(Corridors) For Joy

[nectar]

Aud steps quietly, her eyes trained on the ground. When the dormitory had slipped, finally, in to its hushed sleep, Aud knew at once she would be unable to follow. At this, she pulled herself from bed, from the rooms full of the blushing and drowsy girls, and through to the stone cold night kept still in the castle's long passages. Aud is ignorant of the way her thin cotton nightgown clings to her as she crosses the common room, but the three hufflepuff sixth years are not. They let their game of wizard chess turn to rubble to see her pass, eyeing the girl warily and giving up their kings to dust.

And it's true that she can't quite place the feeling; Aud is restless. To her the school is a honeycomb, catacomb, a tunnel in to other tunnels. In her dreams it's the same way, that she could go on walking forever. But it's more than that feeling, it's the way boys watch her mouth when she drinks juice at breakfast or how she thinks about it for days after when she finally touches them. To Aud, at least, it seems easy to believe there's an ongoing reverberation in everything around her. Somnambulant, a pulse or a pulse for proof.

She's standing at the window in the hall, looking out at a lit moon under the lake, and turns to see you come. "Hello," like a little gift. There's even an echo here, in this high hall.

[Girty Hubbles]

Night was falling over Hogwarts the castle slowly grew quite as people drifted off to their common rooms, but yet Girty was still walking the corridors. She had no real reason, she was not a prefect or even helping one of the professors out she just did not feel like sitting in a room full of people. She had been wandering around for almost two hours, talking to portraits hearing their tales of what they had seen during their time on the walls of the old castle. It was nice, hearing something that was not who fancied who or why a certain Quidditch team was better then another. It was someone’s actual experience of life, all be it if they were paintings.

Girty did not use her wand to light her way, there was no point. She knew the castle was safe there was no reason to be scared of something that was not there, but the main reasons was she did not want to draw attention to the fact she was out after curfew. Turing the corner Girty could see the silhouette of someone standing by the moonlit window, and they had heard her. Girty heard what could only be a girls voice echo around them, and she let out a sigh of relief, it was not a professor.

Walking closer to the silhouette Girty was slowly able to make out more of the girl and the first thing that struck her was that she was young. She was unsure why it shocked her, maybe because in her own mind Girty would never have dreamed of breaking rules at that age, it was only when she got older did she feel the need to push the boundaries. Coming to a stand still Girty waved at the girl and greeted her back.

“Hello. I am sorry to sound rude but what are you doing out of bed?”

Girty shuffled her feet on the flagstone floor of the corridor and she lowered her gaze. She had no right to pry into what others were doing, especially one with so little authority in the school as Girty. If someone had said that to her she would most likely have told them were to go and guilt slowly passed over her that she was now doing it to another.

[nectar]

"I didn't want to wait for sleep," Aud answers, watching Girty make her way toward the circle's soft light. "Watching the water calms me, so I came to see it," she explains quietly, her lips parting in a little breath as she takes another glance toward it. From here the two should see that even now the lake is slowly moving, working under the force of the moon, rocking drowsily.

Aud turns away again, leans against the cool glass to look carefully at Girty's steady, capable face. She wonders what this girl would make of her in better light. Would she hold Aud's face in her mind and lie in bed at night, lost in a silent comparison? Could her knees turn weak with a guilty jealousy? She knows what the other girls say about her when she's just out of sight, where they know she will hear. They talk with great speed and their envy, its cadences and brief lifts, are like hands under her clothes. Aud has no secrets anymore. They have all seen the boys who linger on the shape of small, curved hips and her hair its own river, another sleepless water. Every girl in her dorm has seen her change for bed, they watch from the corners of their eyes each night. She'll be that girl before the end of the week.

So Aud had lied. Suddenly, she can't decide if her answer is the truth, is unsure what brings her to stand in empty corridors, waiting to be discovered. Lowering her head, Aud hopes the older girl will not look upon flawless skin with sudden recognition, that no small hurt will cross her eyes. But even still, another Aud prays, in its own dusky voice, that Girty will look at her and see everything. When she winces, ashamed of herself, not a single hint of a line stays on her face.

"But that's not true," she answers again, shaking her head very slowly. "That isn't all of it. I was waiting for someone. I've been so lonely. I wanted to house my loneliness with someone like me." Aud's eyes flash with water, the same silly moon. She looks up at Girty, the weight of her own exposure welling up in her. She crosses her arms over her chest. "You're here tonight, too. Does this mean you understand? Why did you come?"

She thinks of Girty's little wave and interrupts herself. "My name is Aud. I'm very pleased to meet you," she concludes, certain she looks like a wreck to someone at last. Here the pulse picks her up and though Aud doesn't know it, the light from it frames her perfectly in the blue hallway, as wishful as a well.

[Narcissus Drachen]

The Entrance Doors opened and closed for students at their will, silent and understanding of rule breakers who crept to play kiss chase in the trees at night, and Narcissus had returned with his shirt clinging to the sweat on his back, breathing deeply, cheeks swollen and hot from frantic lips. Everyone got caught on purpose.

Now he watched from the monstrous archway that guarded the first floor corridor, two slight figures belonging to the yellow burrows under the kitchens, their eyes so unsure that they must have been nameless to each other, even after all these years. The shortest turned to speak properly, to explain, and Narcissus listened to the echo of what she said, her voice soft in excitement. He could see her so well in the solid light of the moon and she startled him, tangled with beauty that she shouldn’t have, not yet, for Narcissus had waited so long for his. Eyes wet with disconcert he could only look at the older one to console himself. They were all strangers, meeting for the first time under the silver coming through the windows and he felt as thrilled and connected as an hour ago when he had pressed his hand to the back of that boy’s neck, murmuring, with a knowingness, ‘you’re it’ against his ear. He had looked as though he would hit Narcissus.

She called herself Aud, and with an openness he hated to watch when people met for the first time Narcissus walked toward them, intent. He felt so creepy. ‘Understand what?’ He asked, tilting his head to watch the older girl's face, brow knitted in several thoughts. ‘Oh look, I think you've scared her. She probably doesn't have a clue what you mean.' But nor did Narcissus. With one look he was never left alone again.

[nectar]

When Narcissus looks at her, Aud is certain she will never hear again, looking at him look at her that way. So much of her rushes in this image, only to see and be seen. Lights seem to dim around her for a moment. She pictures a black theatre, empty and hollow as a guitar, the suggestion of a sound to come. Here there is a low stage circled by plush, savage chairs. They face each other from across the cool expanse, amidst rose velvet soldiers, standing in the narrow aisles. She's as much a floodlight as he is there. Aud can feel herself tremble and become more beautiful in his watching her. What had she thought she'd seen on that stage? She doesnt shake off the feeling but draws back in to her body, its luster almost visible through her thin shirt. Uncrossing her arms, Aud gives him something to see. "I guess I'm pretty scary then."

She turns to Girty, almost to apologize, wanting badly to defer to the older girl's authority and then looking away again quickly, guilty. Narcissus eyes are grasping and full of promise, standing there with the moon a kind of window, a looking glass in to fine skin and bones like polished, much adored relics. "But your name is Narcissus and everyone already loves you, they say." She nods to Girty here, certain she's heard it. Aud touches her lips, the bow curve. They waver there, half in the dark. "I don't even know if I understand, but I imagine I'm lonely in a way you never are. Or always are." There is a single pearl on her necklace and it holds the light, gleams. "Are you ever so lonely, Narcisuss? They say you're not afraid of anything."

[Girty Hubbles]

Girty looked at the girl with great care, she was trying to pick out the detail of her features from the hazy silver moonlight. What she does notice is that the girl although young is a natural beauty, her complexion seems only enhanced by the light of the moon and Girty could not help but let a pang of envy fill her. Although normally Girty is not one to think about others look, to care if the boys keep their gaze fixed on her as she walks past. Dan had inherited vanity, not her.

Listening closely to the girl and her dark voice Girty was lost in thought and wonder. Why had she been in the corridors, why was she wondering around in the dark, suddenly the answer she had did not seem satisfactory enough. Looking away from her fellow Hufflepuff Girty looked out over the lake and a small smile spread across her face, it was tranquil and relaxing but did not help with her response.

Luckily for once a Slytherin showed up, it distracted them long enough in hope that the question would soon brush by and in the end no one would remember that it was asked. And it seemed that this boy was the one to accomplish this. He was addressing Aud with a cold attitude and she seemed to take it with a pinch of salt. Girty watched on amazed that two people could act in such a way to each other, maybe it was because Aud seemed to know the Slytherin if only by reputation.
Looking at him wide eyed Girty tired to see what she meant about everyone being in love with him already. It would be hard to deny that he was not a very attractive person; he had an air of confidence around him that Girty liked, but yet accompanied with that was arrogance.

Raising her left eyebrow Girty folded her arms and looked at Narcissus with a small grin on her face. The young girl had posed a very interesting question and almost in a want to be involved in decrypting of the Slytherin, so almost as to reinforce the question Aud had asked Girty decided to throw in her own opinion.

“A Slytherin who is afraid of nothing? I have never met one, they would be a very rare breed.”