[IC] Forsaken Children of War (Kirah and McHaggis)

[McHaggis]

Siobhan nodded. She hadn't put much thought into her own ideas, only a few minutes of realisation that she couldn't instantly go back to being friends with Kyle. Rubbing her chin again, she wondered aloud, "I know a way to the kitchens, if need be... Of course, my sister made it so it might be a trick..."

Then again, going to Classroom 11... she had heard from the older Gryffindor girls' conversations that the centaur was handsome.

Shaking her head, the continued, "I could ask my brother? Or we could see how it goes. I'm sure somebody out there hates us both equally."

[Kirah]

"We could. I think my sister mentioned something once about a room that wasn't there, or something. She could have been pullin' my leg though." Kyle laid down on the ground and looked up through the trees at the sky. It was a beautifully clear day, the air was chilly, but nothing he couldn't handle.

"Who was that Gryffindor girl glaring at us the first day?" Kyle sat up straighter as her face came to mind. It was clear she didn't like either of them. Siobhan because of her ties to Slytherin and Kyle because he was a Slytherin.

[McHaggis]

Siobhan pondered the mysterious 'room that wasn't there' that Kyle mentioned. Perhaps she should ask the older Gryffindors about it, say she wanted some place quiet to study? "I'll search for it during my free periods," she said. "It can't be too hard to find, right?"

The Gryffindor girl's nose wrinkled as her new worst enemy was mentioned. "Oh, you mean Trish -- her cronies too. What about her?" Siobhan didn't like where that train of thought was going... were they going to purposefully provoke them?

[Kirah]

"I can ask around too, but I'll have to be careful about it." He didn't need to add obviously. "About this girl, Trish, she's an easy enemy. She's also a Gryffindor, which tend to be a bit easy to get their tempers to flair." He glanced out of the outcropping of trees.

"We'll have to talk about this later. Looks like lunch is mostly over." Shoot they were going to have a hard time sneaking back up to the castle.
Kyle paused, "There's your brother." He pointed at a group of Slytherins.

[McHaggis]

"And there's your sister, too. I'll be go and be decoy." She rolled her eyes. "See ya later, Kyle. I hope you get out of this okay."

Siobhan rubbed her chin before stepping out from behind the tree, ruffling her hair nonchalantly and faking a yawn -- it almost looked as if she had been sleeping behind there for the short time that lunch had been going on. She could hear her brother from a mile away, as loud as any Gryffindor as he seemed to be... begging? "C'mon, McCarthy, it'll be fun! We'd get to watch the night watching Slughorn squirm at the thought of the Dark Lord with you around..."

As the Gryffindor approached, he shamelessly continued. "And I already checked -- he's accepting plus ones." Running a hand through his hair, Alistair turned to his little sister as if she had no hope of realising what was going on. Siobhan grinned wickedly with the new information to tease her brother with at home. "What's up? I heard you got into a fight. Don't ask how -- I just know."

Siobhan darted over to him, caring little about the small gang of Slytherins who seemed on edge with her presence (again). She whispered in his ear, "Kyle's doing what you want him to do. He got a detention with Snape." She watched as the cogs turning in her brother's brain ground to a halt.

He snorted humourlessly for the crowd. "Well, she sounds like a right... annoyance," he said, louder. "For what it's worth, you have my permission to get into a fight. I won't tell Father." Siobhan was quickly turned and shoo'd on her way, but not before she heard a "Now, where were we..?" directed at Maggie. As she turned into the castle on her way to Charms, she hoped Kyle slipped away easy enough.

[Kirah]

Kyle did slip away easily enough. He had Transfiguration and later Charms. He went straight to the Transfiguration classroom. He was considerably early.

"Yes but you don't know who wrote it." A female voice snapped. Kyle poked his head around a corner and spotted Harry Potter and his friends. Harry was holding an old worn Potions book and Hermione was looking at it as if the book had insulted her.

"It doesn't matter. It hasn't been wrong so far." And then the trio was gone up the next set of stairs. Why did it matter who wrote a potion book? Kyle wondered and then took a seat in the classroom. Sam was in minutes later.

"Hey, you left lunch early. Where'd you go?" Sam asked sitting down next to Kyle.

"The library, wanted to look up somethings about mandrakes for the essay." Sam's eyes widened at Kyle's response.

"Bloody hell I forgot about that." Sam laid his head down on the table. "When's it due?"

"Friday during class." Kyle snickered.

"Oh, then I've got plenty of time." Sam sighed relieved, "Hey so what happened? I mean I heard you two fight, but I thought you were best friends forever or some girly dragon dung like that."

"Don't let Siobhan hear you call her girly." Sam waved his hand unafraid of the Gryffindor girl who helped raised dragons. Kyle thought that was amusing.

"Anyway, so is it like over forever between you two?" Kyle only gave a non-committal shrug as the rest of the class started filing in.

[McHaggis]

Siobhan gnawed on her lip, hair frazzled and tie coming undone as she waited outside the Defense classroom on Friday morning for a double period. She was sure Snape wouldn't let Kyle move from their seat down the front -- next to her -- but if he did... if he did...

Well, she might cry. It was the only class where she got to sit next to her best friend in the world now that Potions had her working with Yvette.

It had been a long week. Far too long. She had barely finished her essays in time, hopefully to an acceptable standard, but all of the classes seemed somewhat lacking. Care of Magical Creatures was downright disappointing. Where were the dragons, the ashwinders, the kelpies? The few brief times she had managed to meet up with Kyle in empty classrooms were hardly long enough, usually during lunch only. She had to wonder about her brother's motives: was it worth this unhappiness?

Just before the bell rang, she carefully went inside and took her previous seat down the front of the class. Siobhan left her bag off the seat just in case Kyle decided to (or was forced to by the professor to) sit there.

[Kirah]

Kyle got into the class just before the bell rang. He wanted to sit with Siobhan, but Sam had saved him a seat. Kyle took it sadly. He hadn't even pulled out his books when Snape swept into the room. "McCarthy, I believe you were sitting here." He tapped the desk next to Siobhan.

"Yeah, before-" Kyle started to explain.

"And you'll continue to sit there." Snape interrupted Kyle and then told the class. "Everyone will remain in the seats they took the first class. Unless I reassign you." Kyle took the seat, just barely keeping his face straight. "Now pass up your essays." Kyle shot Siobhan a look that anyone could easily read as contempt. Siobhan would know that he was on the verge of laughing though. He had had an idea for a code of looks and words that they knew meant certain things, such as where to meet.

[McHaggis]

Siobhan crossed her arms and stared as coldly as she could at Kyle before dipping her head ever so slightly into an imperceptible nod of recognition. It took everything she had to suppress her grin, knowing that Kyle was in the same boat. The Gryffindor's essay was already out on the desk which, had it been in normal handwriting would have covered three quarters of the required length at most; however, her massive cursive writing (neat, but monstrous at the same time) could have been read from the other side of the classroom.

The essays piled up down on their desk, and while Snape had his back turned to the class, she nudged Kyle's foot and raised an eyebrow all without looking at him. She continued by tapping the desk and drawing a question mark on the edge of her notebook -- instinctive girl code. She hoped the Slytherin understood. Why did Snape make him sit there?

The professor's lesson was to be another practical one, this time on the wand-lighting charm, lumos. This time, Siobhan had no doubt she could perform the spell; her mother had taught her it during the summer.

[Kirah]

Kyle returned the barest shrug and under his breath while the class was full of people saying lumos, Kyle said the code word for meeting in the empty classroom on the third floor corridor.

He like Siobhan had no issue casting Lumos. He wondered what Snape had in store for the pair of them. Why was he forcing them to sit together? He thought maybe Snape really was trying to help improve house connections, but no one else seemed to be facing the same focus they had.

Kyle had observed plenty of Slytherin and Gryffindor fighting. There was a lot of tension between all the houses, and from Maggie's comments it seemed worse than usual. That was believable. It was only the first week of school and Quidditch hadn't even started yet, but it certainly felt like it.

[McHaggis]

Siobhan swore she was yawning the whole lesson through. What was so special about lumos of all things? It was hardly worth a full lesson on it. Snape's dark eyes constant flickered back to Kyle and her as they pointedly looked away from each other. Nothing much to say after they had set a meeting point. As the lesson ended, he swooped over to them after setting an essay on uses of the spell they had learned for after the weekend. "Remember Mr. McCarthy, Miss MacFusty," he drawled. "Detention, six o'clock. Do not be late."

The Gryffindor glanced at Kyle for only a moment as she wandered out the door towards her next class, History of Magic.She couldn't wait until after lunch, when they could meet up stealthily. It was like being a spy, she thought. Interesting.

[Kirah]

Kyle had Charms before lunch he was quite pleased when the lunch bell finally rang. He was one of the first ones out of the class and at the table.
"Can you eat any faster McCarthy?" Sam asked as he sat across from Kyle who had most of his food gone already.

"I really want to work on that essay for Professor Snape, while it's all still fresh."

"Your motivation for school work is only surpassed by Ravenclaws. Tell me how did you not end up in Ravenclaw?"

"Ambition." Kyle shrugged. Finished his meal and waved goodbye. He'd have at least half an hour before anyone would look for him. He went into the empty classroom wand at the ready for 'practicing' if someone where to wander in other than Siobhan.

[McHaggis]

Siobhan skipped lunch, choosing instead to munch on an apple she had picked up at breakfast. She really had lost her motivation for sitting at the Gryffindor table -- even the thought of Yvette wasn't enough to make her stay. It gave her time to wander the school, to look up the next classroom she and Kyle would choose as a meeting point. The next one would be on the fifth floor, right at the end of the unused corridor.

It really was a shame that such a wonderful school like Hogwarts left so many rooms empty and abandoned.

The Gryffindor turned the corner and went down a set of stairs to the third floor, ducking into the prearranged classroom after ensuring that nobody else was in the corridor with them. "So," she started. "Ready for detention tonight?"

[Kirah]

"I suppose. It's better than the Slug Club that's for sure." He grinned, "Turns out my sister caved. She's going." Kyle snorted amused at the idea of his sister sitting in on the Slug Club with all those people she despises. Especially since Potter was supposed to be going too. That cracked him up.

"What do you think Professor Snape will be having us do?" He jumped up so he was sitting on one of the desks. From the dust on it, he doubted anyone used this room much. If they weren't able to make up soon they'd have to find a more reliable place to meet though.

[McHaggis]

"Your sister caved, huh?" Siobhan hummed to herself, a smile that said I-know-something-you-don't-know playing on her face. "Alistair'll be happy, at least." While she wasn't sure about Maggie McCarthy herself, Alistair was a big boy and could handle himself. Sort of. She did get the impression he was very, very lovesick.

Siobhan coughed slightly as she sat her bag down, displacing some of the dust from the room into the air. "At least he can't make us clean cauldrons? I heard he used to do that for the Gryffindors who annoyed him." She continued, more seriously, "I don't know... doesn't he seem strange to you?"

She could have sworn Snape didn't look angry or upset at them fighting, only... melancholic.

[Kirah]

Kyle didn't want to worry about what his sister was up to, more than necessary. She was sneaky enough that he kept an eye on her for his own safety. For now though Kyle was too confused by Siobhan's look to try to decipher it. He moved onto the subject of Professor Snape's behavior happily.

"I'm not too sure honestly. He doesn't seem as angry as I've heard him described. I mean he snaps a bit and takes out his bad mood on everyone but Slytherins. He's not like any of the other professors who seem much more fair." Kyle thought for a moment. "And when he forces us to work together it's like he's trying to make us be friends. None of the other professors seemed moved by our fight. At least not that I've noticed. Maybe he's taken a special interest because we did it in front of him."

[McHaggis]

"He's nice to us in particular," Siobhan said. "I swear I'm the only Gryffindor that hasn't been picked on yet. Maybe it's because we're not-friends that he does that."

Siobhan brushed down her skirt and brought out her wand, muttering scourgify under her breath. The resulting spell was only strong enough to take off the loosest layer of dust from the table beneath her, which was good enough. It was the job of house elves anyway. "So what are we going to do about Trisha? We have Potions with her soon, right? She's our only hope of becoming friends again – at least, to the outside world." And how strange was that?

[Kirah]

"Yeah double potions." Kyle grimaces. "I think we have to manipulate her unseen. I mean it's already clear she doesn't like either of us, but we need her to make some sort of move that would cause us to unite. At this point I don't quite know what that would be. It has to be realistic." Kyle chews on his lip as he thinks. "Do you think we could get her to challenge us to a duel? But that doesn't give us a reason to be united against her." As Kyle was thinking on what might 'unite' them he heard soft footsteps. He pressed his finger against his lip, wishing he knew that spell that Alistair had used that first day.

"No Crabbe it's just until I can get it to work right." That's Malfoy voice. Kyle's eyes widened. A sixth year Slytherin with his two lackeys. Kyle trusted Siobhan to remain quiet, but what Kyle wanted to know was what Malfoy was trying to fix.

"It's stupid." A voice responded. The voice did not belong to either Crabbe or Goyel as Kyle recognized, but instead sounded like a girl. Kyle frowned and looked at Siobhan confused. Their footsteps faded and continued up the set of stairs the classroom they were in was next too.

[McHaggis]

"'The enemy of my enemy is my friend,'" Siobhan quoted. "We might be able to provoke her into something in Potions. Maybe a prank? Flobberworms..." She fell silent quickly, trailing off as the unrecognisable voices passed by outside. She had been certain the corridor would be empty -- that nobody would use it! She held her breath as they must've turned into a room nearby, watching Kyle curiously at his surprise. Did he know them?

Speaking in hushed tones, she asked, "What was that all about, d'you think?" It sounded serious -- similar to the way they discussed own situation with Snape, vaguely.

[Kirah]

"I don't know." Kyle responded, his voice just as hushed as Siobhan. "That was Malfoy though. He's a sixth year. Fast track Death Eater. Dad keeps trying to get him and Maggie to hook up, but they hate each other." Kyle paused and thought of the other things he had overheard sixth years talking about, but then his memory brought up that the voice that had answered Malfoy had not been Crabbe's.

"The second voice wasn't Crabbe. He's a big brute of a guy, he got on the Slytherin team this year as a beater. That voice belonged to a girl." Curiosity got to Kyle though. "Let's follow them."