The Ending or Just the Beginning (open)

It was the evening after the Yule Ball, where the walls radiated still with the excitement of the prior evening. Still the girls flocked in groups giggling as the spot their dance partner across the hall, and look of disappointment on few boys' faces, hoping to go farther than a goodnight kiss. Even Veronica was still wrapped up in that little world. She found herself among the bookshelves in the North Wing humming the merrily tunes, spinning when it took her fancy. Strings of curls bobbed like springs up and down, moving to their own beat. She was light and she was airy. she floated across her dance floor. She was a cloud that could not be pinned down. She could not help herself as she clutched a vinyl book cover close to her chest, as if s/he was her dance partner.

They moved. She giggled. They continued.

Claudia saw a girl with red hair who seemed to be dancing with a book. She seemed to be in her own little world. She couldn't help but giggle at it. She wished she would be as carefree as her and not have to worry about much but she knew she couldn't. She always had to focus on her schoolwork it was what her parents wanted. As she watched the girl she seemed to be enjoying her Dance it was so innocent looking and so peaceful. She was afraid that if she we're to interrupt it would ruin everything.

After his tense encounter with Eleanie, the North Wing had become one of Jett's favorite spots in the castle. It was not often the dusty bookcases and plush armchairs were disturbed by any other being besides himself and the stray ghosts that wandered its halls. It was his destination tonight as he strode purposefully through the slowly emptying halls and stair ways.

The ball last night had been fantastic, full of wonder and all things beautiful. His time with Ella had left him feeling as if millions of tiny sparks had bombarded his skin, flickered, and went out to leave a tingling burn behind. It was pleasant and Jett could scarcely stop thinking about it but as the day went on he realized how much of a set back the night of romance had been. He had much work that needed to get done if he was going to stay ahead of his studies, both for classes and his own knowledge.

With books and quills in hand Jett turned the last corner to his usually private study spot and nearly walked right into Claudia. She was standing watching another girl, one who looked somewhat familiar, dancing through the hall with a book clutched to her chest.

“Good evening Claudia,” he whispered down to his friend. “It is a surprise to see you here.” In fact it was a surprise to see anyone here, and one that Jett found a little bothersome. He was not one to show his annoyance to two lovely girls, however, and instead thought to introduce himself to the spinning girl.

Leaving Claudia standing there, Jett took a few confident steps towards the other girl. When he reached her he held out his arm and gave her his most dashing smile. “Would you care for a partner?”

Claudia was surprised to see Jett. "Good evening to you too." She watched as he walked over to the dancing girl.  She let out a little laugh. She enjoyed observing people in what they did and it was way better than doing her schoolwork.

Veronica had sparks of Heaven in her eyes, but she moved like the liquid fire down under. Her satin uniform caught the light every chance it got, mimicking the fallen star dancing in the Goblet. The fire sizzled out, the dancing cease to exist as the student from Hogwarts interrupted her. The spark of Heaven remain, and her her soft smile was reminiscent of a warm spring day.

It took Veronica a long few moments to register what the boy said, and even longer for her to coax herself into answering. "That would be lovely," she said.

Watching closely as the girl before him continued to twirl and glint in the torchlight Jett became entranced. The way she moved was like nothing he had seen before. She looked almost like the air currants that lifted and blew and leaves through the forest, delicate but strong and somehow reminiscent of the warm weather that lay months ahead.

When she stopped in front of him and considered his offer he waited with baited breath. The answer he no doubt expected was of course yes, for Jett could count on one hand the number of times he had been refused, yet still he worried a short no would leave her lips.

He was awarded with his answer of choice, however, as she accepted. With another short step forward Jett took hold of the girls hand and raised it lightly to his lips before grasping it and placing his other at her waist. They began to glide across the stone floor in the glow of the fires on the wall and the starlight creeping in. As he lead her around in his strong arms he looked down into her eyes and smiled reassuringly. “I would lead you to the stars and dance among them if I could. You would look so lovely silhouetted by their brilliance.”

She relinquished her dear book from her clutches, and gave them over to the Hogwart Student that would sweep her off her feet. His touch was gentle but firm, and she needed no coaxing to follow his lead as they wisp around the empty aisles and the lone tables. His words tantalizing for others did not make Veronica swoon. Her heart did not flutter with the beat of a thousand butterflies, or stop still as if time could not move a second further or backwards. His words were the forgotten dreams and the sea of lost memories: meaningless, empty and hollow. "Shed your armor young knight, and let me dance among the surface of your soul."

Veronica never was this candid to anyone before. She hardly spoken more than a few words to anyone she did not know personally since she got here, and even then it was a simple as the sun greeting a flower. For this moment and this moment alone, the veil between her world and reality was lifted, and she was able to pass freely to any one she desired.

“I would gladly set my armor aside for you and lay myself bare to your scrutiny but take note my words come from within and are not powered by anything that shields my person; they not so easily removed. I wonder...are you the same? If I were to remove your shields, would you continue to blaze as you do, or would you shimmer and fade? I think not...” Jett let her hand fall from his grasp and moved his to tuck one of her stray hairs behind her ear.

Their exchange was fascinating, a true gem that Jett had not expected to find when he climbed the stairs to the North Wing. His studies again lay forgotten as he was swept away by the beauty and intrigue of the moment. The girl he held close to him was a mystery that begged to be solved. Her words hit his ears and rebounded through his mind unlike many others. She was not falling over herself in order to please him or staring into his eyes as if they were far off suns and he found that a mixture of wondrous and unsettling all at once. He simply had to keep her in his grasp until he unearthed the meanings behind the way she spoke to him.

“Fading is just the passing of time. Does not the Phoenix fade and is reborn a new? Does not coal fade to bring forth diamonds? I too will fade into the depths of your memory, and be replace, reborn and bring forth a new person that takes your fancy.”

His glossy eyes reflected her storm grey eyes. His words were just a reflection of his interest in her, a puzzle that needed to be solved, a riddle that needed an answer. It did not radiate with its own beauty, but as a guise of another. Did that make her the sun, or the glass lake under the scrutiny of the moon: a reflection of a reflection?

“Oh but you are a diamond, a thousand diamonds as bright as the moonlight that now is shining on you. As for being replaced I do not foresee it. I do not forget the extraordinary. When my hands release you and you walk away you'll be burned into my memory like the sudden flash of light upon waking. I will always see you and know the woman who speaks to me in riddles and whose words draw me out into unknown waters.”

Something in the way the moonlight now caressed the girls hair and the way she felt weightless in his arms whispered to Jett that he had met his match. There was no aura emanating from her that hinting of any veela blood as he had, but her actions and words reminded him of the way his mother would speak and move.  A fluid grace and angelic voice washed over him and Jett felt like he had stepped through a veil and was now seeing how others saw him. They both radiated confidence and a self assurance that when melded together threw sparks into the air. Who could concede first was a mystery as their words were both coated in silver to protect themselves. Jett let his green eyes sparkle as his smile rested deeper on his face. He would not let himself be the one to surrender tonight.

“What name, perhaps, suits an earthly goddess such as yourself?”

"Yes, I am a diamond. Uncut and flawed, chipped but still refracting the hues of the rainbow, but a thousand diamonds, I can not be." Just like her partner release one of his hands to fix a loose strand of her hair, so did Veronica. She unclasp her hand to his, and placed it gently on his cheek. Her touch was soft, but her eyes reflected pity, as she looked back into his. "In your radiant eyes, I am just one compared to a thousand others. I shine with a single light lost in a sea of stars eclipse by your sun. You still  might look upon my face with fondness, but I, a distant star,  have burnt out and faded, and all you see is the remembrance of your past." Her hand slowly slipped away from his supple skin, still the look of dreamy pity on her face. They weren't dancing anymore. All she did was stare at him, before turning to leave.

(You can chase after if you want or leave her be. It is all up to you. I am still up for rping.)

Her words echoed in his mind, rippling in the pools of his memory and setting them into motion. She may be right, as loath as he was to admit it. There had been many others before her, some whose faces and names eluded him in the shadows of his past. Jett knew he was easily snared by beauty and moved by flashy words; it was an inevitable trait inherited by his mother, one he did not often acknowledge nor care to delve into. The consequences, though, were plain to see. Someone, anyone, possessing that certain spark that Jett was so drawn to would wander by and he would trap them. His charm would exude from him and infect the object of his desire until they were within his grasp. It would all be lovely and perfection for a while, Jett showering the lucky person with everything he could muster until one day it simply stopped. That gleam of inspiration within them would disperse and he would untether them from himself, letting them fade away from his mind and his heart, only to be thought of again in passing or never at all.

It wasn't the most glamorous or noble of actions or traits that Jett possessed, but it was what it was. The words that the girl now walking away from him had spoken as her hand rested so gently on his cheek seemed to cut through the fog that he had so carefully placed over his previous actions. He did she her as shadows of the former recipients of his affection and he wondered, painfully, how many others he saw this way. Was there ever to be someone who shone on their own, blinding him from his own light?

Jett took a step after the retreating girl, now wanting her to stay if only so he could prove her wrong, correct though she may be. “Wait,” he called out after her, his voice clear in the quiet corridor. “The way you speak, veiled in such pretty, constructed themes...I'm not the only one shining alone.”

Veronica was almost swallowed up in the thicket of bookshelves, lost for eternity in the untamable woven in between the pages of each book, but once again, the Hogwart's student draw her attention, stopping her dead in her tracks. Just beyond the bookshelf, half her body was cloaked, distorted, disfigured by the no mans land of book set between them. She did not move. She did not speak. She just listen to the young man's words. The slicing of his words rattled her to the core. How she thought she was an open book laid bare for anyone to read, could be just a ruse that she concocted to hid her inner most insecurities.

Silence infuse the air as if a response would never come. But like a scared little child coaxed out of her hiding place, Veronica poked her head out and around the bookcase. "I have pierce your armour, young knight. Can you bravely walk through my looking glass in your heart of heart tell me what you see?" She clutch the bookcase as if she let go, she would plummet into the unknown.

“I see a girl who is beautiful, despite what she is hiding. I must confess, I cannot tell. But I would give the world to know,” Jett stepped closer to her still form, parting the shadows that lined the bookcases. “I also see myself, reflected in your sparkling eyes. I look smaller there, and...” He again moved closer, now within reach. The darkness of this section of the corridor stood out starkly when viewed next to the flicking torchlight, giving off an intimate glow. Tilting his head down to her Jett continued, his voice now soft, “I've not seen myself in such a way before. Perhaps we are a mirror to each other, seeing what we cannot without the help of the other. Tell me now, what do you see?”

Jetts green eyes were fixed on hers, a stare growing in intensity as he waited for her response. Whatever was keeping her here he had to know; she was too rare a gem to let walk away with her mysteries unsolved.

She held fast to the bookcase with bated breath. As still as the night sky, she watched as he inched closer and closer until he was no more than an arms length away. His eyes, she was fixated on them as if she was cursed by them. She could not dare look away, even though she wanted nothing more than to melt into the bookcase and be free of his gaze. "I-I...see...you for what you are and what you could be." Her words were a dance all on its own, delicate and precise, graceful and honest. "I see what you are define as but also so much more. In my heart of heart you are you disguise as someone else."

Another first for her is her straight answer. She did not need to hide her words in idioms and rhymes.

The wash of her words gave Jett the impression she was speaking true for the first time this evening. Had he managed to strip away her barriers so quickly? He had been quite enjoying their game of back and forth; it was not often such a charming clever girl kept him on his toes. But Jett had her now, just like he could trap and enthrall anyone. She only had needed that extra nudge that staring into her eyes would give. That was always the end of it; once his eyes were locked with such fervor onto anothers they had no chance, no hope to look away from him. The green of his irises smoldered and flared as he spoke, never once darting away.

“And what is it that I could be, that I would disguise myself, as you say? If you see me...prove it.” A small upturn of his lips to form a smile and another step forward, ever closer to the girl cowering by the bookcase. He could now began to feel the warmth radiating off of her skin, the sharp intake of breath as he neared. Jett's thoughts were full of possibilities, of what she would do next. What effect would his words have on her this time, or hers on him?

Veronica breath quicken. She wanted to hinder his advances, but words were illusive like the fleeting wind in the midst of a hurricane. Still she held on to dear life onto the bookcase. It was her life raft, her buoy, preventing her from from vanishing into the depths of the abyss. Now, he was mere inches away. The twinkle in his eyes, as if in the midst of a supernova, never left. They were enthralling to look at; but just like a flame, it is memorizing to watch the hues of red, oranges and blues co-mingling, but never embrace the flame because you are certain to get burn.

She was the first to clip whatever tethered their eyes together as she skirted to the side and was once again among the forest of books. This time she did not try to scurry away, lost among the feverish pages of books dying to be read. Instead, her fingers waltz among the boarders of each book, slowly inching from one book to the next. "I can't...cannot prove, what you hide so well. But...but one thing is for certain, your gift is unwinding at the seams." Even though she gave her heart to someone else, she could still feel the subtle attraction to the Veela within.

It would take only a simple step forward, a slight movement of his hand to her cheek, and the girl before Jett would be his. He could feel it, her defenses starting to crumble under his gaze, the mixture of fear and desire swirling in her eyes right before she looked away. A familiar situation, a familiar rush of his Veela blood through his veins.

Jett had been raised a gentleman, though, and all signs pointed to this girl wanting to escape. She was inching away from him now, all the bold words and confidence she had exuded moments ago slipping away due to what Jett could only assume was his powerful presence. A little sigh escaped his lips as he concluded she was not what he was looking for. She was not full of the secrets he hoped she may have, but only wisps of words imbued with more meaning than she possessed. The spell had been broken the moment she looked away and turned to the books for comfort. Still, a lovely lady deserved his gentle words.

“If you cannot prove it I am afraid I cannot believe you. Let us start over, then? I'm very pleased to meet you, miss. I'm Jett Winters and I could be happy to escort you through the castle if you are in any hurry to return to your lodgings.”

She moved like tranquil water across both her dimension and this one, but like fish out of water, it was slowly killing her. She was out of her element for far too long, and the veil that lifted for her to experience such unrestricted freedom was now closing. Every book she scan took her farther and farther away from Jett. Even the farthest star from earth could not match the distance of him retaining her interest for much longer. It wasn't until she read the last book on the shelf, The Real Reason for the Fall of Rome, that she was lost to Jett, for at least the time being.

Once again she hummed a merrily tune from the previous night, returning to her book that was never forgotten. She went about her business as if Jett never walked the earth, let alone stand before her, confessing his desire to unravel her in more ways than one. The only time she remotely recognize someone was her sugary sweet smile to Claudia before she skipped away out of the North Wing.