Heads or Tails? [Katie]

[CJ KENNEDY]

It had been cold outside all day so upon returning to the common room, CJ quickly made his way to a chair by the fire. It had been a long day of classes and more recently fun outside with friends. It was later then he thought, the Gryffindor common room seemed all but empty. He sighed at the younger years and their early bed times.

On the table next to his chair was the latest edition of the Daily Prophet. Naturally, CJ flipped to the sports but no interesting articles were present. He firmly crunched the paper into a ball and tossed it into the fire. For just a second, the paper seemed unharmed. But then it slowly began crumbling and turning black. A few seconds later, it was nothing but dust.

CJ's mind wandered to his uncle back at home, or at least what he thought was a home. America wasn't his home, but his uncle's house wasn't exactly home for him either. He stared into the rumbling fire long enough for his eyes to go out of focus and that's when he realized Hogwarts was his only home.

Two things were always with CJ. His wand and a sickle. Never being able to stay still, he sometimes would pull the sickle from his pocket and play with it. He spun it on the table and watched it slowly go from a quick spin to flat and motionless on the table. He picked it up and flicked it in the air, deciding if he should choose heads or tails. But then the door opened and CJ's eyes darted towards the door as the sickle hit the floor.

[KATHERINE BELL]

Cold wasn't the word. It wasn't harsh enough; it wasn't serious enough. Katie would describe being outdoors that day like she would being in the midst of an ice storm, or the way it would feel to drown in the Arctic Ocean. Around the Scottish castle she called home for eight months of the year, Katie would go so far as to call it frigid. Even though it was only September, she was already completely ready to hibernate, to hide. That wasn't an option, though. No, at the moment she had much to do. It was all rather simple; despite the cold weather, Katie had to fly. She had to fly to practice, but even more she had to fly to keep herself sane.

At the moment, her world was becoming slightly topsy-turvy. Nothing was quite right. Since Oliver had graduated, Katie had felt like the guiding light of her schooling career was gone. Not that her whole life was based around him, but most of it was, for sure. She always looked to him for encouragement as well as for something to do when there was nothing to do. Oliver was, for all intents and purposes, her mentor, through most of her schooling. At the same time, he was also the boy she'd been pining over since she knew what pining was.

Needless to say, she was lost. On the one hand, she should have been happy; she was free of that constant need to impress him. On the other, she felt like she didn't know what to do, on or off the pitch, without his honey brown eyes and his warm, comfortable smile keeping her in line.

Her sanity on the precarious ledge, about to disappear, was the reason that she had gone out in the frigid September evening, and now, freezing to her bones, she was headed back to the common room. After a moment of trying to remember the password (Panther? No, that wasn't it... Pandora!) she slid past the Fat Lady and into the common room, pausing for a moment as she realized she was being watched. "Sorry," She said quickly, amazed that her teeth had stopped chattering, "Did I interrupt something?"

[CJ KENNEDY]

"No, no," CJ answered as another Gryffindor entered the common room. She looked familiar but CJ and her had yet to officially meet. He quickly rose from his chair and outstretched his hand. "I'm CJ," he said,"You can sit here," he added, "Closer to the fire."

He moved to the chair next to the one he offered the girl. She seemed freezing, the weather was near extreme conditions adn the wind was so loud you could hear it from the window. Slowly sitting down, CJ asked,"Crazy out there, huh?" It seemed a little peculiar, being this cold in September but he guessed it was just one of those intense days.

"Are you a 6th year or 7th year?" CJ asked. He wasn't exactly sure, but he knew she looked older than him. The light from the fire illuminated her face and then CJ realized he knew her from the quidditch team. Impressive, considering quidditch teams, Gryffindor espically, were extremely hard to make. The wind whistled and hit against the window and thankfully CJ wasn't alone on such an eerie night.