Walk Carefully

Allen made his way through the halls, his eyes feeling like someone had put fire on top of them. He hadn't gotten much sleep, after the whole fiasco during Halloween. He had no idea what had been going on during that time, but it freaked him the hell out. He couldn't even remember getting out of that place, but he could only imagine diving through the window as a last ditch effort to leave. That had been the first time in his life that he could say he almost died. He wondered how the others felt about that day...perhaps they would take just a solemn oath of silence about the matter. He wouldn't mind that, not one bit.

He carefully walked through the halls, his personal bubble feeling like it was being intruded every 10 seconds or so. He was getting paranoid that the man that had trapped them there was here and watching him. Everywhere he went. He let out a sigh of relief however once he realized that he was partly alone in the hallway, only a couple Slytherins laughing about some Hufflepuff or something about that. Yet he continued either way.

He finally reached the Great Hall and trotted inside, keeping his stance quite firm, as if he were standing up to a bear or something. He glanced over the four large tables and saw that most of the tables were quite empty, a rare sight seeing as how it was almost 5 and usually everyone would pile into the Great Hall for some supper. Everyone was most likely scared though...you couldn't walk through the halls once without seeing someone paranoid and afraid. Hogwarts was dying.

He sat down at one of the tables, with a slight thud, and looked at the table through his thick bangs. There was just a single plate there, as well as a goblet. He looked at both and covered up his face with his hands, feeling the cotton begin to warm his face a little. For once, he felt alone and secure in this large place, seeing as how he could hear someone approaching due to the silence. He was finally alone.

"I'll stop the whole world, I'll stop the whole world from turning into a monster!" Sapphire walked though an empty corridor, singing to one of her favorite songs, listening to the echo her voice created. It was so quiet and deserted now, and it usually wasn't like this at this time. Everyone was usually running down, or inside, from where ever they were to go to supper. But right now everything in the castle seemed dead.

What a downer.

She stopped singing for a minute and looked around. A wide grin suddenly crossed her face when she found that she could still hear her echo down the hall. She giggled and took off down the corridor, it was so funny to hear her footsteps even after she made them. Too bad her fun was cut off when she ran into two Slytherins. They took one look at her and bursted out laughing. She stared at them confused, why were they laughing at her? She looked down at herself, and shrugged. It couldn't be because she was wearing purple pants with a yellow shirt and a black headband. Maybe she looked a little weird but that was no reason to be mean to her, it was the way she liked to dress. As she passed by them she stuck out her tongue at them and this really set them off.

They took off after her and she ran away, giggling as she did so. She turned the corner quickly and almost fell down but she managed to catch herself and she continued to run toward the Great Hall. A teacher had to be there to keep them away from her, even if it would end her fun she didn't want to get hit by them. Even if there wasn't a professor, there might still be a student there that could defend her. "Help! Help!" she screamed as she ran into the Great Hall, out of breath. "Help! These two Slytherins want to hurt me!" she said, seeming like she was close to tears. Just then the Slytherins came into view and they headed straight for her.

Allen had began to stare at his plate again and sighed in a bored manner. He wondered how he could get some food here, he didn't know if he had to mutter something or whatnot, but he could never figure it out. He'd seem like an idiot trying to figure it out (even if there was a way) but he always waited for dinner for the food to appear. Most of the days, he'd be starving by the time he got to dinner, mainly because of the fact he hated eating breakfast in the morning. More time equaled more sleep. He pushed his plate away though and rubbed his eyes. "What'd I do for a simple grape..." he said. He heard a small thunk and opened his eyes. To his astonishment, a single grape was sitting right there. "Very funny," he chided.

He heard a commotion coming nearby however, a girl screaming. He blinked a couple times, obviously curious about the stranger making such a disturbance, and quickly turned his head to the left, towards the direction of the main door that lead into the Entrance Hall. He saw a girl...the one being made fun of in the hallway being chased by the two Slytherins. "What the hell did you do...?" he muttered to himself, noticing that she was running down his aisle. He had to do something, he couldn't just let a girl get jumped by these two low lives. Only a split second later, a thought arrived and he grinned deviously. He grabbed the small grape off his plate and grabbed another one that was directly to his right. He glanced to his left again and noticed that the mysterious girl had a headstart. Good.

When the girl passed by, Allen threw both plates on the ground, and because they were not very firm on the ground, the two Slytherins stepped on both the plates and flew forward, their face slamming into the ground. They groaned for a bit and Allen smiled, feeling successful of himself. He gently placed the grape in his mouth and ate it, the taste even more satisfying. "You know," he said to the two boys "I think you'd have a better view of the Great Hall if you face wasn't bleeding." The two boys looked at Allen, obviously plotting some type of revenge and left, one holding a bloodied nose and the other holding their mouth, obviously smashing a tooth in. He looked back down at his table and saw he had used his own plate. "Great," he muttered.

Sapphire smiled when she saw the two Slytherins leave, and she ran over to the boy who helped her. "Thank you!" she said, automatically thanking him with a hug. She was definitively weird if she hugged someone she didn't know. But if it showed her gratitude, who cares?! She suddenly noticed that all the running away from the Slytherins caused her hair to go into her face, and she giggled softly.

She grinned brightly at the boy and blew her bangs out of her face. "Sorry..." she apologized automatically. Everywhere she went it seemed that she was always getting saved from someone or something. It was so weird... But she didn't really mind it, so long as no one expected her to pay them back in someway. That was something she hardly ever did. Even when she promised it, she never did it. Sapphire always found a way to get out of paying someone for saving her, it was pretty easy actually.

"I didn't mean for you to have to save me..." she added to her previous statement, her eyes still glossy from the "fake" tears that were going to fall if they needed to. She looked around and for the first time she noticed that there was no one there in the Great Hall. Or hardly anyone at least. "Why is everything so DEAD today?!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands out and pointing to the entire room. "There's like one other person here! That just isn't right!" she added loudly.

Allen was just about to reach over and grab another plate when suddenly he was hugged by the mysterious girl from the side. He was frozen where he sat and could only blink a couple of times, startled by her sudden hug. He hadn't been expecting it, so naturally, he blushed. Don't blush, you nitwit! he thought to himself, yet it was useless. He could do nothing but sit and be hugged. He hadn't minded it. When she let go of him, he looked quickly over to the Slytherins, to make it seem like he was watching them walk away. He actually laughed at the sight. He liked being the good guy every now and then.

He looked back at the girl though and looked at her face, noticing that she was wearing an odd attire through his peripheral vision. He didn't want to look down though and seem...rude however. "It's not a problem," he said calmly, reaching over and attempting to pick up his plate, yet noticed that both plates were split down the middle from where they had stepped on it. He sighed and picked up the plates anyway, hiding them under a couple of other plates to make it seem like they were just dirty. "Why were they chasing you in the first place?" he asked, noticing that she must've pissed them off badly. "It seemed as if they wanted your head on a mantle or something."

Allen looked around the Great Hall and toke notice of the severe absence of the students. Where were all they? "I have no idea where everyone is," he replied to her, still glancing around to try and find a couple of groups at least. Yet he only noticed a few people in the Great Hall, mainly people staring from the display. Allen was glad that a couple of teachers hadn't been here, otherwise he would've gotten detention. That wouldn't have went well. "Anyway," he said, shaking his head and getting up so he could a height differentiate "I'm Allen."

Sapphire giggled when she saw that he had noticed that her wardrobe was a pretty weird one. But it seemed like he didn't want to look at her entire attire and she grinned widely. She got up from where she was and stood in front of him, spinning once to show him her entire attire. "Do you like my clothes?" she asked innocently. She smirked and sat back down, this time a little closer to him. She looked at the plates half over his shoulder and frowned slightly. "Sorry about the plates..." she apologized.

She shrugged and shook her head. "I don't know." she lied innocently, looking at him though her bangs. This usually made her look more innocent when she did something wrong, and there was always someone who believed that she didn't do anything wrong, and the other person who was usually involved got in trouble. She loved when that happened. "They were making fun of me, because of my clothes." she said, pointing down at her shirt and pants. "That was mean..." she said softly, her eyes getting even more glossy than they already were.

"It's all so weird! Everyone's usually down here already!" she shouted a little louder than she had intended, and she flailed around a little which make her seem like she was having a seizure and then she giggled again. "That was fun!" she giggled, and she flipped her hair out of her eyes, but it immediately came back into her eyes. She looked up at him a little and gently swiped her bangs to the side of her face with her hand, and smiled. "I'm Sapphire." she smiled.

Allen had still been standing and raised an eyebrow when she did a little twirl in front of him. He figured she was just trying to tease him or something, seeing as how Rhys had done it before. He hadn't really talked to girls much, but he was starting to like it. He placed his left hand on the back of his neck and tried to think of his words carefully. "Well you certainly look...eccentric," he said nervously, chuckling in his awkwardness. Hey Allen, his inner voice rang how about next time you just say 'cool' or something...you idiot. He was too negative with himself. He smiled and said confidently "Don't worry about the plates, I can just grab another unsuspecting one. Just hopefully I won't have to use that one for a slip 'n' slide again.

Allen didn't catch onto the lie, so he just figured that they were average Slytherins. Starting fights and all that. Well, that sounded more like Gryffindors, but that was besides the point right now. "Still doesn't seem right for them to just blatantly attack you for you just wearing clothes...then again, history has done worse." Seriously, who couldn't Allen put to sleep? Christ. Allen looked back at her face and noticed that her eyes were getting a little glossy, something that showed some tears. He wondered if they had managed to do anything harmful to her. "Did they do anything to you?" he asked, showing genuine concern.

Allen flinched a little when she shouted, seeing as how she was sitting directly next to him. He laughed a little though, seeing how random that had been. She definitely was interesting. Then Allen learned her name and smiled. She also had an interesting name. "Well Saphire, what year are you in?" It was a simple basis.

"Eccentric?" Sapphire said softly, pouting ever so slightly. She blinked a couple of times, and then suddenly smiled. She was probably making him uncomfortable. It was fun to make people uncomfortable, or at least it was to her. "Still I'm sorry. I didn't mean for innocent plates to be sacrificed to help me." she said, acting as if the plates were humans. She shrugged and looked at Allen, before looking down at the floor. She didn't know what to say to him now, she was mourning the loss of the two plates. Wow, it's really as if they were people. Sapphire always took everything to have some kind of emotion, even if they were inanimate objects.

Sapphire shrugged again and looked back at Allen. "They don't like me. And they took my clothes selection as a way to do something to me." she told him, her eyes getting more glossy and her vision beginning to get blurred because of the tears. She saw that he looked concerned but she left her eyes as they were, not wanting to wipe the tears away. It was a good way to get sympathy from people. "No..." she said. "I don't think they did anything to me..." she told him softly, her gaze lowering to the floor once more.

She saw him flinch from her shout and she couldn't help but smile. "Flinching it fun!" she said pointing at him. She laughed and poked him lightly. She swiped her bangs out of her face again and smiled at Allen. "I'm a fourth year." she smiled brightly at him. "What about you? What year are you in?" she asked him curiously.

Allen hadn't felt any better when Sapphire had looked in a displease manner when he called her eccentric. Well that was one for the birds he supposed. He tried to think of a compliment or something, perhaps anything to at least make up for his stupid mistake. Yet he felt irritated when his mind went blank, not thinking of anything to say. Then she brought up the plates and their 'sacrifice'. "Well if it makes you feel any better," he said, smiling awkwardly "I sort of threw them under the bus. Not technically I murdered them?" Well that went smooth. Yet why did she look emotional about it? They were just some plates, one of hundreds that covered the tables. Probably thousands were everywhere though.

Allen made a disgusted look when she said the Slytherins didn't like her just because of her clothes. Were people really that low, especially to attack a girl? "Typical Slytherins, I guess," he stated, looking down on the side of his sight. He looked back towards her eyes though and saw that she was tearing up a little. A bit of rage flew through him, yet quickly tucked itself into a pocket of Allen's personality. He wasn't the one to get mad, he believed in peace. Well, a rough kind of peace. He blinked a couple of times and said "Well I hope those bastards got what they deserved...isn't right."

Allen blushed brightly when she shouted again and pointed at him. What the hell was she doing?! Was she trying to wake up the entire school or something?! He nervously looked at her and said "Do you really need to do that? I mean, you'll probably attract more people in here...perhaps those two brutes again." He sighed, realizing that what he asked was probably impossible. She seemed like the outspoken kind of girl. He smiled though when she mentioned her year. "I'm a fourth year as well!" he said, showing a little excitement. He kept meeting people in his year left and right, it was like Christmas!