Susan returns to Hogwarts (Open RP with closed bits in)

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Well, the school had clearly not caught fire or blown up in her absence. Susan permitted herself just the tiniest tinge of unseemly regret at this fact and then, choosing to be entirely inconspicuous, she made her way to the room she shared with Emma.

Her roommate wasn't in when she arrived, for which Susan was sorry; she found, to her surprise, that she'd rather missed Emma, who'd been inexplicably absent in the weeks before Susan's own holiday in any case. She unpacked her new clothes, put her books back on the shelf, and sighed.

Well. Nothing for it. I'm back. Might as well get my mail and find out from Stephen what's been going on.

She took a deep breath and, fighting the urge to stay invisible, made her way to the Potions office.

((Anyone who wants to should feel free to interact with Susan as she heads down to Maturin's office. She will not read her mail until after she gets it from him.))

Comments

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen shook his head dumbly. "I have not the faintest idea where she is from, or how we know one another, or why we remember one another. But she is here, and we do, and I'll be damned if I suffer anyone to lay a finger on her."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan closed her eyes, suddenly feeling a brief twinge of vertigo; and a half-formed notion of universes, places, and times bumping up against one another passed quickly through her head. Then it was gone, and she blinked at Stephen. "It seems like nearly anything is possible here, I suppose, beyond explanation. Who is she?"

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Why was he so hesitant to name her? Stephen recalled their discussion in his office after the secrets board -- Sarah sitting in the same chair where Susan was now -- how they had acknowledged their known names felt subtly wrong, in reference to one another.

"Sarah Williams," he said. "Do you know her?"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan shook her head. "Not even slightly. And I gather she's not even from your world or time?" She frowned. "You know, there's this ... well, my friend. Lobsang. He's part of a group back home called the History Monks, and they believe that after you die, your soul gets incarnated in a different body. Some of them remember who they were before, apparently." She shrugged. "It may or may not be true -- they could simply have very active imaginations, and even I don't know what happens after -- but let's suppose that they are right ... maybe you knew each other before. In other ... other bodies." Her expression was dubious. "Of course, it sounds insane to even say it, frankly."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen listened carefully, but was also dubious. "We remember these bodies." Um. That probably was a little too specific. "Also, we remember a child..."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan really was rather worried now; she'd never heard Stephen quite this disconcerted or, well, specific.

A possibility occurred to her, and she wasn't at all sure Stephen would like it, but she gave voice to it anyway. "Has it occurred to you that -- again, insane to even say it, but stranger things and all -- that you could be remembering the future? Or a future? There's such an odd confluence of worlds and times here --" and again the vertigo. She passed a hand over her forehead. "I don't mean that it's something that will happen. But maybe on some other leg of the trousers of time, as it were ... oh, I'm making no sense, am I?"

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen rejected the notion emphatically. "There is no possible way for that to be the future. I love River. When I am with her I do not even think of these memories -- which is likely all that has kept her from reading them in my mind. I would never leave her."

Then a chilling thought. "... Unless this means..." No. It could not be countenanced, was unthinkable. Stephen had already lost Diana to a premature death. He could not stand the thought of losing River likewise.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry." Susan leaned forward and touched Stephen's arm, in an attempt at a comforting gesture. "I didn't mean to upset you -- it was a wild conjecture. I know that nothing could ever separate you and River, and I don't -- I mean, we can't know, but I ..." She trailed off. She thought hard for a moment, and went on.

"Maybe, wait, let me see if I can articulate this. What if there was a possibility in the past, a choice that you made or did not make, that would have determined whether you met River or not. You made that decision, you came here, you met her, and thus it was. But the other path, the one that led away from here, and from River, that exists as a potential, and maybe on that other path you would have met Sarah." Once again, she felt that her words had sounded better in her head than spoken, and she sighed. "This isn't helping, is it?"

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen buried his face in his hands. "If those paths diverge, then why have they now overlapped?" There was a rare helplessness in his voice.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," Susan said softly. "I don't think any of us can know. It's either a cruel, capricious trick, or an utterly random chance, but either way, it all comes out to the same, horribly difficult situation."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"Sarah thinks it is the fault of the Goblin King." An incredulous choked laugh. "A goblin king? To think there could ever be such a thing; to think I would ever be discussing, in all seriousness, what one might have to do with anything in the known world, let alone my life." He ran one hand over his hair distractedly and looked up at Susan. "And shoud River attempt to kill him, I doubt she would come out of it the victor."

(( shakes fist at HTML! ))

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan's own context for goblins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnomes_(Discworld)) presented a very peculiar image in her head indeed. They must have rather more powerful goblins where she comes from. Then the implications of Stephen's last sentence dawned on her. "Wait -- you said if River -- oh, gods, is this 'Goblin King' here too?"

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"He is, and I believe him to be rather formidable." Stephen did not look at all pleased. He did not voice his speculations on whether he himself would be able to kill Jareth, either; he had ruled out the idea as impossible anyhow.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Well..." She almost hated to say it, but Stephen was her friend; and Susan had few enough that well understood the value of the friends she did have, and there was very little she would not do for them. "I truly hope that it does not come to the worst," she said slowly, "but if it ever does, Stephen, I am with you and River. I daresay that a poker might very well serve against a goblin." She smiled, very slightly.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen did not know what to say to that. "I appreciate the offer. I hope it will not come to that."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Amen to that," she replied with feeling. "In the meanwhile, I expect there is little to be done. I gather you've not yet discussed the matter with River."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"No. How am I to tell her? It was easy enough to tell her about -- well, I suppose you will know about that too, eventually; there has been little enough discretion about it."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Something else? Do I want to know? Gods, I can hardly turn my back on this place for a week." The last was a small joke, but she looked at Stephen with concern.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen stopped short at that. "No, I think you would not want to know. My apologies. I seem to have become entirely more talkative than is courteous or wise."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Stephen, apologies are entirely unnecessary. Gods only know I've bent your ear most 'discourteously'. I won't demand that you unburden yourself, but if it would ease your mind -- at the very least, perhaps you could seek out your friend Shepherd Book?"

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"Book has, sadly, become popcorn; a most ignoble fate, to my way of thinking; a hazard of attending this school, I suppose." The thought of River becoming popcorn was more than he could bear, and he slumped back in his chair, looking bleak indeed.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Oh damn. I'm sorry to hear it." She looked at Stephen, deeply concerned at his bleak expression. "Oh, my friend, I really am worried about you. Will you -- I hope you will tell me if there is anything at all I can do to help."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"There is something," Stephen said, considering. "Though Sarah -- Miss Williams," he corrected himself, "is not in Ravenclaw, it would be a great kindness should you keep something of an eye on her. This goblin king, this Jareth, is a danger to her regardless of whatever may involve me, and I cannot very well be seen to pay any undue attention to her situation. It would be inappropriate." And might attract River's suspicion.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Of course I will. Should I contact her directly, or merely keep an eye on her from afar?"

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen thought. "It is hard to say what would be less problematic. I leave it to your judgment, my dear; and I thank you."