Reactions and Nightmares (open)

Karma was curled up on the end of the couch, her knees to her chest and her eyes on the fire. It was after curfew, and she wanted to be wandering around the castle, but she'md known that tonight was Professor Romain's day to patrol, and she didn't fancy getting caught by him. Why was she awake at this merlin-forsaken hour when even her Familiar was sleeping?

She was having Nightmares.

She needed to get over it, really. She still wasn't feeling anything from what happened at the lake three days ago, but it the sinking feeling in her gut was anything to go by, the feeling was coming back. She recognized the dread.

This was going to be bad.

The emotions came back one by one, fear, apprehension, dread, determination, then sick finality and horror at what she'd done. By the end of it she was trembling. She could see the girls eyes in the fire as they widened in fear as she held the knife to her throat. Lacey. No, Lacey was still in the castle, she's seen her at meals.

But she'd still killed the only family member she had left, whether Lacey was still alive was irrelevant. Karma had killed her.

She pulled her legs closer to her and continued to gaze silently into the fire, shaking.

Alexis crept out of her dorm for her nightly sneak out. But, this night was different. There was someone sitting in the common room. There goes my plan, she thought, disappointed. Well,let me sit here at least, she thought.
'Hello, mind if I join?' she collapsed into a couch, rubbing her eyes.

Karma shook her head and continued to gaze into the flames. "Romain's patrolling tonight." She murmured. "In case you were about to go out. I was gonna, at first." She said quietly, her voice emotionless. Her eyes didn't leave the fire.

Lacey, bound on the shore of the lake, Karma with a knife to her throat. The cut, the blood. It flashed before her eyes and behind her eyelids whenever she tried to sleep. Lacey. Dead. On the shore of the lake. The image was taunting her. She didn't regret it. Not in the least, but the fact that she was capable of something like that sickened her.

But why? It was just a random girl under the influence of polyjuice potion, wasn't it? Some faceless girl in Lacey's skin. But if she had to, would she be able to kill Lacey?

Yes. With little or no hesitation. She'd already done it once, after all.

The words came back, as they had, over and over.

Life is empty. When we take it, we take nothing of value.

The why was she still trembling?

Her shoulders slumped. A bit of fresh air would be nice. Well... She noticed that the girl was trembling slightly. She frowned, it's not that cold.
'Are you alright? I'm not trying to be nosy or something though.' she added quickly.
After a few moments, she added, 'I'm Alexis by the way.'

"I'm Karma." Karma said softly, all but ignoring the girls first question. She offered the girl a strained smile. "Nice to meet you, Alexis."

'Nice to meet you too, Karma.' she returned.
She looks stressed out, Alexis thought. She turned to the fire too. The flames dancing in their own rythm. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Maybe a little meditation wouldn't be a bad idea.
She was agitated since the DADA class, she came so close to losing control, it frightened her.
Charlie's voice rang in her ears... I won't stay with her in the same house... Either you send her away, or I'm leaving... Ana tried to kill me...
An involuntary shudder passed through her spine.

Karma neede a distraction. Now. And as things went, the other girl probably did to. So Karma reached into her pocket and pulled out the world's greatest therapist.

Chocolate.

Or a Chocolate Frog, to be exact.

She held it out to Alexis. "Therapy, for your thoughts?" Karma pulled another one from her pocket. When didn't she have candy on her, honestly? She was a candy fenatic. If it was a sport, she'd be the star player. She tossed the girl some chocolate and hastily opened her own frog, catching it in one hand as she looked at the CF Card. Voldemort. The card said both Tom Riddle, and Lord Voldemort, and had this whole backstory on why he became evil and how he killed his father and... it was all very boring. She had maybe six of him. This made seven.

Well, she didn't open it for the card, she opened it for the chocolate.

She brought the frog closer to her face before taking a huge bite of it's head so it ceased its struggles immediately. Then she pleasurably continued to eat the chocolate, smiling at the other girl.

"So, what's up with you?"

Alexis caught the chocolate and laughed, 'Thanks, you're a life-saver."
She inspected her card while she let the frog crawl into her hand. Severus Snape sneered at her from the Card. She bit into the chocolateand sighed as the chocolate seemed to warm her up from the inside. She frowned at her question in thought, What's up with me?
"We all have our own nightmares I guess." she sighed.
Ana tried to kill me... She is Evil!!!...No! Charlie! I'm your sister! I love you... You are no such thing... Alexis closed her eyes.

Karma shrugged. Nightmares indeed. She frowned and pulled out another chocolate frog. "One thing you should know about me: I carry candy everywhere. I have a supply that can rival Honeydukes in size. If you ever need some sweets, come find me, and there is no doubt in my mind I'll have exactly what you want, for a Galleon or two." It was a lot less than candy prices in the stores, but Karma couldn't just give the stuff out. She ate most of it anyway.

She bit the head off her next Chocolate Frog. Mad Eye Moody. Well wasn't he a happy guy? She smirked as he glared at her, his magical eye wizing around before he limped away.

"So you're a second year." Karma guessed, according to the girl's size and the fact she slightly remembered her getting sorted. "What's your favorite class? And who's your favorite professor?"

"Sure, tell me your price." Alexis shrugged. "Yep, a second year. My favorites are Potions and DADA. Apart from Professor Smith and Professor Dosha, I like Professor Romain too. What about you?"

Karma smirked. "Theraputic Chocolate's always free, but most things are two Galleons, unless I'm running low, then it's five, but really, when am I ever running low?"

She stretched, feeling slightly better with two chocolate frogs inside her. "My favorite would be Colbalt, but I'm biased, so my second favorite would be Romain, but that's kinda biased too, seeing as he's head of Slytherin and all..." she thought for a moment. "Headmaster Chaos is my favorite then, he teaches Occlumency and H&E and he's pretty awesome, so yeah. My favorite subjects are H&E and Potions, and Muggle and Wizard Duelling. Oh, and DADA of course." She shrugged. "There's few classes I don't like, and History of Magic's even pretty awesome, because that's when I usually eat most of my candy." She shrugged.

'Fair enough.' Alexis leaned back on the couch. 'We're chosing our favorites here. We're allowed to be biased. But in an unbiased way, Professor Smith'd be my favorite. I like his style. Sometimes I feel like he can read us from inside out. That's creepy though. And yes, Headmaster Chaos is a charismatic man.'

Iris entered the common room and was lucky not to be caught after curfew. She did not like the head of the house much - especially after Transfiguration. That was a failure. She sighed and spotted Alexis with maybe an older girl on the couch. She had a very long day. Might as well chat and join them. They seem to be having fun. She recognized the girl from the library and the corridors. But not often here for she was always out. She walked towards them and waved with a smile. "Hi, Alex! Too many words to describe this day. Er, are you alright? 'Cause I'm kinda worried after what happened during DADA." She turned for the other Slytherin girl. "I'm Iris by the way. Iris Frances. You can call me Jane. There's another Iris in the Gryffindor house. Just to be specific. But we're actually here so Iris would do. Can i join the conversation? What's the topic?" She didn't want to sleep. For so many reasons. I'll have those dreams again. Damn. She sat on the available space and forced her eyes open - pretending not to be tired and sleepy. She stared at the fire place until one of them would notice her there - reflecting the whole day and her recent dream. A nightmare perhaps.

Iris, go! Run! Be safe. Her mother yelled at her desperately in their living room back in London. A terrifying wizard with whom a face she did not quite clearly saw casted a spell at her mom. Leaving her lying dead beside her husband.

She trembled at the vision and thought about Vee as a replacement. I'll check on her later.

"Oh, hi. I'm Karma." Karma tossed both girls a Chocolate Frog. "Some people call me Candy, because I never seem to run out of it." Karma shrugged, eating her own chocolate frog.

"So what happened in DADA? It couldn't have been more eventful than ours, I promise you." Karma bit her lip. "Second year of Defense... that means... Expelliarmus, doesn't it?"

Iris couldn't resist the frog and caught the pack with both of her hands. She unwrapped and quickly took out the frog before it jumped. She was quite skilled doing this after some time before her petition and still she is. She bit the head and took a look at the card. Hermione Granger. She could have lived and fight for the war. I reckon she'll be in Protectores too. She answered while delightedly chewing the scrumptious treat. "Ah well, I should not have put up the topic. Alexis doesn't want to talk about it actually. Maybe pissed off by Professor Smith. She looked quite scary after that. Are you feeling well now Lex? Sorry if I talked too much." She then answered the second question. "Yep. Expelliarmus it is. So what happend on third year DADA?" She prefer to call DADA Defense only - honestly. But she chose to blend in with the majority for now.

Alexis smiled brightly when Iris came, 'Hey Iris' but she stiffened for a moment at the mention of the DADA class, 'Yeah,I'm fine' she mumbled.
Let go Ana,let go. She thought. She smiled at Karma, 'Yes, Expelliarmus, but boring? It was anything but. What's in your first class?' She hoped they will discuss Karma's class now. She was dreading that Iris'd ask questions, she was very concerned at the class, she could remember vaguely. She didn't want anyone to know. She herself didn't know what it was... You're evil, Ana... She shook her head, as if to shake away the memory.

"Enough with Alex and Defense. Please don't blow up, Lex. Hate to see that." She kidded and grinned. "Yeah, I ought to know about third year Defense. It would be interesting. Our DADA was plain. All I can say. Bullets and guns? If only the wizarding world can approve of not using firearms as a subject in classes, then we'll all be safe. Too scary. Firing at second years? What more will it be on our third year." She emphasized the words and was now complaining. Iris was usually like this when tired and really pissed off. She noticed Alex somewhat bothered by another reason. She was curious again. "Alex? There something you want to open up? We'll listen. If I can, I'll also speak up too. It'll be worse when you keep it by yourself. If you want to talk about it it's fine." Her voice became concerned.

Oh Merlin Iris! What does she mean I looked scary? She didn't see my eyes, did she? Alexis masked her expression and teased back, 'Blow up! Really Iris dear, you need to come up with something a liitle more creative.'
Then she sighed, 'It's nothing serious Iris, like I said, I just need to practice.' Alexis hoped Karma didn't pick up on anything, she looked pretty intelligent.

Karma raised an eyebrow. Really? Did they think she was stupid? She frowned and ate another frog. Well it wasn't her business, not really. But she wasn't very curious, and Colbalt would tell her if it were something important, wouldn't he? Wetboy in training indeed.

Karma shrugged and smirked. "We did boggarts." Karma said. "Without wands." She added thoughtfully. "There was nothing that could be done with magic. I almost had to fight mine." She shrugged. "It was all pretty eventful."

Alexis straightened up, 'Fighting a boggart, without wand? What? You had to get immune?' That was very useful, Alexis mused. I wonder what my boggart would be now?

Iris laughed and defensively said. "Alright. Alright. No blowing up tonight. I will get more creative next time. If that happens again. Oh, I'll get back to you when that time comes. " She cursed then thought about replying to Karma's DADA experience. "Boggarts?! Without wands? Possible?" She was surprised and imagined herself on the situation fighting and being brave. Fighting against the images the creature shape-shifted - the ones she mostly fear. She has tons of them and wanting to overcome them all. "So how did it end up? That was eventful and sort of funny in a crazy and somewhat terrifying way."

"So what's your boggart, Karma? It's nothing personal, is it? I mean everyone in your class saw it..." Alexis stopped herself from babbling. It was so annoying when she realized she was babbling.

Karma shrugged. "It was only me older and vampiric. Nothing new, it's always been the same. I don't even really fear it, I'm used to it. I use it to spar with when I'm at home and bored."

Iris nodded and smiled. "That was nice. If I were there, mine would be really scarier. How are the others?" She meant the other third years fighting their boggarts without any wand.

"Well, only three people, me, Aireon, and some Hufflepuff, got to go. Everyone did pretty well, considering..." Colbie's Boggart "that it was everyones biggest fears."