A Mentor Before School

[Claire Aurelious]

With the weather outside as lovely as it was, Claire had once again decided to go exploring. Her mother and father wanted to have dinner as a family, but Claire knew it had been a while since they'd been alone together. With childhood innocence she told them to go on without her and eat, and that she'd 'rustle up some grub' when she got home. Claire knew that for couples to stay together, they needed to hang out and keep being friends. She smiled to herself; her parents were the best of friends. Claire whistled a small tune as she walked, wondering what there was in this small villa. She knew everything that was in obsidian by this point, and she was sure her father did too. In fact, just last week they went together for ice cream. Some of the flavors they had were amazing, nothing she had ever tasted back in Crawfordville.

Claire stopped walking only for a moment. She adjusted her hat and shirt straps. She wasn't in the least bit vein, but she wanted to make sure everything stayed in place. She then continued her stroll, wondering what there really was to do around this town. Up ahead she saw a boy who looked about her size, only taller He seemed to be happy, almost omitting that vibe. Claire, who had not been discouraged by her last encounter, approached him. Fearless as always she said, "Howdy, stranger." it was a typical greeting for friends and strangers where she came from. "You look like you got your berrin's more than me, so can ya tell me what there is to do around here?" She asked, her southern accent heavy in her voice, her 'r's nearly nonexistent. Maybe it was because of her age that she was so fearless, or maybe it was just how she was. Regardless, it was how she was, and Claire liked it.
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[Samual Kaster]

When Brightstone weekend came around, Samual Pace Kaster couldn't wait to get out and about in the sunshine. Sure, the Gryffindor loved Hogwarts, there were a lot of places to go and hang out at, and he had a lot of friends there to hang out with, but sometimes it was great to just get out amougst the people and do a little bit of shopping for family. The year had flown by at the speed of light and it was a little scary, soon he would be in fifth year! Exams were seemingly around the corner, and Samual had quite a few things to deal with before the end of the year, he wanted to catch up with all of his friends again, and have a talk with his sister, since she seemed to be going off the rails a little bit. He wasn't sure what he deal was, but he was worried about her, if she kept up this crazy crusade for revenge on Annalie, she was going to get herself expelled, and then what would she do? Mop around the house for the rest of her life? Sammy didn't want his sister to be expelled, she was intelligent, but she wasn't applying herself to anything and it was a little more than frightening for the curly haired brunette. Atleast the outdoors were helping him ignore the rubbish that seemed to be surrounding his name these days. It was RHI's fault, but they would get what was coming to them someday, some one was going to find out who they were and by the amount of people they've hurt, they were going to have to do some quick explaining, and maybe some running from the boat-loads of people that will be after them. Luckily for Sammy, he didn't need to worry about that magazine out here, well, he didn't think he did. Why would the authors lurk around Brightstone for a story when they could be enjoying the sunlight and all the shops selling exciting and wonderful things?

After some light shopping for his sisters, Samual exited one of the many stores and started his walk along the cobbled streets of Brightstone. He was really happy today, it must be the wonderful weather fuelling his happiness, because he often found it impossible to feel upset on beautiful days. When he heard a voice, he looked around and soon found the source. A young girl with an interesting accent and dark hair was asking him what there was to do around here. A smiled crossed his face and he took his eyes off the shops. "Hey there, stranger!" He greeted. Usually he'd start a conversation off with his name, but the girls begining was so interesting, it was brilliant. "I'm Sammy, and usually people come to Brightstone around this time for some shopping, though you can also go to Tâkarokaro Park, that's a really lovely place, it has a whole playground set up in the center and everything." He explained, pointing in the direction of the park. There was also Borely Mansion, but he wasn't about to send a little girl in that direction, that's just insane. "So are you lost or something?" He asked, looking for her parents. He didn't know her face, and though he didn't know all the students at Hogwarts personally, he knew most of their faces, it she didn't look very old either.
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[Claire Aurelious]

When the boy turned around, somehow Claire knew she had made the right choice. He was smiling an almost contagious smile, and his eyes turned up at the corners along with his lips. Claire felt no butterflies, she felt no feelings for this boy, she just studied everyone this hard. it was so that if she saw his face again, she wouldn't forget him. It was that southern pride, the 'I never forget' attitude that caused her to be like that. Her mother was the exact same way. In fact, that was probably where Claire got it from. She got a lot of things from her mother, but more from her father. She got her eyes and her hair from her father. Her mother just passed down her southern hospitality and slight stubbornness. Where Claire got her bravery though, was obvious. From both of them. Both of her parents were brave to the point of being stupid, just like she was. After all, you had to be brave to wrangle with horses like they did. They would break horses, take days getting kicked off and keeping them in line. During those days, Claire would watch with amazement as her father and mother would take turns and take rides. Then finally they would let her ride, and the horse would trot, walk, and canter on command. One day, Claire would break her own horse.

Realizing she hadn't yet said anything, she looked back to the boy. in fact, he hadn't said anything either. Had time stopped? Was that possible? Claire really wasn't sure. She smiled at him still and giggled when he quoted her. She could already tell by his accent that he wasn't from the Americas. She figured that, by the way he talked about this place, he was from around here. "I'm Claire Adkins!" She smiled and extended her hand to shake his. She had seen her father introduce himself to people like that, and knew it was the 'proper way' to do it. "Naw, i ain't lost!" She exclaimed with a loud laugh after. "I'm jus' lookin' around. Ya see, I'm new in town. Gonna be startin' school at this place called Hogwarts." She smiled a little bit more. then she wondered if this place was all magical people, or if she had let out some big secret. Who did she have to watch her secrets around? Claire hadn't realized she was going to be keeping a secret now. She didn't keep secrets very often. "where's ya accent from?" She asked curiously.


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[Samual Kaster]

It was nice to get out and about sometimes, and though Samual's original intention for today was to have a little bit of alone time and just do some shopping, he was fine to give it up so he could chat with someone. Being a naturally friendly person, Sam couldn't help but try to be helpful to someone and answer their questions, whether they were serious questions or not. This girl didn't seem too bad though, in fact, she seemed like a normal young girl, bubbly and happy. It was refreshing, because lately Samual's only company had been people who were upset, or angry, and it was getting to him. That also played a part in him deciding to take a little break from Hogwarts and go to Brightstone, and it was a lovely place to hang out. Samual nodded and shook the hand of Claire Adkins. "Wonderful to meet you Claire." As he first thought, Claire seemed like a nice, normal girl. The girls accent intrigued him, because Sammy ad never been to the Americas before, and he had not met anyone from the Americas, so he had no idea what the accent was like, Europe was more his place to go during holidays, so the girl most likely wasn't European, and she certainly wasn't Australian or New Zealander. In fact, Samual had no idea where she was from, but she seemed very excited to be here, which was nice, and her accent was adorable, he couldn't help but love it.

Upon hearing that she wasn't lost, Samual relaxed a little bit, that was relief. Samual had been lost a few times when he was younger, and he hated it, he would always stress out when he was lost and he was happy that this girl wasn't feeling that way. He was suprised to hear the Claire was starting at Hogwarts, so he would probably run into her again. "Oh you're starting at Hogwarts? I go there." He informed. It was pretty cool that they would soon be school mate, though with Samual's schedual going out of whack the way it was, he wasn't sure if he would have enough time to have and maintain his social life the way he had been this year. "So we might run into each other again when you're sorting next year." Since talking to Sara and Nadia, he had a better understanding of what next year would hold, and Kate helped with that too, and he had a feeling that things were going to get harder if he kept up all the classes he was taking, he had considered dropping some, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Maybe he'd drop Muggle Studies, but the other classes he couldn't bare to lose. Samual smiled slightly. "I was born in Australia, but I moved here a few years ago. So I guess my accent is both Australian and New Zealander." He explained with a shrug. "What about yours? I've been trying to guess it, but I've never heard it before."
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[Claire Aurelious]

When Claire shook Sam's hand, she gripped it tightly, a hand shake that showed confidence. Her father told her that if you give a weak handshake, people might think you're nervous, and she didn't want to give the wrong impression to anyone; because Claire had to face it, she was almost never nervous. Claire gave a large smile when he said 'wonderful' to meet her. It seemed like he was being formal. Claire was almost never formal. In all honesty, Claire just didn't do formal. Even when she went out with her folks to nice restaurants, she would wear a romper or nice jeans. And nice jeans typically meant whichever pair had the least amount of stains on them. Even the romper she had on now had a little spot from that morning, when her horse spit a little food at her. What did she expect; Apple-Jack was picky, and Claire didn't give her the food she wanted. "It's awful nice to me you too."

Claire was glad that she already met someone who would be in school. claire could feel all these questions building up inside of her, but she didn't ask any of them. it would be rude to just bombard him with questions, and Claire didn't want to do anything that could be considered rude. "I hope we can!" She said with an exclamation. Something he said had got her wondering though. The might he had throw into that sentence. Was it that big of the school? or did they separate boys and girls? Claire hoped they didn't separate her into a place where there were a bunch of persnickety girls; it was bad enough that at home she had to deal with a persnickety horse! She came out of her thoughts, knowing it would be rude to interrupt his speaking by thinking through it. Claire didn't want to have to ask him to repeat himself, it might agitate him a little. she kept smiling while he was talking about his accent. Both of her hands found their way to her belt loops and she kicked the ground lightly, stirring up some dirt and dust. She giggled a little when he asked about he accent. She knew it would get her started; she loved talking about her home town. "I'm from Crawfordville, Georgia! It's near the southern part of the U.S., right above Florida. It's a small town that no one really knows about; but it is home!" She said proudly, a large smile on her face. Her chin was held a little higher than before, she had so much pride in her hometown. After all of this was said and done, she planned on going back there too.
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[Samual Kaster]

Claire seemed to have a very strong grip, it was suprising, and reminded him of what his father used to say about handshakes, though Samual never really listened to his father and his various opinions on behaviour and that sort of thing, though now he regretted not listening to his parents more. He'd never be able to listen to their ramblings again, and he couldn't help but wonder if they'd be proud of him as he was now, or if they'd be disappointed in him. It was a thought that crossed his mind on occasion, and even though he avoided the thought like it was the plague, he couldn't help but think about it sometimes, because it was a legitament worry. Would his parents actually like him as he was now? Or would they have wanted him to be a different person entirely? With a flick of his hair, Samual cleared his mind from that thought and brought himself back to the present and nodded at Claire. She seemed like a nice kid, really polite and generally happy, it was nice, since Samual knew all too well how some people were less than pleasent to be around, Sam had been running into some pretty rude people lately, so it was like a gift from Merlin to not be faced with another rude, arrogent and downright cruel person, because he was starting to think he had a cruelty magnet on him or something, meaness just seemed to follow him everywhere, he could never get away from it.

Samual laughed slightly when Claire seemed extremely excited about going to Hogwarts, it was like re-meeting Khione all over again except Claire probably won't be featured in a stupid magazine for meeting him. Hopefully by time Claire entered Hogwarts, RHI would have gone and she wouldn't have to witness the cruelty that could come with the school, though he guessed that was wishful thinking. Sammy was admittedly expecting half a million questions to come flying at one hundred miles per hourrom Claires mouth, but none came. It was a little relieving, because he wasn't sure if he would be able to answer all the questions that she could possibly throw at him, but if she did end up asking some, he'd try to answer them, even if he ended up failing, atleast he'd give it a good shot. As Claire explained to Samual about where she came from, he nodded slowly. He'd never heard of the place, but he'd also never been to the Americas, so he wasn't expecting to know where everything was, but she gave a really good explaination on where it was located, and she seemed really proud of it, which was pretty awesome, since some people would be embarrassed about where they came from, or didn't really know much about it. Like Sammy, he was never really sure what to say when telling people about where he came from, because he had moved around quite a bit, and to him, family was home, but his family were split across the globe, so it was a little odd. "It's really great that you're so confident about your home!" He mused, it was rare. "When you come to Hogwarts, you'll meet a lot of people from different places, so it's really good to have a firm grasp on who you are and where you've come from." He explained, with a small nod.
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[Claire Aurelious]

Claire didn't notice the way that her grip surprised the boy. In all honesty, attention to detail wasn't Claire's strongest trait. She wasn't completely stupid, but she was clueless to most things, and was not a fast learner. She was an action girl, ask questions later, and hope for the best. it was something that had many times gotten her in trouble, and many times had saved her hide. Had she not thought on her feet when she was being trampled, she didn't know where she would be at this very moment. She would not have walked out with the few scars and stitches she had walked away with. there were more instances than that, but every time that she looked in the mirror, she was reminded that it was her quick thinking. it was something that gave her pride. Her parents, of course, viewed it as her fault anyways. Technically, it was, but everything happened for a reason; and she wholeheartedly believed that. Who knows, maybe she wouldn't be as brave as she was now, had she not had that experience.

When Samual laughed, Claire also laughed slightly. He had a contagious kind of laugh, it spread a smile to her face; though, that wasn't a hard task to do. Claire was a naturally bubbly girl, and the doctor said that when she was born, she was the happiest baby he'd ever seen. she was a lucky baby too; neither of her parents were supposed to be able to have children. She was a 1 in a hundred thousand chance. And her father has told her time and again that she was a one in a million girl. "Of course I am!" She exclaimed to Sam. why wouldn't she be happy with her home? It was a beautiful place. "My farm was the biggest in the town too!" She said. She tried not to get too prideful, but simple things about Claire made her prideful. She was prideful of her eyes, of her horse, but in reality, nothing made her more proud than her family. "What about you?" Claire asked with a smile. "What parts of New Australia are you from?" To some, it might seem as if Claire had just combined the two places his accent was from. however, in reality, she had forgotten that it was New Zealand and Australia. She could be very forgetful at times, which added to her less-than-intelligent reputation with ehr family. it was a common joke, and Claire didn't take it too hard from the,. After all, family was for foolin' around like that, right? Claire sure thought it was, and as long as she didn't think anything different of it, she would be able to stay a lighthearted child.
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[Samual Kaster]

Samual smiled when she mentioned that she lived on a farm. Sammy had always wanted to visit a farm, but since his parents didn't like animals, and his siblings don't like dirt or anything farm related, he had never had the chance to actually see one, so he had never actually seen a cow or horse in real life before and sometimes he felt a little cheated, because everyone else got to see those animals and say how they were really scary, or really great, but Sam couldn't say anything of the sort. He had only seen pixies, or doxies when they occasionally invaded his house, and once he petted a Hippogriff, but that was normal stuff. Some people might not agree with all that being normal things, but Samual found them pretty average, since his whole family had done all that before, so to him it was just super normal and super boring to think about, though when he first actually encounted the Hippogriff he thought he was going to die, but petted it anyway. "You live on a farm? How big is it?" Samual was not entirely sure how big farms were, since he had nothing to put them up against. He lived on a decent sized property, but he imagined that a farm would be bigger because he only had his family manor, not tons of big animals walking around.

Samual hoped that Claire managed to get into Gryffindor, because that would be fun. He'd always wanted to be a sort of mentor to someone, since his youngest siblings were three, he wasn't really ever going to be able to mentor them when they went to school, and since he had so many older siblings, he had always been mentored and watched his whole life, so it would be interesting and fun to see how he went with mentoring someone and helping them out for once. When Claire combinded Australia and New Zealand, Samual just assumed so was combining the two areas for fun, not actually considering them the same area of space, so he dind't correct her at all. "Well I'm afriad I came from pretty big city areas, in Australia I lived in Sydney, but now my home is located in a quieter area of Christchurch, there's a lot of trees there, but not really any wide open spaces." Samual didn't mind the lack of wide open spaces at his home, because he was used to clutter because of the amount of people and noise that went through his house on a regular basis, especially with Jack back, always bringing his Quidditch teammates over for parties and other fun and totalling the house every time. It was fun to meet his team, they were a bunch of great peoplle, but quite loud and a little crazy. Hogwarts countered all of that though, since it was far larger than his family manor, and there were so many wide open spaces, and Samual spent most of his time there because he didn't celebrate many holidays and there was always the holiday Quidditch that he hoped would stay around, playing Seeker proved to be very entertaining. "But I mostly live at Hogwarts, I don't usually go home during holidays."
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[Claire Aurelious]

Once again, with Samual's smile came Clair's. It was inevitable. whenever Claire was talking to someone, it was obvious that she was happy to be doing so. No matter how rude that person was, or how much they yelled at her, she still found the capacity to be nice to them. Some may consider this a plus, being so optimistic in a world that tended to be dark and sinister. However, it could also be looked at as a flaw, since she had become a little bit of a doormat. She didn't know how to say no to a favor or anything of the sort. She giggled when he seemed to be interested in the farm. "Oh i don't know, it's a hundred acres or more! We produce a lot of the produce for our small town." She answered, sticking her hands in her back pockets and looking around a bit absentmindedly. "We have two separate corrals for the horses, and a barn with at least..." She paused, looking up and scrunching her face in thought. She mentally counted the stalls. "Fourteen i think. between fourteen and twenty." She smiled a little more. "they aren't all for our horses though, we board them as well as own. And we have cows and chickens." She loved thinking about the farm. It was the best thing in the world to Claire, and the only place that she would really call home. "I'm sorry, my mouth is overloadin' my tail." She blushed, realizing how much she had been talking. But, that was Claire. Talkative and proud.

Claire stopped bragging about her home and let Sam talk. Claire was a good listener when she wanted to be. And every day was a day that she wanted to be. it was also just one of those things that were part of her nature. She was surprised to find that Sam had come from big city areas. From what Claire had heard, big city folks were always in a hurry. They never had time to stop and smell the roses, or chat like Sam was doing at this very moment. on top of that confusion, she felt more confusion over the town names. Christchurch? It wasn't a name she had ever heard of in her life. "Trees are nice!" She exclaimed, finding the bright side to the 'no open spaces' situation. Claire couldn't imagine having no open space. then again, if it was what you were raised with, she supposed having too much open space would be overwhelming. she tilted her head to the side. Claire made a mistake right when she asked, "don't you ever miss your family?" Claire knew nothing of Samual's raising. How his parents acted or anything of that sort were unbeknownst to her. innoceny, little, Claire just believed that all families were like her family. Kind, smart, loving and understanding. She never thought there was another side to family love.
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[Samual Kaster]

Samual was amazed at the size of her farm, it sounded huge and he couldn't help but think about running from one end to the other, he'd probably die half-way through. It sounded like fun to live in a small town, though Sammy couldn't help but see Hogwarts as a sort of miniature town, because everyone lived in the same general area, and most people knew each other, if not by name, but by face and seeing people walking past you, though now with a magazine circulating sometimes, people knew a lot more about others than was comfortable. Claire seemed to be a really talkative person, which was comforting, because lately Samual had needed to be the talkative person in conversations, and lately he hadn't been up for talking too much, and he was rather interested in her farm, it sounded like great fun. Samual loved animals, and to hear that Claire had horses, and cows and chickens was amazing, he'd never seen those animals alive, in person, because he was what could be described as sheltered, and he spent most of his time in cities, and you didn't find cows roaming the streets and horses in the back allies of cities, it just didn't happen. "Oh don't worry about talking too much, it's really interesting." He comforted. One of the reasons Sammy was good at comforting others was because he didn't lie to do it, he just told them the comforting truth, because he rarely thought negatively of someone, so comforting was really easy for him. "sSo how many animals do you actually have?" He asked curuiously.

Samual laughed and nodded. "Yes, trees are nice, I like climbing them." He explained, thgouh it probably wasn't exactly responsible to tell a girl that would probably be between the ages of nine to eleven that he climbed trees, just in case she thought that it was the best thing to do, and it really wasn't ly if you fell off, which had happened to Sammy many times. "But it's not really the best thing to do though because you can fall off and break something." He added, deciding to say something a little more responsible, but it felt foreign, since usually people were advising him on what he should and shouldn't do. When the subject of missing family came up, the smallest sign of a frown, since he did miss his family, a lot. But unfortunately, the ones he missed the most were dead, so no amount of time at home would bring them back to him, and being home just made him miss them more, so he sort of avoided home. Though he did return when he had to, and would distract himself with his younger siblings, or with climbing trees. "Oh, I do miss my family," he said, he wasn't going to go through the whole reason of why he decided to stay at school most days, because that got him into some trouble a few months ago, though he was confident that things aouldn't go the same way with Claire as they did with Annalie, he was still a little protective of himself. "But Hogwarts has a lot more to do, and the last holiday break we were able to have a Quidditch game. But I go home for the Winter vacations." He explained.
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[Claire Aurelious]

there was a short silence between them. Claire didn't feel uncomfortable, this silence was breathing room for her brain in a way. It allowed her to think about her parents, to hope that they were having a good time. if only she knew that they wished she was with them. if only she knew how they made it so blatantly obvious that they were muggles, buy asking them to turn on the football game or something. Without Claire there to fill in awkward silences between bartenders and her parents, it seemed empty. Claire would never know any of these things, and she remained blissfully unaware of them. She smiled at Sam, though she had never really stopped. She had just realized in her head all this time, she had been calling him Sam. Not Samual, not Mr. Samual. So she looked at him and asked. "Is't alright if I call ya Sam?" Claire was so polite it was almost annoying to most people. however, Claire would never change that about her. she was just too nice to be anything or anyone else. "Ya think so?" Claire asked, her eyes almost sparkling. Her stomach took a leap. That type of praise was something that Claire lived for. She loved being called interesting, or smart, or funny. Any sort of compliment was very welcomed. "20 or so!" She answered a little more eager than last time. "Two cows, twelve horses, and six chickens! They're all amazin'." She answered, her voice raising a bit at the end.

Her smile became a little wider again when he laughed, and she giggled slightly too. "Yeah, it's so much fun!" She agreed to his comment about tree climbing. unlike some girls that Claire had read about in books, she wasn't afraid to get dirty. most teens or even girls her age were snooty about getting dirty. it was a little irritating, because Claire never seemed to have anyone to play with because of that. Sometimes they said it was a bad thing; but dirt doesn't make someone dirty. At least, that's what Claire was taught. "Break something?" She asked a little. "Aw shucks, bones grow back, but you can't make a memory grow if there wasn't nothin' to make it out of!" Claire was glad to hear he missed his family. She was a little naive, and having never been yelled at seriously by her parents, she didn't really have any problems. She knew she was going to go home every time she got a chance to. She would 'owl' (some mailing system she figured, it probably stood for something) them whenever she could too. "What's Quid-ditch...?" Claire asked, having troubles even getting that word out of her mouth. She assumed it was some sport for these special folk, but what could they do that normal folks couldn't. Maybe they raced each other on things conjured, like she had read in a book.


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[Samual Kaster]

Sam smiled and chuckled. "Of course you can call me Sam." He replied. Samual didn't mind people calling him Samual, Sammy or Sam because it was all a part of his first name, so he saw them as his first name. What he didn't like were people calling him Mr. Kaster, which usually happened because of Professor or much younger people thinking they had to address him by his last name. It was weird and made him feel a little uncomfortable, because Mr. Kaster was so formal, and it was what people called his father, and he didn't like the thought of taking his fathers name, it didn't feel right. Sammy nodded to her question. Claire's home seemed like a really cool place to be, and he couldn't imagine her ever being bored there, because it sounded so interesting and fun. Samual was shocked at how many animals Claire had. He only had a bird, named Corvin he was a lovely black raven, but a little tempremental. "Really? That's so many!" He said excitedly. Samual loved animals, which was part of the reason why he did Care of Magical Creatures. "I only have a raven, his name is Corvin." He explained. Sammy loved his bird, he had him for awhile now and Corvin was what he used to send his letters to his family.

Sammy laughed, that's what he thought when he was younger, but even though broken bones were easy to fix, they still hurt when they broke. "I know, I'm just saying you should go climbing every tree you see." He joked. What Claire said about memories was too true, and he agreed one hundred percent with her, because you couldn't have memories if you lived under a rock. "Okay, but if you do end up climbing any trees at Hogwarts, just make sure you don't break a bone, because breaking bones hurt." Sam remembered when in his Third Year he decided to climb some of the trees with one of his friends, it was a lot of fun, but he didn't break anything, he was sure the memory wouldn't be as fun if he had of broken a bone, or if Nephy had of being injured. Samual frowned in thought. Obviously Claire had no idea what Quidditch was, so she probably grew up in a non-magical family, or no-one in her family had ever played, or watched Quidditch, which seemed highly unlikely, but possible. "Umm... it's a magical sport, where people fly around on brooms. There are seven players on one team, so, three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and one Seeker." He explained, trying to jog his memory so he didn't give her the wrong information. He wasn't used to having to actually explain Quidditch to someone before, it was all new to him. "The Keeper protects the goals, the Beaters have bats that they use to hit away flying balls, called bludgers, that try to knock people off their brooms." Sammy paused for a little bit to see if Claire had any questions, and to make sure that he was getting his information correct, since he knew how to play, but telling someone that doesn't know the sport at all about it proved to be very difficult. "Chasers try to score points by throwing a big ball, called a Quaffle, into one of the other teams hopes. While Seekers search for a tiny ball with wings, called the Golden Snitch. When the Snitch is capture, the game ends and the team with the Snitch gets a lot of points for their team. Whatever team has the most points by the end of the match, wins." Sammy ran his fingers through his hair and smiled slightly. He wasn't sure if his explaination was good or not, and he was sure his older brother could have explained it so much better, being a Professional and all. "At Hogwarts each house has a team and they all verse at matches. It's a fun sport to watch, especially if you have a friend playing." He added.
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[Claire Aurelious]

Claire was more than happy when Sam told her that she could call him that. It was much shorter and much easier for Claire to remember for some reason. She was put into a little giggling fit when he said that it was a lot. She the stopped when she realized he wasn't kidding. "Sorry bout the giggle-fit. I just though you was kiddin'. Most people where I come from have so many more animals! Guess it's just what I'm used to." She listened to Same name his only pet. it was just one pet, how could someone live with just one pet? Maybe subconsciously, Claire needed the pets for love and affection that she didn't get without friends. But to her, they were just the most amazing things in the world and she didn't know how she was going to live without them. Maybe she would be able to take a small one with her. A chicken, perhaps. It would be nice if she could take Rosie. She was the sweetest foul that Claire had ever met. "I know i shouldn't, but ya never know what you'll find. i once sat in a tree for an hour, waiting for a mamma bird to return to see how they fed their young. It was so amazin'!" It seemed as if everything that Claire said was followed by an exclamation mark. Eventually she might settle down, but now was not that time. "And I know. I've broken this leg before." Claire turned her right leg around to show the scars from surgery. "Gotta metal rod in there too. if i bend my leg right, you can feel it!" Claire thought that was the coolest thing ever.

Now, though, Claire had to snap from her thoughts. She listened intently as Sam explained a strange sport called Quidditch. She let her mouth come slightly agape when he mentioned them flying around on brooms. She thought only green-faced, warted-nosed, witches did that. She wondered if they all had black cats, but quickly dismissed the idea. After all, Sam said that all he had was a raven. She nodded at every thing he said, trying to keep it all in her head. It all sounded so exciting, but so confusing. She remembered having heard of polo, a horse sport. She had decided that after hearing about the Quaffle, it was nothing like polo. She couldn't even picture anything like this game in her head. 'i'd have to see it to believe it.' She said, a small, dumbfounded look on her face. "It's all so confusing. Do you play?" She asked. If he played, maybe he could show her how sometime at school. "Can anyone play this game? it sounds more dangerous that pickin' up a mamma viper's eggs." She thought that maybe, this would be something she'd be interested in. She had been very good at riding horses, could a brook be any different.
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[Samual Kaster]

Samual couldn't help but laugh when Claire started giggling like crazy, it was just an emotional habit that he picked up when he was younger. When the people around Sammy were happy, Sammy was usually happy, if people around him were upset, then Samual would begin to feel down, because that was what he did when he was younger and wanted to fit in with the other children, and he never quite kicked the habit. When she explained why she was laughing, it made sense and Samual nodded understandingly. "Nahh don't worry about it." He said, throwing the thought aside. "I'm used to people having about five animals, tops. When you said you had about twenty, I nearly had a heart attack!" He joked. Samual nodded, that did sound like fun, but Samual was not actually allowed to climb the trees, so if he was caught at home climbing trees, Lisa would probably kill him, or ground him forever with no hope of mercy. was very serious in her rules and really hated it when people disrespected them, especially if Samual was the one that broke them, because she would always tell him that she expected the behaviour from Tamalia or Jack, but not him and she'd make him feel guilty and horrible for going against her rules. "Well at home I'm not supposed to climb the trees, they're there for looking, not climbing. That's what my sister says all the time." He explained, rolling his eyes slightly. "She really worries a lot and freaks out if we climb the trees." He added with a shrug. Since Lisa was a Squib, she dind't have magic and didn't know how to tend to wounds, she lived as a Muggle and didn't even know how to make Potions, she she always worried that if they were injured she wouldn't be able to help them that's what she'd say anyway, and Sammy sort of understood, but it didn't mean he would never climb a tree when she wasn't around. Samual looked at the scar on her leg and frowned. That looked really sore. "I've fallen out of trees a few times, and I've broken a few bones, but I've never had to get any operations or anything because they could all be healed by a healer." He explained. One of the perks of coming from a magical family, you rarely got scars from injuries.

Samual was impressed that she seemed so interested in Quidditch, because he wasn't sure if his explaination did the sport justice. She seemed very shocked as well, and a little dumbfounded, but he nodded to her questioned. "Yeah, I love it, I played as Seeker in Christmas Quidditch and I play it with my family, but usually I just cheer on for my friends when their are House games." He explained. Samual had never thought about playing on the Gryffindor team, but since covering for his friend Khione and Professor Blaze, he had suddenly got the urge to try out for the Gryffindor team, the worst that could happen is that he didn't get in, or he got on the team and they lost a game. There was nothing wrong with losing, so he wasn't really worried about it. A smiled crossed his face. "It's really fun, and anyone can play, except when you're in first year you're not usually allowed to join a school team, but there have been acceptions." He explained. He understood why First years were not normally allowed to play, it would be quite dangerous for them because some might have never flown a broom before. "When the school holds games again, you should come along and watch one, they're really entertaining, especially if you know someone on the team. But since you've never seen a game, I think you'd love it either way." He explained. Usually he went to cheer on Kate, but now he could cheer on Sara as well, and he knew that more of his younger friends loved Quidditch, so he might be needed to cheer on more people.
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[Claire Aurelious]

Laughing was something that Claire would never get enough of. She even loved ehr own laugh. it wasn't low pitched, but it also wasn't high. It was just teat middle, almost contagious laugh that when heard, might make others laugh or annoy them. She was very surprised to hear that he had only ever heard of five pets tops. The people that Claire talked to, mainly when she watched the rodeo, had even more pets than her. In the country, she was on the low end of animals. There was a farm about four miles from her house that had at the least, fourteen cows. Pets were the main obsession where she was from. "Well don't go and do that. I'll need a friend in school who's not a ghost." she then paused for a second and her face went blank, as if in thought."Are there such things as ghosts?" She asked, getting off topic. It wasn't hard for Claire to get off topic, since she usually had so many thoughts bouncing around in her head. Sometimes, it was hard for her to keep the thoughts separate from one another. "Not supposed to climb trees? How would you escape a ragging bull, or a dog chasing you?" She asked with confusion. She didn't understand that Sam probably didn't have things like that where he came from. "It wasn't too bad, i was loopy from the medicine for a long time though. my Pa has me on video singing my ABC's and I'm getting them all mixed up and whatnot. it's so funny!" Claire laughed again. She then watched Samual with wonder and curiosity as he explained who could and couldn't play quidditch.

Everything he said made her feel more and more curious and a little more confused. she wondered to herself why first years couldn't play it. Just because you were a first year horse rider, however, this seemed like a completely different sport. "Why aren't ya able you play if you're a first year?" She wondered if they didn't learn how to fly until their second year, or if there was an age limit to owning a broom, like the gun age. "i would love to come along and see them! it sounds so exciting!" She said with a huge grin. she looked behind herself, wondering if her parents would be much longer. However, seeing the tall man that was her father, Claire knew that she didn't have to wait any longer. She looked at Sam and smiled. "That's my pa. i have to go, i'll talk to you sometime late'?" she asked. She then remembered the pencil and paper she had stuffed in her pockets to keep herself entertained at the restaurant. She put it to a brick wall and wrote down her name and address. "Pen pals?" she asked. She then handed the paper to Sam and jogged off to meet her small family. Maybe going to school there would be nice.
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