Tears PV Annabelle Wolfe Finished

Annabelle stared with awe at the Hogwarts castle. She knew it was a school of course, but when she stared up at its massive stone towers against the starry backdrop, she could not see it as anything but a castle. It really was a fantastic place. The young student was probably not supposed to be out exploring this late at night, but it was too difficult to resist. Annabelle was Muggle-born and had never seen anything like this place. In fact,she found herself marveling at its complexities more often than not. This was the first time she'd been out this far since the group of first-years had been brought to campus, and only the second time she was seeing the beautiful building from this distance.

Totally worth it. One of the Slytherin boys had seen her walking down to the lake, and had warned her not to stay out too late. He had said that monsters roamed the woods at night, followed by a disturbing scream and a lunge in her direction. She'd laughed it off of course. She wasn't afraid of Slytherins. Or monsters.

At least, that was what she told herself. Yet when a rustling noise echoed through the nearby bushes, she could not control the shiver that flowed instinctively through her body. Suddenly the possibility of creatures in these woods did not seem so far out there. Annabelle clenched her fists, turning slowly toward the source of the noise. Whatever it was, it was obscured by quite a few trees. Brave and true... she thought. That's what the Sorting Hat had called her. She was a Gryffindor, and if she was going to earn her place in this amazing world, she was damn well going to act like it. Still a bit scared but filled with a sense of determination, she knelt and picked up a nearby branch.

The branch was heavy and long, and she hoped it would make a decent weapon against whatever could be hiding in these woods. Perhaps she was overreacting and it was merely a deer or a rabit. Then again, this was Hogwarts. For all she knew, it could be some mystical creature like a Gryffon or a dragon! (These creatures were far too large to hide in a bush, but Annabelle's imagination had already began to carry her away.) Terror began to rise in her as she pictured all of the mythological beasts she had ever heard of in Muggle school. No... she had to be brave. Before she could give in to her thoughts, she charged through the bush, brandishing the stick in front of her.

"AAAAARRRG!" She cried, hoping to give herself some sense of power. Yet what she found on the other side of the bush was by no means a threat to her. Instead, there was a crystalline lake. Annabelle dropped her weapon, memorized by the reflection of the moon in the dark waters. Then she heard the rustling sound again. The moonlight illuminated its source, another figure sitting by the lake. It was another girl dressed in Gryffindor robes. Her head was buried in her hands, and she seemed to be trying to choke back tears.

Overwhelmed with immediate sympathy, Annabelle raced down the river bank toward the girl. "Hey!" she called out as she approached. "Are you okay?"

Lorelai let out a small yelp and jolted a bit when she heard a loud cry from where she heard the footsteps coming from. She had been quite startled by the unexpected noise. The girl became curious as to what would scare this person so much. She internally hoped it was some bloodthirsty animal. That would surely be enough to cheer her up. Alas turning around, she only saw a girl wearing the same Gryffindor robes she possessed. Albeit she didn’t recognize the girl. Seeing no danger, she put her head back down, avoiding eye contact with the brown-haired girl. She had wanted peace, but this girl was coming to talk to her. She had a sympathetic expression, one which Lorelai wasn’t all that happy to see. This girl seemed like the type not to just leave her with her emotions. In the back of her mind however, she was thankful she had some support. The girl called out, asking if she was okay. Lorelai knew she wouldn’t leave until she answered.

“Y-Yeah. I’m fine.”She stuttered, her voice a little hoarse from her weeping. It was clearly a lie, but maybe the girl would by it. She wiped the last of her tears, which had since ceased to fall. She still looked like a mess, but she was starting to look more normal again. She did her best to hide her face from the girl, not take another look at her since her first glance. She hated been seen at a time of weakness like this, especially by someone she didn’t know. The girl seemed nice, but she doubted she would understand any of her problems. Afterall, how many people didn’t even have a father? Let alone never even know anything about them? She felt so alone in all this. Maybe it was her fault for keeping it all a secret from everyone. She had never properly been able to talk it out with anyone. Not only had she kept it a secret from others, but she had never expressed her emotions on it. Even to herself. Maybe all these years of suppressed emotions had finally caught up to her. It wouldn’t have surprised her. Maybe she could talk to the girl and let it out. Sighing, she took back what she had said earlier. Almost certainly the girl would respond asking why, and Lorelai could explain then. And if she didn’t care...well then Lorelai could just go back to her former state. “Or w-well...Who am I kidding? I’m not that fine, clearly.”

"Sorry if I scared you..." Annabelle said sheepishly as she approached the girl. She scratched the back of her head and flashed an innocent smile, but the girl did not look up. Obviously there was more to her mood than a simple jolt from Annabelle acting like a moron and leaping out of the bushes. As she got closer, a flash of recognition passed through her mind. She knew this girl! What was her name? It had been something unique. She remembered talking to her on their first day at Hogwarts, when she had first set foot in the Gryffindor room. Laurie? Laurel? Lily?Annabelle was fairly certain that it began with an L, but for the life of her she could not remember the whole name. Inwardly, she cured her inability to remember such things.

Anabelle was awful with names, but she was great with faces. She hardly ever forgot a person she had met. Yet in her memories of this girl, she was quite a bit different. The girl with the L name had most definitely been smiling and seemed to have a rather cheerful disposition. What could have happened to cause that look of agony that now graced her face? She claimed at first to be alright, but this was obviously not the case.

“Or w-well...Who am I kidding? I’m not that fine, clearly.”

The girl obviously expected Annabelle to ask why, and she was not about to disappoint. She took a seat in the grass beside the crying girl, staring upward at the starry sky. She then looked toward her new companion. "What happened?"

When Lorelai heard the inevitable question, she was not sure if she really had an answer. Or at least a very good one. It wasn't one thing exactly that upset her, but more so many things building up over the years. She decided on just telling her about the main event that incited her emotions. And maybe if she decided the girl was safe enough, the whole story. She lowered one of her hands down to her robes to one of her pockets, fiddling with the scrunched up letter inside. She felt like she had memorized the French words in her mother’s neat cursive that littered the page by now. The girl inhaled deeply before explaining.

“I just-well I got this letter from my mum that said a lot of things about my dad.”She realized how vague the statement was, and was unsure of how much she felt comfortable sharing with the girl, who was basically a stranger. This was already quite personal. “I guess it just was a lot at once. And it made me a little worried...I’m not in danger or anything serious like that.”

She hadn’t gotten enough nerve to do further research on her father, although it would be easier now that she had his full name and some further basic information. Her emotions had gotten the best of her. Besides, what would she even do if she found him? Would he even want to see her? More worrisome questions littered Lorelai’s mind, and she started to feel tears forming again, which she was successful in holding back this time.

"Your dad?" Annabelle inquired, looking at the girl with wide and curious eyes. The optimistic girl had grown up in a happy home. Her father was a stagehand at a local theatre, and her mother one of their star actresses. She knew of course that many were not so lucky. Perhaps this girl's father was a bad person, or maybe he had just been away for a long time. Still, she could not imagine what sort of information it would take to make the young Gryffindor cry. She said it was a lot to take in... did she not know much about her father? Or maybe she just didn't know much about the situation?

Regardless, Annabelle was eager to find out. She did not want to pry too much of course, as it was obvious that the girl was having a difficult time opening up. She also hated to see anyone looking so down. Anna reached into her bag, pulling out one of many Chocolate Frogs that rested within it. She'd bought about twenty of them on the train. Though she'd known even at the time that her stomach would not be able to handle so much candy, her fascination with everything magic had overwhelmed her. As such, she'd spent nearly all of her leftover pocket change on various chocolates and sweets of the wizard sort. At least they would be useful for something. Nothing was better than chocolate for cheering people up, right? (Except puppies of course, but Annabelle didn't have any puppies.)

She pulled out one of the boxes, offering it to the girl. "It's good that you're not in danger. Is your father okay?"

Lorelai smiled a bit when she was offered the chocolate. Little acts of kindness like that were always good to make someone feel better. She took the candy from the girl with shaky hands, opening it and looking at the contents inside.

“That’s the thing.”She said, head lowered. She was a bit surprised when the chocolate amphibian began moving around, she caught it in her hand before it was able to run off. It was cute, but her want for the chocolate was greater. The girl knew enough about magic by now to know it wasn't really alive. She bit off its head, causing then candy to stop its struggling in her grasp.“I don’t really know if he’s okay, neither does my mom.”She realized this lacked much detail.

“I guess I should probably say that I’ve never actually met him. It was just me and my mum growing up. It wasn’t bad or anything, she is a fantastic mother. Only I guess I missed out on knowing him my whole childhood...and I may still never know him.”She said, tears finally starting to dry. She was halfway done with her chocolate and already feeling a bit better. Looking down at the box, she saw a little woman moving in a collectible card. It read ‘Morgan Le Fay’. She wasn’t entirely sure who that was but she assumed it was a historical figure of some kind. Interesting, kind of.

Annabelle listened intently as the girl told her tale. The happy young Gryffindor could scarcely fathom growing up without a father. She could not help but picture her own dad- his copper eyes that always seemed to sparkle with excitement, his tuft of jet-black hair that had recently begun to recede and fade to grey, and his toothy grin that he flashed every time he made a truely cringe-worthy dad joke. Mr. Wolfe was a kind and energetic man, which was probably for the best considering how hyperactive young Annabelle would prove to be. In fact, she'd always felt quite a bit closer to him than she had to her mom, who was constantly weary from dealing with little Anna and her two brothers. Life without a father... it was a horrible thing to imagine.

She looked over at the girl sympathetically. What exactly did one say in a situation like this? She didn't want to upset the girl, but a million questions were swirling around in her mind. Could he still be alive? Why did he leave? What was it like living in a house with only girls? And most importantly, what was it that she had just found out? She said that the letter she'd revived was full of information about the man. Of course it was none of her business, but the ever-curious Annabelle could not help but speak.

"That's awful, La-" she paused. Lor... Lil... Lorelai! She finally recalled the name she had been searching for. "That's awful, Lorelai. I'm sorry you had to go through that." She looked at the crying student as sincerely as possible, hoping not to offend her with her net question. "If you don't mind me asking, what did the letter say?"

“Oh, it really wasn’t so bad. I had a pretty good childhood overall…”She said smiling reassuringly. Her eyebrows furrowed when she heard the girl use her name. Had they met before? She didn’t remember telling her her name. The girl racked her mind until she remembered having a small conversation with her in the common room once. “Didn't we meet before? In the common room? So you’re Annabelle, right?”

She finally got to the question she had stalled answering. The contents of the letter. When she thought about it, it really shouldn’t have upset her, only it did. “Well, for one I found out his name. Believe it or not I didn’t even know that much. Besides that I found out he may not even know I exist. How depressing is that? I still don’t know why he left either. I don’t know if my mom will tell me anymore. I know its hard for her to talk about it. So I’m probably going to have to find stuff out on my own from now on.”

Lorelai was surprised about how much she said, normally, she wouldn’t talk this much about this kind of stuff. But it felt good to talk about it, and she was thankful to Annabelle. Lorelai already started to feel at least a little better.

Annabelle smiled as the girl mentioned her name. She did remember! And much faster than Anna had... she felt slightly embarrassed that it had taken so long to recall exactly who Lorelai was. She had such an interesting and unique name too... Of course, they had only spoken once before. Back then, she had barely known this girl. She never would have guessed that her family life was filled with such mystery. Now though, she could not help but be curious.It didn't take much for Annabelle to become attached to someone, and the sympathy she felt for Lorelai was already driving home an intense sense of kinship. Her mind reeled with ideas as she plotted to help her friend.

"Well he must have had a good reason to leave," she said, her eyes flashing with determination. "Nobody just abandons their kid." Of course there were plenty of people in the world who left their children for all sorts of inadequate reasons, but this did not register in the mind of the young optimist. "And now that you know his name, you can find out! I mean, the school has a book that records the name of every witch and wizard ever born, right? I heard that's how they now who to send letters to."

She halted for a moment. Was Lorelai's father a wizard? If she didn't know anything about him, he could be anyone right? Yet she dismissed the thought. If there were books that could find wizards, surely there were books that could find Muggles. The wizarding world seemed less concerned with Muggle privacy that with their own at any rate. "I bet there are tons of books like that. There's bound to be something about him! We should check the library!"