Silence (Char and Cobie)

Charlotte had come from getting herself washed up in the girls bathroom, she didn't want to have that blood lingering on her any longer than it had to be, biting her lip as she snuck down the corridors to finally reach the Trophy room she stood in the doorway just loooking at the place where she had found those two kissing and her heart throbbed painfully in her chest. Pressing a hand to it Charlotte waited until the pain subsided.

Cautiously she walked into the room, looking about to see if anyone else was in there, seeing none she took a seat on one of the benches surrounding the walls of the room and stared at the floor, flashes of what had happened minutes ago ran through her mind making tears spring to her eyes.

Cobalt gradually faded into view in the doorway of the trophy room, dressed casually in a plain white t-shirt and muggle jeans. He moved over to a bench opposite Charlotte and looked at the floor for a few moments, in complete silence, to avoid startling his fragile daughter. Slowly he looked up at her, sighing softly,

"Hey Charlotte." he greeted her weakly, the ever present strength gone from his voice completely after the whole affair. Tiredly he ran a hand through his hair, "I'm not good at this dad stuff but I think we need to talk..."

He paused here as he tried to think of what to say,

"Charlotte... what happened to you was monsterous." he spoke softly, barely above a whisper before raising his voice to speaking level again, "But I promise you... no one will ever do that to you again. I swear it. I swear on my magic and on my life that I, Cobalt Julius Smith, will do everything within my power to protect you from all forms of harm."

Charlotte gasped when she saw someone come into the Trophy room and her eyes widened as she realised that it was Cobalt, quickly she got up from her seat and scurried behind one of the cabinets sliding down it so that he couldn't see her. She wanted to hide from him. He was scary. Charlotte sobbed silently before realising that she couldn't make a sound no matter how much she wanted to.

She peered out from behind the trophy cabinet, a scowl on her face. Cobalt lied to her. He had lied to her and he was lying now. How could she trust him? Lips forming in a soundless snarl Charlotte lept up from the floor still staying her distance away and mouthed:

"You lie! You said you'd protect me before and you didn't! It's your fault this happened to me Professor Smith, you are NOT my father or maybe you are since both of my fathers have lied to me and gotten me hurt."

Charlotte steamed clenching her fists at her side.

Cobalt translated what she'd said almost instantly.

Slowly, he stood up from the bench and stared her down. Even as he used his fierce stare to intimidate his daughter, he knew that this was something he couldn't fix. There was an element of him that had been at fault in this episode, for not monitoring her constantly. He'd rationalised it as giving her a life of her own but it might have gotten her killed. But he wasn't about to go into a depression about something that he couldn't change. He stood up straight,

"Charlotte, I could not have stopped what happened to you without doing what I had originally planned. Do you know what that was?" he titled his head to the side, "Originally I wanted to pull you out of school. Hide you away behind wards keyed to my blood until you finished your training. But I decided against it. Why? So that you could have a regular life. But that ends now. You're going to finish your trainning before you even set foot in the world again."

Charlotte looked at Cobalt with wide eyes, true she was scared but she wasn't just about to let him lock her away without her putting up some sort of struggle. She moved away from him to the door of the room and stood there for a moment letting all of her anger roll into one big ball and she looked at Cobalt, tears in her eyes.

"I hate you."

She mouthed and turned to walk away.

As she did so, she reached into her coat pocket and took out the picture of her and Cobalt, and the adoption certificate she had and threw them on the floor, walking away from them.

Cobalt looked down at the photograph and the adoption papers silently. He sat back down on the bench before summoning them both to his hand. Looking at Charlotte's happy, smiling, face he growled a little in anger at what had happened, burning the photograph before simply staring at the document in his hands. He raised his wand to burn it as well but stopped.

Charlotte might want to end their relationship but he didn't.

Silently he folded the document and hide it in his pocket before turning intangible and sinking slowly through the floor.