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[Apollyon]

Apollyon had come up to the Headmaster's Tower after a particularly frustrating class of Ancient Runes. The Professor was so...he didn't even have a proper word for the teacher. She only partially grasped the Discipline which he taught. The sad part was that he thought he was a genius with the Runes. And to make thing worse, Rhys was in that class with him. It seemed like his half-brother was making it his life mission to make things as frustrating for the non-human as possible. The snide comments, the oh-so-innocent remarks that made the rest of the kids snicker, and the dark looks he shot the Amangrath when he thought the teacher wasn't looking. The Professor bumbling with the subject was the worse of the two evils. When he set off Runes to show the class it had grated against Apollyon’s nerves. He had been forced to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from taking over the class and teaching them the right way. But Father had told him that he couldn’t show his real powers to the general school population at this time. It was hard enough for them to accept a grey skinned, white haired, black soulless eyed teenager. If he showed them how strong he was or what he could do with magic, they would be very terrified. So he had suffered through the class and escaped up to the Headmaster’s Tower. It was almost as warded as his home, the Chamber of Secrets. He could relax his guard up here. The Dark Lord had set aside this room in the Tower for him to use. Rowena and Rhys had avoided him and this place. He had not seen Elizabeth, had not talked to her, but had at least seen her in the halls and she didn’t have a look of disgust or anger in their eyes. He wondered if she would ever actually talk to him. He wondered if her mother and brother would allow her to talk to him.

He sat cross-legged in the middle of the room. He had taken off his outer school robes, so was dressed in skin tight black pants, a Slytherin green skin tight shirt and had taken off his boots and socks. Apollyon had his hands on his thighs, palms up. Hovering in front of him was a ball of green and blue and gold threads of energy. He was humming in the back of his throat and as he did so, the patterns shifted and changed. The Amangrath wasn’t really trying to make anything. He was just using this pattern as a focusing and calming exercise. His eyes were half closed, so he looked half asleep. The ball moved on an invisible axis. It was humming back to him, harmony to his melody. It was very beautiful. The door of the room was cracked open. Apollyon was watching to see if his Father would come by. Being in his father’s presence calmed him down. It was stressful, being among all the humans. He almost always had a headache in the back of his mind. He could put up shields, and did so, but that just put a different kind of stress on his mind, so the headache continued.

[Elizabeth Voldemort]

Elizabeth was once again in search of a place where she could work in peace. The library was more full than usual and even her own common room was too noisy to get anything done in. She had often come up to the Headmaster's Tower in the past. It was always quiet mostly because no one was ever here aside from Father. But lately this place had been somewhere she tried to avoid lately. But with her mother and brother against her father and half-brother, Lizzie really did not want to get stuck in the middle of anything that might happened with them. Although she had more or less accepted her half-brother, Apollyon, she still had not spent time around him except that day they had been introduced. Today, though, Elizabeth simply could not find another place to be alone. Sure there were probably places, empty classrooms and such, but she didn't feel like being bothered to go find them at the moment. She preferred to just go somewhere she knew would be more conductive to her work.

Finally she reached the Tower and headed to the room she normally used when working up here. And promptly pulled out her books, sat down at the desk in the small, library like room, and began working. After several moments a soft humming sound reached Elizabeth's ears. It wasn't loud enough to bother her, but she was curious as to what it was. Being so used to the silence that usually accompanied her time here any noise was bound to make her inquisitive. Closing the book she had been using, Lizzie stood up, slowly making her way into the hall. As she came up to the other door, which was slightly opened, she peeked in to the door trying to locate the sound. Gently nudging the door open she saw the ball of energy hovering in the air and gazed at it a few moments, entranced. The colored strands weaving and moving in time with the humming. After a long moment she finally noticed the source of the sound that had drawn her here.

A gentle smile graced Elizabeth's lips as she spotted her brother, or half-brother – who really cares, family is family as far as she was concerned – sitting on the floor of the room. “Good afternoon, Apollyon,” she said quietly gazing down at him. Then she suddenly realized maybe he hadn't wanted visitors here. “I'm sorry if I've interrupted you.”

[Apollyon]

Red flowed into blue into green. The pattern shifted and changed with every note he hummed. He was able to give his attention fully to the meditation. Only because he was in the shielded Headmaster's Tower could he relax his guard enough to devote his focus to this task. The mental noise was well as the physical noise generated by the school population was gone. That meant that the dull, pounding headache he usually had from the strain of blocking it all out, was gone. It was such a blessed relief. On and on the pattern morphed, first taking a more sphere-like shape then moving to a square, then a blob, then something with lots of spikes and pointy things. Each shape was a different song with varying melody lines. Apollyon felt a sense of peace and contentment that he rarely experienced, only when he was deep in magic as he was now or when he was out in the Wild. Hunting, being free, and expressing his Alpha Male brought a feeling of satisfaction to him. As he worked, the Amangrath thought he heard footfalls out in the hall. It wasn't enough to cause for concern to being him out of his work. There was only a few people who had free access to this Tower, and while some of them didn't like him such as Rhys or Rowena, none of them were threats to him. Silence fell gain for a few moments before he heard more soft footsteps and then a magical presence coming closer to him. Apollyon didn't stop in his work, shifting the ball of energy as he looked up to the door. Sight was not necessary for him with this project. The magic followed his song.

He was surprised to see Elizabeth push open the door further so she could come into the room. She was staring at his pattern for a few moments in silence. He couldn't blame her, human wizards couldn't do magic like this, couldn't bring threads into the visible spectrum. If things were reversed, he thought he would probably be staring like that. After a few moments, she looked up at him and smiled. The Amangrath returned the smile softly. "Good Afternoon, Elizabeth." He tilted his head to the side at her second comment. "No, I would not be opposed to company... if you wished to stay. I did not have the chance to thank you from the meeting. One less person upset was helpful."

[Elizabeth Voldemort]

Elizabeth's smile did not fade though she felt a frown attempt to force its way onto her face. She just could not understand why her mother and Rhys were so upset about Apollyon. Being angry perhaps that his existence had been kept from them so long she could understand, having felt that for a moment herself. But as far as Lizzie was concerned he was her brother and no matter what else he was. Family meant a great deal to the girl, it being the only thing she was really sure of. To her accepting Apollyon into the family was simple. Then again, being the Dark Lord's daughter she had never really had much of a purpose to feel that she was threatened by her new brother. Perhaps if he had introduced a new daughter instead of a new son Elizabeth would have felt differently.

She nodded slightly to him after a moment. She want to say something to him to reassure him that she didn't hate him like her mother and Rhys did. But Elizabeth wasn't quite sure what to say to him. He was her brother, he was family, of that she was sure. But how to tell him that. Lizzie wasn't really good with the whole being friendly thing. Most anyone would tell you that she was a bitch. And she was to most people. Very few students knew what the Voldemort daughter was really like. So as it was, Lizzie was her true self so little sometimes she had trouble telling people how she really felt about them.

"Of course I would like to stay," Elizabeth told him finally. "I've been rather busy lately or I would have come to see you sooner." That was true enough. She knew that she wouldn't be fully comfortable around her new brother unless she spent some time around him. Not that she appeared to be uncomfortable, she was good at hiding it. But who could immediately adjust to someone so different.