Philtre Reciprocity pv

Very rarely would you ever find Xailah hanging out in the library. It wasn't that she disliked the space or anything, she just never really found much of a use for it. She would come in for the occasional book, that she would not be able to obtain from her parents. Her experiences in the library were usually very pleasant ones. She usually met wonderful people here, like that one Ravenclaw boy, who helped her out with researching some dolls. Today Xailah could be found in the Transfiguration section of the library, along with her sidekick Schrödinger.

For the past hour and a half, Xailah had been staring into a book, and making weird faces at it. She was exercising her Metamorph abilities. The young Gryffindor had yet to put a full transformation to good use. She wanted to try to push her limits. She wanted to see what she was truly capable of during this time. It was time she attempted to take on the identity of another. Today she was going to attempt one, and hopefully she wouldn't run into any issues, trying.

The lioness placed her book back on the shelf from which it came. She needed to clear her head and focus. Focus on someone. She closed her eyes, searching her mind. Who did she know the best? Who was she around often? As she thought about it, the transformation started taking place. Teeth popped. Straightened. Flattened. Realigned. The teeth of a predator sunk into her skull, as something more human took their place.

Bones shortened. Hair grew, and curled. The slotted pupils snapped, taking on a round shape. The shape they should have been originally. Irises shrank to an appropriate size. A lovely shade of blue rippled through the Gryffindors eyes, pushing out the rich gold they once were. She was pretty. She was normal. She was perfect. She was Meenauh. Or at least something similar.

This transformation was not permanent. She would only keep it for a few minutes before returning to her real form. To make a permanent transformation- to even make a transformation into someone else was strictly against the rules the Alptraums had made for themselves. But Xailah was cautious. She knew there was no harm in playing- or was there? As long as she didn't do anything stupid she was fine- no one would ever know.

She felt mildly uncomfortable in her temporary skin. She took off her glasses, and stored them in the small pouch she carried with her. She was contemplating returning to her former form, but something caught her eye- no, someone caught her eye. It was her roommate Aurelia. She watched her roommate get up to look for something, leaving her things at the table she was previously sitting at.

Xailah usually left her roommates alone, for the most part. Though she had a tendency to target Aurelia whenever her Kleptomania began to itch its way into her head. Aurelia usually had some cool things on her. Xailah had started taking, and replacing little things, instead of large items of importance, so her thieving crimes were less noticeable. Xailah realized that this would be a good time to further push her abilities, to see if Aurelia could recognize her.

So she made her way to the table, and began fumbling through Aurelias things. Papers. Quill. ooh Candy. More paper- a dagger? Well that was nice. She cradled the weapon, handling it with great care, before setting it on the tables surface. It was a beautiful object- but Xailah could never take it. The object had importance, she was sure of it. If she took it from the Monster Hunter, what would that make Aurelia? Just the Monster?

Xailah sighed, as she continued to rummage through Aurelias things. The only things worth taking really, were the candies. She was certain Aurelia would notice all of them missing...but would she only notice one? Without any further thinking, Xailah would grab a Sherbet Lemon, and pop it into her mouth. No. She'd notice that it was gone too. Crap. She could spit the candy back into its wrapper, and put it back in the bag but...yeah no.

She sat there for a moment, unsure of what to do. Sticking her hand in her pocket, she would feel a small cylindrical object. Oh! Thats right! Xailah had forgotten about the Sticky Caramel that she had bought from that weird kid in the courtyard. Pulling the candy from her pocket, she would do the logical thing: use that candy as a replacement for the one she was eating. Ha! The plan was practically foolproof.

Standing at 5'2 Aurelia was of average height for her age but far too short to retrieve the book that was tightly squeezed between other muggle books on the top shelf. Fortunately, with a simple spell, the book was dislodged and it fell to the ground with a thud. With the book in her arm, Aurelia turned to head back to her desk. However, when upon reaching the end of her aisle, she was met with a fat black cat staring up at her.

Meow. it said.

Ah-choo! She replied.

Schrodinger, her roommate's cat. Her thumb and forefinger came to pinch over her nose to suppress the sneezes. It had been months since she moved into her dorm. She thought that her allergies would have been suppressed by now, yet her condition was still stubborn as ever, so was Schrodinger. If the pet was here, her owner must be somewhere near. From what she noticed, Xailah and Schrodinger were inseparable creatures.

Still holding her breath, she picked the cat up and set out to find the critter's owner. The cat was heavy. But it was not long before she found a figure, back turned towards her, towering over her belongings. Xailah... wait that was not Xailah. The gothic girl had a knack for running through her stuff. This however, this female had brown hair and her figure was not like her roommate's. The sight of an unfamiliar looking through her stuff aggravated her. There were precious items within the bag.

"Excuse me. What do you think you are doing?" She said, letting go of both the feline and her breath. Saying those words had exposures her to the allergens in the air that had her coughing and sneezing within seconds. Her throat dried and her eyes watered. Great.

Apparently, the girl before her was a familiar one. Meenauh, a fellow Gryffindor. She did not take the Gryffindor for a thief. Nevertheless, a frown formed on her face as she saw her silver dagger laid out on the table. The ex-prefect would be more than happy to deal with the girl's faults but she would have to find a way to take care of her own health first.

She should have something in her possession to help with her condition. In a fit for cough and sneezes, she rummaged through her already rummaged bag and pulled out a piece of candy. Surely it would not help much but at least it would aid her dry throat. Unwrapping the piece of candy, she popped it in her mouth and began sucking on the sweet.

Oh. Xailah, had just remembered something. She didn't like Sherbet Lemons, very much. In fact, she didn't really like most citrus flavored things. But it wasn't like she could do anything about it now. The small candy, had already begun to melt in her mouth. It was too late to spit the bitter treat out now, because someone was starting to approach. Wonderful.

A rather sharp inquiry, from what sounded to come from her roommate, would cause the young Metamorph to jump. Why did Aurelia have Schrödinger? Had he given her away? And that is where things would begin to go downhill. Who knew of the harm, a small jump could do? When Aurelia approached, Xailah had started to panic irrationally. The little lemon candy, slipped and lodged itself in her throat. If Aurelia was expecting an answer, she would not be getting one in that moment.

Xailah was...choking. There was no getting around it. The worst part of it all, was that Aurelia probably wouldn't be able to detect right away, that her roommate was starting to choke. Xailah was rather quiet about it all- not because she was in a library, but because she didn't know how to react. Getting help could possibly ruin her disguise- which would be disappointing. So she suffered in silence, occasionally shooting watery glances at her unknowing roommate.

Any past concerns started to slip away, as the prefects lips started to turn a light shade of blue. She wouldn't be able to deal with this, for very much longer, so she did the only thing that seemed logical in that moment. She tipped her chair. The impact with the ground, dislodged the candy, allowing it to slip into the belly of the little beast.

She laid there, looking up at Aurelia, and Schrödinger. If the prefect had known the effects of the candy, that she planted on her roommate, she would have stopped Aurelia from eating it. If she had listened to the boy she got the candy from, she wouldn't have even bought it- If Xailah knew what she had eaten well...she wouldn't have willingly consumed it. That Sherbet Lemon, was starting to hit a little differently. Aurelia was looking like a snack- and quite literally.

"Oh my." Well. This was different. Xailah had never felt like this before. She had never felt this hunger before. A smile began to make its way across her rosy flesh. There was a predatory glint in those ocean-blue eyes, which was unfitting for her current appearance. Her body knew this, and for a second there was a little quiver of gold, trying to creep its way back into her irises. It was a glitch. A small flaw in her disguise. "Why Aurelia, you just look absolutely delectable." There was no way this was going to end well.

The sudden loud thud of the toppling chair had certainly given the Monster Hunter a fright."What-" In almost a shriek had the word escaped her rosy lips, followed by another high pitch sneeze. Her eyebrow rose quizzically at the sight of the other Gryffindor staring up at her, unfazed from the fall. It was odd indeed. Aurelia did not know much about Meenauh Simutrea but it was unusual how the girl was acting.

Shaking her head, Aurelia picked the weapon lying on the table by the hilt before gently placing the object into the bag. She would take her study somewhere else, away from the strange girl and from the cat. It didn't matter if Schrodinger was reunited with its owner, in fact, she hoped he would not, then she would not have to care about cat fur floating about the dorm room anymore.

Swinging her bag across her shoulder, she pivoted on her heel and was about to walk away when Meenauh spoke, "Why Aurelia, you just look absolutely delectable." Her voice was uncanny. She heard it before, it was too familiar. Aurelia turned around her eyes finding the other girl, but this time, it seemed that something shifted. The eyes of the other lioness, they glowed a tint of gold. But it was not just her eyes, her hair, her nose, even her clothes, were different, suddenly attractive in a peculiar yet subtle way.

Aurelia did not know what had gotten into, but in a split second, she had a fistful of the girl's brown locks of hair. It was too pretty. she was too pretty. Only Aurelia herself deserved pretty, if this girl was pretty, then she would take it from her. A maniacal scream left the girl's throat, the sound reverberating through the silent library. With a single forceful motion, Aurelia yanked at the brown locks. Evidently, not hard enough as only a fraction of what she grabbed trickled pathetically onto the floor next to her feet.

The product of pure rage and insanity sounded another piercing shriek from the clearly infuriated fourteen-year-old. "You have no right to be pretty!" She was a growing madness as if possessed by a raging ghost that had then taken control of her entire being. Her calm and collected self was no more. The only thing on her mind was a growing headache and an absurd determination to take the girl's prettiness away from her. Aurelia had to. She needed to. She was only one in the world who was obliged to loveliness.

Goodbye Xailah, hello Hannibal. Its amazing what starvation can do to the human body- the things it can do to a persons mind. Hunger could drive the most stable person, to the brink of insanity- it could turn the most civil people, into literal monsters. Now, Xailah wasn't starving- nor would she ever know the feeling. But she was hungry, and it was distracting. Her craving for human flesh, was starting to beckon her. And as we all know at this point, the metamorph was a sucker for the mistress, that was temptation.

Her stomach was doing the thinking now; quite primitive to say, but thats really what she was now- primitive. Only animals let their stomachs think for them- she was an animal, a creature, a carnivore of sorts. A cannibal. -Well, not yet, but in some mere minutes, she was going to experience the sickening thrill of tasting human flesh for the first time. The prefect watched her prey move away, for the second that Aurelia had her back turned, the metamorph began to rise from her spot on the floor.

While the prefect indeed, looked different- looked like an angstier version of her dear friend, Meenauh, to be more specific; her voice however, had not changed. But, there was one key detail that was now missing. The child now lacked her signature hiss- which was a major identifier of the girl. It was the one detail that could have completely revealed her true identity. It was scary. The child had the potential carry out some seriously dirty deeds, without being identified; considering no one really knew what the girl sounded like without the lisp- until now of course.

Xailah had froze, when Aurelia turned back around to face her fellow Gryfindor. The girl saw it as a good time to pretend to play coy. The prefect needed Aurelia to get close enough, so the she could grab her. With her head bowed in a submissive manner, she shuffled towards the girl; as if to say: 'I'm harmless'. But her facade suddenly ceased when, the other Gryffindor let out a blood curdling scream. The child flinched in response to this, as she felt a cold hand dig into the side of her head, and yank.

Aurelia freed several clumps of wavy brown hairs, from their roots, allowing them to fall to the floor. The strands writhed, as if they were dying snakes. They straightened, and eventually deepened in color, before finally falling still. "You little BITCH." The prefect took a step backwards; the area on her scalp, where the hair had been pulled, was beginning to grow warm, and pulse with irritation. "I-" Her eyes darted around the library, in a hurt, and paranoid fashion.

Something was not right with Aurelia. Aurelia had never acted violently towards Xailah, at least not that the metamorph could recall. Aurelia would not be met with anger. Xailah shot a confused look at her roommate. Aurelia said Xailah was pretty? Red flag. The only people who had ever called her pretty, was her mother and her father- and occasionally her sister. She had certainly never been referred to as pretty, by her peers- and sure, Meenauh was pretty, but something just didn't quite sit right with Aurelias claim, either way. A strange feeling of what could have been described as fear, shot up the prefects spine. One second Aurelia had been fine, and then the next, she was bat-shit crazy.

"Pardon?" Xailah continued to back up, until she was stopped by a chair. She began to salivate. Realizing she was getting nowhere with this, she began to wrap her thin fingers around the back of the chair. "You shouldn't have done that, dear." The unnerving smile from before, began to return to her face. "I'm going to have to kill you now. I didn't want to-" She admitted, watching the other Gryffindor. "-But I'm hungry, so you leave me with no choice."

The metamorph clenched her jaw in frustration. "I've never had to kill my lunch before." And with that she lifted the thick, wooden, chair up, and over her head. "I guess there really is a first time for everything!" She let out a strangely bestial laugh, as she swung the large piece of furniture in the direction of her roommate. Her subconscious- well, what was left of it at that moment, prayed that Aurelia was fast enough to move out of the way.

Deep in a little corner of her mind was still a small bit of sanity overwhelmed by the absurd aggravation, the growing throbbing of a headache and most of all, the raging fire of jealousy. Standing in front of the girl who inexplicably seemed too gorgeous for the world, that small part of her conscience knew that the sudden predicament was absolutely wrong and that she herself was just not... herself. Yet the preponderance of her thoughts was fully enraptured by the waves of erratic sentiments to care. In fact, she loved how it felt, the delirium, the fatuous anger and the power that came with it.

All that power was made for one purpose only: to destroy this girl's beauty. Her once alluring blue-grey eyes were now wide and psychotic-like as her crazed gaze fell on the girl's cheekbones which, like every other tiny feature on the girl's face, were perfect. Her next target. "As if!" Aurelia mocked at the girl's claims to eat her. Another thought, it was a little too late for lunch wasn't it.

However, as soon as those words left her lips, a chair was swung at her, with such speed that the Monster Hunter had not a second to react and dodge the large projectile. And so the wooden object struck her on her side, the pain causing her to bend forwards instinctively. At that moment, a menacing scowl twisted her lovely features and she glared at the Gryffindor. She would pay.

A single hand slip into her bag and her fingers connected with cool metal. She drew out her dagger that had slain devious creatures in longer than she herself was alive. Now, she was to slay this girl's monstrous beauty. If she could only get it to connect with her face. In a split second, with a rapid flick of her wrist, the weapon had already left her palm.

It was satisfying in a twisted sort of way- the lifting of the chair, the way it carved through the air, only to make contact with her target; the sight of the dark wood grazing, the third-years fair, skin. Xailah had never really been an, extremely violent child- she did have her occasional violent fits, but they were never without reason. But, that behavior came with being a metamorph, sudden, random bursts of emotions were expected. This would be one of the rare times, that she would have an violent outburst, over something unreasonable.

"You're slow." She sneered, chair still in her firm grasp. That would be her mistake. She needed to drop the chair- if she had done this she would have probably been able to move out of the way faster. As soon as she had made that snarky comment, Aurelia began to reach into her bag. Xailah knew what she was going for. It was the dagger. She should have listened to her thieving-urges from before- she should have just taken the thing without a second thought.

"Oh you little-" Her eyes grew in surprise. The nerve. Aurelia seriously had the nerve to knife her? The metamorphs pride told her to stand her ground; while the primitive little rat inside her head, told her to run. Conflicted, she shifted her body, to block her chest- there was no way she had time to move anyway. The silver dagger propelled itself from Aurelias grasp, and found its way into the forearm of the metamorph. It was a surprise. She never really thought the dagger would even hit- but it evidently did.

It hurt at first; the knife cutting through delicate flesh, and tendons- but her arm quickly began to grow warm, and numb. She looked down at her forearm in bewilderment; whatever pain she had at first felt, was forgotten, as wonder began to take over. She flung the chair to the side, uninterested. Her skin began shifting underneath her robes, pushing at the blade, trying to loosen it from the flesh. It was an odd feeling, but it was a reminder of just how alive she was. "...Just a flesh wound." Wrapping her thin fingers around the hilt of the dagger, she pulled. Once. Twice. Thrice. She did the one thing doctors always advised, not to do. She freed the dagger from her arm, further damaging her flesh, and leaving the wound exposed. If blood loss wouldn't get to her, then infection most certainly would.

The metallic scent of her own blood, was intoxicating. But imagine if it was Aurelias blood. Her teeth chattered, at the thought. The idea in itself was exciting. "Sweetheart, its going to take a lot more than a butter knife, to put me down." She said, her voice oozed with a sick sweetness, like poison honey- it was inviting. Almost hypnotic. She let her arms fall open, in a welcoming manner; her eyes shifted through, hypnotizing shades of blue. "I'm not going to hurt you." Her grip around the dagger tightened. "I'm just going to...consume you." She cooed, as she proceeded to rush the third-year; weapon in hand.

The left side of her hip was still slightly throbbing where the hardy wooden object had collided her, but pain itself was not a stranger to the monster hunter, she had faced far worse than having an ordinary piece of furniture swung in her direction. Only a few seconds had the expression of a grimace taken over her features before twisting into an aggravated scowl when the knife struck the other girl. It lodged far from where she had intended. Instead of the girl's face, her arm now bore the hilt of the weapon, bright red blood trickling down and staining the grey floor crimson.

Meenauh was insane. So was Aurelia. The way the venomous words left her lips seemed to mirror her own current state of deviousness. They were both of equals, craving for two different things. Beauty and flesh. Her lip curled upwards sinisterly as the other girl now wield her weapon. If Aurelia was conscious, she would have thought it gruesome and perhaps even disturbing for the younger Gryffindor to have pulled the knife out without as so much as a flinch. But she was not at all sane.

Aurelia prepared her weapon of her own: her wand. Gripping the tool tight in her fisted palm, Aurelia announced loud and clear,"Rictusempra!"

The pint-sized cannibal, lunged towards her prey, only to send herself flying between a bookshelf. Maybe Aurelia wasn't as slow as Xailah had initially thought. Or as crazy. Her subconscious, wondered if Aurelia was actually capable of achieving this level of insanity without the influence of- well, whatever was influencing the girl. No stirring could be heard from where Xailah had fallen, on the other side of the shelf.

It was quiet. And unnaturally so. Perhaps the metamorph knocked herself unconscious? Maybe she fell on the silver dagger, that she held. Neither possibilities were the case. Little did the lioness know, her lack of aim enabled her to evade a fit of laughter. That Rictusempra nearly missed her, as she slipped through the bookshelf.

She kept low to the floor. Her heart was beating like crazy. She had felt her heart flutter before- in flashes of frenzied excitement, such as discovering something new. But this? This was a different type of fluttering, its was more like a pounding, but she understood it. She understood why her heart felt like it was going to bust out of her chest. This was a game of cat and mouse. The hunter, and the hunted. And she played the role of the hunter on a daily basis.

But this time it was wrong. The game was wrong, it wasn't going as planned. Both girls were hunters, and both were prey. That wasn't how the game was supposed to be played! She crawled through the aisles quickly, as she begun to realize that her life was on the line. She needed to be smart, if she wanted to make it out of here alive, and with a full stomach. Grabbing a toppled book, she would throw it through a space in the shelf.

She would then wait for Aurelia. Would Aurelia would go investigate the book? Or would she attempt a chase? Whatever the case may be, there would be an attempt from Xailah, to grab her fellow lion, and strangle her. Someone was going to fall. Someone was going to fail. Someone was going to get hurt. She was going to make damn sure that she was not that, someone.