(Untitled)

[erikcohen]

Week Name/Date/Time: 'The Season Begins' / Saturday, 3rd December 2005 / 1:40 PM
Location: Corridor Near Library
Open To: KILEY
Currently Involving: Playing the Hero!Erik

Comments

[erikcohen]

Erik was a little surprised as his eyes met the Ravenclaw patch on her bag. Even he could observe details now and again, and this certainly had him puzzled. He assumed she'd be the second Slytherin he'd be saving for the week, had prepared himself for some snarky comments on her part. So, to note that she was in the same house as his girlfriend was a bit unexpected. Actually, it motivated him even more to stop her from making a horrible mistake.

He couldn't have it look as though he were waiting for her, hence why he'd been pacing for a fairly long time, trying to make it look as though he were headed somewhere. And now that he knew her destination (because how could it NOT be the library?), he made his move. Heading toward the door at the same time as her, he carefully watched to make sure he was right behind her and then dropped his bag, quills... papers... books scattering across the floor. If she was any sort of decent person, she'd help a bloke out, right?

"Urgh, not again! How about you stop breaking on me, kiitos," Erik muttered, dropping to the ground and beginning to pick up his things.

Plan? In action.

[kiley_barton]

Kiley hadn't been paying a whole lot of attention to the world around her as she walked, since she tended to let herself get lost in her own thoughts. Still, even she could hardly miss the sound of someones belongings scattering to the floor directly behind her. Startled out of her thoughts, she turned around to see a Gryffindor gathering up his things.

Well, she could hardly just walk away when she was so close by, right? Especially since one of his parchments had floated nearly to her own feet. She bent down and picked that one up, before moving closer to crouch down again, picking up a small scattering of other papers. "Here," she offered them to him softly, smiling a bit. "Have to hate it when that sort of thing happens, right?" she said, even as she reached for a quill that was nearby as well, adding it to the small pile of his things she'd gathered from the ground.

"You could probably reinforce the strap with a charm if this keeps happening," she said, waving a hand vaguely towards his bag, as she had heard his words about how it should stop breaking on him.

[erikcohen]

Erik sighed with relief as she turned around to help him. So, he'd gotten this far, but what in bloody hell was he supposed to do next? It's not as if he could say, 'Oh, thanks for helping me, and if you run into Wesley Broderick, you can tell him where to go for me'. This wasn't the sort of thing you had a casual chat about, was it?

Annoyed that he'd spilled ink on his History text book for a plan that could end up crashing and burning, Erik held his face in his hands for a few moments to calm himself down. Eh, it wasn't as if he were using that book anyway. As if he payed attention in history of all subjects!

"It's really kind of you to help me out, especially since I don't even know you," Erik said with a slight chuckle. Of course she wouldn't know his laughter came from nerves and a sense of 'what in Merlin's name have I gotten myself into?'.

She was definitely a Ravenclaw. If a Gryffindor had seen it happen, they'd have either laughed or told him to get himself a new bag entirely. She was suggesting charm work, which Erik was best with. Perhaps he'd give it a try if his bag ever broke accidentally.

"Sounds like a decent plan. Oh, sorry, right... I'm Erik Cohen," he said, extending his hand. Had to be friends before talking about his troubled life, right? Hopefully the weeks that had passed since the Daily Prophet Headline would keep his name from sounding too familiar.

[kiley_barton]

Kiley couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for him as he sat there with his head in his hands, but she certainly didn't know what to say. After all, he had just dropped his books...? It didn't seem like a huge deal to her, but then, she didn't know him at all, so maybe it was? Then again, if she had noticed the ink, she would have thought it a huge tragedy anyway -- the result of enjoying History of Magic more than anyone had any real right to, perhaps.

She smiled slightly, though, when he said it was kind of her to help. "Well, what kind of person would I be, if I just walked away?" she said, not really expecting an answer to that. She laughed slightly, though, putting her hand out to shake his. "I'm Kiley Barton," she introduced himself, noting his name in the back of her mind so that she wouldn't forget it.

His name did sound slightly familiar, but honestly Kiley didn't pay a huge amount of attention to the Daily Prophet as it was, so that combined with the length of time since she would have seen it meant that the recognition was just a vague thing, without any real coherence in her mind. Ah well, she decided that it probably didn't matter one way or the other.

"Pleasure to meet you," she said sincerely.

[erikcohen]

What kind of person would she be? THE KIND OF PERSON THAT DATED WESLEY BRODERICK. As of now he just couldn't wrap his mind around someone actually being attracted to him in the first place, let alone someone as nice as Kiley appeared to be. Oh, this was a nightmare. He actually felt a little sick as he watched her smile at him like that. He almost didn't have the heart to tell her, but if he didn't... who would?

"Kiley Barton of Ravenclaw. It's nice to meet you too," he said with a sincere smile. After all, it was a lovely encounter thus far. Too bad he was going to have to RUIN IT... and didn't exactly know how to begin.

"Erm... I know a lot of your housemates actually. Tobias, Mason.... maybe you know of my girlfriend, Juhi?" Erik stated, asking her questions. Good way to get started. Possibly.

[kiley_barton]

Kiley recognized Tobias' name right away, but had to think a bit on the others. "Juhi sounds familiar," she said with a bit of a nod. "I don't really know her, though... I guess I don't get out much." She shook her head slightly, thinking that maybe that was a bit sad, if she barely even knew the people in her house.

But... well. She had her friends, and tended to keep to them, and if she didn't know very many other people then at least she was happy, right? Knowing too many people opened up a lot of windows for things that Kiley wasn't interested in -- so she sheltered herself away, she couldn't help it anymore, not really. She'd been doing it for a long time, after all.

"Are you headed into the library as well?" Just because she tended to seclude herself didn't mean she wasn't friendly, after all -- and he seemed nice enough, didn't he? "Studying anything interesting?" Because of course she would have to ask about that, yeah?

[erikcohen]

Erik thought she might have at least heard of Juhi, since Juhi was a prefect and they seemed to be fairly well known, but then she said she didn't and Erik sighed. She didn't get out much? Not a very good sign. If the only time she did 'get out' was to be with Wesley Broderick, he had a bit of a problem here. Well, he had a bit of a problem anyway, but... GAH.

"Oh, well... she's younger than you so I can understand that," Erik said with a shrug and a small smile. That's right... keep smiling! She'll never know that you only smile to keep from running away screaming. Just like she doesn't know that her possible boyfriend tortured you with crucio.

Erik seemed nice because he was nice. Of course he had his moments, where he didn't say the kindest things, but that was normally in difficult situations. He had a heart of gold really, and everyone who knew him would say the same. And possibly also explain that it was his downfall, as his heart caused him to get into a fair bit of trouble when it came to a certain Slytherin.

"Erm... Herbology. Not one of my best subjects, but the Professor's worth giving it a fair chance," Erik answered her and scratched the back of his neck. OH PROFESSOR MURPHY. A prankster in charge. Erik liked to see such things.

Only.. now was not the time to discuss his classwork. Now was the time to carefully head into topics of serious discussion. THINK FAST!

"You erm... you've got a piece of parchment by your foot," Erik told her, pointing at what was the beginning of a letter to his mother. As much as Erik didn't want to use it to his advantage, well... that was one possible way of approaching this. His family had been through a tragedy, and... well, Wes had made it worse.

[kiley_barton]

Kiley shrugged slightly, suddenly feeling a bit bad that she didn't know for sure who he was talking about. But, well, nothing she could do about that now, so oh well.

"Herbology's not too bad," Kiley agreed easily. At least he hadn't said something like Transfiguration! "Better than some things anyway."

Kiley blinked a bit, though, when he told her that she had some parchment near her foot. She had thought she'd gotten it all picked up, but clearly she had been wrong. "Sorry," she said as she bent down to pick it up. "I hadn't noticed it."

She didn't mean to read it either, really, and she didn't. Not exactly, but she couldn't help but notice that it was a letter as she held it out towards him. "Writing anything interesting to your mom?" she asked, seeing no harm in the question, herself. Had she been aware of what had happened in Erik's family, she probably would have been a bit more polite about such things, but that was perhaps the price one paid when they wanted to be as ignorant as possible to the bad things in the world.

[erikcohen]

Oh, Herbology wasn't his best subject, but it was something he enjoyed anyway. His least favourite class was probably Divination, his favourite being Arithmancy which seemed to be the opposite in some ways. And while Erik Cohen was a Gryffindor, he did have some interest in school. Unfortunately, he didn't really have time to chat about assignments. He was on a rescue mission here!

Why was she apologizing? Erik stared at her in confusion for a few moments, thinking perhaps he was making some sort of mistake. What if Wes had just been taunting her and he'd misread all the signals? It wouldn't be the first time he'd been wrong about something. Honestly, she was apologizing for not noticing a paper that wasn't even hers to pick up! If he continued thinking, his brain would surely explode from overuse.

"Hasn't been much to say since the last letter, which was a few days ago," Erik began, turning away from her for a moment to cringe as he grabbed his bag. He didn't really want to talk about this, but what choice did he have? At least he was telling the truth to get her to see Wes's dark side. He could have done something much more elaborate if he'd thought about it more.

"I suppose she just wants to keep in touch with me. Surprised she hasn't pulled me out of school like some of the other students. Especially since I'm her only son now," Erik struggled to say, hiding the anger behind his eyes. He had to do this calmly or she'd never listen.

[kiley_barton]

Kiley wondered if perhaps she had said something wrong when he was just staring at her like that. See, this was why she didn't interract with people too much. People were weird.

Oh. But then... oh. Kiley didn't have anything to say to that, really. She bit her lip as she watched him grab his bag, wondering if she even should say something. After all, he didn't know her at all, so maybe it would be better if she didn't...

But no, she didn't really believe that, did she? To stay silent might seem to be the same as not caring, and Kiley couldn't help but care about people -- why else would she avoid them? "I'm... sorry," she said hesitently, because what was her apology worth? And she didn't know what else to say, either, suddenly feeling slightly uncomfortable under such a topic and in the presense of such a person.

[erikcohen]

If he had known that was what Kiley was thinking, he wouldn't have argued. People were definitely weird, and Erik was even stranger than that. He was aware of this, but he was also aware that his insanity had good intentions behind it. That counted for something, surely?

He felt horrible for putting her in such an awkward position, but he felt even worse having to bring all this stuff up to someone he didn't even know. Chances were she wouldn't appreciate just what he was trying to do for her and this was all a waste of his time. But for some reason, Erik couldn't bring himself to let her walk blindly into a relationship of some sort with Wes. As long as she had the information, he could sleep at night. What she chose to believe and what she did with his information was all on her.

"It's not you who should be sorry, yeah? I still don't understand what Death Eaters would want with a muggle journalist," Erik said, taking a deep breath. Well, he was continuing down the path of honesty. He really didn't understand and he never would. Just like he could never know for sure whether or not Wes was involved.

"It was very difficult to hear, as I was in the Hospital Wing at the time... when I found out, you know? I'm sorry... I shouldn't be saying all this to you, but I haven't talked about it and I just.. I.." Erik stammered, eyes widening. Oh no, he didn't want it to go like this. He didn't want everything to come rushing at him, flashes of Wes's eyes staring down at him as Erik writhed in pain. Oh please let her just LISTEN, or else this was all incredibly pointless.

[kiley_barton]

This was awkward, as Kiley had absolutely no idea what to do. If she had known him for more than a couple of minutes, if they had been friends, then she might have... hugged him, or at least had some idea of what to say. As it was, though, she was completely clueless -- and yet, it was impossible for her to see someone hurting like that and not want to help.

"I guess... no one ever really understands the motives of a Death Eater," she said, biting her lip as she realized that that was not necessarily the sort of thing he would want to hear. But, it was true, wasn't it? Actually, Kiley thought that she wouldn't really want to understand, because what sort of people were they, really? She'd rather not have insight into that kind of a mind.

Though she didn't know what would make him talk to her about this, if he hadn't talked about it. But then, maybe it was because he didn't know her? That was the only thing Kiley could think of, though she wasn't sure it made even a bit of sense.

"I... it's okay," she said, finally. "If you want to talk about it? I mean..." well, that sounded strange, and she didn't want to sound like she was prying into the life of some stranger, either. "Everyone has to let it out sometime, don't they?"

[erikcohen]

Erik had to appreciate the fact that she made a good point. Who really would understand the motives of a Death Eater unless they were one themself? It was probably a good thing that he didn't understand completely, but it didn't mean that he wanted to know more, and not from a Daily Prophet article.

"I suppose not," he said, taking a deep breath and avoiding her eyes. How was she going to take this? How would she even believe him? He didn't have time to become her friend and THEN let her in on what he didn't think was all that big of a secret.

"Yes... I'm sorry you have to be the one to listen to me ramble on, but I suppose you'll understand," Erik started, bracing himself for what was going to happen next.

"Not very many people know about me being ambushed by Slytherins. It was the day before Dumbledore told me about Nik. When they started threatening my brother, I didn't believe anything would really happen! Not the very next day at least! And... I still have nightmares about Wesley Broderick torturing me in the corridor," Erik spilled out, revealing things that only those closest to him knew, finally mentioning the name but avoiding specifically mentioning crucio. She didn't need all that thrown upon her.

"I'm sure you know all about how evil Wesley Broderick is though, being in his year and all," he added. Now all he could do was wait, and possibly get ready to make a run for it.

[kiley_barton]

Kiley was listening, doing her best to be sympathetic though she barely knew what was going on -- she did not expect, however, the name that Erik said. So casually, as if it were only natural that it was Wes' name that he would be using.

If Kiley were almost anyone else in this school, maybe it would have seemed natural. But she'd been blind to Wes for years, even -- or perhaps especially -- when it came to herself. She always had been, no matter what other people might have been saying.

Then again, she'd never really had someone say it so blatantly to her before.

She had frozen. That was the best word -- she was standing and just staring at Erik, as if trying to decide if he was lying or not. Most of her wanted to say that he was -- but for some reason, she felt that he wasn't. Which was no good at all.

Wes had just done something nice for her birthday yesterday. He was her boyfriend now. And she was finding it very hard to believe anything bad about him. She always had, when it came to him.

Maybe she'd heard the Gryffindor wrong. Yeah.

Only, even Kiley wasn't that delusional -- she heard the name right, she just had to figure out what was going on.

"That's... cruel," she said softly, thinking that it was cruel of him to say such things to her. But who knew how he would take her words.

[erikcohen]

Erik couldn't take this. He couldn't take her just standing there staring at him as if he'd just said something shocking. Most people knew that Wesley Broderick was no good! Hell, EVERYONE knew that he and Preston caused trouble together. They'd gone after first years! WES HAD REMOVED SOME OF HIS FINGERS, for Merlin's sake!

So when she muttered 'that's cruel'... Erik couldn't help but snort with laughter. It had gotten far beyond 'cruel' at this point. Wesley Broderick had no heart, and she'd just not been one to figure it out.

He turned to face her, eyes narrowing just slightly. He wasn't angry at her exactly, but angry at Wes for managing to somehow convince her that he wasn't a nasty piece of work.

"What's cruel is that he's one gigantic hypocrite. He talks about having respect, and has none for anyone with blood he thinks to be impure. He threatened my brother, and my brother ended up dead. HE USED CRUCIO ON ME," Erik stated, putting more force behind his words as he went along.

"What's cruel is that Tobias, TOBIAS had to find me unconcious on the stairwell when Wes tried to use it AGAIN. What's cruel is that I saw you with him yesterday... I SAW YOU and you don't even realise who you're with! You don't even know you're having a nice casual chat with someone who tries to kill me on a regular basis!" Erik raised his voice just slightly, frustration building.

How could she not know? How had Wes managed to blind her like this? Obviously Erik was dealing with an enemy who was far more clever than he realised.

"You probably don't believe me. He's probably done SOMETHING to convince you he's got a heart, but my advice? Start asking ANYONE at all who isn't close to Wes what they think of him. You'll see the general opinion is not one of admiration."

[kiley_barton]

Kiley hadn't really been prepared for Erik's anger. She took a step backward when he turned on her, flinching just slightly as he started to yell. She was listening, though... she couldn't help but listen. She just... didn't know how to respond.

What was she supposed to say? She didn't even know this guy... for all she knew he could be... lying, or trying to get back at Wes for something more trivial, or... or something. He had succeeded in one thing, though, at least -- he was making Kiley really think about it, which was no small matter on its own.

She heard the name he mentioned -- Tobias -- and stuck to that. She knew Tobias, was friends with him, even if not overly close... surely, though, Tobias would have told her something like that, since he knew how much she cared for Wes? She didn't know.

And yet... and yet... there had been that howler, too, that Robert had gotten. She hadn't thought anything about it, just some stupid prank, but...

What she did know was that this whole conversation -- if it could be called that -- was freaking her out. "I... I don't..." Actually, she couldn't say anything. She needed to get away from him, and his yelling, and think or... or something, but she didn't want to be there anymore. Not at all.

So she did the only thing she could think of. She turned around, and she ran away from Erik. She needed to be away from this person she didn't even know. She needed space to breathe. And to think.