Brigid hardly noticed the snowstorm, as she was coming into the upswing of one of her usual reclusive moods anyway. Being stuck in the house with little company was not hampering her Christmas spirit, though it had been affected her sleep patterns. In her room she kept the curtains closed, but then their whole house was quickly blanketed by the snow, and lamps were lit everyone to try and make up for the severe lack of natural light; she hardly knew what time of day it was anymore, and she'd taken to sleeping hardly at all.
Not sleeping meant she was doing one of her hobbies, obsessively. She was in the study in front of the piano for hours on end. She was playing her own composition throughout the morning, scratching out mistakes furiously with her quill, making changes. Bored with it now she switched to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, bending over the keys of their mini grand with a natural ease that û to an outsider û some may find frightening. The piano was like another limb to her. She'd gone to Christmas dinner and nearly had a panic being away from it too long, forced to sit still at the table because her oldest sister, her mother and father had their eyes on her, making sure she didn't do anything too drastic. In the end she had knocked over one of her mother's best china cups, chipping it. Of course it could be repaired easily with a wave of the wand, but it gave Bree an excuse to leave the table before dessert.
She had gone straight to the piano, and played until everyone was going to bed, and told her she would need to be quiet. Then she read by candlelight in the study, not wishing to go up to her bedroom.
Cutting Beethoven's final notes short, she leaned away from the piano, letting the noise reverberate through the room. As it dimmed she laid her hand on the rich wood at the top of the piano, feeling the vibration of the large instrument, taking large breaths. Then the silence. She leaned away, resting her hands in her lap. The silence in the house seemed profound, muffled by the snow surrounding it.
She took her a deep breath, pressing her palm to her quickly beating heart, then became aware of someone watching her. She whipped around, through relaxed when she found it was just her older sister. "How long have you been there?" She turned to look out the window as if expecting to see daylight. "Has the snow stopped?"
Ainsley had slipped back into her depression a little bit and it seemed that the weather was going to reflect her mood. The entire MacCarthaigh clan was stuck in the house, so Ainsley had retreated to her room and her studio except for meal times.
That stupid letter had been such a mistake. After Niamh had told her Evander was back in town she had written a note, for herself, to get out her frustrations at him. Unfortunately it had gotten folded up and lumped in with the mail. She had been careless in where she left it and it ended up getting posted to Evander.
The worst part; he wrote back.
He couldn't have just let it slide, pretend he never got it. No he poured his bleeding heart into a series of letters Ainsley couldn't help but to reply to. Seeing that familiar scrawl again made her heart hurt all over again. She had just finally been getting back into the swing of things too, able to go out and enjoy herself, she was even looking forward to the New Years Ball, if it was still happening. She had been seeing more and more of Tobi and actually enjoying herself, not that Evander was back, everything was all off again. It just wasn't fair, was she ever going to catch a break.
After a quiet dinner, Ainsley retired to the library to do some reading, Bree's music floating around her in the background, the perfect soundtrack to her story. She was trying to escape the present, to get away from her predicament and get lost in a story. It worked for a time, too long perhaps as the candles dwindled and she found herself almost in the dark, but the music was still playing. Apparently she wasn't the only one up late this evening. Wandering into where the piano was kept, she watched Bree for a moment in her furious scramble over the keys. Bree had definitely gotten the musical talent of the family while Ainsley had gotten the artistic talent instead.
Bree turned, obviously startled to see her there, but she just smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to give you a start. I love listening to you play." She admitted, moving into the room, taking a seat on the bench of the piano next to her sister. "No, I don't think so." Ainsley had looked quickly out the window as she moved through the house, but found the night air to still be thick with the white snow. "Everything alright a ghrÃidh?" Gently Ainsley skimmed her fingers across the keys. She could play, but with nowhere near the grace as her sister.
[a ghrÃidh = my dear/my love in Gaelic]
Cormac did not like sitting still for too long, and he especially felt useless at the Hospital. Being an intern, in the beginning of the storm, he had been put to work on endless shifts, but the fact of the matter was, there wasn't much spell damage during a snowstorm. For a while he had been set to work finding blankets and potions and heating up water bottles and bricks, but it became crowded when the sick began to pile in and people became stranded as the weather worsened. He'd been sent home because he wasn't really doing much good near the end.
But he was going stir crazy in the house. His siblings didn't seem to mind much, but of course, they mostly were keeping to their rooms. Ainsley was continually in her room, she seemed upset about something but Cormac never felt like he had the right to ask why. Brigid was pounding away at her piano all night and all day. It was because of her that he wasn't asleep now, but when he heard the piano stop he eased himself out of bed and padded downstairs to get a glass of warm milk, hoping he could finally get some rest.
If he could. He'd been unable to sleep lately, and it probably showed. He'd been dragging himself around the house like a ghoul lately. If the snow didn't let up soon he thought he might just have to brave the snow. He wondered if his family would even notice.
He stopped at the door to the study, seeing both his sister's there. He had his night shirt on, half tucked into a pair of pants he had thrown on, feeling the cold far too much that evening. Putting a hand into his hair so it stood up rather sharply, he wandered in.
"I was just about to make some warm milk." He gestured to the kitchen. "Would you like anything?" He turned his gaze to Ainsley. "Did you get that letter the other day? I left it by your door." He gestured vaguely behind him to the stairs, and was curious because it was a man that was writing her. Evander, to be exact, the one that Ainsley had been close with during school. "I would have slipped it under but I was worried it would go under the rug."
Brigid blushed under her older sister's gaze and compliment, wondering at the same time why it had such an affect on her. Possibly because she didn't hear compliments very often. Possibly because of their parent's frustration with her, it was nice to know that she had a sibling on her side. Ainsley did not currently have any marriage prospects either, though she thought she had at one time. She wished she had payed more attention to such things in school, then she might know her siblings better... as it were, she had been struggling with her own inner demons.
"You didn't really startle me." She amended, smiling at Ainsley as she came in, and she shook her head at the question. "Everything is fine."
Everything wasn't fine, but she didn't know how to explain it.
"Maybe I have a little bit of cabin fever." She said with a smile, feeling, for the first time in a while, a little bit of relief. Was it simply the company? Though as she had lifted her hands from the piano keys, feeling the vibrations through her body, she had felt... eased. A calm. She felt like she could connect with the world again, for a little while anyway.
Their youngest brother appeared in the doorway a moment later, asking if they wanted milk, and Brigid stood, okay with the suggestion. She had no idea about any letter, so she smoothed her hands over her dress and came around the piano bench, heading to the door. Warm milk sounded nice. "There hasn't been any letters coming through lately, has there? The owls can't make any trips in this weather."
Not that she was expecting any letters.
"Mmm, I can sympathize." Ainsley said in regards to having cabin fever. It was very hard to be stuck in the house for this long with little to do. She had taken to painting and reading, as usual, but not being able to get out in the fresh air was taking its toll. They had all been avoiding one another for good reason up until now. When the MacCarthaighs were stuck in the house together for too long, arguments were imminent. Fortunately Aibhlinn was not there with them, snowed into her own home with her husband and swollen belly. Stressing her out even more would not be healthy for the baby. Aibhlinn being here with them would have just stressed and annoyed everyone else.
As Cormac's voice drifted through the quiet, she smiled at her younger brother. Apparently insomnia was running rampant through the house tonight. Only Aengus, who could sleep through just about anything, would be snoring away in his room. Ainsley envied his ability to sleep so soundly and would give just about anything to be able to do that. For a while she had been taking sleeping potions, only because she could not stand the fitful dreams that plagued the little sleep she did get.
Moving after her sister did, she followed her younger siblings to the kitchen. She would have a nice cup of chamomile tea before bed, perhaps that would help settle her restlessness. "Yes, I got my letters, thank you." Cormac was oblivious to the heartache he had been bringing her with each letter, but was kind enough to make sure they were indeed getting to her. "I'm going to make tea." She said as they entered the kitchen, moving to get the kettle into the slowly dying fire pit. The cold from the storm was leeching into the house and while they were well off and warm, Ainsley could still feel it seeping into her bones. She worried about Niamh in her cold house down in the slums and could only hope she was able to floo to Cillian's house to stay warm.
"No, these letters arrived before the snow. I fear it would be quite impossible for the mail to get through now." The whiteout conditions would make any kind of travel, human or animal, unimaginable. "What brings you down this time of night Cormac? Unable to sleep?" It was curious, the fact that the three of them were up this late in the night, but Ainsley wasn't complaining. In fact, it was nice to have her siblings around.
Letting his sister's pass ahead of him, he rolled his eyes behind their backs at having been caught with them like this. Now he would need to stay up and talk with them while he prepared something to make him sleep. Now that Brigid wasn't pounding away at the piano anymore, he thought it might be possible to drift off now if he were back upstairs.
Not that he minded chatting with his siblings. These events had become few and far between. It was just that he never really knew how to act around them. Both of them were closed off in their own little world, usually throwing themselves into their art forms, and he... he just worked, to keep busy.
"Tea might be better." He conceded, watching as Ainsley moved about the kitchen. He wished had grabbed himself a sweater before coming down here though, for the cold was definitely seeping in in this room. Upstairs he had his fireplace going, but they were beginning to run out of wood and had resorted to spell work. He imagined many of the others in Hogsmeade doing the same.
He perched himself on a stool the cook used when her joints were acting up, resting his elbows on the countertop. He watched as Brigid hesitated in the doorway then came around to the counter as well, pulling the sugar bowl towards them. She turned her eyes on Cormac when he was asked what he was doing downstairs, and he felt bad because Brigid was the reason he couldn't sleep.
He might as well tell her, but surely she knew the piano could keep people in the house up.
"Bree's playing was keeping me awake." He looked at her, as if to challenge her, but she just stared back at him with an equally challenging face and he looked away from her to Ainsley. "At least your art is quiet." He told Ainsley with a bit of a grin, but then he realized..."I suppose I could have used a muffling charm." Merlin's beard, that would have been smart. Goes to show what being cooped up in the house away from the hospital was doing to him, making him slow in the head...
"What are you doing up, Ainsley?"
[we can skip Bree this time]
Ainsley pulled her wand from a pocket in her sleeve and set the fire blazing hotter. She conjured some bluebell flames to heat the water, a larger amount than was necessary to heat a little more of the kitchen. The embers from the normal fire were dying, but still warm, however, not giving off quite enough heat. Eventually snow would swallow their home, or at least half of it, providing some kind of insulation at least, from the bitter cold outside.
Cormac agreed to tea rather than his milk while she held her chilled fingers toward the fire. The still and quiet of the house was rather eerie and she was glad to have her siblings for company, though they should all probably get to bed soon. She chuckled as Cormac cited Bree's playing as the cause for his late night excursion. Ainsley hadn't minded herself, but she hadn't been trying to sleep either. Watching the exchange between her younger siblings made her giggle again. They were all alike, the MacCarthaigh clan, in different ways, but their similarities spoke volumes between them. None of them would readily admit that though.
"I was reading in the library actually." She explained, moving to the cupboard for three tea cups and a spoon. "I was very tuned in," She shrugged at this. "So I was only half listening to the music." That was true. Ainsley possessed the innate ability to tune most everything going on around her while she was reading. It had been a invaluable tool while in school. "It wasn't bothering me though." She smiled at Bree. Pausing, she listened carefully to the kettle for boiling water. It wouldn't do to have the silly thing whistling it was done when the rest of the house was sleeping. She couldn't hear it bubbling away yet, but she moved closer to the fire again just in case.
"This snow is so eerie." She said to fill the silence. "I can't believe there is so much of it." It was truly a wonder how a charm over the entire town could go so wrong. She had been amused at first, on the day it started, but now it was getting a little tedious. At least she couldn't get any more letters from Evander. She would have to put some thought into actively avoiding him. It was easy, with him away to just forget about him, to not have to worry about it, but now there was just too high of a chance that they could run into one another. Ainsley wasn't sure she could handle that, not for a while more at least. Now even seeing Neevy would be a problem, though her friend would probably have a better idea of where her brother was. Of course, Naimh was avoiding her brother as well, so they would be able to make it work.
She kitchen was a bit chillier than the study, though perhaps she only noticed because she was no longer active. She forgot the world when she was at the keys, it all melted away. She felt a bit dizzy and disoriented by the change in lighting, temperature and company. For a moment she stood in the doorway of the kitchen, her siblings having gone past her, trying to get her bearings, blinking in the light. When she was focused enough she moved into the room, heading to the counter to retrieve the sugar bowl, always liking a bit of sugar in her chamomile tea.
When her brother commented on her piano playing keeping him awake she shot him a stern look before turning away to the breadbox. "You could have," she commented quietly, about him possibly using a muffling charm. She knew that their parents used one on their bedroom. Bree had been known to charm her own bedroom to block out the world on a number of occasions as well. Though she made sure to pass her sister an appreciative look when she said she didn't mind the music.
Bree pulled out the loaf of bread, and summoning the knife from the drawer, she cut two fat pieces. Everyone else was probably stuffed from dinner, but Bree hadn't managed to get much down. Now she was starving.
"At least we still have the floo system." Bree commented, using her wand to start up a tiny fire to cook her toast with, not wanting to put it on the stove when the water was boiling. Besides, this was much quicker. "Not that I would have anywhere to go besides." Her parents were keeping her from working, as she was supposed to be behaving like a proper ædebutante' as fruitless as that had proven so far.
Wellà she had managed to scare most of them off.
"They don't need you at the hospital?" She addressed the question to her brother, pulling her wand from the toast and moving to grab a jar of raspberry jam from the cupboards. It took her a moment to find it, and in the end she accio'd it to her. She put a hefty amount of it onto her toast and moved to stand near Cormac's stool, away from the stove so as not to get in the way when the water boiled.
He was not at all surprised that Ainsley was off reading instead of sleeping. "I haven't been sleeping well lately," he offered, in way of explanation, passing an apologetic look to Bree. If the music hadn't bothered Ainsley, he just looked even more like the villain.
He nodded about the snow being eerie; it certainly was. It gave him the creepsà just the silence. You could hardly heard any noises from outside, and if you did, well, it was mostly the wind. On a normal day you would be able to hear children playing, horses and their carriages trotting past, maybe even sounds carrying over from High Street. This was just wind, and a deadening silence that numbed everything.
"It's too quiet." He told them, shaking his head as Bree came over to him, eating her toast, asking him about the hospital. He laughed then, amused. "I was kicked out. I had become more of a nuisance than anything else. There are too many people in there, and most of them with breaks from the snow, or illnessesà not too much spell damage lately. They had me around to do smaller errands, but the overcrowding just made things worse." He shrugged his shoulders and turned to Ainsley. "Have you been out in it much at all? It's the kind of cold that sinks right into your bones." He gave a little shiver as if to show them.
Listening to the water, she waited for the tell tale signs of a rolling boil before she removed it carefully from the flames, letting their intensity fall a bit. The kitchen was starting to warm up a bit, now that the flames in the hearth were roaring again and not to mention Bree's mini fire to make her toast.
The tea was loose in a jar in the corner and she pulled it out to put enough in each cup for a good strong brew. Summoning the kettle from where it sat on the stove, she had it pour the cups, leaving them to strain and steep for a moment, she listened to her siblings' banter with a smile. Being an intern at the hospital must have been pretty exciting, though she was fairly certain that's where Evander had ended up working, at least she assumed so. He had worked at the hospital in London the year after he graduated, when she was stuck at Hogwarts without him, so it would be a natural move for him. Coincidentally, she wondered if Cormac had seen him at the hospital. They would be in the same department, if Evander was still in the same discipline. She had half a mind to ask him but decided against it. No sense in causing an drama. Ainsley had no intentions of seeing Evander any time soon, not of she could help it.
"I haven't left the house at all since it started." No, staying in the house was her best bet. "I imagine it is quite bitter." Ainsley chucked at Bree's comment of having nowhere to go. "Nope, nowhere to go here either. I'm sure the hospital will get a hold of you if they need your help." She could hardly believe people were naive enough to try and go out in weather like this. The exposure to the elements was enough to kill somebody, not to mention it was impossible to see more than a few inches in front of you face. How easy it would have been to get lost. "People are ridiculous." She said as she brought her tea to her lips, relishing in the warmth as it slid down her throat. Yes, that was exactly what she wanted.
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