Decisions

Lucy stood in the middle of the forest clearing. There was a war coming. She knew it; everyone knew it. What she didn't know was which side she was on. It was obvious enough that she wasn't a muggle. She didn't particularly like muggles, heck she knew that half of them were vile creatures.

Her mind flashed back to her mother's stony face, and her father's rage.

Then her mind flashed to her neighbours, her oldest friends, all muggles. She began pacing, back and forth, trying to decide, trying to choose.

Although many people would deny it, Ashely would have been able to prove them wrong when it came to their being a magic within the forests. It was primal, and it was the root of all of their abilities. Everything they had came from nature, and they were all part of the same evolutionary strand, to a point. There were differences, discrepencies she would call them, within humanity. It was something that she had begun to study when she had worked at the Ministry, but the project had been put on hold due to other matters.

It was somethin that Ashely wanted to continue, which was why she was out in the forest. It was just any forest, it wasn't chosen for any particular reason. She had literally just shut her eyes and pointed her finger on the map and it had brought her to this forest. SHe was out to collect a few soil samples and bark samples, maybe try get hold of a dead animal. They would all be useful when she began her research.

There was a space between the tree's, and this space grew wider and wider until Ashely found herself standing in a clearing. It was no ordinary clearing though for there was something quite unexpected within it.

A young girl was pacing up and down and from her body language Ashley felt it was safe to assume that she was in a fair amount of turmoil.

"Are you lost young one?" She called out, her voice not partiuclarly loud but clear as the dawn.

Lucy turned sharply when she heard the voice. She recognized the owner of it as a professor, and her apprentice person thingy, the person she was an apprentice to anyway, she had no idea what that was called. What was she doing in the middle of the woods? She was about to ask when she realized that she had been asked a question. She cleared her throat, relaxing her stance.

"Oh, a- no, I was just thinking, professor," she paused, "What are you doing in the forest?"

The young girl, she recognised her as soon as she had turned around at the sound of Ashley's voice. She was the apprentice she had. There was more than likely going to have to be a lot of work involved. If she was dedicated and keen though, then she shouldn't do so badly. It was a punishing discipline, and not everyone had the perseverence to take it to as high a level as Ashley had.

"What were you thinking about?" Ashley enquired, deciding that she would give the young girl's mental defences a quick check over. Ashley was not only proficcient in Occlumency after all. She looked into the girl's eyes and delved into her mind, her consciousness brushing against the girl's. Testing the barrier.

"That is for me to know and for you to find out, one day." Ashley replied to her question mysteriously. Another matter of the truth.

Lucy was shocked that Professor Coleman had even asked what she was thinking, she was the occlumency professor after all. Then an idea came, she swore violently in her head, then cursed herself even more. The professor was probably only asking to be nice, this eye contact was most likely her figuring out what she was actually thinking.

Lucy's mind whizzed back to what she had been thinking before she had seen the professor, what if she had seeing her thoughts then? She realized that right now she was thinking about those same thoughts. She continued cursing herself in her head, and tried, without much success to empty her mind. She tried to imagine a white wall, but random words kept on a appearing on it.

wizards, shit, muggles, damn, three, blue, war, damn

The words flashed across quickly. She tried to focus on one the white wall, only the white wall, but as soon as it started working she would become elated and random words like victory and happy dance invaded the white wall. Now she was stuck, she couldn't exactly lie and say that she had been thinking about school work, but she couldn't exactly tell the truth either. She decided to be just as evasive as her professor had been.

"Life, stuff in general."

Ashley raised her eyebrow and mentally surpressed a laugh. She was going to have a fair amount of work with this young girl. She hoped that, given time, she would be able to find evidence that she had potential. Her expertise wasn't the subject for everyone after all.

"Never use that language in my presence again." She said, a sharpness entering into her voice. It was disrespetcful for a start, especially considering that she was a Professor and she would be teaching the girl. The white wall in the girl's mind did interest her, and Ashley pressed a little harder against it, wanting to see if she would be able to break through or if it was strong enough to withstand the testing.

"So what is your opinion on this war and the muggle world?" Ashley asked, wondering exactly what the younger girl's reply would be. From what Ashley had managed to garner, she was obviously thinking about it all. It didn't surprise.

Lucy bit back several more curses in her mind. At least now she was sure the professor was poking around in her brain. Her righteousness rose inside her and words came to mind. I never actually said those words, if she wasn't poking around– I mean, sorry

She would have to be careful what she thought now, which, considering her argumentative side, would be very difficult. She tried it anyway, tried to clear her head, tried to keep the white wall standing in front of her mind. It worked, for all of a minute. Then she felt some pressure on it. She didn't need to think about it to know that her professor was testing her.

Small cracks began to appear along the wall, and Lucy gritted her teeth, she didn't really know how to keep her mind clear if it was under attack, but she would try. The cracks grew bigger and she began to worry, more random words flashing quickly across the white. mom, dad, Josh, stupid brother, hate, gone, idiot, gone, wet, cold.

If she wanted to, she could trace the words back to what they meant, but she didn't, if the professor pushed her anymore her white wall would crumble and they would be thrown into the open anyway. That wasn't good, she wasn't ready, not yet. She clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms, probably drawing blood. But the pain worked, if only slightly. Some of the cracks healed and went away, but she couldn't be sure if that was because her professor had stopped testing her or because the pain actually blinded her emotions.

Lucy tried to think clearly to answer the question, while still keeping her shield up, "I have friends in the muggle world," her mind flicked to Josh, Annabell, her mom, "But I also have enemies," she couldn't stop her mind from focusing on her mother's stony face, "Enemies being people that I would like to see gone. Yet my muggle friends are some of my oldest friends. So, in all honesty, I'm torn between wizards and muggles." she spoke honestly, knowing that eventually her professor would break through her walls and find out, there was no point in lying.