Tell Me Something ((Will))

[Sapphire Phoenix R7]

Did you get droughts in Scotland? Well, they certainly weren't in the middle of one now. It was raining and miserable. She was sure it had been raining for days without respite. It wasn't particularly warm either, to say the time of year it was. Sapphire wasn't wearing a skirt as she often would, but instead was in the clothes she used for fencing. Well tailored jeans, in this case a stripy white and blue T-shirt with them, a brown leather belt and some flat sandals. She didn't have the hat on though. She hadn't gone to any fencing lessons since Dana had gone. Over everything was her school cloak. The air was chilly. She stayed under the covered bit of the Courtyard; to venture out any further would be folly without a sou'wester and proper waterproof cloak at the moment. It was pouring it down and a driving wind pressed a sheet of water insistently at the stone walls of the castle. Inhospitable, but Sapphire took a dry seat under the shelter of the covered area and stared out at the scene. Her eyes might be focused on the drops of water falling from the sky, each in their own separate journey, but yet as one in how wet they'd make you, but her mind was focused somewhere beyond that right now.

She hadn't quite managed to make sense of what had happened yet. It wasn't as though she had much chance. She was supposed to be revising for her exams. Sometimes she enjoyed working if it was the right subject, but that wasn't the case right now. She was sick to her very core of carrying on with it, and she just wanted a break. This afternoon she was trying to take one. She'd come outside. But the weather out here wasn't any better than it looked out of the window. And neither was the world or her mind. Sapphire sighed slightly to herself and drew her knees up to her chest almost protectively. You wouldn't expect that it was your friends who could hurt you most. Of course it hadn't been Dana that had actually hurt her - she'd just been the instrument - but the image had stuck in Sapphire's mind despite her concussion. She didn't know how to get it to go away, so she tried to force it out with new images. Like the falling rain. A project doomed to failure - the brain lasted you for life and a lifetime's memories. She was just going to have to find a way to accept it. She knew it, just she wasn't really sure what that way was.

Sapphire blinked suddenly. Someone else had entered her line of view. Someone she recognised actually.
"Mr. Senetta," she called sternly, surprised at quite how much her voice did come out sounding like it had been Professor McGonagall saying it. Even though that had been what she'd been aiming for. An attempt to amuse herself, however feeble. It should get his attention though, hopefully. "Will," she called, so that he wouldn't get too confused when he didn't see a teacher in the vicinity. "Come here," she said, her voice making it clear that it was a request rather than a demand even though she didn't add on a 'please'. She looked up to meet his eyes and shifted herself up on the bench to make room for him since if she was going to detain him here for a while she owed him somewhere to sit. She wasn't entirely sure why she'd called him over, but talking was better than solitude when her own mind was definitely not good company. Even if the person she really wanted to talk to wasn't around right now.

[will]

Being stuck inside was honestly the worst thing to do to Will, who was as high-strung as a stretched rubber band. He wanted to go home, back to Lucifer and everything that he knew and loved. He wanted to start his training for competitions and most of all, he wanted to get away from everything. While riding... well, it's rather hard to explain. It's like heaven almost, although Will found heaven rather overrated so he couldn't talk much. Seriously though, all your worries leave you and the stress too... oh, how strangely wonderful that feeling is! As a Ravenclaw you'd expect William to keep his nose in some book but hey, people don't have to follow their labels. Lables... Will hated them with a passion he didn't realize he had. After chatting with Dawn so long ago he hadn't come to accept them in the least - in fact he hated them even more after seeing Dawn so uncaring toward their outcome. He knew she knew about them and how they destroyed everything... Will sighed and shook himself out of his thoughts, deciding it better to busy himself instead of stare at the ceiling.

Okay, so maybe going outside hadn't been the plan in the first place but honestly, more studying would make Will's eyes bleed and his brain malfunction. He couldn't study anymore! The tests were coming and he wasn't even close to being ready. Yet here he was, walking in the rain, getting soaked but feeling a tad better. His mind just couldn't concentrate on that stuff, and for the first time he found his interest in knowledge fading. Thoughts of summer began to flit through his head, defying him of even a vague concentration on anything. Sure, he had tried. He had opened a book on Transfiguration and had really tried, but the window drew his attention. Through all that rain he could just make out the Forbidden Forest. And that pretty much explains it all. There's just some things Will can't resist and the outdoors in general is one of them. His sneakers slid around in the mud more then once and the pouring rain blinded him with not only water but with his own hair, which direly needed some good scissors. Will threw back his head and got rid of the hair problem for the time being. The rain was harder though and after a bit Will realized he would catch cold if he didn't get out of it. It was chilling to the bone and soaked through his attire totally, making him shiver with regret. Ah well, some things he couldn't help. The forest was close though.... so close. Will sighed and did a quick U-turn, heading back toward the Courtyard as fast as the mud allowed him.

He should have brought a hat out, dang it! Hats are always useful when you don't expect them to be. The vision problem would be a little better and as far his hair... tcha. That's self explainable. Will cast a glance of his shoulder as he entered the Courtyard. The Forest was a patch of darkness... with some swirling going on considering the amount of rain fall made it appear wet. Will shrugged it off and glumly turned back toward the castle only to hear a cutting voice that made him jump and turn around real quick, throwing his arms in the air. In truth, he looked like a deer caught in head-lights. Professor McGonagall? He hadn't done anything! Honest! Will's mind raced with excuses as to whatever crime he had been accused of before he heard his name called again, only in a much friendlier tone. "Sapphire! You scared me half to death," Will exclaimed, obeying her and walked over to her bench, which was out of the rain. He wondered if she had managed to capture his reaction. "I mean, not that you're scary or anything, but for a second I thought you were McGonagall." He grinned. "So, what is it I can do for you, Professor?" He asked in a manner he thought was rather bold, considering he didn't think Sapphire was in the mood for jokes. He couldn't blame her, after all that happened. Yet he couldn't help himself from adding a mock salute.

[Sapphire Phoenix R7]

Sapphire couldn't help but smile sometimes at Will's mannerisms. She really had managed to make him jump; he looked perfectly startled. There was a memory that would stay. She didn't laugh because her heart felt a bit heavy for that at the moment, but she was smiling at him in genuine amusement when he began talking. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said, even though the words didn't sound in the least bit sincere. She wouldn't want to scare him to death, but halfway was just amusing. "Be less gullible and I won't be tempted," she said with a small shrug as she sighed again. Her mood had been given a temporary lift, but it was right back to where it had started now. She smiled at Will a little, some amusement stirring inside her as he hastily asserted she wasn't scary. "Shame. And there was me hoping I might be scary." she said, after a moment adding slightly bitterly and against her better judgement, "Might stop me making friends." Because friends could hurt each other more than anyone else. Had she hurt Dana by not having much to say? Had she hurt Dana with what she had said? The other girl wasn't just a dormitory away to ask anymore.

"I don't know really," she said honestly as he asked her what he could do for her, looking at him with burning eyes. She was amused by his calling her 'Professor', but at the same time she couldn't work out what she wanted with him. She was glad she'd called him here - just she couldn't justify it. "You could dry your hair for one thing," she said, taking in his rather soaked appearance. He was shivering as well. "I'm sure you look a whole lot better when it isn't wet. Well - I'll reserve my judgement on that," she said since whether he was good-looking or not wasn't something she'd really thought about before, although in actual fact he probably was now she put her mind to it, "- but you certainly look better when you're not quivering in your boots. Whether it be from cold or because I'm scary. Here -", and she dried off his hair and clothes with a simple spell. "You lose 25% of your body heat through your head as it is," she added. "No need to make the situation any worse." She smiled at him and then reached out to take his hand and pull him to sit down. "You're dry, yes?" she asked, checking he wasn't about to make her as soaking as he'd been before. "Because I'm going to get a crick in my neck if I keep looking at you from this angle. Sit down?" she pleaded as she thought about just how lucky her neck really was. But it was all fine - so that didn't make any difference. No difference whatsoever. Was it the outcome that mattered most or the little stops you made along the way?

[will]

"Me gullible? Hah! I just... have a paranoia about Professor's, that's all. Especially McGonagall." He corrected with a hasty nod and wide grin. Will was playing the clown at the moment and even if it wasn't his favorite part of his personality it sure made things better when Sapphire smiled. A laugh would have been nice too, but hey, he couldn't ask for too much. He had to think about what she had been through. William was stuck in the decision of either asking about what had happened or waiting until Sapphire discussed it freely. He knew that was why she was so low but he didn't want to ask her and then have her send him away. He wanted to wait for her to be ready. Waiting... bah. Will didn't like waiting. His grin faded all the sudden when Sapphire turned bitter. Stop making friends?

"C'mon, you don't mean that," Will said even though he knew Sapphire was usually one to speak her mind. He wished he knew more about what had happened when the Death Eaters had raided the castle because then maybe he might have something smart to say. Instead he could only stand there like a fish out of water. Not a comfortable position to be in, that's for sure. He was thankful when she switched to another topic. "I like to thank of myself good-looking even when wet. Don't go bursting my bubble." He said with a hap-hazard grin. "It's the cold! Haven't I already told you that you aren't scary? Only when you impersonate McGonagall is when I get frightened. But thanks for that." He looked down at his now dry clothes and ran a hand through his hair. It felt much better this way and his shaking had ceased. "It's hard for me to ever run out of hot air," Will said with a nod. For some reason it was hard for him to be serious. Maybe it was all those hours in Hogwarts that had made him hyper, who knew? That was probably the case though.

He was rather surprised when Sapphire was suddenly pleading with him to sit. He had no objections at all so soon he found himself sitting beside her on the bench. "Dry? Check. Thanks to you, of course," he said with a smile. He looked out at the rain just some feet away. Above him he could hear the sound of rain hitting the cover for this section of the Courtyard, the only part of outside that was dry. Now that he was here though, Will found he had quite lost his train of thoughts. He wasn't sure where to begin in conversation. A few times a thought came to him but mostly that would have led back to the attack and he didn't want to be the one to bring it up, he had decided. So instead he took on a rather easy topic. "How come you came out here? Most people prefer to spend rainy days in their common room... I suppose I don't exactly fall into the category of "most people" since I was out there in the rain. I had good reasoning though, I think... Can't really remember them at the moment so ask me later." He paused before hurtling on. "It just gets boring inside, you know? And being around a large group of people isn't any fun... " He stopped, realizing he had been talking this whole time and hadn't given Sapphire a chance to respond. Taking a deep breath, he gave her a smile and then turned his attention back to the rain.

[Sapphire Phoenix R7]

Sapphire smiled as Will protested about her calling him gullible. "Why exactly would you have a phobia of Professors?" she asked. "McGonagall even? Were you supposed to be revising for your Transfiguration exam?" Sapphire thought back to her own books which she had left lying on her bed. "I can't talk," she said with a small laugh, some of the bitterness she felt at the moment in that laugh as well. But still, at least she was getting it out. "Well, Transfiguration, I can still do," she said, standing up and venturing out into the rain for a moment, returning with a single leaf plucked from a nearby bush. With a single tap and incantation she turned the rather wet green leaf into a flat red balloon. She hadn't bothered getting rid of the veins, but instead had accentuated them as shiny silvery lines over the surface of the balloon. Sapphire looked at it for a second before attempting to blow it up, her attempt failing miserably. She laughed genuinely this time as she thought about the rather feeble outcome and handed it over to Will in the hope he might do better.

"See, this is why I took up the viola rather than choosing a wind or brass instrument," she explained. "I just don't have any wind for it - you said you never ran out of hot air though." she said, turning it into a challenge and smiling at him. "Don't though. I quite like it. Means that when I'm tired I don't have to expend energy talking." Sapphire rubbed her eyes as she talked about being tired. She was a lot better now - she could talk without her voice sounding terrible and all - but she'd spent quite a long time awake and thinking last night. She smiled awkwardly at Will as she realised she'd just shown her tiredness in front of him and then looked again to the balloon. "I should most likely revise Herbology as well though," she said, moving the conversation back to where it had been before. "So that I know the properties of that plant other than the fact I can Transfigure it before I sit my OWL."

She just watched him talking as he deliberated on why one would be out in the rain today. Why did he think she was out here? No one would want to come out here, that was why. It was quiet and no one was likely to come along and bother her. She leaned back on the bench and waited for him to finish talking, shivering slightly since she'd got a bit wet when she'd gone to get that leaf and it wasn't particularly warm. She soon stopped that though. Ah ha! He'd finished talking. "Gee, you did mean it when you talked about hot air," she said teasingly, but she didn't gawp at him in addition. That would have to be added as an act and she wasn't in the mood right now. "But why not large groups of people? Is it really possible that you run out of things to say? Or do you just not get to talk as much as you'd like to?" She paused for a moment. Her words were a lot harsher than she'd meant them to be - she'd only meant them teasingly after all. "I'm here because... well, I don't want to be where most people are right now. Most people haven't... most people don't..." Sapphire stopped and frowned as she tried to work out what she was attempting to say. "It's just easier to think when there aren't people trying to steal surreptitious glances at you and I was fed up of being stuck in my dorm," she explained in the end, not sure that was what she'd originally intended to say but finding that was what came out.

((Katie just ordered me to bed so you don't get anymore.))

[will]

"I'm just a little behind, that's all. At first it only used to be a phobia of Snape because, well, what's scarier then him coming over to you after you messed up a potion? And then you have to deal with facing your dorm mates after losing points... Yep, I would have quit Potions if I could in my third year, but that would get rid of too many future options for a job, you know?" Will smiled. "As for McGonagall, she's just too strict. She makes me nervous when she comes around to inspect my work because I'm not any genius when it comes to Transfiguration, if that means anything. And when you have a late assignment or two - she gets really upset." Will sighed. "Do you ever get the feeling that everyone - even the Professors - expect something more of Ravenclaws than anyone else?" He watched as Sapphire left their spot and returned with a leaf, damp with the rain just as she now was. She turned it into a balloon without much trouble but when she attempted to blow it up, not much happened. Will accepted it from her and blew hard into the balloon. He didn't tell Sapphire that he did this often for birthday parties at the Orphanage so he had no trouble filling the balloon with air and tying a knot. "There we are," he handed it back toward her. "And I can still talk." He said with a grin.

"You play viola? Whoa, I never knew that," Will said. He didn't know what wind and brass instruments were - after all he had no interest in music whatsoever. Once in a while he got a random song stuck in his head but other then that he just... didn't have an interest. It didn't stick. He figured that the wind and brass instruments had to do something with air, so it must be like... the flute? He tried to look like he was competent in this field. "Well - I don't really like music. So I can't really use all that hot air toward that... Talking is more of my expertise, you see. I can go on and on for a long time if allowed but when I'm done, I usually don't have an audience any more. If that makes sense." He decided to keep his big mouth shut as Sapphire mentioned being tired. He could only guess why and he figured his guess was accurate. "OWL's aren't as hard as some people make them out to be. The people who test you are generally nice and if you're relaxed then... everything eventually falls into place. Just like everything else in life."

He smiled. "Oh c'mon, it's not that bad. At least I'm not too bad of an air-head or klutz. Now that would be no fun, now would it? Although I do forget things rather quickly - I forgot Dana's name once. She didn't like that much." Will grinned at the memory. No indeed, she didn't like it at all. Well, it had been after summer and Dana and him didn't exactly converse every day so... what did she expect after a whole summer? He would have to work on that but after that encounter, he didn't think he would be able to forget her name again. "Can you imagine me running out of things to say? Well, sometimes I'm rendered speechless by a few;" he thought of Samantha Driscoll with a frown, "- but usually I'm the life of a party. Well, sometimes. It depends on who and their parents. I just don't like big groups because...hmm... I'm not really sure... Maybe because I get cut off a lot?" He shrugged, finding himself being very talkative with Sapphire. He had just been joking around when he talked about him being unable to run out of things to say; sometimes he was the quiet one. But with Sapphire he found himself just bursting with words. It was strange, that was for sure, especially since Sapphire and him didn't exactly talk often or know each other very well. "Oh, I see. You came out here to get away," he nodded at her explanation. "I do that a lot. I sometimes find all the noise in the common room unappetizing so I go somewhere quieter. Usually outside, to be honest. I don't like being indoors." He paused before hurtling on without thinking, because if he thought about it, he knew he'd wimp out. "Look, do you mind if I ask... I mean could you tell me about... about... what happened?"

[Sapphire Phoenix R7]

Sapphire grinned slightly as Will handed the balloon back to her, expertly blown up and tied. She bounced it from one hand to the other absentmindedly, although making sure to keep it under fairly tight control since she didn't want a gust of wind to blow it away. "Potions - not my best subject," she said, "- but I'm not terrible at it. I don't live in fear when I'm in Potions lessons, but yes, I suppose it's possible to get a bit edgy. Getting things wrong isn't usually overlooked." Sapphire shrugged. It was just as well she didn't get things wrong very often, then. "But I hope I'll be all right in OWLs. I will be 's long as I can concentrate which... right now I can't. Too... tired." she said, yawning widely as if to accentuate her point, even though it was just badly timed and tired was just the word she'd settled with in the end. It described all the reasons, excuses, without her having to waste energy explaining when she didn't want to. "And of course they expect more of you. You weren't sorted into Ravenclaw for no reason, Mr. Senetta." she said, on the last sentence turning her voice back to the sort of tone Professor McGonagall adopted, and accompanying it with a searching and rather stern look.

"Yes, I play viola," she continued in her own voice, "- not that that's of much import if you don't like music anyway. Music's something me and Zara can share though since we both enjoy it - Zara plays the piano. Zara's my twin sister, by the way," she said with a slight smile, just a little tickled by his initial reaction and then his admission about not liking music a great deal contrasting so much. "And that made sense. I was listening to what you were saying, which tends to help." Sapphire smiled slightly sadly as Will mentioned Dana. She didn't know quite how they were going to patch up their friendship. She hoped they'd manage, but that depended on Dana as well as Sapphire and the older girl wasn't here right now. "I doubt Dana would've liked that much," she said. "You are in the same year. Won't... wouldn't like it much if you told her you have a phobia of Prof. Snape either, I don't think. Though I didn't know her at all really until part-way through last year. I'm still not sure I know her."

Sapphire was looking down at her hands, but as Will asked her a very direct direct question she looked up sharply. She'd been preparing to ping the balloon by pushing the knot into the main part of the balloon so that it would accelerate off quickly in the other direction when she released it, but she let go without meaning to. It ended up in Will's lap and Sapphire dived over to retrieve it straight away before the wind could decide to take it over elsewhere, with an "Oops, sorry." Balloon at the ready this time, she aimed for his nose and let it go. "That's what everyone wants to know, isn't it?" she said simultaneously. "I just wish I didn't. Have the personal memories." The memory of Dana pointing a wand at her, that one wasn't going away at all. "Well, there were Death Eaters in Hogwarts obviously and they were torturing Melody... Crucioing her, and she's just a second year. Poor girl. Whole lot braver than me though, I suspect - she is a Gryffindor so I suppose you'd expect that. And me and Dana heard that so... we ended up there too. It helped Melody but... one of the Death Eaters Imperiused Dana and she used a strangling curse on me. I can't get that out of my mind. We're still here - well Dana isn't in person but anyway - we are. One of the Death Eaters, the one who Imperiused Dana I think, was killed but that's... not so much my story." Sapphire sighed and shook her head in an unconscious action as she added just one more confidence. "I just want to talk to Dana about it... sort it out. At the moment... I can't. But I can't really talk to her because she isn't here."

((The double direct isn't a typo. I've just been doing too much Latin and a direct question is a specific grammar thing but the direct question was in this case direct. Make sense? ))

[will]

((Do you mean a directly direct question? That's what I got from it... ))

Will felt his spirits lift a little as Sapphire grinned. It felt good to know he was actually making a difference, whether it be making someone smile or actually sorting out their problems. At the moment he had no idea - or accurate idea anyway - what had happened to Sapphire. He only knew she had been attacked by the Death Eaters when Hogwarts was being raided and in the end, one of the Death Eaters died but otherwise no one was in critical condition. Maybe a few bruises and scratches, or so he had heard. And he couldn't really relate to Sapphire because he had never been put in such a situation and honestly hoped he never would be. "Edgy? Most people cower when Snape comes over and begins to berate them." Will said with a grin. "I don't cower, of course, but stick with a rather nonverbal innocent look." He watched as Sapphire yawned. "Hmm... tired? I would have never guessed. C'mon, if you're tired, why not stay inside and take a nap?" he grinned as she took on McGonagall's stern voice again. "You know, you're rather good at that," he commented. "But yeah, I'm in Ravenclaw for a reason but still..." he sighed. "Okay, so it does make sense but I'm tired of labels. Maybe the teachers have a right to but other students... it's just not fair." But really, what in life was fair?

"You have a twin sister?" Will asked, surprised. "I didn't know that. Is she identical? She's not... nope, not in Ravenclaw, is she? Or as far as I can remember." He didn't remember very well so for all he knew, she could be in Ravenclaw. He shrugged with embarrassment; "Okay, so we are in the same year but it was over the whole summer. And I didn't converse with Dana a lot through all those years so... it's not my fault! I suffer from short-term memory." He concluded with a nod. Raising his brows, he continued, "Dana likes Professor Snape? Proves how little I know about her. I mean, how can people like Snape? He's a menace to society if you ask me. He likes to pick on people that aren't in his own house, and if that's alright for a teacher to do, then my name's Daniel!" He kept his face straight when Sapphire mentioned that she still wasn't sure if she truly knew Dana. It was comments like that that made Will's mood do a back-bend. He wasn't sure what to feel or what Sapphire wanted him to show. Pity? No, most people didn't like that. He had found out the hard way.

Will wasn't looking at Sapphire so when the balloon he had blown up for her hit him square in the face, he nearly fell off the bench. "What the - ?" The balloon fell to the floor and began to roll/hop away as the wind carried it. Jumping off the bench, Will grabbed it up quickly and kept it firmly in his rough hands. It would be pay-back soon... He sat back down and listened intently as Sapphire described the events in not the best of light, but he was just happy she had agreed to talk about it. He believed strongly that talking about things helped heal pain even if it hurt at first, though most challenged his philosophy. He was silent for a while after she finished. It was hard for Will to figure out what he was going to say; he was rather tongue-tied and that didn't happen often. "Well..." he began slowly and gently. "It wasn't Dana's fault that she used a curse against you. It's nearly impossible to fight against the Imperious curse and if Dana had done that... well.... it's practically impossible. But I can't really help you out, seeing as I wasn't there."