Some interruptions are ok

[Preston Paine]

It didn't take Preston long to settle into the routine that came with being back at the school. It was taking him a bit longer to adjust to his promise to himself to hand in assignments on time, but he was sure that with some help he could be motivated to do so. It was easy enough when he avoided distractions, but that was the issue. Distractions were everywhere. In Slytherin house, his housemates were always up to something interesting so he never got much done there unless it was the evening quiet hours. And, lately, he'd been distracted by many other things too, the number of pretty girls around the school being the primary one. Over the summer, Preston had begun to notice that girls were actually nice to look at and they smelled pretty nice too. It was a far cry from the idea he'd harbored only a few years before about girls having cooties. He still had no ideas what cooties were, but he was sure now that a girl couldn't have them. Snapping out of the daze he'd been in watching the blonde ponytail of the Hufflepuff who sat in front of him in class, Preston quickly jotted down the assignment and left. It was kind of neat to have classes with all of the other houses at once.

Carrying his books under his arm, Preston entered the castle and made quick work of dropping his school stuff off and picking up his sketch book. He headed to the steps, climbing up and up and up until he reached the fifth floor. He'd caught glimpse out of a window the other day and had promised to himself that he would return when he had a chance. Leaning against the window, Preston quickly began to sketch his view of the gardens and the rosebush. He would use the sketch later in his dorm room to actually ink the lines that he was drawing. Perhaps he'd give it to his mother for Christmas. It was a nice, normal picture devoid of any hints of magic. Even she wouldn't be able to find fault with it when he had finished. Working in earnest, Preston drowned out the sounds around him as he pressed on, his pencil making quick work of a tiny hedge.

 

[Indiana Night]

Indiana wasn't one for hanging around in one place very long. With classes over the common room empty and dull the young girl headed back out into the rest of the castle. She wasn't sure where she was going or what she was going to do but moving around seemed better than sitting in her room. The common room was in the seventh floor and basically had a mini tower coming off it for the dormitories. She debated if she wanted to go across and go up one of the higher towers or just go down. At that moment down seemed a better option as she could always head over to the pitch. Plus the older ricketity brooms of the schools were good to practice with as one learned to better to control the brooms when they weren't the nicest brooms. Going down she paused at the sixth floor but didn't think there was going to much that would interest her and kept going.

At the fifth the teenaged girl paused like she the floor above. About to continue going down she noticed a figure sitting in the window sill. At first she didn't really recognize the person but then it clicked in her head. Preston, the first friend she had ever made. He had been sorted in Slytherin which had been a disappointment but they still had seen each plenty first year. Rushing over to the boy Indiana wrapped her arms around her friend. It had been a long while since she had seen her friend and she had missed him just as she had Tybalt her Gryffindor best friend.

 

[Preston Paine]

It was easy for Preston to lose track of time when he began a new art project. Losing hours at a time was not something unheard of for him. As he continued to work on the trees that he could see, Preston wondered what it would be like to fly among the trees. If he wasn't afraid of heights, he was certain that he could find out. He knew that the Quidditch players often went higher than tree height. It was an interesting idea, but this was really as comfortable with heights as Preston got. With a piece of glass between him and the actual open air, Preston was able to enjoy the view with almost no apprehension. His task kept him from really thinking about it. As Preston continued to add some details to the trees, he began to consider whether or not to add color to the picture. He personally wasn't a fan of color, preferring to work with charcoal but he knew that his mother preferred her art to have some color to it. He'd have to think about it some more.

While he pondered these things, Preston was caught unawares by the pair of hands that wrapped themselves around him. Jumping skyhigh, the Slytherin dropped the pencil in his hand. It was only a second later that a sheepish grin was crossing his face. He returned the hug with an earnest one of his own. "Indiana!" he greeted, releasing her so that he could move over and give her space. He'd seen his friend earlier in the week, but she'd been with her Gryffindor friends and he with his Slytherin buddies, so he hadn't spoken to her.

"Sit. Where have you been?" he asked, his accent strong as ever. He couldn't remember when they had last hung out. He'd just assumed that she no longer cared to hang out with a Slytherin. It was to be expected from some people, though he'd been disappointed that Indiana had turned out to be one of those people. The Slytherin boy looked his friend over, thinking that she looked just a tad different from the last time he'd seen her. He knew that he looked a bit different. Puberty had taken hold of him, causing him to shoot up a few inches and lean out some. It'd also led to some changes in his voice, though those changes weren't quite obvious from the few words he'd spoken. Still, his voice was somewhere between the boy he'd been and the man he would one day become. The only change that Preston had some control over was the haircut that he'd gotten just before the semester began. He rather liked it and planned on keeping it this way for a while.

 

[Indiana Night]

Indiana smiled as she pulled back from her Slytherin friend to sit next to him. She was glad the boy hadn't been very upset by her disappearing, of course not being in the same house she wondered if he had even noticed she hadn't been at the school all last year. "It's really a long story. But I got into a flying accident last summer and my father refused magical treatment, I was a mess in the muggle hospital for quite awhile," she said sheepishly. After all Indiana had been the one to try to teach Preston to love flying during their first year. Now she had to admit she made a mistake and injured herself better badly. She knew that they were in classes together but she had been preoccupied with Tybalt Kyle and the other new friends she had made the first few days back into the semester every time she saw Preston in the distance.

Actually getting the chance to take in his appearance Indiana noted how much it seemed he had grown, much like Tybalt had in the one year. He still had dark skin to match the rest of his dark features, but he seemed to be older in appearance now as well. And the young teen girl had to admit to herself that he was attractive. Though they were friends, and from enemy houses, not much could be done. She herself had grown taller a bit, her hair longer and her face was losing the baby cheeks she had a year ago. Embarrassingly, she was beginning to fill out in the frontal chest area as well. Without her older sister around now she wasn't sure all the time what to do about herself but she found comfort that other girls in the house and year were going through similar issues.

 

[Preston Paine]

It wasn't until Indiana began her story that Preston thought back and realized that Indiana had not simply been too busy to hang out with him. She'd actually been gone. He tried to think back to the classes he'd shared with Gryffindor last year, but there were too many faces, too many lectures, too much of everything for him to truly grasp any memories of him wondering why Indiana wasn't in class. "Um...wow. I'm glad you're ok and that you made it back" he stated. This was why he hated flying. He was afraid of heights for one, but he was much, much more afraid of falling. That her father would refuse her treatment seemed cruel, especially since Indiana came from a family that knew of magic. He could imagine his mother wanting to do something like that, though he knew that his father would eventually talk sense into her.

As he looked up at her, Preston noted that Indiana looked well now, so whatever injuries she had sustained and whatever scars she bore were well hidden. Her hair was longer than he remembered too, but other than that she appeared the same to him. The same friendly Indiana he'd first met in a bookstore. "How did your dad explain your injuries?" he wondered and then realized how rude that sounded. "I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that, Indiana." Preston needed to mind his manners more. His parents would have been appalled that he had asked that question. "Does it feel weird being back?" he asked, a much safer question. Realizing that she had been gone a whole year and had sought him out on her return made the Slytherin boy feel good. He was glad to know that she remembered him.

 

[Indiana Night]

Indiana looked at the ground with a smile on her face, she was trying not to laugh at her friend. He was acting silly as ever correcting himself not wanting to be rude. The girl remembered her first meeting with the boy in front of her. At the bookstore, they helped each other gather the books they needed for classes that year. It had been a fun time, scary as well getting lost among the older students. They were both hoping for them both to be in Gryffindor. Of course he was muggleborn and not sure what the houses meant and she just wanted to be with her sister. "It's fine, Preston," she told him shaking her head slightly. She didn't mind the questions, she was glad that he was talking with her and still her friend it seemed.

Thinking on his question Indiana shook her head slightly. "It doesn't even seem like I left. You're still you, Tybalt is still here, though you two have changed but not by much. My other friends are still the same. A year doesn't seem like it affected much, my position on the Quidditch team hasn't even changed, still Alternate, which is annoying because a second year girl beat me out for a real position," the young teen added glaring at the ground. Right now the Head Girl wasn't her favorite person in the world. She did wonder who the Captain for next year was going to be, her bet was on Sergios, he was the next eldest on the team, Prefect, and would be a sixth year. But whoever it was going to be she was set on showing a good team effort this year and making sure that she cheered on her team despite being on the bench for most of the games like she had been first year.

 

[Preston Paine]

Preston listened to Indiana's response, a quick quirk of his eyebrow as she indicated that Preston had changed. How could she know that?, he wondered to himself. Then he realized that she was speaking about his physical appearance and not anything else. It was true that his appearance had changed a bit, though he neither could nor would speak about any change in Tybalt. Preston hardly ever noticed the guy in the classes they shared, his name being the most interesting thing about him to the Slytherin. He found most of the Gryffindors to be that way- they seemed to think themselves much more interesting than they were in reality. It was a joke among some of the Slytherins that the Gryffindors were likely to float away one day from how full of air their heads were. Indiana was different though. She was nice to him even after they'd ended up in separate houses and didn't judge him by his house as others did...and, more importantly,she somehow seemed to get that Preston was keeping quiet about his blood status. She was one of the only people in the magical world who knew, but it seemed to mean little to her.

As she continued, Preston couldn't help but be relieved that she was only an alternate. He knew that she wasn't happy about it, but she was safer on the ground. Why she couldn't see that was beyond him. "Maybe it's not such a bad thing" he began hesitantly. Preston might have spoken more easily in the past, but it had been a while since he had last spoken to Indiana and he wasn't sure how she would take his words. "You can use the year to practice and next year you'll get a starting spot and I'll be there cheering you on." He smiled, the dimples in his cheeks showing, as he finished. Preston enjoyed watching Quidditch, but he would much rather never be on a broom himself. Water was his thing, not air. He knew that the opposite was true of his friend.

 

[Indiana Night]

Indiana shifted when her friend told her it might not be a bad thing that she was stuck on the benches for the year. She needed the experience of really being on the team if she was ever going to make it to the Professional level like she would like to do one day. The young girl wanted to say something back to her friend but she realized that it was mostly his concern for her that made him say so. She did have a terrible fall after all, his concern made her realize that maybe she shouldn't tell everyone that it was because of a flying accident that she was out for the last year and back home in America.

"Yes well the saying is, practice makes better," she said to her friend, though she wasn't very happy about the situation. Indiana was glad that Preston would be there cheering her on, though at the moment it seemed more like he would be in the stands worrying about her more than cheering. She smiled back at her friend glad she had happened upon him and got to catch up. She wasn't very surprised at how nice he looked, she had always thought he was cute, even more so now it seemed. "I'm guessing you didn't do much flying over the past year," the girl said in a questioning tone to her Slytherin friend.

 

[Preston Paine]

Preston laughed at Indiana's question and knew that his laugh would serve as the answer, though a moment later he did answer the question. "You know me too well" Preston replied with a shake of his head. It was nice to have Indiana back around. "Now that you're back, maybe I'll give it a try" he stated, though he was only saying it because he knew that she would probably like that. If it was up to Preston, he wouldn't set his butt down on a broom...ever. If Indiana asked him to though, he just might.

With a smile, Preston leaned back against the wall and glanced across it at his Gryffindor friend. "So, do you have any plans for today or were you just walking around looking for me?" he asked jokingly. It was a nice day so people were wandering every where, too restless to remain in their common rooms.

 

[Indiana Night]

"Even though it's been a long time since I've last talked with you, you personality hasn't changed very much then," Indiana replied back to the statement of her knowing her friend all to well. The girl smiled at the boy, he was incredibly nice with her. She knew he wasn't much of a fan of flying and for her it was her life. So him being able to offer up his fears for her was something she didn't over look. "Maybe we can go flying again soon then," she told Preston, though she wasn't planning on pressuring him into flying. She didn't have too, now that Tybalt was on the team as well and loved to fly. She found her flying partner in her best Gryffindor friend.

"Looking for you? No, well I guess yes in a way. I was looking for somebody, considering no one in the Common Room, I was out looking for a friend and found you," Indiana replied to her friend. She hadn't known that he would be here but she was certainly glad that he was. She missed her Slytherin friend a lot during her year away from school.

 

[Preston Paine]

Preston knew that Indiana's suggestion that they go flying soon was her way of spending quality time with him. Still, that didn't stop him from offering a non-committal shrug. "Yea, maybe" he added. If she had suggested an activity that would keep Preston's feet firmly on the ground, he would have grabbed her hand, dragging her off to do whatever she suggested. Flying, though, would require much mental preparation from Preston. And even then he wasn't entirely sure that he would follow through. It just wasn't his cup of tea. Besides, she had her Gryffindor friend for such things. Despite his best efforts, it was difficult to not follow the sport. It seemed that many of the other students couldn't get enough of Quidditch, and some things managed to stick in his head.

"Oh, ok. Well, I was thinking about heading down to the kitchen to grab a snack. Wanna come with?" he asked, a smile on his face. The house elves knew him fairly well, his mid-afternoon trips growing more and more regular this year. It was so easy to get food from the house elves. They practically stuffed them in your pockets. It was impossible to turn them down, not that he planned to anyway.

 

[Indiana Night]

Indiana knew from her first time trying to get Preston on the broom stick that it wasn't something he rather enjoyed, though he had done well. She also knew anything that you feared would take great courage to get over and conquer. The young teen supposed being a Gryffindor and having that inner bravery was something that truly helped her conquer fears she might have. But her friend was just a Slytherin, whose house was far below ground and not soaring above the school grounds like her own. He didn't have to enjoy flying or even fly to be her friend. Indiana enjoyed being friends with Preston despite that, plus she knew his secret of his blood and how against the Slytherin house it was. "Sure, that sounds nice," she replied to her friend getting up from her position. She was hungry a bit anyways and it was an excuse to spend more time with Preston before he disappeared back into the dungeons again.

 

[Preston Paine]

Preston smiled as Indiana agreed to join him. "C'mon then." Reaching for her hand, he began to walk, all the while speaking about the elves that he'd met during his previous trips to the kitchen. He was particularly fond of one who was called Badge. The tall, thin elf always brought him the best treats and had a funny voice. He couldn't wait to introduce Indiana to the elf. It was not something he could share with his other friends, but he knew that she would understand.