Cowardice.

[Violet MacFusty]

Violet had woke the previous morning to buckets of rain thrashing against the tiny window in her one-room apartment. It was adjacent to her office and very near to the library, so it was usually a fairly quiet area in the castle. With the storm that had rolled in overnight, the thunder and lightning rattled the window pane constantly. With a sigh, she had risen while it was still dark out. Puck, her tiny pygmy owl, sat soaking wet in his cage. Next to it, lay a very wet issue of the Daily Prophet. Violet read it every morning and Puck was quite devoted to getting it to her before she woke. She gave him an extra treat for having gone out in such bad weather, and then waved her wand over the paper to dry it. The words were still smeared, but she was able to make out the article.



The realization that there was someone dangerous out there in the rain terrified her, and she had spent the remainder of the day trying to be around people. She wandered about the castle wherever students or staff were, rather than being alone. When it had been time to go back to sleep that evening, she had tossed and turned and kept her wand in her hand the entire time. Defense Against the Dark Arts had not been her strongest subject, but she at least was comfortable with her stunning spell.



The next morning was just as dreary and stormy as the one before. She had not slept well. The bags under her eyes were deep and looked like bruises against her pale freckled skin. She dressed in her usual plain gray dress that she wore for working in the library and moved rather quickly (almost running when others weren't around her) to the Great Hall for breakfast. Most often, she chose to eat her meals in her office - but today she wanted to be far from alone. There was safety in numbers.



She was a half an hour early and only a few people milled about. Thanks to the weather, the student body seemed to not want to rise from their beds. The ceiling of the Great Hall mimicked the storm outdoors, and it didn't do much to comfort her. The candles had had to remain lit in order for there to be enough light to see. Too shy to try to start a conversation with one of the Professors, she took a parchment and a quill from the folds of her dress and seated herself at one of the tables. Dear Mister Havisham, she began in her neat writing. What was there to say? What could she tell him about Cage?



The sudden clang of someone dropping a great number of somethings on the stone floor caused her to jump, and she spun around to look at what had cause the commotion without realizing that she had brought her fingers too quickly along the edge of the parchment. With the realization of her new injury, which stung like no other, Violet's attention turned to it quickly enough to see a bead of blood form upon the knuckle of her right hand.

  

[Guest]

Having grown quite accustomed to sleeping through loud noises and having only a very small window in his room, Gabriel was rather shocked when he awoke to find that it had been storming all night long. He was, however, apparently the only one who hadn't noticed the weather, as Guinevere was perched on the windowsill staring wide-eyed at the flooding landscape. She jumped down and nuzzled Gabriel's feet when she had noticed he had woken. "Looks like we're not going to get those rose bushes trimmed today, girl." he said, rubbing the cat's head affectionately. After managing to convince the creature to let him stand, Gabriel got dressed and ready for the day. Being a very early riser, breakfast in the Great Hall was hardly ever ready when he was and he had taken to keeping lots of fruit in his apartment so he wouldn't have to starve in the mornings.

After having eaten his light breakfast, Gabriel set out to roam the corridors with Guinevere trotted along beside him. Every so often he would be inclined to perform a vanishing charm on whatever piece of trash he happened by, as well as several cleaning charms on the floors around the entrances to the castle where students had traipsed in mud and gunk. By the time he reached the Great Hall, a few other people had risen to start their days and Gabriel greeted each as they entered the Hall for breakfast. Just as he finished removing the dust from a portrait and stepped inside the Hall himself, his quiet thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash. He turned to see the culprit, and couldn't hide a smile as he noticed what he happened. A young girl loaded down with books had passed by an Exploding Snap game that was being played by two older boys. The girl was so startled as one of the cards burst that she shrieked and dropped all her books. Gabriel was about to offer his assistance when the boys slowed their laughing and helped the girl gather her things, so instead he continued on into the Great Hall.

Realizing it might be frowned upon for him to sit with the students and not really feeling like he belonged with the professors either, he quickly noticed Violet sitting somewhat alone. They had met only briefly, but Gabriel remembered her name because it was the same as his dear cousin's. He approached her quietly though with an ever-smiling face. "Morning Miss Ollivander, how are y-oh!" he paused in the formalities as he noticed the small wound on her knuckle. "Are you all right, then?" he inquired as he slid softly into the seat across from her and Guinevere hopped into his lap.

  

[Violet MacFusty]

The red liquid formed into a small bead as the rest of her cut turned from white to red. It wasn't much blood, but just enough to make her squeamish. Blood was not at all something Violet was accustomed to seeing. As a librarian and a lady, she had only seen blood a few times in her life. It wasn't as if her occupation was a highly demanding one when it came to physical maladies. She could never have become a nurse. Violet had a sensitive stomach and a streak of cowardliness - there was a reason that she had not been sorted into Gryffindor. Her freckled face had gone pale just as the caretaker, Mister Deering, had seated himself before her.

"I - I-" She stuttered. Her grey-blue eyes were unable to leave the droplet of blood that now slowly made it's way down her finger, leaving a shining streak of red in its wake. "I... feel faint," She finally managed as she watched, eyes wide and horrified, as it trailed past the last knuckle on her hand. She was too shocked to think about getting out her wand and mending it, or even going to the hospital wing. Granted, going to the hospital wing for a paper cut was a rather silly thing to do - but it was far from her mind. As was the letter she had barely begun.

Her stomach felt queasy, just as it did when she was on a boat. Violet got terrible seasickness, and was unable to participate in boating expeditions - well, she would have been unable to, had she ever been invited to any. Apparently, she was just as queasy about blood as she was to the movement of the waves against the boat.

She brought a paled and shaking hand, the one that she had not cut, up to her forehead. It pressed against the cool skin there, quivering as she gazed at her wounded finger.