birthday loneliness (open)

[seneca]

It was that time of year again. Seneca's birthday. And, like every year, she was roaming the hallways aimlessly, while her parents worked furiously. They loved her, she knew that. But, she never got a gift on her birthday. Never a love note, never anything, until school got out at least. And it was even worse, now that Mum was printing headlines about the war, and Dad was constantly monitoring everything. It was sheer torture, knowing her parents paid more attention to their duties than to their only child, especially since both were in serious danger.

Seneca had been pacing the Basement corridors for the majority of the morning, since she didn't feel like shuffling up to breakfast quite yet. Boys had come and gone, and by now they had noticed the petite blond. As she paced, she experimented with her Charm, flexing it on and off randomnly. At one point, it was so high, to the point where one boy turned around, following her, tongue literally out of his mouth. It was disgusting.

[sarabi]

Being upset was an understatement for Sarabi that morning. She was still fretting about the upcoming hearing regarding her custody, and the fact that some Slytherins had decided to tease her about being illegitimate had only made things worse. Usually tough, Sarabi was inches from tears- she hardly knew which direction was up, she didn't need her peers making life even mroe difficult. Sarabi knew she ought to be used to the teasing by now, but it still stung like lemon juice over a paper cut. She was so caught up in thought that she barely noticed another person until she had walked straight into them. "Sorry," Sarabi said absently.

[seneca]

Seneca had certainly not been expecting someone to walk right into her path. She opened her mouth to yell at them, thinking it was a stupid boy who had gotten too close. Upon further inspection, however, she found it to be another girl, who was visibly upset. "Oh, no, it's alright. Are you okay?" she asked, concerned. Seneca would feel terrible if she had hurt the girl, though they didn't connect too hard.

[sarabi]

"Yeah," Sarabi said, they had barely touched, but through her extensive etiquette lessons with her very proper mother she knew the situation called for an apology. "I'm fine," Sarabi added with less than a few second's pause. The words had never seemed like such a downright lie to the girl, but she did not feel like getting into a discussion about her parental woes with a relative stranger.