Briana Drake || 18 || Slytherin || 7th Year || Beater Certified BAMF "We are the warriors that built this town" ~ Closed Roleplay Blog || FC: Claire Holt
Location: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear (The Drake Homestead)
“Come on, Blackwood, I swear it’ll be fun! They’re classics.”
Kimber’s parents were out for the weekend, something about a romantic mini vacation, leaving the the two on their own. Initially, the plan had been to borrow the car and drive out to the mountains for an overnight camping trip- complete with hiking and alcohol- but the rain had put that idea down. So now they were stuck inside, trying to agree on something else to do.
The other girl raised an eyebrow, the corners of her mouth turning up in spite of herself, “Classics? I think they were more talking about movies like Gone with the Wind or Casablanca or something.”
Briana gave a huff, rolling her eyes, “Those are old people classics. Which, I guess makes sense that you know them. I’m talking about the Lord of the Rings, and epic tale of good versus evil, knights and kings and wizards and elves, all coming together to save their world, regardless of the obstacles that stand before them and their goal!”
It was a rainy summer day and the two were seated at the counter in Kimber’s kitchen. Briana had been staying there for most of the summer, ever since she decided she couldn’t stay at home anymore, wouldn’t, and she would be eternally grateful to the Blackwoods for taking her in.
When she showed up a few weeks prior, with just a suitcase, a large, splotchy bruise, and her cat, Kimber had welcomed her with open arms and a joint, and she’d been staying there ever since. It was odd, the first few days as she adjusted the Blackwoods’ family dynamic, but she quickly found she liked it, and so far she was pretty sure Kimber’s parents liked her too. At least, she hoped they did.
Kimber held up her hand, “Let me at least have some coffee first. I swear, I thought you hated mornings.”
“I do, but I started my morning, like, three hours ago.”
Despite being off season, Briana woke up like a clockwork every morning at 5am and went out for a run, rain or shine, with rain being the draw today. Though she hated to admit it, the nightmares had started again, and her morning run was becoming a necessity for her to get out all of her stress and anxiety. She knew sometimes she woke Kimber during the night, the same way Kimber sometimes woke her, but they only ever talked about it in the dead of night, long after the sun had gone down and the house was almost eerily silent.
“Yeah, well I didn’t, and I need my caffeine.”
Briana gave an exaggerated groan, leaning dangerously far back on her stool. “Come on, love, since when do you need caffeine to sit and binge a film or three with me?”
Kimber didn’t bother responding, walking around to the coffee machine which had started beeping, alerting them that the coffee was done brewing, and Briana was honestly surprised the other girl didn’t try to nudge her over.
“Well, if you’re so adamantly against watching Lord of the Rings straight through, what do you want to do?” Briana challenged.
To be honest, Kimber didn’t really have anything in particular in mind. She just wasn’t sure she was up for a 12 hour marathon of Lord of the Rings. She could do one every now and again, she was pretty sure she’d seen them all at some point over the years, but all three at once? That was like the polar opposite of the trip they had been planning.
Taking a sip of her coffee, she breathed in the scent of the drink, before turning back to her friend. “How about a compromise? We can watch them, but I have some terms and conditions.”
“Of course you do.” Briana tried to look indignant, but she couldn’t help but the excitement that she was feeling at the thought of a marathon.
“One, we skip over Frodo and Sam, and two, we smoke through the entire movie. There’s no way I’ll make it through all three without a few joints.”
A wide grin stretched over Briana’s face as she laid out her terms and the other girl held out her hand. “You’ve got yourself a deal, Blackwood.”
Turning the key in the lock of her door, Briana trudged into the apartment, letting her bag fall to the ground as soon as the door shut behind her.
“Good day, then?”
Elodie’s voice floated around the corner from the kitchen and Briana groaned in response, throwing herself onto the couch, not even bothering to kick off her shoes as she covered her face with her arm.
“Come on, it can’t be that bad?” Elodie was standing in the doorway, drying a bowl, a wide smile on her face.
Briana’s only response was to grab a nearby pillow and throw it half heartedly at her sister, who didn’t need to move as the projectile fell to the ground a foot in front of her. Elodie just laughed, shaking her head and walking back into the kitchen.
Rolling her eyes, Briana couldn’t help the slight smile that came to her face. As indignant as she pretended to be, she was thankful for her sister, and for all she’d done for her.
Sitting up, she glanced out the barred window behind the couch, staring out at the street two floors down. They didn’t live in the best part of Birmingham- in fact, it was one of the worst areas of the city- but it kept her in proximity to her school, which is crucial.
King Edward’s was one of the best schools in the country, and she’d been attending since she was 12, thanks to her sister. She was a year behind, since her last district in Newcastle was so under funded, but she worked hard and got up to snuff. As it was, she was already on accepted to both Oxford and Cambridge for her first semester of uni, assuming she kept her GPA up after her final A levels, and had several hefty scholarships lined up.
A loud clang made Briana jump, only to be followed by a shouted cuss word, which let her know Elodie had just dropped the big metal mixing bowl. Again.
Shaking her head with a smile, Briana stood and grabbed her bag, before retreating to her room. Elodie had done a lot for her, and Briana would be forever thankful to her sister. It had been rough, especially those first few years, but her sister had always been there for her, working three jobs and still being able to have dinner out for her and attend her sports events.
Sometimes, Briana would wonder what would have happened if Elodie hadn’t been so willing to care for her after their mum died. Their deadbeat, alcoholic father wasn’t likely to do much for her, so she’d probably have ended up in social services. Without her sister, Briana was sure she’d be a hell of alot worse off, if she even made it to eighteen at all.
Pulling out her books, she started reading through the chapter again, highlighter in hand. Elodie had done a lot for her, had given up a lot for her, and Briana wasn’t going to waste the sacrifice her sister had made for her.
Rory shrugged, mostly because she thought that the films were always better than the books, even without having seen many films. Watching things was a million times better than reading it. “I just think they’re fun,” she said, realizing that there was a much deeper meaning to Briana’s take on things than Rory had first anticipated.
“They really are. And I’m definitely ready to see some of the first years who’ve never seen a muggle movie try to wrap their heads around it.” She joked lightly. “But yeah, I’m still down to read the book again. Though, even I’ll admit I skim over the long winded descriptions of the scenery to get to the interesting parts. I don’t need 3 pages describing a tree right now, even if it is well written.”
“It’s weird, trying to wrap my head around it, but it’s inevitable. There’s no guarantee. And, I don’t want to say I learned the hard way, since nothing has really technically happened to me, but the people I care about have been suffering, and I’m sick of sitting back and letting it happen.”
“You’re right, either way, let’s get going.” Briony smiled at the other before adding, “Oh, did you want to grab a swimsuit and change into something more comfortable before we head out?”
Briana grinned, getting to her feet. “It’s basically a win win situation.” Glancing down at herself, Briana just shrugged, “Nah, this is fine. You good? If you wanted to change, I wouldn’t object since we’re both in the basement, but otherwise I don’t need to. More time for doing stuff, you know?”
“That’s a pretty good question to ask.” Ezra nodded his head as he looked at her. “It’s hard to know how to act when you don’t have a direction. Right now though all of us should have one thing on our mind–surviving and standing up for what we know is right.”
Briana gave a nod, a hollow smile coming to her face. “I never thought I’d ever find myself directionless, but it happened and I don’t think I handled it all that well.” She paused, before giving herself a little shake, “Can’t go back, though, so I guess all that I can do is turn around and start moving forward.”
Amelia nodded her head, glad that her friend reached this conclusion on her own, and feeling quite content with this shift in mindset. “I’m glad you recognize this, because what happened to my mum had nothing to do with ideology. What happened in the Great Hall had nothing to do with ideology either, if you really stop and think about it. Right now we have a power hungry tyrant and we need to get him out before we start to think about ideology.”
“I think I just trapped myself too far forward. In my head, I just assumed thatthis problem would be solved and jumped forward to the next, but we have to get there first. Take the problems as they come, since there’s no way to stop them all.” Briana gave an adamant nod. “One step at a time. No use worrying about a future we’re not even sure we’ll get.”
“It’s the classic underdog tale, where the little guy, against all odds, has to save the world. But as his journey is just one of several. It’s so multidimensional and looks at the good, the bad, and all of the grey areas in between. There’s betrayal and battles and monsters, and no one of them could do it alone.” She paused, “And everyone is there because they want to do what’s right, regardless of how hard it is on them. Actually, it utilizes a lot of the beliefs of Gryffindor.”
“My sister had to read the Hobbit for her secondary school, and I have very distinct memories of her falling asleep with the book. And I’ve seen her read the back of soap containers.” Kimber smiled wider, eyes on Briana’s book. “I have no doubt that the story is good, but he’s long-winded about it.”
As she listened to Briana continue speaking, Kimber knew exactly what she was referencing. She had hardly noticed that she was against the corner of the wall and seemed to be folding in on herself. The Gryffindor hesitated for just a moment before she nodded slowly, taking a deep breath.
“There’s nothing left to say. Not that I don’t appreciate everything you’ve done for me, and everyone else for that matter…but Ray’s gone. I haven’t heard from him or any of the other werewolves, so…so if you could give me a brief synopsis of the Lord of the Rings that actually makes me laugh, I will give you any sexual favor you ask for.” Kimber leaned against Briana’s shoulder, taking comfort in her friend’s familiar scent.
“Yeah, I’ll admit, it is a dense read, and not one that a lot of people can enjoy the first time around. But the story is timeless, I think, and there are actually a lot of great one liners.” Briana laughed, “Maybe I ought to print it out on soap containers for her, then. She can read a little bit every dime she showers. Maybe she’d finish the whole trilogy in 50 years.”
Briana felt a pang in her chest as she watched Kimber curl in on herself and almost regretted asking the girl about it. She knew she could be a bit of a bull in a china shop about these sorts of things, but she figured it was the right thing to do to at least give her the chance to talk about it if she wanted.
Wrapping an arm around her friend, she forced a smile. “You caught me. All this time I’ve just been lying in wait, waiting for the moment to keep you all to myself,” Briana boasted, trying to lighten the mood. “So, the best synopsis I can think of and you’re mine? See, I’m starting to think you just want to make me think you haven’t wanted me all these years, when you really have.”
Yeah I think so too, but reading them and understanding them are two completely different things. So even with all the good life lessons, they probably would miss the majority of them.
“You make a very good point, of course. Still, they don’t even have a chance if they don’t pick it up. Besides, at least a few good life lessons is better than none good life lessons. Okay, maybe just one of two, but still, that’s something.”
“Ethan says that all the time,” Rory admitted. “I don’t know if those films are what he has in mind, but films in general… he says they’re good distractions when you really need one.”
“With him, I think it’s a 50/50 shot whether he’d like it or not. But yeah, the films are never as good, but its mostly because you don’t get the insight you get from the books. And I’ve always found a good film- or even a shitty one- to be a good distraction. It’s times like those when I wish they’d lift the ban on muggle technology. A movie night would probably do us all some good.”
“Okay to be fair I was very high and very…okay yeah it was just boring.” Kimber gave her friend a small smile; probably the for the first time since the radio announcement of Ray’s disappearance. “We can watch it again, I promise.”
“I just need you to get through the films one of these days. I don’t even need you to read the books,” Briana joked, holding up the thick, leather bound copy she was reading from. “Honestly, it’s a really inspiring story, if you can stay awake for it.”
Briana’s smile dimmed slightly as she took in her friend’s curled in posture, and the slight frown that seemed to don her face more often than not lately. She knew it was about the werewolves, but she didn’t want to push her to talk about it if she didn’t want to.
“You know you can always talk to me, right? So...if you want to talk about anything, I’m here for you. Or if you just want me to ramble on about Lord of the Rings some more, I can do that too.” She added, trying to insert some levity.
“You know, all this time, I’ve had it in my head that if I was just careful enough, if I was just quiet and let the storm ride out, I’d make it through unharmed. That I would be safe and I could ‘live to fight another day’ or whatever. But even in keeping my mouth shut and following all of their stupid rules, I still get hurt. Maybe not directly, but the people I care about are still getting hurt and the people they care about, and it’s all so much more intertwined and no one is safe anymore.”
“If I was as heartless as I like everyone to think, maybe it wouldn’t matter, but I’m not, and it does. Because this isn’t just a storm you can ride your way through. People aren’t being hurt indiscriminately like a natural disaster. There are people behind what’s going on, and they’re not like a storm. You can stop people. And if you can do something, you should at least try. Because it’s not like screaming into a storm. Hiding in the basement might help in a storm, but no amount of ‘caution’ or preparation can keep you safe from people.”
“So I guess it just comes down to one thing. Why hide in the basement and wait for them to come for you?”
