Respect. ((Odette))

[damien]

Damien made his way across the grounds, pulling his coat tight around him and then adjusting his gloves on his hands. He rolled his shoulders back and then rolled his head from side to side, cracking his neck as he headed toward the lake. He knew who he’d find there, for she obviously wasn’t in the library, he had looked through there thoroughly. That’s how it was with Odette. She was either in the library or she was at the lake, that’s where they met. It was funny...well not really funny, nothing but another person’s agony was funny in Damien’s eyes...but it was interesting, to think that they had never really said out loud that this was where they were going to meet. They just met there. They always had. Since the first time Damien had found her standing by the flat water, it was almost like an unspoken rule. There they could speak in privacy and not worry about getting snapped at for being too noisy, or for being in the wrong section of the library; as they often were. More times than not they were in the restricted section, or at least trying to find a way in there without a pass. Then again, Odette could normally find ways to get passes, though it did sort of take her a while to convince certain teachers, and lately they had been back there so much that the librarian was beginning to get suspicious. And that was not a good thing. Anyone being suspicious of Damien and Odette’s actions was a bad thing, but then again, the two of them were doing some pretty questionable things, even as fourth years.

Damien rolled his eyes as the thought of age entered his mind. Unlike Odette, Damien tended to believe that age was nothing more than a way for old people to claim that they had some sort of right of passage. Which was nearly the most pathetic thing Damien had ever heard in his life. In his mind, talent and intelligence were just that, talent and intelligence. If you had it you had it, if you didn’t you didn’t. That was that. It didn’t matter how long you lived, if you were stupid, you deserved no respect. And that ended that argument. Arguments. That was another fun subject. Damien never had any reason to argue. If someone did not agree with him or Odette then there was no reason for either of them to stand around and try and argue with someone who was obviously at a lower level then they were. Or at least that’s what Damien thought. Odette’s thoughts and feelings were still a bit more complicated to understand. Damien still was working them out, and he had known her for nearly four years. As close as Damien and Odette might have been, that didn’t mean for one second that Damien knew the inner workings of Odette’s mind. Surely he knew them better than anyone else did, but he didn’t know them in their entirety. Odette was the only person in the universe that Damien had ever found to be a step above him. Even his parents had been lesser people then he was. Everyone was lesser then he, for Damien found himself to be nearly perfection. Ask him however, and he would tell you he was perfect.

It wasn’t often Damien and Odette were apart, but Damien had just gotten out of a care of magical creatures class (which he found to be incredibly boring mind you) and Odette had not bothered to show up for that class. This severely annoyed Damien, because she rarely bothered to tell him when she wasn’t going to be in class, so he often found himself sitting there bored out of his mind; most of the time he just got up and left the class without any sort of consideration for his classmates or the teacher. Teacher, hah, like anyone could call that nasty half breed a teacher. So I digress. Damien was now leaving that class, and by the time I’ve finished all this bloody narrating his made it all the way to the lake. That boy takes huge steps. Where were we? Oh yeah, the lake, right. So Damien had finally made his way to the lake, where sure enough he found Odette, just standing there staring, and Damien didn’t bother to say anything as he walked up next to her and stood there, closer than anyone else would dare to stand, just so she’d know it was him. Though he had no doubt she didn’t already know he was coming.

[Odette Boswell S4]

Odette, although she lived in Russia for every holiday, hated the cold. She always felt like she was turning to ice and might shatter at any moment into a billion different completely pure pieces. Someone might then, preferably Damien, come along and pick her up bit by bit and grieve over the loss of someone so magnificent. Odette was not immortal, she knew that and so did Damien; however that did not mean that she let everyone know that she was capable of being defeated. She had to appear unstoppable, and you can trust me when I say that Odette put on quite the appearance. She had to in order to intimidate people like she so often did. Yes, Odette was intimidating. She had to be. It’s amusing to think that Odette had to be a lot of things, but each was something that she wanted to be. No one made Odette do anything, she did them because she wanted to. Even Damien had no say in what she did or said, because she certainly couldn’t care less what Damien wanted. Goodness, Damien… that’s who she was waiting for at the moment, standing by the lake in the cold. She was really starting to get agitated with that boy, but she did not move from her stance. She knew that Damien would find her, but until then – she would keep her mind off the biting cold. The cold that was nipping at her nose and, even with the hood of her cloak pulled up, her ears, as well. The cloak did nothing for warmth, but Odette would wear nothing else.

The cloak was symbolic of something greater than warmth. Just what it symbolised is difficult to explain. Odette would say it symbolised rebirth, purification, and perfection. Someone else (down the line of time) might say it symbolised absolute power and…yes…fear. Odette loved fear, well, technically she loved fear when it admitted from other people. Odette never lasted when it came to fear that was coming from her. She scared herself when she was afraid. You might ask yourself, how could this be true? Well, you have to understand… Odette was very good at thinking herself into circles. Perhaps she was too good, I’m not really sure, but it all goes back to the same thing…Odette is perfectly capable of being afraid of being afraid. She feared being afraid. She feared it more than she feared anything else, because she knew that if she ever became afraid of something that it would show her weakness. Her weakness that she kept so well hidden from everyone else that no one really knew it was there. It was, though. Odette knew it was. She could feel it lurking behind every corner. It breathed down her neck whenever she made a decision. Her weakness was her doubt. Her doubt in herself, her doubt in Damien, her doubt in their plan, and her doubt in their ability to follow through with their plan. Odette doubted, and she doubted a lot, but she kept it locked up and hidden well. She had to, Damien would kill her if he knew.

Anyway, Odette stood, with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes straight forward across the lake toward the sun lit sky that looked crisp and clear. It looked pure, new, fresh. Odette loved it. She loved the feeling of autumn on the breach of winter and she loved the taste of it on her tongue if her tongue wasn’t too numb to feel anything. She sighed slightly, a small puff of air exuding from her lips, as she looked at the sky and waited for Damien to decide to grace her with his presence. She didn’t know how long she was standing there with her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed at the sky, but when Damien finally did arrive, she let the silence dance around them and engulf them for a moment. Finally, she looked over at him and smiled; “Took you long enough,” she told him in a tone that suggested she wasn’t mad at him in the least. “I think,” she started, not even bothering with pleasantries, “we need to do something about those incompetent Lehane twins.”

[damien]

Damien was quite used to Odette's blunt way of doing things. She wasn’t one to dance around subjects and that was one of the things that Damien respected most about her. Odette knew what she wanted and she got what she wanted. She had never been the type of person to beat around the bush, or to hint at things that she wanted. If she was ever caught doing something like this, it wasn’t because she was shy about getting what she wanted, it was because she had a plan of action, and her plan just happened to involve taking things slow and subtly. But Odette had never been the kind of girl to sugar coat things or to avoid saying what she meant. IF she was thinking something, she said it, no matter how blunt it might have been. Currently Odette was being rather blunt, having obviously been thinking about this particular subject for a long time. Damien smiled back, though he smile more often than not resembled something closer to a sneer or smirk then a normal smile, and he nodded at her words. "I was wondering when you'd suggest that. Damien too had been thinking on the subject since their first day back in school, or at least, since the train ride to their first night back in school. Those Lehane's had gotten on his nerves in seconds.

Of course, Damien and Odette had spent all four of their years in school sharing a house with the Lehane twins, but it was more recently that they had developed distaste for the duo. In his third year Damien had taken a closer watch on the two, and had found their actions and conversations to be far beyond what he would tolerate from someone not at his and Odette's level. The twins had more and more frequently begun discussions of taking over the wizarding world, and being in power, and destroying muggleborns and muggles. And if Damien had anything to do with it, it would be he who would have that sort of pleasure. It was Damien and Odette who were developing the plans, and as far as he could see, all the Lehanes were doing was talk. And talk was cheap. It didn’t get you anywhere. More often than not Damien had resisted his urges to find a way to sew their mouths closed so their measly talk wouldn’t bother him anymore. For Christ’s sake; sometimes certain people should have just been born mute. The Lehane twins fell into the category of 'certain people'. It wasn’t only the way they talked that annoyed Damien, but also their attitude. They had a rather foul attitude, and Damien found it incredibly obnoxious.

Damien yawned slightly and hooked his arm, waiting for Odette to fit hers inside his so that they could begin an evening walk. He was quite interested to hear what thoughts had been brewing inside her mind, they would likely be far more diplomatic then Damien's violent tendencies. "And what exactly do you suppose we do? I'd be glad to cause them injury, but I'm sure you'll have a better plan then that. One that won’t land anyone in St. Mungo's."