"What?" Aaric jerked up straight in his seat, staring at Richey for a moment before letting out a nervous sort of laugh and forcing a slack grin.
"Nothing's the matter!" exclaimed. "Why would you think that?"
It was a lie, and probably a bad one at this point, but he didn't want Richey to know. He had been revealed when Wren had shut the shades. Aaric didn't want to think what was going on right now. At this point, they had probably gotten their own compartment...his smile faded slightly at the idea of it.
Re: Compartment 124...
*Wren sat and idly scratched her itching arms, wondering if maybey she'd be better off wearing a tank top, but not eager to show off her increased hairyness to anyone. She'd found she started shedding the day before, and hoped that was a sign that the potoin was wearing off soon.*
"I h@te potoins." she grumbled.
*Hazle stewed, and itched her equaly hairy legs. Her haryness hadn't semmed to bother her as much, and she'd managed to charm most of it to match her head hair, pink...*
"Not so smart are we Ravenclaw g!rl?" Hazle chidded, more enraptured with a furry Wren, than embarassed about being furry herself.
"It's _your_ fault I'm furry." said Wren, glaring at her. "I bet I coulda passed that exam."
"You didn't finish in time anyhow."
"Stick it Hazle, you had my notes."
"You weren't using them anymore!"
"Apparently nither were you furbrain!"
"It's not my fault you toke the notes in shorthand, you know it takes me forever to decode!"
"Now I'm not only furry, but considered a cheater."
"So am I!!!"
"YOU REALLY DID CHEAT!!!"
*Richey cast a sidelong glance at his furry siblings, and decided it was better not to get in the middle of thier quarell.*
"Are you sure?" Richey asked Aaric.
"Just when the Caterpillar thought the
world was ending... It became the Butterfly." ~Anonymous
Re: Compartment 124...
"Yeah..." Aaric said, turning up head towards the window. He reached up and pushed the edge of the shade away slightly, his stomach giving a lurch as he saw that his sister and Philip were no longer standing out on the platofrm. Their trunks were gone as well.
"Just...not totally used to all this," he said, slumping in his seat and staring blankly at the other side of the compartment, wishing he could bore a hole through the wall. Maybe they were in there...doing what, he didn't want to know...God, he hated this so much...
Re: Compartment 124...
"Ok." Said Richey and shrugged, as the train began to lurch forward on it's tracks.
*Wren scowled at her sister, and pulled out a book to read, While Hazle returning the foul exprestoin, pulled out a nail file and sat silently filling. Richey, sensing that Aaric was in no mood to talk, pulled out his walkman, and tried it repeatedly, waiting for the train to escape the feinld of magic that prevented it from working.*
~*Time Lapse.....*~
*Wren closed her book, and sighing poked her little brother...*
"You may want to change, we're about halfway there."
*She got up from her bench, ad opened her sister's trunk, removing from it a long pink trenchcoat, and laying it over her sister, now sleeping, and taking up the entire other bench. She cast an understanding smile at Aaric, now visible to her as Richey got up from in between them, and returned to her book.
Soon after Richey returned in normal Muggle cloths, and put his headphones back on. He yawned, and slowly fell asleap to his music, in the dim cabin, the shades still pulled, and would up leaning on Wren. She sighed and shifted in her seat, casting a look that seemed to say "Oh well." to Aaric.*
"Just when the Caterpillar thought the
world was ending... It became the Butterfly." ~Anonymous
Re: Compartment 124...
Aaric smiled, just a little, as Wren looked at him amidst the other sleeping Alexanders, then returned his focus to the window of the train. His sister hadn't come back into the compartment. She was still in that other one...with him. Why couldn't she just be normal...why did she have to be like this...
"Wren..." Aaric asked suddenly, turning his head. "I know this is kinjda stupid, but...what's my sister like? I mean, how does she act now, after...everything...?"
Re: Compartment 124...
"Well," said Wren, staring idly at the door, fairly certain that she'd heard Lyddie and Phill go in there, "She's changed alot. I don't know if you were old enough to remember her the way she was, you know, back in New York, like 5, 6 years ago... so you and Richey were like, babies, but she used to be a real gas. Loads of laughs, the two of us used to run around like a couple of laughing idoits. We made sand castles in the mud, and near the end, when we were like, 8 we would biuld these stupid tink forts and bridges and stuf out of twigs and dry grass near ant hills, for the ants. I'm not exactly sure what we were thinking."
*Wren baorught her eyes to meet Aaric's.*
"When I ran into her again, last year, she didnt' seem to have changed much, grown up yes, not gonna be making ant forts, but, she was still tall, thin, and had the same long red hair. But she had this crystal around her neck, and it made her do things, things the Lyddie I knew never would have done. She got rid of it, but then your father embedded one in her forehead, sorta like the one you have. That's why I got all y at you in the Great Hall, in my experaince, a H'Tarlaw with a jewel in thier forehead, is a major hazard.
"I spent alot of that year just creeping around folowing her, keeping her from getting herself killed. Then... your father, after she nearly fell off a cliff, did this thing, where the two of them, became more like each other. It freaked the living hell out of me. She killed him you know... your father. As it turns out she's part a-a-a-crap... you'll have to ask her to say it, I... I still can't.
"Lyds and I have been at odds for a while I guess, ever since I got interrogated by a full blodded... what she's a part... and I told him, about her."
*Wren's eyes began to well with tears, and she realized that she'd been petting her little brother's head for quite some time now.*
"Lyds is very different than she once was, dangerous, frightening, but... she was my best freind for the first 8 years of my life, and when you think about it, we are all dangerous in our own ways. I know she could kill me as easly as squish a bug if she got mad enough, but I'd trust her with my life, not always with her own, but with mine, and thats saying something, cause, I don't even trus myself very much anymore."
*Wren took a deep breath and realized that she hadn't answared the questoin asked.*
"She acts much older than she is in many ways, and in other ways, I swear she's been stunted. She had moods; they last for months, and a new hairstyle usualy coincides with a new mood. She's most approachable when her hair is it's natural color, but, as I said, when it's not red, duck your head. when she does something, she does it all the way, and all at once. Much of it makes little to no sence to me..." Wren stared at the door again. "Why Phill?"
*Wren sighed, and itched her furry face.*
"You should try and get some sleep or sommat, we won't be there till 8, and you'll prolly be up half the night talking to Richey. I promise I'll wake you when we get there, or if Lyddie comes back."
"Just when the Caterpillar thought the
world was ending... It became the Butterfly." ~Anonymous
Re: Compartment 124...
((...think I took long enough...))
Aaric nodded through most of Wren's speech, letting the words sink in. Maybe he had been...maybe Lyddie had had it hard. She had just never acted that way before...from what he had seen, she was still just the same little redhead witch who had been spoiled by her father because she had gotten into a school. But from what Wren said, that wasn't her at all.
The last thing she said, though... Why Phill...it was all he could think as well. Why now, why Phill, why was she even in love to begin with...
"...I'll be fine," he said quietly, returning his vision to the opposite side of the compartment. "I know how you feel...I think. Everything really started before...all this. Paul wasn't insane like he was now, but almost immediately after Lyddie got accepted into the school, he started using magic again. And when she left, all he would do was rave about the letters she sent home, which really weren't that great at all. He was like a religious freak, only it was over magic. And when she came home...jeez, forget it, he was so determined to get over here with the excuse he wanted her to go to Hogwarts that he yanked her out of school before the year was over. I think that might've been the first time I saw Lyddie as angry as she was, but then again, she had friends...friends she hasn't seen since then and probably won't for a long time."
Aaric paused, taking in a breath. He knew by now Wren had heard Lyddie's half of the story times over, but not his. He hadn't told many people...no one had bothered to want to listen.
"When she got back, though...the family was divided. Mum didn't use magic and I didn't know how, but Paul and Lyddie did. There were a lot of fights, mostly among me and Lyddie, and we were bad. But Paul always favored her, even when he left...and you already know what that led to.
"But for me and mum...things went bad too. After we dropped Lyddie off a the train station and went home, it was normal until dinner. Paul came..." Aaric paused, biting his lip, remembering that night, that one night when he could remember crying and meaning it...he couldn't believe he was saying this...
"He killed her. He killed her and he was going to kill me too, but instead I got stuck with this jewel and transported somewhere. I wandered for a while, must've been in Scotland or something, but then I ended up in an orphanage. Wasn't a good place for me...outcasted, y'know? Anyway, I could hear Paul...he told me he had killed Lyddie, and he did a lot of ranting. Emphasis on that. But anyway, last summer...we were talking, or arguing, and then all of a sudden he was gone. The last thing he had said though..." he trailed off for a moment.
"He said 'Lyddie'. And I knew she was alive. Got out of the orphanage, hitched a ride to London, stayed there for a while...and now I'm here. That's it for me."
Re: Compartment 124...
*Wren listened, finding it odd that he would call his father by his first name.*
"So... he DID put that thing on your forehead. That's not good." Wren sighed. "Pray that it was only a means of comunicatoin, and not like Lyddie's....
" .....He told Lyddie you were dead you know. In her mind, she had no family for almost a year, except your fahter. And then... then she killed him. I think, once you kill, you can never go back. It seems to me though, that you had it pretty rough from the start. I'm sorry. Though, it seems to me, that your early problems, may have helped you develop better coping mechanisims than Lyddie's. Snd for that, I think we are all greatfull."
*Wren breathed deeply, nervously, and sadly.*
"I can't say I know how you feel. I've never lost anyone close to me. My family is...was... well, fairly normal. My parents are muggles you know, and I think us having magic, sorta shook things up a bit, put things on edge. An Gramma... well... Papa don't know about her yet... her being a witch. So... you may wanna lay low when she comes over on Sunday. That's prolly gonna be a large scale argument. And we don't get many of those, so when they happen..."
*Wren let Aaric finish the sentance in his mind.*
"But realy, I think you'll like it. Mama's strict, but fair, and always favors the guests over us. 'They're guests... they deserve to be treated as such.' And we have Cable TV, and Internet, and mama's not half bad as a cook. Richey's a whiz in the kitchen. Just watch out on Hazle's night to cook. Don't leave the seat up, she'll throw a fit. We all have to share the hall bathroom.
"I don't know how much you have in spending money for the summer, but it's hard to find work for eleven-year-olds. Our landloard, and downstairs neighbor, runs the grocery... Richey works there, and you prolly could too."
*Wren tried to smile, and tehn returned to her book.*
~*Time Lapse*~
*Wren looked up from her book, as the train slowed to the stop in the train statoin.*
"Richey," she whihspered, "we're here."
*He didn't so much as stir. A loud bang came from the halway.*
"AH!!!" Hazle sat bolt upright. "WAWAZAT?!?!?"
"I dunno.." said Wren, and gelntly sliping from under Richey, and laying his head on the seat, she went to the door for a peek.
((~~~Cont in Kings Cross.~~~))
"Just when the Caterpillar thought the
world was ending... It became the Butterfly." ~Anonymous
Re: Compartment 124...
Walking in quick strides two professors of the Hogwarts School approached the ending of the platform, nodding at the students clambering onto the large scarlet steam engine, one of the professors, clothed in heavy velvet robes that were covered in highly difficultly designed runes - despite the weather - lifted a bone thin pale finger, swiftly moving it through the thin air with a fluid grace, 'drawing' an undefiined symbol,seemingly going over it twice, thin lips shrouded in darkness by a heavy hood, chanting smooth yet complicated words of another existance as the symbol grew and spun, finally breaking away from his fingertip to chase after the accelerating Hogwarts Express, meeting its back shortly after, the symbol going bright with contact for a moment before fading. Completely protecting the entire school until they were out of reach.
A tall man next to the rune casting mage spoke, a cheery grin on his young face.
"Another year coming to a close. Glad everything's over with." He said, bouncing on his heels slighty, brown eyes peering excitedly at the now empty Hogsmeade platform.
"I disagree my young Topher." A beautifully twisted yet cold accent escaping the hood of the mages cloak. Pale fingers coming up out of velvet, an ornate staff that was being held now standing on its own, as the mage lowered the hood of his cloak, revealing a young man, of about 23, pale skinned and fiercly green eyed.
"I believe it has only just begun." He added, in the same cold even tone, his voice and stare giving off years far beyond his appearance, a thin hand finding the staff again.
Topher looked back to the man that spoke, a thick brown eyebrow raising, he stuffed his hands into the pocket of his robes, turning slowly walking towards the train station exit, sighing deeply, his constant cheery expression going solemn.
"I believe you could be right." he agreed shortly after, taking long strides back towards the village, right along side the mage.
A moment later, the rustle of a thin cloak was heard, and booted feet met the concrete platform, the hooded head of the landed figure looked slowly in the direction of the departed Wizards.
"You are more than correct...as usual Tomal Saichairi." A man's voiced hissed, turning now to face the empty train tracks.
"So terribly correct, he sneered, a darkened face staring wildly at nothing, deep gray eyes swirling with nothingness as an evil low cackle escaped the mans lips before he jumped, to the roof of the station and brown boots beating against the slanted wood, as he ran at blinding speed in the direction of the out of view steam engine.
((Can anyone say...IRT Sequel? *grins happily and wanders off*))
Edited by: Guild Mancer at: 3/2/02 8:32:14 am
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