A desperate phone call

Nerissa had never ridden a motorcycle before, and it was a rather frightening idea, but at the same time, it sounded like it could be a lot of fun. The young female thought about her answer to his question for a moment, wondering if it was really a good idea to bring him there… after all, she was interested in things that not very many others were, save the professors at Hogwarts that taught Herbology and the legendary Neville Longbottom.

Nerissa slipped her hands into her pockets, looking down at her shoes for a moment; she thought, perhaps, that he would find it rather stupid or uninteresting, but she answered him nonetheless, “When I was growing up, my Mum and my Stepdad made us move to a new house- something about ‘a fresh start’, you know? I wasn’t exactly happy with the place, I mean, I wasn’t very great at making friends with kids my age, and moving made that even harder, and so I started spending most of my time in our backyard playing with sticks and pretending to cast spells…” Nerissa laughed quietly to herself upon recalling that memory, “But then I walked a bit further, and I found this abandoned greenhouse. All of these beautiful, magical plants, had been left there to rot… I saved them though, and It really is an amazing place… the greenhouse is a lot larger than the one at Hogwarts…”

She felt as if she was carrying on too long and looked up from her sneakers as she finished, “I haven’t been there in a year or so, and I would really like to take you to see it. Its my favorite place on the planet,” she said with a rather childish grin. “Unless that is too lame…” she added quickly, scratching her neck absentmindedly.

Andrew smiled as she explained where they would be going. He had never heard about her past, and it felt like he could trust her more that she explained it. He had already trusted her, but it was hard for Andrew to trust most people anymore. "That sounds like a great idea," he smiled, walking close to her "I'll need some directions though. Otherwise I may drive us into a ditch" he joked. He then recalled something from his childhood and it made him smile. He hadn't thought about anything from his past before and it was a good memory as well. It was a random one at that, but still good. "I'm curious," he asked honestly walking towards the door, which revealed an elevator behind it "I've always wondered how you were so good with plants, I mean, I've seen some pretty amazing stuff from seeing you with plants, then I'll probably ever see from a Herbology teacher."

“Give me your hand,” Nerissa spoke, pulling her tattered wand out of her pocket. She held Andrew’s right hand, palm up, in hers and pressed the tip of the wand to his palm. She whispered an incantation she had learned in one of her Charms lessons, and began running the wand further up Andrew’s hand until she reached his wrist. There on his palm were the scribbled directions to the place Nerissa had been speaking of earlier, “I never have a pen on me, so that works well too,” she said with a grin, “Oh, and don’t worry, it washes off as soon as we get there- so don’t crash us into a ditch or you’ll have a permanent tattoo,” Nerissa added jokingly and gave Andrew his hand back, stashing her wand back in one of the pockets of her dark jeans.

Nerissa was flattered when Andrew spoke of her talent with plants, and couldn’t keep a light blush from creeping up on her face, “I’ve never been the best at interacting with other people, so I turned to plants, and for some reason, I knew how to help them, and how to take care of them. They like to listen to you when you talk to them, you know- yeah, gosh, now I sound crazy…” the teenager bit her tongue and smiled, her embarrassment clear by her expression.

Andrew felt weird whenhe saw the directions being written on his arm, and rasied an eyebrow. It didn't hurt or anything, but rather felt weird. He looked at the directions and knew where to go now, as he had driven by the destination a couple of times already. He had never seen it though as he drove on by. He was amazed by the revalation at how many times he had driven by it, and not one noticed it. Talk about tunnel vision.

He smiled brightly as he noticed that she was embaressed and shook his head. "No I don't think you're crazy," he said calmly and then chuckled slightly "don't worry." He then opened up the door out of his apartment and walked towards the elevator. He clicked the down button on it and waited patiently for the elevator to arrive. He would rather just apparate to the location, but he knew now that Nerissa didn't like it, so he respected her decision.

Once the elevator arrived on their floor, a small family walked out and pointed at Andrew and said "Look mommy, that man is bandaged all over!" The mother then slapped the child slightly on the back of the head to tell him to watch his mouth. He chuckled slightly and then went into the elevator. He kept the elevator door open, waiting for Nerissa.

The child that had spoken up about Andrew’s bandages got a laugh out of Nerissa as she walked over to the elevator after Andrew, fallowing him inside. She rested her back up against the wall and watched the door close slowly after pressing the ‘Lobby’ button, assuming that it was, in fact, the correct button for her to press.

The young female was silent for a moment, listening to the soft elevator music before speaking up again, “In Egypt, in Ne’Os pyramid, you were the guard that came in late, weren’t you?” she asked slowly; she hadn’t realized it before, but after thinking about the possibility for a moment, Nerissa could see that it certainly was a possibility. She remembered how surprised she had been when she had seen him there… “So you were behind us, and I didn’t even notice,” she said, fallowed by a laugh that wasn’t really amused, but more of a way of saying ‘huh, now that’s really messed up’.

Ding! came the small noise that signaled the elevator reaching the floor it had been commanded to bring Andrew and Nerissa to, but Nerissa waited for Andrew to go out first, feeling that it was somehow important that she kept him in front of her, like a shield from the world they were about to walk out to once more.

Andrew nodded at they continued down int the elevator. "Yeah I was following you guys since you first went into the pyramid," he said truthfully as the occasional hum was heard from the elevator lowering it down to the lobby "I nearly lost my lower half when you proceded through that last door...then was attacked by two guards, shot them both, stole the guards outfit...and so on from there. Fantastic time really."

Once they hit the lobby, he waited for Nerissa to leave first, but saw that she wanted him to go first. He nodded and then walked out first, keeping his stance high and straight "I also paid another visit to the pyramid." he said grinning a bit "let's just say...that Ne'Os will be needing more builders and blocks if he ever wants to live there again."

He almost smiled at his achievement, feeling empowered now for some reason. It wasn't everyday that Andrew got to destroy a large pyramid, so he felt obligated to boast. But his brain wouldn't let him. "So anyway, fun times were held back there and..." he stopped at the though and had a sudden flashback. He saw Ne'os killing Nerissa with the Avada Kerdavra curse and threatening it wouldn't be the same for the real world Nerissa. His heart froze and he almost stopped dead in his tracks.

He reached the entrance of the builidng, and walked outside, taking a look around the sidewalks. "Alright then," he said, the thought off his mind now "we may as well get to the garage out back." He waited for Nerissa, in case she hadn't caught up.