Where My Demons Hide

Will fall under the guidance and supervision of the Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

This was just great. First all half-breeds were kicked out of Hogwarts because they weren't human and now any magical creatures that exist will have to be under the supervision of the Ministry? For what? So they can experiment or try to kill them off without anyone saying anything about it? Gee, that's fair isn't it? Of course it isn't, but that doesn't matter because no one cares about the opinion of someone who isn't more than a creature that is different from the humans.

"This is so stupid. Just what is the Ministry trying to get at?"

Dylan wasn't sure how badly this was going to affect him, but one thing was for sure, he wasn't going to allow the Ministry to take him in because he wasn't a human. He had every right to roam free, even if he was a magical creature. And so did everyone else who didn't completely have human blood in them. He sighed and put the newspaper he had been reading out in front of him, not wanting to read anymore. Life was hard enough when you couldn't even go back to the school that had supposedly been meant to keep you away from harm for the seven years that you were going to Hogwarts.

Honestly though, he wasn't all that worried about himself. He was more worried about Nessa and his son. He hadn't seen her in a few months and as much as he hated it, he couldn't get her out of his head. She was always on his mind and Dylan hated that he could barely get things done because she was always clouding his mind with her presence in it. He had tried to get her out at some point with another girl but it didn't help, it only made him think about her more and he'd decided to leave the other girl be. It obviously wasn't going to work out so why keep her hopes up? The Werewolf boy wanted Nessarose and though he might not admit it to her, he would more likely admit it to someone else, if he was pushed enough to.

He needed to find her. Dylan didn't care if she didn't want him near her, or if she would try to get away, he needed to find her and be near her. The seventeen year old wanted to keep her safe and he was going to even if she didn't want him to. He'd promised at some point, he thought, that he would always be around her to help her, even though the circumstances were different. All that mattered was that he was going to keep his promise one way or another. The only question was, how was he going to find her?

How embarrassing. Trisha blushed to her roots - only made more obvious by the color of her hair - and scooted across the mattress so she wasn't curled around Caspian anymore. It had been kind of funny the first time she had woken up with her head on his chest, and looked up in surprise. Of course, he had been awfully sweet about it, making it okay. But now it was just getting ridiculous. She didn't exactly intend to stay with him the first time, anyway. It had happened the night after Adrienne left to teach. After Kaiden went off to work. Everything had changed and Tris had been - understandably, she hoped - a bit lost.

But that habit had stuck with her. With them. And yet she was still embarrassed, over a week later. Shaking her head at her own shyness, Trisha sat up and glanced over at Caspian. At least they were actually under the blankets this time, rather than asleep sprawled across his bed. It wasn't as embarrassing, perhaps, as it would have been a month ago. But they had realized that they were potentially up for being arrested since they weren't expecting. Then everything had changed. She kept closer to him, and while she was a bit more outgoing with those at Bridget's house, she didn't seem to stop worrying about him while he was at his apprenticeship. Any day now, he could be arrested, and just not come home. And she wouldn't know.

But at least he hadn't been the sort to pressure her into things. Sure, they were in danger to an extent, but they both cared. It certainly made things more awkward, though, didn't it? Any interest in... those things would be debunked as deciding to go with the Ministry. Until the law was no longer looming over their heads, Trisha knew that it wouldn't matter how they felt in their hearts. It wouldn't matter that they wanted a forever. They were too young to be thinking about it, anyway. That didn't mean the Ministry hadn't brought it up. So it definitely didn't mean it wasn't in the backs of their minds most days.

Her gaze settled on Caspian again, and the hand closest to him reached out, brushing back the front pieces of his hair. "Wakey, wakey, sweetheart," Tris greeted with a bit of a sing-song tone, wondering silently if she would ever get tired of seeing him first thing each morning. Somehow, she rather doubted it. When he stirred, she added, "I'm hungry, so I'll see you downstairs, okay?"

Popping out of bed, Tris picked out clothes for the day before going into the bathroom to change. When she made her way downstairs, unfortunately, she found Dylan sitting there brooding. Or whatever it was that he did. Trisha may have understood his reasoning for most things, but that didn't mean that she really got along with him. Shooting him a fairly questioning gaze, Tris passed by the table to reach for the juice in the refrigerator. After a few moments of pouring herself a glass, though, she hesitated and looked at him again.

"I don't know if I actually want to ask, Dylan," she began slowly, turning towards him and tilting her head to the side, "but what's got you all wound up this time?"

His thoughts had been all over the place the previous night and when he was finally able to focus on one thing he had found himself thinking about Nessarose and wondered how she was. Needless to say, that night he didn't sleep at all. Which was why he was downstairs so early, his eyelids feeling slightly heavier than they should and it probably contributed to his bad mood. Not that he was ever in a good mood anymore.

The seventeen year old's thoughts drifted from Nessa for a moment when he looked up at the ceiling and he thought about Caspian for a second. He envied the other Ravenclaw. Not only did he always seem to be optimistic about everything, he had Trisha by his side and she didn't seem to want to leave any time soon. Caspian didn't want to leave her alone either. What he wouldn't give for that. Too bad that all he knew was how to mess up, considering he'd messed up pretty badly with the only girl he'd actually liked.

Dylan sighed, wondering when anyone else would wander downstairs. Hopefully they could get his mind off of her.

Meanwhile, Caspian still lay in bed, barely being bothered by Trisha's poking and speaking. He had felt her movement in the bed, but he barely reacted to it if he had at all. Finally her poking woke up him just enough so he'd stir and be able to register her words to him, responding with a sleepy, "Mm.." before she lifted herself from the bed. Caspian let out a yawn and turned over, returning to his slumber.

He'd always been a heavy sleeper, but this wasn't just his usual sleepiness. Caspian was exhausted, and he just wanted to sleep in a little more. With the work he had from both classes and his apprenticeship, he hadn't let himself get too much sleep lately. Now was one of his only chances to get the sleep back. He'd probably get up in a few minutes though, now that he had been woken up if only slightly.

Dylan continued to think, about Nessa and everything that had happened between them, about Caspian and Trisha, even Kaiden and Adrienne. When those two managed to get into his thoughts, he wasn't sure. He just knew that he was suddenly thinking about them. It seemed everyone around him was with who they loved and he was there alone, because he had been an idiot from the very beginning. He didn't even know anything about his son either.

His thoughts were suddenly cut short when a voice snapped him back to reality. He glanced up slightly to see Trisha standing before him. He blinked, thinking about how perfect her timing had been. He had just been thinking about her and Caspian and now she appeared, would Caspian follow shortly?

He quickly became defensive because of the first half of her sentence but he knew it wouldn't do him any good to snap at her. Dylan sighed and relaxed his shoulder, calming himself down. "I'm just worried." he murmured. "About Nessarose, I mean. I want to know if she's okay.." The redhead lowered his head so his hair fell into his face and covered his eyes. He'd started to blush after telling Trisha what he had and he didn't want her to see it.

Trisha could not claim she was surprised when Caspian decided to stay in bed and make up for the hours he had been missing. But she was truly, absurdly surprised when Dylan admitted to being worried. To being concerned. The boy rarely admitted to anything, nonetheless emotions that were nearly synonymous with fear. But she supposed that, if he had to be nervous about anyone, it made sense that it was Nessarose. She was supposed to be carrying his child, after all, and by now the baby would have been born.

But Dylan had no idea about whether or not the boy was alright.

So she couldn’t fault him, even though she so often wanted to. Truly, it wasn’t that Trisha disliked Dylan. She was just frustrated with his seeming ability to keep his life on track. Even she and Caspian had found a way to make things work. But the redhead could admit, though: his world had been torn up even more than hers had. And that was saying something, truly.

“Well…” she started, reluctant to poke at any problems he had for fear he would lash out. “Have you tried talking to her? Or writing to her? I’m sure you could convince her to let you visit her at Nate’s,” she added, completely forgetting about the fact that Dylan probably had not heard about Nathaniel yet.

Her eyes widened slightly, and her gaze flicked to the stairs, immediately hoping that Caspian would find his way downstairs. If he didn’t, of course, she knew she could handle it. But maybe if he did, Dylan wouldn’t become angry with her for hiding the information from him for so long.

Usually Dylan caught anything quickly. Any comment or action, whether it was good or bad, he was able to catch it quickly. So hadn't he been able to this time? Nessarose must have had him really messed up. That had to be it, considering he'd been acting almost completely different since she had left.

Finally though, Trisha's comment about "Nate" clicked in his head and his head shot up to look at her. "Nate? Who's that?" he asked, almost demanded, but he managed to keep his cool - just a little bit. And it was only because he'd noticed that Caspian was coming down the stairs and he knew that if he hurt Trisha, he'd be in a lot of trouble.

His hands curled into fists and he stared at Caspian as he came down the stairs. "Did you know about Nessa staying with someone?" he asked the other Ravenclaw before he even had a chance to greet him. It was obvious that Caspian was still half asleep, but he stiffened when the question registered. He glanced at Trisha but knew that Dylan would have found out eventually.

Caspian sighed, running a hand through his already messy hair and nodded. "Man, it's too early for this.." he stopped for a second. "But yeah, I knew." That had woken him up a little bit, knowing that Dylan could try to attack them because they kept an important secret from him. He knew how much Dylan had grown to care for Nessarose and as much as he hated keeping her whereabouts secret from him, he thought it had been the best thing to do.

"Dammit Caspian! Why didn't you tell me?!" Dylan exclaimed, jumping up from his seat, standing at eye level with his friend. "I need to see her, I want to know that she's okay.. That my son's okay.." he looked down, his hands still tightly curled. Caspian winced, the way his hands were curled looked painful.

"Calm down mate. It was the best thing to do. She needed time away from you. Besides, you wouldn't have been the best person to be near during a pregnancy. I mean, let's face it, you're kind of crazy." Caspian bit his lip, fearing he'd already said something to set Dylan off.

"I just.. want to see her.. Or at least hear from her.." the Werewolf whispered, his voice shaking like he was crying. Now that was something Caspian didn't think possible with the other boy, he always seemed like he didn't know what crying was. Or what any feelings were, really. Odd.

Within moments, Trisha found herself trapped in the middle of Caspian and Dylan's argument, and it was all she could do to just stare at them without interrupting. In the end, though, she had no choice. Caspian was looking uncomfortable, so she knew that something needed to be done. Stepping forward, she set her hand on his arm and decided it would be best to tell Dylan what she knew. At the very least, Nessa could choose to ignore his attempts to contact her. Trisha had a feeling that the Slytherin had figured herself out a little bit by now.

"Nate is a boy she grew up with. They have been friends for ages, Dylan. He's just giving her somewhere to stay during the mess with the Ministry going after magical creatures. It wasn't fair, obviously, and Nate wasn't going to leave her without a place to stay. I don't know that it's worth worrying about," Trisha explained.

Although it was technically true that Nessa had mentioned the potential of something romantic between herself and Nathaniel, it wasn't as though Trisha was going to jump to any conclusions or anger Dylan without due cause.

"If you want to reach her, try actually sending her a letter," she suggested, frowning at him from her spot beside Caspian. "If she wants to see you, she'll answer. Otherwise I can't help you. I don't know Nate's address. I think they moved recently, anyway, into his old home or something. Maybe she would agree to meet you somewhere."

Trisha shrugged and offered him a somewhat empathetic expression. She couldn't claim to feel very sorry for him, though, after what he had done to cause Nessarose's leaving.