Never Miss A Beat [OPEN]

[cronon]

Alexander just had to walk. He was anxious, but not because of his skin, or because he didn’t take enough showers that day to rub the skin on his entire body raw… no, he was anxious and needed to walk because of how excited the Hufflepuff Prefect was. In his hands, pictures of his mother and how large she’d gotten. She was about seven months along in her pregnancy and Alexander’s eyes were wide with awe as he couldn’t believe how beautiful his mother was. She glowed… and it was at this one time he was really wishing that these pictures were magical. He would have loved to see her laugh and smile and wave at him… Incredible it was, and he was missing all of it!

Yes, it was slightly irritating for the boy, but at the same time he was glad that his parents were still thinking about him enough to keep him updated on everything that was going on. Alexander sighed as he just continued to walk through the corridors, his Prefect badge shining almost as clean as his skin seemed to be. He filtered his hand through his unusually long hair (for him any ways) and he couldn’t help but continue looking at the pictures of his mother.

It was a simple picture. She was sitting on a window ledge that they had in their house just before a beautiful sunset. His father was always good with the camera, angles, lights, and what would make his mother look best. Her long blond hair flowed down her shoulders, and as she looked at the camera, her violet eyes sparkled, only radiated more by the smile that she had on her face. Yes, she was beautiful… the perfect woman.

Rounding a corner without looking, Alexander never missed a beat or a step… whether that was a good thing or not… well, only in that few minutes, time would be the answer.

[OPEN]

[Sophia Crawford]

Sophia was walking through the hallways in a pink sundress, a rather strange outfit for the middle of February. She didn't mind wearing her dress though...it was pretty. She was wandering the hallways during her down-time. On her little tours she would skip or sing, not caring what anyone thought. She was a creative person and her spirit just couldn’t be suppressed. It was a fun way to see the whole castle without having to engage with awkward conversation with questioning professors or strange students. In fact, most seemed to just pass her off as crazy and didn’t want to get involved. Today she had decided to sing rather quietly. She was in the middle of a great song, Say It Again by Marié Digby. It was just very simple but sweet. It was just calling out to be sung. Her dark hair was in waves, slightly bouncing with each step of her gold flats. The halls were deserted as far as she could see. Either everyone was in their Common Rooms or something else; Sophia didn't really mind. Alone time was always fun. She felt the music rising, building from the bridge up to the chorus of the song:

"Say it again for me
'Cause I love the way it feels
When you are tellin' me that I'm
The only one who blows your mind..."

Her voice was soft in quality today, probably due to the cold weather and her lack of warming up, but it was still on pitch and even praise-worthy. She turned the corner carelessly, now humming, her eyes drawn to a particularly pretty-shaped window across the hallway.

[cronon]

Rounding the corner, Alexander's eyes never left the beautiful blond woman from the pictures he carried and examined. A smile curved at his lips, and just as he was about to let out a sigh of relief, and just allowing the weight of concern about his mother to lift off of him, he ran smack dap into another who had also turned the corner as was looking elsewhere as well. Of course, he didn't run into her too hard, but just enough to drop all of the photos his parents had sent him. "Oh, pardon me... " Alexander spoke as he put his hand found it's way to the girl's arm.

"Excuse me, I should have watched where I was going." Alexander gave the girl a smile before kneeling down to begin to pick up his pictures. His pregnant mother lay everywhere, his father was even in some of the pictures, and all motionless as could be. How foolish was he not to look where he was going... or even open his ears long enough to what was going on around him to hear that the girl was singing just minutes before? But he hadn't... and that's just where his mindset was at, at that moment.

[Sophia Crawford]

Sophia turned the corner and felt herself come into contact with another person. She was perfectly alert, but painfully clumsy. The boy she bumped into dropped his photos which scattered themselves onto the ground.

"Oh, pardon me... Excuse me, I should have watched where I was going."

The boy was polite, always a plus. She looked at the boy with worried brown eyes, hoping that he was alright as his hand rested on her arm.

"I'm so sorry, it really was my fault." She piped. It truly was. If she wasn't so...well...careless, for lack of a better word, she wouldn't have run into him. "Are you okay?" She looked at the floor, covered in pictures of people...still people...

"You use Muggle pictures, too?" Sophia felt relieved. She wasn't the only one with 'abnormal' photographs. Her Gryff mates had thought that her pictures from home were strange and not working correctly. They just didn't understand that Muggle pictures were images frozen in time completely, no animation whatsoever.

She saw that there was a picture of a woman with vibrant violet eyes sparkling in the sunset. She was also very pregnant. She wondered who it was as her eyes rested on the picture.

[cronon]

His lavender eyes met with the girl's brown ones and Alexander smiled, trying to reassure the girl that no harm was done. "Of course, and no need to apologize... my eyes were elsewhere when I was turning the corner." Alexander knelt down to gather the photos of his mother, and the some that were of his mother and father together, hoping that none of them were damaged in any way. He would have been slightly upset if they were, but from what he saw, there was nothing but a bit of dust on some of them. No damage done.

You use muggle pictures, too?

Alexander let out a bit of a chuckle and looked back up at the girl momentarily, nodding as he did so. "My father is muggle, and though my mother's a witch, we live very muggle and simple lives." He wasn't ashamed of who he was, and if the girl also used muggle photos, Alexander found that there was really no reason to be worried in the least bit. "My parents just sent me these pictures from home..." Alexander continued picking up the one he'd been looking at of his pregnant mother and sighing... he missed her terribly.

Standing up, he smiled again at the girl and gestured toward the pictures in his hands. "See, no harm done. They're just as beautiful as they were before they were on the floor." Tipping his head slightly, Alexander gave the girl a wink and laughed a little again. "Alexander's the name, by the way. Alexander Cronon. And what might your lovely name be, miss?" He smiled warmly and held out his hand with the palm facing toward the ceiling, as if asking for the girl to place her hand upon his own.

[Sophia Crawford]

"My father is muggle, and though my mother's a witch, we live very muggle and simple lives. My parents just sent me these pictures from home..."

Sophia's eyes widened a bit. "Really? Me, too! I mean, my dad's a muggle and my mum's a witch!" She watched him as he carefully gathered his photos, picking up one in particular and sighing a lonely sigh. "My mum didn't tell him that she was a witch though, so he was sort of taken aback. Up until that point, we did everything the muggle way. Now that he knows, of course, we do a mixture of the two...sort of the best of both worlds."

The boy reassured Sophia that his pictures were okay, despite the worried look she gave him. He winked and laughed rather charmingly before his introduction.

"Alexander's the name, by the way. Alexander Cronon. And what might your lovely name be, miss?"

Sophia felt a small giggle emerge. "I'm Sophia Crawford. It's very nice to meet you, Alexander."

[cronon]

Alexander nodded and smiled a small but calm smile as Sophia compared her family with his. "We don't live much of both worlds, but my father agreed to let me attend a magical school when I was very young. My mum was all into me going to America and going to the school she attended." Alexander rolled his eyes just slightly to the side as his head followed suit and he found his hand filtering through his medium length brown hair. His lavender eyes darted back toward the girl as he laughed half heartedly. "Sometimes I wish my dad had set his foot down a bit more on that topic..."

Alexander didn't like being a wizard, and though the magic came easy to him and he had, as some called 'natural ability', he really didn't give two sense about it. He wanted and liked to be and live muggle. It was just the way he was, and lately, he'd been making sure a lot of people knew it. It was probably because he was graduating... who anymore, did he really have to impress? Krissy was gone... Seanna was gone... Alexander only had himself, and those whom didn't like him because he was returning to the muggle world, he didn't care about any ways.

Giggling at his effortless charm, she introduced herself. "Well, Miss Crawford, it's lovely to meet you as well." Alexander gave her a wink and crossed his arms slightly, making sure not to bend the pictures as he did so. "Been here long?" he asked her.

[Sophia Crawford]

"No, not at all. In fact, this is my first year here." She sighed a little, wondering how much of the wonderful school she had missed, what had happened before she arrived. "My dad was a little wary of turning me into a witch, so he had me stay at my old school until this year. He finally let up, realizing that this is who I am." Sophia had loved the school she attended previous to Hogwarts, but she always wanted to harness that 'inner power'...whatever that may be. She was still not sure what her strong point was in magic, or if she even wanted to use it in the future. She could sense that a piece of Alexander missed the muggle world, almost longed for it more than this magical one.

"You're a Seventh Year, right? What are planning to do after Hogwarts?" She was extremely interested to know what plans he might have, wizarding or otherwise, for the future. She knew that her own dreams, as strange as it seemed to others, were far away from the magical community.

[cronon]

It confused him, what Sophia said about not being put in a magic school until just this year. His eyebrow arched and he tilted his head just slightly. "Wait, are you saying that you actually attended a muggle school until just this year?" Alexander had attended muggle school until he turned the age of eleven himself, then went off to America to study at his mother's old magical academy. When it came to the muggle world, his mother had even integrated, so Alexander knew that usually, when in muggle you do as a muggle would do. "So, have you started as a first year then?" How would she have been able to keep up in her classes? Alexander was being a bit nosy, but he had to wonder... was she that natural with magic?

"Yes, I'm a seventh year." Alexander nodded his head, smiling brightly and excitedly. He couldn't wait to get out of this school, especially since he'd been accepted into law school. "After? Oh, well I'm attending the Kenya University of Law and Science. It's a highly respected muggle law school in Africa." Alexander smirked and gave the girl a wink. "I'm going to be an accident lawyer, just like my father." Alexander knew that that was how he'd be able to help all of those he loved and cared about, and also, those he would meet along the way.

"What do you have in store for yourself after next year? Do you know yet, Miss Crawford?" Alexander asked.

[Sophia Crawford]

Sophia nodded in agreement that it was her first year here, despite any labeling the school gave her. "My mum's a witch, and she secretly taught me at home. She comes from an old family of witches and wizards who can pretty much list their relatives as far back as the 1000s or something. It's pretty ridiculous. Anyway, she was really good when she attended Beauxbatons and was even thinking about taking the Headmistress job until she met my father. She was determined to teach me anything and everything, and the things she didn't know she learned herself." She said happily. Her mother would always make sure that her daughter had learned everything she could, absorbing every and all potions and charms, every spell and enchantment. It was a large undertaking which was made even harder by the fact that the teaching had to be kept secret from her father.

"Africa?" Sophia's eyes sparkled a little at the thought of the continent. She herself had never been there, but she dreamed of the beautiful jungles and steamy savannas. She had always had a fondness for animals, and being able to see giraffes and hippos and zebras, okapis and ostriches, while learning? It seemed unreal. "That's amazing! Africa just seems like a fantastic place to learn. It's awfully far though." She wondered why he wanted to study so far away, but if it was as prestigious as he had mentioned, no body of water or pile of land could make it less appealing.

"What do you have in store for yourself after next year? Do you know yet, Miss Crawford?"

Sophia bit her lip, not sure if she could say it without getting a snide snicker. "Well, what I really want to do is perform. I mean, like acting or something in the West End in musicals. It isn't lucrative or anything like that, and my mum's really disappointed that I would be throwing magic into the rubbish bin, but..." she paused, searching for words, "But it's something that I want to do and something I'm passionate about." Her face flushed a little with excitement and a little bit of embarrassment, hoping that Alexander wouldn't flat out laugh at her.