Absent Soul (Orion)

[Esmeralda Mendez]

Ezzie sighed heavily as she threw the marble notebook onto the carpeted floor of the Student Lounge. She should have everything in the world to write about. She had just established a great friendship with her ex boyfriend, something that was rather hard to do, especially in her case. Ezzie tended to take things to extremes. She was either absolutely in love with Ethan, or she hated and despised him with every fiber of her being. It was nice to have found a median. Even if her new found friendship didn’t give her enough inspiration, there was always the new arrival of her mother, Elena. Ezzie hadn’t seen her mother in four years, and all of a sudden she had returned out of the blue, when Ezzie had thought her to be dead. It was her mother’s fault Ezzie had grown up in such an unstable lifestyle. Why didn’t Ezzie hate her? Lately it was like Ezzie had been in a separate universe, or at least her soul was. Her body walked the Hogwarts corridors and went to classes and went to Hogsmeade village, but her heart and soul was in a completely different universe. Lately, Ezzie just stood there all the time with a completely blank expression on her face. It was described by Ethan as ‘dreamy’ and ‘out there.’ Ezzie couldn’t even remember the last time she smiled or cried. She had shown absolutely no emotion in ages. Ezzie thought back to the day she had gone to Hogsmeade for her recording and Ethan had gone for his date. It was the only time in ages that she had felt any true emotion. That day, seeing Ethan with Amber had made Ezzie feel mean, angry, and coldhearted. Anger overtook her soul, and a day later, Ezzie had gone back to feeling nothing again. Ezzie kept reliving everything that had happened to her over the years, but she still couldn’t come up with anything. She had even gone as far as to try and take something out of her battle for perfection (some would call it an eating disorder, but Ezzie called it a smarter way of living) but even still, Ezzie could think of nothing. She glanced down at the orange and red marble notebook and then finally decided to bend down and pick it up again. She placed her pen upon the paper and left it there for a few seconds. Ezzie still couldn’t think of anything. She ran her fingers through her hair in frustration as she tried to come up with something to write. She needed to have four more songs written by the end of the week, and Ezzie had none so far to hand to her manager. She could hear the speech now.

Ezzie, I thought we agreed that you were a singer/SONGWRITER! You can’t be a songwriter if you don’t write any songs! Urghh! We’ll be soo far behind all the others. What with you at Hogwarts and everything, of course the muggles will forget who you are! When stars who are getting as much attention as you just fade away for half the year, people begin to forget! Are you sure you don’t want to be homeschooled?

Ezzie shook her head as if telling her manager Alyssa she didn’t want to be homeschooled. The question had been brought up on various occasions and Ezzie had declined every time. She loved Hogwarts, and would leave the school only when she received her diploma at the end of her seventh year. She just couldn’t imagine leaving the beautiful castle and all its enchanting features. Ezzie had even thought about leaving her singing career and becoming a professor here, but Ezzie knew her future would always lie in her singing career. That was why she just had to keep writing. She couldn’t give up now. No, giving up just wasn’t an option. She crossed her legs and propped the notebook against her knee as she stared into the fireplace, still trying to think of something to write about. It was late at night and she was alone in the Lounge…or so she thought.

[orion]

Orion had been in a particularly bored mood, which resulted in him resorting to a particularly mischievous manner. Orion like to play pranks, all in good spirits though. He had often considered himself the bearable form of Peeves, of course he was the human form as well, seeing that Peeves was nothing more than a ghost. One thing that likely separated the two in a major way was Orion's conscience. He like to have fun, but didn't really do it for the purpose of causing trouble or breaking rules. Where Peeves seem to have the motive of sheer happiness in causing chaos, Orion just liked to have fun and make people laugh. Aside from that, he was actually pretty well behaved. When compared to his sister, Orion seemed like an angel. Nonetheless, tonight was one of those nights where he was just so utterly bored that he wanted to find something fun to do.

He walked the empty corridors, looking for someone to share in his fun. It was somewhat late though, and many of the students had retired to their dormitories for the night. Curfew hadn't taken effect though, which meant that Orion would seek to use the rest of his time that he had as best he could. What to do in that time, he had yet to decide. The first step would be to find someone else that would be willing to join in his fun. Having been close to the student lounge, Orion thought that might be a good place to look.

When he entered the room, he was disappointed to see that it was empty. Frowning, he cursed out loud but then saw that someone was in fact sitting by the fire. The orange glow from the flames had caused them to blend in at first glance. Orion hurried over, noticing that it was a girl from his year. He knew her from classes, though had never really spent much time talking to her. Orion was somewhat shy around girls, despite being friendly to everyone. "Hi Esmeralda," he greeted with a cheerful tone. Plopping down on the couch, Orion looked to see what she was doing. All that he noticed was a tablet, which could have meant a variety of things. "Whatcha up to?" he asked, hoping that she wouldn't say something which meant he was only interrupting. If it was something important, she would likely not want to help him find something fun to do.

[Esmeralda Mendez]

Ezzie groaned as she ran her fingers through her smooth dark brown hair. Her hair had changed so much, that Ezzie could barely remember its original length to being with. She was always making longer for performances or temporarily adding side bangs and then growing them back out again after a performance was over. She remembered back to this time last year, when she had wavy, waist length dark brown hair that flowed and blew in the wind. Well, enough about Ezzie’s hair. She gave the song one more attempt, and when she came up with nothing, Ezzie simply closed the book and placed it on the footstool in front of her. She looked up and jumped. She had no idea there was anyone else here.

“Good heavens, Orion! You scared the living daylights out of me!” She said with her hand on her heart with a bewildered expression. After moments of getting used to the thought of someone else being around her when she thought she was alone, Ezzie laughed half heartedly and glanced down at her notebook. Trying to forget about her dangerously low inspiration level at the moment, she averted her gaze and looked at Orion, who was a Hufflepuff in her year. “And call me Ezzie, please. Esmeralda has always been a hard name for all you British to pronounce correctly anyway.” She said, in her heavy Spanish accent. Even if one didn’t know of Ezzie’s Cuban roots from magazines and such, it wouldn’t take them long to figure it out. Ezzie was a very fast learner, especially when it came to things like language, but it was rather hard to get rid of her genuine Spanish roots. Sometimes, Ezzie was embarrassed when she couldn’t pronounce an English word the correct way, but other times, Ezzie was glad she was different. Barely anyone around here knew Spanish, and most people thought it was pretty cool that she knew a second language. Orion asked her if she was busy with anything. In truth, Ezzie should be busy right now, but she wasn’t. There was absolutely no possible way Ezzie could get one sensible word down on that notebook paper, whether it be English or Spanish. (And Ezzie would know, for she had attempted both)

“Well, I was working on a song…but I can’t really think of much to write anymore. That might be really bad, since my manager wants four new songs by the end of the week. But ah well, maybe after a decent sleep I’ll have some fresh new ideas in my head.” Hopefully…or else you’re a gonner, Ezzie. You heard Alyssa. The muggles are already starting to forget about you. . Ezzie tried to ignore the voice that was talking inside her head. It was quite true. The magical community knew she went to Hogwarts, and they knew all about what was currently going on in Ezzie’s life. The muggles however, had no clue what was going on. All they heard were small whispers and rumors. They hadn’t had a decent thing to talk about ever since the end of last summer. Surely by the time Winter break rolled in, they would all consider her a ‘has been or something. Ezzie sincerely hoped they wouldn’t forget. But somehow, she knew she would have a lot of work to do to win back the public when she returned for winter holiday. She didn’t want to be forgotten…although, Ezzie couldn’t help but be thankful for all the free time she had while at Hogwarts. She did have to deal with people staring and pointing in the middle of class, but all that was nothing to dodging random paparazzi and having to make sure all curtains were closed and shutters were down when she showered or got dressed in her own home. Being at Hogwarts gave her a break from everything, and she appreciated that greatly.

“Wow, someone’s out late. I think we have just over an hour before curfew…any later than that and we’ll have Filch and that bloody cat to deal with. I’d like to introduce that little creature to my cat and her kitten. Nena and Puppy are tougher than they look.” Ezzie said fondly. She felt bad for her two cats. She had barely paid any attention to them these past weeks. Ever since Ezzie became famous, she was always busy with something or another that her cats had spent more time at Alyssa’s home in Hogsmeade than in Hogwarts with her. They were there right now. God did Ezzie miss them. She had even gotten word from Alyssa yesterday that Nena was sick, and the vets only gave her a short few weeks to live. They suggested putting poor old Nena to sleep, but Ezzie insisted on seeing her a few times before they ever did such a thing. Nena had been her best friend for so long. She just couldn’t bear seeing her go. It seemed that Ezzie barely got to spend any time with her at all. She had found Nena during the summer before her second year, and she was already very old. During that time, Ezzie was working at the Hotel, and she worked fourteen hour work days for six out of the seven days each week. After that, Ezzie would simply go back to the shelter and collapse. Then there was the chaotic mess of last summer. She was so busy rehearsing and going to premieres and spending time out with Ethan and Casey. That didn’t leave much time for a cat, now did it? Ezzie sighed sadly.

[orion]

"My bad," Orion replied, biting his lip when Ezzie had shown that he had startled her with his sudden presence. Then, she proceeded to inform him that she preferred being called Ezzie over Esmeralda. Orion had always hated the fact that he was unable to use the appropriate accents for other languages. Spanish was one that he had always had somewhat of an interest in, despite not being able to roll his r's or pronounce certain letter arrangements. "Sorry... Ezzie..." he said, figuring that it was much easier to say anyways. "Songwriting?" he asked, interested to find that Ezzie was a musical artist. "Doesn't sound like you're having much luck then." Orion wondered why Ezzie was having trouble coming up with the song. "Don't musicians usually enjoy getting the opportunity to write a song. I mean, they don't tend to look at is as something that they have to do. It just seems that... well, you aren't happy to have to be writing songs." Orion didn't want to sound judgmental, but he had always seen music as a hobby, and so for someone to have to work with music seemed to be somewhat silly. Of course, sometimes the things that were best in life always came with a little work. If it was easy, everyone could do it.

"Anyways... yeah, it is late." Orion shrugged before laughing at Ezzie's comment about Mrs. Norris having to meet her cats. "Filch doesn't scare me," Orion said with an apathetic gesture. "It's the prefects that we have to worry about. I'd hate to make Hufflepuff lose house points." Orion was normally not one to disregard rules simply as a form of rebellion, but he just liked to have fun and that sometimes involved pushing the envelope a bit. "If you're having a hard time coming up with song ideas, we can always try to find something else to do." He hoped that maybe Ezzie would have an idea because Orion really hadn't been able to think of anything to do. That never sat well with him, for he had always been taught and held to the idea that bored people were simply boring in and of themselves. Orion would never want to resort to being considered a boring person. It was simply against his entire being. "Any ideas?" he asked, still trying to think for himself of something that they could do. Ezzie was right in the fact that their time before curfew was running out. That didn't mean that they had to spend it doing nothing though. Surely there was something that the two could find to pass the time in a fun and active way.