Hard to swallow Finished

She noticed how the boy was... surprised by her words. She carefully sat up, looking into his eyes. She only did so with people she found interesting or... trusted, in a way. The pupils of his eyes seemed to morph into strange forms. Who was this boy exactly...?

With her new found energy she tried to keep her cool and carefully put the rock on the table again. Suddenly, he started to talk about his name. Too many words that she could barely follow. It happened so fast and out of the blue, she didn't quite catch the last part. She just looked him in the eye, every so often she watched his lips move, yet she didn't hear what he said. Intrigued.

After he was done, Nico just watched the boy, slowely processing what he just told her. His name is Kaegen... Deathmote. That's all she rememberd. Probably the most important part. She quietly scratched the back of her head and blinked a few times. 'N-Nice to meet you. Kaegen was it? S-Sorry I... I was taken by surprise by you suddenly talking. It's not a bad thing though! I-I just didn't see it coming. A-Anyway. Kaegen is a name you don't hear very often. It has a nice ring to it.' She smiled shy. 'My-My name is Nico S-Shymane. Heh. I... ' She wasn't sure how to continue this conversation so she just coughed into her fist and neatly rested her hands on the edge of the table.

'K-Kaegen.. Can I.. ask you something?' She looked down at her hands for a few seconds. Was it okey to just ask people you just met, some questions out of the blue. She didn't have anything to lose, so why not give it a shot. 'W-What brought you to sit here? I-I don't mind really! It-It.. actually never happens that someone wants to sit with me. I'm quite odd you see. I-I don't come out of my room often because people scare me, in a way. I-I usually just don't want to get involved with bullies and-' She stopped there. She was mambling again. How rude. She didn't even give The Ravenclaw the chance to answer. 'S-Sorry.. I.. was mambling again.' The curious light in her eyes faded and she couldn't help but feel guilty. This is why people avoid you, Nico. A dark ominous feeling slid into her head, her eyes half shut. Don't even think that he likes you, you stupid girl. Who would ever want to be friends with you? All you do is whine and talk by yourself.

She confused him, but not in a horribly bad way. She didn't make sense, sure. But it wasn't dangerous, probably. He could probably stay here by her for a while longer before he ran off again. It seemed safe enough. Safe enough meaning not an immediate thread to his life. Or at least he sure hoped it wasn't. Sometimes you had to trust, and put on a friendly face. He wasn't any good at trusting, but he was going to try. He remembered Grandfather's words from long ago, it almost seemed like a eternity ago that he lived in the fens. "Never trust, never let down your guard. They're coming for you boy. They're right around the corner, always just out of sight. They're here now, and I'm not going to help you."

He hadn't followed that advice perfectly, sure. But he tried to keep it at least most of the time. Or some of the time? He wasn't entirely sure how it worked, that fragile line between improvising and disobeying. The girl was apparently surprised by him talking, assuring him at the same time that it wasn't a bad thing. He had caught her off guard? By talking? That didn't make a ton of sense, but he could roll with it. He didn't have to know why that was so confusing for her until later. He would find out eventually.

She introduced herself as Nico S'Shymane. The double S seemed a bit hard to pronounce, but it was probably just a foreign name. A worthless foreign name, but he was hardly surprised. No one here seemed to have any clout to their names at all. The other names were all worthless. Just a sound. But he was brought out of his disappointment by a rather paradoxical question. She asked him why he sat with her even though she was odd and didn't leave her room often because people scare her, and she didn't want to get involved with bullies.

He had a lot of questions. The first was probably what did she mean by odd? Dangerous, a ghoul in disguise, a monster, a death witch? Did she possess some power that made people avoid her, like a aura of bad luck? If that was true then why was she scared of people. If she was powerful enough to be considered odd, then why would she not be lording over them? The alternative was that she was weak, but weak people did not turn bright red with fury. They would hide, or flee. She had prepared to fight.

"I'm hiding, this table was farthest away, and emptiest."

He hadn't wanted to tell her, but he couldn't ignore her either. And the thought of lying hadn't even crossed his mind. But the mental preparation for the backlash he was sure to receive for being so weak occupied him enough to make him lose track of the questions he had prepared. He would just need to survive for a little longer.

'Hiding?'Nico looked up at him, pulled out of her spiral of selfhate. Cautiously, she looked around. Students were having their meals while making the weakest of puns. One of them missed the punchline and ruined his moment to shine. Harsh. Others were just talking, about class and every spell they nearly fully master. What could he be hiding for? Bullies?

She clearly didn't even scratch the surface of who this boy was. He seemed aggitated and... very, very cautious. He watched her every move. She didn't mind. Everything was better than being bullied. She looked back at him. 'I see. Hiding, from who? Or what? I mean.. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to... That's fine too.'

Nico carefully opened her bag by her side and pulled out a big sketchbook and gently placed it on the table. 'I-I thought... Since you showed me that stone, maybe I can show you something of mine. My own personal treasure. Would be a way to call it, I suppose.' She pushed the book just a slightly bit closer to him. Just close enough that he wouldn't feel treathend. 'Have a look...' She kept her hands close to her, one scratching the other gently. She felt nervous. Only one other person ever saw her sketches, a tall Scottish Gryffindor boy. The drawings would move and sometimes even stand up and hover few centimeters above the pages. They seemed to come alive and have a mind of their own.

The tip of her toes quietly tapped on the ground, patiently waiting.

His mouth opened to answer the girl, mostly out of reflex, but then he closed it again. He didn't have to answer? Well, that seemed like it made his life a lot easier, then. He'd just keep his mouth closed and avoid talking to the girl entirely. Seemed a safer option in his opinion, less chance of her getting mad again, or using her odd powers to curse him, or whatever it was that made people avoid her. He didn't want anything to do with it.

He was getting more and more nervous, just from being around this girl. Was it something in how she was moving? Talking? The boy couldn't pick it up, didn't realize consciously that the other girl was nervous, but he felt it. Felt it like a wild animal can sense fear, or anxiety. He didn't know what it was that he was feeling, or even that he was necessarily feeling something from the outside, but he certainly did feel nervous. Scared.

When the girl said she was going to show him her own personal treasure, the boy had no idea what to expect. What was treasure, anyway? Something powerful, something that cost a lot of money. But more likely, something powerful. Something that could cause harm. The elder wand was a treasure, the secret to stoppering death, also a treasure. A treasure was terrible in the hands of an enemy, and wonderful when you possessed it. So when he opened the book, and saw the creatures, the things, his mind could only attempt to fathom how this had any power.

And then they started to move, started to act as if they had life of their own. She had turned things to nothing but ink and paper, somehow placed them in a book? Was this a threat or a calm demonstration of her own power? He didn't care. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the boy's mind scrambled for a way out, and ran into a brick wall. He could feel himself starting to cry, and soon after could feel rational thought leaving. The boy turned, and ran. When he didn't see grandfather in the halls, he headed for raven tower. He had to get away.

The Ravenclaw boy started to cry as soon as he saw her drawings. Nico had hoped it would've brought them closer but instead it scared him away. 'W-Wait!..' But he was already gone. Nico was confused, more than before. Retracing her steps, she had no idea what startled him that much. With a blank stare, rid of any emotion as if in shock, she pulled her sketchbook back to her. Shoving it in her bag, she felt how her cheeks started to feel wet. She tried to ignore it and used the back of her hand to wipe away her tears. But nothing helped, the tears were flowing and didn't stop coming.

For a moment, she stopped messing around in her bag and hung her head. Her shoulders shook with every silent sob. She felt awful. But she was foolish to think that she could actually connect with someone so soon. With her hands shaking she pulled the hood of her robes, over her head. Far enough, to hide her eyes, in the shade.

She sniffled and got up putting the strap of her bag over her shoulder. It had been a little while since she felt this way. The walls that crumbled down by trust, are building up again. By selfhate. She tried to do some breathing exercices to make the dark cloud smaller but no succes. Quietly, she walked out the Great Hall. Sticking close to the walls, supporting her weight, as she made her way to somewhere else. Anywhere. She didn't care. She didn't know what to do with herself for a little while...