star gazing

It was a cold and snowy day. It was almost impossible to get out of the castle and out onto the grounds. So there was Hayden standing in the middle of the Astronomy Tower looking up at the ceiling which had been enchanted to show the starry night sky so that students could study it. Taking off his robe he balled it up to make a pillow like structure and lay down on the floor placing the robe under his head. He crossed his arms over his chest. With a yawn a slight smile formed on his face. He was utterly alone it was like the late summer nights when he would lay in the middle of a field and watch the stars.

Alice climbed the stairs with a medium sized bag in her arms. She had somehow managed to cram a whole blanket into that bag, which now made it heavy and much more bulgy than it's suppose to be. But for here, going to the Astronomy tower without a warm blanket was just a stupid decision, especially at this time of the year. She was planning to spend the whole evening wrapped up in a cozy blanket, gazing at the stars and relaxing. It was the best place to go after a stressful day, and Alice has had more than just a few of those days.

She pushed the door opened and jumped up on her feet when she saw that the room wasn't empty. Just her luck she though. She walked towards him and gave the strange boy an apologetic smile."Oh sorry... I didn't realize anyone was here. I hope I'm not intruding you Alice said softly. She didn't really know who the boy was so she decided to introduce herself. "I'm Alice by the way, Longbottom"

"Well Alice by the way," Hayden said with a soft chuckle, "You are not really intruding. But I must ask what a puffer is doing up here in the astronomy tower. Are you not cold and too odd to be up here?" He asked lifting up an eyebrow. He pushed himself up on his elbow so he could look up at her. She was kind of cute as she stood there before him. “So you gonna stand there all day or are you going to sit down Goof?” He asked rolling his eyes and laying back down to look back up at the stars.

"To odd?" asked Alice raising an eyebrow at the boy. She tried to ignore the comment about her being a Hufflepuff, but ended up just giggling. No matter how much she tried to get insulted because of it, she found herself not really minding much. And there was some truth in it after all. With a smirk, she pulled out with some effort the blanket out of her bag. "As you can see, yes I would get too cold. That's why I thought this could be handy"

After hearing his offer to sit down next to him, she bit her lip a bit confused. She didn't really expect a stranger to say something like that. Most people came to the tower to find some solitude. But since the boy asked, what could be so wrong with that. "You still haven't told me your name" she pointed out, spreading the blanket on the floor and laying down.

“My name? My name is Hayden, Hayden Yaxley!” He declared and tilted his head back as if to stick his nose up in the air like the snob he seemed to be. It was his defense mechanism. If everyone thought he was a snob and didn’t care about other people maybe they wouldn’t pretend to care about him. But in truth he was just trying to impress. He sighed and smiled up at the stars. They were so peaceful even if they are not the real stars. They reminded him of simpler times with out homework and school, and girls.

"Hayden" repeated Alice with a soft giggle at the boy's snobbish exhibition. But in truth, she was use to this. Boys liked to impress the people around them, and set their sense of status as soon as possible. As if the world would stop if someone thought they were weak or unworthy of attention. Quite silly if you think about it. But then again girls weren't much better so Alice didn't have the right to complain.

"How come a Ravenclaw is up here then? Without a few dozen books to read I mean" Alice said with a small laugh, offering up a joke. It was her sort of revenge for him comment about Hufflepuffs. But when in fact, some of her good friends were Ravenclaws and they weren't that fond of studying at all. "I come here because it's peaceful. Hard to find such a place in Hogwarts anymore" she said, explaining her presence here.

“Reminds me of times simpler,” Hayden offered up, his head tilting to the side to look at her instead. “As a kid did you ever lay out in the grass in the summer time just looking up at the stars in wonderment? Wondering what it was like up there in space?” He chuckeld, “I’m sure you did. I mean you are a silly puffer.” Rolling his eyes he looked back up at the enchanted stars. He sighed and smiled slightly looking for the consolation they called Orion. “Look there,” He said pointing to three little dots in a row, “ You know what that is?”

She was about to admit that star gazing was something she had done quite often as a child, but then it was an experience every child has gone through surely, when he beat her to it. She rolled her eyes and playfully pocked him with her hand. "Very funny... Keep up with it and you'll see how silly we Huffs really are" she said with a chuckle and a threatening glare. Alice's attention turned back to the stars and to where he was pointing at. She was never really good or knowledgeable about astronomy, so all of the starts in the sky simply looked like glowing dots to her. She shrugged at his question and expected that he would know a bit more than her. "More stars?" she suggested obviously.

"Yes they are that," Hayden rolled his eyes at the girl, "But they are also a constellation, which a big word for stars that group together to form a picture in the sky. Like a connect-the-dot." He felt the need to explain everything in extreme detail as he spoke. "That group of stars there form the belt in Orin, and it is one of the most famous consternation's, another one is the Big Dipper which contains the Northern Star. If you are lost and find the northern star it can help lead you in the right direction. A long time ago Muggles use to use this form of navigation all of the time." He glanced over at Alice out of the corner of his eye to see if she was understanding.

Alice listened to his words and carefully mapped out all of the stars he mentioned in the sky with her eyes. She had never paid much attention to the night sky before or the stars that decorate it. But looking more closely at it, she realized that there might just be something special in them. "I should probably already know this" she said with a guilty chuckle, only proving to herself that she never learned anything from her Astronomy class. "How did you learn all of this? Research?" she asked curiously, wondering how someone even comes to learn about a subject such as the stars. "I doubt from Astronomy class, as no one really pays attention there" she added with a laugh.