I Need Another Story (Darcy)

The Clocktower had always been Ryland's favorite hiding spot; the one place he could always go to and not give a damn about anything or anyone else. It was getting very close to the end of the year, and Ryland wasn't very sure he'd taken his job seriously. Quitting would be a good option. One of the reasons he'd taken the job was because he'd always loved the animals, and he'd figured that since it was Elita's last year he could watch out for her during the pregnancy. It all seemed strange, to walk around the hallways and see her with a belly the size of a basketball, and know that it wasn't his. Something inside of him, somewhere in the deep part of his chest where his always-broken heart was, he wanted Lucas to be his. Really his.

But now that Lucas was born, and actually looked somewhat like Ryland, it was even easier to lie to people. Surely, they must see the resemblance. Had Lucas been Asian or of any other ethnicity, then it would have made the lying almost impossible. Ryland wore some regular jeans and a blue tee, and he looked like a professor now, thanks to the little bit of facial hair he'd managed to grow. It was just a little bit, but it was enough to make him look older. Looking down at the students walking by, Ryland recognized some of them. Mostly from Care of Magical Creatures. One thing that Ryland was absolutely thankful for was that Elita was Selene's daughter. Ryland could learn so much from that woman all the time.

He stood, thinking about the weather and how nice it was starting to feel. The warmth of spring and the rainy days. He liked that, water was no longer an issue in his life. He was okay, or as okay as he could be. Truth was, Lucas was the best thing to happen to him. He was the funniest little thing Ryland had ever seen, and in a way he was glad he'd taken the decision to help Elita out. Oh, Elita. She was starting to look more like a woman in his eyes, even though she was still a girl. She wasn't like Lucy, and Ryland was starting to notice that. Elita was...beautiful. Yes, she was beautiful. Broken, but beautiful nonetheless. His thoughts scattered all over the place when the door to the clock tower swung open, and his green eyes landed on a very familiar face. Without saying anything to her, his lips instantly curled into a grin. Leave it to Darcy Wilde to be the one to get real happiness out of him.

Darcy was swamped in work. NEWTs were coming up and she was feeling more and more nervous by the second. But she was also beyond anxious to just get it all over with and go home. However, this also meant; no more Hogwarts. Unless she decided to be a professor. Not really an option for her, though. She wouldn't know what to teach at all! It was a weird feeling though; knowing Hogwarts would no longer be her home for most of her year. She would have to enter the big world, get a job and all that stuff. She was really happy that she lived in the middle of London, though, as it meant she didn't have to worry about getting her own place just yet. Besides, leaving Ariel alone was not really something Darcy would enjoy.

After having studied for five hours straight, Darcy found that she had earned herself a break. So she packed up her bag, but let it stay in the library; who on this earth would want to steal schoolbooks right? If they were fond of schoolbooks, they'd know right from wrong and wouldn't steal them. If they disliked schoolbooks, why even bother? So Darcy felt it was safe. Besides, she just placed a simple locator spell on it, so that if it went missing, she'd know just how to find it.

She let her feet take her wherever, knowing she might get completely lost, even after all these years, but somehow, her feet brought her on a straight path to the courtyard. She smiled. She hadn't been there much lately. She hadn't properly been there since Ryland was a student, actually, and that was two years ago. The occasional trip through, of course, but as her eyes fell to the staircase that lead up to the clocktower, she realized that it was actually ages ago. She quickly started climing them and as she got to the top, she was only slightly surprised to see who was sitting there with a grin spreading on his face.

Darcy couldn't help her own smile and then remembered all the stuff that had happened in class and so on. He had a lot of things she'd need explained. But first things first. "Is it completely inappropriate for me to hug you?" she asked happily, but couldn't be bothered to wait for an answer before she walked over and hugged him. She'd missed talking to him. A lot. She ought to get better at that when she graduated.

As she broke from the hug, she was still beaming at him. "How are you? And what's the deal? You've got so much to tell me," she said with big eyes.

Still grinning, Ryland replied, "Not completely, but some." He didn't care much for appropiateness, though. Darcy was Darcy, and he wasn't going to stop hugging her because of his job. Hugging her back, like he'd run away for an eternity and was just now coming back home. That's what it felt like to be with Darcy, like everything was peaceful and nothing could hurt him because he was with someone he really cared about. It was very much like being with Lucy, except now it wasn't like that with her. She'd grown up, gotten out of his life, and come back only to drag him all over the floor because of his irresponsibility. Their relationship was strained in ways Ryland couldn't make up for, but he wouldn't make the same mistake with Darcy. He'd learned that lesson with his real sister, and losing Darcy and Lucy would be too much for him to take.

"But please, feel free to hug me whenever you want." he chuckled, because he was often around other students anyway, especially Elita and everyone knew about them already. How inappropriate would it be to hug a 7th year if he was already having a child with another? "What deal?" he said as Darcy broke the hug. "There's no deal. What are you talking about?" he faked it, but he was really dying to tell her everything. What he'd seen after graduation, what he'd done, his mistakes and his new adventure.

Darcy laughed as her arms wrapped around her friend. She truly loved Ryland. He was her rock in every way. The insane weight that had been put on her shoulders when her father died and all the responsibility in the world was hers to take care of seemed to lift and she just felt safe. And like herself. She'd really, really missed him. The hug he returned was basically just what she needed, because it told her just how happy he was to see her, that her fondness of him was returned, which made her feel a million times happier. She grinned to herself at his words. "All right then, I'll do that," she promised. It would most likely not be a problem to her at all. She loved hugs; she was constantly hugging Ariel, much to her babysister's dismay.

Darcy raised an eyebrow as Ryland poor try at pretending as if nothing had happened. For a second, she wondered if he might not want to talk about it, but she wouldn't have that. Ryland would have to tell her and he would have no choice in the matter. Professor or not, she'd tackle him and not let him go until he told her. But she figured she wouldn't have to get that drastic. "Ryland, you will tell me," she said seriously, "If I have to sit on you, I will. Just tell me." Her voice was serious and steady, but her grin was happy, and her eyes sparkled jokingly.