Oooohohohoho, what's this? The observatory. EMPTY. All for Brae's taking!

The Gryffindor boy had had a good start-of-term so far; he'd gotten to catch up with his old friends and grow even closer to those he'd only met last term, but… his boyfriend's Deus's absence was still something he couldn't quite ignore. He'd get used to it. Eventually.
For nowwww… some stargazing would be nice. Mmmhmm.

Taking one of the small telescopes from the cupboards lining the rounded walls, Braeden moved to the nearest window and distracted himself with the sight of a dark, freckled sky decorating the landscape. Wow. He hadn't done this in a while. He nearly forgot how fun it was (yeah well, the fact that he nearly burned his left eye blind last time he looked through a telescope right at the sun certainly didn't encourage him to gaze at the sky too much for the past few months. He'd learned his lesson, though).

There was nothing better than looking at the stars at night. Especially here at Hogwarts. No noise, no city lights. Just the stars... Oh, look, Braeden was there too.

Pausing at the entry way of the tower, she remembered the last time they saw each other. Huh, yeah. That was when Brae had walked into her catfight with Enya. That was probably one of the worst times to see Ellie. She wasn't normally crazy angry like that. Enya really just got on her nerves... Anyway,

"I see you've learned your lesson about stargazing when the sun's out." She said as she walked into the room. A grin was on her face. It was actually the Observatory where they met for the first time last year. And when Ellie saved Braeden's life helped Braeden stay away from becoming blind (Although, she didn't really do anything besides wave her finger around). "I find that looking at the stars when it's actually dark out, makes the experience more enjoyable." Ellie said with a teasing smile.

It had been around… what, forty minutes by now? And Braeden was completely immersed in the starts. They were so purrrtttyy! :3 No, but seriously. Stargazing had always been one of his hobbies as a child, he couldn't figure out now why he had stopped. Oh wait, he knew why… he'd become obsessed with movies and filmmaking instead. Huh.

And then there was a voice.
"GAH!"
The poor boy jumped about a foot into the air, brown eyes wide as saucers as he looked around for the source of the sound. Why did the Observatory have to be so dark!? But once his eyes adjusted, he was able to make out the features of… Ellie? Oh wow. Great. Now he was having hallucinations.

However, when the girl spoke again, this time teasing him, Braeden knew it wasn't a hallucination. It was really Ellie. Wow.
It wasn't until a couple moments later, when he was past the surprise of the unexpected visit, that Braeden seemed to catch what the Ravenclaw girl had said. "Yeah, took me the whole past year to figure that out," he replied to her teases with a chuckle. He looked at her for a moment before continuing, "I haven't seen you in forever, El; we might as well be going to different schools." Yuh-huhhhh! But then again, last time he'd seen Ellie she'd looked a little scary. Shudder. She wouldn't punch him now or something would she!? "How was your summer?"

Ellie had to press her lips together to keep from laughing out. She had not expected such a reaction to come from the lanky lion. Trying not to grin too much, she watched as he tried to make out who she was until it finally clicked. And then.... silence. Was he going to say something....?

Ah, yep. There we go. Much to Ellie's pleasure, he chuckled at the teasing remarks. Ellie laughed back and began to walk up to her old friend. "Well, you're doing a good job, I assume. You're not blind yet." She said with a teasing smirk. Ellie caught his gaze. "Yeah, it's been a long time; you look good!" She said with a smile. Wait... Was that an okay thing to say to a friend-boy? "Not that you were ugly before..." Ellie added quickly. "Er... You know what I mean." She said with a light laugh.

Ah, yes. Summer. Ellie skid her shoe on the floor awkwardly. "Er. Good." LIE. She cleared her throat. "Erm, yeah it was... Okay." ANOTHER LIE. Yeah, Ellie wasn't good at lying. And it seemed as if she never lied her whole life until the end of last year. And boy, was she bad at it. Ellie ran a hand through her hair. "How was yours?"

Braeden laughed when Ellie complimented him on not getting blind yet. Heh.. hah. HAR HAR HAR. "Yeah, I'm a total stargazing pro now," he said. "I might consider taking up a job as an assistant for the Astronomy professor," he added. Obviously joking. Braeden was too much of a klutz, so none of the teachers really trusted him with… anything, really. Especially telescopes, vials, and other delicate objects.

As Ellie went on to compliment the boy on 'looking good', Braeden put on a smug smile, which only grew more and more amused as the flustered girl went on to explain herself. "Nah, don't worry, I know what you mean. I was beautiful before, but now I'm drop-dead gorgeous… I get it," he said with an understanding nod.
He was kidding, of course. "You look good too, by the way," he added more politely. This time he wasn't kidding.

The boy, who'd forgotten all about the stars and the skies by now, listened as Ellie explained to him how 'good' and 'okay' her summer had been. And despite the fact that Braeden hadn't grown very close with her over the past term, he knew her (and people in general) just enough to know that she was lying. He didn't push the subject though, he figured if she found it necessary to lie it was probably because she felt uncomfortable with whatever the truth was… and who was he to get in her business?

"Oh, mine was alright," said the Gryffindork with a shrug. "Spent most part of it with the family… My dad got me a new videocamera so I did a lot of filming, mini-movies and one-day documentaries… things like that," he said with one of his lopsided smiles. Yep, that was Braeden. The aspiring film director/producer. It seemed at the end of the day the boy's muggle side was still stronger than his magical side.

Braeden allowed a brief moment of silence to settle between the two of them before tilting his head slightly to one side, gesturing toward the small telescope he'd taken out earlier. "Wanna take a look? I assume that's why you came here in the first place. The sky looks amazing tonight, I even caught two shooting stars!" he said with one of those goofy grins of his.

Lets see,rubbing my fingers against the dry parchment it was so hard to see the words for so many generations have rubbed it out,I know I should be in potions right now but I must find out what this MU is for. My heart pounded as I heard voices and footsteps must be some other students Hopefully not the type to pick on an undersized first year! Finally i found it! The definition I have been looking for..sneezing from heavy dust I'm sure I have given away my position.Ignoring the fact of whom it might be I spoke aloud while my quill jotted down every word I said."The parameter mu is related to the composition of the star. It is the mean number of nucleons (protons + neutrons) per free electron. In a white dwarf it is generally safe to assume that atoms are completely ionized, so using carbon 12 as an example (six protons and six neutrons per nucleus and six free electrons) mu would have a value of (6+6)/6 = 2.0."::sevribbon:

Stargazing pro. Snort. And an assistant to the Astronomy professor. "Well, I wish you luck in your new career." Ellie said with a light laugh. That is, if the Professor Antares didn't disappear again like last term. Hopefully they would have more than one lesson this year.

Hmm, yeah. Ellie was a little flustered. She hadn't seen Brae in ages so she wasn't sure if playing the "good-looks" card was awkward or not. But, apparently it wasn't. Awkward situation successfully avoided; points for Ellie. She nodded her head dramatically. "Ah, yes. Drop dead gorgeous; exactly what I was thinking!" She exclaimed, lightly punching him in the shoulder. And his next remark made Ellie roll her eyes. "Ah, right. Braeden Stonem, always the joker." She said with a laugh. Ellie didn't really consider herself pretty, just... Normal.

Ellie sighed internally. Thankfully, Braeden got the hint that she was a terrible liar her summer was not at all good. In fact it was terrible. And Ellie was pleased that Brae didn't press for further information; it seemed like everyone else wanted details. And Ellie didn't want to give them.

"Wow, a videocamera? And documentaries? I had no idea you were into that stuff... You may have to let me see them sometime, that sounds pretty cool." Ellie suggested. Plus she wanted to see how creative her little lion friend was. It sounded like his summer was a blast, compared to Ellie's. ...And then a little something popped into her noggin. "Oh!" She exclaimed, jumping a little. "I have that painting for you! I completely forgot to give it to you for your birthday last year." She said with a sheepish laugh. Heh, yeah. Whoops? It was only a year late, right? Pff. Better late than never!

Ellie stuck her hands in her shorts pockets and sighed in the small silence that spaced. When Brae gestured toward his small telescope, she brightened a little. Truthfully, she was just wandering around and happened to end up here. But, she couldn't pass it up. "Yeah, I'd love to! I've actually... never seen a shooting star before." She said with a shrug. Ellie stepped up the the telescope and pressed an eye up to it. Thousands of stars shone across the huge, dark navy sky. "Wow... That's beautiful." She whispered.

Braeden could only grin proudly to himself, like the big doof he was, when Ellie went along with his silly jokes. He nodded his head in confirmation as the girl mentioned something about not knowing he was into movies and films and that sort of thing. Yepppp. That was Braeden. The next Spielberg.
Maybe.
Hopefully.
On his way there.

"Sure, I can let you see anything you want, whenever you want," said the boy with a smile. And then Ellie was mentioning something about having 'that painting' for him. At the sound of this, Braeden's goofy smile faded to be replaced with a more puzzled expression, one of his dark eyebrows raising questioningly. What painting? Had he commissioned one? Aw man, but he didn't have money to pay for that! D: Paintings were usually expensive!

However, before Brae could freak out too much, Ellie was explaining that it was the painting she'd promised him last year, for his birthday. Oh.
Ooooooooohhhhh.
"That painting!" The boy gave a flustered, relieved chuckle. Here he had been trying to figure out how he was going to pay for a painting he didn't even remember asking for. "It had better be good, Johanson, to have kept me waiting for a year!" he said, though he was obviously teasing. Even if Ellie gave him a doodle of stick figures, he'd be happy.

"Yeah?" muttered the boy absentmindedly as Ellie looked through the telescope and mentioned not having seen a shooting star before. "They're pretty unusual, I guess." He shrugged. And then, just because he was such a little troll, the boy walked away very quietly back toward the cupboards, pulling out one of the stuffed magical creatures (this one being the shrunken head of a giant spider). He then pulled out his wand and proceeded to hover the nasty creature in the night air, through the large, airy windows. Through the telescopes, it must've looked like a giant meteor the size of China and in the appearance of a giant spider was just about to hit the earth.

HARHAR, I'm so clever.

"Really? I'd love to see all of them." Ellie beamed. However, she was concerned when Braeden didn't at first remember what she was talking about. It had been a year, after all.
Lightbulb!
Ellie laughed out. "Yes, that painting! Sorry, I completely forgot to give it to you for your birthday. I guess I just got caught up in school." She said with a shrug. Or she could just pretend that she was so focused on making the painting of him a masterpiece that it took a whole year... Or not. "Darn, I guess that means we have to hang out again so I can give it to you." Ellie said sarcastically with a wink. Pff, who'd wanna hang out with Braeden Stonem? Pff. Pffffft.

Ellie continued looking through the telescope. "Yeah... It is a little odd that I haven't seen one, living the countryside and all. And I love the stars..." She rambled quietly, not really paying attention to what she was saying. All her attention went to the stars. She hadn't even realized that Braeden wasn't standing next to her anymore.

She DID, however, notice the giant spider floating through space. "What the-EEEEEPP!!!" Ellie squealed loudly and jumped a good three feet back from the telescope. "What in the name of Merlin's dirty sock WAS THAT?" She yelled, staring at the telescope. "Did you see that?" With wide eyes, she turned to Braeden who.... wasn't next to her anymore, but across the room. With his wand in the air. Ellie followed the length of his arm and to where his wand was pointing to find a stuffed creature floating in the air. -__________________-

Braeden Stonem. You are SO. DEAD.

A solid glare of death swept across Ellie's face as she burned holes into Braeden's body stared at Brae. Oh yeah, she was gonna get that brave little lion. "I hate spiders, Stonem." Ellie said, stalking towards him.

Still feelin' brave, lion boy?!

Braeden was merely muttering "yeah"s and "uh-huh"s to Ellie's rambling, his attention quite obviously only on getting that demonic-looking, disgusting, hairy spider with 384758745 eyes in her line of sight, all the while biting at his bottom lip to keep himself from laughing so hard that the walls might shake.
And then Ellie saw the spider.

BAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
HAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!

As the poor Ravenclaw girl freaked out about what she'd seen, Braeden had pretty much literally fallen to the stone floor in his laughter, one arm holding his stomach as if his guts might spill out if he laughed too much, and the other holding the wand that had by now dropped the spider head.
OHMYMERLIN.
This might be it. This might be the night he dies. FROM LAUGHING. UWAAAHAHA!

But then Ellie was glaring at him as she slowly walked in his direction. Oh crap.
Clumsily, the lanky Gryffindork scrambled up to his feet and allowed his amused laughter to turn into nervous chuckles, taking a step back with every step forward that Ellie made. "Oh--hah--I--I--I didn't know that--I--I mean, if I had known, I… I wouldn't have… but… it--it was funny, though, wasn't it?" he asked hopefully. Oh Merlin, no. It hadn't even been a whole two months since the term started, and already Braeden had been sent off to the Hospital Wing by an angry Lioness; was an angry Raven going to be the reason for a second trip to Moretti's office? Nooooooooooooo! D:

He was laughing? Braeden was seriously laughing! Ellie had nearly peed her knickers and Braeden Stonem was laughing at her! Weren't Gryffindor's supposed to be nice? Ellie kept her glare on as she quickened her pace towards the giggling goon as he scrambled onto his feet. With every step that he took back, Ellie took another, bigger step closer. He'd better hope he can run fast.

Although his nervous stuttering was a tad hilarious.

A small smile was turning up the corners of her mouth. Ellie wasn't very good at being mean. Especially to Braeden, who was probably the goofiest kid in Hogwarts. Suddenly, Ellie leapt forward and tackled Braeden with a giant laugh. She couldn't contain herself. "I hate spiders, you big jerk!" She accused loudly, yet laughs were erupting from her. It was kinda funny, after all.

But, oh... Just you wait, Mr. Stonem... Just you wait.

Braeden was already plotting his escape in his head - if he was quick enough, he might be able to make a run for it within the next fifteen seconds, if Ellie didn't pull out her wand and hex him (suddenly he had a flashback of that one time he'd seen her dueling with that girl in the pathways -shudder-) before then.

And she was getting closer… and closer… and closer… THIS WAS IT. He had to run! It was now or never! Bravest Gryffindor Hogwarts has ever had, eh?

But then, just as the boy was turning around about to make a run for the door, Ellie had leapt forward and tackled the unsuspecting Gryffindork, who just ended up falling flat on the floor with his face very nicely hitting the stone floor. Ow. The boy turned around, one hand on his face. He spread the fingers apart so he could gaze up at the Ravenclaw girl through them, and was surprised to find her laughing while accusing him.

Laughing? She was laughing?!
Oh, thank Merlin!
Braeden let out a huge sigh of relief and chuckled, allowing his head to fall back to the floor for a moment before finally sitting up (this time revealing his face which was bright red and scraped on one side). "Oh good… I thought you were going to pick me up and throw me out the window for a second there," said the naive little boy, a relieved, goofy lopsided smile on his face.

As Brae tumbled to the floor under her, Ellie rolled over the lanky boy and landed on the stone floor next to him with a nice squeal. She sat up and watched him peek through his fingers at her. She was giggling uncontrollably.

Karma, my friend.

Ellie laughed and lay back on the cold floor with a sigh, a grin on her face. It had been too long since she had a good laugh. Or a laugh at all. It felt nice to actually have friends that didn't hate your guts. -___-

As Brae sat up, Ellie looked at him from the floor. Her eyes shot wide open when she noticed the bright red scrape across his face where he planted himself on the ground. "Oh. Merlin." She said quietly, sitting up. "Why is it that you always get hurt when I'm around?" Ellie muttered with a frown, leaning forward to get a better look at his boo-boo in the dark. Hmm, yeah, that a was a pretty good scrape.

*Walking up the stairs holding Marie's hand Matty smiled the whole way. Unlike her past boyfriend Matty didn't care if others saw him with her. He wanted them to see that he could make her happy. Finding a spot he sat down with her and looked up.*

"Wow... good idea coming here."

Braeden watched with amusement as Ellie merely giggled uncontrollably. Oh, he loved that. Making people giggle and laugh 'til they cried? Yeah, that's what the Gryffindork lived for.

As the Ravenclaw girl's bright blue eyes suddenly went wide and she asked why he always ended up hurt when she was around, Braeden's brows furrowed with confusion. What was she… Wait-- what was that stinging on the side of his face?! The boy placed a hand on the source of the stinging and grimaced before pulling it back. Yeah, that wasn't a pleasant feeling. "Don't worry," said the boy, shaking his head with an amused smile, "I always get hurt regardless of who's around. If anything, you're actually one of the few I don't get that badly hurt around," he said with a chuckle, Ruby coming to mind then. Yeah, the way that little Lioness beat him up, a scrape to the side of the face was nothing but a simple papercut.

The Gryffindor boy looked away sheepishly, seeming a little flustered when Ellie leaned forward to examine his cheek. "It's not that bad… is it?" he asked, returning his gaze to her. He couldn't see the damage, obviously, but it didn't feel like it was that terrible… Was he bleeding uncontrollably or something?! Oh Merlin, please not another trip to the Hospital Wing. PLEASE.

Holy Merlin. What was Marie thinking when she suggested they go to the observatory after eating. She just had to pick the place that was the furthest from the great hall didn't she.

Six million stairs later they were finally at their destination. Sitting down in front of Matty she leaned back and rested her head on his chest as she looked up at the sky. "Yeah. Stargazing is nice and relaxing." Of course she didn't always know what stars she was looking at. That could probably have something to do with the fact that she never went to any astronomy classes. Oh well, it was still nice just to sit and look at the stars. You didn't have to know what they were called to enjoy them.

Just then a she seen a shooting star go flying across the sky. "Ooh, close your eyes and make a wish." She then closed her eyes and wished for every night to be like tonight. Her feeling this happy while spending time with her wonderful boyfriend.

*Matty put an arm around her as she leaned back and he watched the stars with. After that big meal he was starting to feel a bit sleep but he kept himself awake. Seeing the shooting star too he smiled but didn't wish. Once she was done he lightly kissed the top of her head.*
"Why should I wish for anything? It's already come true..."

Really, he got hurt worse when Ellie wasn't around? That was hard to believe, actually. First, he almost blinded himself, then he broke his nose carrying her books, then he almost got hexed after finding Ellie in a fight with a fellow Ravenclaw and now, he scraped up an entire side of his face becuase Ellie tackled him. "You don't get hurt that badly around me? ...Brae, half of your face is missing!" She said, then quickly added: "No, not really. But you scraped it pretty good. Poor kid. If Ellie wasn't the worst, she didn't want to know what was.

"No, don't touch it. It may get infected." She muttered, batting his hand away from his face. Ellie was no nurse, but she knew that touching an open wound would just make things worse.

Ellie frowned a little and leaned back, noticing his flustered-ness. Yeah, it's a word! She couldn't tell if he should go to the nurse or not. "It's not really bleeding, it's just... raw." Uck. That sounded gross. "You could probably just tough it out, being the brave lion that you are."

"WHAT?!"
Poor Braeden nearly had a heart attack when Ellie informed him half his face was missing. The boy's brown eyes had gone wide as saucers, and his first instinct was to inspect the horrifying damage with his hand, but, just as he brought it up, Ellie batted it away. The boy looked like a terrified, scolded child. By the way Ellie made it sound, he was beginning to consider the idea of wearing a half-face mask and becoming The Phantom of the Opera Hogwarts.

Ew, raw.
Braeden made a face at Ellie's choice of words, though at her last sentence he chuckled softly. "Tough it out? I can do that…" said the boy. Yeahhh! Braeden was brave! He could survive this!
Maybe.
Hopefully.

Anyway. "So about that painting…" he started casually, giving Ellie the eyebrows.

Aww, his wish already came true.

Turning around she kissed him. "There's nothing else you would want to wish for?"

*Matty just shrugged. As of now he couldn't think of anything else to wish for. It seemed that with Marie everything he would wish for and more would already happen.*
"Not at the moment... aww... clouds are coming by."
*A few clouds started covering up the sky.*

Marie couldn't believe there was nothing he wanted to wish for. There had to be something but she wasn't going to push him any further on it.

Turning back around she leaned back on Matty again while looking up at the clouds. "Well we can still stay up here... or if you want, we can go do something else." They still hadn't had dessert after that big dinner.

"I'll do whatever you want to do. I'm fine either way, as long as I am with you."
*Leaning down he kissed the top of her head. He couldn't be any happier at the moment. Looking up at the sky he could still see a few stars when the clouds moved but it was becoming less and less clear.*

He would do whatever she wanted? He was very brave to be making a statement like that. "You sure you'll do whatever I want to do? I've been known to do some things that could get you into trouble." Not that she ever got caught at the things she had done, and she didn't intend on getting caught now.

After sitting there snuggled in his arms watching the clouds roll by for a few more minutes Marie decided she was ready to go do something else. Standing up she pulled him up with her. "Come on, let's go have some... fun." She said winking at him. And if they happened to cause a little trouble along the way, well that would make it even more fun getting to their destination,