[OPEN] Dance, Magic, Dance, Thursday, July 5 2012. Sunset.

[Sunflower Makepeace]

There was a part of the woods, just near and in places touching, the invisible ring around the area that marked where the Institute's range ended, where the trees had a strange, almost timeless quality; where the very woods themselves seemed to breathe. It was on the far side of the lake and most students over the Institute's years of camping had never been there due to its seclusion, but it was a beautiful place. The light hit the trees and ground in just the right places, and it offered a spectacular view of the lake.

There was an almost-unnatural silence in the area, but a silence that was not uncomfortable or unpleasant; the area felt almost hallowed in a way that not many places were.

There was a clearing in this part of the woods, just big enough for a small gathering of people, where a a curious, soft current moved through the area making a somewhat lazy patrol. This was a place of true magic; magic unharnessed and uncontrolled by humans or animals, and magic of the oldest and most serene kind.

At the centre of the clearing stood a blonde woman. She wore no shoes and her hair was wavy and free. Her clothes were of a style that long ago went out of fashion, more like a Renaissance dress than anything a modern woman would wear.

She was dancing slowly to music that wasn't there, and her movements were fluid and graceful. Her dance resembled a kind of ballet, but not one that had ever existed anywhere at all. As her dance continued, she appeared to lift from the ground and walk on the very air, supported by the magic of the dance and by the powerful magic of the area.

[Dorcas O'Brien]

Thursday evening. By now Dorcas had well settled into this camp. She was no stranger to the great outdoors having lived a large part of her life in wizarding tents with her mother and at different times her brother and sister. Not it was just the two of them with her siblings grown up and married. Titus and Lucia were making their own lives and futures with people they loved. Dorcas wondered if she'd ever find somebody like that.

That thought was well in the back of her mind as this walking booted and denim shorted girl continued to explore the site. She was still modestly dressed wearing a black tankini top for the heat that didn't seem to cool in the evening by much. Even she knew walking round in a bikini top would either get her in trouble or get the guys too excitible. So the tankini was the compromise. Sexy but still modest.

Finding this clearing was a surprise and seeing Sunny dance Dorcas didn't want to disturb somthing so beautiful. She couldn't sense the music but she could dance. Just not as good as John probally could or people who showed real talent. What she was good at was ballroom dancing. The formal dances which most people like her knew since it would help you in your future. Being able to dance that way showed a bit of class about you and you weren't a wild thing. Dorcas always carried herself well and while she was short she knew how to get guys attention.

One more step brought her out of these thoughts as she snapped a dry twig by steeping on it. A noise echoed through the clearing breaking the magic and Dorcas looked a bit deflated. She knew she'd spoiled that moment.

[Sunflower Makepeace]

Sunflower spiralled higher and higher from the ground, reaching a peak of about three feet above the ground. It was a complicated dance, and a dance usually danced by a trio of dancers, but in places of great natural magic it was sometimes possible to dance it alone. It was beautiful, and it was one of Sunflower's absolute favourite dances. Every time she came to the Institute's camp ground she attempted it at least once, and usually many more times than that.

The moment was broken, though, and her concentration fled as a twig snapped in the clearing. Sunflower dropped from the air and landed in a heap in a fall that was far from graceful. She wasn't in any particular pain, but the fall hadn't exactly been a comfortable one. She sighed quietly to herself and then looked around for the source of the noise.

She found it in the form of a fifth year Jackson student. It was Dorcas O'Brien, and whilst Sunflower was glad that another had managed to find the beauty of such a place of natural magic, she was at least a little bit annoyed that her dance had been broken before she could reach its climax.

She rose, then, getting to her feet far more gracefully than she had fallen. She took the time to brush the leaves and grass from her dress, and then took a deep breath with her eyes closed. When she was done, she opened them and said, "Hello, Dorcas."

[Dorcas O'Brien]

It had looked like a painful fall. Dorcas had fallen from brooms at low level before and at much faster speeds. Those really hurt but a straight drop like that; she couldn't be sure as she seen Sunny gather herself and look back at her.

Having the feeling she could be in trouble this normally confident witch gave a nervous looking smile as she replied to the next years dance professor. "Good evening Professor. I didn't mean to disturb your dance. Sorry..." she said as her voice trailed off.

For a brief moment she had seen dance magic in action as it almost became flight. Another thought formed as she wondered of this could be converted to the dancing she knew. She thought it might be a long shot since such formal dancing was grounded in the music it needed to come to life. You just couldn't dance a waltz to nothing.

[Sunflower Makepeace]

Sunflower shook her head slowly and then smiled at Dorcas. It didn't matter that much, and the damage had already been done. There was no sense in holding grudges or in making mountains out of what was not even a mole hill, so Sunny had already swept the incident from her mind.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "Please, sit with me," she said, gesturing to the centre of the clearing. There was no chair or even a log upon which to sit, but Sunflower sat herself down on the ground with crossed legs.

"It is a dance that I can do again," she said calmly, "and one that I have done many times before."

[Dorcas O'Brien]

Dorcas looked relieved to see she wasn't in trouble. So after she nodded she walked over to Sunny and joined her on the ground. Dorcas prefered to stretch her legs out but together while sitting. She had modest enough shorts on to do this. She kept sitting up straight once she got comfortable.

Dorcas had been told about the music most people couldn't hear. Initially she'd put it down to Astorians being rumoured to take mind altering substances but that was too easy a reason as well as a generalisation. She'd seen Sunny dance often in herbology classes and once she'd been a partner. With no music she just had to try and follow Sunny's steps the best she could; and made a decent attempt of it.

She also knew the return of magical dance might help sharpen up her existing dancing skills but she didn't think she'd be taking a NEWT in it. Dancing was about expressing with an art form with your body and she felt she didn't have that level of skill or imagination. She knew the formal steps and a little improvisation but that was it.

"I hope you didn't hurt yourself. I've done that before on a broom but rarely while dancing. The worst I've had was a stumble in dancing lessons. The other boy stood on my foot, he unbalanced and took me with. It felt quite sore afterwards but he did improve over time" she said in a soft voice. Her normal voice when she could be herself.

[Sunflower Makepeace]

The fall had hurt a little bit like all falls did, but she had done much worse whilst dancing before, and so she was able to ignore it very well.

"I am fine... the fall was not so great. I have fallen once near the end of the dance from a much higher height; I broke my ankle." The healer had been able to fix it quickly, of course, but one of the other dancers had broken both wrists and an ankle. The dance was indeed a dangerous one, but a beatiful once.

"Dancing can be very dangerous sometimes," said Sunflower, smiling widely. It was clear that the danger didn't deter her from the dance. "There's a a similar dance to the one you just saw that we dance on water. It is safer, usually, and a lot more beautiful."

The water would spiral upwards with the dancers, creating a platform upon which they could dance. That was a difficult dance to do properly and it left the trio of dancers feeling exhauted, but Sunflower loved it for its beauty.

[Dorcas O'Brien]

Danger has never detered Dorcas. Otherwise she would have been a quidditch player now. Getting hurt was part of the learning process as she replied "I guess if you fall on water all you do is get wet. I can only do ballroom dancing and I learned the bulk of that in Romania and Russia. My sister was able to teach it as a young teenager she was that good but she found a guy and got married.

My mother helped a bit in the teaching but it was mostly my sister who kept me right."

Dorcas did wonder what her sister could have achieved if she hadn't chosen to marry her French husband; but that was a moot question now. What mattered was Dorcas' future. Hers was more open than most pureblood witches was. So she could have a childhood before becoming an adult. Also experiment and get to know more people. She'd pick up all kind of skills in a place like the Stonewall Institute. Lessons just weren't learned in classrooms.

[Sunflower Makepeace]

"All forms of dancing are wonderful," said Sunny, thinking about the many different kinds of dances she knew. She could do magical dances, ward dances, muggle dances... and all of them were special. "Do you still dance, Dorcas?" she said after a slight pause; she had stopped to listen to the magical current sweep past them. It was subtle, but it was present.

Even though the silence had been broken the clearing was as beautiful as ever, and as the sun set it became even moreso. This was a place of pure magic, a place of wonder, and Sunflower wanted to enjoy it. If she could introduce Dorcas to such a wondrous thing then it would be sublime.

[Dorcas O'Brien]

"Yes, I still dance. There's still balls I need to attend but my mother sees them more like social networking than places to hammer out a deal with another pureblood family. Off course now I'm off the age you start thinking about the future but mine is pretty open.

I still can't dance without music but I kept up dancing as that was part of growing up like a lady. I also learned how to ride a horse through practical neccessity. Some places you go to in the world still need a horse to get around in" she softly replied.

All those lessons in the greenhouse hadn't yet led to Dorcas hearing the song. She influenced it by just being there and she could find beauty in nature. Nature had always been part of her growing up. She'd no idea of what could trigger hearing the song but it seemed to come more naturally to Astorians. While Dorcas was musically talented she hadn't the spark to hear what Sunny danced to.

[Sunflower Makepeace]

The lifestyle of a young pureblood lady was something with which Sunflower was well acquainted. Her own parents had been very liberal, and her mother hadn't been a pureblood at all, but there had been occasions when Sunflower had had to play the part. The Andersen family wasn't traditional, but certain things had been expected, and so Sunflower knew what Dorcas had experienced.

"But dancing -- all kinds of dancing -- is wonderful. No matter the reason for the dance, dance is a magic lower only than music, which is itself second to love the greatest magic of all." Love was a powerful force, but so was music, and so was dance: when the three combined, it was a powerful combination, and the reason so many dances relied on the symbolism of a trio of dancers.

"Horses are such magnificent creatures," she replied, thinking back to the many times she had been around horses and other equines; the magical race of horses of which the Pegasus had been a member stood out foremost. "I rode bareback on a great winged horse once," said Sunny, her voice almost a sigh as she remembered the experience. It had been utterly breath-taking, and she had never experienced anything like it since. "To hear the Song from its back was... truly..." she said, closing her eyes to remember it.

Richard had proposed to her directly after it, saying that she was the most beautiful she had ever been. She could believe it.

[Dorcas O'Brien]

Dorcas nodded as she listened carefully. She'd lodged a request for the music NEWT and this gave her a little insight into the subject. She knew how your skill with an instrument as well as your voice could make people feel differing emotions and entertain them. So there seemed to be other magic behind it as Sunny explained how dancing, music and love together created a powerful combination. She knew dancing and music but love; not quite yet as she hadn't met the right guy who showed that.

She was going through what many generations had gone through before. The traditional skill set of a pureblooded child would remain a choice taken from arts such as painting, music, horseriding and dancing. There were other art forms that could be taken but she was happy with her choices.

Then horses got mentioned and replied "I love dancing and I'm sure it was a spectacular experience but how do you hear the song?"

[Sunflower Makepeace]

Sunflower had never been asked in quite so explicit terms how one could begin to hear the song. It was not something she had ever considered, although that was perhaps due in large part to the fact that she had spent the better part of two decades wholly disconnected with the real world, living as if she were in some sort of a daze. She was only half-sure that the Song was a real thing; for a while after she had broken through her slight madness she had considered that it was a falsification, something she had created to explain her erratic behaviour.

It was not, however, and she was gradually beginning to come to terms with that. Others had heard it, although none had lived it quite so readily and completely as she had. But as for how to hear it? Sunflower could not say. Rarely had a student come to hear the Song, and even then it was usually a sudden thing: it happened quickly and spontaneously, and they were never quite the same afterwards. She had been hearing the Song intermittently since she was an OWL student at school.

"The Song is--" she started, but then she stopped herself. No, that wasn't quite what she needed to say. She started again. "The Song is beauty, and magic, and the harmony and discord of the world; it is love and hate, madness and sanity, beauty and ugliness. To hear it is ... indescribable, and it comes to a person suddenly, without being forced."

It could come and go at any time of life, a fact that Sunflower found extremely beautiful, but also very sad.

"The Song first came to me as a young girl. I was your age, in fact; many years ago now. After it, I was never quite the same... it comes suddenly, without warning, and may leave just as quickly."

She hadn't quite answered Dorcas's question, but she had tried. Her voice had taken a sort of dreamlike quality, closer to what she had been like before Christmas. A subtle wind had picked up, although perhaps it was a soft magical current, and her hair and her voluminous dress were swaying slightly.

[Dorcas O'Brien]

Dorcas listened intently as Sunny explained that not everybody heard the song and softimes it left them. It seemed to be all about life with the hard knocks and good things which made it up. As well as great experiences and what she'd seen.

She'd try and keep her mind open to the song and it might select her. Or might not which was all she really could do.

"So I might never hear it?" she replied as the little bit of breeze also was felt by her; but just as a physical effect. Like being tickled lightly as she chuckled a little.

[Sunflower Makepeace]

"Perhaps not," admitted Sunflower after some moments. The Song never came to most people, who were closed-off to new experiences, but one never knew when it might make an appearance. "As an encouragement you could work on expanding your mind and horizons," she suggested.

She honestly had no idea if that would work or not: the Song had come to her suddenly at school, and it had simply never gone away. She had dived deeply into it, deeper than anyone before, though, and that gave her some degree of understanding of the song; its price was great, but it was one she had once paid gladly.

"This is a place of Song," continued Sunflower, and she raised both her arms and made an expansive sort of gesture that encompassed the clearing. "Even if you cannot hear it you can feel it," she said, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

[Dorcas O'Brien]

Dorcas nodded as she was told expanding her mind and horizions might help. The clearing where the song was at one of its most powerful states wouldn't go away during camp so perhaps she had to return here and listen more carefully.

She could feel the breeze on her skin but was that a starting point or a dead end? Did Sunny mean feeling nature was a starting point or just feeling things in general? More questions were raised but she wasn't much closer to an answer.

Having already seen a lot of weird things in her life she was prepared to give this a go. Off went her boots and socks and barefoot just like Sunny she quietly sat and tried to open her mind more. It certainly wasn't a journey she'd complete during the camps duration but she had two more school years to make progress in it.

Now she felt the grass tickle her feet and bare legs and perhaps a physical feeling was a start. Just as she felt so pumped up on the quidditch pitch and perhaps out of things in general when she got drunk with Hollie.

[Sunflower Makepeace]

Sunflower smiled when she saw that Dorcas had removed her shoes. It was a start, at least. Too many wizards got caught up in spells and intrigue and blood purity, and they all forgot that what was really important was the magic. Magic was part of nature, and the Song was an expression of the magical world around them. It was beautiful and wonderful and so many other things. Maybe Dorcas would one day hear the song, and maybe she wouldn't. That didn't matter so much; the journey was often more important than the destination.

Gradually, and carefully, Sunflower allowed herself to be swept into the Song. It was different here, in this place: ancient but with a sense of timelessness. It spoke of wondrous things, and then it spoke of war and violence. Sunflower eventually joined her voice with the song, quietly at first, but it got louder as time went on.

Her vocalisations were wordless but at the same time filled with magic -- not magic that would affect anything, but magic all the same. She paused only briefly to ask Dorcas to sing with her; whether or not she knew the tune was completely irrelevant, since this sort of singing didn't hinge upon harmonies and everyone singing the same thing.

"Sing with me, Dorcas," she said, a look of pure joy across her face. She was bathed in Song, although now she knew not to dive too deeply lest she never return.

[Dorcas O'Brien]

Dorcas just being there helped shape the song. She heard what Sunny said and felt enough of the magic to feel able to comply with her professors request. Since this song didn't have vocalisations each singer gave what was within them. Dorcas' contributions would be very different to Sunny's and her song had no words but Sunny would be able to hear what Dorcas had to add.

She held a note with her singing voice stretching and varying it; making it into something new as she let herself go and explored what Sunny heard and she yet didn't. She however felt the magic in this place all round her. Her song became an almost aria as she grabbed this magic and added her feelings, fears and desires to what was going on round her. She worried about her future but not in the same way as other pureblood witches did. She worried about being alone in her future since she was so rootless; so she added loneliness and the need to have somebody to love to the magic round her. She could be a soulmate for someone and she needed to give and receive love. She hadn't discarded the idea of her lover being a witch but a guy was still the favourite. Her hatred of evil also showed as that had also shaped the way she grew up. By rights she should have grown up in London with a happy family but that never happened because of the war.

Her past also added to the song as she recalled what her siblings and sister had told her about her fathers death. Dorcas had been too young to remember any of it but she'd grown up knowing he was a hero and died for them. What gave her courage to make a similar sacrifice if that need ever arose.

As Dorcas became part of what was going on round her she would be going too deep for her to get out without help. With no experience of handling this she just kept going fearlessly but then hit the point she couldn't give anymore. She blacked out but she was still alive. The gentle breathing showed by her chest rising and falling but she hadn't yet came back from her experience.

[Sunflower Makepeace]

Dorcas's song, wordless and without magic, had joined Sunflower's own. Sunflower curled her voice around Dorcas's, lending it the magic that it would need to join with and feed the Song. For a time their emotions and thoughts mingled in a way that was only possible through song in a place of Song, but that soon changed.

Sunflower had been singing without any sort of filter or moderation, allowing magic to flow out of her body and into pure song. It was a mistake to do such a thing around an untrained singer, but she had done it anyway; she had spent too much time in devotion to the Song. Her own training had been comprehensive and exhaustive, and so she was safe from all but the most powerful, violent Song -- but Dorcas was not.

Sunflower's singing had influenced Dorcas in a way that was dangerous and irresponsible, and it was only when the young woman had stopped singing that Sunflower, too, stopped to take in what had happened.

It was some time before she was able to collect her thoughts and feelings together, but when she had done so she wept. The pure unrestrained joy of the Song had led her to stretch Dorcas, to infuse the young girl with her own magic. It had, of course, been far too much for her, and she hadn't even experienced direct contact with the Song.

It only served to reinforce Sunflower's feelings that she had gone deeper into the Song than was healthy for most witches, but the damage had been done: Sunflower was forever connected to the Song, but Dorcas... Dorcas did not have to be, and would not be.

Sunflower knew that Elizabeth had probably felt the magic from the campsite. It had been quite an outburst from her, and then when Dorcas's magic had tried to escape, untrained, through a new medium ... Sunflower would have questions to answer. She picked her wand from her bracelet and it enlarged as she moved it through the air elegantly. She got to her feet and then levitated Dorcas. The girl would wake soon, and Sunflower wanted her to see Antony, the healer, before she returned to bed.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, aware that Dorcas was still unconscious.

[Dorcas O'Brien]

While Dorcas was levitated in body and lay suspended above the ground her mind still kept going on its journey. Aided by the magic in this place she went deeper into herself and this place. She could see experiences from her past flash by back to her first memories; playing with her older siblings and the smile on her mothers face as they played beside a wizarding tent. She couldn't place where they were but it was a wild place of natural beauty where people didn't seem to intrude.

But how to get back? Perhaps her body or someother way could bring her back in time.

Back at the medical tent a while later Dorcas felt her eyes open and feeling a lot of confusion. She'd just dealt with magic she'd no understanding off and very powerful magic at that. She also felt quite sore and very drained.