Worse for Wear | Zeke

[attr="class","lyric2raven"]Its enough to break a brittle heart
But you didn't want to get by
All happiness is sad

[attr="class","textbodraven"]How had her life taken such a turn? Octavia didn't understand it. She didn't get how things could go so horribly. Hadn't the magical world heard of the old adage about repeating history? And they learned plenty of history at Hogwarts, so Octavia just didn't get why and how this could even be happening. She wanted answers. For something that very much did not have a clear cut answer. Because even Tav could admit that this matter stood in some horrible and unfortunate grey area. Even she could acknowledge that things had been tense even before Wentzell had taken over, before the attack on Flourish & Blotts. People liked to think that pure evil existed because it was such an easy answer, but the truth was always more complicated than that. There was a vicious cycle to these things, and Octavia had been unfortunate enough to get caught in the middle of it.

Octavia smirked at Ezekiel's reply to her and she rolled her eyes at him. "True, I'd want you to get your head checked," she shot back jokingly. It felt nice, bantering with him like this again. It almost reminded her of a simpler time, and for a spare moment, Octavia felt like she was escaping from her nightmare. She could just... imagine that she was back at Hogwarts. Sneaking over to the Gryffindor table after quickly eating her breakfast to discuss the logistics of their next Hogsmeade trip. But the truth was a lot bleaker than that. Still, she felt her breath hitch just the slightest as Zeke grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her close to him. It was... too soon. The lockdown, it had hardly been that long ago, and Octavia could still so vividly remember that dress and Zeke all dressed up and being more than just a muggleborn girl in some horrible camp. "What can I say, I'm a troublemaker," she replied, her tone a bit softer and quieter this time around. The joking look, though, stayed in her eyes as she looked up at Zeke.

A short laugh escaped her at his next words. "Sounds fake, but whatever you say," Octavia taunted. Impulsively levelheaded--he was so ridiculous sometimes. But Octavia had always liked that side of Zeke, because she had always been so serious about... well, everything. So it had been nice to have someone around that would give her mind a little break from overanalyzing just about everything. Octavia had tried to fall back on that more and more while at Kolna, but it was hard to analyze things when... everything just sucked.

Octavia couldn't help but fall into the comfort of the moment. To feel Zeke so near her, his hand on her cheek... it was the closest she had gotten to an escape in a while. Tav had always been really independent, and she hated the feeling of leaning on other people... but it had been happening more and more ever since muggleborn registration had started. Octavia looked down and let out a small sigh, then shook her head lightly. "I don't know what it was. Some kind of homemade curse, probably. But it left my whole back just... covered in scars," she finally explained, her voice quiet. "It's fine. I'm fine--see?" she continued, looking up at Zeke now with a small smile and spreading her arms out slightly.