giving life another chance one day at a time,

[Chase Harris Walker]

The school year had been relatively uneventful for Chase this far – the first half of the year he spent mostly holed up in his dormitory, either finishing class work or sleeping the day away. He simply didn’t know what to do with himself. When he was alone he would play guitar for hours – until the rest of the boys came back from wandering the grounds, or whatever else they did. Oddly enough, Chase didn’t have many friends in his house or his year for that matter – the majority of his friends had been older than him and had graduated in the last couple of years.

Luckily he still had Ronnie – who he had been spending more and more time with lately. She was dragging Chase about the school and Hogsmeade trying to get him to enjoy himself and life a little bit again. If anyone asked, Chase was perfectly fine – but the adjustment to life without sight was a difficult one and mostly he was tired of people feeling sorry for him – but there was definitely still depression there, even if he did try to act like it wasn’t an issue.

One of the things that had been bothering him the most this year was the lack of time he had spent with his twin brother – the two had been in separate houses with separate hobbies for years – but they were still nearly inseparable the rest of the time. Ever since their ridiculous duel, Chase had hardly heard from his brother at all – whether it was guilt or what he didn’t know, but Lucas had clearly been avoiding him for ages now – even when they were home for holidays.

This particular afternoon, Chase had felt the warm sun on his skin while wandering back to the castle from the greenhouses for Herbology class and he was actually enticed to wander down to the lake instead. Thanks to Ronnie’s leading him around the school all year long he now had a mental map of the castle and the grounds – as long as he knew which way he was facing he could get where he needed or wanted to go without much difficulty.

He stopped in his tracks for a second, listening to the world around him – then suddenly there was a splash, loud though undefinable to most, Chase recognized it as tentacles from the giant squid down at the lake as it came up for a second and dove back down. Grinning a bit – he was getting rather good at this he had to admit – he headed off in that direction, his wand was out and it guiding him around people, trees and other obstacles thanks to a spell the charms professor had helped him come up with.

Probably ten feet from the water’s edge, Chase held a hand out to find the nearest tree, then placed his wand in his pocket, leaned his back against the tree and slid down to the ground. He sat just where he would get the warmth from the sun, while still having somewhere comfortable to lean back and relax until Ronnie got out of her next class – even if he fell asleep it was a nice change from a nap in his dorm.

Chase stretched out in the grass, leaning back on the tree still and absorbed the warmth against the still chilly spring wind – his ears taking in every last sound from people shuffling their feet to something rustling off in the bushes nearby. It still amazed him how easy it was to learn which sounds were which, even learn to tell when certain people were coming up to him just by the sound of their footsteps, or a specific scent that they always have, like perfume, cologne or even cigarette smoke – it all stood out so much more now. He folded his arms across his chest and closed his eyes, definitely a nice change – it seemed all Ronnie’s dragging him about was doing him more good than he had thought.

[Lucas Richard Walker]

This year was not what he had planned. Lucas thought he had killed his brother at first, but he actually blinded him. Why did he have to try that spell? He had stayed by his brothers side when he was in Mugnos. Once they said he would be okay Lucas left, he slipped out of Chace life. He never wanted to hurt his brother again. He distanced himself away from him and everyone else. He was talked into staying on the quidditch team, that with Juliette not being able to play that Ethan did need him.

Whiskey and drugs became his best friend. He wanted to forget what happened. He wanted to not feel guilty anymore. After taking a few pain pills that he didn’t need really, he grabbed his cigarettes, his wand, and his new flask that had a spell on it for the inside to be a lot bigger. He kept a lot of whiskey in it since it could hold much more than it looked. He took a sip and left the quidditch pitch. He had just gotten done with his own little practice. He was walking along the black lake when he spotted Chase. How the hell did he even get out here anyway? He stood near him not saying a word. He knew that Chase couldn’t see him. He backed away and stepped on a branch snapping it in two.





Tagged: Chase Harris Walker

[Chase Harris Walker]

Chase was almost about to doze off in the comfortable warmth of the sun when a very familiar pair of footsteps, followed by the faint scent of stale cigarette smoke, grew closer and closer. It was almost difficult for him to stay still, as though he had noticed nothing at all as his older twin approached him – from what Chase was guessing was the direction of the Quidditch Pitch. He wondered how long Lucas would stand there without saying a word – he was starting to get tired of being avoided.

They couldn’t change what had happened that day, but it didn’t have to ruin the friendship the brothers had shared for so many years. He knew whether his brother spoke about it or not that it was tearing him up. From what Chase had heard, Lucas almost quit everything including Quidditch – only being talked into staying by their captain, who had ended up out for a portion of the season himself.

Though Chase didn’t ever have much of an interest in Quidditch his brother loved it – and was a damn talented player too. Over the years, Chase had gone to each of the matches his brother played in, to show support – and that hadn’t changed this year, even when he could no longer watch for himself. He had asked Ronnie to accompany him – and describe what was happening with Lucas between listening to the commentator describing the rest of the match. However, he hadn’t made a point of letting his brother know he was there however – if he would ever just talk to him then he would know there were no hard feelings on his end. Chase just wanted to have things get back to normal.

It had been at least a couple minutes, and Lucas hadn’t moved to leave, and hadn’t made a sound to let him know he was there. Likely, Chase figured, Luke had no idea that he already knew he was there – so he continued to allow his brother to think otherwise. Perhaps his brother was just watching him to see if he was okay; unfortunately, people give away a lot of emotion in their body language and that was now lost on him. Finally, he heard a shift in the grass from where his brother hand been standing so still before – he was going to leave without saying a word and this time, Chase was just going to let him go.

He was tired of wondering what was going on with Lucas, he was tired of wishing things could be normal – he was trying to move forward, whether his brother would or not. Then as he heard his brother backing away, he heard a branch breaking in two as he stepped on it, and the footsteps stopped cold as though he thought he had been caught. "You really should be quieter when you're trying to back away," Chase said simply, still leaning against the tree, eyes closed and looking like he hadn’t been paying attention at all. "It would give me the chance to pretend I didn't know you were there for the last few minutes, Luke..."