Late to Lunch

Amelia swept down the steps of Hogwarts castle, cursing the fact that she had forgotten her watch. Usually, the small silver circle was permanently attached to her wrist, but in her haste this morning she thought she must have forgotten to grab it from her bedside table.

After having left her dormitory in a hurry, Amelia had spent the better part of the day in the library, pouring over books for her classes. Having spent a good deal of time in the library over the years, Amelia had perfected the art of finding an empty table in the history of magic section of the library. Seeing as it was possibly the most boring subject in Hogwarts, Amelia knew that this was the safest place to be if she wanted to be alone with her books for a few hours.

But how many hours it had been, exactly, Amelia hadn’t been able to tell. The part of the library she had chosen didn’t have many windows in it, so it was only when Amelia’s stomach began to truly growl that she closed up her books and wondered for the first time if she had missed lunch. As she made her way to the doors of the library from her hiding place, she noticed that most of the students who had been there when she arrived were no longer at their tables, and at that point Amelia quickened her pace, maintaining it right up until she reached the over-sized doors of the Great Hall.

Slightly breathless, Amelia pulled one of the doors open and slipped inside, only to find that she was the only person in the entirety of the room. There were a few house elves mulling about, cleaning up what appeared to be the last of the dishes from lunch, but other than that not a soul was in sight.

Sighing, Amelia moved to the Ravenclaw table and threw her bag on the surface. As she slid her long legs underneath the table, she propped her elbows on the table and put her head in her hands. Although she usually enjoyed her solitude, she was disappointed to see the room empty; it meant that lunch was long done, and dinner was still several hours away.

And so, still not knowing what time it was, Amelia heaved a sigh and closed her eyes, trying to ignore the pangs from her stomach.

((Cue Nathaniel))

Nat was in the Ravenclaw common room, sitting down trying to study his assignment he got from the Astronomy Towers. Then he heard footsteps coming down the stairs and in the corner of his eyes he saw a girl walking by. He paid no attention to her but continued studying when suddenly he heard a small thud on the ground where her watch slipped out of her hands.

He looked up to see what it was and saw that there was a silver watch on the ground. Nathan picked it up and looked around it for somebodies label; straight away he found her name on the back of the watch. "Amelia..." he mummered. Wasn't. that the girl that just left, he thought. Who else could it be no one left or entered the Ravenclaw Towers in a long time. So it had to be hers.

Pocketing, her watch in his pocket he started to run out of the dormitories and down the stairs to see if he could catch her so that he could return the watch. "Hey!" he called out as he spotted her walking down the other side of the stairs but didn't seem to hear him. Damn. This loud crowded place, he thought. "Hey you."

Sighing, Nathan finally saw her sitting at the Ravenclaw table, alone in the almost empty but monsterous hall. He made his way up to her and sat down beside her. "You've dropped your watch," he told her sitting down beside her quietly and smiled at her warmly.

He was wearing a light grey plaid shirt that outlined the muscle on his shirt. with black undershirth beaneath it. Along with a pair of old ripped off jeans.

((Just for the record, Amelia was in the library for several hours between when she left the common room and arriving in the great hall. You could still have found her watch, but it would probably be several hours later now. You don’t have to edit your post, but if you want to keep the timeline going, that is sort of where we’re at.))

With her eyes closed, Amelia was almost able to forget her less than convenient predicament. Amelia was a person who valued routine and scheduling, so she didn’t usually miss a meal. If she had been wearing her watch, this never would have happened. Amelia had the type of personality that demands planning and organization, even planning out times at which she could eat. Her stomach was upset by the break in routine, and grumbled angrily up at her, though she tried to ignore it.

Her stomach was not the only thing making noise, though. In the silence of the Great Hall, Amelia suddenly made out the noise of footsteps falling. They were too heavy and too far apart to have been the house elves, and her ears perked up at the rubbery sound of sneakers on stone. It was actually enough to distract her from the noises of her stomach, and she opened her eyes and lifted her head just in time to see a boy sitting down next to her.

He was dressed casually, though that was typical of many students on the weekend. She recognized him from seeing him around the school, and also knew he was from her house. Amelia was observant of most everyone, but this boy would have been difficult to miss. He was the type most girls were deadly attracted to: tall, dark, and handsome. Although Amelia was aware of this as well, she wasn’t exactly a normal girl in her reaction to the male species.

Amelia dropped her eyes from observing her housemate and let her gaze fall on the watch he held out toward her. As he sat down beside her, Amelia took the silver circlet with the square faced clock from his hands. She turned it over in her hands so the face was looking up at her, her eyes darting down to it.

2:30. Amelia thought, sliding the cold metal onto her nimble wrist. For a few seconds she fidgeted with the clasp of the watch, even after it had already been fastened. She hadn’t anticipated anyone coming into the Great Hall, so she wasn’t prepared with anything to say to the person sitting next to her. Conversation wasn’t exactly Amelia’s strong suit.

“Thanks,” she finally said, going with the logical response. Her eyes darted up to his, which were alight from the smile which hung beneath them. Amelia knew her own features would not mirror this happiness, but she didn’t have the energy to put on the façade right now.

“It’s Nathaniel, right?” Amelia asked, though she was quite certain she wasn’t mistaken.

Nat took a deep and long look at the girl just to make sure that this was the girl he was looking for. Amelia. Yes. She was exactly the girl he was looking for earlier, he thought. A smile grew onto his face as he finally let go of her silver watch. She'd probably be wondering where he found this so he decided to brief her on whereabout he had found the watch. "I found it in the common room," he smiled softly. Luckily she had her name on it otherwise it would've been lost forever. What a shame. To lose something so valuable, he thought.

"No problem," said Nathan, a smile lifted on his face. He couldn't help but noticed the way she darted her eyes up to his and how the expression on her face never changed just a slight bit. Emotionless. Depressed. Many emotion were going through his mind. It worried him, such a pretty girl like her shouldn't be like this; most girls he encounted were energentic and happy but she seem to be different.

"Yes. But you can call me Nat or Nathan," he replied, smiling politely at her. "I'm guessing your Amelia then?" Nathan asked, remembering seeing her name ont he back of her watch.

Amelia nodded at Nathan’s explanation, realizing that she had actually remembered to grab her watch off the nightstand, but she hadn’t actually put it on her wrist. She must have dropped it as she breezed through the common room, too intent on getting to her hiding place in the library to notice the small thump it made on the floor as it fell.

I guess my father was right… Amelia thought to herself about how her father had always insisted on engraving everything one owned with his or her name. He thought it appropriate to denote ownership on the material things one possessed, if only to remind the world of what was yours. Amelia hadn’t seen the purpose in all of this – most of the things she owned were readily replaceable – but it was easier to just engrave the objects through magic than to balk at what he told her. He would have won out in the end, anyway.

That must have been how Nathaniel knew to return the watch to her, because she knew the pair of them had never met before. Amelia had very few interactions between herself and her peers, so she was likely to remember an encounter between herself and the smiling young man who sat next to her now. That smile seemed to be permanently attached to his face, for what reason Amelia could not determine, but she had to admit it gave him an approachable appearance. Not that she wanted to approach him.

Amelia resisted the urge to wrinkle her nose at the nicknames Nathaniel provided. Amelia was, overall, opposed to nicknames, but suffered them for the benefit of those who thought them to be cute or quaint or whatever they were. She thought briefly on the nickname Elijah had given her, though she had initially tried to avoid one, before responding to the question that Nathaniel – ahem, Nathan – had left hanging in the air between them.

“And I’m guessing you already knew that,” Amelia replied, raising an eyebrow at the still-smiling person alongside of her, “Judging by the fact that you knew to return this watch to me. Which I appreciate, of course,” she added, realizing belatedly that she was being rather cold to someone who had done her a favour. It was hard to change her nature to fit the situation; most people weren’t overly kind to Amelia, so it wasn’t much of a problem that she gave off a cold shoulder. In this instance, though, she owed Nathan at least some semblance of warmth; she just didn’t know where she was going to find it.

“How did you know where to find…” Amelia began before she was interrupted by a particularly loud growl from her stomach. Stopped short, Amelia blushed lightly at the embarrassing noises escaping her near-empty stomach, dropping her eyes away from Nathan’s to avoid the awkward look he was likely to give her.

Nat raised his eyebrows at her and couldn't help but noticed how odd it was seeing her alone in the Great Hall with nothing to do whatsoever. "Did you miss lunch?" he noticed something growling in her stomach. She must be hungry. It was a shame to see somebody missing lunch, luckily he knew one of the elf working in the kitchen he could summon her and get ehr to bring some food but he wans't going to do that yet. Not until it was official that she was actually hiungry.

((more later... don't post))