THE WITCHING HOUR
(An addition to Hoggy Rebirthted RP)
Location: The Great Lake: White Tomb
Time: Monday night
Interactions: Ravena Fawley, Glesni Carrow, Virgilius Hildegard
Pale marble cover glistened under the moonlight. A pair of emerald green eyes rested fixated on the hypnotic twists of shadows as they danced restlessly, lead by the evening breeze. Occasionally, a cool breeze would pick up, rubbing cold creeps against exposed parts of her skin. Regardless, Glesni did not flinch.
"The eye is always caught by the light," came a thought.
"But shadows have more to say."
A bird sounded somewhere down the lake, engaging in a soothing conversation with another. In the usual fashion, the girl would perhaps make a fuss about the wind or the fact that she would have to wait for who knows how long before Ravena would appear, but complaining hadn't quite crossed her mind tonight. Instead, the knot of nervousness in her guts kept her rooted in place as if it would end her if she dared to move.
Somewhere down the road, the moon rose to the center of the sky, appearing behind the cover of clouds. First quietly, then louder and closer, a voice caught Glesni's attention.
"...that they would make a more appropriate approaching point. Is this management of yours even doing anything?"
"You're late."
Ravena's steps slowed down, then stopped behind the girl. The witch clapped her hands in response.
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early," she quoted, her niece finally turning around and sparing her a glance.
"He arrives-"
"Precisely when he means to. Yes. I know," Glesni finished the quote, maintaining her unamused gaze.
"Yes, well. Yes." With quite some time since the last meeting, Ravena remained rooted in place, uncertain of how to handle the girl's indifference.
To Glesni, however, she was a more than welcome change of scenery. After what seemed like an eternity of cold hard stare, the girl's eyes narrowed, and lips stretched in a wide smile. By the time she entirely traversed the distance to her aunt, Glesni Carrow laughed aloud. Ravena Fawley responded with an excited squeal as she embraced the girl tightly against her body.
"You little devil," the witch chuckled, rubbing Glesni's head playfully.
"Tap. Tap out!" Glesni whined light-heartedly, trying to break free.
"You think you can come here looking all cute and give me the attitude, huh?"
After a few more attempts to convince her, Ravena's grip finally loosened, allowing Glesni to compose herself.
"I always give you the attitude. What do you mean?" she jested.
"Look at you," Ravena responded, staring proudly at the young woman in front of her.
"You gorgeous thing."
Lifting her eyebrow in question, Glesni rolled her eyes.
"Alright then, enough with the pathetic. Give me a proper hug, huh?" And she did not have to insist the second time. As if only she needed was an excuse or permission, Ravena pulled her into another tight hug. The wave of pride and bitterness washed over her as she held the girl close. Oh, how proud she was, but also how broken. Feeling the surge of tears soaking up her eyes, she squinted firmly and bit her lip.
"Half circle. Zig-Zag and point. Weird...bird thing then a twist..." Seemingly nonsensical thoughts worked. As quickly as they appeared, the tears dried out once her mind occupied describing wand movements. She had found out a long time ago that it was an efficient way not to lose your mind.
"Hey! I said you're suffocating me," Glesni's complaint finally reached her and dragged her back to the present.
"Oh shit!" she exclaimed right after lowering her tone and apologizing wordlessly to the stone tomb.
"I'm sorry, Monkey. I've missed you a lot."
"Ah yes, you've decided to suffocate me to death instead," Glesni chuckled, adjusting her hoodie.
"So, tell me! How was the trip?"
************
"So that's it then?"
Rhythmical hits of waves against the shore filled in a brief silence between them.
"Not quite." A simple response weighted down heavier than a whole report, but it came as no surprise. Glesni sighed, throwing a small rock into the water under her.
"Figures," she responded, somewhat disappointed, placing another empty candy wrapper that then dissolved.
"Put some crappy rules in a crappy society, and you get a pile of... well. Crap." The dissatisfaction of masses seemed to be a common theme in the Wizarding World forever, but that knowledge made every fire intensely close to the fuse. Ravena nodded in silent agreement.
"The Ministry is involved. Which, granted, wouldn't have been the strangest thing given how they are there to clean the mess after all. But once you know what to look for, you know that there could be more than simple damage control," she paused before scoffing.
"Bet the Big Man knows quite a bit more."
"Don't."
"In times like these, it would be nice to have the right people in the right positions."
"Well. Tough luck. There're always other ways," Glesni interrupted, skipping the subject of her father altogether, and Ravena caught on.
"But!" she exclaimed suddenly.
"How's the boy hero?" The jest landed on Glesni's scolding glance.
"How the hell should I know?" she shrugged, facing forward across the lake's surface.
"I don't go around asking people how they're feeling. Why would I ask him? Obviously, he isn't okay. Who would be? Not like he went in there looking for trouble." Noticing Ravena's overly amused gaze on her, Glesni halted and cleared her throat.
"...I guess."
"Ah. Understandable," Ravena agreed energetically, holding back a smirk that she knew would make the girl burst into redness more than she already did.
"What?"
"What do you mean 'what?'"
"What was that response?"
"I just agreed with-"
"You were giving me a look," Glesni kept fussing.
"What look? I don't have a look."
"Yes, you do! Stop."
"Stop what?" Ravena laughed out, unable to hold back under a shower of light slaps against her upper arm.
"That!"
"You know, if you already must trespass, please do it quietly."
The row of chuckles and groans came to an abrupt stop as Glesni bolted up on her feet, briefly slipping in the process. Once stable and composed, she greeted the figure.
"Professor Hildegard. Good evening."
Regardless of many questions on his mind, the man took his time to respond with a polite nod.
"And a very good evening to you, miss Carrow, and..." he paused with eyes focusing on the unfamiliar woman. He patiently waited for an answer when their eyes met. Regardless of just running into a quite severe offense, professor Hildegard maintained a calm composure without any haste or a sign of trouble.
"Are you kidding me?" Ravena presented a question instead of an expected answer, her eyes widening ever so slightly at the man.
"Perhaps if you would be so generous as to point out the joke for me, I could give you a better fitting answer," Virgil responded dryly. A few steps away from him, redness returned to Glesni's face as she rubbed her forehead, hiding discomfort.
"Virgilius Hildegard," Ravena identified the man in awe as she rose up from the ground.
"Damn Hildegard on the very first night."
"Ravena-" Glesni called out but quickly came to a halt, lowering her head under Virgil's glare. Albeit docile, it still held its weight. It was a weight of consequence now that he knew it wasn't the isolated incident but an elaborate get-together. Ravena, however, seemed unbothered by the potential trouble.
Silently confirming his identity, Virgil measured out the woman before repeating his request.
"I am not quite sure I caught your name, miss..." His ears never failed him. He had heard her name clearly. Still, ethics were held in high regard with the man, and he wished for the answer from the person he was referring to.
"Right!" she finally spoke.
"Ravena Fawley. Nice to meet you. I've heard plenty," she grinned, extending her hand. Then, briefly assessing the situation, Virgil's stance loosened up slightly, and he accepted a handshake - a surprisingly firm, confident one.
"Wish I could say the same, miss Fawley."
"Pfft. Nah!" came out of Ravena, evidently confused by the unexpected encounter with a person held in such high regard by one of Durmstrang's best.
"Nothing to know, really," she giggled stupidly, mouthing back her excitement to Glesni.
"Yes. I know. He's... teaching here. I am seeing him the entire year," the girl responded uncomfortably, approaching the two.
"I- I have to apologize, professor," she started, but frankly, she had no clue where to begin. Instead of insisting, however, Virgil offered her a courteous smirk.
"How about you ladies fill me in on the reason for this rendezvous of yours, and we can skip apologies, yes?"
Ravena and Glesni exchange glare. Without much hesitation, Glesni nodded affirmatively.
"I suppose that's only fair," the witch concluded.
"But where to start?" she scoffed nervously, getting a fast and confident response in return.
"From the beginning. If you don't mind."
************
Where there was smoke, there was fire, it has been said. And when the cloud of smoke was visible across the continent, the fire was to be of concern. Little had he disclosed his visit to the family seat, but small trails of smoke encountered there now made for a bigger picture - a collage of escalating issues across the front.
"And, figuring how the Ministry now involved. Uh. Your kind as well..." the woman hesitated, and it didn't go unnoticed to Virgil.
"A 'vampire' isn't a derogatory term, miss Fawley. There is no need to dance around it."
"Yes! Of course. I was just making sure," Ravena hurried to justify her poor choice of words with a nervous chuckle. Seemingly ignoring it to her great relief, Virgil returned to the topic at hand.
"The vampire community had been under surveillance for years, but the Ministry also did not feel the need to go through the S.T.V's affairs in detail. Until this summer, that is. To put it mildly, the community is far from alright with it all."
"Well, it is understandable, don't you think?"
"No."
The answer did not seem to be what Ravena had expected to hear. Catching perplexed gazes of females, Virgil's educational instinct spoke for him.
"With all due respect to your knowledge, but the true core of our community is evading you. Some in it are openly willing to react to such provocation since the incident, and it is becoming problematic. And I am not speaking of lower hierarchical circles."
Nodding her head, Ravena stood with her eyes squinted, contemplating the information received.
"And here I was thinking I'm coming to you all with some new knowledge. Then again, if I had known I would be facing you right the hell away, I would have come prepared."
A subtle challenge of wits brought out a smirk.
"Please, do not take this the wrong way," Virgil responded,
"But I doubt it."
A small snort came from Glesni, and this time, she received professor Hildegard's full attention.
"Ah, and miss Carrow. Before I forget. I am deducting ten points from Slytherin for your little adventure. Please return to your dorm."
Behind him, Ravena enjoyed the sweet taste of instant karma while Glesni attempted to reason her way out of it.
"Professor, if I may-"
"Fifteen points, miss Carrow," Virgil interrupted calmly.
"B-but I-"
"Twenty. And may I remind you the typical amount is fifty, so please. Do continue."
Being the second time her behavior threatened to damage the house for a significant amount of points after the DADA incident, Glesni decided to, for once, keep her arguments to herself.
"Yes, professor," she agreed reluctantly, making her way towards the castle.
"She's a good kid," Ravena spoke fondly, with Glesni out of the hearing reach.
"Let us keep it that way, shall we?" Virgil suggested rhetorically.
"As a fellow professor, you are more than welcome to visit at a proper hour and walk through the front door."
"Right! Of course," Ravena nodded, much to Virgil's pleasure.
"Now, please follow me. I will escort you out."
"Oh! That won't be necessary, I'll just, uh..." Realizing that levitating over the wall hardly counted as 'knowing a proper way out,' Ravena quickly stopped pointing in that direction.
"Well, if you insist."
"You are a guest, after all. It'll be my pleasure." Even though reasonably tall, Ravena still barely reached the tip of Virgil's shoulders. Because of it, she instinctively straightened up her posture, although it made almost no difference.
"Have you managed to visit around yet, miss Fawley?" Virgil interrupted the silence.
"Yes, of course. Hogsmeade. Wonderful place."
"Indeed," he agreed politely.
"You did not happen to see any students of ours committing truancy around there, have you?" Ravena wasn't quite sure what unnerved her more: the question itself or Hildegard's calm, unbothered tone. She felt like a student all over again.
"The question is straightforward, miss Fawley."
"No? Not that I know of?" Quite frankly, the fact that Ravena wasn't sure what 'truancy' actually meant helped it not being a complete lie. Then again, she had a good idea of what it may have been.
"Interesting. It must have been a peculiar case of mistaken identity. After all, I am sure there are plenty of scarred boys running around Hogsmeade during school hours these days."
"Perhaps. Boys will be boys!" she chuckled nervously, stubbornly sticking to her bad little story. Realizing that it was a pathetic response, she jumped the boat in the final attempt to get herself off the hook.
"Have I told you? Professor Sergei Elin sent his regards."