Josette Marie Cooper (josette) wrote in lightning_war, @ 2008-10-25 09:00:00 |
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Current mood: | guilty |
Wednesday midmorning, 16 September 1942, at the library in Hogwarts Castle...
Edmund Diggory licked his lips nervously as he spied Josette Cooper working in the library alone. It was pretty clear to him that his former girlfriend was terribly upset about something, clear also that she didn’t have anyone to confide in, but not at all clear that she would want to talk to him. “Miss Cooper?” he asked gingerly, not taking a seat.
Josette looked up at him. “Oh, hello, Edmund,” she said in a soft voice, setting her books aside. “Been a while, hasn’t it?” She glanced distractedly down at her parchment, which was covered with sentences that barely made sense to her, and at the rosary in her lap. Ever since she’d seen the angel, she had hardly put it down. “I’m sorry, wasn’t that your cousin they sent home? Not like Blaise and Mimi, because he was ill…”
Edmund sat down without asking; this was pretty far from Josette’s usual manner. “To the hospital, actually,” he said. “He has pneumonia. But maybe he would have been sent home anyway. He was mixed up in this business of Wood’s somehow.” He looked at her to see what her reaction was.
Josette sighed heavily. “Oh God,” she said, and then frowned, because she shouldn’t have taken the Lord’s name in vain and she knew it. “Wood. Wood and Blaise and Mimi and those low-lives, Pollard and Stebbins. They had me convinced they were actually going to behave themselves…you know?”
Edmund shrugged. “It was very stupid of them,” he said. “I don’t know, I suppose I wasn’t really thinking about their party. We all missed what was happening.”
“I think we were meant to,” Josette said after a moment. “There were so many signs I missed.” She swallowed. “Certainly I should have noticed that Bettony was under the influence; we’d been doing a lot of work on my NEWT project, and his personality had definitely changed.”
“I don’t think anyone else noticed anything there either,” Edmund said, frowning. Josette seemed really bothered by this; and it was like her to blame herself even though people who’d known far more than she had hadn’t saved Bettony. “And some of us knew more exactly what to look for. He was a professor though, we were all looking for changes in our charges instead. Could you tell Goyle or one of the Aurors what you remember now though?”
“I…could,” said Josette, “but would it do us any good? It’s rather…personal.” She blushed, and looked down at her books.
Edmund flushed as well, from a mixture of embarrassment and anger. If Josette had been hurt by this, they should have noticed and he had noticed too, although not until after it was banished, he just hadn’t done something right away when he did. And that had been a mistake. He thought for a moment; it wasn’t clear whether Josette thought she was speaking to him in confidence, or in fact what she was thinking at all. He didn’t want to betray her confidence, even assumed, if he could help it, and the only realistic way to avoid that was to get her to talk to someone herself.
“Well,” he said. “I really don’t think that the investigation into Bettony’s death is complete. So, yes, I would think it would do some good.” He paused. “Do you want me to…help, somehow? I mean, I could come with you. Or talk to you. If you want. But I don’t have to.”
“I was stupid, Ed. Just…stupid.” Josette shook her head. “I thought he really liked me, but it was the incubus. That’s all, really. I thought I’d changed, that I’d grown up, that my work was different, that he’d come to respect me. That maybe what I needed was someone older, who’d understand…things.”
Edmund tried not to grimace at this; he was, after all, likely the counterpoint in the comparison she had made. He wasn’t quite sure what to say to her in any case, Josette’s character had changed somewhat since Tisdale had died, but it was unlike her to talk to him about anything like this. But then, he’d asked, hadn’t he? And a terrible thing had happened to her. He wondered if Bettony had really liked her; as well. “Maybe it was doing some of your thinking for you,” he said. “As well as some of his.” He shuddered. “Sorry, I don’t think that’s very helpful, that’s not what I meant to say. Look. None of it is about being stupid. You don’t even know what happened to you, really…or to Bettony…and you really really need to find out. And you can talk to me, if you want to, as long as you like, whenever you like. But you need to talk to Goyle, or one of the Aurors. Or,” he offered, swallowing. “I can if you like. To start with.”
Josette flashed him a thin approximation of her usual smile. “You did ask,” she said with a shrug. “Sorry. I’m sure it did some of our thinking, that’s what they do, and I tell myself that even though defence is my best subject, Bettony was better and it got to him.” She sighed. Being in the chapel—where the angel was—had made her feel better for a little while. She felt cleaner, but she still felt responsible. And she didn’t want to talk to anyone about the angel, because after what everyone had just been through, no-one would understand. She was fairly sure that Popescu knew it was there, because she went in there too, but she wasn’t friends with Popescu.
But it had come too late for Bettony. And even if it did have work for her, she didn’t know what it was. And talking about Bettony was embarrassing, above and beyond the fact that they’d sinned and he’d broken the trust that the school had placed in him…and she’d let him. “I can’t talk about this to Goyle, he’s such a…well, not that you’re not a man, you’re certainly a man, but we’ve been close, and I don’t want Goyle and Longbottom and Forrester thinking of me that way. Maybe Miss Peverell…” Her stomach hurt. “It just, it started out so nice. But.”
“I did ask,” Edmund agreed. He sighed. “I didn’t mean…I just want to make sure you talk to someone who can do more for you than listen. As well.” He smiled at her slightly. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” said Josette. “I just…will it really help them, to know these things? The incubus is gone, and its purpose is known to us. Even if we do get another demon here, it won’t be that one.”
Edmund frowned. “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know that they know as much as you think, honestly. And it might have…hurt you, in ways you can’t heal yourself.”
Josette glanced down at her hands. “I hadn’t thought of that,” she said, two spots of colour on her pale cheeks. “I could talk to Rosier, or Watkins.” The angel had made her feel better, but it couldn’t hurt to find out if she was healed, if she was whole…if she was imagining this. If she was still broken, then she would know that the angel was a hallucination or worse. If she was not…
“You could,” Edmund said firmly. He wasn’t sure whether this was the time to insist, or to let her make the decision. He hoped she talked to Marlie, if only because he himself knew Marlie better and could let her know that Josette was having trouble deciding to talk to the Aurors.
“I could,” said Josette. “Do you really think that it is that serious? It is gone; it can’t still be making me think things, can it?”
“I don’t know,” Edmund said. “But doesn’t it…it could have had energetic effects. Even in the health course, they talked about that. And you know that can affect all kinds of things anyway, including thinking, I know you do. Defence, artificery, anything. Let’s walk up to the infirmary and see if Miss Watkins is on, or Miss Rosier. And if they aren’t, Miss Peverell can help me find them I’m sure.” He stood up and offered her an arm. “If you like,” he said and smiled a little, he hoped in a reassuring fashion.
Josette frowned, because she really didn’t want to talk about it much with anyone she didn’t know. But maybe if they could read the energies, she wouldn’t have to. “All…all right,” she said hesitantly, and took his arm. She cared about her work, and he knew that. So did the angel.
southerlywind and josette