Closed You Found Me PV A. Mason

When he asked if it happened often, her hearing worse things from other students, she offered a small shrug, "People... still hold a lot of stigma against Slytherin. Especially since the last war. I mean, I can't really blame them, Salazar was honestly a bloody awful man that created the house on really horrible ideas. So we've always had a problematic reputation; especially when it comes to Muggle Borns or half bloods. So I think, when the attack happened, it just offered a bit more fodder. Really the only people who realized how bad the whole thing was was the people affected by it or were close to them and the teachers." she explained, "Its easy to forget that people are people when the only things you really know about them, are really horrible things. You don't feel bad when you behave hatefully, because you're convinced they deserve it." she had a similar view when it came to those with Lycanthropy. Those suffering, they were just people; people who never wanted such terrible and traumatic things to happen to them and then be judged the rest of their life for something beyond their control.

As began to ask about Brumby, the snake nodded, "I was a guinea pig more then anything. There was a request for someone to come help with an experiment for the cure and I figured it was better to let a professional take care of it then try to do it myself with my own ideas. My ideas were a lot... messier." Illowy smiled sheepishly, though she did take some pride in the fact that she'd been on the right track with her cure ideas as Brumby; even if it did stun her that the cure was as simple as a second year spell she'd known for years by that point.

Illowy gave a small, curious tilt of her head as Alec put his quill down, shifting about in the grass. She couldn't help but wonder if it was because he was becoming overwhelmed with information, or simply uncomfortable sitting for so long. Though when he asked his next question, Illowy found herself having to actually think of an answer. She'd never really considered what the worst part of the whole thing had been. If anything, it felt it had gone in phases as she'd acclimated, "There were a lot of worst things I guess... I hated how I looked for a long time. Make up could hide it on my face so I wore my hair down a lot accept for dueling. I always kept my arms and legs covered, but I mostly got use to it. Honestly, it took a long time for me to even recognize myself when the marks were gone." the witch spoke thoughtfully, "Taking the potion wasn't bad. I mean, you wouldn't think something so pretty would taste so bad, but once a week for almost three years, it just became part of the routine. But I got close to my best friend because of the curse, I got closer to a lot of people because of it." she paused, going over the things that still held fast. The nightmares and insomnia, the paranoia that drove her to stay up late in the Common Room to keep watch, just in case something happened again. Endless books, piles of notes, countless hours trying to figure things out... some residual guilt from not being useful that night, even though she had only been a 12 year old child.

"I think, through all of it, the worst had been the not knowing. We didn't know if it would last forever, or if a cure would ever be found. A lot of students just accepted that they were living on borrowed time and that eventually we'd all succumb. We didn't know how or why this happened to us, if it would happen again, and the professors never seemed to know any more then we did. The Unknown is a scary thing to face, and we don't really know much more now then we did then."

Immediately, Alec understood what Illowy meant, he steadied his gaze as if to pay extra special attention to what she was saying. There was a lot of stigma that surrounded Slytherin, both as Illowy put it, to their problematic reputation, and highlighted reputation of the past. People found it harder to to pull out empathy amidst their past history, their so-called 'nature'. He believed history was a valuable tool to offer insight, to not repeat the mistakes of the past, but felt this wasn't the proper way to go about it. Especially when the people now had nothing to do with and most-definitely did not represent the values or belief-set of bad apples in the past. Alec felt the stigma through friends and others, like a quiet silence creeping up on you, breathing down your neck. The certain way in which people tended to behave, disgusting in nature considering the situation, the innocence of the cursed victims involved. Alec nodded as Illowy spoke, “people can be really- er- terrible at times. I don't want to say I understand it, but I know how people can feel justified in the nature of their beliefs to stigma, and actions regarding it.” Awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck the Gryffindor would frown.

She mentioned being a guinea pig, as her role in helping out with the cure and Alec's eyes would light up with interest at the mention. “So you helped test for working cures?” He asked, seeming to cheer up from his earlier frowning when she mentioned she may have had quite a few messy ideas for a cure and was thankful for the help of an adult willing to step in and offer more insight to work on it. His mind going through the various ideas such an individual might have as a curse to the curse, not having the knowledge most seasoned professional healers did, it was interesting to see where it might have lead.

Their conversation carried forth, Alec asking the worst part about having the curse, there was so much to go off of. This time instead of the expected immediate response he found himself waiting for an answer, and would eye her curiously as he did so. Illowy spoke of disliking the way the curse looked, and how after taking the potions for as long as she ha it had simply become part of routine. Illowly talked about getting closer to people because of it, but throughout all this, he would find none of it was her answer. Having talked herself to way of having a conclusion, she concluded the worst part of it all was not knowing. Being as uneducated as they were about the curse as there was nothing to educate themselves on about it. It wasn't the type of thing you would find you could commonly read about in books. She said people feared the unknown and Alec nodded slowly as he mulled her words over.

In a moment of silence from him, he seemed on the verge of wanting to say something, however, when Alec opened his mouth, no words would make it out. What was there to say? What would he say? He asking a stranger some very invasive questions and receiving incredibly deep and personal answers. Alec had already been surprised he was receiving information at all, let alone some words and answers she must have held so close to her. “Do you think there's a chance you'll ever found out more about what happened?” By this point, by now, it must have felt like all they found out about the curse was what they were going to know now, it had been such a long period of time since the curse had happened. At a point there was acceptance to living in the realm of the unknown.

@Illowy Magnard

It was kind how he offered the sympathetic word, she thought, after she explained how people seemed to view Slytherin, "I think it's just human nature to demonize people ye think are worse then yerself. The irony is that, even though Gryffindor's tend to do it the most, they like to pretend like there weren't just as many Gryffindor alumni on the evil side as there were Slytherin. There were horrible people from all sides. Slytherin are just easier because we have a historically bad track record." she added with a sheepish chuckle. Illowy had had quite a rough past herself when it came to dealing with the over inflated pride and ego of some of the Gryffindor students. In her opinion, their relentless pride and self indulgence of their house's reputation was more dangerous then any of the other houses; but that was just her opinion.

"I helped test a working cure. As far as I know, Brumby didn't test on anyone else, or test any other potential cure. I think he didn't like the idea of risking a cursed student's wellbeing unless he was absolutely confident that it would work." the witch explained.

After Illowy had explained her thoughts about the worst parts of the curse in her experience, the lad seemed to fall quiet and thoughtful, seeming to struggle with what to say. Up until this point, she didn't think the boy had ever been one that struggled with talking. Yet he kept opening his mouth, hesitating and closing it again. Then he finally spoke.

“Do you think there's a chance you'll ever find out more about what happened?”

A small, defiant smirk tugged at the corner of her lips, "I know I will." she assured, "If there's one thing to know about me, I don't give up easily. Until all my questions are answered, I'm going to keep trying to sort it out." this was a foundational attitude Illowy always had; to never back down and to never stop fighting until she physically couldn't do it anymore. It was the same attitude she had in her studies, and fiercely abided by when on the dueling platform, "This could easily happen again, at any time, to any person unless someone figures out why its happening and how to stop it." the girl shrugged once more, "So if its not me keeping at it, then who will?"

Illowy mentioned she believed it was just human nature to demonize people you deem worse than yourself. Alec frowned at the sentiment. It was a rather pessimistic way of looking at things, albeit, almost somewhat truthful. Illowy talked about the fact how Gryffindors pretend there weren't as many of them on the bad side, how it easy to blame Slytherin what with their historically bad track record and all. She sheepishly chuckled, and Alec thought the chuckle to be more of a dark, morbid thing considering the sad topic. At least she was willing to share her thoughts, her point of view, all of it was interesting to hear. Alec liked getting new perspectives.

Alec asked a question, Illowy clarified she helped test a working cure. Alec nodded. As far as she knew, Brumby hadn't test it on anyone else either. She explained his reasoning... Which was thoughtful.

After asking quite a fair amount of questions, Alec had one last question. There wasn't much information to go off of , there wasn't much information to get. Alec didn't need to clarify anything. The least he could do was ask about her hopes on finding out more about what happened. She smirked, and that did give Alec some hope. Saying she knew she would. She said she didn't give up easily, Alec believed her. She said she was going to continue trying to sort it out until all her questions were answered. She said it could easily happen again, an eery thought, until someone figures out how to stop it. If she wasn't keeping at it, who would? Alec smiled, he liked her attitude.

“Perhaps your motivation to learn more in one of the only good things that came out of the experience.” Alec would add, glancing down at the parchment in front of him. “I think that's it. This has been... -er - well-”Alec looked back up at Illowy. “Helpful. Um- thank you. I'm surprised I got as much information as I did. I was almost expecting to reach a dead end.” He laughed nervously and began picking up his things putting them away back into his bag. “I appreciate you took the time out of your day to talk about this, even if it might have been hard.” Alec would have to review whatever notes he had managed to have taken later, he just hoped they weren't getting crinkled from being stuffed with little care into his bag. “You have an insightful world view, we should hang out sometime.”

@Illowy Magnard

The older girl smiled softly at the sentiment that perhaps her motivation had been one of the good things to come out of this whole nightmare. Perhaps. It had at least lit a fire under her to consider her vocation in the future. Before, she'd only ever thought about honing her skill to be a world class duellist. Now, she considered more about how she liked protecting people... even if she mostly lacked the attitude to appear as though she cared about the wellbeing of others. Ultimately she did, though. She didn't like seeing people needlessly suffer. She didn't like seeing the vulnerable being harmed or taken advantage of.

"If I had more information to offer, I would." she assured, wishing she had more solid answered for him beyond her own personal experience and a handful of rumours she wasn't even able to confirm. At least he felt he got something out of it though. That would have to be good enough, "Its no problem. I'd rather talk about it then let it get swept under the rug or totally forgotten about." the girl explained, watching as he began packing up his things haphazardly.

"Thanks." Illowy said with a sheepish expression when he complimented her world view. More and more she seemed to be getting compliments like that; still such an odd phenomenon to her that anyone thought such things, "Anytime. Clearly I'm not as hard to track down as I thought." she joked, grabbing the strap of her bag and getting to her feet, enough of a cue to Killian to rise and ready himself to follow his mistress off, "If you have anymore questions, feel free to let me know. I'll do my best to answer them."