In Trouble Again (Henri/Aurelia)

[Danica Krizova]

(Hey Rori... I figured the other thread was pretty close to being done, and I was inspired. I figure Henri can come in for a couple posts before Aurelia...?)

Danica was sitting on a little bench outside of professor Dumbledore's office, a pout on her lips and her hands folded in her lap while she fiddled with a loose string on her robes. It wasn't fair that she was in trouble for this. In fact, she didn't understand why she got in trouble for half the things she did. She did not mean to break the rules. She didn't mean to act out or be hard to handle... most of the time, she was just scared, and not a lot of people knew how to deal with her.

The worst part was that McGonagall sent an owl to her mother asking her to come to the school- that was why she was waiting right now. And her mother was going to be so angry at her for getting in trouble again. Danica knew how she hated getting letters from the school, and this wouldn't have been the first one asking her to come in.

The letter to Aurelia didn't explain half of it, either. It had only said that Danica instigated a fight with three girls in her dorm room and then refused to leave the common room when told to repeatedly. It was this refusal that made them call Aurelia in. Danica wouldn't listen to them, and they were assuming Aurelia would talk sense into her daughter.

She sighed again, frustrated, as she stared off into the distance.

[Henri Gillet]

Henri was finishing up with his first rounds of the school. Everything was fine, at least on the school grounds. Making his way inside, Henri made his rounds through the halls again. Everything in the school was just fine as well.

Realizing the time, he was going to go check with Dumbledore and then go home because he didn't have to work the entire time today. Going up to Dumbledore's office, he noticed a familiar little girl sitting on a bench outside of the Headmaster's office.

Henri was going to wait to go see the Headmaster because the little girl was already there. Taking a seat next to her, he looked down at her. "Have you been beating up little boys petite princesse," Henri asked teasingly, making his presence known.

[Danica Krizova]

Danica didn't even brighten when she heard that unmistakable and very French accent. She sighed, looking up. "May as well have," she murmured, pulling her knees up to her chest on the little seat she was on. She didn't mind getting in trouble and honestly, she already had four detentions. (Her mother only knew about two of them). She just hated when they told her mum about it. She didn't like disappointing Aurelia.

"You're not in trouble too, are you?"

[Henri Gillet]

Seeing Danica sad made Henri's small smile disappear. "Aw petite princesse, I'm sure it's not that bad," he said attempting to make her feel a little better.

Her question made another light smile on Henri's face appear. "Can't say that I'm in trouble," he said with a shake of his head. "It's time for me to get off work, and I thought that I'd check in with Dumbledore first."

He stretched his arm out, across the back of the bench. "What happened for you to be up here?"

[Danica Krizova]

"Nothing!" Danica said quickly and defensively. She'd done absolutely nothing wrong, but McGonagall hadn't really listened to her. "The girls in the dorm pushed my bed up against the windows and I couldn't sleep, and now they're mad at me because I wouldn't leave the common room."

Danica was quick to spill all of this to him because she saw him as a confidant. He was safe, and she could tell him things. He would be on her side, right?

"They even called my mum down. She hates it when they call her down."

[Henri Gillet]

"That's mean," he said furrowing his eyebrows. Henri had understood her fear of heights. He picked up on that whenever he first met her and she talked about how it was safer on the ground floor.

"The head of your house didn't listen to you at all? Don't they know that you don't like to be by the window?" Henri couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that Danica was getting in trouble for something like that.

"Maybe your mere can make it a little better. She understands, right? After all, it's not your fault of the other girls are mean to you." He frowned. "If it helps any, I understand. I'm sure everything is going to work out. I'll stay here with you until your mere gets here if you want."

[Danica Krizova]

"I might have hexed one of them," Danica finally admitted, dropping her gaze from him. That was the part they called her mother down for, really, though they told Danica they would talk to her about everything. But they were trying to drag her towards the windows, and she had warned them to stop.

"Anyway, Professor McGonagall didn't explain anything in the owl to my mum, just that I was in trouble."

11 year old girls could be cruel to each other, even if they were "friends." It was no wonder most of them grew up to be manipulative and cunning.

"You don't have to wait. I'd understand."

[Henri Gillet]

He kept in a small chuckle as Danica dropped her gaze. Danica was a strong little girl, that was for sure. "Might have," Henri repeated as a question. He raised his eyebrows at her. "Just between you and I, if they put your bed in front of the window and kept messing with you, they probably deserved it," he said in a lowered whisper. He gave her a small smile. "But you didn't hear that from me, and I'm not encouraging anything either."

Henri didn't understand how little children could be so mean to each other, just for spite. "Hopefully you won't end up in too much trouble, hm? And I don't have anywhere else to go except home after I leave here. There's nothing waiting for me there either, so why go home to nothing whenever I can be sitting beside petite princesse, trying to chase away her frown?"

[Danica Krizova]

When he said things like that to her, how could Dani help but to smile? It was small and barely tugged at the corners of her lips, but it was there.

"She did deserve it," Dani agreed, "and I told her that." That was the thing about Dani- she pushed back. Her mother had always taught her to stand up for herself, and she was a pretty pushy girl when she needed to be anyway. Besides, each of those girls had a fear, and Dani would have never exploited it.

"Thank you. For waiting. My mum should be here soon."

[Aurelia Krizova]

Aurelia hated when she was summoned to the school. Although she knew that Danica could be a handful at times, she still was of the opinion, like all mothers were, that her daughter was perfect. She tried to be strict with Danica, but she usually ended up taking her side in such issues. After all, the school was supposed to be able to handle these sorts of things, and they shouldn't have to call her in for every little thing. There was even a small part of her that was convinced that if Danica misbehaved, it was due to some failing in the school policies.

She had been working when the owl arrived, and she had to take an extra long break to deal with whatever this latest crisis was. When she arrived at the school, therefore, she was not in the best of moods, and was sorely tempted to give the headmaster a piece of her mind.

She made her way up to the headmaster's office and spoke the password, unaware of what was about to greet her.

(I figure Henri can post, then I'll actually enter and see him.)

[Henri Gillet]

"At least you didn't leave her hanging up somewhere for everyone to see while she had boils all over her face, right?" Henri smiled again. "At least you didn't do anything like that." He gave her a wink, happy to see some kind of smile from her.

"And there's a smile I've been looking for. And you don't have to thank me, it's my pleasure petite princesse." Henri scratched the back of his neck. "I don't think you're going to get into serious trouble. Maybe just a detention. I'm sure that Dumbledore would be easy enough on you once you tell him the whole story."

[Danica Krizova]

Dani shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. But that's not a bad idea for next time." She smiled impishly, already in a bit better of a mood. It helped to have someone to talk to here so that she wasn't just waiting in the quiet. She was even pretty sure that if they had just let her talk to Dumbledore first, they wouldn't need to call her mom in anyway, but now, they were just watching her suffer.

"I'm not worried about getting in trouble. I just don't want my mum to be disappointed. They shouldn't have owled her."

[Aurelia Krizova]

Aurelia heard her daughter's voice as she walked up the winding staircase to Professor Dumbledore's office. She assumed that the girl was talking to the headmaster, so she didn't think anything of it. She just hoped that whatever the issue was, it could be cleared up quickly.

As she reached the top step, however, she was surprised to see a man sitting next to Danica, and he most certainly was not the headmaster. She didn't see his face right away, so she assumed he was a professor.

"Well, I'm here now," Aurelia said, focusing on her daughter. "Do you want to tell me what happened before the headmaster arrives?"

[Danica Krizova]

Dani's smile faded instantly when she heard her mother's voice, and she sighed. She knew that when Aurelia heard what happened, she wouldn't be angry, but she still hated to think she was disappointing her mother at all, in anyway.

"I didn't do anything wrong, Mum," she said, putting her feet back on the ground. Her words came out rushed and defensive. "I was in class and three of the girls in the room moved my bed. Right under two of the windows, Mum. And they kept trying to drag me over to it, and I told them to stop. I warned them! I hexed Iris. And I did it on purpose, and then they got mad at me because I was sleeping in the common room."

[Aurelia Krizova]

"Oh, honey..." Aurelia said instantly, her tone sympathetic. She held out her arms to the girl, pulling her into a tight embrace. Danica's fear of heights was well known, and Aurelia had always tried to help her daughter deal with it by staying away from windows. At some point, she was going to have to teach her to face that fear, but it just seemed cruel to do that to her at her age. And it was mean of the other girls to tease her like that.

Because of this, Aurelia's anger began to grow. "Those girls are the ones who should be punished, not you! What they did was just mean. When we're done here, I'm going up to your dorm and moving your bed and putting a sticking charm on it, so no one can move it back to the window. Really, those girls should be ashamed of themselves!"

Turning for the first time to Henri, she continued, "And you. I take it youo are one of her teachers. Are you the one who turned her in? Why, you should be...."

And then she got a full view of his face. She felt like her throat was closing up, and her heart began to beat very fast.

"....Henri?" she whispered.

[Henri Gillet]

While Danica's mother came up, Henri remained quiet. It wasn't his place just to jump into their conversation.

Seeing that her mother turned to him and started asking questions. There was a hint of anger in her voice still, at least to him, as she started to go off on him. Henri was ready to defend himself as he turned his face to look at the woman.

She was painfully familiar, but he did not know a thing about her, other than what Danica mentioned. "I'm not a teacher," he replied as she started to slow her questions down. Henri was about to tell her that he was an auror but her whisper stopped him.

He looked at her confusedly. How did this woman know his name? He remembered just about every person he ever worked with, but he knew he never worked with her. "Yes," he asked.

[Aurelia Krizova]

Aurelia’s eyes were fixed on his face. Merlin, he hadn’t changed a bit. He looked exactly the way she remembered in her dreams. Even his voice was the same, and there was no doubt in her mind that this was her Henri, the man she loved and missed every day of her life.

The room was starting to swim as her eyes began to cloud over. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. “What are you…. How did you… Why…” she stammered, her mind so flooded with questions that she couldn’t even figure out what she wanted to say.

Why was he here? How had he found them? Why was he looking at her like she was a stranger? And where had he been all this time? “I need to sit down,” she murmured as her legs gave out on her.

[Henri Gillet]

Confused probably wasn't a strong enough word for Henri's current state of mind. He was far more than confused. He didn't understand why this woman was acting the way she was. It made no sense at all. Henri gave a quick glance to Danica, then to Aurelia.

"I thought that I would sit here with Danica until her mere got here," he stated with confusion in his voice. Henri had no idea what to do in this situation, but he wanted to make sure that the woman was going to be alright.

Hearing her, Henri stood up, "Here," he said, "take this seat." Before he got all of that out, however, her legs gave out on her. "Let me help you," he said extending out his hand. "I think the bench would be a lot better than the floor."

[Aurelia Krizova]

She hit the floor, feeling about as limp as a rag doll. She wasn't sure she could stand, her knees felt so weak. He held out his hand to her and she reached out, her own hand shaking. And then she looked into his eyes.

There was not even a flash of recognition there. Warmth and concern, but no more than he would have for a random person who collapsed on the floor in front of him.

Aurelia felt her eyes begin to burn with tears, but she took a shaky breath and placed her hand in his. "You.... you don't remember," she said softly. Then, just to test his reaction, she added, "My name is Aurelia."

[Henri Gillet]

The woman's reaction made Henri want to remember anything possible about her, but there was nothing there. There was no memory of him seeing her face before. The only thing he felt was that she was familiar but he couldn't think of any reason as to why she was. Maybe it was just one of those things were he thought he had seen her before. Maybe that was the reason he felt that way.

Using his other hand, Henri put his hand through his hair while he tried to remember anything at all. Frowning, Henri shook his head. "I don't remember anything," he said sadly and softly. He closed his hand around hers and slowly pulled her up. "I'm sorry. I really am, I just- I don't remember."