brace yourself

16 /  which does your character idealize most: happiness or success?

You’d think that someone like Raielyn would idealise success more than happiness, but that’s not true at all. She’s never really felt happiness before. Success is something she’s spent her whole life around. Her parents are successful, her siblings are successful, her extended family has successful people. But Raielyn wants happiness. She doesn’t want success in the ways her family’s found success. 

40 / how does your character treat people in service jobs?

Things were still tense between the two of them since Dorcas had shouted at her in the Great Hall. But Dorcas did what she did best, ignore everything that was going wrong around her. She buttoned up the white jacket, looking at herself in the mirror and smiling at her reflection before looking at Rai. ‘’Yep.’’ She popped her P loudly, taking her wand from the vanity desk and shoving it in her back pocket. 

‘‘Come on.’‘ Doe held the door open for her, closing it behind them. The sun was starting to set by the time they got to the lake, a silence hanging between them. Doe sat down, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her head on her knees. ‘‘You okay?’‘

          When Doe asked her to go to their spot, she assumed the blonde would apologize. That hadn’t happened yet and Rai was beginning to think it never would. She was going to remain tense and slightly bitchy until Doe said something because she’d gotten yelled in the middle of the Great Hall in front of a bunch of people about something she couldn’t control. “Great,” she muttered and stood up to follow Dorcas.

          “Do I seem okay to you?” Raielyn laughed haughtily. Of course she wasn’t okay. She was pissed, she was tired, she was tired of being pissed. Raielyn wanted to get rid of her family for good. 

Ted hadn’t heard the first time. He didn’t think he was particularly in the way, playing a game of chess by himself on the floor on the side of the hallway, but maybe he was in front of a door or something? “Oh, s-sorry,” he said, packing up his game as quickly as possible to try and get out of her way.

          She felt bad for snapping. Usually she didn’t feel bad for snapping at people. There were several people in the castle that she shouldn’t snap at. Of course, snapping without thinking was the exact thing she did. “Why are you playing chess in the hall anyway? Those pieces are tripping hazards.” Luckily, she’d snapped otherwise Raielyn might have given him detention.

“Maybe-” A cursory glance of her surroundings proved useless. “I know there was a book here earlier, but some boy came by and picked it up, I figured it was his. What class was it for? Hopefully you didn’t chase them too far, one of them might have your book.”

          “You didn’t ask who the book belonged to? It had my name on the inside cover.” Raielyn wouldn’t have bothered to do that with anyone, but expected that people would do that to her possessions. “Nevermind. I suppose I’ll just have to order a new one if a boy has touched it.” 

Being alone was not something Orion enjoyed, but after having an eventful last few days he really didn’t want to be around anyone. The boy sat and stared at the book, not really taking in the words when Raielyn made herself comfortable. The Claw closed his book before meeting her gaze. “I recently found out, I asked Doe if it was real and she seemed bothered by it. Emlyn really needs to stop with these sort of ‘surprises.’ Why? When did you find out?” He asked, hoping she didn’t just now get informed of the wedding. 

          “I think I’m going to scream. I feel like walking into the Forbidden Forest and screaming. I think everything in there is more afraid of me anyway.” Rai really didn’t know what she’d have done if she heard that Orion knew about her sister’s engagement, but she wouldn’t have been happy. Of course Doe was bothered by it. They both were bothered by it. Especially considering that the two of them had history. “I found out when Doe cornered me and screamed at me. Emlyn didn’t even bother to tell me about it.” That didn’t surprise her, considering the two of them were so far apart in age.

Annalise couldn’t stop the groan that left her lips as soon as she felt Rai’s presence beside her. If she didn’t love astronomy so much she probably would have left the club to avoid seeing her ex, but instead she had just tried to ignore her ever since their breakup. “You think I enjoy this anymore than you?” After all, it was Anna that had been heartbroken after the breakup. 

          “At least I’m not the one being a bitch right now,” she scoffed, nevermind that she was the one that said the first rude comment. In another universe maybe she and Annalise would have been a better match. But they weren’t. She didn’t want to leave because she didn’t want to give Annalise the satisfaction that would come with it. 

Pandora was finding it difficult watching Raielyn struggle with the younger students. The Slytherin may not be her favorite person, but the yelling and frustration was weighing on her. She pulled out her wand and took careful aim at the second years. “Immobulus!” They both froze in place and Pandora tucked her wand back into her robes. It was the only harmless spell she could think of in the moment. She couldn’t bear the thought of actually hurting anyone. “They should listen now. I trust you know how to reverse the spell.”

          Sometimes having to deal with the younger students was exhausting. Raielyn would rather they just behave then she wouldn’t have to give them detention. She hated that they weren’t allowed to use spells on them to get them to listen. Raielyn gave death glares at the students and then reversed the spell. “Unfortunately, now I don’t think I can give them detentions as using spells on other students really is frowned upon. Even if the intentions were noble. Imagine if people just went around using that on you all the time when they didn’t know how to reverse it and you couldn’t get to your wand?” She wasn’t in the mood to give detentions or take away house points.

“Are you telling me that in the hopes I’ll discourage you? Because it will be the opposite.” Celeste said with a hint of amusement. “You’d be a lot less approachable if you did start hexing those that annoy you. And, honestly, it would be very entertaining to watch.”

          “That absolutely is not something I’m looking for,” she responded with a little laugh. Raielyn didn’t need an excuse to yell at someone. She practically wanted to yell at everyone. “Unfortunately, I think the professors would frown upon me hexing students and being unapproachable. There’s apparently something about being a prefect that means I have to be nice.” But Rai wasn’t very nice. 

‘‘I’m not speaking to him.’‘ Doe shrugged stubbornly. ‘‘Why should I write him first when he didn’t even bother speaking to me about his plans to marry her. No offense to your sister.’‘ The blonde looked at herself in the mirror, her nose wrinkling and taking off the jumper she had just put on, tossing it on the pile of other cardigans and jumpers she had tried on and decided not to wear. Doe looked at Raielyn, slipping her arms in a white jacket that she finally settled on. ‘’Okay, I’m ready, we can go.’’ @raiscamander​

          It was bad that Annalise had to be in Astronomy club with her. Rai usually avoided going when the Hufflepuff was going to be there, but some days that didn’t work out as well as planned. “Merlin, I already don’t want to be here and now I have to share space with you?” she snapped as she found the only free space was beside Annalise.

          “Hey!” Raielyn said as she saw Peter. “What are you lurking down here for? The dungeons are no where near Gryffindor tower. Go on. Get out of here.” 

          “Did you not hear me the first time? I said get out of my way.” The Slytherin usually would have watched her tone when talking to people. Lately, however, she just really didn’t give a damn about what other people said or thought. So instead she tried not to feel bad about snapping.

          "I think I might have left my textbook here,” Raielyn said, as she walked up to Andromeda. “Did you happen to see it? Some of the younger students were being loud and I had to chase them off.” 

          “The next person that asks me what I know about magical creatures is going to get hexed. That’s the fourth time today,” Raielyn complained. “I thought I was unapproachable, but apparently people are just too stupid or have a death wish.” 

          It seemed like everyone was happy about Kenny being back, but Raielyn was still a mess. Not because of the whole Kenny thing. Halloween night had been a shocker to her, and a reminder that something dangerous was still out there. This week seemed like she was handing out more detentions than usual. “Please quit running in the halls,” she called after a pair of second years. “Quit running in the halls!” Raielyn yelled again when they didn’t stop. “Merlin. No one is listening to me.” 

          The last few weeks really had not been great for Raielyn and now that she thought about it, she was struggling. “Cousin,” the Slytherin said, sitting down in front of Orion. She didn’t care if he was busy or not. “Did you hear about my sister? Or was everyone supposed to be blindsided by her engagement?” 

“How long do these bats live for? If I caught one, could I keep it as a pet?”

          “The real question is why would you want to?” She didn’t think keeping a pet bat was a good idea. “Aren’t there some bats that drink blood?”