Chapter 1
Chapter 1: A New Start.
It was very noticeable that when you stepped in those doors to the massive room, everyone’s eyes instantly settled on me. You were the freak of them all. A Riddle, the child of the enemy. You tried to walk down that pathway with confidence about myself, but it was useless, every table was uttering and whispering amongst themselves, the Ravenclaws, the Hufflepuffs and the Gryffindors, even the Slytherins were making a big deal out of this. You noticed that one pair of eyes were not as harsh, they were a soft blue, you had seen these eyes before. You noticed them at your father’s meetings at his friend’s house, though they had never laid upon me. This boy’s face was different from the others as well, he wasn’t sneering or giving me a displeased look like everyone else. He seems interested and kind. You felt a soft, comfortable feeling drawing me to him, but you didn’t know this boy, You’ve seen him, but never spoken to him, I didn’t even know his name. you glanced at him and he smiled. “Today is an unusual day, we are welcoming a new student as I announced yesterday,” The gentle old wizard had stepped up onto his golden plinth. Beneath it was where a golden owl statue stood, it magically spread its wings to support the speech Albus Dumbledore had prepared. “Although she is a Riddle, we have no right to treat her any differently to any other student of our school.” You stood before him, his eyes welcoming. The aged female professor standing next to him had taken out a stool and she carried a battered worn hat. “Now, Ms Riddle, please would you care to sit upon the stool where you then be sorted into your house.” You nervously walked up the small set of stairs and turned to face the horrified crowd. You sat upon the stool, hands in your lap. Professor McGonagall places the hat on your head. “Well,” the hat shouted, it made you jump out of your skin, “I see, yes, lots of high potential in your head dear, great academic potential and you also have an excellent deal about getting yourself heard and convincing yourself to be something different to your father, eh?”
“Yes,” you spoke softly, your voice ringing like church bells through the room. “Please, please be Slytherin,” you murmured to yourself. The sorting hat must’ve overheard, for it roared out, “Better be…… Slytherin!!” You looked up and smiled. The boy that noticed you earlier beckoned you over, he budged up for you to sit next to him. As you sat, he stuck his hand out for you to shake, you took it, “Hi, I’m Malfoy, Draco Malfoy,” he smiled, as you two shook hands, there was a sort of electric feeling in your fingertips. His eyes widened as you gazed into them. “I’m Arabelle Riddle.” You blushed, but not enough for him to notice though. “Nice to meet you, would you like me to show you around?” He took away his hand.
“That would be very friendly.”
“So, what is it like being the daughter of the most powerful dark wizard in the world.”
“Not much different to the average family, just I have to follow him to conferences, but he won’t let me join them.”
“Oh? Where have you been for these conferences?”
“Mostly some huge house in Wiltshire, it’s beautiful. I’d love to live there.”
“Yeah,” he said, knowing that’s where he lived, “Who wouldn’t?”
“Not many wouldn’t, I have seen you in these meetings before, why is that?”
“Oh, you have?”
“Yeah,”
“My father, Lucius is forcing me to become one of his followers,” he says trying to avoid being overheard by the fellow Slytherins sitting around him. He suddenly looks quite dispirited.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“I guess, just not feeling myself,” he says as he puts his head in his hands with that look of despair. You suddenly felt bad for Draco. He appeared too perfect to be one of the Death Eaters.
After the feast, you and Draco are walking around, he was showing you all the classrooms and common rooms, he still seemed extremely sad about the thing earlier. “You know what, perhaps you could come to my room later this evening and we can talk about it?” You say, offering him the opportunity to open up.
“I’d like that. I’d like that very much.”
“Great, there will be some food and refreshments, any preferences?”
“I very much like dark chocolate and orange cookies with hot chocolate, but don’t outdo yourself just for me, okay? No need to do anything special.”
“It’s fine, I like doing things for people. It makes me feel better about myself when I give, unlike my father who always takes everything he wants,” you say smiling at him, your heart felt like it was soaring. You realised you were falling for Draco Malfoy. You rested your hand on his shoulder, “Stay safe, Malfoy, I have Transfiguration now, and you have Defence Against the Dark Arts, see you later.” You blushed harder this time. You removed your hand from where it lay. Draco smiled at you, “See you later, Arabelle.” You each turned to walk away to your class when you ran into a tall boy, brown hair, his uniform was yellow and his tie was striped with black, a Hufflepuff. When you ran into him, you dropped all of your books. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there,” he said, he looked down at your books and swooped to pick them up, “Here you go,” he passed them to you. “I’m Cedric, by the way, Cedric Diggory.”
“Arabelle Riddle,”
“Oh, so you're the evil freak everyone’s talking about huh?” He then proceeded to slap the books he just picked up for you back to the ground. “You deserve to burn like your father.” You felt tears fill your eyes as he continued to rant on how evil and twisted you were, until all of a sudden, “What do you want Diggory?!” Without you noticing, Draco had heard Cedric shouting from across the hallways, “What is wrong with you?” he yelled
“Just giving the freak what she deserves,”
“She isn’t as bad as Voldemort,” he protested, taking your hand in his own. “Once you get to understand her,”
“Oh look, it’s Malfoy consorting with the enemy! Typical,” Cedric yelled, everyone from Potions to D.A.D.A had heard Cedric yelling and they stormed down to where you, Draco and Cedric were arguing. They all started jeering at you, calling you a traitor and some demoness from hell. Your tears started to overflow from your eyes, they were now streaming from your eyes like little rivers. Draco had put his arms around you to protect you, but you tore away from his embrace and ran down the hall, towards the first set of steps you could find. He rushed after you, “Leave me alone, Draco!” you yelled back at him. You kept dashing up those stairs, realising where you were running to. The Astronomy Tower. ‘Brilliant, just the place I need for this,’ you thought. You could hear Draco constantly getting closer. As you reached the top of the stairs, you dash to the railing, peering over the edge, “Don’t!” Draco screamed from the top of the stairs. “You can’t do this just because of them!”
“I have to, they are going to do it no matter what I say or do.” Let's just remember that it is midwinter when you arrived at Hogwarts this morning, so the unrailed edge of the tower was extremely icy and covered in a white blanket of slippery snow. Draco took a step closer towards you, and you took a step closer to the edge. There was a massive clambering sound coming from the stairs behind him, “Draco, I have to!”
“No, you don’t! Just take my hand and we’ll apparate somewhere other than this,” He stuck out his hand for you to take. You looked at your options, you peered over the edge on which you stood, the fall was long, enough to kill you. Or you could take Draco’s hand and run away together. You stood thinking for a while, long enough for the rest of the crowd that had followed Draco to the top of the stairs. You tried to step forward to take his hand, but a huge gust of wind whipped around the tower, forcing you backwards, the ice became slippery under your feet. You fell. “NO!” Draco cried out rushing to the edge, falling to his knees as he watched you fall, his heart tearing in half, he tried to go back to run down the stairs, but the crowd was too dense for him to barge through. Chapter 2: Awakening
You closed your eyes waiting for impact, but it didn’t happen, someone caught you. Where it was once a night, it was now a bright day, the sun beaming down, through the white fluffy clouds. You felt like passing out when you looked down to find you were flying above the roads of a city. You glanced up to see who had caught you, it was a thing, it was blue, red and black, it had one arm around you and one hand gripping onto what looked like a spider’s webbing. The thing was getting lower and lower to the ground, it placed you down on a large patch of grass gently before swinging another circle and landing next to you. It had the body of a human, it looked almost human, this humanoid creature brought their hand up to the top of their head and grabbed something, pulling off what now looked like a mask, which it was. It revealed the face of a young boy, about your age. Short, curly brown hair, brown eyes. “Hey, are you alright?” He said, he wasn’t British at all, he sounded like a city boy from New York. “Yeah, I’m fine, I guess,” You tried to stand but it immediately made you feel dizzy. “Hey, stay still, I’m gonna call, Mr Stark.” You sat up, arms around your knees, who was this boy? Who was this Mr Stark? You started crying, you were just separated from the only one who understood you and now you had no idea where you were or who you were with. You heard him talking to someone, “Yeah, Mr Stark, she just fell from the sky, I caught her yes, she seems disoriented, yeah I know she just fell over 100 feet, but she keeps rambling on about some Draco person.” he nods, “Could you just come to look please?” he says, “Thanks Mr Stark, appreciated, bye.” He turns back to you, he sees you crying into your knees, “Oh no, don’t cry, don’t cry, what’s wrong?” the boy asked, reassuring you by stroking your shoulder calmly.
“W-w-where a-am I?” you stuttered, moving away from his touch, he moved his hand. He didn’t seem to want to hurt you. “You're in Central Park, New York City? You didn’t know?” he said, as you shook your head, definitely a New York citizen. “Oh, okay, umm, really odd but do you know what planet you are on?” You nod your head and give him a look as if he was stupid.
“Planet Earth?”
“Good, right, how many fingers am I holding up?” He puts up 4 fingers on his right hand.
“F-f-four,” you say. He seemed to sigh in relief, he smiled at me, his teeth a flawless white. “Who a-a-are you?”
“Oh, umm, I’m Peter, Peter Parker, and you are?” he stuck out his hand for you like Draco did when you first met him. You hesitantly took his hand and shook it. “I’m…” But before you could answer, a sound of roaring engines blared over you, dust started to fly up in the air. Now, instead of an insect-like thing, a man that was completely made of iron was landing in front of you. “Nice job, kid,” he said, not robotic at all, but definitely on a modulator. “Thank you, Mr Stark,” You started to crawl backwards in fear, who was this, Stark? He walked towards you and knelt, “Hey, you alright, kid?” You kept moving away from him, too scared that he would hurt you as they did back at Hogwarts. “Uh, Mr Stark, your helmet may be scaring her,” Peter suggested. He raised his eyebrows at this ‘Mr Stark’. The man looked back at Peter, “oh, right,” He tapped two steel-wrapped fingers on his right ear, his helmet dissolved around his face, revealing a somewhat normal, middle-aged American man. “Hey, I am Tony Stark, this is Peter Parker, the guy who just caught you from midair,” he says pointing at the waving Peter behind him, “I was just wondering, what do you remember before you got rescued by Spiderboy here?” Peter gave a frustrated grumble, “It’s Spiderman, Mr Stark.” he says clearing his throat with his closed fist over his mouth. “Oh yeah, right, but do you remember?” His hand rubbing over his scraggly goatee,
“W-w-well, all I can truly remember is falling off the tower,”
“What tower? Where is this tower you speak of?” he questions,
“I-it’s or was at Hogwarts, my school that I had just been moved to by my father, V-v... Tom Riddle,”
“Hogwarts, okay? Did you say anything about your name to the kid here?”
“She didn’t get the chance to say anything to me because you just got here,” Peter pointed out, Stark turned around to face him, “She was too frightened to talk at all.”
“Right, kid, but umm,” he turned back to you, “Are you sure you aren’t making any of this up, you sure you know what you are talking about, right?” You nod slowly, unsure of what you believed to be a reality, but they found to be some legend, some, some novel or fiction that for some bizarre reason they didn’t understand. “Are you sure you didn’t hit your head on that fall from what you seem to call the Astronomy Tower of the castle of Hogwarts?”
“Yes, I am sure, I don’t know whether I am dead or whether I was dreaming and just woke up from some massive coma.” He sighed deeply and shook his head, believing that he was dreaming. He turned to Peter and signalled for him to come over. He then stood and turned to face him, “I’m gonna take her back to the compound, get the others to see what they can get out of her.” He then turned back to you and began to relay instructions, but you honestly weren’t paying attention to him, he could also probably tell because you had started to shake uncontrollably, you stared at Peter who had just noticed, “help” you whispered just as you fainted, hitting your head on the ground. Peter ran to your side, he picked your unconscious body which Stark had yet to notice. “Mr Stark! A little help?” He yelled, nodding to you. He suddenly ran to your side, he picked you up from Peter’s arms and put his helmet back around his face. “Will she be alright, Mr Stark?” Peter asked with a look of major anxiety on his face.
“Hopefully,” Stark answered, he made sure you were all secure, “F.R.I.D.A.Y?”
“Yes, sir?” a female robotic voice replied.
“Run vital scans on this young girl for me here,” he said running a hand over your face,
“Vitals are inaccurate, her heart rate is steady but beating quite fast, sir. Her temperature isn’t stable at all. Best to get her to the medical room as soon as possible.”
“On it.” He said, he engaged his thrusters and shot up in the sky like a bullet, leaving Parker just standing there, he snapped back to whatever reality this was. He slipped his mask back on and swung along to catch up with Stark. All of this happened while you were dreaming, or were you?
Chapter 3: The Return
You woke up, you were in the Slytherin common room, laying on the sofa, a soft woollen blanket over your legs. There was a human figure in front of you kneeling by the fireplace. It was a boy; he had medium length platinum hair; he was facing the fire, he was sobbing softly. You stood up behind him and knelt beside him, you placed your hand on his shoulder. He gasped and looked up, he slowly turned his gaze to fix on your face and your eyes. “Arabelle!” It was Draco, he spun around so fast and wrapped his arms around you, crying onto your shoulder, “I thought I’d lost you, Arabelle,” he said whimpering and tightening his embrace.
You lifted your arms to hug him back, you started to weep as well. You were finally reunited with your closest and most understanding friend.
“I thought you were dead, I saw you fall! How are you alive?” He said, pulling back and staring into your amber eyes. His silver eyes were red and teary from crying onto your shoulder, so much.
“I don’t know,” you say, laughing slightly as he tucked loose hair behind your ear, he just gazed into your eyes, smiling slightly. His hand came to rest upon your cheek, you rubbed against it affectionately, his eyes fell to your lips, then back to your eyes. You blushed slightly, luckily the light in the room was too dim for him to notice. His eyes dropped again, toying with your emotions, you desperately wanted to kiss him, but you couldn’t risk losing a friend like this. He lowered his hand, the situation immediately becoming quite awkward, he looked away quickly. You were still looking at him, curious, not about how you came back, but what was going on inside his head. He inched closer to you slightly, you noticed this. He then brought up both his hands onto your shoulders, stood upon his knees and kissed your forehead. You suddenly felt bad for not kissing him at that moment. You placed your hand on his cheek, he immediately turned back to look at you. You smiled into his eyes once more before he gazed down at your mouth again, as you did his. You both looked up at the same time before he started to lean in. You closed your eyes and waited. He looked at your face once more, realising how much you meant to him. He then closed his eyes and pressed his lips against yours, bringing his hand up to lovingly caress your face. You kissed him back, he sighed into the kiss as if he was relieved you felt the same as he. He pulled back to look at you in the eyes for a moment, before leaping back into the kiss, pressing his mouth against yours with slightly more pressure than last time. You brushed your hand away from his face and through his hair. “Draco?” you said, pulling away and gazing at him, “Are you real? Or am I in a dream?”
“What would make you think that, Arabelle? I am real, I am here.” He kisses you again, hungry almost. He began to try and slide his tongue into your mouth. You pulled back.
“Oh, nothing, I just thought…” Your voice trailed off as you heard Pansy and Blaise approaching the two of you. Draco goes to kiss you again but you press a finger to his lips. You suddenly feel faint again, “Draco……” You say, your body fading slowly, “I’m fading away,”
“NO! Arabelle! NO!” He screamed, you disappeared just as the pair walked into the room to find Draco scanning the room frantically, trying to see where you had vanished to. “What are you doing, Draco?” Blaise said.
“Arabelle was just here, now she just disappeared,” He said, panicking.
“No, Draco, I think you're seeing things. Besides, she was a freak,” Pansy gloated, Draco ran up to her yelling and pinned her to a wall.
“No she isn’t Pansy, she isn’t a freak, she wasn’t, she wasn’t…” Draco just broke down in tears and sank to his knees again.
Chapter 4: Realisation
You began to wake again, slowly, you no longer felt the dim light of the common room, but the blinding lights of a surgical room. There were only three people in the room, Stark, Peter and another, he looked like Stark, but a more professional doctor. “Banner, her heart rate just spiked,” This Banner person glanced over to see you open your eyes slowly. You raised your arm to shield the light away. “Hey, you gave us a scare there, kid.” Tony said, patting your shoulder, “Look, Parker, she’s fine, you got yourself all uptight for nothing,” He said, “Oh and Peter? No attachments, as soon as we figure out what’s going on she is going home!”
“Oh, thank goodness, sure thing Mr Stark,” Peter walked over to your side and took your hand into his own. He squeezed it to get your attention, “Hey, it’s Peter, are you okay?” He signalled for the others to leave the room, and so they did.
“I’m okay Peter, I’m okay,” You smiled up at him. He sighed with relief. He beamed back at you.
“That’s good, you look like you hit your head pretty hard back there.” You looked down at where your hands were connected, “Oh, sorry,” He said, immediately withdrawing his hand from yours.
“Hey, it’s fine, I didn’t mind.” You sighed, genuinely happy to have some real contact with another human and not some vision like you just had. You began to sit up slowly, propping your head on some cushions, giving your neck some support. “You know, I never actually got your name, I was wondering what your name was. May I ask?”
“Oh, I-I am Arabelle Riddle, yeah, Arabelle Riddle,” You said, gazing into his eyes. His brown eyes were hues of comforting childhood thoughts, as sweet as chocolate and as solid as the oak. They seemed so welcoming and warm. They just gazed into yours, an amber sort of tone. It felt like ages before the gaze broke.
“Umm, do you want anything to eat or anything to drink, or do you want to go for a walk or something?” He said watching his feet, subconsciously shuffling them.
“I’d love to get out of here for a bit, take a walk to stretch my legs.” You said, as you lifted your legs out of the thin blanket and swung them down to the floor. You used your hands to lift yourself into a standing position, you stumbled slightly causing you to fall to the ground and Peter caught you, he raised you to your feet again. “You good?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine, still shook up about how I got here and all,”
“Fair enough, it is going to be a while before you fully recover from this, maybe you’d like me to show you around the place at some point?” He stepped back to let you regain your balance, and so you did,
“Thank you, Pete,” He smiled at the abbreviation of his name, “Do you happen to have any spare clothes anywhere? I don’t look too good in this hospital stuff,” You brushed down the hospital gown and Peter chuckled. “I’m sure I can find you something to wear, let’s go to my room if you don’t mind,” he offered, pointing his hand to the empty corridor. He was smiling, he was happy about something.
“That would be nice, thank you,” He started to walk over to the door, he opened it and let you pass through first. What a gentleman this boy was. You began to walk, your legs still shaking slightly from the numb feeling that was still there. “Thank you,”
“No problem, at all.” He began to walk beside you, you felt your hand brush the back of his, it tickled and there was some sort of electric pulse between you. “Hey!” He chuckled,
“What? What did I do?” You said, slapping his arm playfully.
“Okay, first of all, you just slapped me and it hurt,” He whined,
“Sorry…”
“Don’t be, and second, you just shocked me! With your hands! I mean, like do you have abilities or something?”
“I don’t know anything about that sort of thing, all I was taught when I was back in you know where is that you were only to defend yourself with magic when necessary.” You say, scuffing your feet along the linoleum floor.
“Oh really? You can do magic? Do you mind showing me?”
“Sure, did Mr Stark pick up my wand or take it out of my pocket?”
“Yeah, it’s is in the kitchen, he thought it was a stick at first but then saw all the ornate carvings on it so he thought it was special, so he kept it,”
“Cool, I’ll grab it once I’m out of these stupid hospital clothes,”
“Your accent is quite funny,” He said, knowing it would tease you somewhat.
“Hey, you just had a go at me for slapping you, don’t make me do it again, because I’ll hit you harder,”
“Hey, I’m sorry, Arabelle, that’s a beautiful name, you know,”
“Thanks,” You both kept on chatting and walking until Peter laid an arm on your shoulder, “We are here, but before we go in, I must warn you, there is quite a substantial amount of mess in my room because the only visitors I have are Mr Stark and my best friend Ned.” He opened the door, revealing a reasonably large room, light grey walls, a light wooden floor with a small rug in the corner near the window that looked over the lake. Upon the rug sat an armchair, a wicker armchair, it had two blue cushions on it. To the left side of the door, on the far side of the room, was two beds, both double in size, one had a dark blue and white duvet, patterned like a chessboard with a marble-like effect, with a white bottom sheet, and the other was a cream sort of colour on the duvet, a small flower on the edge and a dragon on the other. “Why do you have two beds in your room?” You look at him in bewilderment.
“Oh, umm, Mr Stark suggested that while you are staying here you might want to share a room with someone, and since I know you best out of all of us maybe I would be a good choice?”
“Oh, thank you, Peter,” You say, “I like that idea,” He rushed to his walk-in wardrobe and grabbed one of his hoodies and sweatpants,
“Now, these may be slightly too big for you but at least they are warm,” He passes them to you, “Bathroom is through that door next to my desk,” You look over, a glazed glass door stood slightly ajar next to his desk, on which laid an Apple MacBook Pro. “Do you mind if I use your shower? I feel disgustingly dirty,” You ask the clothes in your hands walking gradually to the bathroom “Oh, sure that’s completely fine,” He says.
You step into the bathroom, it was rather large indeed, with two sinks, a toilet and a separate bath and shower. You turn the handle, hot water spraying gently out of the showerhead. You get undressed out of the disgusting blue hospital gown and step under the water, letting it wash every last horrible feeling be taken away. You had a sudden urge, your voice was aching to make a sound. ‘Oh well, you haven’t sung in ages, let’s see what happens,’ You started to hum a melody that your Mum used to sing to you when you were little, that was when she was still alive. You only remembered a few of the lyrics, but you always used to sing them when you were busy, to remind you of her, of when your life was happy.
When you had walked into the bathroom, Peter had left the room to give you some privacy, then he heard the sound of you humming. It was a sort of angelic sound, it made him wonder whether he was dreaming, but when he turned to walk away you began to sing. He didn’t quite know whether it was you at first because of how wonderful you sounded to him. He walked back to the room, he stepped inside, the sound of your voice getting louder as he got closer to you. He just sat down on his bed, in awe of you singing. You turned the water, but you kept singing, utterly unaware that Peter was in the room next to you, listening.
You stepped out of the shower, looking around for the towel, but it was nowhere to be found, ‘Oh no,’ you thought, “Peter?!” you shouted, “I forgot a towel, do you mind passing one through the door?” You heard a scurrying of footsteps outside the bathroom door, “Sure thing!” He opened the door enough to slide his arm through with the towel, “Here you go!” You took it gently from him, your hand brushing his by accident again, the same electrical current flowing between the skin that made contact. You walked back to the tabletop where you had put the clothes, luckily they hadn’t run off as the towel had. You slipped them on, the sleeves of the hoodie were ways beyond the tips of your fingers, and the legs on the sweatpants were so long, you had to roll them up to stop yourself tripping up, you have no shoes with you so you walk out of the bathroom with bare feet, wet hair dripping, the loose clothing making you seem so small, you pulled your hair into a messy bun. Peter was reading something on his iPhone, “Can we go to the kitchen now, Pete?” He looked up from whatever he was doing, he gasped lightly when he saw you standing in front of him. “Is there something on my face, Peter?” you asked, he shook his head as if he were in a daze.
“No, not at all, you just look… well…” Peter stuttered, which was peculiar.
“Do I look okay in these? I feel like I look ridiculous,” you say, rubbing your arm nervously.
“You d-don’t look ridiculous, y-you look r-rather…” He began, he stopped the moment he realized Stark had stepped into the room.
“There you two are, I was looking for you, in fact,” He walked up to you, he noticed you were wearing Peter clothes, “Until we figure out how to get you home, you will be staying in this room with Parker,” He said while pointing to you with something, your wand! “And, I do believe this is yours,” He passed you the wand, it felt good to have it back in your hand, “Thank you, Mr Stark,” You shake his hand, he nods to you and leaves the room, leaving you and Peter to your own business. “Do you have a practice room somewhere in the compound?”
“Oh, yeah we do, want to come with me? I’ll show you a couple of moves and physical ways to defend yourself,” He said, reopening the door that Stark had closed after him, “It’s this way, my friend,”
“Oh, so I am your friend now? Didn’t think we could because of Stark, you do remember what he said right?” You said, mockingly, Peter suddenly looked rather upset by that comment. “Hey, Peter, I wasn’t trying to be horrible at all, I was just teasing you, and also repeating what Stark had said, I thought you had forgotten” He kept on staring at the floor as he sank to sit on the bed, “Get out,”
“Oh, Peter,” You said, tears started to well in your eyes, “I’m so sorry, I’ll just go,”
“Just get out,” You walked out of the room, you heard Peter yelling, “Why?!” It made the tears in your eyes overflow and you began to shake again. You picked up the pace and walked around the corner of the corridor, trying to find Stark. But instead of walking any further, you bumped into another person entirely, you fell to the floor.
“Oh dear lord, I am sorry, darling,” Said the man, you noticed the British accent immediately, though you could barely see him because your eyesight was completely blurred with tears. You could only make out his green outfit and long jet-black hair. “Just leave me alone,” You said standing up and running off, leaving the person standing there, completely confused about what had just happened, he blinked for a few moments, before deciding to come after you.
“Wait!” he called, running after you. You didn’t want what happened last time you ran away to happen to you again. You keep running till you find a door that leads you outside of the building. You look behind you, the man, now more distinct, was catching up to you. You reached for the handle, yet when you did, it was no longer there. You could almost have sworn you saw a door handle attached to it. You saw a shimmering green thing around the man’s hand, was he going to attack you? You couldn’t tell, so, out of your pocket, you whipped out your wand, which had been returned by Stark.
“Leave me be!” You pointed it at him, aggressively, he almost instantly raised his hands, the mist around his hand dissipating and the door handle reappeared. Was he controlling what you could see?
“Stand down,” He said calmly, the expression on his face, calm and reassuring. “I am not going to hurt you,”
You kept your wand up, pointing it at him.
“I suggest you aim that thing elsewhere,”
“Give me one good reason why I should,” You yelled, “And what are you gonna do to me if I don’t,” You gripped your wand harshly the tips of your fingernails digging into the palm of your hand. You felt every defensive strand of DNA in your body tense. ‘You are going to hurt someone,’ you thought to yourself.
“Please, Midguardian, listen, I am not going to hurt you. If you just listen to my words, I want to help you,” He looked you directly in the eye. You suddenly felt a wave of relief wash over you, you lowered your wand hesitantly. You pressed your back up against the wall and slid down, bringing your knees into your arms. Perhaps this man might help you, not like Peter, why did he yell at you, you didn’t know. He knelt beside you. “So, why were you running?” He said.
“Because, I am hurting,” You said, quite rudely actually, the man was taken aback at your tone, “That’s why,”
“Okay, umm, who hurt you?” He asked, being careful, he felt as if you would lash out at him any moment.
“I-it w-was that Parker k-kid,” You said sniffling again, the tears forming in your eyes as well. “H-he y-yelled at me,”
“Ah, they can all be scary when they yell, is there anything else that’s bothering you?” He stroked your shoulder with his hand, it was so large compared to yours as if it could crush you.
“It’s none of your business, whoever you are, you don’t need to be doing this, now if you don’t mind, I’m going to leave, before I come up with some other way to get anyone hurt or killed,” You began to sit up, but the man raised a hand and swiftly pressed it to your forehead. You felt him digging through your brain, he was searching for something. You saw all of what happened flash before your eyes. There was no sound, just pictures, pictures of the worst and best moments. Your fall from the tower, Cedric yelling at you, the whole crowd situation, you stepping to take Draco’s hand. But the man kept digging, searching for something else. Suddenly, something you had been waiting to forget all your life since it happened, showed in your mind, it was the day your mother died. The day that your father ruthlessly murdered her, because she was Muggle-Born. You hated that man since the day you first saw him, you rebelled against him, yet no matter what you did, your attachment to him prevented you from letting your anger out on him, at least not all of it. Your five-year-old self was hiding behind the wall, they were arguing again. No, but this time it was different, your mother had blood pouring out her nose, and she was screaming in agony, “You leave my daughter alone you monster!” She held her arms up as a defensive, she was weak, her skin as pale as paper. “NO! She is my daughter as well, she is powerful, I will use her to raise my army!” Your mother rebelled constantly, repeatedly taking blows to the face and her abdomen, you screamed silently into your stuffed bear, “You are a worthless father to her!” That was it, the final straw, your father had had enough of her. He took out his wand, pointed at her swollen face, “SECTUMSEMPRA!” Small tears began to cover her face, she continued to writhe and cry out, she began to spit out blood. You run out of your hiding spot, “Mummy!” A Death Eater grabs you around the waist, pulling you away, “Mummy!” Voldermort looked around to see his innocent little daughter, trying to save her mother, he redirected his wand and pointed it at you, “Immobulus!” You felt suddenly unable to move, you tried to move your arms but only shifted a few millimetres, but your mother fell silent for a moment, this new pain was hugely different. Your mother glanced at you, ‘I’m sorry,’ she mouthed. She looked back to your father, who now was relaxing his brow muscles. He returned the position of his wand to your mother, “You kill me now, you will never have her trust, she will never be your daughter,” She clenched her teeth, blood trickling down from her beaten and sliced lips.
“Oh, I know, that’s why I won’t,” He raised his wand, he breathed one deep breath in, CRUCIO!” He yelled, the voice echoing through the vast hall. Your mother writhed more and more, her fingers joints twisting around and her ankles bending in ways they probably shouldn’t. She looked around seeing your eyes streaming with tears, soaking your hands and arms in salty water. She gazed around once more, screaming at the top of her lungs. The pain was excruciating and overwhelming. A knife, a cursed one, was laying on a table next to her. Oh, how she wished she could take it, use it upon herself. End this suffering, but she couldn’t. She was still strapped onto this chair, now dripping with blood. She was losing her mind, this pain was driving her crazy.
For a moment, she stopped screaming. It was odd, Voldermort began smiling. Your mother’s painful face changed, she started smiling, she started laughing, you were so confused, Voldermort’s spell was still working, mentally and physically torturing her. “Now, you, you squib. You are now not her mother, you have nothing, you are nothing.” She wriggled free of her restraints, she grabbed the knife. She laughed again, a slight hint of madness, “Oh what I could do with this. Oh, but what shall I do,” Your father looked your mother straight in the eye, “I know,” She raised the knife to her wrist, she turned to look at you, she pulled up the sleeve of her blood-drenched shirt. Revealing her wrists, she dragged the blade across it, slow enough for her to wince and each layer of sliced skin. She laughed, “You know what, I like this pain.” She pointed the knife right above her arteries in her arms, a fatal cut in ever there was one. She drove the knife deep into her arm, blood spurting like a waterfall. She smiled once before collapsing to the ground. “Mummy!!” You yelled, screaming, your heart slowly tearing in two. Her pupils dilated and rolled back into her head, her skin draining of all colour. “Mummy!” And then you awoke.
The man removed his hand, “I-” He was speechless, he didn’t know what to say about what he just observed.
“I told you, stay away from me,” Tears forming in your already puffy eyes. You got up and ran out of the glass door that you sat in front of, leaving the man sitting there, trying to gather his consciousness and what he had just seen. You ran and ran, almost tripping over your own feet on the uneven ground beneath you. You ran until you couldn’t run anymore. You were by a vast forest, the perfect place to conceal yourself. You climbed the tree with the lowest branches, pulling yourself up with your twig-like arms. The branch creaked under your feet as you stood up. You reached up for the next branch, it was thicker than the last, you scrambled up. Higher and higher you climbed, high enough so they wouldn’t find you so easily. You heard running footsteps, the crunching of decaying leaves beneath someone’s feet. No, it was more than one person, it was two, even possibly three, maybe more! You saw them approaching the base of the tree you were hiding in. It was Stark, Parker, and the man you had run into in your desperation to escape outside. They looked around, trying to figure out where you had run off to. “Did you see which way she ran off?” Stark said as he gazed around, “Loki?” The black-haired man, which you now know as Loki, looked around. He had been in such utter horror, now knowing what you have been though that he hadn’t seen you or wherever you went.
“I don’t know, she could be anywhere,” Loki said, a slight tone of alarm in his voice. “I shouldn’t have done it,”
“Done what? Loki?” Peter spoke, he was starting to get anxious and fidgety, “What did you do to her?”
“I-” He murmured.
“What did you do!?” Stark yelled. It made you jump. A single pine cone had fallen because of your sudden movement. You hid on the other side of the tree as they looked up.
“Arabelle?!” Peter yelled. Stark went back to asking Loki what he did to you, but Peter was still desperate to find you. He sensed something above him. A person.
“Loki what did you do to her?” He said.
“Alright fine, I looked at her memories, and I am horrified about what I saw, okay? She wasn’t speaking, I needed to know what was wrong!” He said, worry trembling in his voice. You hadn’t noticed that Peter had moved around to the side of the tree on which you were hiding, he looked up once more. His senses were going crazy. He climbed the tree with ease, so silently that you hadn’t noticed him standing there as you sat down on the branch. You looked around to see only Loki and Stark on the ground, where had Peter gone? Your heart was racing, what were you thinking? Running away? This probably wasn’t one of your smartest decisions but you had made it now, no turning back. You turned around, your eyes met with Peter’s. “Oh my-” You jumped out of your skin, your heart rate spiked “What are you doing here, Peter?”
“I came to say sorry,” Peter said, the sincerity in his voice was genuine. “I didn’t mean to yell at you, I was just frustrated at you,”
“Peter, have you got anything?” Stark shouted up the tree. You shook your head.
“Don’t,” You whispered, “Please,”
“I’m sorry, I have to,” He raised his wrist, “If you don’t cooperate, I will have to,”
“I can’t, it won’t work. Loki, he knows too much!” You started to get ready to escape, “I just have to go,”
“Sorry, Arabelle, you are leaving me with no choice,” He shot some of his webs, trying to catch you from running, but he missed. You jumped from the tree, landing on both of your feet. The decaying leaves and bark crunched underneath your feet, catching the attention of both Stark and Loki. “Arabelle!” Stark called, Loki turned his head, he saw you and tried to run after you.
The chase was intense, three men, two fully grown and a sixteen-year-old boy running after you. You looked around nothing but trees for miles around. Only just over the sound of your pounding heart and slapping of your feet on the ground, could you hear the running water of a stream. You darted toward where the sound of water was coming from. A little stream trickling with water, though deep enough to cover your ankles. You took the water route and followed it, and were you glad that you did? Yes, there was a cave nearer the end of the stream, you ran into it. The sound of the men following you disappeared.
Chapter 5: The Run-Ins
Why had the sound stopped? ‘That’s weird,’ you thought. You walked back to the exit of the cave. The mouth became a welcoming navy-black eye. No longer was the outside a forest, but it opened onto a beautiful house, large in size, and a very castle-like feel to the walls and roofs. A large plant pot out the front of the sheltered driveway. You walked out slowly, the darkness seeming to cover you from being seen, all of the lights were on in the house. Where were you? What was happening? First, you were having a horrific first day at Hogwarts, then you were rescued by what they called a Spider-Man and now what? How was this possible? You heard something shift behind you, you turned around, fear was starting to get the better of you. A hooded figure, a bow, aiming at you, in hand stood behind you, “Who are you?” He said, his voice much deeper than you expected it to be. “What are you doing here?” You cowered back, huddling back against the walls of the cave you had climbed out of.
“Please, I am lost, I do not intend to harm anyone,” Your voice was trembling with fear. You were fumbling for your wand, where was it? “Please, don’t hurt me,” He lowered his bow the moment he knew you weren’t a threat. He raised a hand to show he was going to be passive towards you.
“I am not going to hurt you, why are you here?”
“I don’t know, I was running in the forest, it was morning there! I- I don’t know, help me, please!”
“Sh, not so loud,”
“Where a-am I-I?”
“Starling City ma’am, do you happen to know why you are here?”
“N-n-no, I-I don’t, I don’t u-u-understand h-how I-I even got here,” You proceeded to huddle back even further.
“Right,” The hooded man sighed, “If you don’t mind, I’d like you to come with me, I’d like to talk to you in private instead of my house, okay?”
“Yes, sir,” You slowly stood back up, he began to lead you away from the nice-looking house. He walked you down a path that snaked straight to the back alleys of the city, he walked you into a factory that was marked ‘Queen’s Fabrication’. He walked you into the building; the ceiling was about 4 stories high, maybe more. He walked you to the back of the big room, a door, a high-security door stood before you. He pressed a load of the keys, the combination being, 4-7-2-9-1-8-8-0. You had a fantastic memory, you would easily remember. “Are you coming? It is warmer down behind the door,” He chuckled lightly, the voice definitely what you had expected it to be like now. Perhaps a voice moderator, you had heard of such things, but now you knew they were real. You followed the man through the door and down the iron staircase, being careful not to slice your shoes on the rusty surface, your feet nicely settled on the floor of the bottom of the stairs. The man lowered his hood as he reached the desk in the middle of this basement. Under the hood, there was a man, probably late 20s, slightly overgrown buzz cut for a hairstyle. Since he wasn’t facing you, you couldn’t see his face. A blonde woman was sitting at the opposite side of the desk, and a man, dark-skinned. The no-longer hooded man placed down his bow and quiver on the table, the metal thud echoing through the room. It caught the attention of both the woman and the other man leaning next to her, they both turned their heads to the first man, and then to you, “Oliver, who is this?” said the other man.
“It’s a girl, can you not see?”
“Yes, I can see, but what is she doing here?”
“I found the girl outside my home, Diggle. She was tired, stranded and scared. What was I supposed to do, leave her?” The man who you now knew as Oliver was pacing back and forth revealing his face, a scruff short beard, and soft green eyes.
“No, of course not, but why here?”
“I didn’t know what else to do, she was panicking and disorientated, I needed to help her, she was so terrified, she was talking about running away in a place where it was as bright as noon and now she said in all a matter of thirty seconds she was her, right outside my house,”
“Right,” said the woman, “Does seem like there was an energy anomaly about half an hour ago around your house, Ollie, perhaps she was struck, kinda like Barry?”
‘Barry? Who is Barry?’ you thought.
“No, Barry wasn’t struck by lightning, not, that’s what he says because the real version is much more complicated,” Oliver said, he knew this Barry person well, I mean why wouldn’t he. “He may have a few answers considering what happened last month, with the whole fiasco we had with the Sara Lance situation and Flashpoint,”
“Oh come on Oliver, don’t bring that up,”
“Well, we were talking about Barry, and how he may be able to help. I was only suggesting, Diggle,” Oliver was now distraught, “I don’t know what to do, I thought we were still going by the list but no, this, this is different, for once in my life I have no idea what to do, I want to help this girl, and I need help,”
“Um, sir,” You said, Oliver turned to you, “Where am I exactly, and who are these people?”
“Oh, I am so sorry, we are in the Queen’s Steel Works factory basement, where I spend most of my spare time and this is John Diggle and Felicity Smoak, my associates.”
“Hi,” The blonde woman waved at you and smiled, “I am sort of the IT girl around here,”
“Yes she is, I’m John Diggle, but you can call me Digg,” He stuck out his hand for you to shake. There had been so much handshaking these past few, what was it again? Days, weeks, months? You had no idea anymore. You shook it anyway.
“Thank you,”
“And what is your name?” Oliver asked, “We introduced ourselves to you but not the other way around. And?”
“Oh, I am Arabelle,”
“That’s a pretty name, what about a family name?” Felicity asked, “Have you got one,”
“Oh, yeah, I do, but I have no family here, my family are mostly dead, murdered,”
“Murdered? By who?” Oliver asked, bringing you to sit down on the table, “Arabelle?”
“Huh? Oh right. It hurts to talk about it. I was around 4 or 5, definitely five, my father, h-he.” You sighed, “He murdered my mother in the most brutal way possible, driving her to the brink of insanity and causing her to kill herself, she was only trying to protect me, I tried myself to save her, but one of my father’s men held me back, but I mean what is a five-year-old going to do…” You began to break down in tears, “I-I hate him so much, I have no one else but him and he is still out there somewhere killing people as we speak,”
“Then we go get him!” Oliver shouted, he stood up with haste.
“We can’t, Oliver, he is in Britain,”
“Britain? You mean you from England?”
“Yeah, something like that.” You said, looking back up at him. He sighed, looking at his feet.
“Time to call in the others,” Oliver went to the phone on his desk, where there were a whole set of quivers filled with green arrows. He picked the phone up.
“Wait, Oliver, are we doing this? All of them? What will Diana think of this?” Diggle was getting rather stressed and you had no idea why.
“No, not Diana, not Bruce or Clark or Viktor, we are only calling in Barry and his team.” He dialled a number and began to talk on the phone once the other end picked up. Diggle turned to you.
“You get some rest, Arabelle, he will be a while,” You walked over to the sofas in the far end of the basement, you lay down and tried to rest your eyes and couldn’t stop thinking and Peter and Loki and Draco and all the others you cared about. You curled up, bringing your knees up to your chest. Oliver was talking, but it was indistinct, you could make out many of the words apart from “Yeah, I found her outside my house sheltering in the trees,” and “She is so scared,” Diggle walked up to Oliver and pointed back to you. He covered the phone speaker, “Just get her something to eat,” Diggle grabbed a packet of biscuits.
“Eat these, they are Nabisco Ginger Snaps, they won’t poison you.” He offered you a few biscuits. You took them and began to nibble at them. “Do you want anything to drink?” You nodded furiously, he walked over to the sinks and poured you a cold glass of freshwater. Oliver had just got off the phone as you took your first sip.
“He’ll be over with Caitlin, Cisco and Julian in a few minutes, Barry will be here before everyone else, if he isn’t late, again.”
“Fastest man on the planet and is usually late to everything.” What did he mean, the fastest man on the planet? Oliver laughed and then nodded.
“I agree, such irony really,” He walked over to and rested a hand on your shoulder. “You okay?” You nodded, your eyelids drooping. “You get some sleep, we have some people coming over who may be able to help you. We will get you back home.”
“What if I don’t want to go back home?”
“Then you can stay here, I’d happily welcome you, and I am sure Thea, my sister would as well.” Oliver smiled, “Now go to sleep you’ve had a rough day.” You began to drift off to sleep. You don’t dream at all, you didn’t have much of a chance to. You had only 30 minutes of sleep before the door to the basement opened. Oliver was talking to whoever was at the door, but you kept your eyes shut, you had no intent on opening them right now. The clambering down the stairs was loud enough to wake anyone up but you continued to pretend to be asleep. You thought you heard a familiar voice, other than Oliver, Diggle or Felicity. You didn’t want to believe it, you thought you were dreaming. “Be quiet she is still sleeping,” Oliver whispered.
“She looks peaceful,” said the voice, Who was it though? You recognised it and knew it was someone you had heard before. It was British. You still didn’t want to believe it, so you began to open your eyes. There were multiple people in the basement now, one with blonde hair who had his back turned towards you, a man with brown hair and a man with long black hair and a woman with red-brown hair.
“She is sleeping, now, Julian, Caitlin and Joe go sit with Digg and Felicity for me, Barry we need to talk.” He led the man with the brown hair away to talk in private. The others walked over to Diggle and Felicity, the blonde man sat down, and so did the other two, but you had your eyes open enough to see them, not enough for them to see your eyes opening. He turned to face you, and that’s when it hit you. You know where you had heard the voice, it was Draco’s. “Draco?”
Chapter 6: Who are you?
“What?” Said the blonde man, the voice was the same as you remember it. Everyone looked at you.
“Arabelle, you’re awake, finally,” Oliver walked back into the room with the man he had walked off with. “Barry, Caitlin, Cisco and Julian, this is Arabelle, she has a bit of a problem.”
“Yes we have a problem,” The blonde man yelled, “She just called me Draco!” He had a look of confusion on his face. His eyebrow furrowed. You were confused, was he delusional?
“B-but, you are Draco, I know you.” Your eyes began to water.
“I am sorry, but I think you have mistaken me for another person, I am Julian Albert Desmond,”
“Yeah, maybe,” A silent tear fell down your cheek. You wiped it before anyone noticed, though there was one person. Barry. “Nevermind, let’s see why I am here, not that I need to be.”
“Right, first of all, hi, my name is Barry Allen, I need to talk to you in private to understand what is going on, if you don’t mind could you please wait for me?” He lifted his arm to a door to a medium-sized room, a sort of normal office looking room. You walked into the room but Barry did not follow, he was speaking to Oliver and Julian across the room, far from the door at which you stood. “Hey Barry, do you know why she called me Draco?” Julian asked, glancing at you and quickly looking back once he made eye contact.
“I have a feeling, but I don’t know whether to trust my gut this time or to ignore it, it feels rather stupid and I don’t know whether it could be the case or not.” Barry sighed, “Let me talk to her, okay? That may help me prove my theory,” He turned to walk to you but he disappeared for a split second before appearing behind you. There were small electrical sparks on the floor, you also felt a shock in your hand, “Hi,” He said, you turned around to face him, a stupid goofy smile was plastered on his face.
“Hi,” You said, returning the smile. His blue eyes were so mesmerizing, the colour of the shallow ocean. “So, are we going to talk in this room in private or not,”
“Sure,” You walked into the room and Barry shut the door behind you.
“Right,” You said, “What do you need to talk to me about?”
“Oliver told me exactly what you told him, that apparently, you were in a place in which it was day and in a space of about 5 seconds, it was during the night in a completely different place on the planet. Considering you were still on planet earth, am I right?”
“I am on planet Earth right now, aren’t I?” You chuckled, your face breaking out in a big smile.
“Well, yes,” Barry laughed, reinitiating the eye contact between the two of you. “But, I was, ah, never mind,” He just started to laugh again, you both laughed for a few minutes before he resumed the conversation. “Is there anything you can tell me about where you were before?”
“Oh, what? Oh, right. Before I arrived in Starling City, I was just outside of New York City in a huge white building, it had a huge ‘A’ on the side, a rather dark grey it is.”
“Nice, sounds like a beautiful place, is there anything else that you can describe the place?” You both continue to talk about what had happened to you in the last 24 hours. After that, the two of you just carried the conversation to something rather amusing, you felt happier now than you ever had, apart from the kiss with Draco, your first kiss. You told Barry about it, it made you feel good talking about your problems to someone. Why hadn’t you done this before? Talking to Barry felt like talking to a brother figure. “So, let me get this straight, you said to imagine a shark with human teeth?” He burst out laughing, his head in his hand. You, meanwhile, broke down to your knees holding your stomach, chuckling along with Barry. There was suddenly a knocking upon the door, “Just a minute,” Barry stood up and looked you in the eye “Give me a second, somebody is trying to interrupt our conversation,” He walked over to the door and opened it, it was Julian. “Oh, Julian, you good, man?”
“May we talk?” He started to walk into the room.
“Sure,” Barry said, but Julian raised his hand to him.
“Not you. Her.” He pointed to you and your heart dropped to your toes. “In private,” Barry sighed, “Please, Barry, just a few minutes?”
“Okay, go on then, are you okay with this, Arabelle?” Barry turned to you, beckoning me with a waggle of his eyebrows.
“Fine,” You laughed, “If it makes you happy,”
“Be careful,” Barry began to walk out of the room, before he turned back and shouted, “Don’t get too playful, Jules,” He walked out of the room laughing, Julian chuckled awkwardly.
“Hey,” He sighed, chuckling sheepishly, “I just needed to talk to, uh, you,”
“What about?” You suddenly felt down, it was like talking to Draco, but so different at the same time. “Hey, Julian, I-I am s-sorry about what happened out there with the name situation,”
“It’s okay, I understand, Barry will have to explain later to me what is going on, but for now, I think we need to talk,”
“About what?” You suddenly felt nervous, but, why?
“Well, I wish for you to tell me more about this, Draco person,”
“Oh. oh!” You looked down and then back to his eyes, the same soft eyes you had seen in the Great Hall a few nights ago. “Well, you look so much like him, same eyes, the same face, the hair, oh his hair, it was very similar to your, only, it was shorter, more of a white blonde, platinum blonde.” You rubbed the tear that fell from your eyes, Julian looked up at you noticing.
“He sounds like a handsome man, sounds like you miss him,”
“I do miss him, he was one of the only people who understood me,”
“I have to ask something rather personal if you don’t mind,”
“Oh, what more do I need to hide? I honestly have told someone everything, though I don’t know if they believe what they-” You paused, it wouldn’t have made sense if you had said what they saw, “What they heard.”
“Thank you, I feel very intruding about saying this, but,” He stopped for a moment to sigh loudly, “Did you love Draco?” You looked at him, wondering why he asked you this. You felt inclined to tell him and that is what you did.
“I did, and I still do, though I have very little hope that I will see him again, we were so close right up to the point when I-” You stopped.
“When you what?” He asked as you looked away.
“When I changed worlds, I fell from the astronomy tower, and at that moment in time, I thought all the horrors of my past, all the things that I had suffered would go away, but I was saved, and I doubt I will ever see my saviour again, though I feel I had fallen in love with him too,”
“I feel as if you are emotionally confused, is there any way of making you feel better?”
“Oh, there is only but one thing that would make me feel better,”
“And what would that happen to be?” He smiled at you, clearly wanting to help you. “Is it something I can do?” You stood up, your hand reached out for something to fiddle with, it landed upon his own. You looked up, now you realised you had grabbed Julian’s hand, blood rushed to your cheeks as you made eye contact with him. You pulled your hand away from his, yet he stood up and walked until he was right in front of you. “Arabelle? Are you alright?”
“Yes I am fine,” You gazed into his eyes, the blue as vivid as and the same shade, the ones you remembered that blessed Draco’s young face. He gazed straight back at you. You couldn’t hold back anymore, you needed this, to remind you of something. “But, I am so sorry”
“For what?”
“This,” You stood up on your toes, closed your eyes and pressed your lips to his, much to his surprise. He closed his eyes, unbeknownst to you, he was wanting to do that the moment he laid his eyes upon you. He brought his hand up to the back of your head and tangled his fingers into your soft hair. In his kiss, you felt at home. He finally kissed you back, moving his lips against yours. You stood there for a moment, your lips connected. You pulled away first, though hesitantly. You giggled lightly while he just smiled, “Feels just like it did, and I am guessing do I need to apologise again?” Your eyelids fluttered open to meet his, the soft blue barely visible, his pupils were massive, taking in every detail of your face.
“I, erm, don’t quite know what to say, umm, I know I may look like Draco, and all. But, I have just met you, I don’t know whether this will work or not,”
“Hey, Julian. Arabelle?”
“Yes, Barry?” You answered, raising an eyebrow. “Is everything alright?
“We need you back in the workshop.” He said, taking the chance that you looked away to glare at Julian. “It is rather urgent,”
“Alright, I am now coming,” You turned from Barry to Julian, “Thanks Julian, I will be back,”
“Arabelle?” Barry said, a small hint of sadness, “We may have figured out a way to get you home,” You looked up at him. “If we have cracked this we will be taking you back, okay? Though it is your choice whether to stay or not,”
“Yes, I understand,” You looked to the ground, your heart sunk a little. You could be going home soon. Much to your disliking, you liked it here, it was nice. These were people who accepted you, though Loki did as well. You were pretty sure that Peter and Tony did as well, but that matter of all the least to you. Julian had walked out of the room with Barry, leaving you to your own devices. You walked over to the wall and slid your back down it, sinking so your knees were in your arms. This was a big decision to make, stay here with Oliver and never see Draco or Loki or Peter again? Or go back and have the tables flipped. It was such a hard choice. You began to sob at the thought of leaving any one of them behind, it would break Peter’s heart to leave him, but what about Draco’s? And now these guys? They were being so good to you, looking after you. Ah, the torment was too much for you, it was tearing you up from the inside. And then the sensation came. Oh lord, the sensation, the same odd feeling you had while falling from Hogwarts to New York City and when you ran through the cave into Starling City. It was happening again, you felt the same, the same way that it has happened before, “Julian! Barry! Oliver!” You screamed as you ran to the door, only just opening the door enough for them to see you walk into a cloud of green and disappearing.
It had happened once more.
Chapter 7: Keepers of the Peace
You walked out of the cloud into a huge sandstorm. The sand was burning your eyes, it was impossible to see. The ground was beyond soft beneath your feet, the tiny granules were sinking into your shoes. You wandered forward for hours and hours, the heat of the invisible sun was becoming unbearable. You could look up now, you looked to see if you could see the sun, but when you found it, there were two. Where were you? This place, the constant spray of sand battering at your skin and leaving little red marks. This was not Planet Earth, and if it was you were somewhere in the Sahara or some other major desert.
The storm started to die down and a building was becoming visible. That one building turned into two, two into four, more and more appeared. They weren’t house made of bricks and tiles and glass compared to most you have seen. No, not most, all, like the huge Empire State Building in New York City or the compound you were in, and the factory, even that had windows. These buildings seemed rather old, made with what seemed like a solid sandstone. Primitive sort of, well, primitive compared to all the technology you’ve seen in the past two days. Wait, two days? All of this crazy stuff in two days. You stumbled towards the major group of buildings, few people were walking around, most of them wearing hoods to protect their faces. Though there were two other figures, different apparel to the others wandering the streets. They turned to look at you, you turned away from staring at them, but you had been silent, and even if you were talking how would they have heard you over the sound of the blusterous winds and the circulating sand in the air. As they began to walk over to you, you began to panic. You began to walk away, your feet skidding along the floor.