Somewhere gloomy

[Jessame Rose Trewelly]

Jessame Rose was miserable. She'd begun what she thought would be a simple walk, getting her bearings so she'd know where everything was. She'd found the library and most of her classrooms, and was just angry that she couldn't find the Potions classroom. Sure, she didn't need to know until after Christmas, but it was annoying her that she was unable to find it. Suddenly, the staircase she was on began to move, and she froze, wide eyed. Sure, her head of house had explained to them that it could happen, but she didn't really believe it until now. And now, she was upset. If the staircases were going to move all the time, how could she find her way around? In a world were she understood nothing, she'd been relying on her photographic memory to at least learn where everything was. When the stairs came to a halt, she stepped off them and tried to peer through the shadows. She had no idea where she was, although she suspected she might be underground. Fine, at least no-one could see her here, and maybe she'd even find a quiet spot to write in where no-one would bother her. The darkness certainly suited the way she felt right then. She began to make her way down the corridor, nerves on end, for she had no idea what she might run into down here.

 

[Keera Harlight]

Keera was sitting with her back against a wall in a long dark corridor down in the lowest level of the castle. She had been looking around the castle when somehow she found herself down here. She must have been daydreaming, as she didn't remember how she got here, none the less how she was going to find her way back!

As she sat, she thought of her art, and what she would work on next. The last thing she drew was a ghost, when she was at the Borely mansion. Seeing as yet again she had found herself in a dark, gloomy place as she thought of painting, she decided to pull out her sketch book and add more to her ghost pictutre.

As she drew, she thought she could hear footsteps, getting closer and closer. She wondered if she would gt in trouble for being down here.

"Is someone there?" She called out into the gloom.

 

[Jessame Rose Trewelly]

Jess jumped and gasped when she heard a voice. Holy smokes! she thought, and wondered if she'd get in trouble for being down here. She didn't know if it was off-limits, although she could understand why it might be. "Uh, yes, just me," she replied into the darkness, then turned a corner where a few strange looking bulbs threw a pathetic light about, enough to see a girl sitting against a pillar set into the wall. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to... I mean... I was just... I'll go now." Jessame Rose turned and scampered back towards the darkness, when she heard the creaking and scraping of the staircase move again. She groaned and turned back to the girl. She's just a girl, Jess told herself, she won't bite. "Um, do you know how to get out of here?" she asked, not daring to make eye contact or raise her voice too loud. She never knew what might be sleeping in the shadows, willing to attack if woken.

 

[Keera Harlight]

Keera was right, there was someone coming closer. But it was just another student. And she didn't look much older than Keera herself. But never the less, she didn't really care. She was trying to draw, so she would rather be alone. The girl made to leave without making conversation, thank goodness, thought Keera. But no sooner than she had left, the girl was back, this time asking for directions.

"Uh, to be honest I don't even know where we are, but that's how I want it right now. So no. Find your own way out, I'm busy." She snapped, not looking away from her sketch book.

---

((out of character: I'll be back in about fifteen minutes to continue this okay? ))

 

[Jessame Rose Trewelly]

((no worries, I might have to go in a bit anyway))

Jessame Rose was taken aback when the girl snapped at her. She'd sounded friendly enough when she'd called out earlier. No, it seemed everyone at Hogwarts was going to be mean. "I was just asking," she answered back, hurt. "No need to be so rude." Jess was not usually one to start arguments, but she was getting so sick of everyone here acting however they wanted. Didn't anyone ever think about other people? How it might hurt them to be spoken at like that? How it might annoy them to be tricked into walking into a fake door? Well, with a Head Boy like Alex Cullen, no wonder. These freaks need to learn some manners, Jessame Rose thought.

 

[Keera Harlight]

Rude? How dare she. Keera wasn't being rude! She just wasn't in the mood for interruptions. She was sitting alone in a dark gloomy corridor, how on earth could she possibly look like she was in the mood for interacting with others?

"Rude? You're the one who came and interrupted me, do I look like I want to be disturbed? Do I have a sign stuck to my forehead that says DISTURB ME?"

 

[Jessame Rose Trewelly]

Jess was not prepared for the girls' response. She seemed to be full of venom, and all Jess had done was ask for directions! She regretted her comments immediately and withdrew into herself. "N-no... I just... I thought... the stairs move and... I don't know..." she was incapable of finishing a sentence. She was also rooted to the spot, unable to move. She stared at the floor in front of the girl, not sure what she should do, not able to think clearly, willing herself not to cry. Why did people have to be so mean?

 

[Keera Harlight]

"Well duh, of course the stairs move. It's Hogwarts." Keera really couldn't be bothered. She wanted to draw. She turned her face back to her sketch book, and continued drawing. This girl really is stupid, thought Keera. Keera didn't know who she was, but she assumed by the way that she seemed to be surprised by the enchanted stairs, that she was a muggleborn. Keera never had anything against muggleborns, but she hated ignorance. And even a muggleborn should have come to realise by now that in a world of magic, things like staircases are bound to move. It was just common sence!

"So who are you anyway?" Keera didn't look away from her drawing. She was sort of getting bored and she decided that a little company might be good for a change, even if it was poor company. A small conversation couldn't hurt, even if this girl did turn out to be a loser in Keeras eyes.

 

[Jessame Rose Trewelly]

Jessame Rose didn't like the girl's tone. "Well, it didn't say that in the books, and I-I'm new to this. I'm a miggle, I-I mean a muggle. I tried to find out about this place but... it's not easy, okay? I was just looking for the Potions Classroom." she didn't like how much this girl was upsetting her, and she wasn't at all sure that suddenly finding her voice again was a particularly good thing... "better to remain silent and be thought stupid than to open your mouth and prove it" she always thought.

When the girl asked who she was, she mistook it for a change of heart. Maybe she realised how nasty she was and she's going to be nice, Jess thought. She was always willing to give second chances. "I'm Jessame Rose. You?"

 

[Keera Harlight]

"Jessame Rose? That's a mouthful. I hope you like Jess, cos that's what I'm gonna call you." Keera instructed. "I'm Keera. And you're not a muggle, stupid. Muggles can't see or get inside Hogwarts. You're probably a muggle-born who knew nothing about magic until you got your Hoggies letter. Now you're shocked by it all and don't know what to expect. But you're not a muggle, if you were you'd not be here. Think about it"

How ridiculous, this girl had claimed to be a muggle. What did she mean by that? Keera continued to draw, her image getting darker as she became more frustrated.

 

[Jessame Rose Trewelly]

Jessame Rose nodded at Keera who had still barely looked at her. She didn't mind being called Jess; anything was better than Jessiose - her best friend had made it clear that 'Jessame Rose' was a mouthful when, as a toddler, she couldn't pronounce it, and unfortunately, the awful 'Jessiose' had stuck. "Jess is fine," Jess half-whispered before Keera started in about how she wasn't a muggle. I AM a muggle, she thought to herself. I'm not a freak like the rest of you. Quietly, she said, "I'd rather be a muggle, and I'd rather not be here. I wish I'd never gotten that stupid letter." Suddenly, out of nowhere, Jess' anger at the whole wizarding world found its way to her voice. She sneered at Keera, "I bet you like it here! Don't you know it's unnatural? It's wrong, everything around us is WRONG!" Jess' cheeks were burning red despite her brown skin. She didn't know what had come over her. Sure, that was exactly how she felt, but since when did she ever speak her mind? She thought about the past day, about everything that had happened, all the confused emotions she had been through. She hated this place, it was making her... well, unlike Jessame Rose. She was becoming a stranger even to herself. She pivoted on the toes of one foot and started to run. The anger was all around her, and inside, burrowing deeper. As she spun, the paper ((notebook?)) and pencil were ripped from Keera's hands and thrown through the air with the power of Jess' hatred. She was running away so fast she didn't even see what she'd done. She didn't see the pencil snap in two and drop to the concrete floor, the pieces colliding with one another and clattering quietly as they settled. She didn't see the pages of Keera's art tear apart, floating to the cold floor. She didn't see the images in fragments. If she had, she would have cried.

The sound of her quick footsteps echoed down the dark corridor.

 

[Keera Harlight]

At first, Keera had thought this girl was shy and somewhat pathetic. But what she did next proved her wrong. She snapped about the wizarding world being wrong and unnatural, and stormed off. Unfortunately for Keera, the girls anger had bubbled out through magic, and as she turned to run away, Keeras pencil flew out of her hand, and her drawing which she had spent so much time working on flew away from her and tore into pieces.

Keeras jaw dropped, fists clenched, and she felt a lump form in her throat. As the girl ran, Keera jumped up off the ground in anger.

"LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE, YOU STUPID MUDBLOOD!" Keera had never called anybody a mudblood before, never having anything against those with non magic parents. But this girl hda given muggleborns a whole new meaning to Keera. They were scum. This meeting finally made Keera understand why the sorting hat had placed her in slytherin. There was a lot of repressed anger that she didn't know existed inside her, and this girl had brought it out.

Keera let out a roar, in frustration of what just happened. "AGHH!!" She turned around and kicked the wall, hard, wishing it had been Jessame's leg she could have kicked. But Jessame was gone, and her footsteps echoed in the dark corridor and slowly became more distant.

Keera looked around her at the torn up pieces of paper around her feet. How annoying! How pathetic! How childish!.
Keera picked up all the small pieces of what was once a very detailed sketch of a serpent slithering up the corridor Keera was sitting in, and hoped like mad that there was a spell that could mend the art that Jessame had destroyed.

---

(( Closed?? ))