CVDCV๐พ leep did not come easily to Camille inside this castle, but when it did, it betrayed him more often than it soothed. That morning โ if it could even be called morning โ he woke with a strangled breath, a faint memory of being on the verge of screaming in fury, and something about a shoddy broomstick. Fingers clenched the sheets as though trying to hold himself together. At first, Camille lay there, staring up at the curtains hanging above the bunk in confusion. The dream slipped from him in scattered fragments; he could not remember exactly what had made him sweat cold, just the image of a familiar curly head drifting somewhere in the smoke โ yet his racing heartbeat lingered in his chest, and the heavy feeling in his stomach was proof that it must have been another dream of the unpleasant kind. They were getting more frequent, despite never experiencing disturbed sleep before moving. With the previous week's catastrophic events, he could begin to guess it had something to do with an infuriating Gryffindor perpetrator. His face fell into an unamused frown immediately at the memory, simmering in annoyance at Harlan's stupid whims and the cruel reminder that, not even in his sleep, could he escape Lorenzo.
A few weeks prior, it had been Harvey haunting his mind when he wasn't physically available to tail him like a hound. Camille swore this place was damned beyond the inhabitants; the strange sounds from nearby bunks only confirmed it. He held his breath, for more than one reason. Air, he thought in dramatic panic. He needed air. The French boy jumped out of the bunk, shed the layers he had worn to bed, and ripped a new outfit from his trunk at random. The usually meticulous morning routine, including his well-covered skincare routine and a generous amount of hair-gel, was reduced to a lightning-speed wardrobe change before he fled the dorm, and the disgusting children he was unfortunate enough to share it with. Even as he stormed off, he was aware of the hair whisping around his face without a clear direction. Still, Camille didnโt pause; he descended the Ravenclaw tower and briskly walked the corridors down to the ground floor. Even though he had calmed considerably by then, he did not stop until he was halfway across the dark grounds, heading in any direction without a care where it led him, nor did he notice when heโd wandered off to uncharted territory.
During this time of the year, it was still dark at this hour in the morning. Only the unfamiliarity of his surroundings โ and the creeping awareness of it โ made him slow. He glanced around the path, squinting into the murk, wondering where he was. Despite having spent months at Hogwarts, heโd never explored beyond the castle walls, save for that cursed Hogsmeade weekend a month prior. Yet, the castle had already offered him more than enough peculiarities to keep him occupied โ and irritated. Since he was in no particular hurry this early morning with the majority of the castle still fast asleep, Camille continued to follow the gravel road, eventually reaching a clearing by the shore to the Great Lake. The surface was still a crystalline reflection of the early morning rise. Camille realized that this was the first time heโd actually seen the lake, not while huddling together in a rotten jolly or from the windows of the tower. The rumors of the various sea creatures populating the lake had not passed him by, it still looked calmโ serene.
Camille moved closer, enjoying the moment of quiet, calm peace. Said peace and quiet only lasted a moment before he had a suspicious reckoning. He frowned, eyes flicking toward the tree line, half-expecting some idiot to leap out of the shadows. The last thing he wanted was company โ especially unwanted company. Yet, even with no signs of human life anywhere, a gnawing awareness that he was not alone still pricked at him.
