Post by Rister Graas S6 on Jan 21, 2009 8:25:56 GMT -5
Rister finished reading the last essay McGonagall had handed to him and huffed as he let the parchment reroll itself. Whatever was to be said, purebloods handled Hogwarts better than muggleborns in younger years. Muggleborns didn’t trust the magic flowing in their veins, they found it all so peculiar and weird that they fumbled up or didn’t grasp magical theories due to their attempts to explain everything with muggle terms. McGonagall glanced at him upon hearing his huff, but didn’t comment. They had had discussions about muglgeborns and purebloods before and had come to a relative consensus. Muggleborns needed a long while to start understanding and instinctively taking to the magic but purebloods weren’t clearly superior in all aspects of life. “You’re dismissed for today,” McGonagall informed him and Rister nodded as he deposited the essays on McGonagalls table and picked up his cloak. “Good evening, professor,” he stated absently as he left the classroom and paused for a moment. It wasn’t exactly late yet – a good half an hour to go until curfew – but curfew had never bothered him. But he hadn’t really caught much sleep for the last week so perhaps he would merely return to the dungeons and go to bed and simply sleep until morning. Yes, he’d do that.
Folding the cloak over his arm, Rister turned to hurry down a short-cut to the dungeons, rounding corners with perfect ease, his mind already made up on his plan for further. Or perhaps not so certain plans, Rister conceded as he rounded a corner and glanced at the familiar figure. Layla was sitting quite dejectedly on a staircase, one of her ankles stuck in the staircase. And she was probably cold; Rister’s mind supplied seeing the light shirt Layla was wearing. The stone-walls of Hogwarts weren’t entirely warm during winter months. Wordlessly Rister walked down a couple of steps to her, draped his cloak over Layla’s shoulders and then sat next to the girl to silently start working on getting her ankle loose. It took a few moments of prodding with his wand and a little bit of simple brutal force before Layla could get her leg back. But after that had been achieved, Rister merely stretched out his arms and turned to wordlessly peer at the girl. He wasn’t disturbed by the silence. Layla wasn’t known to talk very much, but Rister was good at reading people. Besides he liked the younger girl.
She would grow up to be a beauty one day, he decided as he regarded her huddled up in his notably larger cloak. She was bright and witty. He had given her a pin with the calligraphic ‘G’ with the Graas wolf-head on it that would offer her some sort of protection from Slytherin bullies. And well, she had spent some time around all of them, which possibly wouldn’t hurt either. Popularity tended to spread and with all arrogance aside, Rister and his brothers were quite liked. She didn’t seem to entirely like the idea of being charmed today however. Rister could understand that. There were times you just wanted to be alone. Or days when you needed something to reaffirm your faith in the world. “Come on,” Rister murmured as an idea struck him and held out his hand to Layla, “I want to show you something but we need to get you some warmer clothes first.” Layla threw him a curious glance but true to her nature didn’t question as she slipped her hand into Rister’s. Pulling the girl onto her feet, Rister lead her through the passage-ways to the Slytherin common room and through it to the sixth year boys dormitory. “I have a feeling you’re a fair sight smaller than me,” Rister stated as he eyed Layla speculatively, “But we’ll work something out.”
Under the half-heartedly curious eyes of one of his dorm-mates, Rister dug around his chest before managing to come up with a thick black sweater that he had worn in fourth year and tossed it to Layla. It would be big for her, but it would also keep her body warm. A pair of Rister’s pants were shortened suitable with the help of some magic – and a snort of laughter from his dorm-mate at Rister’s tailoring skills - and a belt secured the pants around Layla’s waist – that started a rather amiable squabble between Rister and his dorm-mate about Rister’s diet while Layla observed them with a light grin. Some shredding and shrinking was also applied to cloak so that it wouldn’t trail on the ground after Layla before Rister wrapped a Slytherin-silver toned scarf around Layla’s neck and nodded with satisfaction. The result wasn’t entirely fashionable, but it was charming in a way and it would serve its purpose. So Rister winked confidently at Layla, pulled his dragon-scale jacked on himself and with Layla slipping her hand in his again – Slytherin common room was possibly a somewhat dangerous ground for her still – they left the dormitory and the common room again. Giving a light and comforting squeeze to Layla’s hand, Rister led her through yet another set of hallways to the low ground floor window he always used for getting in and out of school at times when he was supposed to be in bed. He had used this route so often that helping Layla through it wasn’t going to be a problem either. Opening the window with a quick twist of his wrist, Rister sat onto the window-sill and waited for Layla to climb up there as well. “You can leave the window open. The room isn’t used anyway,” Rister told Layla quietly, before dropping out of the window. He landed in a crouch and stilled for a moment, before straightening up again and turning. Raising his arms, Rister motioned for Layla to jump and caught the young girl, his hands slipping up her sides, but stopping her fall before her legs hit the ground.
With their comfortable silence continuing, Rister took Layla’s hand again and started leading the girl across the terrain. He would need to keep an eye on his pace and stride-length today. Layla’s steps were far shorter than his and she wasn’t used to these sorts of adventures. But where they were heading wasn’t far and Rister was quite confident that the end result would be worth the trouble. So he helped Layla slip into the Forbidden Forest with him, patiently untangled the cloak when Layla got caught in some bushes, and enjoyed making the younger girl giggle when he held gallantly bowed before holding out a hand to help her climb over a fallen tree. But even so Layla wasn’t as used to romping in a forest as Rister himself was and made notably more noise while moving. This was part of the reason why Rister paused her with a good 15 minute trek left until they would reach their aim and presented his back to Layla. “I move quieter than you do and I can carry you the rest of the way,” Rister murmured in explanation as he helped Layla position herself and shifting the hold of her arms around her neck so that it wouldn’t start applying pressure on his throat. Once he was satisfied with Layla’s position, Rister slipped his own hands under her legs and started moving at an even pace. He was moving slower than before – Layla was light, but the added weight was notable – but they did make good progress. It took them only about ten minute longer to reach the small clearing Rister had been aiming for.
Upon reaching it, however, he was pleased to see that the unicorns were there. A quiet gasp at his ear let him known when Layla noticed the creatures with their young ones as well. Stepping into the clearing, Rister slowly lowered Layla back on the ground and pushed her lightly towards the unicorns. The unicorns eyed the humans but didn’t seem entirely opposed to Layla stepping forward to them. Upon realizing that Rister wasn’t following her, Layla turned with a light frown that made Rister half-smile. “I’m neither a girl nor that much of an innocent virgin either really. Go on, I’ll wait here,” Rister told the girl quietly, as he leaned one of his shoulders again a nearby tree-trunk, crossed his arms and ankles and prepared to wait. The unicorns seemed to shine in the dimness of night and were graceful enough to instill some comfort into her despite her fear of darkness. The older creatures didn’t pay much attention to her, even when allowing her to pat their necks, but the couple of young foals with their still golden fur were all too happy to bounce around Layla and urge her to play with her. She seemed quite fond of the creatures too, Rister observed calmly. Then again, it was hard to not like young unicorn foals. But perhaps he should get Layla a kitten.
It was only proof of Rister’s love for the Forest as well as fondness anda degree of understanding that made him stand patiently for an hour and wordlessly observe Layla playing with the foals. But he did notice the yawns appearing on Layla’s face more frequently. And the old patriarch of this little heard seemed to want to start heading out as well, even though he would hardly move while there was an innocent girl around. The curse of the unicorn. Pushing himself away from the tree he had been leaning on, Rister called for Layla’s attention and when she looked over, crooked his finger at her as a signal to come over. “The herd wants to leave, but you can take the golden fur along, even though it doesn’t’ have the magical potency grown unicorns hair does,” Rister told Layla, who dropped her eyes to the ground but nodded. Crooking his finger under Layla’s chin, Rister hoisted her face up to his again and tapped her nose with his finger: “Despite the unicorns, the Forbidden Forest is forbidden because it has far more dangerous things in here. We can come back here sometime – if you want – but not unless you promise me not to try it alone.” After getting the agreement from Layla, thankfully she was a smart girl, Rister turned and crouched to present his back to her again. Theoretically they wouldn’t’ be approaching any more animals so making noise wouldn’t matter. But quite possible Layla was just too tired by now to think about logic, as she simply wrapped her arms around Rister’s shoulders and her legs around his waist and leaned her cheek on his shoulder.
Rister walked at an even space, knowing that it would be least tiring, as well as jostling Layla least as he took the shortest route back to the castle. The evenness of Layla’s breathing that tickled the side of his neck, told him on half the way, however, that she had fallen asleep. Well, human bodies searched for closeness and comfort from those stronger by instinct. And Rister had had plenty of experience being the pillar of support like that for others. Climbing back into Hogwarts castle with a sleeping 11-year old on his back was a bit of a feat, but Rister managed with some skill and luck. Once they were in, Rister slipped Layla off his back to a table for a moment, where she curled up immediately, while he closed the window again. Then he turned and picked up Layla in his arms, letting her curl against his shirt as she murmured something in her sleep, her tight grasp of the golden strands of unicorn hair never loosening. There was no real need to exactly carry the younger girl, as he could have very well floated her in the air. But Rister knew that carrying the girl would make him look good (not that there would be many people around to impress as midnight had already passed a couple of hours ago) and perhaps in a way, the feeling of another human so close to her would keep Layla succumbed to peaceful sleep. But Rister wasn’t planning on deliberating his motives any further, as he just made sure he had a secure hold on Layla and slipped quietly out of the room. He could move soundlessly outside, but he also managed to move so quietly on the stone floors of the Hogwarts hallways that it had drawn forth many surprised remarks from the other students.
But despite the late – or early to be more truthful – hour, there were others moving around. Merry that just stepped out from an abandoned classroom froze like a deer in headlights upon seeing him. One of Rister’s mouth corners crooked upwards as he tilted his head almost insolently towards the girl. She was pretty and not dumb either as some classes he had shown up to had revealed. But whether it was fear due to her discovering Morgana’s secret or the fact that her little sister had ended up spending a week in Italy with her, or maybe something Rister didn’t understand, but she had been seemingly avoiding him lately. He didn’t understand it as he had been honestly intrigued by her. Yet, despite whatever Lita might say about his lack of tact, Rister never forced his company on girls. So he forced down his curiosity about what she might be doing here (snogging some fellow? Studying? Fell asleep?) and walked by. At least he had looked good, Rister told himself vainly though in honesty he probably had. He was tall and had a slender but well-shaped form, his pants showed class and taste, his leather jacket added a bit of the bad-boy groove, the sleeping girl in his arms showed his strength and protectiveness (that she could probably understand and appreciate) and the plain truth was that his face was well-shaped and chiseled as his high forehead and sharp cheekbones showed the traces of centuries of good breeding while he himself smelled like something wild and free like the Forbidden Forest itself. Not shifting his course by a millimeter, even though it meant his arm nearly brushed Merry as he passed her, Rister continued on wordlessly, slipping into the Slytherin common room unseen.
Walking into his dormitory, rister gently positioned Layla on his bed. After unwrapping the scarf from around her neck and tugging off the modified cloak from her body, Rister pulled his large sweater of her and with Layla wearing her own blouse and his pants, tucked her under the blanket. Drawing the curtains around the room, Rister slipped out his wand and waved it at the curtains as he cast a swift ‘Sanctuary’ charm and then created a dim night light. He wouldn’t be able to catch any sleep himself in the light and while being seated, but that would have to be taken care of tomorrow. So Rister simply shrugged of fhis jacket and shoes and seated himself on the bed. At least it would mean he could make sure Layla didn’t’ take after Ashlyn and Lita and ate proper breakfasts, he mused absently before leaning the side of his head against a bed-post and letting his mind slip into somewhere between consciousness and sleep to get as much rest as he could.
((Just popped to me. Haven't proof-read it yet though.))
Folding the cloak over his arm, Rister turned to hurry down a short-cut to the dungeons, rounding corners with perfect ease, his mind already made up on his plan for further. Or perhaps not so certain plans, Rister conceded as he rounded a corner and glanced at the familiar figure. Layla was sitting quite dejectedly on a staircase, one of her ankles stuck in the staircase. And she was probably cold; Rister’s mind supplied seeing the light shirt Layla was wearing. The stone-walls of Hogwarts weren’t entirely warm during winter months. Wordlessly Rister walked down a couple of steps to her, draped his cloak over Layla’s shoulders and then sat next to the girl to silently start working on getting her ankle loose. It took a few moments of prodding with his wand and a little bit of simple brutal force before Layla could get her leg back. But after that had been achieved, Rister merely stretched out his arms and turned to wordlessly peer at the girl. He wasn’t disturbed by the silence. Layla wasn’t known to talk very much, but Rister was good at reading people. Besides he liked the younger girl.
She would grow up to be a beauty one day, he decided as he regarded her huddled up in his notably larger cloak. She was bright and witty. He had given her a pin with the calligraphic ‘G’ with the Graas wolf-head on it that would offer her some sort of protection from Slytherin bullies. And well, she had spent some time around all of them, which possibly wouldn’t hurt either. Popularity tended to spread and with all arrogance aside, Rister and his brothers were quite liked. She didn’t seem to entirely like the idea of being charmed today however. Rister could understand that. There were times you just wanted to be alone. Or days when you needed something to reaffirm your faith in the world. “Come on,” Rister murmured as an idea struck him and held out his hand to Layla, “I want to show you something but we need to get you some warmer clothes first.” Layla threw him a curious glance but true to her nature didn’t question as she slipped her hand into Rister’s. Pulling the girl onto her feet, Rister lead her through the passage-ways to the Slytherin common room and through it to the sixth year boys dormitory. “I have a feeling you’re a fair sight smaller than me,” Rister stated as he eyed Layla speculatively, “But we’ll work something out.”
Under the half-heartedly curious eyes of one of his dorm-mates, Rister dug around his chest before managing to come up with a thick black sweater that he had worn in fourth year and tossed it to Layla. It would be big for her, but it would also keep her body warm. A pair of Rister’s pants were shortened suitable with the help of some magic – and a snort of laughter from his dorm-mate at Rister’s tailoring skills - and a belt secured the pants around Layla’s waist – that started a rather amiable squabble between Rister and his dorm-mate about Rister’s diet while Layla observed them with a light grin. Some shredding and shrinking was also applied to cloak so that it wouldn’t trail on the ground after Layla before Rister wrapped a Slytherin-silver toned scarf around Layla’s neck and nodded with satisfaction. The result wasn’t entirely fashionable, but it was charming in a way and it would serve its purpose. So Rister winked confidently at Layla, pulled his dragon-scale jacked on himself and with Layla slipping her hand in his again – Slytherin common room was possibly a somewhat dangerous ground for her still – they left the dormitory and the common room again. Giving a light and comforting squeeze to Layla’s hand, Rister led her through yet another set of hallways to the low ground floor window he always used for getting in and out of school at times when he was supposed to be in bed. He had used this route so often that helping Layla through it wasn’t going to be a problem either. Opening the window with a quick twist of his wrist, Rister sat onto the window-sill and waited for Layla to climb up there as well. “You can leave the window open. The room isn’t used anyway,” Rister told Layla quietly, before dropping out of the window. He landed in a crouch and stilled for a moment, before straightening up again and turning. Raising his arms, Rister motioned for Layla to jump and caught the young girl, his hands slipping up her sides, but stopping her fall before her legs hit the ground.
With their comfortable silence continuing, Rister took Layla’s hand again and started leading the girl across the terrain. He would need to keep an eye on his pace and stride-length today. Layla’s steps were far shorter than his and she wasn’t used to these sorts of adventures. But where they were heading wasn’t far and Rister was quite confident that the end result would be worth the trouble. So he helped Layla slip into the Forbidden Forest with him, patiently untangled the cloak when Layla got caught in some bushes, and enjoyed making the younger girl giggle when he held gallantly bowed before holding out a hand to help her climb over a fallen tree. But even so Layla wasn’t as used to romping in a forest as Rister himself was and made notably more noise while moving. This was part of the reason why Rister paused her with a good 15 minute trek left until they would reach their aim and presented his back to Layla. “I move quieter than you do and I can carry you the rest of the way,” Rister murmured in explanation as he helped Layla position herself and shifting the hold of her arms around her neck so that it wouldn’t start applying pressure on his throat. Once he was satisfied with Layla’s position, Rister slipped his own hands under her legs and started moving at an even pace. He was moving slower than before – Layla was light, but the added weight was notable – but they did make good progress. It took them only about ten minute longer to reach the small clearing Rister had been aiming for.
Upon reaching it, however, he was pleased to see that the unicorns were there. A quiet gasp at his ear let him known when Layla noticed the creatures with their young ones as well. Stepping into the clearing, Rister slowly lowered Layla back on the ground and pushed her lightly towards the unicorns. The unicorns eyed the humans but didn’t seem entirely opposed to Layla stepping forward to them. Upon realizing that Rister wasn’t following her, Layla turned with a light frown that made Rister half-smile. “I’m neither a girl nor that much of an innocent virgin either really. Go on, I’ll wait here,” Rister told the girl quietly, as he leaned one of his shoulders again a nearby tree-trunk, crossed his arms and ankles and prepared to wait. The unicorns seemed to shine in the dimness of night and were graceful enough to instill some comfort into her despite her fear of darkness. The older creatures didn’t pay much attention to her, even when allowing her to pat their necks, but the couple of young foals with their still golden fur were all too happy to bounce around Layla and urge her to play with her. She seemed quite fond of the creatures too, Rister observed calmly. Then again, it was hard to not like young unicorn foals. But perhaps he should get Layla a kitten.
It was only proof of Rister’s love for the Forest as well as fondness anda degree of understanding that made him stand patiently for an hour and wordlessly observe Layla playing with the foals. But he did notice the yawns appearing on Layla’s face more frequently. And the old patriarch of this little heard seemed to want to start heading out as well, even though he would hardly move while there was an innocent girl around. The curse of the unicorn. Pushing himself away from the tree he had been leaning on, Rister called for Layla’s attention and when she looked over, crooked his finger at her as a signal to come over. “The herd wants to leave, but you can take the golden fur along, even though it doesn’t’ have the magical potency grown unicorns hair does,” Rister told Layla, who dropped her eyes to the ground but nodded. Crooking his finger under Layla’s chin, Rister hoisted her face up to his again and tapped her nose with his finger: “Despite the unicorns, the Forbidden Forest is forbidden because it has far more dangerous things in here. We can come back here sometime – if you want – but not unless you promise me not to try it alone.” After getting the agreement from Layla, thankfully she was a smart girl, Rister turned and crouched to present his back to her again. Theoretically they wouldn’t’ be approaching any more animals so making noise wouldn’t matter. But quite possible Layla was just too tired by now to think about logic, as she simply wrapped her arms around Rister’s shoulders and her legs around his waist and leaned her cheek on his shoulder.
Rister walked at an even space, knowing that it would be least tiring, as well as jostling Layla least as he took the shortest route back to the castle. The evenness of Layla’s breathing that tickled the side of his neck, told him on half the way, however, that she had fallen asleep. Well, human bodies searched for closeness and comfort from those stronger by instinct. And Rister had had plenty of experience being the pillar of support like that for others. Climbing back into Hogwarts castle with a sleeping 11-year old on his back was a bit of a feat, but Rister managed with some skill and luck. Once they were in, Rister slipped Layla off his back to a table for a moment, where she curled up immediately, while he closed the window again. Then he turned and picked up Layla in his arms, letting her curl against his shirt as she murmured something in her sleep, her tight grasp of the golden strands of unicorn hair never loosening. There was no real need to exactly carry the younger girl, as he could have very well floated her in the air. But Rister knew that carrying the girl would make him look good (not that there would be many people around to impress as midnight had already passed a couple of hours ago) and perhaps in a way, the feeling of another human so close to her would keep Layla succumbed to peaceful sleep. But Rister wasn’t planning on deliberating his motives any further, as he just made sure he had a secure hold on Layla and slipped quietly out of the room. He could move soundlessly outside, but he also managed to move so quietly on the stone floors of the Hogwarts hallways that it had drawn forth many surprised remarks from the other students.
But despite the late – or early to be more truthful – hour, there were others moving around. Merry that just stepped out from an abandoned classroom froze like a deer in headlights upon seeing him. One of Rister’s mouth corners crooked upwards as he tilted his head almost insolently towards the girl. She was pretty and not dumb either as some classes he had shown up to had revealed. But whether it was fear due to her discovering Morgana’s secret or the fact that her little sister had ended up spending a week in Italy with her, or maybe something Rister didn’t understand, but she had been seemingly avoiding him lately. He didn’t understand it as he had been honestly intrigued by her. Yet, despite whatever Lita might say about his lack of tact, Rister never forced his company on girls. So he forced down his curiosity about what she might be doing here (snogging some fellow? Studying? Fell asleep?) and walked by. At least he had looked good, Rister told himself vainly though in honesty he probably had. He was tall and had a slender but well-shaped form, his pants showed class and taste, his leather jacket added a bit of the bad-boy groove, the sleeping girl in his arms showed his strength and protectiveness (that she could probably understand and appreciate) and the plain truth was that his face was well-shaped and chiseled as his high forehead and sharp cheekbones showed the traces of centuries of good breeding while he himself smelled like something wild and free like the Forbidden Forest itself. Not shifting his course by a millimeter, even though it meant his arm nearly brushed Merry as he passed her, Rister continued on wordlessly, slipping into the Slytherin common room unseen.
Walking into his dormitory, rister gently positioned Layla on his bed. After unwrapping the scarf from around her neck and tugging off the modified cloak from her body, Rister pulled his large sweater of her and with Layla wearing her own blouse and his pants, tucked her under the blanket. Drawing the curtains around the room, Rister slipped out his wand and waved it at the curtains as he cast a swift ‘Sanctuary’ charm and then created a dim night light. He wouldn’t be able to catch any sleep himself in the light and while being seated, but that would have to be taken care of tomorrow. So Rister simply shrugged of fhis jacket and shoes and seated himself on the bed. At least it would mean he could make sure Layla didn’t’ take after Ashlyn and Lita and ate proper breakfasts, he mused absently before leaning the side of his head against a bed-post and letting his mind slip into somewhere between consciousness and sleep to get as much rest as he could.
((Just popped to me. Haven't proof-read it yet though.))