A day outside with Lionheart. (Zachary)

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Emrys was sitting outside in the courtyard upon a stone bench.  The sky was a bright blue and the sun as shining, despite the weather being as cold as ever.  Emrys was fondly watching her ginger tabby tomcat, Lionheart, idly playing with a ball that she had tossed for him.  She had nothing to do at the time being and decided to spent her leisure outside in the fresh air with her cat, who she loved dearly.

She had actually decided to wear her silver chain locket today.  No, it wasn't because she was interested in jewelry.  The locket was more than a pretty necklace to her.  It was an old one that had its existence before she was even born.  It had belonged to her mother, but ever since her father and sister died, her mother had given it to her.  Bored, she decided to open the oval locket and look at the pictures slipped into each side of split locket.  Placing the locket on her palm, she carefully unlocked it with the fingers of her other hand.

On the right side of the open locket was an image of her father and on the left one was an image of her twin sister, pitifully only eight months old.  Both she, her sister, and her older half-brother had their father's coloring.  As Emrys glanced at the smiling portrait of her father, she could see the dark hair and blue eyes she had inherited from him.  She also distinctively had his nose, although her eyebrows, face shape, and lips were her mother's.  Her father's face was too square-shaped to be her's.

Looking at her sister's photo, she observed, not for the first time, that this was how she herself had looked like when she was an eight month old baby.  The two of them were--or, had been--identical.  Her sister was laughing joyfully for the camera; her mother explained that their brother had stood behind the camera and made silly faces for her to laugh hysterically when the photo was taken.  Babies never smiled unless they had a good reason to, after all.  Emrys felt bad for her mother whenever she recounted the happy past without showing any emotion other than fondness.  By now, she would've already come to terms with the loss of her husband and baby daughter after all the years that had passed.  But it was still a very heavy loss, and she couldn't imagined the depths of Alyssa's sadness and regret when she looked at these photos and talked about them.  It was touching to know that she could view them with happiness now that the brunt of her grieving had past by, and it was very bittersweet as well.         

Tag: @crystal

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Memories were a strange thing for Zach--a funny thing that was. In the strange way might we add--not in the 'ha ha ha' kind of way for the record. He supposed it could have been because of his past. It could have been because of the seventeen years worth of memories that were locked up in the depths of his mind. And no matter how hard he tried to recall these events, places, people and things--it was like a blurry picture that you couldn't get into focus. It affected him more then he wanted to admit. He hated not being able to remember things. He hated the ever constant reminder of betrayal. It was always there--always in his face. It wasn't like he could forget about it--every time he thought of something or someone and he couldn't remember them, the nights when he would have nightmares about it--it wasn't something he would have wished on his worst enemy. But as the years went on--he had come to accept it as just a part of his life. He wasn't sure if he was ever going to get those memories back--but alas he could not sit there and wallow in his doubts--wallow in the 'what ifs'--he had students to teach, students to protect and a murderer to help stop.

The thought of the murderer being a student and among them all and probably planning another kill--it never left his mind. He wanted to find them, stop them. And even though he had his suspicions of who it was--and even thought he had talked to said suspect--he was no closer to finding out anything then he had been beforehand. A part of him wondered if his gut instincts had been wrong for a change. It wouldn't have been the first time after all. But no--that sense of danger was still there. Every time he passed the girl with Yula at hand the dog got unusually tense and nervous--and dogs of all creatures were more in tune with people then most creatures. Something was indeed wrong even if he could not place his finger upon it,

But all of that was to be left for later. Despite being the serious and hard working man that he was--that wasn't to say he didn't have his moments where he just wanted to be alone, to be by himself, and to let his troubles fly away (even if it was just for a moment of two). And so here he was--out on the grounds with Yula. Yula could sense the turmoil within her human and so she stuck close to his side. It wasn't long though before the canine sensed someone else...deep in their own though. She yipped softly as she saw the dark haired girl and Zach recognized her as Alyssa's daughter. She always stuck to herself--maybe that was because of her past--or something like that. Still it seemed as if she could use a friendly word or two--and if she wanted him to back off...he would. He wasn't pushy like that,

"It seems as if I am not the only one deep in thought. Are you doing all right?" he asked curiously then waited for her response...

@emrys

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Emrys glanced up from staring at the locket when she heard her cat hiss.  Once she looked at it, it scurried over to a corner of the courtyard and stood there with the back of its fur risen, staring warily at whoever or whatever was approaching.  She followed the direction of its gaze and was pleasantly surprised to find her Charms professor and his dog making their way to her.

She liked Professor Eielson.  He had was friendly, but stern when he needed to be.  She was one of those students who believed that professors should have a level of strictness to them so that they could have the respect of their students--if not, students would feel that they were at liberty to behave however they wanted and get disruptive and rowdy.  Emrys, who believed in discipline and order, would hate that.  In fact, she didn't mind if her professors were callously strict.  Of course, though, not many people were like that.

The Hufflepuff also liked dogs, too.  They were strong, loyal, brave, and affectionate creatures, the type of pet that a fighter like her would appreciate.  However, she couldn't bring a dog to school so she resorted to a cat.  She was alright with cats and thought they were cute and fierce in their own way, but she admired the strength of dogs more.

Emrys closed the locket and let it slip from her palm to hang against her chest.  She didn't mind having the professor or his pet around.  Although she didn't smile, because Emrys rarely smiled, she nodded at the man and glanced at the dog in acknowledgment before turning her gaze back to her professor.  "Good afternoon, Professor Eielson," she greeted him respectfully.  She nodded when he asked her if she was alright.  "I am doing fine, thank you.  I hope that you're doing good as well, sir."  She didn't know what he was deep in thought about, but she was too polite to ask.  And besides, he was a professor.  Obviously he would have his own troubles, such as thinking about what to cover in the upcoming lesson or about how to deal with a failing student, or a misbehaving one.  Luckily she was not any of that.            

Tag: @crystal