"Sounds great." Anything than being in here. Grabbing her hand he smiled and headed towards the door. "A nice stroll sounds...nice," he said with a chuckle and kissed her cheek.

So Rhea figured if she kept at it with Callie for the whole time it would go on forever since they both seemed to be argumentative and feisty. She was older however and had to set a good example so she rolled her eyes. She had enough arguing. She was having a good day and her only reason for talking with Callie to start with was to tell her she wasn't going to get wound up by her again and it was exactly what she almost let her do. Sigh.
"Oooook Callie, whatever."

Rhea laughed. She was scared of her telling Jack that she was being a cow again. Well she wouldn't if the girl behaved. Not that she would run to Jack every time she got into a spat with someone.
"I'm not going to run to Jack about a little fuss with you Callie." She could fight her own battles if she had to.
"Thats a nice top by the way." Rhea had no problem complimenting people on their clothes because, well she loved clothes.

Callie liked aruging with people. There responses always made her giggle. Well unless they were insulting her. Like Courtney. Who did SHE think she was when she was up and dressed ? Psht. She acted like she was the queen or something important like that. Telling Callie she was the only Parker this school had room for, never was that gonna happen. If anyone of them were going it would be Courtney cus she was pure evil, and younger than Callie. She didn't say anything to Rhea's reply because quite frankly it was pointless saying anything.

Callie blinked. What on earth was Rhea laughing at ? Neither of them had said anything funny. She knew Rhea's type, or she liked to think she did. But she knew Rhea was gonna go run off and tell Jack just cus she wasn't stupid. "Sure your not. You just keep telling yourself that. But Im not gonna believe it." she obviously wanted him to take her side on this.
"Thanks...Wait did you just compliment me ?" she said blinking. That was unexpected.

Omg Callie was obviously getting some kick out of arguing, she just wouldn't stop and take the hint that Rhea didn't want to argue anymore. She was about to groan when she stopped herself. She didn't want Callie to see that she was beginning to frustrate her. Man did the girl have like friends and if she did she figured they argued with each other for fun or something because that was all she figured Callie liked doing, well that and twisting things and tormenting Rhea.

"I wish you would just shut up about me running off to Jack, I won't o.k? I'm not fourteen or whatever." And she wasn't. Rhea was mature now and of age. She was seventeen years old and fighting with a fourteen year old was just plain stupid.
"yeah I did, you act like you're not used to compliments or something."

"No, no! I'm not bothered at all. On the contrary I'd be really pleased to have you with us." Louisa replied a bit too heatedly. Well, she didn't want Jenny to think that Louisa was bothered by her. No way. "You come with us and everything will be ok" She smiled back at the girl. Well, that is if Enya behaves herself and doesn't try to show her snotty self too much. Meh. Louisa can't just avoid bringing friends along with her afraid of Enya's reaction, could she?

Looking back at the hourglass, Louisa's face brightened and she pointed at Ravenclaw, "Yay! Look we're not negative anymore. Someone's working really hard out there." While we're slacking over here, heehee. "We're next to last, that isn't so bad, is it? We need to move faster before homework's pile before us." She nodded determined to give her house some more points.

"Oh, okay." Jenny was still a bit uncertain about meeting Louisa's friend. But since Louisa said everything will be okay...why not? "I'll come with you guys."

Jenny followed Louisa's gaze at the hourglasses. Finally! They're not in the negative anymore! Yay! "Yep," Jenny said, "I'm already packed with Divination and DADA homework. Hopefully I can get that done in time."

Arya hadn't spoken a word since dragging Sabel from the Headmaster's office. She did, however, stop dragging him, and settle for gently pulling him along. It wasn't until they reached the hourglass that she slowed to a stop. Not saying anything, she let her eyes dance over the four glasses, she would let him speak first. Or at least give him the chance to speak first.

He was relieved when she slowed down, but not any less concerned. Stopping a few feet behind her, he watched as she took notice of the hourglasses, letting silence drift between them for a good few minutes. A silent Arya was very unsettling. "Arya, are you okay?"

Shrugging her shoulders when he spoke, she slowly turned from the hourglasses and faced him. "I just don't like being around her is all." The woman did set her on fire. "I'm fine though......are you?" He was the one who had more troubling problems than she did.

Nodding, he moved to stand beside his friend, turning his eyes up at the Hourglasses. He was surprised at Ravenclaw being second last place. "Understandable. Sorry, I was just surprised she was there."

Was he okay? A shrug of the shoulders followed her question and he didn't remove his eyes from their focus. "I feel horrible for how I treated you and Headmaster Tate...I'm extremely sorry." With his apology, his eyes found Arya again, a faint, weak smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "Trully."

"No need to apologize," For either indecent. "I know you just.....upset, about your home situation." She didn't really want to speak his mother's name in case it would cause him to become more depressed. "I would be the same way." Arya tried to give him a smile, but it was faint.

He was still for a moment before he nodded, casting his eyes down to the floor with a small frown. Silence passed between them once again for a few minutes before he turned and walked over to one of the benches that was away from any other eyes or ears. Slowly, he lowered himself down onto the seat, slipping his backpack off to rest between his feet on the floor.

Chewing on her bottom lip, she watched him worried. He didn't seem as okay as he had stated. Slowly she followed behind him to the benches and took a seat beside him. The girl let another few minutes pass between them, eyes on the hourglass as the points changed again. Another reminder that she needed to do her homework soon. Letting that thought pass, she peeked up at Sabel. "...You wanna talk about it?"

A weak smile pressed onto his lips momentarily before it disappeared. Clasping his hands between his knees, he let his gaze flick about the room before focusing somewhere that held no importance. "If you want to listen..."

Making herself comfortable, she leaned against him. Peering up at her friend, she nodded her head and gave him an expectant look. She was ready to listen.

This, was what he had dreaded doing; what he had hoped to avoid. But Tate and Arya were right, he needed to. Almost beyond anything else, he needed to tell someone. He watched blankly as the hourglasses changed sporadically in their time, reminding him all too much of how the clock was never stable and time, was different for everyone.

"It...started when I got back from school, at the beginning of the summer. My mother, father and I went to Golden for a week vacation. Just to get away from responsibility and stresses and spend some good quality, family time together." A weak smile touched his lips as he dragged the pad of his thumb across the palm of his hand. "They let me drive for the first time. My mother was quite proud and kept ruffling my hair for some strange reason." He had to pause at that memory, the changes in the hourglasses becoming more prominent.

"We, spent the week climbing and hiking. Swimming in the lakes, canoeing, and camping, making ridiculous versions of s'mores that included pickles and carrots. Don't ask. I think we were just happy to be a family again." The smile slowly faded for an expression of vacancy. "It was our second last day there. My dad had to go into Golden to take an important phone call from his business, so my mom and I dropped him off, then grabbed a coffee and bagel and headed out for a long morning hike." Tears began to sting the corners of his vision once again and the scrubbing of his thumb on his palm turned into a forceful press. "We were about thirty minutes from the parking lot on our way back, when my mom started slowing down. I thought she was just tired and hot from the walk, so we both took a break. She seemed fine, except for a tingling on her right side that she thought was due to a pulled muscle or nerve. So we kept going."

Shifting his weight, he had to swallow hard to get rid of the lump in his throat, the memory as clear as if he was reliving it in that instant. "Not even ten minutes later, I heard the three most terrifying words that can be spoken. 'I can't see.' My mother, has perfect health, has been active all her life and never needed glasses or prescriptions of any sort. And that's what she said; 'Sabel, I can't see.' " Shaking his head, he gripped his wrist as pain stabbed through his heart. "The fear in her voice...I've never heard it before... I...I turned to look at her only in time to catch her. I thought she had tripped, but she could barely move her legs properly to stand back up. I had to help her down just to keep from falling over with her."

"I...tried calling emergency, my father, even a random shop in Golden who's business card I had picked up. But there wasn't any service where we were. Being early morning, there were no hikers either. We were completely alone." By this time, he couldn't see what he was staring at anymore. "I didn't know any spells that could help her. I didn't know what was wrong with her and even if I did, I had stupidly left my wand in the car. I would have done anything with magic if it would have made a difference in that moment. I do not care what the Ministry would have done. But I couldn't do anything except pick her up and walk her as quickly as I could back to the car. She kept whispering to me that it was going to be okay, until she lost coherency in speaking or even understanding what I said."

He tried to fight them, to hold the tears back, to use the pain of his grip to try and ease the agony in his heart, digging his fingernails into his skin. "I got her in the car, and I sped all the way back into town. I couldn't even think about calling anyone until she was in the emergency room at the hospital. It, was the longest two hours of my life, and throughout it all I could only think 'where the hell is a bloody wizard when you need one'?" Pressing his eyes closed, he shook his head slightly. "And you know the answer? Right there. There was a wizard right there and he couldn't do a damn thing." His voice dropped below audibility as he opened tear filled eyes, his gaze meeting the hourglasses once again. "Not a damn thing."

Quote:

Originally Posted by i m a g i n e

Running her hands over her robes, Cosette looked around the hall. She hadn't seen anyone she knew. Not that she knew a lot of people. Since she got to Hogwarts, she had mostly been scoping out the people and how they acted. People watching at it's finest. She had herself mostly familiarized at least with the male population. Smirking, she walked to find herself near the hourglasses.

Looking up at the tall glasses, she peered at the coloured rubies that where sitting and falling into the glasses. Noticing the blue glass, she rolled her eyes. Ravenclaw was doing the worse. She would believe that Ravenclaws were supposed to be the house with the smart kids. Obviously some didn't get the memo and were blatantly running amok. Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair with anguish.

Of course, it figured that Hufflepuff was behind in points. Fletcher frowned as he approached the Hourglasses. Now how in Merlin's beard was Slytherin nearly two hundred points ahead of them already? Sure they had won that game in DADA.... but Fletcher had been there too, participating as best he could. And he SO represented Team White in History of Magic....

Hmmph. The boy scratched his chin and turned his gaze toward the Ravenclaw hourglass. Heh. At least they weren't too far ahead. And look at that, he knew that Claw over there.....

"I think we should plot to take down Slytherin," Fletcher said softly, giving Cosette a mischievous smirk.

Running her hand in her blond tresses, Cosette smirked, hearing a familiar voice. A monsieur Duncan Fletcher, though she wouldn't say his first name. She only wanted to be on good graces with him. Along with any other guy she was scheming for. Smiling, she turned her head and moved closer to him.

"That is something I am down for." She spoke in a hushed tone. Honestly, if she could find out some of the weakness' to some of the slytherin students, she would be using them to make them lose house points. "Being a champion, I think you have enough wit to pull it off." She smirked, nudging him with her shoulder. It had been awhile since she had seen him. A little too long, if you catch her drift.

Arya never turned her gaze away from Sabel as he started his story. So far so good. He had spent the summer with them. A small smile crossed her face when he said that he learned how to drive. Kept picturing him behind the wheel with his mom in the passenger seat ruffling his hair. The smile remained when he went into detail about the trip they had. She had done no camping this summer, so to hear his story was nice. The face she was going to make about the s'mores was repressed. That would be something she would ask about at a later time.

When his smile faded, she knew. The story was taking a turn for the worse. The smile that was on her face slowly faded as he described what happened on there hike. Unshed tears clouded her vision as he went deeper into the story. She didn't want to hear any more. Wanted to cover her ears and block it all out. But she couldn't. And she wouldn't. He was speaking, so she would listen.

She sat quietly when the story was over. Not because she had nothing to say, but because she was processing all that she was just told. That was a horrible thing to happen to the woman. If that had happened to her mother...she would have panicked. It wouldn't have been pretty.

Instinctively she shifted in the seat so that she was sitting on her knees and facing Sabel. Wrapping both arms around his neck she pulled him close. "Its not your fault, Sabel." She said softly. "Its not your fault."

He cursed his tears. Cursed the quite and poorly suppressed sob that escaped his throat as she hugged him. He tried to bury it for all it was worth, but the memory he had been trying to forget, the wound he had tried to burn shut, was open and it stung like nothing he had ever felt before. And that wasn't even the end of the story.

He didn't move from his frozen state as Arya pulled him close, didn't blink as a tear rolled down his cheek. "She...had three more strokes over the summer...She'd be fine and then she would have one. Each one...would take her longer to recover. She...she has to use a cane sometimes to walk and has trouble with some words, with her memory. Sometimes, she just spaces out and falls dead quiet, and I'm afraid that it's all happening over again."

Another tear clung to his skin as he inhaled a shaky breath. "I...would stand outside their bedroom door, and I would hear my father crying. He never cries. My mother said, he only cried for joy when I was born. And now...this."

"My mom is thirty-seven, Arya, thirty-seven and dying. Thirty-seven and the closest being to an angel I have ever met. And this is happening to her." Slowly, he resigned to wrapping his arms around the Hufflepuff, gripping lightly at the back of her shirt as pain shot through him once again, agonized anger in his voice. "She gives everything, and she takes nothing for herself. This shouldn't be happening to her. Why am I a bloody wizard if I can do nothing? Why the hell are there wizards if they do nothing!?"

She didn't pay much mind to him pulling on her shirt, she was just happy that he had returned to hug. She found herself needing just as much as he need. Three strokes. She had three strokes in one summer. And he had sat out and listened to his father cry. "You shouldn't have done that......shouldn't torture yourself like that." No one she have to listen to their parents crying.

No on should have to watch there mother die either. It wasn't fair that her friend had to go through all of this. But....he wasn't alone. He had her and all his other friends, those he had told at least. "Just because your a wizard, doesn't mean your a super hero and can solve every problem. We can't do everything Sabel." If anything, being a wizard maybe a person's life more difficult with the whole living in hiding and bigger problems. It was even harder if they went to Hogwarts. She had only had her powers for a few years and already her troubles got worse.

"...You've got me you know. You don't have to go through this alone." He didn't. She hugged him tighter.

He could only sit there, his arms around her and his fingers flexing on her shirt in reflection of the agony that was tearing him apart inside. He could only sit there in numb pain and listen to her as his breath turned shaky and his tears became more frequent. He didn't want to cry, but he couldn't stop it anymore.

And then he got a little angry. Not at his friend and perhaps not out of right reason, but it was simply there. A part of him. The part that hadn't wanted to return to Hogwarts. "Wizards have it easy. One wave of the wand and a single word or two and everything's better. A broken bone doesn't hurt. Mortal wounds can be healed. Just. Poof. Everything can be made alright." His grip tightened a little more as he pressed his forehead against his friend's shoulder, frustration rising in him so much he wanted to scream. "It's not like that in reality. Muggles can't do that. They have to sit, and watch, and wait and hope. Hope against everything that..."

His words trailed off as he pressed his eyes closed and tears chocked his voice from him. She was right, he did have her. And now, more than ever, he needed her. "Don't leave Arya....please...don't get hurt..." He wasn't sure what he would do if another person he loved started to slip away.

"That's not true Sabel and you know it." She was getting slightly irritated herself, but hid it better than Sabel. She knew that he was only upset about his mother. That didn't stop her from expressing what she felt. "Having magic doesn't make everything better. Just means we can solve little problems.....the bigger ones, like this, still go unanswered." She fingered the hem of his shirt as her head rested on his shoulder. "This is reality. Hogwarts.....the whole magical world it a reality. We have to hope for other problems too."

Squeezing her eyes shut, she nodded against his shoulder. "I won't leave...." The girl left her sentence hanging. She couldn't guarantee her safety. Every year something terrible happened to her. All she could do was hope.

This time, he said nothing. He couldn't agree with her that wizards had it as hard as muggles. He knew there were trials, that there were a lot of dangers in the wizarding world, but magic right now seemed surreal; like he was floating in a dream that made no sense, and he couldn't wake up. He wanted to wake up. Badly.

Tears left his eyes as he breathed unevenly, his core once again feeling as if it was turning numb. The only warmth seemed to come from Arya, and he hugged her closer. The prospect that one day he might end up without her was absolutely terrifying beyond belief.

Quote:

Originally Posted by i m a g i n e

Running her hand in her blond tresses, Cosette smirked, hearing a familiar voice. A monsieur Duncan Fletcher, though she wouldn't say his first name. She only wanted to be on good graces with him. Along with any other guy she was scheming for. Smiling, she turned her head and moved closer to him.

"That is something I am down for." She spoke in a hushed tone. Honestly, if she could find out some of the weakness' to some of the slytherin students, she would be using them to make them lose house points. "Being a champion, I think you have enough wit to pull it off." She smirked, nudging him with her shoulder. It had been awhile since she had seen him. A little too long, if you catch her drift.

Fletcher smirked and crossed his arms, watching as a few more emeralds magically filled the Slytherin Hourglass.

Stupid Snakes.

"How do you propose we start this plan of action?" he continued plotting in a low voice. "I, of course, have plenty of wit for such a task." Scoff. "But somehow I think my initial idea of just breaking their hourglass wouldn't work....."