Just Around the Bend

Evelina turned a slow circle, golden brown eyes fixed upwards in an attempt to better ascertain her surroundings. She had made an escape from her mother while she was shopping in Azorat. The girl wasn't terribly concerned about the woman locating her again. Furthermore, the most she would receive would be a mild admonishment.

At the current moment, Ev was far more concerned about finding a way out of the maze in which, she was irrefutably lost. Sighing, she continued along the shrub-walled passage. Reaching a sharp corner, she turned and promptly collided with someone, falling back onto her bottom on the snow-dusted path.

"Ah! Sorry," Ev apologized, her voice colored by a distinct Irish accent and a blush further coloring her winter-bitten cheeks. "I didn't 'ear you comin'. Ye alright?"

Axel scratched his head as he looked up at the enormous hedge. The boy didn't understand the point of mazes. Why would someone build something explicitly for the purpose of getting lost in? How was that supposed to be fun?

He had been separated from his current chaperone a while ago, and by now he wanted nothing more than to get back to the entrance. Deciding that it was the best course of action, he stuck one hand into the dense greenery, noticing that it seemed to be sturdy enough to climb. The boy struggled up the bush, until he was finally at the height were he could make out the maze's individual paths. His eyes traced them, easily finding the entrance, then winding their way back to where he was now.

Axel nodded, and began his descent back towards the ground. He was halfway there when one of the branches gave way, and he had to claw at the leaves in order to slow his fall. He managed to land rather unsteadily on his feet, when he was immediately pushed to the ground by another unknown force.

The boy sat up, blinking the dust out of his eyes, and noticing a young girl on the ground across from him. "I'm fine," he muttered, "Are you okay?"

Evelina immediately gave a bright smile. "Aye, I'm perfectly gran'," she replied. Pushing herself up off the ground she brushed snow from her bare hands, blowing into them to warm them up again. She offered him a hand back up.

"Were ye climbin' the 'edge?" the girl asked, noticing the leaves that had fallen atop the snow on the path. "Did ye see the way out? I'm totally lost in 'ere."

Axel returned the girl's bright smile with a smaller, softer one. While he was standing up, the boy looked at his hands, which were covered in tiny scratches. Looking back at the shrubs, he noticed for the first time the numerous thorns sticking out of the branches. He frowned, then turned back to the girl.

"Umm..." he said, trying to remember exactly what he had seen. The boy stuck an arm out towards the direction that the girl had come from, "I think we go that way."

"Do we?" Ev asked in surprise, glancing back over her shoulder. "Ah, an' I was certain I was 'eading the righ' way, too. Let's go, then." She turned to retrace her footsteps, clearly expecting the boy to follow along.

"I'm Ev, by the way," she said conversationally as she walked. "Well, me name's Evelina, but most jist call me Ev."

Axel followed closely behind her, his feet crunching in the snow. He looked up at the clouds rolling in above them, hardly noticing when he began to slow down. Once he had brought his attention away from the sky, Ev was already far ahead of him, and he had to run to catch up to her.

"I'm Axel," he said, stopping himself as his eyes began to stray back up to the sky again. Instead, he tried to fix them on the girl, who now that he was paying attention to her, looked to be about his age. "Are you a first year?"

"Axel?" Ev repeated, then grinned. "That's a brilliant name, it is. I like it." She tilted her head, studying him closely for a moment.

"First year? Aye, I am. I'm 'ome-schooled, though. Me mom t'inks eleven is too young ta be leavin' 'ome. Ye a first year, too, then?"

Axel grinned back at the girl, forgetting for a moment that he was lost and mildly afraid. He noticed her staring at him, so he looked at the ground, kicking his shoe against the snow.

The boy nodded with a smile, "Yes, I am." He bit his lip, "I guess you could say I've been home schooled for a few years, too. Now I'm going to Hogwarts, though." He looked up noticing that they had reached a dead end.

He pouted, looking around for a few moments before saying, "I really have no idea where I'm going."

"Ye guess? Ye either are or ye ain't," Ev pointed out. "I'll proobably go to 'ogwarts, eventually. It'd be closest. Least, I 'ope I ain't 'ome-schooled forever."

The girl laughed at his pout. "I can see that." She moved closer to the hedge, craning to her head back to judge the distance. "Me a go to 'ave a look, then, right?" With that, she proceeded to limb the pruned foliage, headless of the thorns biting into her hands.

Axel shrugged, "Eventually, I got so good at finding out things on my own, they stopped trying to teach me." He wasn't sure why he was so reluctant to tell people about him being kidnapped. Maybe it was because he wanted so desperately to pretend he was normal. At least, more normal than he was now.

He smiled at the girl, "I hope so, too. I mean, you seem pretty cool." He gave a small chuckle, "Here's hoping you're a Gryffindor."

The boy nodded, and took a few steps back so he could get a better view of her as she climbed the hedge, paying close attention in case she lost her footing and fell.

Ev frowned slightly. "So, they didn't teach you anything?" That didn't make much sense to the girl. Furthermore, she wasn't certain if she ought to feel sorry for the boy or envious of him. She loved learning, but schoolwork was so dull sometimes.

"Is that your house, then?" she asked. "I'm a bit jealous of ye, now. I want to be in a house wi' other kids me age. Sounds fun."

Reaching the top of the hedge, Ev peered over to the other side. "Blast!" she exclaimed, turning to look back at him. "We need to be on the other side of this - it leads straight out." The girl studied what she could see of the maze from where she was and climbed back down.

"I think I can get us out if we don't get turned 'round again," Ev declared, leading back the way they'd just came to take the correct turn. "You seem pretty cool, too, by the way. I know! We should be penpals or somethin'. That way, we can still be friends even if we don't see each other."

"No- No I mean... books and.. and stuff- Umm... it's really complicated, I don't want to get into it." He exhaled, feeling bad for warding off the subject in such a crude way, but also immensely relieved that he wouldn't have to go into it any further.

Axel nodded, "It is fun. Though, it's kind of weird getting used to living with all those people. Especially since you don't really know a lot of them. But you never really get lonely."

The boy frowned again, considering her words thoughtfully. Sure, he was a fast learner, but logic had never really been one of the boy's strong points. Still, he followed the girl, fully aware that he had no idea where they were going.

He grinned at the idea, "That's brilliant! And we can write each other every week. Maybe send each other gifts or something. Then we can meet up again during breaks!" His smile faded a little, becoming a little less excited and a little more genuine, "It'll be nice to have a friend my own age."

The girl tilted her head in mild bemusement, gazing at the boy a prolonged moment. Then she shrugged. "Okay," she said, not the least bothered. Everyone had things they didn't like to talk about after all, right?

"It would be a lot different, wouldn't it?" Ev responded thoughtfully.

She smiled at the boy. "It'll be fun. We gotta be friends forever, though. No matter what."

It was the mark of one still very young, that willingness and ability to consider another friend so quickly. She knew very little about the boy, after all. Ev still knew how to follow her heart, however, and she did so very well.