meet his own. "Sweetheart," he whispered, "are you alright?"

"She had a nightmare." Daphne shrugged, her lips forming a tight line after responding in Kayda's silence.

Freya sniffed, leaning forward to speak to Remus directly. "If they're bad; she'll be like this for the next few hours."

Remus tutted, inhaling and putting his hand on top of Kayda's own gently. "Do you know what it was?" He spoke to the girls around them but only looked at Kayda.

Freya shook her head, "she did mention her dad though, and someone called James."

Kayda's eyes closed, her hand pulling away from Remus' and hiding in her pocket. Her Uncle rose to his feet as more students piled into the room, giving one last sympathy filled look to Kayda.

Draco entered loudly and immediately fell down into the chair in front of Pansy and Daphne with Theo at his side, who smiled at Freya as he sat down himself. Blaise yawned widely when he sat down beside a Slytherin girl Kayda didn't bother to try and recognise.

"How's your arm, Draco?" Pansy practically leant over her desk and tilted her head at the boy in front of her. "Does it hurt much?"

Draco sighed fakely, staring down at his bandaged arm and nodding. "It does. Pomfrey said I could've lost my arm."

"That's awful!" Pansy gasped, her hand clutching her chest.

The second she looked at Daphne to see how the girl beside her reacted, Draco winked at Theo. The boy rolled his eyes and leant back on his chair to speak through Daphne and Pansy's conversation to Freya.

Without anyone to lay his injury on, Draco found staring at Kayda to be the best way to spend his time. She saw his eyes, narrowing more with every second, but didn't speak to him like he so desperately wanted her too.

"What's up with Black?" He muttered to Pansy, his bandaged arm propping himself up on her table. "Did the Gryffindor asshole dump her, or something?" He laughed cruelly. Theo hit Draco's undamaged arm, leaning closer to the blond boy's ear and whispering.

Pansy glanced back at Kayda, who'd shrunk further into her chair.

"She's fine," Daphne smiled, "or, will be."