Unforseen Circumstances

[Sia Riversend]

Sia wandered aimlessly through the garden. She had never been in this part of the grounds before, and she found it quite enchanting. Eventually she rounded a corner, and saw a vaguely familiar mass of hair. It was a girl her own age, or a little younger, and Sia was certain she knew her. The memory came suddenly, of a day at the icecream parlor . . . "Lapis Lazuli!" Sia looked to the girl for affirmation, and hoped she'd remembered the name right.

 

[Lapis Lazuli]

Lapis turned around on the bench she had been sitting on, showing that her eyes were red with tears. She had given in to her emotions, and now, confronted with a near stranger, she didn't know what to say. Lapis nodded vaguely at the sound of her name, then desperately attempted to remember that of the other girl.
"And . . . your name is . . . Sia! Am I right?"

Lapis did hope she was right, though some would judge her beyond caring right now. She stared intently at Sia's face, trying to fix it in her memory lest they meet again. Her piercing, deep blue eyes must have startled the Hufflepuff with their intensity.

 

[Sia Riversend]

Sia blinked, rather taken aback to see Lapis's tear-streaked face.
"Yes," she agreed, "I'm Sia. Why are you crying?"
It wasn't her intention to be rude by the blunt sentence; it was Sia's inherent curiosity that made her voice things so abruptly, and often got her into trouble (Sia didn't know that Lapis shared this trait). She was feeling pretty fragile herself at that moment, given her recent news from Melodie. Sia sat down beside Lapis, and awkwardly tried to comfort her.
"What's wrong?"

 

[Lapis Lazuli]

Lapis didn't take offense at Sia's immediate curiosity; quite the reverse, she felt a kinship with it. Lapis knew that if she had found someone crying, she would have immediately asked why. And she didn't know the reason, but she felt compelled to trust this almost-stranger. Maybe it was Sia's innocent, bemused face, or something in her eyes that let Lapis pour out the truth.

"Oh, Sia! My mummy's a Death Eater! I- I . . . I don't know what to do!" Lapis threw her arms around Sia's neck and sobbed uncontrolably into the surprised Hufflepuff's arms. She wasn't crying from sadness as much as shock, and a terrible dread that her mother Esmerelda had bitten off more than she could chew. Lapis's dark hair fell across her face in a straight waterfall, and she clung to Sia for comfort.

 

[Sia Riversend]

Sia held Lapis gently, as if she was an ornament about to break. Sia felt about to break too.
"So what? My cousin's a Death Eater, and my mum's an Auror. Wonder how that will work out." She gave a humourless laugh.

Then she hugged Lapis, hard, and burst out in tears herself.

It seemed quite strange, these two almost-complete strangers brought together over a shared problem. Right at that moment, neither knew the solution, or even how to feel about the whole thing, but they took comfort from one another.