Hiding out (openish)

[Madeline Fairchild]

What a thoroughly perfect day for hiding out, was Madeline’s sole thought as she settled in underneath her favourite tree. Close enough to the lake to enjoy the view, just far enough away to avoid getting wet and in the perfect position to catch the sunlight. Anyone coming from the castle would see her, but the common room had been empty when she’d slipped out so her housemates were unlikely to guess where she’d went.

Settling against the trunk of the old oak tree she took her time finding a comfortable position in which to sit before finally pulling out her book of the day- a battered collection of Christina’s Rossetti’s poetry that was obviously well read-and began to idly leaf through it’s pages.

[Ophelia Burke]

Ophelia had been going out of her way to avoid spending time in the common room lately. She knew that if she did, sooner or later, she was going to actually meet the person she was supposed to marry, Axelrod something or other. She still didn't even bother to learn the boy's name or what he looked like or anything; as far as she was concerned, there was not going to be a wedding, not to him. She was going to be with Tyler, even if she had to run away with him. But that didn't mean she wanted to be forced to speak with this Axelthorne person.

She had no classes this afternoon, and while she could have spent that time in the common room, she decided instead to go outside and enjoy the day. Yes, she was very much an indoor girl, so walking outside wasn't something she did often, but it was certainly better than risking the chance of meeting her fiance. Her only other option was really to go to the library... and that was out of the question for Ophelia.

As she walked along the grass near the lake, she heaved one of her dramatic sighs. It was all so unfair, that girls of her station should be expected to submit to an arranged marriage. Really, it wasn't the middle ages anymore...

Up ahead, she saw someone leaning on a tree, reading a book. Ophelia stopped and stared for a moment, trying to see if she knew the person. After a moment, she recognized it as one of her roommates, Madeline. Shrugging to herself, Fee approached her.

"Hello, Madeline," Ophelia said politely. "Mind if I join you?"

[Madeline Fairchild]

Madeline was engrossed in ‘The Goblin Market’ when the sound of her name caught her attention. Suppressing a sigh at the unwelcome intrusion to her solitude she glanced up…and found herself staring in astonishment at Ophelia Burke, one of the least likely people to be found outside, no matter how pretty the day was. For the briefest of moments he was tempted to fob off her dorm mate with some half-baked excuse-Fee was notoriously dramatic and Madeline had never been able to keep up with the workings of her life-but something in the other girl’s expression made her pause.

“Be my guest.” She replied, courteous and smiling, and gestured to a patch of grass beside her, it wasn’t every day that Ophelia braved the great outdoors and she had been rather scarce of late, “You’re the last person I expected to see outside,” she went on, keeping her tone light and setting her book aside, “And I haven’t seen you in the common room lately, wherehave you been hiding yourself?”

[Ophelia Burke]

Ophelia produced an embroidered linen handkerchief from the pocket of her exquisitely tailored robes. (Just because she had to wear the school robes, that didn't mean that they had to look like baggy sacks on her.) Using an Engorgio spell, Fee enlarged the handkerchief to the size of a blanket, then spread it out on the dewy grass at her feet before she sat down next to Madeline.

Then she heaved another dramatic sigh. "My life is over, I swear! I can't even go in the common room anymore, or else I might be forced to speak with the dreadful person my father says I have to marry! Supposedly, he goes here, and is in Slytherin, but I've never met him and I don't want to!"

[Madeline Fairchild]

Madeline watched, puzzled, as the blonde enlarged her handkerchief to make a blanket, the grass was perfectly dry and warm from the sunlight…still, she supposed Fee was an entirely different creature when it came to the outdoors and not everyone appreciated freshly cut grass on a warm day like she did.

“An arranged marriage?” she leaned forward, green eyes wide and sparkling with curiosity, for once the dramatic sighs the other girl was so fond of didn’t grate on her quite so much, “Oh Fee! That’s perfectly barbaric! Who is the boy? Is he in our year?”

She tried to imagine her own parents doing such a thing, her careless artistic mother, her father, eternally doing business in far-flung locations. No, she decided, an arranged marriage would have been more her grandmother’s style, Josephine Laughlin had been a traditionalist to the end, and she was long dead. She made a mental note to get a copy of her will-just in case.

“You should probably try and meet him,” she added meditatively, “For all you know he’s just as unhappy about it as you are.”

[Ophelia Burke]

It had most certainly not occurred to Ophelia to consider the feelings of her undesired fiance. Even now, she did not really take such a thought seriously. In her mind, he was a fool who had to pay for a bride. Or had her father paid him? She didn't know, and she didn't want to know. Either way, it was utterly humiliating that she should be bargained over like so many sacks of potatoes.

It was also easier for her to handle this situation if she did not have a face to put to the name. (Not that she even remembered his name to begin with.) But as long he was a vague, faceless nothing, she could be angry, she could rage and pout and sulk to her heart's content. If she were to actually meet him, it would make it real.

"Why would he be unhappy?" she said. "He's getting me, after all. Except that he's not. Because I won't do it, I tell you. I am not marrying anyone named Axelthorne. Or whatever his name is. I think he's a seventh year, and I'm sure he's perfectly odious. My brother always said to stay away from the seventh year boys."