nocturnal belligerence // open

[Lucien Vilette de Séraphin]

Given the unrelenting rain that had persisted in ever so violent ardency over the course of the past week, it was a rare and welcome sight when the next weekend's morning brought about a break in the gloomy greys that had suffocated the sun. Even Lucien, going against all 'logic' regarding his vampirism, had regarded the sunbeams warding the clouds away with uncharacteristic optimism. He might not have favored the sun when it was high in the sky, but neither did he particularly loathe its presence. And the scent of fresh fallen rain was always pleasing to the senses - several times more so when said rain had ceased.

As such, Lucien had opted to venture out of the castle now that the weather would allow it. Too, both poor Charlotte and Félix had become depressed over the past few days with no opportunity to walk (and fly) around outside, and so the Acromantula and giant bat respectively were carted along with the vampire as he headed out of the castle and down along the path that curved beyond towards the courtyards.

His pace was leisurely once the small party was away from the main doors; Charlotte walked along behind him, towering over the vampire, whilst Félix remained curled up in in the vampire's arms like a small child. It seemed they had a fourth companion as well; the kitten still yet to be named, the one that had accompanied Lucien during a visit to Diagon Alley with Remus, could be found perched atop Charlotte's head snoozing lightly. All in all, they certainly made an odd collection.

With his free hand, the vampire absently fiddled with the garnet brooch pinned to his jabot; after rearranging the lace of the latter this way and that, Félix, bothered by all of the movement, squeaked and tried to flap his wings to get away; unfortunately this only ended with him flying a few feet before promptly crashing into someone else present in the courtyard.

"Oh dear ... do forgive the foolish little thing," Lucien immediately apologized, hurrying over to pluck Félix away; the bat, however, had hooked one foot onto the person's arm, dangling there happily.

[cityisatwar]

The sound of soft purring suddenly awoke Lilly. It was Saturday morning, almost everyone in the castle was still asleep, no doubt planning on sleeping in. The seventh year rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, stretching her body out, her cat snuggled itself to Lilly’s stomach, enjoying the warmth. “Dash, you silly cat, have you been awake all night?” Lilly faked scolded her cat. She adored the cat more than anything. The poor cat was the runt of the litter, too small for its body to function properly. Naturally, Lilly took care of it until the cat was big enough to feed itself.

Lilly stroked the cat’s black fur gently. The girl was anxious, there was no reason to feel this way, but she had this heavy feeling in her stomach. Without realizing it, her cat had falling asleep snuggled close to her. She smiled fondly at her cat before gently setting it down on her bed under the warmth of the blankets. Lilly had recently made a new enemy. Pansy Parkinson decided it wasn’t enough to torture Tori, but she needed to make Lilly’s life hell too.

Well, the stuck up, bitchy, sixth year could shove it. If the time came, Lilly wouldn’t dare hesitate on dueling Parkinson and Tori’s foul, not to mention daft older sister Daphne. Lilly hated the way she let the two girls get to her. Lillian was a year older than them, she also had the power to put them into detention. But every time one of them decided to make a smart comment about her dead father, she froze.

Lilly so lost in her thoughts found she had made her way to the court yard. The fresh air greeted her happily as slivers of the suns rays danced on pleasantly on her skin. The one thing she didn’t expect is to have a giant bat crash into her. The next thing she knew, the bat was dangling happily upside down on her arm. It was actually a cute thing to see. Not very many people bothered to get close to the creatures in the CoMC class.

“Oh, its…its fine, just not what I expected.” Lilly laughed breathily. The bat did look rather cute. Getting over her initial shock, she greeted the Care of Magical Creatures. “Hello Professor Lucien.” She smiled at the Hogwarts professor. Lilly hoped she didn’t hurt his pet bat.

“May I ask what his name is?” Lilly asked politely. She smiled softly at the professor, she was a bit shy around her professors. Having the other creatures hear lessened the awkwardness she might have felt if they weren’t here. Lilly was pretty sure she liked the bat, she considered it to be an eccentric choice. Not that she ever minded having or being something different.

[Lucien Vilette de Séraphin]

The owner of the arm on which Felix had decided to cling belonged to none other than a Slytherin student. Lucien's apologetic smile lingered over his features but as the girl appeared not to be appalled by the playful creature, Lucien left him be for now.

Félix in turn, sensing that he was off the hook, chose to take advantage of this as he reached up with his wing claws to climb more securely onto the girl's arm. Flopping clumsily onto her shoulder, he chittered once or twice before settling down there. Lucien simply threw his hands up in exasperation before retreating a couple of steps to attend to Charlotte the acromantula instead. She seemed to find the entire scene rather amusing, given the way she was clicking her mandibles, but her eight eyes were trained now on the student, trying to remember if she recognized her.

"Yes, well ... Félix can be rather unpredictable in anyone's presence. I assure you this is most regular behavior on his part," Lucien murmured in amusement. Even as he spoke, however, his gaze swept appraisingly over the student. He seemed slightly surprised when she addressed him on first name terms, but he chose to assume that that meant he was allowed to do the same, and so he bowed his head slightly, white-gloved hands folded behind his back. "Good morning to you as well, Mademoiselle Lillian."

As always, Lucien could detect the faintest hint of shyness in the air; it was not often that students associated with professors of their own accord, but the vampire could care less; he maintained correspondence with associates of all ages and origins, after all.

"Félix is his name, and he is the most mischievous of his lot." Lucien was probably referring to Félix's family of ... giant vampire bats. Ah! Well, regardless of what clichés could be tacked on to a vampire keeping vampire bats as pets, Lucien could care less.

"And while we are occupying ourselves with introductions, this here is Charlotte - she is sometimes snoozing in the corner of the room during class - and that kitten atop her head is ... well, she does not yet possess a name."

The vampire's manner of speech was very formal, but no doubt it was simply a product of habit and upbringing; despite his words, his tone was still gentle and inviting.

He raised one hand and began to stroke absently at Charlotte's head whilst he addressed Lillian. "So tell me: what is a student such as yourself doing out and about this early in the morning? It is a weekend, is it not? Is it not customary for all to spend the early hours of the day in much-welcomed sleep?" The vampire paused, and then laughed quietly. "Not that I am allowed much room to dictate. After all, it is not as if it is in my nature to be active at this hour anyhow."

[cityisatwar]

Lilly could hear the formality in the professor’s voice. She was used to the way the professors talks to students, but the CoMC professor, the formality in his voice was different. It wasn’t the norm, it didn’t sound like he was about to give a twenty minute lecture about how the students should behave properly or like he was about to scold her. She liked how everything felt mellow, polite, at ease. Of course this feeling had largely to do with the soft sunshine and the sweet, fresh smell of rain and the earth.

“Félix is quite a playful creature.” Lilly smile, listening to the content sounds of the bat as it sat on her shoulder. Most people would have freaked out, they would have called the professor a lunatic for keeping the oh so ‘dangerous’ creature as a pet. Lilly wouldn’t be one of those people. “She seems like a very happy kitten.” Lilly noted how the kitten was curled up in a ball at the top of Charlotte’s head. This made Lilly wonder whether or not her own cat had been out playing around with the them. Dash sure was not a shy cat.

Everyone was scared of Charlotte, after all she was an acromantuala, she was a giant spider. Honestly if she was such a danger to the students, Dumbledore would not have let the professor keep it. “My cat decided to wake me up.” Lilly laughed. She wasn’t getting much sleep in the first place. Something was constantly plaguing her mind. Something important, she couldn’t place it, but she needed to find out. She had a feeling it was something that would hurt her deeply, something she shouldn’t know. If she couldn’t figure it out, how could she eve solve this problem? “I doubt lack of sleep is the biggest of my problems at the moment.” The young seventh year said quietly, almost a whisper in the air.