Most glorious night! Thou wert not sent for slumber!

The night sky really was amazing, and on boring nights with boring people around, and when Izzie was in a bad mood, she snuck out of the Gryffindor Common Room and made her way up to the strangest place she could think of. The Astronomy Tower, which by itself wasn't so strange, people came up here for class on certain nights to stare at the stars, but this was a weekend, so no one was up here at all.

Izzie was laying on her back, staring up at the heavens, counting the stars, tracing constellations, and overall just being quiet for the first time in a long time. She had been surrounded by possibly the most boring, civil conversation she had ever come across, no one had wanted to listen to her, and she was running out of patience with her homework, so Izzie was up here, staring at the stars that almost never changed for her. She knew every season, knew the important stars, and the ones that would guide her home. Izzie lazily raised her arm up, pointing straight up before moving in a clock-wise direction, pointing out the constellations to herself, and muttering their names under her breath.

Damn. It was getting rusted.

Rika struggled with the knob of the brass telescope, the harsh grooves rubbing mercilessly against her palm. She withdrew her reddened hand, glared at the innocuous object bent on making her life hell, then began again, determined to subdue it to her will. Screech. Screech. Screeeeech.

The knob twisted viciously, and if it had a face, Rika could swear it was scowling smugly back at her. Not one to back down, she scowl-glared and gripped it again.

Then she heard footsteps, and in the blink of an eye, someone entered the Tower. Rika pressed against the wall where the shadows cloaked her, her observant eyes focusing immediately on blond hair and a red-and-gold tie in the faint glimmer of moonlight. The girl lay down on her back, and in an inherently bored voice, languidly began pointing out the various constellations.

Cautiously, she stepped out. She turned around and began tussling with the telescope again. Ignore. The best way to proceed. Of course, until the girl missed one constellation, and the words escaped her tongue without permission. "You forgot Orion."

Izzie closed her eyes in annoyance, tilting her head back when the other girl stepped out of the shadows where she had hidden herself the moment Izzie had come upstairs and had started messing with that damn screechy telescope. She sighed heavily and glanced towards the girl. She couldn't tell much about her, let alone what house she was in, but Izzie was going to wager Ravenclaw, seeing as she was sitting on the Astronomy Tower with a telescope and was pointing out information to Izzie.

"I can't see Orion from where I'm sitting, getting too late in the season and Orion is either out of the sky or down so close to the horizon he's invisible to me.." She said tiredly, before focusing on the sky again. "He's one of my favorite constellations, it sucks he's only out during the winter.. too cold to come out here and see him very often." She sighed and glanced towards the girl again, frowning. "What are you doing up here anyway? It's like.. past the time we're allowed out of our common rooms." She sat up carefully and turned her gaze to the girl, taking in her appearance as well as the telescope that caused most of the loud noises in the world.

Her eyes glanced up at the heavens automatically. The girl was right, Orion was cloaked. He was one of her favourites too. Well frankly, she couldn't quite discriminate: all the stars were beautiful. If there was one thing Rika couldn't hold a grudge for being at Hogwarts, it was stargazing. She didn't quite have conveniently open, fifty-metre tall towers back at home.

Then the girl posed a question, and Rika stiffened.

You shouldn't have begun the conversation in the first place. Brenda sounded sleepy, but reprimanding.

"I know that." She murmured back, then darted a hasty smile at the other girl. There wasn't much of a point, it was too dark to clearly distinguish facial expressions. "I...for the same reason you are. Stargazing." She helpfully pointed towards the telescope to prove the verity of her statement. She wasn't even lying, in a way. Just a half-truth. The other girl didn't need to know that she had problems sleeping indoors, especially in strange new places. Rika had slept a few days on the grounds, on the dew-drenched grass and caught a horrible cold. Not to mention narrowly avoiding getting caught by the patrolling prefects. The Astronomy Tower was open enough that she could pretend she was outdoors, so it was her sleeping quarters for the past two days.

She fidgeted with the telescope knob again, "So....you'll be here for long?" It was horribly obvious, but Rika needed to quickly scout out a new sleeping place if the girl remained here the entire night. She didn't fancy teachers or anyone else coming to know about her nightly habits.

Izzie snorted at the girl's comment about being up here to stargaze. "Who said anything about stargazing? Sure it's pretty, but the only reason I came up here was to get away from my stupid common room. Full of Little-Miss-Perfects, and Manly-Heroes, who all think they will save the world some day? I just say they've got their head up their own bums." She ranted on lazily, almost too annoyed to put any effort into her own rant.

"So you're stargazing..." Izzie sat up slowly and looked at the girl with a mixture of disbelief and curiosity. "Somehow I doubt that's the only reason, I mean.. the stars are pretty and all.. but it's late.. and you're a what... Ravenclaw? Even Ravenclaws don't tend to break rules, to stare at the stars, or maybe you're just different from the rest, and that's interesting.." Izzie leaned forward and grinned slightly, looking at the girl. "My name's Isobel, you can call me Izzie." She grinned and stood up, holding out her hand to shake.

Rika grimaced in sympathy. Oh, she knew all about irritating dorms, and equally irritating dorm-mates. Her tone was unusually dark, "Head up their bums? Annoying, but at least you aren't sharing living space with Henrietta Finch." She glowered at her telescope. "Psychopath, narcissist, with head shoved so far her arse that she might as well be blind."

Brenda snorted. Understatement of the year.

Rika would have quite preferred to carry on her rant on Finch, when the girl, Izzie, intercepted with a very Ravenclaw-like question. Rika stiffened, then forced out a nervous giggle. "Different. Yep, that's me. You know, rules are made to be broken, and all that crap." God, she wasn't sounding convincing even to her own ears. Rika grasped on to the introduction like a lifeline, "Um...Erika. Erika Dixon. Call me whatever you like." Another hassled giggle. Rika resisted the urge to groan. This was going horrible.

Until Izzie stuck out her hand. Rika regarded it as she was oft to regard it: like a viper poised to strike. Her right hand popped up beside her shoulder, her fingers wiggling in a wave. "Um...hi. Don't mind I've got um......allergies on my hand."