Okay, here I go again. I'm in a dilemma of whether to make the chapters twice as long (like last chapter) or just go with it...I dunno. I liked writing so long of a chapter, but, as you could see, it took me FOREVER (coupled with the drama that's been going on in my life...rrr, damn you, drama!). Haha, halloo, halloo...you know, I'm totally out of it right now. I just took Benadryll (is that how you say it?), and I'm a little weeeeeeee at the moment. Wow, my eyelids are drooping. Anywho, to answer my own question (?), I think I'll just wing it, cuz if I try to make the chapters longer, I won't update in years, and it might not be as good. So, I'm just going to wing it. Okay!
Oh, and also: a lot of people...well, not a lot...maybe not even that...oh, shut it, Ara. Some people keep asking how Aya got bitten. Yes, I have hinted at it, yes, she's having nightmares, and yes, I am exhausted beyond belief. As to the "how", that's coming soon...it may not be this chapter, it may not be next chapter, but in the name of Gil-galad, Frodo, and the beauty that is Orlando Bloom, IT WILL COME, MY FRIENDS. That chapter, when it does come, will be a little dark, and um...very...very bloody...and kinda sad...and a little traumatizing (note to self: do not write said chapter at night...will make self pee in pants). I'm sorry. Don't worry, I'll attempt to warn you beforehand for those with weak constitutions.
Oh, and sorry I haven't updated in a while. Here are my feeble attempts to ask for forgiveness in excuses:
1. I had writer's block like you wouldn't believe.
2. I had writer's block like you wouldn't believe.
3. I got wrapped up in doing a Zelda-Phantom of the Opera crossover.
4. I started a Phantom of the Opera obsession.
5. I had writer's block like you wouldn't believe.
6. I've started an independent novel (several, now, it seems) of mine that took up a lot of time just to start.
7. I had writer's block like you wouldn't believe.
Sorry! Now that that's settled, here we go...on to chapter 29 (jeez, almost thirty chapters...when did I start this thing again?).
I don't own the enigma that is Harry Potter. AND I'M SORRY I DIDN'T UPDATE SINCE JANUARY! THE SHIT IN MY LIFE IS HORRID! FORGIVETH US, PLEASE! (SPECIAL APOLOGY TO gothicgiggles somethinsomethin for threatening to cry...other threats have been accounted for, and if you still wish to carry them out, by all means, do so).
A/R-
Ch. 29: Breaking Through the Grey Clouds
A/R-
If there was ever a time that the sun could cast even an ounce of sunlight onto the snow-covered ground, it could have been now. The fact that it didn't made the scenery just this side of gloomy. Trees swayed in the wind that echoed rather forcefully along the hills and through the cracks of the castle. Snow continued to fall, but, caught in the wind, was thrown against the castle walls and windows as if tiny sprites were having their own version of a human snow game. The snow swirled about the ground, soared high into the air, and sailed forward, backward, or to the side in whichever direction the wind decided it would go.
Snowflakes would fall in an infinite measure, some having the chance occasion to be slammed by the wind against the window leading into the Gryffindor common room, creating a soft sound like an infant's fist pushing against a soft pillow.
Aya heard the sound without realizing that she heard it. Curling her bare feet under her, enjoying the warmth of the crackling fire despite the early morning hours, she wrapped her blanket around her once again and resumed her reading. She felt exhausted, but had lost all track of time in the three hours' time she had sat in that armchair. Her wand, resting a little from its chance to mimic sunlight at such an early time, lay slightly next to her on the couch.
She stopped to stare a bit at the cover of her novel. I think I need to start a new book, she thought to herself as she gazed at the binding that held Dune together. Aya shook her head at the occasional tear in the binding and the faded appearance of it. Of course, she hadn't really meant to rip the cover page when she pulled it out of her bag at four o'clock in the morning...but then again, it had been dark enough for the customary stubbed toe against her bed post and the usual cursing (which will of course not be mentioned) one mutters under her breath that almost always follows immediately after such an event to occur. Of course, a light would have been very useful at that time, but of course, her wand had cleverly hidden itself at the bottom of her bag.
Sighing, she rested her head against the armchair, raising her eyes to gaze absent-mindedly at the ceiling. I'm tired, she thought with a little annoyance, and I can barely sleep for more than an hour, now can I? Oh, it's just lovely with a capital Asshole...
Sighing again, she chastised herself for such morbid thoughts and thought it was best to simply acknowledge the fact that she was "grumpy" at the moment and put all that "grumpiness" in a tiny box in the back of her mind. Then again, she would have enjoyed throwing a container filled with every breakable object known to man out the window simply to hear it make a sound so that the other residents of Hogwarts would be able to join her in her sleepless state.
Now I'm just being cynical, she thought with another sigh.
It was then that she heard a door open behind her, followed immediately by a rather harsh phrase of "God damn it, Remus, we're trying to savor whatever freedom from the nightmare that is school that we have left at the moment, so if you'd be so kind as to give yourself and extra twenty minutes of NOT SEEING Aya, I'd very much like you to not make so much noise when you get up!"
This was followed by a phrase most nearly to "Suck on your Teddy Bear underwear, piss-off." The door was then unceremoniously slammed shut.
Aya sighed. Violence was definitely not a becoming trait for Remus. She turned round in her seat, placed her crossed arms on the top of the chair, and laid her head on top of them as she watched Remus begin to make his way towards the room she shared with Lilly.
"I suppose you thought you were being terribly clever," she said mischievously.
Remus jumped with a yelp and turned towards her.
"What in heaven's name...!" he yelled.
Aya couldn't help but grin.
Remus frowned. "I thought you'd be in bed still...you seemed exhausted yesterday," he replied as he made his way over to her. He narrowed his eyes as he stood over her, facing the back of the armchair. "What time did you come out here...?"
Aya blushed. "Um...you're going to get mad at me, aren't you," she replied hesitantly.
Remus glowered, throwing his hands in the air as he walked towards an armchair opposite her. Aya turned to face him as he sat down. "Oh, she could have come into my room, but noooooo, she had to come out here...probably in the dark...and read. Oh, I have got to be the luckiest guy alive," he muttered.
Aya shook her head. "If you're going to get all mad at me," she replied as she opened her book again, "then I might as well not listen."
Remus crossed his arms. "Somebody's in a bad mood," he muttered.
Aya looked up. "Somebody's in a pestering mood."
"I am not in a pestering mood!" Remus retorted.
"You're absolutely right," Aya replied as she resumed her reading. She smiled. "You're in a childish and spoiled mood."
"What the...? What the hell did I do to deserve this?" Remus exclaimed, his eyes wide in amazement.
Aya raised an eyebrow as she glanced at him, then smiled in spite of the circumstances. Softly closing her book, she stood and made her way towards him, kissing him on the lips before she sat down next to him. "Oh, I just like to tick you off in the morning," she replied with a mischievous smile.
"Since when?"
Aya shrugged, yawned, and replied, "I guess since now..."
He narrowed his eyes at her, an eyebrow curiously raised. "You're acting strange," he said simply.
She glowered at him. "Is a girl not allowed to speak her mind at all these days?" she snapped.
Remus cringed. "I was speaking my mind, too," he muttered.
"Yes, and I'm very proud of you," Aya replied absent-mindedly, her eyes racing across Dune at a rather alarming rate.
"I'm not even going to ask what kept you up all night," Remus muttered.
"Good," she replied in the same tone. "I wasn't going to answer you, anyway."
"Jeez," Remus replied. "Can you be a little more pleasant?"
There was a long moment of silence.
"I'm going to go get ready," Aya said before leaving.
A/R-
"Welcome back, welcome back," the DADA teacher said in a rather monotone voice. "Please open your books to page three hundred and ninety four...we will be reviewing a little more on werewolves, thank you."
Aya gently banged her head against the table.
Concerned, Lilly patted her friend's constantly moving shoulders. "Um, Aya, sweetie...that's not the way we pay attention in class and open books," she replied hesitantly.
"It...is...now," Aya replied as she used her forehead as the next best thing to a hammer. "I'm...just...loving...my...life..."
"Ah, come off it, Aya," Sirius replied from behind her. "At least Remus is taking this new embarrassment like a man."
Remus had decided to defend his manhood by placing his robe over his ears and hiding his face in his book.
"Now, then," the DADA teacher asked. "Who can tell me the distinctive features of a werewolf from a true wolf? Anyone?"
"Dear God, kill me now," Aya muttered.
"Ms. Centaria." The teacher had officially turned towards her. "Since you seem so eager to let your opinions be known, please, enlighten us on the answer to my question."
A new shade of red was discovered in that instant.
"Well," Aya replied quietly. "It actually depends upon the actual gender of said werewolf. The werewolf in general tends to be slightly bigger in size than an actual wolf, but the male werewolf is larger than the female. However, the snout is longer, and the human eyes are retained."
"Ten points to Gryffindor."
Lovely, Aya thought to herself. Why don't they just put a sign over my head that simply SCREAMS werewolf? What fun.
A/R-
"Pleasantries," Sirius muttered. "Dear God, James, how do you stand classes as horrid as today's?"
James surrendered himself to the couch and grinned. "Elementary, my dear Padfoot," James replied respectfully, raising an imaginary pipe to his lips. A few moments of self-indulgence with said "smoking" occurred before he continued. "I simply don't pay attention unless it is absolutely necessary."
"Which is...when?"
"My point exactly!" James replied with a laugh. Lilly instinctively smacked the boy on the back of the head.
Remus shook his head, suddenly understanding Lilly's usual phrase of "boys will be boys." Apparently, "boys" proved an understatement. He glanced at Aya, who was already doing her homework on her belly, facing slightly parallel with the fireplace next to her. Raising an eyebrow at her suddenly detached state, he gathered his quill and books and trudged over to her, laying down in front of her with a sigh. Opening his Defense Against the Dark Arts homework (an entire essay regarding werewolves), he sighed yet again and gripped his quill and parchment, then looked at the prompt.
"As said from pages three-hundred and ninety-four to three-hundred and ninety-seven, discuss the differences between a werewolf and a true wolf once the werewolf has transformed. Be sure to include the importance of the Lunar Cycle. Then, chronologically analyze how opinions of werewolves in the Wizarding and Muggle world have grown/changed/evolved over time."
"I need to wear a sign," Remus muttered to himself. "It's like they're just asking..."
"Tell me about it," Aya muttered without looking up from her two rolls of parchment.
Remus' eyes widened. "Don't...don't tell me...that's your essay!"
"Almost done," Aya whispered to herself. "Hm? Oh, yeah, sort of..."
"Of all the...how in the...what...why," Remus stuttered, then sighed.
"It's actually really easy," Aya said as she finished writing. "If you take it from a personal perspective, you get it right away...the chronological changes are actually rather thought-provoking...Celtic religion is key, though."
"Celtic...what?"
"Celtic...Druids?" Aya asked. "Did you ever read Beowulf?"
"Sort...of?"
Aya sighed and shook her head. "Read it...very good...probably the first story of good versus evil ever written down, and by a monk, too. The monster Grendel apparently represents all evil...demons and such. At that time, fanatical witches and wizards warned their Muggle neighbors about the evil demons and werewolves that stalked their villages at night...eventually, those fables led into the Devil, which is why so many people lump werewolves with Satan's Children, so to speak." Aya laughed. "Apparently, you and I are Satan's Children. We can thank both our magical ancestors, and the insanity that is Catholicism for that, it seems."
"You're not Catholic?"
It felt a little shocking to him at the moment. His friends were most certainly Catholic; besides, wasn't all of Britain basically Catholic, or something close to it?
Aya raised an eyebrow at him, casting an odd shadow across her face that rather enticed him.
Remus suddenly blushed. "I don't know...I just assumed...seriously, you're not Catholic?"
"I think I lost faith in the Church a very long time ago," Aya replied quietly.
"Why?" Remus asked hoarsely.
Aya shrugged as she moved to her next bit of the doom that was homework. "Let's just say I'm border-line atheist...I may be Buddhist, but I'm not totally sure..."
"Isn't...your family..."
"Catholic? I'm sure they were, at one point or another...I think my grandmother was a devout Catholic to her dying day...went to Church every Sunday, prayed, and did all that mindless ritual every religion apparently requires of you," she replied with a shrug. "My...parents...never had time for any of that. My brother cared about it a lot, but I just thought it was something you had to do. I don't know...maybe I just lost faith in a Deity or something strange and stupid like that." She shook her head. "I just don't see the point in having to place so much emphasis on something that isn't meant to be understood...how God can let bad things..."
She stopped herself, shook her head, and resumed her homework.
Remus narrowed his eyes, then leaned close to her face suddenly, searching her grey eyes. He kissed her cheek, then whispered in her ear, "Just because bad things happen doesn't mean God allowed them to happen without reason...not that bad things should happen at all...just that, sometimes, you need to just let things be, put faith in something you're not supposed to get, and just go with it..."
Aya shrugged again. "Go on and finish your work, Remus, before it gets too late."
A/R-
Tossing and turning beneath the sheets.
It had become sort of a ritual for him as he lay there, hour after crawling hour, listening to the night pass by as slowly as an unwanted dream. The moon, nearly full once again, cast its luminescent light upon his bed. He barely knew how long he had been able to grasp sleep; all he could remember was awakening to the evanescent feeling of something warm and soft in his waiting arms, something that still held the scent of forest leaves and morning dew...
Remus sighed and sat up, rubbing what little there was of sleep from his eyes.
If she wanted to come down here, she would have done so hours ago, you idiot...
Remus pulled back the curtain around his bed and gazed longingly at the beckoning door, half-expecting it to creak open, her dark hair falling loosely about her shoulders, a soft smile on her face, grey eyes glimmering...
He shook his head. If he wanted to see her so badly, he should be the gentleman he knew existed somewhere inside him and go to her instead.
With determination in his eyes, he placed his feet firmly on the cold floor and quietly moved towards the door, his footsteps as soft as a hobbit's. The door proved the greater problem; twice, its creaking as he opened it nearly made him run for cover and glance nervously at his friends' beds. Not a sound, save for Sirius' usual gibberish, was heard. Sighing gratefully, Remus sneaked out.
Tongue between his teeth, he moved towards the staircase leading to his "Juliet's Balcony", a grin growing on his face. He was nearly halfway up the stairs before he realized that they hadn't changed to repel his boyishness at all. Happiness mingling with his determination, he leaped over the last four steps rather clumsily and opened the door as quietly as he could...
"If I've told you once, James, I've told you billions o' times...forks are not for having duels with Harry..."
Remus jumped clear out of his boxers that time.
"Lilly?" he whispered in the darkness.
"James, get the door...the Monkey-Man is here for his milk," Lilly answered.
Sleep-talking...right, Aya told me about that...
Shaking his head in Lilly's direction, he moved towards Aya's bed, his grin increasing as he saw her wonderful silhouette. Not wanting to startle her, he stopped, his face inches from the curtain surrounding it, and whispered, "Aya?"
Silence only.
Frowning, he gently eased the curtains back.
Moonlight spilled into his vision. It fell softly across her features, touching her lips like a lover's gentle kiss before it graced her closed eyelids, caressing her lashes. Her fingers, slightly intertwined with each other, loosely clutched her tattered book that lay across her breast like a waiting sentry, casting its elongated shadow on her rather tousled blanket, as if she had mimicked his previous movements. Raven-black hair glistened in the moonlight; her brow seemed as if it had been dipped in morning dew. To him, it seemed as if he had strayed into a dream, as if he stood before something ethereal, an elf-princess and Shakespeare's Juliet mingled together. She seemed a child on the brink of womanhood who had been there since time began...as if she would retain her childish innocence for eternity and longer...
Remus shook his head. He had been standing there brooding like an idiot yet again.
It may not have been for long - the book gave her away too easily - but at least she was sleeping. He was even willing to let reading by moonlight slide by just because of that. His grin changing to a soft smile, he knelt in front of the bed, resting his chin on the edge nearest to her face just to gaze at her, to hear her soft breathing, to feel just the warmth of her presence right there in front of him, glowing with something so beautiful just below the surface. He sighed and stood, gently bending down to slide her book as carefully and as gently from beneath her fingers as was possible. She stirred, her fingers moving drunkenly slow in search for the missing item; she sighed in her sleep and lay still.
Remus' teeth released their rather painful hold on his lip as his nerves relaxed, then carefully, almost religiously, set the book down on the floor next to her tattered trunk. Smiling again, he gently moved just enough covers to allow him access to her bed as he slipped between mattress and blanket as silently as he could, drawing the curtain back to its rightful place. Sighing as if he had reached heaven's gate, he lay down next to her and gently kissed her cheek.
A smile crept across her lips. She rolled towards him and snuggled against his chest, unconsciously entwining her legs with his.
An eyebrow raised, his smile mimicking hers, Remus wrapped his arms about his gentle-hearted Aya and fell into blissful sleep at last.
A/R-
Once again, very sorry for the "I think I fell off the face of the earth" non-updating thing...I'd love to explain to you the why's, but that would take me months. However, chapter 30 is more than on its way, since I am now officially 23 PAGES INTO IT! AHAHA! Yeah...well, I could've updated chappie 29, buuuuut I got so wrapped up with 30 I kinda...forgot...well, forgot isa strong word...aaaanywho, about the next chapter...um...towards...towards the end, uh...okay, I need your help now. When chapter 30 is posted, when you read it, tell me if I need to up-the-atty on the rating...like, to R (or is it M now...?); my biggest fear, however, is that some of you may be blocked from this story. OO! I KNOW! I can make the story itself as T, but certain chapters as M! WOO! I like thinking...anywho, that's my story. So, tell me what you think! And I hope this chapter was okay...it took me four months to do, actually, which is REALLY funny when you think about it. Four months for like, eight pages! Craaaaaaazy. That's why this chappie may not be as good. I like the next one, though...NOT SAYING ANYTHING. Okay, buh-bye! Please Review, if you forgive my tardiness.