The Cruelty of the Writers (Previously 'Bleh to lazy to think of a catchy title)

Laurie nodded at Nicole as Ava started to play with a lock of Laurie's hair. "This is Ava," She said motioning to her daughter. "And that's George." She jabbed her thumb at George. "Hey," George said nodding at the girl. "Mummy," Ava said spotting something on another table. She pointed to the table. "Cookie." Laurie glanced to see some child eating a cookie. She sighed slightly. "George, get her a cookie before she screams the cafe down."

Nicole frowned, watching the three interact. She had missed so much, and so many opportunities. And it was all clear to her now. She'd never get anywhere in life. She had no OWLs or NEWTs, no proper education for either the wizarding or the Muggle world. And the chance of ever having a relationship was next to none; she was just too effed up for that. Nic looked down at the table, drawing circles on it with her finger.

George came back with the cookie and passed it to Ava. Ava looked at it smiling widely. Ava looked at the cookie and then frowned, she tried to break it in half, which she half managed. Though lost half the cookie as it crumbled onto the floor. She held one part in her hand nd held the other half out to Nicole. Though Ava couldn't reach her. "Cookie," She said waving it. "Cookie mace (make) hapeh (happy and child talk is so hard to understand sometimes.)?"

Nicole looked at the small girl who was waving half a cookie at her. She shook her head. "I'm fine," she said, voice trying to give out and be croaky and soft. Nic gave a small cough, trying to clear it up, though she doubted it would work. She attempted to smile at Ava, but sort of half failed.

Ava frowned. "Cookie!" She said again pouting at Nicole. "Ava honey," Laurie said to the girl. "Nicole doesn't want the cookie. You can eat it." Ava munched on her part of the cookie throwing the part she'd been offering to Nicole onto the table.

"I should go..." Nic muttered quietly, straightening out of her curled up position to get up. "Being invasive..."

"You can stay Nic," Laurie said running a hand through Ava's hair. Ava swatted at her hand and pulled her head away. She continued munching on her cookie, crumbs falling all over her and the floor. Laurie distractedly thinks that kids who make a lot of mess annoy her, because she cleans up dirty dishes and that a lot of the time.

Nicole stood up from the booth/chair/thing. "No, really," she insisted weakly. "Tired, anyway." She gave Laurie a weak smile and faked a yawn.

"If you're sure," Laurie said doubtfully.

Nic nodded at her. "So, bye," she said to Laur. Then she knelt down to Ava's level. "Bye, Ava," she said to the small child. Then she stood back up, and with a nod walked out of the cafe, wanting to get home quickly.

Ava looked at Nicole. "Bye-bye," She said doing a spastic little wave. Laure watched as Nicole walked out. "Guess its home time now," Laurie said standing up and holding onto Ava. George nodded. "Who was that?" He asked."Old freind." "She didnt talk much." "Hm," Laurie said with ashrug. Not wanting to get into it.

Nicole got back home and went immediately to her room, where she laid on her bed, back to the door. Lyssa, who had seen Nic come inside, went to go check on her, but Nicole didn't even respond to her. That made Lyssa slightly concerned, but she decided to give the girl space and time. A couple of days went by like that, with Nicole not moving from her spot, even when Lyssa brought food in the room. She had just closed everything off. Lyssa was quite concerned now, so she wrote to Vena, as Vena was who Nic seemed most comfortable around.

Vena apperated to outside Lyssa's place. She knocked on the door, going intothe room where Nic was after Lyssa let her in. "Hey," She said sitting down next to her. It was sad to see the girl how she was now, she used to be so full of life.

Nicole turned her head slightly, to look at Vena, the first reaction she'd had to anything in roughly three days. But then she just turned back over, facing the wall again. She didn't want to deal with anyone. Not then, probably not ever again. What use was she to them? She wasn't. It would be best if she just ignored everyone. Maybe they would eventually just leave her alone and forget she existed. It would be best for everyone.

Vena raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Fine," She said. "Don't say hi. Get over it Nic. Like really. What are you trying to acheive?" Vena cocked her head to the side even though Nic was still staring at the wall. "You're just upsetting your mother by acting how you are. Besides, the wall can't be that interesting can it?" Vena didn't care if she wasn't being particularly nice. She wasn't a particularly nice person. "Yeah yeah, you've had a hard last ten years, I don't actually really care. You're out of that god-damned place so stop acting like you're still in it. You've got the rest of your life ahead of you. You can go back to school and study if you need to.

Nicole closed her eyes while Vena ranted at her, but she didn't say anything. At least not until Vena stopped. "As far as I'm concerned," she whispered stopping to cough for a moment, "I have no life."

Vena scowled darkly. "Fuck up your life if you bloody want to, but you're not just ruining your life. You're ruining the ones around you? But hey, if you want to be a selfish brat and ruin others lives just because you can not be bothered fixing yours, that's cool too."

Nicole half-turned over to look at her. "Maybe I don't know how," she muttered. "Because erasing the past is impossible. And that's the only solution I can think of." By the end of her little speech, Nic had turned back over again. She couldn't look at people. It just made her hurt.

"You know what," Vena said looking at her. "I can't be bothered, I really can't. I give up." She stood up, her wand twirling furiously around in her hand. A few sparks flew out hitting the wall. "We're trying to fricken help you. And you know what, you can't help a person that doesn't want to be helped." She turned on her foot walking out of the room without saying another word.

Nic curled up on her bed as she heard her door close. She hadn't meant to upset Vena, she just wanted to be comforted and hugged and have shown to her that she wasn't useless. Vena had just snapped at her, which wasn't helping anything.

Vena left the house and once outside of the anti- apparition wards she apperated to the outside of Riddle House. Vena didn't like Riddle House all that much, but it was good enough. She wanted to be on her way traveling again soon anyway.

Nicole lay on her bed, not moving for at least another whole day. She knew she would probably have to get up soon if she didn't want to die of dehydration or hunger, but she just couldn't bother with getting up at the moment.

*Some crap happened and Lyssa got Cassie over at her place.*

"Alright," Cassie said entering the room that Nic was in. "I know you probably don't remember me Nic but that's completely beside the point." She sat down next to the girl looking at her. "You need to talk about it Nicole, trust me, I know. Even if it's hard and you don't want to. It won't help anyone least of all yourself if you don't talk about it. And I know you'd rather not talk about it, or even think about it. But sometimes what we dont want is what we need."

"What's there to talk about?" Nic asked, voice crackly and soft, since her throat was really dry from lack of anything to drink in the last two and a half days.

"Anything," Cassie replied. "Everything. Whatever pops into your mind." She shrugged. "Feelings, thoughts, there's a bazillion different things you could talk about."