See No Light of Day [Starke]

[laceyashwood]

She wasn’t aware of what Starke was doing at the moment, but she guessed it probably had something to do with getting himself untied. All she could focus on was the spider in front of her, which was slowly advancing, probably trying to decide the best possible way to attack. What could she do? Her mind was blank of spells – the last one she’d cast hadn’t even worked anyways – and it’d be foolish of her to try and run.

Lacey’s eyes widened when the spider was distracted. It was dark now, as neither her wand nor Starke’s were lit, so she could just barely make out Starke’s body on top of the spider’s. That seemed an odd sort of thing to do, Lacey thought, but at least it seemed to work. For now, anyways. She backed up a bit more, still facing the furious spider, trying to see through the darkness.

Thud.

Lacey looked over to see Starke lying on his back. That wasn’t good. She looked back to the spider, raising her wand, to see it advancing again. Dread began to build up inside of her, and she quickened her steps, retreating backwards, but that was no help. She tripped on a root and fell flat on her back, her wand slipping out of her fingers. She reached out for it, grasping it in her hand again, just as something sharp pulled on her leg.

Oh, she was dead if she couldn’t get the spider off. Lacey screamed, and began to kick the spider off with her other leg. She managed to succeed, and was free of the spider’s fangs for the moment. She hurriedly tried to crawl backwards, away from the spider, to buy herself some time.

It began to advance again, now, motivated. Lacey whimpered quietly, pointing her wand at it. “Stu-” she started, but was cut off.

Impedimenta!

The spider froze in it’s position, and Lacey just stared at it for a second, wide-eyed. Coming to her senses that it would be a good idea to get out of there before the spell wore off or something, Lacey scrambled to her feet, ignoring the pain in her left leg. She gripped her wand tightly in her hand, and looked around, not even thinking that she should light it again. “Starke?” she called out, wondering where he was.

[james]

[sorry it's short, i'm worried my girlfriend will make me start helping move stuff soon.]

Starke’s feet thudded hard against the ground, he could feel the adrenaline pumping through his thighs. He usually liked the feeling of adrenaline surging through him, but in a more controlled environment: like Quidditch. On the verge of death, in the dark of the Forbidden Forest, was not his ideal source of the natural high. Still, it had the same affect over him. Adrenaline always made him feel more in control of a situation, and stronger.

He heard Lacey’s voice before his wand tip was illuminated. Having had the indication of her direction, he was able to point his wand straight in her direction. But the spider’s frozen body blocked her. “Lacey, I’m here.” He called so she knew he was still around, before jogging around the beast and ended up sliding down onto his knees next to her. This was because he had nearly tripped over her. He didn’t realize that she was on the ground again.

Scanning her quickly, he noticed her injured leg. “Are you okay?” He asked with a sense of urgency. If she could get up right now, it would be really helpful. They could deal with anything else later, right now their survival was the most important.

[laceyashwood]

Lacey looked down at her leg. It looked a bit off compared to usual, and she sunk back down to the ground. It eased the pain only slightly. She didn’t think it was broken, it still moved fine and everything, but she could see that her jeans were turning a darker colour, probably stained with blood, she guessed. Lacey groaned quietly, rolling up her pant leg to reveal a long, deep gash down her calf. She’d been right. Lacey began to breath through her mouth instead of through her nose; she couldn’t stand the smell of blood. Nor the sight, usually, but somehow this time it was different.

She was relieved to hear Starke’s voice, to know that he was still okay. She saw a faint light bobbing around on the other side of the spider’s body, and guessed it was him. He’d been smarter than her to light his wand. She was still gripping hers tightly in her hand. Lacey was to scared to be without it right now.

She briefly wondered if the spider could ever unfreeze without a counter spell to the one Starke had cast. In any case, they’d want to get out of the forest as soon as possible in case another one of those dreaded things showed up. Starke was there a second later, kneeling down beside her. Despite having just met him, she was indescribably happy and relieved to see him. There was no way she would have survived tonight on her own.

“I don’t know,” she answered to Starke’s question. Lacey looked down at her leg again. It looked like it was bleeding pretty badly in the light from Starke’s wand. “How bad do you think this is?” she nodded to her leg. She needed to get to the Hospital Wing, and quick. What if the spider was poisonous or something? Lacey had never been in a situation like this, and had no idea what could happen. She looked Starke over then, distracted from herself for a moment. “And what about you? Are you alright?” she asked, obvious concern in her voice.

[james]

Starke remained at Lacey’s side. So long as he felt like he was protecting her, he could hold his own fear at bay. All had gone quiet, and his shallow breaths seemed to fill the night air between spurts of dialogue. While his mind was serving him well, his body shook. He would like to blame it on the cold, but the droplets of sweat forming on his brow suggested otherwise.

It felt very odd, staying there before a frozen gargantuan, and anything but safe. The frozen spider loomed over them, only partially illuminated in the glow of Starke’s wand, as though lying in wait for them again. Starke tried to ignore the ravenous body, but it was difficult when he looked down towards Lacey’s calf. When she pulled up her pant leg, he could not help breathe out, “Oh, fuckin’ ‘ell.”

Generally, Starke was very articulate and enunciated everything, but this moment was so out of the ordinary that he was too. Normally, he would never have made indication of how bad something looked. He knew people had a tendency to freak out, especially after asking what he thought. But he couldn’t possibly see how things could get worse.

He ignored her inquiry after him. “Okay.” He said, clearing his throat to calm himself. “Alright.” He looked at her face again. He usually used needless words when he was nervous, or scared out of his mind. As such was the occasion here. “If you can’t stand on it, you’ll just use me.” He said decisively, grabbing her arm to help her stand up. Really, what other choice did they have?

[laceyashwood]

Lacey was momentarily distracted from the giant frozen spider while she inspected her injured leg. Normally, had she not been hurt, she would have been up on her feet and out of the forest in seconds. She was kind of glad that it was pretty dark in the forest, and that the darkness blocked out that of the spider that was not lit up by Starke’s wand light.

Now that she was actually thinking of it, she realized that her leg hurt more than she ever imagined. It stung mostly, but there was something else she couldn’t exactly describe. She bit her lip, trying to hold back tears; she was a wimp, she knew, but didn’t want to start crying. She could control herself, had to at least try to be brave.

Lacey took a deep breath. By Starke’s words, she guessed he didn’t think that this was okay, thought that it was pretty bad. The only way things could’ve gotten any worse was if they both had been injured, and not just one of them. “Pretty bad then, eh?” she said quietly, not expecting to get an answer back.

She sighed and turned to look away from her leg and back to Starke as he began to talk again. Her eyes were almost pleading him to have some sort of plan, to give her some sort of reassurance. “‘Kay,” Lacey said, and let him help her up. She could walk on it, the bone wasn’t broken or anything, but man did it hurt. “Ow,” she breathed, bending down a little. It was probably a bad idea, Lacey thought, to have her leg straight down; it’d only make the blood flow there faster, and then it’d bleed faster…but it was more important to get out of the forest right now. She leaned on Starke a little as she pulled out her wand again and lit it, adding to their light source. “Let’s go?” she suggested, looking up at him.

[james]

Starke intentionally ignored her further questioning after her leg. Honestly, he didn’t think it was something the school nurse couldn’t handle… but they weren’t in the Hospital Wing yet, and the school nurse was nowhere around. So yeah… it was pretty bad in the current circumstance. He was pretty good at charms, but hardly knew anything that would mend her leg up, not even for the time being.

When Lacey let out an utterance of pain, Starke tried to position himself so he could help take a little more weight off the leg. He wrapped his arm across her shoulder blades, holding her tight to his side. He nodded when she suggested they get going. He tried to break the tension with a little smile, “Try to hobble as fast as you can. Truth be told, I don’t know how long my spell will last.” Though he was quite skilled with his wand, it was not every day he was taking on spiders larger than himself.

[laceyashwood]

Lacey glanced down at her leg as Starke wrapped his arm around her shoulders and shuddered, leaning into him a little. She would have been so screwed had he not have been there to help her. Lacey put her arm around his shoulders as well, and held her other hand out in front to shed some light on their surroundings. Lacey looked up at him and caught his small smile; she knew he was just trying to break the tension, but that was good. Anything that could take her mind off of the spider and her leg was good. “Hopefully long enough for us to get out of here,” she mumbled quietly, and began to hobble.

It wasn’t as hard as she had predicted it might be; she tried her hardest to ignore the pain, and it wasn’t like she couldn’t walk on her ankle or anything. The only thing she was really worried about was potential blood loss and if the spider had been poisonous. The only way to tell really would be to get to the Hospital Wing and see the school nurse.

“Anyways,” Lacey started, trying to start a small conversation to hopefully distract her. “Talk to me? I need to be distracted,” she said to Starke. Her eyes were quick at taking in their changing surroundings, on the look out for anything remotely dangerous. She hoped they were going the right way. “Tell me about yourself. Favourite colour, favourite food, anything,” she suggested. She couldn't care less as to what they talked about as long as it took her mind off of things.

[james]

Long enough for them to get out of there was all he hoped for. He really doubted a giant spider would venture out onto the lawns of Hogwarts; indeed, he wondered if there were not additional enchantments to prevent them from doing so and devouring unsuspecting little first years. He had certainly never heard of such attacks happening. Though the school was always rampant with rumours of horrible things that had happened in the past. Three-headed dogs in locked rooms, people being thrashed by that angry tree… a spider attack fit right in with the absurd things that happened at Hogwarts.

Starke timed his feet so it was easier, and faster to move along with Lacey glued to is side. He was downright sure that if that monster came ripping after them, he’d probably start running so fast that she would just dangle at his side, hardly touching the ground.

Letting out a nervous little laugh, he could understand Lacey’s desire to have him talking. It was kind of cute how she asked him to talk to her, as much as the mind would permit him to think so in the current circumstance. “Colour would be blue or green, and food… well, erm…” It was hard to rack his brain at the moment to figure out what he loved to eat above all else. “I am partial to a good cottage pie.” Starke glanced over his shoulder, as he saw the opening light of the forest’s edge. “My favourite team is Puddlemere United, named me Owl for it.” One could really tell he wasn’t thinking about what he was saying when he blabbered on, and forgot his grammar. “Funny looking little thing.” He went on with his gibberish.

[laceyashwood]

To Lacey, the Forbidden Forest looked the same no matter which direction you went. It was all just trees and leaves and rocks and dark to her. They could be walking in circles, or just heading deeper into the forest for all she knew, but she hoped to god that they weren’t. That wouldn’t help their situation one bit.

She heard Starke’s nervous laugh, and then listened to him talk to her. She was glad for his company, glad that he didn’t mind distracting her. “Cottage pie?” Lacey asked when he mentioned it. She had no idea what that was; Lacey’d never had it before. “What is that?” she asked, wondering to herself if it was really any good.

Lacey listened to Starke ramble on about his favourite Quidditch team, and his owl. “My dad’s favourite Quidditch team was Puddlemere United,” she said, “But mine’s always been the Holyhead Harpies. I think it’s great that they’re an all-female team,” Lacey told him. She was trying to focus more on the conversation than on the situation at hand, but it was still there in the back of her mind.

She wondered absentmindedly if they were almost out of the forest yet. It certainly hadn’t seemed to take her this long to get to where she’d been when Starke had first found her. Lacey bit her lip anxiously, trying to look harder through the darkness to see if she could see the edge of the forest. If only she’d worn her glasses or her contacts today; she’d be able to see a bit easier, then. She didn’t like to wear them, though; it wasn’t like they’d help all that much anyways, what with the darkness despite the light from their wands.

[james]

“Oh, it’s got bits of everything in it, really. Meat, veggie, potatoes, all in this flaky crust.” He said, half forgetting himself as the flavours he was really most fond of evoked salivating glands. Could he really be thinking about food at a time like this? Apparently he could, and a part of him actually made a note to perhaps talk the house elves into making him one as an after hours snack. After he had gotten Lacey into proper care at the hospital wing, of course.

He was distracted by her mention on Quidditch, however. While it was a topic he did not often bring up, he was actually a very big Quidditch fanatic. His room was plastered with his team colours back home. He even had their banner hanging on the wall behind his bed in the dormitories. But it struck him then that she was on the Ravenclaw team. How could he have missed that? Probably because they had been attacked by a mutant spider, trying to eat them. How nice it must have been to be able to think about one’s stomach in moments of peril…

“Is it then? Doesn’t surprise me. Are their any blokes on the Ravenclaw team?” He asked. They seemed to have so many girls. It was an unfair advantage, at least in his earlier years before he had decided that if they were putting themselves out onto the field then they would have to reap the consequences. It was hard to take after a girl and aggressively try to get a ball from her though. Of course, Amelia probably had a large part to do with whipping him into shape and making him realize that this was a different world, less receptive to his gallantry, and girls minds all of their own.