i must go alone [ramsey]

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Lysander was getting out of the hospital wing today. he had spent the last week trying to get used to the cane they had given him to help navigate the school, and he was doing fairly well with it, but Lysander thought that was probably due to him having memorized the layout of the hospital wing more than his ability to use his cane effectively. For that reason, the nurses had insisted that Lysander get one of his friends to help lead him back to the common room. He hadn't - he hadn't wanted to bother anyone with coming to escort him. The nurses didn't really notice, anyways - Xan Meagle was throwing up again, and that was a tad more important than Lysander being left without a keeper. He had waved goodbye in the general direction of the beds in the hospital wing, swinging the door open and managing to step out of the wing before it slammed back shut on him. So far, so good. Lysander turned right to get to the staircase, tapping his cane against the ground as he did so. This was actually going better than expected. As soon as he had that thought, though, Lysander's foot caught on something, and he was sent pitching forward. Apparently he was closer to the edge of the stairs than he had originally thought, because next thing he knew, he was at the bottom of a staircase. His cane had caught him in the eye on the way down, and he could already feel it beginning to bruise, but Lysander didn't care. His ankle also felt a little tender, but considering how quick the tumble had been, Lysander wasn't sure what he had done to it. Sander didn't make a sound as he sat up, still not sure whether he could trust himself to stand. He looked around, trying to figure out if anyone had witnessed his embarrassing fall, before realizing that even if someone had, he wouldn't be able to see them. Drat.

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Ramsey was exploring Hogwarts. She had taken to the castle and it's vast corridors and had found a place of peace in the room of moving staircases. She liked to go there to watch the stairs move, and was often surprised by how empty the stairs sometimes were. She stood on a landing that had the perfect view if you looked up... you could see every staircase leading to every level of Hogwarts moving every which way. It was mesmerizing. It was particularly quiet on this day, it seemed. Ramsey was very lost in her own thoughts about the brunette, Cecelia, and the shocking bit of news she had told her when Ramsey heard what sounded like a thudding. She turned around quickly to see that a boy with a cane had fallen down the stairs. Ramsey, of course, always being one to jump into action if someone was hurt, was immediately at the aid of the boy. "Woah, you took quite the fall. Are you alright, monsieur?"

@lysander

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Apparently someone had been nearby him when he fell, because not a moment after he regained his bearings, Lysander heard a voice, honey gold and just as sweet, telling him he took a fall and asking him if he was alright. The voice was lightly accented French, and Lysander sighed internally. Leave it to him to fall in front of one of the foreign students, who wouldn’t even know where to go if he needed help. “Yes, I’m fine, thank you.” Lysander lied, voice tight. He rearranged his tangle of limbs underneath himself, and stood slowly, immediately grabbing the banister to make sure he wouldn’t fall over. His ankle was throbbing, but he ignored it in favor of turning his face so he was looking at least vaguely in the direction of the voice, though his milky blue eyes couldn’t see a damn thing, as was to be expected. “I’m still getting my bearings.” He said bluntly. No use dancing around the fact that he was blind now.

@ramsey

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Ramsey stood slightly off to the side, out of the way of the boy, as he scrambled to stand up. Ramsey was not one to intrude on others, especially if they had not asked. She knew that sometimes help wasn't always necessarily wanted, and it was even less welcomed when it was not asked for. Ram got the feeling, though, that when the Hogwarts student said he was fine that he may have been lying. She didn't say anything, though. It wasn't her business to prod. Ramsey's head tilted slightly to the side when the dark haired boy explained he was still getting his bearings. As she looked at him, it seemed he was looking off to the side... slightly off to where she was. Maybe he was shy and afraid to meet her gaze. "Your bearings?" She asked, her hands behind her back. "What exactly do you mean?"

@lysander

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Lysander felt stupid. Normally he was good at reading people’s nonverbal cues, even if he wasn’t good at interpreting them, but now he was cast adrift in a sea of darkness, unable to see anything about what the girl was doing – whether she had offered him her hand or how close or far she was, whether or not she looked nervous. He was frustrated, and he felt stupid. The girl repeated his last words, about his bearings, and Sander nodded once, a sharp, quick movement. “I’m blind.” He said bluntly. “That’s what the cane is for.” He said, gesturing towards the cane in question. It hadn’t broken during the tumble, which was all that Sander could ask for, but he wasn’t sure what state it was in otherwise. He would have checked if not for his desire to keep his eyes somewhere near to the face of the person who was speaking. “I’m new at it.” Sander added, just in case the girl would think that all people who were blind were as incompetent at walking as Lysander was.

@ramsey

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Ramsey felt she should have reacted differently when the boy bluntly admitted he was blind, but instead she just blinked at him. She glanced at his cane when he gestured to it, and then she looked him over. So, he was new to being blind. Ram wondered what had happened to the boy. "Oh," was all she said as she relaxed her arms back to her sides. "Well, would you like some company as you trek down these stairs?" She asked. Ram was never one to want to put people in an uncomfortable place, or make them feel wounded, but she always wanted others to know that she was there for assistance if they so needed it.

@lysander

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Oh. That wasn’t the best reaction Lysander had received, but it could have been a lot worse, so he tried not to be offended by it. He hadn’t been tasteful with the way he had admitted his blindness, so he couldn’t expect the girl to respond tastefully. “I actually meant to go up.” Lysander told the girl when she asked him if he wanted help in trekking down the stairs. “Do you know where the Ravenclaw common room is?” He asked. Since he couldn’t see the foreigner, he couldn’t tell whether or not she’d been there before, and would know where to go. If not, Lysander was sure they could find their way back to someplace in the castle the girl knew, and then they could find their way to the common room from there.

@ramsey

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There seemed to be a small, awkward moment of silence between the two of them before the boy spoke again, but Ramsey boiled it down to his newly blindless and his adjusting. It had to be hard, so she gave him the benefit of the doubt. When the boy said he had to go upstairs, Ramsey was suddenly much more enthusiastic. "Oh, okay!" She said, now wearing a small smile. She bit her lip when he asked if she knew where the Ravenclaw common room was. She shook her head before quickly remembering he couldn't see that. "Uh, I do not, monsieur," she admitted sheepishly. "But, I am sure I could find it fairly quickly?"

@lysander

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Apparently going up was much preferable to going down for the foreign girl, if the enthusiasm in her voice when she agreed to help him was anything to go by. She didn’t know where the common room was, which probably wasn’t going to be a big deal, but Lysander couldn’t help the small curl of worry that sat in his chest. “We should be able to find it if we just keep walking up.” Sander said, biting his lip. He didn’t want to lead them both on an errand that they couldn’t complete, but he was too proud to so much as consider asking someone else for directions. He had lived in the Ravenclaw tower for six years of his life, and he’d be damned if he couldn’t find it. “It has a large eagle knocker on the door.” Sander said, stepping towards where he thought the staircase up would be, trying his hardest not to wince when he stepped on his injured ankle. “So I expect you’ll be able to see it.”

@ramsey

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Just keep walking up. That sounded easy enough to the Beauxbatons student, even if this was a foreign castle. Ramsey hadn't ventured much further than the Great Hall, Hospital Wing, and the library but she was more than willing to help this fellow back to his common room and explore a bit more along the way. Ramsey nodded when the boy gave her further information about their destination and as she did so, she noticed his little wince. She bit her lip. "You can lean on me, if you would like. Or hold onto my arm. But only if you would like," she offered him. Always one to help people, Ramsey didn't want to see this new acquaintance in pain. She moved toward the staircase as well. "I'm Ramsey, by the way. Ramsey Naidoo."

@lysander

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The girl offered for Sander to lean on her, and he shook his head vehemently. Realizing that was probably rude, Lysander explained himself a little. “I don’t like to touch people.” Especially not people he had just met. And even more now, because he couldn’t even look at her to see if she was the kind of person who looked comfortable being touched, and wasn’t just offering because she thought it was the morally correct thing to do. “The cane will be enough.” Sander said. It wasn’t meant for bearing weight, but it would help him keep his balance even as he limped. It was nice to have a name to go with the voice. It was a nice name, too, Sander thought, one that matched the color of her voice. “My name is Lysander Scamander.” The Ravenclaw said. He paused, trying to decide if there was something better he could say to make his name mean something to her. He didn’t want to brag, though, so Sander just let his name stand alone.

@ramsey

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Ramsey only smiled slightly in response to the Hogwarts' student words. "Understandable," she said. "I'll be here right here if you need me." She let the offer still stand, just in case the boy decided he would need to grab a hold of her at some point. Ramsey began to head up the stairs, which were still odd to her - the way they moved, when the boy introduced himself. She nodded. "That's a different name. I like it." She mused. "So, are you named after anyone or anything, Lysander Scamander?"

@lysander
What color is Ram's voice?!?!?!

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Ramsey accepted that he didn’t want to touch people easily enough, and Sander relaxed a little at that. She said that she’d still be there, though the Ravenclaw doubted he would ever use her. “Thank you.” He answered quietly. That was the best reaction that he could hope for with the announcement of his blindness and simultaneous aversion to touching people. “I didn’t pick it.” Sander said with a snort when Ramsey complimented his name. “My first name isn’t for anyone, at least that I’m aware.” He was named the same name as a Shakespearean character, but he didn’t think that was the intention so much as the origin of his name. “My middle names are the ones that are more for people. Well, things, but they’re the things that honor other people.” Sander said, not elaborating further in case Ramsey didn’t want to hear it.

@ramsey
for color reference (dba700)

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Ramsey walked alongside the boy called Lysander as he explained the origin, or rather lack thereof, of his name. He was like her, then. Not named after anything in specific. Ram's parents just liked her name, so she figured that must have been the case with Lysander. She knew sometimes some parents picked names that ran in the family. She wondered if she ever would do that... She looked back at Lysander when he said his middle names were the ones with special names. Plural? That sure caught Ramsey's attention. "Oh? What are they?"

@lysander

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Ramsey was making this conversation easy on Lysander, which was…good, for him. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to carry it on without her help and guidance. Conversationalism (was that even a word?) hadn’t been his best skill even before the blindness. Now that he had noticed that Ramsey was practically carrying the conversation, Lysander vowed to try to help her move it along at least a bit. “Peverell. Name of famous a famous wizarding family, and the ancestors to my mum’s friend, Harry Potter. Quibbler. Name of my grandfather’s old magazine.” He rattled off when Ramsey asked him about his middle names. “What about you? Is your middle name any more significant than your first or last?” That was the best attempt he could make to continue the conversation.

@ramsey