(Corridors) No Pitter Patter

[Caitlin MacGrimm]

A large silver dog walked the corridors of Hogwarts. Her fur would have been shiny and black and sleek and in pristine conditions, that is, of course, if she was alive. The dog not so happily slogged through the corridors uncaring if she happened to go straight through students in her way. This was not a good day for Caitlin MacGrimm.

Caitlin had seen two young, alive people feeding each other at breakfast. After the nausea had subsided, the anger and resentment had settled in. Now all that was left was to trudge through the corridors to find something to do. Anything at all. As of yet, she had not found anything. No one to fly at, nothing to move down a floor. Nothing at all and this was doing nothing for her down mood. And what made it worse was the fact that she couldn't hear her own foot falls, not even when there was twice as much foot falling then usual.

[Erys Grace]

The slow click of heels echoed throughout the abandoned hallway, the only sounds of life compared to the drifting ghost. Erys found herself yet again with nothing to do, and nobody to talk to. Ian and Veata weren't anywhere to be found, and so far everybody seemed locked up in a class or studying in their common rooms. Not even a professor on break lingered about, sipping a cup of coffee like she imagined them to be. No, it was just her and her shadow now. The silence was comforting, like a blanket on a stormy night. She wished she had slipped out of her robes and wore her street clothes instead; her jean jacket was much more nicer in comparison. And where were all the ghosts? Somehow she almost preferred them to the living. They had so many stories to tell.. Speak of the devil. Erys thought, looking straight ahead to the phantom dog pattering its way towards her. Hogwarts had a ghost animal? It was so cute! "Aw." She murmured, crouching down on her knees and clasping her hands together. No wonder Erys was in the Care of Magical Creatures class, it was clear she simply loved animals. "Hi there." It hadn't crossed her mind that this could be a ghost she had met before, or a deceased animagi.

The idea could come as a shock, but if she was surprised, it was doubtful Erys would show it. She disliked expressing any feeling of weakness. Parting her lips with a smile, the Slytherin reached her hand out like she was going to pet it, realising suddenly that she couldn't before withdrawing it. Curious as to how it met its end, but not daring to ask, she sighed, knowing how touchy the subject of a ghost's death was to them. Looking into the canine's eyes caused her to forget the drama with Ivan and Veata for the briefest of moments, calming her to a contented point. It was nice, that feeling. Erys should hang out with ghosts more often.

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[Caitlin MacGrimm]

By the time Ms MacGrimm realised that all the students had left, she had been prowling the corridors of a few hours. Simple walking always seemed to put her in a better mood, usually did. However, today's bad mood seemed to like her and want to stick with her. So her prowling was tedious, unfulfilling and infuriatingly lonely. She might have been The Lone Wolf when he was alive but now she craved company that seemed all too ready to flee at the sight of her.

Panting slightly, her sliver grey tongue out of her mouth, the sleek dog that was Caitlin slowly trotted through the empty corridors. She happened to look ahead of her and saw a girl, a Slytherin girl who she had met before. She had began to call Caitlin as though she was an animal. This amused Caitlin a little for she was in that guise. Nevertheless, Caitlin didn't like being called at like some commoner. She continued to trot towards the girl who seemed to have a fascination with her, and slowly she began to run, her paws silent as death.

She ran faster and faster and when she was a foot away she leapt into the air and went straight through the girl. From her experiences as a girl at Hogwarts, going through a ghost was not pleasant, though the actual sensation she could not remember. She flew through the air as a dog and touched down, pirouetted to face the girl, as the slender woman she had once been. "I do not appreciate being called like a common pet," she informed the Slytherin.

[Erys Grace]

{ Heh.. She didn't clap at you. She clasped her hands together, not clapped. }[/size][/color]

[Veata Bane]

Veata, prowling around in her animagus form, slunk through the shadows, the dim light dancing through the halls of the castle tonight not enough to keep her interest. No, she was in a rather dark mood, the storm raging outside had dampened her spirits, and out of desperation, she had fled the common room, transforming on her way.

The castle was empty, it seemed, devoid of all life as thunder rattled the walls, and the sound of rain refracting off the roof and windows seemed to ease the pain of the hush that fell over the night. Yes, unlike most nights where the rage of the thunder and the flash of the lighting would dose her off into a deep sleep, tonight it had her strung up, pushing her evercloser to the verge of panic. And being alone wasn't helping.

Tiny paws twitched as thunder again bashed outside, causing the old castle to groan at the power of the quake. Her fur standing on end, radiant blue eyes wide with fear, she started running through the halls, somehow grateful that they were empty, cause at these high speeds, running into someone would actually hur--

And that's when it happened. She hit something solid, but strangely soft, with an odd texture. Closing her eyes out of instinct, she attempted to cushion her crash, but ice frost creeping through her fur, something else hit her. It felt like air colder than ice was attempting to pass through her soul. Caterwauling in torment, her body seized up, then in one horrible instant it was over.

And she was leaning against Erys Grace's butt. Yowling again, but not this time out of pain, she scurried away, tail fluffed up to maximum capacity. What in the bloody hell?! her mind cried, but all that came out was a strange mixture between a meow and a hiss. [/color]

[Erys Grace]

Opening her eyes wider the moment the ghost canine launched through her, Erys froze, feeling the icy feeling wash over her. Oh, it was terribly unpleasant. Colder than she was used to, clearly. Locking her jaw, the witch squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for what seemed like a while before feeling her temperature rise some. "Well," Erys breathed, her voice shaky, "That was.." Finding no word to describe it, the Slyherin girl ended it there, surprised to find that the ghost was the same one from the Kitchens. Caitlin was an animagus too?

Arching an eyebrow appraisingly, Erys relaxed slightly. It was Caitlin, the ghost that also stood up for the Parkhurst twins in the Kitchens. "My apologies, Caitlin. I hadn't known you were an animagus too." Surely she understood, being that there were few of them running around the school these days. Wrinkling her face up suddenly, Erys turned her neck, looking down over her shoulder at Veata in cat form settled by her behind. Watching humorously as the cat fluffed up and shrieked, the Slytherin stood, parting her lips in a grin as the feline shot a ways away. "Like it down there, Veata?" She laughed shakily, still recovering from the experiance.

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[Caitlin MacGrimm]

Caitlin was glad, in a twisted kind of way, to see the girls surprise and perhaps a hint of admiration but that, Lin thought, was over kill. She frowned at the young Slytherin. She had much to learn still and there would be time for her yet. Caitlin had been to many places, been trapped in many places, and had seen many things, felt many things. One of the many that she had not felt all day was joy. She needed joy. But none would come from this confrontation if she turned it into that.

Her smirk slackening slightly into a weak smile, Cait bowed her head to the girl as the observation came to her. "It seems strange you didn't sense it on me when we first met," Caitlin observed, "but then again, being dead and all could have dampened my animagus-metre." Caitlin unconsciously made wise cracks about being dead. Mostly she didn't enjoy it and she was vindictive enough to want everyone else to know it too.

Then the other joined them, the other animagus she had met that day in the kitchen. Caitlin watch with an amused smirk on her face as the animagus flew straight threw her. This had proved her theory: going through a ghost was not pleasurable and by the hissing and such that followed suit, Caitlin gleamed she did not appreciate it. Changing quickly into her sleek dog form, Cait barked loudly, gruffly at the cat by the Slytherin's feet.

[Veata Bane]

Veata puffed up and hissed again as the ghost transformed into a dog. Could anyone just let the fur on V's back lie still for two minutes? Setting her ears against her skull in an irritable manner, she scraped her claws against the stone floor of the hallway, looking away. Haha, her mind whispered sarcastically, very funny. While playing cats and dogs with the deceased Hufflepuff was endlessly amusing, V transformed back into her normal self, sitting crosslegged on the dusty stone floor.

"That was fun," she said in a cold voice, shooting a glare at the ghost, before looing to Erys. "Sorry for touching your butt, the thunder freaked me out for a second." Though she hated saying that something as natural as thunder had scared the living daylights out of her, she felt it was necessary to explain why her head had been resting on Erys' backside.[/font]

[Caitlin MacGrimm]

Playing cats and dogs was a much needed lift for the depressed ghost. She backed off with each loud, echoing bark, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. It was energising and released much pent up stress the ghost had gathered over the past few years. She didn't often change into her animagus form, not in weeks, but this seemed a good time, a good place.

The game soon grew tired and she changed back into her normal form. She brushed a lock of her curls out of her face and grimaced to the two girls. It wasn't often that two girls were this well trained at their age. Cait admired it but said nothing of it. She floated a little higher into the air, her pointed shoes showing below her long, dark dress that shimmered in and out of it's shimmering shell. She smirked at the two girls as they spoke, crossing her arms and caressing her chin with an absent finger.

She was interested in how they did thus and asked. "How did the two of you amount such skill at such a young age?" she asked, not caring much for their conversation.

[Erys Grace]

Suuure the thunder freaked you out.. Erys thought with a tiny, discreet grin. Planting a calm expression on her face, the sixth year nodded casually. "No problem, Veata." Waving it off, the Slytherin looked back to the ghost now, who at the moment seemed bored of the conversation. Figures, seeing as they didn't really sleep and floated around all the time. Or perhaps they did sleep, she couldn't care less. When she died, Erys made a mental note of not becoming a phantom. No offence to Caitlin or any of her spirit friends, but it might get tiresome after a while. You couldn't keep amused by scaring students forever, could you? Ah, well. Enough mysterious to ponder today, the animagus ghost had asked her a question.

"I was tutored when I was twelve." Erys remarked breezily, scratching her neck softly. Wondering briefly how Caitlin had mastered the ability, she decided to put off the question until a little later. It didn't seem that she was too welcome in the other's company, not yet, at least. Remembering what the ghost Erich Aubry had shown her, of the poor Thom Moen being murdered in cold blood by Nicholas McNiven, her eyes opened wider. She had to tell everyone. That was what Erich had asked her to do. Tell everyone.[/color]

[Caitlin MacGrimm]

The answer to her question took a while to come; Caitlin didn't mind as she had all the time in the world, it was just an interesting observation. Was it that these two girls were ashamed of their ability and did not want to discuss it? Or was it an unwillingness to converse with one such as herself? Either way, it was irrelevant. Hovering a little lower, the tall shimmering ghost eyed each Slytherin closely in turn. The one to speak first seem more confident, or cocky, depending on which side of the line you were on. Caitlin was impartial to this line so didn't care.

"Tutored, ey?" she repeated, looking at the girl with a nonchalant glare. "I would never had said. How else could you become train thus!?" She spoke as though to mock the girls intelligence, it seemed obvious that one must receive tutoring to become skill so why state the obvious. "And only at twelve?" This too was odd as well that it took less time and that it started later on in life then when Caitlin had her turn. She remembered it as though it was yesterday, though it was in actual fact many yesterdays ago. "Very strange practice since I was younger," she commented, "and alive."