RESTRICTED {{SEB}}

[ada]

Ada wasn’t exactly unaccustomed to regretting her actions. She was a Gryffindor at heart, after all, and ‘reckless’ was pretty much her middle name. She also tended to be a blurter, and combined with her habit of being blunt, her tongue had gotten her into more than her share of sticky situations—the kind of situations that she looked back on in retrospect and basically wanted to hit her head against a wall. With Seb, however, Ada was beginning to realize that her mouth wasn’t the only part of her that did stupid things—her whole body was out to make a fool of her. And she was going to have to watch herself closely, which was lovely. Not like she was having trouble concentrating around Seb already. Just throw in the fact that she was going to have to bite her tongue and watch her every step—no problem. Right.

She fought off the urge to just sink into the walls, and swallowed her blush the best she could. She just had to deal with the aftermath of her dumb mistake, get out of this staircase, get her bearings back, and stop floundering around like an idiot. She couldn’t help the fact that she wasn’t the best spy—she’d had exactly zero training or even advice before she’d been sent of to Hogwarts with this secret mission of shady motives—but what Ada really didn’t like was the fact that she wasn’t on the top of her verbal and mental game; something about Seb threw her off a little. Probably because he was infuriatingly composed all the time, and probably because he had up and decided to kiss her. Those were two logical reasons, and she would pay attention to those two. She was determined to pay no attention to the illogical reasons, such as the dumb fact that she wanted him to like her for some reason, and his eyes and his lopsided smile made her mind go sorta blank.

Ada was determined to get her normal self back, even if that normal self was far from amiable at the moment. She shouldn’t want Sebastian to like her so much, so there should be no reason to hold back. She half-scowled into the darkness, in the direction that she could see the outline of his face. She could hear the smirk in his voice, and she was surprised that he had managed to stay so completely upright the whole time--but of course, this boy appeared to be unshakable, both physically and emotionally. ”My assault was accidental. Yours was not, unless you have some sort of dangerous muscle twitches.”

Her eyes were beginning to adjust a little in the ‘no light’ situation, so she was able to make out his hand being held out in the darkness. For a second she just stared at his open hand, a brow arched, confused as to what he was doing. Was this the hand of peace, or something? Then he offered an explanation, and Ada couldn’t even roll her eyes and snort at him because he was probably right—she wasn’t at her best right now, and she’d probably end up tripping somewhere on this route if she tried to forge her own way. He was correct, however infuriating it was, and with a sigh and a wary glance at his face to ward off his trying anything again, she placed her hand in his.

It was nothing. Nothing. It was just a hand. But for some odd reason it felt like something more—Ada liked it too much. Which was weird. She needed to stop concentrating on the fact that he was holding her hand—It wasn’t something to freak out over. Especially since it was just to help her up the stairs. But she couldn’t help grasping his hand back and noting that it was larger than hers and pleasantly rough and warm. Damn. She was fixating. Stop thinking about it, NOW.

It was much easier to concentrate once she was through the portrait hole and Seb let go of her hand. She wasn’t quite sure what to do with herself now, so she settled for readjusting her headband before turning around to face Seb, trying to guess what his ‘proof’ would be. But before she could ask him where, exactly, his proof was kept, she noticed that he looked absolutely terrified, staring at something behind her head. Seeing as how absolutely composed he had been the entire night, Ada immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was something terrible behind her—a Professor, a Prefect, another student standing ready to accuse them…something. She whirled around, eyes wide, her mouth slightly open, expecting something horrible, something that would make her stomach sink through her feet.

And so she spun around and saw…nothing. There was no one else in the Common Room, and it was as empty and tranquil as it usually was in the middle of the night. Ada half turned back towards Seb in confusion, not sure what disaster, exactly, had him so freaked out. And when she took this extra second she realized he wasn’t staring at anything in the Common Room—obviously, duh, what was there to stare at?—but was actually looking at the far window. So Ada glanced at the window and beheld something that was so utterly anticlimactic that her face fell a little.

An owl? Really? She had almost been expecting a dragon.

She turned back to look at Seb, undeniably curious as to what the hell he was so scared of an owl for. She arched her eyebrows in a half-expectant way, then reached out and patted his shoulder. ”It’s an owl, Seb. I doubt it’ll hurt you.” Okay, pump the brakes. She’d been referring to Sebastian as Seb in her mind for a while, but she hadn’t realized she’d been doing so until it had popped out verbally. When had she decided that it was okay to give him a nickname? She couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment, but she was guessing that it was around the time that he had decided to toy with her mind by initiating some personal contact that she was unprepared for. Maybe that gave her the right to give him a nickname. Well, whatever. It was over and done with now—she’d already said it—so she might as well move on.

[seb]

Sebastian barely noticed Ada's double take of his expression. Her confused search of the common room for something worthy of being afraid of failing to pull his attention from the bird at the window. A bird that knew full well it was never to search him out here at the common room. Hoot was a gift he'd given to his sister.. an owl known by neither a soul at the Center nor anyone here at school save Kimberly and himself. He was Seb's way of keeping tabs on the truth of things back 'home' ..to hell if he really thought of the place as such.. Kim did though. That was one of the cornerstones of the 'deal' between the Center and himself.. As far as Kim knew the tests they'd ran on her big brother were of the pen and paper sort. As far as she knew they were seeking to 'help' Sebastian to gain control over his unique 'problem'.

They'd never harmed her..never told her otherwise.. 'yet'. The deal was as long as he stuck with the plan his sister would not be harmed and would live as normal a life as any other foster child home schooled by a tutor did. A fact that circled back to the matter at hand.. that Hoot was here at all was enough to cause Sebastian worry. Kim knew only to send the owl in the event something happened that she wished no one to know about but Seb.. and Kim knew better than to use the owl for trivial things, he'd explained to her that if they found out about the owl she'd not be able to keep it. Kim loved the little feather ball.. shed not have risked him if she hadn't really felt the need to speak with him privately. Something had happened.. she'd gotten in trouble and was afraid.. or .. god help them if they had harmed her.. whatever the case it was something major.. something that had the small owl who was totally dedicated to the young girl who doted on him fearful enough for her that he'd found it impossible to wait in the trees outside.. wait for the window to appear that wasn't normally there.

Ada's hand connecting with his shoulder caused him to give an uncharacteristically nervous jump and his distracted gaze flickered to her only to return to the bird a moment later. " hmm?... oh.. right.. yeah sure..just an owl.. " He stared at the window a moment more before commenting in the same distracted tone as he had before. " Ada I've... something to see to.. I'll catch up with you later alright? .. " Not bothering to wait for answer he set off out of the common room once more. His strides carried him to a blank and, to the unknowing eye, rather boring stretch of wall. Quickly he paced the familiar stretch of corridor once..twice..three times before it, his lips moving in the silent repetition of a well know request. Once the door to the Room of Requirement appeared he opened it and stepped in, not bothering to close it before reaching the opposite wall of the room and voicing a request for a window to the outside. Once it had materialized he took the time to stride back to the door and close it. It wouldn't do to have someone stumble on the room.. not now of all times.. experience lent him the knowledge that on the outer wall the door would have now dissolved into a stretch of blank wall.. inaccessible even to those who knew of the room until he had finished use of it himself.

Heading back to the window he stuck his head out of the opening and glanced up in the direction of the Gryffindor tower.. he could still see the small form beating its wings against the window..pecking the glass in frustration and urgency.. daft little creature. Cursing Seb drew his wand and muttered an incantation. A bright beam, much stronger that the lumos spell lit his wand and he quickly directed the light to shine on the wall just to the side of the window the bird was assaulting. It flew back a few feet... startled, only to apparently take note of the source of the light as it turned and swooped down to soar across the length of air and come to rest on the ledge.

Seb eyed the little creature with contempt.. "this had better have been for a worthy reason Hoot you little nutter! " Scowling he picked up the letter the bird had dropped on the ledge and put out his arm for the owl to hop to. As they moved away from the window he murmured over his shoulder about no longer having a need for it.. at which point it faded back into blank wall. Striding across the room he sunk into a wooden chair, the only piece of furniture in the room save the desk it belonged in and a book case in the corner filled with all manner of books, files, notes and letters. He gave Hoot a moment to step down from his arm to the desks surface before using a finger to rip the seam of the muggle envelope and pull out a sheet of flowered stationary from within. Kim's pretty scrawl of handwriting greeted him and he set to reading.

'bastian,

I know Hoots only for emergency's and I doubt this is one really, but Hoot pretty much insisted I mail you about it with him.. Only don't be cross with him will you? See.. something odd happened today. I was talking to him.. I'd let him in the window before lights out.. I know you said not to.. but I get lonely and bored with you away at school.. you know? Anyway.. someone came early to check on me when I hadn't expected them to.. one of the cleaning ladies. She got in a right state over Hoot being in the room.. rambling on about him being a dirty creature and how I shouldn't let animals from the yard inside..then she shoo'ed him outside and locked the window before leaving the room.

I don't know how it happened.. only that I'd had a bad day.. one of my tutors yelled at me for daydreaming ( I know, I know.. I should be paying attention in class.. right?) and I had just wanted someone to talk to.. Hoots all I've really got with you away.. so when she shut him out it made me angry..after she left I thought on it and only got even more mad.. and then the window started to rattle..and the lock turned..just like that! no key, or hand on it, or anything!.. and flew open. As soon as he'd hopped back in Hoot was holding out a leg and pecking about at my pen and stationary in turn.. so I though I should probably write you about it before he worried himself into feather loss from stress or something. So any way..there's that.. hopefully sharing it with you will have Hoot calmed down on returning.. I hate it when he gets upset, he is my best friend after all.

love you big brother,
Kim

Seb's eyes skimmed the page again after reading it.. his face only going more ashen on the second go. Magic.. bloody damn magic! .. Kim was a witch! ..And here he'd been certain.. sure of the fact that she was a muggle.. but what else could it be?!?... What about the interest the scientists would take in her if she showed signs of being like him?? Would they be content to hold up their end of the deal knowing as much? Seb's time at school was almost over.. his usefulness nearly spent.. what if they found out and decided what they had right there with them was more useful than another year of information??? .. He could feel the panic working its way up his throat.. he had to think..had to calm down. Shoving the chair back he stood, unaware as his sisters letter lifted on the breeze caused by his sudden movement and fluttered to the floor. He made his way to the bucket of ice he'd brought in on some other trip to the room and yanked a bottle of fire whiskey from it. Twisting off the cap he promptly tipped it back draining a good half of the large bottle in several swings before paces the room in agitation.. What the hell was he suppose to do?? what the blood hell COULD he do?!?! .. tell her not to worry about it.. it didn't mean anything and ..oh.. by the way.. don't do it in front of the bastards you think are your friends because their likely to fill you with needles for it..!?!?!?!

His temper at a rare and unusual high, he pulled back with an arm and hurled the bottle against the wall.. its body smashing into a rain of glass chunks on the floor while the whiskey splashed across the wall and trailed down in streams. Stomping across the room he mutter the need for a couch and was sitting down even as it materialized beneath him.. His hands lifted to clutch at his hair.. yanking at it as he tried to sort through the tangle of seemingly unanswerable questions. Normally he would rationalize a problem.. tackle it head on.. find the best answer, if there was one and move forward from that point.. but THIS..what the hell was he suppose to reason about it?!?! .. He couldn't tell her not to do it in front of them.. he recalled all to well that you just didn't get that choice..it just..'happened' somehow...whenever it chose to. He could tell her to try and hold it in.. if she could feel when it was building.. but was that even healthy for a young witch to do?!?! ..He didn't know.. he didn't know about any of it.. Seb's shoulders began to shake harshly as angry and desperate sobs erupted from his chest.

[ada]

Seb was distracted. Like, beyond distracted—more like fixated, focused, completely concentrated on this one little owl that was pecking at the window. It was bothering him, for some unknown reason. And it was just an owl—she saw no reason to get so worked up over it. Unless it was some kind of emergency owl, like one of her dorm-mates had…but then Seb would be rushing over to get to the window, throwing it open, ripping open the letter…not just staring at it in some kind of abject horror. This was just odd. And then he jumped when she touched him. This was the same guy that barely batted an eye when she’d run headlong into him from behind. Something was up. Something really, really strange.

Ada had cocked her head slightly to the side, her gaze darting between Seb and the very harmless-seeming owl outside the window, trying uselessly to put together the pieces of this little puzzle. There was a tiny owl at the window. Seb was apparently very worried or very scared of said owl. Why? She didn’t know. The puzzle didn’t fit. Probably because there was a damn missing piece. Owl. Seb. She needed the stupid chunk of information that connected these two things. But she didn’t have it. And it didn’t look like she was going to get it, seeing as Seb was just mumbling distracted things and not really giving her much to work with. In fact, he was just basically repeating what she had said. And before Ada could even arch a questioning brow, Seb mentioned vaguely that he had something to do, and then he was gone.

Ada stood in place for a moment, frowning after him, not quite sure what was going on. Seb obviously didn’t have plans that he’d just remembered, or anything. It was late. People were in bed. It wasn’t exactly a lively scene out there in the castle. And Seb was very obviously lying, so the only question left was what she was going to do about it. She could just shrug it off and head off to her dorm for some much-needed sleep, but…Ada glanced again at the owl frantically fluttering at the window. She wouldn’t really be able to sleep if she didn’t get some sort of insight into this little mystery that had been presented to her. So that left Option Number Two, a.k.a following Seb and getting a clue as to how an owl could get past his unflappable surface.

There was no question about it. Option Number Two it was.

Ada shot one last suspicious glance at the fluttery ball of feathers at the window, tempted to open the pane herself and see what, exactly, the owl’s letter had to say, but that was just too intrusive. Reading someone else’s mail was just…wrong. And a federal crime, she was pretty sure. So she left the silly frantic bird alone, dropped her bag to the floor, kicked it under a couch so no one would see it and wonder if they happened to wander in, and then promptly headed for the portrait hole. Seb couldn’t have gotten too far while she was debating what to do.

She was right, it turned out. She could see the white of Seb’s shirt just as it slipped around a corner, and she knew she had to hurry to catch up. And with that she darted off down the corridor, keeping on the balls of her feet so that she made as little noise as possible, hugging the walls and ducking behind tapestries whenever possible. Not that it mattered—Seb didn’t look behind him once. He had stopped in front of some random wall and was pacing. Ada peeked at him from behind the nearest statue, and her eyes widened when she saw a door appear. She shouldn’t have been surprised, really, seeing as there were lots of hidden and trick rooms in America, but she was sort of surprised all the same. So one of these trick rooms had been just down the hall from her own Common Room? And she hadn’t even heard about it? Damn, she really sucked at this spy stuff.

Seb walked inside…and left the door open. Wow. He must’ve been really flustered, because even Ada didn’t do that when she had shady motives for a room. But hey, she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She darted inside the door, just in time to see Seb muttering to a wall and having a window appear. She looked around frantically. No place to hide. No furniture. Shit, shit, shit. But there—a bookcase, up against the far wall. Ada was headed towards it in a flash, cramming herself into the space between the shelf and the nearest corner and curling her knees to her chest. She prayed he wouldn’t look at the corner too closely, because she had no guarantees about how visible she was.

But Seb still seemed very preoccupied. He walked past her once, to close the door, and didn’t even look in her direction. Then he messed with the window again, muttered to the tiny owl that appeared there, and opened the letter that the little thing had brought him. The owl came inside, a chair materialized just as the window faded—what kind of room was this? She’d have to wonder about it later—and Seb sat down heavily. She could see his back and a little portion of his face from her vantage point, so she could see that the more he read, the more his expression looked like he had just seen someone die. Ada wanted to get up and ask him what the matter was, but it wasn’t that simple—she was unwanted, a spy to a spy, an eavesdropper. She had to stay in the shadows.

Then he seemed to get angry. Shoving the chair back, stalking over to—what? She couldn’t see—and picking up a bottle. Oh, he was drinking. Did someone really die? Ada was so busy analyzing him that she didn’t realize that there was a piece of paper that had fluttered to rest a few feet in front of her. The letter! Now, Ada wasn’t about to open someone’s mail, but here it was open, right in front of her…it was a sign. And she wasn’t about to pass up something so convenient. She yanked herself out of her hiding spot, snatched up the stationary—Muggle stuff, too, and obviously a girl’s—and read it right there on the floor, in the open, too intrigued to much care if Seb noticed her at this point.

Her brows drew together as she read. So Seb had a sister. A young one. Who obviously adored him and depended on him. She hadn’t seen that coming. And she was a Muggle—or she had thought she was. Living somewhere without parents or friends, if she could analyze all this correctly. And Seb was freaking out over it—drinking, pacing…why? Just because his kid sister had magic? It didn’t make much sense. She was missing another few pieces to the puzzle, and she hated this.

A sudden movement across the room caught her attention, and all of a sudden Seb’s bottle was flying, shattering, exploding against the nearby wall. Ada’s heart jumped into her throat. For a second she thought he’d seen her, that he was angry and drunk and about to yell at her. But no, he didn’t even notice her. He was sitting down on a newly materialized couch, pulling at his dark hair.

And then she heard the sobs.

Her eyes widened, her mouth opened a little, and she sat frozen. Ada was not good with crying. Never much did it, herself, and didn’t have many people close enough to her that they felt comfortable crying in front of her. Crying was like some mysterious, untouchable thing that Ada didn’t quite understand or know how to deal with. Like handing her a Quaffle and telling her to play Quidditch without explaining the rules. But after a second Ada realized what she was doing—she was just sitting there, on the cold stone floor, like a damned deer in headlights, while this unflappable boy was mourning something of obvious importance in the same room. She couldn’t just pretend it wasn’t happening. No, she couldn’t. She was a coward if she did.


So she rose to her feet, briefly wiping at her bare knees as if she could sweep the cold from them. She didn’t realize that she still had the flowery stationary clutched in her left hand as she hesitantly took a few steps towards the couch. When she could see Seb’s profile, she almost wanted to leave. But then again, there was a part of her that wanted…something. To throw her arms around him and let him cry into her neck, or something. But Ada just froze again, because he looked so utterly crushed. She didn’t understand. And she sucked at comfort, even more than she sucked at spying. But she couldn’t leave him here by himself.

Her footsteps were nearly silent as she took the last few steps that carried her to the front of the couch, her nerves oddly active. She got to the point where she was standing in front of him, and then she crouched down on the floor, peering at his face. ”Seb?” she asked, voice quiet, not exactly sure how he was going to react. She was, after all, an undesired witness to all of this.

[seb]

Locked in his own troubled misery Seb failed to hear Ada's footsteps as she approached..nor did he hear the sounds of her motion as she stooped down in front of him. It wasn't until her soft and unsure voice spoke his name, joining with his sobs as the only noise to break the silence of the room, that he registered that he wasn't alone. He wasn't.. alone... He wasn't the bloody.. hell.. ALONE?!?! In here?!?! how?! .. His head snapped up.. an arm reaching up to rub quickly, stubbornly at the tears on his face even as he quickly stood and moved across the room. He kept his back to her.. shielding the lingering evidence of his show of feelings as a mix of emotions.. anger, embarrassment,.. shame.. all flooded in to vey for position amongst the sadness..fear.. and panic already present. She shouldn't have been able to get in! The room sealed itself once in use unless other parties were expected.. could something be wrong with the damn thing? .. the one fail safe place he'd found to safely accomplish what he had to? ..he didn't need this.. now of all times he really, really didn't. It was then that he recalled he'd left the door open long enough the request the window into existence.. she'd slipped in then, must have.. and it was his own daft fault. Sighing heavily..beyond irritated at himself.. his words came out clipped. " What are you doing here Ada?.. "

Frowning he drug a hand over his head, smoothing back the wave of brown locks before giving a finale rub of a sleeve across his face. " I told you I'd catch up with you 'later'.. didn't I?! ..Why did you fallow me?! " Rounding on her..intending to look stern.. just intimidating enough to get his point across.. send her hurrying off to the dorms to leave him to stew in his seemingly unsolvable worries, he instead felt his eyes widen in shock and his jaw go slack as his sight took in the stationary still clutched in her hand. She'd read the letter?!? ..and now she knew.. about Kim.. had to know, by what was said in it, that she'd discovered his bloody weakness. Suddenly.. in the matter of a few moments of realization..the tables had been turned. Seb wasn't in control anymore.. not of his sisters safety..not of her fate.. hell.. not even his communication with her.. Ada had seen the owl.. she'd know which one to look for if in a moment of anger she ever tossed reason to the wind and decided to foul him up and be damned the consequences to herself.. and really..what did he know about the girl? ..was she prone to rash calls of judgment? ..was she a grudge holder? .. his personality irritated some people.. ok, a lot of people..or at least most of the few he actually spoke to... and Merlin knew he'd done plenty already to be in the ill graces of the blond standing in front of him. None of it had matter.. he hadn't fretted over it a bit.. until seeing that letter in her hand. that one little piece of paper that opened a whole new view of him to this fellow Gryffindore of his.. He could try all he liked now to act untouchable. The fact of the matter was that she would know the unshakable could be rattled right down to his foundation simply by anything having to do with the one little girl mention in that note.

A deep frown creased his lips and he drug a hand tiredly over his face before walking back over to the couch and slumping down in defeat. His gaze locked on his hands... what should he say to her? Explain things and pray that Ada understood?.. try and play the letter off as being of little importance?.. Hope she'd discard the discovery and forget about in over the next few days as being trivial.. of little import?.. Right, that would bloody well happen.. shes just seen him balling like a two year old with a scraped knee over that scrap of paper and what it said. In the end..unable to think clearly..unable to rationalize between terror for his sister, the fear growing thick in his throat, and the haze slowly enveloping his brain.. finally making the transition from the liquid that had been in the bottle to its effects on the one who'd drank it, he rose again from the couch and headed for the bucket. If he couldn't find an answer for the moment he'd do as he always did..he'd drown the worries.. soak his fears.. until only the facts remained and his mind could access them from a much more numb perspective. Reaching the opposite wall he dug through the ice.. certain he'd placed more than one bottle in the pail.. and finally as his hand began to tingle with the chill he pulled forth a much smaller bottle than the last. Twisting the top off he tipped it back and took a long swing before leaning back heavily against the wall..glowering across the room in the general direction of his sisters owl on the desk.. in a thoroughly bitter tone the one solid truth he could come up muttered from his lips.. " I've not the first bloody damn clue what to tell her to do.. "

[ada]

Oh god. This wasn’t good. Ada hadn’t seen many people cry, hence why she wasn’t used to it, but that just wasn’t enough. No, Seb didn’t seem to like it either. Not that she blamed him. But seeing him frantically wiping at his eyes tugged at something inside of her—it was easy to relate to how this boy felt. She wouldn’t have wished for some random girl to come barging in and witness her emotional breakdown, either. But now that she was here, she was finding it impossible to walk away. She simply couldn’t. Even if he was obviously not enjoying her presence, she couldn’t find the motivation to stand up and walk away from someone this…broken. Which was so very, very stupid, because she had no freaking idea how to make any of this better. She could just stay crouched on the floor, not moving towards him or away, as he scrubbed at his face. Like she would forget what was going on if she didn’t see him actively crying. Not that she blamed him for that at all—she would probably do the same thing, if she ever cried and had someone bust in on her.

She was still staring at him with wide eyes, stunned and clueless, so absorbed in her own deficiencies at comfort in any way, shape, or form to even care that his voice was clipped as he spoke to her. She didn’t even get around to responding, actually. Her brain was on a decidedly shut-down-not-really-functioning-at-a-reasonable-level mode. One of the consequences of not being exposed to tears as much as someone else might have—at the sight of them she freaked out. She just stayed in place, staring after him as he frowned and looked at her disapprovingly and asked her, basically, what the hell she was doing here. Good question. But she didn’t really like his tone. Too bad that she barely even got a handle on that tiny bit of irritation—irritation that would bring her back to the realm of the functioning human beings—before Seb dropped his jaw and stared at her in some abject terror, like she had suddenly grown webbed feet and started ribbetting.

Ada followed his horrified gaze to her hands. Right. She was still holding that letter. And now he knew just how nosy and intruding she’d been. But something told her that’s not why he was getting so freaked out. She opened her mouth to say…something—anything, really, but she lost her train of thought when Seb began to walk back over. Not like it was much of a loss. She doubted anything intelligent had been about to come out of her mouth. It was a rare enough occurrence, even without the added emotional stress of having no. freaking. clue. about how to act around this boy. As if she hadn’t been tripping over herself—literally—before all this.

But then he was standing up again, giving her more time to compose some sort of sentence that would make sense. The only bad news? He was drinking again. From a smaller bottle this time, but Ada knew enough to be aware that sometimes the most potent crap came in small bottles. And Seb didn’t exactly seem to be taking it easy on whatever the hell was in that bottle. Which didn’t seem good. But there were bigger things to worry about. Like the fact that he’d been crying a few minutes ago, and he wasn’t all smiles and bunnies at present, either. Not that he ever was. But still.

She stayed half-seated in front of the couch until he said he didn’t know what to tell her. ‘Her’ probably being Kim, his sister, unless he was suddenly talking about Ada herself in the third person. Unlikely. And stupid. It was obviously about the little girl who wrote the letter. Ada took a moment to compose herself and get her thoughts together as much as possible, then she pushed herself to her feet, folding the letter in a nervous compulsory movement as she crossed the room to stand a few feet in front of Seb. She chewed on her lip, enough that it was starting to hurt, but she couldn’t make herself stop. She wasn’t comfortable here. Therefore, her lip was collateral damage. It couldn’t really be helped. Still, after a moment she took a deep breath and made herself speak. God knew she’d had plenty of time to think of something reasonably intelligent to say.

She started out in the order he had asked her, as if it actually made her more organized and collected just because she remembered the chronological order he had said things in. Whatever. She was talking, it was better than just standing there like an idiot. ”I followed you because I didn’t know why you were so concerned with that little owl, there.” She nodded towards the puffy little creature on the nearby table. ”I got just a tad more than I had been expecting. My fault, of course, for eavesdropping.” Her words were coming out too quickly, and although her voice was remarkably clear, it was too quiet, too rushed. She swallowed, making herself look up from the folded sheet of paper she held and to focus on Seb’s face.

”Why does she have to do something? I mean, finding you have magic is a shock, but…nothing to worry over. Especially because you have it too.” She frowned, biting discreetly at the inside of her cheek, knowing she was missing a big piece. Damn it. She couldn’t figure out what she was missing, though, not for the life of her. He was going to have to tell her. Which was a gamble. Seb seemed to be upset with her, horrified at the letter, and on his way to drunk. It wasn’t a winning combination, even without factoring in Ada’s own incompetence.

[seb]

He refused to let himself look her in the eye as she walked over to stand in front of him.. Instead choosing to drag his gaze from the bird on the desk and settle it on the cold bottle clutched in his hand. Lifting that bottle he promptly took another swig of it as she started trying to explain her reason for being here..the words tripped out and spilled over one another in a nervous rush that ordinarily he'd have found rather cute.. definatley worthy of some harmless flirtatious mickey taking.. but under the current circumstances he found himself feeling very much 'not' like his usual laid back and rather easy going self. The drink wasn't helping that.. or hell maybe it was.. he didn't know.. couldn't exactly think all that straight anymore.. the numb stupor he'd been after was finally making its debut. It muddled in-depth thought and reason.. though the next words she spoke had a scoff rising in his throat and his eyes..contrary to his previous stubbornness not to meet with hers shot up, filled with a rather raw and cold humor.. his voice dripping in bitter sarcasm. "Right.. my having it makes things so much bloody better for her!.. put her in the cosey arse and caring "home" she has now.. "

He clamped down on his rant..jaw tightening as he dropped his gaze forcefully to the bottle again. Something beneath the haze and anger fought its way to the surface and chastised him.. It wasn't this girls fault that she didn't understand.. how could she?... how could he even begin to explain it to her, what magic had meant... no .. what magic had /done to his family...how a part of him had hatred for the very thing he strove so hard to learn here. His voice grew quite though the bitter edge remained as he shook his head slightly. "You just don't realize... " Sighing he thunked what was left of the bottle back into the pail and walked past her to the wall. A whispered word and the window materialized once more. Stepping up to it he shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned against the stone wall next to it, staring out into a broad full moon as it glowed softly.. a large constant in a sea of tiny twinkling cousins so much farther off.
" Where shes at.. if they see her do magic.. they wont want to bother with sending her here.. they've " his heart nearly broke on his next word "...other... plans for her." His left hand left his pocket, self consciously to rub and the inside of the lower right arm under the sleeve of which ran a ragged scar. "

"Your agency.. they want.. information? magical 'things' from here at the the school maybe?... That isn't enough for the place I'm from.. they find things out in other ways as well.. ways I don't want my little sister to even have to know exist. And she doesn't right now.. they'll keep her innocent to it.. shes just a way for them to control me.. but if they knew she was like me... " he cringed at the idea and pulled his hand from rubbing his arm to slam down in a fist on the window s ledge.

(horribly short length ..sorrryyy)

[ada]

Ada felt her eyebrows furrowing. Confusion and frustration, both swirling around and battling with each other to be the top emotion. In the end, though, their little fight within her body just ended up with them fusing together, making it near impossible to tell where one started and the other began. All Ada knew was that things were not making sense, and she didn’t like it. Half of her was busy trying to interpret his words, attempting to make sense of what he was saying. The words made sense on their own—he wasn’t spewing nonsense syllables, and he wasn’t using some lofty vocabulary that she couldn’t understand—it was more the meaning that had her brain tied up in knots. She got his sarcasm; she wasn’t completely stupid. So this girl—Kim—was not in a nice place. That actually fit with what the letter had said. But Seb’s magic had put her there?

While one half of Ada’s thoughts were spinning around that little anomaly, the other half was feeling frustrated. Because this boy was hard enough to understand. He didn’t need the addition of alcohol—it was just making him even more incoherent. And Ada was feeling a sort of rising irritation that he was doing this. He was consciously choosing to make himself more confusing. Joy. But she wasn’t about to say that out loud—now was just not the time to start complaining. She was lucky he was talking to her at all, instead of shoving her out the door and telling her to get lost.

She almost let out a breath of relief as Seb shoved the bottle back into the little icy bucket thing. She was tempted for a moment to just grab some herself—it might just make her a tad less socially awkward in this lovely situation—but she held herself back because she was pretty sure that someone had to be sober in this situation, and it sure didn’t look like Seb was going to be that person. He didn’t look loopy or babbly or stumbling, but he was definitely on his way to ‘drunk’ if he wasn’t there already. The good news was that the alcohol was loosening his tongue. The bad news was that he still didn’t make any more sense than before. Ada frowned in concentration as Seb walked past her to the window and began to speak again.

Her frown only deepened after Seb had said the bit about ‘other plans’…was his sister being held hostage somewhere? And then it hit her—that was probably exactly what was going on. She didn’t care that her sense of reason and logic was telling her that she was off her freaking rocker—that her imagination and her flair for the dramatic were getting the better of her. It all seemed to fit this way. The missing puzzle piece had been found, and Ada wasn’t about to give it up because of something as inconsequential as the fact that it sounded more like a plot you’d hear in a book than it did something that happened in real life. ”Other plans? she whispered, more to herself than to him.

She stared out the window, one part of her mind focused on the here and now, the other part was still reeling, wondering how the hell this Kim girl could be held hostage and still be writing innocent little letters to her brother and being tutored and all that stuff. This was a really odd situation. And as much as Ada liked having the feeling that she knew what was going on now, liked the feeling that Seb was telling the truth and could be trusted, Ada still kind of wanted to be wrong. For Seb’s sister’s sake.

Ada whipped her head around as Seb’s words finally sunk in. Her eyes widened, her mouth twisted into a little horrified frown, and her eyebrows furrowed even further. ”Seb, are you telling me that these people—whoever your sister’s with—are going to torture her for having magic?” She stared hard at Seb, blue eyes intense as she watched his angry gestures, watched him rub his arm and punch the windowsill. She took a step or two closer to him, tilting her head slightly as she did. ”These…people,” she almost spit the word, ”They did things to you, didn’t they? And now they’re using your sister as leverage?”

[seb]

Bitter hatred for the Center and the white coats who ran it coursed through him..added a hot streak of fire to the warmth racing through his alcohol laden veins. the knuckles of his fist ached where they'd connected with the stone windowsill.. and honestly? he couldn't give a damn less... Couldn't be bothered to rub at the self inflicted bruises that surfaced and discolored them and sure as hell had no intention of putting accursed magic to the use of mending them for the time being.

He listened as Ada tried to piece together what he was telling her.. make sense of what he had said. When she finally did.. when the fragments clicked together and she voiced the truth of what he'd only hinted at.. his gaze jerked up to hers with a desperation clouded, held in check, by the numbing drink in his system. An emotional torture all his own twisted his expression, his British accent thickening with the intensity of his fear and anger. "Unless I can figure out some way of getting her to hide it..bloody well keep it from them.. then yeah.. that's exactly what their likely to do to her right? " His jaw stiffened and he stared out the window..his voice dropping in tone with an edge of menace to it.. "I'd drop out of Hogwarts.. take her from them.. but they've legal rights to her still. She was adopted by one of the heads..we both we're only I'm of age now..." He turned his head to glower out of the window at the moon beyond and blanched noticeably as her comment made it clear that she must have seen him rubbing at his arm with the memory of it.

Only a brief moment was left to pass with his panged expression before he was pulling it into a scowl again.. a scowl hiding the torrent of emotions in his and allowing only the raw hate to seep through and color his quietly spoke response.. "They did but that's not important.. what's important is Kim.." Slowly his head shifted to take in Ada with eyes whose guard dissolved a bit in a visual plea for help.."Ada .. I don't know what to tell her to do.. I could never control it.. it happened when it chose to.. hell, I don't know if we 'can' control it before we start using it regularly..can we?.. *he sighed in frustration and drug a hand through his hair* .." I've got to 'do' something though.. they 'can't' find out about her.."


(lame..post is SO short and lame..but its up..finally *sheepish*)

[ada]

Ada had been right in assuming that the alcohol would not exactly improve Seb’s coherency. It was only getting harder and harder to make sense of him, although now that the puzzle pieces were clicking together it was easier to actually understand his words—something else was happening that made Ada wish that she really had brought an interpreter with her or something. The alcohol was causing Seb’s accent to thicken—the vowels were changing, the consonants becoming more clipped. Oh, fun. Just make the American kid feel stupid. Ada had to physically lean forward and squint as he was speaking, as if either of those things would make her ears more attuned to this accent that she probably should’ve gotten used to by now. Damn.

And you could just double that order of “damn it”. Supersize it, in fact. Because unless her ears were seriously butchering the English language, Seb was confirming that his little sister was about to be tortured for her magic. Ada couldn’t even imagine such a thing. Sure, the Muggles that she dealt with were asshole-ish and nightmarish and she really wished that they would just leave her the hell alone, but they’d never physically hurt anyone. They were more of the ‘we’ll ruin your life in the blink of an eye unless you do what we say’ type. And Ada had never given them the chance to go through with their threats—with the exception of the attitude in which she delivered her information, she’d done everything they’d asked of her. She didn’t want to find out just how they’d destroy her life. But God…Seb’s situation was different. So very, very different. He wasn’t doing this job out of hope that nothing would happen if he was good—he was doing it out of fear that what had been done to him would be repeated on his sister. And that motivation was completely different. She paled a little as he spoke about it, swallowing hard and biting absent-mindedly on her lip. Her blue-eyed gaze was trained on the moon out the window, wondering how the rest of the world could be so impassive when Seb and this little girl were living in fear of torture for something they could neither help nor control—it’d be like punching someone in the face for having blonde hair.

She would’ve asked Seb about his real parents and where they were, but at this point that was almost arbitrary—she knew they were out of the picture in a big way. And however it had gotten that way was really none of her business—she didn’t know Seb well enough to ask about it, and she had a feeling that he really had no intentions of telling her on her own. And that was fine. She wasn’t going to stomp her feet and demand to know all of his dirty little secrets. It was making her stomach twist, knowing that the legal guardians of the little girl who’d written the letter in her hand actually had such sinister plans in store for her.

She turned her face back towards Seb just in time to see his pleading expression, and her own composure disintegrated a bit. Crap. She had to keep it cool here. Exploding about the cruelty of the situation would help nothing—Seb was well aware of it, she was sure, and her anger would get them nowhere near a solution. So she got the extra joy of bottling that anger up. Yay.

When she finally managed to speak, her voice was pitched softly, as if to soften the blow of the fact that she didn’t know much. ”I don’t know if we can control it. I think it’s possible to a point, even without training. But…” Ada broke off to chew on the inside of her cheek, glancing down at the windowsill to gather her thoughts. And there she saw Seb’s knuckles. Which were purpling. And somewhat distracting. God, he must’ve hit that thing hard when he hit it. Almost absent-mindedly, she pulled her wand out of her waistband and tapped his knuckles once with a muttered spell that she’d long since memorized. It was kind of a necessity when you could barely graze a coffee table and have an ugly bruise the next morning. She watched the purple fade a little, then finally lifted her gaze back to his face. Shit. Thinking time was over; it was time to offer an answer—a good type of answer, preferably.

”But maybe she can play things off. If you tell her to. Like with the owl incident, walk over to the window and claim that it was never closed. Get her to lie. Like if she breaks a plate with her magic, make sure she starts throwing plates all over the place and screaming like she’s throwing a temper tantrum. Try to disguise the magic.” Ada gave a slight shake of her head, wishing that she was wiser, smarter, more cunning…something. Because she was all but useless here. ”This is so screwed up,” she muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose and squeezing her eyes shut. ”God, I’m sorry.”

[seb]

The caged frustration he was feeling doubled, magnified and the heavy weight that seemed to be pressing down on his heart, constricting his chest intensified as Ada's first response came out as more of an apology for the answers she she could only vaguely supply with no real conviction as to the truth or usefulness of what she was saying. But of course what had he expected? She wasn't any older than himself and really what did he know of her? That she came from abroad? Well.. that was obvious enough in the way she spoke..her unusual accent and the words and references she used.. but beyond that what did he know of her? Most decidedly not enough to be assuming she'd have answers to a subject she probably knew less about than he himself did.

And yet here she was trying her best to produce something anything, that might prove helpful and soothing to a guy she'd only just met hours before. He watched as her gaze dropped to take in the bruised and tender knuckles of his hand and his face twisted in confusion and discomfort he tried to understand 'why' she was bothering to draw her own wand.. why she was using it to gently apply a spell that had the ache diminishing..fading slowly from his hand along with the discoloring. Why would she care about his pain..his worries so much that it apparently was causing her suffering of her own? Especially after all that he had put her through tonight.. the idea that someone could be so kind and compassionate for another that had shown them little of the same just couldn't find purchase in his mind which was slick with walls accustomed to warding off lies and false promises. And yet it created a pinhole in the tough leather shell around his heart that only one other had ever been allowed true access to. It burrowed out that tiny chink in his armor and took a firm root in the small space it had broken into.

Up until this moment he had viewed this girl as any other in Hogwarts, aside from the obvious need to guide her a bit and keep from blowing both their covers, she'd been nothing more really than just another potential snog in the corridors.. another potential way to while away some of the few drab hours he had between his studies and stints of spying.. the grudging tasks that made up his dark life. A life that had only ever had one speck of light, one hope that kept him sane and pushing towards a goal, that of keeping his sister safe. But now another light flickered beside the steadfast point his sister held as a new respect for the girl before him bloomed..and with it a small grain of true affection that slipped into that previously mention pinhole and began to stubbornly set up house. From this point on Ada would no longer be simply cute.. or entertaining.. or even the other spy to be kept an eye on.. no she was now a friend in the truest sense off the word thanks to her reactions to his plight.. the first he had ever really made. As if such a revelation of the heart weren't enough, as her gaze lifted from healing his hand she spoke again and what she had to say had him both mildly cringing and as good and protective parental figure would, as well and soaring on a new ray of hope. His features were conflicted as he obviously wared with the idea of it and yet was very much considering the possibility all the same. " Have her show out?...on purpose?.."

Have her lie.. so simple and so grating against the influences he'd been trying to instill in Kim that the thought had never entered his mind.. after all what parent ( seeing as he'd played that role in her life practically since birth) would consider purposely encouraging their child to show out, become rebellious? It did however make a great deal of sense.. certainly they wouldn't care for it.. and she may a fair share of verbal tongue lashing for her actions. But her identify as a muggle would remain in tact and they wouldn't dare to harm her physically as long as the only use she served was in keeping him cooperative and compliant to their wishes. Thrilled at the sudden release of having something..anything to send back with the little owl in the way of protecting Kim a grim smile broke out on his features and he stepped briskly forward. Grasping Ada gently if firmly by the shoulders he pulled her into a hug and planted a heart felt kiss on her forehead. " Ada ...your bloody brilliant is what you are! .. "

Turning her loose he walked with haste to the the desk and jotted out a note to his little sister.. not bothering to see nor caring if Ada chose to stay where she was or follow him to read over his shoulder.

Kimmy,

I know your likely beside yourself with curiosity over the window right? Especially if anything else..err.. odd has happened since then. I need you to do something for me though alright? Don't 'try' to do anything like it again..and if it happens anyway cover it up. All that rubbish I've fed you about being polite and telling the truth? until you see me face to face again throw it right out the window alright? If you get angry and something breaks on its own then break a few more and take credit for the lot! whatever happens..if its odd or different do whatever it takes to make it seem you pulled it off normally right? Lie if you have to.. lie through your teeth alright? I promise I won't get ill about it. When I see you again we've some things we need to talk over. Till then be be the biggest git you can when necessary.
all my love right? ~ your big brother

P/S: If you need me for anything and I mean 'anything' send Hoot with a note.[/b]

Dropping the quill back in its inkwell he folded up the note and tied it to the owls leg. Stroking the birds feathers as he stood he headed over to the window. "Straight to her now Hoot right? and mind if anything happens and she needs me and cant write then just come.. I'll understand when there's no note alright? " That said he opened the window and set the bird loose into the night sky. Placing both hands on the sill and staring out into the moon as the outline of the owl grew smaller and smaller against its backdrop.