Finished Me and My Shadow

Interacting with: @Avis Marlong @Astra Norrick @Aamon Athanatos

Meiyu eyed Aamon sympathetically, as she felt the an eerie presence she could not point out. Her eyebrow raised, ever so slightly as their eyes met for a brief encounter, before the Slytherin boy looked away, appearing a little paler than before. Although she was unaware of what the current situation was, her instincts told her maybe she should just listen to him. Maybe they should just leave. Her internal monologue questioned as to why she was here to begin with, perhaps it was her eagerness or was there more than meets the eye?

Meiyu had watched Astra retrieve her wand, it was as though the older girl was a cat with its hairs raised. The girl could sense danger, but she could not pinpoint it.

Her internal monologue was cut short, as Avis trembled and fell down the concrete stairs that Meiyu had earlier noted its beauty within the castle. She hurriedly rushed down the stairs, crouching down to attend to Avis and hearing the fellow first year mumble her plea against medical help. ”Avis, we need to take you to the hospital wing, urgently.” Meiyu scanned the girls body, unsure of what to do to help. She watched the elder attempt to flee, leaving Avis wounded on the ground. Meiyu called after her, ”Where are you going?”.

Typical. Meiyu knew Slytherins, considering she came from a long line of them, but this was outrageous. How could a second year expect a first year to locate a Nurse, let alone the hospital wing. She scoffed in annoyance, but was quickly brought back to the current situation at the sound of Avis, who appeared to be in a much worse condition.

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Aamon Athanatos left the Great Hall during
mealtime sometime after his hand injury.

He runs into a terrifying short person
who is demanding answers.

Two additional ladies join in the 'conversation' and
Aamon panics. Avis is hit by an unseen force from behind.

Avis falls down the stairs and is injured. The girls feel we
need to get her help but Avis does not want the nurse. Aamon
supports her request and confronts Astra.
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The moment seemed to stretch, every second slow and painful as Aamon watched in helpless horror. Avis had been standing there, questioning him, her expression sharp and demanding just a moment ago. She was fearless, unlike him. He wondered if this fearlessness was because she was very brave or very stupid. He would not have time to ponder this further, without warning, her body crumbled then jerked away. It was so sudden—one moment she was steady, the next, her feet were swept from beneath her as though an invisible hand had shoved her hard.

No one was behind her, no one who could have pushed her. But Aamon knew—they had done it. Even if he couldn’t see them, he could feel their presence, like cold fingers crawling along the edges of his mind. His heart raced, a knot of dread twisting in his stomach as Avis' arms flailed, searching for something to hold on to, but there was nothing.

A muffled gasp escaped his lips, too quiet to stop anything. He was powerless to do anything, a helpless spectator.

Avis tumbled down the stone staircase, her body hitting the unforgiving steps with sickening thuds. Her limbs twisted awkwardly as she rolled, her head snapping back with each impact. Every bruise, every crack of bone against stone, seemed to echo in the pit of Aamon's chest, sending shockwaves of guilt and fear crashing through him. He couldn’t move—his legs felt frozen, useless, as if the weight of what had just happened had locked him in place.

Astra had already leapt down after her, the air thick with panic. But Aamon stood there, paralyzed, his breath coming in shallow, erratic gasps. The shadows at the edge of his vision seemed to move, dark figures creeping just beyond the light. He could feel them, their unseen eyes watching from the corners, mocking him silently. Then he saw one and it bid him to action as Avis disappeared from sight, swallowed by the stairwell, leaving Aamon with the haunting sound of her body hitting the distant ground below. The eerie quiet that followed felt like a crushing weight, the horror of what had just happened sinking into his bones as he descended the massive stairwell.

Aamon flinched as Meiyu’s eyes locked with his, just for a second, before he quickly looked away. He could feel the sympathy and concern behind her gaze, but that only made the weight in his chest heavier. She didn’t know. None of them did. They couldn’t feel the creeping presence that had been haunting him. Helping him in their own way, just their aide had ultimately become a curse. While Avis was asking for answers, it was to slake a curiosity or to uncover an unknown. Knowledge is power, a fact he knew well. They wouldn’t stop would they?

Maybe he should leave them to die.

No, he was not that sort of man.

Meiyu hurried down the stairs after Avis and Astra, his stomach twisted. She was trying to help, but she didn’t understand the real danger. That if she was not careful, if they thought that she was a risk... No, they wouldn't with such a gentle-seeming creature he tried to self-soothe. Maiyu would rush past discarded items, anything wrested from Avis' grasp during her descent. A flaccid doll. He followed the Gryffindor, grabbing whatever he could from the floor and stuffing it into his satchel.

None of them should be near him, near this place. But what could he say that wouldn’t make him sound completely insane? He was already pale, shaking, and his words felt like they were crumbling in his throat.

His heart pounded as Meiyu claimed that Avis needed medical treatment.

His heart clenched as he caught her murmuring through the pain, her words broken and desperate. No nurse... no nurse. She was trying to look at him, her eyes searching for something—what, he wasn’t sure—but he felt the weight of her plea. She didn’t want Nurse Sabo. Of course she didn’t. She thought it would lead to questions, to consequences. She didn’t want the nurse for the same reasons he didn’t.

But how could he make the pain stop? How could he fix this? His mind scrambled for answers, for something, anything, to do. The fear that had gripped him since the moment he came to Hogwarts, but since she fell the fear had become amplified, suffocating him. And now, with Astra crouching beside her, casting spells, Aamon felt that same sense of dread Avis must have felt—the wrongness of it all.

He saw Avis trying to roll away from Astra, her body flinching like she was afraid of her. That wasn’t right. Astra was trying to help, wasn’t she? But Avis... she didn’t see it that way. She was scared, maybe even as scared as he was. "Get away from her," Aamon would finally utter. "I'm not getting the nurse. I'm not finding a professor." His voice wavered but his gaze and stance did not. "I'm not leaving her alone with whatever you are," that terrible presence had pervaded their senses. A reckless, controlling, cruel choice that only served to isolate, alienate and subjugate others.

He knew that the girl would not willingly accept his stance. He wouldn't in her position. But she could just try and make him. People often failed to consider how they are perceived by others, how certain actions can build trust and how others alienate. Her anger and vented frustration told him that she did not want to help, that she might have been kind at one point but she was not nice. The nurse scared him and that fact made him hesitate in coming to her in the future. This girl exuded an aura of threat, perhaps passive. If willful, if a choice what could she possibly expect out of this or any interaction.

And despite her injuries, Avis seemed to share his sentiment.

“No... no hospital wing,” he repeated in a mumble, more to himself than to anyone else, though he could barely hear his own voice over the blood rushing in his ears. He took a shaky breath, then spoke louder, the urgency leaking through his words. “She doesn’t want to go. No nurse. She’s scared.”

His voice wavered as he glanced back up the stairs, half-expecting to see someone standing there threatening detention for daring to lose against gravity, for congregating around an injured peer. “We... we just need to find an upper year that can set a bone, hand a potion..." he was not sure exactly what but someone older than him at the very least. Someone that was not a walking red flag, like Astra and her terrible presence. Someone that was not using their authority as a cudgel like the nurse. Still, the words felt hollow, but he forced them out, his thoughts still spinning.

"Do you know what's broken?" A twinge of hope in his voice that the fall looked worse than the actual incident. Bruised and battered, black-and-blues heal. It is shattered bones, lacerated organs, internal hemorrhages that would prove all the more concerning.

"Get away from her," Aamon uttered. Astra did not move away from Avis, squinting out of the corner of her eye at Aamon. "I'm not leaving her alone with whatever you are."

Bloody. Hell.

Avis was practically clawing herself away from Astra even as the bandages Astra's wand rolled out wrapped themselves nearly around the girl's torso, stabilizing her bruised and perhaps broken ribs. They were first years, first years, there was no way they knew of It. So why were they running, why was Aamon calling her a "whatever you are"?

There's no time for this nonsense.

"Aamon," Astra began, not pursuing Avis as she slithered slowly away, but noticing with every aching movement of the girl another wound that should be bandaged, another potential break, and infinite possibilities of internal damage she simply did not have the equipment to heal, "right now it doesn't matter what she wants. She's barely conscious. I can't heal internal bleeding, and you definitely can't. We need an adult."

Why didn't Astra get an adult herself? She didn't trust something even worse to happen, to Aamon or Meiyu or any of the other countless first years meandering around the area, anyone in the splash zone of Aamon's mysterious "them." These kids- they were more kids than her. They didn't have a year of magic, a year of experience. They probably couldn't even cast Red Sparks yet.

If anyone of this catastrophic quartet could protect Avis, it would be Astra, by this logic. Even if Aamon was under the impression she was inhuman.

She turned to Meiyu. "Didn't I tell you to go get an adult?" Astra asked, not unkindly, but sternly. Avis didn't want Nurse Sabo, ok, that was fine, but they still needed someone. To Aamon: "I can set the bones. I just need her to stop moving. Could you help me with that? Could you help me calm her down?" He would have to trust her, they all would, no matter how scary she seemed to them. Right now was not the time to try to think up a way to prove her humanity to a bunch of eleven year olds; right now she had to be the guiding figure, the authoritative presence, the one who knew better. The one who could maybe fix this.

If Meiyu was still hanging around by this point, Astra would say, urgently but still trying to keep any sort of anger towards the younger Gryffindor's lack of haste out of her tone, "Did I stutter? Go get a professor, or a healer's intern!"

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Aamon Athanatos left the Great Hall during
mealtime sometime after his hand injury.

He runs into a terrifying short person
who is demanding answers.

Two additional ladies join in the 'conversation' and
Aamon panics. Avis is hit by an unseen force from behind.

Avis falls down the stairs and is injured. The girls feel we
need to get her help but Avis does not want the nurse. Aamon
supports her request and confronts Astra.

He tries to pull Avis out of the thread to find the "pink lady"
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There were numerous bad choices being made here. Avis had fallen, but she had not died. A snapped neck, a crushed in skull, there were numerous ways to die and she had avoided instant death. There was the other matter of injury, broken bones, lacerated organs, internally bleeding out. Matters that needed to be considered and of course dealt with. A bandage was only going to hold blood in if there was a hole, a rip or a tear. A brace was only going to support a broken or twisted structure. He was limited to tourniquets and bandages made from ripped cloth.

He was 11, far from an expert in medicine. However, he had seen more than his fair share of injuries considering the company he kept. Gideon was dangerous, he knew what sort of man he could become with little effort, he only needed to look inwardly at the rest of his family. It was easy to be cruel. To force yourself into a scenario, to wrest control and to demand obedience. It was hard, however to act in a way that countered one's own best interest. "She is going to be fine," he claimed knowing it to be a lie. A lie he commonly told people before they died, before terrible things happened to them. The platitude seemingly enough to place people in a state of ease. "I'm a seer," that much was true. "And I have already seen the outcome," he asserted, this time another lie.

He took off his jacket. He was broad-shouldered for an 11 year old, his frame much too large to appear as one of his peers. Something that he took pride in, he liked being treated as older, more mature because he looked such. Yet there was also a sense of alienation that came with this, expectations were greater and he was infrequently left on a level field with others. But, he was quietly thankful at the moment -- the girl was tiny.

He would attempt to tuck his jacket under her, the satin interior facing the floor. It was not the most comfortable process but he would be as gentle as he could be as he considered the physics of his intended plan. No magic, just brains. The jacket serving as a draw sheet to pull Avis where she needed to go. Aamon was not physically strong, despite his suggested size. He was a pampered youth, but he was also very well educated. "I'll take you to the pink lady," he promised. It was not the most comforting of claims but he did not remember her name, only that Pride was entangled with the poor girl. He was not sure why his brother strung her along like he did, but it had been years at this point and he knew better than to ask questions he did not want answers to.

It was the pink lady's birthday. He wondered where she would be on such an auspicious day. Perhaps the great hall with friends. It was mealtime and her house would be singing her happy birthday. No, that lacked the personal touch she would have desired. She would likely try to have a private affair, glitter and sweets. From what he knew of her, she sounded very... what is the word, "extra"? Yes, that is the word.

"She is this way," he claimed pointing down a hall and tugging at the jacket sleeve. He would glance over at Meiyu and nod towards the other sleeve. "Would you like to give us a hand?" Rather than send her off, let her do what she could if she wanted to. "She is going to be celebrating in this wing," he did not explain further. Only that he knew where to get help.



Link: The Pink Lady

The pain in Avis' bruises and bumps was fading enough to think, though it stayed strong in the places she had been hit especially hard. Her head was pounding, and blood was rushing through her ears. Her ribs felt better though, whether by scary girl's bandages or because they weren't broken, but either way, she was thankful. Her legs were hurting less too. Well, her left leg. The right one was on fire. Avis was afraid that one might be broken.

"I'm a seer." He was a seer? A SEER?! And he didn't think it was a good idea to get her away from the stairs? Well, he sort of tried, Avis supposed. But still. He could have gotten her away from the stairs.

And what was his plan? To take her to a Pink Lady? Really. There were better people to be around than the scary girl, but a pink lady didn't sound like the most helpful. What was she going to do? Give Avis some flowers? Essential oils? Pink Lady seemed like she would probably be into essential oils.

Something slid under her. Aamon's jacket. He was trying to pick her up and take her to the Pink Lady. As she was still curled up in a ball, it somewhat worked, but not without Avis' leg being twisted in an odd direction, shooting pain back through her nerves. She didn't want to go to a Pink Lady. Essential Oils were not what she wanted. But she didn't have the ability, or the will, to fight this one.

So she just tried to curl up tighter and hold herself stable and prevent the rocking of the movement to pain her further. Wherever they were going, she hoped it was quick and steady.

He was ignoring her. He was bloody ignoring her and now he was dragging Avis away on the cold hard ground and Astra didn't know if she had more broken bones and he was just going to make everything worse-

"She will very much NOT be fine unless she gets help!" Astra barked, tired of trying to be gentle with the child. Was he stupid?

An eleven year old seer who- Tommy had said the same thing and then Slytherin lost. He had lied, and now Astra wouldn't be swayed by that fib. Aamon was lying to her through his teeth. "That's tosh. Eleven year old seers don't exist." That was probably not the best use of the words at her disposal but it would have to do.

Avis right leg was twisting gruesomely in a way legs were never supposed to be able to move, she was curled up in a little ball, who the actual hell was the Pink Lady- That leg needed to be stabilized and it needed to be stabilized now.

"Ferula," Astra cast, walking the few steps she needed to catch up. A splint conjured itself and in what was likely a very painful process for the young girl set the leg and wrapped it up. "Stop dragging her, the least you can do is pick her up." There was nothing Astra could think of to use as a stretcher, maybe Aamon's coat held at three places, but then again he was trying to ignore her and Avis had shown she was properly terrified. "Bridal style should be fine, just- just don't fold her up too much." Wingardium Leviosa was a risk, else Astra would've offered to levitate the girl herself. However, there was no need to risk the younger girl's clothes tearing and dropping her again, and the children expressed an acute unwant for Astra's presence and she was not keen to be viewed the enemy again. So Astra did not cast anything but Ferula to attempt to begin the healing process on the surface wounds of the Ravenclaw.

They really, really needed Nurse Sabo. But Astra couldn't leave them, couldn't let Avis be taken to who knows where under Aamon's watch, which was proving to be unimpressive in the kindest of terms.

So under the guise of questioning, she walked alongside Aamon as he searched for the "pink lady," keeping hawkish watch on Avis. "Is the Pink Lady a teacher or a student? Is the Pink Lady a healer's intern? Is the Pink Lady a talented wix? Why are we going to see the Pink Lady specifically instead of a professor?"

Interacting with: @Aamon Athanatos @Avis Marlong @Astra Norrick

Meiyu opted to stay silent, watching Aamon and Astra argue over Avis' wellbeing. She had an uneasy feeling about the entire ordeal, until Aamon revealed he was a Seer? The girl did previously hear about Seer's before, but she had never come across one. Hogwarts really has it all. Yet, Aamon's confirmation that Avis will be fine eased her nerves, that was until Astra chimed in once more, causing the young girl to roll her eyes in annoyance. The older Slytherin had done nothing to help the situation.

She had watched Aamon remove his jacket, confusion now taking over her mind, but rushed to her feet to help Aamon raise Avis up. "I'll help." Meiyu mumbled quietly, though she was unsure how to exactly, instead opting to follow the trio in search of the Pink Lady, whom she was unfamiliar with. She remained close to behind to Avis, rolling her eyes once more at Astra's sudden questioning, how was it that someone who demanded not to question Aamon, began doing so themselves.

Meiyu smiled down to Avis, "Everything will be okay, we'll find someone to help." she reassured, as they began their search for the Pink Lady.