✦ Flowering Tears ✦ open! Closed

Ever since she got her class schedule, Noelle has taken a keenness to astronomy. Or maybe not astronomy in general, but just the moon. Because at the moment, like she did once a week every week since the third week of school, she was carrying her moon gazing supplies. That consisted of her sketchbook, two pencils, a book on lunar activity, and her imagination.

She was walking through the corridors, hours safe of curfew, and heading towards one of the doors that lead to the school grounds. She wore a thick navy blue hoodie, the worn one she always wore that had a picture of anime characters—specifically a half-and-half of Meliodas and Zeldris from the Seven Deadly Sins—a pair of black sweatpants and a pair of old skool vans. Her hoodie was pulled all the way over and tied underneath her neck, with only her side bangs poking from underneath.

As soon as she pushed open the door, a crisp, cold wind hit her body, but Noelle was used to the cold—she actually liked it. She shivered but continued through, letting the door slide back in it's place. She held things under one arm, stuffing her hands into her pockets, as she waited for the wind to subside. Noelle was light but also good staying in place, so the wind didn't knock her down like it seemed to want.

Noelle found a place to sit on the grass and opened her sketchbook. Already she had logged several moon phases but she hadn't gotten a gibbous that was lit on the left side. She ran her fingers down a drawing of a new moon, in which she had just drawn her best ellipse and shaded it with as much black as possible. At some point she had gotten impatient and nearly ripped the entire page open. There was a slight tear in the middle but she had covered it in tape.

She stared up at the sky, waiting for the clouds to unconceal the moon. Out of the corner of her eye, Noelle noticed a figure that seemed to be mirroring the same thing she was doing. She glanced in their direction and noticed someone also sitting on the grass but there was something off about them.

It was then that Noelle heard distant crying and she realized that it was probably coming from this person. She hesitated, unsure if she should leave them be, in case they snapped at her for intruding, or just approach them to see whether they were alright. She wouldn't ask them if they were alright, because they definitely weren't, unless they were rehearsing a part for a play, which was unlikely, but...

Noelle's good-will made her stand up, gathering her things so they wouldn't be carried away by the wind. She approached them cautiously, then made a little noise against the grass so they'd hear her.

She stood besides them, close enough where they most likely noticed them. Noelle twisted her mouth to the side, thinking. “Hey...why are you crying? Do you need help with something?” It was better than stating the obvious; she got straight to the point, with her benevolence.

In less than three seconds Jay wiped their eyes, under the rising moon the tears on the edge of their chin glittered. They sniffed and turned to the girl, she’s a first year... Jay calmly turned and looked back up at the sky. This was probably the calmest way they have handled a person walking up to them crying. But perhaps it was because they were just tired and done.

”I... I’m c-c-c-crying because it’s something all h-humans do, i-isn’t it? People c-cry when th-they’re hap-happy, s-sad, or a-angry. But its most c-c-common when people are s-sad. And n-no I d-do-don’t need help with a-any-anything, unless y-you can h-help bring back p-people from d-d-di-isappearance...” Jay said, trying their best to avoid voice cracks (in which they failed horribly).

Go on, walk away and think I’m a narcissistic weirdo... they thought, Jay ran their hand through their messy red hair. They didn’t exactly want to die but... they wouldn’t mind just going poof right there and then. It would be nice to just not exist, or just not have feelings. People saw them as a odd, cold person without any sort of feelings other than perhaps just anger, but Jay was truly a embodiment of sadness, anger, and frustration. 

They tried to hide their feelings in front of people, but as soon as someone looked away they would break down into tears. Jay didn’t mind showing the anger, anger helped them seem more dominant and scary. When punching a wall people would see and think, I don’t want to mess with them... But when crying... it shows weakness... and Jay hated that. 

Even though Jay just wanted to release all of the tears right there, they couldn’t out of habit. They laid still, looking up at the sky, breathing heavily to control the tears that wanted to be spilled. 

The person hastily wiped away their tears, as if she didn't know that Noelle had seen them and heard her crying. She glanced at her and then went back to gazing up at the sky. Noelle just stood there, huddled in her hoodie, wondering what in the world had gone wrong for this poor girl. She looked from the tears gathered along their chin back up to their face.

Then they went on to explain. Noelle's eyes narrowed as she listening, trying to understand amidst the crying and the stuttering. They were trying to tell her that crying was a natural thing, which Noelle knew, but then she said it was mostly something people did when they were sad. The young girl figured that was probably how this person was feeling.

They then added, “And no I don't need anything, unless you can help bring people back from disappearance.”

Noelle eyes rose this time. Disappearance? Who went missing? She couldn't recall hearing about anyone disappearing, but again she wasn't really in tune with that sort of thing, unless it had been announced to everyone.

The person ran their hand through their hair, which was red and a little aloof. Noelle could almost feel the sorrow and pain coming from this young individual and as usual empathy began to leak from her.

Tired of standing, Noelle came to sit down next to the person, far enough for personal space but close enough to hear each other.

“...I've lost people, too,” she sighed, half-hoping it didn't come out too dramatic. Some left or just...couldn't come back, she thought, but she didn't say it aloud. She turned to the student; this wasn't about Noelle, this was about them. “What do you mean by disappearance—what happened?”

“I don’t know where my parents are, my guardian disappeared, my best friend got taken and I don’t know how she is... so many people have disappeared in the Victoria Manor... ” Jay paused, it was hard to say things without revealing truth and secrets... they should stop talking... they didn’t even know this person... stop...

“I once made a friend in my first year in the manor, he disappeared, I hear his voice whispering to me sometimes...”Jay continued, closing their eyes. It wasn’t like things could get worse than they already were, Sir Victoria was probably in Azkaban- so revealing his true self to people wouldn’t do anything. Their parents probably abandoned them or died. The disappearances from Victoria Manor were probably murders, no surprise... and Lily Gray was probably locked up in a tower in Brazil being slowly starved and damaged by her insane mother... If they let out everything, they’d get expelled and questioned. There wouldn’t even be the need for truth spilling potions or spells or whatever. 

Honestly, a dementor could not make things worse, that’s how badly Jay felt. With their eyes closed still they then said, ”Don’t bother wasting your time, just act like I don’t exist. Things are better that way aren’t they?”Jay said in a much more serious and frustrated tone rather than their sad voice cracking one.

Noelle listen to this...boy. That's what they looked like, but it was hard to see in the dark. She didn't want to stare either, which would've made things way more awkward.

But she began to reflect on the things he was saying. They'd lost a lot, apparently, and Noelle could definitely understand that. She had lost her father, his entire side of the family, all of her muggle friends, and nearly everyone on her mother's side is estranged. The only person besides her mother is her godmother, who she had only recently discovered the existence of. But everyday Noelle had to deal with pain of not having people who she could have, who would be there, right where she could speak or contact. But they were just...gone.

“I once made a friend in my first year in the manor, he disappeared, I hear his voice whispering to me sometimes...”

Noelle's eyes darted to the side at that, but she quickly went back to looking up at the night sky. She figured that the boy didn't mean anything really by that, more like they just missed their friend so much that they thought of them a lot...

But the fact that they said parents, as if it were not one but two that were gone. That startled Noelle.

“How? Has the Ministry contacted you about that?” This boy had no one, literally. Well, that wasn't exactly true, and instead of thinking that, Noelle needed to say that to this poor person.

”Don’t bother wasting your time, just act like I don’t exist. Things are better that way aren’t they?” they said, solemnly. And that made Noelle's heartache.

She turned all the way to face this dear boy, name unknown and future unknown, but Noelle hoped what she would say next would make it a little bit brighter.

“Let me tell you—you are not alone, okay? Everyone in this school, even if it may not seem like it, has your back. Some may not know you, some may not even like you, but we all, all of us wizards and witches, have each other's back.”

“I am not going to ignore you. If I do that, it'll be like you're one of your disappeared friends. But you're not like them, you're here, and I am, too. We both are, and we can be together.”

Noelle blushed a little; that had came out a little weird, but she was persistent on what she had to say. “Look, I don't know you, but I found you because of fate, I'm guessing, so I'll make the most of it. I think...you shouldn't think so much about what you don't have but what you do have, or what you could have. I feel like every action has an equal reaction, so if you think of what you don't have, you won't get anything. It's like nothing equals nothing.”

She thought for a moment before continuing. “So, if you think of what you do have, you will get something. Something equals something. It's like negative plus negative equals negative.” She knew she was talking a lot, more than she usually did, actually, but when something emotional was in the midst, she couldn't help it, especially something like this.

Noelle smiled at the boy. It wasn't a sad one, more of hope. “I think that we should be friends. I'm stuck here, so I won't go away. You can count on me.”

UJay panicked for a few seconds when they heard her mention the ministry, it was a fear that had been naturally put into them, especially for living in that manor... they dreamed of becoming an Auror, yet they live in a manor filled with dark witches, wizards, and wixes, so that was for sure ironic indeed. Jay was fine with Sir Victoria, but as time passed they seemed to have more dislike towards Lady Angelique.

They didn’t exactly reply to her question, it was something like, “...er...uh........”

Just then she started to say the most unbelievable things, Jay opened their eyes and looked at her with surprise. Don’t say it... they thought just as she started to say ‘you’re not alone’. And she finished the sentence, the lie that Jay had so much hope in. Jay wasn’t the blind one, it was her, right? Jay was alone. Jay was utterly and completely alone. Right? That’s how its supposed to end...

Together. It was another word that struck them hard. Jay wanted to say things, they wanted to tell her to stop wasting her breath on them, but they were afraid of crying, they were afraid of looking more vulnerable than they already looked. Jay turned away, there were heavy drops in their eyes that wanted to fall any second now. 

Maybe they should have hope, they weren’t leaning on what the girl said but rather leaning on the fact that she said it- to them. The fact that she would use up her time to go to them and talk to them, and say all of these crazy things that Jay wanted to believe in. Perhaps there is hope... 

Jay buried their face into their knees, they waited for her to finish. Friends...? Someone wants to be friends with me? Jay looked up at her, new tears dripping from their eyes shamelessly.


“I... I... I think that w-would be n-n-nice... I-I’m Jay V-Victoria”