Relaxing (open)

[silver]

It was a nice day out, and for once Kohaku found himself drawn to the outdoors. Classes were finished for the day, so he dropped his textbooks off at his dorm and grabbed the book he was reading before following the sirens call, to the outside. With a sigh of relief, he had been starting to get nervous around the flames, he settled on the grass and opned his book. For a brief moment before he could get lost in the character filled pages, he wondered what it would have been like if Kaede had been with him. He knew there was no sense in dwelling on what could not be, the dead could not come back to life, (unless as a ghost and Kohaku didn't want Kaede to be a ghost) and they certainly couldn't attend Hogwarts like a normal person. Lifting his hand to the sky, as if he could reach out and touch the blue expanse he said mournfully. "I hope you're happy where ever you are." He let his hand drop, and blinked back tears that threatened to fall. Seven almost eight years, he thought to himself, I've been alone for that long. He paused, then amended, Well, almost alone. One couldn't discount his aunt and uncle both of whom didn't have to take him in and treat him like he was their son. They could of just left him at an orphenage or with a foster family. His book lay beside him, forgotten for the moment as memories entered his mind, and the Black Lake called his eyes as if demanding attention. "You'd of liked it here Kaede." Kohaku whispered staring out across the inky black lake, he was speaking in English so that if Kaede was watching him from where ever he was then he'd learn English also.

Part of Kohaku was glad to be at Hogwarts, the other part wished he was at the Japanese school of magic, at least there he wouldn't be teased about his accent, not that he was all the time, but he often felt selfconsious when he spoke, knowing that the fact he wasn't a native born English speaker would be obvious to anyone who listened. Why couldn't everyone speak just one language? It would help in a lot of things, including diplomatic meetings, and then no one would have an accent worth mentioning. His thoughts turned to accents and languages happy for the distraction away from his dead twin.

[briar.reeyne.michaels]

BRIAR MICHAELS.
but at times i wondered
if i had not come a long way
to find that what i had been searching for
was something i left behind

[/i][/size]

Briar, being the lovely child she was, was having a blast entertaining herself. She had used a spell that she had quickly picked up in charms yesterday, to light up the end of her wand. The oak wand became one big air-brush, a trail of slowly fading light following the tip of the wand in succession. Naturally, Briar was utterly amused by this—drawing shapes, letters, and all sorts of artistic nonsense with this new spell of hers. As she yet again had no homework (what are her teacher’s thinking these days?), Briar promptly made her way outside, and veered off in the direction of the Black Lake—finding the sky a better canvas than any, and the black lake was out in the open, not lot of trees on the eastern side.

So she walked a trail of light constantly a few meters behind—making one large criss-crossing tail that followed the forth-year on her down-hill journey to the lakeside. Spinning once or twice (just for the fun of seeing the light doing the same), Briar reached the bottom of the hill, a few feet away from the pebbly surface—and to her utter surprise, found that she was not alone. A boy, maybe a year or two older than her was laying on his back—staring up at the sky. Instantly curious, Briar surveyed him for a moment—before vaguely recognizing him and putting a name with the face; he was in her house after all!

“Hello, Kohaku!” Briar piped cheerfully, in a rather quiet voice (sensing the intensity subconsciously), walking a few steps forward. Leave quietly and not disturb him? Never! There was a story here! "How are you doing?"

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[silver]

Shaken out of his thoughts by a cheerfull voice, Kohaku looked up to see a fourth-year Hufflepuff standing near him. What was her name again? Oh yah, Briar.
"Konnichiwa Briar-san." he said politely, sitting up slightly so that he could look at her better with out getting a crick in his neck. "I'm fine, happy classes are over. What about you?" Fine would be probably the worst word to describe what he was feeling but really, Briar didn't need to know that. No, no one needed to know that it was almost the anniversary of his parents and twins death, that it had been almost eight years since that infirno took all that was dear to him away. He looked at Briar's wand and smiled, he remembered that lesson, he'd taken to drawing different words in Kanji, hirigana and katakana for days on end, each time writing the same thing over and over again. 'Miss you Kaede, Ka-san, Oyaji.' Slipping his own wand, kitsune fur and sakura wood, he softly said the same spell and his own wand lit up. "Want me to show you something?" he asked, writing his name idely in the air. 'Shiba Kohaku,' then almost in an afterthought added Briar's name in Katakana.

Pointing to his name, he said softly as if afraid she'd make fun of his accent. "That's my name, Shiba Kohaku in Kanji. The way it's written it means Amber." Shifting a little to keep his balance, he pointed to hers. "That's yours in Katakana, it's one of the ways we write back at home." Sadly, home for him was Japan, it had never been England, would never be England. "When I learned that spell, I used to spend my whole time writing in Japanese, I wanted to translate my texts but then the teachers piled on homework so I never got the chance." He smiled softly staring at the words hanging in the air.

[briar.reeyne.michaels]

BRIAR MICHAELS.
but at times i wondered
if i had not come a long way
to find that what i had been searching for
was something i left behind

[/i][/size]

Briar nodded back at his hello, her smile relaxing somewhat as she began to remember more about this fellow. It was almost like she had to see someone's face and think before remembering everything about them she wanted to. The accent helped of course, there weren't many accented people in Hogwarts-- only the occasional exchange student and more rarely, someone like Kohaku.

Oh, nice. Briar grinned upon watching him preform the same spell-- writing out a few things. The shade and thickness of his light was slightly different from herself, more of a darker cream then her rather bland white-- as well as being slightly thinner than hers. Watching everyone in Charms performing the spell had made her realize how the spell took on a unique appearence for every holder-- just like handwriting. Her teacher had said something about it being do to auras, and personality-- as well as what you were thinking of at the moment-- but Briar wasn't really paying attention. She was more fascinated by a student across the room making a very nice flower.

Then Kohaku pointed out the difference between the two words he had drawn, one his own name-- and one being her own. Briar felt a spark of fascination staring at them both, finding them much more interesting than the rather stiff and simple english writing these days. The words lingered, due to the dampness in the air near the lake (one of the things Briar actually picked up when she wasn't fooling around with the light)-- and the girl quickly made a move to agree with Kohaku, "Homework is a drag. We don't have too much right now, but I'm just waiting for the onslaught to come."

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[silver]

Kohaku laughed softly, but couldn't help agree. "My first year here was the worst," he admitted, "I was trying to learn things that might have been hard in your native toung but I was still struggling with English so I had to translate all of my notes into Japanese." He remembered those days, the long evenings hunched over his notes and textbooks translating everything by hand into Japanese so that he could actually get what was bieng taught that day. "It was...difficult." Difficult had been an understatement, he'd been close to tears several times through the year, but luckily he'd been able to find a translation spell that translated all of his notes into Japanese. He still used the spell, preferring his notes to be in Japanese then English anyway. He wrote in the air; "The teachers are allways right, respect your sempai and take care of your kouhai." All in Japanese of course. "So what have you been up to lately?" He asked, hoping that she could take control of the conversation and leave him to only answer questions, he never really liked starting conversations it unnerved him. Kaede had been better at that, and if he'd lived people would say that he was charismatic, of course he wouldn't know now, so he had to rely on the image in his mind he had of Kaede. It wasn't that he didn't care about Briar's life, he did, after all he wanted to be the best senpai he could be, it was just that he didn't know how to express it in words that weren't awkward and difficult to speak. That was why he didn't have that many friends, he couldn't express himself in English, even in Japanese it was hard.

[briar.reeyne.michaels]

BRIAR MICHAELS.
but at times i wondered
if i had not come a long way
to find that what i had been searching for
was something i left behind

[/i][/size]

“Homework, homework, homework,” Briar chorused in a sing-song voice, eyes half-closed in response. They widened again, as cheerful as ever. “I understand what you felt, at least—a very small portion. I had to learn Spanish in my five-years of muggle school that my parents absolutely insisted upon. While it was only one part of the day—the homework at night was still hard for me, and Spanish is supposed to be an easy language!” The girl laughed memories of her labored distress over the language and grades dim and unimportant now. She continued, “So I may not know what it feels like, but I can guess how hard it could’ve been. But at least it’s wizardry, mostly. More wand waving than math—a very fair trade in my own opinion.”

Briar paused, staring out over the lake, arms crossed so that they folded into the long flowy sleeves of her slightly large school robes that she had yet to change out of (it was quite cold out, no need to put away a perfectly good coat). She didn’t really say anything for a while, merely admiring the lake’s glassy surface and listening to Kohaku quite intently. The sun was slowly dipping into the mountains, easily creating a pastel of gold that flooded over the lake’s surface, contrasting beautifully with the deep black lake. Ooh, then a question. Not an exactly an original one, but one none-the-less. Kohaku had never occurred to her to be a talkative person, and she was glad that he made an effort beyond formalities. Kohaku may not consider himself good at making friends—but whether good or bad for him, Briar was friends with everyone. “School. Secret Passageways. Preventing my owl from eating the devil-cat of our house.” She supplied casually, her hands locked at each of her elbows inside her sleeves to keep slightly warmer. “The usual. Though one of these days I swear I’m going to let Fortis eat that cat. Maybe for Christmas. My gift to everyone in Hufflepuff.” Another pause, where Briar only half smiled—not really sure herself if she was joking or not, before finishing, “And Quidditch. Best sport in the world of course—you should try out for the team!”

Then a thought struck her. Totally irrelevant, trigger by nothing other than her wand pressed firmly in between her index finger and her palm—the soft decorated wood digging, not painfully, into her wrist. What if? What if? What if someone casted the light spell over the lake? Wouldn’t the water of the lake keep the light alive for minutes, maybe hours? And more importantly, how bloody awesome would that look over the like at night? Briar took a half step towards the black sloshing surface of the lake, transfixed by her idea—before stopping and pausing to give a glance at Kohaku. He might know—after all, he’s a two year jump on her. “Hey, Kohaku,” Briar slowly said, staring out directly at the lake, the hand holding her wand fidgeting slightly, “How long do you think, if we could get close enough, would a light spell last on the surface of a lake? Wouldn’t it thrive on the water?”

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[silver]

Kohaku couldn't help nod at her observation, it had been harder learning English when he was still in Muggle Primary school Still, what with the whole cultural shock and the sudden realization that Kaede wouldn't be with him it had been a tough year. He gently pulled his his knees up to his chin, as if they would keep the thoughts about Kaede away. Not that he didn't like thinking about his twin but it was rude to be thinking of the dead when he was conversing with the living. Something caught his attention, "You went to Muggle school?" he asked, then blushed, "Sumimasen, that was rude of me, it's not that I care, I was just interested." He hoped that she didn't take it the wrong way, he'd feel bad and would have to explain that he didn't care because he was a half-blood himself. He couldn't help but snort at Briars words, "If you do that," he said, "I'll personally go to Japan and buy you what ever you want." Secret passages sounded interesting, he wondered off hand if any of them led to nooks that he could hide in when he was feeling particularly anti-social. "How many have you found?" he asked, wondering if he could get her to give him a list, that way he could use them for escape paths when he was struck by anxiety. Plus the thought of secret passageways intrigued him, he'd always loved reading mystery novels, trying his hardest to find out who did it before the real perp was caught in the end. He had many fond memories of reading in his window seat watching the rain fall down, his equivilant of reading infront of a fire. He barely controlled a flinch at the thought of flying, "I hate hights," he said, "It sounds like fun but I'm absolutly no good at bieng high in the sky. Eagerly, he turned to the subject she brought up. "I dunno, I've never tried," he admitted, "Why don't we try and time it."

[briar.reeyne.michaels]

BRIAR MICHAELS.
but at times i wondered
if i had not come a long way
to find that what i had been searching for
was something i left behind

[/i][/size]

Briar blinked in momentary confusion—wondering what he meant by ‘care’. He seemed like a polite person, that not being the type of thing he would truthfully answer at all, but she shrugged it off. Weren’t they just having a conversation about languages and their difficulties? Then she answered with a curt nod. “Both of my parents were half-bloods—and likewise, they both went to muggle school. It’s sorta’ a tradition—they think I should learn stuff like muggle math and science, at least the basics.” Another pause, where she pondered for a moment, “I don’t know if that makes me a half-blood too, like them, or a pure-blood. Not that it really matters, but…”

Oh, good. He wasn’t taking her too seriously. Briar grinned back, enjoying the fact she wasn’t the only one targeted by the devil-cat and her sharp claws and teeth. “I’ll take that into consideration when Christmas break comes around.” Then he asked her another question, one where Briar grinned mysteriously, only half-joking when she replied, “But if I tell you, they wouldn’t be secret passageways anymore now would they?” Another pause, before Briar added in goodwill, “About three, so far this year. About fifteen in total—and some of them are rather well known.”

Then she nodded, slightly in disappointment, but understanding. The team this year was having some difficulty making some permanent positions—many people could only play as reserves rather than full-fledged members. If you were particularly brave—you pretty much went straight to Gryffindor, leaving the fear of heights and other such phobias much more prominent in the other houses. This was an off year for Quidditch. “I see. Well, everyone is afraid of something.” (Though Briar wasn’t quite sure what she herself was.)

Oh, so it might actually work! Kohaku didn’t seem to immediately reject the idea, instead actually suggesting that they try to time it. “Really?” Briar asked, pleased, little to no skeptism in her voice. “Well, before we time it we’d have to find a way to get the light off our wands, and over the lake. The deeper and further out the better.” She wasn’t keen on wading in (though don’t immediately dismiss that she wouldn’t do it), the waters were deep, and without some form of protection (and the recent weather)—you could get hypothermia in minutes. Which, by personal experience, Briar could tell you it wasn’tfun. So far, she’d only seen the spell work in areas the wand had physically been, note the light trail. So unless they threw their wands in, which again Briar wasn’t eager to do, she couldn’t see how it would be possible to get the light out of the shallows, and onto the deep black water.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[silver]

((Sorry I haven't replied, I couldn't think of anything to write.))"I think it's good that you went to a Muggle school." Kohaku said, "I believe that everyone should go until they come here or go to whatever magic school they will go to. I went to a Muggle school in Japan myself." He smiled slightly remembering the time spent in school, learning everything he could. He and Kaede had gone to the same school his father had, he had wanted to ignore the fact that he could do magic and go to the same middle and highschool as his father, but of course things didn't exactly turn out the way he'd wanted them to. He grinned at Briar, and laughed when she talked about the passageways. "Of course," he said, "Isn't it like a tradition or something to have everyone find the passageways themselves?" he asked, remembering how he'd found the Room of Requirement back in first year, he still used the Room when he was homesick and as a hiding place on the anniversary of the fire. The teachers and his friends knew that he would be gone all day and all night, and they stopped looking for him. He never told anyone where he was going or why for the few days leading up and after he looked like someone had killed his cat and after the first few years, no one asked. "Hmmm.." he mused, knawing on his lower lip in a gesture that had been more Kaede then him, but he'd started to use when he was thinking hard about something. "Do you know the spell to detach something from something else?" he asked, "If we used that while our wands were lit up maybe we could detach the light." After a moments pause, he added, "Or we could put the tips in the water nearest the edge and use a spell to propell it into the middle of the lake."