|
Post by Jeremy Taylor on Dec 29, 2008 1:20:47 GMT -5
It had taken a number of trips for Jeremy to cart his Lego collection to the deserted classroom on the sixth floor. He had tried playing with them in the common room, but he always had to take them apart quickly. He really didn't want any of the other boys to know he was actually playing with Legos. So he had found this particular room, obviously unused for decades. Lugging backpack after backpack of his collection to the empty room, most of his building blocks had found their way to the sixth floor. Over the course of the month, he had built skyscrapers and monuments, confident that they would be safe until he could work on them again. There were very few spells that he actually knew, but he had worked hard on the proper ones to lock and unlock this particular room. As he found himself facing the door once more, he pulled out his wand, did a simple Alohamora, and on the fourth try, he heard the lock click open. Pushing the door open, he saw his city just as he left it. He walked to the back corner and dumped another load of building bricks onto the pile he had. Sitting in front of the mountain of Legos, he began on a new structure: his home in California, which would be placed near the replica of Big Ben that stood near the White House and the Eiffel Tower. {open... if you dare }
|
|
Maya Castillo
Hufflepuff
Fifth Year
A cat's worst fear is a closed door
Posts: 59
|
Post by Maya Castillo on Dec 31, 2008 2:53:06 GMT -5
Maya walked almost as quietly as her cat, Tabitha, who padded soudlessly at her heels. She twirled her wand between her fingers, sending different colored sparks shooting out of the end. As she wandered aimlessly around the massive castle, stopping occasionally at windows to gaze out at the rainy ever so gloomy day, Maya sang softly to herself, her lovely alto voice rising and falling in an old spanish lullaby.
Maya jolted to a stop, her quizzical mahogany eyes sweeping the corrador before her. It was empty, but she could have sworn she heard something. Maya hadn't even realized she was on the third floor until she took the time to look around her, she had simply followed her feet. They always seemed to lead her to the most unexpected places. Her gaze flicked down as Tabitha trotted ahead of her to a door that was slightly ajar, and silently the white and grey shecat slipped through the narrow opening. Maya sighed and followed. The door made no sound when she pushed it farther open to reveal a boy a year or two younger than herself in the corner of the otherwise empty classroom. Maya's head tilted automatically to the side as she examined his creation, a small smile touching her lips. "That's quite impressive," she said softly not wanting to startle the boy.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy Taylor on Jan 2, 2009 21:31:00 GMT -5
Lost in his construction, determined to get the dimensions on his house just right, Jeremy hadn't even noticed that anyone (much less two anyones) had entered. The sound of the girl's voice startled him so badly that he jumped and gave out a small yelp, crumbling his creation beneath his hands in the process.
He turned to look at the girl who had entered, wondering if he should be angry at her for making him wreck his house, or afraid she'd pound him for being a dork and playing Legos at his age. Instead he looked at her with wide eyes, frozen like a deer caught in headlights.
"I... I wasn't doing anything..." he announced, pretty sure she wasn't a prefect, but not fully confident. If she was, or if she messed with him, he'd tell on her later on and get her in trouble.
|
|
Maya Castillo
Hufflepuff
Fifth Year
A cat's worst fear is a closed door
Posts: 59
|
Post by Maya Castillo on Jan 3, 2009 1:09:21 GMT -5
Maya gasped and jumped slightly, startled by the boy's reaction. "Oh," she said wide eyed and a crease forming between her worried cinnamon eyes. Then Maya frowned, confusion showing on her dark catlike face as she took in the boy's almost defensive expression. "I'm sorry," she said softly taking a few steps forward, "I didn't mean for you to scare...wait that's wrong...I didn't mean to scare you?" Maya grew up learning both Spanish and English but Spanish was still her first language and whenever she got flustered she would either flip words around or start babbaling away in Spanish.
"No Tabitha!" Maya scolded and rushed forward to pick up the Legos her cat had shoved off the table. She placed the peices back by the rest and quickly snatched her cat into her arms. "I'm sorry," she said taking a few steps back an apoligetic smile on her face as she survayed the damage to the boy's creation. "Well it looked good...before." She chuckled nerviously, unsure if the boy was going to start yelling at her for ruining his work. "I have what you call...Linkon Logs back in Mexico..." she trailed off taking another step backward.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy Taylor on Jan 3, 2009 3:19:26 GMT -5
"This is waaay different than stupid Linkon Logs," Jeremy said, holding up one of the small colored bricks and rolling his eyes. By the girl's reaction, the small Ravenclaw was pretty sure she wasn't going to make fun of him for building stuff, giving him the perfect opportunity to mess with her first.
But she didn't really seem to be the kind to smack him upside the head, give him a wedgie, or dunk him upside down in the toilet. She stopped her cat from wrecking his stuff when it really hadn't done too much damage. The top of the Empire State building had broken, but it really wasn't something he couldn't snap back together. As tempted as he was to yell at the girl, he really couldn't blame the cat.
"Her... her name is Tabitha?" he asked carefully, still a little worried the girl would switch from being nice to messing with him. He avoided the girl's eye but made a tentative reach to pet the cat before she was snatched away. Jeremy found interest in his fingers, pretending he didn't want to pat the cat in the first place. "You're from Mexico? My Aunt Lolly's family is from there, but I'm not."
|
|
Maya Castillo
Hufflepuff
Fifth Year
A cat's worst fear is a closed door
Posts: 59
|
Post by Maya Castillo on Jan 3, 2009 15:47:10 GMT -5
Maya shruged, unbothered by the boy's almost rude comment. "Well I never had anything to compare them to," she said while she looked the boy up and down. He was deffinetly younger, a third year maybe, however he was still at least two inches taller than herself. He looked slightly familar, but Maya normally kept to herself and stuck with other Huffles eventhough she had no aversion to any of the other houses. Maya was posative he wasn't from her house, but she thought she might have seen him getting picked on a few times by other fifth and sixth years. She even thought she remembered telling off someone from her own house for making fun of him once, but she wasn't sure.
"Yep, that's her name," she said giving him a friendly smile,"she's a bit of a troublemaker, but she's nice enough." Maya loosened her grip slightly and Tabitha leaped back on to the table. Maya sighed and stepped forward to retreive her cat once more, but stopped when she saw the feline rubbing her head against the boy's hand, arching her back in the way that ment she wanted to be pet. Maya grinned and took a seat on top of one of the empty nearby desks. "Well my aunt's from London, but I'm not," she said mimiking the boy with a playful smile. "I'm Maya by the way, from Hufflepuff." She let her introduction hang in the air as she waited for one in return.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy Taylor on Jan 4, 2009 15:07:06 GMT -5
Jeremy had more cat friends than people friends, so when Tabitha jumped out of the girl's arms and came back towards him, he had no problem giving her a nice scratching between her ears. He tried not to look at the girl as she spoke, but he couldn't help smile when she echoed his words.
"My aunt's from London too... but I'm not," he told her with the smallest of snickers, a sound that wasn't a common one for the boy. Actually, neither was giving his name, but for some reason he felt comfortable enough to do so with this girl. "My name is Jeremy. I'm in Ravenclaw."
|
|
Maya Castillo
Hufflepuff
Fifth Year
A cat's worst fear is a closed door
Posts: 59
|
Post by Maya Castillo on Jan 4, 2009 22:21:50 GMT -5
Maya smiled, pleased to see that bother her cat and her new friend were getting along. Yes, Tabitha could be friendly when she chose but that didn't mean she liked everyone. Maya had discovered a while back that her feline friend was a good judge of character, and she tended to get along with whoever Tabitha decided to befirend.
Maya was glad to see that Jeremy was loosening up because he had seemed rather on edge when she had inturrupted. Hopping down from her perch on the desk, Maya walked around to the other side of Jeremy's table and started inspecting his handy work. "Third year?" she inquired casually as she started stacking a few extra Legos. In just a few moments Maya had a decent sized pyramid, and she smiled in satisfaction. "Yours is much better obviously," she said with a chuckle, "do you mind me asking what...or where it is?"
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy Taylor on Jan 4, 2009 22:57:06 GMT -5
"Yeah..." he answered slowly, eyeing the girl with extreme caution. It was usually a simple comment like a question about his year that led to a pounding. He had almost let his guard down, but he had brought it back up.
She went ahead and helped herself to his Legos, and while he was tempted to mock her attempt, he just couldn't when she had complimented his little city. Was it sincere? Was she really as nice as she seemed, or was she just pretending so that he'd relax and fall for some trap she was setting. Be nice to the dork and then torment him as soon as he thought it was safe.
"It's... it's not really anywhere... but everywhere," he stated, knowing it didn't make any sense. "Just... places I've been and liked, or places I want to see. Is that... is that weird?" Actually, her pyramid worked nicely with his arrangement, even if it wasn't the most structurally accurate.
|
|
Maya Castillo
Hufflepuff
Fifth Year
A cat's worst fear is a closed door
Posts: 59
|
Post by Maya Castillo on Jan 6, 2009 23:58:09 GMT -5
Maya could feel Jeremy eyeing her as if he was trying to find a double meaning behind her words. He wouldn't find one because for better or worse Maya always spoke her mind, and she despised lyers. She could tell that he still wasn't quite at ease with her company, so Maya thought it best not to force herself on him by attempting to sooth his anxiety.
Maya nodded as he spoke her quick nimble fingers taking apart her pyramid as quickly as they had made it. When her work was disensembled, Maya started again, this time colorcoding every level of her pyramid with a different shade. "No I get it," she said her voice soft as she contemplated his words, "and I don't think it's weird." Her gaze flicked up to meet his and the corner of her mouth tugged into a crooked smile. "If I'd been to this many places I'd want to recreate them too but I lack in artistic ability."
Her soft bell like laugh rang out in the nearly empty classroom. "Have you ever been to Egypt?" she asked running her fingertips over her once again finished peice of amature art. "It's really the only place I've ever really wanted to go. Nice and warm and the desert..." she trailed off her eyes gaining a far away look. She heaved an inward sigh and shivered slightly. It always seemed so cold here in the UK, and Maya didn't think she would ever get used to it.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy Taylor on Jan 7, 2009 23:02:22 GMT -5
Was she just pretending to be nice or did she really understand what he had meant? He thought that she might be okay -he usually liked cat people- but he was still going to be careful around her.
"I haven't been to all of these places," he corrected, figuring it was only about half. "But, no... I've never been to Egypt... but I've read about it. One day I think I'll go there though." He wanted to look at the pyramids up close.
"Warm and the desert... sounds nice. Not like here. Wet and cold all the time," he complained mostly too himself. He liked to see new places, but he really missed home an awful lot.
|
|
Maya Castillo
Hufflepuff
Fifth Year
A cat's worst fear is a closed door
Posts: 59
|
Post by Maya Castillo on Jan 8, 2009 22:12:57 GMT -5
Maya shrugged, slightly dissappointed by the fact that Jeremy hadn't been to her favorite country. It would have been nice to hear about it first hand. When Jeremy complained about the whether there in the UK, Maya's eyes flew up to meet his gaze shining with excitment and surprise. She had never met anyone who really empathized with her loathing for the cold, wet, and dreary days that Hogwarts often recieved because most of her friends were born and grew up in London so they were used to it.
"Exactly!" Maya exclaimed, smaking an open palm on the table slightly harder than intended. "Oops..." Maya muttered, slightly embaressed by her sudden outburst and rubbed hre now smarting hand. "Everybody just tends to ignore me whenever I complain about the whether, I do so often," Maya said in a softer tone than before. Maya sent a quick glare at the classroom window and the dark sheets of rain that were falling relentlessly outside. "So where are you from?" she asked her tone friendly and curious.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy Taylor on Jan 11, 2009 21:59:22 GMT -5
He was a little surprised to see her look, expecting an argument about how great snow and cold weather was. He broke out in a small grin only to have it disappear when she pounded the table, making him jump. He braced himself for his face to be next, but instead she seemed sorry. He was still cautious, but smiled again.
"I'm from California," he told her. "It's too cold here and I don't like the snow so much and I miss the beach. And the food here sucks. They don't use any spices over here I guess because it all tastes the same." He could probably go on for another hour easily on all the things that were wrong at Hogwarts, but he thought that might be enough for the time being.
|
|
Maya Castillo
Hufflepuff
Fifth Year
A cat's worst fear is a closed door
Posts: 59
|
Post by Maya Castillo on Mar 10, 2009 21:34:29 GMT -5
Maya gave Jeremy an apologetic smile when she noticed that she had startled him, he still seemed somewhat confused by her freindliness. Maya's eyes glinted with curiosity as she listened to Jeremy respond to her question. "You live on the beach?" she exclaimed, an excited smile flickering on her lips. "I would love to see one but I am landlocked in desert where I live, and my family never really felt the need to travel. It would be nice to see a real beach, not like these icy cold and muddy ones that my aunt takes me to." Maya shivered at the thought of them. She paused for a moment so it wouldn't seem as if she were ranting for the hell of it.
"I definetly agree about the spices. Nothing is spicy enough over here, its like they haven't even heard of a chilly pepper." Maya heaved an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. Of course, hardly anyone she knew could stand up to the amount of spicyness she could boast. Her thin brown fingers were working again as she spoke, building up a multicolored tower, just to see how high she could get it before it fell, or Tabitha decided to come knock it down.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy Taylor on Mar 10, 2009 22:06:20 GMT -5
"Well, I live near it," he answered. It wasn't like his house was right on the sand, but the water wasn't all that far away. And she was right. The beaches in England were no where near as good as the ones at home. He nodded his agreement to her assessment of cold and muddy, knowing the British Isles were not really known for surfing blue waves or bathing on warm sands. Yup, just another reason to hate this sucky place.
"Not everything has to go in a pie..." he added, thinking the pastries were for sweet fillings, not meat and vegetables. He was kind of finding this girl interesting, considering he had never really met anyone who honestly agreed with him. He would have been suspicious of her, but she seemed to really understand what he was saying, not just agreeing to lure him into some trap. Plus, she was pretty good at building stuff. She seemed to understand that too.
|
|