Quiet Reflection

Cecily Rambolt

Cecily Rambolt

Well-Known Member
Messages
7,229
OOC First Name
Liv
Blood Status
Pure Blood
Relationship Status
Divorced
Wand
Tulip Wood Wand with Unicorn Hair Core
Pale sunlight barely kissed the green grass, winds from the east blew in with a promise of a chilly day. And sitting alone under the weeping willow, bare feet tucked into the dewy grass, sat Professor Cecily Rambolt. Her long fingers joined graceful hands that dug into the earth on either side of her thin body, as if Mother Earth could recharge what life's harsh facts had taken away. She sang an old song her grandmother used to sing to her to dry her tears as a child, her voice lilting the words in a gentle, mournful way. A Fairy dipped by to listen to the pretty melody before its wings drooped. It quickly fluttered away before the shadow of melancholy could firmly attach itself to the fairy's back.
 
Nicolas walked into the garden and spotted Cecily; he had suspected he could find her here. The tune she hummed seemed sad to him, and why she would be sad he did not know. He walked around to the tree under which she sat and laid a hand on her back gently, "I haven't seen you around in a while." He stated in a kind voice, "Would you mind if I joined you?"
 
Cecily stopped singing when she felt someone touch her. Turning her head slightly, she saw Nicolas. "Please,"she said, patting the earth beside her with a soft, sad smile.
 
Nicolas sat down cautiously, he still could think of no reason for her discontent and this worried him slightly. "Are you alright?" he began, deciding to cut straight to the issues which could hinder their conversation, "You don't seem quite yourself." He wasn't sure what to expect her to say but braced himself for the worst, and what that could be was even a mystery.
 
"You...you don't know?" she looked at him and saw the concern on his face. "Oh! I thought that someone must have informed you...and that perhaps you were busy with the ministry...,"she mumbled to herself, rubbing her face tiredly then tucking her hair behind her ears.
"I'm so sorry, I should have looked for you last night but Alicia was in shock...I was too...,"she trailed off. She had dark circles under her normally bright eyes and her words were a touch slow and sluggish.
 
"What don't I know, Cecily?" Nicolas began, the concern he felt being openly shown on his face. "What should you have told me, what did I miss?" he continued, looking towards Cecily now with deep compassion in his eyes but worry mixed in such that it was one emotion expressed in his unrelenting gaze.
 
Cecily's breath rattled out in a sigh, she could see it in front of her in the cool morning air. She was glad to have Nicolas beside her, his presence lent her a strength she thought had fled her. "Last night,"she began haltingly, trying to gather her thoughts, "I was in my greenhouse gathering my grading to take home with me when I heard a scream. At first I thought it might have been that creature that'd tried to attack us but then I remembered Professor Taggart had reported banishing it." She paused and looked down at her hands. There was fresh dirt under her short fingernails. She stared at them as if they could continue the story for her. "I ran toward the scream and found Miss Fiorelli, on the ground, with that monster Drago on top of her. He bit her, Nicolas,"she said, sorrow in the green eyes that lifted to his brown ones. "I managed to get him away from her but then...Bearse showed up. It's his fault, the whole mess," she muttered, scrubbing at her wet eyes. "He set that dark creature in the forest as a spy. When Canoc banished him, Bearse came searching for him. Apparently he thought it a wonderful idea to bring an insane werewolf with him. On full moon," she scoffed derisively. "I'd sent my patronus to Alicia on the way from my greenhouse...if I hadn't, I'd have been there, alone and outnumbered against a madman and a full grown werewolf who's already tasted my blood." She shivered in the still morning. "Alicia came and before I knew it Bearse and I dueled. When he hit me with a curse, Alicia...she," she couldn't get it out, no matter how hard she tried, past her tight throat.
 
"I see..." Nicolas began with hesitance and in deep thought. How could Cecily have not contacted him? Worse still, how could he have missed a werewolf attack on the school grounds in an area he was to patrol? How could he have allowed two Death Eaters to come so very close to the school and harm both those he cared for and those who it was his duty to protect? A duty he clearly did not fulfil. A great sense of uselessness intertwined with a quite anger and a confusion about all that he was and all he had failed to do welled up within him causing him to not be able to stand Cecily's gaze. To him the gaze simply told him he had failed; both her and his pupils.

"At least Alicia did something." he muttered, looking away from the woman out onto the lawn and the lake. Even on the lake the birds mocked him, or the trees in the way the wind moved them, he couldn't stand this.He started to shift his body to rise. "I hope you're quite fine now, then." Were his finishing remarks, riddled with sorrow and pain. Pain from the fact that Alicia had been called upon first and himself never and sorrow in the fact that he didn't notice anything at all. He hadn't even known the presence was banished! Some Auror he had turned out to be.

He rose to his feet and started to walk out of the garden. He wasn't sure where he was going or what he was going to do, aside from think that is. But deep in the recesses of his mind the conclusions of his thoughts that he knew he would inevitably reach scared him.
 
Cecily watched, dumb founded as Nicolas got up and started to walk away. Angrily, she got to her feet and stalked him before grabbing his shoulder and moving to block his path. Her hands were balled fists beside her hips and it felt good to have another emotion to latch onto, other than the over whelming sense of loss she was feeling.
"Why are you walking away?!" she cried, her green eyes sparkling with her anger. She made a pitiful sight with her brown dress blowing about her legs in the picking up wind and her hair a frightful mess hanging down her back.
"And I'm not fine!" she yelled, she literally stamped her foot. "She killed him Nicolas!" she got out, the last piece to the puzzle she was trying to tell him. "Because of me! Her cousin, gone, because of me." The last part was said in a quieter tone. She stood there, breathing harshly, looking up at the man she care for.

(He walked away? :-0 Go Professor King! :lol: )
 
"I was walking away because I saw no purpose for my presence." Nicolas began, surprised at Cecily's tone towards him but remaining calm despite himself. "I had a hunch she had finished him off, and it's not because of you it's because of himself." Nicolas continued, not thinking about what he was saying just what he wanted as an end result of his words. For a second he thought that he wanted to hurt her, just as she had just hurt him by not even contacting him. But he came to realize after a moment's silence that this was not what he wanted, he cared too much for her, even if he wasn't sure his feelings were reciprocated. "I'm quite sorry you're not fine, I can say the same for myself at the moment."
 
His calmness baffled her...it also deflated her anger. How could she stay angry at someone who wouldn't argue back? She stepped closer to him, a hand held up toward him. "Nicolas...I'm sorry." She looked up at him. "When it was all over...it happened so fast...I wanted nothing more to run to you, to call for you. But I was in shock, as was Alicia. I led her to her office. It was awful. I couldn't think, I couldn't feel anything. I'm not even sure how I got to my rooms or if I even slept last night."
 
Nicolas shook his head slowly, "Thank you for your apology but I don't figure it was needed." he began, adjusting his cloaks and not looking at Cecily. "Your first instinct was simply to contact Alicia, I can respect that, I just need to think about everything." he continued, refusing still to look on to Cecily.
 
She dropped her hand, feeling as though her heart were breaking even more. She'd thought he'd be there for her, hold her, tell her everything was going to be okay. She nodded, turning her face from him so he wouldn't she her chin tremble as she valiantly tried to hold back her tears. "Fair enough," she whispered past the lump in her throat, "I'll leave you to your thoughts then." She wrapped her arms about herself and started to walk away from him to her green house.
 
Cecily's words pierced Nicolas as she turned towards her greenhouses. He had succeeded in the very thing he had told himself he didn't want. Why could he do nothing right? He exhaled a deep sigh and decided he would swallow his pride, something he would always find a problem in doing and turned around. "Cecily, wait." He yelled, running to catch up to the woman whom he cared for deeply, possibly too deeply. "I'm sorry. I was being something I never wish myself to be again."
 
Cecily stopped, startled at Nicolas' yell. He never yelled. She turned to him with wide, hurt eyes. Her lips trembled and she scrubbed a hand over her wet cheeks.
 
"I'm sorry if I've made things any worse." Nicolas continued, drawing nearer still to Cecily. The look in her eyes pierced through his heart which moments ago he had tried to close off to her and the world to protect himself. Now he felt worse for her than upset with her. He was at a loss for speech and for thought, so he stood in silence near Cecily.
 
Cecily nodded, ducking her head and looking down at her bare feet. She glanced up at him after a few moments of standing in silence before the heavy clouds above them burst open and it began to rain. She yelped as the cold water hit her, freezing her skin. "Come on!"she yelled over the loud rain and the thunder, turning for the safety of her greenhouse.
 
Nicolas nodded and walked at his usual pace through the rain behind Cecily towards her greenhouses. Go figure it would rain like this when he wasn't in a great mood to begin with.
 
Cecily ran through the open door of her greenhouse, her bare feet made slapping noises on the bare floor. She stopped, sighing as she got out of the rain. She went to a cupboard and got out two towels. She started toweling her hair, looking up as Nicolas came in. "Here,"she said softly, handing him a towel. "I'll put the kettle on." She needed something to busy her hands, resorting to her muggle upbringing in puttering around without magic.
 
Nicolas entered the Greenhouse and drew his wand, drying himself off and casting excess water outside before he shut the greenhouse door. He was then offered a towel which he accepted, however placed back in it's appropriate cupboard as Cecily moved on to prepare tea he presumed. "Thank you." Nicolas began, following Cecily towards where her kettle was kept. "Cecily, you know I'm here for you, right?" Nicolas enquired, putting his arm around Cecily just below her shoulders.
 
Cecily leaned into him, absorbing his strength. "I know,"she whispered, laying her head on his shoulder. The wind railed outside, rattling the windows. She moved her head back, looking up at him through her eyelashes. So much had happened. She felt it'd changed her and she wasn't so sure it was for the better. She felt as though the real Cecily were inside a cage in her mind, watching through the bars of a cage, rattling the bars and screaming.

(Oy vey, overdramatic much? *sigh* I so can't help it! :lol: )
 
"Then may I ask what's wrong?" Nicolas began quietly, not trying to speak over the wind which had a story all it's own to tell and would tell it no matter how loud Nicolas spoke. "Did you still care for him?" he enquired further, dreading her answer to this but he needed to ask it. He wasn't sure what could be bothering her so much. Granted she had seen a man die, but such a thing normally didn't effect people to this degree, especially if the person was a bad one. Also granted was that she had seen a student attacked by a werewolf, but she herself had been attacked and she didn't seem to have been this bad. Perhaps it was that the same werewolf had did it and was still on the loose?
 
"I feel responsible," she said softly. "For everything...I should have done something, anything to prevent last night...that poor little girl,"she whispered, her breath catching at the mental image of Andromeda lying on the forest floor, pitiful in her pink fairy costume, covered in blood. "He brought that monster with him because he wanted revenge on me. Now Alicia will live with her guilt for the rest of her life...and Andromeda will be afflicted for the rest of hers." She turned from him, belatedly remembering her wand and waved it, feeling herself become dry and watching as the kettle began to heat up.
"I care for the man he used to be. I've wept for that man. Although I have no sorrow or remorse for the man who lost his life last night." The kettle whistled, she removed it and set up a tea tray, floating it over to the table in the corner. She sat down wearily, going through the motions of fixing their tea and summoning a tin of biscuits. She passed him a cup of steaming tea, passing the cream and sugar to his side of the tea service.
She held her cup between her cold fingers, feeling them begin to slowly warm up.
 
"You know as well as I that you're not in the least to blame for anything that happened." Nicolas began, following Cecily to the table and and accepting the tea she had offered him and taking the seat opposite her. "So in the knowledge that you've done nothing wrong, and that nothing you could have done would have changed the outcome of that evening, is there anything else that's wrong?"
 
"I...I don't know," she whispered, hanging her head. "I feel so confused right now. Out of sorts." She put her head in her hands. "Like the world is still rotating but I'm standing still."
 
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