Make it all better ((Janet))

[cleo]

Cleo stormed through the hallways without a glance at either side. She was in a bad mood and she didn’t make any effort to hide it either. OWLs were coming up so there were piles of homework to do in pretty much all subjects, the potion she had brewed for exercise was smelling foul and didn’t look correct at all and on top of everything she had broken a nail in the morning meaning she had to clip all her other nails shorter as well ruining the masterpieces she had painted on her nails just this morning. Cleo could honestly say that she was having a very lousy day and so far it didn’t show any signs of improving. Cleo sneered at some first year boy who was blocking the Student Lounge doorway while talking to some friend of his and if she hadn’t been so angry at the world Cleo would have felt a bit of satisfaction at the speed with what the boy scrambled out of her way. Cleo swept into the room and noticing the backside of a familiar head with the black hair pulled into a pony-tail Cleo stormed over without a second thought.
“Good day, Cleopatra,” Kris greeted her just a moment before Cleo slammed the books and papers with her homework and notes on the table before her.

“Shut up! I don’t feel like talking to you right now! And don’t call me Cleopatra! If I was the ruler of Egypt I would have had you decapitated a long time ago,” Cleo snapped moodily at the Slytherin sixth year as Cleo literally stomped back and forth before the couch Kris was occupying as she continued to rant to him, “Has everyone lost their sanity, if they even had some in the first place? And Peeves is worse than ever! Look! Just look what he did to my nails!” Cleo waved her fingers before Kris’s nose making the Slytherin pull his head slightly back even though he obviously couldn’t see his survival instincts were still working. “Well, technically Peeves didn’t break them, but he threw a water-bomb at me and as a ducked I slipped, fell and borke a nail! Do you think it’s fun to walk around with a bruise on my cheek-bone? It could have marred my smile for good! Scars give a man character, but they only ruin a woman’s looks!” Cleo sulked as she watched how Kris calmly checked the page-number where he had stopped reading and placed his book to the side before reaching forward. Cleo would have plenty of chances to avoid Kris as his fingers clasped together around Cleo’s wrist and pulled her forward into Kris’s lap.

Cleo stepped forward at Kris’s light pull rather willingly and curled up in Kris’s lap, placing her ear over Kris’s chest letting the sure rhythmic beating calm herself. One of Cleo’s hands raised upwards as Cleo placed it around Kris’s neck, feeling rather satisfied Kris had hugged her this way. “Now, if you decapitated me, to who would you rant like this? You must really be having a bad day if you have let your hair get tangled,” Kris murmured into Cleo’s ear rocking her a little before letting her go form his embrace and patting her lower-back, “Lay down and let me take a look at that bruise.” Cleo obliged after pulling off her red boots and dropping them carelessly on the floor before stretching herself out on the couch her head on Kris’s lap. Cleo closed her eyes as she felt Kris’s fingertips brush her cheekbones, letting out a pitiful moan as Kris applied some pressure onto the bruise Cleo had hid to the best of her abilities with make-up. Kris murmured a couple of charms and Cleo felt first cold spreading in her cheek that soothed the pain and then Cleo felt her skin healing as Kris got rid of the bruise.

“Now what was in those books that made you slam them on the table like that?” Kris questioned quietly and Cleo tried to snuggle closer to him as Kris’s fingers started to comb her hair. “Just some homework… I didn’t sleep well tonight and I have to work on Potions quiz and even Transfiguration made little sense today. You used a spell to make me fall asleep, didn’t you?” Cleo complained through a wide yawn feeling her eyes drooping as Cleo dozed off feeling secure in Kris’s presence the last thing that reached her mind before sleep claimed Cleo completely was Kris’s quiet chuckle proving that Cleo’s guess had been correct.

----------------------------------
Cleo stretched and turned to her side wondering with some haze of sleep still covering her mind sense when had her bed been so lumpy. Cleo yawned and opened his eyes letting out a harsh swear-word at the sudden light streaming into her eyes making her squint. Cleo stared at the student lounge memories of talking to Kris flooding back into her mind as Cleo pulled himself to sit letting Kris’s jacket that had been covering her like a blanket fall onto her lap. Cleo arched a curious eye-brow seeing a small note pilled to her collar.
Studying with a tired brain will do you no good. Besides if you want to be seen around me, you better have some proper beauty sleep. The only thing worse than an angry red-headed witch is an irriated red-head witch who don’t need most provocation before she pulls her wand. By the way you have the third answer to your Potions quiz wrong. And the answer you don’t have yet are A, C, D, C, B, A.
Cleo snickered as she finished the note and stretched lazily once more making a mental note to thank Kris properly for helping her do her Potions as she dragged her homework a bit closer to see if Kris’s answers would seem correct before she noted them down. She did feel a whole lot better after the hour and half long nap Kris had pretty much forced upon herself. But Cleo didn’t mind today. Somehow Kris had made everything better once again.

[janet]

Janet sighed as she shuffled down the long corridor next to her brother, his arm pulled around her. He had been more understanding than usual. Maybe it was because of the funeral and Grammy's death. It didn't matter now though. All that mattered was that Janet wasn't alone. She loved being alone, but recently she had needed more socialization than normal. It helped keep her mind off of what was truly bothering her, which had always been a nice get away, especially when reality was definitely not enjoyable. Janet looked up at her brother for a second before fixing her eyes on her shoes again. "You know you don't have to watch over me 24/7?" Janet sighed as she kicked up her shoes. She didn't bother looking back up at her brother. She didn't really want him to leave, but she didn't want him to see that.
"Don't do that," Jake said with a sigh.
"Do what?"
"You know exactly what you're doing. I'm here because I am your older brother and I care for you. Stop trying to act your way out of the pain. It's not healthy. You'll just bottle everything up inside and sooner or later that bottle will overflow and what will you do then? Besides you promised me that you wouldn't do that anymore."
Janet sighed again this time in a more 'you win' style. She smiled up at him. "You know sometimes I think you are actually the brother I always wanted," she smiled.
Jake laughed as he pushed her lightly into the wall after dropping his arm from her. She laughed back as she tried to push him back, but could not do so. "No fair!" she exclaimed with a laugh.
"Get used to it," Jake laughed.

Janet smiled brightly at her brother. She had been really thankful for him the last few weeks. To think that a month ago she would have wished him to leave her alone for good. Now she found that she could hardly live without him. He was the only one that could get past her defenses so quickly. It was probably because he knew her best. He was more than a brother to her, he was her best friend. She looked around the corridor and sighed. "I guess you better get going eh? Don't want to be late for your date?" Janet smiled.
"Hey, it's not a date per se. We're just going to be talking. You better get that homework done you were telling me about. I doubt you'll have much time to finish it later when I tell you all the juicy details," he smiled back.
"Spare me the details. Yeah, I have potions, transfiguration, charms, etc. to do. I hate O.W.L.s. The professors certainly want you to be ready for them don't they?" she asked.
"Yeah, it makes them look good," he smiled. "Now get out of here."
Janet smiled and hugged her brother quickly as she turned in the direction of her dormitory. She looked behind and waved to her brother.


Janet quickened her pace as she realized she didn't have long to work on her homework. She had spent a little bit too much time with her brother today. She could feel his hyperness slowly wearing off. She smiled. She realized why they had never gotten along when she was younger. Janet was definitely more of the studious type, being early to things, having her homework done way in advance, studying and reading instead of playing games. She was always like that and Jake had always been the complete opposite. Now he had been wearing off on her. She was beginning to see life in a new way. She was beginning to smile instead of study.

Janet sighed as she stepped into the student lounge with her bag slung over one shoulder. She took off for the couch that looked to be empty, but jumped slightly as she watched a body rise up. Janet took a deep breath as she realized it was only Cleo, one of her dorm mates. She looked at the girl in curiosity. "Were you asleep?" Janet asked Cleo. From what Janet knew of Cleo she wasn't the type to allow herself to be so vulnerable to other people. Besides Janet couldn't remember a time that Cleo had just fallen asleep any where other than her own bed. It definitely seemed odd. However, Janet disregarded her thoughts as she waited for Cleo to respond.

[cleo]

Cleo closed her eyes and yawned sleepily as her fingers rubbed the soft and warm fabric of Kris’s jacket. It had the Slytherin crest stitched on it one hem and Cleo found herself smiling at the curving green snake. Not very many people in Hogwarts liked Slytherins and up to one point Cleo had been one of those. But then this September she had met Kris and somehow among all the hexing and all the arguments Kris had gotten close to her. And she had gotten to know Dana. Cleo didn’t fear Slytherins and just maybe she might be very fond of one even. Though Cleo still didn’t care for the bigger part of that house. But that was rather her personal distaste. But Kris was… something else wholly. Cleo grinned and folded the jacket properly.

Hearing someone addressing her Cleo glanced up and gave a quirky grin to the girl from her dorm. “Hi, Janet. And I suppose I was sleeping, though unvoluntarily. Under the protection of the Green Snake though,” Cleo replied with a calm tilt of her head as she smiled at the Slytherin crest on Kris’s jacket. The crest in itself wouldn’t offer much protection, nor would the jacket protect against anything but cold. But most people would have seen it when they saw Cleo sleeping and most people would have thought twice before raising a hand against someone wearing a Slytherin crest as Slytherins were protective of their kind. That must could be said for them. Cleo grinned noticing that she had been stroking the head of the stitched snake with his index finger and she left the jacket alone as Cleo reached for her black heeled boots she had taken off earlier. Now she pulled them back on while placing the note Kris had left her on the table next to her pile of books and parchments.

“Apparently got Potions homework ‘magically’ done while I was sleeping as well. I’ll double-check it just in case, but I think I’ll trust Kris’s knowledge in Potions. As I heard he got an O for his Potions OWL so he shouldn’t be overly dumbwitted in the subject,” Cleo commented lazily actually feeling a lot better after the forced nap. Noticing the bag hanging form Janet’s shoulder Cleo concluded that she was up to finishing her homework as well so Cleo pulled her things a bit closer to here edge of the table, “Feel free to sit down if you wish. I don’t bit that hard. Especially not as you seem about to catch up on homework as well.”

[janet]

Janet was slightly confused at what Cleo said, but as she looked closer at the jacket she saw the Slytherin snake. Janet smiled and nodded at the jacket. With that lying on her no one would dare mess with her. She didn't think they would really in the first place. After all if anyone knew Cleo they would watch their steps, after all she was with Kris a lot and that in itself put her in a category of 'don't mess with this one.' "How is sleep involuntarily?" Janet asked with curiosity. She didn't understand why Cleo would use the word, unless Janet missed something somewhere, but when she walked in it looked more like Cleo had just fallen asleep on her own. "With that jacket on you people probably stayed a mile away. I probably wouldn't have, but that's because I don't mind Slytherins. I'm one of the few outside of their house that don't, I think," Janet shrugged her shoulders at the thought.

Janet smiled as she adjusted her bag strap. Cleo was talking about potions. How many times had Janet wished things would magically get done for real in her life. What was the point of being a witch if they weren't? Her thought made a small smile appear, but it didn't last long before her mind had wondered somewhere else. "I would love to get an O in potions, but I don't think I'll have the luxury," Janet sighed. She sat down at the table on request and pulled her books out of her bag. She smiled at the comment Cleo made about biting hard. "Just a warning: I bite back. As for the homework thing, yeah. I lost track of time when I was hanging with my brother. I hate it when I do that, but I can't do much about that now."

Janet pulled open her transfiguration book and began to reread the passage she had to write an essay over. It seemed so worthless to write about such things rather than doing them, but maybe that was Jake's personality coming out in her again. He had always found that to be pointless, it was probably wearing off on her. She sighed after a few sentences. "I'm not ready for the OWLs. I don't feel I've studied enough for them. I should have started back in the summer, but I only reread my 3rd and 4th year books. I hate not being prepared," Janet said as she looked up at Cleo. She wondered if she was feeling the same way. It always bothered Janet about not feeling prepared. If she felt unprepared she was more likely to stress herself out and eventually do badly on her tests. She hoped that wouldn't happen.

[cleo]

Cleo grinned and at the sudden though reached into the small bag she had along and pulled out a mirror. When she had fallen – thanks to the courtesy of Peeves – she had bruised her cheek-bone rather badly. While Kris had wiped the make-up Cleo had used to hid it away, Cleo wondered how bad her cheekbone looked. Turning her head Cleo glanced at the cheek-bone and grinned widely upon seeing that her skin was as flawless as ever. “Fell on something Peeves dropped earlier and bruised my cheek. Kris used anesthetic and obviously got rid of the bruise. But he also used some spell I must find out from him to send me into a slumber for about an hour and half. Literally involuntary sleep, but I suppose I did need it. Had a bad morning and didn’t sleep that good tonight anyway.” Cleo touched her cheek once more before closing her mirror with a snap and slipping it back into the pocket of her small hand-bag as she smirked at Janet.

A mile away. Cleo arched a rather sarcastic eye-brow as she thought of this. While Slytherins were feared as the general rule, Janet did exaggerate and not only a little. “There are plenty of people who don’t mind Slytherins among Ravenclaws. Thanks to Dana a lot of people in Ravenclaw are even polite to Kris for a lack of better example. Jazz, Sapph, Meyghan, Ryan, that Summers boy. They all should know Kris I think and can’t say any of them has fought with him,” Cleo shrugged, feeling as if she had proved her point. While the majority of the Slytherin house didn’t seem to be overly popular, there were some Slytherins tolerated better by the rest of the school. Maybe it was Kris becoming blind that sparked people’s interests even more. “Must admit that I don’t have that much fear of a simple house crest to stay a mile away from a sleeping Slyth, while I wouldn’t go to hex the kid,” Cleo shrugged. She had never claimed to be overly nice. So if in a very bad mood or in a hurry or in a need to have a seat that was occupied by the feet of someone sleeping – she just might jinx some Gryffindor or Hufflepuff.

Cleo arched an almost challenging eye-brow as she smirked clearly at Janet. “Bite back? Perhaps. The only question is will you be able to bite after I have finished chewing you up?” Cleo smirked but shook her head, deciding that perhaps it would be better to drop this topic. Pushing her spread fingers through her hair once Cleo opened the index of her potions book. Glancing at the answer Kris had marked correct Cleo found the ingredient in the book and was pleased to discover that Kris had been correct. “Merci, Kris,” Cleo murmured with a victorious grin, just in case starting to check the other answers as well. Kris just might be keeping her on her toes with one wrong answer thrown into the mix. “Must be nice to have a brother to hang out with though. Someone who will be there no matter what. You can’t choose your family, but who else but real family will be there for you, when things get rough?” Cleo hummed not looking at Janet. She didn’t have a real father. She had a mother, who had died at birth, father about who she didn’t know anything and grand-parents who thought her to be a nuisance and a shame for the family-name as her mother, Hespera, had not been married while getting pregnant. Cleo so desperately wished for someone real enough, someone she could actually call family.

“OWLs? I’m not sure. Transfiguration and DADA as well as Arithmancy should be easy enough. And the others – well, I don’t aim to do everything without mistakes. But with some more revising, preferably with someone to check me as well, I think I will be as ready as I ever will be for OWLs. Even if I screw something up, it won’t be the end of my life, right? SO I don’t fret that awfully much about the OWLs, while they are a bit stressing,” Cleo rpelied with a light shrug marking the next correct answer Kris had given her down on the Potions answer sheet before glancing at Janet once again.

[janet]

Janet smiled at Cleo's comment. "I never thought I'd be glad to have an older brother, especially one in Hufflepuff. But lately he's really been there for me and it's hard now to think that I ever didn't want him around. He taught me some life lessons. Instead of reading my life story in books and everything he taught me how to write my life story. He's quite a goof ball, though, and sometimes it's hard to have enough patience for him," Janet said a big smile crossed her face. This time it was real. It wasn't her normal fake smiles she put on for society. It was a smile that reached all the way to her eyes. Showing that she really could enjoy life if she just let herself realize that things were better when they were felt instead of when they bounced off of her numbing personality.

Janet pulled her brain from her book as she listened to Cleo's thoughts on the OWLs. Janet had never looked at them like that. "I never thought of that before. The thing is I really don't need to be worrying about them at all. I don't plan on really being much of a witch when I graduate. I plan on going to America to try my hand in acting on Broadway. I guess I really don't need to worry too much about the OWLs, but still I can't help but want to do well. It's hard to not want to be when your mum is exactly like you. She scored really well on both her OWLs and NEWTs. She expects me to follow in her footsteps and do great maybe even better than she did. That's what she wants. I just hope I'm ready when they come around," Janet said with a slight smile. She did want to do well. She wanted her mum to be proud of her. She just didn't know if it would work out so well if she wasn't prepared or at least thinking that she was prepared. Even if she didn't plan on continuing on with doing a lot of magic outside of Hogwarts. She at least wanted to be able to life up to the reputation her parents had created.

((Sorry it took a while to get a post in. I'm afraid it's not well written or advances any sort of plot between our characters, but Janet is being very stubborn today, or has been for about a week. I just tried to get something down. ))

[cleo]

((Don't worry about it at all. We all have tough moments. )


Cleo smiled with just a hint of bitterness in the curve of her lips. A goof-ball brother, loving parents. What else could be better than a home where you were welcomed and loved. It was a dream Cleo yearned for every second of every day, yet a dream she had never had. She was only a nuisance for her grandparents, a mark of shame for their daughter becoming pregnant at a young age while not being married. Her grand-parents loathed Cleo and the feeling was mutual. As for her father… Cleo had dreamt once. Of a man apperating and calling her daughter, a man who would raise her to her shoulders if her legs got tired and who would love her for her wild temper. Someone who would accept her as her daughter now, because for some important reason he wouldn’t have known of Cleo earlier. In times those dreams had faded as Cleo grew and as her grand-mother mocked this dream. Cleo now almost loathed the man who she was supposed to call father for leaving her pregnant and naïve mother when she needed him most.

“It must be great to have a brother. Someone who will be there and can share your laughs and tears,” Cleo replied not looking at Janet as if fearing that her dreams would shine back from her eyes. Write her own life-story. Cleo grinned at this. She had been forced to learn to forge her own path as a kid. Who else would look out for a sort-of orphan, who had never been loved by those who brought her up? “That’s a valuable lesson. Who will write the story down to be read if not you yourself? I’d hate to be completely dependable on a guy. I would want a partner, not someone who would walk before me or behind me. An equal partner who would walk next to me at the same pace and because of this onto who I could always lean on for support while I fight my battles.” Cleo’s mind flashed to Kris for a moment but she erased the thought quickly as she marked down the rest of the answers Kris had chosen for her on the answer’s sheet Snape had given them.

Cleo tilted her head and eyed Janet. “Broadway. Don’t get me the wrong way, but besides being a witch – what makes you sure you will make it? That you will be noticed among the hundreds of young girls who go there in search of fame, glory and riches? I’m just curious what pushes the people who dare to take such a curious step,” Cleo question with a pleasant smile hoping to take off the edge of her words, “And we all are ego-centric and want to be better than others. That’s what makes us human. My little world that I live in twirls around me. If I didn’t exist then neither would be family, so why pretend and wear a mask of false-shame?” Cleo swallowed as Janet mentioned her mother. It wasn’t done on purpose but once again did Janet rub salt into Cleo’s heart-wounds. “I wouldn’t know about how that feels,” Cle o murmured almost to herself her fingers tightening her hold on the quill Cleo’s knuckles white. The only sign that showed how upset she was of the small remark about never knowing her mother. Hespera had died while giving birth to Cleo. Had died a moment after whispering the name she wanted her little girl to wear. Cleo Rehaia. Forcefully relaxing her fingers Cleo looked back at Janet with a politely casual smile curving one of her lip-corners upwards, “I supposed we all have our nightmares and our dreams that keep us going.”