Enjoying the Night Air [open]

CC had needed some peace and quiet and knew that the best way for her to gain that was to go up to the astronomy tower even if it was late at night. She sneaked to the tower and easily unlocked it. She climbed the stairs quickly and relaxed almost immediately when she feels the night breezes on her skin. She sighs and walks over to the parapet. Leaning against it, she looks down and smiles slightly at the dizzying height. It was a distraction, a normal fear that everyone had. Not those that had plagued her for a few days now. She turned her gaze out across the grounds, seeing the great gates and the distant lights of Hogsmeade village. Her smiles grows larger as her thoughts turned to the school that she loved. In a year, she would be leaving it forever, but she didn't have to think about it now. She gazed up at the stars, thinking idly of little things and ignoring her worries and bad thoughts.

Unable to sleep, Lemon found herself wandering the castle aimlessly. Her bare feet whispering across the cool stone floors, one foot in front of the other, unaware of where her limbs carried her. Gentle breezes flowed from beneath doors, around corners, seemingly through walls, to caress her comfortingly. So she guessed. A mother’s touch she thought bitterly. She would have pushed the memories away had others, equally as bleak, not been waiting to take their place. Instead, she let her mind drift, denying it the chance to settle on one subject.
She stretches her arm out to the side trailing her fingers along the cold walls. She liked the cold, the cold made her feel alive. The surface of the large stone blocks worn smooth by thousands of students over thousands of years doing as she did. A small smile tugged at her lips. It amazed her that a simple act could connect her to so much history. She stopped halfway down a dark corridor and stared at the stone her fingertips touched.
“Salazar Slytherin’s fingers could have touched this very stone, Lemon,” she told herself.
“Or his quaffle,” she replied.
Laughing at herself and her joke, because secretly she thought she was the funniest person alive, she moved on. Her mind blissfully affected to do the same, jumping from one nonsense topic to the next.
In time, Lemon found herself at the stairs to the Astronomy Tower, having traversed every known corridor in the castle, including the dungeons, and a side visit to the kitchens to see the house elves, she sighed, knowing that her subconscious had brought her here because she was ready to spend time thinking on those serious issues. As soon as this thought entered her head, she began running through lists of ‘to do’s’ and ‘don’t forgets’. Her feet found the stairs leading up to the tower all too, easy, it was with a heavy tread that she began the climb that usually came so easily.
At the top her hand hovers over the door. It was unlocked. She reaches across the remaining distance, pushing open the door. She knew who she would find on the other side.

She heard the door creak slowly open and turned around quickly. It was either someone who would give her a detention or Lemon. Nobody else would be up on the tower at this time. When she saw that it was Lemon, a wide grin spread across her face. She had been lucky again.
"Hello there. How are you today?" she said over her shoulder as she turned back to the spectacular view.

It was a little cooler than she had anticipated. Pulling her arms inside her t-shirt to keep warm, she smiles when she sees CC.
"Not too bad, getting things ready. You know how it is." I nudge her shoulder with mine. "I haven't seen you for days. Are you ok?"

She laughs mirthlessly. "I think I've been hiding unconsciously. And am I ok? I'm still not quite sure of it myself." She stares off barely seeing everything in front of her.

ooc: I actually have to go. We can continue this some other time. Sorry about that

Lemon sighed inwardly at the almost vacant look in her eyes. Her timing was off. In a few days she would be gone, leaving CC on her own to deal with her troubles. She hated the thought of leaving her.
She leans against the parapet, her eyes reflecting the bright stars overhead.
"I'm going to Belgium," she tells her quietly. "I've had word that my mother and sister lived in a small village, near the boarder shortly after leaving... us. My father and I."

She stiffens and closes her eyes for a while. But she knew just how important this was for Lemon. "Any chance of me going with you? I missed going with you last time. And I need a distraction from my thoughts." Maybe being in danger would help, she thought to herself. "I've never gone to Belgium."
She opens her eyes and looks straight at Lemon.

My hands grip the edge of the parapet so hard my knuckles turn white.
"I'll be on the run, CC. When I don't turn up at home, my grandmother will send the whole ministry after me." I return her stare. "Can you handle that?"

"You're underage." She replies simply. "You also haven't gone to many classes. Tell me, what do you expect to get on your O.W.Ls? You may have street smarts, but still. You don't know as much as you probably should. I can help." She looks out over the grounds, a mixture of excitement and fear. "And I can handle it." Can you really? the small voice in the back of her mind asks. Is this just some mad attempt at trying to forget your own worries? She ignores the voice.

She shrugs, a small, arrogant smile playing around her lips. "I fully expect to fail all my owls. Flitwick and McGonagall told me to expect it. They even told me I may have to repeat a year."
Turning her back on the parapet she flashes CC a cheeky, fleeting look, and shrugs once more. "So be it. I love Hogwarts."

Way to ignore my whole point, she thought. Inwardly rolling her eyes, she turns and stares at Lemon again. "If you go alone, you may not be able to come back here. I know you love Hogwarts. Are you willing to risk everything to not come back here? You yourself said the Ministry will be after you. If I go with you, the chance of success will go much further up." She grins widely. "I don't have anything else to do anyway. And knowing you, trouble will find you."

Shaking her head in amusement. "CC, I'm not saying no." She lets that sink in.
"Of course, we'll have to do something about the manor. I don't know how long we'll be." She turns in the direction of Hogsmeade, imagining the run down manor CC now calls home.

She nods in acknowledgment of Lemon's words.
Then she rubs her hand over her face. "Talking about the manor... Is Zeke a problem? If we leave, will Zeke do something to it? I can leave it for a while, if it is safe for sure. But..." She falls silent worried. She was torn between helping her friend and watching the manor. Then she shrugged. She could always have another home somewhere else, a better home, if need be. "I guess it doesn't matter all that much though... We are using his money after all. Technically he can do whatever he wants with it."

I shift uncomfortably, avoiding her gaze without knowing why. It was not like she would hurt me. "Now, CC, don't get mad, but, ah... Zeke kinda did something to Pumpkin and the manor... I don't know what, and he wouldn't say in front of me. He told Pumpkin but by the time she arrived back I had left."

She grunts. Pumpkin had told her this earlier in the day and she had been furious. She puts her head on her arms still on the parapet for a while trying to keep her anger down. Slowly she lifts up her head and looks up at the stars. "I may just have to kill this guy one day. I hope you don't mind, considering your confusion over whether you like him or not." She sighs thinking about whatever he had done to the manor and Pumpkin. She was more angry about what he did to her friend than the manor.

Confusion? What was she talking about?
Lemon thought about all the things that had happened since Zeke arrived at Hogwarts. It had been one thing after another with him. None of it good, all of it annoying beyond belief.
And yet... she saw him everywhere. Even reflected in James Bond's eyes while she kissed him.
"No, CC, don't hurt him," she pleads quietly.

She snorts loudly then glances at Lemon. I guess she doesn't even realize it yet. I can see it clear as day. "Even if he deserves it, Lemon?" she asks quietly. "What happens if he hurt Pumpkin? What would you have me do then?"

"He wouldn't hurt Pumpkin!" she says forcefully. "Not intentionally! Yes, he's weird, and he has odd ways, and he can be a real jerk, but he doesn't have a violent nature, CC, he doesn't!"
She spins away from CC, striding across the tower fighting off memories of her first encounter with Zeke. He had used October as a human shield, placing her between himself and the curses flying towards him.
"That was different!" She tells herself, spinning to face CC once more. "He felt ganged up on. She provoked him! He would never hurt my friends. Not ever!"

She stares at Lemon dumbfounded. "What are you talking about? Has he hurt someone before?! Tell me, Lemon!" Her voice turns slightly hysterical.

Lemon stops pacing to stare at CC, her heart pounding. She knew if she told CC the truth she would confront him and one, or both of them, would end up hurt. Her gaze, fixed on CC's, widens as images of possible outcomes flash through her mind.
"Only me," she whispers the half lie, "He has only hurt me. But don't you touch him, CC. Don't you dare."

She clenches her jaw and stares at Lemon. Then relents, realizing her friend was serious about it. "As long as he doesn't touch me. If he does, he's dead. And there's nothing that can be done about it. But I won't initiate it, I promise."

Shaking her head, "He won't, CC. I promise."
Wanting to approach her, wanting to wrap her arms around CC and erase the bad feeling that suddenly erupted between them, yet unable to move closer than she already was, Lemon felt the weight of another burden being added to the load she already carried.
She lifts her hand, then drops it back to her side, her head following suit. Without a word (what was there she could say?) Lemon leaves the Astronomy Tower, taking the long way back to Ravenclaw Tower.

She watches Lemon leave, unsure what to do. This exchange made her realize just how fragile situations can become. She waits a while longer staring up at the stars before she headed off into the Ravenclaw common room. She walks quickly, slightly afraid that she would be caught.

ooc Sorry for interrupting, can one of you summarize your plots, about why ministry is after Lemon, where is she going and what is the manor? I like to know about them. You can do it in the character process part and current plots part. I never had the chance to follow everything :)