Hogwarts
School Healer
Creature Task Force - Registrar
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21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
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Post by Mali Johar on Aug 23, 2016 0:11:41 GMT
The Hospital was under attack and Mali was back in the corridor of the locked ward. Theo had that easy little smile on his face as he chased down Mister Fischer. Mali was trying to scream at him but she didn't make a peep when she opened her mouth. Mister Fischer's whimpers were heart wrenching. Mali reached for her wand and flicked it towards Theo but the wand turned into a bouquet of fake flowers. Frustrated, she dropped the trick wand and started sprinting towards Theo but she was too late. A flash of green illuminated the hall and the Dark witch laughed and laughed and laughed. Grief stricken, Mali turned away from the scene of Theo, confused, standing over Mister Fischer and into another scene entirely. She and Theo were at the Ministry, down in one of the courtrooms. A faceless judge leered down at them and aurors stood on guard. When she went to reach out for Theo's hand thick ropes sprung up from the chair and secured her tightly to it. A grief stricken Neville Longbottom stepped forward to testify, though Mali couldn't quite make out his words, it sounded like she had cotton stuffed in her ears. The judge, Chief Warlock Eleanor Greengrass, banged her gavel declaring the pair of them guilty. A Dementor glided in to dole out their punishment. Mali's breath was visible again, scabbed and rotted hands lowered the creature's hood and---- Mali jerked awake, breathing hard and covered in a cold sweat. She wasn't in St. Mungo's, she wasn't tied to a chair in a courtroom. She was sprawled out next to the large frame of a sleeping Theo Ashland . She could even reach out and touch him, which she did several times just to be sure. There was no cackling Death Eater, no Dementor hellbent on sucking out her soul. Just them, cozy and together. Mali poked Theo in the side, shaken by her nightmare. "Hey." she whispered. He didn't stir, only snored contently as he slumbered. She poked him again to the same result. "Theeeo." Still nothing, Mali poked him harder once, twice more. The fourth time was a charm, waking a very groggy Theo up but she poked him one more time for good measure. When it was clear that yes, he was awake, she propped her head up in her hand and asked "I didn't wake you, did I?" Of course she did, but that was easier than explaining why she needed him to be awake with her right now. |
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St.Mungo's
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31 years old
Gryffindor Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Mego
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Post by Theo Ashland on Aug 23, 2016 17:56:18 GMT
Theo was often plagued with strange nightmares - no terrible scenes played out in his sleeping mind, just harsh colors and feelings and sounds - especially in the aftermath of the past few months. But not tonight. He was sleeping soundly, dreaming nothing at all, so deeply in his sleep that he was even snoring (a bit of a frightening noise, but when was the last time he'd gotten a sleep like that?) Mali was sprawled out next to him, close and warm, and therein lay his protection from the terrors of the night. Theo was a man heavily affected by what he felt in every way possible (and with little control over it, to boot). His bad times as of late inevitably led to bad times in his head, thus the nightmares. But when he was with Mali, he was happy. Really and truly. His mind relaxed around her and his negative emotions had hardly a hold on him at all when he finally got to sleep. He was afloat in blissful darkness, snoring like a bloody bear.
There was just one little thing. In his darkness there was a barb, a short little nudge he twitched off and struggled to ignore. His mind, even in sleep, was hesitant to pay it any attention. Little did he know that it was just Mali's finger in the real world, poking him in the side; in his guarded place of solace, it felt like an invader. Theo was in the midst of paying a huge sleep debt, having been incessantly exhausted and unable to sleep since that day in the hospital, and he was having a time letting anything into the peaceful darkness he lay in - even if it was nothing bad at all, even if it was actually his light. Mali. Her voice washed over him and Theo was brought up, up, up from sleep, out of the darkness and into his darkened bedroom. He blinked against it, nothing more than shadows and shapes really, and rolled toward the only thing close enough to have form.
Mali was sitting propped up, looking at him and asking a silly question. Theo got out a few yawns enough to smile sleepily at her - maybe it was just the lingering sleep affecting his brain, but how could he possibly get mad at that face - propping his own head up in his hand. "Mm, no, I always wake up in the middle of the night," he mumbled just as sleepily as his smile, mouth not really wanting to work much harder than that. He reached over and laid a hand on Mali's hip, to ensure that this was not in fact some elaborate dream and that he was, in fact, awake in the middle of the night. Eventually his brain caught up that there might be something wrong with this. "Can't sleep?"
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Hogwarts
School Healer
Creature Task Force - Registrar
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21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
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Post by Mali Johar on Aug 29, 2016 3:44:08 GMT
Theo looked so sweet in his contented, snore filled slumber that it felt very wrong to wake him. They'd come a long way in a short amount of time, from her hesitation over being alone with him to both of them trusting each other so intimately that they would sleep next to one another, completely vulnerable and unguarded. Her own shaken composure outweighed the wrongness of interrupting his sleep so wake him she did. He woke slowly, rolling onto his side to face her. What a lucky woman she was, to get to see that handsome face staring back at her in all it's sleepy glory. Already the nightmares felt a little less scary and she felt a little more safe.
"I thought you might." Mali said with a teasing grin as he placed his hand on her hip. His touch helped to further ground her and chase away the bad dream in favor of a pleasant tingle in her chest. She couldn't sleep, he was right, but she wasn't ready to give up the light mood just yet. Dishonesty was coming a little too easy to her now. "Not a wink, I'm surprised you could sleep with how loud you were snoring. You sounded like a bear." She reached out to run her fingers over his cheeks, ending with her signature bop on the nose. "At least you're a very cute bear. I think I'll keep you." Bears were very cuddly, weren't they? Mali thought so, so much that she scooted closer to him to do just that. She snuggled in against his chest and reached her arm around his waist.
The closeness coaxed out her honesty. Fingers drummed against his spine twice before she finally spoke up. "I actually can't sleep. I had an awful dream." She turned into him, murmuring against his chest "We know it wasn't your fault. D'you think we could convince others it wasn't too? Maybe if we did confess to someone..." she trailed off, the second half of her dream sticking out in her memory. They didn't use dementors at Azkaban anymore and didn't use the Kiss as a sentence, but they used too. They could always go back to it, especially since their new Minister seemed awful. The secret just weighed too heavily on her heart, even more so now that Remus Lupin knew about it.
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St.Mungo's
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31 years old
Gryffindor Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Mego
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Post by Theo Ashland on Sept 1, 2016 4:00:32 GMT
Well, he was definitely awake now. Theo's eyes adjusted to the darkness and there was Mali's cute little grinning face right up next to his; no chance of him sleeping with this interesting development. He wiggled under the blankets closer to her, grinning himself when he was compared to a bear. That he couldn't deny - he was fairly certain his sister had even gone to the trouble of casting a Silencing Charm on his bedroom walls to muffle the noise of his snores. "Sorry," he said, taking her fingers and kissing them. He was a cute bear, at least. Theo made a low growling sound of contentment - pretty pathetic imitation of a bear really, but in his defense he'd never actually met one - as Mali cuddled into him, dropping his arm around her waist and his head back to his pillow.
They could have fallen asleep just like that, the warmth was very tempting if he just closed his eyes no matter how awake he felt, but Mali spoke up again and he opened them, staring into the darkness right above her head. Her voice vibrated through his chest, soothing even as her words made his stomach churn. He felt sick over the very thought of telling anyone what he did, sure, but it was made all the worse by the fact that Mali was having nightmares about it all, too. All he wanted to do was make her happy like she did him; not be the cause of her troubles. But he was, wasn't he? The very cause of it all. Eventually he knew he would have to be the solution, too. Too bad solving this problem of theirs terrified the absolute hell out of him, to the point of impotence.
The thing that saved him was that it was their problem. Not just his. As much as he hated that he ever wrapped Mali up in all this, she had no idea how grateful he was every time she said 'we' instead of just 'you'. They could take it all on together and maybe then it wouldn't be so scary. Maybe. "Me too. Really bad dreams," he sighed finally, running his free hand behind her head through her long hair. Maybe no nightmares now with her next to him, but they were waiting for him when he was alone. Sometimes they didn't even wait until he was asleep. "I feel sick even thinking about doing that, honestly. Do you really think anyone would believe us?"
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Hogwarts
School Healer
Creature Task Force - Registrar
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21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
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Post by Mali Johar on Sept 2, 2016 2:52:35 GMT
They were perfect, all sweetness and light even in the early, dark hours of the morning. They had their own little habits, she liked to bop his nose and he liked to kiss her fingers and it was so gentle and endearing that Mali fell a little harder for him each time. Mali was hopelessly smitten with Theo and little gestures like that only sealed the deal. "It's alright." she assured him, stealing her fingers back to rest them against his cheek, thumb reaching around to trace over his lips. "I could think of worse ways to wake up." Mali meant to kiss him but as she leaned forward he channeled his inner bear and growled, her intended kiss being lost to laughter. "I" she started, the 'L' word on the tip of her tongue, itching to be said but she shooed it away. "feel like that's a terrible bear impression. You're much better at it when you're sleeping." Actual true love was something she took very seriously. No other person had managed to earn the word as quick as Theo had but she was cautious about saying it too early. Their romance had certainly been a whirlwind.
Her own feelings of content loosened her guard but the words weren't easy to say. She was reluctant to bring up any mention of their shared secret, not wanting to burden Theo with it unnecessarily. He had it hard enough coping with his own feelings, he didn't need hers heaped on top. A painful sensation thrummed through her chest when Theo admitted he had nightmares too, immediately soothed by his hands running through her hair. Mali closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation and the steady, calming thump of his heart in his chest. Mali didn't speak for several moments, did she really think they could? It would be a stretch for her to wrap her head around what happened if she hadn't of been there. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, how different Theo acted and how confused he was when it ended, maybe she would have had her doubts to the validity of her story. Finally she settled on a "I think so."
Maybe they really could. Mister Lupin must have been at least partially convinced. He could have had her dragged off by the aurors right there, enough of them were present at Gringotts as she made her confession. "I think we've got to try." That was the deal that they made, that she would get to talk to Theo and they would confess what happened. Mali bit down on the inside of her cheek as she braced herself for what was coming next. "You remember the dementors? I saw everything happen again when they were near, they drag out your worst memories. And when Mister Lupin helped me I slipped up and I mentioned Mister Longbottom's name. He figured out I knew something about his death and he wouldn't leave me alone." Mali tilted her head up to look at Theo, distress and regret clearly written across her features. "He followed me when I tried to leave and--and I felt so guilty and miserable... I told him everything."
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St.Mungo's
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31 years old
Gryffindor Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Mego
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Post by Theo Ashland on Sept 6, 2016 2:37:25 GMT
Theo's lips tingled under Mali's touch, thinking they were getting a kiss and eager for it, but hearing her laugh instead was very nearly just as good. He loved that sound and couldn't think of anything better to wake up to, even in the earliest hours of the morning (Theo was never a huge fan of early morning birdsong, annoying little twits). He liked his sleep, he did, but he loved Mali. He did. "You woke me up just to see, didn't you?" He loved her because, among truly innumerable other reasons, of this sweet silliness. It was wholly theirs, any hour of the day, no matter what else was going on. They absolutely thrived on love and light and there weren't two other people in the whole world that needed that more than Theo and Mali.
Because Theo and Mali's reality was suffocating. It was all around them all the time, pressing in from every side. It took liquid form and seeped in through whatever cracks it could find, cracks like terrible nightmares and too-long silent pauses. Theo had little confidence in how long it took Mali to answer him; mainly because he himself really didn't think anybody would believe him. He wasn't exactly a model citizen. He'd never committed a murder on purpose, and never would as long as he could help it, but it would be all too easy to paint him as violent and impulsive and exactly the kind of man to take advantage of chaos to try and get away with murder.
Mali was his benefit of the doubt. More than his needing her to help him through this because he was frozen with fear and would do nothing on his own, she was probably the only way he would get out of this without a murder charge. He had no way to prove he'd been under a curse. He even had evidence stacked against him thanks to thirty years of buffoonery. Mali was his only chance and Theo found it surprisingly easy to concede to most everything she said. This was part of both of their lives, not just his.
So imagine his shock as Mali revealed to him that she had, in fact, around told someone. Told someone everything. Theo peered down at her in the darkness, unable to speak for the new flood of terror that hit him. It was unavoidable. Theo was always at the mercy of his emotions; they always, always came before his thoughts, sometimes way ahead of them. "Shit." His eyes roamed Mali's face. Why wasn't she panicking, too? That was something to latch on to, her reaction. She was obviously upset, but not freaking out like he was threatening to do...she also wasn't in jail. Not in jail, but here in his arms, after revealing him a murderer and herself an accomplice. That wasn't the usual course of things, was it? Confusion displaced a hefty portion of the terror inside Theo. "Every...everything? You told him everything and he didn't arrest you? Why? Who is this bloke?"
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