*/ STARRY EYED

“not to burst your bubble or anything, but i don’t think the inanimate object would care if i hadn’t apologized.  besides, something tells me flitwick hardly cares about my manners toward suits of armor — as long as i had the proper wrist motion, right?”

“MAYBE,” pandora conceded, “but this is hogwarts, and you can never be too sure about things like that here.” laughter bubbled from the girl’s lips in response to his comment. “well, did you? maybe that was why he was laughing.”

 ❛   you’re thinking really hard about this idea, pandora. i love it.   ❜   shaking his head lightly at her tone, sturgis gave the girl a widening smile and clearly struggling not to laugh    ❛   so… . did you ‘succeed’ at having fun ?    ❜

“OF COURSE i’m thinking hard about it. i’m a ravenclaw, overthinking is kinda our thing.” pandora responded, an amused smile breaking out upon her lips. “i think on the whole i succeeded. not a roaring success, but certainly not a failure either.”

“RIGHT? it’s exactly what hogwarts needs. besides, the castle deserves a bit of a makeover, anyway — it’s been pretty much the same ever since i arrived here. we should try and hang some modern art, or something, and then the floating furniture … it’d be rad.”

“I’VE come around to the whole medieval castle look, but i will admit it nearly scared me to death in first year.” with two muggle parents, pandora had known almost nothing about the place that would come to be her home for the majority of the next few years. to discover it was some ancient castle had been rather intimidating. “i was pretty certain i was being taken to be a vampire’s next meal or something. some muggle art would really liven the place up though in my opinion. might make the other muggleborns feel a bit safer too.”

“it’s dumbledore. i bet he’d love it. support it, even.” mundungus tried to imagine a castle with floating tables only, and he chuckled slightly. “we’d have to get floating chairs too, i bet — just get rid of any kind of furniture legs. make this castle a SAFER place for everyone’s toes!”

“YOU know what, he probably would.” she agreed with an emphatic nod. “it would fit in quite nicely with the castle’s aesthetic as well. with the floating candles and invisible roof and what not. floating chairs are exactly what this school needs to complete the look.”

“i mean, it’s the corner, innit, that makes it hurt so bad? if you just hurt a … round thing, it’s bound to at least a little less.” he thought a little, then. “or maybe we should just get rid of table legs completely. make our tables float. we’re bloody magical after all.”

“NOW you’re thinking.” pandora giggled, although her mind was already spinning with the logistics of it, even if it was outlandish. “i wonder if dumbledore would mind a few tables going missing in the name of innovation. you could really be on to something here, don’t you think?”

  the hufflepuff noticed the tinge that seemed to creep up on the girl’s cheeks in response to her question. to her, it seemed that she was a bit embarrassed over the lack of things that had occurred with her the night before. greta honestly disagreed. she wished that she could say the same. maybe, if she had sat on the sidelines, then she wouldn’t be in the situation that she was in now. “ wish that i could say the same to tell you the truth, “ she said. 

PANDORA bit on her lip, considering greta’s sentiment. “we should get a timeturner and try and switch places or something.” she suggested, although she didn’t think it would be much use. she was pretty certain that wasn’t how timeturners worked, besides pandora wasn’t sure she really wanted to trade experiences anyway. she’d had fun last night, in her own way. “what happened to you anyway?” she asked bluntly, her curiosity pushing out any sense of social grace pandora possessed.

                       ❛     i  wasn’t  thinkin’  stakes,  but  i  guess  that  could  make  things  more  fun.       ❜      he  leaned  back  in  his  seat,  the  front  legs  lifting  from  the  ground  as  he  began  to  balance  on  the  back  two.   ❛     we  could  go  for  some  of  the  classics:  hangman,  i  spy,  blah,  blah,  blah.  i’m  sure  they’ve  got  checkers  somewhere  in  this  damn  place.  no  chess  though.  can’t  play  it.  eh,  don’t  know  how.        ❜    

“I SPY always gets boring way too quick. hangman is better.” pandora answered with certainty. countless lonely days with no one but herself for company had taught pandora how quickly games like those got boring and left her very picky about how she chose to pass her time. “i could teach you to play chess,” she offered brightly, her chess skills were something she was rather proud. another result of one of many days of boredom.

  ❛  damn straight. if you’re not having a good time, what’s the point ?    ❜   he sat up a little straighter, leaning forward with his usual, over the top, never to be taken seriously, wide breadth of a smile.     ❛   i’ve a talent for caring, really. it’s a burden. although, i can’t really say there’s anything sadder than the death of enthusiasm.   ❜ 

“I’VE got to admit, that’s a little bleak. there has to be a point to things, even when they aren’t fun.” she began to muse, train of thought already spiralling off. before her mind could wander too far however, it was snapped back to reality at the sound of him speaking again. “that’s definitely worth considering. as long as people are attempting to have fun, that’s all that matters, don’t you think? even if they aren’t actually succeeding.”

                    ❛      i  assure  you,  dora,  there  are  worst  people  to  be  stuck  in  a  room  with.      ❜     he  offered  her  a  confident  smile,  as  if  he  prided  himself  on  the  nature  of  his  own  company.     ❛    now  what  should  we  talk  about,  huh     ?     got  a  lotta  options.  or  .  .  .  we  could  play  a  game     ?      ❜  

“DON’T i know it.” she answered, shuddering at the thought of being stuck in here with some other, far less pleasant person. she would brave peeves’s wrath before getting trapped in here with some people. “well that all depends on the game. and the stakes”

                             ❛    uh.  i  dunno,  how  do  you  feel  about  vomit    ?     ❜      the  scene  itself  was  like  something  out  of  a  movie.  art  had  to  practically  sprint to  get  away  from  the  stench.  even  then,  as  he stood  in  a  completely  different  room  with  the  door  closed,  he  could  still smell  it.    ❛    it’s  practically  raining  out  there     !     ❜      

“NOT very good.” she answered, eyes widening in shock as she listened to him talk. “okay, i’ve changed my mind. there’s no chance i can deal with that.” a shiver of disgust emphasised pandora’s words. “guess we’re stuck in here until peeves finds another hallway to terrorise then.”

   “ uhm.. don’t know if i would call it a good night. “ greta responded. waking up in bed with her best friend’s brother was definitely not something that she would have filed as being a good night. “ but uh.. yeah, i did probably have a little too much to drink, “ she responded. the hufflepuff was quick to turn her attention to the other girl to ask about HER night, desperate to get the attention from her mistakes. “ what about you though? how was your night? “

`OH.” pandora mumbled, a tinge of red creeping across her cheeks. in answer to greta’s question, she simply shrugged. “oh, you know...” pandora had spent the night like she spent most nights, creeping at the edges of circles, praying she didn’t accidentally draw too much attention to herself. “nothing particularly exciting for me.”