Dangerously Determined [Darcy]

Rita whipped around at the sound of another voice echoing off of the owlery walls. “Oh ‘ello there Dars. It is okay to call you Dars, right?” Rita more permitted herself than waited for a positive response. She watched as one of the owls flew from the high rafters down to meet the young girl. With little instructions it flew off toward its destination with grace and ease. Rita looked on jealously; what she would give to be able to sprout wings and fly with no thought necessary. Turning to her new companion, she wondered what exactly Darcy’s appeal towards a Havana Cat could possibly be. It wasn’t as if cats were particularly common around Hogwarts grounds, she presumed that it must have been hard to blend in. But perhaps as with most small animals, people pass them by with no thought at all.

How lucky could one girl get, though? The same day that Rita was so frustrated about her Animangus studies and she runs into the very girl that could help her. It was an opportunity that she most definitely could not waste. As Ms. Collins sent the oddly named bird out the owlery window, Rita studied her, wondering who Liz was and why she would be wary of owls. She was a rather tall and lanky girl. Her rambunctious hair rolled around her like an uncontrolled river cascading down a waterfall. She looked frail and small under her large Hufflepuff cloak, as if she were but a skeleton. Rita knew that she would be able to pressure the right information out of her if she so wished.

Waving her hand at the whispering girl Rita said, “Oh of course they won’t answer back.” Rita walked toward the mousy girl, trying not to completely invade the poor introverts space. “But wouldn’t it just be great if they could. Imagine the possibilities.” Rita’s eyes lit up like fireworks and she was thrown once more into visions of daydreams. “Just imagine, if their memories were good enough we could send owls without writing down a single word.” Rita’s visionary world seemed but a small step out of her reach; it was a gap, however, which seemed mere seconds from being bridged. “We could know so much more about the world than we do now.”

Turning away from Darcy, Rita looked out the near window, leaning on its sill. She looked out toward the Forbidden Forest, more and more schemes entering into her head. She could enter the prohibited place without worry of punishment; she could blend in with her surroundings and not fear the other animals. The life of the Animangus was so very enticing. [color=maroon“Tell me, Dars, what do you think of Animagi’s?”

It was almost cute, in an animalistic sort of way ironically, how Darcy instinctively started playing with her hair as Rita began pressing into her, verbally that is. From everything that she had heard about the girl, which wasn’t much despite the fact that she had gone digging after finding her name on the Animagi List, she was quite reserved. She had speculated as to the appeal of an animal form over the human form, which seemed to naturally call for congregation and sociability. Darcy seemed inherently in tuned to the Animangus lifestyle. She could easily go missing for a few hours without anyone noticing, considering her sparse amount of friends. Rita supposed it would be much harder for someone in a larger social circle to change quite as easily. Darcy could slip away whenever she wished, while someone like herself would have to make an effort to remove herself from the rest of the castle.

“Do you?” She replied, suddenly called out of her train of thought and back to the world around her. “It seems to me as if there are so many stories yet to be told, so many strains of thought yet unreachable to us mere witches and wizards. If we knew so much already, why would we still be inventing new spells, new charms, new potions? It simply doesn’t make sense.” Rita said as she danced around on the windowsill. Hopping from foot to foot she could only hope that someone the energy in her toes would spring through her entire system and enable her to suddenly change shape in that instant. Rita could see Darcy’s cheeks begin to turn a shade of pink as the conversation began to sink in. Somehow she did not yet suspect anything, or choose not to say so at least.

Rita’s eyes narrowed at the shrug-of-the-shoulder response that she received from the person whom she knew had first hand knowledge of the situation. “Oh, to call it interesting is doing the transfiguration a disservice I’m sure.” Rita said crawling further and further under the shy girl’s skin. “Uneasy? Perhaps. Perhaps exciting? Liberating?" Each word came out in it’s own wondrous breath as Rita turned once more toward the green grounds below her. Watching little critters bounce around on the frost-covered grass, Rita’s orb-like eyes seemed somehow to grow in size as she willed herself to have Darcy’s ability. As they continued their conversation Rita’s jealousy edged a state of annoyance; if Darcy would only come out and tell her what she was looking to hear the feeling would roll off in a second. Alas, she had to remind herself to be patient, and took in a large breath.

“Oh, well, yes, there is always McGonagall, but that hardly counts does it?” Rita answered with a roll of her eyes. “I mean, honestly, it’s not as if she’s going around having a class on it now is she? And she’s hardly going to do more than skim over it in Transfiguration. Useless really.” She said with a shrug. Rita hopped down from her perch and took a step toward the ghostly pale girl. She wasn’t used to having to work this hard to get a story. Usually it was as simple as saying hello. Darcy was an entirely different species that she was learning how to tackle on the spot. “If someone really wanted to know what it was like, hear someone’s stories, they would need to know someone other than the Professor. I think everyone knowing one or two is a bit of a stretch, don’t you? Who else is there around here?” Rita asked, attempting to rephrase her previous question.

Rita moved a little closer to Darcy and placed her back against the wall. Sliding down the brick she found a clean spot and propped herself in a sitting position, hoping to make Darcy aware that she wasn’t going anywhere without some answers. “You must know another, otherwise you wouldn’t have said that. Really, I’d love to meet them. Their experiences would be fascinating to me.” Rita said in the most genuine voice she could muster up. She forced a smile on her lips through her mounting frustration and held her hand out to Darcy, motioning for her to sit as well.