The Depp couple had already left to their ground-floor bedroom. Bryan stood at the bottom of the stairs leading to the second floor, holding the set of new pajamas Mrs. Depp had just given him, with the speechless Alia beside him.
Bryan could detect a tinge of scrutiny in Alia's gaze toward him. This wasn't surprising, as the Depp couple's excessive enthusiasm seem to have finally aroused so suspicion in Alia, but he believed she probably hadn't guessed the truth of the matter.
This wasn't sothing one could figure out with just a clever mind and excellent imagination. Sure enough—
"My parents seem to really like you—"
Alia's voice erged tentatively, as if she were testing different theories aloud to see which might be plausible. She wanted to smooth over the earlier awkwardness and provide so suitable explanation for her parents' apparent discourteous behavior.
"I believe... well, I think it might be because you're a wizard from London, and they spent the majority of their lives in that city before emigrating to Arica. Um, your na also makes them feel a sense of familiarity."
"That's quite a reasonable assessnt."
Bryan nodded with the calm acceptance. He allowed a mont of thoughtful silence before continuing.
"In that case, would you mind showing to the guest room?"
Alia's expression shifted to one of genuine surprise, as if she had been under the assumption that Bryan would politely decline the overnight stay despite her mother's insistence.
After a mont spent processing this unexpected developnt, she recovered her composure and nodded with awkwardness that made her movents seem almost chanical.
"Oh, um... yes, of course. Please follow ."
Together they climbed the stairs to the second-floor hallway. The architectural layout was simple with two bedrooms on the sa side facing the street. Opposite these bedrooms was a bathroom and laundry room that occupied the interior side of the house.
Turning on the hallway light switch, Alia pointed to the bedroom at the end of the corridor.
"That's the guest room where you'll be staying. It should have everything you need. And if you'd like to take a bath before resting for the evening—"
Alia turned and pointed to the dark room behind her with its door half-open.
"There's a bathtub in here that you're welco to use."
Bryan tried not to make the atmosphere any stranger than it already was. He nodded stiffly again and said calmly.
"Thank you. Is there anything else I should be aware of?"
"No, I don't think there's anything... Oh!"
The sudden exclamation burst from Alia's lips as so crucial detail apparently appeared in her mory.
Without giving any explanation for her abrupt reaction, she slipped past Bryan and disappeared into the pitch-black bathroom, pulling the door shut behind her with a heavy click that resounded through the quiet hallway.
Not long after, rustling sounds ca from inside the room, followed by a bang, apparently the sound of a cabinet door closing. When Alia erged again, her face which she was trying hard to keep calm was flushed bright red.
"It's the…the water heater. The control chanism... um, well, it doesn't function reliably. I thought I should adjust it slightly so it would work properly for you. I thought—I an, I thought you would know how to use Muggle technology, Mr. Watson, since you grew up in a non-magical orphanage. Oh god, I'm so sorry, I didn't an—"
"Of course, I can handle Muggle technology."
Bryan's voice was calm without a ripple. Only after Alia, almost fleeing in panic, darted into her own bedroom and disappeared from his view did Bryan smile slightly and shake his head.
Rather than imdiately sinking in the bath that Alia had prepared with such embarrassnt, Bryan decided to first familiarize himself with the guest room where he would be spending the night. He carried the pajamas down the hallway, pushed open the door at the corridor's end, and reached for the light switch.
The sudden lighting revealed a small but cozy space that had been painted in sky blue color. The furnishings were simple as aside from the bed and wardrobe, there were only a few shelves built into the inner wall for storing miscellaneous items and books.
Bryan walked to the bedside and bent down to touch the bedding with probing fingers. The soft quilts and sheets carried the scent of sunshine and fresh air, clearly having been aired outdoors in advance preparation for his visit.
Several magic books sat on the nightstand, likely belonging to Alia, placed there perhaps by the Depp couple to alleviate his boredom.
But the Depp couple didn't really understand magic, so the books they had found included a dry history of magic in the Arican wizarding world on top. However, on the cover of this magical history book, the forr headquarters of the MACUSA which was a massive building sowhere in the Appalachian Mountains still made Bryan's gaze linger longer.
Bryan and Alia didn't see each other again until bedti, but Bryan knew that when he entered the bathroom, Alia was hiding behind her bedroom door listening for sounds. After he closed the bathroom door, she hurried out of her bedroom, treading carefully as she went downstairs to use the Depp couple's bathroom.
By the ti Bryan erged from the bathroom, Alia had already returned to her bedroom.
Looking at the tightly closed door, Bryan smiled silently. He knew this young relative of his was destined to have a sleepless night.
But unlike Alia, Bryan, after lying down in bed, felt a rare sense of ease and tranquility since arriving in New York. As his mind relaxed, fatigue followed.
A refreshing breeze gently pushed open the half-closed window, and the rustling curtains created a rhythmic harmony. Find the newest release on novel※fire
Against the deep blue night sky, the full moon appeared and disappeared behind the opening and closing curtain gap. Cars occasionally passed on the main road two blocks away, their roar weakened by distance. Rather than disturbing the serenity, the faint sound made the night more peaceful and endless.
Everything about the situation was so comfortable that Bryan even felt as if he had beco an ordinary person again, without having to consider so many things, without the suffocating burden on his shoulders.
'It's not bad to be like this occasionally...'
This thought crossed Bryan's mind before his consciousness completely shut down, and then he fell into a deep sleep.
But just as Bryan had anticipated, Alia wasn't as calm and composed as he was.
The room had already fallen into darkness. Alia wrapped herself tightly in her blanket, yet her toes hidden beneath the bedding remained curled.
Her face was covered from the nose down by the blanket's edge, leaving only her eyes and forehead exposed to the air. Her eyes were wandering uncertainly through the room's hazy atmosphere as they classified familiar objects that provided no answers to the questions consuming her thoughts.
Alia was trying desperately to avoid thinking about the fact that just one wall away, Bryan Watson was sleeping in her family's guest room.
She found it genuinely difficult to describe or sort her current emotional state with any exactness. There was certainly embarrassnt, the kind of discomfort that ca from being thrust into situations outside one's experience or comfort zone.
But mixed with that embarrassnt were threads of curiosity that she couldn't quite suppress, and beneath both of those was an excitent she didn't understand and wasn't entirely certain she should be feeling.
'Why would my parents favor Bryan Watson so much?'
Inevitably, Alia began pondering these questions again.
Earlier, to cover for her parents' excessive enthusiasm, she had reluctantly given Bryan so reasons. She did think those reasons were plausible, but they couldn't fully explain everything.
Or perhaps her parents recognized that Bryan Watson was a famous figure in the Wizarding world?
Their warmth and eager hospitality toward him might be in hopes that he could help advance her career. This wasn't impossible: after all, her mother had always felt sorry for not being able to help her more in the wizarding world.
But this reason, like the two she had given Bryan earlier, was only her speculation.
Or perhaps...
Unable to think of any other plausible explanation, Alia unconsciously recalled the night of the Nundu incident, the strange reaction when Bryan took her wand, the warm current that flowed from the wand carrying a hint of joy... as if eting a relative.
Questions without answers are always the most psychologically tornting, refusing to be set aside or dismissed even when one desperately seeks rest. This particular confusion gnawed at Alia's nerves with persistent intensity, making sleep impossible despite her body's exhaustion.
She tossed restlessly in her bed, shifting positions in futile attempts to find so arrangent that might allow her mind to quiet and sleep to finally co to her.
The night stretched on with agonizing slowness as she cycled through the sa theories and questions without making any progress toward resolution.
This tortured ntal state continued through the long hours of darkness, persisting until the night reached that deepest state of darkness known as the hour before dawn.
BANG—
The sudden sharp sound erupted from sowhere below, shattering the delicate silence of the pre-dawn hours with violent abruptness. The noise was loud enough to penetrate through floors and closed doors, attracting attention even from those whose mind was drifting in the uncertain space between waking and sleeping.
Alia, whose mind had been floating in exactly that state didn't imdiately register the aning of the sound.
Her exhausted brain, desperate for any excuse to avoid full insomnia tried to provide innocent explanations: perhaps her father had risen to use the bathroom and accidentally collided with furniture in the darkness, or maybe sothing had simply fallen from a shelf.
But then—
BANG, BANG, BANG—
When similar sounds occurred dozens of tis in quick series, it could not possibly be explained by simple clumsiness or accidents, and Alia was shocked into complete alertness.
She sat quickly upright in bed, her heart was hamring against her ribs as adrenaline flooded her system in response to apparent danger.
"Mom! Dad!"
She cried out in alarm as the fear for her parents' safety overwheld every other consideration. Still wearing only her nightgown, she simply Apparated directly from her bedroom to the living room below.
The scene that appeared around her as the disorientation of Apparition faded was so shocking that for several heartbeats her face was drained of all color, becoming as pale as parchnt, and her body swayed unsteadily as her balance failed in response to the psychological shock.
The living room had been converted into sothing approaching a military occupation. Aurors from the Security Departnt filled every available space.
Alia recognized the faces she knew, they were her colleagues with whom she worked daily.
Judging by the density of figures crowding the not-so-spacious living room, at least half of the Security Departnt must have mobilized for this operation. And not only that, the green flas in the fireplace were still flickering.
Even as she watched in stunned disbelief, she saw so of her colleagues roughly yanking open the front door and rushing outside into the pre-dawn darkness. Their purpose was quite obvious, they were establishing a periter around the house, creating a cordon that would prevent anyone from entering or leaving the area without official permission.
Mr. and Mrs. Depp had been startled awake by the trendous commotion long before their daughter had appeared. The elderly couple stood leaning against their bedroom doorfra, still in their nightclothes, watching in panic-stricken confusion as a small army of wizards "occupied" their ho.
Their expressions showed utter puzzlent mixed with terror as they tried to understand what was happening and why.
Never mind the Depp couple's disbelief, even Alia, who had so experience in magical law enforcent, was shocked into speechlessness by the aggressive intensity radiating from her colleagues.
A gentle pat on Alia's shoulder almost made her jump. She turned to find Bryan standing beside her, his appearance calm and composed despite having presumably been woken from sleep by the sa commotion that had woken her up.
He gave the terrified elderly couple a warm, reassuring smile then stepped forward and looked calmly at the capable-looking witch at the front of the crowd.
"State your purpose."
The mont Bryan moved, the Aurors suddenly beca tense. They, who had been maintaining restraint, imdiately made the sa movent: Drawing their wands and pointing them at Bryan.
'So, this is no small matter...'
Bryan thought faintly, his expression turning serious. Beside him, Alia and her parents had frozen completely, too shocked and frightened to move or speak.
"I am extrely sorry—"
The witch Bryan had addressed who seed like the officer in charge of this operation stood with her fist clenched tightly inside her sleeve. Though her face showed solemn determination and rciless resolve, one could faintly hear her voice trembling, her deep tone was becoming shrill.
"Bryan Watson, you are under arrest!"
————————————
For More Chapters; /FicFrenzy
Reviews
All reviews (0)