Dew covered grass

It was well into the night and Adam was restless. He left the Hufflepuff dungeons and walked out into the grounds; leaning on his cane for extra support as he did so. Adam could smell the dew covered grass and leaves which had gotten wet from the rain earlier. Adam walked towards the Forbidden Forest and stopped near the edge and sat down on a bank of grass. He put his cane down beside him and sighed, wondering what to do. He still didn’t feel tired and he’d walked pretty damn far for him. Adam pulled an imaginary piece of fluff off of his satin sleep trousers and pulled some grass out of the ground. He began to shred it and wondered what exact colour the little locks were. They weren’t just green. Unfortunately though, he’d never know.

Dora wasn't sure why she was out of bed at the hour she was. She just couldn't sleep. She felt tired, but her mind wouldn't settle. She missed her family, her mum and dad, both who doted on their only daughter. She especially missed Lorin. The five year old could be a pest, but Dora adored him to no end. She also missed herself. She missed the person she had been last year and the person she was now trying to bury. She didn't want to be that girl that seemed stuck up to everyone, who cared more for her books than for the people around her. And that was how she had become. That wasn't how she wanted to be. Though she didn't want to lose herself, she wanted to change, too.

So with all that on her mind, while her body yearned for sleep, her brain was not going to sleep anytime soon. Her racing brain led her out onto the grounds--she knew she shouldn't be out and about and that she might get into trouble, but she didn't care, really, at that moment. As she headed toward the woods that lined the school grounds she saw a figure hidden half in shadows. The only distinguishing feature was a long cane. She didn't know many people in her own house and knew even fewer in the other houses, but she did remember seeing a boy with a cane once before. She couldn't, however, remember his name. She briefly entertained the notion that she should just leave him be and go about her way, but that would have been far too much like her previous self. She had to bite the bullet and speak.

"Hello?" She asked as she got closer.

The soft crunch of grass broke Adam’s thought pattern but he didn’t appear to be shaken by it. He’d learned not to react to normal sounds like footsteps across gravel or the sound of chattering school girls. It had taken him a while but he’d learned the walking patterns of people approaching him and those who weren’t – those who were passing. This person, however, was approaching him. Adam listened to the voice and smiled a little. The person’s voice was distinctly feminine and quite feathery. It had that soft sound, delicate and graceful.

Adam looked up to acknowledge the girl and he lit the end of his wand with a simple spell. He raised his hand in greeting and smiled weakly. Adam dropped his hand back into his lap and continued to look in the direction of the girl who was moving closer. “Hello. I’m Adam. You are..?”

Dora moved closer when he lit his wand. She could see his face now and his smile. He was cute, she noted, in more an off hand way than anything else. Her mindset had not yet changed enough that she made much more than a passing observation of other people's looks. The smile made her feel a little better about interrupting what appeared to be him thinking. She stood awkwardly in front of him, not sure whether to remain standing or sit down. When he said his name she vaguely remembered hearing it previously. Kids are natural gossips and when her class had been first years the had whispered madly about "the blind boy" Adam. The whispers faded as the students had gotten used to Hogwarts and all its students and Dora had felt a bit grateful--she had never been one for gossip and often had the feeling that people whispered behind her back too...it was only natural with the quiet ones.

"I'm Euphadora," she said with a small shrug, "Horrible name. I prefer Dora."

She still wasn't sure what her parents had been thinking naming her after her great-great aunt on her father's side.

Adam put his hands down in the grass and let his fingers drift through the green blades. He plucked a few of them out of the ground and began to shred the blades up. He brushed the remaining strips off of his hands and clapped them together. Adam gestured for the girl to sit beside him. It would be nice to have some company, even if he didn’t see who it was. He ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up. He looked at the girl and smiled a little. She did have an interesting name to say the least. “Euphadora.” He said, testing the name. “I like it. It’s unusual and quite pretty. What brings you out here this late?"

Dora sat down beside him at what would be a polite distance between two people who didn't know each other. She pulled her knees up near her chest and wrapped one arm around them, while picking at grass blades near her feet. "Thanks," she said, "No one's ever said it was pretty before." She thought about his question, not sure how exactly to phrase her answer.

"My mind, it won't be quiet, you know?" she finally answered, "It won't shut up long enough to let me sleep." She turned her head and studied his face a bit. She wouldn't have normally looked so hard at a person, but considering he didn't actually know she was, she wasn't worried about being caught. "What about you?"

“It is.” Adam said seriously. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” He wasn’t really sure if that was socially acceptable but she needed to have a bit of a confidence boost where it came to her name. It was unusual he had to admit but he had an incredibly average name. Although, it was quite unusual in the pureblood Wizarding scene as most of the purebloods had odd names. He wasn’t sure how to phrase his answer to her. Why was he out in the grounds? “I think it’s better out here than inside, personally. More peaceful.”

"I'll try not to," she said with a smile. If anyone at the school should have had a 'normal' name, you would think it would be the kids with at least one muggle parent, but her parents just had to be different. But Dora was a teenage girl and teenage girls often based their judgments on what others thought, and if a cute guy thought her name was nice, who was she to argue?

"It is more peaceful," she agreed, "Especially at night. The tower gets so loud sometimes," she continued with a small sigh. "I guess all the houses are probably like that, though," she pulled her knees up to her chest, crossing her legs at her ankles, and rested her chin on her knees, waiting to see if he would confirm her assumption.