Country roads take me home (open)

[emily r a n a stanton.]

Back, blonde and taking the castle by storm. It was high time that there was order in Emily's life, an order that seemed much more familiar to her than the roundabouts of Paris where every dark corner seemed to call her name. She would be normal this time. Try not to spend ninety percent of her time outside at night past curfew, enjoy the spring air in the morning with a cup of tea or coffee to start the day. Maybe she would even slip into some normal clothes instead of the long dresses that occupy her wardrobe. And even despite the not so usual aspects about her, she still seemed to fit in at beauxbatons a lot better than she did anywhere else, even in the magical world. It had become a home to her oh so many years ago, when her mother shipped her off to get her out of her hair. It was somewhere where she belonged because she knew no other place like she knew the school. And even after almost a year away, she could still find herself lost in the same secret hallways that she had discovered in her younger years.

Maybe taking the castle by storm was probably a little exaggerated as she could never compare to the popularity of the others that she knew or the new kids on the block. Slipping quietly into the background was more of her style, popularity being the last thing on her mind. But at least she would fill in the gaps of her life with new and old friends and let nature take its course in the social scene, not pushing or forcing anything. If her old friends and classmates had moved on, leaving no holes for her to fill, she would find another group, or take things on singlehandedly, be a floating leaf with no ties to any branch in the enchanted forest. Corners were familiar to her and if the need arise, she would always have a home in them where no one else would find her. She fit into those the best. But the only way to overcome a feeling of "newness" was to pull back one's shoulders and bare the embarrassment of being shut out. She did not feel like this would happen to her, but having the backbone to handle such situations was always a strong suit of hers.

Bare feet slipped easily up the stairs towards the tower where she always felt most at home with. With each step that she took, the volume of the clock grew and grew, filling her ears with a sound of comfort, of rhythm. With rhythm came comfort for Emily. It was easy to follow, easy to handle. It would be baby steps when it came to really filling back into the rest of the school and step one was find rhythm. The rhythm of classes, of meals and bedtime routines would come sooner or later, but the rhythm of the clock would always be found, always there in the same place. And when life grows to hectic, she would find herself back up here until her heart slowed down and her head stopped spinning.

No one seemed to notice her when she first walked through the front entrance and up the stairs, though the rush to and from places was at it's highest with breakfast as everyone's main priority. Emily had skipped that this morning, with her mind set on the tower where she found herself now, hanging over the edge of one of the windows, letting the wind catch her hair and whip it around her face, a face lighted by a smile. A smile that said "I'm home".

OOC: AHHH! Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. I'm sorry I've been gone too long

[asahria ryek']

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style,padding-left:16px; padding-top:0px; padding-right:0px; padding-bottom:0px; background-image:url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2nbr3oi.jpg) ] and in the spring i shed my skin and it blows away with the changing wind - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The consistent tap of her shoes against the marble floor lacked a certain resonance. Her footsteps had been filled with purpose before she’d left, but since returning Asahria wasn’t entirely sure what that purpose was. She didn’t have rounds to be walked, or meetings to attend, she didn’t even have people to be meeting. Each step she took seemed as aimless as the one before it. A brief sigh escaped her lips as her cool blue gaze studied the entrance hall before her, teeming with students. Her gaze fell on the open window, overlooking the lake, the great oak staking its claim in its gassy reflection, Things here at the school were just as they had always been; she was the only thing that had changed. In every corner there was a memory and in every memory a ghost. Try as she might, Asahria couldn’t defeat the ghosts from her past. Every day was a battle, taunting her with memories long past. Before leaving this school she’d had a purpose, but she’d left that behind with everything else. Those were the memories that taunted her worst. She’d tried so long to push them to some dark corner in the back of her mind, where eventually they’d collect dust and be forgotten, but they refused to be shut out. Given any shred of light – the smallest recollection they forced themselves to the surface once more. Nothing could make her forget that she had once walked these halls as Head Girl. Now what was she, other than broken? Her footsteps held no purpose. No longer did they draw her towards the person she’d cared about most, they just led her in what seemed to be endless circles. Every meeting she’d had was by chance. Asahria wasn’t even sure how to conduct herself anymore, without purpose she wasn’t herself. Shaking her head Asahria pulled her gaze from the window, knowing that she was only letting herself fall prey to yet another memory. She’d found him there once after a long absence, but Asahria wasn’t so naïve to believe that she’d find him there again. He was gone and all she had left of him were figments of broken memories. Turning on her heel, Asahria headed up the grand staircase, steering herself away from the ghosts of her past. All she wanted was to be away from everything – to forget and move on. Her feet carried her away from the familiarity of the corridors and up into the towers, away from the sound of voices. Gazing at the owlery she turned again, instead choosing to climb up to the clocktower. That place was as haunted as the rest of them, it was the one place she’d gone to write letters to her mother and that was something she’d never do again. Despite their relationship, the thought of never receiving a letter with her mother’s perfectly scrawled writing again felt uncomfortable. It was just another change she’d yet to adapt to. The clock chimed in time with each of her footsteps. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven… and then nothing. She paused in time with the clock, her blue eyes capturing the scene around her. There against the tower wall, was a girl slight in frame, wind tugging playfully at her golden hair. While she’d come to be alone, suddenly she didn’t feel like leaving the comfort of the clock tower – the one place where she could evade the memories. Fiddling with the hem of her dress she took a few steps forward, her eyes never leaving the girl stationed at the wall overlooking the grounds, something about her was familiar. Though everyone here seemed familiar, a ghost of something past Asahria had the inkling feeling that she knew this girl. Stepping up beside her, Asahria let her gaze trace the girls features landing on the smile curved slyly on her lips. Emily She questioned. I thought you were gone. She said, disbelief evident in her voice. It seemed that no matter which way she turned she was going to run into a ghost of something past. EMILY. SIXEIGHTYTHREE. OUTFIT. TEMPLATE BY OH SO COOPERNATURAL ! @ CAUTION.

[emily r a n a stanton.]

Gone. Emily thought so too. She thought that this place was but a distant memory, ones of good times and lonely days. However, here she stood. It was familiar to her. And in her recent life of constant change and a different plan every night, she needed familiarity, she needed the order and the structure that a school gave. She needed the discipline and the challenge, the ability to not flee to just anywhere. She couldn't be in another country by morning. She was bound to the castle, to her duty to being a student. There was no more "gone". No more running away. There was no more trying to find her place in the world when her place was right here. The wind was no longer her friend. Her wind reminded her too much of being able to go anywhere, be whoever she wanted to be in a different pub in a different town. But sticking her head into it, taking one last breath of it hanging into it, it was like her last breath of the addiction, one she would quit cold turkey.

Head in the wind, her hearing was impaired. There was no sound but the rush of air, and the whipping of her hair that she could hear. The sounds of shoes clicking on the stairs and across the tower fell on deaf ears. As far as Emily knew, she was alone, lost in the wind and her own thoughts. She thought of jumping and flying into the wind. She could do it, be free, go back to what she had been doing days before returning to Beauxbatons. But then what would have been the point of coming back? She needed to be here and she knew that. But the wind was tempting. And she was thankful for the distraction, a voice so familiar to her that the name of the speaker escaped her until she flipped her head around at the voice "I thought you were gone".

A look of disbelief and shock decorated her face as she put a name to the face. How long had it been? Years possibly? And yet seeing Asahria made coming back here all the more comfortable. It brought more familiarity to this big old castle than the sound of the clock ticking. Memories flashed through her head of times when they were younger, sharing a dorm room and attending classes together, picnics on the grounds with other old friends. Where had the time gone? Was it that long ago when they were in each other's presence? Guilt filled her to the brim as she discovered so much lost time that she could have stayed here, kept friends or settled down somewhere in the world but hadn't. She spent every week somewhere new. That was over 52 places that she had been. Was there anywhere where she hadn't been? That guilt gave her purpose now to stay here. And when her tongue came untied, a smile replaced the shock. "I thought so too." and that's all she could think to say.

OOC: Talk about redundant. I think I need to go to bed.

[asahria ryek']

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style,padding-left:16px; padding-top:0px; padding-right:0px; padding-bottom:0px; background-image:url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2nbr3oi.jpg) ] and in the spring i shed my skin and it blows away with the changing wind - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Seeing Emily here, casually draped over the clock tower wall was like looking back on some remnant memory. There had been a time when seeing the slight blonde had been like a punch to the stomach, serving as a bitter reminder to a failed relationship. Asahria had once thought herself to be heartbroken over Nathaniel and how he’d left her for Emily, but now she couldn’t be so sure. Years had passed and the two had settled things over. She was comfortable greeting him as a friend. He’d hurt her, but looking back on it she wasn’t so sure he’d broken her heart. If Nathaniel had broken it then Charlton had left it irreparable. She’d never experienced this kind of pain at losing Nathaniel nor anyone else for that matter – not even her mother. It killed her knowing that she had walked away from the one who’d cared for her most, but her heart had all but shattered when he’d forgotten her. She knew she couldn’t bare the pain of him forgetting. From the start they’d been a storm of chaos, but chaos turned bliss. She was terrified of what would happen the second go around. What if this time things didn’t turn out so blissful? Wincing at the though Asahria pushed the idea of Charlton from her mind, forcefully. She couldn’t let herself continue to drown in her memories of him. He could have been everything she ever needed, but instead his memory was keeping her from living. Biting her lip tentatively, she turned her blue gaze on her friend, who was focused on the open horizon. While she held no doubts that this was Emily, once enemy, longtime friend, and roommate Asahria couldn’t help but think that something had changed. Physically she was still the same; slight, blonde, and naturally fierce, but there was something in her demeanor that was different. Perhaps the time away had changed her, just as it had changed Asahria. I thought so too The words were simple, but they were enough to convince Asahria that something had changed. Much like herself, Emily had thought of this place as being a sort of home though she’d forsaken it all the same. In the years before they’d left the two had become extremely close, always finding comfort in each other’s company. What had changed them so? Now neither of them could even entertain the other’s whereabouts for the past years. Emily may have been certain in leaving, but Asahria knew that she had never been. Beauxbatons was her home and even when she’d tried to escape it, it had haunted her. I tried leaving for a time, but something brought me back. She noted. It seemed so odd hearing it, but having said it she knew it was true. It seemed now that she needed to find a new purpose though, her reason for returning having disappeared long ago. What brought you back? She asked, her eyes curious at the girl turned to her a bright smile alight on her features. More importantly where have you been? She had other questions, like why she hadn’t notified anyone of her return, but she stopped short of them knowing she couldn’t pay such answers heed if they were asked of her. EMILY. FIVEFOURFOUR. OUTFIT. TEMPLATE BY OH SO COOPERNATURAL ! @ CAUTION.

[emily r a n a stanton.]

Where had Emily been? Where hadn't she been? What street had she not walked? What shop had she not explored? What dusty pub did she not find herself renting a room in? She could tell you, however, where she had been most of the time and it was a lot closer to the school than you'd think. Paris, the home of her wretched mother, the place of terrible life events, a place where she swore she'd never go back to. And yet she had. She had and she stayed. It took time of roaming the globe before she finally settled back into Paris but at the same time, it took no time at all for her to find herself back there. She had no contact with old friends or her mother in Paris. She established herself so much out of the societal circles that her existence could literally not be know. To everyone, she was just another person passing by on the streets

"Everywhere." She said with pause "But I stuck close to Paris for most of the time" If she was in Paris the whole time, why hadn't she come back sooner? She couldn't tell you why as she didn't know why herself. Emily had toyed with the idea on several occasions but the thought mostly just did not exist. Beauxbatons was something like a dream; like a muggle dreaming of a world full of magic, waking up to it not existing (at least to them). She forgot about school, forgot about the friends she had. But one day, the idea came back to her and she didn't let it slip away. She wrote it on a piece of paper and used it as a bookmark. Every time she opened the book, she was reminded of a place she knew better than anywhere else. And after two weeks of seeing the name so often, she dug out her trunk and lifted the lid. It was like a muggleborn experiencing magical shopping for the first time. Her world lit up.

Emily took careful steps away from the window of the balcony, she felt timid among a peer, an old friend, a current friend even if you would call it that. She didn't know how to act. It was like a whole new world to her to be social even though she knew Asahria better than she knew herself. How would she be like when she finally decides to come down to the dining hall. What would other peers think about her return? Was there any others that came back like her?

[asahria ryek']

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style,padding-left:16px; padding-top:0px; padding-right:0px; padding-bottom:0px; background-image:url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2nbr3oi.jpg) ] and in the spring i shed my skin and it blows away with the changing wind - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Everywhere While she’d missed her friend, the admission brought a sigh to her lips. All this time she’d been away, burying herself with the monstrosities of her past, Emily had been out abroad. She was slightly jealous of the girl, though she’d never admit it. While she could not speak for Emily, she wished that all her time away had been searching out others places. Instead she’d been locked away in the confines of a home who’s poison still lingered in her veins. Home had never been a safe haven, but she’d sought it out as one. Because of it she’d only submitted herself to greater pains; the death of her mother, the loss of her friends, complete and utter loneliness. She had no idea what had drawn Emily from the school, or why she’d come back, but Asahria suddenly felt envious. She couldn’t escape the life she was living and in her absence she’d wanted nothing more. What have you been doing? She said meekly. Asahria knew Emily better than most, but space and time had created a bridge between them. Had the circumstances been different, Asahria’s welcome would have been warmer, but she was finding that she didn’t know where to start. Time had worn on her and her social graces were not what they’d used to be, she’d become more guarded. But not only did Emily know nothing of her time apart, Asahria knew nothing of hers. It was hard to know where to begin. And if you don’t mind answering what kept you away? She was curious to know her friends plight. Had she too suffered the pain of solitude? It felt so eerie being in close contact and not knowing what to say to someone who had once been so dear to her, regardless of the shaky past they’d shared. I’ve been gone some time as well. She admitted freely, watching as Emily took carefully placed steps from the balcony. Asahria wondered what thoughts plagued her mind and if they were anything similar to her own. Sorry I didn’t do better to seek you out. She muttered softly. Emily was not the only one she needed to make the apology to, there were others. Numerous others – some of which she’d likely never get the chance. It felt good to hear the words roll of her tongue, but she only wished she’d thought to seek them out sooner. Had she not left in such a manner, perhaps she wouldn’t have suffered so much. It was possible that life might have taken a more positive path, but that she would never know. I should have done so for all of you. I’ve missed you all so much. Some more than my heart can possibly bear. EMILY. FIVETWENTYSIX. OUTFIT. TEMPLATE BY OH SO COOPERNATURAL ! @ CAUTION.

[Prof. Angelique Delacroix]

Ah, it was the start of a new term and Adele, thus far, loved teaching at the Academy. It was one of the only places she felt at home, other than the cottage her and her family resided at. After a hectic day teaching, Adele felt it time for a break for some fresh air, and where else to get it fresher than from the high rise towers of Beauxbatons?

She slowly climbed the stair leading to the towers; she had decided to visit the clock tower and watch students enjoying their interval while waiting for the soothing sound of the clock ticking away each second; minute and eventually, hour. As she neared the tower, she heard the voices of two girls chatting, and Adele, being nosy, tried to walk even slower and slower to hear more of the girl's conversation.

"em em" she coughed, which was rather forced than done unintentionally; she always fake coughed to make people acknowledge that she was in the presence. "Bonjour Madamoiselles" She said pleasantly to the two girls, while walking towards the rails of the tower. Adele then decided to lean over one of the rails, and watch as the students moved across the courtyard looking like small ants. While she watched, she thought of her day, her accomplishments thus far, and things she still wanted to accomplish throughout the year. As an ambitious individual, Adele often thought of things the wanted to achieve throughout her life as a human being on earth. As she pondered into space, she enjoyed the feeling of the crisp, spring wind gently blowing against her face. It was then (when she was calm and relaxed), that her true beauty, and veela heritage seemed to radiate from her slender body.