[dahliental] shooting for the stars. [severin]

June 2003

Though she hated going "home" for the summer Zoya was already enjoying the extra freedom that the break from Durmstrang gave her. They were so specific about where she was supposed to be at any given time and the young witch did not do well with structure. She preferred to do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, and growing up with parents who were absent at best she had gotten used to just that. When summer finally did come Zoya spent very little time at the poor excuse of a house they'd barely managed to hold on to back in St. Petersburg and was off on her own adventures right away. Although she should of been scared, the teenage witch felt no fear when it came to travelling alone along the floo network and public city transportation.

She made short work of the trip to Dahliental to visit her cousins, a quick floo trip to a local bookstore in the wizarding village and then she made the rest of the way on foot. It took less time than she'd spent planning the trip, which was obvious by her lack of a packed suitcase and little heads up. She had nothing but the clothes she was wearing, her wand, and the beaten up violin case that carried her most prized possession. She'd sent a letter about four hours before she was leaving in what she considered "good enough heads up" and then off she went.

The small girl walked up to the front door, case in hand, and banged loudly on it without ceremony. "Hey! Anybody home in there!?" She yelled with less manners than one would expect from a student from Durmstrang. Zoya hadn't grown up anything like the residents of the large French home in front of her. It was well taken care of, her entire house could of probably fit in the front room, and she was jealous.

It had been such a short notice that Severin almost hadn’t been able to get himself ready for Zoya’s trip. He heard her banging loudly on the door and he went down to open it for her. He liked Zoya, all things considered. They got along very well, and had a lot in common. She was certainly better than his sister and brother, at least. He was dressed casually, in an untucked powder-blue button-down and plain black trousers. His hair was messy, but he had been packing for his trip to England. He would arrive the first of July, and spend nearly three weeks there with his friend Circe. He was excited about it, honestly. A chance to get away. He was still a little salty about the year before.

“Very loud, Zoya. Too loud. Come in, quick, before you knock the house down.” He teased lightly, though his tone didn’t indicate that it was a joke. “You’re lucky I have no life, or else I wouldn’t have been here. Had you been a few days later, I’d be in the UK.” He smiled lightly.

“So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company, cuz?” He asked, leading her up to his room without even offering to show her to the rest of the family. Did she care? Probably not. She was his favorite cousin, so he got dibs.

"Oh please, I'm sure your house-elves would get it put back together in a snap." Zoya waved a hand at him when he told her she was too loud. Zoya had never heard of such a thing. The little firecracker of a witch stepped inside and balked at the apparent wealth her cousins part of the family had. Sometimes she thought that her siblings and herself could have been growing up the same way if her parents hadn't gotten excommunicated. She took a few quick steps, having fallen behind him, and caught up before asking. "Oh yeah, why are you going there?" She was curious and more than a little nosey. The Russian witch followed him up the stairs and didn't bother looking for any of her other family members. She was here for him really; the others barely acknowledged she existed, or that was how she felt about it anyway.

Tossing her red hair off her shoulder as they moved into his room, and she bounded toward his comfortable mattress. She kicked off her shoes, legs half of the bed, as she lay on her back, staring at the ceiling. Zoya wasted no time making herself at home, even if it wasn't the most polite thing to do. "Dunno, Russia is sooo boring." She told him with a bit of a dramatic whine and a shrug he probably couldn't see. Lifting her head from the mattress, she gave him a slight smile.

"Thought we could get into some trouble, but if you're too busy, I can always go."

At the mention of trouble, Séverin grinned. “What did you have in mind?” He asked, busying himself with getting his suitcase off the bed. “I’m always interested in getting into trouble, especially since I’ll be leaving in just a few days. My parents will have time to cool off before I get back.” He laughed. “Do you want me to take you somewhere? We’re stuck in suburbia, here, really, but there’s a little town nearby we can terrorize unless you have a better idea?” He asked.

“My brother ought to be home, if you wanted to annoy him, too.” Séverin hated Valerian, and the feeling seemed mutual. Valerian used to love Séverin, Sev thought, but lately he’d tried his best to hurt him.

He looked at Zoya fondly with a little smile. “So how have you been? How was school? I can talk ages about this last semester.” He admitted. “I have been much, much better in the past.”

Laying back on his bed Zoya shifted when he pulled the suitcase off of it, her tiny frame rolling into the little indent it left behind before she rolled back. "Oh I don't know," the teenager replied quickly, throwing her hands up in the air in front of her and rolling her wrists slightly. She was always bored, always looking for something more entertaining to do, and more often than not she found that excitement by doing things she wasn't supposed to. Durmstrang was tough, it was hard to break a lot of rules and not get caught, but the summer was different. The world was her playground, literally, and her parents barely knew she was around in the first place so they never missed her when she left unannounced.

"Got any alcohol or firecrackers?" She sat up to find him in the room, giving him a little smirk and then began to twist a bit of her long red hair around her forefinger. "Have you ever smoked a cigarette? Or gotten a tattoo?" Her older cousin was seventeen now, he could take them anywhere (for free) and maybe even help her get into things even she couldn't talk her way into. "I don't know about Valerian," she mentioned, barely remembering the last time she talked to Severin's brother. Maybe she should find him, just to say hello, before the day was over.

"School suuuuucked," The little witch dragged on enthusiastically, "as always. Did you know we had to learn Swedish? How many languages can I keep in here." Zoya tapped her forehead theatrically and then broke into another grin. She liked learning languages, and Swedish hadn't been all that bad really, but the teenager would complain about anything and everything if given the time.

"Wait what happened?" She realized he'd given her a string to pull on and like a cat with a toy she was already jabbing at it. "Did you make a fool of yourself? Get into a fight? Kiss a girl? oh, Merlin forbid," She got serious for a moment, but only in a mock sort of way, he'd probably see it coming. She spoke slowly, adding drama to her words as she leveled her eyes on him.

"Séverin... did you... fail a class?" She stuck her tongue out at him by the end, undoing the braid she hadn't realized she'd tied the little strands by her ear into, and finished. "You're parents will not be pleased."