Azalea Murray
Head of Slytherin
Posts : 664
Birthday : 1993-08-13
Join date : 2018-01-11
Location : Hogwarts or Surrey mostly
Job/hobbies : Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts
 | | Subject: A Dance With Demons On A High Wire (closed) Mon Jan 03, 2022 4:33 pm | |
| If Azalea had thought that her workload would be lightened after dinner, she was sadly mistaken. Once the sorting was over and students had tucked into their meal, the witch tried for opportunities to speak to Jake but non presented themselves. Her own seat right next to Adelaide assured her attention was mostly focused on the redhead or the students while Jake sat to the far right, in line with his house table.
"Harvey, as you can imagine, couldn't make it to the celebration. To be frank, neither could I but my schedule has a little room. I'm told your child having a child is an important occasion."
"I'm sure the Minister regrets nothing more," Azalea replied politely, internally very certain there were a vast umber of things Minister Specter regretted more than missing the christening of his first grandchild from an estranged daughter. Azalea had never met Autumn Goshawk-Baker but she was given to understand the husband was American, enough said.
The conversation continued until dinner was over and then it was up to prefects to guide their housemates back, especially the first years. Both Jake and Azalea rose as one to help while other teachers like Amanda and Eros were slower to leave their seats. In the end, it only took half an hour for the children to form orderly lines and be walked back to their respective houses, Azalea making sure to give the first year Hufflepuffs a warm smile as they headed towards the cellars. "You guys are the lucky ones," she quipped as Mariah lead them carefully while counting heads. "You're right next to the kitchens, though you didn't hear that from me." She thought she saw Mathew Parker perk up at that but Ivan's face remained much the same.
She hoped he would be in better spirits tomorrow after enduring a difficult sorting. As the Deputy Headmistress watched the back of her son's head disappear, she had no choice but to hope things would improve.
However, there was no time to stand and hope as the new Slytherins were up next, being lead by Nikolai and Mimosa. The witch greeted the taller Slytherin first as she hadn't had the opportunity to talk to him before and then congratulated Mimosa for taking on her duties even though she was technically exempt from them for the year. in response, Mimosa merely pointed out that she had to do them if they were to be done right, making Azalea smile. The very back of the line was brought up by Mariel Weatherby and Lilac Capulet, something that was no surprise. Mariel would eventually get comfortable and Lilac... As for as Azalea knew, the girl was a loner by nature.
Once all the children were accounted for, Amanda needed help redoing her lesson plan now that the birds were out for the count. And as Deputy, it was Azalea's job to go through and approve all lessons to be taught. Which meant she would not be able to leave with Jake to pick up Adrienne from Clara's. The witch had to tell him as much hurriedly in one of the corridors when she was finally able to give him a few minutes.
"Don't worry, I got her," he assured the brunette with a quick kiss before whispering in her ear. "Nice dress by the way."
The compliment made her shudder but it must have been hard to notice because the next moment, Jake was walking away, a purposeful gleam in his eye, letting her know he had not forgotten about the promise from earlier.
After her conversation with Jake, Azalea had returned to Amanda to ask what the little blonde witch needed and the Charms Professor had needed a lot. Not having any of her books with her, she needed access to the library which required Grayson's help. Then she needed to clear up her office which was about as organised as she was. It took Azalea another hour to help the witch clean up and sort before Amanda could sit down to plan the last minute lesson.
Azalea left her to it, knowing it would take at least another hour for the Charms Professor to do so. She then walked up to the Headmistress's tower to report the issue before coming back down to help patrol the corridors with Odysseus. The Grecian was both pleasant company and intimidating enough to send any wayward student scurrying back to their common rooms. At this point it was becoming clear to Azalea she would not be home before midnight, well after Adrienne had gone to sleep.
And true to her assumption, Amanda completed her work at half past midnight, which had given Azalea plenty of time to call Jake and update him on the situation. She had insisted she would sleep at the school tonight and return home to have breakfast with their daughter before the two of them headed out to work again. Jake had sounded a little put out but not at her, rather the situation. Still, the brunette felt guilty as she hung up, knowing that the day had not gone as either of them had planned.
***
It was past one thirty when Azalea finally made it to her quarters, so exhausted now that the green dress didn't even bother her as she peeled it off her body and stepped into the hot shower. Of course, all her trunks had magically appeared with all her belongings in tact. The witch neither had the energy to be scared nor enraged as she let the hot water soak her body. There would be a plan to handle this intrusion upon her privacy tomorrow. Tonight, she just needed her potion to go into a dreamless sleep.
Deciding not to bother with a nightgown, the witch slid into her warm bed clad only in her towel, taking a small sip of the vial by her bedside. It worked almost instantaneously and she was asleep before her head hit the pillow.
Azaleas's eyes opened to a receding darkness.
It was pitch back when she realized she was conscious but the darkness was slowly parting to reveal a figure ahead. Expecting to find herself as she had gone to sleep, lying on her back, the witch was surprised to feel herself standing. As her awareness grew, she noticed she was still as she had been, hair wet from the shower and only wrapped in a simple white towel that barely reached her knees.
The light seem to be originating from the figure ahead.
"Is this a dream?" she wondered out loud and despite her only having whispered it, the sound carried.
"Not quite," a familiar voice reverberated back to her. The figure growing bigger as it drew closer now.
It had been a few months, but Azalea would know that soft, dangerous tone anywhere.
"Joshua."
"A-Azalea."
Chills swept over the witch as if a sudden gust of wind had blown over her bare body. But there was no wind here. Just an empty void and her.
And Joshua Murray coming steadily closer.
The witch tried to take a step back but she was frozen in place, she couldn't move, couldn't run, even if she had somewhere to run too.
His face became clearer as he approached, the same, pale, cold indifference she had once mistaken for professionalism, the hungry gaze she had once found so much empowerment in, the shiver up her spine that had tried to warn her form the very beginning that Joshua Murray was not who he claimed to be.
"Why am I here," she managed, trying to sound brave but not fooling anyone, least of all the man who now stood only a step way from her. The blond didn't respond, instead reaching out to lay a soft finger on her cheek, stroking the skin as if it was of the finest velvet.
"I have missed you, my A-Azalea," his tone was soft but absolutely powerful, as if even the Gods couldn't challenge his statement or authority in this world. Despite wanting to, Azalea couldn't move, couldn't break that contact. The witch had never associated a snake with something vulnerable until she had seen the charmers with their flutes. That was exactly what she was now, a prey charmed into stone by a predator.
"You didn't dress before bed?" he asked amused and the witch held on to her towel tighter. Surely he couldn't do anything to her here, in her own dreams.
Wake up, she berated herself internally as his fingers moved from her cheek to slide down towards her shoulder. Wake up, wake up, wake the fuck up!
"You can't wake up from a forced sleep, A-Azalea," Josh murmured, withdrawing his hand from her. She felt the change almost instantly. Instead of the rough towel nearly cutting off her blood circulation for how tightly she held it to herself, she was now swathed in silks, a lavender gown that would not have looked out of place at any high society event. The wet, stringy locks of brown were now blow dried to perfection and twisted into an elegant chignon on the base of her neck. Jewelry had appeared to adorn her hair,, throat, arms and ankles, the most prominent being the diamond that rested on her left ring finger. "You have to wait it out."
He was right though, Azalea had forced herself to go to sleep using a potion, now she would have to wait for the potion to wear off before she could wake up again.
Which meant she was here with Joshua for now.
His to dress up, and do with as he liked.
"H-how are you here?" she managed weakly as the space around them lightened even more, revealing details that looked very much like the Murray bedroom she remembered all too well.
"Didn't I promise I would always find you?" he answered simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the word. Closing the distance between them, he leaned forwards, brushing his lips softly to her forehead, the sensation making her want to run and hide, to scrub her skin raw, to strangle him with her bare hands.
But she couldn't move. All she could do was stand where she was as his lips moved lower, gliding across her ear.
"I promised you I would never leave you... And I keep my word, A-Azalea."
It was then that she realized, there was no point in resisting.
***
The witch woke up at four in the morning, her face wet with tears she couldn't explain and her body hunched over itself. The pain of sobs in her throat was obvious though she didn't remember crying and the first thing she had instinctively done was to wrap herself in several blankets on top of the towel to bring about a sense of security that was now far too late.
An hour later, numb and unsure of why she was so miserable, Azalea would drag herself out of bed. She would take another shower, scrubbing herself row despite not finding any dirt or marks on her person and then would dress in jeans and a dark turtleneck without turning on the lights, afraid of what they would reveal. She would leave her quarters in the dark and make her way out towards the school gates where her car would be waiting to take her home.
And to the safety of Jake and Adrienne and a normal breakfast.
She would not remember the dream.
Until it happened again.
________________________________________________ | |
|
The Administrator
Posts : 1364
Join date : 2015-12-20
| | Subject: Re: A Dance With Demons On A High Wire (closed) Mon Jan 03, 2022 4:52 pm | |
| | |
|
