𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | ❝ 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐈 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆. ❞
the past can cage you, make you its prisoner
behind stone cold bars, the spectres of what
one could never be staring you in the face,
nowhere to run f...
interlude brought to you by your hosts, melody heaven healey & aurora briar blanc.
· ✺ · . * · ✵ · · ˚ *
"MELODY, WOULD YOU PLEASE put on a jumper? Just seeing you gives me chills," Aurora said incredulously, not taking her eyes off the other's uncovered eyes as she added just a bit of sugar to her tea.
"I am telling you, it is not cold at all," Replied Melody, holding back the shiver that the sudden blow of wind threaten to give her. November had certainly arrived, alright. "So, laundry detergent? That was one of your scents?"
"Yes, yes, it was. But only just... faintly. Vaguely there. Such an enigmatic experience." Aurora confirmed, thoughtfully.
"But do you think we can trust it? Fully? Like, you got detergent, Fred got melted dungbomb, James got cigarette smoke, I mean..." Melody trailed off, the point had already come across, "Can we fully trust it? Slughorn said it, there's not a potion that can literally capture love, so how can we know?"
One of those deep silences surrounded them, yet the ghost of a smile remained on Aurora's face, as she echoed her friend's words. "I don't think there is anything that can capture love. Funny. Not even magic can understand magic." She took a sip of her jasmine tea, "However... the only thing that can come close to it, is us... isn't it so?"
"I suppose. Yet we're also the ones who walk the furthest away from it," Melody said, eyes shifting to look anywhere but in front of her. Lovely night it was in the castle, indeed.
"I couldn't bear to imagine. Could you, my Melody? To live without love."
"But how are we so sure of it? We've tried to prove it, for our whole existence, and it slips away from us, and history repeats itself, and it feels like we're so far from it— how do we know? What is the guarantee?"
"It is the same as what tells me I'll wake up tomorrow. None at all," Aurora said, her eyes, too, wandering along the dimly lit, majestic halls. "Humans. We've been questioning what is it that makes us humans, haven't we? For as long as we've existed. Years, centuries go by, and we still haven't found a nature, a definition for that which sets us apart, and yet, we know... we know it must be something. Something there, that words are unable to reach."
"Because... there is something indescribable about us. There is something horrid, and putrid, in the way we are able to deliberately hurt others. But there is something delicate, heavenly, in the way the create, and stand up to yell our truth," She continued. Melody had the feeling Aurora wasn't there anymore. She was still her, but she was in another place, her voice being a mere reflection of where she'd gone. "And love... love isn't even a choice. Love, we can't explain. But it is there. It is there, and when it is, we are so much more than just one. And I think we know that, when we feel it."
"We can't explain it," Melody repeated. It wasn't until then that she noticed her heartbeat had accelerated, almost impeding her to speak, "But... if we feel it... and act on it... on this feeling that is more than ourselves... then it speaks incoherent volumes about us. As a whole."
"Perhaps it does. Indeed," Aurora said, fingers drumming against her own leg, "I do not believe the potion reveals to us our deepest desires, or affections. I believe, instead, it shows us what we already know, inside us. It forces us to face it."
"Holy shit," Melody muttered breathlessly, but said nothing else. Neither of the two girls said anything else. In fact, they didn't even look at each other, for time they couldn't quite calculate.
With trembling hands, Melody brought up her cup of tea and small plate, and, amongst the scents presented to her... those of coconut, freshly washed clothes, and peppermint floss, she suddenly understood what that tender jasmine-like smell meant.
