midnight wanderings

It was just one of those nights when Elizabeth wished for nothing more than to be taken over by sleep but instead her being seemed to be resistant of doing such. Her body was weary, as it usually was after a long day, it was her mind that just wouldn't shut up. It wasn't as though she was thinking about anything specific; she just kept thinking about things that would naturally keep someone up at night if they thought about it. Such as the million dollar question: what happens when you die? Of course she knew that you could come back as a ghost but she hoped she wouldn't be cowardly enough in the face of death to retreat. There was just something about being a ghost that she found dishonorable. But if not a ghost, what happened to you? Was there really such thing as an after life? Would there be the chance to live again? It was all rather confusing to think about but it was one of those things that once you started, you just couldn't stop.

The snoring coming from one of her dormmates, she wasn't sure which one, was starting to grate her nerves - so she decided to go down to the Common Room. There probably wouldn't be anyone up, and if someone was, they would probably be doing schoolwork or something and that would keep them from really even noticing her presence. She didn't really feel like talking to anyone, so solitude would be preferable. Elizabeth stretched her arms high above her head as she made her way down the steps, a loud yawn escaping. Sure, she could yawn but she just couldn't fall asleep. Life was a little confusing sometimes. That's when she heard the voices. There were at least...two people up from the sounds of it. It sounded as though they were having a rather intimate conversation, one she shouldn't just bust in on.

Before she even thought about it, her feet began talking long strides towards the exit that led to the rest of the castle. Once she was out in the eerie, quiet halls she began wondering what she was going to do from this point. She could just turn around and go back, it was just as much her Common Room as it was theirs. But now that she thought about it...she was a little hungry. Her stomach gave a gurgle in response to her thought process. After what seemed like forever, and three potential chances of getting caught by authority figures later, she found herself in front of the infamous portrait that led to the kitchens. After giving the pear a gentle tickle, she stepped through the entrance, being greeted by the delicious scent of what she could only assume was some sort of ham. Being of an insensitive nature, she told the house elves to get her some rather than asked, but that was just how she was. It wasn't long before she was gobbling down on some delicious food that certainly hit the spot.

Scorpius was aware that it was close to midnight with classes tommorow, but the thing was that he really needed to finish his Alchemy Homework. He doubted that Vincent Majere would forgive him for not finishing his homework, and Scorpius would prefer to rather not get into a detention from the new headamaster. Things were usually exaggerated at the Hogwarts Campus, but Scorpius knew that a detention with Majere wouldn't be all too pleasant. Plus, his father and granfather both expected Scorpius to make a good impression of the Malfoy Family to the new headmaster, something Rosalie had rather spoiled by sneaking in alchohol to the Yule Ball. Still, Scorpius was far more obedient than her, which was why he was staying up so late to do the homework.

Soon though, he was starting to get hungry. He had skipped dinner because really, it wasn't too hard to get food from the kitchens if you knew how. And Scorpius knew a majority of the castles secrets. Slytherins weren't ones to follow rules really. Getting up, he left his work half done as he went out of the common room to go to the kitchens. He didn't mind leaving the common rooms one bit, the other two people who were still there were having a rather loud conversation which made it rather hard to concentrate.

He walked down the dungeons quickly, his wand was out and lighting the way ahead. He wasn't at all worried about running into a teacher or the caretaker, being a member of the squad meant he had the same powers as a prefect, one of which included being out late at night. It wasn't long before he arrived at the portrait of a fruit bowl, the entrance to the kitchen. He quickly located the pear and gave it a quick tickle to open the passage to the kitchens. Immediately as he stepped in, he was greeted by several house elves. Scorpius had always held a small fondness for the creatures, they were creatures who were bullied by higher authorities, like Scorpius sometimes was. He wasn't surprised to see them awake really. Did House elves ever really sleep? He didn't think so, but he didn't really know much about them though. He quickly informed them what he wanted and they rushed off to get it for him. Looking around, he jumped, shocked, when he saw a couple house elves gathered around another student. However, he quickly relaxed as he saw who it was.

"Elizabeth?" he said, glad and surprised to see his friend here. He knew her from, well, a very long time ago. Scorpius wasn't exactly sure when they had met. Their parents had been friends for a long time now. "What are you doing here?"

For just a random surge of hunger, she certainly was eating as though she'd been starved for days. The ham was delicious but she couldn't just stop there. Elizabeth had to end up getting potatoes, and then she needed a roll, and so forth until she had a nice, hefty pile of food in front of her with a big chalice of pumpkin juice on her left side. It wasn't long until she had to sit back for a moment, letting her stomach digest everything she'd just eaten. Her blue eyes gazed around at the house elves. There were far too many of them for her to count. Their existence was something that was completely beyond her. They actually were happy to be working for something which reaped them no benefits except for 'a job well done.' If Elizabeth was going to work her arse off like these guys, she'd have to be getting paid well...very well.

The Ravenclaw attempted to hoist herself off of the chair but the effort was futile. She was far too full to be moving around anytime soon. But since she was stuck here, she might as well finish her meal properly; dessert. RIght as a couple house elves crowded around her to tell Elizabeth all of the desserts they had, Elizabeth heard someone call her name. For a moment, her jaw dropped; she was frozen. She really didn't need another detention under her belt. Holding her breath she looked up to see who had called out her name. A sigh of relief quickly followed after she saw Scorpius. She put a hand over her heart and gave him a smile, "You just scared the crap out of me." Running a hand through her hair she responded, "Well, I'm just down here to cure my midnight munchies," she replied with a grin, "I'm guessing you're down here for the same?"

Scorpius was one of those people whom Elizabeth felt as though she'd known him practically all of her life. Of course that was an exaggeration but he'd been present in her life for almost as long as she could remember. She could remember when she was a little girl; he'd been her first crush. She'd been absolutely ga-ga for him but of course never acted on it. She was only like eight years old and was long over those feelings now. That felt like forever ago. It was forever ago. The dinners her family used to have with the Malfoys when she was younger always seemed so stiff to her. If it hadn't been for Scorpius she would have dreaded them. Now she was used to that sort of thing. Mentally shaking away the thoughts of the past, she brought herself to look at Scorpius. "So, what's been up with you lately?"

Scorpius had clearly alarmed her with his sudden appearance. After all, it wasn't common for students to take a trip down to the kitchen at midnight. Few people knew how to enter the kitchens really. It was just a couple Slytherins and several other trouble making students. "Yeah, I missed dinner for some stupid essay I've been trying to do," he informed her, yawning. "So I decided to come down here to get some food before going to sleep."

He watched as the house elves came back bringing with them a tray full of food, and a couple more house elves coming over with a chair for him to sit on. They set it down next to Elizabeth's, and then shoved the tray into his hands. "Thank you," Scorpius told the house elves. Something that got them all quite happy. It was strange how the smallest things could make these creatures so delighted. He always made sure to be quite nice to them, as other people were so cruel. People usually told Scorpius he was kinder to house elves than other people.

He was glad, really that Elizabeth was down here at the kitchens. He hadn't talked to her a lot of late, but then he hadn;t actually talked to many people after the incident at the forest after the Yule Ball. That event still tormented him. And her question just reminded him of the whole thing, how the death eaters had captured his friend and crush, Rose Weasley, and Albus Potter as well as some other students. They had tortured them down there, while Scorpius had been watching. The whole event had definately affected Scorpius, he had been staying away from people since then. "Not bad," he said doggedly, shrugging. "How bout you?"

Elizabeth grew envious as she watched him yawn. What she wouldn't do to be tired. She'd always had a slight insomnia problem...sleeping had never exactly been her forte. She began picking at her nails, an old dirty habit that she'd never been quite able to drop, before asking, "Which essay were you working on?" She had just gotten a couple of hers done that night: Transfiguration and Potions. They had been particularly nasty and about nothing that was remotely interesting to her but at least she had gotten them done. She once again tried to get herself to stand up but the efforts were still worthless.

The Ravenclaw watched with curiosity at the way Scorpius handled himself around house elves. He was polite...sincerely polite. It wasn't something which she had expected, she almost felt rude for not thanking them. Which brought to mind that she'd never gotten herself some dessert and since it looked like she was going to be down here for a while - she might as well jump on that. She beckoned one of the nearby house elves to her, "Can I get some chocolate cake?" Hopefully Scorpius wouldn't think she was a complete arse for the way she treated them but she doubted that he expected anything else.

Elizabeth was unsure whether or not she should try and dig into what 'not bad' meant or just to leave it at that. Since he was sitting right beside her, she nudged his shoulder playfully, "Why just 'not bad'?" Hopefully she was prying too much but she had never had all that much social tact anyways. "I've been doing alright. Just been getting harassed by my parents about what I'm going to do once I leave school. But other than that, everything's been smooth sailing," she replied. The elves had finally come back with her chocolate cake. It was delicious. Delicious actually didn't even begin to describe it. "You should get some of this cake before you leave," she advised with a chuckle.

"Alchemy of course, Transmutation," Scorpius replied to her question. He didn't mind getting detentions from other teachers, it was usually just lines. But he'd rather not experience the headmaster's detentions, rumors had already spread around Hogwarts about them. Scorpius didn't believe most of them, much of the rumors at Hogwarts were exaggerated, but he'd rather not experience it first hand. "Majere really likes giving us loads of homework," he complained. He would just drop Alchemy, if his father wasn't making him do it.

He didn't really notice how she treated the house elves, as he was busy finishing the food they had brought for him. But even if he had, its not like it would be surprising. Really, most wizards and witches treated house elves like filth. It was sad, but you couldn't do anything about it. Sighing as she questioned him about his rather dogged answer, he wondered whether he should just tell her or not. Maybe he wouldn't feel so bad about it when he would tell someone else about his crime. But in the end, he decided not to, for now at least. "Umm Its just nothing is happening nowadays. You know, no quidditch or anything," he said, shrugging.

"Ah yes, they do that," Scorpius said, nodding as his parents said the same to him. They were always going on about how he would get nowhere with the grades he had. He frowned as he noticed Elizabeth hadn't even said thanks to the elves for bringing her the cake. He hadn't really expected it of Elizabeth, but then again, most pureblood families treated house elves like that. "I'm ok, thanks," he said, already quite full. "So are you going to the Valentines day dance?" he asked.

Alchemy was one of the classes which Elizabeth had decided not to take. She couldn't remember her reasoning for doing so in her third year but she'd come to regret it. After hearing about it from other students, mixed with some reading she had done on her own, it seemed rather fascinating. "You know, I really wish I had taken that class," she murmured. However his next statement diminished some of her desire to be in that class. She had enough homework as it was, she didn't need anything else. But she wasn't all too surprised that Majere enjoyed pounding his students with extra work.She gave a short laugh, "I bet he does. That seems like just the kind of thing he would do," she replied. Elizabeth hadn't had much interaction with the headmaster; which was something she was grateful for. He just didn't seem like her bag of chips.

Not being the most intuitive girl, she accepted his reasoning behind just being okay. She nodded her head understandingly. "Yeah, its been pretty bland around here lately, which is unusual," she commented. Normally there was something always going on. Maybe not Quidditch but there was always some kind of larger-than-life drama going around...what with the political world of the Order and Death Eaters. It'd been quiet for too long in her opinion, something was bound to happen soon...something always happened at Hogwarts. Shrugging her shoulders simply she commented, "I'm sure something will happen soon."

"Oh I know! I would just hope they would accept the fact that I have no idea what I want to do now but I'll eventually figure it out," she said crossly. Her parents were particularly pushing her to become a Healer because they made good money and she had good marks in both of those classes. But she honestly didn't have the desire to do any of those things. "What do you tell your parents?" She needed some advice to get her parents off her back. Elizabeth crinkled her nose when he brought up the Valentine's dance. She had never been a huge fan of the holiday. "I haven't really given much thought to it really. I'm sure I'll probably end up stopping by." Turning towards him she asked, "What about you?"

Scorpius nodded as she said that she had wanted to take Alchemy. He took out a coin silently, and then slowly, but calmly, turned it into gold through transmutation, something he had learned from class. He was mainly just showing off, trying to seem impressive. "Alchemy is interesting, and helpful, perhaps you should take it" Scorpius informed her. "But Majere makes the class hell. He gives detentions if you get a question wrong." It would be rather good to have her in Alchemy class really, that way he could copy from her. He remembered he had usually done that in previous years. Elizabeth was far smarter than him really, hence why she was in Ravenclaw.

Glad she had taken his lie and not asked anymore questions, he just nodded in agreement, even though there was a lot going on with him lately. Quidditch matches ahead, the Valentines Dance with Julia, his relationship with Rose... he could go on and on. "Yeah I guess," he agreed, lying again. "Well theres always quidditch to look forward to I guess." Though these days quidditch was annoying him really. What with all the homework, he'd just rather not practice. Sometimes he just wanted to go up to Aminia and say he was leaving the team. He didn't of course, he wanted help his house to win the quidditch cup.

He agreed with her second comment more, though he was a bit confused about how to answer her question. "What do I tell my parents?" he repeated, thinking. He usually just ignored them, but that never worked that well. "Well I usually just get in a bad mood. I tell them it doesn't matter because what I'll be because we'll all still be You-Know-Who's puppets," he told her with a shrug. That was how it was really, the Malfoy family had always been bossed around by Voldemort.

He watched her expression as he asked her about the Valentines dance and raised his eyebrows. Girl's usually liked dances. "I don't really want to go, I don't like dances, but my friend asked me too, so yeah.." he said, with another shrug. He was a bit more than friends with Julia, they had a mutual crush on each other, but they weren't dating or anything yet.

Elizabeth couldn't help but watch as Scorpius changed his coin into gold even though she had an inkling he was just showing off. He always liked to impress people. Although after she was done being mesmerized she chortled, "Stop showing off Scorpius." She turned toward him, "Is it really interesting or do you just want someone's answers to copy?" she asked teasingly. Scorpius was just about the only person whom she ever let copy her answers and/or notes. Elizabeth was that annoying person who generally made sure to cover all of her answers because she chastised laziness in almost everyone. "But I'll look into it. It'd be nice to drop Magical Creatures, I'm wretched at it for obvious reasons." He had probably known her long enough to have gone through six or seven animals, all of them ending horribly. She just wasn't maternal enough or something.

Most of the time, Elizabeth was thankful that she didn't have the ability to read minds. But other times, she really coveted that sort of power. For some reason she got the feeling that Scorpius was hiding something, maybe because she had known him forever, but it was a very weak feeling so she didn't invest anymore time into thinking about it. "How's Quidditch going for the Slytherin team anyway? You think you lot are ready to take on Ravenclaw?" she asked with a smirk. Slytherin would probably end up beating them but Elizabeth liked to feign house spirit. She had never really cared about any of the houses all that much, including her own.

Involuntarily, Elizabeth raised her eyebrows out of surprise. Scorpius had always had a way of handling his parents which she had never been able to obtain. "Well," she said pausing for a moment, "I bet that shuts them up," she replied with a small laugh. She wasn't sure what to say about all of that. Hopefully he knew he didn't have to end up being a puppet? "At least with a response like that you can think about what you'll actually do after school without them continuously breathing down your neck," she added, hoping he would reassure her that he had other plans than just becoming You-Know-Who's play thing. It wasn't that she necessarily disagreed with the views of You-Know-Who but she'd hate to give someone that much power over herself. Plus she didn't agree strongly enough with him.

Elizabeth's interest heightened at the mention of him going to the dance with a friend. She grinned at him, "Oh? A friend? May I ask who?" It wasn't really like Scorpius to attend a dance, at least not in her opinion. "Now I may have to go to see how you act at a dance," she added with a laugh. Although now she felt a little weird about going alone...eh, who cares.

We actually already played Ravenclaw, that was a while ago. November I think
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Scorpius laughed and put the coin away. She had seemed to be impressed though, so did the little house elves who were watching them converse. It made Scorpius rather uncomfortable. Of course it would be nice having Elizabeth in Alchemy class, not just so he could copy, but that they generally had fun in classes when together anyways. Though he doubted you could ever have fun in Majere's class without getting a detention. "I'll never understand why you chose to take Care of Magical Creatures," Scorpius said, with a roll of his eyes. He had dropped it last year for obvious reasons. Few chose to take it for NEWTs because well, it wasn't really required for any major job. Perhaps she had taken it thinking it might be fun, though probably not, he knew how bad she was with animals.

"Well as we practice almost daily, our team is obviously going rather well," Scorpius replied. "We're favorites to win the house cup, so thats good." The Slytherin team was always one of the best ones, mainly because they all had awesome brooms, and they used some cheap tactics as well, but they had skill too. They had won the previous two quidditch cups after all. Unlike Elizabeth, Scorpius did have a lot of house spirit. In fact, the only reason he didn't cause trouble in the castle daily was because he was afraid he might lose a lot of house points.

Clearly his answer had surprised her, it was what he told his parents though, so he had just been telling the truth. "Well yeah, I haven't given it much thought yet to be honest," Scorpius said with a shrug. He was ambitious, and he did like proving himself to others, its just that he didn't think he had to chose what he wanted to be right now. He just needed good marks upon graduation and then you could get a random job in the ministry. Besides, even if he didn't have a great job, all the pureblood families had a large fortune.

Scorpius chuckled at her interest in knowing whom he was going with. "Oh, Julia, Julia Traverse, you know her?" he asked, not sure they had ever met together. "We're just going as friends really," he added, lamely.