Venturing Home (Open)

Morgana walked from the station in Hogsmeade and onto the Hogwarts Express. She had gotten there pretty early, knowing it would be hard to find an empty compartment there. But she took the one in the complete back of the train, hoping people would be taking up the other compartments and leaving this one alone.

She had a lot on her mind and she needed to take it easy on her own for a while. She was really exhausted, not from schoolwork, but from people. She knew she was changing, and she knew it wasn't for the better. But she thought it was. It was so easy to not care. It was so easy to be on her own. So why would anyone get to ruin that for her?

Of course, there were people she cared about, but there was a difference between caring and having to be friends with them. She would never hurt those she cared about, but she didn't have to hang around them. They could hate her, for all she cared, but she wouldn't hate them. That was the essential bit, right?

Her thoughts were, however disagreeably, interrupted as the compartmentdoor opened and revealed a blond Gryffindor.

Darcy was sad to leave the castle for the second time, but she was longing to see her family again. She smiled a somber as she got onto the train and looked for a compartment. She had arrived late, and almost every single one of the compartments were full. She could see both people she knew and people she didn't know. She wasn't sure if she wanted to sit with those she knew, because it was already hard for her to leave. She hated leaving the people she cared about.

So she continued walking a bit in a daze and then stopped as there were no more compartments left. Not wanting to go back, she simply opened the back-most one and gave a kind smile to the older, black-haired girl in there. "May I sit?" she asked softly, gently.

Morgana raised an eyebrow in the slightest, maybe just somewhat visible. Of course, Morgana wasn't necessary a polite person, but she didn't feel as if she had a claim on the compartments on the Hogwarts Express, so she wasn't about to deny the girl a place.

She waved her hand carelessly towards the vacant seats and studied the girl. Second year, going to start her third year. Beautiful, too beautiful. Not humanly beautiful. Veela blood. Speaking english too well to be from France, but having the same shape as most frenchmen. Aka, from the Delacour line.. A very kind person, given by the smile that shone right through her eyes. Slightly nervous in the presence of Morgana, she could tell.

When she was done, Morgana turned to look out the window. Just because she had no claim to the compartment, didn't mean she had to talk to the people walking into it.

The dark-haired Slytherin didn't say anything, which made Darcy feel quite nervous, but she sat down on the opposite bench of the girl, closes to the door. She was really uncomfortable. It was clear that the girl didn't want to talk to her, but at the same time, Darcy thought she saw an emptiness in the girl that hurt both Darcy and the girl. Darcy frowned slightly and tried to read into the girl's soul. It didn't work.

The girl was looking really hard at her, though, and that was very uncomfortable. Darcy felt her face heat up a bit at the scrutinizing eyes, but she remained silent, looking right back at her, holding her gaze, even though it was really hard. The girl's green eyes were so cold and harsh. Just ... horribly so. Then the girl turned and looked outside, as if she had learned everything she needed to know about Darcy.

Darcy let the silence stretch for a moment, and then cleared her throat. "I'm Darcy Wilde, second- ehm, third year at Hogwarts," she said softly, unknowingly confirming what the girl had thought she was.

Evan was trying to find a proper compartment, and by proper he meant a compartment with some friends inside. That was really hard, as he barely had any friends at all, just Darcy and Aylee. Taking into account that Aylee disliked him a bit and probably shared her compartment with Kynan, Evan had no choice but looking for Darcy, despite every their meeting was really embarrassing for him.

Peeping in every compartment on his way through the train, Evan reached the last one. I probably missed the right one. I can't believe Darcy can be late that much. But then he saw her in the door's window of the last compartment, sitting with some black-haired Slytherin girl.

Evan opened the door and greeted his friend, "Hi, Darcy!" Then he turned to the other girl, waved, and said, "Hi." Good. I managed to find Darcy, there are some free sits, and I still haven't ruined anything. "Don't you two mind if sit here?"

Morgana sighed inaudiably. Of course the girl wanted to make conversation. Couldn't she tell that Morgana wanted to be left alone? She stretched it on and then finally replied. "I'm Morgana Gaunt," she merely said, and in such a final tone that there could be no mistaking her reluctance to wanting to talk.

And then the compartment door opened for the second time. A Ravenclaw this time, looking the same age as Darcy. And he was quite obviously infatuated with her. Whether it was due to the Veela blood or not, Morgana couldn't tell. But she could also tell that Darcy seemed really happy to see him as well. Maybe she was infatuated with him. Morgana almost wanted to groan. Was she about to sit with two people who were all lovey-dovey? She would not appreciate that…

As he said 'hi' to Morgana, she didn't respond in any way, and she was sorely tempted to say that yes, she did mind him sitting there. But she didn't, and simply remained silent.

The tone of which Morgana used to introduce herself told Darcy how little the Slytherin wanted to talk. Was it due to her being a Gryffindor? Honestly, it couldn't be. Then she frowned. "Gaunt?" she asked, not thinking twice, and then blushing. "Sorry, I don't want to pry," she said quickly and looked in another direction.

She was beyond relieved when Evan showed up in the compartment door, just really happy to see a friendly face. "Hey Evan," she said with a smile, suddenly feeling a boost of self-confidence that Morgana was outnumbered, two good to one evil. Or... Evil was possibly pushing it a bit... She looked annoyed over at Morgana as the girl completely ignored Evan's presence.

"Of course you can sit, Evan! The sunshine sitting there is Morgana, by the way. She's not good around people," Darcy said, her tone light, though she was pretty annoyed at the girl. Darcy didn't feel confident enough in herself to be annoyed when someone was rude to her, but when they were rude to her friends... She sighed, not wanting to be annoyed at her journey home.

She turned to Evan, and waited to see if he'd sit down or not.

The Slyhterin girl ignored Evan's greeting completely as well as his question. Darcy, however, said that he is allowed to sit and introduced the girl, whose name was Morgana and who wasn't good around people according to Darcy.

For several seconds Evan wasn't sure whether he should sit down or not. Despite he wasn't really welcome here, this compartment was the only one where he could sit with a friend, and Evan took the seat beside Morgana, so he could look at Darcy without turning his head much. He did it very slowly, like the Slytherin was some kind of predator who could attack Evan if he made any sudden movements.

Slowly, he turned to Morgana and said, "I'm Evan. I've just finished my second year here." Darcy had already called his name in Morgana's presence, but Evan thought it would be polite to introduce himself. Then he looked at Darcy. He knew he would definitely miss her this summer. But then Evan suddenly got an idea. "Hm. Darcy, I can send you owl letters, right? If I buy an owl, of course. Well, I mean, if you don't mind." That was definitely a strange thing to ask to start a conversation, but Evan really needed to know the answer.

As Evan took his seat, Sparkle emerged from his backpack to inspect the surroundings. She leaped gracefully to the floor and then to the bench on the opposite to Evan side. She sniffed the air, sniffed Darcy, and then curled on her laps and purred.

Morgana looked at the guy called Evan as he introduced himself. He was clearly not comfortable. She wasn't about to change that for him either, but she supposed being moderately less intimidating wouldn't really hurt her. She knew that the more she fussed about things, the more annoying they got. So, maybe she should just let go of the fact that they were intruding her need for solitude and simply let them be.

So she straightened a bit up, taking a breath and looked at them. "Classmates, then," she said, not asking, simply stating it. "I'm Morgana," she said to Evan and raised an eyebrow as a cat came jumping around before settling down in Darcy's lap. Morgana then returned her attention to the changing landscape speeding by them, thinking she had now shown what courtesy was demanded of her and thought she could fairly ignore them for the rest of the trip.

Darcy gave a reassuring smile to Evan, and she thought he was being really nice to Morgana despite how little the girl deserved it. But then she turned and stated that Darcy and Evan were classmates and then told Evan her name. Which kind of made Darcy like the girl a bit more.

And then her attention returned to Evan and she beamed at him. "Of course you can send me letters. I'd love to stay in touch, I'm sure summer will be relatively boring to me. My mother is going on some business trips around the globe or whatever, so I'll be alone a lot, and I'd really like to have something to do. So definitely! Also, I have an owl myself. But I'm guessing you want an owl?" she asked. She didn't think he could possibly want to buy an owl just so he could send letters, so she supposed he did want one.

And then a cat jumped out. Sparkle. Darcy smiled at the cat, which only broadened when Sparkle jumped up and curled up in her lap. "Hey sweetie," she said with a soft voice, petting the cat. "She's so sweet!" she said, grinning at Evan.

Yes, classmates, Evan replied. "And, well, nice to meet you, Morgana." For some reason he was sure that Morgana wasn't really seeking solitude, she was just too shy to talk to new people, just like Evan was during his first year. So now he was about to get her into talking.

Then Evan turned to Darcy to hear what she was about to say. "Cool!" he exclaimed. "Oh, well.. Not cool because you're going to be alone or something.. I mean, cool because you want to stay in touch. Yea.." Evan scratched the back of his head nervously and added, "It's also cool that you have an owl. I think owls are.. um.. cool? I'm thinking about purchasing one in Diagon Alley just after we get off the train. I'm going to leave the owl with my family, so they will be able to send me letters whenever they want."

Evan noticed his cat curled in Darcy's lap."She seems to like you," he explained, smiling. And he could understand Sparkle really well now.

Morgana, still looking out of the window, raised her eyebrows ever so slightly at his comment on how it was nice to meet her. She relaxed her face before she turned to him, looking completely emotionless and she hid all of her feelings of both annoyance and aggravation of the two people in the compartment. She tilted her head to the side. All right, so maybe they were trying to be nice, but she didn't really feel like being nice to people when she knew they'd never mean anything to her. They were just people.

She didn't reply to his comment, just let a strangled sound of a 'mhm' leave her, once again trying to ignore the two of them. She couldn't understand what would be so horrible with being on her own for a summer. Sure, Morgana was very fond of her father, and absolutely enjoyed herself in his presence, but she wouldn't be at all heartbroken if she had to be home alone for a few weeks. She'd have time to indulge in matters her father might not be all to pleased with. She was getting fonder of dark arts, she knew this, and she had been paying close attention to the Dark Ones as of late, even though she had no intentions of joining their cause. She simply wanted to figure out of how far into their planning they had gotten.

She didn't want this treasure of Rowena Ravenclaw, but she pretty much didn't want anyone to reach it either. She found humans to be too petty for that. They were so easy to indulge and too power-hungry. They would never be reasonable.

She was dragged out of her reverie when Evan said that the cat seemed to like Darcy. Morgana almost snorted. No wonder, Darcy was half a creature herself.

Darcy's respect for Morgana once again dropped as the girl barely managed to utter a sound that was anywhere near an agreement to Evan's statement. Darcy decided to let it go, not wanting to annoy the girl, as she really wouldn't know if she felt safe enough to confront her or not. Maybe she'd explode at them. Of course, Darcy could be rather angry herself. People just never saw it happen.

She smiled at Evan, though and shook her head. "I understood what you meant," she said, "I know you enough to know that you wouldn't want me to be bored." She gave him a grin before returning to the scratching of Sparkle. She then nodded. "I see. Well, it's really useful to have an owl. I don't actually have one on my own, but my mother does. So I use him. And she doesn't mind. She says that the more he is sent off on errands, the more he gets the exercise. So she basically encourages me to use him," she said happily, glad she wouldn't have to buy an owl herself, as she didn't really have the money for it.

She was happy at Evan's comment, even though she did notice a small change in posture from Morgana, which was obviously anything but a positive one. Darcy ignored it, even though she was getting more and more annoyed at the girl. She decided to turn her annoyance into a smile and looked at Evan. "I'm glad that she does. I saw her costume on Halloween. It was epic!" she said with a grin, remembering now that she had forgotten to tell Evan about it.

"Sure, letting you be bored is what I want the least," Evan said. "Hm, I think I should encourage my family to use my owl too. My future owl, I mean. If I really buy one. Honestly, I have no idea how much owls cost, so I'm not sure if I can afford one."

Evan beamed when Darcy mentioned his cat's Halloween costume. "I'm really glad you like it! I often recolor Sparkle to make her look like someone else's cat, so I had no troubles with the spell.. But bow tie, oh, Merlin's beard! I spent a lot of time making it without any special machines that I would have at home," he told Darcy with excitement. Evan liked to make things all by himself. Special design, unique characteristics, edition is limited to one instance only!

Then Evan noticed that Morgana didn't look very interested, all she did was looking in the window. Okay. I need to tell her a story. A real one, but still interesting. With a hero and a villain, friendship and betrayal! And Evan had this kind of story. "Okay. It's time for a story. We're not going to sit here in silence all our way back, are we?" He still had some doubts about Morgana, but hey, who could resist enjoying an interesting and real story? So he started,"Some weeks ago I had a brilliant idea about some good drawing material. And prank material. And the idea itself is cool and can be further developed. So, I headed to the Clock Tower to burn some conjured flowers. Well, I'll explain that later. The point is that I met Aylee and she was quite displeased with me burning things. So I conjured her a bunch of beautiful flowers as a sign of piece. They even smelled! And you know what she did? She burned them! Then I was like "Okay, you just don't like me, I get it," and went away. And you know what she did then? Instead of just putting the fire out quickly, she let it grow, made it look like a big deal, and framed me!" Evan took a pause, took a breath, and added, "Well, it's not really a happy story. Good news is that I haven't been expelled. But it's still some kind of happy end, right?"

Morgana rolled her eyes under her closed eyelids, her face turned to the window when Evan said he was going to tell a story. She had zoned out through most of the bullshit, but the story seemed to be more annoying than anything. She managed to keep it completely out of her mind until she heard the name Aylee. She perked up, but not in a noticeable way. Until he said the last part.

She turned to Evan and looked at him through narrowed eyes. "You left a fire you started and you're blaming Aylee for it?" she asked, her voice no longer monotone, but scarily icy and cold. She couldn't grasp the feeling of annoyance she was feeling for the two in the compartment. Honestly, were they first years?!

Darcy smiled at Evan. "Thanks," she said softly. She was a bit bothered that he was considering buying an owl without knowing what they cost. "It's not the owl in itself that costs all that much. I think it's around 15 galleons, and it is a bit, but it's more the food and cage and stuff like that. It uses money over time as well. But I love my owl more than anything, so I think it's worth it," she said with a smile, "But not everyone does."

She laughed as he explained the bow tie. She could only imagine his face after having tried for a while. She chuckled a bit to herself before calming down. "I can imagine," she said, feeling much lighter, and feeling as if the mood of the compartment was much more comfortable. Not that that was going to stay...

Evan then started explaining something that had happened a while ago in the clocktower, and she frowned lightly and at the end of it, she sighed and was about to say that people did like to exaggerate some things, and stuff, completely on Evan's side in this, when Morgana finally perked up. And not in the way you would ever want her to. The cold raging from that girl was freaky on so many levels and Darcy felt herself shrink back. She looked to Evan with a freaked out expression and then looked back at Morgana.

Evan couldn't imagine that Morgana's reaction would be so negative. He suddenly felt uncomfortable and even a little scared. Really scared, actually. This girl was probably Aylee's friend or something. Bad choice of a story then.

Then Darcy looked a Evan, she seemed to be worried. So Evan decided to make the atmosphere calm again, and as soon as possible. But he wasn't actually good at making good peace and truce conversations. "I'm blaming her for blaming me instead of putting down the fire!" Evan exclaimed. Seconds later he regained calmness and continued in a quieter tone, "Well, I mean.. Morgana, listen. I think you misunderstood me. And I also think you are guided by your sympathy to Aylee now. It was her who made me leave, I would do perfect if no one disturbed me." In most situations Evan would just let Darcy speak, but now she couldn't say anything, as she heard this story for the first time and therefore had little idea about what happened that day.