Happy Birthday [OPEN to anyone]

[Belaya Drocellmeyer]

*About as cold as I remembered it..." Belaya murmured as she let out a huge, gaping yawn into the cold, snowy air.

Belaya was finally back in Russia after 7 years. She managed to get into Russia with some help from some threstrals and it had taken her a very long time. Yeah, it meant skipping a week or two of school but she wanted to investigate a bit about the strange things happening here and she loved this cold country, no matter what she said.

Belaya quickly walked towards a small cabin in the middle of nowhere. She didn't want to be caught here after dark and it started getting dark at 6 p.m. so she knew she had to hurry. When she reached the cabin she quickly rummaged through one of her cloak pockets and fished out a small key which she used to open the cabin door. When inside, Belaya wasted no time to light a fire in a stone fireplace and start cooking some meat before she took the time to look at her surroundings.

The cabin was a simple log one with a fireplace, a couch, some chairs and two beds. There also were some cleaning supplies, two tables and four windows. She had used this cabin as a warehouse many years ago with her brother.
Outside of the windows you could see many trees which Belaya couldn't name and a thin layer of snow with her footprints leading towards the cabin. The footprints, however, were being filled with steadily thickening snowflakes falling from the sky.

"Happy Birthday to me, Happy birthday to Jay. Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to us." Belaya sang quietly as she started to drift into the land of sleep on one of the couches.

[Brent McKinney-Jackson]

[/i]he added to himself inside of his head. Now, they both needed to sleep.

Brent sat down on the other sofa and kicked of his shoes which were wet with fast-melting snow. It didn't take long for sleep to take over his mind and body after he had put down his pounding head...[/color][/font][/ul]

[Belaya Drocellmeyer]

Belaya had just woken up from her peaceful sleep and groggily checked on her meat, roasting above the fire. Thankfully she hadn't slept for too long or else her meat would have burnt and she would've wasted a good piece of meat. Suddenly she finally realized that Professor McKinney was sound asleep on the couch next to her.

Belaya froze, speechless, then deducted that she was spotted and followed by her dear professor.

"Why did you follow me Professor? You've just got yourself into a much deeper part of my personal life." she said sadly to Brent's sleeping figure.
"Not to mention you probably aren't used to Russian weather..." she added, noticing his wet shoes and a deep print in the snow outside.

She sighed and put her teacher's shoes near the fire and put a thick blanket over his body and a pillow under his head. Afterwards, she took out a small cauldron, milk and another slab of meat and put them over the fire to cook.

After making sure Brent was warm and the meat was cooking steadily she sat down on one of the chairs waiting for her teacher to wake up and scream at her like her parents. Her parents... Belaya at once regretted her reference as she hated talking about her parents especially here. But they were also the reason she came back to Russia.

[Brent McKinney-Jackson]

[/b] sleep.[/i] Eventually, he gave up and his eyes flickered open. Groggily, Brent rubbed his eyes and sat up. It took a few seconds for him to take in his surroundings and let his mind be flooded with memories. Brent stood up and pushed his hair out of his face. Then he remembered Belaya who he then saw was sat on a chair nearby.

"You..." he began, pointing a finger at her, "You! How could you be so stupid? So irresponsible? You could've been hurt, or worse, killed! No one knows where we are, they might have people out looking for us! Next time, I suggest that you think before you act!" By the time he had finished, Brent was shouting at the top of his lungs.
He sat back down and started massaging his temples. "I can't believe we're actually in Russia... this is so messed up." he said quietly, slowly shaking his head.[/color][/font][/ul]

[Belaya Drocellmeyer]

When Brent finally finished Belaya almost felt like crying. She hated people screaming at her no matter who that person was. Belaya quickly wiped away a few tears and gave the professor a small, catious smile.

"Sorry..." she said in a quiet voice "I should've noticed you following me but it's just that you're very hard for me to sense or it's just that I've gotten softer...."

Belaya then started serving the meat on a plate and poured the hot milk in a mug before setting it on the coffee table in front of the professor for him to eat. She then got another blanket and draped it over his shoulders along with the blanket she gave him earlier.

"Professor, I've been planning for this trip for a long time and I'm so sorry for dragging you along." she said quietly "No one would ever dare make a trip to Russia without thinking long and hard about it."

"Besides why would anyone here care about me getting killed or hurt?" she asked quietly and sadly "I've already got hurt too many times. I can fend for myself..."

Belaya was truly and utterly sorry. She didn't want to involve someone else with her own matters.

"Professor, if you want to rest there's some beds over there." she said, pointing towards the beds "Also, if you need anything else just ask. It's my fault for involving you in my personal matters and bringing you to this place. Also, please refrain from using too much magic or powerful spells, one can never be too careful here."

[Brent McKinney-Jackson]

[/b][/i] fault I'm here, okay? You don't need to do anything for me, I'm a big boy now. There's just one spell I need to cast, and the defensive charms too..."
Brent forgot about his food momentarily and got to his feet, removing his wand from his pocket as he did so.

He quickly put up some protective charms around the cabin. They were rushed and weak but better than nothing. Brent cast the most powerful patronus charm he could manage; a wild horse left his wand and galloped out of the cabin, carrying a message for Maryn. "People should know where we are now, assuming my patronus makes it all the way back to Scotland. Hopefully it didn't attract too much attention." Brent smiled weakly, feeling quite worn out after casting such a powerful spell.[/color][/font][/ul]

[Belaya Drocellmeyer]

Belaya flinched when he slammed his mug on the table but just sighed sadly at the Professor's concern.

"As I said earlier I've already been hurt and I have already fended for myself. Independent?" she scoffed "If I hadn't been independent ,if I had to rely on someone, I'd already be dead. I've gone through things that would make you shudder if I dared told you."

Belaya's other side was started to merge with her normal side. If you knew her very well you could see that.

"NO!" she screamed as Brent casted his Patronus.

Suddenly it seemed that all of her planning was going to go to waste in that one spell but she suddenly saw a fast moving figure moving towards the cabin.

"Glamoura! He made it!" she said excitedly and opened the door for him.

Belaya didn't want to bring her wolfdog along but he wouldn't take no for an answer so she had to let him. Glamoura quickly ran towards his master's voice and broke down Brent's protective charms as he happily tackled Belaya.

"Did you get it boy? Did you stop his Patronus?" she asked worriedly, trying to forget the professor as she didn't want to get mad at him.

Glamoura nodded happily, looking very proud of himself, and collapsed near the fireplace, exhausted.

"Professor don't ever do that again." she growled "Try not to use magic here. It's dangerous and unneeded. Use weapons instead. Also, please try to listen what I suggest. I've lived here longer than you and I suggest you eat your food right now. It'll help you regain some of your strength."

[Brent McKinney-Jackson]

[/i] "Thanks alot, now no-one will ever know where the hell we are!" Brent hissed, throwing his hands in the air in defeat.

Having enough, he stormed over to where Belaya had said the beds were. "Hmph, I'm going back to sleep."
Without another word, he climbed into bed and faced the wall. Brent felt like sleeping for the next month. He hoped to Merlin that he'd be in a better mood when he woke up too...

...It didn't take long for Brent to fall into a deep sleep. A sleep haunted by dark-cloaked figures, dead bodies and Unforgivable Curses; most of which were aimed at him.[/color][/font][/ul]

[Belaya Drocellmeyer]

Belaya's dark side was becoming stronger with every breath that, idiotic, sorry excuse for a human being, took. He was upsetting the both of them and when normal Belaya got too upset her other side would take control of their mind.

Normal Belaya gave a small angry growl and, snap, her other side was at its strongest and controlled their mind and body. The quiet, yet angry, growl got louder as Belaya moved towards the professor with her dagger, poised and ready to hurt whoever angered its wielder. With every step she took her growl became less human and she looked more wild, and dangerous.

"Hahaha. You foolish bastard. If you listened to my other side and didn't hurt her perhaps, just perhaps, you wouldn't have to face this blade just yet. Then again, I must thank you for doing so or else I wouldn't have been able to become the controller again. So thank you for that, but you must be killed so.... Good-bye professor." she said in a sarcastic and sinister sounding voice.

"NO! Stop. Stop NOW!!!" normal Belaya screamed, temporarily taking back control of her mind.

"No! You stop! I deserve to be the controller, I do! You agree with me even if you don't want to! I should've been the only one that survived. I should've been the effects. I AM THE RESULT OF EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED TO US. ME!!" her other side screamed desperately, struggling to keep control of body and mind.

Normal Belaya, suddenly gaining control, ran out into the cold snow. She was trying to cool off and regain control of herself completely, if only temporarily.

[Brent McKinney-Jackson]

[/i] Brent was struggling to come up with a reason for her worrying behaviour and felt like flying straight back to Hogwarts, not caring about leaving her behind. But he'd gotten himself into this mess, and he was going to get the two of them out of it. He was the adult in the situation, and the situation was way out of hand now. Someone needed to take control.

Quickly pulling out his wand, Brent used a touch of magic to swiftly put on his shoes and tie the laces faster than a Muggle could even imagine doing before following Belaya outside. The cold air took him by surprise a little but he kept going. "Stupefy!" he shouted, aiming his wand straight at Belaya's back. She was dangerous at the moment, he knew that much, she needed to sleep for now...[/color][/font][/ul]

[Belaya Drocellmeyer]

Belaya woke up on one of the small beds in the cabin with an aching back. She had woken up in a confused state of mind and mumbled nonsense while looking around wildly with her silver dagger at her side. She then blinked a few times and relaxed. While starting to lie down on her side, as lying on her back sort of hurt, she noticed a picture on the wall of two stick figures, a house and what seemed to be stick animals. One of the stick people had scruffy, boy-like hair with a small on its face while the other one, which seemed to be a girl, had long, straight hair with a grin on her face. Surrounding the picture was a triangle, all which seemed to be drawn by a child.

"I remember, Jay drew this when he had a fever and I went out to get medicine for him." Belaya said out loud peacefully "He said that one day he would take care of me and we'd have a lot of animals and that he wouldn't be sick anymore. He also said that we'd have a nice, simple house, a lake and a forest and it would be surrounded by a HUGE triangle that would keep out our parents so we wouldn't get hurt. Hurt.... Well, today was probably the most eventful birthday we've had. Isn't that right Jay?

Belaya smiled as she remembered her brother but clenched her fist angrily at the mere word parents.

"Professor, we have to leave in the morning. I told you that I had a purpose for coming here right? Well I don't want to leave Russia without completing this purpose. I'll tell you more about it when we leave. If you want to come of course."

[Brent McKinney-Jackson]

[/i] Brent added, speaking inside of his head. He was proof that not all Gryffindors were as brave as they made themselves out to be.[/color][/font][/ul]

[Belaya Drocellmeyer]

Belaya nodded cooly, acknowledging his response, then quickly took out several papers from her bag and put them onto the coffee table. She then sat down next to Brent and hunched over the maps and notes, got her golden glasses out of her black case with her full name engraved on it, and quickly studied the papers in a trance like state.

Belaya studied them for about 15 minutes, growling and shifting the papers from time to time, before letting out a loud frustrated mix between a growl and a groan.

"We don't have enough time. No time.... We'll have to leave now if we want to get this done quickly." she growled frantically.
"Professor!" she sharply barked "We'll have to go in about 5-15 minutes so please get ready."

Belaya then took the papers and stuffed them into her cloak pocket and ran around the room, packing her stuff into her backpack while tidying up the cabin along the way. She soon found a few things that could be used as weapons and quickly called her teacher over.

"Professor, you'll need to choose among these objects to use for a self-defense weapon as you can't use magic." she said, showing him the objects; a kitchen knife, a small bat and a large pair of scissors.

"Glamoura! C'mon boy, we have to go now!" she said while fishing out a leash and a collar from her backpack and leaving Brent to decide on his weapon.

Glamoura responded with a tired whimper but padded over to his master with a yawn and a stretch. Belaya quickly strapped on the collar and clipped on the leash then put on her backpack. She then opened the door, leash in hand, and gracefully stuck out her hand towards Brent, as if to tell him let's go now and hold my hand so we don't get separated.

[Brent McKinney-Jackson]

[/color][/font][/ul]

[Belaya Drocellmeyer]

Belaya grasped Brent's hand tightly before stepping out into the cold, snowy air. The three of them had to cross over the deep snow before reaching their destination.

"There's a few things you should know about Russia." she explained to Brent "One, most Russians respond to authority so act important if you need something or something like that. Two, Russians don't really like noise so don't talk unless it's urgent and necessary. Three, being manipulative is a wonderful advantage for a foreigner so keep that in mind. Fourth, we might have to go to bust places, like the Metro. So if we need to go to such a place hold hands at all times so we won't get separated. Fifth, always be on your guard, always. And finally, I hope you know how to ride a horse because that's what we're gonna have to do!"

The group had reached a small farm that had plenty of horses. Belaya hoped that she would be able to borrow about two horses until they could reach a bus or metro station.

"Let's rest a bit before we continue." Belaya suggested, pointing to a fallen tree "I'll tell you my purpose for coming here."