The Changing of the Guard

[Trent Frey]

Jory wasn't picking him up after Class today, and that made him nervous. He knew someone was coming, another prefect, but he didn't want to talk to anyone else. He was just barely talking to Jory.

Lyric shifted on his feet as he stood just outside the classroom door, and tugged the strap of his book bag up higher onto his shoulder. It felt weird carrying a bag again after so long, and just thinking about that weirdness brought all sorts of temptations to mind. He could just slip down the nearest stairwell before the prefect got here, and he'd be out of the castle before anyone knew it. He'd be in Hogsmeade stepping onto the Knight Bus in no time.

He shifted his weight again, fighting the urge. He didn't want it to happen again. He didn't want to go back to rehab, didn't want to relive those nightmares.

He wanted to change, didn't he? He'd changed his looks. His hair was down now, and he hadn't started wearing makeup again. He didn't have his duffel bag, just the same messenger bag everyone else carried. He wasn't angry anymore. He was terrified, and he didn't know what to do, despite all the time he spent in Kane's office. He needed his guard.

[Verity Bromley]

When Verity was offered an excuse to leave class a few minutes early she took it and ran. There was nothing more satisfying than looking at the expressions on the other students’ faces as you headed to the door when they had no choice but to listen to the professor drone on for the remainder of the class. She took it and didn’t bother to figure out why exactly she got to leave class a few minutes early. She finally glanced at the slip of paper that was given to her with all the information about her charge.

With a heavy sigh and an eye roll, Verity crumpled the slip of paper up and tossed it into a trashcan without breaking her stride. So she was babysitting. That was swell. What was she supposed to do? Watch the kid like a hawk? Verity didn’t even know how old this person was and she was only vaguely aware of what his name was. Who the hell decided she was responsible enough to be in charge of another human life? She knew Jory had been the one in charge of escorting the guy around, but Jory was busy…or maybe he just needed a night off. A night of peace and quiet. She could do this. It couldn’t be that hard. Besides, anything was better than sitting through another five minutes in that class.

Verity got to the place where she was supposed to pick the guy up a few minutes early. The corridors were empty and she pressed her back against the wall on the opposite side of the corridor, hidden in the shadows, as she waited. The minutes passed by painfully slowly, but when it was time for the classes to let out the hallways were flooded with students of all years. How was she supposed to find this guy? Was she supposed to be holding one of those signs with his name on it, like the kind she had seen muggles hold at the train station if they were waiting for someone?

The crowd in the corridor thinned out until nearly every student had disappeared into their classroom. Verity looked up to see someone else standing on the other side of the corridor. She stared at the guy for a few minutes with wide eyes and a mouth that gaped open. Yes, Verity had seen this guy before, more than once, although the most recent encounter didn’t end well. She waited for the guy to leave, to get to his class like everyone else did, but he didn’t move. Soon enough, Verity noticed that he was the only other person in the corridors and she wondered if he was up to something.

A bit of dust must have tickled Verity’s nose. It itched like crazy, then all of the sudden, she sneezed. Crap. She stepped out of the shadows, her cover already blown. Verity hadn’t been too thrilled with the way things had ended with them at the Summer Festival: with her boyfriend catching them going at it on the dance floor. “If I were you, I’d get to class or wherever you’re supposed to be.” She warned, arching an eyebrow. “Before someone came along and decided to write you up.” It would be so satisfying to hand this guy, whatever his name was, a detention. Oh, the joy would be so satisfying to hand this guy, whatever his name was, a detention. Oh, the joy of having such powah. Verity wondered if he even ever told her his name. She was usually pretty good at remembering names, but she couldn’t for the life of her recall what his name was.

[Trent Frey]

Lyric looked up, and his gaze froze in shock. Oh please no, he thought. He only just recognized her, and though he couldn't remember anything specific, there were enough flashes in his mind to hope she'd walk away. There was nothing in his posture or expression to offend, but she had to remember more than he did, and judging by her words, none of it was good. He'd been so out of it.

"I... I can't, I'm waiting for someone," he stammered, hoping that would be enough. A voice in the back of his head teased him, telling him to just leave like she'd told him to. Take the nearest stairwell and the Knight Bus and disappear into London for good. God, it was tempting. He shifted his weight, then moved hesitantly.

[Verity Bromley]

Huh, that was funny…he was waiting for someone else too---NO! What were the chances? Verity looked at him again, this time more carefully. He looked different than she remembered him being. He almost seemed tamed. It seemed possible that this guy was the same one she had been told to keep watch over. She hadn’t been given specifics about what he did to win this kind of royal treatment, but in the last couple of times she’s met him he didn’t exactly seem like a saint.

We he moved Verity leapt forward, the heels on her leather boots hitting the floor with a clack! “Wait!” She called. If this was the guy on the slip of paper, it wouldn’t look good for her to have him slip away right in front of her. She racked her brain to remember what that paper said. What was his name? Travis? Trey? “Are…are you Trent?” She asked. It sounded even more ridiculous out loud than it did in her head. It seemed ridiculous, but if he was Trent, then Verity wasn’t sure how exactly she would be able to babysit him all day.

[Trent Frey]

Lyric's heart sank, and the last bit of hope that he was wrong and she wasn't a prefect hovered uncertainly. The voice in the back of his mind whispered that he could always say no, that he could tell her he was waiting for a friend, but no, he couldn't! He didn't want to do that again! He nodded, as much afraid of being trapped as he was of being left totally alone again. "Are you... are you a prefect?" he asked. Please say no!

[Verity Bromley]

Verity nodded slowly. This was…odd. She wasn’t really sure what to do. Mostly she wanted to turn around and leave, but she had already said she was going to do this. Besides, someone had to keep an eye on the delinquent. “Not what you expected, huh?” Verity said, keeping a straight face. She didn’t remember every detail about the night at the Festival, but she remembered enough. She mostly remembered that she was angry and she had half a mind to slap him right then and there. Verity wasn’t good at letting things go. She got attached, she held grudges.

[Trent Frey]

Lyric looked up at the girl's rhetorical question, then glanced away, shrugging. No, he hadn't expected her at all. He'd expected someone he hadn't met before, someone who only knew what had been printed in the paper and wouldn't even want to talk, just take him to the library to do his homework or something. What would she want to do? Surely not any of the things he could vaguely remember having done at the Festival.

Lyric screwed up his courage, and though he couldn't look at her, he managed to blurt out, "Sorry for whatever I did." The psycho-tryst had said it could help telling people that, if he meant it. He was sorry she apparently didn't like him. That counted, right?

[Verity Bromley]

"Sorry for what you did to get you all this royal treatment or what happened at the summer Festival?" She snapped. Her eyes studied him for a moment, from the way he stood to the look in his eyes. Verity sighed and shook her head. It was obvious that he didn't exactly remember what happened and as easy as it was for her to just shove the blame onto him and walk away, she couldn't. Somewhere under that mass of curls was a conscience that bubbled up to the surface on rare occasion. "Nah, it wasn't your fault." Which was true, but still hard to admit that she was the one at fault. She lifted an eyebrow, wondering if she should tell him what happened or just let it go.

[Trent Frey]

Lyric glanced up at the girl's change of heart, but when his eyes met hers, he looked quickly away. He shook his head slightly, then gave a one-shouldered shrug, unsure what to say. He was crap with words, and always had been. "Sorry for everything, I guess," he said softly. What had he done? He remembered kissing her, and he remembered someone else showed up and he left, but what was it? He couldn't imagine he'd pushed himself on her, but suddenly he was afraid he'd done just that. His dark brows drew together as he struggled to think through the haze that was over everything in the past months.

[Verity Bromley]

Verity bit her lip, waiting for him to get a sudden flash of memory that would explain everything for him and save her the trouble. His face looked so adorable all scrunched up like that, but it was obvious that he didn't remember much. "We were dancing." Verity said simply. It was a lot easier to only admit that part to herself. If she convinced herself that they had only been dancing, there was a lot less guilt. "My boyfriend showed up and got kind of angry. I shouldn't have let things go as far as they did." Or go anywhere, but it sure was fun. Verity's eyes dropped to the ground and her cheeks turned a nice rosy pink.

[Trent Frey]

Dancing. Yes, Lyric remembered dancing, now that he thought about it, and her boyfriend had showed up? He risked looking at her again, and though he didn't consciously notice her blush, he still got the sense that she remembered the parts he did, too. He looked away again, down at hands that had begun to pick at the hem of his shirt.

"I'm... I'm sorry, I don't really remember," he said, hating that he had to admit it. "I was... I wasn't doing well. I had, like... things going on." Several things at once, by that point, at least, most of the time. "I mean, I remember parts, cause I didn't forget you or anything..." He was doing horribly, so he just shut his mouth. It was times like this he wished he just had a little something in his system, just so he could talk! But that was why he'd gone in the first place. It hadn't been a little something anymore, if it ever really had.

[Verity Bromley]

Verity's eyes lowered in disappointment. She gave out a small "Oh." It was for the best, really. It's not like she sat around trying to remember that night. Although, that part of it was fun. The dancing part. It was the part after it that she tried not to think about. "Well, it's not like it was a big deal or anything." She said with a shrug. She wanted to drop the subject before it got even more unbearably awkward. "Where was it again that you needed to go?" Had she even forgot to ask? She couldn't remember if he told her or not.

[Trent Frey]

Lyric's heart sank, though he couldn't have said why. He didn't want to think about things like that or relive those days when he'd done whatever he wanted without a thought to anything else, and it wasn't like he hadn't kissed other people when he'd been out of it. It took him a minute to pull himself together.

"I don't know," he said at last, looking down at the toes of his boots. "Usually I just go where Jory takes me. We do our homework in the library or something. I have a free period right now." It was a good thing he didn't have a class after this one, considering how late she'd been.

[Verity Bromley]

Verity scrunched up her nose. "The library..." She said slowly. She hated the library. She probably couldn't even get to it without someone guiding the way. It was way too quiet in there. She needed some kind of background noise to block out the deafening buzz of silence. The air was too stale, she could hardly breathe in there. "Well, as much as I love Jory, I think I'm going to have to pass on that one." She said. "I don't suppose you're allowed to leave the grounds?" Verity asked glancing sideways at him. "No, that was a silly question, wasn't it?" She paused, trying to think of where else they could go. She didn't really want to stand in a corridor all night long.

[Trent Frey]

Lyric's eyes widened, and his gaze shot up to the girl as his heartbeat sped. "No," he said, then quickly amended the reflexive statement. "I mean, I haven't, but if there's a Prefect with me..." He didn't even know how to finish that. He desperately wanted out, and he technically wasn't supposed to, but he seriously doubted she'd take him up to London so he could buy something. It was almost disappointing to think of.