Thump Thump
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This was stupid. This was so incredibly stupid. She was pretty sure even her bunny thought this was all stupid as she pressed herself further into the alcove, as though trying to disappear into the walls of Hogwarts itself and become one with the stonework. She kind of wished she would.
It wasn't a bad grade. E literally meant 'Excellent'. An E shouldn't have made her feel like all the air left the room, or made her heart race like a troll was chasing after her. It shouldn't have made her whole body fill with dread and fear. But when Transfiguration finally ended, all she wanted was a small, dark place to simply hide away, where no one would find her. Of course, she hadn't made it that far. The moment she spied the little alcove half blocked by a statue bust of some wizard she was sure was grand and important in some way she just didn't care about right now, she'd wedge herself into the dark place behind it and broke down as quietly as she could manage and tried to relearn what was suppose to be the innate skill of breathing.
Gwyn, her bunny, was hardly pleased with her. The critter had wriggled his way out of the pocket of her robes as soon as she'd cramped herself into place. His little dark nose sniffed and twitched at her, occasionally digging at her arm or leg, trying to demand her attention. However, Taliesin was absolutely frozen in place, arms wrapped tightly around herself and face hidden in her knees as her thoughts raced.
An E wasn't bad, but it wasn't acceptable. Her grades needed to be perfect, that's what her mother had said. As perfect as the rest of her was expected to be. Which she wasn't, not by a long shot obviously. But grades were something she had good control over. She always did well in school. With everything. She had an O average after all, and one E was hardly going to tip the scales of that average. But that wasn't the point at all. The point was that this was the worst thing that could possibly happen and that it could totally collapse the only thing she was succeeding in pleasing her chronically displeased parents about, and if she couldn't manage this one responsibility of excelling in school, then it only proved that she was a complete and all around failure in everything else without a single redeeming quality to her name. It was the first transgression down the slippery slope of flunking out of Hogwarts, which meant she couldn't fulfill her Heir obligations, which would mean letting down her entire family, forever tarnishing their reputation among Pureblood society without any hope of ever fixing it, which would then lead to shame, poverty, and inevitably the death of the entire Annwyn family line.
All because of this one E grade, on a small assignment, in her second year at school, as a twelve year old child.
Gwyn was growing quite unnerved and frustrated with the lack of acute attention. Typically, Taliesin liked keeping her focus on making the spoiled little creature happy and content, and her spiraling was getting in the way of it. The golden bunny paced around the statue into the emptied Corridor to come to the other side of her. Maybe he was just on the wrong side to get her attention, so he'd try again. Ears flattened, he tried boxing and digging at her again, trying to cram his way into her lap to no avail. Between her shaking and how tightly she'd balled into herself, he couldn't even find her face, and he was quite over it.
It was time to resort to his last resort of voicing his displeasure. Thumping. He snapped his back foot against the hard stone, throwing a full tantrum. The fluff of his feet might've muffled the sharpness, but it did at least have enough force to echo softly in the Corridor. Enough to voice how upset he was to his mistress and try to communicate his feelings to her. And he would not relent his thumping until he got the attention he demanded as his reward for her worrying and ignoring him so completely.
Last edited by Taliesin Annwyn on 20 Sep 2026, 16:34, edited 1 time in total.
"The girl who carried her last name like a burden..."
Thump Thump
He'd been walking down the corridors in a rush that day, half lost and half dizzy from an overall lack of sleep, hydration, and nutrition for the last day or two... those two halves making one whole confused second-year Slytherin boy.
December tried not to stumble as he rounded a corner, then tried not to shriek when he nearly ran straight into what he thought was a metal giant, but turned out to just be a suit of armour conveniently placed right in his path—
Oh, shit, wait. Why am I walking... into... the corner? he thought, rubbing his eyes and taking a step back as he half-mumbled an apology to the suit. It seemed to be very indignant towards him, so the boy continued to rush past it, before the metal shell of a knight had any funny ideas regarding the parameters by which its 'prop' of a metal sword were defined.
Soon enough, he found himself walking along yet another corridor. Though, as he made his way down this one, he lifted his head to look down it, and spied a golden little thing darting around. What in the world is that? he thought, quickly becoming unsure of whether he should be walking faster or slower. He was maybe five leaps away from where he'd seen the scurrying thing, when all of a sudden he heard an all-too familiar noise that made him pause.
Thump, thump.
...Is that...?
Thump, thump, thump!
He heard it again, and this time, the fluffy golden thing from before came into view. His thoughts had proved right; it was a bunny. Throwing a tantrum, huh...? I wonder what that's about... More importantly, what was a singular bunny doing in the middle of an empty corridor? December became somewhat worried, and stepped closer, kneeling in front of it.
"Hi, there, little guy... What's gotten you so worked up...?" He murmured. He kept a couple feet worth of space between them, but raised his hand just a bit so it was within the bunny's view, waiting to see if it would approach or not. The bunny stopped thumping, and didn't move for a moment. It eyed December, almost suspiciously, before darting off to the side. December's eyes followed, and when he turned his head, they landed on the bunny...and a plus-one.
Fluffy little goldilocks was trying to burrow itself into the arms of a redheaded girl that looked somewhat familiar to him. But familiarity aside, she looked somewhat vulnerable, tucked into an alcove he'd not noticed before, hugging herself tightly. Well, I suppose then this must be the rabbit's owner... he thought. Now that I know it's not just a terribly lost bunny, I needn't be here...
But of course, he couldn't stop himself from taking a step closer to the alcove, and opening his stupid mouth. "...Are you alright?"
Last edited by December Prometheus on 22 Sep 2026, 04:37, edited 1 time in total.
݁⋆˚ Ი𐑼٠࣪⭒ 𝕯𝔢𝔠𝔢𝔪𝔟𝔢𝔯 𝕻𝔯𝔬𝔪𝔢𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔲𝔰 ⋆.⬩ ★ ₊° ˖ ݁•
Thump Thump
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Gwyn was decidedly having the worst day of his short little bunny life. Nothing he was doing was getting her attention, and it was starting to become less frustrating and more upsetting. He paced into the Corridor and back around to the other side of the statue and back again, still employing his tactical thumps where he deemed necessary.
So caught up in his task, he nearly missed the stranger who appeared in the hallway, and froze. Beady eyes watching intently as the human that was not his mistress approached and knelt close, yabbering at him. Who was he? What did he want? Not-Taliesin raised his hand and Gwyn couldn't help himself from twitching his nose, trying to decern friend or foe. Should he make a break for it? Instinct said run. But actual Taliesin was still here and he couldn't leave her behind. No no, leaving Actual Taliesin wasn't an option. They had to stay together.
Gwyn darted back to his mistress, rushing to try to burry himself into her arms to no real avail, no matter how much he tried to dig his way into them. Didn't she understand that she needed to pick him up now and protect him from this strange Not-Taliesin?
Taliesin herself could barely bring herself to notice that a new voice was so close as it spoke to her bunny. Everything outside of her own mind sounded so far away and nearly drowned out by the blood rushing and her heart hammering in her ears. She was pretty sure this had to be what dying felt like; the task of having to actively beg your body to just do what it was suppose to do on its own.
It sounded so far away. Trembling, trying to force her lungs to work properly, she lifted her head from her knees to peek out. Through her blurry vision, it was hard to discern the boy from a shadow with how darkly dressed he was. Maybe that's what he was. A shadow, like in Peter Pan. Or maybe the shadow of Death. Maybe she really was dying, and that's why she couldn't breathe and why he heart wouldn't stop pounding and the world felt like it was under water."...Are you alright?"
Or maybe it was just a person, here to pay witness to her weakness as she fell apart for no good reason. Falling apart because her body couldn't tell the difference between a slightly disappointing grade and a life or death situation. For that, she probably deserved reproach for being so weak that she couldn't even maintain control over her own mind and body; no matter how hard she was trying to will herself to stop. Merlin, she was trying so hard, "I-I ca-can't..." she gasped tearfully, lungs burning, "I-I-'m so-sorr-ry. I-I'm so-rry." she could feel fresh tears stinging her eyes before pulling her arms tightly to her chest and hiding her face back into her knees.
"The girl who carried her last name like a burden..."
Thump Thump
A cute stray bunny was the least of his worries anymore.
When the girl looked up at Prometheus, he knew faintly that he'd seen her before—probably around the common room, or maybe the dungeons—she was a Slytherin in his same year. But he most certainly hadn't ever seen her with such a lost expression, eyes pouring streams down her cheeks, while barely containing her shaking shoulders as she clutched herself impossibly tightly. It was as though she wished she might just squeeze the life out of her body, and never need return to whatever was causing her this much angst.
"I-I ca-can't..."
When she spoke to him, he dug his nails into his palms to stop himself from reaching out to hug her, or something stupid like that. Her voice cracked and her words wobbled like shaky scrawling from a cramped hand that's been writing far too long.
And then she was apologizing, and he didn't know what to do at all. He knew it wasn't he that her words were meant for, but he still felt so guilty. Even though he knew he'd never once talked with her before this, Prometheus felt as though he'd stabbed her just by standing before her; and twisted the blade deeper by speaking. He wished he had shut up, but it hurt to see her sobbing as if she thought she was completely and totally alone in the world.
A half-formed scene came to him, and the more he looked at her, the more familiar it felt... Merlin, is she having a panic attack? He finally thought, blinking away the clouds in his head. It felt hollow. He opened his mouth a few times before it stopped being dry, though he wasn't sure if he could have said anything anyways, were he able to. He had the most empty head in the world, for some reason.
"Do you...want..." What, a hug? Stupid, she may just die from the shock! "...A chocolate?" He asked uncertaintly. He wasn't even sure if there was something he was supposed to be responding to; she hadn't answered his first question. I wonder if she even sees me for real right now... he thought with a frown. It could all just be a mental blur, blurry eyes aside. Things were blurry for him, too, sometimes. But then sometimes it could be too sharp and focused and crushingly vividly really real.
Please, please know that I see you here...
"...I've got some with caramel and some with toffee, if you want any." He added on, fishing through his small bag until he found the said sweets. He held them out within arm's reach of her, careful not to shove his hand right under her nose.
݁⋆˚ Ი𐑼٠࣪⭒ 𝕯𝔢𝔠𝔢𝔪𝔟𝔢𝔯 𝕻𝔯𝔬𝔪𝔢𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔲𝔰 ⋆.⬩ ★ ₊° ˖ ݁•