Peeking Into the Future

She could see it in the way he looked at the paper, at the way he said Oh, as though he had no idea what else to say. Great, now he thought she was weird too. She supposed it was expected, seeing as everyone else did too. Her parents even gave her strange looks that she could not ignore. She was different, and no one was getting used to that any time soon.

But he quickly apologized, saying he had not wanted to offend her or anything. She gave him a small, sad smile and shook her head, as though to say she was not offended, communicating this with a small hint of gratitude in her eyes. At least he had cared enough to make sure she was not offended.

At his question, she took back the paper and thought for a moment. She really had no reason for coming to the forest. She could have found flowers to pick elsewhere, she was sure. So she wrote I was curious. I like nature, so I thought it might be nice." She held it out for him to take.

Andrew grabbed the paper from Salem after she had handed it to him and quickly read the words. Curious? He could relate to that, he had ventured out a couple of times in his first year to learn more. And he still did. "Well this place has got a lot of mysteries," he smiled, handing her back the paper "but I don't understand why the professors don't let us wander out here. Its really close to the school anyway."

He looked around the area, making sure that no one had been following them. He was paranoid that a student would come along and report him to the headmaster...again. He looked back at Salem, noticing that she did have some very large eyes, yet had nothing against it. "Do you come out here often?" He asked again, wondering if he had been asking too many questions already. He would probably wait for her to ask one, yet could not tell if it would happen.

She smiled lightly at what he said, thinking there was some truth in his words. The forest was not all bad, it was close, and it was the perfect place to study some exquisite plants and animals in their natural habitat. Though she did understand their caution; she had heard there were werewolves dwelling inside the forest.

The more he spoke the more he appeared to be a Gryffindor. She was sure of it now, and she was even beginning to suspect that her thoughts about him being Quidditch captain were correct. He was putting up a valiant effort to relate to her anyway, and no one had done that in quite awhile.

He asked if she came here to often and she smiled shaking her head and writing No, too many weird rumors kept me away from it. She realized had begun writing a little more. She was becoming a little more comfortable with him around. She quickly added Do you? and handed him the paper.

Andrew could tell that things were starting to lighten up now. He even surprised him, having being able to talk to her like he had already known her. He usually was very quiet and often didn't make the first move. But oh well. When she had wrote him another question, he glanced over her shoulder, seeing what she was writing.

"Not too often," he responded shrugging his arms "I find enough mysterious things in the forest of dean. Dragons, giants and muggles and all" just thinking back on his previous adventures made him shiver a bit. He had been shot, maimed and nearly killed at the forest of dean. He would need to avoid that place for a while.

"What year are you?" He asked "I haven't seen you around the school, until now." Once aain, another question. He had hat she wasn't bothered by the barrage of questions, but he really needed to branch out from his current group.

She smiled at him, her eyes widening and eyebrows going up in appreciation and surprise at his adventures in the forest of dean. She quickly scrawled I have always wanted to go to the Forest of Dean... Maybe I shouldn't now. She showed him the paper and let out a small nervous giggle.

She was feeling much more comfortable now and she felt any of the tension and fear at talking to him begin to melt away. Though there was always that seed of nervousness, planted by people who had earned her trust and then exploited it... But somehow she knew he would not do that. He seemed to nice. He asked her what year she was and she held up six fingers, giving him a questioning look, inquiring about his year.

Andrew read the paper again, reading the text she had wrote out. He chuckled lightly and then said "Its not a bad place really. Just rather...odd." He handed her back the paper, feeling like all the tension was gone now. He had been thinking a lot before, yet his mind was calm.

He looked back at Salem, noticing that she was holding up six fingers, which surprised him. "I'm the same year as well!" He smiled, thinking of he he could not have seen her around. She could be a foreign exchange student...but that was pretty rare and unlikely.

Salem grinned softly but said no more, wanting to say that she did not mind odd. It would be awkward if she were afraid of odd things, seeing as she was one of the stranger students at Hogwarts. There were not many “goths” at Hogwarts- at least, no one dressed like her that she could think of. And the students tended to be loud and obnoxious... At least, they all talked, anyway...

He seemed rather taken aback by the fact that they were the same age and in the same year, which would have made most people's cheeks flush with embarrassment. But she was very aware of the fact that she was invisible to most of the people at Hogwarts. She always felt a little hollow after such a revelation, but it was nothing new. She wrote Yeah, I keep to myself and gave him a shaky smile as she glanced down, half-wishing her Patronus was back.

She glanced around and spotted a patch of flowers. She leaned over, her arms stretching, and grabbed the stem of it, bending it so she could sniff it before letting it go, not wanting to pull it out of the ground and kill it. She scribbled, Lilacs... and pushed herself against a tree, feeling awkward again.

From what Andrew could tell, things seemed to get a little awkward between the two. He had not understood how that coudlve happened, yet decided not to think about it that much. She did seem like a pretty shy girl after all.

He twisted his head over to where Salem had moved, watching as she sniffed the Lilacs. He wouldn't have known what it was, if she hadn't have wrote it on the paper. He stood up, leaning against a nearby tree, looking at her still. "So do you play quidditch at all?" He asked, curious if she had liked the sport.

He stood up and she looked up at him with her dark-lidded eyes, biting her lip as she did, noticing that he looked uncomfortable. Why did she always seem to do that? She always took a completely normal situation (well, as normal as a situation with her could be) and made it uncomfortable and awkward. She could not understand it...

He asked if she liked Quidditch and she smiled lightly. Yes, he was most definitely a Quidditch player. It was obvious by how the subject was such an easy fall back that he was probably one of those crazed-players who obsessed over the sport. She had rode a broom a few times but had never played. She wrote I've never had anyone to play with and handed him the paper. She sudden;y realized how embarrassing that was and her cheeks flared scarlet and she let her hair fall over her face as she looked down, pretending to examine her hands.

Andrew looked back at the piece of paper, reading what she had wrote. After he scanned the page, he looked back up to Salem and handed her back the paper. "Well I could always fly with you," he smiled. That seemed to be the way Andrew made all his friends. Quidditch. It had certainly changed his life, and would continue to do so. "If you want to, I mean."

She didn't seem like the person who would be flying. He couldn't judge from the start, but she seemed to be embarressed when she asked. She must've been a beginner or something, Andrew had thought. "Unless you want to do something else, of course."