I plead the fifth.

[Clover Sheppard]

Clover Lillian Sheppard had grown bored of roaming around the Durmstrang halls, she wanted to do something more with her time besides joking around in between classes with Taylor and following pointless rules. The sixteen year old needed to push the confines of her comfort zone a little bit, just an inch to keep her short attention span interested in her life. So that night Clover had managed to sneak away for a little while, a can of neon purple spray paint hidden in her bag. The blonde’s intentions were to make a mark, a small hint of her boredom somewhere so she could metaphorically leave it behind her when she returned. A stupid concept, but at least it was enough of an excuse for her not have to rot in school for a few more hours. Taylor wouldn't mind, Clover already knew that, Taylor never minded it when Clover felt the need to fly off on her own tangent to get to know herself better. She arrived punctually at Bleak street, glancing around at the murky surroundings before walking further along. No wonder she had never been there before. What the sixteen year old was searching for was a wall, somewhere dark and vacant where she wouldn’t easily be caught vandalising, and by the looks of it this place fit the description.

After a few minutes, Clover found the perfect spot, a dark alleyway that appeared to be uninhabited. Smirking subtly, the teenager nonchalantly dropped her bag to the ground from her shoulder, kneeling in front of it to retrieve her spray paint and wand before standing back up to face the cobble stone wall. Musing to herself, Clover pursed her lips together. She had travelled all the way to Bleak street, and searched for an alleyway to leave her own personal mark, but hadn't yet figured out what that mark would be. Shrugging, Clover shook the can, musing once more before spraying a love heart on the wall. A heart could mean many things, and more often than not it was her default symbol. Of course it was mainstream and predictable but Clover had no intention of leaving the place unsatisfied with her work. Shaking the can once more, Clover sprayed a second smaller heart adjacent to the first. Now the teenager felt comfortable leaving. The alley way was dark, and creepy, just like everything else she had seen that night, but Clover wasn't frightened enough of the place yet to worry herself into a rut; however she did keep her wand in hand, just in case the situation called for it. She wasn't seventeen but self-defence was enough of a reason to use magic outside of school, she believed.

The sixteen year old jolted as she heard something, she didn't know what it was, but the shock from the sudden noise forced her out of the alleyway. The fear of getting caught mixed in with the fear of being hurt was enough of a kick start to get Clover to leave the place instead of spending a little longer admiring what she had done. A chill ran up Clover's spine, causing her to shiver as she walked out of the alleyway. Turning around just as she had escaped the dank place, the petite blonde crashed into a stranger. "I'm sorry!" She exclaimed, taking a step away from them, still a little shaken up from before. It seemed no matter how headstrong Clover wanted to be, she was still afraid of small things, but she knew that was just something that made her human.​

 

[Lake Silver]

Lake got bored sitting at school, there was nowhere private to be alone, where he could enjoy being alone ne peace, everyone was so Happy all the time, they're lives were perfect and his wasn't, he didn't see the point in dancing around like everyone else as if the world was a flower. Lake had made his way to Bleak street where he enjoyed the dark quiet of fear. Lake was siting in his usual Alleyway when he heard someone arrive, he pulled up his dark Hood to shield is light skin and waited patiently, The stranger seemed to have a motive, he studied the shadow before him and recognised it was a girl, he knew Dark wizards were crawling this place, but this girl was holding can of bright purple spray paint and he could guess she wasn't that dark.

Lake moved silently from his corner as she started to spray paint what had become "His" alleyway's cobblestone wall. The 17 year old Wizard didn't want to be in her way and now he wanted to find another place to sit alone but on his way out he nudged a box and it grazed slightly on the ground, he was careful not to make a sound but headed out the ally a bit quicker than planned, The girl seemed to have the same idea because she ran out and before he could get out of the way she ran into him. Lake threw his arms out and grabbed the girl's arms and pinned them to her side, He could sense other Dark Wizards moving closer to the commotion, Fear was present and they enjoyed making the fear worse. Lake used his strength and pushed the girl back into the alleyway and against the cobblestone wall where she had just spray painted getting the back of her clothes covered in the same substance she used to defile his wall. Lake pinned her against the wall and stared into her eyes with his Dark brown orbs.
'What are you doing here' he hissed at the girl hoping she didn't start screaming, that would make things worse. Lake watched the girl closely for her expressions, she didn't seem like the type who would start screaming and sobbing which would get him into more trouble than he thought she would be worth, he had done her one favour by taking her back into the Ally away from Dark Wizards who would want to torture without the use of spells, feeding off her fear and making it grow larger with threats.

Lake snarled at the girl 'What are you doing here, I said, answer me you twit, and it better be a good enough reason or the dark wizards can have you for themselves' he said, he would only keep her sheltered from their tricks as long as she had a good enough reason, he had become known in the ally by some dark wizards so he wasn't bothered, he unfortunately could provide her shelter, He wasn't a bad person, he didn't want to make everyone's life miserable as his. Lake waited for an Answer, still holding the girl against the wall.

 

[Clover Sheppard]

Clover had apologized for abruptly walking into the hooded Stanger, usually that would be enough for somebody to leave her alone to be on her way, but this wasn't the case. This time instead of moving to the side to let her pass, the stranger pinned her arms to her side. The uncomfortable tightness from fear in the sixteen year old's gut from a few moments earlier suddenly grew worse in the stranger's grasp. Immediately Clover acted on instinct, trying to struggle herself free to no avail, as before she had the chance to struggle further, the stranger forced her back into the alleyway she had just escaped from, pinning her to the cobblestone wall now defaced with two prominent neon purple hearts. It was then Clover noticed the stranger was a man, half because of the brute force he had imposed on her and half because of the low sounding voice he possessed. After the stranger asked what she was doing there, Clover didn't answer, and started to struggle once more.

She had always thought all her Quidditch training and general athleticism would help her out in a situation like this, that the physical strength built up from training would enable her to break free from any dangerous situation which could involve her getting hurt, or worse, murdered. But now it was obvious all her training had gone to waste as the stranger's physical strength more than overcame her own. The blonde spat in the figure's face, attempting to get him away from her so she could go back to Durmstrang safe and sound. "This was my favourite sweater *sshole!" Clover roared, finally deciding to say something after the hooded figure snarled at her once more. Struggling harder against the stranger's grip, Clover started to feel the familiar feeling of fatigue begin to set in, something she could easily recognise nearing the end of Quidditch practice or any other sport she felt like playing. Soon she would be too tired to fight back, or run if she broke free so she made the conscious decision to conserve energy, and co-operate with the shadowed figure in the hope he would let her go. "I"m here because I was f*cking bored okay! I was bored at school from every goddamn day being the same as the last and I wanted to do something interesting for a change!" She snarled back.

That was hardly an excuse to be in a dark dangerous place at any hour of the night but Clover thought it was a good enough reason to leave Durmstrang for it, otherwise she would have been back at school, suffering from an intense case of boredom and quietly starting to hate authority more than she already did. Although with the current situation, Clover would prefer it that way. Clover started to struggle again, with more determination than before, to break free from the strong grip the strange man had on her, her newly found energy being the cause of adrenaline kicking in completely. Now that she had answered his question he should let her go, there was no reason for her to be kept pinned against a wall, ruining her favourite grey sweater with the purple paint she had just used to deface a wall.​

 

[Lake Silver]

Lake watched the girl closely as she struggled, Lake wasn't the weak type, he spent half his days hating school and the other half alone working with weights or doing chin ups on a tree branch where people wouldn't bother him. Lake rolled his eyes as the girl started to get defensive, she complained about him ruining her sweater and he almost said that she ruined is favourite wall, but it would be a lie. Lake felt a warm liquid ooze down his face and he picked the girl up off the wall and pushed her back into it, he didn't like being spat on like a freak even though he classed himself as one. Lake snarled 'I wouldn't go spitting on people around this area, Wizards here will curse you without even thinking about it.' he said quietly almost to himself. Lake held her tightly as she continued to try use her energy, but she stopped he didn't loosen his grip, he knew she would run for it and it would be a waste of time for him to chase her.

Lake rolled his eyes when she swore at him, he didn't pay much attention but he heard the word 'School' and he realised that she must be from Durmstrang aswell, the same school he often neglected, he hated staying there during the night, his dorm was full of people who gave him no privacy and he was almost certain one of them went through everyone's stuff. Lake picked her up off the wall and slid her down the side of it making sure that he got more pain on her sweater. 'Maybe you should have thought of that before you started ruining people's property' he said as he sat her on the seat he was sitting on which was made of wooden crates. Lake Knelt in front of the girl his face coming into some light now which he didn't mind since she would probably hear his voice in school and out him out for it anyway, Lake kept on hand on her shoulder and held her back against the wall 'Now if you had common sense you would realize running into a street crawling with Dark Wizards is probably the stupidest thing you could do since they feed off your fear.' he said his brown eyes staring into hers to see if she got the message. 'And if you have reason to leave the castle a..' he paused for a moment and used his spare hand to brush a stray lock of hair from her face 'Defenceless girl like yourself should take someone with her so she doesn't end up tortured... or worse' he said knowing what some of the Dark wizards were like, he knew that life could get pretty lonely for a Dark Wizards when most Witches where brought up with Flowers an Butterfly's, and the occasional few her were Brought up dark by nature were Closely family related so the amount of people available to satisfy themselves were limited and they often took it out on Poor Muggle girls in some cases.

Lake was a Very Defensive person, he tried to defend his sister but gave up after a while when he realised she was to reckless to control and he tried defending his little sister but she was to shy and too alone to need defending so he ended up defending himself and getting defensive of himself and others. Lake waited for the girl to respond, if she desired he would let her run off into the streets in a crazed panic.

 

[Clover Sheppard]

After calming down, or making it appear as though she was calm, Clover exhaled. She wasn't ready to show defeat or any other form of weakness yet but that was something she was fighting hard to avoid. The rude stranger had ruined her favourite sweater even further, and she was ready to fight back even harder than before, although she was waiting for the right moment to do so, when he was off guard. He sat her down on a wooden crate and kneeled in front of her, which made the sixteen year old feel even more like a child. She wasn't a child any longer, she was sixteen and able to take care of herself, much to her parent's dismay. They wanted to keep her sheltered from the real world, and Clover wanted to explore it and know everything through making her own mistakes, something it seemed they would never understand. She wasn't going to accept being degraded any further by being treated like some sort of idiot, but Clover was going to listen to whatever the stranger had to say before she managed to get herself back to school.

His face came into the light, and immediately Clover recognised him, but from where she did not know, as she hadn't had the time to put two and two together yet. But the stranger's familiar appearance meant Clover had more of a reason to stay put and listen to whatever he had to say before making a break for it. He was also rather attractive in a creepy lurker way, although she disregarded that fact. His brown eyes stared into hers as he spoke, obviously he was trying to get his message through, but Clover would have none of it. She had heard it all before, that somebody like her shouldn't go out alone at night, and that she needed somebody with her. It was all the same Jargon to the blonde now. Clover didn't react badly when he brushed a stray lock of blonde hair from her face, she didn't react much at all, except for a small smirk which appeared on her lips. She wanted to show him what calling her defenceless really meant, what happened when he talked to her like some stupid materialistic girl who spent all of Daddy's money but a small voice in her head forced her not to. "Then let's be glad you saved this damsel in distress from her impending doom." Clover replied sarcastically, placing her elbows on her thighs and leaning forward. She was pretty sure it didn't look like she needed saving when this stranger felt the need to interfere with matters that weren't of his concern but at least she had something to do, and wasn't bored while travelling back to school, although she would still want to be back there so she could attempt to get the purple paint of her favourite grey sweater.

The blonde absent mindedly ran a hand through her long blonde hair, she wished the stranger could use magic outside of school, then it would be a lot easier for her to get back to Durmstrang with her absence still unnoticed. In that case he might know a spell to fix her sweater, she hoped. He certainly looked older than seventeen, he had a sense of maturity she hadn't yet acquired, but again Clover was never good at reading people by appearance. After sighing, Clover made an exasperated effort to introduce herself, as given the circumstances it would be better for her to put a name to this man's somehow familiar face. "If it's of any interest to you, my name's Clover." She said balling up her sleeves into the palm of her hand, a habit when she was uncomfortable. "And you are?"​

 

[Lake Silver]

Lake had always had a curiosity for the human body language, the way people stood and acted and how it reflected they felt, this girl seemed to be fighting a very strong emotion with attitude which wasn't uncommon. Lake studied her silently; she was controlling her breathing which was a sign of slight fear. Lake smirked and kept his cool, he liked to study people, he would often sit in the Shadows and watch people react to one another, How they would talk, his favourite to watch was a break up, the body language displayed often told him how much they really meant to one another. Lake listened to explain about being a Damsel in Distress and he shook his head 'If you Don't want my Assistance.. Damsel.' he said with attitude on the Damsel 'Then I will Gladly let you leave and run along your merry way and let those Dark Wizards enjoy themselves, I have better things to do' Lake watched the girl silently for her reaction.

The Wizard waited to see if she would make a run for it, thinking she was big and brave. Lake couldn't feel any rigid movement so he waited patiently, something he had become very good at, the Girl introduced herself as Clover, he smirked 'You go to Durmstrang' he said bluntly, the name had been heard, and Clover wasn't a very common name much like his own, the girl asked who he was and he paused, 'Lake' he added bluntly as he stood up, he had gotten all the information he needed from her, she knew who he was and he knew who she was so there wasn't anything to hide, She was acting brave so he was going to let her be brave if he wanted. Lake flicked his hair out of his eyes and turned around 'So Miss Damsel in Distress, If you are so tough, I assume you don't need my help to get back to school then before your oh so perfect record gets some dirt on it' he said as he moved back from her path and leaned against the wall 'Or maybe' he begun with a dark tone to his voice 'You're trying to be a Rebel Child and Tarnish your record to get you some more attention from the school, to be more noticed' he continued, Lake didn't like the girls who sleep around for the title 'Best F*ck' just as he didn't like people who vandalised to be the rebel.

Lake did admit that sometimes the Vandalism was art, when you walk and see a poem etched into a tree, the tree heals and the memory will last forever. Lake folded his arms in front of his chest, he was half expecting the girl to bolt off down the alleyway to prove herself, he waited, he liked waiting.

 

[Clover Sheppard]

As soon as the stranger said he would let her go, Clover's instincts told her to stay put. She had always been plagued with a mind-set which caused her to act the opposite to what people told her, and now wasn't going to be an exception. He might have been using reverse psychology to keep her there, and if he was it was sure working because now all the blonde wanted to do was stay seated where she was to annoy him further, if she was annoying him at all. But with Clover's history, that fact wouldn't be a surprise. She was known by quite a few people back at Durmstrang to be annoying or stupid, which was the reasoning she had only one friend there, and it seemed no matter what, she always unintentionally repelled people away. She wasn't afraid of all the dark wizards that were supposedly waiting for her outside of the alleyway; she had managed to look after herself so far, so she would be confident in navigating her way out of Bleak Street and back to school. However that would be a pointless effort as it would take her too long to return to Durmstrang. Hopefully the stranger had been taught about apparition, and could take her back to school without much hassle.

Clover didn't expect anything from the stranger, she could rely on herself but sometimes she needed help, like now when she needed to go back to school quickly to remain unnoticed. Unable to admit this just yet, the sixteen year old nodded when the stranger stated that she went to Durmstrang, ignoring how unusual it was for somebody she had just met to know something like that that. As the stranger introduced himself as Lake, Clover scoffed. She wouldn't have put such a name to the man's striking features but she never was one to assume things by appearance. Clover hated her name, usually people would say it made her lucky, but she thought different. She had never been able to rely on luck simply because it was unreliable, and her name didn't change that. "Is your middle name Rain?" Clover asked, trying to make the situation lighter by cracking a joke, even though it was a horrible one. Clearing her throat after a few moments of silence caused by her unfunny words, Clover raised an eyebrow at Lake. If he truly did think she was the kind of girl to care about her record he was certainly wrong. She thought it was annoying how he seemed to be making all these assumptions about her without getting to know her at all first. Clover never tried to make judgements about people she didn't know, and when other people judged her because she was blonde, or because of the way she dressed it really angered her. Shaking her head back into reality, Clover shot Lake a malicious look.

"Trying to be a rebel? I was just bored." She stated, ignoring what Lake had just said about getting her back to school unnoticed. Clover didn't want to get in trouble; she just wanted to put the situation behind her without any added drama Lake seemed to be bringing on. All she wanted was some excitement, but he was treating her like she was an idiot, like she was attention seeking with the way she had left her now faded mark on the cobble stone wall. "I don't have a perfect record to tarnish either; you should learn not to be so judgemental." She lectured the wizard, growing bored of having to pointlessly explain herself to some creep who hung out in dark alleyways. She didn't need to prove anything to such a stranger, and from what she had gathered, Clover knew that Lake wasn't worth fretting over, although she could have been wrong.​

 

[Lake Silver]

Lake watched the girl curiously, she didn't run, either she was slightly sane or was trying to be a smart ass. Lake listened out for anyone entering the alley, his back was turned and he didn't like his chances around this area. The Young Wizard rolled his eyes when the girl made fun of his name asking if his middle name was Rain, he shook his head 'Hilarious, your middle name must be leprechaun ' he said bluntly since her name was clover and a four leaf clover was lucky. Lake brushed one hand lazily through his hair, his muscles bulging slightly as he moved 'My Middle name is Lewis' he said bluntly again, for some reason his sisters had perfectly normal names like Cleo and Phoebe but him, he didn't mind it but including his middle name is seemed rather odd Lake Lewis Silver.

The Wizard listened to her plead her case that she was bored not trying to be a rebel and how she didn't have a perfect record to tarnish and he shouldn't be so judgemental. 'When you get Judged all the time like I do you only response is judgements about others, so if people can brand labels on my why can't I brand labels on you Miss Damsel in Distress' he said coldly, he was used to people calling him creep who hung out in odd places he was used to it, after a while of being called the same thing you start to relate to what you're being called.
'So now that you're done here destroying public property because you were Bored, you will be moving on then and going to annoy someone else so when you eventually get back to school You will be seen as the Bored rebel' he said with a sarcastic smile. Lake could easily just apparate himself back to school; he would be waiting for her to appear when she eventually made her way back to the castle just to annoy her.

Lake wasn't a bad person however, he was going to offer to help her once, and if she denied that was the only chance she was going to receive 'So Damsel, do you need someone to save you from the situation or are you going to be the strong female you are and save yourself hmm?' he said with a sarcasm hinting in his voice, half the things lake said were usually with sarcasm, he didn't bother taking anything seriously because serious things get you in serious trouble, plus it was fun to annoy the people who annoy him. Lake waited silently while the air around them grew colder from the Dark wizards waiting for their chance.

 

[Clover Sheppard]

Clover rolled her eyes when Lake sarcastically exclaimed her middle name was leprechaun, matching how he had rolled his eyes at her sarcastic comment earlier. It was obvious Lake and Clover both enjoyed using sarcasm in all forms, or that was the description Clover picked up at least. She never wanted to appear rude, stupid or just plain irritating with the way she spoke, but it always seemed to come across that way, whether it was purposeful or not. But the sixteen year old didn't care, she spoke for herself, not for others and if people judged her, it was their own ignorant decision to do so. Tilting her head to the side at Lake stating his middle name, Clover pouted. Lewis was a nice name, and luckily it was normal enough to balance out how unusual his first name was. What parent in their right mind would name their male Child Lake anyway? "My middle name's Lillian." She replied. Her middle name was normal too, or at least she thought so, but she still hated it. As soon as she could, she would change her name to something she preferred, although she hadn't figured out which name she preferred yet. Realising she had let her thoughts trail off once more, Clover stood up to bring her thoughts back into the present, where they needed to be considering the dark wizards which were apparently lingering outside of the alleyway.

The teenager folded her arms while listening to Lake mentioned being judged all the time. Being judged was inevitable in a materialistic world which focused on appearance, and why Lake was being such a jerk off about having to deal with something every single other person had to endure everyday she did not understand. But something she did understand was that people reacted to things differently, when she was judged for no reason, she either talked back or just made the most of irritating the other person as much as she possibly could. "The bored rebel is a much better label than creep who lurks in dark alleyways." Clover joked, she would have said more on how much better she was than Lake, as she wasn't preying on innocent girls and wreaking their favourite grey sweaters for no good reason, but before she could Lake asked if she wanted to be saved or was going to save herself. It was pretty obvious the blonde needed to be saved, and unless Lake was some sort of blubbering idiot, he was rubbing in the fact she needed his help to get back to Durmstrang. She scoffed, and kicked at the ground, her gaze on her shoes for a minute before she looked back up at Lake. "Okay, this one time, you'll need to save me." She admitted defeat. "But after this you will never be helping me again, got it?" Clover hated being treated as inferior for her gender, and the fact sexism was still around irritated her to no end, so whenever Clover accepted being degraded by a man, it was in the most dire of circumstances.

The blonde moved until she was at Lakes side, linking her arm in his. She had been apparated places by others before, once or twice, but she was still completely foreign to how things worked. Luckily she would be learning all about it soon enough. Clover quickly grew impatient standing there awkwardly with her arm wrapped around Lake's, she knew she looked like a weakling asking for help from a man. "Are we going to leave or what?"​

 

[Lake Silver]

Lake continued to study the girls expressions and try decipher her emotions, She told him her middle name and he was slightly glad there was no secrets, that by stopping her from getting attacked by Dark Wizards he didn't need to regret his decision.
Lake knew his name was different, but he didn't know many people anyway and the people he did know didn't know his name anyway so it didn’t really bother him, he was just 'That guy' to everyone else.

Lake rolled his eyes at her comment about being a bored revel being better than a creep who lurks 'Maybe I like it here since it's the only place which doesn't bother me and accepts me, ever thought of that miss Rebel without a cause' he said rather bluntly. Lake knew the girl was joking but the label Creep rather annoyed him, he wasn't a Creep he was more to himself, reserved from the outside world.
Lake smiled when she agreed to letting him save her 'As you wish miss Damsel in Distress' he said as he almost went to stand next to her but she moved to him and linked his arm in hers, Lake felt goosebumps crawl up his back, he wasn't used to other contact and it felt... strange to him. 'Next time I'll let the dark Wizards get you instead' he said she ushered him to leave and he sighed. Apparating was easy for Lake, he did it quite often to get away and the distance from Bleak street to durmstrang didn't bother him at all, he hoped the girl didn't puke on him, passing out was fine, he could take her to the hospital wing or just leave her and run but puking was just gross. Lake apparated them both to a dark part of the Durmstrang courtyard which he knew no one would be around, he looked to Clover and checked to see if she was going to stumble, he placed his arm on her elbow to guide her just incase. Lake smiled half-heartedly 'We have arrived Damsel at your castle.' he said mocking her slightly 'No Dragons to protect you how ever but I'm sure you will find one when you get bored' he said as he waited for her to probably run away.

Out of Character:

Sorry for the late Reply, Side Tracked!