Stormdancer | 08-19-2019 04:11 PM | Round Three WINNING Submission Entry
written by sweetpinkpixie
Later, as a feeble attempt to cease Teenie’s steady stream of furious chastising, Queenie would attest this spontaneous adventure with Aidan Cobb as piece of her intricate need to be a giver. She had already disappointed him in denying him a taste of the bread not meant for him to begin with and then once more with the song, so her compassionate spirit could not take another frown on his face. She would be unable to answer her sister’s rhetorical inquiry of whether or not his smile and fleeting moments of distraction were worth it, her only responses being those trickling down her cheeks and in the tremble of her crimson stained fingers.
Later, for right now there was such a youthful bounce to their strides that their heels barely even grazed the floor as they stealthily slinked through the corridors and maneuvered staircases.
“What’s your favorite place you’ve explored?” Aidan asked as he slipped his hand in hers, cheeks glowing like embers in the fireplace back in their common room, as he looked up in unconditional admiration at the older blonde.
“Well, suga’, there was this one time I ----”
Queenie would never get the opportunity to finish her story to Aidan. The silence in the corridor was abruptly cut, like a hot knife through butter, by the thunderous voice of the headmaster’s urgent tone. “Another situation has arisen. All are to return to their common rooms immediately and await further instructions from your Heads of House.”
It felt as though she were wading desperately through dark murky water towards the sun and fresh clean air above the surface on the shore. Each undulation inviting more and more chaos into the fray. The next recession provided Queenie with the pause for a breath and her hand pressed firmly against the stone wall for stability while her fingers tangled themselves in the tassels hanging down from the tapestry overhead - much to the displeasure of its occupants who did not take well to having their scenery stretched. The next wave gained its momentum and soon crashed against the barricade around her mind. What had been small cracks in the foundation, allowing little leaks of distant thought, was demolished and an onslaught of noise drowned the young Legilimens’ mind and was only intensified by her own trepidation. Shrill screams and cries of terror, painful wailings, cautious words of encouragement, brave intentions … an obfuscated horde of voices crippled her senses and caused her knees to buckle.
“Q-QUEENIE?!” His voice was distant, disembodied, and she could not see the manner in which his eyes had widened upon looking at her for her own had rolled back inside her head. “Q-Q-QUEENIE!? Y-You...y-youcan’tleavemetoo ----”
His plea almost cut through the rest of the noise and her fingers twitched subtly when they felt his hand close more tightly around hers as he tugged urgently. It was Teenie’s voice, sharp and precise, that acted as the lighthouse to her mind lost to her dark seas. Stay safe. Let’s play sardines, Queenie. I will find you. Teenie’s voice was faint, a side effect of the thoughts traveling over the vast canyons of other voices between the floors that separated them, but the blonde heard it all the clearer.
“PLEASE!”
Her eyes rolled back and immediately refocused on the stained cheeks of the lanky younger boy before her. “It’s all right,” she cooed, bowing her head to kisses his moist cheeks softly. “We’re going to play a game.”
His lips parted to protest, no doubt to squawkily remind her that they were meant to return to their common rooms as the headmaster’s announcement droned on, but instead his fingers bore into the back of her hand enough to cause bruises. In the distance, a sickeningly slithering sound of something heavy and with scales dragging itself across the stone floor accompanied by the clawing of hasty talons herald the appearance of a growing shadow on the wall just down the corridor from where they stood.
“That’s the...that’s the…”
“This way!” Queenie hissed as she leaped across the hallway with Aidan’s hand protectively enveloped by hers. A quick glance over her shoulder earned the sight of the shadow shortening and having a more corporeal appearance, making her movements more frantic as her first attempt to open the broom closet’s door was in vain. The older Pukwudgie was swift in her second attempt, drawing forth her flour dusted wand from her pocket. “Alohamora!” she demanded, the key hole glowing a warm yellow before the handle was turned and Queenie pulled them both inside. Unfortunately slamming the door shut in her haste startled Ilvermorny’s intruder and the beast’s clucks caused the glass jars behind them on the shelves to tremble.
Backing up until she was pressed against those same shelves, Queenie’s arms went round his quivering form. Breaths heavy and hearts pounding like Bombarda with each beat, it was neither these nor those of the talons scraping against stone down the hallway capable of quelling the clamorous unrest in her mind. Impossible to place even one brick back in place, the blonde surrendered to her gift and began sieving through all the voices for the only one that mattered in this moment. Someone was screaming in agony about the serrated puncture wounds in their leg. Another hoping this meant classes would be canceled tomorrow because they had not yet even begun to study for their Arithmancy exam. Each voice was amplified by her own unrest and unstable state, but just as her knees began to buckle once more and her brow dotted in perspiration...she found her. Let’s play sardines, Queenie. I will find you…
And Teenie always did find her.
Her breathing shallow and hushed, she gently combed her fingers through Aidan’s soft mousy hair. “We're just playing sardines,” she assured, his face twisting and eyes widening so that it was a wonder they were able to remain in his head at all. “Teenie will find us.”
Another screeching cluck and both realized that the headmaster’s announcement had ceased. A stillness took over their dark hiding place and, for the briefest of moments, she dared hope that the beast had continued on and down the next corridor. THUNK! They both screamed in fright as their limbs tangled around one another. THUNK THUNK THUNK! The strong pounding against the door was like a woodpecker’s relentless drumming in pursuit of an insect. His face buried in her bosom, cries muffled and tears caught by her blouse, a memory began to manifest itself in the forefront of his mind so vivid and loud that it was impossible for Queenie to ignore in her compromised state.
“It’s okay, ahote...don’t be afraid to cry. It will free your mind of sorrowful thoughts…” she parroted. Her voice then effortlessly wove itself into song, humming the same Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral as before. Though her own heart swelled, she soon felt him pull away and exhaled on a sharp gasp when she saw the look on his face. Stomach painfully churning, her already pale features faded until they rivaled that of the flour that dusted her cheeks.
“How did you know that? Only mom ever called me that!” he jeered. “Y-You’re in cahoots with that thing! You’re leading it straight to us! That’s why you’re acting so weird! You’re gonna let it kill me!”
“N-No! Aidan!” Queenie’s eyes widened and pupils dilated. “No, no, you've got it all wrong! I-I can explain! Ju---”
“No!” he exclaimed, swatting away her outstretched hand and taking four steps back to her two forward ones. “You’re a freak! Crazy! You’re crazy! I-I-I’m not stayin’ in here with you!”
She tried to reach out to him once more, but his feral instincts had his palms striking her chest like a sack of bricks and knocked her off balance so she went crashing into the shelves behind her. Brooms toppled over, glass jars shattered on contact with the floor, a steel bucket fell and struck her head. All was a blur and her hand pressed itself against something warm and crimson trickling down her temple and sealing her eye shut. She could just barely make out Aidan’s frantic form as he carelessly flung open the door, only to be greeted by spread wings and a swishing reptilian tail that knocked him square off his feet.
Her head pounded and she sunk to her knees among the broken glass, Aidan’s screams ringing in her ears so strongly that she moved both hands to cover them. She soon pulled her knees to her chest, trying to make herself as small as possible as she rocked gently back and forth.
Unable to see anything happening outside of the broom closet and a prisoner to her own thoughts, she did not know that it was at this precise moment that Teenie had finally arrived and even managed to strike the beast’s bulletproof hide with a strong enough Knockback Jinx to spare Aidan of any irreversible damage. She was even less aware of her sister’s hands on her shoulders, shaking Queenie gently to try and wake her from her trance all the while assuring her that it was all over and that her and Aidan were both safe. You’re crazy! You’re crazy!
Words that taunted her mind then and would in nightmares for years to come. Words she hoped to never hear spoken to ever again.
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