Arielle walked down the halls with a teddy bear in her right arm. She was looking from door to door, unsure which one she should go in. She took her wand out of her skirt pocket and gazed down the hall. "La la la...." She skipped and spun all the way down the hall. "Silly bear.. I don't know either..."

Jake was walking through the hallways with his usual cocky strut. He looked down at his watch for a second and suddenly bumped into someone. He looked up to find a girl with a teddy bear. "Oh, excuse me." He said apologetically.

"Someday we will all be excused.." she said to the air more than to him. She had always been a little nuts... Her death eater parents had tortured her so horribly at such a young age that she had just snapped and gotten a little...Off balance. "You're a rather handsome boy you know," she said, reaching out to touch his face.

Jake was a little freaked out by the strange girl and he didn't do a very good job of hiding it. "Um...Thanks." He said as she reached to touch his face. "You're very pretty." he added awkwardly.

Arielle nodded and tapped her chin in thought. "I know I am... It's hard for most people to ignore." She spun in a circle with her bear in her arms. "Brielle says I'm crazy but I think I'm rather nice, don't you?" She was speaking to the bear, but when he didn't answer, she threw him in the air, and before she could complete a blink, he was on fire. "Do you think I'm nice?"

lt was true, she was pretty, but he hadn't expected her to reply the way she had. When she set her bear on fire he couldn't help jumping slightly. "Yes, you're extremely nice." he said in fear of being set on fire as well. "Who's Brielle, by the way?"

"That is a question we all must answer... who are we?" She looked up into the air again, and then seemed to snap out of it. "Brielle is my older sister. She looks like me only older and she has shorter hair today... sometimes she changes her appearence so she has longer and shorter hair, and different colors..."

"I see." he said. "Are you and your sister anything alike, besides the way you look?" He couldn't imagine there being two girls who acted that way. "By the way, my name's Jake. What's yours?"

"Arielle Creveaux," she sang to herself. In fact, anyone that read the newspapers would recognize the last name. Her parents had been death eaters who went to Azkaban a year or so ago and had recently escaped. They were nowhere to be found in fact. Arielle spun in a circle, then looked back at him.

"My sister is Brielle. She is very...boring."

Jake didn't read the newspaper much but he immediately recognized her last name. He took a slight step backwards, no wonder she was so crazy. He chuckled slightly when she spoke her sister to hide his anxiety. "What do you mean by boring?" he asked with a fake smile. Normal? he thought to himself.

Arielle looked up in the air, then back at him. "She tells me I'm off, but I tell her that she's boring. She does nothing fun! She doesn't even like to cut her fingers." She showed him all ten fingertips, and all ten fingertips had fairly new gashes in them. "I like to spread the blood along mirrors and such, but she thinks it's odd... She's odd."

Jake looked at her cut fingers and wondered how she had gotten that way, so strange. He directed his gaze back to her eyes. "Doesn't that hurt?" he asked, with a look of disgust.

Her eyes went suddenly wide, and she wrapped her arms around herself. She was, for the first time in a while, snapped into reality for a moment. "I've hurt worse...Crucio hurts..." She was back in a daze a moment later. She was just in time to catch a tear on one scarred finger. She looked up at him with a sad face. "Nothing I can do to myself could be any worse."

"I'm sorry." he said sincerely. "I didn't mean to bring back any bad memories." He had an explanation for her maddness now, she must have been tortured into insanity. He wondered who would have done that to her.

Arielle took a step forward and wrapped her arms around him. She smelled of strawberries because that was the soap she always used in her bubble bath. Brielle made it for her... She sighed into him as she enjoyed the hug. "You're very nice to me... I wish everyone was nice like you."

She starved for affection, as at home she got so little. She closed her eyes and did not let go. It was less creepy and more a sweet gesture.

Jake stiffened at first at first but soon relaxed and hugged her back. He was no longer freaked out by her, but felt sorry for the poor girl. "Why wouldn't I be nice to you?" he asked as if she were completely normal and there was no reason for anyone not to like her.

Arielle shrugged but didn't let go. "Nobody is nice to me. They think I am strange, and weak. They hate me..." She sniffled and rubbed her face into his chest. "But you don't hate me. You didn't push me away or hit me when I hugged you, so I like you. You are my new best friend you know."

Jake smiled slightly. He was a little embarrased, but flattered, even if all he had done to earn the title of her best friend was not be mean. "How could anyone hate you? You're too nice." he replied. "And you aren't strange at all." he lied. Jake did not move away from her in fear of upsetting her.

Arielle looked up at him with her wide beautiful eyes and for one shining moment, she seemed almost normal. She wrapped five short fingers around his and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. "I like having a best friend. I've never had one before. I think you're very cute, and since you're not ugly, Brielle won't make me get rid of you." She rubbed her cheek against his arm.

He thought of her as being younger than she was, except on the two occasions when she snapped into reality. He was starting to think of her like a younger sister, which was something for the usually insensitive Jake, especially since they had just met. But he took a slight step back from her nonetheless at her mention of her sister. "What do you mean get rid of me?" he asked, remembering the teddy bear she had been carrying earlier. He had a feeling he and Brielle might not get along quite as well.

She dazed herself out once again and looked up at him. "She loves me... She doesn't let anyone mean near me...Anyone mean, or ugly, or non-slytherin..." She kissed him once more. Her kisses were sweet and innocent, with very little attraction behind them. "She likes to take care of me and make sure nobody hurts me or my feelings." She nodded.

"Oh, okay..." He wanted to know how being an ugly non-Slytherins could hurt someone's feelings but decided against it. "Is you're sister as nice as you?" he asked

Arielle shook her head and said in the first time sounding french as she was, "She is mean to those who she does not trust.... And that is everyone but me." She looked up at him with a twinge of fear in her eyes. "She would never hurt me, no no, but she trusts nobody and that is because of...them." She was referring to their parents.

"Them?" Jake questioned, he didn't understand who she was refering to. He wondered why she suddenly looked to be a little afraid, he had already forgotten about her death eater parents. Jake could no longer imagine this girl being the daughter of anyone like that.

Arielle nodded and leaned into his arms. "The ones who made me..." She hated calling them parents, as all they did was hurt her. "You feel warm...much gentler than them. You make me feel safe. Don't leave me, okay?" She looked up at him with her wide, beautiful eyes. "Please be my best friend?"

"I'm not going anywhere." he said gently, sorry for making her think of her parents again. " And I'd be appy to be your best friend." he wondered how he had been so freaked out by Arielle at first.