Chill (open)

[squiggle]

It was rather early in the morning, or for Zelphar at least. On most given Saturdays he would not be awake before noon, unless of course, he was scheduled to work. But today was one of those days that he has off. For once. Zonko's was swamped on Saturdays, and the manager liked to have "all hands on deck," but Zelphar had to admit, having the day off was a bit of a relief. He was starting to get worried about his O.W.L.s, although they weren't to be taken until April. But those days were drawing nearer. It was a little less than two months now.

Consequently, all his teachers were assigning twice as much homework. Zelphar tightened his cloak around himself, it was cold outside. His breath froze on the air, and there was still snow on the ground, it came up to about his ankles. Just then, a snowball flew through the air and hit him square in the back of th head. Zelphar jumped a moment, then scooped up a handful of snow to retaliate and whipped around only to see...

[violethorses]

Azzurra was grinning at him, another snowball ready in her hand. This was the only good part about winter, the snowball fights she could have. Other than that, winter was as dull as the gray cloak she was wearing tight around her body. Azzurra let the second snowball fly, prepared to duck when Zelphar fired back. "Hi!" she exclaimed, still grinning.

[squiggle]

Zelphar smiled when he saw that the person who had hit him was his only friend, Azzurra. He packed the snow in his hand into a ball. "Hi Az," said Zelphar. he had never really been a person for snowball fights, but right now, it sounded like a lot of fun. Zelphar aimed and threw, then immediately seized another handful of snow to throw another snowball at Az.

[violethorses]

Laughing, Azzurra ducked under Zelphar's first snowball. Unfortunately when she rose again, the second one hit her right on the nose. This only caused her to laugh harder. She scooped up some more snow and let it fly at her best friend. "What's up?" she asked, over the sound of flying snow and wind.

[squiggle]

"Not a whole lot," Zelphar replied, launching another snowball and getting hit in the chest by Azzurra's latest throw. She had a good arm. Or at least better than his. he was a Quidditch Keeper, not a Chaser. He caught, throwing wasn't that big a part of the equation. "Stress over OWLs, you know, the usual." Zelphar added, then grabbed himself anothe handful of snow. "What about you?"

[violethorses]

Azzurra crinkled her nose as Zelphar spoke of the exams that were drawing near for all, but especially for the fifth and seventh years. She did not envy having to take OWLs, not one bit. Regular exams were bad enough as it was. "A little bit of homework, but mostly boredom," she replied, ducking under Zelphar's throw. She chucked another ball of snow at him. Her aim was surprisingly good, those years as a Chaser hadn't gone to waste.

[squiggle]

Zelphar ducked, not a typical instinct of his. He usually wanted to get hit, it would at the very least stop the quaffle from going through the goalpost. He threw his snowball, and less than two seconds later was making another one. "Yeah, that sounds about typical of people these days." said Zelphar, throwing the snowball that he had just made. He had to admit, this was kind of fun.

[violethorses]

"It is," Azzurra replied. She laughed as Zelphar's snowball whizzed past her arm. She laughed another pile of snow at him, formulating her next words, and grabbing another handful of snow. She compacted it and looked up to see that the first one had missed. With another laugh, she let the second one fly. But she never saw if it hit the target.

It was a dark room, the only light came from a crack under the door. She was aware of being on some type of furniture, a couch perhaps, but she couldn't be sure. The air seemed to be pushing her down on whatever it was. Something was on top of her, she was screaming, but no sounds came from her mouth. In fact, there was no sound at all.

Reality hit her like another snowball, the light catching her off-guard. Who was that, and what was happening to that girl? Azzurra couldn't say, but she wouldn't wish that reality on anyone. It was scary. The usual headache that followed her visions hit like a punch to the stomach. Visions were the worst. She always felt sick afterward and usually even--. Azzurra retched on the snow, she was aware that she had already been on her knees.

[squiggle]

Shocked, Zelphar dropped the snowball that he had just made, recognizing the strange symptoms of his best friend at once to be one of her visions. He did not envy her in being a Seer in that sense, but he supposed that it would make Divination class a hell of a lot easier. "What happened?" Zelphar asked worriedly, offering Az his hand to help pull her to her feet. He knew it was a vision, nothing else fit. He was inquiring a bit more as to what she had Seen. Zelphar bit his lip.

[violethorses]

Azzurra stared up at him, squinting in the bright light. It was making her head hurt even more, a pounding pain that she knew wouldn't fade for a while. Before she took Zelphar's hand, she vanished the vomit sitting on the snow. Then she allowed her best friend to pull her back to her feet, closing her eyes as she reached her normal height. She felt like she about to fall over.

Azzurra shook her head in response to his question. Even she couldn't answer that, which was the worst part about being a Seer. If you could See the future, shouldn't you know what was going to happen? Apparently not. "I don't know," she said miserably. "There was a girl in some dark room. And she was screaming, but I have no idea why." Azzurra felt like she was going to be sick all over again; this had been one of her worst visions.

[squiggle]

"It's all over now, it's all right," said Zelphar, placing a hand on Az's shoulder and looking into her eyes. He wished that he knew that the words were true but he was unsure. The girl in the vision could be anyone, even Azzurra herself. That was not a pleasant thing to think about. "Do you think that you ought to write to Cici?" asked Zelphar, now shoving his hands into his pockets. If Az was so frightened by this, perhaps she ought to go to an adult that might know a bit more about visions and things.

[violethorses]

It's all over now, Azzurra told herself, repeating Zelphar's words in her own head. He was right, it would be okay, maybe the girl would escape whatever it was. She had to stay positive. "I don't know," she replied to him. "It's happened before and it'll probably happen again." Sure Azzurra liked her headmistress, but writing to her about one vision seemed a little absurd. Cici probably had bigger things to worry about.

[squiggle]

Zelphar raised his eyebrows, they disappeared into his dark hair, as they often did. He liked to keep his hair long, but that wasn't the point, he was a bit more concerned about Azzurra at the moment. "All right then," said Zelphar, then bit his lip, simultaneously running his tongue across the two piercings he had on his lower lip.

[violethorses]

Azzurra could guess what Zelphar was thinking. Probably something along the lines of she should definitely write to Cici, tell her everything and ask her advice. But Azzurra didn't really want to worry Cici, it was just a vision, she had been living with them most of her life. "So what's new with you?" Azzurra asked, changing the topic away from her vision and also trying to distract herself from her headache.

[squiggle]

Taken a bit off guard by the sudden subject change, Zelphar had to think of something. There wasn't really anything too interesting. Oh, the practice OWL exam in Charms... Fascinating. "Well, I got 110% on the Charms practice OWL the other day," said Zelphar. Charms and Transfiguration were his best subjects.