Fall Flowers and Winter Showers.

[sashalin]

It was another cool day and Verrin was outside. Why anyone would want to be indoors when there was such pleasure to be had outside she would never understand, especially with winter creeping up slowly, she couldn’t imagine, but that was the case today. The gardens were completely empty, a strange occurrence, but in the world they lived in what really was strange, the squid in the lake, the Mandrakes screaming in the greenhouses? What most would call strange were everyday events in the wizarding world.

A gentle breeze ran its fingers through her hair as she walked between the patches of multicoloured flowers and soft green grass. She was wearing her school uniform; her skirt brushing her leg just under the knee as she walked, her uniform was minus the usual black cloak today, and with the weather she didn’t think it was necessary. Her hair was free of constraints and had the slight scent of roses to it from the shampoo she had used earlier.

She was happy to be back at school, she hoped it would make her life seem normal again. It was still a secret that her mother had died, not that it needed to be, but t made it easier when everyone wasn’t whispering behind your back or giving you sympathetic looks every second. She still wasn’t sure how she’d gotten through the funeral and the wake afterwards with everyone telling her they were sorry and that she’d be fine. How did they know? They didn’t know her and they certainly didn’t know her mother well enough to understand how much she meant to the family. People always feel sorry for you, but the truth was they would rather have it happen to you than them.

She lowered herself onto a soft patch of light green grass that was surrounded by scatterings of lavender. The moment she sat amongst them the calming scent of them filled her senses and she smiled to herself. Jasmines and Lilies were her favourite flowers an they always seemed to make her feel better. She opened the book she had brought with her, a relatively large tome entitled: The Seven Rules of Spectacular Spells, by Miriam Moondiggger. The book had nothing to do with her schoolwork, but more of a way of helping herself catch up and get back on track. She was repeating her sixth year, something that would usually have upset someone, but the truth was, Verrin wanted to re-live sixth year, and have it be better than the last when her mother was ill and she was more worried about her than transfiguring anything. Her mother was in a better place now and Verrin had to get back to her good place.

Verrin curled her legs to her side and propped up on her right hand and used her left to turn the pages. She looked up briefly at the grey clouds in the distance, but didn’t worry about them, they would pass by, she wasn’t letting anything spoil her day. She returned to her book and the second rule for making the best of your spells.

[Caleb Donnelly S7]

Caleb stepped out into the sunlight. He frowned in disgust, but continued on out to the grounds anyway. Why was it that every day had to be so bright? All he wanted was a dreary rain or a thunderstorm. Something that truly showed the emotions battling within him. Of course that meant more annoying students would be inside rather than outside. He sighed to himself as he ran a hand through his dark hair. He was fretting about something and it was obvious to his normal cool front. He was on the verge of finding out about who he was, but something was missing. Something didn't quite make sense and for that reason Caleb found himself frustrated. All that stuff he had said about not caring and not wanting to find out was bull. He wanted to know so bad, but he would never tell his parents that. He would never let them believe he wanted to know something about that.

Caleb had found it easier to deny the existence of his birth parents rather than actually admit that he was an orphan raised by two deceitful people. He found himself trying to believe that they were truly his parents. That they had given birth to him, raised him, and loved him. He knew better than that though. He was living in a fantasy world and all he wanted to do was break out of it. So that's what he was doing. He was trying his hardest to get out of that place. To find out who he was. To find out if his parents were even still alive or not. It was something he had to know. If he didn't try to find out he would always wonder until the time came when he would start searching to only find out that they had died only months ago. No, he wasn't going to let that happen. He was searching now, while he was still young, and hopefully they were still alive.

Caleb kicked at the grass with his foot before he started off toward the gardens. He wasn't much of a flower guy, but there was just something about the smell that could calm even a thunderstorm. He felt constrained in his school uniform, even without the overlaying robe that usually adorned his body. His white suit shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbow, his Slytherin green tie, and his black pants still made his body uncomfortably warm. He could only hope that once he got himself seated his body would adjust to the temperature difference and calm down.

The flowers seemed bright and happy as Caleb took in the different kinds. He wondered briefly why none of them looked to be dying and then realized with a small smile that his idiocy was showing. Magic. Magic was always being used to defy nature. It was something that wizards and witches took pride in. However, Caleb sometimes just wished that things happened because they were supposed to. Flowers died in fall and winter because it was too cold for them to survive. Food was brought to the table by hands not by being transported by magic. Though Caleb did find magic extremely useful and could never live without it, he sometimes did just want things to be normal, at least normal in the wizarding world. It seemed that the last few years had gotten stranger and stranger. Or maybe it was because he was getting closer and closer to the truth.

Caleb's thoughts were interrupted as he stepped into a patch of lavender flowers. However his attention was not on the flowers but on the girl sitting in the middle of a small grass clearing within the circle of lavenders. He shook his head as his eyes glanced the book in her hands. Why do I always seem to run into the girls with books? Caleb thought to himself. He smiled to himself as he addressed the girl. "Enjoying your book?"

[sashalin]

The book was really interesting, a little long and overly explained but nonetheless useful, she could see that it had been a good buy. Her grandmother had suggested the book to her after hearing a good review on it and Verrin had bought it mainly to satisfy her and not for herself. Another gentle breeze blew over the grounds and rustled the leaves on the tree sending a shower of them in her direction. She readjusted her hand amidst the short grass, a blade slipping between her fingers as she got further engrossed in her book, but slowly other thoughts began to creep into her mind as the scent of lavender intensified.

Her mind drifted back to a day a few summers before, she was thirteen or fourteen then and the family was all together on holiday in the country. She could remember there was a huge field of jasmine growing nearby that seemed to go on forever. Everyday she would look out at the fields and couldn’t wait to run through them. Her mother had thrown a picnic for them in that field, laying down a red blanket on the soft earth and setting out everything so carefully. Her mother was a bit of a perfectionist, but she never forced it upon them, and despite that her children were all very neat. Bibi Molyneux had been the type of woman her children looked up to and wanted to emulate, she didn’t even have to try.

That day, the sun was high and bright, not a cloud for miles, and the warmth sent the fragrance of the jasmine into overdrive and she could remember laying there on the blanket with her mother looking up at the sky with their eyes closed and talking about life while her siblings chased after a kite. She’d told her mother everything, they shared so much with each other. She remembered the day her mother told her she had cancer, she’d come to her room late one night and sat on her bed. She held her hand and stroked it gently as she let the news slowly spill out of her. She knew that the others would need Verrin to help them cope with the news and had told her two days before she could get the courage to tell everyone else. That was their relationship, one of trust, respect and honesty, and now it was over and her mother was gone.

Verrin closed her eyes briefly as she fought back the emotion inside her, the sadness. She wasn’t going to cry, not there, not in the garden when anyone who came along could see her. She was stronger than that, she had to be, she was Gryffindor, they were supposed to be brave. She was brave she was strong, wasn’t she? She got control of her emotions, the last thing she needed was questions when she got back to the common room about why her eyes were red and puffy. It was fortunate she had gotten her emotions under control as a shadow feel across the flowers nearby and a voice asked her if she was enjoying her book.

Verrin looked up and her hand gently rose to shield her eyes so she could see who she was talking to, “Actually, yes I was,” she replied recognizing the Slytherin boy. She couldn’t help but wonder why he had spoken to her when he never had before. She looked at him with quizzical eyes, “It’s a useful book,” she elaborated.