when did we lose ourselves? -- gid

[reighleigh braxton]

It had been, in simplest terms, a long, long week for those of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The first few days back to school were always hectic, of course, but it seemed as if this year they were hectic and going in slow motion, if possible. The students were busy getting back into the flow of schoolwork and boarding school life, as well as catching up with friends. All Reighleigh Braxton had been able to do, however, was get herself into messes. For one thing, she couldn’t seem to get away from Kiernan Robinson. Every time she turned around, there he was – there were several times when she literally ran into him. If that wasn’t bad enough, somehow she’d managed to get behind on her schoolwork already, and there were three essays currently waiting to be written. On top of that, she hadn’t seen Gideon hardly at all since they’d gotten back to school. Other than at meals and in the corridors, they’d both had piles and piles of homework to do and Gideon was busy with the paper. She’d seen Gage, her other best friend, because they were in the same dorm, but it was harder going about without Gid. Needless to say, the past week had been hell for Reigh.

So she’d decided to take a Thursday night and manage to fix – or avoid – all those problems. Instead of heading to the library, or anywhere else where there could be someone from another house, the girl was curled up in the Ravenclaw common room, a blanket over her lap and a scroll of parchment in her hands. She had a transfiguration essay due in two days and she wasn’t even close to being finished. And as for the last problem, the one that involved missing her best friend quite terribly, she was simply waiting for him. He was going to have to come through the common room eventually, and if he didn’t happen to see her or come talk to her, it was quite possible that she would simply tackle him, sit on him, and make him acknowledge her. Because damn it, she missed him.

Grinning at the thought, Reigh dipped her favorite quill into a jar of jet black ink and began to write swiftly, glancing every now and then at the book on the table beside her to make sure she was correct. As she wrote, her mind wondered, and the girl found herself thinking about what was going on at home. Not her aunt Laura’s house, because she knew perfectly well what was happening there. Laura was getting home from work right about now, and Michael, her best friend, would have already broken into the house and be waiting for her on the couch, flipping the channels on her television. He was in love with her aunt, Reighleigh was certain, but that was none of her business, of course. No, she wasn’t thinking about the Etros household at the moment, she was thinking about the Braxton’s home.

Her mother had written a few days ago, right after Reigh had arrived back at school, to rave about how amazing things were and how much better her father was when he was sober. Most people would think this was a reason to rejoice, but for the sixteen-year-old brunette, it just made her heart hurt. Every few months, her father would sober up, say he was done with alcohol forever, and hold a steady job for about two months. Her mother would pretend that everything was perfect, that he wasn’t going to go back to what he usually was, etc, etc. But he always did, and Reighleigh had come to expect it by now. He would come home from work angry, decide to drown it out with whiskey, but the whiskey would only make him angrier. So he would take his aggression out on his wife, and when Reighleigh was younger, his daughter. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she’d inherited her temper from her father, and that was something that, at times, frightened her.

Reigh’s inner monologue was cut short when she realized she’d managed to make an enormous ink blot on the parchment by flinging the quill around carelessly. Muttering a curse under her breath, she grabbed her wand off of the table beside her and quickly whispered a cleaning charm, watching with satisfaction as the parchment was immediately fresh again. Replacing her wand with her quill once again, Reighleigh shook her head and focused on the essay, glancing around every once in a while for Gideon. She didn’t need to let her family problems get into her head right now, she couldn’t afford it. She had to think about school and her friends, and things that she could change, because however much she wanted to, she couldn’t change her father, or her mother.

[gideon evertree]

Basically, it could be said, that every student hates the first week back to school. Getting back into the swing of things, all the review, the homework, the reiteration of things you had heard so many times in the past years that you could recite it verbatim even after a long night of booze and other uncontrolled substances. Not that Gideon would have experience in the latter, but he was certainly no exception to the rule. It was probably tougher on he and his fellow seventh years than anybody else in the school. They had their N.E.W.T.'s to think about, their futures, on top of their regular school work and (for those fortunate enough) social schedules. While Gid's social experience was only as broad as the very few people in his circle, it was hard for him to balance his friends with his school work. Life at the newspaper did not make it any easier on him. There was always so many things to be done and there never seemed enough time in the day.

It was a good thing he already had an established caffeine habit, otherwise he might not have been able to make it these past few days on the minimal amount of sleep that he had. He already had dark circles under his eyes and looked half dead to anyone who was there to notice. The funny thing was, it wasn't all of the things he had to do, his feelings about what lay in the future, or any of that stuff that kept him from sleeping at night. It was thoughts of a girl. Thoughts that he really, really needed advice about. But the only person that he trusted enough to ask had been MIA for the past week. Reighleigh Braxton was his best friend. Odd, since they were opposites in every fashion. Starting with the fact that she was a girl and Gideon and girls tended not to get on so well. Mostly because he could not speak to them without stuttering or being completely oblivious to the hidden meanings in whatever they said to him. Gideon had no idea how he and Reigh became friends, but he wasn't about to question it.

Unfortunately, she'd MIA for the past week. Being a year below him, she was busy with quite a different schedule than his. He'd barely even seen her on the train ride and then at the feast. She had way too many friends, while he had few. Actually scoring a seat close to her had been impossible. So he'd waved from down the table and texted her the entire time, but they'd yet to have an actual conversation. Besides asking her advice on a certain subject, Gideon was feeling remiss in his duties as best friend to find out how her summer had gone -- and to gauge how bad her family troubles had gotten. She'd told him very little about it, but he could sense there was something wrong and the last thing he wanted was for her to feel as if she couldn't tell him. Not that he would really blame her, to be honest. He hadn't exactly been forthcoming in his own family troubles. His only excuse being that she'd never asked about them. One day soon, she might get curious but Gideon would much rather cross that bridge if and when they came to it. That wasn't to say there wasn't that little knob of guilt that twisted inside his stomach when he thought about it however.

Dragging himself up the steps of the staircase leading to the seventh floor, Gideon heaved a sigh and ran through a hand through his messy dark hair. As he did so, his shoulder accidentally collided with someone else's. Looking up, Gid was startled to see his cousin looking back at him -- an expression much like his own on his face. Kiernan's eyebrows drew together as he seemed to be measuring him up. He looked about to say something but then shook his head and looked away. "Sorry," Gideon mumbled, starting to move away. He watched his cousin's face tighten, as with annoyance before he stalked off down the staircase. Gideon rolled his eyes in an exasperated fashion and continued up the stairs. It was how it had been between the two of them for a couple of years now and he didn't know how to fix it. His mood suddenly sour, he had to control himself not to stomp all the way to then entrance to the Ravenclaw common room.

Pushing open the portrait, he stepped inside. A quick scan of the room, and he noted the dark-haired girl he'd been looking for all week. He let out a breath, relieved almost to be finding someone he could talk to without fear of stuttering or sounding like an idiot. It may have sounded weird, considering he was not a talkative person anyway, but sometimes even Gideon couldn't bottle up everything. Weaving his way through the students crowding the room, he dropped his school bag on the table in front of the sofa and plopped down on the cushions. Half sitting, half laying, Gideon slung an arm over his eyes and let out a dramatic groan. "Please tell me you've had a better week than I have," he said without looking at her. It wasn't, perhaps, the most positive of openings but, then again, he wasn't feeling all the positive.