Visit...

[Hayzie]

Hayzie Roberts had escaped the forest's fog barriers for a while and set off for the Owlery, a rolled up letter in her hand. The blonde girl had figured she had better let Jamie know that she wasn't going to be going home for the Summer - and ask him to let her parents know. After all, she was forbidden to contact them now, and it would be better all around if she kept to that.

Opening the wooden door to the owl filled room silently, Hayz let out a quick sigh of relief as she saw it was empty, to students any way. It would be better if she didn't see any of them, especially her friends.

"Squark! Squark!! Get down here you fool!" she whispered through the cages to her own brown owl, who immediately came flying down to his owner, giving her an affectionate nip as he landed on her hand.

Stroking the birds back, she whispered to it: "Think you can find Jamie again, Squark?" It was known to her that her owl was the only one who could ever find Jamie who had gone to work for the Ministry. As the blonde girl watched Squark fly off into the night sky, she curled up on the windowsill - her slight frame fitting easily and she felt safe surrounded by the safety of the school walls. But she knew as well as any that it couldn't last forever.

[Branwen - retired]

Brae had found a spot of floor in the Owlery that was miraculously free of owl droppings and regurgitated bones. She sat with Arina perched on one knee, feeding her owl treats occasionally and stroking her, speaking to her in a soft voice. Poor 'Rini had nowhere to go anymore, so Brae tried to make it down at least once a day to keep her company.

She had stopped crooning the moment before another person opened the door to the Owlery and stepped inside. Branwen almost shrunk deeper into the shadows; she was still slightly reeling from Seeing for Branden earlier that day, and she didn't really feel like talking to anyone but 'Rini. Maybe whoever it was would just send a letter and go on their way... and then when the person curled up on a windowsill a shaft of moonlight hit their face.

"Hayz...?" Brae spoke her best friend's name in wonder - she hadn't seen her for what seemed like months. "Is that you?"

[Hayzie]

Hayzie quickly jolted out of her daydream as someone spoke her name. She could have sworn the Owlery was empty. Maybe the person had been hiding... but she recognised that voice only too well.

"Brae?" she asked, trying to pinpoint her best friend in the dim light emitting from the moon. Quickly, her sharp Lycan eyes caught sight of the girl, sitting not too far away. "Yep, it's me," the blonde girl answered unsurely. Maybe that wasn't the best thing to own up to, but she couldn't lie to Branwen. It was something Hayzie never had been able to do.

Her memory flicked back to when her best friend had said that the polyjuice potion was a bad idea... Why hadn't she listened?

Climbing down easily off the windowsill, she went and sat next to her friend, unsureity still hanging around her. "How have you been? Haven't seen you for ages," she asked conversationally, trying to make it seem like before...

[Branwen - retired]

"I've been okay, Hayzie..." Brae said slowly, her eyes narrowing as she gazed at her best friend. The last time they had spoken was so long ago, when Hayz had been hellbent on concocting that awful polyjuice potion - it was the only time the two of them had had anything near an argument.

There was something different about the girl, something that stared her in the face, so obvious that she couldn't figure out what it was. A case of not being able to see the forest for the trees. Impulsively, Brae reached over and gave Hayzie a fierce hug, and Arina left her knee with an indignant hoot.

"What happened?" Branwen asked dully, hoping Hayz wouldn't force her to draw it out. For when she touched her dearest friend, it felt as though something foreign crawled beneath her skin.

[Hayzie]

Returning the hug, Hayzie instantly felt bad, and ever so foolish. She pulled out of it however as Brae asked what had happened. Don't say it, don't say it, her stubborn side told her. And her stubborn side generally tended to win over any other side.

"W...What do you mean?" the blonde girl asked, uncertainty flicking across her eye quickly - almost unnoticably. Quickly, Hayz looked down, suddenly intrigued with something on the floor of the Owlery. She couldn't lie, but if she told the truth.... the slight girl almost shuddered at the thought.

[Branwen - retired]

So she was going to force her. Joys.

Branwen almost laughed; the two of them were so alike but so different at the same time. She had lost count of how many mental tug-of-wars had taken place between the two of them, because they were both nearly unrelenting when it came to their stubborn natures. Brae when she wanted to know something, and Hayzie when she wanted to keep something to herself.

With a sigh, Brae shot her friend a wry smile, and decided to get to the point - the two of them could beat around the proverbial bush until there was nothing left of it but twigs.

"Hayzie, look. Whatever it is, you don't have to tell me, but you know you can, all right? I love you, you're my best friend, and I miss you," her voice caught a little on that last line, but though her eyes were bright, they were still dry.

[Hayzie]

Hayzie nodded at what Branwen had said. She was the only one who knew almost everything about her, the only one she had trusted with what had happened after she had ran away.

"I know. But... nothing's happened," she lied, looking up for the first sentance, but she cast her eyes back downwards for the last. Hayz was aware that Brae knew this trait only too well... the fact that her best friend couldn't look at someone while she was lying, but she could only hope that she wouldn't notice.

"Nothing at all," she repeated, as if trying to place empahasis on the point, trying to reassure herself as well as assuring Branwen.

[Branwen - retired]

"Then why won't you look at me?" Branwen asked quietly, knowing full well why Hayzie wouldn't meet her eyes for very long. They had a funny habit of going green when her best friend tried to keep something hidden away... or at least, they had.

"I'm not going to See anything you don't want me to," Brae promised wearily. A good way to ruin relationships, that. For a moment, she thought of Whisper, and wondered what the Valkerie sisters had been up to lately. Perhaps she would pay them a little visit.

"If there's something you can't tell me, maybe there's something you can show me?"

[Hayzie]

Hayzie shook her head lightly, allowing her hair to fall in front of her face creating a curtain, trying to block out the world. She was relieved to hear her best friend wasn’t going to use her Sight to find out but Branwen knew there was something wrong, Hayz knew Brae knew. She had never kept anything from her best friend before. Suddenly, something snapped. She had already told others… and Branwen had told her about her Sight at the lake that day, so why was she keeping this a secret? But she would have to tell her. So far, Hayz had managed to go for nearly two months without turning into a Lycan, and she wasn't about to break that record any time soon.

Shuffling a little where she was sitting, she moved the curtain of blonde hair away and looked at her best friend; however Hayzie still refused to meet her friend’s eyes. “I…I made a stupid mistake,” the girl practically whispered, her voice sounding scared and unsure. “And for it, I paid the consequences, which included two weeks in St. Mungo's,” she carried on, her gaze travelling down again in an almost ashamed manner.

“Basically, I shouldn’t be here at all,” the blonde girl told Branwen, her line of sight flitting unintentionally towards the window in a nervous manner, as though one of them would be there, waiting for her to leave. “And I can’t come back… until it’s all sorted out,” Hayzie added on, beginning to plait the front parts of her hair, trying to distract her attention from Brae, and what would likely be more questions. The lycan girl had never been one for giving answers straight out, but rather dodging the actual answer itself and instead giving general information that could be related to almost any situation.