Branches Hang With Autumn's Fire ** (OPEN)

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open!
Outfit!
<3

It was finally a Hogsmeade weekend, and Lyla used these days to keep her distance from people. She had no reason to want to be around anyone, and with Emile around more often, she just wanted to be on her own. Apollo was around every so often, thankfully, but where he was, you might expect Emile to be as well. It was earlier in the morning this cold Saturday, and she threw on her black jeans and black jacket with her thick scarf that hung down her chest.

Lyla wore a pair of dark brown gloves and held a hot coffee to go in between her two hands. The train station in Hogsmeade was one of her favorite places to go when she just wanted to be alone. Her long blonde hair hung down her back as she walked past people, not making eye contact with anyone until she ended up at the bench she sat at every time she came here. Lyla sat down, sipping her coffee as she watched the train come in, people bustling around everywhere.

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Hogsmeade weekends were far less enjoyable for Winifred Meagle than they once had been. Xanthippe was too ill to manage an excursion into the village, which narrowed down Winnie's options for with whom she could spend time to one other person, that being her brother, Isaac. She was never very far from either one of them, but, amongst the crowd, she had lost track of her brother before they could decide a plan for the day.

Finding him wouldn't be too challenging; at least, she didn't think that it would be. Winnie was so often by her siblings' sides that, if anyone knew who she was, they would also know of her siblings. That was the beauty of being a triplet.

She kept walking through the village, sure that Isaac was just up ahead of her. He wouldn't leave anywhere without her, so he would have to come to the realization that she wasn't directly behind him and stop what he was doing until she caught up.

Suddenly, the crowd cleared, and there was no longer anyone ahead of her. Instead of turning back in the opposite direction, though, Winnie took her glasses off to wipe them, set them back in place, and kept going. The trains into Hogsmeade Station ran relatively infrequently, and she wouldn't feel suffocated by having so many people around her.

As she approached the station, it looked as though there must have been a scheduled train. Without a valid ticket, Winnie knew that she would only be able to get as far as the platform—not that she would ever dream of hopping on a train to London so spontaneously, with so many unknowns—but it was painless enough to find a bench once she was there.

She sat down upon it, trying to look as though she belonged. Both Xanthippe and Isaac were much better at that type of thing. There was a girl beside her, she saw, and she vaguely recognized her, although she had never gone to the trouble of learning her name. Regardless, there was a chance that she had seen her brother.

Winnie hesitated. “Have you seen Zac Meagle anywhere?” she asked. He certainly wasn't boarding the train back to London, but she could have spotted him on her way.

@jill8

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@winifred
<3

Artemis crossed her legs as she watched people intently. Generally, people watching wasn't her favorite thing, but as of right now, where she just wanted her space and to be alone, it was her best bet. Her eyes narrowed and she sipped her coffee, the warmth radiating through her thick gloves and onto her hands. A body sat next to her, and she continued staring ahead. No eye contact, then no conversation. But oh how wrong she was.

A higher toned voice caused Lyla to sit up and she twisted her head, glancing at the other blonde girl who had sat next to her. She knew who she was. They were in the same year, but this girl was a Gryffindor. More so, Winifred Meagle. Artemis' facial expression stayed stone cold as she listened to the girl's question. Lifting the coffee to her lips, she let the girl wait a few moments before answering her. "No. Don't know him." A slight French accent shown through, her mix of languages giving her a unique accent.

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The other girl took her time in answering, though it was long enough before she actually said anything that Winnie wondered if she had even heard her question. She was just about to open her mouth to repeat herself, but the girl did respond. “No,” she told her. “Don't know him.”

Well, that had gone nowhere. Considering that she didn't know the girl beside her by name, she doubted that she knew hers, either. Maybe, Winnie thought, it would help to describe her brother, instead. “He's my brother. Gryffindor, blonde, not very tall…?” All of those were adjectives that could have been used to describe herself, too. “Does that help?”

@jill8

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@winifred
<3

An eyebrow rose at the girl continuing to question her. Does she not realize how many short, blonde Gryffindors there were? Lyla probably couldn't count them all, if you thought about it. But, she supposed she should humor the girl, right? Sighing, she forced a smile. "Sorry, but no, I haven't an idea where he may be. But, Hogsmeade is pretty big. You might be more well off to just go back to the castle and wait there."

Lyla kept her tone of voice somewhat cheery. She wasn't in a terrible mood, just stressed out more than normal with her own personal life. It seemed like lately her parents were enjoying doing that to her, and with Emile and everything else at school, she had a short fuse more often than not. "Or, maybe try asking someone else in your house? I can't say I've ever met your brother."

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“Sorry, but no, I haven't an idea where he may be.” Still no luck. “But,” the other girl did add, “Hogsmeade is pretty big. You might be more well off to just go back to the castle and wait there.”

She also brought up that she could always ask another Gryffindor, and Winnie huffed in frustration. The girl had a point that waiting in the castle might have been better, but going all the way back to Gryffindor Tower meant that she would have to miss out on a perfectly good day in Hogsmeade. That, naturally, brought to mind the question that Winnie then raised to the other girl.

“What are you doing at the train station, anyway?” Winnie had never heard of an instance in which anyone had been granted permission to go on the train during a Hogsmeade weekend, and especially not with the Auror protection that they had been under for months.

@jill8

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@winifred
<3

The girl huffed at her and Lyla's eyebrows rose, tilting her head. What was that for? Lyla was just trying to help, if she didn't like it she could go speak to someone else about her problems. No one asked her to confront Artemis and she sure as hell wasn't going to allow an attitude for trying to do something nice. "Or you could continue to just walk around aimlessly asking for him when he might already be back at the castle." She smiled.

She then questioned why she was at the train station and Lyla couldn't help but laugh out loud. What was with this girl? She had no idea who she was, what her name was, or why she decided to talk to her of all people. And now she's questioning why she was where she was? "I don't really see how that's any of your business."

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“Or you could continue to just walk around aimlessly asking for him when he might already be back at the castle.”

Winnie wasn't trying to get into any arguments. She could have gone back to the castle, perhaps; Xan was there. She could stay in Hogsmeade, too, and wait for her brother to turn up. If Zac was looking for her, too—which she wondered if he might have been—going back to the castle was only going to create panic for him. He wouldn't have done that to her, so it wasn't right for her to risk putting him through that. Winnie frowned as she thought that maybe they should have established a meeting point, somewhere where one or the other of them could go if they got separated, so they wouldn't have to go around asking girls on train station benches who didn't even know if they had seen someone who looked like them.

And then there was Winnie's question for the girl who said that she didn't know her brother: What was she doing at the train station? The answer to that one wasn't as apparent as Winnie had anticipated, for the girl told her, “I don't really see how that's any of your business.”

The girl's secrecy immediately suggested to Winnie that she must have been up to no good. If she had a legitimate reason for being at the train station, she thought to herself, the other girl would have provided it, however boring it might have been. “…So you're breaking the rules?” she asked, making her best attempt at reading between the lines. Winnie didn't think that there was any rule against going to the train station, provided that she didn't actually get on a train to somewhere else, but who just sat there? “Where are you going, then?” With her second question, there wasn't any accusation in Winnie's voice; she was just curious. Having come—Winnie didn't see it as “jumping”—to the firm conclusion that this girl was going somewhere, she wanted to know more.

@jill8

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@winifred
<3

This girl was too much. Lyla was not in the mood and here she was, acting as if she knew her and what she was doing. Breaking the rules? Did she even know who she was? Lyla stood up, anger coursing through her. "Watch what you say, you daft lion." Who did this bimbo think she was? God forbid someone just sat at the train station, now they thought they were breaking the rules? "Are you dumb? Does everyone who comes to the train station go somewhere? Did it cross your mind that I may just be sitting here?" Lyla was angry, but she was also just in shock. This was craziness, and she was ready to just walk away from this insane girl. This is exactly why she didn't converse much with some Gryffindor's. Their so called 'bravery' got the best of them.