Closed Dare I get Sentimental

He did not know? Likely story. "There are whole books on family lines," Erin replied. Some of the accounts might have been a lie, she knew there were a few untruths in her only family. Her mother for instance, just some barren pureblooded woman that was willing to claim heritage for the right compensation. A supply of Darkest Night that lasted her until her early grave more than a decade ago. She never knew her, had no particular attachment to her then or now and could hardly remember her name. Started with a U she thought.

The bickering would go on between her ex, if she could truly even call him that, and her cousin. The squeaky, pre-pubescent protestations seemed to grate on her eardrums and whatever essence akin to a soul she might have. "Why am I even here?" Erin muttered as Jack threatened Gideon's bear with a knife like some crazy person and Gideon carried on (presumedly) about the impending attack on his beloved Captain Giggles. She had no idea what was in the stuffy, not did she really care. She lacked the natural curiosity that most people with ambition have.

"Oh bother," with open palms she would attempt to push both of the boys down the hill and away from her. They were so loud. Whatever strange deal that had ongoing had ultimately devolved into this squabble for whatever reason. "When you can agree on whatever bullshit tactic you have to harass me, you can make the climb again," she called after them assuming that they tumbled off at least a short distance because she was not at all gentle.

"What's that written on your arm, Erin? Did you get a tattoo?"

She did not answer the question about the tattoo, rather she looked down at her forearm and spat into her opposite palm before she vigorously attempted to wash away whatever it was that she had bothered to write.

"'Both already know this'?"

"See, he admits it," Gideon squeaked with a pointed finger in his direction. This being perhaps where he might recognize what else seems familiar (wisdom 20), it was the way he twisted things. Somewhat poorly, but that was because there was not a great deal of focus in his lies. Rather he grabbed bits of information in his hand like a glob of wet paint and splattered it in the direction of a canvas. He roomed, or rather shared or dorm with, he was thankfully not that unlucky with Mathias Pride. he pureblooded wreath would strike again however, as Mathias was Gideon's half-brother as they shared a mother. Mathias never went into his family tree in detail, but his mother had bore a few children, having married into his family to Mathias' father. Yet the bonds of marriage were not as constraining as they are for most. The point of the union was the appearance of a family, the point of bearing children was to have the best and most varied (with the right traits) possible to ensure some depth to their genepool. So his mother and his uncle would have Gideon, his mother's favorite as she had always preferred a union with Thaddeus over Mathias' biological father because of the prestige and power that such a marriage promised but in truth Thaddeus was about as engaged in Mathias' mother Agatha as a man would be with a specific tree in the yard. useful perhaps, even amicable at times, there was never any passion or love for her and thus little from Thaddeus to Gideon.

"I didn't know it. I didn't even know this boy was related to you."

And in truth Giddy was far off better for it. Being connected to an almost hag with a pale veneer of a pureblooded heritage painting this scene of false prestige.

"And I don't know if you'll believe me, but I certainly didn't send him anywhere. It seems to me he's the sort of kid who wouldn't listen to anyone even if they tried to send him somewhere."

Jack had sent him. that was the lie. The claim.

"We both know I didn't."

"Why bother lying, she already knows?"

He pressed on. Why, in hopes that he would incite the elder witch in his favor. Admittedly he found this girl to be disappointing. She merely existed and nothing more. he would have pressed harder had he known of Jack and this girl's previous 'relationship' if one could call it that. How does one get over being lied to for months about who someone really is. The shame of peers finding out. The sudden, striking loss of that relationship even if it was a lie.

Buddy, you're lucky to be alive...

"I really dislike liars. And I still have your little friend, you know."

"What lie?" He protested just as his eyes widened. he had forgotten about his stuffy that was still in the big brute's hands. Jack held it up with both hands and wiggled it around a bit, both to remind its owner he still had it in his possession and to try to figure out what, exactly, was inside it by its weight and the sound it made when he moved it.

There was this dull clanking noise, of metal or glass striking like objects. Several such things inside the velour vessel. "Give him back!" Giddy shouted as he raised his arms frantically and attempted to snatch the bear from him. He let out a juvenile scream.

"Giddy Athanatos," Jack repeated Gideon's name. Half-brother to the late Vladimir Athanatos, a tragic loss spoken about in most of the papers. The media coverage was heavily focused on the bereaved father, Gideon in Japan for the bulk of the time their family was in the headlines. Vladimir shared a father with Gideon, and there was one younger brother as well who Thaddeus had sired with his present wife but hardly a threat considering his divergent heritage. Gideon was related to Erin in the same way that Vladimir was, second cousins. Hardly a shock however, many Hogwarts students were third and fourth cousins and very never bothered to do the math. They shared a great grandparent. For Gideon, son of Thaddeus and Agatha, grandson of Tobias and Olympia and great grandson of Leonidas and Alexandria, he was related to Erin through Tobias and Olympia's daughter Angelia whom married Cormac Ryan who gave way to Bartley Ryan and his wife Colleen legally but genetically her mother's name was Ekaterina a full-blooded Veela.

"And Captain Giggles. Good to know. I wonder what Captain Giggles ate that makes him so clangy. I think maybe he should have an operation so we can find out."

Giddeon let out the sort of wail one would expect from Jake Morris when Jack fished out his knife. "Let Mister Giggles go! Don't hurt him!" He cried.

"Unless you want to tell me what's in him so we don't have to operate, Giddy?"

"He gets hungry so he eats my homework when I think it is not good enough to give to the teachers so I have someone to blame. Mr. giggles is innocent!"

As he was about to plead for his bear's life, to withhold the truth more importantly from the big (at least to Giddy) red-headed bully, Erin's manly hands with thrust the boy away and send him tumbling and screaming down the steep incline of the hill. If Jack came tumbling also, Giddy would scamper towards the boy and attempt to use his disorientation as an opportunity to yank his bear free (strength of less than 3 so welcome to deny) and he would attempt to also give Jack a kick for good measure.

Pleads for Mr. Giggle's life and at his first opportunity attempts to take the bear and kick Jack (location Jack's choice if even effective). Welcome to have both miss as Gideon is not a strong boy.

Reducio

"There may be whole books on family lines, but why would I know anything of them? I'm just a mudblood," Jack answered, using the insult as if it were a common term which he hoped to make it with enough use. "But if you're related to Giddy, here, then that means you're related to Vladimir too, doesn't it?"

"Why am I even here?"

He kept his focus on Erin even while holding the knife and the bear, as she had been the main one he had come to see and talk to in the first place. "Erin, I wanted to ask you if you still had the token I gave you. You know, the one from Professor Lécuyer's tea party a while back when I was playing butler for detention. I didn't want it back or anything, I just wondered if you knew what you wanted to use it for yet. If not, that's fine," he added quickly, not wanting to pressure her. "I just wanted to remind you that I owe you a favor any time you want. Just let me know."

The ridiculously strong young woman then proceeded to push both boys down the hill and Jack tumbled unceremoniously head over heels alongside Giddy. When he finally came to a stop and got up, groaning a little, he saw Erin was already trying to wipe away the mark on her forearm with her spit. He frowned, wondering what it was she had wanted to avoid being seen and why she had wrote it there in the first place. Well, at least he knew it wasn't a tattoo.

Brows furrowing, the Slytherin boy turned his frown on Giddy as he tried to spot where he had landed, wondering what answers he could glean from him instead. Giddy's poor attempts to twist things did indeed remind Jack of Mathias, but how could that be? Had Mathias been a pureblood, too? Jack couldn't remember, especially since there had been quite a few people claiming to be pureblooded in his dorm. Maybe he should have read more books on pureblood heritage.

If Jack had been questioning whether Giddy was a brat before, he certainly wasn't after his screaming and wailing. He already knew he couldn't trust the kid's answers if he asked him questions even under threat. After all, he lied about Jack having sent him and then lied again about Mister Giggles having eaten his homework. Jack was willing to bet a few galleons that what was in the stuffed bear was not Giddy's homework.

"He eats your homework so you have someone to blame, but then you claim he's innocent," Jack repeated, trying to make sure he understood that right. "Well that's...weird. I'm quite sure he was guilty of trying to hurt Erin just now. Or was that your fault?"

Giddy's intended kick missed Jack as the older boy moved away, but during the tumble downhill, Jack had lost his hold on the bear and Mr. Giggles - or Captain Giggles, whichever it was - was free for Giddy to claim. Jack sighed again before pocketing his knife and attempting to climb back uphill to sit next to Erin.

"Next time, if you get close to me with that thing again, I really will gut your Mr. Giggles," Jack warned as he went, not bothering to look back.

@Erin Ryan & @Gideon Athanatos

Indeed, Jack was catching on. Catching onto something before even Erin had noticed. "Yes" she was related to Vladimir, "they're brothers from a line of prominent Seers in Greece." No, she was no seer herself. In fact, she was lucky to know what had already happening and what was presently happening, there was no chance she would fully grasp what would happen. They were related, multiple generations removed of course, they had little in common besides a bit of shared blood.

Isn't it rather odd that two people in the very same family had gotten tied up with a group of hags? Quite odd indeed.

The annoying sounds that came out of Gideon's mouth were beyond explanation. Words, yes. But it was the tone that grated on the young woman. Why am I even here? Sitting between this pair of bickering underclassmen. Wait, she was there first. This was her hill.

"Erin, I wanted to ask you if you still had the token I gave you. You know, the one I gave you at Professor Lécuyer's tea party a while back when I was playing butler for detention. I didn't want it back or anything, I just wondered if you knew what you wanted to use it for yet. If not, that's fine."

She remembered the token. A valueless bauble meant to symbolically represent a promise that may or may not ever be kept. It was as binding as ones word. Even less so, a token can be replaced, broken, lost, replicated or stolen. Words, some words at the very least, have power.

Still, she had it. Hidden away in the back of the drawer next to her bed in the dorms. The drawer was otherwise empty so it was not well hidden. Erin had no personal affects such as framed pictures, homey comforts or baubles to needlessly decorate her personal space. Aesthetic comes from the heart, so what she had that was no necessary and needed was few and was telling.

"I just wanted to remind you that I owe you a favor any time you want. Just let me know."

"And why Jack Burnett, mudblood" as he had so succinctly called himself but her use of the word had venom in the tone. Her face, contorted, her lip curled and her brows more like sculped curtains over her eyes. "Why would I ask for anything that you have not already taken from me!" Her voice almost growled the last part as he heave the two of them back, causing the duo to tumble down the hill gracelessly. She would not pursue. Her hands were shaking her knees were rocking and she felt sick, close to retching.

Gideon would tumble away, having been brutalized by that woman. The dramatics might garner some glances but that would have no effect on the young man's pride or bearing as he scrambled to his feet. His vestments grass-stained and scuffed, mother was going to surely have a fit. She was going to be furious when she learned that he was pushed around by bigger kids, that his darling toy was ripped from him and that this one bigger kid draw a knife of all things. Like some maddened muggle!

Was the bear full of homework? Depends on one's definition.

"He eats your homework so you have someone to blame, but then you claim he's innocent. Well that's...weird. I'm quite sure he was guilty of trying to hurt Erin just now. Or was that your fault?"

"That was her fault. She was the one being rude. Rude like you. Stealing. Threatening. Bullying. Do you have any idea who you are even talking to? Can you?" He said it himself, he was a mudblood and he can try to take back the name as much as he wants by using it himself. That is not a means of regaining power, but rather just letting everyone else know how little prestige and power they actually had. The name was just that, someone with a murky heritage, tainted by the vestiges of a mundane presence.

Jack noticed without likely realizing, Giddy referred to the bear by two names: Mr. Giggles and or Captain Giggles. who forgets the name of their beloved stuffed bear? It was an act, all of it. Had Jack ever heard Mathias talk about his family or his younger brother in particular he might have thought the teen was exaggerating. Gideon was 'the worst.' Not annoying, loud, problematic, but 'the worst.' A lot of older brothers refer to their siblings in similar if not less endearing ways but there was always a factual tone whenever the brother was referenced.

Gideon would rush to his prize, the bear as Jack began to trudge up the hill. jack would likely hear the boy approach, the much smaller, weaker juvenile whom jack Burnett had made the error of turning his back to. Jack would not see it, his focus for whatever reason on the girl, Gideon would reach into the rear (like a puppet) and seek something from the depths of his bag. It was one of those moments that would bring jack back to the Slytherin dorms a few months earlier, only this time a slumbering man was not the almost victim but rather he was. A blade would be drawn from the depths of that bear. The blade was five inches in length and he would uncork an unseen bottle from the bottom of the bear and smear it across the blade.

"Next time, if you get close to me with that thing again, I really will gut your Mr. Giggles."

Jack would hear the patter of tiny feet behind him. He would hear the gentle clank of unseen items carried in that bear. Gideon would look around them, ensure that nobody was looking and then...

"Merlin, I think you made Erin cry," Gideon would announce when he was certain nobody except the two of them was near. Look up, look away. Don't watch as the knife was plunged into your back. He would attempt to plunge the blade as deeply as he could with his insignificant strength. He would not stay there and make sure his blade remained inside of him. "Not if we gut you first Mister Burnett." No, Gideon would immediately flee before the pain of the blade even had a chance to register in the mudblood's brain. He would let out a maniacal laugh, now he knew where the 'giggles' part came from he could suppose.

The blade itself would be left behind, he was not about to recover it.

Blade was tainted with darkest knight. If you were stabbed in the back by this blade, it would do 300 damage, but that would not be the main effect. The blade was covered in a dark substance, a euphoric concoction that is highly addictive. It does two things - it leaves the person in a euphoric state but it also makes them reckless and violent but not for the sake of violence but rather to 'live life.' This can be interpreted as you please, any emotion you have are severely heightened beyond reason. Living life might be scaling the castle, snorkeling the lake or proposing to Flash Holmwood. All dangerous decisions for different reasons. Focus is near impossible in this state.

This is up to you to have occur. Lasts 1-3 hours.

Darkest Night is considered to be an illicit potion due to its addictive and dangerous nature. Popular in the 1990's and early 2000's, darkest night left the public eye in the late 2000s. The substance, primarily ingested would leave the user in a brief, euphoric state. Emotions, both good and bad would be heightened and even the depths of sorrow can be ecstasy when it is felt in every fiber of ones being, it is the sense that one is 'truly alive.' While in this state, the user would have reduced inhibitions the combination would leave some in a perilous state as they chose to cross the ocean on a broom without luggage, climb a mountain without gear or say something that was best left unsaid. Still, for the most part on the surface, it was not the potion that was dangerous but rather the choices the individual made while under the influence of the potion that proved to be detrimental.

However, the potion is also addictive. The temporary effects of the potion do ultimately fade, but not the memory of the bliss, the sense of freedom and being unshackled from their inhibitions. It was always when the potion ended that the consequences of their decisions became relevant and the bliss abruptly ended. This Pavlovian conditioning that the 'end was always bad' would make some users seek a consistent state of bliss. The world was just not nearly as bright, as cheery, experiences would feel muted and bland comparatively. In time, for those that partake just once and never again, this dichotomy would eventually fade after a short time, but for those prone to weakness, they would seek the happiness that they lost. Through the repeated, routine consumption of this potion, a physical dependence would occur. Their body would depend on the potion to 'feel much of anything' basically the rebound of the potion's actual effect on the mind but rather than it lasting a few hours or even days, this would last weeks or even months. This was the first stage of dependence. In the second stage, their body would start to change. This being where the term 'darkest night' came from, their eyes would become characteristically dark, as would the keratin in their nails, their teeth, even their bones although those would be unseen, and even their hair. This is a progressive process taking months to transpire and it would take months more to reverse, but the withdrawal at this point becomes 'dangerous.' Agitation, delirium, hallucinations, tremors and even seizures were found in those attempting to stop darkest night 'cold turkey.'

As for how this potion is made, who made it and why it is starting to trickle back into society after so many years... that is an unknown. Of note, a former professor (Halford Booth) lost his father to the trade of darkest night, a possibly good man condemned to a legacy of peddling dark wares or even consumption. He left Hogwarts before he could ever find the truth. An adventure that never happened involving Orion Lécuyer and Tuesday Jeremiah Irons never came to pass that led them to the River Thames. There they would have learned some of these answers had they used the key and learned the truth.

"Yes" Erin said, "they're brothers from a line of prominent Seers in Greece."

Seers?! Jack thought, flabbergasted with this new bit of knowledge. As if Vlad being a Legilimens wasn't enough! He supposed just because he was from a line of seers didn't necessarily mean Vladimir was one of them himself, but Jack wouldn't have put it past him.

He was drawn from these thoughts, however, by Erin's tone of voice when she used his first and last name followed by the term mudblood. Her expression when she asked why she would ask for anything that he had not already taken from her was a devastating blow emotionally as he realized she still hurt from what he had done years ago. Jack wanted to go back to her, wanted to hold her shaking hands if she would let him until they didn't shake anymore, but something else stopped him cold on his way back up the hill.

It had become increasingly clear to Jack as they interacted that Giddy was not the sort of person he wanted to deal with. It also seemed that Giddy did not think much of Jack. So when Jack had begun to walk away, he didn't think the other boy would bother with him any longer. Evidently, he was wrong, because the next thing he knew, there was the sound of little footsteps behind him and the clanking of some unknown objects. He might have turned to look behind him then except for something the brat said.

"Merlin, I think you made Erin cry,"

That, of course, caused Jack to look back up the hill to Erin and thus completely miss what was happening behind him until he felt the searing pain in his back. It wasn't as if he hadn't been stabbed before, but that didn't make it feel any better.

"Not if we gut you first Mister Burnett."

He knew the majority of what had happened to him once it had happened, but what he did not know was that the blade had been smeared with something before it had been plunged into him - something that began affecting him almost immediately. The boy who claimed his name was Giddy had already been off and running before the pain had seeped into Jack's nerves, but he hadn't run so far off that Jack could no longer see him. Giddy's maniacal laugh was another indicator of his location and Jack was tempted to home in on it. So home in on it he did.

Suddenly he was filled with the impulse to snatch that bear from Giddy and tear it apart with his bare hands. Jack wanted to shake the boy, hit him maybe; do things that he normally wouldn't have considered doing. He was angry, but then he also felt exhilarated when he started to run, faster and faster, after Giddy Athanatos. What he would do once he got to him, he wasn't sure, but he would do something.

It occurred to him briefly to take out his wand and cast a freezing spell or something similar on his target, but he didn't have the concentration for it and running was so much more thrilling to him than mere wand-waving just then.

"GIDDDDY!!" he yelled into the wind, heart pumping as he ran and laughter bubbling up in him nearly as maniacal as Giddy's. "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?! COME PLAY WITH MEEE!!!"

So intent was he on catching Giddy that he completely forgot there was probably a knife still sticking out of his back.

@Erin Ryan & @Gideon Athanatos

Erin was on top of the hill, uncharacteristically crying. Not that she would admit. Not that she even realized it. That was probably the only truth that Gideon would tell on that day before he plunged that knife into Jack Burnett's back. She did not see the coated knife sink deep into the Slytherin's back, but she would watch him turn away. Knife still in his back. Was that knife always there? She wondered as Jack's about-face would take him back down the hill, giggling with laughter.

Erin would furrow her brow and wipe the 'sweat' from her eyes as she watched the two of them run off. A screaming Gideon and a laughing Jack. They had apparently become fast friends, running off to play, taking Jack's statement in the most literal way. And when they left (separating Erin from this topic so "topic left") she would be left again alone. In their wake the same hollow emptiness she had felt before. The void. Nothing at all. She would long for it, what made her eyes sting and her heart ache. She would long for it because as briefly and as quietly it came and left, it was the only proof she had that she was even alive.

The pain was preferable she reminded herself. If was better than nothing at all.

Gideon was for the lack of a better word: a monster and there were times, like this one, that be owned it. He was built bad and there was no changing that. The tainted blade would be plunged deep, sapping from the teen half his vitality. Yes, to a weaker man, that blade would have killed them. Gideon was not pulling punches and he had no use for weak playmates.

He knew exactly what had been put into the older boy, darkest night. He knew exactly what it did. He knew its risks and its alleged benefits. He had no want to partake in death's drink. However, he finally had his playmate. Gideon had a head start, but he also had shorter legs so he needed the head-start. He was however a fast, nimble little bugger. Known for crawling inside and under various objects with astonishing speed. So while climbing trees was out if his depth, slipping under long tables and darting out the other side was a skill within this utility list.

He would let out a scream as he ran across the field, headed towards some place semi-populated. "Run... Run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" A game, a game of tag involving knives. Gideon was screaming, but the expression on his face as he looked back at the incensed Burnett was not one of fear but rather childish glee.

Gideon would scramble into a narrow space, like beneath a picnic table. No, that was a terrible hiding place. He would look around, his best bet with the tree line with the row of trees. "Find me, you're seeker and I am the snitch!"

Gideon would attempt to dart behind a tree and double back around.

Playing hiding seek. Your wisdom is significantly higher than Giddy's stats, you're welcome to find him.

Later, Jack would remember Erin's face. Later he would recall she had actually been crying and regret not having gone to her. Later he would question why he did not do exactly that. But just then he couldn't focus on anything except his heightened emotion of giddy rage towards the Athanatos boy as the pain in his back and the pumping adrenaline urged him onward.

What was Giddy screaming now? Something about a gingerbread man? When he looked back at his pursuer, he looked absolutely delighted to be chased. Jack didn't care; he was just as happy to be doing the chasing. He felt like an animal on the hunt but for sport instead of food. When the younger boy wedged himself under a picnic table, Jack thought he had him, but the quick little imp hurried out just as quickly as he had gone in and made for a line of trees nearby.

The Welsh teen followed intently when Giddy dashed behind a tree and tried to go back around, but then waited for him on the other side. As soon as he was within reach, the redhead attempted to grab Giddy's stuffed bear and rip its head from its body before turning the body upside down to dump to contents onto the ground.

@Gideon Athanatos