p a t r o l {open}

[natalia]

Natalia looked up at the cavernous ceiling of the great hall. At night with the stars shining it was beautiful, but now it only reflected the outside winter sky, filled with snow. Even though it was warm, she still felt the phantom numbing cold. She wrinkled her nose. The ceiling always offered an accurate mirror of the weather outside, meaning there was little escape in winter for her. Winter, where everything was dull and gray, without life. The gardens were filled with snow, along with every other favorite grassy haunt of hers.

Nat looked at Elliot, who was talking about Defense Against the Dark Arts and Charms. Defense Against the Dark Arts had been one of the worst of her subject last year, barely managing an O for outstanding. Barely. It had been the knockback jinx that had gotten to her. The aggressive magic was new to her, something she wasn't used to, and had almost cost her a perfect report card. Charms, however, was interesting enough. What had caught her attention was their Professor talking about how some talented Wizards had managed to write their own spells and such. "Have you ever written your own spell? Like Erik and his music?" She had seen the spell her first day there.

Looking around, she noted a few of her fellow second years who were talking or hurrying to finish unfinished homework. She had to smirk at that. Good luck finishing the essay due within the twenty minutes they had. She took her usual seat at the Ravenclaw table, wondering how it would work with Elliot eating there. Did Aurors receive a spot at the table where the teacher's sat?

[potter]

As Nat looked upward Elliot directed her own gaze toward the enchanted ceiling, she had forgotten how realistically it depicted the conditions outside, it looked as if someone had simply removed the ceiling altogether. Though at least it was warm, perfectly cozy in the harsh conditions just the way that she had remembered it. Elliot was beginning to grow tired of the winter-like weather. Snow in December was wonderful, beautiful, but once it got to be March snow became downright depressing to look at. And the fact remained that Elliot was still slightly underweight, rendering her much more likely to be cold that the average person.

She tilted her head to the side when Natalia inquired about whether or not she had made up a spell of her own. Elliot knew it was dangerous to dawdle in such things, Erik had been very successful indeed with the charms he used on his musical instruments- others weren't quite so lucky. Thankfully, she was not in the part of the ministry that dealt with that sort of thing. She did not fancy herself scraping up the remains of some kooky wizard who had blown himself up in his tinkering. "A few," said Elliot, " they're insignificant charms, mostly."

Elliot had come up with one on her own that made even the highest of heels completely comfortable, which she loved, and the others were mainly organizational ones, they sorted her paperwork into the proper bins, colour-coded her files, things like that. Nothing ground-breaking, though they made day-to-day life a little simpler. Elliot simply sat down beside Natalia at the table. Normally she went down to the kitchens for meals, though she saw no reason to leave the girl alone. Across the hall she even saw Jacobson, seated at the Gryffindor table with who could only be his son, the boy was his spitting image.

[natalia]

Nat raised an eyebrow, impressed. "Like what?" She asked in amazement. She had read it was risky, and challenging to make your own spells. It fascinated her, that some could be so intelligent and powerful to do such so casually. She sighed quietly, half with longing. One day she wanted to do the same. Although she had no ideas for one, she wanted to create one to say she did. To have that pride and proof that no matter her blood lineage, she was as intelligent as any arrogant pureblood. It wasn't like her to get worked up over small things, unless someone outshone her in what little she bothered to take pride in. Like Herbology. Yesterday some pig-nosed Slytherin had corrected her.

Every time Nat figured she was as normal as the next person, she realized there was still that deep rooted want to cower in the corner and never look up. It had taken every bit of self-control to NOT cry, which was an accomplishment and a first within itself. She looked over at Elliot, whom Erik had talked about being shy in school. She couldn't see it. Elliot was so pretty, and kind, she couldn't ever see Elliot curled up in a ball as Nat did both figuratively and, at times, literally. Now that she was learning of Elliot's accomplishments as a spell-write, she both admired and envied her even more.

[potter]

Elliot looked at the table a brief moment, even now it was daunting, especially since she was going to be eating with someone rather than by herself. Most of the time she ate breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner in her office whilst she filled out paperwork. And she didn't want people to see her struggle to force her food down like she always did. Elliot could face dark wizards without a problem, but in her anorexia she saw a near unconquerable foe. She quickly swallowed before helping herself to a portion of salad, half a turkey sandwich and a cup of soup. There, that was a decent meal, she should be able to stomach it...

"Organizational things for my paperwork," said Elliot as she poured herself a goblet of water, "colour-coding files, putting things in the right bin, nothing really important. Though I have figured out a charm to make high heels more comfortable to wear." She then began to delicately eat her salad. It was a systematic sort of thing- first salad, then soup, and then main course. Elliot filled up on lower-calorie things first, she wasn't supposed to, but she still did.

[natalia]

Nat watched her in amazement. She said it so casually. Erik had said Elliot had been smart. Maybe she was smarter than Nat herself. She raised her eyebrows. "How is that nothing really important?" She asked in slight horror. "My professor said it was extremely difficult. And Erik only has one," she stomped on the brakes of her babbling. She paused. "Heels?" She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She had never worn a pair, being twelve and favoring the many different boots she would find during the summer. The higher they were, the more she could keep hidden in them, which was important with most of her robe space dedicated to reading material.

Nat hardly noticed the eating. She only noted how little it was, but she had seen girls in her dorm eat even less on a regular basis. She dismissed the careful diet to Auror standards, realizing that there would be a lot of physical work in it. She helped herself to food, dumping a huge serving of everything in sight on her plate. Only now, having given in to giving up time in her Greenhouses to eat, did she realize why she was so hungry in the evenings. "Why would an Auror have paperwork?" She asked between bites of the food, glad to have caught it before it was cold.

[potter]

Although the Hogwarts food was amazing like always, Elliot still was not enjoying eating. She didn't know if she would ever really be happy eating anything ever again- food was a bare minimum for survival, not something to lift one's mood. Elliot did recognize that before she hadn't been eating enough to survive, though the plan she was on now seemed awfully excessive. Before she might have done just the salad, at most a few bites of the soup to go with. But for the sake of not influencing Nat onto her dangerous path, she would force down an acceptable, albeit small, lunch. Elliot shrugged. "They don't serve much purpose I suppose," said she, still not really thinking highly of it.

She took a sip of water. "I can show you when you start wearing heels," Elliot offered, she hadn't seen Nat wear them before, and at any rate she was only twelve, no need to rush. She took another bite of her salad, eating slowly, methodically, but it helped her to keep everything down. "We have to keep tabs on everyone we've found or are looking for, time sheets, mission reports, accident reports," said Elliot, ticking off the files that flooded her desk on a routine basis, "most people don't think of sitting at a desk as part of being an Auror, but it's more than just catching the bad guys."

[natalia]

Nat listened, half amazed that Aurors were so normal, half disappointed. She realized the way Erik had explained she'd pictured super heroes like the ones in the comic books her idiot cousins would read. She had seen endless amounts of paperwork in her lifetime, piled upon desks around their house back home. Nat had never wanted to have a job involving paperwork, but it was even there in the wizarding world.

"So you're not just here to catch bad guys?" She asked quietly. It was still unnerving to have Aurors out there. Aurors that, as it turned out, were really as normal as anyone else. The concept of needing them on the grounds was more terrifying than the thought of what happened. Then again, she knew very little about what had happened. She had felt no want nor need to know. Hogwarts had always been an untouchable sanctuary in her mind, and what would happen if it were to crumble? Suddenly she wasn't as hungry as she had thought she was as she pushed her half finished plate a few inches away from her.

[potter]

Elliot was beginning to feel her usual mid-meal nausea, though she kept it well hidden beneath a normal exterior, but all the same it made her not want to eat anymore. She thought briefly on Erik, how she had confided in him about her anorexia, hoping that the mere thought of him might make the rest of the meal easier to power through. This did little to help the nausea, though Elliot felt she had been given a small dose of motivation. If for no one else she would do this for Erik, to make him proud of the little progress she had made.

"It the main purpose of our profession," said Elliot, "though we also do escorts, security for international functions, and quite a bit of desk work." She shrugged and then finished off the last of her salad. Just two more things to go. Two more little things. "But really, I could never imagine doing anything else," Elliot added after her first, unnaturally small bite of soup. She was afraid now that she might have disappointed Nat with the reality of her supposedly glamourous, dangerous, and heroic profession, though she hadn't said anything but the truth.

[natalia]

Nat nodded, although the information didn't entirely sink in. She was still thinking about how they were here. They were living proof that Hogwarts wasn't as untouchable as she had thought. She nodded, showing she was listening. Elliot herself looked a bit ill, which Nat chalked off to the constant patrol outside in the wretched weather.

"So what really happened?" She blurted, hoping it didn't sound too rude, the jumping from subject from subject. It had been growing on her mind, the concept of not knowing. It was something that had been important to her, to know everything she could. But when it came to this, she had elected to remain ignorant, which was out of character. Something that had thrown everyone off, and prevented even that wretched Malfoy boy to think of a decent insult. "With the murder, I mean?" She added.

[potter]

Elliot frowned slightly, Nat was beginning to appear concerned about something, though what she wasn't quite sure. Was she perhaps unsettled like many of the students that Aurors were making routine patrols of the grounds? Really, she did hate it, there wasn't much a need for them to be there on a daily basis. To Elliot it seemed that the threat had passed, the Death Eaters had accomplished their mission, and likely weren't going to touch the school again. Unless, of course, they saw the need to take over like Voldemort had done. Elliot suppressed a shudder at the thought, she definitely didn't want to see Hogwarts in the clutches of evil.

Elliot swallowed forcefully as Nat asked what had really happened with the murder of Ascella Malfoy. Truthfully, it made her uneasy to talk about it, even with the little that she knew. Though if anyone had a right to understand it was the students of Hogwarts. "I'm not too informed about it myself, but I know the Malfoy girl got too far into the wrong crowd without making the right connections inside. They were under the impression she had betrayed them," said Elliot, tone a little uneasy, "I don't believe there is a lingering threat, it feels too... specific." She left it at that, there was only so much she could say without getting in trouble.

[natalia]

Nat nodded. Obviously Elliot couldn't or didn't want to tell her more, and she wasn't in the position to push. When she had asked, she had meant more how. Where. Why. But the why had been answered. She sighed heavily, half wishing she hadn't asked, but she felt as if there was some block relieved from her mind. She nodded. "But you guys are still here," she commented quietly. It was frustrating, and she didn't know why. She poked at the mashed potatoes, all thought of eating completely gone.

"So do you at least like being here?" She asked, attempting to get away form the topic all together. "Erik is going to be here soon, too," she had found that interesting. Of course, she was happy Erik was going to be there to lean on, but there was also the typical kid having family at school worries. What was worse was a few girls had seen him on his last visit, gushing about how cute he was.

[potter]

Elliot was glad that she was not pressed for further information, really it made her skin crawl and her stomach churned. It had not been a painless death for Ascella Malfoy, of that much she was certain. "TRAITOR" had been etched deep into the flesh of her abdomen with a knife, and she had likely been tortured further before finally given death. It was a terrible fate, like the carnage she had come across when the ministry had been attacked, stomachs sliced open with entrails hanging from gaping wounds, slit throats, punctured lungs. There had been so much blood, it still haunted her in her nightmares, drove her to drink and rely more heavily on her cigarettes.

Elliot only nodded in response. Yes, they were still there, wasting time and resources when they could be tracking down the bloodthirsty killers. She was most grateful for a change in subject, she did not need to dwell so much on that during her waking hours. "Yes, to be honest I've missed the school," said Elliot, slight hint of nostalgia in her voice. She nodded as Nat mentioned Erik would be coming to the school soon. Really, she could not be any more proud of him for becoming a professor.

[natalia]

Nat smiled. No matter how big and glamorous Elliot was she still missed Hogwarts. "What did you spend most of your time doing here?" She asked curiously, the phantom feeling of the previous topic still hung over them, that uneasy feeling in her stomach. She hated the burning lump that formed in her throat when she thought of something she didn't know. As if she was standing blindfolded on a ledge, not knowing what was below. She hated the feeling of ignorance, but it was obvious it was safer in this situation. She wanted to forget that she was in the dark about something, and wanted to get the conversation as far away as possible.

[potter]

Elliot wasn't sure why, but she found that the soup was even more difficult to force down than usual. Perhaps it was because her thoughts had been dragged into the territory of the scene that she had encountered so many months ago. The scene that had resulted in Jordan committing suicide after losing his wife and unborn son... Elliot swallowed forcefully, shoving those thoughts away again as Natalia asked of her what she had spent most of her time in Hogwarts doing. Really, that was an easy answer. "Homework, mostly," said Elliot, lightly shaking her head at herself, "though I did spend a great deal of time in the library, and talking with the ghosts and the portraits..." She sighed lightly, remembering simpler days. Of course, once she had hit fifth year was when her struggles with anorexia had begun, her life hadn't been anything but complicated since then.

[natalia]

Nat laughed. Her home was the library. Of course, those few times she ventured out she was in the greenhouses or gardens. She had spoken a bit with the ghosts, but portraits unnerved her. She had been familiar with ghosts from the beginning on, her grandmother's cottage had been lousy with them. But portraits were both far too talkative and knowing. They saw everything. They knew everything. It scared her, something being so talkative knowing everything which she did. Those moments where she would run, crying, face bruised. They knew what she hid from even Erik.

"Sounds like the perfect time," she nodded, smiling slightly. Of course, one horror, namely her brother, was gone, the next one was here. And it was bigger and scarier than before. Whether she viewed the daunting presence of the Aurors or the occurrence of the death as the big bad, it was there. It was hanging over her even more than her brother had. Even though she had learned that there will always be some terror in life, she always hoped that one day she'd wake up to see there isn't one. She didn't want to know what was waiting after this horror had passed. "How long did you know you were going to be an Auror? Almost everyone wants to be an Auror," she asked, once again trying to distract her thoughts. The common room was wild with chatter of fourth years pressured to choose their future.