In Two [Tristam]

[americaneagle14]

Today I want to save the world, then tomorrow watch it burn...

Outside of the Room of Requirement lay a grey cat. He was positioned comfortably between the two suits of armors in front of the door, his astonishingly pure grey eyes looking lazily about the corridor. The tip of his tail flicked up and down, whether out of irritation or boredom, one couldn't tell. His ears would occasionally twitch, swiveling back at random blasts and thuds that issued from inside the room. It was late, very late to be creating such a commotion, even though the hallways were virtually empty besides the occasional ghost.

I want to slay the demons that still haunt me day and night...

Behind the door was Monica, obviously busy with her wand-work. Usually when loud noises were combined with Monica and the Room of Requirement it meant that a bad temper took some sort of role. But today, Monica was simply practicing. The room was set up with waiting dummies, random objects hovering in the air, waiting to fire at Monica. She'd decided her reactions weren't fast enough, her magic not developed enough either. She'd been in the room for hours, practicing spell after spell, both defensive and offensive. she'd already become very accomplished on a select few spells with wordless magic. Usually that would seem like a great accomplishment, but Monica was unsatisfied.

And I pray for some silence...

Ever since the incident at the Forbidden Forest, she'd come to several decisions. First, if she hadn't been so weak, she could have prevented Shayne's injury. She couldn't help but feel guilty. Second, she would become an Auror. There were no other career options, and what better is there to do than keep criminals at bay? At least, that was what Monica decided to tell herself every time the reasons for becoming an Auror arose. She had to make an attempt to keep her mind together and, well, keep the dark thoughts that had been unraveling her out.

The pain is slowly killing me; the one that others cannot see.

Zack was sitting outside simply for his safety. He'd followed her to the room, and about an hour, a spell had ricocheted and barely missed him. It was then that Monica decided to put him outside until she was finished with the more dangerous of her practicing. But suddenly, after about another hour or so, the blasts and whatnot stopped. A lot of the debris that Monica had created from her spells vanished, but the large stone room was still a bit messy, a few dummies strewn in pieces on the floor. Monica leaned back against a table that contained her messenger bag and several books she'd had to use for reference, deciding to take a break. Zack stood from his position, sniffing at the door and pawing at it. He looked back as footsteps became suddenly near, looking up, asking for entrance.

It's what I go through, because I am in two.

[Lyrics from the song In Two- the missing: =P ]

[bandit]

The hours passed by to slowly for the lonely Gryffindor boy who still had a bright future ahead of him. He had excelled in his school work to the point where it became boring, except potions, and that was simply because he had no patitience for it. Anything that had to do with wordless magic or wand play came easy, to easy. It was almost pathetic the way he had left the school, a disagreement that would stay with him to the end of his school days seemed to leave its mark. He would never forgive.

After dotting his i's and dotting his t's/i] on his potions essay, Tristam stretched and looked out the window. A late summer storm had been brewing and kept the majority of the students indoors. Quidditch practice had been cancelled and so to went his excuse for not doing his potions work. Standing with a delibrate action, Tristam went over to his bed and plucked his wand from the comforter. A simple walk might renew his spirits. It amazed him how draining it was when he had to do something that he hated doing.

Walking through the castle that had once been his playground, Tristam remarked how things had changed. He had changed. The wild Gryffindor had taken root in maturity, something that many thought would not happen. Gazing intently at each portrait, he remembered classic times when he used to terrorize them; and each step brought back memories of terms gone by. His walk seemed to be more of a tour of the forgotten than a stroll of renewal. As he walked up one staircase to the next he found himself on the seventh floor, close to the Room of Requirements.

Looking over toward where the door would show up, Tristam had no immediate need in mind so the door would remain closed. Closer observation brought a cat into view, a familiar looking animal that he should know personally. "Zack?" Almost immediately Monica came to mind and a need. Was it enough for the door to open, Tristam was almost sure that Monica had to be near if Zack was by himself. The pair were hardly ever seen without each other. Tristam moved forward slowly, the lethargy leaving his body. "Where's Monica, Zack?" The cat turned toward the door that came into view.

[americaneagle14]

Monica had put her head in her hands, rubbing her eyes slowly with the palm of her hand. She was tired and she must have looked it, too. She really should be going back to the common room, try to get a bit of sleep. After all, she had left her potion supply that Sesshy had given her back in her dorm. Of course, she had been able to spend the night in the Room of Requirement quite a few times without any disturbance, with the right commands, anyway. After a moment, Monica looked up toward the closed door. She heard Zack scratching, obviously having thought she was finished.

With a flick of her wand, the door slowly eased open, and Monica turned her back to it, setting her wand down on the table and turning her attention to the books. She thought away all the debris and mess, the waiting dummies and targets disappearing by the moment. She shoved several of the books on the table back into her backpack, smiling as she felt Zack rub against her leg. She knelt down to him. "I'm done. I promise, no more loud spells-" she said quietly, scooping him up in her arms.

Then, as she looked up about to stand, she saw a pair of feet, attached to legs, attached to her best friend. How could she not have noticed a rather large person standing in the doorway? She blinked blankly, any thought of staying in the room, or really the room itself was gone. Questions and emotions were zooming in and out of her head. After months of being gone, here he was. Poof, the magical Tristam Lane has arrived. Her mind struggled to settle on only one thing to feel for only a short moment, her expression neutral.

She felt relieved. She released Zack, stepping around him to approach her friend. At first she'd intended to just greet him like normal. Instead, she found herself suddenly hugging him around the neck. Whether or not he felt awkward or... whatever he felt, she didn't even bother with. She felt overwhelmed, herself. "I've missed you, you arse..." she said quietly, not looking at him or letting go. Her statement, although she tried putting a light hearted spin on it, was completely serious. She doubted that the boy even knew how much he'd worried her since his absence.

[bandit]

It wasn't long after seeing the door materialize that Zack started pawing at the door. A sly smile of knowing crossed Tristam's features. "So she's in the room is she." Tristam muttered softly to the cat who only tossed him an indignant look that made Tristam chuckle softly. The started to open slowly, and as soon as there was enough space for him to slip through, Zack was gone in a heartbeat. Tristam quickly reached out a hand to prevent the door from closing on him.

The familiar voice that eminated from the room caused Tristam to smirk as he entered, quietly. He hadn't seen Monica in quite some time, and wondered if she remembered who he was. Leaving the school and going into hiding for a period of time did little to diminish his popularity, but there were those that might have forgotten who he was. It wasn't the case with Monica.

Before Tristam could even get a word out the girl was upon him, arms around his neck to hug him dearly. I've missed you, you arse... Monica's comments made him beam. "I've missed you too." Tristam wrapped his arms around Monica's waist and hugged her, by doing so he lifted her to her toes. It felt good to hold his dear friend once again, it had been so long since seeing her.

Lossening his hug, Tristam let Monica get her footing but still kept his arms around her waist. "You missed me that much huh. So what have you been up to?" Tristam at this point let his hold go of the girl and grinned before looking around the room. "May I ask what you've been up to in this room." There were still some remnants of destruction littered on the floor. Turning his gaze back to her, Tristam quirked an eyebrow, curious.

[americaneagle14]

Monica couldn't help but smile slightly as Tristam hugged her back, returning her comment. It was relieving in a sense; for some reason she felt he might not have missed her in his absence as much as she had him. As he let go to the point where she could keep her feet firmly on the ground, she loosened her arms and raised her eyebrows, more of an immediate reaction, but a bit out of surprise. "Obviously," she responded to his first, probably rhetorical question.

When he completely released her, Monica let her arms drop from his shoulders, coming to rest comfortably crossed beneath her chest. May I ask what you've been up to in this room... "Oh," she said quietly, coming back to realize where she actually was again. It must have been a rather odd sight to walk in on, and she turned slightly in her place, looking out over the large room. She'd meant to have it all clean... With a quick thought, all of the remnants of her doings were gone.

"Practicing," she said simply, looking at him as if it were perfectly obvious. She looked down, feeling Zack rub up against one of her legs. Apparently he was a bit jealous of the attention Tristam was receiving instead of him. For the moment, Monica left her pet alone, knowing she would have the rest of the night to give him affection. She could already feel her body kick into overdrive. The insomnia wasn't going to be nice tonight.

"I don't like falling behind..." she continued, scratching the back of her head idly as she indicated toward her bag stuffed with books, a few still on the table. She crossed her arms once again. "I can't really help it," she said with a sheepish grin. "What can I say? I like being the best." Of course, she knew she most likely wasn't the best student, but she liked to think she was at the top of the bunch. For the past term, and break, she'd stopped focusing on reading about just potions and whatnot. Now, she'd become considerably more interested in dueling. She put her focus back on her friend, her expression becoming curious, masking the concern behind her question. "Where've you been?"

[bandit]

Calmly looking around the room, it was clearly cleaned up except for a few items, Tristam turned his head to look at Monica when she said, practicing. He raised an eyebrow and smirked. So she had been working hard on her studies, it was something that he should be doing also. It seemed that time slipped by him during his absence. Schoolwork was a foreign thing to him, the once Golden Child of Magic had gotten... lazy.

"I guess falling behind is a bad thing. I don't see how you find the time to spend putting this much effort into spell casting." Tristam should have known better. It was interesting how he found wandwork and wordless magic easy, and Monica had no difficulty with Potions. The seemed to be mirror images of each other in a magic sense. "I guess being the best is a worthy goal. Good luck to yah."

Tristam sighed while briefly contemplating Monica's question. "Where have I been...?" Tristam laughed softly as he bent over to pick up Zack and stroke his ears. Zack started purring almost immediately. "I've been... visiting. You know that I play Quidditch, and I've been scouting teams out. I know it's usually the other way around, but I needed the time away." Tristam left it that, not elaborating on why he needed the time.

Tristam bent to put Zack on the floor and the cat gave him a look of, why did you do that? "So tell me... besides practicing to be the best Witch in the world, what's been going on in your life and in the school. I'm sure that I've missed a lot." Tristam wasn't sure if anyone had missed him, besides Monica. He had plenty of friends, and a few enemies in the school, but he was never sure as to how people felt about him.

[americaneagle14]

Monica nodded, looking away to the table containing her things as Tristam went on about his Quidditch searching. He didn't sound at all willing to elaborate, but she made a small mental note to try to coax it out of him later. It was disappointing that he wouldn't open up, but then again, Monica herself had many secrets and whatnot that she'd kept from him as well. She watched absently as he picked up her cat, pet him, then put him back down only to receive a nasty look. She smirked slightly, looking from Zack to Tristam.

Her smirk faded a bit as he questioned her about what had been going on. She hesitated, choosing her words carefully. "Well..." she cleared her throat, her gaze breaking to go about the room. She didn't know how much she wanted to tell him. "A lot has been happening, I guess," She trailed off, then turned, thinking she wanted a place to sit. A large black couch materialized a few yards away next to the table. She meandered over to it, going to sit down on it next to its arm, cross-legged. Zack took up what he thought was his position in the center of her jean-covered lap. She pet him absently, wondering if she should elaborate.

Patting an empty spot on the couch, indicating for him to have a seat, she continued on hesitantly. "School-wise nothing much has happened. I've got a lot of wordless and wandless magic down in the past few terms..." She paused, looking down at her cat as she pet him. "I'm working on reaction time and things like dueling when I practice. Really, I'm trying to get well rounded, I guess," she said, stopping for a moment. That was all really unimportant.

Monica sighed quietly, her shoulders slouching a bit as she looked blankly at her pet. She bit the inside of her lip in thought, trying to piece together what she would say next. "I've... Well I've made a lot of decisions lately. My insomnia has been kicking in for the past few months, so I've had a lot of time to think... Like about my relationships, my future... My Dad, most out of everything else," She ended her thought with a grimace, and noticed she'd stopped petting her cat about halfway through. She didn't know whether or not to go on, and decided if Tristam would prompt her to, she would.

[bandit]

Tristam saw that behind Monica a couch appeared and his eyes lifted slightly in astonishment. That was until he remembered where he was, then he shifted uncomfortable feeling like an idiot. Had it been that long since he had been in the Room of Requirements? Tristam's eyes followed as Monica went to and sat on the black couch, Zack soon followed, but Tristam hesitated when Monica patted the couch. Then gave a small shoulder shrug, there was no point in resisting and sat on the couch, turned so that he was facing the girl.

"I guess dueling is a good thing, and practice does help." Tristam wished that practicing potions helped, but he had long given up any sort of hope that he might be more than sufficient at it. "If you ever need a practice partner, you know I'm ready." Tristam tried not to sound to overconfident, Monica had proven on more than one occassion to be his match. He may have been gifted with the wand, but certainly didn't mean he was the best. Tristam knew that there were times when he would be... lazy. Such as a lot of gifted people could be.

"So you've spent a lot of time thinking, huh? I would guess that's all you can do if you are suffering from insomnia." Tristam could only imagine himself not being able to sleep. It held a lot of dangerous scenarios if he was to spend countless nights with minimal sleep. Mainly the castle and the forest would have a regular visitor. Not that he ever needed an excuse to wander in the evening hours, but insomnia would definately not be a good thing if mixed with Tristam Lane.

"So what about your relationship with your dad? I can't remember a lot of the details you've told me about him, but... uhmm, how is he doing?" Tristam lifted his leg up on the couch and rested his back up against the arm rest, with his arm drapped over the back. Concern started to slip across his face as he wondered. He had been rather tight lipped about what he was doing while he went missing, would Monica open up considering he had been quite?

[americaneagle14]

Monica looked at her friend, feeling a bit stunned with his question. She'd only spoken about him once to Tristam, and that was when they first met. Did he forget the simple statement she'd made about him? Or, did he think she meant her stepfather? Either way, it didn't matter, she supposed. She sighed quietly, giving him a look that said the answer was obvious. "He's rotting. I told you he had been dead since I was eight at the dinner table the day we met. That's all I really told you, though."

She waved a hand, dismissing the statement with a rather irritated look on her face. She looked back down to Zack, scratching him distractedly behind the ear. Come to think of it, she'd really never gone in depth with anything to Tristam, and vice versa. Really showed how much they knew each other. She cleared her throat, pushing the thought to the back of her mind. Now would be the chance to go a little more in depth, then, she guessed.

"As far as thinking about him, he did a lot of... things that I understand and I've been trying to figure it all out. Anyway, I've just been thinking about following in his steps. He was an Auror back in America, and I guess I want to be one, too." She paused, taking a moment to figure out what she was going to say. "I mean, I really don't have many choices, as far as other careers. And I guess it's for personal gain, too." Again, she obviously cut herself short. Now wasn't really the time to go into all of the hateful thoughts and plans she'd been debating. After all, this was the first time in months she'd seen her best friend. Why make it tense and awkward?

It did bother her, though, that she claimed Tristam her best friend, yet he knew virtually nothing about what'd happened with her. They were supposed to be close, right? Then, what kept him from telling her what'd been going on with him? She'd hoped that she would be his confidant, but if he wanted to be guarded and silent, she wouldn't push. If he really wanted to tell her, he would have. Monica, on the other hand, kept her past and personal life to herself only because he wouldn't prod. That's a bit contradicting, isn't it? Well, if he didn't want to trust her with the information, then she wouldn't force him to.

She cleared her throat, putting on a smile and looking at him again. "Hence the practice," she continued. "As for relationships, well... I don't really have any. I'm friends with you and pretty much one other person. Otherwise, I'm just acquainted with a few people... I suppose it's for the best, though." It was less stressful that way, right? Dark wizards were rising and such, and it was easy to see another war was coming. Would it be easier to distance herself from people, to just be alone? She'd find out, she supposed.