Daydream

[Adara Snow]

Adara looked up again, her eyes dark with pleading. "But if he has so many friends, he must be worthy of their friendship, mustn't he?" She didn't want to hear these things, not when Emilian was the first person since she had left home who listened to her and encouraged her. Not when she had already immortalized him in the pages of her journal.

[Druscilla Grace]

Dru took a breath and bit her lip, trying to think of the right words to say. "I don't know about Pandora and Storm, but I know for a fact that Savannah is not his friend," she said, looking into Adara's eyes. She imagined that Adara had already heard this, but perhaps hearing it from a different person would help.

[Adara Snow]

Adara looked into Dru's eyes, curiosity and hope warring with despair. "But why would he say such a thing? If he lied to me, then I would know." Part of her was praying for a misunderstanding, wishing that Emilian would come now and put her questions at ease. "He must know that I would want to meet his friends, he could not lie about such a thing." Please do not say that he lied to me.

[Druscilla Grace]

Dru knew what she was going through, but did she want to relate the story? It took her a few moments to decide, but she chose to tell her. "I know what you're thinking. My ex, he was always nothing but kind to me, but these other people would always tell me how horrible he was. I wouldn't believe them. I didn't believe them until he actually attacked me. I think the same thing's happening with Emilian, the only difference is that I can't see Emilian ever repenting like Michael did."

[Adara Snow]

Adara's chest felt painfully constricted until she heard the word repent. Her eyes brightened again, clinging to one desperate strand of hope. "But Michael is Emilian's friend," she said. "If Michael could be so...horrible, and he could repent, then Emilian could as well." The tone of her voice was unsure, a question rather than a statement of belief. She wanted it to be true. She wanted Dru to be wrong.

[Druscilla Grace]

"I don't know how to explain it, but Michael's different, he was never as bad as Emilian is. He's never raped anyone." As far as Dru knew, the statement was true. "There's always a chance that Emilian could repent, but you shouldn't be around him until it happens, if it ever does."

[Adara Snow]

"But what if it already has happened?" she asked. "What if I can help him?" There was so much to think about, so much she was unsure she would ever understand. Adara blinked as one of the words Dru said caught in her mind. Ryan had said it as well, but he hadn't explained. "What is rape? It is something you do to another person?" She could guess that much, but no more.

[Druscilla Grace]

Dru hadn't thought about that. Could Adara be to Emilian what Dru had been to Michael? Adara's next question floored her, and she sat for a few seconds staring at the other girl, eyes wide. "It's where you force sex on someone that doesn't want it. That's what Emilian did to Savannah." This girl was even more sheltered than Dru had originally thought.

[Adara Snow]

Adara's eyes were dark and gleaming with desperation. She still did not understand! "But what is sex?" Mere weeks ago, she had thought herself ably knowledgeable, with the proper feminine knowledge her father said was desirable in the perfect lady. But since her second day at Hogwarts, everything she knew had been challenged, leaving her more in need of guidance than ever before.

[Druscilla Grace]

If the last question had floored Dru, that one blew her completely out of the ballpark. "Um..." Could it really be that hard to explain something in which she had participated only the night before? Twice? "You don't know what sex is?" it was the only thing she could say, she was dumbfounded.

[Adara Snow]

Adara's lip found its way between her teeth as she shook her head, eyes wide and pleading. How could she not know something that it seemed should be obvious? And she could see discomfort in Dru's eyes. "Should I not have asked?" Her body tensed slightly, and she bowed her head, bracing herself for whatever might come.

[Druscilla Grace]

"No, it's fine, just....surprising." Dru thought for a few more seconds before haltingly telling Adara the basics, not exactly sure what to say or how to say it. "It's very intimate, and to force it on someone...." Dru trailed off, she couldn't imagine what it would be like for it to happen to her.

[Adara Snow]

Adara was in far too much shock by the end of Dru's description to possibly say anything. She'd had to ask a few more questions in between, which had been just as shocking, apparently, as her earlier question, and now, her mind was reeling, and her mouth was dry. Firstly, she had difficulty imagining many of the things she'd said, even with her descriptions, and secondly, she could not imagine letting them happen to her! She couldn't imagine Emilian doing them, much less forcing anything...A shiver raced down Adara's spine, lodging in her now-nervous stomach.

[Druscilla Grace]

Dru watched her, giving her a couple of minutes before speaking again. "Are you ok?" she asked. Maybe it had been too much for Adara, Dru couldn't be sure. Maybe it would be enough to keep her away from Emilian though, and that was what Dru had wanted originally.

[Adara Snow]

Adara nodded and took a deep breath, still trying to sort through things as she looked back up at Dru. "Thank you," she managed. It seemed there was an entire world, an enormous piece of information that she had simply never been given. But why? "Is it...bad?" she asked tentatively. She did not associate the somewhat clinical description Dru had given her with the strange sensations she felt in Emilian's presence, but it all seemed perilously close to the things which she had been forbidden to write of, to ask or to think about.