|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 2:33 pm
"So it's another year at Hogwarts, I take it, love?"
"Yes mum. Of course."
"And as always, you need to get your supplies from the Alley?"
"Yes mum."
Sasha impatiently rocked back on forth on the balls of her heels and
twiddled her thumbs repeatedly. Her hair had grown a tad longer over the past month or so, and she brushed it hastily out of her eyes. Her mother looked up at her from her daily newspaper, and nodded. She started to get up to reach for an empty mug.
"I--I'll do it."
Sasha filled the mug with water from the faucet and placed it down in front of her mother.
"Why are you so helpful all of a sudden?"
Sasha hesitated and stammered,
"I've always been helpful...what are you talking about?"
She returned to playing with her fingers and fidgeting. Her mother must've caught the note of finatlity in her voice, and didn't question her any further.
"Er...mum. I'll be leaving soon...you know that right?"
Her mother paused for a brief second.
"Yes...staying at the Leaky Cauldron?"
"Yes mum...I--"
Ms. Amherst put down her newspaper and placed her hands listlessly in her lap.
"...I hope nothing happens between father and you...and your sister while I'm gone."
She looked down at the ground and turned away, starting to go the stairs when her mother spoke out in a feeble, silently tortured voice.
"Don't worry about me, love. We're "keeping the peace"."
"Don't you dare try to lie to me."
Her mother's brow rose.
"L-lie to you?"
"I dont want to relive what happened 2 years ago, alright? I just...don't."
Ms. Amherst's lip trembled. She knew exactly what her daughter was talking about. 2 years ago, she had very nearly killed herself after an emotional episode with her estranged husband.
"Good night, mum."
"G-good night, Sasha..."
The next morning, sunlight streamed from the window panes, grazing
Sasha's eyelids. She promptly got up, got dressed, and finished packing her bags and trunk. Her cat, Isis, slunk sleepily from her hiding place under a makeshift desk.
"Oi, Isis, leave my quills alone, you curious rascal!"
Sasha gently scooped up her feline and shooed her into a travel cage. After one last glimpse of her worn out room, she shipped all the luggage from her room downstairs, where her mother was going to bid her farewell.
When she reached the foot of the stairs, Ms Amherst greeted her, with her arms outstretched and her eyes glazed. She stepped forward and pulled her daughter into an embrace...and an awkward one it was. Sasha towered over her mother, but it was bittersweet nonetheless.
"See you soon, love."
"Bye mum! Please write to me when you have the time."
"Of course!"
Sasha broke apart from her mother and paced in front of the dirty hearth in the heart of the kitchen. She reached into a small canister on the mantle and threw the powdery substance into the flames. A burst of emerald flames flickered and she took a step into the fireplace.
"Diagon Alley!"
Sasha said firmly, and with a last fleeting glimpse at her mother, she disappeared from the tiny kitchen, to reappear in a new world she had grown to love; Diagon Alley, filled with it's many stores and fellow wizard's and witches warmly welcomed her. She spotted the Leaky Cauldron nearby, and quickly set off towards it to drop off her luggage before shopping.
After a few moments, Sasha had managed to check herself in, and in an exhausted fashion, lugged everything into her small room, closed the door, and started back down stairs into the main lobby. She said a small word of thanks to the inn keeper, and left the Leaky Cauldron, walking with a new spring in her step down the rugged pathway towards her first destination.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 3:36 pm
((ooc: Can I join in? ^^))
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lingonberry Insomniac Crew
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 3:42 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 3:55 pm
Margaret coughed slightly as she stepped out of Madam Malkins, a new hat and scarf in her tidy paperbag. She ignored the signs of oncoming illness, as allways, and gazed up and down the street. A few faces from Hogwarts stood out in the crowd, and she realized, as she peeked down on her list, that she was almost done for the day. In her pocket, her almost-albino rat, Chandler, had just awoken, and moved slightly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lingonberry Insomniac Crew
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 7:55 pm
Sasha slowly dragged herself along, occasionally waving at fellow Hogwarts students that she didn't know all that well. She stopped in front of Ollivander's wand shop, and peered in through the slightly dirty window. A small girl was smiling brightly as her new wand produced a fountain of water from it's tip. Behind her, the girl's mother clapped heartily at her daughter's achievement. She smiled weakly and thought to herself, "When was the last time mum spent some time with me?" Sasha chuckled to herself and turned away from the window. As she looked up, she saw another Hogwarts student. One that looked slightly ill but good natured. Sasha saw this as a great oppurtunity to make a new friend (actually, her first friend) and was about to say hello, when her nerves got the best of her. "She wouldn't want to be my friend..." She mumbled to herself, "I'm too...weird..." And she reluctantly began walking again, silently despising herself even more than before.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 12:48 pm
Margaret stode along the street, caught up in thought filled with quills, books and wandpolishing-kits. She paid little or no attention to the stores as she passed them, and stopped breifly only once, to take a closer look at a strange looking creature an old wizard held in a chain, apparantly making it breathe green fire, if you gave him a sickle. Margaret felt uneased about the man, who shouted as soon as anyone walked by, and when he grabbed her arm to make her look closer, Chandler felt the smell of the apparantly dangerous creature, and he leapt out of her pocket, scurrying down the alley.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lingonberry Insomniac Crew
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 5:56 pm
Sasha quickly whipped her head around and stared in the direction of a man's voice. She saw the ill looking girl with a look of dismay on her face as her white as snow rat scurried on the ground.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 6:03 pm
She cleared her throat and said in what she hoped was a friendly voice, "Er, do you um, need any help over there?" She glanced hopefully in the girl's direction and rocked back and forth on her heels.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lingonberry Insomniac Crew
|
Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 3:39 am
"Chandler!" shouted Margaret as the rat ran further and further away from her. "Chandler, come back you useless-" but it was obvious that she thought of the rat everything buy useless and unimportant, as she had dropped all of her bags on the ground, in a very un-Margaret way, and was now sprinting over the icy stones of Diagon Alley.
A very nervous-looking girl she vaugley remebers from the common room asked if she wanted any help, but Margaret, as usually reluctant to accept help from anyone, retorted angrily, "No, I'm fine!". But it was clear she wasn't. The girl had distracted her for just a second, but Chandler was gone from her sight. Furiously, she began so rummage among a couple of cauldrons where she'd seen Chandler last, to the shopkeepers dismay, but there was no rat to be found.
"Perfect!" she said in a slightly defeated vocie.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 2:30 pm
Sasha winced as the girl dashed around, panic stricken over her pet. She rushed over despite the girl's answer, picked up all her dropped supplies and staggered. Her dark eyes watched sympathetically as the girl stopped to catch her breath, in apparent defeat. Sasha ran her hand through her hair nervously, and said in what she hoped was an apologetic voice, "I'm sorry", and handed the bags back to their owner. She stared at her feet for a moment and looked up suddenly. "My cat. Isis...Wait right here!"
Sasha sprinted back to the leaky cauldron, panting as she pulled open the front door. She clutched a stitch in her side as she dragged herself up the stairs. She was about to open the door of her room when it swung open and a frazzled looking housekeeper strode out with a mop and bucket. "I'm happy to say the room's clean now, Ms Amherst." she said in a slightly bitter voice.
"Thank you," Sasha said breathlessly as she scopped up her black cat in her arms and shot back out of the inn. She ignored the stares of children and their parents as she ran back to the girl and her lost rat. She coughed a bit and doubled over before looking up at the girl.
"This--this---is my cat. Isis. She--will help you---find---the rat." And Sasha collapsed in a heap as Isis prowled about, looking as if she knew exactly what she was to do.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lingonberry Insomniac Crew
|
Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 1:13 pm
Margaret, who'd been busy scattering the used wizard's robes that a few seconds
had lain in neat piles, looked up. Her usually neat and organized fasade had been blown away, locks of her hair had escaped her usually tidy ponytail, and her eyes were wide-open, staring, searching.
"Are you mad?" she barked, suddenly not scared, but furious "It's a cat! I'll eat him! I'd rather want him alive, thank you!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 1:50 pm
Sasha looked up meekly.
"I know. I took that into consideration. Isis is no ordinary cat. She's bring Chandler back...alive. No worries."
She slowly got up, brushed herself off and brushed the hair out of her eyes. Reaching into her jacket, she slowly withdrew a small list written on old parchment.
"Have you finished your shopping yet? I can wait here for Isis and Chandler. I can get my shopping done some other time. It's the most time efficent solution."
Sasha looked up at the sky and stared at the clouds for a few moments, then returned her gaze at the torn-up girl standing in front of her.
"It's up to you."
She looked as if she was going to say more.
"You remind me of my father...not very nice, but you care about the things close to your heart...most of the time."
And she stood there awkwardly waiting for a response.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lingonberry Insomniac Crew
|
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 4:06 am
Very taken aback by this very wierd comment, Margaret dropped the emerald robe she'd been holding.
"Um... okay?" she said, doubt in her voice, wondering if she'd just been complimented or insulted. Personally, she'd felt she'd been a little it of both. Suddenly realising what she'd been doing, looking at the mess she'd created, she blushed, and began to tidy up after herself, folding and smoothing out the fabric of the robes.
"I can wait" she said, not looking up from her current assignment. "He's my rat. I lost him. I don't really need your help, but I'm really busy, so if you're cat's not going to... I'll wait."
It sounded as though she was mostly speaking to herself, as she picked up an old pair of sparklig high-heels shoes from the ground. They sneezed, and coverd her faces in a light layer of glitter.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 1:38 pm
"I shouldn't have butted in in the first place. I'll go. If Isis comes back, take your rat, and just send her in the direction of the Leaky Cauldron. She'll find her way. It was pleasant talking to you."
Sasha turned and started walking away in silence. She said in a fairly loud voice without looking back at the girl,
"Remember to bring the rat back alive, Isis."
And slowly edged away from the scene.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lingonberry Insomniac Crew
|
Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 12:51 pm
Oh no.
As far as Margaret could tell, she girl on the verge of tears, and she felt oddly responsible. Mind, she'd been yelling. The was extremely annoyed, But she couldn't just let the girl walk away, she probably end up incrying her eyes out in a corner. Sighing, Margaret had a second-long inner fight, then called out.
"Wait!"
She didn't know what to say next, this was hard, being thoughtful. "As long as she doesn't cry." she thought, looking at the girl with a mixture of annoyance and pity.
"I... erm... sorry, I shouldn't have... thanks. Thanks for loading me your cat."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
