Trying to Relax

[piper]

Piper walked into the Three Broomsticks and ordered a butterbeer. She sat down at a stool and looked around. She spotted the table she and Calix had sat at on their first date. That date was their last date as well. That's when everything had started going wrong. That date had certainly not ended well. Piper smiled, remembering how awful it had really been. She finished her butterbeer and started to read.

[Ally Michael]

Ally Michael slipped into the pub, her dark green traveling cloak pressed around her, snow sprinkling it. Ally had been missing from the school for some time now. She had just simply dissappeared and this was her first appearance anywhere near the school and no one could even tell who it was because her cloak made her face dark.

She brushed off some snow and walked over to the bar. She was about to order a firewhisky but then remembered this wasn't the Hogshead. "A butterbeer," she muttered as she threw a sickle on the counter. She took a moment to look around and saw Pipper over in a corner by herself. Ally smiled a bit. Pipper had been her best friend before she had taken off and she wandered if Pipper remembered her. She got her butterbeer and walked over, knowing Pipper wouldn't recognize her with her cloak on.

"Hey," she said gruffly as she sat down infront of her.

[piper]

Piper was a little nervous when she saw a cloaked figure walking into the three broomsticks. She tried to keep the person off her mind by reading. She looked up cautiously, to see the cloaked figure standing right in front of her. Piper shrieked and stood up quickly, she backed up a little, and grabbed her wand. She stood there, breathing heavily.

[Ally Michael]

Ally from habit had her wand out and pointing at Pipper much faster than she could get hers out. Ally paused for a moment and remembered where she was. She laughed, saddly for Pipper her laugh had changed. It was no longer the happy life ful one, it was a cold dark laugh. Ally put her wand back in her robes and looked around, people were staring slightly because of Pipper's screech.

"Is that the way you say hi to your friends now?" she said trying to sound like her old self but failing. Ally put her deathly white hands to her cloack and folded back the hood to reveal her awfully changed face. Her hair was much longer, still as thin as usualy, but it had not been cut for some time. Her face was paler and greyer than before, except for the bright red scars and cuts that were badly fixed up. Her eyes were still huge, brown, dull, circles that were harder then ever so you couldn't tell what she was thinking.

"Hey Pip."

[piper]

Piper's eyes softened, but were still wide, pupils still dilated. "Ally? Wow... hi. Uhh... sorry about the whole pointing my wand at you thing... I've been a little paranoid lately." She said, and put her wand back in her pocket. "Wow... uh... hey!" She said, still totally suprised to see Ally. Ally had changed quite a bit, she didn't look good. Piper wasn't looking entirely her best, but she was working on it.

Piper was back to wearing her mostly fashionable clothes, and she was working on getting back into shape, but her bright blue eyes were duller than usual, and there were bags under her eyes from not sleeping. Her once bright red hair had somehow turned brown, now blonde. Stress always changed her hair color for some strange reason.

"So... how've you been?" She asked, trying to make small talk.

[Ally Michael]

Ally gave a small, slightly forced smile as she listened to Pip sputter out some words and Ally sat back down. She pushed her hand threw her hair only so it could fall back in her eyes. She took a swig of butterbeer which tasted a bit too sweet for her usual taste of firery bitter alcohal.

How you've been? It was such an easy question...for most people. She wasn't most people. "I've been...okay." She said lying.

Ally studied Pip a bit more. She had died her hair blonde to her slight dismay. Ally had always fancied her bright red hair but Pip was as pretty as ever, kind of tired, but well. She didn't look as fit as she had before Ally had left, which striked her because when she had left Pip had been on the quidditch team, which was supposedly good excersise.

"What have you been up to?...Truly?" Ally asked. She had been gone for so long and she wanted to know all the plots. What the rumors were of the school...anything normal really. Ally swigged her butterbeer again, found she couldn't stand the taste and finally had to whip out her wand and tap the glass a few times until it turned a firery red color.

[piper]

Piper stared at the red drink for a few moments, the color burning her exhausted eyes. "Well... uh... that's good." Piper said, though she knew that Ally was lying. Obviously she hadn't been too well, she was all beat up.

Piper took a deep breath, "Oh, umm... not- not much, really. Pretty boring, really." Piper said. She was lying. There had been plenty going on, but she didn't want to get into this conversation with anyone, especially Ally, who was part of the dark side (correct?).

[Ally Michael]

(yeah...but it's like a unspoken truth thing)

Ally knew Pipper was lying also. Pipper was usually pretty easy to read, plus Ally was just good at those sort of things. It hurt. Ally truly wanted to know what had been going on here. Weather it was serious or lame or just funny, it would help her get back in the flow of things. She already had to think of a lie to where she had been all this time.

Ally took a large swig of the burning drink. It was even more bitter because she had made it. Just then she felt a trickle of some liquid on her cheek. Ally put her hand to it to find a cut had reopened. Peachy.

"Ack, sorry," she said trying to laugh it off. She tried to brush it away but it wouldn't stop. Ah man. She wasn't going to try to fix it up with wand...she was horrible at that sort of stuff so she just put her napkin to it and said,"So, its still just ol' Hogwarts I guess?" She asked maybe a bit to intently.

[piper]

"Oh, umm... yeah." Piper said, and nodded her head, but didn't make eye contact. She took a sip of her drink. "Oh, uhh... sorry, I'm not so good with my wand anymore. I'm sort of out of practice."

[Ally Michael]

Ally raised her eye brows at this slightly. "What do you mean? Ha, what else is there to do around here besides magic?" She laughed her cold laugh and took a swig of the drink and tried to look at Pip who was avoiding eye contact. "She doesn't trust me anymore" she thought.

[piper]

"Oh, uh... nothing. Never mind." She said. Piper knew she sounded like an idiot. Ally must think she doesn't like her anymore. That wasn't the case, though. Piper liked Ally just as much as before, but Ally had her external wounds from fighting for what Piper had recieved her internal wounds from fighting against. "I've just been really down lately, I haven't been able to practice much."

[Ally Michael]

"Oh...yeah." This was getting awkward the difference that had grown between them was so obvious now. It had always been there, hiding in the shadows but now it was out there and they were trying to hide from it.

Ally took another large gulp of the beverage to take up some time. She wondered why Pipper hadn't asked where she had been all this time. Ally figured she had guessed. Ally tried to change the tone.

"All I've done while I was gone was practice. I went to Africa on a Charms Scholarship, actually. The Headmaster told me not to tell anyone cause it was a pretty huge thing and he didn't want anyone to flip out over it," she said calmly. This lie probably would have fooled anyone, but not Pipper, she knew. It was too shoddy for Ally. "But I missed England too much so I just had to come home." She shrugged and forced a smile but her cheek burned slightly from the cut.

[piper]

"Oh... well, um... that sounds like fun." Piper said, not entirely believing her. That didn't sound like something Ally would do. But maybe. They had both changed quite a bit. "I stayed at St. Mungo's with my sick grandmother all summer." Piper said, only partially lying. Her grandmother was sick, but was not at St. Mungo's. Piper had still gone to St. Mungo's, but not for that reason at all.

[Ally Michael]

Ally instantly knew something in that wasn't true. She could tell these sort of things...she had her ways, but as usual Ally took this the worst way possible. She doesn't trust me. She probably hates me now, she thought. Ally suddenly wished she didn't have to come back to Hogwarts. Unfortunately she didn't get to decide this.

"Oh, I hope your Grandma was okay," not even trying to sound sincere. She was debating weather to leave or not.

[piper]

Piper couldn't stand this anymore. "God, I'm such a loser. I can't even tell my best friend anything." She said out loud. I'm going to tell her, and if she hates me afterwards, then that's her problem. I can't life like this anymore, Piper thought to herself. "I lied. I had a terrible summer. My grandma was sick, but not at St. Mungo's, and I couldn't go see her because I was in St. Mungo's. I tried to kill myself because the Dark Lord and I had... issues, and my boyfriend went missing. There. I told you."