Laughter on the Breeze

[Sarah Massing]

Sarah shook her head sightly, with a long deep sigh. She was sitting by the lake, her feet dangleing into the water. Her mood streak was a careful shade of red, she was agitated. She had had a small problem with a slytherin only a few moments before...and that always left her angry.

Her back was board straight, yet another sign of her anger...normally she was relaxed in posture, with a small smile on her face...that was like her. She was a half-blood, which had been the slytherin's topic of choice today. Her parents had moved from the America's to come to england...because they liked it here, and it was her father's home land.

Sarah's father was the wizard...her mother a Native American. She looked more like her mother than her father...but her eyes eluded both of her parents...no one was sure where they had come from.

Finally she streached out, laying down, on the lake side. She gazed out on to the water...waiting for something to happen.

She could hear some younger students laughing "First year probably."She said aloud. Her voice was lyrical, gentle..almost like music in a way. It could be harsh, waith anger or fear...but much more often it was sweet, and gentle.

[Sarah Massing]

Sarah shivered slightly. It was cold, but the part of the lake she sat on, was a little melted...because she had done it ealier that morning. She sighed, no one was about to talk to, it seemed. Hewr streat was fast changing to a calm purple...which, was it normal color it seemed. She smiled as she thought of the Maruders...sepcificly one of them...but she wasn't about to tell which. (neither am I, you have to guess, he is already taken too.) She had a bit of a cruch on him, but was good at hiding her feeling...and what the colors of her mood streaks ment...

She closed her eyes for a moment, then smiled again. Her owl swooped down, landing beside her. It had a letter for her. She sat up and took it, scaning it quickly.

"Good, things are well at home." She said with a softly. laugh. She stroked the Eagle Owl gently, then it flew away. She sighed, and relaxed back again. Her eyes drifting closed again. She wasn't falling asleep, only relaxing more.

[Prongs™]

[OoC >> Hi! Hope you don't mind if I join you. =D I think I've worked out who Sarah fancies, but I'm not saying either xD]

"Ares! Get down from that tree, it'll whack you to Hell!"
The yell of a fifth-year boy with messy, jet black hair, deep yet humor-sparked hazel eyes and robes that seemed to short for his tall body echoed across the almost empty grounds. His jeans were mud-streaked and slightly faded, but heck, they weren't as bad as Sirius's... good lord, that boy needed to get some new ones and fast, before Proffessor McGonagall blew her top.

James Potter ran across the grass towards the Whomping Willow (for once, without the other Marauders), pressed the knot on its trunk to ease its frantic battering, and raised a hand into its branches, coaxing his handsome tawny owl out of the tree and onto his arms.
He stroked its brown and black-speckled plumage, talking to it gently and easing what appeared to be terror; the bird was trembling all over. Well, he couldn't blame it; it had just found what he thought to be a perfect perch, and then the freaking tree started to go mental.
Once Ares had calmed down slightly, James raised his arm, and with a moment's pressure the handsome bird took off towards the Owlery. James watched his owl disappear completely into the turret that the owls called home, shook his head in mock irritation, and set back off towards the school.
It wasn't till he passed the lake that he saw Sarah, her mood braid deep purple. His train of thought took flight into why the Hell she bothered dying it anyway, not knowing its secret about the fact that it changed with the girl's mood.
Still, he waved and smiled his dazzling smile as he passed, moving his hand to his hair (which was starting to flop sadly) and ruffled it back into its usual windswept posture. He pushed his glasses up his nose and carried on, wondering if Lily was in the Common Room.

[Sarah Massing]

(no, please do join in. It is not a secret about her mood streak...just some of the colors. Please tell me who you think her love interest is! I will tell you if you are right...)

Sarah jumped at the sharp movement to one side of her. The mood streaks jumped to a startled jade green color. She waved to James lightly, as if he hadn't almost given her a heart attack. 'Must be getting ready to see if he can find Lily.' She thought, watching him ruffle his hair.

Her black hair moved in the breeze that flashed though, there one second, then gone. She sat up, so that she could see him better. He is So stuck up...or rather he can be... Sarah shook her head, with a long sigh.

[Prongs™]

[OoC >> Well, now I'm not so sure, but is it actually James...? Seeing as he's a Maroodur, and he's taken... probably not though. XD]

James strode on, but then paused at the castle door as Ares flew back down to him, nibbling affectionately at his ear.
"What now?" he asked the owl gently, untying a letter from his leg and scanning it briefly. Then another smile took to his lips as he folded the letter, stuffed it in his pocket and stroked Ares.
"Thanks, mate," he said, raising his arm to let Ares fly free, then turning and running in the opposite direction, his black robes billowing out behind him as he disappeared into the Forbidden Forest.
Glancing about him to make sure he was alone, he shimmered into his Animagus form of a majestic stag, then bounded in deeper.
Suddenly, he stopped, his head jerking upwards and his whole body still save his ears, which were twitching ever so slightly back and forth.
Listening.
Listening to the shouts and jeers of a herd of angry centaurs.
Oh, shit.

[Sarah Massing]

(nope, nope...not James.)((He missed her hair changing color?)

Sarah closed her eyes, she got the feeling that James would need help, she had watched him go into the forbidden forest. She shook her head. Slowly she slipped into the trees. As she stepped into them she smiled. She loved the forest...though she wasn't EVER suposed to be there.

She walked further in and saw a stag standing there...then she saw centaurs. "This doesn't make any sense.." She said aloud. She knew James had to be close...but where was he? Why were the centaurs threaghtening this stag?

Sarah's hair flaired from green to silver...she was scared of the centaurs.

[Prongs™]

[OoC >> Didn't think it was. XDDD]

James pricked his ears at the sound of another's approach, and as his head whipped round to pinpoint their location, he spotted Sarah, and he froze.
She didn't know... did she?
Looking more closely, he noticed that her mood streak had changed to silver... how come? Was it becuase she knew his secret?
Suddenly, one of the centaurs leered at him, but his antlers found it and he tossed it aside, not leaving any trace of injury on it's equine body; their hide was tougher than average horses'. He must have just caught it off guard, but at least the others were backing off.
Good.
He lowered his head and stiffened, though somehow still remaining flexible, his large, many-branched antlers forward as though prepared to charge, challenging them, taunting them, lunging at them when they least expected it, but not catching them. They were a little more prepared now, after his first toss.
Again and again the centaurs took their chances at bringing him down, but James either dodged them or warned them off with his antlers. They never seemed to give up, and James was tiring now; he was slowing down, his breath was coming in pants. He just wanted them to go away, but when he got rid of some, there always seemed to be more and more and more -
Pain seared the stag's shoulder as an arrowhead wedged itself into it.
He reared, and the centaurs finally scattered; his last thought before he hit the ground was why the Hell he never thought of that before.

[Sarah Massing]

Sarah looked shocked, and scared. She was on the edge of panic. They were surrounding her now...now that the stag had scared them. She still didn't know who the stag was. "Please forgive me..." She wispered;...knowing that what she was about to do was unforgivable.

Sarah lifted her wand, and pointed it at a chestnut centaur that was about to attack her "Av...Avada Kadavra" She wispered. The centaur fell, not a mark on it.

(she is dead now...)

[Prongs™]

[OoC >> You mean the centaur, right...?]

Darkness was the only thing the mahogany stag was experiencing at that moment in time, but after a few minutes, he slowly opened his eyes, groaning slightly, and staggered to his feet, reaching round to pull the arrow out of his side with his teeth.
He winced as the flinted point withdrew, and felt warm, sticky blood trickle slowly down his shoulder; but it wasn't much, and he could probably sort it out. Still, he ignored it for a moment, and gazed around.
The centaurs were almost gone; he saw a handsome chestnut lying dead on the floor beside the unconscious one he had tossed, and looked at Sarah, a look of what could have been incredulity on his handsome face. She was white-faced, looking as though she'd just...
No way.
No way.
His eyes flickered from the dead centaur to Sarah, his expression hardening to something unreadable. She didn't...?
Did she know it was him?
. . . Would he be next?
James backed off, his ears low in fear and submission.
No, no, no, this isn't happening...

[Sarah Massing]

(no, I mean James... will probably tell the minestry who did it...they can tell what spell was used where...they will know SOMEONE used it..)

Sarah looked up at the stag slowly. Her face was absolutly dead white. "Ja...James...is that you?" She wispered, stareing at the stag. There was something too familiar about him..too tame..for him to be a real stag..so she took a guess. She looked confused and terrified.

[Prongs™]

[OoC >> Oh, I get it. =D Don't worry, James isn't that much of a tattler, he won't tell. It would most likely be Snivellus/Snape that would. XD]

James' ears pricked at the sound of his name; it was mostly basic instinct, but then he started to wish he hadn't. Still, she'd discovered it, and there was no point hiding it now.
Slowly, he walked towards her, stopping within a short distance from her. His chocolated eyes caught the light of the sunset, giving them a shine that was too human for an average stag.
I would have told you before...
He couldn't speak in this form, so he tried to show her through other means.
... but not even Lily knows.
It was true; it wasn't out of pure cowardice that he hadn't told Lily, but fear did have alot to do with it. He was still debating over telling her, but kept dropping the subject every time she came close to it, referring it towards homework, revision and other such things.
Promise you won't tell, and I won't tell of our meeting.
For once, his eyes were pleading; he was still wary, but that was more his stag side than his human.

[Sarah Massing]

[what if they bring Veritiserum into it?]

Sarah gazed into the stags eyes and understood what he ment. "No one will know from me, James." She said softly. Then "Please...don't tell what you saw me do...please..." She wispered the last, fear filling her voice. She understood that he had to keep his secret. She really hoped he wouldn't tell anyone...not Sirius...not Lupin...not anyone. She was scared that someone would find out...and scared of what would happen to her, if they did discover it.

Sarah shivered she had killed...even defending her life...that was unforgivable. She looked around her, into the trees. She half expected minestry officals to aprear there to takje her to Azkaban.

Sarah shook her head, she was over-reacting...they couldn't appear out of no where, they had to travel, maybe she could explain, it couldn't be that bad, not when she was protecting herself.

Her dark hair was escaping from its long braid. The mood streak still blazed silver, for fear, of course. Sarah sighed, and glanced around again. "stupid question...are you ok?" She siad to James. It felt really weird, to talk to a stag. Well, it could be worse... she thought absently. It could have been Sirius.

[Prongs™]

[OoC >> Ahah! Sarah *likes* Sirius, no? =D]

James nodded, though winced slightly as pain prickled in his shoulder. He turned his head and lapped at the small mark where the arrowhead had struck, though the salty tang made him withdraw slightly; he wasn't accustomed to the taste, not in this form.
I won't tell anyone what you did. Promise.
He smiled, showing that he meant what he said. Only Veritaserum could make him tell, and he would do what he could to avoid having to drink it; he would have to keep an eye on old Snivelly, he was as good as Lily at Potions.
No, scratch that last. No-one was as good as Lily at Potions, even Sluggy said so.

[Sarah Massing]

[ohh yes she does...]

Sarah sighed softly with releif. "Thank you." She said aloud. She still sounded scared, but not so much so. She shook her head sharply "We REALLY should be heading back..." She said to him. It occured to her that she was talking to a deer...how weird that would look to an outsider...Not that she cared.

[Prongs™]

James nodded, sighing slightly.
You should; it's not safe out here any more.
He looked back out towards the grounds, which were slowly darkening, then towards the skies; a full moon was starting to reveal itself above the trees, and he thought - no, it definitely was that time - he heard a wolf howling.
Forgive me for dragging you out here. Do you think you can find your way out?
He showed every sign of needing to go, but he wanted to make sure Sarah was out; he didn't want to put her, or anyone else, in any more danger. This night was enough.