Painless days had become rare the closer they were getting to the anniversary. It was rarely anything more than a dull ache most of the time, something that was easily ignored. But ever since Elphias Doge had dropped dead at an official event, the scar had felt raw and burned like the day the curse had hit. Today was a rare blessing. Fabian felt light like he hadn’t in a long while and so he’d decided to seize the moment.
It was unusually mild for October so a detour through the park the only sensible choice to have an excuse to enjoy the evening just a little while longer. On a whim, he stopped to get an ice cream – chocolate and caramel, as always – before taking a left turn to head down a slightly less busy path. He was walking maybe a little faster than usual, his steps a little lighter, too.
He noticed the figure on the bench from afar, simply because it was such a familiar one. To Fabian, Dedalus would always stick out in a crowd, and it had nothing to do with the cane. It was a strangely peaceful image, his friend sitting and reading as if there wasn’t another war approaching, as if he had not a care in the world. So peaceful indeed, that Fabian almost didn’t dare to disturb it, stopping at a small distance and simply watching for a minute.
But of course, nothing ever escaped Dedalus. Fabian smiled and approached, squeezing his friend’s shoulder as a way of greeting and revealing himself as he sat down next to him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be creepy. What’s that you’re reading? Fact, fiction or a little bit of both?”
Dedalus couldn’t deny that (in the wake of the Doge family’s murder) something in him was a bit worried for his own safety. His hand latched onto the grip of his cane, where he kept his wand hidden and readily accessible, ready to go into a fight if he needed to. But at the sound of Fabian’s voice, a smile stretched across Dedalus’s face for half a second.
“You may not have meant to be creepy,” Dedalus jested, reaching down for the book he had accidentally dropped on the ground between his feet. “But it didn’t keep you from being creepy, you ass. As for the book, it’s “History of Magic’. I’m thinking of having the course-required textbooks commissioned into Braille for future blind students, so I figured I’d test it. There are a few errors in it, though, so I’ll have to send it back to the editor.”
He leaned back and took another lick of his ice cream, enjoying the night breeze. It wasn’t particularly cold out yet, but the chills were getting stronger with each passing night. Soon, the snow would be here...
“Are you going back on the road anytime soon?” he asked silently, trying not to get lost in his thoughts again. “I’m a bit concerned, what with the Doge family incident. It just... doesn’t feel right. At all.”
