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Post by Markise Sterling on Oct 23, 2008 18:56:58 GMT -5
Markise was lost. Again. He was getting incredibly tired of this. But Hogwarts was massive, and unlike the streets of New York, wasn't laid out with letters and numbers so you always knew which way you were going. Never more than a block in the wrong direction. Hogwarts, however, was floor after floor of confusion, and Markise could swear the rooms and staircases moved.
Markise was a little more lost than he'd been before, though. It was dark down here. Was he in the dungeons? It might not have disturbed him so much, but he couldn't find a way out. So he tried to be quiet, tried to be cautious at every turn or new corridor he got to. The place was giving him flashbacks.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Oct 23, 2008 19:01:13 GMT -5
Michael had been forced to go down into the dungeons upon realizing he had forgotten a few things in his trunk, and had his head down as he prayed he wouldn't meet up with anyone while taking the quickest route out. What he didn't expect was to turn the corner and see Markise. "Markise! What are you doing down here?" he asked, glancing around and walking up to him. They weren't anywhere near the potions room, so that couldn't be it.
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Post by Markise Sterling on Oct 23, 2008 19:06:55 GMT -5
Relief washed through Markise. "Thank God!" he said, keeping his voice down to match Michael's. "This is the dungeons, isn't it?" he asked, looking around like he expected something to jump out at him. "I was trying to, you know, get the lay of the land, and I don't even know." He didn't even know when he'd realized he was in the dungeons.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Oct 23, 2008 19:12:36 GMT -5
"This is somewhere you really don't want to be," Michael said, glancing around again and gesturing for Markise to follow him as he started walking. Even if Markise wasn't out to the school, Michael didn't think the Slytherins would give him much of a chance. He was just glad he had been the one to find Markise. He settled his newly filled bag low against his hip and kept his left hand hovering near his wand, just in case.
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Post by Markise Sterling on Oct 23, 2008 19:40:26 GMT -5
Markise's eyes widened slightly as he caught up with Michael and walked beside him. "Am I not supposed to be here?" he asked in hushed tones. "I heard about the forest, but I didn't know..." He did know that his panic was returning, though. Markise's hand lowered to where his wand was tucked away in his pocket, and he started mentally rehearsing the spell that Ariel had taught him.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Oct 23, 2008 19:43:49 GMT -5
"There's no rules against it," Michael said as he turned down a corridor. "But the Slytherin common room is three turns from where you were at. They've been pretty hard on me and Dare." He didn't say anything about the potential of them doing something to Markise, he wasn't going to chance someone hearing it and causing Markise to be pulled out like he and Dare had been.
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Post by Markise Sterling on Oct 23, 2008 19:52:22 GMT -5
Markise's eyes widened again, and his body tensed. He drew closer to Michael, who at least knew where they were going. "How hard?" he asked in a near-whisper. The small of his back ached all of a sudden, and Markise threw a glance back over his shoulder, but there was no one there. It was his imagination. It had to be.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Oct 23, 2008 19:55:58 GMT -5
"Mostly words," Michael said, his eyes darkening. "They know I'm good with a wand so they've not tried much of that on me. Back in the dorm they've messed with a lot of my things." More than just messed with. His eyes darkened farther as his mind went back to the things tucked deep into Dare's bag. At least, that was where they had been the last time he had seen them.
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Post by Markise Sterling on Oct 23, 2008 20:08:25 GMT -5
Some of Markise's tension drained at that. The guy walking next to him being good with a wand was nice to hear, but that the trouble was mostly words and destruction of property was a massive relief. "That's good," Markise said. Then, realizing how that likely sounded, glanced behind himself again. "It could be a lot worse," he clarified, speaking under his breath again. He didn't want to think about it, didn't want to relive it. He hoped Michael didn't make the connection.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Oct 23, 2008 20:12:16 GMT -5
Michael glanced over at Markise at that, feeling slighted by those words. He really couldn't imagine it being much worse than what those guys had done to his sketchbook, even a wand fight would have been preferred, at least then he could have directly dealt with whoever it was that had done it. There was always the possibility that something could have happened to Dare, but he considered that so far removed from what had happened that it wasn't even in the same category.
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Post by Markise Sterling on Oct 23, 2008 20:21:53 GMT -5
Markise caught the look on Michael's face and dropped his gaze. "I'm sorry," he said, "I just..." He looked around again. "I don't want to talk about it, not here." Dare didn't even know yet. He shouldn't even be hinting at Michael, but he felt like he owed him some kind of explanation. "I didn't mean it wasn't bad, I'm sorry." If he kept this up with Michael, he'd end up making the guy a new wardrobe in apology.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Oct 23, 2008 20:28:39 GMT -5
Michael shook his head, each person had their own definition of what was bad, but that didn't mean that what he had went through was any less traumatic than what it could have been, or whatever it was that Markise had gone through. "Don't worry about it," he said dismissively, and concentrated on the path they were taking, looking carefully for the slightly different colored stone that gave away the quickest way back up to one of the main corridors.
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Post by Markise Sterling on Oct 23, 2008 20:46:15 GMT -5
"I really am sorry," Markise insisted lightly. "I've got this...oral fixation, and I can't seem to keep my mouth shut." Something he'd shown Ariel firsthand, though he wouldn't think of mentioning that to Michael. Markise decided that this might be a good time to do something else with his mouth, and reached into his hip pocket, sliding out a half-used pack of gum. He popped a piece into his mouth, then offered it to Michael, knowing the likelihood he'd be turned down.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Oct 23, 2008 20:50:13 GMT -5
Michael shook his head at the gum and couldn't help but smile softly at what Markise said. Dare seemed to have the same problem on occasion. "Is that a common thing for people from California?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as he pulled to a stop in front of the block he was looking for and pulled out his wand. He tapped the stone and said a few words, then the wall slid away to reveal a path. He tucked his wand away again and walked through, gesturing for Markise to follow.
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Post by Markise Sterling on Oct 23, 2008 20:59:47 GMT -5
Markise had blinked at Michael's question and shot back with, "I'm not from California." He'd have said more, but Michael had just opened a slice of the wall. Markise looked behind them again, then slipped through after him. Something clicked in Markise's mind then. "Wait, what do you mean a common thing for people from California?" he asked. Unless Michael knew more people from Cali than Dare and Silver. Markise got a flash of what he'd seen that day at the lake, and the bubble he'd been blowing popped loudly.
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