Mourning After: Ameraid

[Lachlan Hollingworth]

Lachlan Hollingworth sat at the Ameraid table, hunched over and staring at the grain of the wood of the table. Though not many would be able to tell, he was wearing the clothes he had worn out to the Three Broomsticks the night before. He had such a good time that night, but it was all long forgotten in the wake of the tradgedy that befell the noble house of Ameraid. They were a house in mourning.

While some believed it was a gift, today the telepathic powers each Ameraid had felt like a curse. Every head was filled with the wailing sorrow of the others. Lachlan had not looked up for over an hour. He was tired, and he was running low on fuel, for he had not been to bed yet.

The night before, he had arrived back at the school in time to find them moving the body of Finneas Mark from the Entrance Courtyard. He had known the boy was dead as soon as he saw him, and instantly every Ameraid felt the shock and pain of the loss of a housemate.

Though Lachlan had been shaken, he had not allowed himself to grieve yet, he had been too busy fulfilling his prefect duties, consolling those Ameraids in younger year levels, trying to organise them back to their commonroom. It had not helped that the scene of the heinous crime had been just outside their fountain.

He had been the one to track down Andreas and take him to the office of Headmaster Emerindyl. His mind had been firmly closed, the pictures of the dead boys body hidden from sight of Andreas. It was not his duty to tell the boy, only to make sure he was safe from harm and taken to the right people.

After leaving, he had gone back to commonroom and tried to help people as much as he could. Lachlan could feel the grief creeping up on him again and again but repressed it each time as he helped out another Ameraid student.

The whole thing seemed to completely senseless. Nobody understood it, least of all him. It had guild of Avada written all over it, but what could be the reasoning behind this cold blooded murder? Had Finneas merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time. What was the point? It didn't make sense. He had thought the school to be safe.

It was only now, at the House table where every Ameraid was silent, that he allowed the news to fully sink in. He rested his head on the table, his arms carefully concealing his face, the only outward sign of grief the slight shake his body gave sometimes, or the small sniff sound that was only audible to those sitting right beside him.

He had looked after everyone else all night, and it was time for him to grieve a little for the loss of one of his own.

[Allora Thunder]

Allora was trembling with grief. She was leaning into the nearest Ameraid, not knowing who he was or even if he didn’t mind, though she was sure whoever he was he would understand. She could feel his hand rubbing her shoulder and for a moment she didn’t mind that normally she was in no such contact with others in her house. She had long since closed off her mind to those others in her house. She was grieving far too much to be able to handle the impact that permeated through the hall from others that possessed her ability.

It was not a matter of knowing Finnias, she suspected. Everyone was lost to a world of darkness by the knowledge that one of their own, someone who was likened to a brother to many of them; having been cut down in his youth, never again to walk the ancient corridors of the castle and share with them the multitude of knowledge that the experience of life imparted to him.

Allora had known Finnias for some time. He had been in the same grade as her and they shared many classes. She knew he had a younger brother, and though she hadn’t had anything to do with him, she knew his name was Andreas and suddenly thought how he might feel right now. A new wave of grief spread over her as she clutched the shirt of the boy she was crying on and continued to sob into his chest.

Allora did not understand how this was possible. So many things had occurred that she would have thought were improbably, but a student being murdered on school grounds by the Guild of Avada… that surely was impossible. [/I]Obviously not…[/I] she thought to herself as she felt the tears pouring warm from her eyes and upon the boy whom she still was not sure she knew.

The Ameraid link was definitely a hindrance in this time of mourning. They were all connected by their psychic abilities, and though they might all try to block it out, about the best they could do would be to block out individual thoughts. Feelings could never be dismissed so easily.