Escape

Elisabeth couldn't believe what Nathan had done to her, she trusted him, and he kissed some other girl, completely breaking her trust. She didn't care what the ministry had said anymore, she wasn't going to continue being married to him, not after what he did to her. She was no longer Elisabeth Finch-Fletchley, she'd go to the ministry if she had to to have her maiden name back legally. After confining herself to her Dorm room, leaving only for classes, for a few weeks, she decided she needed to get away from the school, and she went off grounds, and made her way to a park in London she used to visit with her family. 

As soon as Elisabeth got to the park, she essentially transfigured herself into her animagus form, a tabby cat. She ran through the forest and didn't stop until she reached a small clearing, she could be alone here, though she wasn't sure how long she could stay in her animagus form without fear of some of her feline features staying with her. For now she sat in the middle of the clearing, watching the various aspects of nature she didn't experience when she wasn't in her animagus form.

Lately, things hadn't been going well for Bartolo. Well, friend-wise it wasn't. Ross and Cameron hadn't been getting along for some reason and Bartolo was caught in the middle of it, trying to find a way to get them to make up. But his plans had only backfired and he was now being forced to choose between them. He couldn't choose. Honestly, what was the point? He didn't want to hurt either of them and the best way was to stay out of the conflict, whatever it could be. But they weren't letting him stay out of it and he didn't know what to do.

He hated being caught in conflict like this. And he had probably made it worse when he'd called it a Lover's Quarrel. They really hadn't liked that, though that was exactly what it seemed like.

He didn't even want to think about "love" or anything like that because he knew that Cameron was still trying to get at him even though he'd turned her down. She wasn't thinking straight, he decided, because she still wanted Ross but at the same time she wanted him to be jealous that she was moving on. Even though she wasn't doing a very good job at it. Ross was having better luck, he was going out on dates and other things while she stated at home, waiting like a puppy waits for it's owner.

Bartolo finally had enough during one of their disputes and he had finally exploded in them. He wasn't going to choose anyone, and he wasn't going to help them resolve with problems, they had to do it themselves. He'd made sure to make that clear and he'd walked out of the apartment, hoping some time alone without him would be good for them. He knew it would be good for him.

He walked to a park near the apartment and when he went to the usual spot where he went, that somehow reminded him of the spot near the lake at Hogwarts, he spotted a tabby cat sitting there looking like it was just taking in the scenery. The forest that the park led into was beautiful but everyone was too scare to venture too far into it, which he really didn't understand. He stepped closer to the cat, his favorite animal, and he stuck his hand out making clicking noises to see if he could get its attention.

Elisabeth turned her head instinctively when she heard clicking noises behind her, there was a man, who apparently thought she was an actual cat, she tried to say something, but it came out more like a 'Mrowp' instead. She wasn't sure if this man was a muggle or not, so she couldn't just transform out of her animagus form right away, though she was afraid of getting stuck. 

For now, Elisabeth resolved to play along, at least until she could tell whether or not the man was a muggle, perhaps if he was a wizard she could catch a glimpse of his wand, or something similar. She slowly padded over towards the man, going towards his hand, as an actual cat would, most likely to be petted, she wasn't very fond of being petted, but she was a cat right now, wasn't she? 

Elisabeth decided to try out a theory, she'd play along, then at just the right moment, she'd change her feline eyes into human eyes, well partially human at least. The man's reaction would determine whether or not he was a wizard, or at least she hoped so. 

Continuing with her 'play along' plan, Elisabeth tried to speak again, which came out in another cat noise rather than actual words. If her theory didn't work out, she'd have to run away from the man and change so she didn't get stuck.

The worst possible scenario would be if the man mistook her for a stray and actually brought her home with him, she'd have no idea what to do if that happened. She'd probably get expelled from the school or something if she never came back, this was a bad idea, but it was too late, she had already started towards the man, and at this point there was no going back.

((OOC: Animagus appearance for reference: 

Tabby Cat:

))

There was something odd about the cat. Bartolo could tell it wasn't an ordinary cat as it walked toward him. Having been around cats his entire life, he knew when something was wrong with them. And now that he'd been able to learn about witches and wizards, and how they could turn into animals, he was one of them, he knew than it was entirely possible that this cat could be a witch or a wizard.

But it had started to play along with him, and he was about to just leave his doubts behind when he thought that this cat might actually be a person. His hand was still extended toward her, and when she reached it he placed his hand on her head. He was going to try something, and he hoped he wouldn't seem like an idiot for talking to an actual cat like it was a person.

"You know, you can turn back into your human form whenever you want." He told her, looking away at the trees that surrounded them. "I'm the only one here, so you don't have to worry about any muggles seeing you turn back. He didn't want to feel weird by petting the cat if she was a human because then he'd just seem odd. If she wasn't a human then he would continue doing whatever he had originally intended to do with the cat. Probably just play around with it a little bit until it decided that it wanted to leave.

[ooc: sorry it's short :/]

Elisabeth involuntarily purred as the man petted her head, which she wasn't totally happy about, she had never really purred before, and it felt foreign, then again she had never really been touched by a human while in her animagus form. 

Elisabeth was relieved when the man spoke up, he was a wizard, which meant she could change back, meaning she wouldn't get stuck as a cat forever. Elisabeth nodded, still in her animagus form, to show she understood him, and backed away, transfiguring herself into her human form when she got far enough away.

Elisabeth approached the man again, "Sorry," she apologized softly, "I couldn't be sure whether or not you were a muggle, and the ministry would probably kill me if someone saw me." she continued, "I'm Elisabeth, Elisabeth Finch-Fletchley." she introduced herself, saying her acquired last name with disgust, "Soon to hopefully be Elisabeth North again." she sighed, looking down at the wedding ring that essentially bound her to that last name.

((OOC: It's okay, I understand, there's not much to go off of with a cat that can't speak))

Bartolo watched as the cat turned into a girl and he looked her over once she was completely transfigured back into her human form. He smiled gently at the girl and answered, "It's alright. I probably would have done the same thing." His voice was laced with a Spanish accent. He cleared his throat as she introduced herself and when she said her name, he couldn't help but look at her with curiosity.

She didn't seem like she liked the name and he wondered why. Maybe it was just the name of a family member she didn't like. But then she said that she would hopefully be North again, and he assumed that she had been married, or was currently married to someone she didn't like. The way she said it though, made it seem like she was hurt about something and he couldn't help but want to know why she seemed to feel like that.

"Don't like your husband?" he asked softly, curiosity showing in his eyes. For a twenty-seven year old, he seemed like he was a teenager again, wanting to know about everything.

Suddenly something clicked and he remembered the marriage law. "Oh wait. You're part of the marriage law thing going on right now, correct?" he asked her. He knew she had seemed too young to be married. He assumed that she couldn't be older than seventeen years old. Which only meant that she was married because of the law that the Ministry had recently put into place.

Elisabeth nodded, sighing slightly as she did so, "I walked in on him kissing some other girl. He was really the only person I trusted outside of my family, and after breaking my trust like that, I just...couldn't handle it." She explained, glancing down slightly.

Elisabeth looked back up when the man mentioned the marriage law, "Yeah, at first I didn't really mind it, I doubted I'd ever find anyone else who actually would like me, but I can see that still holds true now." She explained, she didn't really know why she was being so open with this man, considering most of the time she didn't talk at all, but she figured it was because she needed to get the weight of the issue of her chest at some point.

Elisabeth shifted her weight so she was leaning on her left leg, "What did you say your name was again?" She asked, realizing she still didn't know the mans name, which seemed a bit unfair considering he knew hers.

"That sounds bad."

He wasn't sure what else to say to her. It was terrible to walk in on your spouse kissing someone else. Bartolo didn't know how that felt exactly, since he hadn't ever had that happen to him. In fact he didn't really date much at all. He had probably had two girlfriends, maybe three, in his entire life and that had never happened to him. Things had just not worked out between them and that was why they always went their separate ways.

"Don't say that." he told her. "There's someone out there that will love and care about you a lot. You just probably haven't met him yet." He tried to explain. "Or maybe you have and you just never paid too much attention to it?" he said, half as a question. It was entirely possible that she had already met the person who she would love and would love her and she just hadn't paid attention to him. He could have probably been friend-zoned and she probably didn't even realize that had happened.

She asked what his name was and he almost face palmed himself. "Oh sorry." he said, wondering how it was that he hadn't introduced himself. "I'm Bartolo De Leon." he told her, his Spanish accent coming out again in his name.

Elisabeth shrugged "I don't really have very many friends, I tend to be....awkward in conversation, or really most social situations. I'm not usually this straightforward when I talk to people." She explained.

Elisabeth nodded, "Nice to meet you Bartolo." She said softly. "I really wish I could just get away from all of this Ministry stuff, they expect me to have had a child within a year of my marriage." She explained, "I don't want to be pregnant with a kid my seventh year of school, especially with someone who clearly doesn't love me, not to mention the fact that it'd take away from my studies." She vented.

Elisabeth felt really bad that she was unloading this all on Bartolo, he didn't deserve to be ranted to. "I'm sorry, I should stop ranting to you, it's not your fault all of this happened." She apologized, glancing down slightly. She glanced back up, "Do you mind if we sit on the grass?" She asked, "Transfiguring in and out of my Animagus form tends to take up a lot of my strength." She explained.

"You shouldn't have to. The Ministry shouldn't be forcing you to have a child when you don't want to. Things have to happen on their own, but apparently they don't understand that." he said. Bartolo was still new to all of this. He had gone on a trip to Spain for half the year and he hadn't known about the new law until recently. He was glad that he wasn't involved in it, being that he was Spanish, but he felt bad for people like Elisabeth that couldn't get out of it.

He immediately began to feel protective. He hadn't even known this girl for more than an hour and he was already feeling protective of her. She seemed to upset about the entire thing, including the husband she had been stuck with, and he felt like he had to comfort her somehow. The only problem was - he didn't know how to do that. It would be a lot easier to comfort her, if he knew things about her.

She began to apologize and Bartolo shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Sometimes we just need someone to vent to. A lot of the time, strangers are good to vent to, they can become friends. And if they don't, you'll never have to see them again." He explained. The way he spoke about that, made it clear that Bartolo was someone who lived an almost carefree life. He didn't care about little things and only focused on the major things surrounding his life and the changes that those things brought.

"Sure." he smiled at her and sat down on the grass at her request of it. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to her about anything, since he wasn't in the same position as she was but he figured he should at least try to get her off the topic to make her happy for a moment. At least. "So.. What's it like seeing the world through a cat's eyes?" he asked lamely.