BAD COMPANY / open

[lil]

Lucia was not having a good night. It was still a long ways until the full moon, yet she had the sudden craving to go outside. Her dorm room on the dungeon didn’t allow for a very good escape, in fact, it would take far too long to leave. Thus she merely wandered down to the common room. Wearing nothing more than a pair of boyshorts and a tank top, showing off her long legs and lithe frame, for warmth she grabbed the black blanket off her bed and wrapped it around her body. Bare feet padded silently on the stone floor, and she stifled a smile when she realized that the common room was empty. Nice and dark, with the fire as the only light source. The moon could be seem from one of the slight windows, it was only half full. Lucia seated herself close to the fire, and looked out the window longingly. She stretched out her legs across the couch, letting the blanket fall gently around her shoulders and torso.

“It’s too quiet.” Her singular voice broke the silence, and she heard the words echo around until they ran out of volume. Only the crackle of the flames could be heard following the outburst. A wash of loneliness swept over the girl. She hated being alone. You’d think that growing up in such a household with only one person whom she liked would yield an independent individual, yet Lucia found herself feeling more and more as if she couldn’t function on her own. While she recognized the weakness, she didn’t have the willpower to overtake it. Soon, maybe, she would be able to be by herself. But not tonight. Tonight she needed someone to talk to. Maybe some mindless hookup to distract her. Or maybe a fight. Some violence to spark up some adrenaline.

None of those seemed like much of an option, and the obviousness of the empty room overtook an fantasies of talking to anyone. Instead, she focused her blue eyes on the fire, and wished that she had something to do. It was nearly two in the morning on a Saturday night, you’d think that such a person would have somewhere to be. Something to do. Maybe even someone to do.

But no, she was all alone. And full of self pity, apparently. Pushing all thoughts of her apparent condition aside, the girl rolled over onto her stomach. Closing her eyes, she tried to find a happy medium of awake and asleep. Somewhere she could perhaps meditate—as cheesy as that sounded. Perhaps it you centered your thoughts, you could possibly get to a higher plane of thought. Hah, whatever plane that she could even contemplate getting to would not be higher. In fact, it would probably be lower. Lucia doubted that her subconscious was particularly more intelligent than her consciousness. It certainly didn’t posses self confidence, or anger, or even any form of self awareness. Obviously it was stupid.

[tanith]

Tanith Malfoy was definitely not a good sleeper. Most nights she tossed and turned in her green silk sheets until the early hours of the morning, finally falling asleep in a heap just before class the next day. She would usually spend most of the day, until lunchtime at least, listless and yawning in class. Tonight was no exception. Usually, the cool and dark Slytherin dungeons were comforting to Tanith but tonight they were unnerving and she shivered, burrowing down futher in her sheets. But it was to no avail, she was definitely not getting to sleep anytime soon. Groaning softly, she reached over half-heartedly to the tattered copy of her latest novel on her bedside table and decided to read that for a few hours. She lifted her wand, cringing at the seemingly deafening clatter it made in the silent dormitory and whispered "Lumos!", pressing the tip of her wand to the printed parchment. She cringed again as the light flooded the room and quickly murmured "Ah, nox, nox!" as she say the slender form of Narcissa squirm a little in the bed next to her. Tanith didn't want to wake her friend from her beauty sleep, and it wouldn't have been the firsttime she had woken her roomates up with her annoying insomnia. She wated with bated breath but Cissa didn't move again, and convincing herself that she was sleeping soundly, Tanith decided it would be safer to spend her restless hours in the deserted common room instead.

She pulled herself quickly and as quietly as she could out of her four poster bed, wincing as her barefeet touched the cold flagstones of the dormitory, and checked her reflection in the large mirror that resided on Cissa's bedside table. Tanith smirked at her own reflection, even she could admit she looked a little ridiculous. Her white blonde hair stuck out stubbornly and her pale face looked almost ghostly in the darkness of the room. But Tanith didn't give it much thought. She didn't care much for her appearance at the best of times, preferring to stay in the background in her plain albeit expensive clothes, messy hair and chipped nailpolish. It was easier than battling for attention with her pretty classmates. Aside from that, it was the middle of the night, and she didn't expect to run into anybody in the Common Room at this time of the night. So, slipping her favourite fluffy sweater on over her nightdress Tanith grabbed her novel and her wand and tiptoed as noiselessly as possible out of her dormitory, shutting the door with a long drawn out creeeakk.

She felt almost content as she tiptoed down to the Slytherin Common Room. The castle was altogether more peaceful at night. Large crowds made Tanith more jittery and clumsy even than she would have usually been, which was a recipe for disaster in the openly bitchy and socially-selective Slytherin house. In fact, had it not been for her surname and position within the house she was sure her frequent accidents might have made her a much bigger laughing stock by now. Not that she cared very much, or pretended to. Coming around the corner to the Common Room Tanith thought longingly of this peaceful atmosphere she craved, and even that she would get a seat in her favourite comfy couch, which was usually occupied during the day by taller older students which Tanith didn't like to challenge. So content and dreamy was she that she didn't even notice the large gilted candlestick on the entrance to the Common Room, and subsquently banged into it with a large clang, colliding with her already bruised pale legs. Clutching her skinny leg in question Tanith squealed "Ouch! ... Bloody idiot!" She berated herself, hopping from one leg to the other. She was completely oblivious, taken up by her own usual clumsiness, to the presence of another person in the room when she felt the unpleasant sensation of eyes on her and looked up. To find none other than Lucia Greyback.

Inwardly, Tanith groaned. Lucia and Tan had a somewhat unspoken stance of silent, yet intense dislike. This was exacerbated by the fact that any time Tanith seemed to run into the elegeant, flirtacious Lucia she was acting like a clumsy fool. Tonight was no exception, and feeling her pale face flush Tanith mumbled to a spot a few inches right of Lucia's shoulder. "I er... didn't think anyone else was down here." With a half-shrug Tanith quickly limped over to the direction of a free chair away from Lucia, averting her eyes from the other girls' piercing gaze. She didn't want to engage in conversation with Lucia, which she knew would certainly not end in pleasantries between them. But whilst Tanith avoided conflict like Dragon Pox, the adrenaline junky that was Lucia seemed to crave exactly that. Somehow, Tanith knew that her quiet evening in the common room was definitely not on the cards.

[narcissa]

"Ouch! ... Bloody idiot!"

Although Narcissa was usually the first girl in her room to fall asleep, it didn't take much to wake her up. She was a light sleeper in the small room that she shared with four other girls, though at home she could sleep through anything. So Lucia left the bedroom, the soft clinging of the door and stirred Narcissa to the point where she was aware of the noises that surrounded her. But the quiet atmosphere around her allowed slumber to once again take control of her body, but even that hadn't lasted too long. She wasn't sure how much time had passed before she once again was awoken by the sound of someone's voice. Narcissa exhaled deeply and repositioned her thin body in the warmth of her bed, hoping to find another comfortable way to sleep. Again, she heard the soft click of the door closing, meaning another person had exited the room. However this time Narcissa had opened her eyes and became aware of who had left the room. Tanith and Lucia's beds were empty, triggering curiosity in a very tired Narcissa. But once she heard the voice of Tanith in the stairwell, Narcissa had had enough with the constant exiting of the room.

She looked up at the canopy and mentally cursed herself for what she was about to do. Narcissa sat up in her bed and instantly the cool, damp dungeon air hit her immediately. Shivers ran down her spine as her brain told her to cover back up. But the faint sound of talking annoyed Narcissa to the point where she knew she had to let the others know that she was trying to sleep. She was the type of girl that required the full eight hours of sleep, and if she didn't, well then she wasn't exactly the nicest of girls the next day. Narcissa never had such an issue at home especially since her bedroom alone was larger than the room she was forced to share at school. Her home was quite; everyone did their own thing. From time to time she and her sisters would be heard bickering, or laughing, or asking which outfit looked best, but other than that the large home was silent. So when a noise disrupted her sleep, Narcissa was sure to make the others aware that they were being a nuisance.

Her long sleeved nightgown came down to her knees, and Narcissa slipped on her bathrobe for extra warmth. Her slippers were at the side of her bed at the ready, for Narcissa hated stepping on cold flooring. She was careful not to wake the remaining two girls, one being her cousin, as she left the room therefore she did not click the bedroom door shut. Cissa tipped-toed down the stairs, careful to wake others as she passed by. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, Cissa wasn't surprised at who she saw. Lucia and Tanith didn't get along too well, and often Narcissa felt as though she was the peacekeeper. Maybe it was a good idea that she had been woken up, that way she'd be able to monitor the two girls. All Slytherin needed was pointed deducted by their own members for simply arguing early in the morning. "What is going on?" Narcissa said, her eyes heavy from waking up so suddenly. It was easy to tell that she was not a happy camper at the moment and the slightest incident would anger her greatly.




[blahhh this is crappy!]