[HC.Room] The Asteoism and Pegasus

[Dean Hogarth]

The commonroom was strangely silent, it may have had something to do with the mere fact that exams were growing closer, stress levels were raising and blood pressures were at bursting point…however it was quarter past twelve and most Hufflepuff’s had retired to bed. Dean however was still working away determined to get his Astronomy paper done, he had books spread everywhere around him and now only had three inches of his ‘The Asteoism and Pegasus’ assignment to go and was determined to get full marks. He could just imagine Professor Owen (Dean refused to believe she has married the Headmaster and so refused to call her Hubbles) smile as he handed the perfect assignment over, he had even made it entertaining for her to read making sure the ten inches of assignment was logical and even humorous at times.

Lightly running the feathered tip of his quill over his chin, Dean stared out into space lost in the thought of his next Astronomy lesson. It was only the sneeze of a near by fourth year that brought him back to the commonroom and the stacks of books he had around him. Sighing Dean lowered his head once again and got on with his writing, the sound of his quill scratching the parchment nibbled away at the silence in the Hufflepuff Commonroom as slowly one by one many of his other houses mates slammed their books angrily and went to bed…but not Dean. He refused to sleep until this assignment was done and done to his best ability.

[Alicia Kennedy]

As she sat in the darkened corner only dimly lit by the small fire on the opposite side of the room, Ali sat curled up in the golden and black striped high armed chair in one of the solitary corners, with a book on historical artifacts on one thigh and a book on muggle objects and their uses on the other. Both books were open and after hours of attempting to find out the origins of a dinglehopper and its creator and getting nowhere, she felt her eyes slowly giving in to the heaviness that now seemed to be on them. As they threatened to close for good, she dropped her pure white quill onto her lap and her head lopped to the side as she finally succumb to the feelings her brain was giving her to go to sleep. It seemed like moments she had drifted off before she woke up with a shock as she sneezed in her sleep. Somehow she had picked up her quill and tickled her nose with it causing the awakening, and a wide eyed Ali.

Snorting slightly as she awoke, she looked stunned for a moment before looking around to see that thankfully most of the students had retired to bed and didn’t hear her less than lady-like snorting and weird sounds she may have been making during her minimal sleep. Rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands she was about to admit defeat when she spotted Dean through her blurry eyes. With Ali being as observant as she was, and having many years practice at viewing things from the sidelines, she had noticed Dean was rather odd when around Professor Dia Hubbles and since she had married she had only ever heard him call her Professor Owen and ignore the fact that she was now married. Well, maybe not ignore or simply forgot she was a newlywed. Dean and Ali didn’t have the longest conversational history between them, but every so often they would have a small chat until being interrupted by one or the others friends and being dragged off.

Giving him a small smile, probably going unnoticed, she gathered her things together before plonking then on her empty seat as she stood up.
“Hey” she said simply as she bent down and smiled at him again before pulling her bag up from the floor and opening it up.

[Dean Hogarth]

The great square of Pegasus corresponds with the… Dean paused and tried to think about what he was going to put next, he needed to make sure he did not start to repeat himself as he knew for a fact Professor Owen would not appreciate that. Tickling the bridge of his nose now with his quill Dean had just about thought out the next logical steps when someone made rather undignified noises from the corner of the Commonroom. Dean’s parents had always told him that what ever sound a human made it was beautiful and to never be ashamed of snorts or other bodily noises, it was only natural…however living at Hogwarts for five years had shown him how much a load of codswallop his parents talked!

With a bemused smile Dean looked over at the high backed chair and saw Ali gently sleeping, the fire light dancing off her features casting obscure shadows. That was however until she woke herself awake and started look around the room rather shocked hoping no one had seen her, diverting his gaze quickly to his easy Dean pretend to be reading over it and acting as cool and calm as he possibly could. Ali always came across as a nice girl and although they never had many conversations, defiantly no intellectual ones anyway and it seemed today was not going to be the day…anyway he had to finish off his assignment.

‘Hey’

Looking up from his writing Dean looked over at Ali as she was packing up her stuff and placing them into her bag. With a small nervous smile Dean began to twirl his quill in between his fingers trying to think of something else to say but it seemed that the simplest reply would have to do.

“Hey”

He muttered back before quickly looking back to his unfinished sentence, he had totally forgotten what he was meant to have been putting. He stared at the unfinished sentence for a while racking his memory but still nothing was coming to him, frustrated that he had been so neglecting of his Astronomy work Dean looked back at his fellow Hufflepuff feeling like he needed to say something.

“So you heading off to bed now then?” It was a situation of stating the obvious but when there was nothing else to say the obvious was always the best…that or the weather but seeing as the burrow of a commonroom was underground they had no windows to even comment on the weather.

[Alicia Kennedy]

As she pushed her paper and books rather messily into her bag she heard Dean reply back, causing her to look back around and finger through her curls as she pushed them behind her ear and smiled back at him once again. Looking around for where she had put her quill, she looks around manically for a moment before finding it disappearing down the back of the chair and grabbing it before it got lost forever with god knows what else was down there from previous people. Placing it gently in her bag she closed it and hauled it up onto the seat as she stood up and turned to Dean placing her hands in her back pockets of her jeans. Shrugging at his question, she wasn’t entirely sure what to do now, all she knew it that she would need a clear mind before continuing the essay or she would just be wasting her time, and now she had a small nap her mind had fooled her into thinking that she was no longer tired, which suited her quite well.

With a sigh, she took a look around the common room as now the pair was pretty much alone. A few people had been avoiding her due to her sister’s over-friendly behaviour, and so Ali had taken to meeting up with her brother Bryn for company which wasn’t unusual for her, but her friends had been seeing less and less of her, nomatter what Ali said to say she was not like her sister nor did she condole what she was doing. Her sister wasn’t a man-eater as such, but she seemed to be overly popular with the male population. From Ali’s understanding she just liked to play with them and lead them on, giving them false hope but she certainly wasn’t all pure and innocent. She had made a few mistakes, more so than other people, but that was Brooke and she needed to learn her own way. Ali was probably more mature than her older sister and learnt a lot of things from the twins bad ideas without having to go through them herself, but on the odd occasion she just wanted to let loose and do something daring for a change instead of taking a step back and watching others do it, the question was could she ever let herself off the leash that much?

“Well I erm, was thinking of getting a drink from the kitchens actually” she began as she pulled a hand from her pocket and pointed to the ceiling indicating the Kitchens above them, not that he didn’t know where they were, but still.
“I missed dinner trying to get this done and i’ve not had a drink for hours” she continued. Pulling her other hand from her pocket, they both entwined and she began to pick at her nails a little nervously. She didn’t like asking things of people, but she had started now and she might of well of finished.
“Will you....eh, nevermind” she mumbled turning around and picking up her bag strap, throwing it over her shoulder.

[Dean Hogarth]

She was thirsty, she was telling him her plans for the evening and yet all Dean could do was to return back to his work and at least pretend to adjusting his work by going over areas that he had previously crossed out. The Hufflepuff was never one for long conversations with people who were almost strangers to him and this was even more the case when they were females. As Ali continued to talk about dinner Dean looked nervously up at her from time to time not wishing to put her on the spot too much.

It was only when there was the smallest of moments of silence between then did Dean remember that he actually had some water with him, he never went anywhere without it. His parents had drilled into him from a young age that your brain works better hydrated and so you should never go anywhere without a bottle of water or some other form of liquid. Quickly turning to his bag Dean routed around inside only briefly hearing Ali’s small proposition, but he was focusing too much on stopping himself from looking like a total fool and fumbling with the bottle of water. Luckily for Dean he managed to fight back the nerves and successfully hold out the bottle of water towards the younger Hufflepuff.

“Take it.” He said in a whisper as he offered her a nervous smile. “I have another bottle in the dorms.”

He waited for Ali to accept the drink before retuning back to his work. Dean had over looked the fact she had her bag on her shoulder once again, the problem was the boys mind was not on that half finished sentence he had in front of him neither was it fully on Ali, he was stuck in a world of his own all be it a limbo with a time delay. Slowly he remembered that the other Hufflepuff had hinted at him helping her out in some way, and Dean was never one to shy away from helping a fellow student out, no matter their house (of course being a Hufflepuff did help!)

“Er…” He tried to find the right words. “You started to say something?”

[Neth Evans]

It had been a long day for the Hufflepuff fifth year but odd as it may seem he was scarcely tired. Something inside him was wide awake and keeping him so too. Perhaps it was the Earl Grey tea he had gotten from the kitchen before curfew, or perhaps it was the letter from his father saying that his parents were going to be renewing their wedding vows? Neth wasn't sure what was with him but he was wide awake, lying in his bed and staring at the poster of some beautiful Quidditch playing witch Colin had given him for his birthday.

The silly witch was distracting, she kept winking at him and blowing him kisses so eventually Neth stood up on his bed and ripped the poster off. He didn't had to stretch very far and it amazed him that had he tried to do that just one year ago he would have had to jump! Ok, so it probably wasn't as dramatic as all that but it drove the point home. So, holding the poster in his hands, Neth wondered what she should do with it now. The witch on it was glaring at him very indignantly so he was sure that she wouldn't appreciate being moved.

Neth sighed and ran a hand through his hair that was poking out in all directions. His eyes surveyed the room ... the other sleeping fifth years ... the empty bed? Wait. Neth's eyes snapped back to the empty bed two beds over from him and he frowned intently at it. "Where is he?" Neth whispered very quietly, after all Colin was a very light sleeper.

Kenneth got off the bed slowly, trying to avoid the squeaky floor boards. Slipping his feet into his black slippers with the white spider on them from the latest Spiderman movie (a muggle thing that Colin just didn't get) and tiptoed out of the room. Once in the corridor Neth could walk as hard as he wanted to but even so he didn't stomp, he just walked normally (dragging his feet slightly as you could hear the sound of his slippers on the flag stone floor).

As Neth entered the common room he saw something quite unexpected: Dean, the missing body from his dorm, talking to a girl. He was holding a bottle of water out to her. Neth found this to be very curious behaviour and so he walked over to where Dean was sitting and flopped into a seat, his legs dangling over the one side. "Evening you two," he said merrily, smiling from Dean to the girl, who Neth knew to be called Ali.

"Funny thing to be doing this time of night," Neth pointed out, pointing at the bottle, "drinking." He put suggestive emphasis on the word and his skew smile swept across his face, giving his messy hair one more good rub for good measure.

[Alicia Kennedy]

Ali was not sure why she was a little more nervous around Dean than she was normally with others. Maybe it was just the moment she had her strange nap sounds on the brain and was a little embarrassed knowing full well that he would have seen and heard everything she did during them few moments in slumber. Biting down on her lip she looked down at her grimy yellow converse with hand drawn badgers on the outside of each foot and ‘badger pride’ scribbled on the inside in an arty way.

Ali flicked her eyes up slowly to see that Dean seemed to be in a world of his own and was doing the typical head nod and occasional eye contact to keep the person happy and to make them believe they were actually listening, and just as she was thinking about bidding farewell he surprised her and offered her some water. Lifting her head fully making her curly hair bounce in delight, she stopped biting her lip and her mouth curved into a grateful smile. Albeit it would be defeating the object of her getting out of the common room for the first time in hours, so she tilted her head and shook it gently, sending her waves to fall gracefully in front of her face before she brushed them back.

“Thanks Dean, but I think I’m going to take a little walk, it’s become a little stuffy in here” she said declining the water just as her senses alerted her that another body had entered the room, and turning her head, she found she was right. She knew his name, but like Dean, she hadn’t spoken to him much.

“Neth” she said saluting him with a cheeky grin planted on her face. Plonking herself down on the arm of the chair she was sitting on before, she waited a moment looking down at his slippers and smiled thoughtfully at his Spiderman footwear. She used to read the comics in the store but never bought them unless Bryn had enough money left he would occasionally by her one. Looking back up to Neth’s face she smiled again, her eyes twinkling as the flames of the fire reflected in her brilliant blue eyes before she opened her mouth to speak once again.

“Have you come to join the study party?” she asked obviously joking as now the studying was down to one. Grasping onto her bag, she nodded towards the common room door keeping her eyes locked onto Neth.
“So...I’m going for a walk, do you two fancy coming?”

[Dean Hogarth]

The realm of uncomfortable situations was somewhere that Dean hated being and right now, sitting in the Hufflepuff Commonroom he was feeling like a complete flobberworm. He would do anything to allow himself to sink back into the invisibility of obscurity and carry on writing his paper for Professor Owen and no more so when Ali declined his offer of a drink…now he felt like a complete nonce. Slowly he moved his hand and water bottle back towards him hoping that it was something that no one else would have seen. Sadly though Neth walked into the room just at the wrong time and straight away managed to come up with a smarmy reply.

Dean’s ears burned red and the smile quickly faded, if he could have he would have been under the table now cuddling his legs hoping that the ground would open up and just swallow him whole. Tongue tied and completely embarrassed by the situation Dean was very fortunate that Ali came to his rescue and joked about it being a little study party. The Hufflepuff could add no more to her reason other then nod his head and offer a very shy ‘Yeah’ in agreement, but still Dean could not look at Neth. They had been friends for all their years at Hogwarts (after sharing a Dorm for five years it is hard not to get to know each other well) and still on many occasions Dean was scared to say or do things in front of Neth almost in fear of what possibly could happen.

“Oh” Dean looked up at Ali with a look of surprise, it was clearly her declaring her thirst was more of a way of asking people if they would like to go for a walk more then actually needing a drink. “Er…well I need to finish this assignment.” He looked down at the half finished sentence and the two inches of parchment he had left to fill.