Open Lost

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

After the referee had called the game Ivelisse had made sure to leave the pitch as quickly as she could, swinging by the locker room to grab her bag but not even bothering to get changed. If walking around in her quidditch gear was what it took to get out of there in an instant then so be it. She wasn't ready to face her team right now. Nor any other Slytherin for that matter. Truth be told, she wasn't even ready to face herself. Losing against Ilvermorny last year hadn't bothered her because the international game wasn't that serious but this, this was something different entirely. Something she wasn't ready to deal with right away. And if leaving before anyone could have a chance to speak to her made her a coward then a coward she was. One that had slung her bag over her shoulder and ran up the stairs as quickly as her legs would take her. Her dad had always told her about how people had a fight or flight response just like creatures and if she was certain about just a single thing right now it was that her flight response had fully taken over. So she fled as far away from everyone as she could: all the way up the stairs that lead to the North Tower. When she had finally reached the top her legs were aching and her breath was failing her but she didn't care. Being up there alone provided her with a rare moment of peace. A moment to raise her defenses in preparation for the verbal attacks that she was bound to be faced with whenever she headed back down. After making sure no one else was around Ive dropped her bag on the floor while she sat down against the tower wall, pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them as she tried to catch her breath. This was not supposed to happen. Not to her.

 

[Caleb Thorne]

Caleb had thoroughly searched every inch of the castle looking for quite places to be. It had taken a lot of time to find them in a castle that always felt so crowded. The north tower was by far, one of his favorites though. Easy to get to but out of the way enough, and if you found just the right corner you could spend hours up there without running into anyone at all. Caleb had somehow fallen asleep in one of the window seats and laughed when he felt his rat, Peach's whisker tickle his neck. He had come looking for a quite place to read some magazines but now he was hungry and his neck a bit sore. He started towards the stairs to go to the great hall but stopped short when he spotted Ivelisse in her quidditch get up sitting against one of the walls. She didn't seem to notice him at first and he glanced around to see if he was missing something. She seemed upset and he tentatively took a step towards her. "I know it's hard to keep track of time, but it's not Halloween anymore." he joked lightly, scared he might be getting in over his head with whatever was going on.

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse had been slowly regaining her breath, now feeling like running up that vast amount of stairs hadn't been the best idea. Nevermind the fact that she was now realizing there were a few more places she could have decided to hide that wouldn't have taken as much effort. Like the edge of the forest. Or somewhere near the cliffs. Anywhere that wasn't particularly populair and still some distance away from the common room. And yet the tower still felt like her safest bet. There was no way anyone would be looking for her up there. Certainly not Celia, although she did almost imagine the other girl stomping around the school like a madman searching for her. Ive's head snapped up at the sound of someone else's voice so quickly she could feel it strain her neck a little. Or perhaps it had already felt strained from looking for the snitch and she just hadn't realized it untill now. Her mind had been preocuppied after all. "Throwing on my quidditch gear would be a lousy excuse for a costume anyways." She scoffed in response, even if she felt slightly relieved when it turned out to be Caleb. She liked him, hadn't particularly meant to sound unfriendly to him but in her current mindset there wasn't much she could do to help herself. "Did you not watch the game?" Ive asked sceptically when she started to wonder about his question. If he had, she was sure he wouldn't be joking about Halloween. Or have made it up to the towers so quickly for that matter. Surely, no one would be dumb enough to run up the stairs without a reason.

 

[Caleb Thorne]

Caleb raised an eyebrow at her hostile response and he held up his hands in a playful surrender. "I've seen worse." he said easily, keeping the mood light. When she mentioned 'the game' things clicked into place and it was all starting to make sense. "We had a game?" he asked, knowing he sounded sarcastic but he genuinely didn't realize it was today. He sauntered to the window and looked down at the larger than usual group of students walking around. "Guess I lost track of time." he said, keeping his distance and kept looking through the window. "I'm guess we......" Caleb let his sentence trail off hoping she would finish it for him as he glanced back at her. He wanted to guess they lost considering Ivelisse was hiding here and not in the common room being celebrated. But he was a little scare to make any assumptions right now.

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse simply nodded when Caleb mentioned he had seen worse costumes than someone just throwing on their quidditch gear. To be fair, she had too. It would still make a lousy costume though, there was no denying that. She raised her eyebrows when he seemed genuinely surprised there had been a quidditch game today. "Won, obviously." She replied, sarcasm dripping from her voice as her defense mechanisms were still set into place. It was nothing personal. "No, we lost. Dramatically." Ive added truthfully, rolling her eyes as if that would somehow shake off the image of Felix holding up the snitch that had been burned into her memory. "Hence the hiding all the way up here."

 

[Caleb Thorne]

Caleb gave her a look and held up his hands when she answered sarcastically. "Geez, it's not like I'm the one who caught the snitch." he said with a hollow laugh. "But that does explain...all of this." Slowly, as if he were approaching a wild animal he took a few steps toward her until he was standing next to here and leaned against the wall too. "How long do you think you'll be in hiding?" he asked. "Just the rest of the semester or the whole year?"

so sorry for the late reply

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse sighed at Caleb's response before muttering a soft 'sorry'. She knew she shouldn't be taking her frustration out on him. Especially not if he hadn't even been to the game, hadn't sought her out because of that. He just happened to be there. "The whole semester if I could." She replied. "But I don't think that's doable so I'm mostly just trying to stay away from Celia for as long as I can today."

 

[Caleb Thorne]

Caleb nodded solemnly as he reached up and grabbed Peach from where she had gotten tangled up in his shirt collar and held her gently in his hands. "That's smart." he said when she confirmed she was hiding. "Do you think she knows she's psychotic?" he asked, but mostly he was thinking out loud. "Or is the delusion part of it?" When he had heard Celia had gotten the captain position he knew that couldn't end well. He was hoping for her nervous breakdown. Or maybe a team mutiny. So far he hadn't seen evidence of either. He felt for Ivelisse but he took some pleasure in knowing Celia was likely miserable.