Some Things Never Change

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase stood in the doorway for some time, hands resting at the hips of his new robes. This was a great responsibility, but he couldn't help thinking that it was also his finest act of rebellion against his father. He was going into politics in a way, that could neither be argued nor looked down upon. This was an honorable position. But it wasn't in America. He wasn't at his father's side any longer, training to become an ambassador.

That training would serve him well. For all the years he'd resisted it, when the Headmistress had given him Head Boy, it had all come naturally. Leadership was in his blood.

Those weeks in the Hospital Wing so long ago, when Emilian had been expelled for the very incident that had gotten him a warning, he'd known how absurdly lucky he was. The Headmistress had seen something in him that no one else had ever seen, including himself.

It was strange to think of. He'd clung to his position at Hogwarts, and he'd ended in staying. The future was uncertain at best and he preferred it that way. He didn't want to feel tied down. Somehow he didn't feel tied down here. It was a mystery.

He was Head of House, as well. Those students who had been his peers yesterday were now his students. It brought a smirk to his lips. He moved, sure strides taking him to the heavy desk sitting prominently in the room. He looked at it and sat, pushing the chair back to prop his booted feet on the blotter. This was going to be fun.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

When Annabelle Hennessy showed up to the castle she was fully prepared to do whatever it took to complete her education. Only the severe circumstances she found herself in nearly a year ago could have possibly torn her away from her academic pursuits. Now that things were settled once again in her personal life, she could return to complete her much desired education….if she was allowed back. She didn’t care how much groveling was required; she wouldn’t be considered a fully trained witch until she finished her NEWTS and would do anything to secure her rightful future. She wanted nothing more than to prove that she was capable and had the ability to advance in the wizarding world she was so proud to belong to.

Annabelle was thrown slightly off guard when, upon arriving, she was informed that Headmistress Hells was unavailable for council. It was a minor alteration in her carefully planned return, but she took it in stride and headed for the newly appointed Deputy Headmaster’s office.

Anna’s hands nervously smoothed over her plain black robe before knocking on the door to the office. She had known exactly what she was going to say to Headmistress Hells, whom she had at least known in passing. She hoped she could talk the Deputy into allowing her back and chewed on her lip with anticipation at putting her future in the hands of someone she didn’t know.

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase's boots found their way to the floor again as he sat, then stood at the sound of the door. He could enjoy practicing his wandwork later, Chase decided. He'd answer the door himself, perhaps take advantage of the new level of power he held and see how people reacted.

He'd only done minor things so far, seeing a student to sorting and making sure that the professors all had their assignments, but he had yet to deal with anyone personally. He crossed the room with a confident stride, sure that it was more paperwork or another announcement. Perhaps he was needed at the festival again.

He was stopped in his place when the door opened. A moment of darkness in his eyes burst into crimson and orange, and the tightening of his chest nearly overwhelmed him. "Anna..."

[Annabelle Hennessy]

A wave of emotions rushed through Anna at seeing Chase; hurt, anger, longing, confusion, so many more that she couldn't even name. She took a step back in shock, it would figure she would have to run into him of all people on her first day back. "Ch-Chase... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. I'll just, just wait out here until the Deputy Headmaster is free." She tore her nervous brown eyes from him long enough to see that there was a chair in the hall, then quickly focused back as if he were a predator that might strike at any minute. Hopefully they were almost done discussing whatever headboy duties and he would leave without her needing to endure his presence long. The thought didn't even cross her mind that Chase wasn't a student despite the last of student robes.

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase's brows drew slightly together. "I graduated," he said. He blinked and straightened slightly, gathering himself together and drawing up a facade of calm and business that his eyes belied. He opened the door wider and stood aside. "Come in," he said. "We can talk in here."

She'd been gone almost a year now. He'd changed so much since then, when he'd been so angry at life, lashing out at everything and everyone. Lashing out at her. He'd never promised her a thing but heartache. He'd warned her. He owed her so many apologies.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna's eyes widened at his insinuation. Surely her luck wasn't THAT bad? Her eyes darted back and forth between the empty office she could now fully see and his face. With a short, "heh heh" of a nervous laugh, Annabelle felt her legs carry her into the room and to a chair before the desk. She was far too caught up in her own thoughts to look around or even register that she took the seat and was staring at the floor.

Chase is the Deputy Headmaster? She couldn't wrap her head around the concept, around the guy, Chase, whom she.....no. She couldn't think about that right now. But why, oh why, did it have to be him of all people? She would much rather have had to confront the legendary Professor Snape at the moment.

Why couldn't the Headmistress just be available today? She clung to that thought, the only bit of hope to get her out of having to do this with Chase. Without looking up, she spoke her thoughts, praying that he would agree and send her on her way. "Will the Headmistress be available soon? Perhaps I should go to Hogsmeade and wait for her to set up an appointment by owl?"

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase closed the door and slid his wand free to cast a silencing spell so that they wouldn't be disturbed. "Anna, we need to talk anyway," he said. He stood looking at the door as he tried to sort his thoughts, then tucked his wand away as he turned back to her. Was she afraid of him? Had he been that bad? He could hardly recall through the memories of anger and desire.

"I can't make you talk to me, though," he went on, looking at Anna. "If you really want to see the Headmistress instead, I'll get her for you." Headmistress Dumbledore wouldn't like being disturbed on holiday, but he knew she'd respond. This school was her life.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Annabelle looked up at Chase with such uncertainty, her lower lip caught between her teeth. He was acting so different from the last time she's run into him. He'd completely ignored her and pushed her out of his life without any explanations then, but now he was being....kind. She was so unprepared to run into him and deal with that chapter of her past, but would he ever make an offer to talk again? Perhaps she would finally get the closure with him that she had wished for a year and a half ago.

Tossing a glance over her shoulder at the door, she finally ended the long silent pause. "I guess. I mean, I will stay. And talk." Gads! She hated that she was so nervous she could hardly articulate what she truly wanted to say. She didn't even realize how tightly her hands were clasping each other. She just kept looking at Chase with her large brown orbs, hoping that she would make it out of there emotionally in one piece. She didn't really want to talk about her more recent past with him, but maybe he would just let her come back without knowing those details.

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase nodded, and after a moment crossed the room toward Anna and his desk. He didn't round it, didn't take the seat behind it and the position of authority it commanded, but took the other guest chair half facing her. He sat, and for a short time didn't speak. Then one hand rose, spearing through his hair as he thought back.

"I know I didn't make any promises," he said. He'd warned her, though. He'd told her he didn't want a relationship, didn't want her, as much of a lie as they'd both known that to be. He looked down at his hands, folded in front of him as his elbows rested on the arms of the chair. "I'm sorry for how I treated you. You deserved better."

[Annabelle Hennessy]

She was completely speechless. All the times she had imagined confronting Chase again, of all the scenarios that had played out in her mind, never, not one of them, had started with such....an apology. She looked over at him wanting, needing, to see the sincerity of his voice reflected in the flaming sparks of his eyes. He was looking away, but she remained focused on his face in hopes that he would turn to her.

"I wish I could say it was okay." She took a deep shaky breath, willing her words to sound more even. "I know there were no promises, Lord I know. You never let me forget that." She looked to the ceiling, trying to find the strength to hold it together. She had finished crying over him long ago, she didn't need to start that again. It shouldn't be this hard. After all this time, it shouldn't be this hard. "Why couldn't you have just told me?" She looked back at him with the plea, the one question she still couldn't understand.

[Chase Firebrand]

The answer was painfully simple; he hadn't wanted to get hurt. He still couldn't say it though, because he still didn't fully understand it. They'd never been anything, but so much had happened during those tsunami months that just being there the way she had, steady and persistent, had been enough.

He thought for some moments before he looked up. His eyes were steady, smoldering without flame and entirely honest. "Telling you would have been admitting things that I wasn't ready for," he said. It had been too soon after Dru for him to trust. His entire life had been crumbling beneath his feet and he'd wanted to rage. He hadn't wanted to see her as a part of it all.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"What thi..." Anna broke off mid-word with a shake of her head. She wanted to ask what things, if he'd thought of her feelings at all. Instead she forced herself to suppress the hope she had buried and locked away in her heart a year ago that was now threatening to resurface. He'd always said he didn't want a relationship, or her. But both of them knew there was something between them that they couldn't ignore. She'd loved him, probably still did, but she refused to let herself think of such things. Dwelling on him and his actions had caused nothing but sadness and trouble, and she was so afraid of opening up those old wounds.

"I guess none of it should matter anymore. That was the past, you're married now and I'm..." ....a lost student begging for a second chance....single and alone.....an isolated freak.....a failure.... "...me." She hated how sad and depressing that sounded, but it was better then anything else that came to her head to finish the thought. She hadn't actually read the marriage announcement, but it had been nearly a year and a half since the engagement, so surely he'd tied the knot by now.

[Chase Firebrand]

"I'm engaged," Chase corrected, though he had a strong feeling that status could change at any moment. Carolynn had to have heard by now that he wasn't finishing up his business in Scotland, that he wasn't making sure everything was clear and well-settled with the school, making certain that his N.E.W.T.s had been properly processed and there would be no confusion in his wake.

No, he was staying, and he'd taken a semi-permanent position as Deputy Headmaster. The only way such a position changed was if the Headmistress herself died, and she was young and healthy. Carolynn hadn't been promised to a future Headmaster, Deputy or otherwise. She'd been promised to an Ambassador. She'd been promised to someone who would constantly be taking her to new places, taking her to balls in Rio, in Paris and Rome to meet and mingle with the highest society, forging connections that would make her powerful and well-received. He had little doubt that when he next saw her it would be an ugly scene.

But that was not something he could tell Anna. There was still Dru, and Carolynn had likely heard about her as well, though as any well-bred Society wife would do she had feigned ignorance. But Anna.

He got something different from each of them. From Carolynn he got the steady, if not genuine, support he needed. He got a wife who always made him look good, who always flattered and complimented him, even with the subtlest motions.

From Dru he got loyalty, a firm knowledge that no matter how she tried she couldn't part with him. He could trust her in that much. He got mental stimulation that Carolynn was too blasé for. But Annabelle had given him something else.

Yes, he felt an emotional connection to Dru and in time he'd have felt it for Carolynn as well, in some form, but with Anna that emotional connection had been something deeper, something he hadn't allowed himself to see, something too violent to control. She'd brought out the worst in him in a way that neither Carolynn nor Dru ever could, but every fight had been a catharsis. She'd worn him out, but he'd kept just that much sanity for it. It was safer for both of them if she didn't know.

"You're worth more than you'll ever know," he told her, his gaze dropping away, skirting out into the room rather than let her see the confusion of scarlet, vermilion and orange swirling in his eyes. "Don't talk down about yourself. I owe you a lot."

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Annabelle swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump that formed in her throat. Her eyes were prickling and she held them open wide as she turned to face the opposite wall, afraid that even blinking might release the moisture. She was shocked by his correction of his marital status, but it was his last words that played over and over in her head. You're worth more than you'll ever know.....I owe you a lot. She knew that no matter how much she'd try and forget them, those words would haunt her in the dark hours of the night. It apparently wasn't all in her head. For all his actions to push her away, it was the small rare moments like this which had always drawn her like a moth to a flame.

It felt like an eternity had passed in silence before she finally trusted her composure enough to turn back to his general direction. She wanted to call him out, to tell him he was exaggerating or lying about her worth, but his words meant too much to her to turn them into an empty argument. She knew he wouldn't expand his cryptic statement, he'd already just said more then he'd ever admitted about where she'd stood in his life. Annabelle could hardly believe that in so few words he had easily broken through her resistance and resentment of him.

"Th-thank you." She whispered, unsure of how to acknowledge the kind words he'd offered without wearing her heart on her sleeve. Anna shyly looked down at her hands, not trusting herself to say more with all the raw emotions hanging in the air. Her brown furrowed as she noticed the rolled up parchment she was turning in her palms. She recognized it immediately as the release statement from St. Mungo's. Anna was taken back that she'd been so lost in thought that she'd taken it out and begun fidgeting without even knowing.

[Chase Firebrand]

"Thank you," Chase echoed. He brought his gaze back to Anna, sorting his words even as he spoke. He knew he was too vague and it was part of him. That subtlety was something that had driven more than one girl crazy about him, and he saw no reason to lessen the worth of his words by speaking too many. There were too many people who spoke and said nothing. Still, he felt he owed her some kind of explanation, Anna, whose curiosity could have been her downfall.

"When I left for holiday," he began slowly, "I thought I had given up. I was going home to my father, to tell him I was ready to do as he'd asked of me. I knew what I was going home to. I knew it would mean changing my behavior, my actions, and yes, letting him choose some Pureblood girl to marry. I knew it, and I felt resigned." He looked up at Anna again, then away, afraid of seeing the hurt on her face. He inhaled, searching for how to go on. Then he spoke again.

"It wasn't what I thought it would be, or rather it was, but it felt natural. It was easy to go along with. It was easy to do what was needed, and easy to decide I wouldn't go home after all. I wanted to stay at Hogwarts, and when the Headmistress offered me this position, I took it with no regrets."

Chase looked up at Anna again, his casual posture backed with a sense power that was as natural to him as drawing breath. His eyes swirled with crimson, thoughtful and simmering. "Those months between us... I shouldn't be saying this because of my position, but it needs said. Those months I was on self-destruct. I took it out on you and for that I'm sorry, but I can't wish it hadn't happened. At the end, I knew what I was doing."

Anna was so intelligent, but doubted herself so much. She had always wanted definitive answers that he couldn't spell out to her this time. For this, he'd said as much as he could and he hoped she could understand. He'd raged at her, pushed her away, held her close and taken everything she could give him, and she had kept him anchored until he'd found his feet again.