InsaneJournal

Characters: Damocles Belby and OPEN
Setting: Saturday evening (as dinner is wrapping up), the Great Hall
Content: SFW
Summary: Damocles has received a letter from home, and he's not particularly happy about it.


As much as it didn't seem to suit his personality, Damocles Belby believed in love. His father had died more than twelve years ago, after all, and his mother was still acting as if he had died yesterday. If that wasn't love, the only logical explanation was that his mother was mad, and that was not an idea of which Damocles was particularly fond.

An example of her love/declining mental health was currently sitting on the Ravenclaw table, in front of Damocles. Dinner was more or less finished, and the Great Hall was mostly empty, with students drifting out periodically in twos and threes. Damocles had received the letter in his common room, before dinner, but had chosen not to open it until he had cleared his plate. That had been nearly half an hour ago, and since then he had read it quickly, then dropped it on the table and stared at it, half-rereading, half-lost in thought. Occasionally he would help himself to another roll, or a refill of pumpkin juice, but for the most part, he was removed from the rest of his house both emotionally and physically (for he was sitting at the very end of the table, with no one in the adjacent seats).

The letter had clearly been written while Katerina was drunk, as she usually was these days. Not only were the words somewhat nonsensical and unevenly written, but something had spilled on the parchment, and it reeked of firewhiskey. The first half of the letter was written to her dead husband, and then abruptly, halfway down the parchment, it changed to a letter to Damocles. Admittedly, the second letter made little more sense than the first. He could make neither heads nor tails of her meaning.

With a sigh, Damocles set down his goblet and used his now-free hand to massage his temples. Really, his mother was just adding unnecessary stress to his life, and there was no reason for that. She had Aunt Nikoleta to babysit her; Damocles had NEWTs to worry about. Really, he should just crumple this letter up and throw it in the bin where it belonged. Even knowing that, he remained still, unmoving from his spot at the end of the table.