Twice as many stars in the sky

[Sophia Crawford]

Midnight was supposed to be a frightening time of night, but it seemed to peaceful to be even remotely scary. The sky was painted a purplish black, and the brilliant stars shone with such a brightness that rivaled any muggle lights anywhere. They glowed with such fire and passion, each star brighter than the next. Sophia marveled at them through a window in a tower of the castle she'd never been in before. It was secluded for the most part, except for the fact that there was a velvet armchair placed right in front of the window. It was perfect for the girl to watch the starry night from, although she wondered why it was there in the first place. Suppose she had taken someone else's place?

Well, that was something she'd worry about if that someone showed up. For now Sophia sat in the chair and dreamily looked up at the stars and the sky, connecting the stars to create figures and pictures, then words. She felt her lids slowly closing, realizing how tired she truly was. She kept looking at the sky as her head fell back onto the chair.

She fell out of the chair when she realized that she was resting on someone's hand. She looked up at the shadow of the person at the back of her chair, a little frightened.

[Open]

[Felicity Hjort]

Rounds, again. It really was the worst thing about being made to be a Prefect. Well, she wasn't made to be one, but she was given the stupid position and she couldn't stand it. The reason she was still one? She hadn't found a way to rid herself of the position without just handing it over. No matter how much trouble she got into, no matter how ridiculous things were that she made up for others to be in trouble for, no one would take the badge away.

Doing rounds kept her from sleeping at times, and she wasn't very nice without sleep, but it didn't usually take effect until after she'd gotten up in the morning.

Taking on the towers was the worst part of rounds, there were so many shadows that were thrown. While the young blonde had gotten better about things since the January the year before, she still didn't like all the shadows she couldn't fully run from.

Peeking around, and into one of the towers, she saw someone she didn't recognize in the shadows, someone she didn't know why the were up so late and past curfew. But not wanting to startle the person, in case they were ready with a wand, Felicity crept up slowly, resting one hand on the back of the chair, and tried to calm her nerves when suddenly the girl's head laid back and next thing she knew the girl was on the floor.

Taking a few rushed steps back, falling on her bum in the process, Felicity's eyes never left the girl, waiting for a wand to come out, her own in her hand. Though, the only thing she could really do was create a mess when in panic, forget really doing anything that would work to keep her from being hurt in a magical fight if something like that happened.

[Sophia Crawford]

Sophia looked from her place on the floor and watched as another girl whipped her wand out speedily, eyeing her up. She was a little afraid, realizing that she didn't immediately recognize this girl. She had blonde hair and light brown eyes which shone in the moonlight streaming through the window. It was the Gryffindor Prefect, a girl Sophia had seen so many times during classes who supposedly was dating Drew Thornton, or so she had heard. She never felt like asking those things was necessary, and that sometimes, if the facts were mumbled, both parties would feel a teensy bit awkward about it.

The two sat on the ground for what seemed like forever until Sophia stood up. She walked over to the armed girl and offered her a hand up, hoping that it made up for her jumpiness. She pondered if this chair was hers, if she was angry with Sophia for using it, or if she was going to curse her for it. She sincerely hoped not.

[Felicity Hjort]

Time seemed to freeze.

Whoever the person was, they weren't moving anymore than Felicity was willing to. It seemed like time just stood still as they took each other in, staring at one another in the near darkness, except for the pale moonlight filtered in through the window. Who was it?

The girl's face was not placable in Felicity's brain, but then again she'd never been great about remembering faces unless they were ones she spoke to often. Unfortunately this face didn't ring a bell in the girl's mind, though she did notice she looked about the same age as she was.

Just as suddenly as it all had happened, the other girl was on the move, right toward Felicity. Eyes widening, she prayed that she could correctly cast a spell Drew had helped her with, otherwise she was toast, and knew it. But before any other thoughts about competing with magic could linger a hand was held out to her.

It took only a moment longer of staring to see there was no ill intentions on the other girl's behalf and Felicity cautiously accepted the help, pulling herself sturdily to her feet and watching the girl.

"Thanks," she offered, mumbling the syllable as it tried to force its way out. Should she reprimand the girl for being out so late? She didn't know because she wasn't sure whether the girl was friend or foe.

[Sophia Crawford]

"No problem," she replied sweetly. "I'm sorry to have bothered you." She surveyed the girl who did the same in turn, looking wary. Sophia didn't want to seem like she was even remotely hostile, so she smiled to ease the tension.

"I'm Sophia, by the way. I've seen you so many times, and I can't believe we've never really met before." It did seem strange that the two girls hadn't met formally before, and it was only now, in the dimly lit hallway, that they would meet. Sophia looked back out the window at the stars, then back to the chair.

"Is this chair yours, by any chance?" She motioned to the random armchair near the window that she had been sitting in.

[Felicity Hjort]

Shaking her head, Felicity wasn't bothered by the girl, startled, frightened, sure, but not bothered. Giving a wary smile in return, Felicity tried to return the hospitality that the girl was giving, knowing it wasn't working well for her at all. With her lips not willing to work, the smile looked more like a grimace than a smile, something twisted on her feet.

The immediate offer of her name through Felicity for a moment, and she gave a bewildered look, wondering if the girl even thought of any implications that she may get in trouble and Felicity might not be able to describe her correctly, seeing her in the dark. Sophia.

"Felicity," she answered after figuring there wouldn't really be any harm in giving up her name, being as she was a Prefect, no matter how much she still hated the title.

"No...?" The word trailed, lingered on the air. Why would a random chair be hers? And why would she be asking? "It's not yours?"

[Sophia Crawford]

Felicity. That was it.

"No...It's not yours?"

Sophia shook her head. "I have no idea why it's here. It's like someone just took it out of a room and left it here." She looked at Felicity who looked slightly confused. Sophia sighed. "It must be one of those random magical hallway happenings or something."

She fully realized at that moment that she was out and about past curfew. Her eyes widened a little bit at her silent discovery, hoping that Felicity was a merciful prefect. She estimated that it was about five after midnight. Oh great. Another well thought out adventure.

It seemed like everything Sophia had planned lately ended up in pure chaos, and even a little bit of injury. At least she didn't hurt herself this time. What was the girl even supposed to say? 'Sorry about lurking in the castle at dark. I wanted to look at stars.' Mmhm, a wonderful excuse. She tried to shake off her worries. "Have you ever seen this out here before?" Maybe this chair was always here and she just never noticed.

[Felicity Hjort]

Nodding absently, Felicity only slightly agreed. It was very possible that someone had drug it out of a room and left it there because they just didn't feel like taking it back. Or perhaps it was what Sophia was saying, that it was randomly random. However, at that moment, a chair was a chair to Felicity, she had to decide whether to be nice or take points from her companion. Would taking points really deter from anything? They were only allowed to take a few at a time, would one little bit hurt? Even if over time the amount could ultimately make a House fail, was one little bit going to do anything right then?

"Ummm..." she trailed off, letting her brown eyes take in their surroundings. "Where are we exactly?" Felicity still had trouble navigating the castle, being able to find what she needed to when she needed to now and then, but never really knowing unless she traveled an area an awful lot, and the towers were not her expertise, considering she was usually chasing Sammy when she was in the area.

[Sophia Crawford]

Sophia looked around the area, trying to locate herself. She looked at the window that now seemed to look like every other Hogwarts window in the castle, and tried to see if maybe there was a helpful painting around. It was too dark to try and find one.

"Felicity, I believe that I'm completely lost. I pretty much aimlessly wandered here, to this unknown tower, for no reason at all. I just wanted some peace and quiet, and to look at the stars." She felt like she had to somehow justify her reason for being where she was since Felicity was a prefect, but her justification seemed to do nothing at all except make her look like a big goof.

[Felicity Hjort]

At first, Felicity wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not, but she decided in the end she was just being nervous and awkward about the situation they were in. After all, they didn't know each other, it was late, and technically Felicity was a Prefect that had tried to get a lot of people in trouble for being out late at night.

Letting a nervous giggle leave her mouth, Felicity glanced around, knowing she wasn't going to find anything that was familiar, especially in the middle of the night. "I like looking at the stars, too, sometimes." Though, she tended not to unless she was passing a window where she couldn't help it. Being out alone in the night wasn't her cup of tea, as afraid as she was of the dark and everything that came with it. "I haven't done it in a while though."

[Sophia Crawford]

Sophia nodded along as Felicity tried to start a conversation through the obvious awkwardness. She smiled feebly. "I'm usually not one to go running around the castle in search of stars, but tonight I just...I just felt like it." She was a very sporadic girl, always doing one unexpected thing after another. She really was quite, well...distracted. By everything. She reminded herself of that one time when she was running late to Magizoology and spied an exceptionally shiny Galleon.

That was an odd quirk, just like these tangents her mind got on. Extremely distracting. What was even going on? Stars. Right.

"I really love the stars. Watching them is sort of calming." She was a little fearful of the deep darkness that surrounded her, that engulfed her even. She didn't mind it though when the brilliance of the stars shone through, shining a bit of light.

[Felicity Hjort]

Sometimes people just felt like doing things, and she knew that. There were times where she'd had to do something just because she had to, there was no explanation for it, it just had to be done at a certain time and there was no stopping her from wanting it done. There'd been a few times when Felicity had done something without really thinking about it because she wanted to do it, no attachments or anything. The blonde could easily relate to what Sophia was telling her.

"Me, too. And they are a little calming, I guess, I just like how they let me lose track of time and I can thinking forever without thinking much about it. I mean, it just lets my mind wander about and it thinks all on its own without me having to burst a brain cell trying to think of something to think about." Did that make sense? Felicity wasn't sure, but she hoped it did. She liked laying under the stars because it gave her time to think without being pressed for time. What she really liked was looking at the stars with Drew, and though they'd only done it once before, she enjoyed it immensely.