A night like this

[Sam Prince]

Sam knew it was past curfew. But since he arrived at Hogwarts for his third year he just couldn't seem to escape the crowds of people. The firsts years practically lived in the Common Room, which didn't surprise him but now, even his dorm was full of people. His dorm was usually a refuge, an escape, it was only him and Alex last year but now there was a ton of boys. By the time night arrived Sam couldn't take much more of it. He needed to be alone for a bit, get his head cleared. He knew the perfect spot.

As the boys turned out their lights in the dorm Sam slipped out of his bed, already fully dressed and put on his converse. He grabbed his coat on the way out and left his dorm. Thankfully, Alex wasn't a very 'by-the-rules guy', even if he was Head Boy, he wouldn't rat him out. He was a guy, he would understand the craving to escape. As Sam hurried through the corridors he felt something brush past his leg, he looked down surprised to see his siamise cat, Yoda. He had obviously followed Sam out. Sam shook his head slightly, although he kinda liked the company of his cat.

A small relieved smile slid across Sam's lips as he made it outside of the castle unnoticed. Sam put his coat on and headed towards the dark frightening forest. Although, now, in his third year, it didn't frighten him much. He never encountered anything praticulary harmful so why would tonight be any different? Sam quickly looked over his shoulder before he entered, just in case some Prefect had followed him. Thankfully, it seemed it was just him and his cat. The air was cold and damp in the forest, the darkness seemed to encase him but he didn't take out his wand. He liked the dark. Yoda would occaisionally brush past his leg which comforted him a little.

After a while Sam figured he was deep enough. No one would find him here. Hopefully. He also noticed his cat getting quite tired so when Sam spotted the dark shape of a root sticking from the ground he took up the oppourtunity and sat on it. Yoda gracefully jumped up onto his lap and Sam stroked its fur softly. The air was still, the only sounds were of Yodas soft purring and Sam's heavy breathing. This was exactly what he needed. Time to be alone. Even if it was in the depths of the Forbidden Forest.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jennifer sighed, looking down at Grievous her snake, stroking his head with her frigged thumb as she walked through the Forbidden Forest. It was quickly getting darker and darker and the Canadian girl wished she could experience the seasons of her home country instead of a foreign country when the weather only got down to a mild one degrees Celsius. She felt homesick and family sick.

Over the winter break, Jenn had not gone to Australia as usual. Her family condo was owned by her Dad, instead she avoided her Mom at all costs. She felt it was her fault for her parents divorcing and the separation over her small family. Family was not the only thing she had abandoned while on break; friends. Yes, the people she had wronged so much she was now avoiding.

Why was Jennifer Wilkonson avoiding all of humanity? Well no one knew, not even her. But she did know that she was a Black Sheep and was constantly spending time in the Forbidden Forest, blocking herself off to the nights sky instead of embracing it and all it's wonder with her telescope in the Astronomy Tower.

Closing herself off to people seemed to be the only thing she could do. Jennifer knew that no one would understand her rantings about her parent's divorce, not even her best friend. Someone she had been able to turn to for absolutely everything -

"Sam?" Jennifer looked almost baffled as she looked down at Sam and Yoda sitting in the Forbidden Forest. What is he doing here? she asked herself, feigning a smile for the benefit of her friend. She tucked the hand that didn't have her green and black snake coiled around her hand in the pocket of her coat. She pulled back her disheveled blonde curls out of her eyes and dug her heal, that only accentuated her tall, slim figure even more so, into the snow, flakes touching her bare skin but it was nothing, nothing that her cold feeling heart couldn't out do. "What are you doing here?" she asked him, feeling as if her safe haven was tampered with so it was more offensive than she initially planned.

 

[Sam Prince]

Sam absent-mindly stroked Yodas soft fur when suddenly it seemed out of no where he heard a voice. What now? Who would be ou- wait a minute. His thoughts were rushing around crazily in his head but they all came to a standstill when he recognized the voice. "Jennifer?" He said shocked, his features changing from and angry expression to a shocked expression. Yoda had lept up from Sam's lap and wondered over to her. Yoda's back was haunched but once he realized who it was he simply brushed in and out of Jen's skinny legs. What was Jen doing out in the forest at this hour? "Wha-" he began but she had gotten there first. "Oh. I..eh..." He trailed off. He thought frantically of some sort of excuse that would sound better than the actual truth. But then he figured it was Jennifer after all. One of his very best friends. He sighed defeatedly, "Escaping." He said simply knowing how lame it most have sounded. He tried to find her eyes in the darkness of the forest, "You?" He asked in the same curious tone.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

As Jennifer's eyes had been adapted to the dark light she had seen every crook in Sam's face change when he spoke her name and she did see Yoda walk towards her. She shifted the weight on her feet and accidentally stepped on the cat's flowing tail only to hear a loud mew in pain and she became both startled and embarrassed as she lifted her foot up very quickly. Another reason why I should be alone, she thought, I only hurt things.

"Escaping." Why would he need escaping? He has friends and despite his beliefs a family that is together and someone that loves him, well as much as thirteen-year-olds can love, she thought, her expression unchanging throughout it. "You?" She raised her spindly fingers to the back of her disheveled, flat yet curled, blonde hair and scratched it then linked her fingers in her hair. She pulled down on her hair, a few strands falling out with her tight grasp. Jennifer's lips curved into a tight grimace, this was a way of resisting telling the truth so flatly.

"Nothing that would get me into trouble," Jenna murmured quietly, as she lowered her hand back to Grievous' little head and stroked his gentle scales with a curious smile as she wondered what it would be like to Parselmouth, to have that curse. How interesting it must be.

 

[Sam Prince]

Sam winced as he heard the familiar screech from Yoda. He had heard it so often, Sam would always drop things on him or step into him by accident. Yoda was well used to these kind of things. Jen's answer was so blunt he immedistely sensed something was up. Ever since Jennifer arrived back at Hogwarts she just wasn't the same girl he knew. "Jen?" He asked slowly once he had found her eyes in the darkness. "Is there something wrong?" His voice was cautious and quite timid. He didn't know how she would react, would she flip out or break down into tears? Or would she just be plainly blunt with him? Sam really hoped it was none of the three. He just wished that he could get the bubbly, happy Jennifer Wilkonson back. The one he once knew.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jennifer had always been very intuitive with Sam, or perhaps he was easy to read, either way she was used to knowing how he felt about her words, anyone else's and even his own. But what she didn't exactly expect was his ability to pick up on her tone of words, so she kept her gaze down at her snake. "Sam, everything is fine," she lied, with a warm tone just for his benefit. This was one of the times when she was prideful in her talents to deceive others even though she felt badly for lying to him.

 

[Sam Prince]

Sam raised his eyebrows at her although she probably would not have seen it with the poor lighting. "Yeah?" He said in a questioning tone. Yoda gracefully walked back to Sam and resumed his position on his knee. "If you say so.." He said to her. He didn't think that Jennifer would lie to him about how she felt. Jen and Sam went way back, they've been through it all. She would definitely tell me how she feels he thought, convincing himself in a way. Yodas tail softly brushed against his chest as Sam yawned, "So how was your break?" He asked her casually thinking that a change in subject was needed.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jennifer felt relieved when Sam fell silent about the topic but her lip quirked upwards into a grimace when he asked how her break was. She looked down onto the snow, thinking of her answer before sighing heavily and walking towards her friend's side and sitting beside him. "First break with just me and Mum, how do you think?" she asked quietly, assuming he understood that it was not good, that she missed her Dad and brother and was mad with her Mom because she felt she was the reason why she was in a single parent household.

 

[Sam Prince]

Sam moved up slightly on the large root causing Yoda to jump off his lap, Sam rolled his eyes. There was much more important matters at this time. Sam looked down at the snow as Jen spoke, he shuffled his foot through the snow as he let her words settle. He didn't know how he would approach responding to what Jen had said. Once Sam's foot was buried in the snow he looked up at Jennifer. "I'm sorry to hear that..." He mumbled. He didn't know what else to say, he was so terrible in these situations. This was Scorpius' job. Sam ran his fingers through his hair awkwardly and then said, "Did you get to contact Owen or your dad at all?" He asked gently hoping that his question wasn't too inappropriate, it wouldn't have been his first choice but he really couldn't think under pressure.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jenna shrugged her shoulders lazily, trying her hardest to appear as if she didn't care when that was just the opposite. Truthfully, she didn't need any responses from Sam but she hated lying to him. She sighed quietly as he asked her if she contacted the other part of the family. "I tried writing them but Mom wouldn't let me, she would even let me call or email them!" she exclaimed angry at her mother for clear reasons. "How was your break?" Jennifer asked, trying to change the subject as fast as possible.

 

[Sam Prince]

Sam sighed heavily, Jennifer didn't need this. She already had so much sadness and drama in her short life, not to mention the drama in Hogwarts. But he guessed, once he put it in persepective, school drama was just minor. Sam didn't feel like answering her question, his life seemed so easy compared to Jennifers and he used to think that his family was bad. "Eh, yeah it was alright I guess. I didn't do all that much." It was true, Sam visited Toni a couple of times and then there was Hoshi's party which he wasn't going to forget anytime soon, his summer was pretty much boring after that. However this year he had some sort of contact from his parents, the people he hadn't heard from since he had left London two years ago. Although it was only a "Is Sam behaving?" at the end of a letter to his uncle. It was a start.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jennifer shrugged her shoulders gently and said, "Aren't we just a pair?" She chuckled softly, but it was a sad sound. Jennifer Lydia Wilkonson was not the same girl she had been before Salem Academy. "Sam, I miss you," she murmured meaning that things had changed since she left and that things were not the same between them, not that she ever really expected them to be but she wished they were.

 

[Sam Prince]

Sam looked at Jennifer surprised by what she had said. He stared at her for a moment, once again letting the words sink into his head. He pulled his foot out from snow and sighed, "I'm still here." He said quietly unable really to make his voice go much louder. Although things weren't exactly the same between them, he was still going to hang out with her as much as he used to, well at least he would make an effort to. He was still always going to be there for her no matter what. Sam just hoped that Jen would get that from his poor choice of words.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jennifer looked at Sam incredulously as he told her that he was still there. She sighed quietly and placed a hand on his, patting it gently. She understood, sort of, what he was trying to say but she didn't know how everything would go back to the way they were, because they couldn't. She turned towards him and embraced him in a meaningful hug, her face nestling in his shoulder. She wasn't exceptionally sad, she just wanted a hug from her best friend.

lame!

 

[Sam Prince]

Sam was shocked at Jennifers actions, he looked down at his hand as she patted it gently and then was embraced in a hug by her. There was nothing else for it, Sam hugged her back. He didn't speak nor did he want to speak, it seemed Jennifer didn't either. Sam rubbed his hand up and down her upper back soothingly. He pulled away from her after a while of silence. He didn't know what he could say, what he should say. He sat in silence looking at Jennifer with not a smile on his face, it wasn't like he was sad or angry, he just didn't know what way to act at moment.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

As their hug ended, Jennifer found herself becoming embarrassed, thinking that Sam hadn't wanted to hug her, that she had been out of line by hugging him, so she looked down at her feet. "Sorry," she muttered quietly. "I.. I've been needing a hug for quite some time," she added. She looked at Sam, meeting his eyes, her own gunmetal blue eyes glistening.

 

[Sam Prince]

"You don't have to apoligise!" Sam said, sounding alarmed. Sam continued to watch Jennifer as she stared down at her feet. "Well I'm glad I could be the one hugging you." Sam said playfully and a small smile slipped onto his lips, he then added, "But seriously Jen, I'm always around. You know I'm not busy doing schoolwork. Even if I am, any escape from that is wicked!" He said, his smile enlarging, "...even if its just for a hug." He said and placed his hand gently on her shoulder.