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Post by Riley Harris on Dec 17, 2009 5:24:40 GMT
Riley sat alone in the top of the clock tower gazing at the stunning beauty of the full moon. She thought of her father who by now would be curled up under the kitchen table as he took his usual place during the full moon. The moon looked so beautiful and harmless, but, as Riley well knew, it meant only terror and pain for some.
Riley though that she herself was very similar to the moon and in some ways those affected by it. She was beautiful and extraordinarily loving in her own context to everyone until you harmed her or someone she loves. Then she was full of terrible fury and those who knew her were careful not to anger her. But for the most part that wasn't difficult, as her classmates had discovered over her previous four years at Hogwarts.
Riley was good-natured and rarely sad or upset. She loved everyone whether she knew them or not until they proved otherwise. She was either one of your greatest allies and friends or your bitter enemy. Ruled by her passions, there was no middle ground with Riley. But for the most part the light greatly overshadowed the dark, causing some to believe that it didn't exist at all. But even though her passions were to the very extremes, this daughter of a werewolf was amazingly complex.
Riley was so compassionate that, to many, she was seen as a "Mama Bear" type figure and this temperament drew people to her. Compassion of the likes of her was rarely seen these days and because of it Riley would fearlessly defend and protect those she loved. One thing that was quickly known about Riley that although she was one of the kindest people you would ever meet you wanted to keep it that way because, if crossed too many times she would become your worst nightmare.
But Riley did not come to this tower every full moon to plot revenge and devious things for her few enemies. She came to think and worry about her father and to talk to him as she often did. Of course Riley couldn't actually speak to him, but she spoke to the moon and that was good enough for her.
As she talked about all of her new classes and went over in detail her favorite lesson, Care of Magical Creatures, she began to hear footsteps on the stairs leading up the tower and she waited anticipating the company of an unexpected friend.
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Post by Echo Keir on Dec 17, 2009 16:23:11 GMT
Echo had been happily dancing about her favorite corridor on the fifth floor, when all the sudden some nasty noise in one of the abandoned classrooms had caught her attention. She had walked down and opened the door and found an old muggle music classroom inside... along with some horrible apparition shrouded in shadows. She hadn't been able to tell whether thing had been a massive person in a black cloak, or a huge grizzly bear, perhaps it had even been a Grim. All she knew is that it perked it's head up like it could tell something had changed in its surroundings, and before it had the chance to notice her, she ran.
And she ran and she ran until she finally reached one of the utmost towers in the castle, behind the giant clock. She raced up the stairs, panting as she flew over the icy stone steps, reached the top, slammed the door shut, and threw the bolt, finally collapsing against it on the other side.
Now, it should be noted that Echo was not usually the sort to scare easily. In fact, she didn't scare easily at all, which made this reaction a bit difficult to understand. The fact of the matter was, Echo had been having horrible dreams for the past few nights, and in fact had had another one this very evening. Dancing had always calmed her nerves which is why she had been in the hallway, and at the moment she thought she was living out another nightmare.
She shivered and shook as she sat with her back against the door, her breathing so erratic someone might have thought one of her lungs collapsed. But no, she was simply having a panic attack. Quite definitely a horrible and possibly traumatic panic attack, but nothing more serious than such.
Trembling, Echo reached into her pocket and pulled out her wand. The first thing she did was scoot away from the door and conjure a large boulder to be set in her place, then she conjured herself a glass of water. This she drank before laying down flat against the cold stone bottom of the tower room. She was still panting heavily, and rather dazed as far as her surroundings went. All she was really sure of, was that there were three stories, fourteen hallways, and door and a boulder between her and whatever that thing had been, and for that , she was thankful.
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Post by Riley Harris on Dec 18, 2009 22:21:06 GMT
Riley looked calmly over her shoulder all thoughts of her father forgotten, as the girl she recognized as a prefect and her fellow housemate Echo who she only knew by name and reputation. Echo looked afraid which was very odd for her. Riley had never heard of Echo being scared by anything. She was now laying on the floor after conjuring a boulder in front of the door and downing a glass of water.
Riley got up and walked over to take this opportunity to finally meet Echo and to see what was so wrong with her. "Hello there friend. My name is Riley Harris, are you okay darling?"
Riley conjured up a cup of hot tea and offered it to Echo. "Here drink this. Its a tea to help calm the nerves." As Riley handed her the tea she began to wonder what on earth could have gotten this prefect so scared.
[sorry so short]
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Post by Echo Keir on Dec 21, 2009 8:27:36 GMT
"AHHH!!" Echo shrieked as she heard a sounds behind you. She whirled around and backed up against the boulder again. Her eyes were wild and her breathing was shallow and panicked again. She whined anxiously before she realized there wasn't anything around about to eat her. "Um. Um... um... uh, yeah..." she said, her eyes still wide and clearly bloodshot. "I'm Riley, nice to see you Echo... wait, no, flip that. Oh..." she groaned, clutching her head. "I'm I wreck!" she wailed, then shakily accepted the tea.
As she sipped she noted that it tasted like cinnamon and oranges, and left her mouth and throat cool and tingly after she swallowed. She still shook a bit, but even now she could feel the calming effects of the brew. "Thank you," she said gratefully. "I'm... sorry about that," she said, ashamed of her display from a moment before. "I've... oh, I've just been having horrible nightmares, and I just saw... I saw something down on the fifth floor and it spooked me.," she explained gingerly. "I'm not usually like this... all skittish like," a mild flush rose in her cheeks, which was a stark contrast to how pale she'd been the past few minutes. She did not like feeling this way, all nervous and doubtful and scared. Sure, charging into the forbidden forest at midnight and making cockatrice mating calls was great for an adrenaline rush, but that was something she could control. This? This she wasn't sure she could handle much more.
She drained the last of her tea with a satisfied sigh, but just to be on the safe side she asked, "You... wouldn't mind conjuring some more, would you?" She was acting so sheepishly, she was certain Godric Gryffindor was turning in his grave over her actions. She only prayed that she might be able to get over it soon... "it" meaning whatever had her so scared, and "soon" meaning last week sometime. She wondered if there was any sort of magic other than a time-turner that had that ability... she knew it was too much to hope for, but every now and then she wished it were easier to break the rules of magic.
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Post by Riley Harris on Dec 21, 2009 17:48:51 GMT
Riley was slightly taken aback by the girl's scream but continued to approach her with the glass of tea. "Hello Echo, do you want to sit down and drink you tea?" Riley said causiously. Riley sat next to Echo as she drank the calming tea and said to her "Yes, right now you are a wreck, but those are easily fixed, my friend." Riley listened very carefully as Echo told her of her dreams, well the seemed like nightmares, and about what she saw on the fifth floor.
At the mention of a creature Riley could not help but look back out through the window and pray that the monster was not caused by this night and the phase of the moon. Riley quickly pushed this thought from her mind and said "Did you happen to see anything about the monster? Color, size, type?"
As Riley waited she conjured up some more of the calming tea for Echo and conjured up a raspberry one for herself. They both sat there musing in their thoughts of what kind of monster could be traipsing about the castle late at night during the full moon.
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Post by Echo Keir on Dec 31, 2009 17:19:12 GMT
Echo nodded feebly and rose shakily to her feet, then stumbled over to the sill and sat down. She sipped slowly on the tea and continued to regain her color and composure. Echo smiled weakly at Riley. "Thank you, really," she gestured with the tea. "Brillant conjuration. Tastes great." She was bad at small talk and she knew it, but she was trying.
Her heart fluttered wildly as she tried to remember the beast she had seen. "Um... well it was dark... uh, the room, that is. It was hard to see, but it looked dark...uh, the... thing. The thing looked dark too. It was big, in a smallish sort of way. Like, not troll huge, but more massive than your average janitor, y'know?" She tried to remember anything more about it. Just thinking about the thing made her break into a nervous sweat.
"It smelled bad," she said finally. "What was that smell..." now that she was trying to remember details the smell seemed really prominent. It was something she remembered, something familiar, but also like a distant memory, or a memory of a dream. Something fond, but also vague. "Water," she stated. "Water, like... bad water. Stagnant, really rich in life, full of old sea grass and-and... fish gunk." She was starting to get a horrible migraine around her temples and and in the very middle of her forehead. And then it grew, "OW!!"she barked, dropping the tea cup with a splintering shatter and clutching her head. "What is it? What is it?!" she muttered to herself as she tried to squeeze her head open.
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Post by Riley Harris on Jan 5, 2010 5:10:17 GMT
Riley sat and listened patiently to Echo's vague description of the creature and the surroundings in which she encountered it. With a long glance toward the window and the pale moon Riley slowly responded to the troubled Echo, "Well, considering the state and phase of the moon tonight and the late hour I am going to suggest that we elect to spend the night here."
Riley waved her wand yet again and conjured up a pair of squishy, purple sleeping bags and several soft, feathery pillows. "I'm going to assume that you do not wish to move the boulder and venture back into the dark halls tonight and considering your current condition I would be more than happy to join you for this slumber party in this tower."
Riley watched as Echo tried to recall more details of the creature and seeing how distraught she was becoming Riley decided that it was in both of their best interest to indeed spend the night in the tower, although she doubted either would get much sleep. "In the morning we can go back to the room and investigate if you wish, although it may be more effective to wait until tomorrow night. Our findings then would eliminate several possibilities as to the type of creature that we are dealing with."
Having that said Riley settled herself into one of her sleeping bags with a pillow and continued to watch Echo curiously.
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Post by Echo Keir on Jan 9, 2010 20:59:10 GMT
When Riley suggested that they spend the night in the tower Echo nodded her fervid agreement of the idea. She indeed did not want to go back out in the halls tonight, which only further emphasized how freakishly scared she was. Were Echo in her right mind, she would be out hunting down the beastie, but tonight she was perfectly happy to climb into the girly, fluffy purple sleeping bag (another oddity for the rough and tumble tom boy), pull a pillow over and lay down.
"Riley," she said timidly, “It’s not a werewolf.” The Gryffindor girl’s family history was rather infamous in the school, the strange dynamic that kept their family together when everything in the wizarding world demanded that they be torn apart. Echo was also aware that werewolves being blamed for things might touch a sore spot for the kind-hearted girl and she wanted to make sure that didn’t become a concern. “It smelled a while lot older than werewolves ever could, and it carried an essence of liquid. It gave off a whole different presence than a werewolf ever could. Don’t worry about that.” She smiled at the girl, and then snuggled down into the sleeping bag.
It wasn’t long before Echo had fallen asleep. A week of insomnia and nightmares will do that to a person after all, but unfortunately that pattern was not going to change this evening. She tossed and turned her mind drifting into some dark recess unexplored day to day, but vivid in her dream life.
The smell was distant, but strong: Deep water, salt, fish, and plant life. It was a stagnant rotting smell. She tried to get away from it, but she couldn’t move. Not that she was paralyzed, but that she was floating with nothing to push off of. She began to realize that she was underwater, but there was no way for her to get momentum for the surface. She looked around, but there was nothing in sight, just darkness. Her lungs began to burn when the liquid began pressing in on her, she needed air and she needed it soon.
The water rippled behind her and she turned to see what was going on. Then the movement was beside her and she turned again. Finally she swirled around and was face-to-face with some horrible apparition out of Davy Jones’ locker.
“AHHHH!” Echo wailed as she woke with a start. A menagerie of bright birds took flight outside the window from the upstart. Echo was panting and her brow was damp with sweat. “HELP! HELP!” she screamed before she noticed that she was talking, which meant she could speak, which meant she could breathe. She inhaled, desperately soaking up the oxygen she had felt denied through the night. She sighed and groaned and wilted back onto the floor, angry at herself for being defeated by her own mind again. “Oh somebody help me…”
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