Is This the Real Life?

Coyota stood in the clearing, the frozen stillness inspiring both awe and sadness. The girl's feet trodded along the edge of the clearing, her boots breaking the perfect blanket of snow. Cheeks pink, eyes clear and wandering, she marveled at how different it was from when she last saw it with Kat. It was almost as if someone had gone and replaced the entire forest. A perfect replica of another world.

Her eyes landed on a tree not to far from her. She ran toward it, something about it strikingly familiar. Looking the tree up and down, she finally noticed what was so different about it: for some reason unknown to her, a small area of the tree was scorched.

Her eyes widened, and she backed slowly away from the tree, a memory beginning to swarm around her.


-"STOP IT!!" The frail thing whined as it squirmed against her grip as she dragged it to a spot where none of the adults could see them.-


Coyota shut her eyes and shook her head vigorously, No, no, no, no, no- She couldn't remember now. Not after she'd been so careful. That wasn't her life. Not anymore. She was a different person now. She couldn't-


-The little boy fell flat on his bottom as they entered the small stone passageway, and Coyota laughed maliciously, "Tell me again, what was it you said you thought about my family?" She pointed her wand at the scrawny child, her grin turning into a disgusted sneer, "It doesn't matter anyway, does it? No one needs the opinion of muggle filth like you."

"So, what'll it be..." She mused softly, pacing in front of him with another large smile, "Well, you're basically a big heap of human rubbish, so that's how I'll deal with you."

"First I'll throw you away-" The boy flew into the wall, the air rushing out of his lungs with a satisfying whoosh, "Then I'll compact you, nice and tight-" Rope flew out of her wand and swung itself around him. The seven-year-old began to openly sob and struggle against the bindings, only to find that the more he moved the tighter they got, until his face was red from the constriction.

"And now, I'll bathe you in fire to cleanse you." The boy screamed as a burst of flame gushed out of her wand. It burned it's way through the rope first, allowing the child to sprint out of the passageway before it could spread any further, only to run into a pair of tall, bulky legs belonging to a tall, bulky man. He frowned at the two children, then scooped the boy up on his shoulder, who was too frightened to make a sound, "I will take care of the muggle, Young Miss Rangan. Rest assured you're father will hear of it." With that, he walked away from her. Coyota glared at the boy as he disappeared around the corner, eyes still filled with malice. -


Coyota blinked as she jolted back into reality, still staring intently at the tree. She had no idea. How could she? Those poor, poor boys. She had taken everything from them. Everything.

She turned to leave, both her body and her mind cold and numb.

"What did the tree ever do to you?"

Juliet knew it was possibly unwise to call out. The girl looked... she would say troubled, but that didn't seem to fit the situation quite right. It was more than that.

She seemed more...

Haunted.

But, there was a part of her brain that she couldn't shut off, that drove her to call out, instead of just letting her leave. It was the same part that had let her walk towards the whomping willow, and not tell savannah to cut it out with the dragon.

A reckless part of her brain, that was dying just a little to live outside of her box. To grow.

It was the part that was probably going to get her in trouble.

Coyota's eyes widened as she turned quickly on the girl. This area was supposed to be secluded. Could she never be alone?

But... maybe this girl came to her as some sort of blessing. As a distraction, at least. That was good, right?

She sighed, giving the girl a look of tired irritation, "Who are you?"

Juliet blinked at her tone, "Sorry, to bother you; I was just..."

She frowned and shook his head. What was she just being. She didn't even really know. Juliet had merely been feeling a strong pull towards the other girl, or perhaps it was just anyone in gerenal.

Perhaps she was just being social?

"I'm Juliet, Juliet Jones," she tilted her head to smile at the girl, "I'm a fourth year Hufflepuff. And you are?"

Coyota shook her head at the ground, a slight blush sneaking across her face, "No. No, that's all right. I'm the one who's being rude."

She tried her best to return the gesture, even as terrible as she felt she managed to get something resembling a smile spread out on her face, "Coyota. Fifth year Slytherin."

"No, no, its alright. I don't think you were being rude, or well I mean, even if you were a bit, you had a reason to. I snuck up on you, can't really say that's all that polite... so at the very least we're even."

She offered the girl another quick and easy smile.

"Nice to meet you Coyota. How long have you been at Hogwarts, forgive me... I just haven't seen you around much. I just... assumptions and what not."

Coyota slowly broke into a smile, "All right. We're even, then. Good." She gave a small laugh, "Actually, I don't think I've ever been even with anybody before. This is kind of nice."

The girl shook her head again, "Your assumption was correct. I moved here this summer from India. I haven't been at Hogwarts for very long at all."

"Never?" she couldn't quite help keeping the surprise off her voice. It seemed unusual to never been around people - in fact it seemed completely bizarre, though Juliet hoped she was keeping the utter astonishment out of her voice and off of her face; perhaps if she was lucky she would just look surprised. "Sorry that just seems..."

Worrying her lip she shrugged off her statement and grinned again, interest lighting up on her face.

"India, really? That sounds exciting, or well.. I suppose it wouldn't be all that exciting for you, since you live there, but..." she gave a nervous sort of laugh. "Sorry, I've never left England until very recently. I find all anything of the sort rather... addictive."

"Let's just say that I tend not to keep the most trustworthy company," she said with a small, knowing smile, "It's sort of a bad habit of mine."

"That's all right. Before last year, I'd never left India. I'd have given anything to come here. Then again, I wasn't really thinking much about homesickness." Coyota bit her lip, then gave a warm smile, "I think you'd like it, though. At least, you look like the kind of person who would."

There was a vague sort of understanding crossing the younger girl's face. She nodded her head slowly, feeling as if that was the reaction she should give, though she also felt as if she were still missing a key point or two.

Perhaps that was the way the other girl wanted it. Everyone was entitled to their secrets she supposed.

"Well... I like to think I'm trustworthy," she gave a short little laugh, "if that's a start."

Her eyes danced, "Really? You think so? I mean... I think I'd like almost anything that's new. I want to go everywhere. I want to say I've seen a little bit of all the earth but... I mean, what I think I want and what it may turn out to be," she shrugged her shoulders. "Who can say what the future will be like, right?"

Coyota chuckled in response, "Cool. Now I just have to keep you around for awhile." She recognized that she must have been leaving the girl in the dark, but she wasn't about to tell her her whole life story after just a five minute conversation.

She gave a reflexive smile, a little taken aback by the girl's sudden enthusiasm, "Definitely. It takes a certain amount of.... gusto, to travel through India. And you definitely have gusto."

She tilted her head, "That's pretty insightful. I guess you're right. Still, I highly suggest you go if you ever get the opportunity."

"I suppose I don't mind that," Juliet responded with a small laugh, "At least being kept around means I have something to do, right?"

Gusto. She liked the sound of that. Unsure as she may be about the truth of her actually having it, Juliet certainly like the belief that she just might. It was nice to think that other people thought she did.

Even if she knew the truth.

"I think I shall," she agreed with a nod. "So, how are you liking it here so far? Have you been here long?"

Coyota shook her head, "Only since this summer." Then again, she'd technically been away from her real home for years. She sighed, "It's been a big change." She smiled, "But I like it. Sure, it's loud at all the wrong times, and the people are nice in all the wrong ways, but it's safe. Odd, but safe."

She looked around at the cold, frosty landscape, "I don't know. Maybe it's different from an insider's point of view."

"Its just home to me," she shrugged her shoulder as she looked around her attempting to see what a stranger would see in the land that she knew only as it was, not compared to anything else.

"I suppose time will make it at the very least more familiar to you, right? It may never be the place that you grew up in, but hey it could become a sort of home right?"

She flashed the girl a half grin, shy yet welcoming.