Chapter 4

Where the days are endless

Valerian woke up to the wet feeling of Kayn liking her face furiously with her rough tongue.

"All right all right I'm up!" yelling at it while trying to push the big animal off of her, she wondered how many times she would have to wake up like this, before Kayn would learn that it was not a cub anymore. The habit had long gone ceased to be cute.

"Please?" she cried with an exasperated sigh and finally the furry alarm clock of a cat shifted away from her with a self pleased expression on its furry face.

It was late afternoon. The sun was shining brightly through the windows, making the dust dance like golden freckles in the air. Val had gone back to her room straight from charms and fallen to sleep immediately when her head had hit the pillow. She wasn't used to being up in the middle of the day and already the different rhythm of life in the castle had taken its toll. It was yet another aspect of this arrangement her father had overlooked when he decided to send her here. She understood, that after everything that happened few months back, concentrating to everyday matters yet alone politics was hard for him. But understanding things didn't make them any easier for her to bear.

She was a nocturnal being by essence, and pulling herself up and picking up her schoolbag took every ounce of determination she could muster. Yawning so hard se thought her jaw would dislocate, Val travelled down the stairs to the common room witch was almost empty at this time of the day. The star covered ceiling and the rich blue tones of the room felt almost familiar, while she crossed the wide cluttered space all the while stretching her body like a cat. At least she got to spend some time outside, she thought whilst wondering where the Herbology class would be held.

While travelling down the castle corridors, still feeling like she was half a sleep, she heard the noise a lot sooner that se saw what caused it. Loud squeaks follower right after another. There was a lot of laughter, some profanities and a little bit of angry meowing too. When she rounded the next corner she saw a punch of students laughing at an odd looking man who was furiously beating the floor with a battered broom. On the floor around his feet (and everywhere else in this part of the corridor in fact) was a herd of blue bubble mice scrambling around. Every time the broom squished one of them, it let out a loud ear piercing squeak before popping and five more appeared out of thin air. Judging by the amount of the mice, this had been going on for some time now.

"Oh it's so nice to see Flinch get what he deserves!" a girl standing next to her said. She was glad in the same ravenclaw blue and bronze as Valerian was, and her hair was so dark brown that it looked almost black, and it fell down her back in messy curls. Her green eyes were spotted with rich golden tones and wore a friendly expression while looking at Val, as if waiting for her to say something.

"Who do you think did this?" Valerian asked, when nothing else came to her mind, and it was something that she had been wondering for a while now.

"The Marauders of course!" the girl laughed, amused by her question for some reason.

"Who?" she asked, even more confused than before.

"Oh really, where have you been hiding lately, under a rock?" the other one answered rolling her green eyes at her, like she was deliberately trying to be slow.

"Now that I think of it, I don't remember seeing you around here before. What are you, a sixth year?" She asked examining her from head to toe.

"There is something definitely odd about you." she finally decided after a through inspection.

"I actually arrived here only few days a go. I guess you could say that I'm an exchange student." Val answered a bit timidly. She wasn't sure what to make of the strange girl whose moods seemed to change on a whim every few seconds. It was enough to give anyone a whip flash on Val's opinion.

"What on earth is happening here!" an angry scream came from the other end of the corridor.

"Shit. It's McGonagall. Let's go before we get in to trouble." and suddenly Valerian found herself being dragged by hand through the castle at an amazing speed. They flew down shortcuts and hidden passageways bumping in to other people while making sharp turns here and there.

"Wait! Why are you running? We haven't even done anything wrong!" she finally got tired of being dragged around and yanked her arm free.

"I know. Its just fun, the running I mean." The girl laughed while slightly out of breath. Her hair, that had been messy before, was now wildly sticking to every direction you could think of and her cheeks were glowing bright pink.

"I'm Kia by the way. What's your name?" It was that inspecting stare again, Val noted while taking the hand that was offered to her.

"I'm Valerian." she answered, not too keen on letting out any more information than absolutely necessary. Val didn't really like the way this human was so unpredictable, it made her feel nervous and flinchy. Oh who was she trying to kid? She didn't really like humans, period.

"What class do you have next? I can walk you there if you like." Kia had already started to walk down the corridor while she said this.

"Herbology." Val answered, not moving from her spot, undecided whether to follow or not.

"Me too! Hey, are you coming or what?" she turned back to look at her frowning impatiently.

Letting out a deep breath and steeling her nerves Valerian hurried after her and together they arrived to the greenhouses in a nick of time.

"Sooo… what's your story?" Kia asked when they had been planting some weird, purple, sticky and stinking plants to bigger pots for a while. Her gloves were covered in greenish goo that sizzled unnervingly.

"What? Does everyone have to have one?" Val answered cringing inwardly at her answer. Sometimes not being able to lie was a pain.

"No, of course not, I was just wondering why you suddenly appeared here that's all." for such a noisy person Kia sounded surprisingly nonchalant while shooting her with questions.

"Dad thought it would be best. You know with the war going on and all and Dumbledore being here… I think he just wanted me to be safe." she finally answered after an internal debate, hoping that she had given enough information to dodge more questions but still being vague enough.

"What does your dad do then? Like as a profession?" Kia asked when she was apparently done pondering her previous answer.

"Politics"

"Wow. Do I know him?"

"No."

After that, it was silent once again. It was amazing how once Kia got her hands really in to something, this concentrated expression appeared on her face and she almost completely forgot that Val was even there. When she was like this, she was almost tolerable, Valerian thought, while adding more soil to her plant and pouring in some water. She was the first one to finish the assignment of her class. Others were struggling with the plants long and sticky tangles or wiping off the goo from their faces. Not really sure what she was supposed to do now, she just let her mind wander. Soon she was somewhere far, far a way from that stinking greenhouse and all the humans around her; in some other time, some other place where she remembered she had been happy. Now that memory felt so distant that she almost couldn't find it anymore.

"Hey Val, the class is over." someone was gently shaking her awake from her musings. Slowly her eyes focused on Kia's amused face and she plinked few times before looking about. Around them students were collecting their belongings and starting to head back to the castle.

"Are you coming for dinner?" Kia asked, holding her book bag for her, already packed and ready.

"No. I have to meet Professor Slughorn" Val answered while taking the bag and pulling the strap over her head.

"Well good luck with that!" giggling at her, Kia skipped out of the greenhouse, catching up with some people and easily falling in to conversation with them. Shaking her head at the girl's manic behaviour, Valerian headed off to her potions lesson. Plants were easy to understand, she was a fay after all so connecting with nature was something she did naturally. Boiling things up in a cauldron in a precise manner was instead something she dreaded with a passion.

-XXX-

The potions lesson ended up being a rather discomforting experience. You could probably say that Professor Slughorn was nice enough and patient when it came down to explaining even simple principals to her. Val had never really studied potion making before, so they just ended up going through the basics. The theory was easy enough to understand. It was the orderliness and preciseness that Valerian lacked. It probably didn't come as a surprise to her professor seeing as the sidhe weren't really known to be any of those things. Fay magic was all about intuition and "feeling right" and maters as such. The fact that made the lesson awkward was the unnerving glint in the teacher's eyes every time he looked at her. He repeatedly rubbed his plump hands together and liked his lips, reminding her of a fat boy in a confectionary, trying to choose witch cake to buy.

The memory made her shudder, as she was returning to her room after an uneventful astronomy class.

"The man who invented it doesn't want it. The man who bought it doesn't need it. The man who needs it doesn't know it. What is it?" asked the eagle head guarding the door to the common room.

"I'm really not in the mood for this right now you know." Val whined while trying to think up an answer.

"A coffin "she answered eventually. Her thoughts had been so morbid lately that it didn't take long to end up with that conclusion. The door creaked open and she stepped inside. It was so late at night that the room was almost empty. Usually at this time Val would have been full of energy, ready to meet the night ahead of her. Right now, she just felt tired all over and her body was completely confused by the weird sleeping pattern she had had recently.

When she finally got to her room the first thing she did, was send her schoolbag flying to the far corner of the room and pull her robes violently over her head. Kayn looked at her grudgingly, not really liking the fact that she had been left alone for the whole day.

"I'm sorry Kayn." she told it while fishing the drawer for some of her old clothes.

"If it helps at all, I had a crappy day too." she put on her favourite tunic and a pair of dark blue pants. The fabric was light and soft and it flowed down airily around her figure.

Being able to let her wings out and stretch them fully felt heavenly. Val let the form she had been keeping up all day slip away and returned to her old self. The tension she had felt the whole day left her body slowly, while her bare feet patted on the soft carped and she climbed to sit on the window still.

"I'm afraid, Kayn." she told to the big cat who had come to gently push her head against her, purring loudly in order to cheer her up. She scratched her friend around her silky ears and made room for her to come and rest by her legs. Together they watched out of the window, in to the night and the dark forest spreading out in the distance.

"I miss her so much." Valerian whispered after a silence that had continued for several hours. She didn't notice that her cheeks were wet with tears before Kayn reached over and liked them away, whining sympathetically at her while doing so. It took another hour for her to fall asleep on her spot at the window. She didn't wake up to the noise coming from downstairs when other students headed off to breakfast, or when the room was filled with bright sunshine. She was simply too tired to even shift in her sleep. The whole time the lynx didn't move from its guarding spot by her feet. Purring calmingly every time the girl whimpered in her sleep, and nudging her gently to ease her back to a restful sleep.

I put a link to a picture of Val to my profile page, so if you want to see it go take a look. I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit weird, I have had a mild migraine for a few days now and my head feels hazy. Please please please make me happy again and review :) I would love to hear what you think!