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Post by mercedes carissa nott on Feb 25, 2011 0:55:48 GMT -5
It was almost eleven-thirty at night when Mercy left the abandoned classroom on the first floor and started her journey up to the towers. She'd gone to the classroom right after Prefect duty in the dungeons that night to retrieve her Potions textbook. Mercedes often took to studying in dusty old rooms around the castle when the Ravenclaw common room was too loud and the library was filled. It was also in these rooms that she would dance.
She hadn't taken a lesson in over a year, but Mercy still remembered all of her favorite steps. She practiced them once or twice a week. Whenever she got the chance. She hadn't meant to dance then, but it happened anyway. She had been heading for the door with her book in hand when she just found herself twirling and humming to herself. Ballet steps from her childhood mixed with the waltz and tango she'd been taught just a couple of years ago. She didn't stop until her feet hurt, and realized an hour and a half had already passed. Mercy grabbed her fallen book and ran from the room.
She ran all the way to the fourth floor, unconcerned with being heard or caught. Mercedes had an almost perfect record. One detention for being caught out of bed at night wouldn't hurt anything, that is, if it couldn't be explained away as part of her duties. She slowed to a walk finally and was about to climb the stairs to the fifth floor when she remembered something. A secret passageway someone had mentioned. It was on the fourth floor, and would take Mercy to the other side of the castle, where her tower was. She decided to risk it.
It wasn't that hard to find the entrance to the passageway once she started looking. It was poorly hidden behind a tapestry. She was surprised she hadn't found it before, having passed by it hundreds of times on her way to the library. But the passage was dark. It didn't contain any lit torches like the rest of the castle. And it wasn't even wide enough for two people to stand side-by-side. Mercy clutched the book to her chest and lit her wand, holding it out in front of her as she walked.
There wasn't much to see in the passage. No portraits or statues. It was just a plain corridor, meant to get you from one place to another. Mercedes found her mind wandering the longer she stayed in there. She thought about how dark and old the corridor was, and how it seemed as though no one had used it in years. She wondered what would happen if she stayed there. Would anyone miss her? She had a few friends, sure. And maybe those annoying boys that teased her all day would take notice. But would they care? Certainly not her family. She was the black sheep, after all.
'A wolf in sheep's clothing, maybe,' she thought and winced. Just thinking the word sent shivers up her spine. Wolf. It reminded her of the night she was bitten, of how scared she'd been then and the morning after. It made her lose hope in ever finding a way to live a happy life. Without a cure, she'd forever be alone, hidden away in the shadows of some forest. Mercy dabbed at the tears in her eyes with a sleeve, but more followed. She sat down on the cold stone floor and let the tears fall and the light drain from her wand. The tower would still be filled this time of night, and she couldn't let anyone see her crying, so she'd just wait it out in the dark.
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Post by dorcas elaine meadowes on Feb 27, 2011 0:36:30 GMT -5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Life just never seemed to be better than when Dorcas was staring at the stars. She'd stay up late in the astronomy tower and gaze up at them with a longing to know what they meant. Years of enjoying the study of divination and astronomy just wasn't enough for her. Too many times they had told her that the future could never really be certain. It was hard, she figured, for witches and wizards to put that into their brain. It was hard for them to accept, that amidst all of their powers, they still couldn't really see into the future. Even prophecies were pretty foggy.
Sitting up there, gazing endlessly at the sky, might seem a little dull to some folks, but Dorcas could let the hours drift away. But, at about the same time every night, she gave a long sigh and turned around to find her way back to the Hufflepuff common room. She took the same path every night, through a secret passage that opened up on the four floor and then just a few more stairs on down to the dungeons, behind a portrait, through that dark corridor, and finally into her dormitory. If the prefects ever noticed her, they didn't usually stop her, but then again most didn't really care. Which made running into one kind of simple.
The secret passage from the towers to fourth floor was never lit, and because it was pretty narrow, Dorcas could easily feel her way through. She walked on nimbly, her feet so quiet against the stone in her black, soft leather shoes. Both of her arms stretched out to feel the walls as she paraded onwards, it was rough and cold, but familiar all the same. Half way through the passage that generally sloped downwards, Dorcas stopped to listen to the soft sniffling of tears. It wasn't getting any closer, whoever it was was slumped against the wall, falling into their own darkness. Dorcas slowly moved forward, gazing into the darkness so hard, trying to see.
The sniffles got closer, and Dorcas stopped just steps away from the girl that as crying. The shadows covered every recognizable part of her, from the long blond hair, to the thin, frail frame. Dorcas knelt down and reached out an arm, placing it lightly on the girls shoulder, with a light warm touch. Dorcas leaned in, hoping to see her face, but seeing only darkness spread against fair skin and eyes that blended in perfectly. "Do you need help?" Dorcas slid her feet underneath her and leaned up against the wall. It might have been late but who could walk away from impending darkness whether of the night or of the soul.
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GOOD THING SHE'S NOT CLAUSTROPHOBIC |
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Post by mercedes carissa nott on May 9, 2011 21:09:03 GMT -5
Mercedes had heard Dorcas approaching and tried to quiet her sobs, as if by remaining silent she would melt into the shadows and be invisible to anyone passing, but it did no good. She didn't want to be found; she didn't want to have to lie and say she was okay, and make up some excuse for why she was crying in the dark. She wanted to tell the truth for once. She didn't want to be alone anymore. But what Mercy wanted didn't change what was happening, so she prepared herself for the questions as the footsteps grew closer.
"Do you need help?" Mercy looked up into the face of her visitor, but couldn't make out any features in the darkness with her blurred vision. She hastily tried to think if she recognized the voice, because it would just be so perfect for one of her siblings' friends from Slytherin to find her now, but she couldn't place the voice.
"No, thank you. I-I'm fine." She took a moment to wipe the tears from her eyes and take a deep breath. She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her arms around them. Beside her, she could feel her fallen wand poking into her side, but Mercy wasn't sure she was ready to light it yet and find out who she was sitting with. "I'm sorry you had to find me like this. You don't have to stay if you don't want to."
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Post by dorcas elaine meadowes on May 21, 2011 16:33:13 GMT -5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The sobs seemed to quiet and disappear for a moment, and Dorcas could recognized the familiar feeling of trying to stop yourself from flooding the floor with tears. That memory brought her back to her first few days in the orphanage on the other side of London. Her mother had just died, her father had never been in the picture, and these people now looking after her were lying right to her face. She had never felt more afraid, and had never wanted to run along into some dark corner and disappear forever. As the girl sat crying before her, shrouded in darkness, Dorcas felt as if she connected with her on some strange far off level. Perhaps Dorcas had grown up to be stronger and more perceptive of things, but she still remembered what it was like to be the little girl that couldn't stop her tears. She gave a small smile, not like the girl could see it in the darkness, and stayed put.
"I can stay until you feel a little better. I understand that sometimes you just need to cry." Dorca's voice was calm and quiet, almost as if it was a whisper. The corridor was hidden well from the rest of the school, but the darkness seemed to call for whispering. She sat still, not bothering to inquire into the identity of the girl she had stumbled upon, knowing that it might make her nervous. She removed her hand from the girl's shoulder and leaned back against the wall. "I can just listen if you need. I'm Dorcas Meadowes, but you can call me Lainey, and rest assured I can keep a secret." She let her voice lift up into a cheerful disposition, hoping that it might have some effect. Dorcas was good at heart, and for a moment it didn't matter that she should be snuggled into her Hufflepuff common room right this instant.
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Post by mercedes carissa nott on May 29, 2011 1:29:14 GMT -5
During any other night, sitting next to any other student in the dark, Mercy might not have considered telling her secret. But she had been wanting to tell someone for a long time now, and Dorcas seemed like a good person to tell. She wasn't a Slytherin, or someone from Mercy's year. She wasn't even someone Mercy could remember talking to in all her years at Hogwarts.
It would be easy to tell Dorcas everything but her name, and then leave. They would never see each other again, so Dorcas wouldn't figure out who the mysterious teenage werewolf was ... but that wasn't how Mercy had dreamt of telling someone, and it wasn't what she wanted to do to this sweet girl who was being selfless and staying with her.
"My name is Mercedes. I have this problem that I've been dealing with for a long time and ... I've never told anyone about it. They'll hate me, I know it. My family wouldn't even care. I'll be alone if I tell anyone, but I'll still be alone if I keep it a secret. I just can't see a future for myself anymore."
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Post by dorcas elaine meadowes on Jun 15, 2011 19:55:00 GMT -5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The girl was distraught. At first Dorcas had assumed that it would be nothing out of the ordinary. A friend gone around her back and suddenly with the guy she had been crushing on. Or maybe mother and father were just putting too much pressure on her to succeed. But this seemed so much larger than that, and Dorcas couldn't tear away. Whether this monster of a secret was something dangerous or simple, Dorcas couldn't allow herself to get up and leave the poor girl. She needed someone to just listen. Everything in Dorcas' body was telling her that this could turn out badly, her legs were screaming at her to run. That's what she would have done had she not picked up that unique way of crying. Those tears were so real and so heavy that she couldn't be a coward just now. She trusted her instinct to stay.
She looked out into the complete darkness and took a deep breath. Sinking into her place next to the girl even more she spoke sweetly, optimistically. "You seem like a sweet girl, and perhaps you're too inside the situation to know that people will still care about you no matter what. Family is always there, and there's always someone here, at Hogwarts, that will be there to listen in the middle of the night or the middle of the day." Lainey was thinking of herself and her friends. They all cared generally for people. And then there was Dumbledore and Professor Barnes and Valter, so many great wizards. She tried to not think about what this girl could be talking about. She tried to push away any dark thoughts, and keep hope in the air that whatever it was, it couldn't be bad enough to warrant full on hatred from so many people.
Dorcas didn't trust a lot of people or a lot of things, but she was perceptive nonetheless. She could see things that others couldn't at times. And in this darkness she saw a little girl worried sick. Her features were still hidden from her, the dark was so immense, and her eyes she felt, would never adjust. But maybe that was for the better. Even if Dorcas wanted to know who she was talking to, for safety's sake, she let herself go in the darkness that surrounded them, because it made it safer for the girl and Lainey was trying to learn to trust.
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Post by mercedes carissa nott on Jun 29, 2011 22:10:06 GMT -5
"It's not that easy for me to talk about this. I know my parents wouldn't care - I'm not special enough. And I don't get along with my siblings. They'd all have me locked up sooner than they'd help me, and tell everyone that I died falling down the stairs or something. I don't even know if I can trust my friends to keep it a secret. What if they get scared and tell a professor? Then I'm done for. I won't have to guess about my future anymore because I won't have one."
She grasped her wand instinctively, as if she could fend off anyone who wanted to take her away. Sometimes Mercy thought she would be better off in a facility for her kind. Then she wouldn't have to hide - to pretend to be so meek and shy, when there was another prouder and more outgoing girl inside, trapped beneath the fear that she'd accidentally let her secret out. Sometimes she wished she had the courage to turn off her feelings like the infamous Fenrir Greyback. Maybe she'd be happier and better off if she didn't take so many precautions. But, deep down, she knew she could never live with herself if she hurt someone.
"Would you risk it?" she asked suddenly. "Would you take the chance and tell someone the thing that's defined the last six years of your life - just so you could have someone to talk to?" She wasn't sure why she was asking, of if Dorcas' opinion would even matter, but she needed to know. Perhaps, if she knew one person believed things could work out, she would tell someone soon.
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