Gryffindor
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Ash
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Post by Madison Kingsley on Aug 17, 2016 3:08:28 GMT
Madison came awake with a jolt. It took her a second to realize where she was. But her heart rate began to slow as the shadows of the dark room started taking shape. Right, the hospital. She reached up to press the heels of her hands against her eyes as her breathing settled back down to normal. The motion caused a twinge of pain in her perpetually aching shoulder, but she’d gotten pretty good the last few days at moving it in ways that caused minimal pain. The sharp agony had subsided to the point it was mostly just a constant dull throbbing now. But while the physical wounds might be slowly healing, the mental ones weren’t making much progress. Madison hadn’t slept well in the nights since the attack. Every time she closed her eyes, she found herself staring at wolves. There wasn’t much that scared Madi. She was too adventurous for that. But the attack in Godric’s Hollow had severely rattled the seemingly unshakable girl. A rustling sound caused her to drop her hands and turn her head. She hadn’t realized she wasn’t alone. Although she probably should have. Now that her eyes were better adjusted to the room’s dim light, she could see @lydia curled up in a chair beside the bed. Her sister had barely left the hospital since that night. Mom and Dad came for extended periods, but Lydia insisted on being the one to spend the night. Not that Madi minded. Her parents were great and everything, but when she got scared, it was her big sister she wanted. Although so far Madi had done a real bang-up job of putting on a brave face. She could tell Lydia was just as shaken up as she was. No point in making that any worse. It seemed, however, that her latest nightmare had woken up Lydia as well. “Hey,” she whispered, grateful her quiet voice didn't reveal how rattled she had been just a second ago. Madi might be loud by nature, but it just didn’t feel right talking at a normal level in a dark room in the middle of the night, even if they were the only two in it. ”Did I wake you up?” Maybe Lydia hadn’t been awake long enough to realize Madi was having a nightmare. She had been working like crazy lately to give her reasons to stay at the hospital. When she wasn’t running around the place like a madwoman, she was in here keeping Madison company. Sleep had been in rather short supply for the oldest of the Kinglsey sisters. Now that she was calm again, Madi was really hoping she hadn’t just deprived her sister of some much-needed rest. But if Lydia was already awake. Madison carefully shifted herself over to one side of her bed, wincing a bit as her shoulder cried out in protest. Hopefully the damned thing would be healed enough that she could leave in a few days. She hated hospitals with a passion. Plus she'd missed the big back to school bash in Diagon. Stupid bloody werewolves. As long as she was stuck here, though, she could use some good, old-fashioned big sister time. “Come on,” she said, motioning for Lydia to crawl up on the bed with her. “That chair can’t possibly be comfortable.” Just in case Lydia decided to protest with some rubbish about hurting her shoulder or whatever, Madi put on her best little sister puppy dog eyes. Granted, it might be a little hard to see them in the dim lighting. But still. Every little sibling knew the puppy dog eyes were irresistible. (OOC - I had an idea for some bonding and ran with it.  ) |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2016 4:29:47 GMT
Sleep had become almost a stranger to Lydia lately. Between working, worrying over Madison, and her nightmares she had resolved to just survive on coffee. But occasionally she would curl into a ball in the uncomfortable arm chair in Madi's room or pass out against a wall. She'd given up on that useless cot they call a bed. She felt great sympathy for all the spouses and parents she'd seen resting on the very same cots while watching over their loved ones. Tonight she found herself in that same chair while her sister slept and dozed in and out all night. She preferred it that way. If her sleep was choppy like that she wouldn't dream, and if she didn't dream that meant no nightmares.
She had been dozing off again when she heard Madison shifting about. She opened her eyes and stretched with a yawn, causing Madi to turn her gaze to herself. "No, I was up." She said, which was sort of true. "Are you alright? Were you having another nightmare?" She asked, frowning. She hated that Madison had to go through that and would now be tormented with the memory of it for Merlin only knows how long. She felt the trauma herself but knew it had to be worse for the younger girl. It broke her heart to think about her happy go lucky sister being afraid for the rest of her life. She hoped she would still get to see that happy, lighter than air girl again. That she wouldn't be afraid to take risks and live like she always had.
Lydia sighed as she watched Madi shift over. "That bed's not very big, you know. I don't want to hurt you." She commented, her caring older sister side kicking in. But despite that, she was crawling into the small hospital bed as she spoke. She tucked her arm into her sister's elbow and pulled the blanket up around the pair of them. She had to admit, it was better than the chair. "Hopefully soon we can get you out of here and into your own bed again."
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Gryffindor
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Ash
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Post by Madison Kingsley on Aug 17, 2016 5:39:02 GMT
Lydia didn’t sound totally convincing. But then she was turning the question around, and Madi winced inwardly. She was a decent enough liar. She had to be given how much trouble she inadvertently got herself into. But she’d never been any good at lying to her big sister. Even so, Lydia was already worried enough. Madison really didn’t want to make that worse. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Really.” She tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, although she didn’t necessarily pull it off. It was total bull anyway. She wasn’t fine. She hated the dark shadows in this room at night, hated closing her eyes. The only thing that let her sleep at all was the knowledge Lydia was in the room. She didn’t even want to think about what it would be like when she went back to school and Lydia wasn’t there. But that was a whole two weeks away. Surely she’d be over all this by then. Right?
As expected, Lydia made a comment about the size of the bed. “That’s never stopped you before,” Madi pointed out with just a hint of her usual sarcasm. Technically, it had usually been her crawling into Lydia’s bed. But that was totally beside the point. And anyway, Madison had a feeling she might actually sleep better having Lydia so close. In the end, Madi’s charm (and the discomfort of the chair) won out. Madison smiled triumphantly as her sister settled in beside her. Lydia slid her arm through the arm not attached to Madi’s injured shoulder, and Madi shifted a bit so her head was resting against Lydia’s shoulder. She already felt a little calmer. Lydia’s presence and voice and faint but distinct smell never failed to have that effect on Madison.
The next words out of Lydia’s mouth, however, made Madison’s stomach tighten. She was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment, her eyes studying a barely visible pattern on the ceiling. Her arm interlinked with Lydia's tightened its grip just a little. When she finally spoke, her voice sounded too quiet even in the dark room. “Is it weird if…” She licked her lips as she tried to make herself finish that thought. Normally she had no trouble talking to Lydia. She could chatter away to her sister for hours about nothing at all. But somehow talking about this was incredibly difficult. Finally she managed to force out the rest, her voice strangely unsure. “…if I don’t want to go home yet?” Not that she wasn’t ready to be out of the hospital. This place was driving her crazy with the white walls and the nurses refusing to let her do anything. Another day or two and she would start going legitimately crazy. But home was only a matter of blocks from where the werewolf had attacked them. Madi knew that street well. She would inevitably have to walk down it again. And after what had happened, quiet little Godric’s Hollow no longer felt boringly safe. Madison wasn’t scared exactly. (Not that she would probably know fear if it came up and smacked her with a club.) She was just uncomfortable with the idea of being back in the same place so soon after the attack. What if it happened again? Logically she knew that was ridiculously unlikely. But what if it did?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2016 22:11:41 GMT
Lydia rolled her eyes. Madison trying to act as though she was fine wasn't exactly believable. Even if she was better at lying to her older sister, Lydia would see through it. There was no way one could endure the kind of trauma they'd been through and be alright. "Fine, sure." She said sarcastically. "Now, why don't we stick with being honest and you tell me what you were dreaming about." She commanded.
She smirked in amusement at Madi's reply to the bed option. In the end, the bed was far better than the chair and it felt nice to be so close to her sister. She felt an odd sense of safety. Maybe it was just being able to touch her, to know that she was ok. She suddenly felt as though she may be able to get some rest. She closed her eyes and laid her head on top of Madison's, listening to their quiet breathing. She couldn't help but frown as she breathed in. Madi didn't smell right. She had spent too much time in the sterile hospital that she was beginning to smell like every other patient. It wasn't right.
Lydia listened as Madi spoke, sounding unsure of herself. She could feel the way her sister tensed in her arms at the question and was confused. The more she thought about it though, the more it made sense. Why would she want to return to the place she was attacked and relive it so soon. As much as she wanted to get out of the hospital and back to normal life, she was probably a bit frightened. It was a normal response she should have seen coming.
"You can come stay with me if you want," She offered without hesitation. Whatever it took to make her baby sister feel safe. "It's not very big and it's in the heart of London so it's pretty noisy but if Mum and Dad are alright with it....you're always welcome." She assured her, rubbing circles on Madison's arm with her thumb. She would be happy to have her baby sister at home. And it would only be for a couple weeks before she was back at Hogwarts.
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Gryffindor
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Ash
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Post by Madison Kingsley on Aug 18, 2016 0:35:06 GMT
Of course Lydia didn’t buy it. Curse her for knowing Madison so well. She even pulled out the bossy big sister voice, the one that usually made Madi crumble and give in. But for once, Madison resisted. She looked down at the blanket covering her as her hand began to toy idly with the edge of the fabric. “Just…” Werewolves. Screaming. Pain. She shook her head. Nope, not going there. Talking about it required thinking about it, and Madison very much did not want to do that right now. “I don’t want to talk about it.” She would if Lydia pushed her. She’d never been good at keeping things from her big sister. Not that she usually wanted to. But if she started talking about this there would be crying and a lot of emotions that Madison was trying very hard not to deal with. “What do you dream about?” she asked pointedly, turning her gaze back to Lydia. She wasn’t stupid. She knew Lydia was having bad dreams of her own. Big sisters weren’t the only ones who worried. But Lydia’s own nightmares hadn’t been mentioned, so Madi hadn’t asked. Until now. Although it was really more of a defiant dare than anything. Show me yours and I’ll show you mine.
The knot in Madison’s stomach loosened a little when Lydia didn’t call her worry stupid. She just went with it. Madi could feel herself relaxing again at Lydia’s reassuring tone and the comforting pattern of her sister’s thumb on her arm. Thank Merlin for understanding big sisters. Who cared if the place was loud and crowded? “I don’t mind.” Quite the opposite. She would rather stay with her big sister, at least for a while. Although her parents might put up a small fuss. They had let Madi stay at Lydia’s before, but they tended to get overprotective whenever Madison got legitimately hurt. “Can you ask them?” Mostly because Madison didn’t want to have to explain herself. Talking with Lydia about what had happened might be hard, but it was doable. She had been there. She knew what it was like. Talking to their parents, on the other hand… Madison would rather avoid that if possible. They would ask too many questions she didn’t want to answer. She didn’t want to talk about what had happened or how it made her feel. Not at all.
But try as she might, she couldn’t stop thinking about it. The memories lingered constantly in the back of her mind. Werewolves crouched in every shadow. Painful reminders stirred in every movement of her shoulder. Madi had done everything in her power to ignore them. Not very Gryffindor-like of her. She just wasn’t sure she had the courage to face down those particular monsters. But tonight they weren’t going quietly. They refused to fade back into the shadows until they had been properly acknowledged. Until then, no sleep would be had here. Madison tugged her arm away from Lydia so she could turn onto her side and wrap both her arms tightly around her sister’s, effectively taking it hostage as she curled up against Lydia and resettled her head on her sister’s shoulder. The extra closeness made it a little easier to talk somehow.
“I feel like I can’t breathe,” she admitted. “All the time. Like the air’s trying to crush me.” It didn’t make any sense really. There wasn’t anything physically wrong with her. The healers would have found it by now. But something in her chest just felt tight. Like a spring wound too far. Like she was bracing herself for something. She swallowed hard to ease the sudden tightness in her throat. “I couldn’t do anything. It could’ve killed us, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.” That was the worst bit, really. The helplessness. Madi had never felt so helpless in her entire life. And it was terrifying. That was the main reason she had avoided talking about the incident at all costs. She never wanted to feel like that again. She didn’t even want to admit how much it had scared her. Just like she didn’t want to admit there were tears building behind her eyes. She hadn’t cried since that night. Well, aside from a few tears leaked here and there when no one was awake to notice. But she wasn’t planning on starting now. Not if she could help it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2016 17:50:04 GMT
Lydia frowned, but nodded in understanding. It was tough to talk about what happened, but she knew from experience that it was better to suck it up an do it anyways. If she allowed Madison to shut it all out and pretend she was fine then she would never deal with her trauma and be haunted by it for much longer. She held her closer and sighed, thinking about her own dreams. It wasn't something she particularly wanted to talk about either. Especially since she was supposed to be the strong one. How was she going to show that everything would be fine if she was falling apart too? "Probably about the same as yours, I imagine. Everything is dark and there are howls all around us. I'm trying to run but it feels like I'm running through wet cement. And you're there and I can never get to you in time..." She explained, feeling her eyes sting with the threat of tears. She refused to let herself cry, especially in front of Madison.
"Of course I'll ask them. And I'm sure they won't mind. They might miss you but they'll understand." She promised, although she didn't know for sure. She would fight her parents on the matter if she had to. She wasn't going to allow her sister to live in fear. She would do whatever she could to ensure that she felt safe. "I'll be at work a lot but I can fix my schedule so I'm at least home in the evenings and overnight until you go back to school." She was already working it over in her head. She might have to switch a few shifts with her coworkers but she'll make it work. Some of them owed her favors anyways.
Lydia sighed and leaned her head back, her heart aching in her chest. She hated that Madison, of all people, had to go through such a thing. Madi had always been such a happy go lucky kid, always on the move for the next great adventure. She hoped and prayed that this experience wouldn't kill that part of her. She wanted Madi to heal and move on and be the girl she always had been. "I know, trust me I know. And honestly, there's not much that either of us can do to stop that feeling or make it go away. As much as it sucks to hear it, the only thing that will help is time. And talking about it." She grimaced dramatically so Madison would see it, hoping to make her smile. She'd never been one to talk about her feelings so openly and Madi knew that. "You weren't supposed to do anything but run. It was my job to protect you. I'm sorry I didn't do a better job of that. I'd never been much of a dueler.." She felt her throat constrict as she apologized. "I'm just so grateful that it hadn't been any worse. I don't know what I would have done if I had lost you..."
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Gryffindor
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Ash
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Post by Madison Kingsley on Aug 27, 2016 8:15:17 GMT
Madi could feel her sister’s grip tightening, and suddenly she wished she hadn’t asked. She didn’t want to force Lydia into thinking about this either. The explanation that came made Madison swallow hard. She instinctively edged a little closer, although she didn’t really know whether it was for Lydia’s comfort or her own. “Same.” Her voice sounded strained in the silence of the hospital room. “Sometimes they’re coming at me and I can’t run away. Or sometimes they’re after you and I can hear you screaming but I can’t move. I just have to listen...” She snapped her mouth shut. Continuing down that road would only end in a breakdown. And there was no way Madison was going to dump her own turmoil on top of what Lydia was already carrying.
Some of the darkness in the room seemed to lift when Lydia agreed to talk to their parents. One less thing Madison had to worry about handling. Besides, living at Lydia’s might be interesting. Especially if she shifted her schedule around. “Maybe it’ll be fun. Living together again.” It would certainly be the most she had seen of Lydia in a while. Maybe they could do something fun. It didn’t have to be all about working through what had happened. In fact, Madison would very much prefer it if it wasn’t.
Madison smiled weakly at Lydia’s grimace. Getting Lydia to talk about her feelings always took a bit of work, although Madison could usually manage to pull things out of her when she really tried. But this time there was no dragging required, apparently. Madi quickly shook her head as Lydia apologized. “It wasn’t your fault,” she insisted. She lifted her head to be sure Lydia could see her face in the room’s dim light. “You didn’t put those things there. And you pretty much saved my life. So I got a little scratch. So what? Boys dig scars. Stop beating yourself up over it.” Now she was the one trying to pull a smile out of Lydia. It was amazing how fast Madison could flip that switch. If someone else was hurting, their pain was all that mattered. Her own was utterly irrelevant.
Up to a certain point, anyway. The sheer amount of emotion in Lydia’s voice was a lot to take in. Madi being afraid was one thing. But Lydia being afraid just made everything infinitely worse. “I could’ve lost you too,” Madi pointed out as she put her head back on Lydia’s shoulder. That thought did not sit well. What if the werewolf had jumped Lydia instead? What would she have done then? “I didn’t even have my wand. If it had gone after you instead…” Her voice dropped as a terrifying thought set in. “Even if I’d had a wand, it wouldn’t have helped. I didn’t know what to do. Defense class doesn’t teach you how to handle a raging werewolf.” She released Lydia’s arm so she could roll onto her back as her frustration continued to build. Angry was a lot easier to handle than scared. “What’s the point of all these stupid class if they’re not teaching me anything useful? There’s stuff out there, big scary stuff, and I can't stop it. So what’s the point in even having magic? I couldn’t protect myself. I couldn’t protect you. I couldn’t stop them then, and now they’re out there somewhere, and I can’t do anything about that either. So what’s the point? I’m a Gryffindor, for Merlin’s sake! And I couldn’t do anything. I still can’t. And I hate it! I can’t even close my own eyes at night! That’s not brave. It’s ridiculous. I was scared and completely powerless, and I still am, and it makes me feel so bloody small, and I hate it!” Damn it, there were the tears. Madi pressed her hands hard against her eyes in a valiant effort to stop them from escaping. She didn’t know how to handle this. Her reckless bravery was a massive chunk of her identity. Things didn’t scare her because she felt invincible. Because she was convinced that if she just fought hard enough and stayed brave enough that she could fight her way through anything. But now the immovable object of Madison had been hit by the unstoppable force of reality, and she was starting to crack under the pressure.
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