Post by Caitlin Collins on Oct 29, 2008 13:28:14 GMT -5
She had drank too much. For the first time in her life, Caity had drank too much, and was now feeling the effects of it. She’d stood up a moment ago to ask the barman for a glass of water, but her head had started spinning so much that she’d quickly sat back down. She wasn’t ready to admit she was completely drunk yet... but wasn’t stupid enough to think that the firewhiskey hadn’t affected her at all. She was fairly sure that curfew had been and gone a while ago, judging by the dark sky outside. When she’d headed down to Hogwarts a couple of hours ago, she hadn’t meant for this to happen... hadn’t thought it through at all, actually. The Three Broomsticks had been far too crowded for her liking, so instead she had gone further down the street and into the Hog’s Head.
She’d thought that maybe something stronger than a normal butterbeer would be better to help her forget the happenings of the last 24 hours, and since it didn’t appear as though the barman cared whether he served someone aged 80 or 8 with alcohol, had gone for firewhiskey. She’d had it a few times before and liked it, but found that this time, it wasn’t really doing the trick in helping her forget. So she’d ordered another. Then... another. And they were big glasses. And now drowsiness was setting in, and her depression had just settled even more. She hadn’t forgotten anything, but instead was just going over and over it in her head, unable to distract herself as she might usually do when she was sober.
It had not been a great day. Last night, she’d witnessed Alessandro falling off the astronomy tower and then disappearing when his body burst into flame. When she finally went to bed, she got about an hour of decent sleep before the nightmares set in. They had Mallan in as usual, and her grandma, but also Alessandro. Then it cycled through the rest of the lightfighters, dying by various methods – shadows, or the cloaked figure that represented Dark Phoenix in Caitlin’s dreams, or the same way as Mallan had – and she felt guilty. For all of them, she should have helped them fight, or stopped the Shadow Mage, or talked to them or noticed beforehand that something was wrong. It came back to her grandma again at the end, blaming her for delaying the family’s return from India... then she’d said something strange, something about the elephant pendant she’d been given, and not putting it to good use. How could you put a pendant to good use?
But however irrelevant that part had been, she had still overslept for her first lesson. Nothing had gone right for the rest of the day. She hadn’t done homework for Transfiguration, forgot her textbook for Herbology, and almost fell asleep again in Potions. She looked about for where she thought her wand had been dropped last night, but couldn’t find it. So she’d gone to find those two first years who must have taken it from her... but couldn’t find them anywhere. Sure, she found friends of theirs, who seemed to have sent her on a wild goose chase about the school. She couldn’t get into the Gryffindor common room at any rate, which must be where the two were hiding. So she had gone through the entire day without a wand, unwilling to go to a teacher about the matter. If she couldn’t retrieve it tomorrow, then she would, but for now she just left it for the day. Exhausted, she’d continued to be troubled by the ending of the nightmare that had been repeating last night, and had headed up to her dormitory for some peace and quiet. When she’d got there, she’d automatically reached under her bed for Mallan’s letters, like she always did to check they were safe. Except... they weren’t there. Panicking, she’d searched more. But nothing came up. The letters that she’d kept so safe since receiving them on that horrible day, were gone.
That had been the final straw for one day. She’d skipped her last lesson and left the castle, heading to Hogsmeade as just a place to get away. She still hadn’t deciphered the letters, still didn’t understand the reasoning. And she didn’t want anyone else to read them, because of the occasional references to the Shadow Wars. To a normal student it would be indecipherable, but to any of the Shadow Mage’s spies in the castle... it would give away too much information, she was sure. Not to mention that the notebook the letters were held in also contained all that she had of Mallan – photographs of them both, the drawings he’d done, the drawing Bryan had somehow created... It was too much to lose, it was too valuable to her. It was all she had left of him, and the fact that it had suddenly disappeared without any forewarning was a little too much for her to handle. Plus, she was terrified about what had become of Alessandro. She’d looked out for him, but could see no sign of the Ravenclaw anywhere.
And so, she had entered the Hog’s Head, drank too much, and was now particularly vulnerable to whomever came across her; both in general, and in the matter of giving away too much information about herself. She didn’t want to go back to Hogwarts, and to be honest wasn’t sure it was a good idea right now, in this state. She let her head drop into her hands and ignored the strands of hair that fell across her face. She didn’t want to imagine what she’d be like in the morning, or the journey back to Hogwarts full stop.
She’d thought that maybe something stronger than a normal butterbeer would be better to help her forget the happenings of the last 24 hours, and since it didn’t appear as though the barman cared whether he served someone aged 80 or 8 with alcohol, had gone for firewhiskey. She’d had it a few times before and liked it, but found that this time, it wasn’t really doing the trick in helping her forget. So she’d ordered another. Then... another. And they were big glasses. And now drowsiness was setting in, and her depression had just settled even more. She hadn’t forgotten anything, but instead was just going over and over it in her head, unable to distract herself as she might usually do when she was sober.
It had not been a great day. Last night, she’d witnessed Alessandro falling off the astronomy tower and then disappearing when his body burst into flame. When she finally went to bed, she got about an hour of decent sleep before the nightmares set in. They had Mallan in as usual, and her grandma, but also Alessandro. Then it cycled through the rest of the lightfighters, dying by various methods – shadows, or the cloaked figure that represented Dark Phoenix in Caitlin’s dreams, or the same way as Mallan had – and she felt guilty. For all of them, she should have helped them fight, or stopped the Shadow Mage, or talked to them or noticed beforehand that something was wrong. It came back to her grandma again at the end, blaming her for delaying the family’s return from India... then she’d said something strange, something about the elephant pendant she’d been given, and not putting it to good use. How could you put a pendant to good use?
But however irrelevant that part had been, she had still overslept for her first lesson. Nothing had gone right for the rest of the day. She hadn’t done homework for Transfiguration, forgot her textbook for Herbology, and almost fell asleep again in Potions. She looked about for where she thought her wand had been dropped last night, but couldn’t find it. So she’d gone to find those two first years who must have taken it from her... but couldn’t find them anywhere. Sure, she found friends of theirs, who seemed to have sent her on a wild goose chase about the school. She couldn’t get into the Gryffindor common room at any rate, which must be where the two were hiding. So she had gone through the entire day without a wand, unwilling to go to a teacher about the matter. If she couldn’t retrieve it tomorrow, then she would, but for now she just left it for the day. Exhausted, she’d continued to be troubled by the ending of the nightmare that had been repeating last night, and had headed up to her dormitory for some peace and quiet. When she’d got there, she’d automatically reached under her bed for Mallan’s letters, like she always did to check they were safe. Except... they weren’t there. Panicking, she’d searched more. But nothing came up. The letters that she’d kept so safe since receiving them on that horrible day, were gone.
That had been the final straw for one day. She’d skipped her last lesson and left the castle, heading to Hogsmeade as just a place to get away. She still hadn’t deciphered the letters, still didn’t understand the reasoning. And she didn’t want anyone else to read them, because of the occasional references to the Shadow Wars. To a normal student it would be indecipherable, but to any of the Shadow Mage’s spies in the castle... it would give away too much information, she was sure. Not to mention that the notebook the letters were held in also contained all that she had of Mallan – photographs of them both, the drawings he’d done, the drawing Bryan had somehow created... It was too much to lose, it was too valuable to her. It was all she had left of him, and the fact that it had suddenly disappeared without any forewarning was a little too much for her to handle. Plus, she was terrified about what had become of Alessandro. She’d looked out for him, but could see no sign of the Ravenclaw anywhere.
And so, she had entered the Hog’s Head, drank too much, and was now particularly vulnerable to whomever came across her; both in general, and in the matter of giving away too much information about herself. She didn’t want to go back to Hogwarts, and to be honest wasn’t sure it was a good idea right now, in this state. She let her head drop into her hands and ignored the strands of hair that fell across her face. She didn’t want to imagine what she’d be like in the morning, or the journey back to Hogwarts full stop.
