Scars

Sophie was walking with her head down. She was rubbing her arm. It was bothering her again. She sighed as she kept walking. She was going to dinner. She wished she went to a smaller school. She was grateful she didn't go to Hogwarts though. They had even more students.

She kept walking not looking where she was going. She was still rubbing her arm trying to make the pain of her scar stop hurting. She sighed and kept going deciding to go get her cream after dinner. Since her head was still down she didn't see the person in front of her until she walked into them and fell on her but, causing the sleeve of her long black sweater to slide back and reveal some of her many scars.

Julian hummed softly to himself as he tapped his fingers absent-mindedly along his forearm. Dinnertime. And he felt reasonably good. Stretching, he ran a hand through his hair. His head felt so much better. Better than a while. Grinning broadly as he made his way down to the dining hall, he paused and almost immediately was crashed into.

Frowning, he whirled around, glancing down at the girl on the ground. Tilting his head at her scars, he frowned slightly. Biting back a stinging comment, he rolled his eyes, sighing softly. Just because this girl was accident prone didn't mean he was going to be a saint to her. Holding out a hand, he commented, "You should pay attention to where you're going next time."

Sophie looked at his hand, but didn't take it. She didn't trust him. She didn't trust anyone. She got up on her own. She looked him over he was older and a prefect if she recalled correctly. She couldn't be rude to him, but she wasn't going to be nice. She was never nice to people she didn't know.

"I'm sorry, but you don't need to be rude." She snapped at him. She jerked her sleeve over her arm and looked at her feet again. She was going to walk to dinner but she didn't want to turn her back to him. She preferred being able to see an attack coming. "Do you need something or are you going to dinner." She asked him.

Rolling his eyes, he crossed his arms as she stood up on her own, "Rude? No, all I did was give you advice. You're the one being rude." Shaking his head solemnly, he added, taking a step towards her, "And you know what happens to people who are rude to prefects?"

Allowing his question to hang in the air for a moment, Julian's eyes darkened as he tilted his head slightly, "I think fifteen points from Angelique for being rude to a prefect is enough."

Humming softly, he nodded, "Apologize. And then maybe, if I accept it, your house will get it's points back." Of course, he had no intention of doing such a thing, but a little false hope wouldn't kill the girl.

Sophie scowled when he didn't leave. She really didn't like this boy and he was annoying her. She rolled her eyes when he took points off her house. She really didn't care. He could take as many points as he wanted, she didn't care.

"Do you think I care if you take points?" She asked him still not looking him in the eye. She didn't like to look anyone in the eye. Not after what had happened. "Honestly I don't care what you do just don't touch me." She said backing away slightly.

Scoffing slightly, he shook his head, raising an eyebrow. "Do I look like I'm about to attack you? I don't know what sort of person you think I am, but trust me, I have better things to do than attack people."

Uncrossing his arms and recrossing them the other way, Julian said, "And for your lack of an apology, that's another fifteen points."

Sophie said nothing looking at her feet. She didn't trust anyone and wasn't about to say she was sorry for being careful. She knew that people in power abused it. This was even more evidence of that. This prefect was taking off points because she walked into him. It was an accident. She hadn't meant to, but he had been rude.

"I'm sorry." she mumbled still looking down. If he wasn't going to hurt her she wouldn't beg for forgiveness like she had to do at the orphanage. If she wanted to go a day with out a beating she had to be careful and beg. She wasn't going to do anything she didn't want to. That was what it was like here. Right?

Watching her for a moment, Julian hummed softly, glancing down at his watch. He could do this all day. It was fun, taking off points. Maybe if he found himself with too much time on his hands, he'd go antagonize the non-homicidal Raven and take points off of him.

Tilting his head at her, he cupped his ear, "Hmm? Did you say something? I think you should say that a little louder, please."

Sophie kept her head down. He was still being a brat. She disliked people like that. They all hurt her somehow. She hated this boy even more. Prefect weren't suppose to abuse their power.

"I'm sorry." She muttered slightly louder. It could be heard and she knew he had heard her. Unless he was hard of hearing.

A tear slipped down her cheek, as she whispered "I'm sorry." again. She wasn't talking to the prefect any more. She was talking to her parents bodies. She was having an episode again and ad fallen to the floor.

"Good." Julian nodded at her apology, but did not move to replace the points he'd taken off, the prefect continued to hum to himself, glancing at the people who walked past them.

Returning his gaze back to the girl, he started slightly as he watched her cry and crumple to the ground. Blinking owlishly down at her, he sighed softly, kneeling down by her, "Hey, what - what's with the tears? All I asked was for you to speak up. That's not worth crying over."

Sophie was shaking slightly. She didn't like it. She hated staring at her mothers body. She felt more tears slip down her face as she watched her own past. She saw the mad man move to her papa again. She really hated all of this. She closed her eyes and opened them to see the prefect on his knees to look at her.

She shook her head not having heard what he said. She felt more tears drip down her face. "I wasn't crying because of you." She said leaning away from him. She wasn't weak. She didn't want him to kick her while she was down, so to speak. She disliked that she had been so vulnerable in front of someone who had already proven to abuse power.

Watching her curiously as she cried, Julian contemplated just getting up and leaving her. But with all the people around, it would look bad on him. Huffing under his breath about morals and reputation, he sighed, staying on his knees.

"Well," he said slowly, running his hands through his hair, "erm, I guess that's good. So, why are you crying?"

Sophie looked at him and thought it was odd that he didn't just leave. He really didn't care. She could tell. Who cared about her. She was the poor girl with no parents and scars all over. She didn't even have any friends and she had been here a year.

"I'm just am." She said looking at her feet again. She didn't want him to see that she was scared. She quickly looked over her shoulder half expecting him to be there. She shook her head. She was being stupid. "I just have flash backs and that one was hard." She mumbled to her feet.

"Ah," Julian nodded, scrambling to his feet. Flashbacks. While they didn't happen to him often, of that damn song played.....shaking his head to drag his thoughts away from the melody, he turned his gaze back to the young girl in front of him.

"Well," he began, fiddling with the badge on his chest, "I hope you feel better." He wasn't telling a total stranger his life story. There were things about him his best friends didn't know. Smiling weakily at her, he brushed at his uniform.

Sophie when he said 'ah' did something unusual for her she looked up and looked in his face. He understood. She found that odd. She sighed and looked at him again. She wanted to know and the only way to know was to ask. "What are yours about?" She asked him still looking him in the eye.

"I'll even talk about what mine are about." She said a slight fear showing in her eyes. However trying to not look away. Maybe it was because her shyness that she didn't have friends.

"Wha - what are mine about?" Catching him off gaurd, Julian's mouth opened and closed, trying to come up with anything but the truth. Racking his brain, he forced his fingers to calm down and stop obsessively polishing his prefect badge.

"They're about dogs." he said before he could stop. "Huge fearsome dogs." he faked a shudder here, "Almost killed me when I was eight."

Sophie raised an eyebrow, when he hesitated. She didn't see him sigh as she knew he would had he decided to tell her the truth. She almost laughed at his lie it was not really that well thought out. Really he could do so much better.

"That's a bad lie." She said being blunt. She wondered what she could do to make him not take off points. "I wont press you, I'm just saying that It's not a very well thought out lie." She said looking at him slightly.

Frowning, he crossed his arms, "I'm a great liar, thank you very much." Huffing, he paused. Ok, so maybe that one lie had been absolutely terrible, but the majority - no, the rest - of his lies were a thousand times better.

"But," he shrugged, "I might be going soft and losing my edge."

Sophie looked at him slightly then hung her head again. She rolled her eyes so he couldn't see. She almost wanted to laugh, but she knew better. She shrugged when he said he was losing his edge. She didn't really care seeing as she didn't have much to say. She was quiet. She sighed and wondered if she would join the quidditch team. She wondered why she was thinking of this now.

"Well, you should be careful, if you don't want to talk about what happened to you you have to have a solid lie." She said to him thinking of her own lie. She was going to blame a fire. It was simple and rational. Being scared of fire was not a bad thing.

She'd actually belived him? Shaking his head, Julian cracked his knuckles, wondering why exactly he was still standing here. He didn't care why she'd had a panic attack. But no, he had a reputation to uphold.

Shaking his head again, he glanced down at his nails before answering in a bored tone, "Yes, I'm aware of that." Looking back up at her, he tiled his head, "So Angelique, what are your flashbacks about?"

Sophie wondered why she was still talking to him. I mean he was rather boring and not polite or nice. She really didn't like him. He was the kind of boy she always hated.

She looked up slightly when he asked what hers were about. She looked back down and thought about the flash backs. With tears in her eyes she looked up and said, "The fire that killed my parents." She told him lying with ease.

"Oh," Julian said flatly, watching the girl cry, taking a slight step backwards. He didn't do tears. Not when he didn't know the person, and even if he did, there were very few people he'd comfort. "Well, erm, I'm sorry."

Stepping forward to pat her softly on the shoulder, he scurried back to his former position, watching her uneasily. Now he really couldn't leave. You don't just leave someone crying their eyes out.

Sophie hid her smile when he believed her. She still had the tears because of what she really saw. She always hated that she really saw what had happened. Her horrid past. She laughed humourlessly and looked at him again. "No you're not, you just can't leave because you don't want to look bad." She said knowing the type of person he was. He really didn't care.

She flinched and stepped back when he touched her. She didn't like people touching her. She felt a growl in her throat and glared daggers at him. "Don't touch me." She said looking ready to kill.

Was that - was she smiling? He was being duped. Eyes narrowing, Julian mentally took back his apology. But from the tears, he was going to assume that her parents were dead. They just hadn't been killed by a fire.

"You're parents weren't killed in a fire." Julian said offhandedly, ignoring her comment. Frowning, he said, "But they are dead."

Raising an eyebrow, he watched her carefully, "I'm not attacking you. Calm down."

She mentally cursed herself for smiling when he knew it wasn't fire. No she didn't hate fire. No she was crying about the fact that her parents had been murdered right in front to her. She was forced to watch. That was what hunted her, not only in her sleep but in her waking hours too.

"No it wasn't fire, but yeas they are dead." She said looking down. She didn't know what to say. "They were murdered in front of me." She said softly. She had no clue if he even heard her.

She backed still further away from him. She didn't like being touched by anyone. It bothered her. "Just don't touch me." she said again. She didn't want him to hurt her. Even if he wasn't attacking he could still change his mind.