Thursday January 25th, 2018

The exercise:

Write about: peace of mind.

6 comments:

Greg said...

Hmm, this seems like a slightly calmer set of prompts :) Today we're going back to someone else's world, that I sneaked into and... corrupted a little :)

Peace of mind
"Rotten-" said Hermione, the tip of her tongue poking from the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on her Needlework homework.
"Ronnie," said Ronnie Weasel. There was a hopelessness in his voice; he knew that Hermione would never pay enough attention to him to get his name right.
"Whatever," she said. Her hands were steady as the silver needle darted into the lavender cloth, pulling a bright green thread behind it. "What do keep carrying to the sink? You've been back and forth across the common room six times now."
There was a silence for a few seconds, which Hermione broke. "You're not clever enough to invent a good excuse on the spot," she said.
"I got the Liar's Trophy!" retorted Ronnie, his face turning the same shade of red as his hair.
"And I passed both my Legilimancy and Illegilimancy exams last week," said Hermione. She changed needles for one threaded with blue.
"Illegilimancy?"
"Doing it whether you like it or not."
Ronnie sighed and shuffled his feet. His shoes, he noticed, were spattered with something grey and wet. He realised slowly that his hands were dripping.
"Pieces of mind," he said.
"Peace of mind? Why would you need that?"
"No," said Ronnie carefully. "Pieces of mind. Harry's brain is leaking again. Onto my pillow."
"And you're too poor to own more than one pillow," finished Hermione. She looked up, her hands stopping moving for a moment. "Why is Harry sleeping in your bed again?"
"The doctor said he needed to be protected," said Ronnie. His eyes fluttered back down to his shoes and his redness deepened to that of an embarrassed tomato.
"Wait," said Hermione. She set her needlework down and Ronnie noted that it featured the crests of the two 'lesser houses', as Hermione called them: Pavingfloor and Hissyfit. "Harry's brain is leaking? That shouldn't be happening, I haven't obliviated him in weeks. The Net of Athena should be keeping everything in. Show me!"
"He's a bit..."
"Naked? Oh Rumplestiltskin, I don't care. I've got three clones of him in the wardrobe, I made improvements."
Ronnie's eyes widened. "I was going to say drooling," he said quietly. "Hermione, what is your obsession with Harry Potter?"
The room seemed to darken for a moment, and then Hermione, surprisingly, smiled. "I've been waiting for someone to ask," she said. "I wish it had been someone more... competent at being human, but never mind. I'm not allowed to talk about it unless you ask, you see. Miss Nomer explained how the Curse works and it's infuratingly clever."
Ronnie didn't say that he could see how that must really mean 'it's something I wish I'd done first'.
"Basically, although fortune-telling is rubbish, there is a serious branch of magic about dooming and Harry, me, and now you, are all tied up in a doom cast by a wizard one hundred and forty years ago. I'm not obsessed with him, but I need him alive until I can break the doom."
"Who has to die for that to happen?" Ronnie could be much quicker on the uptake than Hermione gave him credit for.
"No-one," she said easily, her eyes only lingering on her needlework for a fraction of a second.

Anonymous said...

Peace of Mind

“Retirement”:-
Day:-
One, release,
Two, freedom,
Three, peace of mind
Four, who knows? My time is finally free to do for me.

Marc said...

Greg - yeah, I don't know what's wrong with me either :P

Corrupted a little? That's one way of putting it...

Pieces of mind. Good lord. I honestly don't know what else to say about this one. Except, perhaps, that I appreciated the Hermione reveal at the end there.

Dragonfly - well, this sounds like cause for celebration, yes? Or, at the very least, a congratulations. Is this the reason behind your return to writing with us here?

Unknown said...

Peace of Mind

Peace of mind is never guaranteed or really an achievable goal, it seems like something though that you can turn on and off when you see fit to improve your stress.I'm such a bummer today!

Anonymous said...

@ Marc: hiya and thanks for all your insightful comments and encouragement.
Yes, I have literally just retired and now have energy to put into my creative side purely for the joy of it. Your prompts have always synchronized with and echoed what was happening in my life at key times and have saved me in the sense of my being able to process and express those times, hence the depth I sometimes display. For some years my writing well was dry, but it just rained and so it may be slowly filling again :)
I am pleased to see you are keeping the art alive. I have often read if not contributed to your blog which is an excellent idea. Your life, work and family seem to be developing wonderfully, too, which deserve congratulations.

Marc said...

Christian - hah, bummer? Maybe. Right? That's another maybe :)

Dragonfly - well I am delighted to have you back writing with us and I look forward to seeing what comes from your refilling well!