Who: Dedalus and Emmeline
What: :'(
Where: Dedalus' room
When: Thursday Night



Dedalus leaned back in his desk chair, flipping his journal closed with one hand before both of them were brought up to run into his hair, pulling it back from his forehead as he sighed. It really had been so different since Elphias and Juliet had been taken to Mungo's. Now, Dedalus wasn't best friends with Juliet, but he still liked her, so he was still worried about her. But...Elphias? Elphias was like his brother. He had been his best friend since they were in their first year, and never once judged him for any of his many quirks. So not having him at Hogwarts was like missing a limb, and it was really quite difficult for him to function. He wasn't able to concentrate on anything, and his thoughts were always drifting whenever he was in class, and he'd always look over to where his friends were supposed to be sitting. Those empty seats always made him worry so much more. It was hard to explain to everyone else why he was in such a funk, since most of them thought it was just...nothing. They didn't think they had anything nearly as bad as what they actually had. A lethal virus that was created by psychotic Death Eaters. That wasn't just any ordinary sickness. This could kill them if it got bad enough.

But he couldn't think about that. They weren't going to die. No, they weren't. They couldn't, because he really just wouldn't be able to handle it. And he knew that this wasn't easy on Emmeline either, since she was best friends with both of them. Or at least really close to Juliet. Closer than he was, he knew that. So when she mentioned being locked in her dorm, he knew things weren't good. It was like he had a sixth sense for whenever she was crying, and at the moment it was tingling. Well, maybe it was more like a seventh sense, but he wasn't sure if legilimency counted as a sense. So maybe it was a sixth.

It didn't really matter, because it was still like an alarm in his head. So, with a flick of his wand, he unlocked his door and then leaned forward, resting his head in his hands as his elbows leaned against the table, letting his eyes close as he tried to think of anything to keep his mind off of Elphias and Juliet. Eliza had tried to comfort him, and keep him distracted with random conversations, but it didn't help. He hated that she couldn't help him, but she just...didn't get it. She didn't know.

Emmeline honestly did not like being feared or---scary, whatever it was that made the first years jump out of her way every time they saw her coming down the stairs. Or---storming. She was storming down the stairs. But this time it wasn't out of rage (and unfortunately it was, a lot of the time), but it was so she could quickly escape the dormitory and get to Dedalus' room. A huge part of her wanted to stay in the dorm and not have to talk or deal with other people, but after this past year, she'd come to find that it really didn't do much. Or anything, at all. All it actually did was make her feel worse, and maybe 'sharing' your feelings would help. Emmeline just hated feeling like a burden, which she had felt she was to Dedalus for some time. She knew he didn't mind helping her through things, well, he minded but he would continue to do it because he was a great friend like that, but it still didn't help knowing that she was mucking up things in his life.

But right now his sodding girlfriend could jump out of Gryffindor tower for all Emmeline cared; no one in the castle outside of Dumbledore knew the severity of the situation, and when she slipped into Dedalus' room, Emmeline shut the door behind her quickly, leaning heavily against it and her tear stained face already focusing on the rug of the room.

"Dearborn's a fucking prick," she snapped, crossing her arms. Emmeline knew that Caradoc must be stressed, but---okay, and she hadn't started things in a nice manner either, but--the situation was very tense, and---"He's a fucking prick and I never want to see his goddamn face ever again."

He straightened up as he heard the door open, flinching a bit as it closed, not quite ready for the noise it made when she shut it behind her. It wasn’t his intention to gawk at her, because he knew it was rude to stare, but even though it had happened once or twice in the past, he still wasn’t used to seeing her cry. He didn’t like seeing anyone cry, but for some reason Emmeline crying was just…bah. He really really didn’t like it.

Eventually he blinked, after what seemed like forever, and cleared his throat quietly, placing his hands on each arm of the chair to lift himself up. Caradoc had made her cry? This thought alone worried him, but he wasn’t about to think of something bad when he didn’t know exactly what had happened. His hands slipped into his pockets as he approached her, staring down at the rug as well, now a few feet away from her. “Do…you want to sit down or something?” Bringing his eyes up to look at her again, he once again tried to not stare, but it was harder to not notice that her cheeks were wet now that he was closer.

"No, because---I was asking about Juliet, and okay," Emmeline knew Dedalus had asked her to sit, not to continue to talk or rant, but she couldn't stop herself, "I knew he was lying because I just---I fucking know so I snapped at him and then he---I am not nosy when it----acting like I'm just some stupid bint that wants the gossip!" Emmeline's hand threw up in a dismissive gesture, only to flail about a bit more, "As if I don't give a shit about Juliet--about Juliet, are you out of your goddamn mind?!"

Oh, she really fucking hated Caradoc. Seriously. Seriously, Juliet was---she'd known her longer than any of her friends, she'd spent the most time with her, she---one of the few people she respected and kept on the same playing field as her and---and you know, sometimes even saw her as higher and---you know. She was one of her best friends and in this bloody war Juliet was one of the few people Emmeline could literally see herself dying for and----ohhhh, fuck Caradoc, seriously.

"I just---" Emmeline threw her hands down, knowing she looked absolutely pathetic, but really, she didn't care. She'd battled alongside Dedalus, against death eaters and itty bitty muggle bears...ohhh...the thought of the raccoon ambush made her think of Elphias and Emmeline's face screwed up with tears. It just wasn't fair. "Everyone I love gets hurt," she moaned, voicing what was really getting to her, "It---it just can't go right, ever."

Dedalus stood still while she explained what she was really upset about. He liked that he didn’t need to ask any questions for her to answer everything he had wanted to ask her when she had showed up crying in the first place. The who, what, where, when and why questions that usually came when you were trying to figure things out. But after she had said everything, he felt dull and stupid for just standing there, now not able to say anything at all.

Sucking in his bottom lip, he stared at the floor before he looked back up at her, hoping that he could at least be a little bit comforting, even though he knew he couldn’t do much. “Well, as for Caradoc, I don’t really know why he acted the way that he did…I mean, I don’t really know him that well, so that could have a lot to do with it…but I’m sure there’s a lot going on in his head right now. I don’t think he really cared who he was talking to, but he was just saying the first thing that came to his mind without…thinking.” He furrowed his brows at his own words momentarily, watching her once again before he stepped a little bit closer. “And things will go right, Em. They will. Even if it’s not right now, and even if it seems like everything is just falling apart, and nothing is going to get stitched back together, there will be a time when everything will be alright. Elphias and Juliet are going to pull through this, and we’ll move on, and we’ll be okay…we’ll be okay.” He said the last words almost to reassure himself, also speaking each word before that with conviction…although at some points he wasn’t sure who he was really trying to convince.

Her mouth was twisting greatly throughout Dedalus' explanation of things, or whatever you would call it. Part of it to stop herself from interrupting because she was learning (slowly, but surely) that sometimes it was just better to listen than to try and get your point across, especially when it was just ranting and raving about idiot Slytherin boys who didn't know how to speak to people. Oh, honestly, in all her time knowing Caradoc, Emmeline was sure she had never really been angry with him, and it was a terribly strong feeling right now and she didn't like that he could rile it out of her.

But mostly, she was staying quiet so she didn't burst into tears. Which was proving fruitless, and as soon as Dedalus finished (or probably a second or two before) Emmeline flung her arms around him and cried. She'd been through trouble before (Merlin knew Dedalus knew that) but when she wasn't the one in danger? Or when she knew she couldn't do a damn thing about? Oh, that hurt the fucking most. All it could remind her of was Frank's abduction, how she'd been completely helpless and---no, she couldn't deal with something like that again.

There wasn’t even a pause to think about anything before his arms were wrapped around her back, holding her close to him to let her cry it out. There wasn’t any thought about whether or not it was weird for him to hug her back, like there usually was when someone who wasn’t Eliza and female touched him at all, because he knew that this was Emmeline. She was one of his best friends, and she was hurting, so it was alright and it was instinctive and it was alright. There wasn’t anything wrong with holding her close, feeling his shirt get wet as she pressed her face against him, still crying because everything really was crashing down around them.

And they were completely alone.

They were alone in knowing what was happening to everyone, and they were alone in knowing where each of them went when they weren’t at school. And even though Dedalus had said something to her about not wanting to lie for her anymore, he would do it again any time. God, she didn’t even know how much he regretted that, and he wished he could take it back but it would never be the same. And it was sad that the most he could do for her was let her cling onto him and cry, and try and tell her that everything would be alright when he himself couldn’t even be too sure. But he had to have hope. They both just…they had to have hope, because if they didn’t have that, they had nothing. His hand began to slowly move up and down her back, trying to be as comforting as he could, resting his chin on her shoulder. “I’m sorry…”

There were quiet a few things he was apologizing for in that moment. He was sorry for not being able to do more for her. He was sorry that he couldn’t do anything more for Elphias, and Juliet. He was sorry that he wasn’t able to do more for himself. He was sorry for being completely useless, and he was sorry for making her feel like she was a burden at times. Because, God, she wasn’t that at all. She wasn’t a burden to him, and she wasn’t a hassle, and if he ever made her feel like that he really just…he was sorry. He was sorry for so many things, and even if he wanted to explain himself it was hard since his throat had suddenly gotten very tight, just thinking about everything.