Starlight: OPEN

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Chloe walked swiftly and silently through the corridors, hardly able to withstand her excitement of returning to her favourite place. As she reached the front hall, she gently pushed the front doors open. As the large, wooden doors swung open to the darkness, Chloe inhaled deeply, loving the coolness of the air and the sweet taste of flowers nearby. She quickly shut the doors behind her and headed to her comfort... The Forbidden Forest. The forest had always been Chloe's favourite place for sanctuary and she could not wait to return to its lush trees. In a matter of seconds she was standing before it. She smiled at it's dark, menacing beauty and softly stepped in, letting it embrace her.
She wandered through the forest for a while, with no real urge to go in any sort of direction. She wanted to see it all again - retrace her old steps. Eventually she came upon a familiar path, made by hers truly, and crept along in a chilling silence. It was not long before she could see the opening and the very familiar log, laying all alone in the middle, that she had sat upon for hours in the past. Chloe stopped at the edge of the little open and sighed in delight. She was home. She glanced around the little spot and could not help but smile at old memories. Chloe then entered the little opening and sat on the old log. She inhaled deeply and then looked up... The stars were out and putting on quite the Welcome Home show for her. She could see millions of them, all twinkling brightly as if saying 'Hello' to their old friend.

Chloe's dark eyes followed Edolie as she rushed toward the lion and simply ran her hand along the beasts spine. Chloe's eyebrows raised slightly as she witnessed the animal settle into exhaustion. It appeared as though Edolie had taken its energy in some way. Her curiosity peaked, Chloe's eyes narrowed as she stared at Edolie, wondering what sort of powers she had gained when becoming a Vampire. While watching Edolie, Chloe's eyes had slowly returned to their emerald green as her anger simmered to annoyance only.

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“I’ll take care of him,”

Chloe waited as Edolie put out the fire she had created. Then she locked her eyes onto hers and took a step closer. "You're lucky I didn't," Chloe spoke menacingly. She held her gaze for a moment before turning to leave the clearing. She stopped just before entering the thick trees and looked back at Edolie and the lion. "Tell your boyfriend that he if ever crosses me again, there won't be a pre-show - It will just be the main act." Chloe then vanished as she put on a burst of speed before her annoyance returned to anger and she went back to finish off the lion.

The feel of Edolie's hand running along his spine, however brief, made Keir shiver - he understood now why house cats love that so much... It was different though, she wasn't loving him as you would a house cat. He felt his fury and resolve waning. It took seconds for him to go and down and a momentary panic threatened. She was in league with this girl who wanted to harm him! He watched in fear as Edolie approached Wilkinson and extinguished the line of flame he'd retreated from.

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"Ill take care of him."

Keir's heart leaped, it was a dismissal. Confusion set in right then as to why she'd weakened him if her intentions weren't to offer him to the girl. He could do nothing but watch in frustrated silence as Wilkinson left the clearing.

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You're lucky I didn't,

Edolie glared at Wilkinson and said, "You wouldn't have had the chance."

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Tell your boyfriend that he if ever crosses me again, there won't be a pre-show - It will just be the main act.

If Edolie were the type to roll her eyes, then that would have been something to roll them at. She wouldn't have given Wilkinson the chance to actually harm the boy. Once the vampire was gone, Edolie turned to the lion. He was a magnificent site. She knelt down beside him and was tempted to pet his very soft and fluffy looking mane, but she wasn't sure if it would offend him. "I think I can bring you out of this..." she whispered to him and placed a hand on his massive shoulder blade. Very slowly and with great care, Edolie began to take more of his energy into herself. As she did so, the lion began to change.

Watching the mane and fur begin to recede into the body and the limbs becoming smaller was a very odd sensation. The tail shrinking and vanishing into his body. When the change was done with, Edolie gasped and pulled away from the boy. "Keir?" All she could do was look at him for a long moment and then she realized that he was nude. Edolie extracted her wand and the resurrection stone pieces from the pockets and quickly placed them in a small pouch she usually wore around her neck. It wasn't until she had covered Keir with her robe that she realized that something had gone wrong. Her hand grasped the pouch with want to find the stone pieces to be sure, but she felt that wasn't the time for it.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

Keir focused on Edolie, she was walking over to him and he couldn't help feeling some degree of worry about what she would do to him next. He wasn't sure he'd be able to stomach fighting her the way he'd fought against the girl who'd left them. He followed her progress with his eyes only until it was a strain to look at her and then he stared at the trees ahead of him. A low rumbling sound built in his chest and rolled against his rib cage at the sound of her voice and he shuddered at her touch.

He felt himself weaken even more and his limbs started tingling as his skin changed again and the fur receded, it didn't take long for his transformation to human was complete, the leg that had been crushed ached and burned in the change and he cradled it to his stomach while trying to cover himself up. He'd never been naked in front of a girl before and it was a rather odd situation to be in for a first time reveal.

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"Keir?"

Keir looked up at her, twisting his torso to block her view of his body and shook his head, his eyebrows drew together and he felt his panic growing again as his face crumpled. Now that he was human the gravity of what had happened became clear, not to mention the strangeness of it all. Never in his life had anyone ever mentioned any kind of transformation to animal to him but if he could do it he was sure someone somewhere in his family should be able to do it too. "I don't know, I just don't know." He looked away from her to stare at his good hand and accepted the robe from Edolie without looking away from his hand. It was normal, it was human, but it hadn't been so for what felt like hours.

"What's happening to me?"

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I don't know, I just don't know. What's happening to me?

A look of shock crossed Edolie's face. She hadn't expected him to be so surprised by it all. "You didn't expect this?" she asked but was mostly thinking out loud. She shook her head and went on, "Apparently you are a shape-shifter...it's nothing to worry about. You will learn to control it over time. It's very similar to being an animagi...only your body just naturally starts to do it when the time is right. I suppose you should consider this the night you became...well, a man. From what I've seen it is the last stages in puberty for a shape-shifter. Their right of passage. I'm sorry that it had to happen with Wilkinson around."

Ed extracted her wand from the pouch she had just put it in and held out her hand for his. "Don't worry, I have had a lot of time to perfect my magic. I can heal you completely."

Keir looked up at her again, shifting his position to keep pressure off the bruises that tingled all along his body. It felt like they were already healing, in fact the ache in his arm wasn't as bad as it had been seconds ago. "A shape shifter?" He stared off and then looked at her again. "Nothing to worry about?" His face was anguished again, he was remembering what he'd almost done. His expression blanched and he looked around Edolie to the spot where the other girl had disappeared. "Didn't you see what I almost did? I could've killed her..." He stopped short, his sentences flowed into each other and he was strongly aware that it was panic talking, his head was telling him that the girl wasn't normal, just like Edolie wasn't normal, just like he wasn't normal but his heart still couldn't forgive his actions.

He flinched at the sight of her wand, his focus slipping back to her face instantly - he only blinked again when she'd finished stating her intentions. Looking down at his arm he lifted it and started twisting it and bending it. "It was broken, I know it was." He stared at his arm in amazement and then laughed. The laugh sounded so disjointed and maniacal that he sucked up a deep breath. That didn't help, he was laughing again, staring at his arm. "I wonder how long that's gunna last."

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A shape shifter? Nothing to worry about? Didn't you see what I almost did? I could've killed her...It was broken, I know it was. I wonder how long that's gunna last.

Edolie watched Keir go through the stages and then tucked her wand away. She hadn't realized just how quickly shape-shifters could heal. When he flinched at her having pulled out her wand, Edolie felt a bit hurt but figured that he had the right after she had pulled it on him before. "You could not have killed her," Edolie said softly. "She was one of the group that I was going to point out to you. You should know what I mean about them now that you've had experience with one of them."

After saying that, she had to admit to herself that she did feel a bit better about his safety now that she knew he could shape-shift. As it stood, they could still harm him, but he had a much better chance and would have even more so of one with some work. "I can try to help you control your shape-shifting so that you won't have to worry about that happening with someone else. The most important thing would be learning to keep your head while in your animal form. You can't let the animal take over," she said as she crouched beside him.

Keir looked up at Edolie again, he was feeling calmer again, the rational, calm way in which she was dealing with all this was making him look at it all in a more logical way. The fight details came back to him and he remembered tearing at the girl's hand and sinking his claws into her and her vast strength. It seemed fate had meant for them to meet - Edolie and Keir were two complimentary beings in relation to each other. He could alleviate the great sadness in her heart and she could keep his animal side in check. He couldn't help but smile at the thought and marvel at how well things tended to work out.

"Have you met very many shape-shifters?" He felt that if he didn't limit himself to one question at a time he might throw a whole list of them at her and he had so many questions that suddenly made him feel more excited about what had happened than freaked out.

The change in Keir made Edolie smile. Being calm made every situation easier to do deal with. She nodded, "A few over time. One helped me learn to better control my own powers." Edolie reached out, plucked a leaf from his hair, and rubbed it between her fingers in a thoughtful way. "The forest would be a great place for you to learn if it weren't for Ros and his gang. They likely spend a lot of time in here. Perhaps we could go to Hogsmeade...but I think they're planning on reviving that as well. Maybe we could use the Room of Requirement..." she mused. She looked back down at him as she thought and then interrupted her own thoughts, "You must be exhausted. We should get back to the castle. You'll need a lot of sleep after all that you've been through tonight."

It was very easy to forget that Edolie was hundreds of years old, of course she'd met shape shifters before. Now that he knew they existed it would be an impossibility to think that no one would ever see them, especially someone who's been around as long as Edolie has. "I'm sure they don't take up the whole forest, there must be more to it. If we could figure out where exactly they hung out we could go to the opposite side." He looked up at her and straightened himself a bit more when she looked at him. His body already felt stronger. "What's a Room of Requirement?" He could say that he was tired, but it wasn't like before. The fact that Ed had drained his energy wasn't really making a difference - he felt the effects still, but it wasn't like going days without sleep, which is what he would've thought it would feel like.

"The Room of Requirement..." she repeated more so to herself. It had been the place where she and Jake should have met, but hadn't thought to. She had hoped to spend time there with him before everything fell apart.

"It's a room on the seventh floor, if I remember correctly, that you pace in front of three times while thinking hard about what sort of room you need. A door appears and then there's the room that you had been thinking about. Everything you need is there," she said as she thought back. It was then that she really realized how wonderful it felt to be back at Hogwarts. It had always felt more like home than any other place, even her childhood home.

"As for the forest, I don't know that it's worth the risk..." she said as she gazed around at the trees lining the clearing. "Vampires have much stronger senses than humans. They would probably pick up on us that way if not from whispers. The forest is inhabited by other beings after all. I know for a fact that Centaurs live here. Them being involved with Roslin in anyway is unthinkable, but I have come to believe that there is some sort of magical community in there somewhere. It could be hidden with magic. I have caught glimpses of men, women, and children. They seem to follow me when I am here in the forest. I have not tried to find out where they live. It is not my place."

“Wow, that sounds really great, I wonder if it’ll be big enough, did you see how big...” Keir’s voice trailed off and then sounded again. “I was.” He was thinking about the strength and the size again, it seemed impossible that his human body could hold the lion, it was huge. He looked down at his body and felt a slight chill that had nothing to do with the weather – it was weird, now that he took notice, the night wasn’t exactly warm but he didn’t feel cold at all. “I think you’re right about the others and the Room of Requirement, we’d be better off not being anywhere near them... for now.” He didn’t want a repeat of what had happened with Wilkinson. If she was anything to go by then meeting her in a group of peers wouldn’t exactly be conducive to a prolonged life.

“A community? Hidden in the forest? Wouldn’t that be trespassing?”

"I'm pretty sure that it'll be as big as you need," Edolie said, "I'll show you where it is if I can remember."

"As for the community, if it is there, it was probably established after the fall and before the school was re-opened," she said thoughtfully, "The forest is home to many dangerous creatures and they manage to survive there every day. I doubt that anyone would be able to force them out even if they wanted to. Personally, I don't think that they have the right to try to force them out."

Keir grinned and his face lit up like that of a young boy who's about to do something mischievous. "If you don't remember we could always look for it together, you said it's on the seventh floor somewhere... I'm sure there's no that many places to hide something that could be pretty much anything you want."

He thought about the community and what it might be like to live in such a place. The forest seemed to dark to forge any kind of happy life inside it, but it was undoubtedly one of those things he just wouldn't be able to fathom, he was used to light and happiness. "I suppose you're right, no one can really chase them out of their home."

"Yes," Edolie said, "We can find it together. I haven't yet been in that area since returning to the school. It might just come back to me." She stood and gazed around, listening carefully to the forest. "Perhaps we should head back to the school..." she whispered.

((Sorry, couldn't think of anything else.))

Keir watched Edolie get up and followed her gaze around the clearing. He cocked his head to one side, listening to all the movements around them. The forest had settled after the ground shaking confrontation had passed. As he looked around he saw the deep gauges in the trunks of the trees around them and got up, walking over to the closest. He touched the holes, running his fingers along the scratch marks before looking at Edolie again. He held out his hand to her and grinned, perhaps this change in him wasn't really all that bad. He felt stronger, less lethargic. "Yeah, let's go."

The grin that Keir gave her made Edolie's heart leap. She smiled shyly back and took his offered hand. What had happened earlier at the lake had worried Edolie greatly, but now that she knew what had been the cause, her worries had vanished. Letting herself care for someone who was mortal and frail had fast become a terrifying thing for her. She had always seemed to lose them in the blink of an eye. However, with Keir being a shape-shifter, she felt a little less frightened at the thought of being close to him.

The coolness of Edolie's skin seemed to compliment the heat of his own and it made his smile grow warmer. In return, Edolie's smile cause a strange sense of weightlessness to fill his stomach and he wondered if this was what girls always referred to as butterflies. He'd heard the term spoken in muggle movies, but he'd never felt anything like it. It was almost as if his insides were squirming, but not in an altogether bad way. He turned to face her a little more fully and raised his free hand to her cheek, not letting go of her hand and then turned slightly away again, if her rebuttal hurt too much he didn't want her to see. "Would it be too much of a cliche if I kissed you right now?"

If Edolie could blush, then she would have just then. Her smiled widened a little bit, but she didn't know what to say at first. She looked at him for a long moment and wondered if letting him get close was a good idea. However, she wanted it and chose to be selfish at that moment. "No, it wouldn't be too cliche...just a little bit..."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth he moved up close, another discovery – even in his human form he was faster. Keir traced her cheekbone with his fingertip, moving down to her jaw and then her chin, tilting her head up a little. The forest around them dimmed and fell silent as he brushed his lips lightly against hers. He was afraid of her scent burning him but it never did, not even when he put more fire behind the kiss. Her scent was sweet but not like Wilkinson’s – the other girl’s scent has caused him pain, not Edolie. He sucked gently on her bottom lip, running his tongue along the length of her mouth, enjoying the coolness of her skin even more now that he was that close.

Keir’s sudden movement combined with the situation made a small gasp escape Edolie. His fingers tips were hot and soothing. Goosebumps broke out across her skin, which was something that she hadn’t known could still happen for it hadn’t happened in a very long time. When his hot lips met hers, her body automatically reacted by starting to absorb it. She closed her eyes and let the sensations of his tongue moving along her mouth overwhelm her. As a warmth spread throughout her body, starting at her lips, she realized that she was very slowly absorbing his energy and forced herself to stop. Edolie wrapped her arms around his torso and pulled him closer as she returned the kiss. She let her mouth open slightly; invitingly. Continuing to fight the urge to take his energy as all of the sensations of the kiss overwhelmed her, but she managed.

Edolie's movements encouraged Keir to kiss more heatedly, the fact that she'd pulled him closer drove spikes of wanting through him that there was no way he could hide. His arms wrapped around her in turn, half cradling her and pressing her to him. He moaned softly and slid his tongue into her mouth... This was what Heaven was like, surely there was nothing like this. He massaged her tongue with his own and one of his hands slid into her hair. The excitement of it all made his heart pound and he felt slightly breathless but continued kissing her as if there was nothing but this moment, nothing but her mouth and their lips pressing together forcefully and yet gently.



((Sorry if it sucks.))

((It was vunderful!))

Although the kiss was amazing and encompassed her, it made her think of Jake. The last kiss that she had had, like the one with Keir, was with Jake. It was all overwhelming her and she finally had to pull away from Keir. Her arms remained around him, but she had created a gap between their bodies that hadn't been there before. "I'm sorry, we are just moving too quickly right now. We barely know each other..." however, she couldn't help but smile and look upon him with longing. "I want this," she admitted in a whisper. "I just...can't let it go any further than this for now."

Keir felt a little confused when Edolie pulled away, it was rather abrupt after her passion in the kiss - or what he'd thought was passion... He breathed deeply and relaxed his arms. "I know. I'm sorry. It was just the moment -" He broke off, feeling a bit overwhelmed. Kissing Edolie had felt so completely right that he'd thought she wouldn't have a problem and though she admitted that she wanted to kiss him the fact that she'd admitted her unease told him to take it a little bit more easy. He was usually completely relaxed and now - he blamed this weird transformation. When he'd first met Edolie he'd felt a twinge of what he felt now, now that feeling - the feeling of being constantly wired - was filling him up. He let her go but smiled warmly at her. "We have all the time in the world. We can go back to the castle now if you wanna."

Edolie let out a sigh of relief from the breath that she hadn't realized she was holding and returned the smile. "That would probably be a good idea..." she said before released him as well but held out a hand. "Want to walk me to my common room?" she asked playfully. The feeling he gave Edolie made her feel young all over again. It was strange and refreshing and terrifying all at once.

Keir grinned as he took Edolie's hand and bowed his head slightly. "It would be an honour, m'lady." He winked at her and felt even more wired at the prospect of what would develop between them. There was definitely a connection, chemicals raging inside them, but there was no telling where it would lead. He started off through the forest, feeling less intimidated by the shadows around them and the small noises that seemed to be enhanced in some way. He could tell where the creatures where that were making the noises as well as how big they were and he even caught a feint scent on the air each time something disturbed the darkness. His senses were alive and vibrant to the point where even the touch of Edolie's skin against his felt new.

Something like a giggle, perhaps it was a giggle, escaped Edolie. She quickly stifled it and walked along with him quietly. She had never before been able to enjoy the Forbidden Forest with someone. Though most wouldn’t think of the forest as romantic, considering all of the dangers within it, Edolie found the experience quite nice. She was sure that the fact that Keir could take care of himself now made her that much more relaxed. The noises, smells and sights all seemed to mean much more to her with Keir at her side. Edolie drank it all in willingly, determined to remember every moment.

The edge of the forest seemed to pop up out of nowhere and soon they were walking beneath a starlit sky, the doors to the castle slightly ajar in a stance that would seem ominous to some but this simple act of walking with Edolie wouldn't allow him to feel anything except excitement. "I wonder who left the doors open." His words were a mumble, not hardly begging for any acknowledgment.

"Huh," Edolie said as her brows furrowed when her eyes fell on the large oak doors. "That's odd..." She reached her left hand into her robes and extracted her wand more out of habit than necessity. Her eyes darted about the grounds and she focused her senses. Immediately she felt an energy that seemed familiar. "Someone is out here with us..." she whispered and mentally cursed herself for dropping her guard.

The moment Edolie drew her wand Keir felt a rippling sensation flash through his body. He released Edolie's hand as his whole body seemed to start shaking. It was similar to the feeling he'd gotten in the forest, just not as violent and uncontrollable. He could smell whoever was there and his eyes scanned the darkness, his mind forcing his body to stay the way it was. It wouldn't do to just change in front of random people. "Who's there?!" His voice sound almost like a growl and he could all but feel his body hardening already.