Alone But Still Here [open]

[Hunter Dudzinski]

You got blood on your face,
You big disgrace,
Somebody's going to put you into your place.

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It was weird how it was almost comfortable with Hunter these days, being able to accept what happened, almost to the point of not caring. It was the way things had to work, he was afraid of death and afraid of the future and now he was one of those stuck in the middle. All because he wasn't able to overcome a single fear, the fear of death. Looking back he knew it was a natural thing, he shouldn't have been, there was still a part that still was though. He was happy for the most part, he was still walking among the rest of them, he even watched his own sister finish school. There was still a problem, he wanted to find who his killer was. He knew that it wasn't a mere accident, he was a great swimmer.

Hunter grinned, and looked up at the sky on his way out of the school, happy to be finished his classes for the day. There were many things that he wanted to do, none of them consisted of doing all the school work the school seemed to want to destroy him with. No, that day he was planning on going to the Black Lake, to dip his feet in, enjoy the day. Soon enough he did reach his location, and thankfully it wasn't full of students. Even though he couldn't resist the chance to show off, it just was not one of those times, it was a relaxing point of the day. The only person around was him, and of course, he already knew how awesome he was.

He took of the cloak of his uniform, removing the yellow and black tie that represented his house. After throwing off his shoes and socks he basically dove into the water, sputtering as he accidentally inhaled some water. Hunter laughed to himself, treading the water, which was still rather cold even though the school year was almost over. He figured that the lake was always cold, or he was just very sensitive to the temperature. None the less, he went further away from the shore, still not wanting to go too deep, since there was always the threat of the giant squid. Even though he personally thought it was just a story created to scare first graders, since he had never seen any giant anything in that lake.

He closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of the water, they way the whole area soothed the senses it was amazing to him. Hunter felt something brush against his ankle, he jerked forward, momentarily startled at nothing. He laughed at himself, thinking that he was being foolish, that he was too busy worry about a giant squid and let it get to his head. He continued his previous pace, moving his arms, keeping himself above the cool water. Still a little on edge, but he was laughing at himself from the inside, sometimes even he could be extremely stupid about little things like that.

A hand creeped up and grabbed a firm grip around his leg, tugging him under the water in one swift movement. He clamped his eyes shut, but whatever it was pulled him under the Black Lake's icy depths. Of course Hunter struggled, he tried to kick his leg free, he knew he was always a smaller guy, he wasn't good at muggle fighting. An arm was wrapped around his neck and he was shoved deeper down, the lack of oxygen was starting to drive him mad. That was the only thing he wanted anymore, unless it was his wand, he curse himself. Forgetting his wand the one time he would have needed it most.

He didn't even know where he was anymore, the force was pushing him down, but he wasn't thinking rationally. He was in a desperate panic, there was no way he was going to let himself get killed. The longer he tried to stop himself from breathing in the water, the worse it seemed to get. He instinctively took in a breath, no surprise that there wasn't any air. Burning, his lungs literally burned, like he didn't take in water but acid, deadly acid. Hunter had no control, he tried everything in his power to escape and return to the surface of the lake, punching and shoving didn't even do a thing anymore.

It didn't take long, but it seemed like a decade, a lifetime of struggle. Soon the burning stopped, panic stopped, and the world turned black. Hunter himself couldn't remember what happened between then and a week later when he was wondering the halls as a ghost.

[/b] He didn't even get to look at the person that managed to drown him in the lake after school, he wished he did though. Maybe then he wouldn't have to be like that, seeing his friends react to his own death.

Hunter floated down the corridor, it was interesting how he would be able to see things change around him. People just went by doing their own thing, and he tried to continue his life the way his did as alive. Happy, and pulling pranks on the first years, scaring them out of their wits was something that never got old. He stopped at one of the portraits that waved to him as he was about to pass by, and smiled and waved back. It was a picture of a witch in her thirties, he had passed her a few times, it was a shame that she never talked to anybody.

He sat down at the top of a staircase, hoping that it wouldn't go off an move on him anytime soon. Secretly he was just waiting for someone to come up to strike up a conversation, even if that didn't work he would throw things around in the library again. Of course there was the gamekeeper, that old man still hates Hunter, even after death. He himself found it humorous and would bring up the fact that he was only dead whenever he could. Just to make him feel bad, usually didn't work though, but on a few people it certainly did. [/color][/CENTER]

Word Count;; 1027
Outfit;; School uniform
Status;; Complete
Notes;; OPEN!!
Lyrics;; 'We will rock you.' by QUEEN[/SIZE][/FONT]

[Kieran Prince]

Classes were like any other that day. Tolerable. It wasn’t that he particularly found fault with any, it was just difficult to find a lecture interesting if you had already mastered the day’s material, or in the case of Defense Against the Dark Arts, discovered a few tricks the professor would certainly not approve of, leaving one to practice them outside the classroom. Away from disapproving eyes.

Kieran made his way through the dungeons to the Slytherin common room, his strides long, his bearing as confident and smug as the expression on his face, causing several of the little first year Hufflepuffs leaving the Potions classroom to press themselves against the cold stone of the corridor to give him a wider berth. Out of the corner of his gray eyes he noted two of the girls blushing and staring as he strode past and his thin lips curled into an amused grin. Shame they didn’t know he never had a taste for badgers.

He reached the entrance the same time as one of the sixth year prefects who looked over at him and stepped aside to allow Kieran to enter first, being the elder. A silent nod to the respectful housemate and he walked inside and went directly to his dormitory to drop off his things. Once relieved of his burden, the black haired wizard loosened his tie and made to go find a place to practice a few of the tricks he’d been tweaking since his third year. Having to turn down an offer of a game of chess as he crossed the common room, he made his way back up from the cool dampness of the dungeons to the sixth floor where an unused room had once served his purpose well in the past.

As Kieran passed the fifth floor, his progress upwards hindered only momentarily by the stairs changing on him between floors three and four, and he slowed the speed of his steps as his gaze fell on the ghostly figure sitting upon a step in his path. He had seen the young wizard’s ghostly form before in his years at Hogwarts but never paid it much mind. In fact, it seemed he had only had words for the Bloody Baron and even those were few due to the Baron’s lack of desire to converse much at all.

Slowing until he finally stood just two steps below the ghost, Kieran then leaned his hip against the stone banister, his arms crossing over his chest as his right foot crossed over his left ankle, the toe of his polished shos balancing on the worn step as he took a moment to examine the figure. It seemed an age past as his gaze merely lingered there, his eyebrow quirked, before he finally spoke.

“I didn’t realize a ghost would become weary enough to cause him reason to sit so long. If I didn’t know better, I’d say your mind was elsewhere.” It wasn’t a question really, but a statement that lent itself to a response, that is if the ghost would take the bait. Outward curiosity was the plague of ravens, a serpent could appease it in other ways if need be.[/color]