Nothing about Liam was simple, not really. It was the most difficult thing he had ever done, maintaining this persona of ease and popularity, and yet he made sure to never let it show. This was because the key to his whole charade was not only that the people around him believed it...but also that he believe it, too. He had lived this way, perfecting everything he had to do, for the last five years, and in that time his facade had begun to feel more real.
Of course, Liam would never be able to forget that it wasn't real, not when he remembered why he was doing it all in the first place...
"I know that!" he said to Addie, his voice raising briefly as a result of the shock he felt over her reaction to his comment, "I mean...sorry, you're right." He clumsily tried to cover up his outburst, not wanting Addie to feel the need to retreat, but also not wanting to call any further attention to his blunder.
The true center of Liam, the passion which made up the dream life he knew he'd never be able to live, was...animals. His favorite class was, not surprisingly, Care of Magical Creatures, though he of course made sure that he never seemed as interested as he really was in front of other people. He loved animals, magical or non-magical, because for the most part their emotions were simple. Animals didn't care about your past, or the things your family had done, they only cared about your current actions against them.
If only Liam could believe humans could be so forgiving, but that was just the way things were, and it was why he had to work doubly hard to make sure his family's name could regain respect. For now, he had to focus on the task at hand, which was the dragon's liver Addie had handed to him. He took it with a sigh, for he had always been the least comfortable with ingredients that had come from magical creatures, and examined it.
The preservation liquid had made the liver tough, but with a final glance at Addie and a deep breath, Liam began the difficult process of cutting through the slimy body part. He was able to cut the dragon liver into fourths, but many of the cuts were ragged and the pieces uneven. Still, he had been able to complete the task with only slight difficulty.
"That was gross," he admitted as he sat back, cleaning his hands off with a handkerchief from his pocket, "But how'd I do?" He already know there would be criticism, but he also knew it was well-earned.
Creativity
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Posted: 7/22/2019 at 9:46 AM
Post #32
When Liam lashed out at her again, the second time now that he had done so during a lesson, Addie recoiled just as harshly as she had before. This one perhaps scared her more because he was louder, more upset. Before, he had just reprimanded her harshly. Now, he had shouted. Much like her father would, a sudden outburst.
She pushed her chair backwards at his yelling, a bit too roughly. The chair tipped back and she reflexively stood up in time before hitting the floor with the chair. She stood to the side, her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her hands pulling the sleeves of her robes, gripping them for support.
Due to the circumstances she had grown up with, her fight or flight response was heavily weighted toward flight. She looked towards the door, fighting the urge to run, before returning her gaze to Liam. She swallowed hard, forcing her arms to go down by her sides, but still clutching the sleeves of her robe. She forced air into her lungs, not having noticed that she'd stopped.
He hadn't made any moves to hurt her. She could do this. Breathing deeply, Addie leaned down and picked up the chair, setting it at the table again. She focused on Liam's work, rather than look directly at him, and tried to ignore the beating of her heart that told her to run and get as far away as she could.
Although she sat back down in the chair, it was further now from the table as she tried to maintain as much distance as she could. She looked at the poorly cut dragon liver and swallowed again, trying to find her voice.
"It's awful," she murmured, her voice quiet. "Y-you need the pieces to be even. For some potions, the ratio..." she trailed off, still not quite meeting his gaze. She had stayed. That was something, at least.
Britters
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Posted: 7/22/2019 at 8:06 PM
Post #33
Everything in the room seemed to go quiet, and everything in Liams mind seemed to freeze. He stared at Addie like a deer in the headlights of a car, his green eyes wide and blank. He couldn't form words, and he could barely form thoughts. Part of him wanted to leave the room, but there was no way he could communicate with his legs right now. Nothing made sense to him, and he struggled desperately to figure out what he should do. He was not accustomed to this level of uncertainty.
The last five years had been spent honing his persona, to the point that Liam rarely had to think about what he should say or do. This was why Addie's actions and mannerisms frightened him so badly, because he didn't know how to respond to them. He had scared her again, with something as simple as a momentary ascension in the volume of his voice. He didn't understand, and he ached to understand. Scaring people, intimidating them, was not what he did, it was not a trait of a Hufflepuff. He was not a knowledge seeker but he needed to know...
"Why do you do that?" he asked her, his voice startling him despite how softly he spoke, and then he grimaced, "No, I'm sorry, forget I asked that. I didn't mean to scare you, and I..." He stopped, though he wasn't sure why.
Just because Liam had spent the last several years being very popular with his fellow students didn't make him an expert on genuine human interactions. This situation with Addie made him uncomfortable because he just didn't know how to behave. He didn't know what he was supposed to do, and he felt trapped. His heart had began to pound as he looked across the table at his tutor. He hated this, he hated himself for causing this, and he hated the silence.
"Why don't you come to the game on Friday?" he said to her suddenly, not planning on saying it until the words had already left his mouth, "I mean, I think I have something to show you." He was crazy, he was nuts, he had lost his mind, but he didn't take any of it back. Not that he could have if he'd wanted to anyway.
Creativity
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Posted: 7/22/2019 at 9:28 PM
Post #34
What Addie didn't anticipate, really, was Liam's reaction to her reaction. Last time, she had fled before she had gotten a chance to see how he'd taken her fear. She was surprised at how blank he seemed, and thought to herself that this must be how he was last week - she just hadn't bothered to stick around to find out. In her defense, she argued, she had only just met him, really, having never actually spoken to him in the five years prior, and she didn't know whether or not he would attack her.
She didn't know now, either, really. He hadn't attacked her yet. That ought to count for something, right?
At his question, she was taken aback even further, and if possible, she just curled in on herself even more, her shoulders hunching and her arms hugging her chest. She felt tears threaten to prick her eyes, and blinked them back, not wanting to be so vulnerable in front of him.
Swallowing hard, she took in a shaky breath to answer his question. "I... My fight or flight response is..." she trailed off, not wanting to break down at her own trauma in front of him. Regardless, she was fairly certain he could gather what she meant. Once again forcing her arms down to her sides, Addie tried to calm down. She tried to slow her heartbeat, convince herself that she was not in any danger.
Well. Then he invited her to the game, and she felt for sure that she was in some sort of danger.
Addie didn't go to Quidditch games. She didn't watch Quidditch. She used to go to the Ravenclaw ones, just to support her house, before their fifth year, when Fay really started to have it out for her. Now, she avoided showing her face outside class as much as humanly possible. Obviously, she still had her prefect duties to fulfull, but aside from those, she mostly ignored the rest of the school.
It was her turn to be taken aback. Luckily, if anything, the question drove back the tears that had wanted to spill. She shook her head in rejection, not quite sure what to say. So, as she tried to rediscover her voice again, she simply just continued shaking her head, and even pushed her chair back a little more. What came out of her mouth surprised even her.
"...Okay."
Britters
Level 72
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Joined: 8/25/2014
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Posted: 7/23/2019 at 4:57 PM
Post #35
One thing Liam hadn't been prepared for today was this. He still felt lost, and like he couldn't figure out what to do. All he seemed capable of right now was to continue sitting and staring at Addie with green eyes that gleamed in the dim light. His mind struggled to think of a solution, something to say to her, but it was all in vain. He was not cut out for this sort of in depth emotional counseling. It wasn't that he didn't want to help her, but merely that he didn't understand how to help.
As Addie spoke, Liam's hand found its way into the inside pocket of his robes so that he could twirl his wand about in his fingers.
"I see," he said thoughtfully in response to Addie's stammered explanation, "I think I understand..." He trailed off, his eyes becoming distant as he was lost deep in thought.
Yes, Liam felt like he understood exactly what Addie was talking about, but his understanding created an even bigger problem. He had seen her boggart, and now on two separate occasions he had seen her flight response in action to the smallest provocation. He didn't like what the two things together implied, but was there really anything he could do about it? No, it wasn't his business to pry into her personal problems just because of his Hufflepuff urge to help her, especially since she had proven that she was not the type of person to accept help readily.
But...perhaps there were other ways in which Liam could help her out, and after the game he would put his plan to the test.
"Great, I'll see you there," he said to her with a broad grin, not drawing attention to her less than enthusiastic answer, "So did you want to continue with the ingredients lesson?" Part of him hoped she'd decline, so that he could take off for the next thing he had to do, but strangely there was also a part of him that didn't want to leave this classroom...or maybe he just didn't want to leave her.
Creativity
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Posted: 7/23/2019 at 10:03 PM
Post #36
Although she was a loner, Addie wasn't technically a hermit. It wasn't that she hated people, it's that she hated people's thoughts and opinions. Or, rather, she didn't care for them. She had lived her whole life being taunted and ridiculed for being a loner, and after a while, you just learned to hide from people because it was simply easier. She could take insults, for sure - they just got plain annoying after a while.
However, in being a loner, her social skills weren't exactly... exceptional? Yeah, that was a good word for it. Exceptional. Not - not that they were terrible, really. She could maneuver her way through a conversation well enough. And if she wanted to, she was sure she could make a friend.
The thing that made her the most uncomfortable was when other poked into her life without her inviting them. That's why Liam's question had set her off a bit (not that she showed it). She hadn't invited him to ask questions. She hadn't invited him to ask why she was skittish. And yet, he had done it anyway.
Taking one more deep breath to steady herself, Addie closed her hazel eyes for a few seconds before opening them again to face him. "Can we just drop it?" she asked gently.
Before waiting for a response, she returned to what she knew - school and schoolwork. She leaned forward and nudged the small pile of lacewing flies she had withdrawn towards Liam. "We're going to continue," she tried to say with confidence, though it came out, of course, as a question instead of a confident answer.
"As I'm sure you know by now, some of the more difficult or rarer potions require the wings of the lacewing flies. The wings themselves are delicate and difficult to remove. The bodies could cause the brewing potions to potentially explode - as many things in the wizarding world do. You're going to practice removing the wings from the flies with as much care as you can muster."
Britters
Level 72
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Joined: 8/25/2014
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Posted: 7/24/2019 at 5:43 PM
Post #37
Sore muscles, heavy breathing, and a uniform which clung to Liam's sweaty body uncomfortably, all signs of a successful Quidditch practice coming to an end. He grinned broadly as the team assembled on the field, all of them drinking from flasks of cool, refreshing water. If there was one part of his phony way of living that he actually enjoyed, it had to be Quidditch. He could still feel the air rushing past his face at high speeds, and knew that his short, ash blonde hair stood on end in a wind-blown fashion.
Yes, flying was something that Liam would have enjoyed even if it didn't factor into his extensive plans.
"Alright, team," he called out to all of them and enjoying their rapt attention when he started speaking, like a great general commanding his troops, "We looked really good out there today. This will be our last practice before the game, so I want everybody to spend the next two days resting up and conserving your strength. Good work, everyone!" There was a general cheering of comraderie and then everyone headed off the field like a herd.
Surrounded by the laughter and conversation of his team, Liam made his way back to the main castle with a smile on his face, but his eyes told a different story if anyone cared enough to look more closely. He wished that his beloved sport cpuld be all that was on his mind, but for some reason he'd been thinking about his troubles with his tutor, Addie Riversong. Ever since his second lesson, and the small amount of information she had revealed to him, he'd been having trouble getting her out of his head.
The rest of the Hufflepuff team were heading for the first floor bathrooms since they were nearest ones to their common room, which was one floor below the Great Hall, that also had showering facilities. As Liam watched them begin to ascend the stairs together, he suddenly realized just how badly he wished to be alone right now. He needed to collect his thoughts and relax somewhere that he didn't have to be so constantly aware of his charade.
"I'll catch up with you guys later," he called to his team, waving as he jogged off down a different corridor. There was no place better for a quiet, uninterrupted bath than the Prefect's bathroom.
Creativity
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Posted: 7/24/2019 at 7:33 PM
Post #38
In her quest to avoid every single person she could, Addie often found herself working her schedule around others'. As much contact as she could maneuver around, she did. In fact, her schedule was really designed around others' schedules, specifically to avoid any unexpected run-ins and awkward scenarios. And questions. Those were the worst.
It just so happened that, in the past two years, the only time she could avoid any other prefects entering the prefects bathroom on the fifth floor was very late into the evening. Many people did bathe at night, but that was why she had scheduled her baths for later than anyone else would want to be up and out. It was an easy and simple system, and it worked. Ever since she became a prefect and established her bathing time, she had not once had a run-in with another soul in their designated bathroom.
She was also able to relax a little then, when she knew she was alone and likely going to stay alone. Now, she wasn't indecent, but she didn't wear her robes after bathing. Currently, she was dressed in a navy blue tank top that showed just a tiny bit and long red plaid pajama pants. She was going to put her long-sleeved gray night blouse on before heading back to the dormitories, but she hadn't yet.
No, instead she was relaxing in the tank top, letting her shoulders feel the cool air that glided over them. She was singing a song in her head - her mouth occupied by her tooth brush and otherwise unable to be singing at this time. Her normally loose, wild curls were wet and pulled back in a rubber band.
Once she had finished brushing her teeth, she spat out the toothpaste and finally got a good look at herself in the mirror. Her eyes looked closely at the scars over her chest and left arm, the smoky tendrils of misfortune, forever branding their mark on her. Not that she really was self-conscious about them. No. Not like her other scars. It was just the questions. She didn't want to face the questions...
And, well, she had to admit, they were quite a unique sight. The initial entry point, just below her collarbone on her right side, dashing across her chest and exploding over her shoulder before journeying down her arm and stretching out towards her wrist before finally ending. She shuddered unwillingly and felt the urge to clean herself, even though she had just taken a bath. Turning the sink faucet on, she washed her hands, satisfying the urge. It was only a few moments after the faucet was turned off that she heard someone else enter the bathroom and whipped around to see who it was.
...Of course.
Britters
Level 72
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Joined: 8/25/2014
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Posted: 7/25/2019 at 1:11 AM
Post #39
Most of the time, Liam made sure he was always surrounded by other people. It was all part of maintaining his image. He knew that the more time he spent by himself, the more time he had to think too much. He might still enjoy having those brief moments when he could remember what his true desires were, but the less free time he had to daydream, the better off he would be. Nothing would be solved if he ever managed to convince himself to abandon the plan.
Upon seeing the entrance to the Prefect's bathroom, Liam smiled with relief. The less time to daydream the better, perhaps, but right now, as he spoke the password and entered the bathroom, he felt very much like he needed it to be one of those few times. Daydreams of brown hair and hazel...
Bollocks, Liam though, panic stricken as he spun around after dropping his broom next to the door, and saw Addie standing in the bathroom. He struggled for a moment to make sense of her presence, only to mentally kick himself as he remembered the fact that she was also a prefect. From what he had retained from his observations of her personality so far, he suspected she was here for the same reason he was...because you could usually count on being alone.
Of course, predictably enough, Liam became very aware of the fact that Addie was only wearing a tank top and pajama pants almost as soon as he laid eyes on her. He wanted to say something, to apologize for invading her privacy (despite knowing that it was open to all prefects at any time), but for a few seconds which felt like hours, he couldn't form words. Also, even though he was already feeling his cheeks growing warm, he couldn't prevent himself from staring.
Finally, thank all that is magical, Liam found his voice, though it did come out slightly croaky...
"Hi...," he began lamely, facing her but trying to keep his green-eyed gaze anywhere but directly at her, "I didn't mean to...bloody hell, what made those?" The words left his mouth before he could stop himself, a problem he seemed to run into quite often, and he long to take them back, but...those scars on Addie's arm and chest (not that, you know, he was looking at her chest) were terribly fascinating.
Creativity
Level 71
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Threads: 253
Posts: 5,852
Posted: 7/25/2019 at 9:38 AM
Post #40
The incident itself which branded her with the explosions and tendrils across her chest, shoulder, and arm was random, unexpected. Well, what else would one expect from being struck by lightning? It wasn't as if she had tired herself atop a metal pole during a thunderstorm. No. Her incident had been far, far more random.
It was during one of her father's very few days where he wasn't so enraged. She had been thirteen at the time, almost fourteen, and Rosalie was seventeen. Their father had decided to take them to the theater, to see a film they'd been excited for since it had been announced. The sky had started storming during the movie, and the lightning was fierce and close. When they were walking back to the old hunk that their father called a car, the bolt had struck out of nowhere.
It ripped through her body in the span of a millisecond, and she remembered falling to the floor with a bloodcurdling scream. She had blacked out shortly after, the searing pain having become too much. Her father, thankfully, had had enough decency in him to take her to a hospital and get her looked at, though she always kind of wondered if that was Rosalie's insistence.
Addie knew where Liam was looking, though it didn't fully bother her. He wasn't being invasive, at least. However... It was the question. It was always the question. She clammed up, struggling to draw in breath for a moment. Why did he have to ask? Why did he have to ask? If he hadn't asked, it would have been so easy to tell him... But now... Now it was difficult.
She swallowed hard, giving her head a little shake to clear it. "I was struck by a bolt of lightning, five weeks before the start of our fourth year term," she listed the rehearsed explanation. "I'm... I'm not ashamed of it. I don't mind looking either." Taking another deep breath, she tried to regain control of the situation. "I dress modest, but certainly not for comfort."
Edited By Creativity on 7/25/2019 at 10:59 AM.
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