Rain-Stirred Surface

[Hikalyn Sarello]

OOC: Invite only, I'm afraid. Apologies.

It was well past sunset by now, about the time when most of the students attending the wizarding school of Magic Horizons would be drifting back to their common rooms by this point, to socialize with friends whom they'd only seen in classes all day, to relax, or to get working frantically on a class assignment due early the next morning. Although it wasn't officially curfew yet, it was getting close, close enough that nobody bothered heading outside for some fresh air--particularly with the rather nasty turn the weather had taken of late. Winter was definitely starting to sneak up on them.

Moving at a leisurely pace along the now-deserted path that led down to the lake, clad only in blue jeans and a T-shirt that made a flimsy guard against the stubborn rain, Hikalyn wondered idly if "sneaking" was really the right word. Despite that brief thought, however, the inclement elements really didn't bother her. She was out here almost every night, now, and the weather had already shown that it could be even more uncooperative than this, when it so chose.

She didn't care.

By the time she made it down to a restless, rain-stirred shoreline, her shirt was clinging to her skin in almost the same way her hair was clinging to her face. Other than to reach up and irritably pluck an onyx strand out of her eyes, though, the woman paid the discomfort no mind.

Amethyst eyes stared out at the surface of the lake. Normally glassy and reflective, tonight it was pockmarked by the insistent rainfall. It looked, she decided wryly after a moment, rather similar to how she felt, some days.

Without paying any real attention to what she was doing, Hikalyn dropped to a spot in the sand, settling herself in as if for a long wait, not even noticing the moisture that seeped through the seat of her pants. She was already well on her way to being thoroughly drenched, after all. What was a little more water after all that?

Soaking wet, pelted by precipitation that increased in tempo and intensity as the night wore on, Kalyn hardly even moved other to occassionally shift her weight to some more agreeable position, dismissing the physical discomfort with a faint shrug of her shoulders. It may have been a far cry from the four-poster bed that she'd hardly slept in at all, lately, but as far as she was concerned it was a damn sight better than anything she might find enclosed within four walls of blank, undressed stone.

[Hayzie]

ooc: You would have to make it rainy!

bic: Squelch.

That was the sound that Hayzie's wheelchair kept making. The rain had come on suddenly, and her wheels didn't travel too good over wet mud. Hence why she was getting soaked. After all, when she had left the castle, it was bright sunshine, and despite the cold she refused to go to the hospital wing with,had gone out in a thin jumper and a pair of jeans.

"C'mon!! Wingardium Leviosa!" she whined, the spell not even moving her chair from where it had got itself stuck in a particularly wet patch of mud. It was beginning to get dark, too. Too dark. Any longer, and she would be out by the Lake for the night.

Then night came. Shivering lightly, and trying to wrap up in her arms, Hayz leant her head back, the raindrops falling straight onto her face, rather annoyingly. But hearing footsteps, she brought it back up again, green eyes looking around for the owner. In the end, she couldn't see whoever it was, but had an idea.

Pointing her wand upwards, and whispering a spell she had recently learnt, a shower of sparks flew up in the air, spelling out the single word: 'Help.' Maybe someone would come after all.

[Hikalyn Sarello]

OOC: Yes. I would. XD

Her eyes directed out over the not-so-placid surface of the lake and her gaze focused inwards rather than outwards, Hikalyn didn't at first see the red sparks that jetted into the air. Chances are she wouldn't have, either, if she hadn't noticed the dull red tint that spilled across the restless water. That one, ever-wary corner of her mind that refused to allow her to completely lose herself in her thoughts registered the detail as odd against the grey and colourless thing this evening had become. Automatically, instinctively, she looked up.

Her eyes narrowed on the mutely glowing text drifting above her; she was on her feet before she'd even consciously processed the word. And then she was moving brusquely through the rain, heading in the general direction indicated by the hovering sparks and wondering what on earth this might be about.

Things became a good deal more clear as the outline of a wheelchair likewise became clear up ahead. The driving rain did a fair bit in restricting visibility, so she was only a few feet away from the chair when she stepped into its line of vision. There was Hayzie, shivering and looking just as thoroughly soaked as Hikalyn herself was, not to mention more than a little frustrated.

"Honestly, Hayz," Kalyn greeted her friend with a wry grin and a shake of her head, "should I even be surprised?" But she was moving even as she offered the good-natured jibe, stepping up behind the chair and closing her fingers over the handles. It took a bit of tugging--Hayz had managed to get herself quite firmly mired--but finally it pulled free from the mud with a loud slurp of protest.

[Hayzie]

ooc: << just because

bic: Giving a sheepish smile as her friend approached, Hayzie wasn't sure if she would have rathered it was someone else who came and helped her out of what could have possibly been her millionth sticky situation.

Only this time, she was actually literally stuck rather than proverbially.

"Thanks," the blonde almost whispered as she tucked her wand away. Glad to be on more solid ground, Hayz turned to face her friend. "Why on earth are you out here in this weather? You do realise it's raining, right?" the Prefect asked, reaching up to put a hand on her friend's forehead. "Hmm... normal..." she muttered, settling back into her wheelchair, and making it so she had control of the wheels again.

"You just look a little... wet?" Hayz suggested, knowing she was babbling to the point where even she didn't know what she was on about.

[Hikalyn Sarello]

OOC ... <-- Just because.

Hikalyn could only shake her head in response to Hayzie's sheepish smile. Deja vu, anyone? She didn't have a chance to voice the quip out loud, though; Hayz had reached up and pressed a hand against her forehead, so she contened herself with pulling a face at her friend instead.

"Believe it or not, I had noticed that, yes," Kalyn came back, and her voice was very, very dry. With the way the rain was pouring down, the fact that it was raining was rather hard to miss, indeed. Shaking the water out of her eyes, she turned an amused gaze back on the Gryffindor Prefect, accentuating her words with the arch of an eyebrow. "But I don't know if I'd be talking, Hayziebelle, because by the looks of things you're quite as soaked as I am."

She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a conversation like this, something so natural, between friends. Even those which weren't work-related--and lately, somehow, it seemed like there were precious few of those--it was always herself and the world, an arm's length couched carefully, protectively in between. The good-natured banter was, somehow, amazingly refreshing.

"Long time no talk, really," she remarked after a moment's silence, much more quietly. The smirk had faded from her lips. "So what've you been up to, Hayz?"

[Hayzie]

ooc: ;D <<< just acos I can

bic: But I don't know if I'd be talking, Hayziebelle, because by the looks of things you're quite as soaked as I am.

Looking down at her rain soaked clothes, Hayzie's eyebrows seemed to raise in surprise as she turned her gaze back to her friend. They both looked a right pair sitting or standing in the rain, their clothes and hair dripping from the torrential rain. "You know what?" Hayz asked after a few moments, the mock-surprise still recognisable on her face. "I think you're right. I am just as soaked as you!"

Grinning, Hayzie looked around, trying to find the old Gamekeeper's Cabin that Ashlle had lived in the year before. Luckily it wasn't too far away. "Allow me!" she smiled, looking over at the cabin, clearing her throat and casting: "Accio spotty umbrella!" It took but a few seconds for the large umbrella to fall into Hayz's hand and an even shorted length of time to get it up. Casting the levitating spell so the umbrella would stay up on it's own, green eyes found their way back up to the amythest ones of Hikalyn who was still standing out in the wet.

"It's nice and dry under here, you know?" Hayzie mentioned in way of offering the Head Girl a spot under the rather large umbrella. Thinking hard on the last question Hikalyn had asked, the blonde girl realised it had been an age since they had last spoken; theoretically, of course.

"Well, Kalyn, if you come under the umbrella and dry off a little, I shall tell you all that has been happening in the little world of Hayziebelle?"

[Hikalyn Sarello]

Kalyn had to grin at the mock surprise splayed across Hayzie's face. "Glad you picked up on that," she retored without missing a beat, rolling her eyes. "In fact I think I might have been a bit worried, if you hadn't..."

The overlarge umbrella that responded to Hayzie's summoning charm elicited a raised eyebrow from the raven-haired woman, but she didn't bother to comment other than with a shake of her head.

"Fair enough," she agreed with a slight shrug of her shoulders, stepping under the shelter of the umbrella. Wet as she was, though, it hardly made any difference; her hair was dripping water with an intensity that could almost have matched the weather itself. She didn't say anything else, but turned a curious look on her friend, prompting her on.

...

[Hayzie]

"Well," Hayzie continued. "I don't really have many tales to tell, my good friend. Merely those of which you likely already know." Her tone was light as she sighed and placed her folded hands in her lap. "I attempted a Quidditch practise earlier this week. It failed miserably. I don't think, to be honest, we're going to be ready... but you know, maybe Laura can whip them back into it," the blonde smiled, knowing Laura's techniques all too well. After all, she had been subject to them many times before.

"You, however, Miss Sarello, I haven't heard from, or of, in a long while. Is something wrong?" The Gryffindor asked, her own curiosity unmasked on her face, or in her eyes. To an onlooker, it would have looked strange, the two girls in the rain talking under an umbrella.

But at least they could be certain they wouldn't be disturbed.

ooc: Didn't work

[Hikalyn Sarello]

"Sounds suspiciously like most of the practices that Art and I tried to hold last year," Hikalyn noted dryly, not unsympathetic. "And you saw how well that turned out." She didn't think they'd had a single game--or practice, for that matter--where the entire team had showed up. In fact, unless her memory was playing tricks on her, during one game for a time she'd been entirely alone...

She shifted her feet as Hayz voiced her query, her shoulders moving up in a little shrug. "I've just been busy. Work and such." Her expression pensive, she gazed out at the restive waters of the lake without really seeing them at all. She was tempted to just leave her answer where it was. Hayz knew her too well for that, though. If Kalyn didn't give her an answer, Hayz would just press until she had one. Besides, she'd have to share eventually anyway. Why not now?

"I'm leaving, Hayz," she admitted quietly, her voice barely above the insistent drumming of raindrops on the umbrella. Her eyes closed briefly for a moment, then she turned and met Hayzie's green eyes directly. "I'm leaving England."

OOC: I see that.

[Hayzie]

Hayzie was just about to make a comment on Quidditch practises and ask her question again when Hikalyn gave her the answer.

"You...You're leaving?" she asked, her voice squeaky. Magic Horizons without Kalyn? Hayzie may have only known her friend for a short amount of time, and may only have met her mostly when one of them needed something. But, Kalyn had saved her numerous times, and the blonde seemed to have calmed a little under the Slytherin's influence.

So much for the rivalry between the two houses.

"Y...You can't go," Hayz protested feebly, looking at her friend with widened eyes. "No one leaves in the Autumn, it's always June... or are you not going to graduate? Kalyn... you've come too far to quit," she continued, her final few words a whisper. There was no way the raven haired girl was going to listen to her, or change her mind just because of a few words.

[Hikalyn Sarello]

Hikalyn shook her head slowly, her amethyst eyes once more directed out over the lake. Her friend's words had elicited a tiny sigh, barely audible over the continuous beat of the rain on the umbrella. That sort of reaction had been exactly what she'd been afraid of it. The fact that it had been anticipated didn't really make it any easier to deal with. It was why she hadn't said anything until now.

"I've already graduated," Hikalyn replied, her voice no louder than it had been before. A faint, fleeting smile pulled the corners of her lips upwards for a moment. "I wasn't going to just drop out." Her levity didn't last, though, couldn't last, in the face of her friend's distress. She'd already been struggling with the guilt that came along with her decision, and Hayz's protests weren't exactly making her feel any better about it. There were times, though, when you just had to be selfish. She simply couldn't keep this up.

"I'm sorry, Hayz," she continued softly after a moment, once she trusted herself enough to speak without showing too much of what she thought, and she meant it. "I just can't stay here anymore."

[Hayzie]

"But why? Hayzie asked, leaning back in her wheelchair and crossing her arms, probably looking like a child who had just been denied a packet of chocolate buttons. Though she didn't want to admit it, it probably was time for Kalyn to leave. After all, she had graduated, and mainly stuck around in her position of Head Girl and to help protect the grounds whenever one who had good magical skills set in.

"It's not fair," the blonde whispered, looking up at the umbrella. Even its colours couldn't lighten up the sudden grey mood that had taken over the Gryffindor. "Will you still come to Hogsmeade sometimes? Or write letters? Or... Kalyn it won't be the same without you. It's already not the same without Kelly, Brae, Jade, Addie, Amy and Talon being here!" Of course, the latter two were professors at the school now, but the others seemed to have disappeared. "Things are changing too quick..."

It was true that Hayz herself would be graduating in the June, but she hadn't expected Kalyn to announce her departure just now. Not yet, anyway.

[Hikalyn Sarello]

"I'm sorry," she said again, now practically in a whisper herself. She was avoiding Hayzie's eyes now, as if afraid of what she might see. Nothing was ever easy, but there were some things that just had to be done. This was one of them.

"It's just time, that's all," she continued after a moment, not really wanting to get into her reasons for leaving. She just wanted to leave it all behind, not stand here talking about it. "Past time, really." She kept talking, hoping that Hayz wouldn't press any farther. She wasn't sure she could dance around this one. "I would have left with Meriel and Cole," should have left with Meriel and Cole, "but I had things that needed to be wrapped up..."

She cut off abruptly, realizing that she was rambling. Angry with herself, she fell silent again for a moment, schooling her face back to stillness. She forced her voice to hold the same neutrality. "I... I don't know if I'll be able to visit. But I can promise to write, at least." She managed a faint smile, at last making herself look at Hayz once again. "I couldn't not."

[Hayzie]

Hayzie nodded, accepting what Kalyn was saying. Everything happened for a reason, after all and if Hikalyn said it was time to leave.... it was time to leave. After all, her friend had much tibetter intuition that Hayzie did... that was reason enough to believe the raven haired girl standing in front of her.

A small sigh came from the wheelchair bound girl. "If you don't write, Lyn, I'll send Squark after you... and he'll find you," Hayz explained with a small smile. However the upward curve disappeared as she asked: "How much longer are you here for?"

[Hikalyn Sarello]

For the first time, the smile that touched Hikalyn's face was geniune, if a bit subdued. "Thanks, Hayz," she said quietly, relieved her friend hadn't chosen to press the matter. She just didn't want to get into the rest of it. In any case, that acceptance had been what she'd needed to hear.

"Not much longer," she answered, a little more easily this time. One hand went to her face to pull away a strand of hair that the rain had plastered to her face, deigning to notice the discomfort for the first time. "I have to get things wrapped up at work, and with the Headmistresses. Then I'm out." She shrugged.

"I'll write, I promise," she assured again, turning a faint smile on her friend. "Don't worry, I'm sure that if I didn't you'd find a way to make my life miserable somehow."