Open Holding My Breath

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy had felt like her head had been buzzing for days now. Everything felt like it was happening so fast and she could barely catch her breath. NEWTs and the end of the year felt like they were looming over her, ready to crush her at any moment. She knew she had so much studying left too do but she also know that just suffering in the castle wasn't going to get her anywhere. The first chance she had she ended up at the lake. A familiar and comforting place she would miss terribly. She still had her closed ecosystem she had made years ago that was thriving and she was glad she would be able to take it with her. Today she waded into the water with her baggy pants rolled up just above her knees as she looked for any interesting keepsakes she could find. She had found plenty of things over the years: cool rocks, litter like old exploding snap and chocolate frog cards that had been weathered to a nearly unrecognizable state, and even a few bones, all small but from an animal she could never identify. The weather had been turning cold rather quickly but the afternoon sun kept her warm as she wadded in a bit farther and stuck her hands into the water when she noticed something shiny.

 

[Freya Song]

Freya had been going on a lot of walks around the castle to avoid both her responsibilities and all emotional landmines. If she spent any more time studying, she was certain all the information was going to just slide out of her brain and there were far more productive things to do with her time. Like wandering. And not thinking about things she didn't want to think about. Each place she wandered into felt like an almost-goodbye, she had no idea if she'd be visiting for the last time and had to remember every detail. Freya eventually found herself by the lakeside, staring at a familiar figure in the water and wondering what Poppy was looking for. Freya really wanted to see if she could sneak up to the other girl and push her into the water, but she had the suspicion Poppy wouldn't appreciate that very much. "I'm not going to push you in, but just know I was thinking about it." Freya called over to her, fully intending to upgrade her bothering of the Ravenclaw to outside of formal events.

 

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy was elbow deep in the water trying to grab whatever was reflecting light and had caught her eye when she heard someone speak. She grabbed hold of it just in time fore her to snap up and nearly loose her footing on the slimy rocks. She held, what she could now see was a jagged but smooth piece of glass. Narrowing her eyes at Freya, she lifted her chin in an attempt to seem unbothered. "Well..." she started but hesitated. "I appreciate the restraint." she finished a beat later. Poppy never understood why Freya had decided to pick on her but she was glad that they had some how come to a truce of sorts. With her safety secure for now she looked back down at the piece of glass before holding it up to see how the light reflected off of it. It almost had a prism effect and cast tiny rainbows if she angled it just right. She spared a quick glance over her shoulder and saw Freya hadn't left. "So, you never told me how things went with your hypothetical brother." she said and went back to her search. If the other girl wanted to stick around she could at least attempt a conversation.

 

[Freya Song]

Freya was less than surprised at Poppy's non-enthusiastic reception to her arrival. It still made a part of Freya want to prod at her harder. Somehow Poppy always floated right at the edge of Freya's mental circle of people who mattered, and she was a little confused at how she'd managed to let that happen. She flinched at the reminder of thir previous conversation and laughed nervously to play it off. "Well, hypothetically I told him absolutely nothing and invited him to graduation." she said cheerfully. That was going to be a disaster and a half if Soren actually took her up on that invitation. "Any reason you're out here perpetuating the stereotype of ravens and their love of shiny things?" Freya squinted curiously at the object in Poppy's hand. It was certainly pretty, but Freya didn't see why anyone would go wading in the lake and risk being eaten by eels for fun.

 

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy took a few tentative steps into the water and fiddled with her pants as they threatened to fall into the water. She half expected Freya to avoid her question entirely but when she answered Poppy was honestly a little surprised. She kept her glances at the other girl brief so she wouldn't scare the other girl off, like she was talking to a skittish animal and not an almost adult. She considered what Freya said and kept up her search. "That is one way to do it." she said with a sigh and reached into the water to pick up a rock. She inspected it for a moment but realized it was just a rock and let it plop back into the water. "Do you not trust him?" Poppy asked after a second. She wondered if there was a reason Freya kept her brother in the dark. She didn't have any siblings but she couldn't imagine keeping it from them, even hypothetically. "Why do you care?" she asked defensively when Freya made a comment about her acting like a bird. "Do you want a gift?" she asked, remembering the stories she heard of ravens who would bring trinkets to humans that were nice to them.

 

[Freya Song]

Freya could feel that creeping anxiety she always got when she skirted too close to acknowledging her feelings. Did she trust her brother? "I doubt he'd go running to the newspapers to tell the whole muggle world about it, but he'd be pretty jealous of this place." Freya said lightly, purposefully misunderstanding the question. If she was honest with herself, which she rarely was, she didn't actually have an answer to whether or not she trusted her brother. Trust wasn't something that came naturally to her. Freya bit her lip to stop herself from smiling at Poppy's defensiveness. "That depends, would that make me indebted to you forever?" she asked, as her mind conjured up images of strange magical women luring their unsuspecting victims to their deaths at the bottom of the lake. She didn't think Poppy was going to try drown her, but one could never be too careful.

 

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy was still expecting that at any moment Freya would return to her usual sarcastic self, but she didn't. She decided to pretend this was totally normal and not slightly freaking her out. She thought about her answer as she kept looking for her treasure. She had a similar thought a few times. She had plenty of cousins who went to normal muggle schools and took normal muggle exams, what would they think of her potions lessons or having a professor that could turn into a dog in the blink of an eye. Not to mention the castle itself. "I guess that is a decent reason." she admitted and it surprised her that she was actually agreeing with Freya in any way. "It's harder than most people realize to be in the middle of it all." Poppy said mostly to herself. She cracked a grin when the other girl asked if a gift would indebt her forever. "Maybe, but probably not forever." she said, considering the question seriously. "I have a hard time imagining you indebted to anyone." she added before plunging her hands into the water to grab what looked like a piece of metal. What she said felt true to her. They lived in a world of magic that had rules that sometimes made sense and sometimes didn't. But Freya seemed above that somehow. That she could somehow just say no and walk away from anything that tried to trap her or tell her what to do.