| Details for The Sound of Silence |
| Summary: | Elise listens to Myrus, and manages to communicate without speaking. |
| Date: | 1938-11-12 |
| Location: | Ravenclaw Common Room |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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Myrus was sitting in the common room with a book on his lap about potions. It was late morning. Lunch time had just started and would go for about another hour or so, depending on people's schedules. Some went to their dormitory rooms for lunch to easier study. Others, like Myrus, were just here to get away. Or maybe just be alone. Who knows? But, one weird thing, Myrus was so zoned out that he turns the next page without even batting an eye at the book. And the next page, too. Still staring out at the wall and he's got a brace on his right hand that means the rumor about him breaking his hand was at least true.
Elise's entrance into the common room is quiet. She sits down not too far from Myrus and takes out her own homework. Why she's not at lunch is anybody's guess - she seems altogether too thin and pale to be skipping meals. She glances up at Myrus, pauses when she realizes how zoned out he looks, looks to his broken hand, blinks a few times, opens her mouth, snaps it shut again, and presses her lips together in a determined manner. Then she opens her own books and starts to rifle through them to find the pages she needs.
Myrus turns his head, his eyes staying on that same spot for an extra second or so until he finally turns them and looks at who just came in. "Oh, hello." He says this as he turns his head back down to his book and just stares at it for a few moments. "How did I get all the way to this page already?" He huhs and pulls a stack of pages (about ten, if one looks, and it's got -small- words on the pages) and then another couple before he finds his place again. "You ever read a book, and you stare at it for so long but part of your mind is still reading, and you end up somewhere further in the book and have to read that whole page over again because your conscious mind missed it somehow?" He was looking at Elise again, with a face saying the answer to this question could solve all the worlds problems.
Elise looks up from her books to Myrus, her dark eyes wide while she listens to his long and rambling question. Awkwardly she raises a hand to wave hello to him. Still, she doesn't speak, which might seem odd. Then in answer to his question she looks to one side a bit, and shrugs, and looks back at him, and gives him half a smile, with just one side of her mouth.
He kinds snaps out of it watching her give her answer. "Are you okay?" Maybe one should ask the same of him. But he tilted his head with the words and put emphasis in the right places to denote he's worried about her sincerely. As far as sincerity might go for one that's possibly traumatized by physical or psychological stuff. But then again he could just be having a really. bad. day.
Elise gives him a very serious look, seems to think about it, and then nods slowly. Then her eyes drop down to his broken hand - it appears even magic takes a bit of time to heal that many broken bones - and she flicks her gaze back up to his face, eyebrows raised questioningly. She tilts her head toward him, concern on her own expression. Her hand raises, palm up, fingers loosely pointed toward him, a question in her eyes.
He looks at her hand, and smiles lopsidedly, moving his book with one hand and setting it off to the side a little awkwardly since it's one hand and it's his off-hand, and he stands to move over to her. "You want to see my hand?" He asks, figuring she's not the talking type. And he lifts his splinted hand up and places it in hers, unless she retract hers, being he might have misunderstood her meaning.
Elise grimaces just a tad bit when he puts his hand in hers. Seems she hasn't much stomach for an injury. She looks up at him and shakes her head, biting her lip. She doesn't just drop his hand, though. And while he's here, and things are awkward, she fumbles in the pocket of her robe and comes out with a chocolate bar, which she hands to him.
"Oh! Um…" he easily tries to remove his hand from hers and then when offered the chocolate bar, he does take it and looks at it. It takes a couple moments to process, but he looks at her and smiles fully, almost giddily. "Thank you," he says genuinely, and clutches the chocolate bar to his chest when he says the thanks, and moves back to his seat with a little haste, like he has to read something important. The wrapper crinkles as he opens the candy bar wrapping and pulls it down, taking a slow, delibarate and delicious bite from the looks of it.
Looking quite relieved that she's no longer holding his broken hand, Elise nods vigorously at his thanks. She tries again to silently ask the question. When next his eyes venture her way, she points to his hand, and then turns both of her own hands palms up and shrugs, looking puzzled.
He looks between her gestures and his hand, holding up the chocolate bar and flicking it lightly in the air, "Ah, now I get it. What happened, you mean to ask?" He would wait for her to nod or shake her head.
Elise nods.
Myrus ahs again, and leans back in the seat he's currently in, putting his broken hand on top of the book easily, and frowns contemplatively. "I don't think I want to tell the story just yet." He says and looks over at her again. "Nothing personal. I just don't want to relive that memory right now." He gives a sorrowful look to her, "I'm sorry."
Elise gives him another half-smile and nods understandingly. Then she points to his hand again, points to the timepiece on the mantle, and turns her hands up in that questioning way once more, looking puzzled.
He smiles again. "It was yesterday. Last night after dinner.. or during. I don't remember really what time it was exactly." He at least gives way on that question, but still answering fully and completely he's defending it somehow against answering with all the facts.
Seems that wasn't quite what Elise was after. She frowns a bit, thoughtfully, and then points to the clock again, then his hand, and then mimes peeling something bulky from her own hand. Then she looks up at him again, dark eyebrows raised curiously. She wiggles the fingers of the hand she newly freed of its imaginary bulk.
Oh, okay! Now it makes more sense. Maybe he's on medication, too. Or a pain relieving spell that has side-effects. Would make sense as to why he's not down with everyone else, or maybe even not in class. "Should be a few days at most." He says finally as a few other students came through the common room, to and from dormitories, but none really staying a long time.
Elise nods and gives him another half smile. She looks around at the students walking through, and shifts a bit in her chair, apparently restless. Still, she doesn't actually speak. Instead she takes a sorry-looking small apple from her pocket, polishes it with her sleeve, and takes a bite. Even the apple doesn't make a crisp crunching noise when she bites into it.