[Lake] when we bleed, we bleed the same

[Bradyn Reed]

You'd think that if you were with an amazing girl and had the world's greatest best friend, then you wouldn't find yourself in moments of hair-wrenching boredom. But, life's a bitch. And apparently, you can't spend every waking moment with a girl who's 'just a friend' without weird rumors popping up and you can't spend too much time with a girl who doesn't even know about your animagus without arousing suspicions. So that left a lot of blank, empty time for Mr. Reed to try and find something to amuse himself with, because a bored Bradyn was a scary one. Today he decided that with the warming of the weather and the ending of yet another year, he was going to head outside.

The weather was somewhat chilly but not bad. It had rained earlier that morning so it was slightly muggy but the ground was drying up fast, and when you planned to go out by the lake, the condition of the soil was no concern of your's considering it was supposed to be wet there. A smirk crossed his face with a glint in his eye as the thought struck him that it would be a lot faster to cross the grounds if he was sprinting. Not sprinting like most humans thought of, though, but with cat-like agility that could only be achieved when you were of the feline nature. Bray quickly glanced around to make sure no one who was of any importance was watching before crouching slightly as he focused on the transfiguring. After much shrinking and rearranging of his skeleton, there was no longer a fifteen year old boy there but a well-built tomcat posed for a good run.

Bray's animagus was never perfect, as no one's could be, and he was known to have the shortest attention span while in it and it probably took him much longer to cross the grounds this way than it would have on foot. He enjoyed to smell the flowers while he could, apparently, and was almost going to pick a fight with a squirrel that didn't like him being so close to it's tree. 'Dumb animals.' He thought with an irritated twitch of his ears. But the wet ground became more so as he came close to the swelled banks of the lake, apparently there had been a lot of rain recently. Haunches lowering as he prepared to jump, it took quite a bit of scrambling for the tomcat to get into a tree just to he could change back with a considerable amount of foliage hiding himself. Most people knew, but he was never one to broad-cast it. That only felt like showing off.

Bradyn sighed and quickly checked over himself to make sure no cat-like features remained, and was quite proud to see that successfully there was not. Most people were never concerned about changing to and fro from their forms, but as his sister seemed to enjoy scaring him with stories she got from the Animagus Division of half-changed wizards, Bray thought he could never be too careful. Still bored and pretty much desperate for company at this point, he looked over the waters as if the supposedly beautiful scenery would strike up a thought on what to do. But it wasn't the landscape that got him, but the sound of some stupid animal messing around in another tree and dropping twigs onto the rocky banks that gave him an idea.

"Huh." He muttered before jumping out of the tree without much care about himself, he liked to believe that the 'cats always land on their feet' phrase applied to him. Squatting down at the edge of the lake, he picked out the largest rock he could find and could only think of one thing. Hacky sac. He was probably the dumbest, or the most easily amused, Ravenclaw ever. Placing the rock on the tip of his sneakers, it only took a few moments for him to kick it up and get in the rhythm of bouncing it up and down by the inner part of his foot.

One miss, though, and the rock bounced up into the lake. "Damn it, I was having fun, too." He cursed with a little pout before laughing at himself. Only as he bent down to look for another rock did he notice that he wasn't alone and figured that he hadn't been for a while. Well, that was only a little embarrassing.

{ That post is made of Crap.. and random.}

[Cairo Blackwell]

After a rather haphazardous visit down to the dungeons--or rather, her getting lost in them then getting shackled to the walls by a bunch of Snakes, then let down by a boy who looked as if he were about to wet himself because she was a Slytherin--and a quick hospital wing trip later, Cairo was free from the poorly wrapped bandages, or tissues, around her wrists. That boy Brandon had did it, having no prior medical knowledge, after her reassurance that she wasn't like those other insolent brats that called themselves 'Pure'. The healer had demanded to know who did it, once she got a good look at the bloody, raw, puffed up skin that was her wrists, but all she could do was shrug her shoulders as she healed her up and gave her proper bandages instead. The woman thought she was just lying about her no knowledge, in case they were to do it again, but really Cairo in all honesty had no idea who they were, and she left the room with the person in a snitch at her refusal to cooperate.

With Brandon no where in sight (he really was the only person she knew, as of 10:30 this morning) the Slytherin had nothing to do but skirt gangs of Snakes and make her way through the castle until she burst through the door outside, unscathed, breathing wildly with relief. Clasping her fingers together she glanced left and right, to and fro, before hopping down the steps and ambling carefully towards the lake. There wouldn't be any of them near there, she was sure of it. Snakes couldn't swim anyhow, Claws mostly liked water. ..Right? Right! At least she hoped she was, it wouldn't be good to get beaten up after you gave yourself a pep-talk. Now that would be terrible embarrassing, if one did say so themself. Glancing at the white, crisp bandages that were wrapped somewhat tightly around her wrists, Cairo sighed, rolling her eyes. She was barely here a week, and she had two if not three houses breathing down her neck. At least she got along with Ravenclaws, once she met them, rather than Hufflepuffs who ran away at the sight of her and Gryffindors who avoided her entirely. There was some serious prejudice going on at this school. That wouldn't happen today, though, she wasn't wearing her robes.

No, she was wearing jeans and a cream knit sweater, not the best combination with her pale skin and hair, but it was nice all the same. Her wardrobe, however, wasn't exactly on her mind as she, crossing her arms over her chest, watched wide-eyed as a cat nearby transformed into a human. Not to mention that, but he dropped down from the tree he was in and starting flinging rocks everywhere. Well that wasn't what happened exactly, but she was rather startled to say the least, having no prior knowledge of the animagus populus at this school. She had thought only adults were allowed to do that.

For a while she stood there, a thoughtful look on her face. Eyes wide as usual but even wider now as she watched him, Cairo waited for him to notice her, glad she wasn't wearing her robes in case she frightened him off or infuriated him or something. Who knows? He could have started hitting her had she worn the green and black robes that day. Lucky thing she wasn't. Then again, she was pretty paranoid. "..Hi." She greeted him simply, albeit flatly. "Yeah, uh, sorry about that. I'll just, go, and.. Yeah. I have to wax my cat anyway." She stumbled out, turning around to leave, a pale pink tinging her cheeks.

[Bradyn Reed]

Dropping whatever he'd picked up after popping a squat, Bray just straightened up rather quickly and wiped his pants off with his hands in case any stray dirt had decided to linger there. It was a rather awkward situation, and he was never the best at dealing with awkward situations even though he found them, more or less, commonly in them. He usually just relied on the situation to present some sort of option for him but it seemed the shy girl wasn't going to be that way. Plus, he had no idea who she was since she wasn't wearing robes and he'd never seen her before. 'Hell, is she even a student?' He thought skeptically, but then again she looked about his age if not a little older so it's not like she was some old lady breaking in. Although, Bray wouldn't put it behind her to be a dryad or a niad since she was certainly beautiful enough to be.

He barely noticed her quiet, blunt greeting but smiled at it anyway. For some reason, she was giving him the 'that boy is crazy' look that he knew far too well and also looked a bit scared. Rocky sac was apparently a scary hobby, maybe he shouldn't work on mastering it. "Uh, hi." He said lamely but then raised a brow as she decided she ought to get away from him as fast as possible. Bray thought she looked a bit too much like a gossiping girl to let her just run off with that look so he hurried to catch up with her.

"Woah, hold up!" He said as it was the first thing that came to mind and nothing better seemed to present itself as an option. Maybe it was because of what she said earlier. I mean, wax her cat? That sounded ridiculously painful and cruel, maybe she was some sort of Slytherin or a sadist. "What's with you, missy. It's not everyday that someone says they'd make their cat bald, and probably with some serious self-esteem problems, rather than talk to me." He said flattly deciding to just be honest about the whole confusing situation.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, he couldn't help but smirk at how times can quickly take an interesting turn. Even if it was weird, it was certainly amusing. Then realizing he didn't even know her name, still, he decided to just see if she was going to stay and talk to him at all before just shouting out an introduction. Wouldn't want her to have the luxury of a name to spread rumors with if she was going to be like that.

[Cairo Blackwell]

"What's with you, missy. It's not everyday that someone says they'd make their cat bald, and probably with some serious self-esteem problems, rather than talk to me."

The boy said once he caught up with her, but once she turned to look at him he would see she was laughing. "I was kidding about the cat waxing." Cairo said with one of those 'My, aren't you gullible?' grins on her face. Really though she only said it to get out of awkward situations, as it was so odd it caught people off guard and made them laugh. Usually, anyway, this one didn't look too tickled at her attempt at a joke. "No sense of humor, I take it." She said afterwards, surprise in her eyes. Strange, he looked like the type of person to enjoy a good laugh now and then. Why did he run after her, anyway? Wasn't as if she was about to go blabbing to all her friends about the 'Dear Diary' moment she had by the lake involving some cat-dude. She didn't know anyone, let alone have any friends, in order to do that. Plus Cairo just wasn't a gossip overall.

Then again, he probably didn't know that.

"Yeah, sorry about that, I'm socially retarded." She shrugged simply, but a smile broke her face and she held a bandaged hand out for a shake, "My names Eugene, I'm new to Hogwarts." Completely serious as she said it, swallowing back a laugh that had threatened to spill from her throat, the Slytherin stood there, wondering if he'd actually believe her a second time. She was reluctant to let him know what house she was in, though, which was why he might have noticed the dropping of her house and year. She should be in Ravenclaw, she knew it, but somehow she landed in Slytherin. I don't get it! The sixth year thought with an inward frown, My parents are both 'Claws, how did this happen? She wasn't mean, or anything. It was a mystery. But because of that stupid mistake she was continually called a 'Blood traitor' by her housemates, not to mention bullied and chained up to, say, dungeon walls this morning.

[Bradyn Reed]

Bradyn just shrugged under the look he gave her and smiled back cockily. "My, I should hope so, with comments like that I'd think you were a Slytherin or something." But the girl looked far too nice to be a Slytherin and she didn't have the overwhelming pride and ego aura of a snake. More like the sweetness of a Hufflepuff, or maybe she had that superior cockiness of us Claws. His little psychoanalyzing of the girl was only interrupted as she said something that really caught his attention. For a second his jaw dropped in surprise as it was something he'd never heard said about himself before.

But Bray quickly caught himself and straightened out the expression to an amused smirk. "That's funny, you must be new 'round here. I've never really heard someone say I had no sense of humor." He said with a chuckle, amused more than insulted by it. Obviously, she didn't know him so what did he expect? "I've heard 'sarcastic bastard' a lot before, though."

Deciding to stick around with her for a while, since it wasn't like he had any other company, she was going to have to tough it out spending time with the Sarcasm King. But it seemed she could hold up her own in this battle of wits so it might not be all that bad for her, after all, Ellie and Fay survive it all the time. They even come back for second encounters. At her introduction, he just raised a brow in confusion as he thought she was serious for a moment. But that was a boys name and he figured she was joking, so he would too. "Nice to meet'ya, can I call you Eugey? I'm Laureline, third year Hufflepuff." It was the first name he thought of, even though he didn't even know anyone by that name. But at least it was said with the most serious expression and even a friendly smile while he wanted to burst out laughing as both names were ridiculous and lame.

Bray would wait to see who broke the charade first before giving his real introduction, but hell, who knows? They might end up calling each other Laura and Eugey for a while since he was certainly stubborn and lord knows about her.

[ bleh. o.x ]

[Cairo Blackwell]

"My, I should hope so, with comments like that I'd think you were a Slytherin or something."

Waggling a finger at him, 'Eugey' contorted her expression into a wrinkled scowl, "Hey!" She snapped, "You better watch yourself, Laura. I'm the new potions master and I wont stand for that type of behavior." she warned him, stern faced and everything. As for his next comment, well, she was new, so how on earth could she have known him from before? She hadn't run into him anywhere else, either. Apparently she had made the wrong assumption of him, but then again he hadn't taken her stab at humor lightly or with any humor whatsoever, so there wasn't much choice when it came to analyzing. He didn't appear as if he had anywhere more important to be, or anyone to hang with, so it appeared as if he was sticking around for a while yet. Cairo must not have freaked him out after all.

Nice to meet'ya, can I call you Eugey? "Sure thing, Laura." The sixth year shot back with a wry grin, refusing to break even though this was clearly a most unusual situation that called for laughter. And she so desperately wanted to, she could feel it rising up in her but she swallowed it down, keeping her face straight and her large eyes serious. They would be at the nicknames forever if they could, it seemed as if they were both stubborn that way.

"So, Laura.. Do the girls pick on you much because you have pecs instead of boobs?" She questioned with a smirk, crossing her arms over her chest and waiting for how he'd respond to that. How do you take them apples?

[Bradyn Reed]

[ that was just plain cruel. Bray's man-ego is wounded. ]

Bradyn just grinned cheekily at her before putting up his hands defensively. It's not like she was going to swing at him, or if she did, it's not like it would hurt but he did like to act like he was afraid of Eugey. After all, she was the man and he was just a little girl. "Woah-ho, yes sir. I guess I just expected someone taller, but if you're replacing Vance then you must be a saint." Of course, since she was new she probably didn't know much about their current potions master. It was only a matter of time until she got the hint, perhaps students crying in the dungeon would be a good tip-off for her.

Catching a look she gave him, he figured she was thinking about something. Eugey seemed like the quiet, thinking type and he certainly wasn't really like that, obviously since he was practically holding up the conversation by himself. Except when she did speak and it was some profound form of sarcasm, it was certainly different than bantering with Fay. At his new nickname, he had to look away to keep up the ruse and not burst out laughing. He was definitely too stubborn to be the one to give up, and he'd go on calling her Eugey forever. Actually, when they gave out there real names there was a high change Bray would still call her Eugey. He liked getting odd looks from people. "So, what house are you in Eugey? You seem like a Ravenclaw. That's where sarcasm thrives." Or maybe he was just a little too partial towards Ravenclaw and thought most awesome people belonged there.

At her next, and rather unexpected comment, he just stared at her wide-eyed for a moment. There were so many things he could say to them, but most gave up the ruse and the ones that didn't hurt his man-ego and they were things Bray would never say out loud. Chewing on his lip for a moment in thought, he just let his lips stretch into a smile. "Yeah, well, thanks for noticing. I've been a gymnast for 11 years, almost before I could even walk!" It wasn't the best, but it did explain his lack of breasts better than saying that he had small ones and it worked for him. "What about you, those pants seem pretty tight and I'd guess you aren't that well endowed. Pitty." Ugh, really, the things he did to win. He'd have to wash his mouth out with soap and slap himself later for that one.