Apart Together Solo Finished

Aida crept along the side of the lake and approached her usual fishing perch, just as she always did in the early morning, but now she froze in place after picking up a telltale flash of white from the corner of her eye. It was Valentin, but it didn't make much sense that he should be at Hogwarts during the winter break. Theoretically he should be with his family. Aida's family was broken, so she preferred to stay on campus this winter, but Valentin had come from a rich and famous family who loved him dearly. Aida already felt Scotland was too cold to be roughing it when the Room of Requirement was an easy and warm refuge for sleep, but she knew it was even colder where Valentin came from. Perhaps that was reason enough, she figured: seeking warmth... but her gut knew better. For Aida, the cold was nothing compared to the possibility of the nightmares and hallucinations returning if the routine of her new life was too severely disturbed. Squinting across the distance, Aida discerned that Valentin hadn't even seen her approaching yet. This was particularly strange for the keen-eyed boy who had always been the most observant person Aida knew. Something was very wrong.

Valentin lapsed into the reverie of a daydream of that one beautiful day when it seemed like someone had truly felt what he had. He thought the other white-hair had heard the music of the sky. Hadn't she? Why had she given it up? It didn't make sense; the thrill on her face when they were flying at max speed, the beauty of a tightly controlled arc mirrored on her face... everything that day should have meant that they both saw the same, felt the same. It wasn't right that it hadn't endured, just like it wasn't right to be alone now, just like it wasn't right that the stones always sank. Nothing was right anymore. How could a life full of stability and light be shattered by such short moments as Valentin's fall, or the death of his mother? Closing his eyes, Valentin heard music spiralling through a better plane of existence. He hardly wanted to be here anymore, on the ground where problems were magnified and everything was temporary. To Valentin the sky, the wind, and the mechanics of flying were just as immortal as music, and in either the heavens or in music itself, people and their problems all seemed so small or non-existent. Without his team, though, he felt so alone up high. Why couldn't Aida have stayed in the sky with him?

Aida walked quietly all the way up to Valentin without him stirring. It seemed like he was lost in another world, reminding Aida of what she must have been like during the summer when her reality was falling apart. Putting her hand on his shoulder finally caused him to shake, startled, and then look over at her. She was less emaciated than last he saw her in October, but he was skinnier than she had ever seen before. Aida’s mouth opened slightly with realization. He was wasting away, just like Aida had been before Ileen pulled her out of her self-destruction.

“What happened to you?” breathed Aida. Was Durmstrang also being subjected to tainted food? Had Valentin found out such a secret? They seemed to live such strangely mirrored lives, Aida thought it just might be possible. “You have to let me cook you some breakfast,” she said, trying to channel her inner Ileen. Valentin, however, shook his head sadly.



“Heavy. Not fly fast. Can not eat,” whispered the albino boy.

“You’re dying. I won’t let you die. You have to eat,” retorted Aida, taking some vegetables and smoked fish out of her bag. She lit a fire inside the pit of a small stone circle and pulled a cast iron pan out of a tree hollow. In moments the savory smells of a substantial meal wafted over to Valentin. “Come sit by the fire, it’s cold out.” Valentin didn’t move, so Aida walked over to pull him by the arm.

“Where your broom?” he asked, reluctantly walking to the fire with her. His hair had gotten long and concealed half of his face. One silvery violet eye glistened wet as it reflected the firelight.

“It’s in my room. I take good care of it.”

“You not fly?” persisted the boy.

“I fly. I think of you, too. When I fly, and other times…” said the girl, trying to hand the boy a spoon. He wouldn’t take it. It was like the light had gone out of his life, which was so strange considering his naturally exuberant personality. If Aida was the moon Valentin was the sun, but it seemed that his sun had gone black.

Aida knew what it was not to eat. While their eating disorders had different causes, the effect was the same. Thus, Aida pushed some food onto the spoon and brought it up to Valentin’s lips herself. He took a bite, and bit by bit he finished off the meal. This boy who always had been so fast in his motions, his speech, his reactions… everything about him was so slow now.

“You can’t fly well if your brain doesn’t work, and your brain needs food,” encouraged Aida.

“I know,” replied Valentin as a light haze of pink returned to his cheeks. His eyes began to move around more until he suddenly turned to Aida. Some of his speed was returning. Then, “Thank you,” came his words, hard to understand through his heavy accent and the choking emotion in his throat.

“Yeah.” Aida felt a little frightened. It was like looking into a mirror. Seeing the skeletal look to his face and body, Aida feared for her own life at the same time as his. She had never seen it from this perspective before. Then, with a rush of air, Valentin was suddenly holding her tight. Being next to the fire now felt tremendously hot.

“My mother dead. My father…” pushed out Valentin through his closed-up, aching throat. Aida’s surprise melted away as she felt the need to comfort the boy. Holding him tight, she nodded to encourage him. “Mother was famous music star. Crazy fan came for kill father. He wanted steal mother and made kill curse but mother saved father. Now she dead, died, and father in prison. Father was mad at killer and said kill curse back. Now father in prison.” Valentin’s words came fast but Aida still understood. Like a dam bursting, the boy began to weep violently. “Durmstrang team gone because me. Friends gone because me. Now I so alone… house music gone. House so quiet. Everyone… gone…” Aida could feel the chill soaking into her shirt with the wetness of the boy’s overflowing tears. Digging his face into her shoulder he tried to escape into the warmth.

Valentin’s tears flowed on and on, and when there were no more tears a dry sobbing took their place. Aida stayed frozen in place, and with no one stoking the fire it burned itself out. A chill washed in with no hesitation, and it was so late into winter the sun only skittered over the horizon as the day opened up.

“Come, let’s go get the broom,” said Aida quietly against a background of awakening birds singing out. The campus felt so empty during the winter vacation, as most of the students had gone home to be with their families. Likely this was the case in Durmstrang, too. Aida had to pull the boy to his feet to get him moving, which she didn’t think she would have to do. She never thought she would see him unexcited about flying. “Come on,” she said, pulling him again. Aida had been getting more accustomed to physical contact since her interactions with Dealla, Ileen, and Sylvain, but a hesitation to interact physically still clung to her. Still, she knew he needed to get moving to break out of this. “I’ll steer, it’s okay,” were the words he needed. Picking up his fur-lined Durmstrang coat from a log behind him, Valentin stood up. “No wonder you’re freezing, come on, put that on… You’ll make yourself sick like this.” Valentin just stared across the lake until Aida started putting the coat onto him herself. She smiled a little with how he was being spoiled like a little prince. The fur of the coat was soft and slightly musky, making her a little jealous that Hogwarts didn’t offer a similar wardrobe. Using a bucket of lake water Aida then smothered the last of the embers in the fire pit and began to walk towards the castle, but Valentin didn’t move. She had to link elbows and pull him in order to get him to follow her up to the Ravenclaw dormitories.

With such an empty campus, anything Aida did was more likely to stick out to the few who still haunted the halls, but Aida didn’t care. She had more important things to do than care what people would say about this. Inside the castle Aida felt warm and less claustrophobic than when it was teeming with people. In a sense she preferred it this way, even if it tended to make her feel more alone. As Aida crept into the dorm with Valentin in tow, her mind wandered back to what Alexander must be doing right now. Was he having a good time with his family? Blue silk slithered off the slick handle of the Silver Arrow broomstick that Valentin had given her last October. The thing always glimmered like mercury under any amount of light, and somehow that always felt similar to Valentin himself. Even now in his devastation she thought the resemblance was fitting.

“Carry this please,” said Aida, knowing that Valentin needed a job to do. Rather than let the broom fall he took it into his off hand. Aida pulled him by his other arm back through the corridors and out into the open of the grounds. “Okay, my turn,” she said, taking the broom back and positioning it for launch. “Get on.” Aida sat in the front and Valentin climbed onto the back of the broom. Once they were aloft and rising Valentin leaned onto Aida’s back and his ample fur coat crept in along her neck. It was like some great beast had climbed on and the rail-thin boy could have disappeared inside the coat, so small he was inside of it. Yet, as they flew she could feel his long-fingered hands holding onto her. With a sigh Aida wondered what Alexander was doing right now. It was only then that Aida realized that it was her birthday.

Thread closed.