Another girl in the house

Rise lay on Ariel's bed a long time after he had gotten up and left for the morning. For some reason it had just become a natural thing for them to sleep in the same bed. He was her 'creator' after all. It was as though she had been asleep before now, and suddenly she had been awoken when she had been put in that car and found herself in front of his home. Now she saw the world with a lot more clarity, and depth then ever before, and it was almost scary in a way. Everything was not how she viewed it.

Rise compared the feeling with waking up in the morning, and realizing the at the sky wasn't actually blue, it was just a reflection from the oceans that made it appear blue. Suddenly you couldn't look at the sky the same way before, because now, you saw it as it actually was, and there was no barrier in your own mind, that tried to convince yourself that the sky was blue of it's own accord. With this thought, Rise stood up and went to the window, pulling aside the curtain and peering out carefully, her mind almost half expecting that instead of a blue sky she saw, it would be green, or purple. But all she saw was a relatively clear day, some clouds floated overhead, it was cold outside, and a soft power of snow lay over the features of the little rural area she had been dumped in.

Rise closed the curtains again and with a slow movement, looked down at her clothes. She was wearing only boxer shorts and a baggy t-shirt, and the first things he wanted to do, was get some pants on. So without really caring what she saw, she went over to Ariel's dresser and started to dig through it, finally, she managed to extract some sweat pants. Pulling them on quickly, she felt much better being fully clothed, and decided that now that she wasn't as weak and wearisome, she wanted to check out the house, she'd save downstairs for when she was ready to deal with people, but for now, she could wander around upstairs and see everything there was to see, because as of that moment, Rise only knew what the bathroom and Ariel's bedroom looked like.

With rather slow movements, all precise and coordinated, Rise moved to the door and opened it carefully. She stuck her head out, and frowned, looking both ways, before she tugged up the t-shirt with an exaggerated movement, for it had dipped rather low, and was revealing her wound there. Rise closed the door behind her, and taking a slow deep breath, moved away from his room and heading into the depths of the upstairs, away from the stairs and into the section where more bedrooms were, and more of a chance to meet someone in the house that she hadn't met before.

Naomi had been very fragile in the beginning, clinging to her brother whenever he was home like a lifeline, even if she did act tough about it. But if he left, she felt confused and lost and scared and she felt as though the walls might close in, that Hershal may appear and grab her, that Aurors with gaping wounds would return to seek their revenge.

But as time wore on, she realized she was free. She was a seventeen year old girl that did not have to go to school, that was being taken care of and fed and boarded for free, that was free to do whatever the hell she wanted so long as she had the proper disguise. Her one qualm was that Felix was still not with her. But she was doing what she could to retrieve her.

She was not sure how much Ari knew of her life. He was busy and she had found ways to keep herself busy, mainly with the Death Eaters. She had also taken to haunting the Hog's Head, hooded and listening for any clues as to what to do next, who to hurt, who to seek help from. She grew more and more detached from the world and the people in it. She was of one mind now. Destroy Order. Help Death Eaters. Save Felix.

Thaor seemed to be good to her. He did not hurt her like he did the others, he seemed to like her actually. She did not mind the old man at all. He could only be of use to her. She was not sure what Ari would think if he knew all her time was spent in the company of older men and Death Eaters. And Hyde of course. She seemed to understand Hyde and he her more than she and her own half brother did.

On this particular morning, she had been out all night at the Hog's Head and then Knockturn Alley, trying to get any information she could. She had crawled into her window moments before the sun had raised. She got ten minutes of sleep tops before jumping into the shower and getting ready for a new day following leads that may save Felix or bring down the Order.

She was fully dressed, though her hair resembled that of a mountain troll's to be honest. She had the usual charcoal colored make up but her eyes were dead to everything around her. There was necklace around her neck, a ring on her finger though she would not be able to explain either. Hyde had been let out to hunt on his own accord, only ever showing up to assure Naomi he was alive and she was too. That was their relationship and it was the most loving one either had at the moment.

Naomi moved into the hallway after summoning up a cup of coffee and turned the corner, sipping it, and saw a girl coming down the hallway. Her eyes narrowed and she lowered the mug, stopping. She let her eyes slowly drag up and down the girl, giving her a distastefulness once-over. This was not like Ari, bringing girls home. And it irritated her. This girl had just had a playful romp, she could assume. She should have been up and about. Naomi had been out all night, risking her life, doing dangerous things, had slept maybe ten minutes, and she was ready to go out into the world, save for her poofed hair. She jerked her chin. "Who are you?"

Rise glanced down the hall, and froze in her tracks when a girl stepped out from one of the rooms. A sister? Relative? Wife? A million thoughts flew through her head, before she finally settled on relative, there were close resemblances between Ariel and this girl, and it was obvious that they were either cousins or siblings, they had to much in common not to be. She was sipping coffee as she left her bedroom, and Rise felt herself standing a bit straighter, every move well calculated ahead of time, in case she gave off the wrong meaning. When the girl spoke, Rise felt herself quiver and for a moment, she almost felt... afraid of this girl. Her hair was wild and messed up, as though she had just crawled out of bed, even though she was fully dressed. Rise had frozen, in her spot, taking in the girl who was looking her up and down.

"I'm... I'm Rise." She said and cleared her throat slightly. How long had it been since she had spoken to someone besides Ariel and Fenrir Greyback? To long.. but now there was this girl, who was staring at her like she was a piece of trash. "I'm.. I'm a friend of Ariel's." She said softly, as she surveyed the girl in front of her, finally she decided it would be better to make it clear that she hadn't just had sex with Ariel, so she very softly added. "His father introduced us... I've been here for a day or so..." She said, his voice very light, but her tone firm. Every movement with her eyes was thought out in advance as she took in this girl.

She was obviously older then Rise, by a couple of years, maybe just out of Hogwarts, or maybe it was a break of some kind at school. Rise let her features relax a bit, and she smiled at the girl. "What's your name?" She asked softly, her voice half sounding like she wasn't really expecting an answer. It wasn't that unoften that people would ask her name, and then just walk right past her as though she was just smoke. It always reminded her of that broadway song, Mr. Cellophane. In the song, he had grown up, and no one could ever remember him. They would talk and walk right past him, as though he wasn't even there, and one day, he came home from school to discover that his parents had forgotten about him.. and moved. Rise of course hadn't had it to that extreme, but sometimes she certainly felt like poor Mr. Cellophane, who merely wanted someone to look directly at him, and talk to him, without forgetting him the next moment.

Naomi watched the girl. She was a pup. Nothing more. She put her at fourteen or fifteen, and she could tell she was Hufflepuff. Who else would quake there so? A Gryffindor would have been more obnoxious, a Slytherin more suave, a Ravenclaw would have already answered. Only a Hufflepuff would stare so wide eyed and terrified. The girl had no idea what could really shake a person up. Naomi had grown to dislike weak people and this girl was not faring well under her heavily-lidded, overly judgmental gaze.

"Rise?" she repeated, tasting the name on her tongue critically, her face displacing the same disgust. It was nothing against Rise, but humans in general disgusted Naomi. She felt her eyes travel across the girl again and saw that the girl had straightened up and become more self conscious, which would have made any smart ass smirk, but Naomi was drained, a cyborg with one mission, her mind reduced closely to that of a psychopaths. Humans were not human, they were tools to be used to get what she wanted. She was simply calculating Rise's worth and potential.

"Friend?" she said knowingly. Rise explained and Naomi raised her eyes. "Ah, Daddy. So did he finally pick out Ari's mate? Better than any of the filth at the school, I suppose. One of the family now?" Naomi still had not had the honor of being bitten, though she would be arranging that at the next full moon. Ari was a screw up as the family heir. She could do it. And she would. "Looks like I'll be your half sister-in-law." She did not want to answer Rise's question until she was sure she would not tattle. Then again, Naomi now knew how to keep a person quiet... "I'm Naomi."

Rise could feel her face flushing under this girl's critical gaze. She was feeling extremely odd standing there in Ariel's oversized t-shirt and sweat pants, her hair was a mess from sleep, and she knew she probably looked like she had just gotten out of bed with Ariel and in fact she had, of course the most touching that had happened, was to their bites, because he was her master now, and she felt slightly in awe of him. And now here was this girl... who was looking her up and down, giving her a very critical look that made her feel very nervous and obviously she looked slightly afraid, mostly because she had no idea what to expect from the Greyback family, she had been kidnapped by one, bitten by another.. what would this girl do to her? She had no idea.

When she said something about him getting a mate, her eyes went wide. "Oh.. no no no! I'm not his.. I mean to say... I barely know.. I mean.." She stuttered for a second, before she straightened herself up and looked at her again. "I"m not his mate... He bit me.." she said softly, and pulled down her shirt very carefully to show the mark that sat there in a very peculiar place, right between her breasts. Not that her breasts were very large or anything, and the way she pulled the shirt down didn't show anything but the large bite mark that lay there like a precise cut.

"If that is what that means.. I guess that's what it is.. but he bit me... and that is that..." She said softly, and her eyes looked her over. "Well it is nice to meet you Naomi.. I guess you are Ariel's sister right?" She asked softly, her eyes landing on Naomi's hair, and she wasn't quite sure what to make of it, it looked as though someone had tried to comb it with a porcupine, and when that hadn't worked, they had let the birds make a nest in it.. it wasn't tangled, it was just.. crazy. Not that Rise's was any better, her hair was kind of stringy from not having cleaned it in months, and it lay around her shoulders, almost looking wet, even though it wasn't, and it gave her the appearance of having been drowned recently, what with her pale skin and large eyes, she could have been dead. The wound on her chest didn't help matters any, and she knew she had plenty of bruises and cuts and scars on her face and she looked like a torture victim.

Definitely a Hufflepuff. The girl got much too frazzled at the simplest of comments. Sure, Naomi was insinuating a lot, but it could have been cleared up a lot more smoothly. But the girl had taken it personally, had gotten embarrassed. It made Naomi wryly wonder if one of the two had affections for the other that was not returned, bite or not.

And it was a knarly bite and Naomi could not help but feel a little angry. She could be the perfect heiress for her father. Whatever rotten feelings remained between her father and her mother prevented Naomi from being Daddy's favorite like Ariel. Even though Naomi knew she was the one that had the cruelty to do what Fenrir needed done. Ariel was a good brother, but he was soft.

Naomi shrugged, "If Fenrir wanted you bitten, that may be his intent. Doesn't mean it's Ari's." She watched Rise's face for her reaction to this, that Ariel may not want her as a mate. She was curious to know what this girl wanted from her brother. "And that's right. Half. Daddy wasn't a firm believer in commitment, y'know?" She shrugged, pulling out some gum and chewing it.

Rise watched the girl carefully, she could have sworn she had seen this girl before, but she had no idea how she would have. Rise may be observant in some things, but she would think she'd remember a girl with such a wild tangle of hair like that. "I don't know the reasons behind the bite.. but I guess that's what it was.. I haven't talked to Ariel about that anyway." She said softly, her eyes watching Naomi for a long moment, still trying to place the Greyback in her mind. The name was so familiar! The face.. everything about this girl made Rise think of something that had happened not to long ago, but she still couldn't place it, maybe it was because she was tired, or was still healing from the events from the last few months, but whatever it was, it was killing her to find out.

Rise watched when the girl pulled out some gum, and then bit her lower lip. "So, you are only.. half?" She asked softly, frowning. "Does that mean you turn? Or.. or... is it just different? I mean, does it affect you at all? Do you know how it works?" She asked, getting carried away with her questions. She had no idea what to expect from being a Werewolf. Sure she had studied them some, knew how to identify them, stuff like that, but they had never really been.. studied, so it was hard to know anything about their transformations, how it worked, if it hurt, all of the specifics were lost due to not enough interest in that field. Rise bit her lip and looked down at her feet. "I'm sorry.. it's just... I'm very newly bitten.. I have no idea what to expect.. I haven't transformed yet.." She said softly, her eyes looking up at Naomi a bit sadly.

Naomi watched the girl disinterestedly, as though she was very bored and had paused to watch an ant's trek across her path, though she knew in the end she would end up squashing it anyway. She blinked a few times, watching the girl, trying to read her expression and any telltale signs. She wanted to know what this girl wanted, what this girl was after. Everyone wanted something, had their own selfish motivations that she knew were always against her. It was just a matter of figuring it out.

The girl began to ask questions, and with each question, her rate of speaking seemed to double and Naomi raised her eyebrows, chewing her gum more and more slowly until she stopped altogether. She put up a hand and bowed her head slightly to indicate that she really did not want to hear that much out of the girl and it was time she shut her mouth.

"I'm half and that means I don't transform. But I can understand werewolves and I get irritable at the full moon. I'm drawn to the werewolves to." She scowled slightly. "Daddy never thought to bite me. I don't know if he knew I existed for awhile. But we all make mistakes," she said a little mysteriously. "I don't know what to tell you. I'm getting breakfast though." She pushed past the girl and went down to the kitchen to make herself a bowl of cereal.

Rise looked at her for a long moment. At least she got her answers, but this girl looked very irritable, upset almost at her, and seemed rather... angry. As she brushed past her, Rise's eyes went wide. "Wait!" She said and spun around. "I knew I recognized you! Naomi Greyback! The girl that was kidnapped by Barker!" She said her eyes wide. "You disappeared off the face of the world after he got captured!" She said, her eyes glued to Naomi's back, as she took a few hesitant steps towards her. "You're pictures are all over the newspapers! Why haven't you come out of hiding? Tell them all that he took you! Why.. why are you hiding?" She asked, her voice getting softer, stopping before she got to the top of the stairs.

She wasn't sure what had happened with this girl any more then the next person, and never had she actually imagined that she would find her here at her own home, living with her brother. Of course a few months ago she hadn't thought she'd be kidnapped, bit, and thrown into the Greybacks lives so harshly it nearly hurt to think about it. "What are you doing Naomi? What's.. going on?" She asked softly, taking another hesitant step towards her. "Barker is gone.. you are free.. and yet.. you.. you are still in hiding." She said her eyes wide as she looked at her carefully.

Naomi almost winced as she walked away, almost hesitated, stopped in her tracks, turned around, and faced the girl. But Naomi had become accustomed to these sort of situations and she just kept walking as though she had not heard Rise, or as though she simply did not care. Rise followed her down the hall but stopped short of stairs, leaving Naomi free to step into the kitchen.

She pulled out a box of cereal and some milk, summoning up a bowl and pouring both into her bowl, before fishing a spoon out of the silverware drawer. She sat down and took a first bite of the cereal, nodded her approval, and continued on. Rise asked what Naomi was doing, and it hurt somewhere inside as she heard Felix's name again. She took another bite and said, with her mouth full, "Ea'in'." She swallowed. "That's what I'm doing. I'd suggest you stop asking dumb questions and eat." She pointed her wand towards the fridge and the milk and cereal began to pour itself into another bowl.