Runaway ((E))

[Danelle Gregory H6]

Oh, how Danelle wished it was warmer out. She was tired of the cold. Of it biting at her skin, making her turn red, causing her nose to drip. She was tired of getting snow, or slush rather, in her shoes. And most of all, she was tired of slipping on ice as she made her way down to her Herbology class in the Greenhouses. At least in there it was warm. At least she had spent her winter hols in Greece, where it was warm and quite lovely. Then she had to return back to school, where it was freezing - but still somewhat lovely. Danelle did enjoy Hogwarts. She had good friends, and she was doing well in school; perhaps she was lacking in the romance department, but really she didn't think she really needed a romantic moment in her day to make her happy. Although, Danelle could admit that there was something missing and she wasn't quite sure what it was. Perhaps she could easily pinpoint it if she tried, but she was afraid of what she would find. And Danelle easily ran from her fears instead of facing them head on. Maybe that made her a coward, but honestly Danelle didn't care what it made her at that moment.

It wasn't that she wasn't brave, exactly, it was just that...well, she wasn't brave. She never really had to be. She led a pretty charmed life, aside from the fact that her dad had hidden this whole magical thing from his entire family for years and years. She wasn't abused, there wasn't anything dark lurking in her bedroom at night. No, Danelle was raised in a peaceful home with absolutely nothing to be afraid of or brave for. Some people would consider that a gift, Danelle considered a curse. It meant that when things happened that she needed to be brave about, she couldn't be because she really just didn't know how. It meant that Danelle was very much on her own for the longest part of her life, and thus; she ran from her fears and from pretty much any tough thing in her life. Any tough thing. School grades were bad, she ran to Thomas - he tutored her. Friendship problems, she ran away and let things cool off or just let the friendship end. Relationship problems, yeah...right. If it was one thing Danelle was good at, it was running away from problems. It wasn't a thing to be proud of.

And neither was the slush in her new pair of boots. Weren't boots supposed to keep the snow and cold out? Danelle frowned down at the brown suede and stamped her feet gingerly as she approached the bank of the lake. Steam was rising off it, showing that the water was slightly warmer than the atmosphere. Oh, that was a lovely thought. She crossed her arms and looked out over the horizon, the wind blowing her hair this way and that, pulling it from her loose braid that rested over her right shoulder. Her eyes were trained on the sinking sun and she was trying not to think about how it was about to get a lot colder without the sunlight warming (not very well, mind you) the otherwise -29 degree weather. Any normal person would have just gone back inside, crawled into their flannel pyjamas and curled up in front of the nice warm fire in their common room - ah, but alas...Danelle was not normal.

Danelle was a runaway, and currently she was running away from a rather dreadful essay that she been putting off for the longest time. Going back inside wasn't an option for Danelle, she would rather freeze into an icicle than face her fear, although she would have to face that fear eventually or else her grades would plummet and she would have a bigger fear to face in due time. The lesser of two evils. Danelle groaned and folded her arms over her chest, closing her eyes to the biting wind. She didn't know how much more of this she could stand, but she was frozen (almost literally) with fear.

[Ephraim Eades R7]

Another cold day. Another windy snowfall. E couldn't have hated winter more. The last time he ventured onto the grounds in the cold, he did end up having a nice ice skate with Sadie though. Perhaps that was worth the biting winds and icy snow. If he wasn't such a sucker for the outdoors, he wouldn't have been in the position to debate within himself if the snow was really enough to keep him from fresh air. In the end, he won the debate (though either way he would have won) and decided that the snow couldn't beat the desire for fresh air.

Mittens, knit cap, and all, Ephraim ventured from the warm shelter of the castle and out into the wrath of winter. The first breath of air he took though made it all worth it. No longer was he taking in the musty, stale air that was trapped inside the castle. Now, he was breathing fresh, cold air which woke him up from the inside out.

The sky was a radiant shade of blue, likely the same colour as his eyes. The white-washed mountains set the back drop for his view, and as he walked he couldn't help but wish to himself that winter could only be as warm as summer. Then it would truly be the best season of them all. Though, if winter were warm, obviously there'd be no snow. Ephraim would just need to find a way to produce snow in warm weather. With magic, he was sure it could be done.

Walking along the path that bordered the lake, E saw a figure standing a few metres in front of him. Sadie? No, it wasn't her again. This time it was a different girl. He didn't recognize her from behind though, so he walked over to get a better look. "Lose something in the lake?" he asked, just a random question to start the conversation. The once frozen lake which made for good ice skating was now melted and back to its original state which would last througout spring, summer, and autumn. "'Tis unfortunate that it's still too cold to hop in." He glanced to see the side of the girl's face. She was a Hufflepuff in his year. Danelle. Finn talked about her on occasion and E had known her from classes. He didn't figure she needed an introduction.

[Danelle Gregory H6]

Not being one to actually pay attention to her surroundings, Danelle didn’t realise anyone was behind her until she heard a male voice. She jumped slightly, her eyes flickering open, and she looked beside her at who had made an appearance. Ephraim Eades…Ravenclaw, at least Danelle though he was a Ravenclaw. She never really talked to him. They ran in different circles, houses, and it wasn’t as if she could spare having a good conversation in class instead of paying attention. Besides, Danelle was a firm believer in fate. If they were meant to have a conversation – they would at the right time. No class, no friends to giggle and gawk at the fact that some guy was talking her, would make this conversation a delightful one – perhaps.

Her smile brightened her face and she looked up at him, “The warmth has gone and hidden in the water, it appears. I was hoping that staring at it long enough would bring it back out into the atmosphere.” She looked at the steam rising off the lake again and sighed morosely, as if she were deeply troubled by the cold air and warmer water. He was right, though, it would be far too cold to take a swim. Just because it was warmer than the air didn’t mean it was warm enough to take a nice jaunt in. Another breeze blew past them and Danelle involuntarily shivered at the unwelcome cold fingers of winter. She was most definitely ready for spring. By then it would be warm and she would need to change her hair colour. Right now it had pink in it, by April it would probably be yellow. Or maybe for once she’d keep it natural. Who knew?

“I’m sure that all one would get out of jumping in would be frost bite. But at this moment, it seems completely worth it with the steam rising off it.” Danelle kept her gaze locked on the tendrils moving wistfully above the water. “I wonder what it would be like to look at the steam from in the middle of it.” Now she was just musing aloud, but that wasn’t anything new. She never kept her mouth shut about what she was thinking. She felt like opinions were to be expressed. Why keep something like that locked up? They were what made people themselves. She felt that if you wanted to keep your opinion to yourself, you were ashamed of being who you are. Danelle wasn’t too fond of being ashamed.

Danelle bit her lip gently in pensive meditation and then looked at Ephraim again, “What brings you out into the cold? Surely it can’t be the wondrous idea of becoming an icicle.”

[Ephraim Eades R7]

Ephraim laughed at Danelle's creative answer. "Yes it has," he added, "but lucky for us it won't stay lost forever." At least the steam coming from the water made him feel the slightest bit warmer, even if it was his mind playing tricks on him. "Oh, trust me. It's not. Not worth it." Ephraim had never had frostbite, but he remembered reading about it in a book. Apparently the spells used to cure it weren't very comfortable either. Some say that it's worse than the pain that Skele-Gro causes for broken bones.

"Well, if you could fly, maybe you could see for yourself. You don't happen to be an animagus, do you?" It was unlikely, and Ephraim had never met an animagus before. "Wouldn't that be nice? To be a bird. To fly wherever you wanted and see whatever you wanted from an aerial point of view." His gaze was cast at the skies now, the vivid blue blanket that stretched for miles. "But what are the odds of that?" For some reason, Eprhaim's mind often though in numbers and odds. He was mathematically wired and there wasn't much he could do to avoid numbers sometimes when he was thinking. Even Quidditch was all about numbers for him. Often he had always equated the muggles' mathematics with magic. It was probably the thing that muggles knew which was the closest to the theory of magic.

"Fresh air?" It was a lame answer, but a truthful one at that. "I was just tired of being cooped up in the castle. What about you?"

((Sorry, short. ))

[Danelle Gregory H6]

Her smile grew at his laughter and she looked at him again, a familiar sense of acceptance washing over her – almost warming her. He had laughed at what she said, which meant he had a decent sense of humour – or at least a sense of humour that was intelligent. Danelle’s smile dimmed to a small one, the glow still there, though, as she looked back at the lake and listened to him talk. Perhaps it wasn’t worth it. Perhaps it would be far too cold and seeing the steam from the inside, but Danelle did things that weren’t worth it all the time – only because she enjoyed doing things that others mightn’t do. “It might be, you know…have you ever tried it?” Danelle turned her gaze on Ephraim again, letting her smile brighten once more. Even if he had tried it, and had ended up with frostbite, the experience might be different for her. People saw and felt things differently than others did, and Danelle liked to experience things on her own rather than taking examples from someone else.

She listened to him again, finding his voice easy to follow, smooth and euphonious, pleasing to the ear. Danelle thought about what he was saying and then when he had finished, she shrugged her shoulders slightly and replied in a soft tone of voice; “I’m not particularly fond of heights. Quidditch, aeroplanes, flying in any way, doesn’t appeal to me.” She lifted her gaze to him again, “So, if I were an animagus, it wouldn’t be a bird of any sort. Though, from the way you talk – it sounds like something you would definitely consider.” Danelle hadn’t ever thought about becoming an animagus. The idea of being able to transform into an animal didn’t really make her all warm and fuzzy inside. Besides that, she would have to be decently good at Transfiguration – and she just wasn’t. Her best class was Charms, surprisingly, and her worst Transfiguration. Potions landed in the middle there somewhere.

A chuckle escaped her and she folded her arms tighter over her chest as she shuffled her feet, trying to keep warm; “We-ell, I’m avoiding an essay. At the time, coming out into the freezing cold seemed like a magnificent idea, but now…it doesn’t really seem like such a good idea.” Her breath came out in little puffs and she rubbed her hands up and down her arms; “I’m Danelle, by the way. It felt weird not introducing myself.”

|No worries. |

[Ephraim Eades R7]

"That's a shame," he said, referring to her fear of heights. "But I guess everyone is entitled to their fears." He shrugged, nodding when she assessed that he had considered the art of being an animagus. "It'd be nice, but I'm not too fond of Transfiguration. I'm good at it... just don't prefer it. Leave me alone with a greenhouse full of plants, however, and I'd be happy for a week." Really, a few good books and Ephraim would have been content for just as long. "I do like to learn though. Knowledge is power." After hearing himself say that, he quickly added, "But I'm not power hungry or anything like that."

She gave her reason for being outside and then her name. "Well, Danelle, you can call me E, and I can say that essays aren't any easier when you go back to them." At least they weren't for Ephraim. If he left an essay to come back to it later, he found that he had a harder time focusing his thoughts. Given too much time, his mind was prone to wander. "Where is your coat anyways?" he asked. Ephraim felt the cold, but his coat, gloves, and hat had all helped him to forget about it at least for the moment. "Here..." he shrugged out of his own coat and then held it out for Danelle to take. "I've already warmed it up for you," he smiled.

The cold air blew through his sweater much easier than it had through his coat, but Ephraim didn't mind. "So, what now?" he asked, breaking the silence. "With the essay waiting for you when you get back and the cold torturing you out here, how long did you plan to stand here?" Eprhaim wasn't good with standing still. He liked to keep busy, to keep moving. Standing still made him inattentive anxious. He tried thinking of something for them to do aside from just standing. Even walking seemed like a decent option.

"Hey, have you ever had a winter snagberry?" It was a random question, but Ephraim knew there was a snagberry bush just a few minutes walk along the edge of the lake. Snagberries only grew in the winter, or at least the edible ones did. In the other seasons, snagberries would make you quite ill to eat them, even though their bright purple colour was enough to make them look appetising. "I only asked because there's a bush of them just over there." He pointed, his gloved finger indicating the small patch of growth between two snow-covered trees.

[Danelle Gregory H6]

Danelle tilted her head in his direction, her eyes looking up at him from the corner of them, a small smile on her face. The most she liked Herbology for was the warm Greenhouse during the winter. She wasn’t any good at it, like a normal Hufflepuff should be. In fact, she was horrible at most classes. She kind of just pulled herself through it. She could really use a good tutor, but Danelle didn’t know anyone well enough to get them to tutor her. “Power hungry? Oh, sure you are.” She smiled brightly up at him and stamped her feet slightly to keep the cold from gaining control of her limbs, “You just have that ‘I’m the next great power hungry dark wizard’ look on your face.” While most people were probably wary about mentioning any form of dark wizard, Danelle just accepted the fact as a fact of life. There was good out there and there was bad. The most one could do was accept both sides of the coin.

“E? How…chic. Maybe from now on, I’ll go by ‘D.’” Danelle paused a moment and then laughed lightly while shaking her head, “Nah. It doesn’t work for me. But going by an initial, totally suits you.” Danelle often tried to go by certain nicknames. Dani, Dan, Elle, Ellie. None of them worked. Danelle seemed to fit her so much better than any other name possibly could. Her parents called her nothing but Danelle, and while she hated it when teachers or people who were reading her name mispronounced it because they figured she spelt it wrong, forgetting the I, she knew that Danelle was unique and that she really shouldn’t try to change it otherwise she might change herself. It didn’t stop her from wanting to be able to change something else about her personality. That was something she was constantly doing. Changing her hair, her style, the way she spoke. Some people thought it made her fake, but really Danelle was just looking for a way to be happy with herself.

She saw him hold out his coat in her line of vision and Danelle looked up, slightly startled, and slowly let her face into a smile; “How sweet of you. If you get too cold, let me know, okay? I wouldn’t want you to freeze any more than I am.” She slid her arms into the sleeves of his coat and pulled it tight around her, enjoying the warmth that spread over her and the smell that was quite pleasant. “I don’t generally think about dressing for the weather,” Danelle replied to his question after a moment, “So coats don’t typically make it into my wardrobe when I’m hurrying out of the common room. It was incredibly true, Danelle rarely even thought about putting on her shoes when she wanted to run away from something. Not that she mentioned the running away part to E.

Danelle listened to him a moment and then shrugged as she pondered an answer, “Until my limbs fall off, I think. That’s sufficient enough. By then I will have a valid excuse as to why I didn’t do my essay. Then my professor couldn’t get too angry at me.” The more she spoke, the more she smiled, “Sounds like quite the plan to me. But you look like you won’t last much longer just standing here, especially without your coat on.” Danelle looked at him pointedly and shuffled her feet again as she debated giving him his jacket back. A moment longer, she thought, as she enjoyed the warmth some more. E pulled her back to present thought by asking her a most random question. Snagberry? “Erm. No..” She followed his pointed finger and then without a word, she started to shove through the snow over toward the bush, shoving her hands into the pockets of E’s coat. The colour was quite original, purple like a grape, only brighter. Danelle wasn’t stupid enough to eat just a random fruit or berry from a random bush, though. She looked over at E with a smile, “Poisonous?”

[Ephraim Eades R7]

"I guess I'm just over prepared then," E replied. He was happy Danelle didn't decline the offer of his coat. Nothing was more embarrassing or frustrating than when a girl would refuse whatever help the boy was offering. It was just the way some girls were though; independent, refusing any sort of help at all. In all truthfulness, Ephraim found that sort of personality somewhat annoying. Everyone needed help in one time or another. Admitting that you needed help took a lot of courage. It was something Ephraim admired more than independence.

Danelle had a distinct sense of humour. It bordered sarcasm, but had less of the cutting bite that a lot of sarcasm tended to have. It was a softer sort of sarcasm with a little bit of witty creativity. Ephraim found it rather interesting. "Or you could just write the essay," he suggested, smiling as he played devil's advocate.

"Poisonous? No. Well, now they aren't. If you'd eat them in a few months... well, then maybe they'd be poisonous. Come on." He grabbed Danelle's hand and took her over to the snagberry bush. Popping one of the berry clusters from the bush, he picked on and put it into her hand while holding another for her to see. "Look, you see the seed? If the center of the berry is transparent enough for you to see the seed, then it's not poisonous. When you can't see the seed, you shouldn't eat it." With that explanation, E put the berry in his mouth. "They have a tart taste." He spit out the seed. "Oh, and they will turn your tongue bright purple. See?" (( ))

[Danelle Gregory H6]

“Write the essay?” Danelle repeated slowly before giving E this look of pure shock, “I…you…that…isn’t possible. No…I…shall forget you ever mentioned such a thing.” She shuddered and pulled his coat tighter around her, as if the idea of writing the essay was making her colder. Of course, Danelle was just overreacting, being the drama queen, and putting on a show – really, she would write the essay sooner or later – probably later rather than sooner. However, that didn’t mean she had to act as if she would. She didn’t enjoy schoolwork, so why would she rush to act like she did? It was a silly question, thought, idea, anything, everything. Schoolwork in any sense of the form was silly, even more so with Danelle doing it. She gave E a bright smile as she chuckled, “It’s so much like a Ravenclaw to suggest actually doing the schoolwork.” Stereotypes, while Danelle tried to avoid them, were fun for teasing in a friendly sort of way – wrong for prejudicial actions.

Danelle raised an eyebrow at him, “Now they aren’t? Did you do something to them?” She was teasing, of course, again. But a part of her was dreading the idea that something could be poisonous one moment and not so poisonous the next unless someone altered it chemically. Then again, she did live in a magical world where things like poisonous berries called ‘snags’ could easily be poisonous one day and not poisonous the next. It would all boil down to how much trust she had in E and whether or not that trust was enough for her to believe in what he was saying about a poisonous berry being only poisonous sometimes as opposed to all times. He had taken her hand in his and was leading her over to the bush, she tried to make sure of her footing so as she wouldn’t fall and make a complete fool of herself, as she normally would.

With the bright purple berry in her hand now, Danelle looked down at it a moment before glancing back up at the one E held in his, listening to his running commentary about the ever so not-so-poisonous snagberry. “How gloriously intriguing…” she breathed as she looked down at the berry in her own hand. To be able to see through a berry was something that Danelle as fascinated by, but she wasn’t quite sure as to why she was so fascinated by it. E was speaking again and she looked up to see him sticking his tongue out at her. The colour of it was just too much. Danelle laughed and with an ease that was natural to her, she tossed the snagberry up into the air and caught it in her mouth, chewing the juicy part away from the seed and then delicately spitting it out into the snow.

He was right, it was tart, but it was quite delicious at the same time – which was saying something because Danelle didn’t like tart tastes. She swallowed the rest of the berry and then looked at E with a bright smile, hoping terribly that her teeth weren’t as purple as her tongue was undoubtedly; “So, if I were to say…eat them in about three months, I’d be dead, then?”

[Ephraim Eades R7]

"Dead? No. Terribly sick? Depending on how many you ate," he replied with a shrug. Ephraim was glad that Danelle had eaten the berry without much argument and just a little questioning. It showed that she trusted easily. Or, at least she trusted him in that moment. Either way, he was happy she ate it. "I'm sure if you managed to eat an entire bush full of the berries you might die. The juices change as the seasons change. For some reason they are only edible in the winter. All other times of the year, they'd not sit well in your stomach. I don't think that they've ever killed anybody though. The sickness comes almost instantly, so nobody ever managed to eat enough to cause significant damage." He couldn't stop the long-winded explanations from coming out. That's what all the reading had done to him. He was almost a walking encyclopedia in ways. "But... anyways..." he forced himself to stop with the academic talk and took another few berries in his hand, eating them one at a time.

"So... Danelle," he said, grinning at her purple lips. "If you're trying to avoid the essay, I'm willing to help." Eprhaim attempted to sound somewhat like a salesman who was pitching his product to an interested customer. "All you gotta do is answer some questions. It'll take up time. Time that you could be spending on your essay. But instead, you can spend in answering some questions about yourself. It's actually a pretty good deal if you ask me. I mean, you want to avoid the essay, and I can make that possible." He gave her a small smile and a daring look. Truthfully, the questions would be easy. Simple get-to-know-you type questions. He really was interesting in knowing more about her.

He didn't waste much time waiting for an answer to see if she'd agree. Instead, Ephraim shot off a list of things he wanted to know. "Favourite food. Favourite month. And least favourite colour." Like an auctioneer, he sped through the inquiries. "Those are questions," he clarified, realizing they were really just a list of things that could be made into questions. "Oh... and you have to answer 'why' for each of them too. It'll take up more time that way," he concluded with a nod.

[Danelle Gregory H6]

“Oh, well, that’s reassuring,” Danelle stated cheerily as she finished the first berry and plucked another off the bunch that E still held in his hand. She popped it into her mouth and chewed around the seed before spitting it out. It really was quite delicious, and while Danelle was aware that it was probably turning her mouth a rather ghastly shade of purple, she really didn’t care much at all. Smiling softly at his rambling about the poisonous berry, Danelle found herself thinking how cute it was for him to know so much about a small berry. She didn’t say anything, though, but she had a feeling she might at the end of their conversation – especially if he continued to ramble like that. It really was cute.

When E said he was willing to help her avoid her essay, her purple smile brightened and she plucked another berry from the bushel, “Good. Because otherwise, I’m pretty sure I would just go back inside and do it. How completely and utterly devastating would that be?” Another quick smile and she popped the next berry into her mouth. What would she have done if E hadn’t offered to be a distraction? Would she have frozen to death before she had decided to do that blasted essay or would she have gathered enough courage to just do it? Danelle supposed it was a good thing that she wouldn’t ever find out.

“Okay, questions I can do as long as I don’t have to write the answers out.” She smirked and spit out the seed before wiping the back of her hand across her mouth, as if to rub off the purple. She doubted it would, but at least it was worth a try. It wasn’t that she was feeling self-conscious, it was that she didn’t really feel like looking like a purple Snagberry around the mouth area. She couldn’t possibly look as pretty as usual with purple smeared over her face like some wayward toddler.

Then, E fired off three questions and clarified that she had to specify why. “Hmm…” Danelle mused a moment, kicking the toe of her boot into the snow and letting her eyes focus on the icy surface as it had started to melt away from the warmth from her body. “Favourite food most definitely is pie, simply because it has childhood memories attached to it that aren’t negative. Favourite month is April because it’s the beginning of spring and I love spring. Least favourite colour is green because it doesn’t go well in my hair.” When she was finished, she lifted her gaze to him and shrugged, with a small smile.