Footsteps in the Snow (Atticus)

[Jaimi Willow]

It was late November, and at Hogwarts, that meant that the snow had come. Many students preferred to stay in the castle next to roaring common room fires, but not Jaimi. She had done all her homework, and as such wanted to move around, do something. She found herself pulling on thick blue tights, extra socks and her riding boots. Then her house scarf and her thick winter cloak before heading out of the dormitory.

Down through the castle and out into the grounds, she soon found herself wandering along the edge of the forbidden forest. Not far enough in for it to be considered dangerous, not that she had any reason to be worried about that with her transformation progressing so well.

She stopped and leaned against and oak tree, warm in her thick clothes despite the cold air swirling flurries of snow around her. She thought she saw another figure through the trees and snow, but couldn't be sure. It was unlikely that it would be anyone worth talking to considering the amount of students in the castle, so she carried on without thinking about it much more.

[Atticus Kaine]

Atticus strolled through the trees coming from the depths of the forest. The snow crunching under the black heavy sole of his boots as he marched out of the woods.

There was a figure ahead of him instinctively he reached back and pulled his hood up hiding his face and the fresh cut that oozed blood across his right eye. His cloak was clean but beneath it his uniform was muddy,tattered and stained with fresh blood and stank of the acrid smell of fire and battle

He continued walking towards the figure as if drawn to them as he got closer he realized who it was it was jaimi, Beautiful Jaimi , but there is no time for beauty when you have a greater calling, that was at least what Atticus's head told him.

yet still he plodded on towards her. He had heard rumours she had taken up with another man and that he had missed his chance but what were rumours.

He stopped about five feet from her where she Lent against a tree he removed his hood and with it he felt like he lowered his defenses and uttered a single word the only word he could think of that would undoubtedly lead to the awkwardness of there last meeting

[Jaimi Willow]

Jaimi heard the crunch footsteps on snow get closer as she looked out into the grounds, and stopped what her keen ears guessed was between 4 and 6 feet away from her. She turned her head to face them, and was startled by a tall broad figure swathed in a cloak, with their hood up. Her hands grasped the trunk behind her, and she felt her nails sharpen into claws, taking a deep breath she prepared to use them, a tall hooded figure wasn't good news, even in the grounds of Hogwarts.

"Who..?" but as she voiced the question he lowered his hood. "Atticus." She breathed out, relieved in a way, but suddenly nervous. She willed the claws to return to her normal, well manicured nails, and slowly, they did.

"Long time no see." It truly was, she hadn't heard from or seen him except across the great hall at breakfast or dinner, he'd not paid her any mind it seemed part of the reason she'd decided to give things a go with Remus. Oh Merlin, did he know, should she tell him? "How have you been?" she asked, only then seeing the cut above his eye. "What have you done to your head?" concern crossing her face as well as showing in her voice.

[Atticus Kaine]

" Hey Jaimi" It was hard for Atticus he had never been one for confronting his emotions weeks had past since there last meeting. For weeks he had admired her beauty from a far to scared he would have to hurt her in the grand scheme of things , a fear that had paralyzed him from acting and pursuing what he wanted, all the while the rumor mill spinning reports of her and another fellow

He pushed his feeling to the side and his hand up to his cut tracing the thin line of it from where it started just above his right eye down diagonally across his eye towards his nose his finger become red with blood.

"This, oh this is nothing and unfortunate encounter with a creature that doesn't like company" Atticus smirked thinking of there first meeting "If its any consolation it didn't put me on my arse"

Atticus looked tired he had bangs under his eyes and his face was gaunt he had become a slave to his cause in the past few weeks spending constant late nights trying to solve the problems of he encountered but meeting this girl again had seemed to put a spark back into atticus's slate grey eyes

"Me ,oh I've been keeping self busy probably to busy but you know how life is when it rains it pours. How about your self how is life treating the beautiful Jaimi?" [/size][/color]

[Jaimi Willow]

Despite him saying it was nothing it still concerned her. She moved away from the tree pulling her wand out as she did so.

"Here let me." she said kindly, waving her wand across the length of it, saying the incantation in her head, smiling to herself as it healed itself after her wand had passed over it. "Don't scratch it." she said slightly sterner in tone than the previous statement. She took a step back, suddenly aware how close together they were, and noticing the glint in his eyes.

Jaimi blushed when he called her beautiful.

"Oh, you know, lessons, homework, Hogsmeade, the usual."

[Atticus Kaine]

" Yeah i know that feeling the constant monotony of this place i feel like a pawn in a big game of wizard just waiting to be crushed by a queen" Atticus realize he might have give away to much in his metaphor and quickly began to talk again

"thank you for that its nice to have some one else do it i swear i never seem to get it right my self" his finger run the length of the newly healed cut it was still red and the blood dried on the newly healed flesh

[Jaimi Willow]

"Oh I didn't mean that in a bad way, I go and help out in the hospital wing sometimes, and there's always Quidditch practise to cheer me up." She smiled nervously sure that there was something more to his metaphor than she was choosing to read into it.

"Cuts and bruises are simple to deal with, and it's normally best to get someone else to do it for you. Especially if the pain could be deemed a distraction."

She was glad he hadn't the hearing to notice the quickening of her her heart, or the eyes to notice the suppression of a bush in her cheeks. Thank Merlin that being a Veela did some good when disguising emotions.

[Atticus Kaine]

" oh i misunderstood must be my own twisted way of thinking I just find this place such a labour not because its hard but well I feel like a boat adrift in a deep foriegn sea all alone no one who understands lost in the common pleasantry's every one find so easy and normal" Atticus felt vulnerable he had just revealed his deepest feeling with out prompting or purpose this woman was the flame and atticus was the moth drawn to it only ever a fraction away from being burned

[Jaimi Willow]

"Not everyone is an academic Atticus, and not everyone has to be." shesmiled reassuringly. "Not everyone is a blossoming socialite, there isn't room for everyone to be one either." she thought a moment. "You're what, a sixth year surely once you turn seventeen you could go and do an apprenticeship in something, you've done your OWLs, no one can stop you if that's what you want to do."

"I guess I'm lucky in that respect, I've always known what I want to do, always been driven towards my next goal. Guess it's partly because I'm working to get to the point where I can move out and start really living my own life." This must have been the most actual conversation they'd ever had, it had depth, it's wasn't just flirting and pick-up lines.

[Atticus Kaine]

"You know as well there's only one path some one of my skill set is heading down and its not pretty." he looked down to the ground and kicked the snow

"Theres rumours, not in the school out there " He pointed out and through the forest " Theres something coming a storm and its going to change life as we know it at the minute its just muttering hushed word in back room of dodgy taverns"

Worry came on his face and his true vulnrabilty showed " My father said i was always destined for something he trained me to be the perfect solider for christ sake at ten he got me a pet dog, he made me care for it and love it then on the eve of coming here in my first he made me kill the dog to prove the point that emotion is weakness. What sort of monster does that make me"

Then Atticus true fear came to his lips " What if im the storm?"

[Jaimi Willow]

She watched him kicking at the snow for a moment before deciding how to speak.

"Atticus, you have a choice, no matter what anyone tells you, you have a choice. One particular set of skills does not make a dark wizard, sure you'r good at Dark Arts, but you DO NOT have to be evil."

When he spoke about his dog she was disgusted, but not at him.

"That is the cruelty of a father, not the evil of a child." she said forcefully. "Yes that act may have affected you, but it is not the be all and end all of what you are or what you will become."

Her eyes widened at his last statement.

"What would make you think that? Because of the things your father has made you do? Because he's trying to turn you into a monster? You can chose to walk away."

[Atticus Kaine]

"My father has made me do alot more than you know!" There was tears welling in his eyes he felt so vulnerable

"The dark arts are all i know he has bread me to be the perfect solider of the dark arts" He looked over his shoulder hearing the noises of the forest they seemed so loud in his state

There were tears in his eyes and the cold wind stung his face as he looked to her "Monsters don't just happen there must be something in me that he exploited"

[Jaimi Willow]

Jaimi listened to the tirade of angry words accompanied by vulnerable and possibly scared tears. She took a deep breath and forced herself to talk to him calmly, level headedly, and not shout back at him.

"O.k. so your father has made you do things that right now you're not proud of, things I'm guessing I'd rather not know about. That doesn't change the fact that I have never seen anything in you that would make me think for a second that you were a monster. Ever."

she found herself short of breath, and realised, too late that the footsteps in the snow told a different tale from the one she had just spoken. During his shouting she had taken a step and half backwards, stopping when her back hit a tree.

[Atticus Kaine]

"Jaimi" Atticus voice was calm now barely more than a whisper .

The wind swirled around them as if it knew what was coming he voice turned to a dark tone " I am a monster, I've killed someone " The tears ran down his cheek as he muttered more words " My own mother"

[Jaimi Willow]

She barely heard him say her name amid the flurries of snow. She was almost as stunned by the calm regret that crept into his voice.

"Atticus, what it is?" she asked tentatively, almost dreading his answer, what had he done that was so terrible, she was scared to hear the words come out of his mouth. Had he killed someone? What would she saw to him if he had?

As he began to speak his voice took on a dark tone that sent chills down her spine, she couldn't move, her feet were planted into the ground like the roots of the tree at her back. Her eyes grew wider with every passing word, the cold fear creeping into her bones like chill from the snow. She was standing in front of a murderer, how much did he regret his actions, from the look on his face a lot. One word found it' way out of her mouth. Her voice not betraying the fear she felt, luckily, as she asked that burning Question.

"Why?"