[OPEN/GROUP] End of Year Party, Anyone?

The wolf had grown weary. The door would not give underneath her weight, and there was nothing to actually eat within the room. The growls and snarls and roars eventually quieted, and a small whining now racked the wolf's ribs as the wold curled into a ball, raising her head only to rib up the rags and scratch up the walls.

Outside, Casey sort of enjoyed the surprised expression she had managed to coerce onto Professor Arryn's face. She had always had a knack for surprising adults, probably because adults had a nasty tendency to underestimate the abilities of anyone who couldn't apparate. Casey had always hated that, finding that her logical mind understood a lot more than people assumed.

He spoke and she stared at him, hoping to unsettle him ever further.

"So she wasn't feeling it then?" she asked. She was very curious to try to understand whether this was one of those stupid adult "just sex" things or what. She changed tactics, interested to see what sort of reactions she would be getting. "Or you don't do relationships because of past issues?"

Casey's question surprised Declan more than it perhaps seemed. How backwards. She had no idea, though, and that wasn't her fault in any way. But he obviously didn't want to have this young girl see her cousin in any sort of negative light if he could help it. He may have been hurt, but he wasn't a bad guy. So he tried to find a more delicate way of handling her inquiries.

"That's probable," he admitted after a moment, doing his best to cover his disappointed expression. "I'm not sure either of us are good at relationships."

Declan turned his gaze to the floor in front of his feet, feeling immensely grateful that Dom was asleep. He assumed as much, anyway. He would be in for a great deal of mess if he was wrong. He didn't want her to think he was turning around and talking about her just as she had done before. Perhaps it wasn't quite the same. But Declan doubted that she would appreciate it, regardless.

"We've talked about it, sort of. Neither of us were in the right place to do so, though," he concluded, tilting his head back against the wall. He turned to look at her. "Listen, Casey. I may not know your cousin as well as your family might, but I care about her. In the end, it'll be up to Dom."

She watched him carefully, knowing that any small twitch, any glance away might just reveal how the man felt. It really, really wasn't any of her business, and she really did not care much about what Dom did or didn't do. But behind her was the reminder of a horrible mistake, something that would change Lily's life and make Casey feel like she had failed her family. In front of her was a wonderful distraction, one that kept her from feeling the full force of the implications of the night. So if she had to harass her professor to feel better, so be it.

Honestly, she was surprised her bothered to answer. He could have pulled the you're a student, so shut up card, or the ever popular I'm an adult and you're a kid so I don't have to pay you any mind schtick. The former was explained away with his mention of potentially not returning to Hogwarts. The latter was still unexplained, though. He had no reason to explain himself to her, but he was.

Maybe he actually did like Dom.

Weird.

He spoke again, using her name, and she squinted her eyes at him. She had never really had any interest in romance or dating, having always been a bit of a loner and a tomboy. She didn't get worked up at the idea of being loved or loving... But there was something about Declan that seemed so lost and hurting and alive, because of the romantic possibility with probably her most idiotic family member. And that was enough to make her think maybe there was a bit of stock in this whole love thing.

She took in a deep breath, and then finally said, honest for the first time, "You may have some time to wait. Our families are a bit... messed up, when it comes to feelings." She grimaced a bit. "But you should probably sleep. All I have to do tomorrow is sit in the hospital wing with my cousin. You have lots of paperwork and explaining, I'm sure."

Declan was surprised at the almost-encouragement that Casey offered him, wondering if perhaps he had actually managed to make a good impression. How strange. Usually he just bothered people because of his tendency to avoid actually getting to know them. It was different this time, of course, because Casey was being given a chance to know a man who very few in this world actually could even begin to understand.

She was right, of course, about the sleep. But he was more interested in the first part of what she had said. "Well. Time is something I have far too much of anyway. But you're right. Lots of explaining to do tomorrow. For Dom, too."

He bent his left leg at the knee, reaching down to tug off his shoes as Christian had. The boy really was onto something. Declan's spellwork wasn't the best, of course, but he gave it a go and came out with a pillow and blanket. Setting down the pillow to one side of him, Declan shifted, doing his best not to wake Dom in doing so. In case she woke, however, he uttered quiet words into her ear.

"Here we go, love. Time for a proper rest, hmm?"

Once he had her settled down on the pillow in question, he draped the blanket over her. Looking at Casey again, he realized how dreadfully lame he probably seemed. Fantastic. Sighing, he shook his head. "Not sure I'll actually get any rest, so go on and wake me if anything happens."

As a man, Declan wasn't known for much of anything. A few knew and understood his hidden talents, but most saw only the surface, which was just as he liked it. Hiding it away could get a bit lonely, though. If he were being honest. But in the span of an evening, he was finding that, perhaps, there was a side of him that had gone missing but could yet be found. A chivalrous Gryffindor who had been decidedly locked away to prevent heartache that he could have prevented if he had just been more aware. More perceptive. He had already gotten it wrong with Dom once. How many mistakes would he be allowed to make before the world gave up on him and decided that he didn't deserve anyone at all? Maybe it was best to not try and just let whatever happened... happen. There didn't seem to be a point, anyway.

He always seemed to do better around Dom when she didn't know he was trying. Like this. Like ensuring that she was comfortable and lying down on the floor without anything but socks to cover his toes, and realizing that it truly didn't bother him. There were so many things men did to show that they cared. Beat other men senseless to preserve honor, or yell and rage because they weren't being recognized as the one meant to do the other bit. Declan had perhaps done a little of the latter himself, but he was no brawler. Not by half. He did not excel in many things, truly. But in accidentally knowing what to do, it was possible that he could someday strike the right chord.

It was with that and the tune of his most recently learned sonata trailing somewhere in the back of his mind that Declan turned towards Dom and drifted off.

Her fingertips were tingling.

They hurt, a lot, probably because the wolf had been scrabbling at the stone walls and floors all night, desperate to find some give somewhere in the cramped broom closet that had become her jail - or zoo, rather. Apparently, it had not found a way out - thank Merlin - so had instead punished the shelving and cleaning supplies the closet had served as home to. Rags had been shredded into a fine confetti, and splinters from the wood shelving and the poor solitary broomstick littered the ground, making it a very dangerous place for a young woman to wake up.

Her first feeling was confusion. Naturally. Waking up in a strange place was never pleasant, and one didn't really get used to it. She expected it, and wasn't surprising, but it was still hard to escape that jarring feeling of trying to piece together the confused memories constructed by a beast with a completely different mentality from you - especially when said beast had been given full reign. It didn't take as long now, however, seeing as the beast had been confined all night.

She was in a broom closet. In the Room of Requirement. Because she had.... shit. Right. She had dropped her potion. So she had gone to the Room of Requirement and... and... there had been people.

Lily slid up from her curled position on the ground, sitting up straight in fear, immediately beginning to check herself for blood or something. Something to confirm the worst. Because there had been a party, full of people, and people had been taunting her, saying her name. The Zabini twins. Baker. Jenna. She immediately touched her lip, where she could feel a trickle of blood. No, no, no.

Oh. She had bitten her lip. She could feel the cut. The blood was her own. Thank Merlin. She began to drop her hands, relief beginning to settle on her - when it froze in her stomach and dropped like lead.

There was blood under her fingernails. and over the tops of her fingers. She looked around frantically, hoping there was signs of blood within the room, that it was somehow hers. There were dribbles of blood at the bottom of the wooden door - which was shredded at the bottom - and in the stone corners. She tried to force back into her lungs. It had to be from her frantic attempts to escape the room, as it looked like the wolf had basically filed its nails down in its attempts, leaving Lily with torn up nails and bloodied fingers. It wasn't someone else's blood. And the weird splash of reddish brown across her forearm was just... the blood flinging about. Of course. That... that made sense.

She looked about, suddenly dreading what she would find when she looked for things like, say, her clothes, and her wand. The rush had been great that she was certain all of her personal affects had probably been ruined. She looked about and spotted her shoes. One had been destroyed, but the other seemed forgotten about. Her pants were almost split down the middle, and her shirt and hoodie were significantly damaged.

Well... she needed clothes...

She leaned backwards and she felt her palm press down on something long and wobbly. Oh no. She fastened her hand around it and pulled out her wand. Parts of the wood had been peeled off of it, and there were two puncture marks from teeth. The fact that it hadn't snapped in half was more than a miracle.

Thanks to the state of her wand and the wonky magic as of late, it took a few tries to get her clothes mended. She sighed and slowly donned the clothing, tying the hoodie around her waist. Her body ached horribly, but she had to get out of this room before someone found her, realized what had happened. Perhaps there had been less people at the party than she had remembered. Maybe they had just seen her run into the closet and would chalk it up to a Potter acting up again.

There was still hope.

A small moan left her lips as she pulled herself up, tucking her wand away. She limped towards the door, carefully unlocking it. How had the door held all night? (She would later learn of Casey's spell and how it had expired around the time that Casey had fell asleep, a mere hour before dawn.) She opened the door, and slipped out, intent on just hurrying out.

But the sight on the other side of the door was more unsettling her than the one inside. Casey Weasley's head had slumped on top of her shoulder, and she was breathing the heavy breathing of someone in desperate need of sleep. Two figures, one looked a bit like Dom, were curled under a blanket, chests rising peacefully. She turned, spotting the badger Zabini, also slumped, next to her cousin, his brow a bit furrowed as he slept, but otherwise peaceful. And his brother next to him. Hadn't he been bothering her last night?

She took a step to leave, figuring distance between these people might be wise, even if it wasn't necessarily polite. But something about Apollo made her stop. She stared forward, her hollow breathing loud in her own ears. Part of her brain told her to just keep walking. Pretend she hadn't just seen what she thought she had seen. Walk out the door, go to the hospital wing, get so heavily medicated that she never thought about it and she could pretend the only that had happened that night was the loss of reputation - and it wasn't that much of a loss anyway.

But she didn't. Because, smart as she was, Lily was foolish in that sense.

It took the blink of an eye to locate the scar across Apollo's stomach, which was still bare as they had let his wound air out. Lily was too good of a potioneer to think the scar was really from an old wound - she recognized the product of dittany anywhere. The few splotches of blood they had forgotten helped.

Lily stepped forward, staring at the now-peaceful form of the sleeping Slytherin, who had always given her such a hard time, just because he could. Typically, when she saw him, she would feela flare of irritation, because he knew how to get to her and she didn't know how to stop him from irritating her. Could she bite back? Of course. But could she stop those feelings of aggravation from coming back? No. And she fancied herself fairly good with distancing herself from her peers.

But right now, she wasn't feeling irritated. Everything seemed to have drained out of her. She had never hurt someone. She had never turned someone. Oh, God. Had she turned Apollo Zabini? Had she taken a normal, uncomplicated life and turned it to shit? Her empty frame began to fill with shame and guilt and dread and heartbreak, weighing her down, forcing her down onto her knees. One of her shaking, pale hands danced across the scar.

"I'm so sorry," came the hoarse voice.

Casey Weasley's eyes opened, but she did not stir, simply listening as her cousins words began to repeat. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

((Dom will wake up in my next post. Lily muse is going crazy right now))

Christian had woken in the night. Looking around, he realized how late it must have been. Not late enough to wake, but far too late to be yet awake. So as he glanced at the others, the naive but good-hearted boy noted that the blanket that Declan had laid out over Dom had fallen between them. Assuming, of course, that it had once been over the pair of them, he crept over quietly and draped it over both of them. He would have done the same for Casey, of course, but he wasn't convinced she was asleep. It wouldn't be helpful to disturb her.

It must have been only an hour or so later than he woke to a gasped sort of apology near his ears. Sitting up sharply, Christian found Lily knelt beside Apollo, looking desperately upset with what had happened. He hated that she knew. He hated that she couldn't stop apologizing for something she could not help.

When Apollo moved, it was only his hand that did so, reaching out to grasp Lily's hand before it left his skin. His younger brother frowned deeply, worried that she had accidentally hurt him but also anxious that he shouldn't make Lily feel any worse. There was a great deal of confusion in the lad's features and in his head, in part because he was madly and quite irrationally jealous of his brother for a moment. Not in the sense that he actually wanted to be harmed and thus treated better. He didn't know, really, what bothered him about it. It probably had something to do with the fact that Apollo had incited her into it, in part, but she seemed to be blaming herself singularly.

Apollo, for his part, was feeling a great deal better than the night before. He, of course, was not his usual self. Not even close. But it wasn't as bad. So as he became more alert, he forced himself to compare the ache to the sheer, intolerable pain he had felt the night before. If nothing else, it would keep him from complaining too badly. Still, he opened his eyes slowly, trying to get a feel for the room once more.

Lily was hovering over him, and it took a minute for him to recognize that she had done this to him. Where had she gone off to after she turned? For, after all, wasn't that what had happened? Nothing else made sense, though - to be fair - a lot was failing to make sense now that his head had started throbbing again.

"It's okay, Lily," he breathed, his voice hoarse from the complaints of last night and the long sleep he had taken in. If he had looked at Christian, he would have seen the surprise that flickered across the Hufflepuff's face. Perhaps there wouldn't be any of the anger that the younger brother expected. Not yet, anyway. That was good.

"It's okay."

She had roused him from his sleep - yet another offense she had committed in the past twenty four hours against the elder Zabini twin. She clamped her mouth shut, sitting up ever so slightly, wanting to run away now that he was awake, capable of looking at her with the shame and hate that she rightly deserved for the theft she had committed. But he caught her hand, and she looked down at it. His hand, holding hers, hovering right above the scar that probably wouldn't go away. She was sure. She had never turned anyone, had never looked into it, afraid of creating a self prophecy.

She had never supposed such a thing. Firstly, she had never suspected her classmates would ever find out her secret. Secondly, she had never expected to attack someone. Thirdly, she had never expected to kindly clutch the hand of Apollo Zabini, the one boy in all of Hogwarts who seemed to grind her gears the most. And not just for show, or obligation. But in that moment, she did feel deeply connected to the boy. She couldn't imagine how James Blood did it. She felt such an overwhelming responsibility to fix this mess, how could anyone do this without a qualm?

He spoke and she blinked, heavily. Lily Potter wasn't a crier. But if she was, the tears would have come then. Because she felt a burning in her throat that had to be tears - though she couldn't be sure, it had been so long. Her arms were shaking now, from the physical exertion of the night, as well the crippling shame now threatening to crush her. She bowed her head, lifting his hand to press it against her forehead. She let out a shaky breath, pressing the one escapee tear into the back of his hand.

A groan broke the moment. Lily glanced up to see one of the blanketed figures moving. She glanced over to see Christian, carefully watching her. She lowered Apollo's hand and ducked her head, giving Christian a frown of deep contrition.

"L.," Casey was rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

Dom let out another groan, flailing her arms a little bit. Boy, was she warm. But her back sort of hurt. Where was she? A yawn escaped her mouth and she sighed, flicking her eyes open.

She was looking straight at the peaceful face of Declan Arryn.

What was she supposed to do? He was going to be mad at her, thinking she was trying to be all cuddly when he made it very clear that he was not looking for random bursts of affection from her. She hadn't meant to! She must have rolled over in her sleep. She was a cuddly person, she couldn't help it.

But wait. Where did the blanket come from? And how did he get so close? RIGHT. He had pulled her close to him to get some rest. She couldn't remember anything else. He must have summoned the blanket, pulled her close, ensure she was comfortable.

...What a sweetheart.

She blinked a few times, smiling a bit warmly, reaching her hand out to bop his nose with her finger.

"L."

She flinched, her finger tripping down his nose across his lips and chin. She pulled her hands to herself and craned her neck, looking up to see the students stirring. Oh, right. Responsibilities. Shit.

She began to sit up, struggling to untangle herself out of the blanket. "Merlin," she grunted, falling across Declan, very narrowly escaping an accidental knee to the groin. Unfortunately, it meant she was practically straddling Declan.

This was great for their reputation.

"I can't get up," she muttered, admitting defeat to herself, hopefully explaining herself in case Declan awoke.

"What the hell?"

The words escaped the professor's lips before he even realized he was awake. He had hit a sort of wall the night before, finding nothing else for him but sleep and sheer exhaustion. Casey had been entirely right. But seriously, though. What the hell. It wasn't like Declan was the one who had gotten hurt the night before. So why did it feel like he'd had something fall on him?

Dom's words met his ears and he finally understood. He didn't want to open his eyes and actually see Christian watching him. For some reason, he assumed it would be the Hufflepuff who was staring. For the record, he was quite right. So when he did open his eyes, ignoring the students, he blinked at Dom. It was hard to properly register what sort of sight they must have made. Instead, he became all the more aware of the fact that she brought out his impatience, his worst side... But she also found and held his interest, also forced him to accept the possibility that he might actually be willing to risk more than he already had for this woman. Declan realized all of this, though, because when he properly looked at her, he just wanted to kiss her.

But that was insane on many levels, so - despite his exhaustion and desire to just go back to sleep - he sat up and began untangling the blanket, throwing it off of his feet. "It's alright. I think we're all pretty out of it..."

He nearly went ahead and transfigured them back into his shoes, but there were more pressing things to attend to. So, his sock-clad feet carried him, once he had stood up, over to the three students gathered in the center of the room.

"I'm going to be fine, Lily," Apollo was saying quietly. "It's just a scratch now, really."

Declan crouched beside them, reaching a hand to settle it on Apollo's shoulder. "You feeling ready to get up, mate? We should get you to the hospital wing, if so."

She had awoken Declan, as most people often were jarred out of sleep when a pile of uselessness fell on top of them. She knew he was going to be grouchy. They all had just awoken from a rather terrible night, sleeping on fairly uncomfortable ground, and Dom was already messing up again by implying more about the night than was true. It seemed all of her interactions with Declan served to further ruin his reputation which had been perfectly unmarred before he had met her. Had it not risked their friendship, she would have been amused by this trend. But that wasn't the case.

She glanced up to see Christian staring at them and she heaved a sigh. Another week of sex rumors, and she hadn't even got the added benefits of doing the deed.

How the hell did she still have this job?

She turned to look at Declan, grimacing a bit, and found him looking back at her. Her eyebrows pulled inward in confusion. Because, even though he was always fairly intense, there was something else in that look. Something deep and longing and determined. And if they weren't surrounded by students, and if it wouldn't make him hate her, she might have wrapped herself around him and kissed him.

Buuuuuuuut it was not the time, noooor the place. And he would hate her forever if she dared such a thing. He sat up and she nearly fell off, instead sliding off of him as gracefully as she could - and it wasn't graceful at all, guaranteed.

Casey had approached her cousin, wanting to help, but had stopped paces from them, sensing that she was an intruder. Which was irksome, considering she had always been there for Lily, so she should have been as welcome as anyone else. But Lily was nodding at the Slytherin, her head wobbling a little bit, clearly not believing his words as he spoke them, but trying to find some level of composure.

Dom had lept to her feet and moved to approach Lily, but Casey threw an arm out, keeping the blonde corralled behind her. Declan pushed his way passed them and kneeled next to the injured parties, prompting them to move to the hospital wing. Lily swallowed and attempted to stand. Casey could see the weakness in her cousin's knees, so she stumbled forward, catching Lily just as she swayed. Dom hurried forward, helping Lily up on the other side before reaching out to Apollo to assist him.

When Apollo stood, he reached a hand out towards Lily, squeezing her shoulder before turning to accept Christian's help out of the room. Behind the boys, Declan reached a hand out to nudge at the small of Dom's back and let her go through the door first. He paused, though, his touch drifting away slightly as he looked back and realized he hadn't gathered up the things that used to be his shoes. And neither had Christian.

"I'll be just a second," he murmured, in case she was listening. Then he crossed the room quickly, picking up the items they had left behind. Although he considered stopping to fix his things back to shoes, there would be time for that later. So Declan turned around and picked up his pace so he could catch up with the others.

He glanced at Dom, but recognized that the situation needed to be taken care of before he wondered what the heck had just happened between them. So he kept quiet until they got to the hospital wing, where he saw Victoire giving Kit what must have been a check-up of some kind. Ducky had probably come in at some point, he realized, and looked around for the Gryffindor. Apollo was being sat on a bed, so he turned to the healer that approached, wanting to explain what had happened.

But Lily was right there, and he didn't know what to say. How could he just ruin everything for her? Apollo seemed to catch his look, cutting in with, "I've got some nasty scratches. My brother ran in for dittany last night, but I need to have them checked."

The Slytherin's gaze drifted to Lily, but he clearly had no intention of outing her if he didn't have to. If anyone found out, it wouldn't be because of the boy she had inadvertently attacked. And somehow, that comforted Apollo himself, though he couldn't really explain why.