Setting fire to our insides| Gideon & Isabelle
Isabelle heaved, saliva coating her tongue, her eyes bleary and hands shaking while grasping at her sides. A hasty escape from the room of requirement left little time for appearances; her dress hung loosely from her shoulders, her shoes clutched in her hand while she desperately tried to navigate the school halls. “So stupid…” She cried under her breath squeezing her eyes shut in hopes to forget the look on Amos’s face when she left him without explanation, without anything to hold onto. Snapping at a group of oblivious second years Isabelle’s voice felt void even to her, the sounds she made muffled as if she were hearing them from under ocean waves. Every time she opened her eyes chaos clouded her vision, blood running through the streets, screaming for missing loved ones. Isabelle couldn’t make sense of the last few hours; they were just kids, just innocent kids they had no place fighting for their lives. Taking in an unsteady breath Isabelle stumbled into a wall where she braced herself, her forehead pressed against stone as an unbridled sob ripped past her lips from a place she’d done well to keep buried. She’d done well despite the sharp claws of monsters who wanted nothing more than to tear her apart piece by piece until she no longer held any semblance of who Isabelle thought she was. Throughout the castle a cacophony of noise washed over her, it almost felt like she never left Hogsmeade, that perhaps she was still there, her wand shaking in her grasp as she fought her way to refuge pulling the closest people to her in hiding with her. She was alone now, everyone brushing past her in search of friends, no one was looking for her, no one watching her slip into the bathroom, no eyes watching her legs crumble from under her weight as she slid down the wall, her hand clutching her chest, the feeling of heated lips and manic laughter tangling together and choking her until sobs burned her lungs and shaking made her fingers ache.
@gprewetts
@g
Gideon didn’t know what to do with himself, such events played on the worst of him. Despite knowing everyone he cared about was perfectly fine, it left him on edge, looking for the fight that he hadn’t been granted. Pacing the corridor in pursuit of something, anything to deal with, his eyes settled upon a shaken third year. “You alright, pal?” he questioned, a degree of fondness in his tone and sympathy playing on his even features as he regarded the younger boy. The third year nodded hastily in response, standing a little taller in what Gideon could only assume was an attempt to appear unaffected by it all. “A girl went into the bathroom crying though.”
With a wistful sigh, Gideon offered a nod of acknowledgement. “I’ll deal with it, go catch up with your friends.” Truthfully, he hated dealing with tears. Molly had the tendency to cry about everything and unlike everyone else in the household, he usually met such displays with a roll of his eyes. Chewing at the inside of his cheek, he hesitantly entered the bathroom, quite unsure what he was getting himself into-- a scared first year or a sixth year more concerned about her cheating boyfriend?
But what he wasn't prepared for was his eyes to fall upon dark locks and the complete hysteria of Isabelle. Even in such a state he felt a gravitational pull towards her and for a moment, he just watched her cry her heart out. What was more unsettling was the twisting in his own chest at the sight. It hurt watching her hurt and he wasn’t sure if it could be attributed to common empathy or the soft spot he held for her. “Isabelle,” he prompted softly from the doorway, unsure if it was enough to get her attention.
Shuffling uncomfortably on the spot, he concluded he couldn’t just stand there. Making his way to her side, he kneeled beside her, his hand finding its way to her jaw and his thumb brushing soothingly across her cheek. “What are you doing, hm?” he questioned, a slight chuckle to his words-- his own way of dealing with the events. “This about Hogsmeade?”












