Chapter Eleven: Let's see how much confusion can be strapped into THIS chapter!
(Wow, wasn't Chapter Ten weird? And now Chapter Eleven has November, the eleventh month. That's not really astronomically unexpected, but you know… *clears throat* … I'm just gonna leave out these little notes from now on. Most likely. Probably. Maybe.)
Shortly after Lylia had gone to sleep, quiet footfalls stealthed their way to the almost-abandoned Divination Tower and awakened the defeated Zabini. Ignoring his assorted insults and maddened little fits, the 'Dark One' -as Blaise had named his captor- dragged away the confined Slytherin. Elden rose not long afterwards, listening to the incarcerated man's howling from the tower's roof above his prison, not lifting a finger to help or batting an eyelash in care.
The day of November 1st, after the incidents of the Halloween Dance, Lylia awoke to find herself completely alone in the infirmary aside from its nurse. She excused herself from Madam Pompfrey, promising to check in later, and tried her best to resume her usual routine. That is to say, she had soon returned to her books in the Library. Nonetheless, the extreme behaviour of Blaise had sent her reading choice skewed in the direction of the spiritual. She located as many tomes she could find which discussed the nature of a person's aura, and so she immersed herself with the confusing and abstract pieces. As she did so, she scanned fruitlessly for any sort of knowledge about one person's soul or aura somehow provoking another's, the images behind her eyes imitating a reel of film that replayed fragments of memories from the previous night.
Her research was abruptly interrupted as, upon returning an unhelpful stack of the books to their shelves, she caught sight of Blaise curled up under one of the tables, his entire form shaking.
"Blaise?" Lylia dropped her books without a second thought and investigated the odd sight, bringing the tame and injured student out from beneath the table. His wrists were given harsh cuts by someone clumsily cutting the ropes that had held them together. "Blaise," she grew pale from the sight of the blood that was freely dripping onto the carpet. "Who did this to you? Who did this?"
"The Dark One," he shakily answered as his breath hitched raggedly. "The Dark One… I was sealed up…!"
"You need to get some help, Blaise," Lylia jerked her blue-and-white striped scarf off of her neck and hurriedly wrapped the boy's wrists in it as she led him to the infirmary. She didn't make it pellucid as to whether she was referring to his physical or mental health when saying he needed 'help.'
Meanwhile, at breakfast, Kayla and Melinda were jointly doing all they could to avoid Professor McGonagall's steady glare from the Staff Table.
"Do you think she remembers which of us cast the spell?" winced Melinda into a croissant.
Kayla risked a glance up: McGonagall was peering like a hungry hawk at Melinda. "Yeah. I think she remembers."
After Pompfrey provided Lylia with another medical kit so she could take care of Blaise, who refused to be given anyone's care but the blonde's, the kindly school nurse returned to her office for some seclusion in paperwork.
The precarious silence of the healing was shattered when the air near the door grew dark with the gathering of black smoke.
"Pleasant day to be psychotic, isn't it?" came a dry remark as the smoke cleared.
"He's hurt, Lesperance," explained Lylia simply as she turned to stare at Elden.
"I can't believe you're helping this guy!" Elden pointed past her at Blaise. The dark-skinned boy milked every bit of the kindness given to him, pulling an innocent face as he clung lightly to the back of her shirt. Given the security of Lylia's back turned to him, he made a viciously deceitful smile at Elden over her shoulder. Blaise kept his eyes on him as he turned his head enough to take in a deep inhale of the smell of Lylia's blonde hair. The anger that flared up in Elden's eyes gave Blaise an impossible high.
"He's just confused!" Lylia glared solidly in turn without realizing that the necromancer was staring spitefully at the Slytherin behind her, not she herself.
"And now we're defending the lunatic," hissed Elden as he crossed his arms.
"I see she healed your face, Pretty Boy," snapped Blaise at hearing the epithet.
"Yeah- Madam POMPFREY can work wonders," replied Elden. "Look, if those hands of yours are giving you so much trouble, allow me to sever them from you and make everything easier…"
"Clear off," stated Lylia bitterly, her eyes smarting after Elden's refusal to admit her aid. "This doesn't concern you."
The necromancer took a calming breath as if lives depended on his cool nature, exhaling a single, "Fine," before vanishing again.
As soon as Lylia had finished patching up his wrists as best as possible, Blaise tugged his hands away and left a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"For the good of us both… I hope I never see you again," he said and departed without another word.
Lylia stayed in her visitor's seat quietly for some time, a hand on her forehead and her eyes on the still scenery outside the window.
As November paved the path for winter in heavy sheets of rain outside, Lylia was tempted to wander around in the storm but instead selected to remain inside the Library. Blaise's peculiar behaviour in the Hospital Wing only urged on her search, not caring much to ponder the improbability of finding some sort of 'cure' to his peculiar idiosyncrasies.
The days blended smoothly together for her, treating her classes as if they were an unfortunate distraction from her true call. While Lylia was quite content to be a lonely little bookworm, Kayla refused to let her friend fade from all social networks and staged a coup. Gathering her troops that consisted of the recovered Karen, the reluctant Melinda, and the remembering Draco, Kayla led the militia to Lylia's renowned little corner.
"We've called for a girl's night out," declared Karen stoutly.
"Tonight. We're going out," added Melinda with an obstinate tone.
"Why am I present for this?" asked Draco quietly to himself.
Lylia gave a bold attempt at holding her power. "Well, I have been looking without results, but there are so many more shelves-"
"Exactly." Kayla pointed. "You need this break before cracking down again."
"Or cracking apart," mumbled Melinda as she looked around at the virtual labyrinth of library media in which Lylia had immersed herself.
And so, that evening the quartet of girls snuck out of the castle and took a nighttime express to Hogsmeade.
"Where are we going again?" Lylia tugged her turtleneck's collar closer around her neck as she shivered in the cold air.
"I know just the place we wanna be tonight," said Karen while she grinned and toyed with the ends of her ever-present Gryffindor scarf around her neck. Waving a hand, she strode off confidently into the somewhat-disconcerting night life of the wizarding world. "Follow me!"
Melinda gave a wide smile and opened the door to their destination for the others, bowing mockingly. The interior of the pub was dark and smoky, making Lylia cough and Karen beam mischievously.
"The Hog's Head," the carroty-haired girl announced graciously as they made their unhurried way to an empty, dirty table. "Man, I missed this place."
"Why are we here?" wheezed the blonde into a hand, her eyes watering once she began trying to peer through the haze.
"It's the best place to be unwatched and unrestrained," sighed Melinda as she sat across from Lylia and Kayla. Before Lylia could pose another question, Karen made a quick clarification:
"All races are welcome here, especially at night, Lylia. No one's trying to pry questions from you like those Aurors, or trying to hammer useless knowledge into your brain like those books."
A peculiarly scaled waitress approached and asked of them their order.
"One tall Firewhiskey," grinned Karen.
"I like the sound of that," agreed Melinda.
"I'll try maybe just a little of the Dwarven Stout," Kayla smiled politely.
"Water." Lylia lowered her gaze from the reptilian eyes of the waitress and tried to rescan the pub around them, her eyes now adjusted to the murky light. Three hulking forms huddled on stools along the bar, their cloaks almost comically too small for them. A lone figure hooded in black velvet sat on their own at the bar's other side, but more half-hidden figures also lounged in booths and at tables around them. A pair of spectacle-wearing half-trolls sat docilely and played chess by the door to the kitchen. Lylia blinked.
Soon after their drinks had arrived, Lylia nudged aside her untouched –and rather dirty- glass of water. "I'm heading to the bathroom for a breather from this breather…" As the Ravenclaw stood and weaved between tables to slip past the door of the unisex bathroom in the building's posterior, Kayla noticed the velvet-wearing patron stand and trail along behind her:
"Bad news, guys. Lylia's Stalker Pheromones are now affecting Hogsmeade, not just Hogwarts."
Melinda looked over her Firewhiskey at the figure, nodding. "Someone's wearing velvet in this place? Can't be good. Let's get to it."
The trio hurried as subtly as possible to the bathroom door, Kayla foremost and Karen pulling up the rear with her Firewhiskey in tow. Grabbing Karen's drained glass from her, Kayla placed it against the wood and put her ear to its other end, listening carefully. She heard a female voice, most likely Lylia's, give a yelp, and then a male voice muttering something too quiet for Kayla to pick up.
Not waiting for any sign beyond the short sound of her friend's distress, Kayla jerked out her wand and quite neatly waved the door down from its hinges with the force of her Alohomora spell.
Melinda cocked her head to the side as she and Karen stared down the two against the bathroom wall. Elden, his hood lowered, had one hand over Lylia's mouth to silence her and was drawing his head back from where he had been muttering into her ear. His other hand was on the wall above Lylia's head, keeping her wand hand pinned. He looked briefly between the three new visitors.
"Good evening," was his eventual, hesitant greeting.
"What the HELL do you think you're doing?" Kayla waved her wand half-threateningly and half-amazedly.
"Impossible to get a girl alone these days," sighed Elden as he released his hold on Lylia, giving a step back and holding his hands up in a show of virtuousness.
"You really wanna explain this one," Melinda glanced between Elden, Lylia, and Kayla with a wary eye.
"Well, what do you think I was doing?"
"You had her pinned against a wall in a bathroom!" replied Kayla, her suspicions not at all soothed.
"I would have done nothing to compromise her honor," came a growl in response. "I was simply giving her advice on her… research."
"Izzat what they're callin' it theshe days?" threw in a tipsy Karen who had been playing with the splinters of the ruined door.
"I can't believe you would do something so reckless," huffed Kayla over her shoulder at the necromancer as she grabbed Lylia's hand and drew her to the other girls.
"Says the one who broke down a door," retorted Elden coolly as he leaned back against the wall, waving teasingly as the females departed.
"Sho, what did 'e tell you?" gossiped Karen slurredly as they returned to their table.
Lylia swallowed a mouthful of the dirty water at her seat, barely recognizing it. "Nothing, nothing. He lied." While part of her was still alarmed at how much Elden had always seemed to know about her daily activities, the majority of her attention was focused on memorizing a single sentence the man had said close to her ear: 'Look in the Restricted section for aura manipulation spells: there's a spell in there that will let you hide your aura.'
As a break from her own routine of classes, Kayla was one day summoned by McGonagall away from breakfast and out to the courtyard. She tugged Lylia away from lunch to tell her all about it, going to the same courtyard as they talked.
"It was great! This spell is incredible," Kayla breathed excitedly. "You, like, embody inanimate objects with life!"
"Technically, doesn't that make them stop being inanimate?" asked Lylia as she flicked her wand in little circles, her brow furrowed in concentration.
"It's called 'Vivus Vitavi,'" explained the Slytherin as she pointed at an empty pillar a few feet tall. "There was a little dragon statue RIGHT on that pedestal, but I had it fly away!"
"Pretty cool," conceded Lylia with a good-natured smile.
"So, what're you up to?" Kayla nodded at Lylia's wand. The blonde stopped, looked at her hand, then smiled a tad embarrassedly.
"Oh, this… I haven't found anything yet about hiding my aura, as far as spells go, but I did find this interesting one that apparently…" She trailed off, trying to gather her thoughts. She soon started over completely. "There are some spells, it seems, that are personally tied to the people that cast them. They're connected to the caster's soul, one could say. The Patronus Charm is one like this, and probably… definitely the most well-known. The charm takes a form that matches its user. The spell that I found is a lot like that one, except it goes a bit deeper."
"What're you talking about?" laughed Kayla a little as she watched, baffled.
The blonde kept flicking her wand determinedly in small circles as she went on. "You have to think of happy memories to conjure the Patronus, right? Well, with this spell you have to concentrate on your most important, influential memory- best, worst, both, or neither."
"How can someone's worst memory be their most important one?"
"Well, do you ever forget the worst memories of your life?" Lylia replied.
This inquiry silenced Kayla for a second.
"I take it that it hasn't been going well?" she prompted after watching as tiny golden puffs of powder emitted from Lylia's wand at every failed attempt.
"I just… don't have any sort of life-changing, single memory, apparently." Lylia sighed as she pocketed her wand. "How can that be, after all of this?"
Kayla smiled quietly. "Things'll get better. They have to, don't they?"
"I wish I knew how things are right now, Kayla. I could be happy with that…"
