The scars that mark my body, they’re silver and gold (puck)

[Deleted]

It was early Sunday morning, she didn't know what time. She had snuck back into Hogwarts and made her way to the Hospital Wing. Breakfast would be starting soon but she needed to get cleaned up before she snuck into breakfast as if she had been at the school the whole time. She slipped into the Hospital Wing, glad that it was still the first month of school so it looked pretty empty. In fact, she didn't see anyone there which was encouraging.

She moved to one of the sinks in the corner and quickly washed her hands. The blood red stains on them slowly started to come off, she turned the nob so the water was even hotter. Soon she was surrounded by steam, completely careless about the definite burning she was doing to her hands. She stayed calm and she scrubbed at the blood. It wasn't her own, which was good, but she did have a few scrapes from the previous night. She looked at her arm where one scrape was and washed it off too. After drying her hands, she looked down at her clothes. No blood on them. At least she'd done a clean job of it.

Her mind was still in a trance and she hadn't snapped out of it yet, hadn't realized the horrible things she'd done. She walked over to one of the beds and sat on the edge of it, pulling the curtain slightly so that if someone walked in the door she had some warning before they saw her. She rolled up her sleeves to assess the scrape. It wasn't that bad. She rolled her sleeve back down and slowly laid back on the pillow, eyes on the ceiling.

Wow, mutilating people was exhausting. 

@cecelia
or
@jamie

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Cecelia couldn’t believe that term had just started and she was already in the hospital wing. She had managed to pass out when walking down the breakfast, and apparently that was worrying enough to warrant observation in the hospital wing until they figured out what was wrong with her. Cecelia already knew the answer to that question – after five months of not eating and not sleeping, her body was finally beginning to shut down. She was surprised that she had lasted this long without any serious repercussions. She was lucky that she had passed out on one of the landings and not on the stairs themselves, otherwise she would have faced a rather nasty tumble.

The Gryffindor girl was surprised to find that there was another from her house, and her year, nonetheless, already in the hospital wing when she turned on her side to look around. “Guess this hasn’t been a great day for seventh year Gryffindors.” Cecelia joked weakly. She looked guiltily towards the door to Madam Blacksmith’s office – she wasn’t supposed to be talking, or moving, or doing anything, really, until she got some food in her. The plate of scrambled eggs that the nurse had asked for was still sitting on the bedside table, untouched, and Cecelia didn’t intend to eat them anytime soon.

@lestrange

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Andy jumped when she heard a voice coming from one of the beds. She spun around, her eyes wide for a moment as she saw Bay's face, but she wasn't stupid. Her hand had flown to clasp her heart and she smiled softly, slowly lowering her hand as her breath steadied. "Seems so," she muttered. She was taught to be polite, of course, but she had her suspicions about Cecelia. The girl was close to Desirae in the past, that was clear, and Andy was pretty sure that Desi deserved to die, so she didn't know what to make of the other sister. Over all, she had a strange feeling about it all. The girl was being kind enough, polite too, making a joke... but still Andy felt sick at the thought of befriending the girl. Which she realized was cold and biased... but she wasn't that good at overcoming those stipulations just yet.

She winced suddenly as the sound of her brothers voice slipped into her mind. He was laughing at her, laughing as she drew even more blood out of him...

She cleared her throat, turning away from Cecelia and back to the sink. "Just lucky, I guess," she muttered, looking at her own scars now.

@cecelia

[Deleted]

Cecelia wasn’t stupid. She knew that every time people saw her, they were going to see Bay, too. It was part of the reason she was so terrified of her own reflection – it was always Braelynn she saw first. Still, that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt a little when there was always a flash of disappointment on people’s faces when they remembered that it was just Cecelia. Andromeda was no different. Cecelia tried to smile at her, but it was just too much work, especially considering that Andy probably wasn’t going to smile back. Nobody did, really, except for her Beauxbatons friends, and she was going to have to learn to accept that.

“Yeah. Lucky.” Cece agreed listlessly. It wasn’t luck that had gotten her here – it was a choice. Sort of. She hadn’t chosen to let Bay die, but she had chosen to destroy herself afterwards. Cecelia pulled the tray of eggs towards herself, stabbing a fork into them, but her stomach turned at the thought of actually putting the bite into her mouth. “You want any eggs?” She asked Andromeda, gesturing towards the plate. “I’m not really that hungry.” It was a good excuse, because no one could ever question it. How were they supposed to know how she was feeling?

@lestrange

[Deleted]

Andy kept her eyes on her hands for a moment as Cecelia spoke again. Then she offered her eggs and Andy immediately felt her stomach rumble. "Actually," she started, turning towards Cece, "that would be great." She stood there awkwardly for a moment before crossing to Cecelia and pulling up a chair beside her bed. "Thanks," she said, sitting up nice and straight.

She didn't mean to be so cold to Cece, to anyone, but it was especially hard when she didn't trust her. She felt sad that she didn't, and even more sad that they had spent a few years in the same dorm and Andy didn't know a single thing about her. Well, at least not things about her personally. What she liked, didn't, what classes she was good at, what she did in her spare time... she had no idea. She didn't know that stuff about a lot of people so it wasn't that strange but... Cecelia had lived with her for almost what, four years now? Andy regretted not even trying to get to know her before she knew what Desirae was. Because now all that bias and fear would be involved.

"Did some of your friends come with Beauxbatons?" Andy guessed, slowly working on eating the eggs.

@cecelia

[Deleted]

Cecelia was more than happy to hand the eggs over to Andy. Caroline was going to give her the third degree about the whole thing, but that didn’t matter. At least now Andromeda wouldn’t be staring at her and the eggs that the nurse had procured wouldn’t go to waste. Cecelia nodded when the other girl thanked her for the eggs, but didn’t know what else to do. At the question about Beauxbatons, though, Cecelia felt herself light up a little. She could talk about Beauxbatons a lot more easily than she could talk about Hogwarts. “Yeah, a few people that I knew when I was younger.” She said. It was the first genuine smile that Cecelia thought she had given in her entire hour at the hospital wing. “It’s kind of – well – some of them – Bay –” Cecelia paused, gathered her thoughts, and tried again. “It’s kind of confusing, because some of them haven’t heard about what happened to Bay, and some of them have, so…” Cece ignored the sinking feeling in her stomach and soldiered on. “It’s kind of like she’s dying all over again, with all the people that I have to tell and all the people that are apologizing for it.” The Gryffindor girl gave a harsh bark of laughter. As if she was the one that they should be apologizing too. “But it’s been nice to have some friendly faces.” Cecelia finished with a shrug. The implication that the faces at Hogwarts weren’t as friendly was heavy in the air, but Cecelia didn’t care. Andromeda knew how much of the Gryffindor house distrusted her, or even hated her. Ravenclaw was even worse. It was just nice not to be alone.

@lestrange

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Andy nodded as Cecelia confided that she knew some people from Beauxbatons. At the mention of Bay, Andy stopped eating and just looked up her eyes already misty. She wasn't sure she wasn't to talk to Cecelia about this but... there it was,. the words were already coming out about how some of them know about Bay and some don't. About how it was like Bay dying all over again. She lowered the fork, placing it on the plate next to the rest of the eggs, not hungry anymore. She felt a tug at her stomach, wanting to tell Cecelia the truth suddenly. She didn't trust her, though, so why would she want to tell her? She couldn't tell anyone, anyway, so it didn't matter how she felt. The rock in her throat was almost too large to talk around, but she managed to find a way to do it once Cecelia had stopped explaining the whole thing. Andy took in a deep breath and nodded, "I understand,"s he said, and she really did. People had talked to her about Bay so many times too, and that was hard even wit knowing the truth. She sat up straighter, "I bet they're happy to see you," she didn't really know how Cecelia and Bay enjoyed their last school... but it sounded like she had some friends there. Then Andy remembered something. last year, last fall, everyone thought Aurora and maybe even Andy were responsible for the attacks at Hogwarts. Andy had almost forgotten about that. About how much she wished that someone had just asked for her side. Shouldn't she do that for Cecelia now?

But she was too much of a coward, she swallowed, keeping her mouth shut on the subject for now...

@cecelia

[Deleted]

Cecelia watched, silent, as Andy put the fork down beside the eggs. Well, at least some of them had been eaten, so Nurse Blacksmith might release the Gryffindor from the hospital wing. Cecelia regarded Andromeda dubiously. She didn't think that the other girl really did understand - there was a difference between your best friend dying and your twin sister dying. As far as she knew, both of the other Lestrange children were alive and well. Maybe Andy could sympathize, but she certainly couldn't empathize. She nodded anyways - she didn't need Andromeda thinking any worse of her than she probably already did. When the other girl commented about the Beauxbatons students being happy to see her, though, Cecelia paused awkwardly. "I don't think most of them recognize me anymore. I haven't exactly looked myself lately." She searched for something positive to say, but settled instead for a shrug. "A lot of them don't realize what's happened here beyond what happened to Braelynn, so it's just different." They didn't realize that Cecelia was a dangerous friend to have, but perhaps an even more dangerous enemy - it was all in who you asked. Maybe soon they would detect the tension between Cecelia and some of her classmates, but maybe her former schoolmates would remain oblivious. She hoped so, for their sakes.

[Deleted]

"Oh," Andy muttered. She honestly didn't know what to say next. Here she was with someone she didn't trust, trying to find a way to be a good person about it, even after she had just caused someone else to bleed by her own hands. The situation was so complicated to her that her head was starting to ache. She looked down at her hands before swallowing and blinking her gaze back to Cecelia. "Are you entering the tournament, then?" she asked. She knew that she wouldn't be, but a lot of her classmates already had and were dying to hear the champions names... she didn't really care, though, but it was a popular topic right now.
@cecelia
(We can cut this short, if you want. I'm not sure that it's in character for Andy to stay much longer!)

[Deleted]

The tournament. It felt silly for Cecelia to fret over something as simple as a glorified game, but she had to admit that there was an allure to it. Desirae would want her to enter, of course, if only to prove that the Rousseaus were still kicking despite Braelynn’s death. There was also some element of escape to be had, though – Cecelia could lose herself in preparing to win, and then maybe she wouldn’t be hurting so bad. “I think that I probably will. It depends on whether I’m ever allowed to leave this place.” Cece said with an attempt at a smile. She still hadn’t eaten any of the eggs that Andy hadn’t consumed, and the Gryffindor was certain that Nurse Blacksmith would somehow know that. “What about you?” Cecelia asked in an attempt to continue their pleasant, if slightly awkward, conversation.

@lestrange
(you can end whenever. c: )

[Deleted]

Andy nodded as Cecelias answer. "I won't be," she answered. She attempted a smile back, but it was just as awkward as it could possibly be. She looked down at her hands, "I hope you'll be all right," and she really did. If only for the sake of one less person being hurt or in trouble. Andy blinked, and for a moment she saw those horrible images again of the night previous. She shook her head, finally standing up. "I'll see you later then, Cecelia," she said, looking up at the girl one more time, but only briefly. She wondered what Bay would think about all of this now, if she could have come back to Hogwarts...

@cecelia
(le end XD)