| Details for Tear Tracks and Failures |
| Summary: | After her breakdown in the Clubroom, Gabriel is left to patch up Gabby physically and emotionally…again. |
| Date: | Sun Jun 16, 1938 |
| Location: | Ravenclaw Common Room |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
  |
The Ravenclaw Common Room is one of the most airy rooms at Hogwarts. This wide, circular room's floor is covered in a deep, midnight blue carpet and the arched windows are hung with soft blue silk curtains. The high, domed ceiling carries a charm similar to the one in the Great Hall making stars glitter and move about on it reflecting the proper placements of the constellations according to the seasons. During the day, the Ravenclaw students have an excellent view of the surrounding mountains. The room is furnished with comfortable tables and chair upholstered in midnight blue with white pinstripes and bookcases stand along the walls.
It's sunday evening, almost curfew, Gabby's looked in the few places besides the armory that she thinks Gabe may be. She just can't deal with Cillian right now. She pushes the door and slowly enters the common room. Anyone looking at her can see she's been crying , hard. She's wearing a her nicest Hogsmeade clothes, but they're rumpled. She's got on her mother's green jacket, and as soon as she's able to, she shoves both hands into the pockets. She'll try to not wince when she does so.
Gabriel is sitting in one of the armchair with it faced away from the door and looking out the windows of the tower. Thanks to the back of the chair the only part of his that's visible is two small arms, fully extended to the sides so as to hold a large star chart open all the way. He's so engrossed in what he's studying he really doesn't hear the door open, even in the almost empty Common Room.
Gabrielle will start walking towards the stairs, but will look to see if the arms belong to who she hopes. If not, she'll just got to bed and hope it's better in the morning. Her shoulder visible loosen when she sees it's Gabriel. She'll walk up, and glance down at the chart he's looking at. she'll keep her voice low, trying to not startle the first year, "Hey Doc."
Nope. Not startling for Gabriel tonight. Actually, all the opposite. He barely responds taking a long few seconds before he says, "Hiiii Gabby." in a totally distracted voice, eyes glued to the star chart, except for flitting to look out the window from time to time.
Gabrielle frowns slightly, not sure if she should bother him. "Working on finals?" She'll try to keep her voice controlled, she got most of her crying out with Conall. She'll look out the window for a moment. It can wait till morning. "Good luck."She'll even say that with a small smile, before starting to turn towards the tower.
Gabriel knows the older girl well enough at this point to be able to tell there's something going on by the tone of voice. It takes a moment to sink in through his focus but sink in it does. Putting down the chart with a little snap of paper moving quickly through air he kneels on the chair to look over the back of it,"Hey! What's going on?"
Gabrielle frowns slightly, "If you're doing work, it can wait." Her shoulder have already tensed up again and she's not making eye contact. She'll glance back to the entrance, "Maybe I should try to go find Ripley.." Maybe he won't flip out on her. Maybe. When she glances back at the door, her paleness and the tear tracks are fairly visible. Her hands are still in her pockets, so for once, she's not tugging on her right sleeve at least.
Gabriel rolls his eyes at the silliness of almost adults then shakes his head. "Like I can go back to studying after seeing tear tracks on your face? What's wrong?" He motions with one hand for her to come over and sit on the window sill.
Gabrielle hesitates for a moment, then will slowly walk over and sit down next to him. "I…I kinda hurt my hands, but I can't go to the nurse…can you look at them?" She'll not remove her hands from her pockets and will glance up to gage his reaction.
Gabriel's reaction is resignation. With a nod he asks,"What was it this time? More demons? Renegade werewolves? Fire pixies?" Fire pixies? Do those even exsist?? Regardless, Gabriel is holding his hands out, his face going into the emotionless blankness that seems to be his 'Doc' face.
Gabrielle lower lip trembles, "I…I failed." she'll slowly pull out her hands, only wincing a bit. It's clear this is blunt damage, like she punched a wall…a lot. Her knuckles are torn, and while it looks like they're stopped bleeding, she pounded on something hard..or for a long time. Or both. "I found what happened to my parents…and I messed it up. He's gotten away." Her voice is hollow and she's just looking at her hands.
Gabriel gently takes Gabby's hands in his, for the moment ignoring the story that comes along with them. Moving them ever so slightly, side to side he looks at closely at the abrassions then uses his thumbs to gently press down on each of the bones behind the knuckles, feeling for possible fractures and broken bones. The only noise he makes is a low "mhmm, mhmm…"
Gabrielle grits her teeth, while nothing seems to be broken, she's bruised the hell out of her hands. not to mention the cuts. She's clearly done some clean up, there should be blood everywhere.
Gabriel holds up a finger, "Wait here. /Don't/ pull your disappearing act." then hops off the chair and jogs up the stairs to the boys dorm room. Not more than three minutes later he comes back with a small satchel that he places on the table and starts to dig through. "So what or who did you pummel?"
Gabrielle 's only moves enough to shove her hands back into her pockets. She doesn't need others knowing. She'll look down as Gabe starts digging through his bag, "The punching bag in the club room…I didn't even hit him." Her cheeks turn pink with embarrassment.
Gabriel finally pulls out a roll of bandages, a pair of scissors, and a little ceramic pot. Motioning a little impatiently for Gabrielle to pull her hands back out he says, "Well, lets get some antibacterial salve on there. Its also going to make most of the pain go away. So tell me the whole story. What did you mess up? Who got away? How can I help? I'm guessing you don't want the Pirates involved either…" He sounds a little sad about the last comment but he doesn't sound like it'll stop him from helping on his own once he knows what he can do to help.
Gabrielle pulls her hands out and will just nod. She doesn't really care if they hurt…it's just they're gonna draw attention. She'll take a deep breath, "I…I was contacted by someone who said they were connected to my mother…and they were, more than I thought. He's…He's evil, and killed them. And almost me, and now he wants my help and I froze and couldn't do what I needed to. " Ok, maybe she's not completely cried out, there's a few new ones that are surfacing. "I don't know what to do…" Gabby just looks lost, not like a Demon Hunter at all.
For his part Gabriel looks confused. Taking what looks like a little paintbrush out of his satchel he dips into the little clay jar he's unstoppered and uses it to 'paint' on a thin salve, leaving Gabby's knuckles a little greenish. The salve feels almost cold when it comes in contact with the bruised and cut skin and as soon as its on the pain almost completely disappears. "Umm… Ok… And if he's evil why would you help him? And what was it you needed to do that you froze? You're being very… incomplete in how you're explaining things…"
Gabrielle sniffles some, debating on what to say. As much as she though she was ok with the pain, her shoulder's loosen when her hands go numb. "I…You have to swear to not say anything. It's more important than anything else I've ever told you." She'll bring her eyes up, almost pleading.
Gabriel rolls his eyes and nods almost impatiently. How many times is he going to have to prove he can keep a secret. "Healer-patient confidentiality and all that. Go on, you know I won't say anything." He then goes back to gently wrapping Gabby's right hand using his roll of cotton bandages, making sure they're tight but not so tight as to impede movement or cut circulation.
Gabrielle just answers softly, "He wanted me to join him because we're blood related." Her eyes stay down, cheeks slightly pink.
Gabriel pulls a tiny little safety pin and uses it to carefully secure the bandage in place. Mhmmm, mhmmm, "OK. Who cares? He's evil. The answer should clearly be "No!" And what was it you froze during and failed to do?"
Gabrielle nods , still not looking up. "He does." Gabby doens't add that she cares, that would just complicate the story. She'll blink and sigh, "I…had two choices, trick him to learn what I could, or kill him…I froze and didn't do either."
Gabriel takes the time it takes him to finish wrapping and cutting the bandage to think about this and finally give his two cents, asked for or not, "Well, at least you didn't kill him. Doing that on purpose would have made you just as evil as him. But its too bad you didn't trick him. It would have been interesting to see what you could have learned. So what's the plan now?"
Gabrielle nods, although she doesn't believe killing him would have made her evil, the opposite, actually. ""I think…there's research I need to do…He said when I was ready…" she'll close her eyes, taking a deep breath, "I have to decide if the Auror is trustworthy or not." she'll look at Gabe, "You know, the one you all attacked?"
Gabriel stops working for a moment to rack his brains then chuckles,"You mean Auror Cohen? We did /not/ attack him. We were just making sure he was allowed to be where he was. So what do you need to research then?" As he starts to talk he starts to work again, pulling another tiny safety pin from his satchel and pinning the second bandage in place.
Gabrielle gives a small smile. She liked the image of all the firsties fall out of the sky onto of the Auror. She'll sigh, "I'm not even sure yet…this all just happened today…I need to work it all out. " She'll stop, frowning, "Mostly, just…where magic comes from…" She knows that's vague…but it really is what she needs to research.
Gabriel starts to put all his things away in the satchel, leaving the little brush for last. When it comes time to put that away he uses a little strip of left over bandages to get as much of the salve off the bristles before putting it away,"Well, /I/ think that if this evil man wants you to do something then you should probably do the exact opposite. And I think Auror Cohen would be helpful. /And/ you still haven't told me how I can help. Besides bandaging your hands, which by the way, you should make sure not to use to hit things again. At least for a while."
Gabrielle sighs,"It's a tight rope, Gabe. If I want to get in..to get info to give to the Auror…I need to do the research, to understand." she'll close her eyes, "I don't know how you can help…I don't really know how anyone can help." When she looks to him, she's not trying to pull anything over on him, not trying to protect him, she just honestly doesn't know.
Gabriel closes his little satchel and nods, "Well, you better let me know. I'll be mad if I find out you got in trouble and I could have helped you out. That's what friends are for.
Gabrielle hesitates, and then looks down to her hands, "I will…I promise." She'll smile softly a him, "I mostly don't' ask because I don't want to interfere with you and the Pirates…"She'll shrug gently, "I don't want to split your loyalties."
Gabriel looks at Gabby seriously as he fiddles with the latches on the satchel. "The only way that would be spliting my loyalties is if you were asking me to do something that could harm the Pirates or get them in trouble. And that would be a mean thing to ask for in the first place so I'd probably say no anyway. So you don't really need to worry about that, do you?" Ah, so nice to be young and innocent. Everything is so simple then.
Gabrielle nods, "No…I wouldn't ask you to do that. I don't want anyone to get hurt or in trouble." She's too tired to get into a more complicated answer than that. And she may start crying for real again then. She'll flex her hands some, "Will i be abel to take the bandages off in the morning?Or should i just say i hurt myself brewing a potion?"
Gabriel takes a moment to think about this then shrugs, "Well, you can take them off but this is a Muggle solution so your knuckles should be sealed by tomorrow but there's still going to be bruises and scabs. So my suggestion would be to take the bandages off but wear gloves and say you're feeling a little cold…"
Gabrielle nods, "Ok…I'll find something. " Smiling, "Thank you Gabe….I don't know what I'd do without you."
Gabriel grins, "Eat a lot less chocolate?"
Gabrielle actually snorts,but then smiles "True. I got a piece today from the candy store to try to calm my nerves. It was so waxy…I can't wait till I'm not poor. I'll buy everyone chocolate."
Gabriel shakes his head, "Why didn't you go get some from Cillian. The Cap'n's chocolate is always good and fresh. And he might have had other goodies too." Then his eyes open wide as he remembers something, "oh! I might have some Oreos left. Interested?"
"I'm not comfortable talking to Cillian about any of this.He tends to just judge and make me feel bad about my age. Like I could change that about myself." Her eyes light up some at the mention of cookies, "Ye-I mean, if you have enough..I don't want to take your last ones."
Gabriel snatches his satchel and runs up to his room. A few minutes later he comes back with a little cylinder of aluminum foil, which he takes apart to reveal six of the precious cookies, "Ta-dah!"
Gabrielle 's eyes go wide , wondering if he was done. But then she'll give a small relieved when she shows back up. She'll smile, "Where did you get all of them from?" She'll reach to take one with her bandaged right hand.
Gabriel grins as he takes one and twists it apart. "Well, it /was/ my parents that sent them, after all. I did keep some extras for me." With a wink he take a big lick at the cream in the middle of the cookie.
Gabrielle nods, yes. She guesses living parents would do that sort of thing. She was lucky her aunts didn't ask her to dump Ripley when everything bad happened. She'll carefully twist apart her cookie, keeping her other hand underneath to catch on crumbs.Don't want to be wasteful. A small sigh of content leaves her as she licks at the cookies center. If only everything could be solved with oreos.
Gabriel takes one more cookie and then slides the rest to Gabby before taking up his chart again, "The rest of them are yours. Me, I have to study some more but you're welcome to keep me company."