Sitting and Thinking

[Isabella Rothschild]

Isabella walked out to the lake, carrying a hot cup of coffee and a folder full of essays. She felt like she needed some fresh air, because the tension still hung thick in the air after the attack at the Halloween Ball the night before. What she really wanted to do was to run off and see Voltaire, but she knew now was not the best time for such behavior. Like it or not, she still had a job to do.

She sat down under the big tree that the students liked and set down the folder. Instead of starting right in on the essays, she stared out at the lake and sipped her coffee. She could feel the hot steam against her face and smiled to herself. She barely even recognized herself these days. Who would have guessed that the love of one man could have made such a dramatic difference in her life? Who would have imagined that Voltaire would have been the one? She tried to remember the first time she had seen him in the Headquarters and found that she couldn't. She had been so wrapped up in the business at hand that she had barely even noticed the people around her. She was only glad that it had not been the same way for him.

She leaned back against the tree and watched as the sun climbed higher in the late morning sky as her mind travelled back to thoughts of the attack the night before. She wondered what would happen to the girl. Attempted murder was a very serious charge, and the girl was so young... Isabella shivered, thinking back to herself at that age. She had hardly been innocent, and there might have even been people she wanted to hurt. But to stab someone? The girl must have been out of her mind. Isabella shook her head. It seemed like everything was getting so complicated...

[serasera]

Since her encounter with Natalie on the grounds, Esme had taken a thought to hanging in trees. She had done it as a child, but she had not thought to do it as an adult. But then again, she forgot how fun it used to be when she would sit in the trees for hours, writing songs to sing and then thinking of a certain beat for them. She smiled at the thought of those memories and wondered whether or not she still had those old songs. She was not even going to bother to look as she had a job to do in regards to teaching. She had started one of the lessons, but the others needed planning. With this, Esme thought about a place that she could sit, outside, where there was peace and relaxation. Of course! She would sit in the tree where she and Natalie met.

Esme dressed in Muggle attire, as usual. She wore a pair of jeans that were somewhat loosely fitting along with a pair of tennis shoes. She also wore a v-cut shirt. However, the shirt was covered by a jacket that she was using to keep her warm since the autmnal weather was setting in quickly and not waiting for her to even get used to the surroundings. The leaves on the trees were changing to bright reds, oranges, and some browns as they fell to the ground, later being carried away by the wind. The grass was turning from that usual lush green to a yellowish color. It seemed like it was going to be a rather cold winter.

After dressing herself, she grabbed her shoulder bag full of information about teaching and such. She walked from her office and out onto the grounds where she crossed over them to sit in the tree. She climbed up a few branches, somewhat hidden by the leaves that were still left upon the branches and many limbs. She pulled her papers out and started to jot down some notes and other things. However, as she flipped through her notebooks and folders full of parchment, she came across the songs that she had written as a young girl. They were in Spanish, of course, but her family had loved them. She had, at one time, thought about being a singer, professionally, but she wanted to use her time in a much more meaningful way. So, she took up the occupation of teaching.

Esme read over the songs. She thought about how stupid she had been to even think of a professional singing career. Her family had wanted it though. But, for some reason, her heart made her turn down the idea and not even allow her wings to fly.

She heaved a heavy sigh as she sat there, comfortably, on one of the branches. Her back was leaned against the trunk of the tree, and her head was rested on it. Her hair was, as usual, a large mess. The waves were not helping any, and the light wind blowing made them thicker and volumized. She read over the song and later heard herself singing it.

"Eres sensacional, un loco de ideas raras
muy original, eres sentimental
también transparente pero tan diferente
a todo el que conozco.

igual yo reconozco cuando estoy sin ti
no me siento viva, no me siento plena
solo tú me llenas que eres mi prisión
y dulce condena.

Qué es lo que te hace ser tan especial
paralizas mi alma sólo con hablar
Qué tienen tus ojos que hacen derretirme
y me encantas tu tu estilo de amar.

Qué es lo que te hace ser tan soñador
dices lo que piensas sin ningún temor
eres brisa y calma, eres fuego y emoción
vi su oscuridad y oí calor.

Tu agresividad y mi alma salvaje
que busca intimidarme poeta empedernido
bohemio confundido ha sido para mí
mi espacio y mi tiempo mi mejor invento
porque tú me enseñaste la dulce emoción
de enamorarme.

Qué es lo que te hace ser tan especial ..."

Her voice rang beautifully through the air, travelling atop the wind as the sound escaped her lips. As she sang, she closed her eyes, remembering that she was only fifteen when she wrote the song. It had been after one of her first boyfriends that she thought she would have forever. Well, we can all see how that lasted!

As she sat a few feet up in the tree, she had not taken notice to another professor sitting on the grond beneath her. She was thinking more about herself as well as the song that she had just sung and the songs that she had written, lost, and found. She started to rethink writing songs and perhaps start singing again. It had been a while since she had been lost in a tune of her own. She looked up at the sky through a small opening of the leaves since they had fallen off. She studied the clouds, completely forgetting about the lessons that she had wanted to plan. Everything had slipped her mind, quickly.

[OOC: Those lyrics were sung by Shakira when she was fifteen years old. I am not sure if she wrote the song, but I know that it was hers to have sung.]

[Isabella Rothschild]

Isabella was so deeply lost in thought that when the singing started, she almost didn't notice it. It carried on the wind, like a birdsong, and it returned her to the dream-like state of thinking about Voltaire. She felt sleepy, warmed by the coffee and soothed by the singing and the gentle rustling of the trees in the wind.

After a while, she realized that the singing was not that of a bird; it was coming from a person. Yet she couldn't understand the words. They were clearly in another language. Isabella closed her eyes and listened for a while, realizing they were Spanish. While she could understand German and French, Spanish was not a language she had studied. She could only make out a few words here and there. But the singing and the melody were undeniably beautiful. Where was it coming from?

Isabella looked around and saw no one anywhere near by. She was just beginning to wonder if she was surrounded by fairies--perhaps a message from Voltaire--when a movement in the tree above her caused her to look up. A woman was sitting up in the tree, singing with her eyes closed.

She let the woman finish her song, then after a moment, she called out, "Do you often sit in trees and sing like that?"

[serasera]

Still, Esme looked up at the sky and thought about various things. She really had nothing in particular going through her head. She was just gathering her thoughts and her ideas. She was trying to stick to one thing, but it was all jumbling into her head and making her think weird things. Just as she was about to try to get back to her lesson planning, she heard a voice calling up to her, scaring her somewhat. She had not expected it, so she had gotten caught off guard. As she heard the voice, she jumped lightly, almost losing her balance in the tree. However, with her quick reflexes, she caught herself.

"Oh, my God..." She said quietly, bringing a hand to her chest where her heart was. It was pounding rapidly. She looked down at the woman, her eyes studying her and taking in her appearance.

She did not appear to be a student. Esme automatically assumed that she was a professor. The woman had questioned her about her 'habits' of sitting in trees and singing songs. She felt stupid now, since she was not used to another person being around when she was singing in trees.

She offered a kind smile to the woman, a friendly smile. Her naturally tanned skin glowed a little bit as her dark eyes were fixed upon the woman and then taken off of her as Esme spoke.

"Oh, goodness, you startled me." She said with a mild laugh, a light touch of her accent in her voice, though her words were not mispronounced. "Um, I have not been sitting in trees - singing - in a long time. I just kicked it, erm, back into a mild habit." She looked around, feeling somewhat stupid and immature around this woman. However, she just hoped that the woman was not quick to judge another person.

[Isabella Rothschild]

Isabella smiled a little. It was strange how often she had been doing that since falling in love. "I'm sorry I scared you. I rather thought you'd be a little more scared if I didn't say anything and you happened to notice me here." She finished the last of her coffee, which had grown cold, and leaned up to look at the woman. "Anyway, your song was beautiful. It kind of put me in a bit of a trance for a while. I won't deny it's a little unusual to see a grown woman sitting in a tree, and I certainly wouldn't do it, but I don't have a problem with it. So... you don't look familiar. Are you new around here?"

[serasera]

"It's okay, really. I think that I have been startled by a few people here since I arrived." She said with a light smile and faint laugh. "But, I do believe that you are correct. If I had just seen you sitting there, it may have caught my by surprise and I could have fallen from the tree. We do not need that."

A pause between the two, that was, until the woman spoke. She had complimented Esme's song. She smiled somewhat, feeling a light amount of heat in her cheeks. "Oh, thank you. I, uhm, wrote that when I was fifteen." She said, feeling a bit proud.

"Oh, I do not usually see adults sitting in trees either. As I said, I have not done this in a while. But, I feel my inner child coming back to me, though I do not know how. I have not taken time to sit in a tree since I was a teenage." She shook her head, her brown hair hitting the sides of her face lightly, shaping it as the waves were curved gently.

The woman had said that she did not look familiar. Nodding, Esme spoke. "I am from across the sea, from South America." She said. She was not going to go into detail about her country and the place in which she was born. However, if the woman asked, she would be more than happy to tell her.

[Isabella Rothschild]

"South America?" Isabella said. "That's interesting. I've never been. I'm not from around here, either. I'm from Germany." She watched as a sudden gust of wind blew a cluster of leaves down from the tree like brown snow. "So, I take it you're the new Magical Creatures teacher, right? I'm Isabella Rothschild; I teach Defense Against the Dark Arts."

[serasera]

Esme nodded as Isabelle had questioned her continent of origin. "Yes, South America." She told her and then listened as she mentioned having come from Germany. It seemed that several people were from elsewhere in the world. It was interesting, though, how different ethnicities came together as one in a school.

"Yes, I am the new Care of Magical Creatures professor. What gave it away?" She asked, laughing midly and then falling silent. "Esmerelda Mirabel. I teach Care of Magical Creatures, as we have already made clear." She nodded and then added. "Just call me Esme." After a moment, she took in that the woman taught DADA.

"Oh, Defense Against the Dark Arts? I was never really good in that class. What's it like teaching it?" She asked her politely, actually wondering what it was like to teach such a one-on-one class. Also, she wondered what it was like to be a teach entirely. She had not really taught before.

[Isabella Rothschild]

Isabella smiled slightly. "I never would have thought I would like teaching," she said. "But I've even surprised myself. I never studied Defense Against the Dark Arts; the class does not exist at Durmstrang, where I went to school. We actually learned the Dark Arts themselves. So I guess I know enough to teach students how to defend against them."

She fell silent for a moment, thinking again about how different she had become. "Do you believe a person can change? Like, really change who they are? I never would have thought it possible before, but the truth is, less than two weeks ago, you and I never would have had this conversation at all. I would have either walked away from you without a word, or I would have insulted you and called you an idiot for sitting up in a tree. I wasn't a nice person. But I found someone to love me for the first time in my life, and suddenly I'm doing things I would have thought beneath me before."

[serasera]

"I have never taught before. I am anxious to start actually teaching the students. I just hoped that they will be interested in the subject." She shrugged somewhat, thinking about various things as she put her papers in her bag and closed it. "I think that I will, but I have no idea how the students will like it." She threw her bag to the ground from the tree and then listened as Isabelle spoke. Thinking, Esme shrugged somewhat as she lowered herself from the tree, joining Isabelle on the ground.

"I am going to be honest. I do not think that a person will change one hundred percent. Once you become something, you cannot get rid of it. And, though it seems like you may have gotten rid of an attibute, it will always be there, deep inside of you. However, it might not shine through for a long time. But, when it happens, if it does, it could shock you." Esme felt that her words were pointless and stupid.

Isabelle explained that she had done things beneath her since she fell in love. Esme listened intently and then thought for a moment. "This person that you met, you must really love them if you changed. You just want to please them, so you change the way that you do things and sink down low enough to get them to like you. Sometimes it works, and you stay like that. And sometimes it does not. That's just the way that love works."


[OOC: Wow, what a cheesy, corny post...]

[Isabella Rothschild]

Isabella thought for a moment. "The thing is, I don't think I changed intentionally because he wanted me to, or because I thought it was what he wanted. It just happened. I mean, if I changed just to please him, I still wouldn't be talking to you right now. He's not here right now. But I feel like maybe this is the person I was meant to be all along, and that is the part that was slumbering inside me all this time. I know you hardly want to hear my sob story right now, since you've only just met me, but my parents were... cruel. You say you climbed trees when you were a child, but when I was a child, I wasn't permitted to do anything of the kind. I was expected to behave at all times like a polite young lady and if I didn't... well, let's just say I learned not to test that rule. The only person who ever showed me any love or affection at all was my grandmother and she died when I was very young. I kept looking for that love and affection in my parents, and they shut me out completely. So I learned to shut them out. And then I learned to shut everyone out. It was easier to do that than to risk being hurt. But someone finally got to me and I let myself fall for him, and suddenly all these thoughts and feelings and things that I thought had died inside me long ago have been brought back to life. Does that make any sense?"

[serasera]

[OOC: Beware, this post sucks like really, really bad. Erm....Yeah...]

Esme listened intently to what Isabelle said. She thought about it for a long period of time, trying to think of a possible explanation for what the woman was telling her. She had an idea of what it was, but she could not really put it into words. Everything was kind of jumbled and lost on the inside of her head. She noticed in some people, not all, that had abusive and strict parents were sometimes dark and always stayed to themselves. But, when someone came along that knew their feelings and understood the person, it was like this special feeling that the person would feel on the inside.

For a part of time in her life, she had been to herself somewhat. The only person she had talked to was her eldest sister, Patricia. Her parents were too busy trying to help their other children, her seven other siblings. Through that time, she learned to ignore some of the people around her. This brought back some mere memories that she had in her head. It was nothing bad.

She knew that Isabelle's memories were probably worse than hers. In fact, Esme could sense the tone in Isabelle's voice was somewhat disturbed, and she obviously did not appear to want to talk about it. Esme thought for a few more moments.

"No, realy, it's fine. I do not mind you telling me all of this. I just, erm, try to help. Sometimes I succeed, and other times I do not. However, to be honest, this is not my area of expertise. I'm sorry." She laughed, apologetically. "Um, but I think that I can kind of understand you. It seems like all of the attention that you did not have a child was all replenished when you met this person that you have told me about. To me, it appears that you two have hit it off really well, and I wish the best for you." She said honestly. Her voice was calm, honest, and reassuring. Isabelle seemed like a nice person, and it did not seem like she would have previously been a bad person.

A sigh escaped Esme's lips as she sat there, allowing her eyes to trail across the ground and over to the water. She saw the leaves blowing as she looked at the water. It was calm and peaceful, a perfect day to just sit, relax, and talk.

[sblack]

Alastor walked down on to the grounds and saw Isabella talking to a cute woman. So he decided to go and talk to them.

"Hello Isabella." He said to Isabella and then turned to the other woman. "Have we met?"

[serasera]

Hearing another voice now, Esme turned to see who was speaking. She looked at the person, appearing to be a professor, and then smiled at him kindly. She shook her head as he had asked whether or not they had met. "No, we have not met." Her light accent was, and always would be, present.

[Isabella Rothschild]

Isabella smiled tightly. "Alastor," she said. "This is Esmerelda, she'll be teaching Care of Magical Creatures. Esme, this is Alastor Domino, the Transfiguration teacher. He's also not one of my biggest fans. If you doubted that I was not a nice person before, I'm sure Alastor could tell you a few stories." She was suddenly feeling a bit tense, and she hoped that neither one of them would notice. "Alastor, I'd tell you what we were talking about, but you'd probably have a laugh at my expense."

[serasera]

As Isabelle had introduced them to one another, Esme could not help but to look at the man and smile. So this was Natalie's uncle - the one that she lived with. Afterwards, Esme spoke again. "I met your niece, Natalie. She is a very sweet girl." She said kindly and then looked at Isabelle. "I believe you. I have no doubt that you could have been the most evil person." She laughed lightly and waited for either Isabelle or Alastor to speak.

[sblack]

"You weren't necessarily evil when we went to school together, but you were quite devilish." Alastor said. "If you're talking about your love life, then I'd rather not join in."

[Isabella Rothschild]

"Devilish?" Isabella laughed. "Well, I thought I was just plain mean. If I were being devilish, that would mean I actually enjoyed being that way. I didn't, you know. I acted like that because I was miserable and took it out on you. On everyone, really. Sure, I thought you were a tiresome little twit, but it really had nothing to do with you." She smiled slightly. "Don't worry, I have no desire to discuss my love life with you, either... although the mere fact that I actually have a love life to discuss is a bit of a new thing for me. Seriously, though, Alastor, do you think that I've changed?"

[sblack]

Alastor thought about the question for a little bit. "Yes, you've changed. You're more caring and happy. When we were in school you always insulted people, beat up people, and yelled a lot. I think you're actually beginning to become a normal person, no offense." Alastor said. "And I'm surprised you have a love life."

[Isabella Rothschild]

Isabella smiled at Esme. "I'd tell you not to listen to him when it comes to me, but I'm afraid it's all true. Well, most of it, anyway. I'll have you know that the only person I actually beat up was Charles Mortensen, and that was because he was getting fresh with me." She looked back at Alastor. "Ouch, Alastor, is it really that surprising that anyone might actually love me? Or is it me being in love that you find so shocking?"