Why hello there!

[Jake Simpson]

Waking up to another wonderful day at Hogwarts, Jake smiled. He had become more comfident lately and he knew exactly why, he had made a few friends at Howarts. They were, nice and funny. His new found confidence was surreal to him, up untill recently he had tried to avoid as many social situations as possible but now he actually wanted to talk to some people. He did still avoid talking to some people, mostly Slytherins due to their rude, mocking personalities. But he talked to most other people. He was still a little anxious about meeting new people but he can easily ignore his feelings of anxiety and actually get to know people better. He got up and decided to go to the library, he wanted to find a quiet place to draw that was different from his dorm room. He felt like he needed a change of scenery. He picked up his tattered notebook and smiled to himself as walked to the library.

The library was unusually empty, Jake felt a little uneasy being the only one actually in the library. Shrugging, walked into the library and sat down at a table in the corner of the room. He still felt most comfortable being in a place away from where it was easy for people to see him. Maybe he still felt a little insecure. He opened his notebook and started to draw a comic, his notebook was filled with comics and drawing another one wouldn't hurt. Jake was happy to finally feel somewhat secure. He smiled to himself as he continued to draw.

 

[Sara Moon]

Sara needed a break, they'd been back in school just a few days, but the teachers were being harder this year. she sighed, as she trudged toward the library-she needed someone to cheer her up, but none of her friends were aound, so she did the next best thing, went to the library to relax with a book. She waved to the librarian, who was used to her by now. She came her a lot. she walked along the aisles, trying to pick out a book. there were so many here, and she had read quite a few. Did she want something educational?-No, no she didn't. She picked out a book titles "The life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore." she knew it was slander, half of it, but the other half was informative. She smiled to herself as she looked at the man on the cover. She'd have loved to have lived back then, when there was adventure and fun to be had, even though they were dangerous times. Imagine being there to see Harry Potter fly away from the Hungarian Horntail, or maybe even see him defeat Voldemort himself!
she sighed to herself, knowing that would never happen. It was nice to imagine though.

She turned into the next aisle, holding the book, there was someone already there, a boy, with long dark hair. she noted how it shined as the sunlight hit it, he was familiar for some reason. She approached him cautiously and quietly, sitting down opposite and looking up into his face. "Jake!" she exclaimed, sitting back up straight. She smiled, she hadn't seen Jake in a while, since before the holidays. She grinned at him and placed down her book. "It's great to see you!" she enthused, forgetting her bad mood straight away.

 

[Jake Simpson]

Jacob Simpson had been drawing, however his mind was elsewhere. A proper distraction would be to draw, and draw some more but Jake had other things on his mind, which ended up being more distracting than the simple act of putting pencil to paper. It was a pity that the fourth year could not begin to decipher what it was that had his mind in such a twist. Jake often found himself spacing out, and then snapping back to reality, only to forget what he was thinking about. So instead of drawing, Jake was sitting and staring into nothingness, his concentration only broken when the sound of a familiar voce rung in his ears. The Slytherin looked up to see Sara, a girl he barely knew, but still felt comfortable being in the presence of. Jake closed his sketchbook and moved it to the side; it had been so long since he had actually drawn something, that it was foreign to the fourth year now. Obviously Jake had matured past his tattered sketchbook, and frankly, he couldn't have cared less about that fact.

The Slytherin smiles pleasantly, taking a few moments to figure out his words, just to take away any possibility of saying something inappropriate or rude, which would be awkward for Sara and himself. Jake honestly had nothing too interesting to say to Sara, as he had never once thought he was an interesting person. But no matter how boring Jake thought he was, he needed to break the silence that had now dawned on them. "It's been a while, how were your holidays?" Asked the wizard, keeping the conversation on the more conventional side of things, as opposed to saying something completely outlandish and confusing.

 

[Sara Moon]

Sara smiled as Jake paused, watching his eyes. The last time they'd met, she'd been blushing all over the place, she almost felt like blushing all over again, just thinking about it. She had promised herself she wouldn't do it this time, that she would keep herself calm and make a good second impression, even if she hadn't made a good first. She blinked at him under her long eyelashes as he replied. She beamed up at him, even sitting she was shorter. "Yeah, it was great! I went to New York with my Dad!" she answered, glad they were managing to have a normal conversation. "How about you?" she asked in turn, curious. She didn't know that much about Jake.

"What were you drawing?" she asked, looking down at his sketchbook. She knew better than to pick it up and look at it, some people liked to keep these things to themself. She couldn't draw very well, but she could appreciate talent. Jake looked very nice, with his dark hair messy and all over the place. The sun was shining, and it lit up the library, making it light and airy. She liked it in here, she came here quite often, and she found it relaxing and comforting. It was much more familiar ground than the first time she met him, this would go much smoother. She could feel it.

 

[Jake Simpson]

If the Slytherin had any sort of way to decipher what was so different about Sara, what made him have the ability to talk to her without feeling nervous, he would have taken the chance to figure it out straight away. Jake did not know it himself, but he was slowly getting over his anxious tendencies, if he had not spent his school holidays cooped up inside reading comics, Jake would have probably been able to recognise this change in personality. "I didn't do much, I just stayed with my grandparents in London and read comic books the whole time." Replied the fourth year, it was a shame he didn't meet up with Sara in the holidays, not once. He would have liked to, however she had better things to do, New York was surely something to keep a teenager busy. Jake knew that if he ever had the chance to go to New York, he would go to watch a whole lot of Broadway musicals, it was a pity Jake never thought he would get the opportunity to experience that.

Apart from Jakes pessimistic thoughts, he enjoyed talking to Sara again it meant she hadn't forgotten him like most of the other people he talk to had done recently, it seemed as though he wasn't wanted in their lives, no matter how much he wanted to be in theirs. "New York, that sounds fun. What did you do while you were over there?" Queried the fourteen year old, silently hoping Sara did attend a Broadway show or two, it meant she could tell him what it was like, and maybe give him enough motivation to do something other than read comic books in the next school holidays.

 

[Sara Moon]

Out of Character:

Sorry For uber-late reply. I'm running behind lately. Lots of tests this week

Sara smiled at Jake, she liked hanging out with him, they'd never have met if it hadn't been for Kate, for which she was thankful. Kate wasn't looking well recently, and she wanted to know what was going on, but she felt it wasn't her place to ask anymore. "Cool!" she replied enthusiastically, she didn't see anything wrong with that, she'd always loved spending time with her Grandparents, especially her Grandad, when he was alive. "London's such a beautiful city, we live just outiside it, I wish we'd known you were so close!"" she sighed, she loved London, but New York had tugged upon her heartstrings, it was one of the creative centres of the world. She'd draged her Father to the theatres with her, though he hadn't been reluctant, he loved drama too.

She pondered for a moment, trying to think of which parts Jake would like to hear about. "Well, we visited the met, and we saw some broadway shows, and we visited the Statue of Liberty, it was really cool. Everything there is so big, there;s such hustle and bustle, it's kind of..... I don't know, it just made me feel like I wanted to do something." she enthused, she'd loved New York, and already she knew that either there, or London would be her evetual home, she didn't want to think about inheriting the manor, she was the eldest, but that would be years nd years and years away, an d who was to say the manor would be left to any of them. She didn't want to think about her parents not being there. She banished all negative thoughts from her head, and looked up at Jake. Her head tilted to one side. "There's some increase in homework this year, though I suppose with our O.W.L's next year they want to keep us up to speed." she commented, smiling she was enjoying the work this year, they were starting on more dangerous things. "It was really cool, in Defense Against the Dark Arts, I had the imperius curse put on me, it felt very strange." she added, she hadn't managed to fully beat the cure, but she wanted to practice, though she doubted it would be allowed-maybe in her seventh year.

 

[Jake Simpson]

Jake started to zone out while Sara talked about her holidays, his sleeping problems had started to slowly fade away at the end of his third year, and had seemed to have disappeared during the winter break, but they came back in full force when he returned to Hogwarts for his fourth year, and during the time spent in his fourth year, sleep was hard to come by. His nightmares had faded into nothing; the reason for Jake's lack of sleep now had purely been because the Slytherin could simply not turn his brain off. When Jake's mind finally seemed like it was ready to rest, a new thought, task or the reminder of something uncompleted popped up, leaving Jake to worry about it, this cycle continued until the sun would rise, and the fourteen year old would have to go through the day with a minimal amount of sleep. The previous night, Jake had only had twenty minutes of rest before it was up and atom for the day ahead.

Jake flashed back into reality when Sara mentioned the Imperious curse, as far as he knew, the professors weren't allowed to use any of the three unforgiveable curses on any of the students, let alone teach a student to cast one of them on another. The Slytherin thought it was funny in some sadistic way, that there was even a possibility a student could be put under one of the three curses so easily. "I thought they were unforgivable. So why did they cast one of them on you?" Jake stated, a curious smile gracing his features while his green eyes shined with what seemed pure intellect. The fourth year had been paying some amount of attention to Sara when her holidays were mentioned, and just hearing about the Broadway shows had put a smile on the Slytherin's face, however Jake had other things to focus on, like paying attention to the conversation, instead of zoning out again, which seemed impossible, especially with the sun peeping in through the window. "I want to go to New York someday." Was Jake's next sentence, maybe he would go to New York after he graduated, when he knew how to apparate. That was surely a possibility, where he would stay after he got there was something else to think about. The last thing Jake needed was to think, and tire his mind out in the process, the Slytherin would prefer to just listen to Sara talk.

 

[Sara Moon]

Sara smiled at Jake, she could tell that he wasn't really paying attention, but she didn't think he was being rude, she often did it herself, zoned out, for whatever reason, it didn't mean she didn't care about what was going on, it just meant that something else was going on too, an dmaybe that was foremost in your mind. She had loved New Yor, and she liked talking about it, it was kind of nice that Jake was just letting her ramble on for a while, but she knew it must be boring him, so she stopped and let a comfortable silence prevail for a few moments, then he asked her about the curse.

"Well, they perform the imperius curse on the students, though-obviously they don't perform the other two. It's just for demonstration." she grinned. "He didn't make do anything bad, just dance around the room, and do push-ups." she added, then laughed. "I must've looked a right idiot, twirling around the place." she reflected. She smiled up at him. "You look tired." she observed, a frown creased her forehead as she looked at him, he looked really, really tired.

"Me too, it's just a great place, I might go after I graduate, maybe live there for a year or so." Sara agreed. She'd thought about it before, and new that the place suited her, and getting away from everything for while might be what she needed, she was stressed enough now, imagine how it'd be when she'd finished school and needed to decide what to do with her lfie-though, she'd already decided, she was just fraid to admit it.

 

[Jake Simpson]

Tired, Jake looked tired, a simple description with a complicated truth. Jake was tired, and he had not bothered to hide it at all, his lack of energy forced him to do so. But maybe he should have made an extra effort to hide it, as answering questions was one of the last things the fourteen year old wanted to partake in. But Sara was different; the comfort Jake seemed to have around the young Ravenclaw gave him the impression he could tell her why he wasn't sleeping, however there was one important flaw with the opportunity, he did not know why he had not been sleeping in the first place. A simple way of putting it would be saying his thoughts kept his eyes open when they begged for sleep, but there was always a deeper reason for insomnia. The Slytherin did not think for a second that anybody would want to try and figure it out, as he did not want to either, Jake would rather distract himself with talking to people, Sara Moon to be exact.

Jake smiled, he was tired, but awake enough to hold up his half of the conversation, and he had the ability to end the day being invisible, which was exactly how Jake wanted it to be. "I want to travel when I graduate, and New York is one of the places I want to go. Is New York as amazing as it looks?" Asked the fourth year, life in a big city had its advantages, every single person was out for themselves, and did not give a thought about those around them. This was a realistic form of heaven for a person who preferred invisibility over being in the spotlight. Sara was pretty, and every single time the two talked, he always wondered why Sara was spending her time with him, instead of with somebody more interesting.

 

[Sara Moon]

Sara smiled at Jake, he sometimes seemed so much older than her, as though he knew things she didn't, understood the world in some way that made sense. He was a mystery, she just couldn't figure him out. She didn't think about other things really when she was with him, he was so intresting, and enigma. He didn't give much away, and she felt she babbled too much, as though he must think her childlike, stupid even. She didn't like feeling that way, but something about Jake made her nervous. Even as she was thinking this, she was fiddling with her hair, and trying not to look as though she knew he wasn't paying atttention. She didn't want him to think she liked him, even though by now she knew she did. They was just something about him, that wanted her to try and find out what it was that was going on in his head, in moments like this, when he seemed dead to the world.

"Same, I think I might live there, the city suits me." she replied, then answering his question, she continued. "Yeah, it's amazing, big and bright, it just makes everything seem so fast." she replied. She as happily surprised that he wanted to go to New York when he graduated. She wasn't sure if she'd end up living there. She wanted to be an auror and she might be busy with training, though she'd get to visit eventually. She looked up at Jake, who seemed to have gone into himself again. She really must be boring him. "Earth to Jake?" she grinned, looking up into his face, which was clouded in thought.

 

[Jake Simpson]

Jake was genuinely nervous around Sara, much like he usually was around people, although this form of nerves was different, and not totally unpleasant, Jake kept his attention away from the Ravenclaw across from him, in the hope it would cloud all suspicion he did have a little crush on Sara, if it could be considered a crush at all. Jake had experienced a crush before, and what he felt around Sara was pretty much the same, however there was something different about it this time around. Maybe because Jake was older, was why it was different, still, the fourteen year could not make complete sense of what was going on with the butterflies in his stomach. Jake wanted to get to know Sara a little better before he admitted anything, as he wanted to assess whether she felt the same or not, but with Jake's luck, that was not a possibility. It was a more likely situation for Sara to see Jake as a friend and a friend only, and be infatuated with some other, more interesting guy. The fourth year did not want to suffer any embarrassment that would cause.

Jake's pessimistic thoughts were interrupted by Sara's softly spoken words, and Jake snapped back into reality, he needed to work on his attention span more, that or his sleeping patterns at least. "Oh, right. We were talking, weren't we." Said the Slytherin, a slightly embarrassed grin gracing his pale features while his words filled the space between the two. Jake could not think of anything to say, or ask the pretty Ravenclaw who had bothered to spend her time with a guy like him, so all Jake did was play with the matted cover of his sketchbook, and focus his attention on that while his thoughts searched for something interesting or funny to say, unfortunately Jake had never been an interesting or funny person. A few silent minutes passed before something to say finally popped into Jake's head. "We should meet up in London sometime in the holidays; I assume you live with Kate." Were Jake's next words, he would have loved to have the opportunity to see Sara more, because he was a more sociable person when he was away from the school premises. Jake wanted Sara to see the more social side of him before it was too late.

 

[Sara Moon]

Sara liked being around Jake, it was restful, he didn't expect her to always be upbeat and happy, like most other people did. She always felt like she was trying to be something she wasn't, except when she was around her closest friends, she sort of counted Jake as one of them, though he'd come into her life in a very different way to Stefan, Willow, and Tara. He didn't seem to mind that Sara didn't always look great, and wasn't always in a good mood. He made her feel good, in his own quiet way, and she hoped that maybe she cheered him up a bit too, but she didn't think so. He probably thought she was a bit mad, but being mad wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"Yeah." she smiled, a laugh bubbling from her lips. She saw that he was slightly embarrassed. "Don't worry about it, I do that too, completely zone out-it can cause problems." she laughed, it did happen, but she usually managed to figure out where the conversation had went before the other person realised that she hadn't been listening. She smiled as silence reigned, she didn't feel awkward at all, which was unusual, she often felt as though it was for her to fill the silence. She beamed at Jake's suggestion. "That's be great-we'll organise it!" she enthused, excited about the idea.