Owlery 2.5, 4/11

[Lucius Malfoy]

A cold emotionless barrier had descended completely over Lucius. The perfect home blend of arrogance and anger served him perfectly at the moment as he pulled together the crumbling strands of the Slytherin Guard. Things were not going well and he needed advice. Toni had gone with Severus and Rod was organizing the meeting that was going to take place tonight leaving Lucius with a few hours to himself to prepare. Taking a few moments to summarize his situation and pose a few questions, he wrote a quick letter and then made his way to the Owlery. He needed a contingency plan.

It was late afternoon heading towards evening and it had turned very cold, clouds had crossed the sun blocking out any chance of a sunset. He’d grabbed a cloak before he’d discreetly left the Slytherin common room through the Guard exit. The wonderful thing about having a family that had always been Hogwarts Slytherins’ meant he knew every corridor in the entire castle.

He was sure no one had seen him leave, not that it mattered, he still made his own decisions he didn’t have to counsel anyone.

The clouds were threatening an early winter and the temperature dropped without the sun. He made his way carefully up the cold icy steps to the tower, ignoring the view and ducked inside the mercifully empty and slightly warmer room. He paused to allow his eyes to adjust to the light immediately assaulted with the sound and smell that came from 200 odd owls.

The bright eyes peered at him, hooting softly. He turned, it was strange, the gaze of so many felt slightly eerie but he searched the masses with a strangely defiant look on his face. He held out his left arm and whistled low. From the higher reaches of the tower a huge shape plummeted with silent grace, flaring its wings to land on his outstretched arm.

“Hello Malus.” Lucius said sotly, he admired his owl. The Eagle Owl cocked it’s head and fixed its eyes on his. “I need you to take this to Him.” Malus took the sealed scroll in one claw carefully. “Its important.” The bird simply blinked its large, fierce eyes.

Lucius crossed to the window. “be careful” he said, and the huge bird took off. The wind from his wings blew Lucius’s hair about his face but he made no effort to fix it, watching instead the huge bird become small in the sky.

This post has been edited by Lucius Malfoy on Jun 30 2009, 02:25 PM

[Aurora Stone]

The cold weather gave her thanks for having grabbed her cloak. She wrapped herself in it as she climbed the stairs with a small box in her hand filled with some of her sister's belongings that had been left out of her trunk. She didn't want them around and thought it best to send them home, she was dealing with it her own way, her dark green streak being just that. Mourning her would take a while but personal possessions would not help the healing process.

The higher she climbed and the higher the moon rose, the colder it seemed to get. Her favorite season seemed to be approaching early, and she was more than happy to have something to look forward to again. She paused at the steps a few feet below the entrance to the owlery and took a deep breath shaking the box to make sure the contents hadn't magically gotten out and continued on her way.

Not taking much notice of the other figure nor the large bird that took its scroll, though knowing right away who it belonged to. The only person in the school, that she knew of at least, to have such a large pet was Malfoy, her luck seemed to have a bipolar mood today.

Her path was set to her sister's owl, she couldn't remember the type, never having paid much attention to their breeds and called it forward. The medium sized bird came out, tilting its head to the side in confusion as she gave it the small package. "I need you to take this home. After that, you can stay there, or come back. Its your choice I guess," she shrugged, brushing back some of her hair as she took in a deep breath and allowed the chilled air to fill her lungs. "Just put it in her room okay, I'm sure the rest of her stuff will be there by now." A confused hoot came from the owl before it soared out the window with the small package in tow and disappeared into the night.

Aurora crossed a few paces over, still being sure to ignore the other human in the room, and stopped before her owl. "Artemis," she called, a snow white owl hooting calmly in response and hopping out to her outstretched hand, crawling up to her arm and stayed as it began to have its feathers stroked gently. "Why don't you go out for a bit, hmm? I think I'll be up here for a bit, away from everything and everyone else."

[Lucius Malfoy]

Lucius finally turned away from the window, his hair and cloak rippling in the wind. His cold blue eyes settled on Aurora and he silently watched as she sent her sisters things home. Despite the cold circumstances and barrier that had settled around him sealing him off from the world he still felt something stir inside him as he watched her. Pity, sadness perhaps, concern. It was something he didn’t want to aknowledge. She wanted to be left alone, as did he, they both had their problems. Granted he’d probably be tortured to death as a consequence of his decision, but she had lost a sister. He’d also lost one of his Slytherins. One of His Slytherins. He observed the open emotion flowing across her eyes, what luxury she had to show her feelings, what courage to show her emotions.

So he just watched her from the shadows,

This post has been edited by Lucius Malfoy on Jun 30 2009, 03:07 PM

[Aurora Stone]

She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her cloak, taking a deep breath as her owl soared out into the night, being lost behind some trees far off in the distance. Aurora took a deep shaky breath and leaned against a pillar regaining control of herself.

Now unable to ignore the feeling of being watched her green eyes darted over to the shadows. She could see the faintest of outlines in the shadows that the moon light cast and paused before speaking. "You know, if you stay in the shadows to long you get lost in them?" she asked, finally breaking the uneasy silence between the two.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Lucius slowly stepped forward out of the dark, stepping into a ray of light that highlighted his hair and his eyes. There wasn’t really anything he could do or say to make her feel better. He could see the tears glimmering in her eyes. He paused for another moment, watching as her defensive barriers sprang up around her, much similar to his but instead of the 10 or so scathing remarks that came to mind instead he took another couple of steps forward, stepping right up to her.

He reached inside his perfectly tailored jacket and pulled out his handkerchief and handed it to her. It was brand new, folded perfectly and had an intricately embroidered Malfoy crest with his initials. He put it in her hand then turned away.

This post has been edited by Lucius Malfoy on Jun 30 2009, 03:30 PM

[Aurora Stone]

She looked away as he came out of the shadows, even though it was expected of her, she still didn't want to cry to much in front of others, it wasn't that she didn't want to seem weak, she just didn't find comfort in the constant questions of 'Are you okay?' or things of the like. She did not expect to hear them from Lucius, but all the same, she didn't want him to see her bawling her eyes out.

Aurora could feel her muscles begin to tense as he stepped forward and reached inside his cloak. To her surprise it was not a wand that was withdrawn but a handkerchief, and one with his family crest on it at that. She seemed puzzled and at a loss of words as he gave it to her and started to walk away, what was she supposed to do with this? Why was he acting like this? Lucius was the one thing at Hogwarts she could rely on to be the same, stairs cases moved, her boyfriend had his own skeletons that she was discovering, Sirius had suddenly turned mature, and she had just lost her sister. Lucius was acting in an unexpected manner and for some reason it infuriated her. He wasn't supposed to care, or at least show it, no, he was the inhuman offspring of upper society purebloods that scoffed at any and all emotion. Her hand enclosed tightly around the handkerchief as she looked over to him. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this? I don't need your sympathy Malfoy." she growled, "Of all the people, you're not supposed to care!"

**Entertainment removed**

[Lucius Malfoy]

“Do with it what you will.” He said steadily, still facing away from her. He could feel her anger radiating out from her. He looked at the ground for a minute. The entire Guard would be meeting tonight, they would looking at him to be their indestructible leader. Especially in these times of change and danger, his house questioning him and his control only administrated through a thin layer of fear and pain. Now before all other times he had to be completely strong. He turned back to her, his hair loose of its customary bow blowing in the slight breeze.

“Take it however you want Aurora.”

[Aurora Stone]

Aurora glared at him, her eyes starting to water up as the anger built up inside of her. She wanted to blame someone, but it wasn't his fault and she knew that. She shook her head, "Take this back," she stated, throwing the handkerchief at his turned back, taking a few steps in his direction to make it to the stairs before he could.

The fact that he had bothered to show any emotion to her in this situation bothered her. She didn't want him to turn into everyone else who seemed to be overly sensitive to her with recent events. "You don't need to pussy foot around the situation Lucius, for Merlin's sake, everyone else is and I am sick of it." Aurora stated as she came up to him.

[Lucius Malfoy]

He paused and turned to her, looking into her eyes. She was furious all of a sudden. Instead of making him angry he felt slightly tired. Coldly he looked her in the eyes. “I apologies that my behavior doesn’t suit you Aurora, but this world is an dark and unforgiving place and rarely do we get what we want.”

He looked at her standing there, radiating waves of hurt and anger. Something inside him twingeed. All the stress and the pressure for his perfect facade, his perfect looks, his perfect control began to weight on him.

“Deal with it how you want.” He commented, his face blank of any sneer or sarcasm. “Just don’t loose what make you, you in the process.”

[Aurora Stone]

There was that little speech again. One way or another he seemed to be able to work that in with almost every fight. It was probably the last thing she needed to hear, well aware that the world wasn't a fair and sunshine filled place. Her shoe crushed the Malfoy crest as she took the last step towards him and struck him across the face with the back of her hand. "Don't you dare try and tell me what this world is like!" she yelled at him, "I know perfectly well that everything damn thing has another side to it and that anything can be changed the second some being decides to snap its fingers and change something."

The anger in her continued to grown as she slapped him again while the back of her mind questioned the fact that he wasn't defending himself. "I don't want your damned apologies Malfoy!" she shouted, breaking down a bit as she stuck him again, surprising herself by the violent outburst as she continued. She could see him about to speak as her hand flew back again and came down, caught off guard by his own grabbing her wrist and restraining it as she quickly tried with the other only to have him restrain it as well.

Aurora pulled half heartedly back, fighting against him in hopes to get her hands back to do something but the fight was useless. She wasn't at her peak in energy and after the slight beating she had given him, had little fight in her to continue. Her breathing changed almost suddenly. Aurora's knees gave out slightly and she collapsed into him. It was a complete 180 from how she had just been acting. She buried herself in his chest, not caring who it was at the moment and just cried. She was upset at herself for acting out, but also that everything and everyone seemed to have changed, why couldn't people just leave her be? Her friends she didn't mind, but everyone, even Galandra had been acting and treating her differently and she couldn't take it anymore and broke down conveniently on Lucius's chest.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Caught completely off guard he didn’t expect her to attack him. He surprised enough to not even try a defense. She was yelling at him and doing her damdest to strike him. He staggered back a few paces in the onslaught as owls took flight in alarm, feathers decending on them like a cloud.

She was so angry, he didn’t know what to do, He didn’t want to hurt her anymore than she was already. When he realized that it shocked him and he staggered backwards another step. A particularly well aimed slap caught him and he gave a small gasp of pain. He snagged her wrist more out of self preservation and instinct, but she kept going.

“Aurora stop.” He tried to say, but she was beyond hearing, she’d worked herself into a complete state. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and her hair was flying everywhere. She swung at him again trying to shake herself loose but he got her other wrist. “Calm down you’re hurting yourself.” He said, surprised at his own tone.

Then she collapsed against him, suddenly only supported by his grip, he had to quickly adjust or they would have both fell. He was holding her as she sobbed into him. At head or more shorter than him she was almost the perfect height. He could feel her frantic sobs and her fingers now holding onto his shirt as if for dear life, instead of trying to kill him.

There wasn’t anything he could say. So he just held her, still stunned by his own reaction and silence.

The birds had begun to settle again, the frantic flapping turning back to peaceful hooting. He wasn’t even sure how long it had been but her sobs began to lessen and her breathing returned to normal, her fingers no longer grasping but resting against him. Lucius swallowed. What the hell was going on.

Bird feathers floated down and had landed in her brown hair, the streak of green stood out even in the dark.

Lucius took a deep breath. He should leave, he should be preparing for the Guard meeting, instead he was…what was he doing. It was entirely her though, he just didn’t want to drop her.

“If you have finished soaking me shirt." he said softly with none of the customary sneer, "You are ice cold Aurora, you need to go inside.” He brushed a few feathers from her hair and shoulders. There however was still no emotion on his face. The wind was picking up outside, and it was true. She was shivering.

This post has been edited by Lucius Malfoy on Jun 30 2009, 08:15 PM

[Aurora Stone]

Trying to generate some warmth her body began to shiver. As she sobbed into his shirt she felt lost in the surroundings, for a moment even forgetting who she was crying into, thinking to herself that it was just some soft human like pillow she was crying into as the owls all seemed to settle back after her quick lived rampage.

Aurora pulled back slowly after he spoke, looking a mess with her tear stained cheeks and puffy eyes she tried to control her breathing, looking away from him as she wiped her eyes with her sleeve feeling like an idiot for just now crying into him. She took in a shaky breath and nodded as she became aware of her surroundings again and the fact that she was near freezing.

For the briefest of moments it had almost seemed as if Lucius was human, but the emotionless look to him now certainly shook the idea far from mind as she felt the feathers being brushed off. She noticed that her owl had just flown in looking pleased with itself and settled back in its little area as she turned to Lucius, searching for something but whatever it was remained unfound.

"Shouldn't you be headed in too?" she asked, hiccuping a bit as she spoke as she fought again for control of her emotions. Her eyes left him and went around the owlery, perhaps searching for someone else, or just ensuring they were alone but also to just look away from him. She finally pulled her cloak around herself tighter and muttered something to herself before turning to the stairs and making an exit.

She paused just before descending, "I'm sorry about that Lucius," she admitted, knowing what she done wasn't entirely right and that he didn't deserve the small beating he had received or at least hadn't deserved it at the moment. "But, uh... thanks." Aurora turned back to the stairs quickly and disappeared in their cast shadows.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Lucius waited until he heard her footsteps retreat down the steps giving her a little privacy. He was rather glad that she'd pulled herself together, though his shirt was a sign that it had taken a fair while. He gingerly touched hi gin, it felt raw and red. She'd managed to get in at least one hit.

Sweeping his cloak back over his shoulder he drew his wand and did a full circle of the tower, the ward he'd placed earlier when he'd entered remained. There was no one within earshot and no magical espionage devices, the school spys must be asleep today. He did find the light brush of something that he recognised 'Gus's brand of magic and he wondered what he had been up to. He would find out shortly.

sheathing his wand he turned to leave but noticed something glimmering on the floor. It was his handkerchief. He knelt and picked it up from where it had fallen. He looked at it for a moment before folding it back into his pocket.

He had much more important matters to attend to, so he pushed the thoughts of the strange happenings and left, face as cold an emotionless mask as ever.