the darkest hour

It was laight at night and everyone was up in the dormiroties asleep but one litte second year was not. Dakota sat on the floor directly infront of the fier place hugging her knees to her, her chin resting on her knees as she stared into the fier. She had always had problems sleeping and the only one who really knew why haddent been around to help. she didn't know where her twin brother was or any of them really. and that made dakota feel alone and she kindof missed them all picking on her and calling her names. she missed being at home.

Drew wasn't exactly sure why he was still awake, he just was. His body was telling him it was time for bed, but his mind was still running at full speed and he wasn't ready to go to bed yet. He had stared at the ceiling of the boys' dormitory for about an hour before he decided that just laying there wasn't going to help him. Normally, it would and it was the natural thing, but right now it just wasn't.

So he got up from the bed and walked down to the common room where he saw another Hufflepuff sitting in front of the fire. He thought everyone else was asleep, but apparently he had been wrong about that. "Dakota? What're you doing up so late?" he asked softly as he took a step closer to the figure of the girl who sat there. Normally, he would be concerned as to if her name was the one he'd called out, but he'd seen her plenty of times to know that that was her name. Although, if she didn't know him, it would be pretty awkward to hear someone randomly call out your name.

He was only a year above her, and Drew usually remembered the names of his housemates who were in in the same age range. He walked to the back of the couch and stood there, his hands on the furniture, waiting for her to answer him.

A voice seemed to come from no where and everywhere at the same time. It made Dakota jump up and spin around to find the source. "W-why a-are y-you?" She asked. The young girl wasn't use to other people being up this late. She backed up ago the the wall as she watched the boy to see what he wanted. Her hands were clammy and shaky As she stood there in the dimly lit room. "N-not many people are normally u-up at this t-time." She stammered.

"I just couldn't sleep." He answered her simply. Drew had noticed a while ago that Dakota seemed like a really shy person, she didn't seem to like interaction with people very much. He let go of the couch and walked to the other side of it, before sitting down on the couch. "Sorry if I scared you." he half muttered to her.

"But why're you up? Something bothering you?" he asked. It probably wasn't his place to ask anything, since he hadn't really spoken to her before this, but as a housemate he felt it was something he should do. Housemates always cared for each other, in one way or another.

"I-it's f-fine," Dakota stuttered a comment on his apology. and watched him walk around and sit on the couch. "I don't sleep to much," She said quietly answering the question that sounded reserved yet concerned at the same time, almost as if one of her brothers were to ask her if she was feeling okay. "Thanks for asking." She said quietly and turned back to the fire her head resting back on her knees as she watched the flames dance around and smiled slightly. Strangely she was kind of happy there was someone else in the room now, where she would normally not like to have people around her.