The Aftermath ((Nymeria)

The early evening fell over London, it looked beautiful and creepy at the same time. At least the sun was down, it made the heat more bearable to normal folk in this country who were more used to rain than the tropical weather. They kept predicting strong summer storms, but so far Mari caught none. There was a light breeze outside, bringing hot air to her face, but the storm wasn't in sight. Today was a mixture of meeting, training and mission, there wasn't even the right word to describe what they were doing almost whole day long.

Mari considered talking to Matt immediately, but it was probably a better idea to catch him later where they both would feel more relaxed. She also befriended another person today, a girl called Nymeria although she told her to call her Nym. The girl didn't talk much, but wasn't quiet either, she seemed nice enough. She figured that she could get to know her better, after all they would probably spend a lot of time together. The walk was the first thing to occur to her and she invited Nymeria to join her. The girl didn't soundly reply, but she figured that since she came along it was a quiet consent. London was particulary beautiful at night.

"We should probably go this way to the river, it will be more pleasant with less buildings in sight." Mari said interupting the so unplesant silence as she showed to her right after they were out the door, and the range of protective spells which were surrounding their headquaters. "Anless you have some other place in mind? I usually don't plan the route, just take the one where my feet take me." she asked stopping on the street to wait up and see what direction they would take before moving anywhere.

She went out with Mariana, deep in thought. This meeting was interesting, even more interesting than she expected it to be. Maybe it's about her father's stories, missing of informations or something else, but she expected a group of strict people without sense of humor who repeat the facts, but they looked almost like a family.

She looked uncomfortable around her, London was nice, but it was dark. His beauty is overshadowed by fear due to the lack of lights on the street where they were located. 'Nymeria pull yourself together, you're not little girl anymore', she berated herself resisting the urge to pull the wand and illuminate the path. She already explained to herself about a dozen of times that she shouldn't be afraid of the dark, it is only darkness, lack of light, its irrational. And all of a dozen times it was in vain.

It took her a moment to realize that Mariana said something. "That way sounds good to me, if there is street lighting, I kinda don't like darkness." she shrugged apologetically.

Mari could almost sense her companion's uneasiness. She was watching her closely though she knew how to watch someone without being noticed. It was a subtle yet effective habit. It was hard to say before Nymeria spoke what was she so conflicted about.

"Oh sorry, I can see why the dark might not be attractive to anyone nowdays. My friend warned me to watch my back. You do know about werewolf attacks don't you?" she replied after realizing what the trouble was. Even though she doubted that werewolf would attack her, it still gave her the creeps to think about it. Maybe that comment was too straightforward, she didn't want to scare the girl, but she needed to know about the threat. "The river is only about 10 minutes away, once we reach it, it will be far more brighter. The house of parliament illuminates a wide range around it. Street light untill there is good enough I think." she said deliberating how good idea this is.

"If you'd like we could go to a cafe or a mall or something? I haven't really consider darkness asa factor when I suggested a walk." she asked trying to deliver the honesty of her proposal. She didn't want Nymeria to feel obligated to go for a walk if she wasn't comftable. To her it didn't really matter where they went as long as they got to relax and hang out.

"It doesn't matter. It's just a stupid fear I have since I was a little girl, I wish I can get rid of it." She tried to act relaxed and hoped it would work. She pulled her hand out of her pocket noting that  she unconsciously reached for her wand.
"It's about time for me to face my fears, night will fall everyday, if I can't change it I should adjust to it. Sorry, i'm starting to philosophize. I do it every time I'm a little nervous, bad habit." She smiled and felt a small fraction of fear which is leaving her. Maybe coping with the fear really works.

"What about werewolves? I haven't heard for attacks so far. It's strange, I supposed they were lying low, as always."
She thought about what she learnt about werewolves from her books at school. She never seen one, at least not while the moon was full. She glanced at the sky, the moon was surrounded by stars, but it wasn't full. There will not be any werewolves attacks, at least not tonight.
She was still worried about the attacks, if there is too many of them people will start to notice. Especially muggles. It will be particularly difficult to explain if some muggle is bitten, why is he suddenly turned into a werewolf in the middle of the night in his living room, surrounded by his family. She shuddered just thinking of it.

Mariana didn't look konvinced, but instead of denying her she went along with it. "We all have fears it is nothing to be ashamed about. I, for one am afraid of fire. I suppose it's the exact opposite of your fear. When it's a small fire I just hyperventilate, but when it is big I mostly faint at the sight of it anless i aim my focus on something else." she explained using the same philosophical tone as her companion though why did she reveal her greatest fear to basiclly a stranger was a question..

She haven't heard of it? How strange she was sure it was in the daily prophet at least. Maybe it was classified information, but she doubted that. She took a minute to collect her thoughts as they were aproaching the river slowly. "Well... it's mostly one werewolf in particular, Or rather a few werewolves gathered around this particular one." she said slowly choosing her words carefully. "Ministry Of Magic has issued an arrest warrant for one James Blood. He is a ruthless monster, if you ever find yourself anywhere in the vicinity of him or one of his followers, run away as fast as you can. I don't know if you read the daily prophet recently?" she asked trying to figure if Nymeria knew everything just didn't realize it before or if she was as uninformed as Mari when Mari came back from Monterey..

"That kinda sucks, too." She thought a few seconds about what Mariana said. "How do you cook?" Nym felt incredibly idiotic as soon as the issue came out of her mouth. "Sorry, it's stupid. Just..for example when it's dark I usually don't go out of my house, and I have all the lights switched on. You should see my electricity bill." she laughed a bit, "And if there is no electricity, I always have a few lighted candles, just in case of a power failure. And if something put out the candles there are flashlights, if there is no flashlight I always have my wand and so on."

Nym skipped a puddle on the road suddenly feeling very childish. Now she could see Thames, maybe about two hundred meters in front of them. Her dark surface was glittering beneath lighting poles. It reminded her of the Seine and long walks along the shore. She hasn't noticed how much she missed Paris, until now. London was lovely, she liked it, but she is and she will always be Parisian and change of address will not change that.

"I haven't bought the Daily prophet since, well since I moved here. My dad was subscribed to it but I have never excessively read the papers, so I canceled subscription after he died. But that name seems familiar to me, although I can't connect it to anything I've heard or read in the recent past." She thought about it deciding she will try to dig up about him as much as she can. He seems too dengerous to be uninformed. She should subscribe to the Daily prophet again. Maybe tommorow.

"Well there's the understatement of the century.." Mari exclaimed laughing when they reached the shore and the House of Parliament started illunating their way very brightly. There were some people here though no one too close to them, this was a good walking place. However, most of the nightwalkers were couples enjoying the moonlight or river rides. This kind of sucks didn't quite cover Mari's fobia of fire, but it was nice to put it so lightly for the change. "Uh-well it's kind of complicated to explain. I mostly react strongly when the fire catches me off guard, when I am not prepared for it beforehand. When I already know it's there it's easier, I can focus on something else, but I mostly don't come in contact with it too often. However, I grew up with my grandfather who was a muggle, and my mother was a muggle-born too so I always used electricity, I didn't roast meat in the fireplace or anything. When I came to Hogwarts it was difficult for the first year, the first time I saw the fireplace I fainted and they dragged me to the hospital wing. After I learned where each and every fireplace, candle or whatever were located, I didn't react so strongly. Once however in herbology somebody started a small fire by accident, I literally couldn't move from fear and ended up fainting again. My friend Arthur knew what it was so they extinguished the flame before he woke me up. It's curious isn't it how many things can be cured with magic and yet fear is not one of them." she asked smiling sadly at the irony. She didn't remember holding such a long speech ever. She wondered if Nym fell asleep in the middle of it.

She returned to the Nym's fear however after she realized what she said. "Are you afraid of the dark itself or something that could lurk in the dark or possibly both?" she asked curiously trying to determine what excatly frightened her. She read a few studies on fobias mostly because of the one she had so she became quite an expert. "You see if you are afraid of what lurks in the dark, it is more rational to be afraid of something you don't know. But however, fear of dark is more irrational unless if it has a deeper meaning. You know like something that happened in the past possibly because you were too small to understand? Fear of fire for one is much more irrational than fear of dark because fire is something that ensures our survival unless I have good reason to fear it which I do. It's always better to know what caused it, that way maybe one day you can overcome it. Oh good lord I sound like such a psyhiatrists.." Mari ended another long speech with surprise, she didn't remember talking with anyone this much before.

"You should read it. I don't know how much I should or am supposed to tell you, but I better put you on your guard. You see people tell me things, things that I am not supposed to share, things they don't want someone else to know so I can't give you much details. James Blood is a werewolf who doesn't believe that anyone who doesn't wish to become like him, deserves to live. He is also very vengeful. Victims rarely escape him, but when they do and he knows who they are, he never stops the hunt. I know all this because he attacked someone, a close friend of mine in fact. I won't tell you what he did to her, but he hurt her very badly, but she escaped and now she lives in fear that he would come and finish what he started. He attacks during the day aswell as during the night so take my advise, be careful & run away as fast as you can if you see him before he has time to even remember your face." Mari chose her words carefully as she finished another long speech. " Also I'm sorry for talking so much, but I didn't know how to express what I wanted in little words." she added apologeticly thinking of her too long tongue or maybe it was just a long thought.

"Sounds quite extreme." She thought about what she said. "I hadn't thought about that in that way. I guess it's better if you're prepare to it, logically. But I'm glad because fear can't be cured with magic. I think fear makes us more logical, less more arrogant. Fear makes us more humans. People would tried to rob gringotts more often if they wouldn't be afraid to be caught and sent to Azkaban. They would kill other people just because they can. Without fear we would have some twisted version of anarchy, only without self-control. We would soon destroyed the Earth. So, fear is a sense for which I am the most grateful. It makes that we live." Nym watched the calm surface of the water while she thought. Yet she was careful to stay far enough away from the edge, she was known the feeling of a fall into the water and didn't want to repeat that.

"I'm afraid of dark itself, not something or someone in it. I know it's irrational, but I can't do anything. Everytime I need to go out when it's dark, at first I'm terrified, and I have that unusual feeling of deja vu, like something or someone is coming again. Only I can't remember where I've seen that before. But after some time when I get used to it, it becomes easier, I can't say I'm fully comfortable even now, but it's better than when we left. And it will be better, in proportion with the time spent in the dark."
"I will. He seems like a new Voldemort. 'King is dead, long live the king.'"  Nym repeated a saying that she had heard in some film. "It's okay, you don't need to apologize." she smiled.

What a strange comparation. It was an intresting philosophy yet still weird. "You know Nym, a lot of people don't abstain from stealing or killing just because they don't want to go to prison. It can't be really compared with fear of darkness or in my case fear of fire. Yes fears make us more humane, but fear like many other things is useful only if with measure. There's an invisible line between good and bad like there's also a line between rational and irrational fear. Usually you're always close to it like there is good and bad in everyone, but things happen that triggers you to cross that line. There's probably something in your past even if you don't remember it. Who knows, maybe you're safer not knowing? Maybe it wasn't something that bad, if you were a child perhaps your mind created a too strong picture of something.." she replied a little too much phylosophical, but than again they were only posting theories, it wasn't an exact science..

"Try to think of something else like i do when it becomes critical.. Would you like some milkshake for example?" Mari thought fast as she tried to distract her with something else. Usually thinking about it made it worse. She got the idea as they aproached the guy who made milkshakes on the path by the river. People selled the strangest asortment of things she ever saw here. One guy dressed like an Indian was selling something that looked like a crown made of pigeon feathers. Mari laughed silently at his foolishness. He wanted 5 pounds for that big piece of junk. As they passed him he started playing an Indian war hymn on something that looked like a wooden drum. It sounded utterly ridiculus. She inconspiciously evaluated how Nymeria was handling it.

"Sometimes, I'm just too optimistic, I want to believe that all people are good, just they make bad decisions, from time to time. I know it's too childish but I can't help myself." Nym shrugged, unable to disagree with Mariana's opinion. "Maybe, since I don't remember I can't say yes nor no for sure unless I do not remember, but I doubt that, it's been long time, I could remember at all times, but I didn't, and nothing's changed. I'm starting to believe it's lost forever." She was glad for the change topic. Discussing about her fear of the dark while they were walking in the dark didn't make it any easier.

"Sounds yummy." They bought the milkshakes, a young guy who was selling them had a really great choice, and Nym has never tasted most of them, so she took one of the pineapple. She also saw how a guy with a milkshake offers Mariana a bill with his number on the back. She wait to move away ten feet from him "You should definitely call him," Nym smiled to her "have you seen these eyes? He is absolutely handsome. And he couldn't take his eyes away from you." Although she met Mariana earlier today, she had some strange feeling like she knows her for years. She could only hope that Mariana will not be angry at her because of the  proposal. "Oh, and he makes brilliant milkshakes."
"Lovely crown", she said sarcastically yet hoping that the Indian hadn't heard her so that he couldn't try to sell them one. If he was trying to bring the customers with his playing he should think about changing instrument. The drums are not for him.