Unnatural Selection (OPEN)

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((If you are not familiar with Edolie's story, you might want to look at my character profile and in depth profile so that you know what is going on. The character profile should explain well enough...))

Edolie's second day back at Hogwarts was drawing to a close. The sky was splashed with bright pinks, oranges and reds in the west as the sun began to set. The far too familiar feeling of strength gaining as night took the place of day began to weigh on her. A dry and warm breeze still gently blew across the Black Lake causing small ripples over the surface of the water. A distortion in the effect a few yards from Edolie caused her to think that she had spotted a tentacle of the squid that had lived there so long ago. She wondered if giant squid lived that long and wondered why she did not know. "I'll have to find out..." she muttered to herself and she drew nearer to the edge of the water.

When the toes of her shoes were at the edge of the lake, Edolie looked down into her some what distorted reflection in the water and wished that vampires really didn't have a reflection. Even though she did still have a reflection, Edolie rarely looked at herself. Somehow, even after all this time, she still saw herself as the innocent seven-teen year old she was before she was changed, except when she looked at her reflection. Oddly enough, Aurora was right when she said that becoming a vampire had made her more beautiful. This fact made her reflection even more disturbing to her than it had been before. Beauty was something Edolie didn't much value when she was mortal and valued even less so now that she was immortal. It seemed such a pointless attribute to value, but then again the way someone looks to another person does have a lot to do with attraction. She thought of the way Jake had looked before and after his collision with Malachai Constant and changed her mind. Edolie loved him just as much after he was disfigured by the vampire. He was a caring and beautiful soul. The only thing about him that had bothered her was his jealousy, but that was a flaw that most had and it was quite flattering.

An old wound seemed to open up again in her clavicle at the thought of Jake. He had been her first love. Her only love for she had loved no other though there had been over five hundred years since his death. Edolie quickly looked away from her own reflection and back at the sky. The colours had darkened dramatically without her noticing until then. Even as the living dead, Edolie did not know what came next, but she knew that something must if ghosts could exist.

Slowly, she reached into her pocket and her cold finger-tips met the cold, broken stone that she had found in the Forbidden Forest. A figure appeared in the corner of her right eye. She turned to the man who had appeared next to her and stared longingly. He smiled sadly back at her as if she did not understand something very important that he did. "I know...it isn't right," she whispered and then, after looking at him for a moment longer, Edolie removed her hand from the pocket of her robe. As she did so, Jake Alexander vanished, but she sensed another near by. Edolie took a deep breath and turned back toward the lake, trying to shake off the deep feeling of sadness that had overcome her so as to not attract any more attention than she already would standing at the lake alone.

Edolie looked at him for a moment, afraid that he wouldn't react so well to the answer to his question. "A vampire of sorts...only I don't feed on blood. I extract energy simply through instead. I can take it from anything that creates and uses energy."

She looked off at nothing in particular and thought back to the day she was turned. It didn't really make much sense. "I was killed by one vampire and turned by another," she said. "I drank blood only the one time when it was given to me to change me. Didn't even have a choice. I don't know if something went wrong that made me...different from them...or if all vampires can take energy instead of blood but choose not to. I haven't yet run into one like myself, but there must be more out there. Odds just don't allow me to be the only one."

Keir stared at Edolie, trying not to reveal any reaction that would upset her again. Of course he knew of vampires, he'd read stories about them, watched muggle made movies about them but he'd never really thought he'd ever actually meet one. The chances of that had always seemed so completely remote... impossible to be honest. There was a catch with her though - as she was saying. She didn't feed on blood, only energy. "So, an ... energy vampire? That doesn't sound too bad."

It was better, in his mind, than feeding off blood, that was something he'd always found really disgusting. He quieted and listened to the rest of her story, the more she talked the more he realized how vast this story could be. She'd left quite a bit out and looked like she wasn't in the mood to really share all the details of what led to her being killed by one vamp and turned by another. He remembered she said there were others in the school and wondered if it was one of them who'd turned her... and if it was one of them that tried to kill her, perhaps it had been Roslin.

The way she described him... Keir stopped his mind from wandering too much and threw caution to the wind. Edolie looked so broken where she stood, the wind brushing against her hair and the sadness in her voice... it all made him react. He moved up close to her and put his arms around her, there was no ill intention, he just felt like holding her, like that was what she needed. "I can understand why you seem so sad now."

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So, an ... energy vampire? That doesn't sound too bad.

Edolie smiled at the name he had given it. She had never really given it a name. The sudden feel of his warm body against her own cold flesh wiped away her smile and forced a small gasp from Edolie. She hadn't been expecting it and hadn't felt the sensation as a vampire in a very long time. It was odd and comforting and terrifying all at once, however, she found it surprisingly easy to let go of the fear. Ed closed her eyes and let her body relax. The feel of his body and his energy were almost over whelming, but she had to fight her body's natural impulse to absorb the energy presented to it. She let her head fall against him and deeply breathed in his scent. The small smile returned to her face and she didn't want the moment to end.

It was a comfort when Edolie relaxed in his grip, for a moment he was afraid she would push him away and he felt that perhaps she was a little too careful to ever really get close to anyone anymore, but he couldn't know for sure, it was just an assumption he'd made from her initial reaction. He would've gone all night just holding her but he was suddenly very aware of the moon, it was very high up in the sky and he tilted his head up to look at it. Almost full. It held no tangible significance but everything seemed heavier on nights of the full moon. "Is it just me or does this hug not feel that bad?" He couldn't help thinking again that she would have felt no remorse in erasing his memory, they would've lost this blooming friendship instantly and he felt sad for her again, that she would go to such lengths to not lose anyone again.

((I corrected something in the post that I had made before this, but it wouldn't have changed anything in your post. Just needed it to fit Ed's story. I left out a part of a sentence.))

Edolie chuckled low and soft. The noise and the action felt strange to her. It had been a very long time since anything like that had come from her. She smiled again, enjoying the many feelings and experiences that Keir had managed to make her feel and experience again. "It does feel quite nice," she said, wishing that it could go on forever, but she knew far too well that all good things must come to an end so she prepared herself for that.

Ed looked up at him and found herself wondering out loud, "How is it that someone so compassionate and kind could have come from such a wicked world?"

Keir was only beginning to understand Edolie's sadness - most of it was from losing a lover, some of it was the loss of her brother, maybe even the loss of humanity caused her pain, but it was also the state of things. He couldn't imagine their world as it had been all those hundreds of years ago and though there were tough times now he'd never seen teh world as wicked. For all the bad things there was good also, the world had a certain charm and beauty to it and that rang true for most people too. He wasn't sure how to answer the question or if she even wanted him to answer and so he just voiced the first thing that came into his mind. "The world is a complicated place, filled with danger and beauty all at the same time."

Edolie lay her head against him again and sighed, "You're right. It is." It was a bittersweet thing to think about. Even in the animal kingdom, with which she had always identified with more so, there was danger and beauty at every turn. However, she understood that when it came to nature more than she could when it came to people. Perhaps it was because she had thought that all beings with their sort of minds were meant to be caretakers more than anything else. She gazed at the mass of darkness that was the forest and thought of the centaurs. They had the right idea.

Keir released her, running his hand along her arm and pausing before he let her hand go completely. He looked at her face and saw her melancholy again. It would always be there, he knew that kind of sadness, it never went away, not really. You could find happiness after, but there would always be moments when you would feel that grief. "There is goodness in the world, true goodness." He believed his own words fully, he could see that goodness in her and even in others at the school.

Edolie nodded in an almost distracted manor, "Yes, there is. It would just be nice if there were more of it." She looked back down at her reflection in the dark water and then crouched down so that she could disturb the surface with her finger tips. It was still difficult for her to actually see what she had become.

Keir stared down at Edolie’s reflection until she disturbed the water; the ripples caused by her fingertips made her reflection shudder and dissolve in waves while all the while keeping it solid. He wanted her to smile again and so he closed his eyes and pushed against her sadness, feeling it slip away from her. He opened his eyes and smiled down at her. In doing that he also wanted to show her that he could make her see the goodness more clearly, he could take away the darkness she felt – he realized he wanted her around him, not merely for the fact that he could help her but because he felt some connection with her, different from just the general feelings, something that could swallow him whole.

Edolie felt her sadness vanish again and looked up at Keir. The sight of him smiling made her smile in turn. A warmth that she hadn't felt in a long time filled her. She slowly stood, but didn't know what to say. Before long she found herself playing with her hair in a very human way. Edolie put her hands down and clasped them behind her back. "Thank you," she finally whispered.

Keir smiled warmly at Edolie and nodded. "It's no problem at all." He felt strangely tired suddenly, but at the same time wired up, tense - everything around them seemed disjointed and alien to him, he couldn't really tell why though - it was as if his mind had disconnected from everything he'd known and now everything was strange. "Uhm, I think... I need to go." His tone was unsure, his mouth felt too dry and he was dizzy suddenly. "So, we'll meet up tomorrow, right?" His voice was strained and sounded hoarse to him, but he felt like that was just his imagination, like everything else.

Edolie's brows knit in concern, "Yes...tomorrow...are you okay?" She wasn't sure how to react. He had been so open a moment ago and then suddenly seemed so closed off. The sudden change made Edolie feel as if she were young again. She felt extremely unsure of herself and the situation. "Are you sick?"

Keir tried to swallow but his throat felt dry and he inhaled deeply before looking back at Edolie. "Yeah, I think I just need to lay down." The shadows seemed to shimmer around them like the water of the lake but more vivid and aggressive.

((Sorry, that's all I have.))

"Do you want me to get you to the common room then?" Edolie said as she drew nearer to him. She could feel his warmth from where she was standing and was sure that he hadn't been that warm a little bit ago. Worry filled her at the thought of him running a fever. She placed her hand on his arm. "You are far too warm...perhaps you should go to the Hospital Wing instead..." she said with worry in her voice.

((It was still good!))

Keir was frowning deeply now, most of his face contorted by it - he'd smelt something but it had vanished as soon as it had appeared. It was a strong smell, sweet and burning. A shiver passed through him and his eyes widened. "No... no, just the common room." He stared down at her hand, it was so cold that it felt like it was burning his skin but it wasn't burning, it was just cold. His skin seemed to absorb the cold and then move it away from that spot, leaving his skin as hot as the moment she'd touched him. "I'm sure I'll be fine." His voice lowered to a whisper as he spoke until the last word which was hardly audible and he cleared his throat before looking up at her. He felt calmer, more settled in a way and he smiled a small smile through the frown. "It's probably just ... nothing."

Edolie smiled encouragingly, but was deeply worried. "I hope that's the case," she said as she removed her hand from his arm. "Let me get you to the common room then. No one will bother you if I go along." Edolie pulled her robe closely around her as if to stave off the cold. She looked at the castle for a long moment and then back at Keir. "Shall we?"

Keir fought a wave of dizziness when Edolie released his arm and moved past him. The castle was lit up, or so it seemed, the lights were too bright. He squinted and then looked away, not letting his eyes move over the lights again. "Thanks." He stepped forward and walked to the castle, taking his time. His equilibrium appeared non-existent, the world was tilting with every step and yet he managed to stay upright and walk without swaying.

Edolie walked along side Keir slowly. Something seemed off, but by all appearances, he looked to be getting along well enough. She hoped that she wouldn't end up having to take him to the Hospital Wing. How she would explain why he was out with her in the first place was beyond her, but she would take him if she felt she needed to. Ed knew where the Gryffindor Common Room was located, but did not know the password. She wouldn't be able to get him in if he were to faint or something unless someone happened to go in or out of the common room and she certainly wouldn't just leave him somewhere.

Keir quietly opened the door to the castle and entered, basking in the silence. Everyone seemed to have retired already. He caught movement in the corner of his eye and turned to watch a ghost float eerily through the nearest wall while shooting them a bored look. He'd seen that ghost before, she always floated away when students approached. He turned back to Edolie and smiled shakily. "I feel better already." He wasn't sure how much better he felt but something seemed more stable. When he looked up at the stairs though, he groaned. Why'd Gryffindor tower have to be all the way up? "This is the first time I really realize how far up the Gryffindor common room is."

Edolie smiled encouragingly and said, "I'll go with you and if you need me to, I can assist you." She moved forward a ways, hoping that he would feel a bit more capable and looked back at him from the bottom of the stairway. She tucked a piece of hair behind her hair and watched him in silence.

((Sorry, couldn't think of what to write.))

((That's ok... I'm a bit dry right now too...))

Keir grinned at Edolie again and wondered suddenly at the meaning of the word 'fate'. Their meeting seemed like something that was preordained and yet that thought held so much weight that he couldn't really wrap his mind around it. The thought itself was totally random but he knew it was the sight of her that had brought it on. He barely even knew her and yet he felt like he'd known her forever. He turned away and started up the stairs, keeping any kind of noise he might make locked behind his lips - for some reason he didn't want Edolie to think he was weak, it was almost as if the knowledge that she thought he was weak would change everything and he couldn't allow that to happen.

Edolie walked along with Keir and felt the weight of the silence. After a while, she couldn't take it any longer. "You know a lot about me and I know very little about you...So, where are you from? What's your family like?" she asked, hoping that asking questions wouldn't bother him.

Keir glanced at Edolie, showing a small smile. Her questions were kind of random in lieu of what was happening, but he was glad she'd asked. Taking his mind off what he was feeling was a good idea and so he responded. "Scotland... from a small kind of village type place. Not many people visit there and we're all rather glad of it taking into consideration the fact we've become somewhat hunted." He remembered his last day with his family fondly and then the ride to the school... "My family's rather well-rounded." He realized for the first time how much he missed Madeleinne, his younger sister. She'd been taken to a different school, most likely his parents thought that it would be safer that way. "My sister... well, I miss her a whole hell of a lot. She was sent off to some other school, I'm hoping to see her in the holidays."

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Scotland... from a small kind of village type place. Not many people visit there and we're all rather glad of it taking into consideration the fact we've become somewhat hunted. My family's rather well-rounded. My sister... well, I miss her a whole hell of a lot. She was sent off to some other school, I'm hoping to see her in the holidays.

Edolie frowned at the mention of being hunted. She knew what it was like and had been hunted for more than one reason. It was unfortunate and very disapointing that society had backtracked so much. Most societies were fear driven and Muggles had had a lot to fear what with there no longer being Wizarding law in most places and most young witches and wizards not being taught how to properly use magic. She had feared that evolution would eventually stomp out magic in favor of survival, but the school was sure to prevent that.

"What sort of school was she sent to?" Edolie asked, a bit surprised that she would be sent somewhere else. She knew that there were small wizarding schools here and there, but none that taught any more than the basics.

The lights of the castle brightened as they neared it's doors and Keir sighed. "All I know is that she was sent to one of the smaller schools. There's less magic there than here from what I've heard so it's almost like a non-magic school." He remembered his sister's bright eyes and her smile and smiled too. "She was so excited to be going, even though my parents chose to send me to the larger school, she just wanted to be with people like us." He looked at Edolie again and grinned almost sheepishly, he was dishing out information at a rapid rate and he suddenly felt like he was taking up all the conversation space. "What happened to your parents?"

The sudden mention of Edolie's own parents somehow wasn't expected. She hadn't spoken of them in, literally, hundreds of years. "It is believed that my father was killed by an orphaned Manticore. He cared for orphaned and injured magical beasts. Last I had heard from him, he had been preparing to release the maticore.

Not long before his death he had sent me a letter saying that it was getting very wild and seemed able. The next letter that I received was from a neighbor, saying that my father had been found dead. The manticore enclosure was empty, so they believe that it got lose and killed him," she finished with a sigh and went on.

"My mother died of old age. I hadn't spoken to her since my father's funeral until the day before she died. We were never close. She found caring for other people's children more important than caring for her own, specifically Muggle children. She was very shocked to find that I looked exactly the same after all that time. I told her what I had become," a strange smile crossed Edolie's face for a split second. A part of her had enjoyed her mother's reaction. "My father never knew."

The subject of her dead parents took her mind back to the cracked stone that sit in her pocket. She fingered it, but did not turn it over three times.

((After reading the 7th book again, I realized that i hadn't been having her turn it over three times like in the book. I'll have her do it from now on though.))

Keir stared straight ahead and listened to Edolie's story, when it looked like she was finished he glanced at her. She didn't seem overly upset, he hadn't really contemplated the answer when he'd asked her the question - it wasn't easy remembering that Edolie wasn't really 17. "What was that?" He continued walking but kept his focus on her face, on her lips. "What was that smile?"

Edolie hadn't really realized that she had done it, but knew what he must have meant. "My mother's reaction to finding out what I have become...it was very..." she took several moments to think about the right word to use. "Satisfying," she said decisively. "She was not a kind woman. Very judgmental. She was a Muggle and was very rebellious when she met my father. Later on she was converted to Christianity and tried to force us to not do magic. As you know, it doesn't work that way. She gave up, told us that we were all going to hell and left. After that, my brother and I saw her every few years up until my father's funeral. Well, Roslin didn't go to it because it was after our falling out. I'm not sure that he ever knew what happened to our parents. Anyway, she stood up and announced to everyone that my father was in hell and they would all end up there unless they changed their heathen ways. It was horrible, hurtful, and humiliating."

Though Edolie had long since forgiven the woman, she wasn't about to make excuses for her or try to make her seem better than she had ever seemed to Edolie. Her mother was who she was. Death didn't change that in Edolie's eyes.

Keir frowned, still looking at Edolie. Her mother sounded utterly dreadful and Edolie’s earlier description, ’not a kind woman’, seemed entirely too gracious. “I find it difficult to remember that you’ve been around for much longer than you appear to have been.” He smiled at her and shook his head. “Your mother definitely sounds like she was … charming.” He cleared his throat and blinked, raising his eyebrows for a second before relaxing his eyes. “That explains that evil little smile I saw 100%.” He grinned at her, any normal person would be pleased but stuff that shocks someone who holds themselves in higher regard than others.” He paused and looked straight ahead, still retaining the grin. “Not that I was complaining about the sexy dark little smirk.”

((Darnit… I’ve been reading too many old romance novels… I can’t think of anything less innocent than that.))