Ripples and New People

S

Sia Riversend

Well-Known Member
Messages
149
OOC First Name
Jasmine ;-)
Wand
8" Oak and Dragon Heartstring
Sia sat by the lake's shore, daydreaming and watching the water. She loved the way it moved, hue rippling into a thousand shades of cool blue-green. She wished she could paint it, but Sia knew she wasn't that good at art. It didn't matter, not today. The small girl was content to just enjoy the relative peace of this sunny Sunday. Sia lay back on her patch of lush grass and observed the clouds through half-closed eyes. There had been too many pressures on her lately, with schoolwork and constant family disasters. It was a huge relief just to get away from it all, even for a little while.
 
Elspeth wandered slowly down to the bank of the lake, and sat down cautiously, keeping a watchful eye out for any mud. The lake was beautiful and peaceful, but she wouldn't enjoy it much if her jeans were all muddy, or she slipped and fell in. Looking around, she noticed a Hufflepuff who was in many of her classes. She was in the mood to talk, and the girl didn't look too busy, so she stood again and walked casually over. "Hi, I'm Elspeth." She introduced herself, before sitting down next to her. "What's your name?" While she waited for a reply, she picked up a small smooth black stone from the bank and started tossing it from hand to hand.
 
Sia looked up and smiled at the girl sitting down beside her, haloed impressively by the sun. Sia had seen this Ravenclaw in class many times, but they'd never actually talked before. Sia was still feeling vague and pensive, and this was reflected in her answer.
"Elspeth . . . that's a pretty name." Then Sia blinked, woke up (not that she'd been asleep), and realised she had been asked a question.
"Oh. My name's Sia. How are you?"

((Sorry that Sia came over all dreamy, just I'm feeling a bit that way myself right now.))
 
Elspeth laughed as Sia spoke. The girl seemed a little spaced out, and the young Ravenclaw had experienced that enough. "Sorry if disturbed you. Your name is pretty too." She said, absently throwing the stone into her left hand, then back to her right. "What're you doing?" she asked curiously. Elspeth personally had come down to the lake to escape from the looming pile of unfinished homework, and to distract herself from the excitement and impatience she felt about seeing Emily again. The vagueness vanished from Sia's face, and suddenly Elspeth had the strangest feeling that she had heard this girls name somewhere else, recently.
 
Sia sat up, so as to better see and interact with Elspeth. She blushed a little; Sia had been hoping no-one would notice her distraction.
"Oh, it's OK," she said. "I'm just feeling a little tired. Thanks." Sia watched as the other girl tossed her stone from hand to hand, losing the last traces of her indistinct manner. When asked what she was doing, Sia hesitated; she didn't rightly know. So she spread her hand before her face and said in fake mystery, "escaping."
Then Sia grinned, and laughed, and realised that she really was escaping, and ought to offer a little more explanation.
"There's just so much going on at the moment. My family are driving each other nuts, and I'm sort of caught in the middle of it. How about you? What're you up to?" Sia grinned, pushing problems to the back of her mind, and noticed Elspeth looking at her strangely.
 
Elspeth laughed as Sia said 'Escaping' When the girl continued though, she stopped smiling. "I'm really sorry about your family problems. I wouldn't be much help there, though. My only family is my aunt...and her fiance." She shook her head. What had possessed Emily to accept his proposal, or, better yet, to date him at all? He gave Elspeth the creeps, and he was just plain rude to her sometimes. Shaking her head to clear it of thoughts about Peter, she returned to the nagging feeling that she'd met the girl before. "Apparently I've got a massive extended family too, but I don't know any of them." Except Aroha, she amended silently.
 
"Oh," Sia said. She hadn't been expecting Elspeth to tell her so much all of a sudden. "So . . . you're an orphan? That's terrible. But I think I kind of know how you feel. It was just me and my parents until last year, then I met my long-lost sister, and now I kind of have long-lost relatives coming out of my ears. It's crazy." Sia paused, fingering one of her aforementioned ears. She hadn't intended to pour all that out either. Still, she supposed it was a nice change to have someone unbiased to talk to.
 
Elspeth was surprised when Sia started to explain about her family. The Ravenclaw would often pour her life story to anyone willing to sit still long enough, but she wasn't used to others doing the same. "How often do you see your hordes of relatives? Or do you just hear about them?" she asked curiously. "And are your family all witches and wizards, or muggles?" She glanced down at the stone in her hands. The memory was lurking elusively in the back of her mind, and it was something to do with the talk about family.

OOCOut of Character:
I figure she'll remember next post.
 
"Well . . . I wouldn't exactly call them hordes of relatives, just too many for me to deal with. And as for how often I hear about them, well, it depends. My sister is the Divination teacher at school, but I still don't see her very often. One of my cousins I haven't heard from all year, but the other I see more than my parents. You might know her; she's in your house. Eliza Beth Stewart. She's got three sisters I've never met, and beyond that I just don't know." Sia had no idea why she was telling this near-stranger everything, but she seemed to be doing that a lot lately. First Lapis, now Elspeth. Both Ravenclaws . . .

Still, at least Sia hadn't told Elspeth the dark aspect of the family relationships, namely that her mother Alyca was an auror and her cousin Abathyn had just joined the Death Eaters. Sia wasn't sure how that would turn out. She plucked a strand of grass from the ground beside her and twisted it absently in slender fingers.

((Sounds like a good plan to me.))
 
Elspeth clicked her fingers as the memory slid into place. "Sia Riversend! Oh, wow. Um, okay. Sorry, I just remembered where I heard your name before. Do you know Aroha Jennings? I found out I'm related to her - distantly, and she was showing me the family tree, and you were on it too. So we're related. Even more distantly. More new relatives. Hi." She laughed at her own awkwardness. "Turns out you had more relatives than you thought, I guess." She threw the stone into the lake, where it splashed impressively before sinking to the bottom.
 
Sia blinked at this new revelation, and searched her mind for the name Aroha Jennings. She came up with a total of nothing.
"Oh my! I suppose I should be annoyed. Melodie would be. I guess it's all still kind of exciting for me.Well then. Hi."
Sia laughed too, at the ridiculousness of combined awkwardness. Then she offered a hand, as if to shake.
 
"Who's Melodie?" Elspeth asked curiously before mock formally shaking Sia's hand. "It's weird finding out your related to people you've never even heard of before. Even if it is only distantly." she smiled at Sia. "It kind of makes up for my lack of non-distant family. At least Emily's really nice."
 
"Melodie's my sister, Eliza Beth, Emmaline and Zeiva are my cousins on dad's side, Abathyn is my cousin on mum's side, Alyca and Derek are my parents, and Antoinette is my ghostly grandmother. Um." Sia even confused herself listing all the relatives she could think of; she hoped Elspeth was less discombobulated. "Oh, and Aiden and Lucas are Melodie's twin sons. Do you know where you fit in to all this? I've never met Aroha Jennings. Anyway . . . I know what you mean about meeting relatives you've never met. It happened to me rather a lot at the start of last year: that's when I met all those people."

Sia shook her head vigourously, hair escaping from her ponytail in all directions. "It's confusing."
 
Elspeth felt her eyes glazing over as Sia rattled off her relations. "Um...Okay...I'm only really distantly related. I'd have to see the family tree to know exactly how. It's probably something like your Mum's sister's husband's brother's granddaughter." She laughed at the realisation that she had relatives she'd never even seen or heard of before. "I keep meeting people then afterwards finding out we're related. And the trouble is I just know it's going to happen again." She frowned in mock anger, but was unable to hold the expression for long and began giggling again.

OOCOut of Character:
That actually is how they're related. I checked AFTER writing it. I feel a mixture of specialness and stalker-like.
 
"Sorry, that was probably a bit too much . . ." Sia blushed, realising how incomprehensible her list of relatives had probably been. "I've never seen the family tree. I just know there's way more I haven't even heard of." Sia laughed with Elspeth, despite feeling slightly mortified at the thought of just how many relatives there were. "I keep doing that too. I was friends with Eliza Beth way before we realised we were cousins, and I just randomly met Melodie in the ice-cream parlour . . ." Sia suspected she was giving too much information again, but she didn't care, shaking her head and grinning at the ridiculousness of it all.

OOCOut of Character:
We did make a family tree at some point, but I think it got lost, and the others seem to be secretly adding to it . . .
 
Elspeth laughed at the expression on Sia's face as she realised how Elspeth had not caught a word of her list. "Maybe just a little bit," she agreed, grinning. "Aroha, she's a Gryffindor third year, showed me the tree. Apparently some other girl owled it to her. I can't remember the details. I was more kind of shocked she was talking to me. I hadn't been very nice to her." She realised her explanation might not make much sense, but she didn't want to tell her new friend that she'd blamed an innocent bystander for the fate of her mother, and taken out all her frustration on the poor girl, who had forgiven her more quickly than Elspeth felt she deserved. "Wait, you only met your sister in an ice-cream parlour? Hadn't you seen each other before that?" She asked, shocked. At least her newfound family had all been distantly related enough to explain her never having heard of them.

OOCOut of Character:
Here is the family tree
 
Sia laughed along with Elspeth, realising how ridiculous the whole tangled thing was. She just kept on meeting more and more and more relatives, and she was very excited about it. The rest of the family didn't seem to be quite so impressed.
"Yes, we only met recently. My mum's an auror and . . . something happened with the Death Eaters before I was born- Melodie got cut off from the rest of the family. I don't really understand how it happened, but she's really bitter about the whole thing." Sia's face fell as she remembered the terrible scene in the ice-cream parlour; Melodie's tears, her own joy, their parents attempts to explain that just hadn't been good enough. "I don't know how she feels about me now."

OOCOut of Character:
Thanks! I was right about the adding of people I wasn't aware of!
 
Elspeth frowned sympathetically as Sia explained her relationship with her sister. "How do you feel about it?" she asked quietly, noting that Sia hadn't seemed to mention her feelings on the matter. "Do you talk to her much?" Elspeth hadn't had much experience with Death Eaters - Peter had been evil and disgusting, but he was a muggle born like her aunt, and he wasn't a Death Eater. She didn't know anything about what had split Sia and Melodie up, but she knew she'd feel bitter too. There was no justification for leaving your kid. Elspeth had grown up without her father, and she'd missed him more than she could express, and she'd had her mother then. To grow up without either, and then find out they were fine... Elspeth shook her head. Melodie had every reason to resent her parents.
 
"I- I don't really know. I'm happy, to be meeting so many new relatives and stuff, but I'm upset that Melodie seems to hate me for what our parents did. I don't understand why she's not excited. I would be. . ." Sia stopped, realising how inadequate her attempts to explain her feelings were. She couldn't understand Melodie no matter how much she tried, couldn't fathom the way her sister felt. Although she did not know it, the Hufflepuff was far too innocent to comprehend the tense relationships among her family members. It seemed her awareness of the way the world worked was constantly being ripped apart by the family conflicts, especially those of Melodie and Abathyn.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top