One more time

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire reached the top of the staircase and aimed straight for her spot on the windowsill. She let the wind cool her face off. She breathed slowly. Years from now she would think herself a fool for reacting this was but for now she was in slow pulsing pain. Sapphire had been used to pain. One didn't go through Bella-Donna manor without getting used to it but after a year and a half of being truly taken care of Sapphire needed a moment. Next year she didn't have to see this and afterwards she would have time to get the hell over this. Sapphire had hope that at one point she would be able to look at Jeremy and whoever he was with and truly smile. She didn't know if he or anyone else noticed that her eyes where empty the whole time she was talking. Her emotions where true but as soon as she had walked up to him and Sapphire had seen that blond 'veela' she had let her old auto pilot take over. If she hadn't she would have broken down in tears and imberessed herself.

Sapphire had finally had enough and had to step away for her own sanity. When the school year was over there was always Ruby to fall back on who was a lot brighter these days. Kennedy was a part of that and the fact that she had over her fear of the piano. She had been told that Ruby was enjoying the songs that she sent her. Sapphire was happy for this and she was eager to get back to her and her newest little sister. She wanted get out of Hogwarts that was for sure. Sapphire had cooled off a little bit since the start of the semester and RHI had made it worse. A mutt that no one wants. They had gotten wrong that she was sad about boys not liking. She couldn't care less about that. But it had hit home with her birth parents. She loved Morgan and her new family but she would always move wonder if her parents had cared that she had been missing at all. Sapphire looked out at grounds hoping that next year things would better.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

When Jeremy had finally stepped out of the Great Hall, the silence outside was deafening. He couldn't believe he had actually managed it. Getting away from his parents had been easy enough. Both had found colleagues among the guests. Alana had wandered off to look at some of the statues and stuff around the school. Getting away from everyone else had proven more difficult. Nearly every step he had taken had been met with a student, professor or guest stopping to speak about his speech, congratulate him or asking about his future plans. And his manners wouldn't allow him to simply walk away, though that had been his first instinct when Georgiana had come over to him.

Seeing the door being pushed open, Jeremy bolted for the steps. He just needed a moment, to breathe and absorb all that had taken place. He was a graduate, no longer a student. Now, his NEWTs would determine his future. When he next looked up, Jeremy was surprised to discover he had made his way towards the towers, home to some of the best views in the school. As he neared, Jeremy heard some small movement and as he came around the corner, he was only a bit surprised that Sapphire was there. He knew that she liked the spot too. He moved forward apprehensively. "Fancy seeing you here, Saph" he grinned nervously. He was confused by her odd reaction in the Great Hall a bit earlier. She had seemed happy and not. "Are you coming back down?" he asked, putting his hands in his pocket as he kicked lightly at the ground.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire looked to where she had heard a voice coming from and saw that the former Head Boy was there. "Yes well this is the only place that is the least populate at the moment." She gave him a sad smile. With her emotions back online she couldn't fake happy if she where being threatened with a wand. "There's no room for me down there." Sapphire said then looked out the window down at the grounds. The very grounds that had saved her life when she had walked in first year. Before then she had thought that the world was black and cold and she would be doomed to life inside herself. Then she got sorted into Hufflepuff here and met some great people. Oscar and Silence where her first friends. There wasn't a day that she didn't miss them. It was on these grounds that she found out who she really was and it was here where she had fallen in love with the now young man that stood next to her. There was no room down there for the girl who was in love with her best friend when his girlfriend was there. She had heard Jeremy's sister whisper to her mother. It was loud enough that she had heard a comment about her tattoos.

The dress she had on showed the fake ones she had drawn on her legs and magicked then into not fading but the ones on her arms, fingers and neck where real. It had taken all summer for her to get all of it done but she was happy to have them. She had Fibonacci spirals on her elbows and the Greek symbols for the Gods on her fingers among other things. In her mind she if her body was a temple there was no reason for her not to decorate the walls. Being judged on top of watching Jeremy and his girlfriend be all cute around each other had cracked her control the way Crucio spells from Dympna's wand hadn't been able to. "I am very proud of you. You made it though the speech. Where you still scared?" She said to take focus away from herself. Whatever happened she would not be the one to ruin his graduation day.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

"I know what you mean" Jeremy said with amusement. The Great Hall was normally populated by tons of milling students, but today it felt more stuffed than usual. The room was not used to housing so many adults, and it seemed that the sheer amount of parents and guests seemed to fill the room in a way that first and second years could not. Jeremy knew exactly what she meant about finding a quiet place. The noise was deafening from the chit-chat between parents and graduates and staff. A moment alone sounded great, which is why Jeremy had gone for this little jaunt. Glancing down at the cap in his hand for a moment, Jeremy looked up sharply, his blue eyes narrowing at what Sapphire said next. No room for her?, he thought to himself, not understanding what she was saying. "What are you talking about?" he asked, the confusion in his voice clear. Then, he recalled the soft whisper of his sister. He hadn't heard what she said, but there was no doubt that this had something to do with Alanna. "Did my sister say something to you?" he demanded. A wave of anxiety washed through him as he realized he'd left Alyss downstairs, alone, with his sister and his mother around. Sure, she was with friends but that didn't mean they wouldn't go up to her and say something judgmental. Part of him wanted to tell Sapphire to hold her thought so he could run downstairs and check, but he knew that wouldn't be a good idea. He still wasn't sure what Sapphire thought of Alyss in light of her feelings towards him, which he tried his best to ignore. "My sister's a brat" he muttered.

Jeremy's blue eyes stared at Sapphire as he waited for a reply. He continued up the steps, finally stopping to lean on the wall across from her. "Yes, I was terrified until I got going. Then, I was sort of ok as long as I didn't look up too much." He shook his head, bringing things back to focus. "Stop. Answer my question. I invited you to the graduation. You're my guest. How can you say there's no room for you down there?" he asked, a bit hurt that she would suggest such a thing. Was he being insensitive by inviting her to an event that his girlfriend was going to be at? Sapphire knew that Alyss was a seventh year too, though. She had to have known his girlfriend was also graduating. Was this even about Alyss? She had hugged her, after all and even had a conversation with her. Surely, that was progress.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire had gone down because of Jeremy. If anything she wanted to help and thought that if he saw her than the speech would turn into a conversation rather than a real speech. If anything she had wanted to help and see Jeremy off for Graduation. Sapphire had met Alyss before, talked to her. Sapphire had nothing against Alyss, from what little she had talked to her, was nice. Well nicer than she would have thought for a blond Slytherin girl. Girl code as well as personally knowing her a little bit made her feelings even harder. Jeremy seemed upset that she had said that there was no room for her down there but the question was the wrong one. "Something about only delinquents having tattoos. I didn't catch all of it." She said shrugging. That alone would never have bothered her. Her colorful skin was a resent development but she had been bashed within a inch of her sanity before. Or at least would have been had she not found out a way to shut herself behind a mental glass that made as if she where only watching the events unfold even when it was her own body being harmed. "I would have appreciated if your sister had said this to my face but I guess that only your mom and I where meant to hear it." She said rolling her eyes.

Sapphire stared at him for a short while with his next question. Was he that dense or that cruel? She refused to believe that Jeremy would be about as capable of tormenting her as Zeal was so she went for the former. Boys where known to be dense after all. Sapphire walked up to him and place her hand gently on his cheek. Her heels made it so she was just tall enough to do what she was about to do. She placed a very gentle kiss on his lips and looked up at him. "For someone so smart that was a really dumb thing to ask. There is no room for the girl who is in love another girl's boyfriend." She whispered then walked towards the stares. "See you around, maybe" She said twirling her finger as she left. She was probably acting a lot cooler than she felt which was good see as the kiss unexpectedly turned her insides to jello. Sapphire half hoped that Jeremy would come after her but fully expected him to go back to his graduation alone.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

Jeremy’s face clouded over as Sapphire confirmed that his sister had indeed said something. He thought she had. The self satisfied smirk on her face right before he’d left the room was a familiar one to the boy. He shook his head. ”That’s not her style. She’s too passive-aggressive to actually confront anyone” he stated with an eye roll of his own. The graduate knew he’d be having words with his sister when he went back downstairs.

As Sapphire walked towards him without a reply, Jeremy grew even more confused. He had learned to be extremely wary when it came to thinking that he had women figured out. He didn’t think Sapphire would hurt him though. She hadn’t so far and they’d been friends for years. The closest she’d come to that had been after she’d admitted liking him and knowing that he hadn’t felt the same way. Since that admission, he’d tried many times to think of himself with Sapphire. The idea had become a more comfortable one in recent times, but then he’d discovered that Alyss liked him too. It was a person he’d crushed on as well. When she was finally in front of him, Jeremy simply stared, his blue eyes looking down into his friend’s eyes. Her hands touched his cheek and a mere moment later, she did the very last thing Jeremy thought she would have: she kissed him. Jeremy’s breath hitched as he took in what she said, only his eyes moving for a few moments as they followed her retreat.

Reaching up to touch his lips where Sapphire had planted a kiss that he had done nothing to reject, Jeremy closed his eyes in a long blink. ”See ya” he murmured, his heart heavy. Somehow, everything that had just happened – her retreat, the kiss, her last words – all seemed so final. He had had every intention of continuing contact with her, but now it just seemed like it would be another cruel thing to do to her. How could he not have realized? Jeremy sat heavily at the window seat that Sapphire had just been at, his hands raking through his hair as he looked at the same view she’d just been looking at. After a while, Jeremy got up slowly and headed back downstairs to the Great Hall where his mother, father, sister and girlfriend were probably ready to celebrate the day. Memories, he scoffed to himself as he pulled the speech out and tossed it into the nearest bin he could find. For the first time ever, Jeremy was eager to be away from the school. As he entered the Hall once more, the seventeen year old plastered a fake smile on his face to rival Sapphire's and headed back to his parents.