This time I'm not scared

[sara young]

And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

Soon enough the year would be over and the children of the Young family had to go home to their loving parents but yet dysfunctional little family. Sara hated going home, she didn't feel like she could go anywhere without missing her sisters. She missed cuddling with Sapphire and Jade while watching muggle movies that Jade loved so much. 

Sara just headed to the forest with a sigh, not sure where she was actually going. Keep going sis.. we'll find something to enjoy in the forest. Sapphire's voice said as Sara walked to the forest like she was told. 

"Sapphie the woods are dangerous.." Sara protested but still kept walking, it didn't feel like the bad thing to do. Trust me. the voice was stronger, like a demand Sara needed to follow. "Okay Sapphie." she said as she walked, just doing what she was told.

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[harmony felina]

The idea of the end of the year wasn't thrilling to Harmony. Christmas had never meant much to her, and the company of her foster parents who seemed mostly to care because they had committed to caring before they really knew who she was didn't really appeal to her. She felt as though this year hadn't been a waste though. She'd excelled in her classes and she'd had more than a couple of fun moments. Now, she found herself in the woods, hissing and spitting slightly as she knelt down her finger running gently down the adder's head and neck. "Thank you... That was very interesting." she said having watched the snake hunt a mouse with fascination. Harm kept her hood up as she heard foot steps. She realised that it wouldn't keep her from being identified by teachers but it was habitual to hide as much as she could of herself. "Why don't you come with me?" She asked the snake.

"If there is food." the adder hissed back to her. She gently picked up the little serpent, as she heard the response Harm was certain that the snake wouldn't stay with her terribly long. She couldn't hide the serpent but she found them so interesting, the way they thought and behaved. Their natures reminded her of her own - but also of cats in some strange ways. Now that she had attracted this new companion she stood listening she heard a voice approaching in the distance along with the foot steps now. They were talking to someone, by name but there was no responses back to the girl. Harm placed the serpent into the large pocket of her hoodie.

She walked a few steps into past a few trees, and found herself face to face with a pretty dark haired girl. her intense brown eyes locking with the girl's vibrant green ones. She was sure this girl would have heard her speaking in her special language. Parseltongue. The language was her secret and so she slowly reached for her wand, but she had no real idea what she would do. None of the spells she knew were particularly effective in this situation. She had yet to learn any great offensive magic, so even once her hand was on her wand, she just stared.

"Did you hear?" 

[sara young]

And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

Sometimes it was hard for the young girl to separate one voice from the other. There was a voice of Sapphire always coming out on top but she never truly could separate one from another. It was bad but Sara had gotten used to it. The green eyed girl was looking at this other girl who was beautiful but also had these brown eyes making her think of chocolate. 

She has a snake.. she speaks snake.. you speak snake.. Sapphire's voice was ringing in Sara's ears. "Yes. You were talking to the snake and he talks to you.. my daddy talks to snakes." she said and didn't feel scared even once when usually human interaction terrified Sara. 

"Is the snake yours?"

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[harmony felina]

She had seen this girl in class, Harm reflected. She hadn't ever spoken to her, though she'd noticed her, certainly. Harm regarded the girl with hard eyes as she listened to the other's explanation. This girl's striking green eyes seemed to belong to the forest around them. They made quite an impression upon Harm's mind, they were haunting, if only because of their environment. Harmpny tried her best to blink as little as possible now. She knew that that intimidated some people, and while that wasn't specifically her intention, it wasn't an unwelcome outcome. She just wanted to keep a very keen eye on the other girl.

This girl's father spoke snake? No, he couldn't have... But then, how did she know that the little snake was talking... most people barely noticed the serpents' responses and nobody seemed to understand that they were actual communication. That fascinated the girl. She slowly reached into her hoodie and produced the snake,letting him make himself comfortable coiling, and winding around her. She kept her face almost expressionless as she finally began to ask. "Do you understand snakes?" She wanted to be sure, not entirely aware of how this ability she had worked. As far as she knew nobody understood but didn't speak.

"No. He isn't mine... But he might be, if I feed him. He was showing me how he hunts." She sounded almost excited, her tone now was something like you might have expected from a little girl talking about her new kitty, though the excitement never quite met her eyes. "You're Sara." She said slowly as she remembered a little more about the pretty girl.

"Will this one bring more food?" 

[sara young]

And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

Sara eyed the other girl, she had such mesmerizing eyes. They made Sara hunger for chocolate and it was bugging her now. The girl turned her attention to the snake in her arms and nodded slowly. "I guess I do." the snake was pretty but she never touched one. Sara shifted her body to lean on her other leg and frowned a bit. 

Don't trust her sis.. she could be dangerous.. a problem. Sara didn't listen, she was too intrigued by the other. "I have an apple." she said and took it out of her pocket for the snake. She didn't know why but it was sad that she couldn't speak snake. 

"Sara Young yes." she was a proud Young even when she knew that if her family found out about her voices they would abandon her. Sapphire said so. "You are?"

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[harmony felina]

"He needs snake food." Harmony corrected with a small laugh. "But we can share your apple?" She suggested, curious to know more about the girl. as the snake seemed simply a little disdainful. Though of course the little serpent had never met humans that could speak to him before.He bought his head close touSara, studying her, tongue flicking as he did. He looked up at Sara. "What do you want?" The snake offered her, his tone, to those that could understand it was mostly just curious. Honestly Harmony understood why the snake was wandering about this one. What was an apple to a snake, and why was this second person he had ever talked to calling tree bits food?

Harmony simply watched the other in quiet fascination. She had never seen another parselmouth at work. She was sure that someone from her family had the ability but she had never discussed it with them. This girl was new new to her in several ways. She had never really noticed a girl in the way she was noticing Sara and she had never seen another that spoke to snakes. Not to mention, this one had seemingly had a friend but where was she now. That became Harmony's next point of interest. "Who were you talking to?" She asked quietly now, the presence of another was the main reason she hadn't pulled her hood off. it was a comfort mechanism for her to keep her face hidden.

"I'm Harm." She said, not really caring for her last name. Her parents were gone and her family was behind her... she wasn't going to use the name of her foster parents either.

[sara young]

And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

Sara turned her attention to the snake coming closer to her face like it was offended by the gesture. Honestly her home only had dogs and cats with one or two owls. Her father had a snake but when the snake died he never got a new one. Sara's eyes stared right into the ones of the snake, her breath calm and steady. 

Snakes don't eat apples sis.. they want living food... like mice or rats. "Oh.. I didn't know but yes we can share." she said and used her wand to split the apple in half, handing it to the other girl without hesitation. 

"Sorry mister snake." she said and eyed the snake again. "Do you have a name?" she was intrigued and barely knew her voice changed into a hissing whisper which was nothing like Sara at all. 

"My sister." the girl turned her attention back to Harm. "Pretty name."

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[harmony felina]

Harmony considered this girl. She seemed sweet, eager to share and help but there was something strange about her. When she thought about it, Harmony had only heard one set of footsteps. She didn't really understand what was happening here, or how to make sense of it. "Thank you. Where is she?" She asked looking around now. Perhaps there was a disillusionment charm, or an invisibility cloak in use here. It wouldn't be that hard to creep around here undetected. Still Harmony accepted the apple, with a little smile, biting into her half of the fruit. She didn't love apples but she had been hungry and this was an excuse to stay close to the other girl.

Harm listened curiously as the girl conversed with a snake - did snakes name each other... Harmony had never thought to ask that was a very good question. "What is a name?" Came the snake's answer The snake hadn't understood the word sorry either by his lack of a response, or at least didn't care and had discarded it as the strange behaviour of humans. Harmony found this very interesting. "A name is a special word humans give each other. Like my name is Harmony, and this is Sara. We use them so we know which one of us we're each other is talking to." Harmony explained. "You're an adder, so can we call you Addie?" She asked the snake.

"Addie" It repeated a little curiously names were obviously a new concept to the snake. "There are lots of humans, and you all look the same. Maybe you need names. You can call me Addie." The snake confirmed. and Harm offered him to Sara. "Would you like to hold him. He won't bite you, he knows we aren't here to hurt him... You just need to be gentle." She took another bite of apple, and her eyes scanned the forest around her again.

[sara young]

And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

It was strange to talk to someone about what was going on with her. How was she going to tell this girl her sister is dead but that her voice was still there? How was she even going to tell her anything without sounding like she was insane? Then again the girl talked to snakes and if Sara could hear the snake that meant she could too. 

"Gone." she replied with a sadness in her voice. Sara never got over the death of her sister. The brunette tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and bit her lip for a moment. "Addie sounds cute, It is nice to meet you mister Addie." she took a small curtsy before looking at the other girl again. 

"Sorry if I bothered you." Sapphire was quiet, her voice.. it was quiet. She felt a bit empty without it around.

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[harmony felina]

Harmony thought she understood. For a while she had even talked to her own parents after they were gone... Sure, they were still alive in London, but their souls were lost, they were empty. Harmony had struggled with that and she had talked to them in her head for a while - they had never talked back, of course. If this girl's sister had died, or gone away like that, Harmony would get it - of course she didn't know that Sara actually heard voices replying to her, and advising her. Harmony did her best to look compassionate, even if her feelings were slightly dulled. "I'm sorry... Dementors got my parents a few years ago. So I get it." She said quietly. It was a horrible thing to have seen and she still often had awful nightmares about it, but the young lioness wouldn't mention that.

Harmony made her way over to a tree and sat down against it, gently setting the serpent down. The other girl hadn't taken Addie, and so Harmony would pick him back up later. The serpent wound his way along the ground toward Sara, curious about the girl. "Why do you eat tree parts? I don't understand." the snake addressed the two of them. Harm decided it was better to let the other answer this question to try to understand her perspective on things. Of course talking to a snake was interesting as it was but Harmony was curious. She would have hurt Sara by now if things hadn't been so interesting already, but she was glad she hadn't done that.

"you didn't bother me. you just startled me a little." She said smiling - even she wasn't sure at this point if it was genuine or a manipulation.

[sara young]

And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

She is using you Sara.. look at her, she doesn't care.. stop being nice to her. Sapphire's voice was back and she sounded so angry that is scared Sara. Sapphire never told her to hurt people but that was because Sapphire could fight for herself where Sara could not. Sara fixed her ponytail and took a bite from the apple. 

"My sisters died in a car crash." her voice was numb, like the emotion was drained out of it but her eyes showed sadness. Whenever her sisters were the subject the color would drain from Sara's face and the pain would try to take ahold of her. 

Don't worry sis, I am still here. I am here to guide you. Sara nodded in reply to Sapphire even when it made no sense to her other movements which were graceful but yet so slow people barely could see the movement at times. 

Her attention turned to the snake and her eyebrows raised a bit into a frown shaped on her pale marble colored skin. "It is healthy and it tastes good." she said and lowered herself a bit. "Have you ever tried?" she smiled a bit, the corners of her mouth making a small movement as she did so.

"I did not mean to startle you, I thought I was alone."

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[harmony felina]

Harmony watched. She was always watching. Blinking very little hardly looking away. As the girl fixed her pony tail, Harm studied her expression. She definitely had something on her mind. Of course if she'd suffered a big loss recently, well then that would definitely explain that. Harmpny wasn't sure what to make to make of this one. They had a lot in common, but they had obviously handled it very differently.Harm took another little bite of fruit, as she watched the snake approaching the young girl. The jury was out but she was distinctly curious about her.

"A car crash." Harm repeated softly, slightly sadly. That wasn't nearly as horrific as what Harmony had seen, but at the same time, she reflected it was much more sudden. There was no learning from a loved one dying in a car crash. It was a sad way to go, to have put trust in one of those muggle death traps. Harmony wasn't emotionless. When she heard that and pictured herself in this girl's situation a a sad frown adorned her lips she moved closer to the other and hugged her gently "That must have been hard." She told the girl. What had struck her though was the distance and numbness in her voice. That was the same way that Harm herself would speak about the loss of her own parents and her brush with a dementor.

That was when the girl nodded. The strange jerky movement was at odds with Sara's apparent grace. "What are you nodding to?" Harmony asked softly, considering the pretty girl. There was a moment of cold silence there. not heartlessness, but the parselmouth didn't know what to say or do, and her curiosity was overriding her capacity to navigate this strange social situation. "What's going on?" She asked quietly pulling away slowly. Her hand hesitantly reached to her wand, as she intently studied her companion, worried about what may be happening. Was there something else here, talking to Sara?

It was the snake that interrupted with his question, and it was Sara's meek response that calmed Harmony down. "That isn't food. Food is meat. Mice, rats, frogs." The snake sounded incredulous. It obviously didn't understand the notion that fruit could be tasty, or healthy. Addie had definitely seen things eating plant matter before, but of course he couldn't speak to those creatures, and Harmony had wondered why different creatures had different diets before herself. She could understand the adder's curiosity.

"It's okay... but I don't think we should tell people we speak snake language... They say it's bad. They say You-Know-Who used to do it, and they'll think we're like that." She said in a hushed tone. Hoping the girl would realise how important it was that this stay hidden. "I'm sure you and your daddy aren't like that, and I'm not either, but other witches and wizards might not understand." Her voice was soft, nearly silent,but the edge of nervousness was there.

[sara young]

And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

Sara.. she is going to find out! Do not tell her! Sapphire felt like she was getting startled and it scared Sara a bit too. She could see that Harm was being suspicious like Sara was out to kill her. Sara felt her eyes grow and her hand slipped to her own wand. She never wanted to use it as a weapon but the girl reached for her own. 

"My sister..." she said and bit her lip. "I'm not crazy!" there was almost a hint of panic in her calm and usually sweet voice. A sense of hurt a pain replaced it and Sara backed away a bit. "S-she is with me!" she panicked and her heart felt like it was hurting again. 

Every second she was here she felt like she was going to be locked away, pulled away from her family. She eyed the snake with the same big scared eyes. "T-there are mice in the dungeons.." she said and turned her attention back to Harm. "Nobody is like me.. nobody understands.. if they find out.. I will lose my family."

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[harmony felina]

That was when it clicked. She was protesting too much, in a way that just didn't make sense unless these events were more common than Harm had first assumed - perhaps there really was nobody else here... After all she had heard a nothing but this girl - magic could have explained it, but not this reaction. Harm trained her wand on the girl but she wasn't willing to use it just yet - mostly because she couldn't do anything that would be really effective. She knew the words for the Unforgivable Curses but they were far, far too advanced for her to actually use them. She knew some spells that might slow the other down, but then she'd be caught for sure. No she had to play this safe.

"Please calm down." She hissed softly, eyes locked on the frantic girl. She was speaking in parseltongue now, She did it to show that they were in this together, slipping into a tone that approximated caring. "I'm not saying you're crazy Sara. I believe you." She said gently. She didn't know if it was true but there were almost certainly ways this could happen right? Magic would allow that. Seeing the other girl panicking, she very slowly lowered her wand to show her that she didn't have any interest in hurting her. "You know my secret too, so I can't talk." She told the other. It was quite true, as well. She wasn't willing to take that sort of a risk.

It wasn't until the other girl spoke to the serpent that Harm had even recalled Addie was there. she approached and picked him up gently, tucking him back into her hoodie. "I might not understand but I like you, and I don't judge you. If you say your sister is here then she's here." She said gently. She wasn't willing to argue the point and she wasn't upset by the idea that the other's relative might be present in spirit somehow. After all she had seen ghosts, and she didn't know if it always worked the same way. "I promise I won't tell." She said firmly.

Honestly this was starting to interest Harmony. The dark part of her mind that harboured her more secret desires was drawn to to Sara. She wanted to understand.

[sara young]

And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

Sapphire felt like she was banging the walls of Sara's head and it made the girl dizzy a bit. Her light eyes were on Harm who seemed to want to calm Sara down. Her heartrate lowered and her chest slowly moved with her calm breathing. She had no idea how Harm did it but she didn't mind either. 

Her eyes moved to the snake being tucked away into the hoodie of the girl and her brows made a perfect frown on her pale skin. "Y-you don't think I am crazy?" she asked knowing damn well Sara was basically mentally insane but fighting for her sanity every day. 

She was quite tired of it but Sara didn't want to be a monster. "Swear it." it felt like she demanded it more than asking for it. Her expression blank and her eyes staring right into Harm's. "Swear you won't tell."

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