Paper, Ink, and Conversation Hearts

[Felicity Hjort]

Sunday afternoon, and for once Felicity wasn't running hitherto to do something. No, today she was at leisure to relax, to just sit back and think about things she didn't normally have time for. Things like how she was going to get her parents to believe nothing had happened, had changed for her. They weren't going to believe that at all, no matter how insistent Felicity was that she was fine. They knew of the invasion, or at least her mum did, but her dad she was sure knew of it. Her mum was as bad a liar as she was. It was something the blonde was sure she'd picked up from her mum.

And while not being able to tell a lie to save her life could be considered a good thing, she sometimes didn't like it too much. It made it hard to give a compliment that was supposed to be just that when she thought the exact opposite of what she was thinking, and it made it hard for her to believe everything she wanted to. The Gryffindor couldn't even lie to herself, not even to try and keep her heart from hurting.

While it'd been a few weeks since she'd told Drew she didn't want to date him because she felt like they'd lost their friendship, her heart still hurt. Those butterflies were incredibly active when he touched her, put his arms around her, or when she daydreamed during class about him. Yes, she still did that, how could she not with those amazing blue eyes of his? And her skin still allowed his touch to linger all over her arms and hands if he accidentally, or intentionally, brushed up against her. And her stomach still did little flips when he smiled at her. So why didn't she think they could date?

It was because she was pretty sure she was afraid to. Losing his friendship was something she really didn't want to happen, and if that meant she couldn't date him to be his friend, then she'd go with it. The lioness almost lost Celina, but she hadn't, they'd stayed friends incredibly enough, but she was really afraid of losing Drew that way as well.

However, among the many thoughts involving the six foot something boy, there were thoughts about other things as well. Things like summer, leaving Hogwarts for a few months, some people leaving, Corey wasn't going to be back, returning to school, and then soon Drew would be leaving, too. In a little more than year Drew will have graduated, leaving Felicity at Hogwarts by herself.

Sitting against the wall, her back pushed up against the cold stones, Felicity just sat there, relaxed with Sammy next to her, her knees pulled up, steadying a notebook for her.

In the notebook were so many thoughts she'd had lately, it was almost full. She'd only thought to do it a few short weeks before, the day after breaking up with Drew. It was a journal, kind of, but it held more doodles than anything.

Felicity could be constructive, but her mind had been elsewhere most of the time, usually carving names into the margins of the book. Her name, sometimes looped with another, sometimes just hers, sometimes just the other. Felicity couldn't draw very well, but she had nice handwriting, or she thought she did. And around the names that were designed together were little hearts.

Yes, she was still pretty sure about her feelings, but she didn't think she was ready...

((DREW))

[Drew Thornton]

Drew was sprinting through the halls at top speed, careening the corners, and hurtling down staircases in an attempt to make it down to the Great Hall where, it was rumoured, the house elves had just sent up a batch of fresh cookies. It was going to be a tight race, getting down seven flights of stairs, to get even a single chocolate chip, but he was determined to do it.

He skidded around another corner and lept over a pair of legs, a good looking set that swept all thoughts of eating out of his mind and caused him to stop with a very literal and actually a verbalized screech. "ERRRRRRRCH!"

He turned around and looked at the Gryffindor that had staked a spot out in the hallway. "Hey, you," he greeted with a wide smile. "Whatchya doing here?"

[Felicity Hjort]

Tracing, and retracing, letters into the paper, Felicity was rather enjoying the peace and quiet. There weren't too many people around which meant she didn't have to hide the notebook, didn't have to cover up any of the names or the thoughts written inside its covers. There'd been so many stored away into it, and she still felt like there were millions more she needed to add, but she couldn't form them into written words, she couldn't find the time to put them in. And there were other thoughts taking priority constantly.

Sammy sat up from his curled position, nose twitching looking all around. Whatever bothered the grey animal Felicity didn't know, but she was content with keeping inside her own little world and drawing letters and hearts over and over. No, this wasn't a constant thing, in fact it was the first time in the blonde's life she'd ever done something of the sort, but there it was. Names intertwined, looped together, written as one.

And then she heard the pounding of feet just before she saw the body, one she wasn't sure about wanting him to see what was in her book. Closing the covers properly and pulling it close to her chest, Felicity gave a small smile to the blue eyed boy.

"Hi," she greeted him brightly. "Nothing, not really anyway. Just sitting here, with Sammy." Motioning to the little squirrel at her side, Felicity only just noticed how rigid he had become with the presence of another so near. "You?"

[Drew Thornton]

"Sammy, dude!" Drew greeted the squirrel, though he was pretty sure it wouldn't appreciate the salutation. "Kind of random space to sit... then again, I think I've parked here to study. It's usually pretty quiet here."

"Snacks down in the Great Hall," he told her with a lopsided grin and a shrug. "I thought there still might be a chance to snag some before everyone else does. A slim chance but I thought it might be worth a try." Of course, warm cookies didn't seem all that important to him anymore.

[Felicity Hjort]

Sammy just scrunched his nose up a bit and stared with his beaded eyes up at the boy. Frozen like it was waiting for the predator to make its move; it earned a well-deserved giggle from the lioness as she watched and tentatively reached out to stroke the furry animal, hoping to calm it down a bit. He'd been good lately, keeping near her a lot more and not running away quite so much, but there were those other times where she was running up and down the corridors chasing him, the blonde was pretty sure some people didn't necessarily appreciate it so much.

Shrugging in response to Drew, she didn't really know what to say. It was quiet, the reason she'd chosen the particular floor. There wasn't anything really special about the floor that she'd heard of, and no one else seemed to find something too amazing about it, so it remained quiet, unlike many other floors in the castle. But she wasn't there to study either, she was just...there.

"What kinds of snacks?" she asked. If Drew was running for them, they could be anything, but she was pretty sure they'd probably be something extra special if he wasn't just pulling out something he already had stored elsewhere. "Something really good and special, or just snacks?"

[Drew Thornton]

Drew still wasn't sure about the squirrel, finding it amazing that the small creature had been living in the wild only a few months ago. He had no problem giving a good ear scritch to Emerald or Juni. Even Percy and the owls seemed to like being patted, but he wasn't about to put his hands anywhere near Sammy until the squirrel personally invited him to. Drew had learned his lesson with Allegra's rabbit.

"Rumor has it the house elves made fresh cookies," Drew answered, taking a seat against the wall next to her without being invited. It was Felicity and he figured that if he wasn't welcome, she'd let him know one way or another. "It was a long shot getting down there before they got snagged though."

[Felicity Hjort]

When Drew made his move to sit next to the blonde, Sammy backed up a little, turned around and jerked his head every which way, as though looking for escape routes. In the end, he settled for climbing up on Felicity's legs, frigidly laying down aross her knees, keeping his brown eyes alert for whatever danger was to come, which meant his eyes were watching the every movement made by the brunette.

"Rumours of cookies?" she asked with a small giggle. Even if there weren't fresh cookies out, she knew he could just go down to the kitchens to ask the House Elves for some, they'd gladly make them. And they'd probably make any kind he wanted, too. For Felicity, she'd want chocolate chip, but that was her, and she'd probably request to make them herself anyway. There was just something more satisfying about making your own food to eat afterwards.

Biting on her lip nervously, trying not to inhale too deeply as he was sitting close enough for her nose to smell his tingling scent, the blonde tried not to make it too obvious that she was extremely happy he'd taken a seat. "So what stopped you from continuing your quest?" she asked casually. If he wasn't continuing his journey for food, it had to be important, right?

[Drew Thornton]

Drew hadn't thought about asking Sammy before sitting down, but after the squirrel's reaction, he wondered if he should have. Of course, Sammy probably wouldn't understand him nearly as well as the other creatures Drew hung out with, nor did the Ravenclaw believe Sammy would find the squirrelese bit very funny.

"I've got enough stuff in the dorm anyway," Drew answered with a shrug, not sure if he was allowed to tell her the real reason. He thought he'd downplay it a bit and see how it went. "Besides, I'd rather sit here with you... if that's okay?"

[Felicity Hjort]

Maybe Sammy wouldn't have found it amusing, but Felicity would've. It was something she'd immensely enjoyed the first day they'd really hung around each other, the same day he'd had to get her out of the tree because she'd been stuck.

"Oh," she replied in answer to what he first said. He had enough in the dormitories to hold him over, so that was the reason why he'd stopped running at the pace he'd been going at to get at those supposed fresh cookies? Felicity didn't buy it too well, but she faintly blushed at what he next said, wondering briefly if he could hear or read her thoughts at all.

"Yes, that's fine," she told him excitedly, before realizing it sounded too excited. "I mean, yes, that's fine," she repeated, forcing herself to sound a bit calmer, though the smile on her lips was more excited than just seconds before. "I mean, I'd like it if you wanted to just sit here...with me, that is."

All right, so she was feeling a little odd, clutching at the notebook in her hands. What did she really mean? She wanted him to sit there with her.

[Drew Thornton]

"Okay," Drew answered, smiling wider when she said it twice. He felt kind of funny just sitting there next to her and not really having anything to say, but at the same time, it felt like it was okay.

On the other hand, there were tons of things he wanted to say to her. He just wasn't sure he was allowed to say any of it.

"Were you studying?" he asked, noticing the notebook. The sixth floor was a great place to work so he wouldn't have been surprised. He just hoped he wasn't disturbing her. Then again, he was pretty sure she would have let him know that too.

[Felicity Hjort]

"Uh uh," she answered. "I was just...well..." what was she doing? Tracing names into paper, drawing hearts around names, "doodling?" Was that considered doodling? Writing insignificant things over and over? What if they weren't insignificant? To the blonde it wasn't, but it could be considered so. She hadn't been studying, unless she was learning how to write again...

That answer just seemed so loose-ended, she couldn't leave it at that. "I wasn't studying," she reassured him, and herself. "I was...well, I've been kind of, sort of keeping a journal, and I was just...writing a bit in it, was all." It was technically a journal, kind of, and she had been writing in it. So it wasn't a lie, just not the full truth. Did she really want to tell him what she'd been doing in it? Writing names over and over? No, she didn't want to tell him, but she didn't mind the idea of him "accidentally" seeing it either. No, that was probably a bad idea.

"What were you doing before running for snacks?" she asked with a smile. It felt awkward, and she wasn't sure why. But she also couldn't help but notice his hand wasn't really too far from hers, if she wanted to reach out and grab his...

[Drew Thornton]

Journals and diaries, Drew knew, were pretty private and not something he was really at liberty to look at... except for Allegra's of course. It was some major rule in the younger brother's code. Drew was practically required to find and read, and subsiquently make fun of, Allegra's diary.

But when it came to the notebook Felicity held, he wasn't even going to ask. He wasn't sure if he was more afraid to find out what she had written, or to discover that he wasn't important enough to even make it in there.

"My sister keeps one of those," Drew told her with a small smile and a nod before answering her question. "Hiro and I are... kind of working on a project. I was just fiddling around with stuff." He wasn't too sure he wanted to tell her about this particular "project" though.

[Felicity Hjort]

Most girls it seemed kept one, or had at one point. She knew Meredith still kept one, she told Felicity it was to help keep her sane. But, Felicity also knew her sister left her journal laying around all the time so her husband would sneak peeks into it, it was a trap that she used to let him know when she was more than annoyed about something. But for some reason he still kept opening it to Felicity's knowledge. Actually, Meredith was the one who seemed to get more flowers than anyone else, except for Ruth when she and David were alive. He gave her a long-stemmed white rose every Saturday, but he hadn't ever told Felicity why he did.

"A project?" she asked, interested. No, she hadn't been fond of what he'd told her about the ears, but she liked hearing him talk anyway, and if he talked, it meant she could keep her eyes away from his hand, right? And maybe it would calm her impulses to just grab at it and play with it? Maybe.

"What kind of project?" maybe it was just something for a class, and not really all that interesting, but then again, she could look over at him, catch his really nice blue eyes if he was talking. Yes, she could stop looking at his hand that seemed really close, but still a little too far away.

[Drew Thornton]

Now he had done it. He had to mention a project and of course she would ask about it. He obviously couldn't lie about it and being evassive didn't work well with Felicity either. Drew just hoped Hiro wouldn't get too mad at him for telling her at least the basics.

"Last year, we collected a bunch of lightning and we've been trying to find a good use for it," he told her, hoping she wouldn't go and tell anyone. It probably wouldn't be good for people to find out that the Ravenclaw prefects had such a volatile collection under their beds.

[Felicity Hjort]

Lightening? Raising an eyebrow at him, she tried not to wonder where they'd harvested it, where they were keeping it, nor what they planned to do with it. Though, she was little intrigued. Of course she wouldn't say anything to anyone, maybe Celina but even that was doubtful. Exactly how would that conversation start? So, have you ever heard of someone collecting lightening? Have you ever thought of harvesting lightening? Sure, that would start like any other conversation, truthfully though, it probably would.

"Did you find a good use?" she asked. He didn't really sound like he wanted to talk about it, but if not, then he didn't have to tell her about it. He could've just said he didn't want to tell her, she wouldn't really have liked it, but if that was what he wanted she couldn't really argue.