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Post by moony on Feb 21, 2011 6:02:58 GMT 2
It had been a long, sleepless night for Remus and still, his work was far from over. He was very careful to close the door quietly as he entered the foyer of Number 12 Grimmauld Place, shooting a furtive glance at the dark, satin curtains drawn over the sleeping portrait of Mrs. Black. He made sure to keep up his subterfuge as he picked his way past the troll foot umbrella stand and neatly sidestepped some stranger's cloak tossed untidily across the hallway. It was 3 o'clock in the morning and though the house felt empty, Remus didn't doubt that somewhere amid the the maze-like depths of Padfoot's old family home, some poor soul was trying to catch up on some much needed sleep. They hardly needed him to plunge the house into a fresh wave of “DEFILLERS! FILTH, IN MY HOME!”, courtesy of Mrs. Black. Heck, Remus was awake, and he didn't think he could deal with the very vocal portrait. There was something about that high pitched shriek that tended to masticate gray cells, and he needed to be in top form tonight. There was still work to be done.
Constant, ceaseless, never ending work.
Trudging his way into the empty kitchens, Remus turned on the lights with a lazy flick of his wand, and began directing a small army of coffee beans into the ratty-looking coffee maker shoved hastily into a corner. He did all this with half-conscious effort, doors and cupboards quietly flinging open so that a mug and some sugar could magically hop out onto the counter to be joined by a spoon and some cream. Somewhere in the background, the coffee machine clicked to life, commencing the effort of boiling water, while Remus took up residence right behind a massive, complex setup of books, parchment and messy diagrams that had been left there since early morning. He flipped through a particularly ancient looking tomb, trying to find his place. Meanwhile, the words seemed to blur past his weary vision and he rubbed at his eyes, trying to stimulate some sense of wakefulness in them. Come on...Just for a few hours. Then it would be off to bed. This was important... He could feel it was. Just a few more hours.. then it was off to bed.
The smell of hot coffee filled the room. Remus threw a sidelong glance at the steaming mug that gently floated its way over from the counter, before settling itself at his side. He took the spoon and stirred it slowly, just letting the aroma do its magic. Remus had never been much of a coffee person. In fact, he almost always preferred tea. He could never get past the bitter edge of coffee, often adding three loaded teaspoons of sugar, much to the bemusement of everyone around him. But coffee had that quick acting kick of caffeine. Caffeine kept one awake. And despite his general dislike for it, he found himself drinking it on a regular basis these days, often in settings much like this: An empty kitchen, a quiet house, ancient books piled all around him.
Remus sipped his coffee and tried to settle down to work.
Business with the Order was his top priority these days. Because they were so short on man-power, Remus often found himself doing the job of three. He was coordinating when he could, ensuring that messages were passed on to the right people and kept out of the hands of the wrong ones. He was on the field, trying to find fresh leads, while currently trying to work his way into infiltrating the werewolf clan under Voldemort's influence, and lastly, he was researching.
Researching what? Well...even Remus wasn't sure about that. He had a hunch, that's all, and experience told him to listen to his instincts. All he knew was that he would know what he was looking for when he found it and so, for the last few weeks, Remus had been spending countless early mornings at this very table: reading. Today's book looked as if it was older than he was by a good two hundred years. The pages were waxy and yellow, marked and scuffed from years of use, while the ink glittered dimly in the flickering candles floating overhead. Remus had found the book hidden in a crumbling old bookshelf in number 12's basement, covered in a healthy layer of dust and cobwebs. The blood red cover had given him no doubts that it was a book on the very darkest of arts. He had spent a good two days trying to figure out how to get it open without unleashing a fairly powerful protective hex that existed within its pages (Some terrible bit of spell work that would turn a human being inside out if they weren't careful. Nasty stuff) and had since gotten to work trying to read it cover to cover.
One usually didn't think much of reading a book. Remus certainly didn't, but this book was so awful in its descriptions of terrible curses and rituals, that he could barely look at it for more than a few hours at a time. In the half light of the faltering candles, the book was already beginning to take its toll. The words seemed to swirl before his very eyes, taking on forms and shapes. There was suddenly a man, being torn to shreds by an invisible force-
The words spun away, rearranging. A circle, some heinous sacrifice taking place at it's center.
More scuffling, more changing, the words danced and jittered on the page. An awful, inhuman face, burning red eyes glowing bright-
Remus shut his eyes, pressing a hand to his face. Come on...
He had to concentrate! There was something in these books. There was something, he knew there was. He just had to find it.
Remus held onto the thought, head propped up on his arm.
Just had to find it. In a few seconds. Perhaps he should just rest his eyes. A moments rest never hurt anyone. Then he'd be able to dig through this terrible monstrosity for whatever it was he was looking for. He just had to find it. Only a moment's rest.
And without much ceremony, Remus' arm slipped out from under him and he was fast asleep on the table.
Tag; Open! Join away!
Words; Ramble faucet at full force. Don't mind me...
Other; I figured a coffee machine would be the most important addition to the Order...ever.
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Post by AVA ROSALIE WOOD on Feb 21, 2011 23:17:28 GMT 2
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you show the lights that stop me turn to stone
Someone else was home. The door creaked very quietly closed, but Ava's bruised-looking eyelids flickered open on the second floor. She sat up and waited motionlessly, blinking slowly. She moistened her dry, chapped lips with a flick of her tongue. She heard no clatter as the visitor avoided her dark purple cape which nestled in the entrance of the corridor. She closed her eyes for a longer while, her breath coming out in a cold cloud as she gave a quiet sigh. She knew who it was. Not many people avoided inanimate objects in the dark, there was only one she knew of who was so diligent in his unselfishness. But he was not in danger of interrupting her sleep (though she couldn't speak for the rest of number twelve's squatters) as her mind and body alike refused to rest tonight.
She pulled her head down into her hands, fingers scrunching dark locks tightly against her skull. She stayed in this position for a good minute or two before pushing herself up off her makeshift bed and walking to the door, past the actual bed. The makeshift one was of choice. She'd tried the massive four-poster and the lumps in the mattress felt so uncomfortable to her now-sensitive body that she'd given up and flung herself on the floor. Her footsteps echoed softly through the house as she took to the stairs, bare feet catching on the rough carpeted floor. Her attire was not your usual pyjama/nightgown situation. Ava wore a fading old t-shirt (one of Remus' own in fact, that she'd 'borrowed' off him) and a pair of mens long-johns that she'd found in the bedroom she was currently occupying. She didn't know why she'd left her cape back in the corridor, regretting it instantly when all she had in the bedroom was a frayed blanket of small proportions.
She'd seen the kitchen light from the top of the stairs and now she pushed open said door, immediately greeted by a warm sight from the darkness. Remus Lupin, surrounded by a multitude of very old-looking books, scrolls and parchments, head on the table, eyes shut tight. A cup of coffee perched precariously on the edge of said table. Ava gave herself a flimsy slap to the forehead, her wand was upstairs. She manually picked up the cup and seeing that it was practically full, she proceeded to drain the beverage rather quickly. The bitter taste felt unpleasant in her mouth but its sweet scent had been welcoming. Licking her lips and wiping a hand across her mouth to try and get rid of the taste, Ava placed the cup back down on the table in a less precarious position. Great. She'd just locked in a sleepless night for sure with that coffee devourment. And he was asleep.
She drew up a chair across from him and regarded the stacks of books and intellectual material with a sceptical eye. After a few minutes of this pointless and weary sort of action, Ava reached out for the only open book on the table. What the hell, right? She started at the top of the page. Her tired eyes read and her tired mind imagined. She swam through oceans of hellfire, raced through burning forests, crumbled under stone giants as her eyes grudingly trailed from left to right. Suddenly her hand slipped and the heavy book fell to the floor, or more accurately, onto her foot. "Bugger!" Ava cursed, blinking frustratedly, her vision confused, the terrible imagery of the dastardly book engraving itself into her mind. Her foot was bleeding. The girl glared at the guilty book as though it could be punished in some way.
losing it all on my own
AND NOW I'M NOT SLEEPING THE DARK IS TOO HARD TO BEAT
tagged: rem, others
lyrics: lights - ellie goulding
notes: (:
credit: posy
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Post by moony on Feb 24, 2011 3:24:07 GMT 2
He hadn't been gone for long. Remus could feel himself drifting as half-asleep individuals tend to do, his mind sitting in a place that was neither here, nor there, nor anywhere. Sometimes he could just feel the table underneath him, smooth and cool, his arm a bony pillow beneath his head. Some tiny part of him recognized that he was asleep. It tried to speak out, to rile him awake, but for the most part it went ignored, easily silenced as the sense of table, arm and discomfort simply vanished. He must have spent ten minutes like that, bobbing to and fro between sensation and nothing. It was while returning to sensation (Pins and needles in his arm. He grudgingly acknowledged that he ought to move it, but just couldn't find the energy to send that little signal from brain to elbow), that Remus was suddenly awakened by a deep, solid THWAP!
Tired or not, he was startled alert by the noise, eyes flashing wide in the dim darkness of the kitchen as his hand instinctively went for his wand, prepared to face-
“....Ava?” Remus stared, blinked, and balked a little, the adrenaline rush slowly leaving his body. Rubbing at his eyes, Remus regarded his former student with a strange look of relief and bemusement; Relief, because it was his experience that the sound of sudden crashes was never good news. Bemusement, because it was 3 in the morning and Ava Wood was sitting across the table clutching at her foot. He felt as if he'd missed something here. Still groggy, he reached for his coffee, only to find that the mug was a lot lighter than he remembered it. Strange.... he could have sworn he didn't take more than a...
Remus shook his head, set down the cup and glanced across the table at the girl. “It's late...-” Why are you not in bed? He almost said, before figuring it was best not to patronize the girl. “You're still up?” He asked instead, suddenly conscious of the massive mess his collection of books and papers presented on the kitchen table. Rising, Remus began to compulsively rearrange the unorganized chaos into neat stacks, only to pause as he suddenly took notice; The red book, the one he was reading...
Now where had it...
Remus spotted it on the floor, sitting open on the worn wood by Ava's foot. He understood what woke him up now as he headed to pick it up, smoothing out the creases in the pages, before he closed it shut.
“Not the most pleasant book for nighttime reading, I'm afraid.” Remus said, giving Ava a knowing look. “As your former teacher, I feel the need to warn you against picking up books so casually. Some can be particularly harmful.” He glanced at her foot. “As I'm sure you're well aware.” He added with a wry smile, moving to the counter to fetch a cloth. Running it under some water, Remus headed back to Ava, holding out the damp cloth for her.
“Here. It doesn't look too bad. Once you clean it up, you should consider getting some sleep.”
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Post by AVA ROSALIE WOOD on Feb 28, 2011 1:13:54 GMT 2
____________________
you show the lights that stop me turn to stone
"What?" Ava almost screamed at him. She shook her head, a little apologetically, reaching down to inspect the damage. The sheer force of the book had cut into the space between her big toe and the next one. Didn't look like much, hurt like a mother f*cker. "What?" She said, softer now. Then she shook her head again as if to take that back. "I mean, good morning, night, whatever the f*ck it is." Oops. Swear words were never a hit with Remus. Oh well, too late now. "Sorry, Rem," she muttered quickly, pretending to inspect her foot again. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him peer into the coffee cup confusedly. "Yeah, me," she said, to clear matters up. "Really bitter, how can you drink it? Especially in, like, the middle of the night... Strange." The brunette made a face at him. Her eyes crinkles a little in amusement as he stated the obvious. "Good one, dearest. Yes it is late," she commented sleepily, leaning back into her chair, not interested in her bleeding foot anymore. She stared at him wide-eyed. "Yes. As you can see, yoo-hoo, I am here. It's not some strange out-of-body experience and you'll find my real body somewhere upstairs." She hitched her legs up and hugged them to her chest, pressing her forehead against her knees.
Why couldn't she sleep? She hadn't seen Lettie for over two years now, so what if she hadn't heard from her in a fortnight? Maybe she couldn't write. Maybe it was too risky. Maybe she was just busy. Was it even Lettie keeping her up at all hours. These dark bruise-like circles under her eyes were giving her a permanent panda look which she didn't particularily like. Her eyes were closed but she heard the older man grope for the book under her chair. She murmured an assent. It certainly wasn't your typical Deathly Hallows sort of wizarding lullaby. She lifted her head at his next comment, an annoyed frown on her pale face. "Excuse me, you had it open, as if you were reading it, so why shouldn't I? I'd understand if it had been in a chest with, like, a ton of deadbolts all over it." To be honest she probably would've tried to read it then too.
She took the cloth from his hands after watching his figure retreat to the counter and back to her. "What about a plaster?" She said, her lips curling upwards in a sort of crooked smile. Wiping her foot clean of the blood, she wiggled her toes, checking they were in working order. All good. She flung the bloody cloth on the table, narrowly missing a pile of Remus' books. Ava stretched her arms upwards, her fingers clicking. Then she let her arms fall, her whole body slumping as she drew her feet up again and wrapped her arms around her knees. "I've been considering getting some sleep for the past, however many hours it's been since I went upstairs. Fail." She gazed at him morosely from her chair. "Wha'cha doing?" He was clearly researching something. Not that she really cared, it was just conversation. Now that she'd found him and he was awake she would be using him to her advantage. Entertainer. "Hey, maybe I can help with something? As you can see, I've got plenty of time on my hands..." Maybe she'd make herself a coffee too. Food for thought. She wasn't going back up to oblivion fail upstairs either way. If he said it was top-secret order business (well, that wouldn't work since she was in) or something that he was dealing with alone, she would still be here, just sitting and waiting for the night to hurry up and pass by.
losing it all on my own
AND NOW I'M NOT SLEEPING THE DARK IS TOO HARD TO BEAT
tagged: rem, others
lyrics: lights - ellie goulding
notes: (:
credit: posy
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