Exploration

The weather outside wasn't bad for the wizarding school of Hogwarts. It wasn't to cold or too hot. It was the perfect weather for Nick Potter to go outside and get some fresh air. The graduating student wandered down the path to the great lake aimlessly. Until he walked straight into a bench! It hit him straight in the stomach. But that was the thing with Nick. He never walked into anything, the object swerved and hit him.

Until he realized the bench was moving! It was moving back and forth like a swing. It was definitely being controlled by magic. But he couldn't see the caster anywhere.

Attempting to draw out the caster, Nick casted incendio on the bench and set it on fire.

The sky was blue, the water was murky, and Izzie was bored. Well, to be fair, Izzie was always bored. She wasn't weaving a basket with a family in Africa, she wasn't learning to pour tea with the Geisha's of Japan. She wasn't even in America, shopping for the latest clothes and watching a new tv show being filmed in a live studio audience. Nope.. She was stuck in a Wizarding school in Britain of all places, on a decently sunny spring day, staring at a giant beast waving it's tentacles out of the 'too cold to swim in' water, and holding a book that was far beyond her magical abilities.

Suddenly a strange smell hit her nose and Izzie's eyes immediately shut, her head turned towards the wind, and she inhaled deeply, taking in the strange smell. "Wood on fire?" She got into a crouching position, her wand resting against her thigh. She sniffed again and crawled forward, a hand moving to touch the ground and feeling the vibrations. Someone had set fire to something wood, but after a moment's quiet, she realized there was actually two people in the vicinity of her. She stalked forward and came up over the top of a larger rock only to see the scene she had perceived already. A boy was crouched near the lake, his wand out and pointed towards a bench that another boy seemed to have set fire to.

"You know it's not very nice to set fire to other people's things!" Izzie called out and ducked back behind the rock, smirking before walking out around the side of it. "I mean.. fire is a dangerous element, you should be more careful what you do with it." She pointed her wand towards the lake and nodded. "I think there's a boy over there who you should apologize to."

The girl's voice scared him. He wasn't expecting it and it was behind him, which made it scarier. As he turned around the face belonging to the girl looked familiar. She was a Gryffindor, like him. And Nick was pretty sure she was a year younger than him. But her name. Nick was pretty sure it was Is- something. Isabelle? No. Isabella? No, but it was something close and Nick was sure he would think of it.

"Well he hit me with a bench! I should set him on fire." Nick said jokingly but with a hint of desperation in his voice. But then he saw that the kid was only like twelve and probably didn't mean to cause Nick problems. Oh well. The kid already took of running at the sight of Isa- something, like she was a scary monster or something.

Izzie took one look at the boy who she had just yelled at and sighed heavily. A Gryffindor like herself, she knew he was in the year above her, not exactly a looker, but not horribly ugly. She knew he wasn't the brightest bulb in the greenhouse either, and that was evident to his use of fire, which was still slowly burning the bench down. Izzie pointed her wand at it and a stream of water flew from the tip to the bench and drenched the flame.

"You really shouldn't set random things on fire.." She said with a frown, putting her hands on her hips, and staring straight at him, smirking. He was much taller than her, but her stance made her feel much more powerful than him. That and she had pretty much made that 2nd year run off like she was going to bite him, and that in itself put her in a very good mood. "Most people find that to be rude.." She laughed and glanced around the area before nodding towards him. "I'm Izzie."

Izzie! That was her name. But Nick knew that Izzie had to be a nickname, because he just knew that it wasn't her actual name.The pose that Izzie was doing made her look defiant, but adorable at the same time. Obviously Izzie thought she was the boss, but Nick couldn't tell. She also could've been playful at the same time.

Nick raised his hand about three inches above her head. "Well Izzie, I'm sorry to break it to you. But you have to be this tall to question what I do" Nick said playfully. Oh Nick almost forgot! "Izzie. I'm Nick. It's nice to meet her majesty" he said, implying that Izzie must've been someone of importance.

Izzie narrowed her eyes at Nick and stood up a bit straighter, her chin raising defiantly. His playful manner was annoying her, and she took a step back, her eyes still narrowed as he implied that she was short. "Just because I'm short doesn't make me any less of a danger." She said in a growl, her hand gripping her wand slightly, which sparked red out of it's tip. "Well Nick, it was quite impulsive of you to set fire to that poor boy's bench, who knows, maybe he made that himself?" She said, knowing the kid had probably stolen the bench from the courtyard, but she wasn't about to bring that up.

Her eyes darted over his form, trying to figure out exactly where he was coming from. Was he teasing her? Was he serious? She wasn't quite sure as to where she stood with him, and that made her puff up and stand as tall as she could, trying to make herself look larger than she was, a stance she had used quite often to win favor with a chieftain of an African tribe she had spent a summer with. He had decided to not like her from the beginning, but she had challenged him, and although she had lost against him, she had won his favour. This boy was not a chieftain, and she didn't particularly want his favor, but she learned by being short, if you make yourself look larger, people back off.

"I'm not a queen, but I've met people who are." She stated bluntly, loosening her grip on her wand and making the sparks stop.

Nick had decided to stop teasing Izzie. She seemed to be getting annoyed and when the sparks started to come out, that was worse. Plus she tried to make herself look bigger, which did intimidate Nick at all. Nick brushed his hand through her hair. "Geez Izzie settle down, I am just teasing you. Sit down take a load off" he said softly, conjuring a wooden chair. Ok, that may have been teasing. Or being a smart ass. But it probably still annoyed Izzie. "So tell me about your visit when you met a queen. It sounds interesting" Nick said softly, trying to change the subject to a better topic.

Izzie puffed up again when he told her to calm down. She was calm! How was she not calm? She may be controlling her breathing, and judging all of the angles to take him down with, but she was calm, very calm. He conjured up a chair and Izzie had the sudden desire to set it on fire like he had that kid's bench. When he sat down in it she let out the breath she had been holding in, couldn't exactly set it on fire with him in it.

"I never said it was the Queen of England." She frowned and sat down directly on the ground, looking out towards the lake. "People fail to realize there is more royalty than just the Queen of England.. more than just the most well known royalty anyway. I've spent time with people who are far more royal than the figure-head of England." She slumped down on the rock, obviously lost in thought, as she reached over and plucked a strand of grass from between two rocks and started to fiddle with it between her fingers. "And they know how to run things.. Besides, the Queen's I've met.. they are not proud or snooty, they do their fair share of the work, and listen to their Chief.."

Nick gave this some thought. He didn't know much about other lands and their rulers. He knew that there were three or four types of ruling. Monarchy, Democracy, Socialism, and Dictatorship. He was pretty sure those were the main ones, give or take Socialism. Nick also knew that Britain had a monarch, the United States had a Democracy and that North Korea had a dictatorship. But not much after that.

"So you've been to many places?" Nick asked confusingly. Izzie seemed like a pretty interesting person. One that had explored and seen the world. But she also seemed like a normal person that had somewhat of an attitude. "You seem pretty interesting Izzie" he said quietly.

Izzie glanced over at Nick with a scowl and stood up again. "Many places would be an understatement, but I've not done everything I've wanted to, or seen everything, but I've certainly seen my fair share of the world! I've been to Kyoto in Japan, where women still dress as Geisha and escort men to parties held in tea houses, and I've learned Karate with a Master, I'm supposed to go back to Japan this summer to continue honing my skills.. I'm a bit weak on some things.. and rusty in others.." She frowned before looking at him again, her eyes sparkling and much less annoyed now that she was talking about herself and travel.

"I've been to Africa, where I learned to weave baskets with the women of the village, and go on hunts with the men, though they never allowed me to kill anything, I learned tracking, and could track a lion for three days if I wanted to, and it would never know I was there. I grew up going to museums around the world, I spent a month in New York City, where the skyscrapers are so tall they look like they touch the sky." Izzie grinned and shrugged. "I've taught myself some Italian, and French as well, though I'm most fluent in Japanese, and can get by in most African villages. Those are my favorite places I've traveled though, I've been to more, but those are the best."