Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:00 am Posts: 274 Location: My computer's D drive
I gripped the broom's handle tight, eying the busy world below me with curiosity. The sky seemed to be the only place I could get privacy lately, seeing as I had become one of the most accomplished wizards of the twenty-first century. Often, I would find myself being poked and prodded with, “good on you, mate!”s and “too bad you declined that offer with us, laddie! You could have gone much farther...” Honestly, I was getting quite annoying and hard to keep up with. I found that a light breeze above Malahide Estuary near my old church could clear my boggled mind almost at any time. The soft glow of the setting sun was reflected in the faintly dancing water, pinks and oranges shifting with the autumn breeze. Muggles of all ages strolled around the edges of the waterway, lovers hand in hand, and mothers struggling to keep their children within a safe distance, barking at them to not throw rocks at squirrels and keep away from the water.
The sun's warmth dropped below the horizon after what seemed like a lifetime, and I knew it was about time for me to meet with an interviewer by the name of Larcuris Steedly. He would ask question after question, some I knew I would not be willing to answer. The thought of him scratching at things of my past made my stomach clench, and my mind would race left and right to find suitable answers that could be put in the paper without loosing a few readers. I had met with this Mr.Steedly before, and despite my hatred for interviewers, I would say he would have to be my favorite. My reason for this would most likely be because of the homemade cookies his wife would make just like my mother use to when I was little. I tipped the broom forward and dipped down under the treeline, a good half a mile away from the muggles around the estuary. I landed effortlessly and stuffed the broom into my bag, an extension charm hiding it away, and I swiftly canceled the disillusion spell that had kept my secret from the muggles I had hoovered over.
The Steedlys' house stood near the end of a long driveway on an island (if you could call it that) by the name of Howth. It would take a good half an hour to get there the muggle way from the estuary; however, for the years I had known it, I never took apparation for granted. The house, made from dark bricks stacked into a three story building, stood between a generous amount of trees, slowly changing into the color of fall. Larcurius was already outside, his hands held behind his back and an award-winning smile on his long face. He was tall, dressed in a dark blue muggle suit, and his wavy, shoulder-length black hair was matched with a nicely groomed beard and accented with bright blue eyes.
“Ah, Mister Fencrow! Lovely to see you again,” Steedly said with a thick London accent as he turned to me and bowed his head.
“Good afternoon, Mister Steedly,” I replied as I approched up the driveway. In the corner of my eyes, I spotted a stout, round man with thinning hair and a sour look on his face, waving his wand at some sort of muggle electrical box. “I didn't know you were so attune with muggle culture.”
“Ah yes, well... I'm glad to say Howth is turning more into a wizard community. We are removing the unnecessary items from the house.”
“Excuse me, sir. I wasn't aware that such high-class wizards wanted to be so close around muggles,” I said, almost as a question.
Mr.Steedly gave a soft chuckle, but no reply other than a wave of his hand toward the wizard working away on the electrical box, “well, he will not be in our way! Pay no attention to him. Come in, come in!” I just nodded and followed the man inside his house. The house seemed to be almost completely muggle-looking, and in fact, the layout reminded me a little of my aunt and uncle's house in Swords. The front door opened up into a wide room being used as the living room. The floors were a beautiful polished, dark mahogany, the walls a simple coffee-cream color, and the furniture black leather. A ceiling-to-floor window sat at the back of the room, golden curtains framing it. A huge Persian rug made from basic, pale brown colors lay below a granite coffee table between a long couch adorned with golden pillows and a loveseat to match. The sweet smell of baking chocolate filled the air, making it a bit more homey.
Mr.Steedly motioned for me to take a seat on the larger couch after asking if I would like any tea. After graciously accepting, he called politely to his wife who was working away on cookies, and he sat on the loveseat across from me before crossing one leg over the other and casually holding his hands on his knee. I sat as well and shifted the black tie around my neck to fit more comfortably.
“Mister Fencrow,” Steedly began. I looked to him, my eyebrows raised in a motion for him to continue, “how on Earth have you been? It seems as if it has been ages since we last spoke.”
I nodded and took a glance around the room, spotting another granite table along the wall behind Steedly. On top was a large class enclosure housing a python of sorts. I knew this creature to be named Drizziana, Driz for short.
I looked back to Steedly, a smile now planted on my lips to act more relaxed than I was,“I have been well, and you?”
“Ah, well! Very well!” Steedly went on to tell me how his youngest daughter, Hanna, had received her letter of acceptance to Hogwarts a month or two ago and how excited everyone was to have her be going to school soon. I had met Hanna before, a small blond girl with cunning brown eyes and an ambitious attitude. She was mature for her age, and she was what I figured Liss Crest was like when she was eleven.
After several passing minutes of nothing but chit-chat, Mrs.Steedly, a petite woman with an oval face and deep brown eyes came out with a tray full of cookies and tea for me and Mr.Steedly. She wore a business suit of sorts with a pencil skit and her hair in a tight bun. She gave me a pleasant smile and wandered off to leave me and Mr.Steedly to our discussion.
“You are quite the mysterious one, Mister Fencrow,” the man said with a sip of his tea. My eyes moved to him in question. “After your heroic event with saving that muggle school a few weeks ago, well... How did you know that the place would be going up in flames?”
I felt my heart drop into my stomach. For some reason, I seemed to have shut out most of what had happened that day. I took my teacup in hand and took a small sip before answering, “to be honest, I don't remember much. Something about that day... I guess there's something that I would rather not remember. And... I guess my mind has done quite a good job to erase it.”
Steedly nodded slowly, and he asked in a cautious voice,“what -do- you remember?”
“I uhm...” I sighed and sat my tea down on the sliver platter next to the oh so tempting cookies that were calling my name. But my mind wandered as I stared at the treats, and I rubbed the thickening stubble on my chin. “I remember I was with a few of my Hogwarts friends... We were searching for...” I closed my eyes and thought, “something..”
“A bomb,” Steedly's voice said almost too quickly. I turned to look at him. A bomb? I don't remember a bomb.
“Uh... Yes, right. A bomb,” I said, shifting uncomfortably. Why couldn't I remember this? “I remember we stayed at the school for a while, and we couldn't find anything... We were about to leave, but we got lost. I knew the... event,” whatever this event was, “would take place at a certain time-”
“How did you know such things?”
“I... don't know, sir. I can't remember.”
Steedly nodded and motioned for me to continue as he took another sip of his tea.
“As we were going to leave, we found ourselves lost. The... event was getting closer, and I knew we needed to get out of there to stay safe. We ended up in the courtyard of the school, where I knew the... event would happen, at the exact time I knew it would take place.”
“And yet, here you are,” Steedly pointed out with a smile.
“Yes... Here I am.”
“How did you get out? And how did you save all those muggle students?”
I rubbed the tips of my fingers on my temples and closed my eyes, trying my best to remember things. Unfortunately, all I was getting were details: Ashlee's hair had been let down that day, and she was wearing a lacy blue top and a tight black skirt that reached her knees. It was at 10:34 AM that the event was going to take place, and I remember looking at my pocketwatch at 9:48 AM and 23 seconds as we passed the cafeteria. It was the same moment that Wesley flipped a stray lock of hair from his eyes. I remember a flash of white from my wand, but I couldn't tell you which spell I had used, or where, or why. I remember the horrified look in Ashlee's eyes, accompanied with a bright orange glow of fire.
“Mister Fencrow?” I looked over to see Steedly's eyebrows knitted together in concern. “Are you alright?”
“Yes,” I said with a nod. “I'm sorry, I just don't recall...”
Steedly frowned and nodded faintly, “perhaps you should see a healer?”
“Perhaps.”
“We can meet on another day if it is more convenient,” Steedly uncrossed his leg and leaned forward slightly with narrowed eyes wild with worry.
“If we could, thank you,” I offered him a smile, and the other man stood to walk me out. I pushed myself from the couch and grabbed a couple cookies before following Steedly to the door.
“Well, I will send an owl for you in a few days.”
“Thank you, sir. It's much appreciated. I'm sorry I couldn't be of any help to your report.”
“Oh, no, no! Not at all,” Steedly smiled warmly to me and grasped the handle of the door.
The heat that I felt when the door opened was astounding. For a moment, I knew that this had to be what Hell felt like. A heard a loud pop, whether it was from whatever it was that had caught fire outside, or something in my body collapsing. For a split second, I could see the burning white flames of an explosion, but my body had already become numb from the heat. I couldn't feel myself being pushed back into the house with incredible force of the explosion that had just taken my life.
Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:00 am Posts: 274 Location: My computer's D drive
// This is IC, feel free to RP that you're character saw this if for some reason you want to.
Kad crossed her left leg over her right knee as she flipped the page of her blue, title-less book. It had been quiet around the Hogwarts camp lately, but at least she was able to leave the Ministry whenever she wanted, right? Well... Still didn't mean she wasn't bored out of her mind. She lifted her head when she heard the piano being played behind her, a tune she could recognize anywhere. Kad leaned forward and looked over the back of the brown chair toward the source.
“Is that Blackmill I hear?” Kad spoke up to the cloaked figure, whose fingers danced over the keys of the piano.
“Indeed it is! I didn't know anyone else listened to it,” the figure spoke. Even though the red hood covered his face, Kad could tell by the Irish accent and the small bit of chainmail she could see at this distance that the boy playing the piano was Fencrow. She didn't know him extremely well, but what she did know about him was he was stupid enough to be target practice, and apparently he had good taste in music.
“Oh yeah, I love Blackmill!” Kad grinned and lowered her book into her lap after closing it. She leaned over the arm of the chair to get a better look at the piano and its player. “You're cover is really nice.”
Cray gave a quick glance over his shoulder to the Slytherin girl and smiled, “thank ya. I'm trying to get better at it.” The next few minutes were filled with no words, but only the sound of the piano being played. After finishing, Cray closed the lid and stood as Kad clapped with a grin. The Gryffindor boy chuckled and bowed lowly to the applause.
“Very well done,” Kad added as Cray took his seat on the couch, lounging back into it with a tired, long breath. “How long have you played for?”
Cray shrugged and pushed his hood down with his left hand, “I played- err.. Well, I was learning to play the organ when I was about seven, but it didn't get very far. I've been playing by ear for a few years though.” Kadaja nodded with a small smile, and Cray stretched his arms, “you play anything?”
“Me? Oh, no, not really. I prefer to listen I guess.”
Cray nodded twice, “I've heard you're pretty good at tarot cards. Not really an instrument, but I've actually been meaning to ask you if you could give me a reading sometime.”
Kad's face lit up at the mention of tarot cards, and her lips pulled into a bright grin, “oh! Sure! When would you like? Tarot readings are a lot of fun.”
“Any time you're free. It's not super important.”
“Well, I'm free right now if you're up for it.”
“Sure,” Cray nodded and sat up a bit from the couch. “Where?”
“Uhh... Right here is fine! Lemme go get them!” Kad grinned and pointed to the floor between them, in front of the cushions to her left. She hopped up and crammed her book into her bag as she rushed off to the girls dorms in search of her tarot cards that had been rescued from the Slytherin Commons after the attack. Cray nodded once more and slid to the floor, crawling over to sit next to the cushions. Kad nearly skipped back to her place and lowered herself to the floor, a few feet in front of Cray, who stared at the box of tarot cards in her hand like it was a chocolate bar.
Kad opened the box, setting it on the floor after pulling the cards out, “have you had a reading before?”
“Yes, Xander Black gave me one in the Entrance Hall once. And I'll have the deck with just the minor... No inversion though.”
“Kay, and that's right! I had heard about that,” Kad spoke, splitting the cards into two piles and began shuffling. Cray nodded in reply, his eyes never leaving the cards as the girl shuffled the deck several times. Kad raised a brow at the Gryffindor and tilted her head curiously to the side at the boy's intense concentration, but she said nothing about it. “Alright, I'm assuming you have a question in your head already?”
“Aye.”
“Alrighty, well then let's start,” Kad smiled as she spoke, seeming overjoyed that she actually had something to pass the time, even if it wouldn't be for long. She laid the pile of cards, face down, in front of Cray. “Alright, split the deck into three, and stack them in whatever order you wish.”
Cray did so, taking three cards from the top and setting them to is right, then splitting the larger pile in half, as even as he could. The bottom half switched to the top half, and the three other cards were laid on top of that. Kad nodded and scooped the deck up into her hands, sliding the top card off with her left index finger and thumb, but not looking at its face just yet.
“Ready?”
Cray finally looked away from the deck of cards to Kad and nodded with a smile, “ready.”
“Alright. The first card is your present. This card represents the question at hand right now and for what it is,” Kad spoke, laying the first card face up in front of Cray. After eying the card, she cleared her throat and explained, “the two of cups. Emotional and spiritual love. Love blessed by heaven. This can mean in friendship as well, not just intimate. Whatever this relationship is, it is strong, even though it may have been rocky at some points.”
Cray nodded silently, a gesture to continue. Kad waited a moment, watching Cray before laying the second card down on Cray's side of the first card, turning it 90 degrees. “This card is the problem or challenge card. It shows what is getting in the way or what is keeping you from your goal,” Kad said before looking down at the card laying on the floor. “The Knight of Coins. A dependable, responsible man, hard work and perseverance. This being the problem or challenge card shows that normality may be getting in the way, or perhaps how you are handling the situation.”
Kad looked to Cray, who seemed to have no questions as of yet. She took this as a sign to go on, and she flipped the next card face up underneath the last, laying like the first. “This is what was happening long ago, perhaps a year or two ago if it spans that far back... The Queen of Coins. A serious, intelligent, motherly woman. She represents security and generosity. Before this problem or situation began, you felt secure and sure of yourself and others.”
Cray shifted to sit criss-crossed now, and he rested his elbows on his calves, folding his hands together. He placed his chin on the knuckles of his fingers silently, looking over the display of cards in front of him. Kadaja laid the next card beside the first, to Cray's left, her right. “This card, the five of wands, refers to petty arguments between groups, or a group, of people. It can also relate to competition in general. This is what has happened recently. The last 6 months or so if that is considered recent in the situation.
“The next card refers to the outcome if everything turns out the way you're planning it to. The best outcome in your mind.” Kad laid the fifth card above the first card (from Cray's perspective), and gave it a tap with her fingertip as she explained, “the two of coins. Emotional ups and downs, and juggling finances, work, or relationships.” Kad looked to Cray, who seemed to find the cards the most interesting thing in the room at the moment. Kad lowered her voice slightly and leaned over the cards, “if this is the best outcome in your mind, I highly suggest thinking of another plan.”
Cray looked up to the red-haired girl and nodded with a slight smirk before looking back to the cards, “what's next?”
“Next is the immediate future,” Kad said, sitting back again and laying the next card down, to the left of the first in Cray's position. “Seven of Cups, fantasy and illusion distract the seeker. This means that choices need to be made in confusion and disorganization.”
The boy narrowed his eyes at this card before nodding faintly. Kad took a moment, sensing Cray's slight shift of uneasiness, before setting the next card down on Cray's lower right hand corner of the cards. She pointed to this card and tapped her fingertip against it again, “the six of coins represents how you see yourself in this situation. Generous and helpful... Giving gifts and trying to be positive, perhaps trying to be fair.” Without much hesitation, the girl pulled the next card from the top of the deck, laying it directly above the last, “the queen of cups shows your environment and how they are reacting to the situation. Compassion and understanding, love and support in whatever is going on...” Assuming no interruption from Cray, Kad took a moment to let the card sink in before drawing the next and laying it about the Queen of Cups. “This card shows your fears. The queen of swords is a sorrowful woman in authority. She understands pain and sadness. Perhaps you are afraid of someone getting hurt,” she said softly, and she noted Cray's small nod. She flipped the last card over, above the ninth. “This is the overall outcome of the situation. The Ten of Coins shows a stable home, riches, family life, and success achieved. So whatever you are hoping for in this situation, it seems like it should turn out pretty okay,” Kad smiled to Cray, who finally looked up from the cards to offer a smile and nod back. “Andddd... That's it! You're all done!” The Slytherin grinned, and after several moments of looking over the cards, Cray nodded and began to pick up the cards, placing them in a pile before handing them back to Kadaja.
“Thank you,” he smiled and pushed himself up, offering his hand to Kad to help her up once the cards were back in the box. “I'm going to go work on some stuff. I'll see you around.”
“Yep! See you around, Cray,” Kad gave him a wave, stuffing her cards in her bag as Cray wandered off into the boys' dorms of the tent.
Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:00 am Posts: 274 Location: My computer's D drive
I know you've read So many books You keep a breast of all the things you think you should You've got your own home grown philosophy And it works for you But please don't try to make it work for me
You have nothing to prove But you’re trying much too hard Stop trying to change me (Stop trying to change me…) I am what I am (I am what I am…) No I don’t need you to save me (I don’t need you to save me…) I am what I am (I am what I am…)
I don’t want you to show me (I don’t need you to show me…) Because I stand where I stand (I stand where I stand…) I just need you to know me (just need you to know me) Just know who I am (Just know who I am…)
Just know who I am... Just know who I am...
I know you feel You need to prove That you are good at *simply* Everything you try to do And people *hang* on your every word That you deliver With conviction Though they may just be absurd
Leave your armor behind Free your vulnerable mind
Stop trying to change me (Stop trying to change me…) I am what I am (I am what I am…) No I don’t need you to save me (I don’t need you to save me…) I am what I am (I am what I am…) I don’t want you to show me (I don’t need you to show me…) Because I stand where I stand (I stand where I stand…) I just need you to know me (just need you to know me) Just know who I am (Just know who I am…)
Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:00 am Posts: 274 Location: My computer's D drive
I've become impossible holding on to when when everything seemed to matter more the two of us all used and beaten up watching fate as it flows down the path we have chose
you and me we're in this together now none of them can stop us now we will make it through somehow you and me if the world should break in two until the very end of me until the very end of you
awake to the sound as they peel apart the skin they pick and they pull trying to get their fingers in well they've got to kill what we've found well they've got to hate what they fear well they've got to make it go away well they've got to make it disappear
the farther I fall I'm beside you as lost as I get I will find you the deeper the wound I'm inside you for ever and ever I'm a part of
you and me we're in this together now none of them can stop us now we will make it through somehow you and me if the world should break in two until the very end of me until the very end of you
all that we were is gone we have to hold on when all our hope is gone we have to hold on all that we were is gone but we can hold on
you and me we're in this together now none of them can stop us now we will make it through somehow you and me even after everything you're the queen and I'm the king nothing else means anything
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