His Mark
[Knowledge is Power]

7th September 2016
Wednesday

Julius reached into Aileen's mind after breaking a rather weak barrier, which was most probably due to the boy's unconscious state, and found himself in the same corridor that he had just found him in.

This must be his most recent memory..., Julius thought as he saw Aileen leaving the Potions classroom.
He then proceeded to organise his parchment scrolls inside his bag, as he got hit by- what seemed suspiciously like the flipendo jinx, and landed headfirst onto the ground.
I have to find out who did this so I can thank them personally..., Julius thought to himself as he tried to decide what he wanted to see next.

He then felt a blinding sense of hot rage that almost blew him from the boy's mind.
Julius felt himself miss a step, he was so shaken up. He then forced his conscious back in, determined to find the source of such explosive anger.

He saw a white sheet of Muggle paper with uniformed shaped letters stating rather crudely, that Aileen had been kicked out of the orphanage, and only grudgingly accepted after the Headmaster flatly refused.

Harsh thought Julius.
Maybe I should dig a bit deeper... and so he ventured further into Aileen's mind.

He found himself in the middle of a rundown, but clean entrance hall of a spacious house, in front of him stood a small boy with fiery red hair.
His pajamas were a dull grey; gray, just like the color, which he radiated. He had a quiet external attitude and almost absent facial expression, but Julius could see the deep sadness in the five year old's eyes.

A significant amount of time seemed to have past, and just as Julius was about to move on to another memory the boy began to mumble to himself.

Julius walked closer to the boy and looked deep into his mismatched eyes, he recognized- or rather felt a kind of disappointment and loneliness take over.

"No one wants me.." The child suddenly mumbled, and Julius felt as if he had almost fallen.
"The other children don't want to play with me. They are afraid." The child looked down to his clenched hands and frowned.
"It's not my fault that weird things happen around me..." With these words he paused.

For a tiny moment, his expression changed.
His childlike eyes were marked by longing.
He looked as if he was about to cry, as if he wanted to be hugged by someone, but his tough rigid facial features, unusual for a child his age, came back quickly.
"I have to be strong...I have to or the same thing as last time will happen..." The child whispered to himself, and wiped away a lonely tear that had managed to escape his eyes.
"Or he will come back," The little boy said, clenching his fists tightly, his eyes held a look of pure fear that strongly contrasted his otherwise expressionless face.

Suddenly one of the doors creaked open very quietly.
A woman wearing a nightgown walked into the entrance hall and walked towards the boy.
She had auburn hair, that sparkled silvery in some areas.
She looked like a woman in middle age, although Julius suspected that she must have aged prematurely.
She had a stern air about her.
Her facial wrinkles pointed to a tough and strenuous past.
Her body was small and skinny, except her round belly that had certainly nothing to do with pregnancy.

The woman approached the boy- and Julius who was standing besides him.
They exchanged no words to each other at first, and the boy didn't react to her presence.
"Aileen, I told you a million times that you have to sleep at night, like all normal children! Or do I have to get Mr. Cyril to come teach you some manners again?" The woman asked the child, a sickly smile playing at her lips.

Julius looked down at the boy's face, and was surprised to see that the cold emotionless mask had been replaced by a look of pure and utter horror.

He silently thanked Cordelia for refraining him from smashing Aileen.

Attempting to carry on his initial intentions, he dove in further into Aileen's murky mind, sifting through memories, most held isolation and pain, buried under a cold emotionless mask.

One memory in particular grabbed his attention, reeling him in.

Julius entered a dimly lit room where the frail body of a small child trembling with fear leaned against an ice-cold stone wall.
His whole body was covered with bruises and inflamed, open wounds.
If Julius hadn't known any better, he would have thought that the child in front of him had been tortured to death.
But the boy was still alive.
Even if only barely.
Silent tears ran down his cheeks.
The little boy crawled to a small niche in the wall, his face contorted in pain.
His mismatched eyes looked searchingly around in the basement, as if looking for a hiding place.

Julius suddenly realised, that the little boy was Aileen.
He directed his attention towards the approaching footsteps that were coming from the other side of the door.
No, there had to be more if he heard correctly.
Will they finally let me go? Little Aileen's thoughts rang loud and clear throughout the basement.

Julius suddenly noticed the glow of a flashlight close to the boy's hiding place.
A few rough, strong hands pulled the small boy out of his hiding place and threw him on a thin mat.
Only now could Julius see who visited them in this godforsaken place.
It seemed to be the matron of the Orphanage and a seemingly drunk disgusting old man.
The two smiled sadistically at the small child and the man sent the matron away.
Then he turned to the boy.
A nasty smirk settled over his face before he pulled the boy up to his feet by the hair and grabbed him roughly by the wrists.

He dragged the small boy upstairs and stopped after several passages in front of a room with a heavy looking door, with Julius hot on their heels.
The man let go of the boy for a short bit and unlocked the door.

Aileen was grabbed by the wrists once again.
The older man pushed him onto the floor in the middle of the room and locked the door again.

Then he walked over to the boy and his smile was even nastier and sneakier than it had been before.

Aileen was now shaking with fear.
His whole body shook with sobs, his tremors grew stronger with each passing second.
"What are you going to do to me?" The boy asked, his voice cracking when he saw the man reach for a screwdriver.

Julius could see that the little boy sitting on that filthy floor, with fear written all over his face had not wanted to ask that, but the words just slipped.

The man looked at Aileen silently for some time, and Julius reckoned that he wasn't going to get an answer but then the man spoke: "I'll teach you to be obedient and do what you are told," the man grinned, "Ms Plum thinks it's about time to educate your properly. I am of the same opinion as her."
Now Aileen was shaking even more.
Julius was well aware of what the man was about to do.
Aileen crawled toward the other end of the room, almost crying out in pain as his back touched the wall.

************

Julius couldn't believe what he had just witnessed, and proceeded to shift Aileen slightly so his face wasn't smacking against his butt anymore.

Now I really have to check if this is the boy Mother had mentioned, he thought as he left the horrid scene he had just witnessed behind.