let's play a game of russian roulette [cordelia]

[Deleted]

Theodosia wasn't her normal self, that much was obvious. She wasn't strutting around the dungeons with her chin thrust into the air, acting as if every corridor she walked in belonged to her. Rather, the Slytherin's shoulders were hunched, her elbows were tucked into her sides, and she was staring at the flagstones that she was walking on. A lot about Theodosia had changed since she had found Maxima Greyback half-dead in their common room. She hadn't been able to sleep all that well, with the knowledge that someone had tried to kill herself in the next bed over, and that, compounded with Lucy's crabbiness and the stress of the fact that a stupid Gryffindor had been picked for the Triwizard Champion, was making Theodosia less...everything than usual. She was less loud, less attentive, and definitely less mean. So much less mean that, when someone bumped into her, Theodosia didn't even bother trying to hex them - she just looked up with sad, bleary eyes to see who had been clumsy enough to run into her.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

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Late. That’s what Cordelia was. Class was supposed to start in ten minutes and she still had to run up multiple flights of stairs. She already knew that it was futile and there was a good chance that the professor was going to call her out for it. That was the worst. Being called on to demonstrate something in class was one thing, but having the professor call her out? She’d prefer not showing up at all if that was going to be the case. Detention and marked down grades were way better in her eyes than having the entire class staring at her.

Worrying about being late and not really paying attention where she was going, Cordelia cut a corner in the dungeons extremely hard and made contact with something. At first, she thought she had maybe bumped into the corner of the wall. The force of it made her drop her bag, and she quickly bent over to pick it up. Bag now in hand, Cordelia stood up straight and made eye contact with the person she had actually ran into. Not a wall in the slightest; a person. Almost immediately, she could feel her face start to become bright red as she became flustered over being so clumsy. “S-s-s-sorry…” Was all she could manage to force out at first. Eventually, the girl that Cordelia had ran into looked up at her. She semi-expected to get chewed out for it, since in the past, that was always the first reaction of people had towards her whenever she ran into them. Instead this girl looked sad.

Cordelia’s brain defaulted to the idea that maybe it was because of her. Still flustered beyond belief, she managed to mutter a few things that were inaudible, even to herself. Quickly stopping herself, knowing that whatever she had just said would confuse the girl, Cordelia took a deep breath and tried again. “Are you o-o-okay?”

@theodosia ● 322 ● Seize The Day by Avenged Sevenfold

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

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Theodosia looked up blearily as whoever it was that had bumped into her apologized profusely. Hufflepuff, Theodosia’s mind chimed helpfully. Pureblood, but not one of ours. One of theirs? One of hers, Theodosia decided. Not one of Elaine’s. She opened her mouth to respond to the apology, not sure what she was going to say but sure that something had to be said, and then closed it again. What was she supposed to say? She had watched someone try to kill herself two nights ago. She couldn’t well snap at this Hufflepuff, because Theodosia wasn’t any better than her. She had saved a half-blood, for Merlin’s sake! Theodosia opened her mouth again when the other girl asked if she was okay, and was surprised when a soft squeak came out, prologuing the words she had meant to say. “I’m fine.” Sadly, Theodosia’s tone gave her away. It was just one shade short of morose, and the Slytherin’s lacked its normal snap. “Are you?” The world really was coming to an end, Theo thought, because she had just shown genuine concern about someone. This sucked.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

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What was probably only seconds felt like ages to Cordelia, and she braced for the impact as she waited for the other girl’s response to her apology. She had clenched down onto her bag, slightly moving it in front of her body in case a spell was the answer to asking if she was okay. Unfortunately that had happened one time and Cordelia was not keen on having that situation repeat itself again. She didn’t know this girl, and probably vice-versa, so getting away with something like that would be extremely easy to do. Plus the collision was all her fault in the first place. If she hadn’t been late to class and running through the corridor, then none of this would have occurred.

The other girl, a Slytherin by the looks of it, started to open her mouth like she was going to say something, but she didn’t. Cordelia was slightly puzzled by this, and was even more confused when she did it again, this time letting out a squeak before saying that she was fine. The Hufflepuff wasn’t the best when it came to understanding other’s feelings, but the way the girl said she was fine sounded more like there was something wrong. As her mind started to kick into overdrive, Cordelia immediately thought this tone of voice and response was all because of her. It was the only thing that made sense. Before she could step forward to offer the girl help, in case she had gotten hurt somewhere, the little Slytherin asked if she was okay too. Did she hear that right? Everything she had expected to happen; getting yelled at, chewed out, maybe attacked…none of that happened. Instead the girl asked her if she was okay.

Whatever this strange parallel universe she had stumbled in was, she definitely wanted to stay there. Nobody had ever responded that way to her, especially after hard contact like that. She was more than positive that her mouth was hanging open, mostly because of her disbelief that this was actually happening. Maybe she was just lucky enough to run into someone who was actually really kind and caring. This girl looked like she could be one of those kinds. “I’m f-fine. I didn’t hurt you d-did I?” She was still concerned about the way the girl had responded earlier. “I know s-some healing spells if you are…”

@theodosia ● 398 ● Holiday by Green Day

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

The other girl seemed to be prone to stuttering, and Theodosia was grateful for that. The stutters took extra time, filled extra empty space, and made it so Theodosia didn’t have to um and ah her way through the conversation while trying to cherry-pick words that would make her seem like she wasn’t in danger of falling apart. When the other girl asked if she had hurt Theodosia, the Slytherin just shook her head. She had seen how talking had worked out for her, and it hadn’t gone well. Nonverbal communication might be the best method for now. The question about healing spells demanded a verbal answer, though, so Theodosia opened her mouth again. Thankfully, she didn’t squeak again, though her voice was still oddly rough and scratchy when she did talk. “I’m not hurt. I don't need healing spells.” Well, not physically hurt, and as far as Theodosia knew, there were no healing spells for the mind. That was why people went crazy after being tortured with the Cruciatus Curse. “Why were you running?” If they could get off the subject of their collision, then maybe Theodosia wouldn’t have to talk so much, and the other girl would stop asking her if she was okay. Theo wasn’t sure how many more times she could take the question before all the sordid secrets spilled out of her mouth, everything about saving a half-blood werewolf mongrel to maybe, possibly, having feelings for said half-blood. It was the only scenario that Theodosia could compose that justified her going against her every belief to save Maxima, and ever since Theodosia had seen Max at the GSA meeting, she wondered if maybe, the way she thought about Max had been changed without her even noticing. Theo hadn’t known that anyone in her house wasn’t straight, let alone her own roommate, and that changed things. It changed things a lot.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

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The Slytherin girl nodding her head that she was fine was a relief to Cordelia, and probably more than the other girl realized. She let out a small sigh, mostly because she had been holding her breath while waiting for a response of some kind. The last thing she had wanted was to hurt someone else while rushing to class. Her carelessness didn’t need to cause others harm. Unfortunately it did from time to time, and she always regretted that. It was one of the reasons she had dedicated herself to learning healing spells, so that any messes she made she could also mix. That and it was easy to learn them when her mother was a healer. Some would say it was in her blood. She nodded her head and swallowed as the girl then answered that she was fine and didn’t need to be patched up at all. Another wave of relief passed over Cordelia. There weren’t many things that worked out perfectly for her, but this seemed to be one of those rare instances.

Then the girl asked her why she was running. Cordelia shifted her feet and looked down at the floor. She knew this is where she was probably going to get yelled at. There was a reason professors and prefects alike were strict on the no running in the corridor policy. It was because issues like this arose from it, people got hurt, or yelled, or threw spells back and forth at each other. She hoped that the age old excuse of running to the hospital wing or to the bathroom would fall out of her mouth before running to class did, but today wasn’t as luck as she thought. “…t-t-to class.” She muttered out, still staring at the ground. In one way, she was still hoping that this girl was going to be as nice as she had been already, but she had a feeling there would be negative repercussions based on her response.

@theodosia ● 331 ● Chapter Four [Demo] by Avenged Sevenfold

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

This girl wasn’t all that talkative, and Theodosia wasn’t sure whether to be thankful for it or despise it. Normally she was the one who did all the talking, and there wasn’t much actual conversation. People didn’t often talk after Theodosia insulted them – they kind of sputtered and tried to come up with a clever comeback. But now, when Theo didn’t feel like talking, and the silence stretched longer and longer, she wished that the other girl was a better conversationalist. Theodosia cleared her throat imperiously when the Hufflepuff just said ‘to class’. Theo hadn’t asked where she was going – she had asked why. If the Hufflepuff had said she was late to class, then that would be an appropriate answer, but apparently that was too difficult to say. When Theodosia opened her mouth to correct Cordelia, though, she found that she couldn’t. She was…she didn’t even know, but Theodosia didn’t feel like being mean, and that was scary. She didn’t feel like making small talk, either, but that was the lesser of the two evils at that point. “What class?” Maybe if the girl realized that she was going to be a late to a class she would leave, and then Theodosia could be alone to wallow in her misery.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

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The dreaded throat clear. Cordelia knew what that meant all too well. The second the other girl did it, she had images flash in her head of her grandmother, who was always constantly doing that to her when she said something that didn’t make sense or stuttered too much. She had always thought that it was some old way to help correct the stutter, to make her slow down and say things again. It definitely worked. Her grandmother didn’t understand that the only reason she stuttered around her was because of how harsh she was when talking. Unfortunately Cordelia could never explain that to her because she was always interrupted by a throat clear. Now this girl was doing it. She had definitely tested the girl’s patience, which was nice of her to deal with so far. The stuttering, terrible eye contact, and general inability to communicate anything properly was a handful for most people. How her friends and family had managed to deal with it up to this point was beyond her. She was a little better around them, but it still managed to find its way out regardless.

The very strange, small conversation that they seemed to be having continued though, much to Cordelia’s dismay. She didn’t exactly want the girl to leave her alone, more that now that she knew everything was fine and she wasn’t hurt, there really wasn’t much more to talk about. Yet now she wanted to know what class she had been running to. Cordelia realized then that her previous answer, why she had been running through the corridors, didn’t really make sense the way she had said it. “T-transfiguration.” She said, looking back up at the girl. It didn’t really matter at this point though, she was probably going to be late, and it was better to just skip then to walk in and have everyone look at her. Then the professor always had to give the spiel about arriving on time and would use her as a prime example for why getting there when class started was in their best interests. Being picked out like that was worse than this conversation they were kind of having. “I’m probably late now…” Frowning, she thought to turn around and head back to the common room. “W-where were you going?” She didn’t know why, but it seemed like a good thing to ask the other girl this. A common courtesy; she asked where Cordelia was going and what class she was running too, why not detail what she was doing?

@theodosia ● 426 ● Save Me by Avenged Sevenfold

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

Apparently they were going to continue to limp through this conversation like both of them were actually enjoying what was happening. Theodosia didn’t know why anyone who stuttered that terribly would want to continue talking, but she wasn’t in any position to be judging, considering she didn’t want to keep talking, either, but she couldn’t bring herself to walk away. Keeping her answers minimalistic wasn’t helping all that much, so when the girl next spoke, Theodosia forced herself to create an answer that was more than one or two words. “Transfiguration is one of my best subjects. It’s easy to get behind if you miss a class.” There. She had left the Hufflepuff another out, another way to leave the conversation without making either of them feel even more awkward than they already were. At least the Hufflepuff was going to a class that was worth going to, Theodosia mused. If she had been going to Muggle Studies, Theodosia might have kept them both trapped in this train wreck for the sole purpose of not allowing her to go learn about something as blasphemous as Muggle culture.

“I was just going back to my dormitory.” Theodosia responded, once again forcing herself to use more words than necessary. “I just got out of Charms class.” It had been a boring class, to say the least – Theodosia was not the least bit fond of the professor. She was even worse than the last one. The professor’s only saving graces were that she wasn’t a Gryffindor, and she wasn’t a Mudblood, which was more than could be said of most of the other teachers at the school.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

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She thought that after the girl responded to her question, it would be done with. But no, it continued. This wasn’t really how she had envisioned the conversation going at all, and it seemed like neither of them were really that talkative. It was just back and force chatter, nothing more than that. They hadn’t learned anything interesting from each other, just why Cordelia was running in the halls, what class she was going to, and what the other girl was doing. She didn’t want to label it as boring, but it kind of was. She also had to really get to class, yet she kept delaying it to talk. Not only was that unlike her, it was ridiculous that she was thinking of actually skipping a class. It had happened before, but not on purpose like this. She nodded her head as the girl mentioned that it was easy to get behind in Transfiguration is she missed a class. It finally seemed like she wanted Cordelia to leave. That wasn’t a bad out at all either, since she completely agreed. The girl was also heading back to her dormitory from Charms, so there really was no reason to keep her held up any longer. Stepping around the girl, Cordelia adjusted her bag and smiled. “S-sorry again. Have a go-good day.” Breaking into a run again, she continued through the dungeons. Maybe if she was quick enough she could make it to class in time. The worst that could happen was getting yelled at, or maybe running into someone else.

[CORDELIA OUT]

@theodosia ● 260 ● Shepherd of Fire by Avenged Sevenfold

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0