I'll [NOT] Be Home for Christmas...

[Felicity Hjort]

Wednesday December 24, 2008
8:41pm
Christmas Eve

Being forced to spend Christmas without her family for the first time in her life was proving to be difficult, despite her will to make herself believe it was just like any other day of the year and there was nothing special about it. Gryffindor tower had been a bustle for some that morning, excited about opening presents on the 'morrow, others were laying in bed not feeling so well, and she had hightailed it out of there at nearly eight in the morning and hadn't been back since. The blonde didn't want to spend Christmas Eve with Gryffindor, she wanted to spend it at home, at church, and with her family. While the other lions were like a family and becoming more so with every passing day, they just didn't make the cut for what she knew her family really was. And what made things worse was the fact her parents weren't allowing her family to celebrate Christmas without her. No presents, no special dinner, not even mass. Her parents wouldn't be joining Meredith's family that evening, they weren't going to be going to her grandparents the day after Christmas, they weren't celebrating at all. It was their solution to solving the problem of her not being home and she knew her cousins were suffering because of her. Oh, she'd all ready received some teary-eyes letters from some, drawn pictures from others, and yet no matter what she wrote to her parents they were sticking to what they said. No Christmas until Felicity could celebrate with them, which meant the end of June.

Busying herself in the library as she didn't even want to be in the snow, the blonde found her favourite corner and curled up with a couple of books she'd borrowed from Davenport. No, she wasn't researching but she couldn't think of anything better to do either. There were no presents to open, she wasn't hungry and had chosen not to attend any of the meals offered in the Great Hall that day, she wasn't in the mood for spending time with her friends, and she needed something to take her mind off of the cold, snow, and holiday. Her answer? Reading up more on Erumpents and the facility in Kenya that was devoted to studying them. Still, this particular place looked like her favourite option for working after leaving Hogwarts.

Davenport had given her a number of facilities in the area studying a wide range of creatures, but none of them really made her want to jump up and down for them like the one in Kenya did. While she knew it was really far from home, far from her friends, and extremely far from Drew, she thought maybe it might work. After all, Drew had once suggested they could meet up once a month or so and see one another, and she knew that once a month wouldn't really work well enough because she'd want to see him more than that, but she thought it might be nice. They could go sight-seeing places she'd never been before, and maybe she could convince him to go to Kenya and visit her sometime.

However, at the moment, she the words on the page were blurring a bit as she tried to keep her eyes open and continue reading. Felicity doubted the celebrating in the towers was over and she didn't want to take part in any of it, so she would remain until curfew at the library, which was only a while longer away. And though she wasn't feeling well, she wasn't about to crawl to the towers just to sleep, she had rounds that night and would have to be awake soon enough anyway, and Christmas Day was tomorrow, lucky her...

(Dante/Open)

[Dante Vroom]

Miserable is a good word. In terms of how the young Ravenclaw was feeling, it fit both mentally and physically, it was a great word. Really there were so many feelings coursing through him as he attempted to walk threw the room, most were unpleasant.. He had to stop and open his eyes for a minute to gather his surroundings. Oh, so the set of door were the library. He was concentrating more on his walking than anything else. Which is why he walked with his eyes closed at this point. The slightest distraction could throw him off balance. Being able to stand was the most important thing to Dante at this point, walking was pretty important as well. There were so many things to do between now and Christmas. Which...he had lost track of time and wondered how many days were left until the jolly holiday. He did not want to admit it, but at this point Dante was a complete mess.

He stumbled around, again being forced to open his eyes as he walked. Finding a chair he laid his right hand on it in order to regain his balance, this was indeed embarrassing. He picked his hand back up, it weighed a ton it seemed, and he looked at it. Still there were the numbers that had been there for some time before...but what did they mean? He was hardly in the right mind to think about such things. [5 18 99 11] It was such a simple word to be sure. So why hadn't e been able to figure it out yet? Just another thing to be frustrated about. And really it was the most important thing in his mind. This image had been on his palm for several weeks not it seemed. One of the longest times it had been on his palm. So what could it possibly be trying to tell him?

Shaking his head Dante rose from his support and closed his eyes to continue walking. There was no exit in the direction he was headed, but he was not thinking about that now. All that mattered at this point in Dante's mind was to keep moving. He was completely focused on where he was headed, eyes closed, ears shut, mind focused. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. Progress had to be made.

[Felicity Hjort]

Ferociously blinking her eyes, Felicity kept widening them just before they fully closed, trying to stay awake. Falling asleep in the library wouldn't do her any good, especially when she had her duties that night. This whole thing was also something she decided to tack under Raynor's fault list. If it weren't for Raynor making her a Prefect she wouldn't have duties, and if it weren't for Raynor closing the school off from everyone else she wouldn't be in the back corner of the library curled up with a book. Instead she would be at home enjoying the noise of her family getting ready for the big holiday the next morning. And she would be getting ready for church soon and she would be practicing her singing for the church choir.

While, presumably, Hogwarts had its own choir, she just didn't have the time for it with everything else. But church was something she made time for, especially for their choir. However, as her eyes started to shut once more, she picked her head up to try and give her upper body a good stretching when something, or rather someone, caught her attention.

"Dante?" she called out quietly, not sure if it was the boy or just her eyes playing tricks because of the hour and all the time she'd spent there that day. Normally she was in and out of the library, she didn't sit in there all day long. Well, normally meaning if Drew wasn't going to be there all day long with her.

[Dante Vroom]

If there was one thing that could distract a person from their focus it would be the sound of their own name. And Dante happened to be forcing so much thought out of his head, with his eyes closed he was more focused on his hearing. So the soft mentioning of his name threw Dante off balance. He took one more step before stumbling to a knee and opening his eyes. He knew someone had seen his careless slip, but who was that voice? He could barely hear it, so it was hard to get a feeling for the direction it had come from. Scanning for the source of the voice he came across the golden hair around a familiar face.

This was not the time to be staggering about. Not in front of other people, now focus. Pushing his hand to his knee he used the force to bring himself to his feet. “Ah Felicity, I did not see you there.” He put on a smile and carefully walked toward the Gryffindor. He felt like mud the earth was mud he had to drag his body through in order to reach the girl. His arms weighing him down even more, it was generally not a pleasant experience.”My apologies, I hadn't even seen you over here. But what brings you to the library tonight?” He continued his slow and meandering path closing his eyes every so often to focus on walking. Perhaps sitting in a chair was a pretty good idea at this point, now he just had to reach one.

[Felicity Hjort]

As the boy fell, Felicity's eyes widened again, but this time not to keep her awake, but because she thought he was hurt. It didn't take him long to stand up, and she relaxed a little bit into one corner of the chair, her eyes still on him. He seemed to recover well enough and she figured she had just startled him, somehow. The blonde wasn't exactly sure how she'd done it, but that was the only explanation she could come up with, considering the library was extremely quiet and maybe her voice was just louder than she thought it would be. Or maybe it echoed through the stacks somehow.

"I wasn't really trying to be noticeable," she told him with a small smile. Truth was, she was hiding as well as possible, away from everyone and everything that had to do with Christmas the next day. Drew had decided to hold a small party, but she knew in the end it wasn't truly Christmas because her family wasn't anywhere nearby. Smiling at Dante as he made his way closer to her Felicity was kind of happy for the distraction from her reading and the interaction with someone. That was a nice idea, to have someone to talk to.

"I needed to get away from Gryffindor," she shrugged in answer. "Why are you down here?" Ravenclaw was also in a tower, she knew that much, it wasn't near the second floor.

[Dante Vroom]

The one question he really should have been expecting. He couldn't just say he had no idea why he walked into the Library. “I was researching how people in the UK celebrate Christmas. I figure I should understand the traditions before the holiday is upon us.” It was true that he did not fully know the traditions here, and there were some key differences. Everything from Christmas Trees to what was served for dinner. Not that he was looking forward to the holiday, without being able to go home it was not going to be the same at all. Being denied the ability to go home was one thing, but to deny it on the break for Christmas was something else entirely. Still walking slowly toward Felicity he finally reached a chair.

Pulling the chair out and spun it around 180 degrees. He then sat down resting his arms crossed over the back of the chair, his head found a spot nestled between his arms. Resting on his cheek rather than his chin. It was a comfortable position, his arms acting like a pillow for his head to rest on, the lightheaded feeling died down a bit. He was dressed to keep warm for the day, his usual button up shirt was covered by a gray sweatshirt with a hood. He was also wearing jeans for onces in his life, to go with the thick leather boots. He looked like he was ready to go outside, but in reality he never intended on stepping out into the snow, it was just what he found to wear that day. He raised his head tilting slightly more in order to try and see the book she had in front of her. Straining unsuccessfully he let out a huff and relaxed back onto his self made pillow. “What are you reading?”

[Felicity Hjort]

Eying Dante curiously, she wondered how they celebrated differently than Italians. The blonde hadn't ever thought of it truthfully, she just figured things went the same way all around. Though, she knew there were differences, such as Stephan visited Holland once on business during the holidays and they did something with wooden shoes and windowsills, she still didn't quite understand what it was they did, but she figured that maybe it didn't matter so much either. The fact of the matter was the things really came down to the basics, and they celebrated the same things, didn't they? Sure the large part of the celebration were different, but she didn't think it made too much of a difference, but maybe it did. Especially to someone who was so used to celebrating one way and was suddenly thrust into a whole new thing of experience. Dante couldn't even return home to celebrate the way he normally would've, instead he was stuck at Hogwarts to watch how others celebrated.

"But Christmas day is tomorrow," Felicity blatantly stated. "You're cutting it awfully close to conduct your research." Or maybe it was continuous and he was just finished up on things. Watching him settle down in a chair nearby, she smiled slightly, maybe she didn't really want to be left alone after all. Dante was an awfully nice boy, she liked him for the most part, even that first day they'd met she thought he was awfully nice despite Celina's attitude toward him. "Well, Dante," she started, doubting Drew would mind what she was about to do. "If you really want to see how we celebrate, a couple of us are going to have a little party tomorrow evening in celebration of the hol. since we can't go home to do it. If you'd like, you could join us. Gain a little experience and maybe have some fun?"

No, if Drew didn't like her inviting a friend to join them, then they'd just have to talk about it was all. Besides, why should they leave someone out? Everyone was for the most part without family this holiday, so technically all tehy could do was be supporting and one another's family for the season.

When he asked about her reading material, she smiled a little shyly. There hadn't been many people she'd discussed her career choice with, Celina, Alexander, Drew, Davenport, Connor, no one else she could think of. "Some books I borrowed from Professor Davenport," she mentioned, wondering if he knew the woman. "They're books about caring for magical creatures, and some of them talk about the research facilities all over the world, what they specialize in, what they research, that kind of stuff."

[Dante Vroom]

Christmas was tomorrow?! Where, when....how could it be tomorrow? He was not expecting that at all, and the shock of the realization nearly caused Dante to fall out of his chair. He did not say a word in reaction to the information though. Where had the time gone between the days? He swore he could remember the whole week except maybe a few hours here and there. But did those hours join together while he was not paying attention and create a day or two he had let slip past him?

He was so distracted by the thought of losing a day, he almost missed that he was being invited to a party. “That sounds like a great idea,” he let a smile escape, hiding his the panic in his mind. “Should I be bringing some gifts for people?” He hoped not, now that he had missed all the time to prepare, much less the fact that he was not even use to giving presents out on the 25th. His family had always followed another tradition, presents were given in January instead.

He settled back into his chair as she described what she was reading. Magical creatures were something Dante knew almost nothing about. So instead of make himself look like a fool, he nodded as she explained who had given her the books. He had taken a class on care for magical creatures last year, but got a really low grade in the class. So he was somewhat embarrassed about knowing so little about the topic at hand.

“Ah Davenport, I've had her for several classes” some of which he did very well in, others where he nearly failed. She seemed very interested in the topic. But at this point his mind kept bringing him back to his missing days. Where had the time gone? He had nothing prepared for tomorrow. Oh it was going to be horrible. His stomach began to hurt thinking about it all.

Calm down, he thought to himself. Can't show that I had no idea what day it was. He had to take a few deep breaths before he was able to think clearly again. Now that he could think about it, the fact that Felicity was in the Library was more curious. It was Christmas Eve after all, shouldn't she be with the people she cared about? Was that part of the traditions around here, that Christmas Eve was just about as important as Christmas?

[Felicity Hjort]

While he didn't say anymore about the next day, she didn't think that was all he really had to say either. Though, he didn't do anything to prolong the conversation of the next day either, so she let it slip away, glad he looked a little excited about the invitation. Now she'd just have to remember to say something to Drew so they could be sire there were enough places to sit and enough food to eat, though she doubted her boyfriend would not bring enough food to feed an entire country for a week. Then again, he had quite an appetite and would make sure there was enough for himself to eat and everyone else to take the same portion sizes as himself.

"No gifts necessary," she told Dante with a smile that he'd think to even bring presents for people. "I mean, I'm not saying you can't..." she told him with a rare smile of the last few days. "We're just going to have a nice dress up dinner, and then hang out afterwards, playing games and stuff. And make sure to bring something comfortable to wear after dinner.

"I like her," she offered. Probably one of her favourite professors, though most definitely the most spacey of all of them. Davenport was letting Felicity help in the stables, taking care of the creatures so she could have some experience for after Hogwarts. It would be a lot of help afterwards, she'd likely be able to get into many of the research facilities she was looking into currently.

[Dante Vroom]

“So is that what you plan on doing later on? Caring for magical creatures like she does?” A noteworthy line of work to be sure. Nothing Dante could relate to, except maybe the cat his mother kept. It was by no means magical though. It was a boring, fat cat that really did not seem to like him much. Despite how hard he worked to try and get the thing to trust him, it would always run away franticly, no matter what he was doing.

He had to think of something he had that could be brought to the party. Gifts, or something for everyone to enjoy. He had no clue how many people would be there, so perhaps gifts would be best. But who to give them to, and what would he give them? Right now though he could not think of a thing. Perhaps he could try and get something cooked up. What did everyone do on Christmas anyway? He still did not know. “I'll admit, I haven't gotten much research done” he frowned at his lack of work done, “but maybe you can help me out?” He looked up and with wide eyes he tried his best to plead without saying more about it.

Adjusting to get more comfortable in his chair, “what happens on Christmas anyway?” He knew why the holiday had originated, but the way in which everyone went through the day threw him. “Generally everyone would get presents right?” Though many of the presents would not come tomorrow, or so he thought. With the outbreak nothing had arrived in the mail for Dante, and he was pretty sure no mail was going out. He could not remember if no mail was allowed in though. He was still thrown in saying Christmas was tomorrow, he would have to check a calendar later tonight. That of course assuming he could make his way back to his room. Even sitting down he was having the occasional spin of vertigo.

[Felicity Hjort]

"No," she answered with a shake of her long locks. "I don't want to care for them exactly, but I want to study them in further depth. Like, there's this research facility in Romania on dragons, where they study them and what uses they are. And in Kenya there's one on Erumpents that I'm really interested in. I want to know more about what creatures do, how they're useful, and how they interact with not only their kind but with witches and wizards, too."

There was something about magical creatures that drew the girl in, she loved them. They were fantastic, interesting, intriguing, and extremely special.

"On Christmas?" she repeated his question. "Well, everyone celebrates differently. Some spend the Eve, tonight, opening their gifts and eating the good eats. Whereas others do it all tomorrow. My family, we have evening mass at church at midnight, then we return home and sleep. After that we go back to church, home for breakfast, we return to church once more, then we go home for dinner and presents."

[Dante Vroom]

Her list of things that people did on Christmas was a little overwhelming to his clouded mind. And he was forced to close his eyes in order to take it all in. He really was feeling ill, and it was beginning to be a real problem for him. It was tough to hide, especially when he was in the Library with someone he thought he knew pretty well. They sat next to each other in class after all, and unlike some other seats around Muggle Studies, she did not seem to dislike him. He coughed a bit, in part to try and clear his head, in part because he had been holding back a cough for some time.

Church seemed to be a focus of Christmas, and he could relate to that. “So are you very religious?” He stated without thinking much about it. He had no capability to think about what he was saying so openly at the time, and it was likely to cause a problem. But all he could think about right now was the fact that he was feeling completely overwhelmed by a weight in his head, and with that he began to focus on that pain. His eyes closed, with his head resting on his arms he began to blank out the rest of the world. His ears were still listening for what she would respond with, but everything else when to the pain, and an attempt to mask it. He winced a bit as his first motion caused it to get worse, but in his shifting he finally found a way to reduce some of the pressure on the front of his head. Just had to tilt it a little farther and he was relieved, but it was not to last.

A burning sensation came to his hand at about that time though, he had forgotten about the tattoo, but now he was forced to remember it existed. The burning could only mean one thing, it was changing. It had already been on his hand, but he was unable to figure out what the combination had meant. Hopefully it would make it easier to understand, he needed to figure it out, and with his head in it's current state, he hoped the changes would make it easier to figure out. “Ow” he said, in a rather dull tone, as he pulled his hand out from under his head. Opened his eyes, and stared at it. The numbers had done nothing but grow in size. The 5 on the front had changed appearance just slightly, looking more rounded. He would never figure this one out, sighing he left his hand in front of him, hoping the numbers were not done changing around. He looked back at Felicity to see if she had noticed his situation, hoping against hope that she had not.

[Felicity Hjort]

"Enough that I attend church every Sunday when I'm home and a lot during holidays. And my family participates a lot in church activities, volunteering and stuff." Every Sunday they went to church, her dad leading the way, and afterwards they spent time with the other church members. Many of their Saturday mornings were devoted to volunteer work, though this past summer Felicity wasn't able to participate a whole lot because of her work schedule, but she devotedly attended church. "And enough that mum and dad make me buy a new skirt every now and then to wear every Sunday."

Felicity hated skirts, dresses, anything other than pants or capris or shorts, and yet she always owned one skirt. Once she bought one, the other was tossed. And it'd only been on Sunday's she wore the garments until she started at Hogwarts, completely disgusted by the use of skirts as part of the female uniform. With how clumsy she was, skirts weren't nice.

Glancing over at him when he said something, she wondered if he'd hurt himself somehow. Concern slipped into her light brown eyes as she watched him for a moment before saying anything. "Are you all right?" she wondered, hoping nothing was terribly wrong. Maybe he'd just caught himself at an odd angle?

[Dante Vroom]

His hand continued to burn, which was surprising to Dante. In his current condition though, perhaps it only seemed to be enhanced. His mind playing a trick that it hurt so much, as opposed to the tattoo actually burning that much. It was a confusing thought, and rather than think much about why it hurt, he focused on the symbols that were on his hand: [5 18 99 11] . What could it be? It looked like a simple word, and yet, he could not figure it out? How pathetic.

"Are you all right?"
Between his light head and his mind wrapping around the tattoo he nearly forgot that there was anyone else in the entire room. Now what to do though, he had to think to himself. Show someone the tattoo and see what they thought of it? If Felicity figured it out would it go away though? He could not be sure. What would the reaction be to it even. Thoughts that probably were overly dramatic entered his clouded mind. Sure, she might be accepting of it, heck she might even solve it. But she might consider it something strange. It was quiet the story he had for it. And there was all the explaining he might have to do. He let out a somewhat loud sigh as he figured out what to do, finally coming to a conclusion that made sense. Tell the truth, but keep it simple, for his own sake.

“I'm fine” he looked over his right hand to make sure the numbers had not miraculously vanished. “It was just my tattoo acting up,” he turned the palm of his hand around to show Felicity. “The numbers appear every so often and are meant to represent a word.” He lowered his hand onto the table palm up for her to look at in a more comfortable angle. “It's hard to explain really, except that it's magic and very annoying.” He paused to looked up to the girl and almost in a whisper “don't tell anyone about it though, I'd rather not have everyone asking about it.”

It was not the preferred topic for Dante. He would rather learn more about everyone's Christmas. He put that discussion into the back of his mind however, with the intent to come back to it once the burning on his palm completely died down. He did feel better that someone else at the school finally knew about the tattoo. It had been hard, but he somehow managed to keep it a secret for over six years now. A burden he could, to a small extent, get rid of now. One weight off his mind tonight, so many more to go.

[Felicity Hjort]

Hearing the sigh, her face clouded over a bit, not sure what to do. If he wasn't feeling well then perhaps he should make it to the nurse, but when he answered the he was fine the blonde gave him a look of curiosity. Maybe he was just upset about not returning home for the holidays and like many, was stressed out about the lockdown of the castle. But when he told her his tattoo was bothreing him, she wondered when he would've gotten it. They were at the school this whole time, unless he'd gotten it at Hogsmeade the month previous, because otherwise, why would it hurt him?

"Maybe it's infected?" she suggested before he started in on something about numbers. Or maybe you're just odd her thoughts continued. But when he offered his hand closer to her, she leaned in to peer at it. Perhaps it was just infected, but it wasn't like any other the lioness had seen before. When he told her there was a magical aspect to it, she nodded, distracted by what he was showing her. There was a row of numbers and she was trying to absorb as much information as possible that he was telling her, but she didn't quite understand. What a surprise.

"So...those mean something?" she asked, turning in her chair to move closer to him. She took his hand in hers to get a better look at what he was showing her, moving his hand every which way, taking in every angle possible.

As his voice lowered, her gaze moved from his hand to his face. Nodding that she understood, she decided not to tell him that she wasn't good at telling lies and that if someone asked her directly about it, she was going to have to tell the truth. But who would ask?