Moonlit Marathon :: Open

[Finlay Cassandra Mackenzie]

............

I'll tell you something,I am a wolf but

[/color]

I like to wear sheep's clothing
............

Night was calm, night was peaceful, night wasn't as scary as the stories made it out to be. Night provided hiding places for creatures of darkness, sure, but it wasn't like they couldn't get you in the daytime. Night was just as good at providing her cover when she wished it. Like now, for example, she couldn't have got out here half as easily as she had if it had been daylight. The forbidden forest was out of bounds to people like her, students of Hogwarts, and, whilst some listened, others didn't. She didn't. She could be alone here, she could run without being looked at and, if the idea took her, she could smoke up too.

Hidden just within the boundary of the forest, out of view of the castle but not too deep in the thicket, Finlay tugged at the tongues on her running shoes, making sure they were well and truly, safely secured to her feet. She liked running, and sometimes she would take herself off jogging and sprinting around the bottom of the Quidditch pitch, but tonight she needed to work off more energy than that would allow, tonight she needed something more like an assault course. Stretching out her limbs, Finlay slapped her hands against her thighs, just making sure her muscles were awake and alert for this. Dressed in a pair of running shorts and a tank top, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail, Finlay started off at a gentle pace, getting into her rhythm quickly.

The trick, or so Finn found, was to get her feet pounding the floor in beat to her heart, if she could get a song in her head which matched the two then she was on a roll. Luckily, tonight was one of those nights. She just focussed on what was in front of her, the way the silver moonlight pierced through the trees, patterned the floor with its pale kiss and tainted her skin with its mottled shadows. She felt like this sort of run was more cross country, just her and nature, dodging trees trunks, leaping over camouflaged rocks, nothing to disrupt her but her own breathing and the sound of the cool January breeze rustling the leaves, threatening of the rain yet to come.

Finn lost time when she ran, so she had no clue what the time was when her body finally begged her to stop. The sharp pain that travelled through her legs was a sure sign that she technically should have stopped a while back. Slowing to a stop, Finlay took a number of deep breaths, bending so her hands rested on her knees, her head bowed down as her face contorted at the pain her breathing seemed to help push away. She could feel the beads of water drip down her nose, tickling the flesh, that would soon dry off if the breeze kept going the way it was. Pulling herself up to her normal height, Finn stretched, groaning gently before she pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from her bag. Having spotted a nearby fallen tree, she settled down on the bark, sparking up and toking, feeling the poisonous but oh so good smoke suck down into her lungs, exhaled in a plume of white, tinged a luminous blue as it floated away in the moonlit breeze.
............

[/center]
Tagged :: Open
Credits :: Cam

[August Jensen]

August felt mildly guilty. In fact he felt more than mildly guilty, he felt terrible. He wasn’t supposed to be outside this late. And while he knew that as head boy he was allowed certain leniency when it came to the rules so long as he looked official, he also knew that he’d never been all that good at looking official. He still wasn’t sure why Professor McGonagall had even made him head boy, but he suspected his Head of House Abraham Grey might have had something to do with it.

The damage was done, however, and the only option was to head back to the school and confess his accidental rule breaking to Professor Grey tomorrow, because he knew his teacher wouldn’t appreciate being woken up. August wasn’t even sure how he’d ended up out so late, he’d been reading by the lake and somehow he hadn’t even noticed that it was dark and cold until his fingers had gone numb and he’d needed to light up the tip of his wand to see.

He shivered, drawing his cloak a little tighter around his shoulders and walked round the edge of the lake, all too aware that he was on the side nearest the forbidden forest because even with his lumos spell at its brightest he couldn’t see more than a few feet between the dark trees. It was silly, especially now he knew that muggles had it totally wrong about most of the monsters in their horror films, but he couldn’t help imagining something with teeth and claws and horrid scaly skin leaping out at him.

Then he spotted the wisp of smoke rising up from between a few trees a little way into the forest and paused. August really, really didn’t want to go in there, but what if something was on fire and he ignored it? Yes everything was damp because it had been raining pretty much solidly for the past week, but he couldn’t take that chance. Unicorns lived in the forest! He’d feel ever so guilty if he was responsible for destroying the habitat of the unicorns.

Raising his wand a little higher to try and get some more light he stepped gingerly between two trees and headed in the direction of the smoke he’d seen. He didn’t spot the other student until he was almost on top of her, mainly because he was concentrating on the ground to try and avoid tripping over any roots. ”Sorry!” He squeaked, backing up a step and lowering his wand so he wasn’t blinding her with the wand light. ”Finlay? What are you doing out here?” August’s face flickered into the slightest of frowns as he spotted the cigarette in her hand.

[Finlay Cassandra Mackenzie]

............

I'll tell you something,I am a wolf but

[/color]

I like to wear sheep's clothing
............

Finlay had no feelings of remorse for doing what she was doing. She was trying hard to change, trying to get back to the girl she had been when she first joined Hogwarts, the girl her parents and her grandparents would wish her to be. It was just so hard. She was focussed on getting her grades back up, but that was stressful in itself. Add to that the fact there were so many goody two shoes here who she just wanted to throttle. Yeah, she needed her nicotine and the occasional bout of the stronger stuff just to keep her sane. It seemed like a fair deal, you know, Rome wasn’t built in a day and all that. She needed to take things a day at a time, prioritise, and her grades were what were important at the moment.

She was relaxing now, the nicotine filtering into her blood stream and easing the strain in her muscles. Her eyes closed and she just let the sounds of the forest envelope her. There was something about nature that was so peaceful, even if it was in the forbidden forest. She wasn’t that far in, and she thought her senses were good enough to hear something sneaking up on her. Apparently she was wrong, because she didn’t hear August approaching until something crunched, she opened her eyes and swore in a most unladylike fashion as her sight was filled by a bright light that seemed to burn all the way to the back of her skull. Her eyes slammed shut, her free hand covering them as she shook her head curtly, opening her eyes and blinking rapidly to try and stop the stars from dancing in front of her eyes.

Growling softly at the voice, she did a few slow blinks to clear the last few blobs of fading light from her view as she looked up at him. The frown she fixed August with was more dominant than the one she thought she could see pulling gently at his features. “Well, Auggie… I was out for a run and now I’m having a smoke.” She held up the cigarette she could see had taken his attention. A smirk covered her features as she pushed herself up off the log, using her free hand to dust the mud and wet bark chippings from the back of her shorts, taking another toke from the cigarette and letting the smoke trail slowly from her lips, “Didn’t think anyone would be out here this late, especially Head Boy…”

[/b] The smirk turned into a grin, she loved to taunt the authority, no matter what form it came in, “You gonna go do your duty and tattle or can we just forget we saw each other tonight?”[/b][/size][/color]
............[/blockquote][/center]
Tagged :: Open
Credits :: Cam

[August Jensen]

August lowered his wand further still, letting the light at the tip fade considerably as Finlay blinked and fixed him with a frown of her own. The forest seemed to close in on them, which he knew was just the light illuminating less of the surroundings, but didn’t stop a small shiver from running down his spine. He decided to focus on Finlay to distract him from the fact that he was standing in the Forbidden Forest, because the name of the place said it all really.

He had to wonder whether she thought Auggie was actually his name, but didn’t correct her, it wasn’t that bad as nicknames went and he was actually quite pleased she considered them familiar enough to use one. August liked discovering friends he didn’t even know he had. ”Oh,” The way she said it sounded perfectly reasonable, except he could think of better places to run and he was pretty sure smoking wasn’t allowed, not to mention she was kind of out past curfew. He bit his lip, considering pointing those things out to her, because really it wasn’t he fault if she hadn’t realised she was breaking the rules.

”Umm, wouldn’t you rather run round the grounds? The forest is kind of scary.” He glanced nervously at the darkness surrounding them, then back at the cigarette in her hand, deciding he could probably let it slide if they could just get out of the woods soon. August looked guilty, letting his gaze drop has Finlay pointed out she wasn’t the only one in the forest past curfew. ”Yeah, I was by the lake and I didn’t realise how late it was, then I saw the smoke and thought the forest might be on fire.” He admitted, indicating her cigarette and completely oblivious to how ridiculous he sounded.

”Well,” August paused, already feeling bad that he might be getting a fellow student into trouble. ”I was going to tell Professor Grey tomorrow, but he’s normally quite nice about it, he probably won’t even give us detention.” He assured her, unaware that it was because of Head of House’s slightly biased attitude towards Hufflepuffs and not just because he was a really nice guy.

[Finlay Cassandra Mackenzie]

............

I'll tell you something,I am a wolf but

[/color]

I like to wear sheep's clothing
............

Finlay liked the dark, she never used to, but in the dark she knew she was truly alone. There was no chance of being caught doing anything by anyone wandering by. It was the same as rain, no one could tell if you were crying if it was raining hard enough. Light was too revealing, so she was grateful that the wand dimmed, let the shadows crawl closer. She knew Auggie wasn’t his real name, she just liked to nickname people, especially people she was meant to respect, hold above herself, it mentally brought them down a peg or two in her book.

Shaking her head to his question, she looked around at her surroundings, “Nope, not tonight anyway. Running the grounds is fine but out here, you got roots, fallen trees, things to dodge and jump over…” She shrugged “Out here is a better work out, makes you concentrate more too.”

[/b] Not knowing what to do with herself, now she’d been caught out, her free arm wrapped around her body, more of a defensive pose than because she was cold.

A dry chuckle left her lips at his explanation for being out, for finding her. Bless him. Forest on fire… just from her little cigarette. Bowing her head, she let out a humoured sigh, “That’s cute, but for the record, controlled fires tend to blow white smoke, uncontrolled blazes are usually black smoke.” Yes, she was being a smart ass but her attitude wasn’t letting up, even more of a defence mechanism than her folded arms. Who could hurt you if they thought you couldn’t be hurt? “But I’ll try to smoke up deeper in the forest next time, so you don’t get yourself in a panic, okay?”[/color] Finn rolled her eyes, taking another toke on the cigarette he had motioned to, before throwing the cigarette butt on the floor and crushing it into the mud with her shoe, hearing the sizzling hiss as the cherry died in the wet mud. Her arm then snaked around her body, joining the other.

Her eyebrow arched at him, so he really was going to tattle on them? Her head shook slowly, her eyes fixed on him, half glaring, half amused. That easy huh? Ever so sorry Professor Grey, I can’t smoke on the school grounds and the forbidden forest, so named because it is forbidden to students, was the only place I figured I wouldn’t get caught. Like that would really go unpunished. It was alright for August, he was Head Boy, golden child of Hufflepuff, he could have told the Professor he was out getting his end away and he’d likely get away with it! She was different, she’d been caught out for small things a few times, smoking would get her proverbial butt kicked, smoking in the forbidden forest would likely have her carted off to detention until she left! Sucking in a breath, she pursed her lips, “Yeah, about that one, Auggie. You might be able to wangle your way out of detention, but I’m not exactly flavour of the month here. I don’t have a spotless record like the Head Boy does. So… why don’t you go and clear your conscience and maybe just forget you even saw me out here… I can be a figment of your imagination.” Her eyebrows bounced, up and down just the once, indicating what a good idea she thought it was. [/size][/color]
............[/blockquote][/center]
Tagged :: Open
Credits :: Cam

[August Jensen]

”Oh yes,” August said, nodding in agreement even though he didn’t understand her reasoning at all. If anything an uneven surface was all the more reason to avoid running in the forest. Then again he couldn’t claim to be an expert at jogging and he was so chronically clumsy that he could trip over standing still let alone trying to navigate his way through some dark and scary woods. He couldn’t imagine really being able to concentrate in the forest either; all he could think about were the creatures that could be lurking behind every tree or in every shadow.

”Perhaps you should go in the day or with a group, though.” He suggested quietly, feeling bad for pushing the issue, but knowing that as head boy he should stand up to rule breaking more. ”I wouldn’t want you to get hurt. The forest can be dangerous, especially at night.” August hoped the warning would have the desired effect, he didn’t want to scare her, but he wanted to put her off going in the forest again. If anything it worked on him a little too well and he practically flinched as gust of wind rustled the leaves of a tree overhead.

He couldn’t help but beam at her as she explained the difference between uncontrolled and controlled fires; it didn’t hurt that he felt like he could relax as she stubbed the cigarette out underfoot. ”Really? I didn’t know that.” As usual he was slightly in awe of other people’s general knowledge, but his smile dropped when Finlay mentioned a next time. ”You’re coming back here?” August asked, worried. If she’d been hoping to avoid a panic then announcing her planned return to the Forbidden Forest was entirely the wrong way to go about it.

”Do you think you’ll get into that much trouble?” August was biting his lip again. This was why he didn’t really like responsibility, either way he felt a bit like he’d betrayed somebody. He wished Kelsey was here, she always knew what to do and she always knew just what to say to make him feel confident about a decision. ”Maybe...” He paused, still not sure about what he should do, but certain that he didn’t want to spend any longer out here than necessary. ”We should just go back to the castle.”

[Finlay Cassandra Mackenzie]

............

I'll tell you something,I am a wolf but

[/color]

I like to wear sheep's clothing
............

Finlay arched her eyebrow at his recommendation about going out with a group. She stretched out, stretching her arms above her head and letting out a groan as her muscles released the burn that had started to settle there. "In the day I can get caught easily... and I run to be alone, gives me time to think. A group would kinda mess that up now, wouldn't it?" She knew she was batting down every idea he came up with, and she also knew, deep down inside, that he was only doing what his position asked of him, and looking out for his fellow housemate. Still, she couldn't bring herself to accept his help.

Her arms moved back around her body tightly as the wind pushed the loose strands of hair around her face. It wasn't as hard as the breeze over head which rattled the branches. Something about it being just the two of them, alone. The way he wouldn't drop the fact she shouldn't be out here at this time, alone. She couldn't bring herself to tell him to stick his advice where the sun didn't shine... though he was head boy so it could be that it did. She rubbed her hand over her face, massaging her temples for a moment, "Look, thanks for the worry and all, but I've been doing this a while now, I stick to the boundary and I intend to keep doing so... it's... it's how I relax.

[/color]

She chuckled at the way he bit his lip, it was dorky but she didn't find some abusive jibe forming on her tongue, instead something that was unfamiliar, honesty. It was weird, she had spent months cutting herself off, losing friends she had formed in the first few years of being here. Her only friends now were those like her, who experimented with substances, drank for whatever reason, those who didn't care about her as a person but cared what she could get for them, and vice versa. She relied on herself, then she had less chance of being let down. Nodding, she made a move toward the edge of the forest, back towards the grounds of Hogwarts, which had seemed to become more of a prison recently than a school. "And in answer to your question, I think I'm getting close to the whole three strikes and you're out situation."[/b] She tried to act non-chalant about it, though she knew she'd be lost without the school, "I'm trying, you know? I've been... trying to sort myself out but... can't happen overnight, right?" Finn looked over her shoulder at him, shrugging her shoulders as her feet moved to the grassy lawns surrounding the school. She couldn't have told anyone, not even herself, why she was telling him something she had told no-one before.[/size][/color]
............[/blockquote][/center]
Tagged :: Open
Credits :: Cam

((Sorry for the lag in replying! Just recovered enough to post lol.))