A Stray Brought Home ((Come to meee everyone!))

[Lianna Maylorn]

In reality the firstie had seen very little of Drew recently, and when she had, it wasn't a bad run in, well, till now of course. Therefore, she hardly considered herself a warrior....ess...whatever the right word was. Her head turned to Drew for a moment, her lips finally forming unstammered words. "You ok?"

[Drew Thornton]

"Yeah, I'm good," Drew answered with a crooked grin as he brushed himself off. He had definitely had worse than a footstool landing on top of him. He turned to Layla and scrunched his nose at her. "So where you been all year?" he asked.

[Layla Jimenez]

"At home," she answered frankly, with a terse, yet genuine, smile. This was the part she was not looking forward to. Anyone who had been around her when she was at Hogwarts was bound to ask her where she'd been all this time. It wasn't a big deal anymore. She was back and that's all that mattered to her.

"Where's everyone else?"

[Lianna Maylorn]

That was actually a good question, usually there were people all over the place, and yet there was hardly anyone anywhere. She felt an outcast in the conversation since it seemed Drew, and the girl, Layla, whose name she was surprised she remembered still, had known eachother for awhile, and yet, she had no input to be made. It was most, silencing.

[Drew Thornton]

"They're around here someplace," Drew answered, waving his hands around vaguely. He wasn't too surprised that the entry way was empty. It was why he had picked that particular moment to do his footstool surfing. "They probably all found out you were coming back and found more important things to do is all..."

[Layla Jimenez]

"Ha Ha," she answered dryly, giving him a look. But for some reason, she remembered something important. "Hey," she said lowering her voice to a whisper and leaning closer, "I was able to get to a few Daily Prohpets. Do you know what happened to that Ancient Runes Professor?" She wasn't sure if the first year next to them knew any details, and Drew seemed to get information one way or another.

It was a piece of information she had held to herself. It was the same kind of information that had gotten her taken out of school. If her parents had found out that something else had happened related to the school, she might not have returned today.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew's smile faded quickly and he swallowed hard before answering Layla. He had been one of the students to find the woman's body in the Shreiking Shack. "Yeah... I heard what happened..." he said slowly.

[Layla Jimenez]

Layla's face wrinkled a bit more. She didn't like the look on his face and now she wasn't even sure if she should ask. Drew... he had a knack of being involved in just about anything, whether he'd planned on it or not. She studied his face, lost for words and finding nothing good in his expression before she finally blurted, "I'm assuming we're still on lockdown?" she asked, knowing that that was the usual course of action when something serious happened in or around the grounds.

There was no way of knowing how much he knew unless she just asked him. But now was not the time.

[Drew Thornton]

"Yeah, kind of," Drew answered slowly. "I mean, we're obviously allowed out of the common rooms now... and I'm sure you saw the ministry guys at the front gates. They've got people keeping tabs on the forest and down by the lake too. They keep telling us to go on liek they're not there... but it's kind of hard, you know?"

[Lianna Maylorn]

So, thats who all the foreign, unknown, people were. Ministry, well, that explained the strange looking symbol on the robes. She hadn't bothered to ask, mainly because since onthing was being done about them she simply assumed they were alright. If they were actually dangerous something would've been done, right?

She had been trying to block the lockdown from her mind for awhile, and the reason for it, hearing about it only made her seclude to further silence.

[Layla Jimenez]

"Yea, I saw them. Kind of gave me the evil eye until they realized I was a student." She wondered about the murdered Professor's family, and looked at Lianna. This was not the greatest thing to be witnessing your first year at Hogwarts.

"How are we supposed to ignore something like that? We're used to seeing professors and hundreds of teenagers. Aurors and stuff are cool... but that sounds really annoying."

It seemed to Layla that she'd left her set of problems at home for a new set. But she was positive that it was worth it. She had magic, and her friends and a bunch of people who could relate with her. There was once a time when that bunch of people were her family. But it wasn't so anymore.

[Drew Thornton]

"Yeah..." Drew sighed. Under most other circumstances, he might think having a castle of Aurors would be cool... getting to see them working up close and personal like. But the whole incident wasn't one of his experiments or studies. He hated to admit it even to himself, but it was kind of scary.

[Lianna Maylorn]

It was a feeble attempt but she found herself wanting to actually be in the conversation. After all, one could only listen for so long. And hadn't believed that was what'd happened until she'd talked to a pair of sixth years after they were out of their common rooms.

"I already told my mum I'm staying...I like it here...even though its not really 'home' its...well...its..." she paused. Her face seemed as though she was pondering, and she was, searching for a word. The right word. "Different." She claimed finally settling on something.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew gave the firstie a gentle smile. "I know what you mean... kind of a second home away from home. We belong here and we dont' have to hide anything from anyone, you know?" he said. "Did you guys know that before I started I was playing squib so I wouldn't have to come? My parents made me come anyway and I was determined to get kicked out, but after a week... I forgot that idea. I liked it here too much."

[Layla Jimenez]

Layla blinked in surprise. Drew had had his moments, but she would have never thought there was a time he didn't like being here... despite the homework and everyone's disapproval of climbing tall things. "I didn't know that. That only goes to show you, this place was built for us."

She wanted to know more about the murder, but wasn't sure how to ask. The first year shouldn't be hearing too much about it if she didn't know already, but she wasn't sure if she could get it out of Drew or anyone for that matter. It wasn't exactly the best topic for chit chat. "Well... have the Professor's talked to the students about what happened in Hogsmeade?"