Mountain Sounds [Savannah]

[Cassandra Tennyson]

A light breeze delicately ruffled the Earth. It tousled the slowly yellowing leaves of a nearby tree just as it played with Cassie's brown locks. She gave a sigh of pure bliss as she walked down to the Black Lake with the most carefree manner she'd had in quite a while. It was a beautiful September afternoon, and nature just seemed content with the way the world was at that very moment. With the sun brightly reflecting on the glossy surface of the lake and the wind gently stirring each blade of grass, Cassandra simply could not imagine a better way to spend the remainder of the day than with only the chattering of birds overhead and other such sounds from the mountains which surrounded the school grounds.

Breathing in light, warmth, and the faint smell of the upcoming autumn season, Cassandra let herself fall onto her back near the edge of the lake. She closed her eyes and used one foot to expertly slide her shiny black school shoe off the other foot, and then repeated the process. Even for teenagers, it was a rarity to have moments filled solely with peace. Yet, Cassie was undeniably in the midst of one of those moments. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she could almost feel the homework back in her dorm piling itself up, but she simply couldn't force herself to care about it.

"Who could worry about anything on a day like this?" She murmured to herself, lazily opening one eye, but keeping it squinted against the harshness of the sun. It was in her peripheral vision that she noticed a small shadow close by. Using one hand as a visor to shade her eyes, Cassandra turned her head to look at the shadow's owner.

[Savannah Lyons]

Savannah was not feeling quite so peaceful. It was hard for her to watch Elliot with Ingrid--who now ate lunch at the Ravenclaw table every day with Elliot--and still be so alone herself. Last term had been better. Even when Ingrid sat with Elliot, at least Cameron was usually there, too, and he always tried to make her feel included. He was somewhat left out, too, when Elliot started seeing Ingrid. After all, Ingrid didn't speak, but she and Elliot seemed to have their own special language that didn't include anyone else. How could Savannah not feel left out over that?

But now Cameron had graduated, and Savannah was more alone than ever. Her only friend was Callie Sanders, and Callie seemed to be acting rather strangely herself these days. There was also Kellie, but the redhead usually preferred reading to just about anything else.

Which left Savannah to stage a quiet rebellion that somehow was going utterly unnoticed by anyone. No one batted an eye when she answered a question in class without raising her hand first. No one was shocked when she bumped into someone and didn't say "excuse me." No one even noticed that, on a weekday afternoon, she was not only out of uniform, but not in class. It was only history of magic, and it was a review before a test, so she didn't need to be there. Still, rather than just blatantly cut class, as some students did, she had sought out Professor Kennedy to tell him that she had "woman issues" and couldn't make it to class. So although she was cutting... she wasn't, really. Still, she was new to this sort of thing and didn't really know how it was supposed to be done. To her it felt scary enough to tell her professor that she had "woman issues."

Now she had the afternoon to herself, and no idea what she was supposed to do with it. The weather was warm and sunny, so she thought she would wander out to the lake. Maybe she could try and go for a swim... but of course, she didn't know how to swim. Girls didn't need to know how to swim, that was what her parents had told her.

That memory made her angry, angry enough that she was now walking toward the water with a strong sense of purpose. She wouldn't swim... maybe just wade in a little bit. What could possibly go wrong?

As she neared the water, Savannah kicked off her shoes and socks and hiked up her skirt a little. She'd only go in as far as her shins...

The water was colder than she'd expected, and Savannah let out a yelp. But she kept walking. She was just starting to feel a sense of victory, when something brushed against her ankle. Something cold and slimy. She let out a scream and tried to run away, tripping and falling facedown in the water.

[Cassandra Tennyson]

Uninterested, Cassie closed her eyes once more and tucked her arms snugly behind her head. The shadow belonged to a Ravenclaw girl whom she'd seen around Hogwarts only a handful of times. She couldn't quite remember if the girl was a year or two years older than herself, but it didn't really bother her so she simply let it go and turned her attention back to soaking up rays of sunlight while they were still available. As long as she keeps the noise to a minimum, we'll get along just fine. No sooner had the thought passed through her mind than the girl let out a tranquility-shattering squeal.

Cassandra shot into an upright sitting position as fast as a bullet and threw her eyes around wildly, trying to find the posed danger that must have provoked the other girl into screaming.When she found nothing, she let her slightly annoyed gaze settle on the Ravenclaw. It didn't take long for a bubble of loud laughter to escape her. Poor thing was face down in a fairly shallow patch of the water!

After a moment of composing herself, Cassie stood up and stepped over to the girl, her toes brushing the cool edge of the water. She controlled a threatening giggle fit long enough to extend her hand to the girl as an offering to help her get back on her feet. "See," she said, "this is why Ravenclaws shouldn't have free periods. You guys just don't know what to do with yourselves and find all sorts of trouble!" She gave a big grin to make it clear that she had meant what she said as a joke, and not an insult. Some people have no clue how to take a joke, she distantly commented to herself as she studied the girl.

The way Cassie's mind worked was that she simply loved to soak up a person's face upon meeting him or her. It wasn't terribly important for her to know the exact features of every person she came in contact with, but she felt that in doing so she was almost peeling back the layers of the person, kind of like an onion. For her, it was as if knowing a person's outside brought her one step closer to discovering their inside.

[Savannah Lyons]

Savannah felt like she was broken. Other students didn't have a problem with this sort of thing. Some of them lied and cut classes and pulled pranks as easily as they breathed. Not Savannah. She felt guilty if she put even one toe out of line. It had taken her years to silence her parents' voices whenever she didn't behave in a "ladylike" manner, but she still felt as though she was doing something wrong. Now this just proved it. She couldn't even cut class or swim in the lake without proving herself utterly useless.

She peered up at the hand of the girl above her, managing only the faintest smile, the one her mother taught her to hide how she really felt. "Thank you," she said faintly, allowing the girl to help her up partway, so that at least she wasn't lying face down in the water.

But she didn't get to her feet, either. Instead she sat down in the water, her dress already ruined. With water dripping from her hair and face, she looked as pathetic as a cat who'd fallen into a puddle.

"You're right, of course. I'm not very good at this. I'm trying to experience new things and learn how to have fun, but I'm not used to it..."

[Cassandra Tennyson]

The girl's hand felt small and delicate in Cassandra's. She regarded the Ravenclaw curiously when she didn't immediately hop up as expected. Hesitantly retracting her own hand, she nervously pulled at a loose thread on her uniform skirt. It only took a moment for Cassie to recognize the girl as a seventh year she'd heard others call Savannah. A brief memory from a couple of weeks ago of Savannah entering the Great Hall with perfect posture flashed through her mind. Cassie remembered envying the girl's politely confident stride as she walked to meet her friends. Cassandra - easily distracted while she was people-watching - had then turned her attention to a pair of flirtatious third years. Yet, for some reason, the terse moment had stuck with her.

Now, practically face-to-face with Savannah, she didn't seem to be the intimidating, pristine ladylike figure she had come off as. In fact, she seemed even smaller and younger than Cassie. Savannah almost seemed to resemble a disheartened child. It was hard not to sympathize with her. Though Cassie had no idea why the seemingly flawless older girl would need sympathy in the first place.

Laughing at inappropriate times is a curse, and one that Cassie had the misfortune of possessing. She knew that it wasn't especially funny, but the chuckles bubbled out of her without her consent. "You're learning to have fun?" She repeated. "No offense, but I don't think that's really something you can learn," she paused. "Why do you want to do that anyway?" After all, Ravenclaw wasn't exactly a House known for their fun-loving free spirits.

[Savannah Lyons]

The girl's words confirmed what Savannah had feared all along. This was it, then, wasn't it? She was hopeless. Her parents had ruined her, and she was probably doomed to forever be uptight and awkward, uncomfortable in her own skin. She knew there was more to her than this. She used to be a dreamer, imagining different worlds and a different life. She wrote about those kinds of things in her journals. Why couldn't she seem to do the things she wrote about? How could she write about things she didn't know?

"Because I'm stuck," she said honestly, peering up at the girl. "I feel like my whole life was dictated for me before I ever had a chance to choose my own path. My parents..." She sighed. "They expected me to be a certain way and they taught me to act that way. But it's not real. It's not me. Only I've been doing it for so long that I don't know how I'm really supposed to be. Nothing feels right. Does that make any sense at all?"

It was a deep conversation to have with someone she'd only just met. They hadn't even had a proper introduction. Her mother would not have been pleased.

"I'm sorry. I'm sure you don't want to hear about it. I should go..." She sighed, struggling to get up.

[Cassandra Tennyson]

Cassandra didn’t know why, but her heart went out to the older girl. Maybe it was the barely perceptible look of pure disappointment on her face, or maybe it was just because Cassie had always been extra sensitive when other people seemed down. Either way, she felt empathetic for whatever was obviously bothering Savannah.

As she listened to her explanation, the ache in her own heart became more and more palpable. Cassie knew all too well what it was like to have difficulty with her parents. In a way, her mother could be considered "expectant" too. She expected her daughter to be obedient. She expected Cassandra to be a good daughter. She expected her to deal with her horrible stepfather. But, most of all, she expected her to be a Muggle.

“I get it,” she whispered, surprised by how much Savannah's situation seemed to resonate with her. Offering her hand to the girl once more, she spoke again. "Just out of curiosity, what were you doing trying to 'have fun'? I'm not sure I really understand the connection between that and your parents' expectations..." she trailed off, uncertainly.

[Savannah Lyons]

Savannah sighed heavily. How could she possibly explain what she was going through when she didn't really understand it herself? She didn't know what she was doing; she only knew that she was trying desperately to break free from her past, her life... herself. But how was she supposed to figure out what was right for her when nothing felt right? Sometimes she wished she could just get out of here and go some place where no one knew her, no one expected anything of her... some place where she could be whomever she wanted to be.

"It's... complicated," she said.

Slowly she stood up and signaled for the other girl to follow her as she made her way over to the edge of the water, sitting down again on the soft grass. It occurred to her that she didn't even know the other girl's name, which was really just terrible manners on her own part. She should have asked the girl's name from the very beginning.

"I'm Savannah," she said, holding her hand out to the girl. "I don't think I got your name, by the way?"

[Cassandra Tennyson]

"It's...complicated," Cassandra smirked a little. As a teenager, there was hardly anything that wasn't complicated anymore. From puberty to homework to boys to spells, the world just seemed to be piling on more and more complications every day.

Cassie followed Savannah to a soft patch of grass near the water. Sitting down beside her, Cassandra stretched out her legs and ran her fingers over the thousand of tiny blades of grass. "Yeah, I already know who you are," she quickly stopped herself and tried to backtrack, "I mean I've seen you around before and, you know, overheard your name...I'm Cassie," she lamely added.

"Anyway," she said awkwardly, "what's so complicated?" She thought for a moment, "you don't have to tell me anything. I'm just curious. Maybe I could help," she added the last part more than a little uncertainly. After all, they were strangers. Cassandra doubted that Savannah would be interested in spilling any secrets.

[Savannah Lyons]

Savannah wasn't used to opening up her heart and telling people what she was going through. She couldn't even talk to her brother! But then Elliot wasn't exactly making himself available to her, either. Maybe he thought that allowing her to be independent was good for her, but she needed direction.

Cameron was the closest she had come to really pouring out her heart to someone, but he had graduated now. She had no idea if he was still seeing Brenda, but it didn't really matter. She was pretty sure he had never liked her the way she had hoped.

But, Merlin, she really wanted to open up to someone. She needed a friend so badly now it was nearly unbearable.

She looked up at Cassie, silently assessing this girl. She seemed nice enough, but could she be trusted?

"It's nice to meet you, Cassie," she said softly. She sighed, and after a minute made a decision that surprised even her.

"I was taught to act like a lady and told that I wasn't good for anything except cooking and cleaning and sewing. My parents... died.... when I was 12, and by that time I had been this way so long I didn't know how to stop. Now my twin brother tells me that I don't have to act like that if I don't want to, and I don't want to.... but I don't know how else to be. I feel like... my parents were right, and I'm not good for anything else."

[Cassandra Tennyson]

"It's nice to meet you, Cassie." She felt an inexplicable sense of satisfaction run through her at those words, as if she had passed some sort of test with a glowing stamp of approval. Even though Savannah still didn't seem particularly happy, she didn't tell Cassandra to get lost either. Although, she didn't seem to be the type to do something like that even if that was how she really felt. The sigh that followed Savannah's words was enough to tempt her curiosity once more. Why is she so sad?

Cassie listened patiently and solemnly as Savannah talked about her parents. She was uncertain whether she should feel hostility toward the girl's dead parents for raising her with an obsolete mind-set or to be more sympathetic due to the fact that she no longer had any parents at all. "I'm so sorry," she finally said, lamely. Worrying her bottom lip and picking mindlessly at a loose thread on her blouse, she considered the best way to word what she would say next. "It must be hard to not know how to act," she began cautiously, "I mean, if that's all you've known.

"I can relate to not knowing how to act though. When my mother found out that I was a witch, she wanted nothing to do with me. I tried to be 'normal' for her sake. Even then she didn't accept me though," she paused, remembering the harsh sting of rejection that has haunted her since then. "Eventually I stopped trying. I realized that if I continued to hide who I was and who I wanted to become in order to please someone else, I was just going to end up miserable," she finally ended her little speech with a small shrug of her slender shoulders.

"So I guess the real question here is who do you want to be? And what's your plan to become that person?"

[Savannah Lyons]

Immediately, Savannah felt horrible. Everyone had their own share of heartache, and she needed to remember that. As shocking and tragic as the circumstances of her parents' death had been, she certainly didn't have the monopoly on tragedy. And just as she had been put down by her parents, so had Cassandra. It wasn't fair. Parents were supposed to love their children unconditionally, but sometimes that just didn't happen the way it was supposed to.

"That's terrible," she said. "I guess... sometimes parents aren't always right. It's just a hard thing to realize when you're a child, and hard to accept when you get older. We can't always be who they expect us to be."

But the trouble was, Savannah wasn't sure who she really was supposed to be. There were a few things she was good at, such as music and writing. But she didn't know what she could do with those things. She couldn't see herself working at the Daily Prophet, for example, or singing in a club. But she did know that she felt most... "herself" when she was writing, or singing, or playing piano. She felt free.

"I love music, and I love writing, but I'm not sure what to do with that."