Writer's Block

[Beth Titus]

The park's regulars had all turned up for yet another day of freedom, playing in the park, laughing and being children. Beth was leant against a tree, a pad of parchment leant against her knees and a quill in her hand. She was staring at the page, and it was staring blankly back. She could think of nothing to write. School was getting on top of her and she was worrying that she was about to fail every last one of her N.E.W.Ts. It was a scary thought and she was bracing herself for the very worst. But you didn't need N.E.W.Ts to be a Quidditch player, did you? And that was what Beth had been thinking about becoming. Her love for Quidditch was undying and it was the one thing she really looked forward to.

Well, that and writing.

It was Beth's last year of running the Hogwarts Monthly, and she would be a little sad to say goodbye, but she knew it would be passed into Justin's capable hands. Still, this was not the gravest of her concerns. What was really getting to her was the fact that all her friends were in relationships, a lot of them long-term. When was she going to meet her Prince Charming? When would she be rescued from her metaphorical tower? Sighing to herself, the usually upbeat girl chucked her pad of parchment and quill aside, brushing a hand through her hair before staring up into the tree. Her mind drifted and she lost track of time. She couldn't have noticed anything else going on in the world unless it addressed her directly.

 

[Dan Adams]

It was unlikely that you'd find Dan Adams out and about during mid-day. He usually waited for the evening to arrive before he dared to go out. There were too many people around during the day, and as much as he wanted to make new friends, a crowded park in Brightstone probably wasn't the most sensible place for Dan to be as the sun shone down on the hyper children running about. Dan just hoped for the best as he took a deep breath in and glanced around for someone who looked fairly sane and sensible.

Spotting a girl sat underneath a tree with a note-pad and quill, Dan thought she looked calm enough. Dan couldn't deal with hyper kids at the moment, so maybe this girl would do him some good. And Dan had to admit, she looked pretty. Dan approached the girl, then sat down next to her. "Sorry to disturb you..." He said as he watched her look up into the tree. "It's just that little kids aren't really my thing..." Dan said, trying his best to be nice, and hoping for dear-life that this girl was as kind and calm as she looked. The last thing Dan needed was someone to make him hyper, that would only lead to trouble.

 

[Beth Titus]

Beth looked casually down from the tree and to the boy- or man, who now joined her. It was as though she had been expecting him, the way in which she looked at him so welcomingly, understanding the feeling. She hadn't expected him, of course, but she found him interesting, already. "You're hardly disturbing me," Beth said with a small smile, gesturing to the note pad laying on the ground. In truth, she was pleased of the company. What with the Hogwarts Monthly and her N.E.W.Ts coming up, Beth had little time to do any more than nod at the people she still classed as 'friends'. That day was a strange one, a unique one, one in which she had time.

"They're very fast and noisy," she admitted, glancing over at a couple of boisterous children who could be no older than seven. "I used to want a younger sibling to look up to me.. Of course, that never happened," Beth seemed very relaxed and open as she spoke. Well, what was there to really hide about her life? "It's just been me and my big bossy brother." She rolled her eyes and shifted in position, turning her attention much more the guy who had joined her, and less on the mild buzz of the atmosphere and the noise of wizarding children playing. "How about you? Have any siblings?"

 

[Dan Adams]

Dan smiled as the girl spoke. It was a lovely smile that never got shown very often, and probably needed to be shown more, but that was just Dan for you. She seemed friendly enough, Dan made himself a little more comfortable as he listened to the girl speak. He seemed to be becoming a very good listener nowadays. Unlike the past. "Yeah...a bit too fast and noisy..." He agreed. Although Dan did occasionally wonder what it would be like to get along with a sibling, and not be beaten up by one, or shouted at by one whenever they met. "Big bossy brother ey? Sounds better than what I've got..." Dan trailed off, before beginning again to answer her next question. Dan debated whether he still called Troy his brother. He had never been all that brotherly towards him. "Yeah...I've got a brother...although I'd hardly calling him a brother...I hate him...he's the worst thing that has ever happened to me...apart from my Dad." Dan stopped in his tracks, he couldn't go any further. He didn't want to scare the poor girl away, and he couldn't have any more people knowign about his past. Enough people knew already. He wanted to escape from his past not re-live it in his future. "Sorry...rant over..." He finished, feeling slightly awkward. "By the way you should probably know that I'm Dan." He told the girl with a friendly smile on his face.

 

[Beth Titus]

It was in her nature to apologise, even for things she hadn't done. She felt guilty for asking Dan about his siblings. And now she had learnt there was something bad about his dad, too. "I'm sorry to hear that." Beth said quietly, thinking it was best to move away from the topic. She was a very empathetic girl, though she felt that in this case, it was best to get to know Dan before attempting to delve deeper into matters. If first impressions were anything to go by, Dan was a genuine and lovely person, and Beth wondered if his family had been of any influence in that department. The more she studied his face, the more handsome he seemed, the more she wanted to smile.

"Did you go to Hogwarts?" Beth asked, feeling as though she had seen him before. It was a pretty safe conversation starter. Well, she hoped it was. She really was keen to get to know Dan better than she did already. She thought him incredibly interesting. As a Ravenclaw, Beth wasn't going to give up on meeting and learning about new and different people and their lives, their woes and their joys. Besides, perhaps she hoped she would someday make a friend of him.

 

[Dan Adams]

Dan was glad when she dropped the subject, he didn't like revealing too much about his past to anyone, let along someone he had only just met. "Ah don't worry about it..." He said, brushing it off as nothing, when infact it really wasn't, but she didn't need to know that. He had noticed that she seemed to be looking at his face a lot. If Dan was honest, it was something that made him feel uncomfortable, being stared at. But Dan decided that he would put up with it for the time-being, he needed new friends, so the last thing he needed was to push a potentially great future friend away.

Dan smiled at the girls next question, already she was interested in where he was from and stuff. Infact, she had talked so much, that Dan didn't even the know the girls name yet. "Urm...yeah I did...I just left last year...I guess you went there..." Dan paused for a second. "Or do you still go there?" Dan hadn't recognized the girl as someone in his year, so she was either older or younger than him by a year or two, but Dan wasn't sure, she seemed quite mature. "By the way...I never caught ya name....." He trailed off, waiting for her response.

 

[Beth Titus]

Beth almost slapped herself in response. How could she forget something so important as giving her name? "I'm terribly sorry," she blushed, "my name is Beth.. I'm a Ravenclaw seventh year." It had been so long since she had last spoken to someone of the opposite gender, and she had forgotten this fact, that she was struggling to find a way to easily flow into conversation. Especially as she knew so little of Dan. He had been at Hogwarts the year before, and yet, they had never spoken, or at least, not to Beth's memory.

Conversation lapsed into silence. Beth's eyes followed the passing children, giggling and playing, saying things that made sense in the most innocent and death-free of worlds. Her mind was drifting to cottages, streams, hidden places that one could be free to live without running the risk of muggle interference. As the colour of the real world leaked back into her eyes, she smiled gently, glancing briefly towards Dan, before, once again, watching the children. "Do you like to write?"

 

[Dan Adams]

"Well I suppose it's good to meet you Beth." He told her with a wide smile on his face. She was lovely. The conversation fell into an awkward silence as the pair of them watched the children play in the park. They all seemed so innocent, so happy, Dan just wished his childhood could've been like that.

As the silence was broken by Beth, Dan felt a strike of relief go through him. That saved anymore awkward feelings. "Urm...I've never really tried to be honest...so I don't really know...do you?" He asked, wondering if she wrote anything at Hogwarts.

Out of Character:

Sorry this is a little rubbish.