When you stare

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire was looking at the Ravenclaw entrance again. Ever since she had broken down in front of him after her mark made her remember where she had come from she had done everything in her power to hide from him. It wasn't hard seeing as he was one year older than her but still when ever Jeremy came down the corridor Sapphire dived behind the nearest statue and watch him walk passed. It was funny really because she only ever did that when she really liked someone. This meant real like. Not like the soft crushes she's had all over the school. It was a bit upsetting when that older Hufflepuff had dissapered forever but she knew that someone like him would never have been interested in someone like her. The way she was acting around Jeremy left the question if she liked him in such a way or not. Yes he was wonderfully sweet and was even makikng an effort to learn the language that she spoke most fluently but did she really see him as a boy or as just a friend.

Sapphire was still really embarrassed about what happened. She didn't even explain to him that he was not the reason she had started crying. She had wanted to many times but every time she had wanted to talk to him she chickened out and ended up running all the way to her common room where she would beat herself up for being such a cowered. This was what she was doing up here. She wanted to try once more to try and catch up with her Ravenclaw friend and tell him that she was sorry for crying like that. That she had have seemed mental when it happened and that it would never happen again. Hogwarts was the one place where she was never meant to cry.

Sapphire rehearsed over and over again what she was going to write to Jeremy but all of it seemed not right. What are you going to tell him anyway, that you have a mark on you that keeps you in line if you want to tell what happens at your house. He'll think your mad. Sapphire thought bitterly. Truly what she and her siblings went through at Bella-Donna Manor was the stuff of fiction. Stuff horror writers put down on paper to scare the living daylights out of people. It was not something that happened in real life. Sapphire was sure that no one would believe her even if she did tell. Still she watched the tower, her bright blue eyes sparkling.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

Ever since Jeremy had returned to the castle, he'd been keeping his head down and trying his best to stay out of trouble. People who didn't know him very well would hardly see the difference since he was generally on the quiet side, but he hoped that his roommates and friends noticed that he was getting back to his normal self. Jeremy was still a bit angry about his whole family situation, but in light of almost losing his chance to be at the castle, Jeremy was alright with forcing his anger down and away. He loved the castle and all of his friends. He didn't even care that he didn't have very many. To him, it was better to have just a few friends. He wasn't comfortable enough around people to suddenly become Mr. Popular anyway.

As Jeremy went down the stairs to his common room, he searched his bag to make sure he had everything he would need. He was always forgetting something. Yesterday had been a textbook and the day before had been a quill. Today, everything seemed to be in order. With a satisfied look on his face, Jeremy headed for the common room entrance. He'd given himself more than enough time to eat before heading to History of Magic. As he exited, Jeremy glanced around the corridor, noticing several Ravenclaw girls just hanging around the door. He nodded his head and began to walk before he noticed another figure. It wasn't until he recognized her as Sapphire that he realized he hadn't spoken to her in a while. Thinking back quickly, Jeremy remembered why. Last time they'd spoken, he'd made her cry. He didn't know how because even though he'd been a jerk all semester, she was the one person he hadn't tried to annoy. Obviously, he had though and Jeremy couldn't blame her for keeping away from him. He'd made a right mess of all his friendships last semester and now he'd spend this semester attempting to make amends.

Cautiously, Jeremy held his hand up and gave a small wave, a tight smile crossing his face. He walked over slowly, wanting to give her every opportunity to leave if she wanted to. She deserved that. Once he reached her, Jeremy looked down at her, his blue eyes looking nervously at her face. "Before you say...or do anything" he said hastily, afraid that she might be angry and slap him, "I'm really, really sorry for making you cry." What he had done was still a mystery to him though he was pretty sure he was about to find out. The odd thing was that Sapphire didn't look particularly angry but with girls you could never tell. He hadn't known she was going to cry after all. They'd just been talking about her house and then...tears. "I've made a mess of a lot of things lately" he mumbled, his hands going into his pockets as his eyes moved away from hers to look down at the ground.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire had expected to be caught at one point or another. One could only hide behind statues for so long before one got noticed since it was not a normal thing to do. Sapphire had been expected be called a freak again, to be taunted and laughed at like when she was following around that Slytherin boy that she had found likable. To have Jeremy apologies to her when she was the one being foolish was just astounding to her. She had suffered a bit of bullying because of her condition but not so much that her soul was beaten. The Soul children did that. She had missed her friend though. Sapphire without thinking tossed herself on his in a tight hug in gratitude for his kindness.

"It wasn't your fault. It was never your fault." She signed as she let go of him. Sapphire dipped into her book bag then showed him something she had designed rather than written. It's not your fault the pad said in large blue colored in letters. She took out her notebook and quill to explain further. It was mine. I can't really talk about what happens at home. Mother's rule. Our business is our own. She says. I guess my mind was telling me to keep my mouth shut. She gave the notebook to Jeremy to read while placing her other hand behind her head. There was a large blush on her cheeks.

Sapphier if asked would write she was acting like this because she had made a fool of herself in front of him. For a girl who was so prone to innocent crushes she had completely missed the signs of another one growing. As she had looked into those bright blue orbs of his Sapphire had felt like diving back behind the statue and hiding there until he went away. She had felt as if she wasn't presentable to be in his presence. This was something born from being called ugly at home by her 'sisters'. In fact her curly hair was perfectly in a pony tail which looked like a bunch of glossy grapes from the back. She was simply in a pair of jeans and a red shirt but it was enough to just show she was developing. Not quite the bodies of the beauties in the older years but still developing. Sapphire saw none of this though. All she saw where ugly glasses and the freckles that her younger sisters laughed at endlessly.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

Before Jeremy could say anything more, Sapphire had him wrapped in a tight hug. His arms were pinned to his sides and all he could do was look sheepishly around the corridor, his face turning different shades of red as a group of girls standing opposite them broke into giggles as they walked away. 'It's not what it looks like!' Jeremy wanted to shout, but it was no use. As Sapphire let go, Jeremy pulled his hands out of his pocket and tried to keep his expression neutral. He couldn't keep a hint of a smile from his face though, especially when he looked at her hands.and saw her signing. He thought he got the gist of what she was saying, but he found it hard to believe. It wasn't until she showed him the page in her book that he realized he had understood her signing after all.

Jeremy shifted slightly as he stood and read over Sapphire's shoulder. It had been a while since they'd seen each other last and now he could easily look over her shoulder as she wrote. When she passed him the book, he took it and read it again. He nodded his head to show that he understood. "I get it. It's ok. My mom says the same thing too. She uses some weird saying about airing dirty laundry" he shrugged as he looked up. Sapphire was blushing and he gave her a curious look.

"I won't tell anyone about you cr- about that" he said, mistaking her flushed cheeks and nervousness on what she'd be writing. The thought that the blush was in any way related to him never even crossed Jeremy's mind. The girls in his year who were dating were dating older guys and the guys in his year didn't seem to be dating yet either. Other than Logan of course. So, Jeremy didn't know much about that sort of stuff. He kept his head in his books and on the quidditch field. That didn't mean that he didn't think girls were pretty. He did. "Hey...are those new glasses?" he asked, using the sign for glasses as he spoke. "They're really nice" he added because they were. They made Sapphire older. Jeremy smiled again, his blue eyes no longer nervous looking. He was fairly certain she wouldn't be slapping him.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire heard a few whispers around her which may or may not have been about what she was doing with Jeremy. She didn't really mind if they did whisper about her. They had done it since she got her. And this would be something good really. Having a boyfriend like Jeremy would make any girl happy seeing as he was such a nice guy. Sapphire was too aware of herself to even assume that he would ever be interested in her but whoever he set his sites on would be very lucky indeed. An example of that would be what he said about her glasses. Sapphire touched them and smiled wide. No they are not. Nice I mean. I got them because they where the cheapest in the store and I needed new ones. My sister Violet broke my other ones seemed to think it was funny. Sapphire wrote on the page she was using to converse with her friend.

She didn't think it was too much to say what her sisters did to her. After all it wasn't anything about what really happened to her in the house. Well to the girls. Sapphire and Ruby where deemed imperfect and so where exempted from any more expiraments. Their mother's curses still hurt but still it wasn't anything compared to the pain of the modifications. She remembered screaming when she had been able to though she couldn't remember the sound of her own voice for the life of her. Parents are so weird. Was all that came from his comment about his mother. She was sure that Jeremy's parents where as quiet as he was. It seemed like it anyway.

Sapphire thought about it then moved her head from side to side. Thank you for the comment though. She wrote to explain what the movement meant to her. Have you ever heard of a song called "Sleep Isabella? I've heard it before but can't seem to track it down I like it so much. She wrote as the thought suddenly popped up in her head. She had heard it coming from the magical music deviced on one of the older girls but she didn't even know where it came from so she couldn't call it up on her own. She hoped that Jeremy would be able to help her. Sapphire was so realived that Jeremy didn't think her freak. She was happy that things where back to normal. So what was feeling that she was sensing somewhere in the corner of her heart?

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

Jeremy read what Sapphire wrote, but didn't comment. He thought the glasses were nice even if they were cheap. And, he thought it was mean that her sister had broken her other pair, but he was reluctant to mention anything about her house and family. They'd only just begun talking again. He didn't want to ruin it by forcing her to speak about things she didn't want to discuss. Instead, he nodded and smiled when she thanked him. "You're welcome" Jeremy added quietly.

Jeremy read her question and thought for a moment. The name sounded extremely familiar but he couldn't say for sure if he had heard it or not. "Hmmm....the name sounds so familiar" he said as he finally gave up trying to think of where he'd heard it before. He knew it would come to him at an odd moment when he wasn't even thinking about it. But, he wanted to help Sapphire if only because he still felt mildly guilty even after she had taken the blame for her own crying. He believed her when she said she didn't blame him, but Jeremy still felt bad that she'd cried in the first place and that he hadn't gone out of his way to speak with her until now. "Maybe we can look in the library. They have a whole music section" he offered. The library always had an answer for Jeremy's questions. At least for the questions that didn't have to do with him screwing up his friendships. For those questions, he was painfully on his own. "I don't mind helping you" he signed with a bit of a smile. He was proud of himself for having remembered all of those signs.

"Why are you wondering about that song?" he asked just to keep the conversation going. Now that he had Sapphire in front of him, he planned on keeping the conversation going for a while. He liked speaking to her as she was a really easy person to speak to. She was a good listener for obvious reasons and she always managed to put him in a good mood.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire thought about it too then reached into her bag once more it was her sketch pad and she showed him an entire scene that she had costruscted. It was what looked like a factoy but instead workers there where kid. There where adults playing a violin and on the pipes. Everyone was in raggid clothes but everyone looked happy. The kids where dancing. Sapphire blushed slightly after showing it to him. The song inspired this as well as something else she wrote in her notebook.

What looked like scattered peices of parchment came from in between different school books which she should really have been studying. She looked over them one by one until she decided what had gone into what she had been dreaming up and actual class notes. When she finally got them together she gave it to Jermey. What could be seen first was the cover of what looked like a hand drawn comic book. Apperently that song plus a few others had made Saph's brain go into overdrive making her cough up "The Overworld Cronicles." A story about a distroyed world underneath where everything was bad and hovering over their heads was the world of the rich who didn't even think of the ones on the ground.

Sapphire waited to see what he thought of it. Of Ms. White and her band of orphans from the Pipeline, of the rivalry between Bart, the son of the over world mayor and Cage director of the over world police, of Selica the air ship pirate. All this would seem strange even in the muggle wold. Would jeremy think her strange for dreaming it up? I kinda need the song to keep going She wrote then put her hand behind her head. Sapphire nodded more eagerly than she meant to when Jeremy asked to help her find the song that she was thinking of.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

Jeremy looked at Sapphire curiously as she pulled out a book from her bag. She already had a pad out, so if she needed to write, she could easily have used that. What she showed him piqued his curiosity even more. Jeremy knew that Sapphire had an overactive imagination, but what she was showing him was marvelous. The scene stretched across the pages was nothing he'd seen before. "This is cool" he replied after he'd seen what she had written.

As she mentioned something else, Jeremy waited patiently as she pulled out a bunch of papers. When she'd gotten them together and handed them over, Jeremy looked down to see the title of a story. A story quickly came together as he flipped to the next page and then the next and then quickly the next. He paused to look up at Sapphire. "You did this?" he asked incredulously. He'd always known she could draw. When they had first met, she'd been drawing. The story was great though. It was the kind of thing that you wouldn't expect anyone his age to come up with.

"I like this pirate guy" he said, pointing to a picture of the sky pirate as he stood at the helm of his ship, looking out to a huge storm ahead. He looked strong and powerful. When she mentioned that she needed the story to continue, he nodded his head. "Then, we have to find it" he said matter-of-fact. "I wanna know where Selica goes and what Bart does to his dad."