Seven Shades of Crazy

Quinn watched Casey's expression on her face and didn't know what she was going to do. "I will do more than that, we'll double team him, I've been waiting to kick his ass but never can, but I will let you know" Quinn sent her a small smile. Quinn than let out a little laugh. "It's not your fault that he is a horrible father, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had more kids somewhere" Quinn replied to her. "I might take you up on your offer" Quinn gave it a thought. "His name is Jaiden Landon".

Quinn hugged back. "Thanks Casey, it's great that someone else is here for me to talk to" Quinn replied.

Casey smiled. "Oh, he's dead now. And if we get Tobias in on it, he's gonna be in pain for a while... Like for days. This shall happen." She shrugged. "I know it's not my fault. Doesn't make me any less sorry or any less ready to pinch him in the face," she stated matter-of-factly. The American girl smiled. "Anytime you want, I'll teach you some basic stuff. My dad let Lyss and I take karate when we were little." Casey nodded. "I think I've seen him around. And he's been in some of my classes."

Casey smiled. "You're welcome. I always like to help my friends. It's kind of my thing. So anytime you need me, I'll be there. Cheesy as it is, it's true."

Quinn couldn't help but laugh. "Oh he is, Tobias has been dying to get his hands on my father, even his dad is trying to track him down so he can kill him, I'm like a daughter to Tobias's dad since we're dating" Quinn explained to her. "Feel free to make him feel a lot of pain when you do" Quinn replied. Quinn smiled. "Thanks, are you and Alyssa related by blood or is she adopted" Quinn asked. Quinn nodded. "Yeah, he has short dark hair, same color as mine and my same color eyes. We get the features from our father" Quinn explained.

"I will let you know when I need you, it is great to make a real friend here" Quinn said to her.

Casey smiled. "I would expect so. And it's cool that you're like a daughter to his dad. Is his dad the vampire or his mom? I actually haven't met Liam's mom and he hasn't met my parents." Her smile turned slightly evil. "Oh I will. He will regret harming you and then meeting me. I'm very protective of my friends, if you hadn't figured that out." She shook her head. "Adopted at 5. But we're close enough to have been born twins." Casey smiled. "Well it's cool that you found him. Are you guys close?"

Casey smiled. "You do that. I'm happy you made friends, but am I really the first real friend you've made?"

Quinn smiled and nodded to her. "Yeah, he is really cool, I like him a lot. As for that question no, his mother was a human before she died because of an incident and his father is a full blooded vampire" Quinn said to her. "You should meet your boyfriend's parents. Tobias would meet my mom but she has to work to provide for us" Quinn explained. Quinn laughed. "Oh I've seen that and he will be in hell when he sees you" Quinn replied. Quinn nodded. "That's cool" Quinn said. Quinn nodded. "We just met not long ago but if we keep hanging out more, than we could become close".

Quinn shrugged. "Well I have friends from my old school and you're sort of the only real friend I've made. I mean I hang out with other people here but I really don't know if we're friends" Quinn explained.

Casey smiled. "That's awesome. Since one day he'll be your father-in-law," she added, with a wink and a nudge. "And I'm sorry his mother died. That's really sad." She didn't ask how, since Quinn didn't volunteer the information. She nodded. "I know, but we just haven't set anything up. And since he disappeared..." she let her sentence trail off. "Yeah," she said laughing. "I will make his life loving Hell before he dies and goes to actual Hell." Casey smiled. "Well maybe you two will become as close as siblings who've lived with each other for years."

Casey nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I have some of the same people, those awkward acquaintances that you don't really know what to call. But I'm glad we're actual friends." She smiled.

Quinn nodded. "Yeah, but hearing someone other than me say that makes me feel old and mature" Quinn said feeling a little weirded. Quinn sighed. "Yeah it was, I never got a chance to meet her so I'm waiting until the right time to ask him who she was and things like that" Quinn said. Quinn laughed her. "You can do what ever you want to him". Quinn than nodded and smiled. "Hopefully".

Quinn agreed with her. "Yes I know what you mean, that is how I feel. I am glad as well" Quinn smiled.

Casey smiled. "Not always a good thing," she joked. "Old and mature is so overrated. But if you end up married, which it sounds like you will, he would be your father-in-law. Instant Daddy Do-over." She nodded. "Yeah, I can understand that. It's gotta be hard for him to talk about that." Her grin was impish. "Excellent. So many choices, so little time."

Casey smiled, but made no other comment.

Quinn smiled back. "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't" Quinn said back to her. Quinn laughed at that. "Yeah I guess, a father-in-law is better than no father right" Quinn said with a smile. It would be nice to have a father figure around, even if he wasn't blood related to you. Quinn nodded. "Knock yourself out when it comes to Kalvin" Quinn said to her.

Casey laughed. "Well for me it usually isn't. Mostly because I suck at being mature unless someone is upset. Then I just kind of turn into my mom and start mothering them to death." She shrugged. "I'm just weird like that." She nodded. "Yeah, it's got to be at least a little better. I mean this way you'll have someone." She smiled. "I'll be the one knocking him out," she said with a grin.

Quinn couldn't help but laugh. "You so don't look like the type to do that kind of thing though, which is shocking in my opinion" Quinn said. "There's nothing weird about being weird" Quinn replied. Quinn laughed and smiled. "Do more damage if you must, even chop off his ball sack, who know's how many children he has out there" Quinn sighed.

Casey shrugged. "I don't know, upset people just bring out my inner 30 year old. It's weird. I guess because I'm an Empath, them being upset makes me upset." She wasn't really worried about letting Quinn know she was an Empath. The French girl didn't seem the type to think she was weird or to be avoided and something told Casey that this wouodn't even faze her.

Casey laughed. "Oh I know. If I'm not being weird something is severely wrong and you probably need to cart me down to the Hospital Wing." She grinned. "That was definitely on my list."

Quinn nodded in understanding. "I know what you must feel like, when you feel someone else's pain it just hurts not only them but you. It happens to me when I meet people just like me. Who were abused by a parent and weren't strong enough to fight against them" Quinn explained. Quinn hated that feeling, meeting someone like you and all she wanted to do was take away their pain.

Quinn laughed at Casey. Only knowing her for a short period of time Quinn knew she could trust the fellow Gryffindor. "You're something else, it reminds me of someone close to me" Quinn said.

Casey nodded. "Yeah, it sucks sometimes, being an Empath the way I am. I see colors on the edges of my vision, that's how I know what people's emotions are. But when there's a lot of people, especially if they all feel the same way, I can't see anything but that color. Did you know I only started going to Quidditch matches last year because that was the first year I could control my power enough to see what was going on and not be overwhelmed? My favorite sport, and aI couldn't even go to a game."

Casey grinned. "I'm hoping that was a compliment and whether or not it was, I am going to take it as such!" She tilted her head to the side curiously. "Who do I remind you of?"

Quinn nodded and felt a little bad for the girl. "That's horrible Casey, it must be terrible to love something so much and can't do anything about it because of your magic. Never had an experiance like that but it must be terrible like I just said" Quinn replied to her.

The French girl laughed. "Yes, it was a compliment" Quinn replied to her. Casey asked her who it was. "My friend Adam, he goes to Beauxbatons but he like you has a power that annoys him, you remind me of him".

Casey nodded. "Yep. But I have it more under control now. I can very almost nearly turn it off. It can at least go down to a mere smudge of color, a trickle of feeling that I barely notice. It's nice to do that occassionally, but it requires a fair bit of concentration and quite a lot of energy. I'm hoping to get it down to a lot less difficult than it is now."

Casey smiled. "He sounds awesome, I'd like to meet him some day. Maybe we can sit down and have a nice long chat about our feelings." She snorted. "Or we could do normal people things. Or at least normal to me things."

Quinn nodded to the other Gryffindor. She was glad that Casey could control her power, by the looks of what happened earlier that day, it looked painful and that was bad. "Well that's good, so did you sign up to be on the Quidditch team" Quinn asked her curiously.

Quinn laughed. "I'm sure he'd love to meet you, maybe sometime in the summer I will send you both an owl and meet me somewhere, where you both can talk and become friends I guess" Quinn suggested.

Casey smiled. "It's a lot better now. I wish I could control the Lyssa thing, but unfortunately, I have no idea what the hell that is. My power isn't normally like that." She smiled enthusiastically and nodded. "Yep! You have before you Gryffindor's star chaser!"

Casey smiled. "That would be nice. It would be cool to have a foreign friend. Are you allowed to tell me his power, or does he have to tell me himself?"

Quinn listened and tried to see if she could help Casey but nothing. "Well maybe one day you can control it but for now, try your best to avoid it" Quinn suggested. Quinn smiled. "Well congrates. Hopefully when the game happens, I'll be able to come and cheer you on" Quinn replied.

Quinn shrugged. "He would be happy to, so when me, Tobias, and Camille annoy him, he'll come to you" Quinn teased. "Well the one power I can tell you the other, he'll tell you if he thinks he can trust you. His power is that he can see the future but when he starts to see images of the future his head hurts him like crazy and he goes down on his knees holding his head in pain until it stops" Quinn explained.

Casey grimaced. "Yeah, I can mostly tune it out, the way you don't really notice music in the background, but when there's a ton of people or a ton of emotion, I can't take it. I eat meals either early, late, or in the kitchens to avoid the bulk of people there and I know the least used passages. Hogsmeade is hard, but doable. Sometimes." She smiled. "That'd be great, I'll be sure to give you a wave."

Casey grinned. "Better tell him I wouldn't be that much better. Or I'd be so sickeningly sweet and caring that he'd rather have you two." She sat up straight, grinning. "I can help, aI can help with that! The pain at least. My power recognizes pain as an emotion, which means I can control it, which means it won't hurt as much when I'm there! Awesome, I'll help him if I'm around him when that happens."

Quinn nodded to her. "Yes that is true, a lot of people have different bagage and you being an embath is something you are going to have to deal with but you're young. You will learn how to control it" Quinn tried to reassure her. Quinn smiled. "You better".

Quinn laughed. "Yeah true but we do have our annoying moments, all four of us do actually" Quinn exclaimed. Quinn beamed at her. "That would be awesome for him, I'm sure he'd really like that considering he will be in too much pain but maybe he'll feel the difference" Quinn shrugged. "But I'm sure he'd like you".

Casey nodded. "Oh I know I have to deep with it, trust me. D'you think I like completely zoning out in large crowds of people?" she asked with a lazy grin. "I'm getting there, slowly but surely. I just need more practice and more time to get used to it. It kicked in when I was about 7 and I'm lucky it waited, or I think I would have just grown up completely insane."

Casey grinned. "Doesn't everyone? I mean even Lyssa and I annoyed each other sometimes and we were scloser than blood siblings." She smiled. "It'll be great to really be able to help people with this 'talent.' It's not exactly something I can put to use, except as taking away pain or calming down angry mobs. Even that is über hard."

Quinn nodded. "Yeah I know what you mean, well sort of. This isn't something that you can control over night, so give it sometime and you will learn to be in control of the empath part of you" Quinn reassured.

Quinn smiled. "Yeah, I wish I knew how you mean't but I don't really no because I just found out I had a half brother" Quinn said. Quinn laughed a little bit. "Must be fun".

Casey smiled. "Yeah, thanks for understanding. As much as you can I mean. This part of me scares some people, makes them feel as if I could control them. And I could." She leaned her head back against the wall and shut her eyes. "I could make you hate your true love or adore your biggest enemy. I could take away hope. Some people just don't understand that I would never, ever do that." She sighed.

Casey smiled at Quinn. "'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,'" she quoted. "There are definitely pros and cons in having siblings. You'll get both with him eventually." She grimaced. "Actually, if I overextend it gives me a massive headache and sometimes makes me pass out. Not fun."

Quinn shrugged. "What are friends for. Besides you can't really go through something like this alone. Your sister is gone and you need help trying to get to her" Quinn said. Quinn nodded. "Well those people are idiots, sometimes when they think that, make one of those things happen and see how they feel when you bring them down".

Quinn groaned. "Oh great, as long as he doesn't turn out to be like our father, we're good but than again he went through the same thing so I don't think he will". "Doesn't sound like fun either".