Archive BlossomFest Bonfire

Syrah continued watching her marshmallows cook in the fire. She rotated each slowly, close to the bar of the flame where it was hottest, but where it was easy to pull away in case something cooked too quickly. She was trying to achieve a very light golden around the surface of the mallow, just enough to give it some color. This way the inside would be warm, the outside would have a very, very slight crispy outside. 

She never understood how so many people, like her uncle and cousins, could enjoy the charcoal taste of a burned peice of fluff. She tried one once, it tasted and felt like ash dissolving in her mouth. The skin would peel away and leave behind a melted, sticky, wet ball. She didn't get it. It simply wasn't good. 

She looked up at the girl who had spoken to her before. She was simply watching Syrah cook like she had been when she asked her question. Well, watching was the best way to learn, she guessed. 

Shrugging to herself Syrah looked up at the rest of the crowd. There were certainly a lot of people out tonight. The bonfire was so huge too, it lit up most of the night, which had gotten even darker rather quickly. 

She was enjoying herself, even if she was somewhat alone, besides the girl next to her. She popped a ripe marshmallow in her mouth and then grabbed another to impale on her chosen stick, offering a second to the girl beside her. If she refused it, Syrah would simply plop it into her own mouth. Uncooked is almost as good as cooked, but without the wait.

Amadea smiled and nodded at the Hufflepuff. "Yes, Amadea," she confirmed. Serena had remembered Amadea's name. For some reason, it made Amadea quite happy. Someone remembered who she was. Serena mentioned something about the festival, and Amadea fought the urge to smile. It seemed as though they had a similar train of thought. 

Amadea had been wary of coming over simply because of their encounter the other day. It wasn't anything against the prefect, but Amadea really didn't want to have to deal with the amount of people that had surrounded her during the festival. It had been overwhelming and Amadea hadn't even known what was going on half the time. Thankfully, no one else seemed to be noticing them now. If they did, they had other people to talk to or other things to do. 

Serena patted the grass next to her, inviting Amadea to take a seat. Amadea took the offer, sitting down in the grass next to Serena. She watched as other students roasted marshmallows over the open flames and talked with each other. It looked as though everyone was having a good time. Amadea herself wasn't having a terrible time. The flames still scared her a little bit, but considering she could count the number of times she'd been burned on one hand, she figured she would get over her fear soon enough. Having a fear of fire was inconvenient for a number of reasons, but being here with Serena, a safe distance away from the flames was helping her become less nervous. 

The Hufflepuff next to her was looking less nervous as well. Nothing terrible had happened yet, no fights or setting other people on fire. Maybe this would be an event where nothing went wrong. Amadea stopped the thought immediately after she had thought it. She wasn't one for superstitions, but at a school full of magic she couldn't be too careful. She turned, looking around at everyone enjoying the bonfire. As she twisted back around into a more comfortable position, she squinted, doing a double take. She could have sworn she had saw an outline of some figure through the flames in the dark. 

Amadea turned to Serena. "Do you see that?" she asked. Turning back to point it out, she realized it was gone. She shook her head. She shouldn't have said anything and put either of them on edge. Clearly she had just imagined it in the dark. Her eyes were playing tricks on her. After all, she didn't have the best vision. She took her glasses off and rubbed them against her robes, hoping to clear off any dirt and smoke that had collected on the lenses. 

Changing the topic away from anything remotely scary, Amadea spoke. "How are you?" 

It seemed Serena was more alike to the Hufflepuff she barely knew that she first thought. The pair of them sat there quietly, just observing the area. There was no real awkwardness between them. Or at least, she did not feel any. The silence just existed, it was not uncomfortable by any means. In fact, if anything, it was probably actually rather appreciated. The girl sat down next to her and the pair of them just watched everyone else.

The Prefect stared into the flickering flames. She knew how dangerous they could be. She had seen it firsthand when she saw the victims of the last fire that raged out of control. However, there was also something memorising about it. Staring into the blends of yellow, orange and red, Serena realised something vital. It was the fire that had saved them. It had hurt a few people, but it had also saved them. In some sort of twisted logic, the fire may have been the reason they were alive today. Hufflepuffs were being attacked. The fire stopped the attacks. Without biased, it sought out to hurt everything and anything. If anything, we could say that the students who survived it were a lot stronger than the fire was. They had beaten it. Serena was certainly not one of those. She had failed, miserably and she was aware of her own failings. But those students who had fought against the fire, carried out the victims and survived were the real heroes here. 

The fire certainly did not scare her. The darkness, however? Now that was another matter entirely. The fire was her light that saved her from the darkness. Allowing her gaze to drift, Serena took in the scenario. It was dark but there were people around. That was when she saw it. Her breathe stopped instantly. Unconsciously, she was holding it as she stared into the darkness. For a second, she thought she saw something... someone. A dark figure... A shadow. Her hand instantly moved to her wand and gripped it tightly. If one of those shadow creatures was still alive, it would come for them. It would come for each and every single one of them. 

The fear was evident in her eyes. It was here. The shadow figure was here. It was going to get them. It was going to happen all over again and she could do nothing to save them all, again. The tension rose as her fingers got tighter around the wand. Her jaw was clenched shut. Was she even breathing again? Who knew at this point? Her eyes quickly scanned the scene again. It had disappeared. She stood up suddenly, searching for it again. If it was there, she would have to warn them. These students, everyone could be in danger. 

But nothing happened. No one screamed. No one said anything. There was no attacks. Exhaling, Serena slowly loosened her grip on her wand as she looked around again. Perhaps it was just a figment of her imagination. Perhaps it was nothing more than that. The shadow was something she had seen daily in her nightmares. It was easy enough to start hallucinating them now. Her paranoia was certainly getting to her. Or at least, that was what she allowed herself to believe.

Sitting back down, Serena remained cautious. Her hand stayed on the wand that she had pulled out and her eyes continued to scour the area. At least, she allowed herself to believe it was just a figment of her imagination until she heard Amadea's words. "Ah- you- You saw it too?" She asked, the tension rising slightly, "Yeah... I thought I saw... Something... Over there..." She pointed in the direction with her wand but she wondered if Amadea had seen the same thing or if she had seen something somewhere else... Maybe there were more than one figure. Maybe it had moved around. Serena had no idea but she was certainly on edge now.

"I think it's gone now..." She murmured, more to herself than to Amadea but it was loud enough for the girl to hear. At least, I hope it has... It can't have been a shadow creature... Lear would have searched the place... Surely... We got rid of them all... I think. Maybe? Hopefully... Bu- But... Argh... Damn... Where did it go...

Serena scoured the grounds for a few moments longer before something started to bother her. She had no idea where that... thing went. She really hoped it was just a person and she misunderstood what she had seen but for some reason, she couldn't get over it. The hooded figure from the distance, for the short moment looked very much like the shadow creature that had attacked her and the other Hufflepuffs. She thought they had been destroyed... but if they hadn't... "Sorry, I have to go," Serena said suddenly as she stood up, "I'll see you around, Amadea!" She continued before grabbing her stuff and heading towards the last place she had seen that shadow. She had no idea what she was going to do but right now, she just wanted to make sure it wasn't a creature about to attack them all. If it was, she would just try her best at destroying it with lumos again and screaming so loud that the teachers heard...

[TOPIC LEFT]

The fire crackled around them, and Amadea wasn't sure if it was in a calming way or an ominous one. Fire, like many other things, had a quite controversial mood in Amadea's mind. While it was certainly nice to have this bonfire and watch everyone roast their marshmallows and have a good time, fire could also be quite dangerous. But somehow, seeing the fire controlled in one specific area and utilized for an event like this made Amadea feel a lot better. It was reassuring to know that they had the power, not the fire. 

Glancing toward Serena, Amadea noticed a sort of fear in her eyes. Knitting her brows, Amadea wondered why she was afraid. There were a number of different reasons; of course Amadea figured it was still the fire. The poor Hufflepuff prefect had been nervous the entire time she had been here, and Amadea knew it was because of her past experiences with being burned. Burning was definitely not something Amadea enjoyed either, and being that close to dying because of the flames would definitely make Amadea terrified of ever being near fire ever again. Or maybe it was not the fire. Maybe Serena had seen the figure as well. That would be reassuring, as Amadea didn't want to be hallucinating things. 

The shadow had left almost the moment Amadea had spotted it. Her heart was pounding in fear, both from whatever the shadow was and the thought that she was just seeing things. She couldn't be losing her mind already; she hadn't even finished her first year yet! It seemed as though she could rule out the latter option, though, as Serena appeared to be just as terrified as Amadea felt. She had jumped up, wand in hand, and was staring around at their surroundings. Amadea felt as though she should do something; maybe jump up as well or try to reassure Serena that everything was okay. Thankfully, Serena seemed to realize that on her own and sat back down. 

"You did see it," Amadea muttered quietly, almost soft enough that it seemed as though she was talking to herself. Amadea wasn't sure whether or not to be relieved or frightened out of her wits. She didn't have to worry about going crazy and seeing visions, however if the shadow had been real then Amadea had a whole other set of things to worry about. What could it have been? Whatever the shadow was, it seemed as though it wasn't a friendly one. Of course, maybe she was reading into things too much. She shouldn't overthink something. Maybe she and Serena just had a weird angle through the fire and the flames had illuminated something making it look like a weird shadow. Amadea dismissed the thought, trying to tell herself that everything was okay. "It was probably nothing," she said, partly to reassure Serena and partly to convince herself. "After all, it's gone now. It was probably just the flames illuminating something at a weird angle." Yes, of course. That was a reasonable explanation. There was no reason to get worked up over something that clearly wasn't a big deal. No one else seemed to have noticed the shadow and everyone was still happily talking and roasting their marshmallows. No one had been hurt either, so Amadea figured she and Serena had just caught a glimpse of a weird shadow of a tree or something. It wasn't a person...of course not. That would be silly. 

Amadea was still lost in her thoughts when Serena stood and announced that she had to leave. Amadea automatically stood as well, though she wasn't sure why, and smiled. "Oh, okay," she said to Serena. "I'll see you around, I guess!" Amadea waved as the prefect walked away. Realizing she herself should probably head off to bed, she took one last glance at the bonfire before turning and walking away as well. 

[ EXEUNT ] 

As she sat and roasted her sweets, Syrah stayed quiet and enjoyed the simple cracks and sparks of the fire before her. Most students, although the number was slowly dwindling as the night went on and many retreated to bed, were having conversations with friends and Professors. Although Syrah was not opposed to talking, she preferred this simply alone time, although still in a crowded place. The fire allowed her to stare into its depths and think of memories, concerns, and future events, that she needed or wanted to think on. 

The night seemed to fly by and the young Slytherin could see even the bonfire before her was tiring. Its blue and green core had cooled to a bright orange and red.The wood near the bottom was fully blackened and hardened from the heat, disallowing any fire to continue its life on its surface. By this time Syrah's stomach growled, and she furrowed her brow in confusion. There was no way she was hungry, not after eating this many smores. However it only took a moment before she realized her stomach was not complaining of hunger, but of pain. Perhaps she had eaten too many sweets. 

Looking around she noticed it was only the Professors and a large handful of students left on the premises. Mostly older years who were more used to staying up late than the first years perhaps were. As she looked up at the clear sky, stars shining bright, she realized then too, that she was rather tired and that sleep would need to come soon. And so with this she took a few more moments to stare at her friend, the fire, and sat goodbye before she retreated back to her Common Room in the basement of the large castle. Far away from fires and stars.