Sitting Around and Reflecting (Rori)

[Landon Travis]

Landon was sitting up against a tree near the outskirts of the camp grounds, thinking and watching his surroundings boredly. He had been feeling strangely depressed lately. And he had never known himself to be unhappy during summer break. He knew it had a lot to do with Sabrina's death and everything that had followed it. Remus seemed to be utterly heartbroken. Rori hadn't talked to him all that much since it had all happened. And on top of that, he often thought about the exact time that they had been fighting in front of the Death Eater headquarters. He often thought about how he could've saved Sabrina from dying; about how he had had the chance to save Remus and Natalie and her family from so much grief and yet had just stood there while the whole event unfolded.

Who was he to be hung over the whole matter and to have been so emotionally impacted by Sabrina's death when he had barely known her? Landon felt like it was an insult to Remus that he couldn't help but think that he was just as equally affected by the matter as Remus was. He didn't mean to feel sorry for himself that he had witnessed Sabrina die. He had no right to be stuck on the whole deal with such great depression. He had no right to be so weak after he had had the chance to prevent the entire thing in the first place.

Memories and flashes of the Death Eater firing that unforgivable killing curse at Sabrina and Sabrina falling backwards onto the stone cold ground with a large "Thud!" plagued his mind. He closed his eyes and frowned, the expression on his face reflecting the equally dark moments that he could not forget- no matter how hard he tried. He knew he had to talk to someone about all of this before his insides exploded. But he felt so alone and immensely stupid for everything that he was thinking. He felt so weak and embarrassed that he had made such a monumental mistake. How could he explain this to someone else without everyone feeling disappointed and ashamed?

[Rori Logan]

Rori left from her cabin and started to walk aimlessly, slowly. The summer hadn't been like she thought it would have been. She thought that the summer would be full of fun and happiness, but that wasn't really happening. Sure, camp was a little fun, but it didn't take her mind fully off things that had happened right before the summer. She wished that she could stop thinking about things that happened so clearly and so much. Rori thought about how she could have possibly talked Sabrina out of going to go after Natalie. That could have resulted her in being at camp with them, but no, she didn't really try to talk her out if it. Not only that, but something was going on with Voltaire. He was acting strangely and to be honest, it scared her too. Her little brother was gone and she didn't know how that was going.

Rori kept walking and noticed that she was heading towards the forest. She saw Landon just sitting there, looking bored. She hadn't really talked to him much during camp, and felt bad that she hadn't. Rori walked over and took a seat up against the tree beside Landon. "Hey," she said.

[Landon Travis]

Landon quickly turned around to face the person who had just spoken to him. "Oh, uh...hey." He greeted her, slightly startled to see Rori again. "How's it going?" He asked casually, forcing a smile onto his face and quickly discarding all of his recent thoughts. "I haven't seen you in a while. I've missed you." He said sincerely, his forced smile quickly turning into a friendly one as he looked her in the face.

[Rori Logan]

"Alright I guess. Things, I think, are not as crazy as they were," said Rori. "I know! I've missed you too! I've felt bad not really talking to you while we have been at camp. I've just been slightly busy." A smile slowly crept to her face. "It's been different not really talking to you."

[Landon Travis]

"Yeah, I get it though. Everyone seems either really busy or like they just don't want to talk. All in all, it's just been kind of depressing and uneventful ever since...what happened." Landon replied, frowning as he spoke. "But I guess I just miss...the sort of innocence and light-hearted atmosphere that there was back at the school before this whole crisis unfolded. And I miss all of the random stuff everyone used to do for fun... and.... and well, what we had together. I just feel like that's all sort of slowly diminishing." He said before realizing that it was probably unclear to her what he was talking about- their friendship or the feelings that they had just revealed to each other not too long ago. He, himself, wasn't even really sure which he meant. He decided to leave it up to her to make what she would of it.

[Rori Logan]

"Things will go back to pretty much normal here soon. I'm honestly tired of feeling depressed," said Rori. She was slightly confused about what he meant, but she decided to take it both ways. "I'm sorry Landon. I should have made more of an effort to talk to you and everything. I don't want our friendship to end, nor do I want the other to end either. I value both highly, and it's my fault that it seemed like it was diminishing," she said slowly holding his hand. Her cheeks blushed light pink.

[Landon Travis]

Landon looked down at their hands and then back up at Rori, smiling. "Thanks." He replied. "But, it really wasn't all your fault. I suppose I could've done a little bit more, but things have just been a lot different lately. I guess we just all need to move on and that's...that's just something I've had trouble doing." He frowned for a second and then gave a kind of nervous smile. "But I don't want any of this to end either." He added more firmly and confidently, grasping her hand more tightly. "And besides, it's summer. So let's try and make the best of it. Otherwise, I know we're gonna regret it when school starts again." He finished, smiling again.

[Rori Logan]

"Yeah, I guess, but we can't blame ourselves what happened. Things just happen, and there isn't anything we can do about it, other than just look back and say if I would have done this, then that would have never happened," said Rori. She gave him another smile, before laughing. "Yeah. We might as well try to have fun before school starts up again, because after that, it's basically going to be study study study! Oh how I dread that, but then again, it's going to be fun. Hopefully Voltaire will be back to normal, instead of being all strange. He sort of creeped me out at the funeral, because he was doing charms. He's never really be able to do that, but I think everything will be pretty much normal back at school, and honestly, I'm excited about this coming year," she said.

[Landon Travis]

"Excited? About school?" Landon repeated, chuckling lightly. "OK, yeah, something's definitely not right here." He joked, grinning. "Eh...I guess it'll be fine. Voltaire, I'm sure, will be just as normal as he usually is too." He looked down at the ground again. "So what have you been doing lately anyways? I haven't seen much of anyone except Lockhart lately. You would not believe how long he can actually talk without mentioning something that doesn't involve himself or his hair."

[Rori Logan]

"Well, just the beginning of school," said Rori with a smile. "I'm sorry that you were pretty much stuck with Lockhart. He's so full of himself, it's sad really. I was just doing things for my group. We talked a lot at stuff, and found little things to do." Rori raised an eyebrow in curiousity. "How long can he talk without saying something about himself or his hair?"

[Landon Travis]

"That's exactly the point. I haven't found yet." Landon replied with a chuckle. "By the way, have you talked to Remus lately? I haven't seen him very much lately either. He seemed pretty rattled by what happened. Well, I mean not that it's surprising or anything- I completely expected him to be that way for a while, but I just wonder if he's gotten over it a little. I can't even imagine how hard it must've been for him, especially after just finding out he'd had a sister he hadn't known about for eleven years." Landon frowned with pity for Remus.

[Rori Logan]

"We've got to make it a point to actually find that out then," said Rori with a grin. "No, I haven't really talked to Remus other than a few 'hey's and a few 'how are you's. I think that he's doing just slightly better."

[Landon Travis]

"I don't know. He just seems so depressed all the time." Landon said, frowning slightly. "It just kinda makes me feel sorry for him, you know? After everything he's been through this year and even in the past....he didn't deserve this." He looked down at the ground again and started absent-mindedly fidgeting with his fingers. "I just don't know if I should try to help him or even how to help him get through everything."

[Rori Logan]

"I don't know," said Rori. "All I can think of is just be a friend to him. We can't keep bugging him about how he feels or how he's doing with what had happened, because it will keep reminding him, and then that will cause him to be constantly reminded of it."

[Landon Travis]

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I just feel like I need to do something. I suppose maybe the best thing would be to just act like we did before? I know that's how I would want things to be." Landon added. "So...um...how are things going with Isa and the new baby?" He asked her, looking back up at her. He wanted to get off the subject of Sabrina and Remus.

[Rori Logan]

"Oh, that. Um, I don't know. You know that Conor was kidnapped. I found that out at the funeral," said Rori. "I haven't heard from Isa since then, nor Voltaire, so I couldn't tell you."

[Landon Travis]

"Well, I hope they're all OK. It seems kind of weird that someone would want to kidnap Conor, you know?" Landon replied curiously. "Maybe you should try sending them an owl soon.... if you haven't already. The last thing we need right now is more... well, problems... and depression." For some reason he felt like it was a good idea to refrain from saying "deaths". "But, I mean, I'm sure they're all fine." He quickly added.

[Rori Logan]

"Of course they are," said Rori. "I haven't gotten the chance to send them an owl. I figure that they're busy, so I haven't sent them an owl or anything. I know that they're doing their best to find him, so I can't worry to much."

[Landon Travis]

"Well, and they both teach classes about defending yourself. I guess they're kinda trained to do this kind of stuff." Landon added. "But after everything that's happened lately, you just kind of start to worry more about stuff like this, you know?" He said. "Hey...have you heard from Anonimous lately?" He asked, his manner quickly changing with the subject. "I haven't seen him since the feast at the end of term. Or is that where you're spending most of your time? Off hanging out with him alone?" He asked accusingly. He immediately knew he was being a little harsh, but the thought that maybe the reason he hadn't seen either Rori or Anonimous very much recently was because they were off privately spending time together made him a little distressed.

[Rori Logan]

Rori frowned and released her hand from his and folded her arms. "No," said Rori. "I haven't seen him since the great feast either. What makes you think that I would spend basically all my time with him, when I like you?" She scooted a little farther from him. "Geez Landon, I thought you had more sense than that."