Scrambled Toast and French Eggs

[~Georgie Spunk~]

Yawning slightly, Georgie pattered her way down to the Great Hall, a green lace cowboy hat perched on her head and brightly coloured mismatched socks on her shoe-less feet. One sported a hand sewn turnip on a background of yellow, the other a bold pattern of grinning monkey faces. Her faded jeans were decorated with paint and grass stains, and she wore a snug fitting cowgirl-style collared shirt. It was the weekend, and the girl was celebrating not having to wear the stiff uniforms by wearing the most muggle-like and comfortable clothing she owned. Not that she minded wearing robes and cloaks in the slightest, she was just very much in the mood for something different - something that was reflected in the fact that she was actually going down to the Great Hall to eat a real breakfast, instead of scampering off to the owlery or grounds with a hastily grabbed snack or getting in trouble for eating in class. It was also very, very early in the morning, even for the farm girl who was used to waking in the wee hours for chores. The sun hadn’t even begun to think about showing its face yet, and the school corridors were empty, dark, and eerily silent as the rest of the world slept.



The fact was, she hadn’t much felt like doing anything sleeping or following her normal schedule; her mind was too busy chasing around thoughts of Ezekiel like a dog after its own tail. She really could not understand what had gotten into that boy, and as much as she loved him, she was angry about what had happened with Nate. How things were going to proceed from now on was an entire issue in itself, and Georgie was not entirely sure of her plan of action. On one hand, she loved Ezekiel and really did not want to upset him, especially in his newfound state of instability. She could not afford another fight. Perhaps it would be best to just swallow everything he had said to her and not see Nate again. On the other, angrier hand, he had hurt her and was being completely ridiculous in his demands and entire reasoning, not to mention how unfair his actions were to both her and Nathaniel. Why should she let him decide who was fit or unfit to be her friend? Why should his petty stereotypes and personal vendettas get in the way of her simple goodwill? This battle was a constant storm clouding her mind, brewing angrier and more chaotic the longer it lasted, until the girl felt she had to choose one way or another or explode. And so it was a very tired and frustrated Georgie Spunk who entered the Great Hall that morning.



Upon entering, Georgie was stopped in her tracks en route to the Slytherin table by the familiar sight of the new friend in question. Sleepy mind thrown into turmoil, she took a few seconds to decide what to do. Here was the root cause of the problem, sitting placidly a few feet away at the Hufflepuff table, and her eagerness for a new friend combined with her affronted, angry mindset battled against her natural worries and loyalty to her boyfriend in a frantic, split second decision inside her brain. After a moment’s pause, Georgie decided she was over-dramatizing the situation and, changing direction mid-step, headed over to join Nathaniel at his table. After all, she was in the mood for something different.

She was unsure if he would see some significance in her actions, or if the way she was picturing things was simply, as it so often was, an exaggerated drama of her mind. To her personally, this meant she was not going to allow Ezekiel’s overreaction to get in the way of making a new friend, and that she would continue to treat Nathaniel as she would had she not been informed of his vampirism, equality being a value she prided herself on. She did not believe in acting differently to people based on superficial differences, and intended to be Nate’s friend regardless of his race just as she respected Zeke despite his lycanthropy. As for him wanting to protect her, surely making friends with a vampire was no more dangerous than dating a werewolf.



“Hey, Nate” she greeted the boy- or, as she supposed she should think of him, the vampire. ‘Mind if I join your table this morning?” He looked good this morning; as suave and charming as he was when they first met last evening. She couldn’t help but smile at the sight of him; their friendship had such potential, the spat with Ezekiel not withstanding, and he had seemed such a nice guy. She was looking forward to getting to know him.

[Nathaniel Crowe]

Nathaniel almost dropped his head into his cereal bowl in his grogginess from staying up all the previous night. He hadn‘t been able to study nor to sleep after the incident in the courtyard, all he could see was Georgie’s bewildered face and wonder what she must think of him. He rubbed his eyes on the arm of his grey cashmere sweater and took another spoonful of sugary cereal into his mouth. He certainly didn’t need human food, but why not enjoy it. A vampire across from him poured the red, almost syrupy contents of his glass into his bowl and Nate made a disgusted face. “What? It’s actually good.” The student replied. Nate shook his head and continued eating the useless meal. “You must be joking, sick, it’ll curdle the milk!”

In addition to the sweater, he dressed in his usual GQ suitable attire. He wore a Dolce & Gabbana black pinstripe vest, fitted black jeans, a metallic chain necklace and long black leather shoes which all were somehow comfortable to the vampire. He drowned out the conversation around him for a bit to try to get some rest but the cacophony of voices around him wouldn’t let him. This early in the morning, before the sunrise, the Great Hall was mostly inhabited by the children of the night at their respective house tables talking in groups and the particularly perky or studious students whom Nate preferred to call the ‘heinous morning people’, a breed he could not understand.

Nathaniel himself had added tomato juice to the syrupy liquid, making it duller in colour and he hoped, making it look more humane. He took a great gulp and smiled as he felt the warm rush of flavor down his throat. Nate began to tune back in to what his friends were so animatedly discussing, what the school would be like if they could feed on humans. He began to tune them out again, quickly becoming disinterested with the topic of the morning when one of them said “Someone like her.” He pointed behind Nate, towards the hall doors. He decided to turn around with vague curiosity to see who had caught their carnal eye.

A redhead stood, as if she were looking around for someone. The comfortable movements of her body were familiar, something akin to an everyday farm girl. He focused in with his enhanced vision and realized that it was the one person he had been obsessing over in some way or another all night since the two had met, Georgie Spunk. Nate turned around quickly, hoping she hadn’t seen him, he wasn’t sure how to approach her just yet since she had found out about his vampirism. In his head he had been running over a stream of excuses to explain his secrecy. But he was sure their next encounter would be awkward, if he dared risk talking to her again. He heard the others at his table again “Wouldn’t she be delicious?” “Yeah, I bet she’d taste-”

“Shut up man.” Nate sighed. He tried to show he was only slightly annoyed by their crass comments. When in fact he was so furious at even the thought of someone hurting the petite witch, something he feared he had almost done himself. “It’s just… a stupid thing to talk about.” Luckily the rest moved on to homework and Nate could get back to his churning thoughts.

When he heard the peppy voice from behind him, Nathaniel struggled to wipe the surprised expression off his face as he came face to face with Georgie again so soon. He gave her a warm smile with his sparkling morning-mist eyes and nodded to her. “Of course you can.” He stood up before he she had a chance to retort and picked up he plate of food and his drink in one hand. “Would you mind if we moved down the bench a little bit?” He shot a look back at his fellow night-children who’s gazes at his friend made his insides squirm. “I’ll introduce you some other time.” He told her and turned away to walk to an empty space at the Hufflepuff table.

As they settled in, he asked her the question that had been burning in his mind since she had walked up. “So, why are you here? I mean, this early and eating with me. I thought your tyrannical boyfriend wouldn’t be letting you within ten feet of me after last night.”

[~Georgie Spunk~]

Nathaniel’s appearance and courtesy never failed to make her smile, Georgie realized as she started doing just that after his eager response. He really did look good this morning; poised, stylish, and most importantly, he looked truly pleased to see her. She had been somewhat worried that the confrontation with her boyfriend yesterday might have made him wary of her, but this didn’t seem to be the case at all. Realising he was getting up to move, she protested “Hey, you don’t need to get up on my account” but he was already moving so, smiling, she followed him down the table.



Sitting next to him, she felt embarrassment at his question as she once again recalled the events of the evening prior, and decided to set things straight right off the bat. “Yea, I meant to apologise about that, actually,” she started off, looking earnestly into his eyes. Those deep, storm-grey eyes… they were dark and intriguing, tunnels that went deep into his being, windows to the soul, but there was something missing. There was none of the spark, the light and life that she was accustomed to in Ezekiel’s; they seemed to lure rather than invite. Where she could simply lose herself in the expressive pools of meaning that were her boyfriend’s gorgeous blue eyes, these seemed almost lifeless and empty, making her feel more trapped than welcome. The lack of human warmth seemed to hit her, but Georgie put this down to prejudice and, squashing her sudden qualms, she hurriedly looked away and continued. “The way he treated you, just jumping in there and making accusations and all that, it really wasn’t fair. He’s being a total git right now; I don’t know what the hell’s wrong with him. Whatever his problem is, we can still hang out, he’s not going to stop me.” I won’t let him, she continued silently, firming her resolve.



That touchy topic off her chest, she let a friendly smile slide easily into place and picked up on a perkier subject. “So, watcha havin’ for breakfast? How can you eat so early in the morning, anyway, I haven’t begun to feel hungry yet.” Georgie eyed his cereal and juice, feeling her usual lack of hunger pangs this early in the morning. Of course she had always been told that breakfast was the most important meal of the day -she was reminded daily by her father back home- but she could never muster up enough will to actually consume something nutritious and filling so soon after she got up. She much preferred to practice her usual grazer’s routine and snack on random tidbits of junk food while doing something either productive or entertaining. There was nothing unhealthy or light enough for her fancy on the table, just typical breakfast foods like scrambled eggs, French toast and the like, so she put food from her mind and started a rather simple conversation, just to get things going.



“So, what classes you taking this year, anything interesting? –Apart from Astronomy, of course” she smiled, knowing they shared that class from their regrettably brief dialogue last night. “I’m into potions myself- I just love mixing random things together and seeing if they go boom or not. Or, y’know, actually cure something or something. It’s kinda funny, I’m always getting in trouble for improvising, putting things in the cauldron that don’t belong there. I like creativity, what can I say? And the risk that it could explode all over me makes it a hell of a lot more interesting than weather it cures warts or not.” she babbled easily, enjoying talking about her favourite subject. “So what’s your best subject?”

[Nathaniel Crowe]

“Good to know we can still be friends. It’s fine, about your Ezekiel, his insults were no more than any werewolf before him.” Nate had been worried after his question she might have decided to leave in favor of her moody boyfriend and he had partially lied. The only thing Ezekiel had said that bothered him was his on the mark accusation that he could have, would have hurt Georgie. “So… you’re okay then? With me being a vampire? Not that I could help it or anything but…” He had almost hesitated in saying the word ‘vampire’, but why bother when she knew it anyways. Nathaniel had to be sure she knew, at least somewhat who and what she was getting herself involved with. Not, perhaps that he was specifically malicious, but that his presence held similar danger to her boyfriend’s.

“I’m having-” Nate took a second to look up from his plate at Georgie’s delicate face. Her smile stunned him, she drew him in, in a way only another of his kind or a veela should be able to. Her smile was as warm as the syrup dribbling on his plate, offering her complete trust along with it, which was something right now he knew he didn’t deserve. “-scrambled toast and French eggs.” He stumbled over his words after she had thrown his thoughts off course. “Uh… switch that. I mean scrambled eggs and French toast.” Am I always this much of an idiot? He mused. “I know there’s really no need for me to be eating stuff like this, it’s still delicious. Sometimes I even find myself craving something sweet." Like her blood… Nathaniel shook his head as if it could shake the thoughts from his mind that seemed not to come from his own consciousness. Damn, I thought I had more control than this. The best thing to do was to continue the conversation and he was glad for the distraction of Georgie’s continuing speech.

“I’m guessing you’ve caused some of the explosions I‘ve heard, right?” He laughed “Hmm… well I do pretty well in alchemy and I like herbology quite a bit, as sad as it sounds, very Hufflepuff of me, I know. Nighttime herbology that is, it’s really not something I could take during the day, greenhouse and all. It’s pretty cool because we get to see all of the night-blooming flowers firsthand.” He smirked at the thought of evenings spent with many of his friends in a lamp-lit glass room smelling of fresh earth and aromatic petals.

“I want to know more about you. Where do you live? Parents? Siblings? Pets? Hobbies?” Nate inquired, sure she would have stories to tell. He found he enjoyed listening to her perky voice and her affable nature made it easy for him to say almost anything, certainly things he wouldn’t say to other humans and maybe not even to his friends.

[~Georgie Spunk~]

She was glad to have cleared up last evening’s mishap and to be on good terms again. They were back to the politely friendly state they had been when they first met, before her boyfriend had charged in full of prejudices and spoiled everything. Anger and frustration rose in Georgie again as she thought of Ezekiel’s thoughtless tirade, and she let a part of this out by answering Nathaniel’s comment. “Yes, I’ve don’t quite understand why werewolves in general seem to be so against vampires. And vice-versa, too. I mean, you guys have a lot in common, as far as I know –both were humans that turned into some kind of monster –for lack of a better word” she added hurriedly, not wanting to offend her new friend, “through some terrible attack. Both are hard to control in the beginning, and humans hate them. With obvious exceptions” Georgie grinned playfully at Nate as it hit her in a weird way that she was dating a werewolf and becoming good friends with a vampire. To think about it so out of context it made her look like some kind of monster loving freak. She rather liked the idea of this odd title.

In answer to his tentative question, Georgie let her teasing grin slide into an earnest smile, assuring him “of course I’m fine with it. Why wouldn’t I be?” She realized that her friendship must mean a lot more to him than she initially realized. He seemed to be really trying, truly concerned that their relationship would be forfeited by either her boyfriend or what he was. Her kind smile widened at the realization that she had the chance to be a positive force in somebody’s life, and promised herself to try to live up to it. She enjoyed nothing more than knowing she was able to help someone- her relationship with Ezekiel had depended for a while on her ability to care for him in his newfound state, to be something solid and lasting while everything else was in turmoil. She was naturally a caring person, and knowing that Nathaniel really wanted this friendship to work pushed any remaining doubts from her mind.

“Nice,” she commented lightly, laughing in a friendly way at the mistake. “Good to know I’m not the only one with an occasional verbal problem.” she added, recalling some of her less-than-smooth mess ups in the past. Normally she just kept mispronouncing a word or trying several times to get a simple sentence out.
“Sweet is good” she commented, perking up at the mention of the word, almost comically. Sweetness was, and always had been, one of her weaknesses; she could never resist sugar. She had the unhealthy habit of constantly devouring the stuff, and although she never gained weight, her father was convinced that she would get diabetes sooner or later. Rather than keep this tidbit of thought to herself, she let it come into the conversation, as usual. Keeping thoughts in her head was not a strength of Georgie’s; she liked to talk and anything that came to her head was game. It was part of what kept people thinking she was random, as her train of thought often strayed from the main concept of the conversation. “Sugar is one of my biggest weaknesses; I can’t keep eating the stuff. I have the biggest sweet tooth in the world. You know those muggle sweets, sugar mice? I got a giant box of like fifty of them for Christmas once and I ate them all in two days.” She laughed at the memory. Those things were good.

She laughed further at his question, nodding “probably”. Affronted that he thought liking Herbology was sad, she piped up “Hey, I love herbology! Not as much as potions, but plants and stuff are awesome.” Having grown up on a farm, she was one who was close to the earth, and plants and animals had always been areas of interest. She thought that being able to see the night-blooming flowers she only got to glimpse if she snuck out (which she often did) in lessons was pretty cool. “That’s so awesome, can I join your class?” she laughed her easy, conversational laugh again. That was another thing she did often, laugh. Georgie loved to laugh, and it came easy to her as she found the smallest things amusing or enjoyable. There had been many a time when she had laughed out loud at something in her head and been given strange looks by the people around her.

Nathaniel’s next question opened up a lot of opportunity for conversation, but Georgie couldn’t help thinking the way he phrased it sounded a bit creepy. In a funny kind of way, not like it was truly frightening, but ‘I want to know more about you’ sounded almost stalker-like. Maybe it’s just the vampire in him, she thought to herself goofily, and she let out a chuckle before answering. She was enjoying talking to him, their conversation came relatively easy and he was open to her quirkiness. He was being kind and friendly, and she felt rather comfortable with him, not at all as though she was in the danger Ezekiel imagined she was in.

“Well, I actually live on a farm out in the country” she told him. “I pretty much thought I was a muggle until I got the letter to come here, and my dad had no idea. We’re guessing I get all my mystical power from my mum’s side –she died when I was really really little and he doesn’t know too much about her family, only that they liked to send her to boarding school. Anyway, it’s great at the farm, I love it there. It’s like the classic farm, we’ve got loads of fields of crops, but they’re technically not ours, we’re just one of the three farms in the neighborhood that work them with the community. I like that though –we get together with the other farms every year and have like a harvest party with a big feast before sending off most of the stuff for money like we’re supposed to. We’ve got a few horses, we keep a whole bunch in our stable by the fields, but that’s run more by the community too, we kinda house everybody’s horses. We do have our own barn; we’ve got cows, pigs, chickens, sheep running all over the place, it’s great.” Smiling dreamily as thoughts of her home ran through her mind, she remembered when she got her first horse, Sandy, and how excited she’d been. Sandy now had a foal, which she told Nate about. “I got my first horse when I was five, and now I’ve got my own baby horse; his name is Sish-kabob. I know, weird name. I called him that ‘cuz, I know it sounds so mean, but when he was born, he looked like a little kabob, with his huge head and little stick legs. He’s even the right colour –he’s brown with black patches that look like charcoal, like he was done on a barbeque.” She laughed at the memory. She was enjoying sharing things about her life with Nate, and hoped he’d comply as well. “So what about you, where do you come from?”

[Nathaniel Crowe]

“I suppose it’s in our nature, this age-old hate for each other. It’s so ingrained in us, in our lives, that many of us have forgotten why. It’s like the animosity between cats and dogs, their similarities could allow them to work so well together, yet both refuse to cooperate.” Nate shrugged. “I can’t really relate to Ezekiel all that much though, I never became a monster through a terrible attack, I’ve never had to adjust to this life really. I was born into it, so I only had to adjust to the normal things, going to school, being a teenager. As unlikely as it is with our kind, I’m actually the same age as you. Generally I would look the same while being hundreds of years older, but I’m just a fifth year.”

He was so happy when Georgie said they could still continue to be friends. He beamed at her easy affirmation. “So, then it would be fun maybe… to hang out like this more often.” It felt strange to the usually charming and at ease boy to be so uncomfortable, awkward and inelegant but it was as if the girl didn’t need his pretenses. Around Georgie, Nathaniel didn’t have to act any way other than his natural self, that was what was unnatural about it. Realizing he didn’t have to be his debonair, poised self he had been trained to be all his life in front of someone would have to take some getting used to.

“I’m not sure that I’ve ever had sugar mice. Do they have flavors? You’ll have to let me try them sometime.” Nate blocked all thoughts about the similar sweetness and thickness between sugary syrup and blood and tried to listen to Georgie speak without the distraction of his mind’s weakness.

“I do like plants and flowers, I would always visit my mother’s prized garden whenever I could as a child, it‘s a beautiful place. Of course I learnt quickly that it wasn’t a good idea to pull roses off of their vines.” He remembered the pain of the prick of thorns; his tiny razor tooth sucking from the skin of his mother’s wrist to regain the red plasma he had lost in his foolish endeavor and his mother‘s icy anger at the demise of her cherished beauties. “Well, I don’t know of any day students in our herbology class but I can talk to the professor of course. I’d love you to be an exception and I’d love to have a new face in the group.” Nathaniel didn’t bother to reflect on the dangers of the suggestion.

“A farm? I have to say, I’d be out of place in that kind of setting, but it does sound kind of fun. We have horses at our estate in Germany…uh, I mean house. Well, I suppose if you want to be realistic it’s more of a castle really. Not a very large one really, more of a medium to small castle. Our family fits in it anyways.” Nate spit out his garbled sentences yet again without his usual ease of language. “We call it Castle Krähe, the word for crow. It’s near a river, partway up a hill and there’s lots of trees. I live with my parents, grandparents, great grandparents and my three older brothers. We get along well mostly. We’re a small family for our kind. Considering that none of us die, I’m guessing we’ll have to keep adding extensions onto the place.” Nathaniel added with a chuckle.

“My horse-” His voice dropped as he whispered playfully over to Georgie. “-has the cheesiest name ever… Nightfall. Man, it’s like I’ve walked out of a horror-action flick, don’t laugh okay? I was five, he’s a black horse and I could only ride at night for obvious reasons, so it made sense. I used to do dressage and jumping competitions with him- indoors only of course. Everyone else thought our family was just extremely eccentric. Thank god that was all they thought. But eventually all the other riders began to wonder why I would never train outside. Anyways, the skin condition excuse works well… and I’m rambling, sorry.” Nathaniel took a breath and got a hold of his words. “As for hobbies, hmm… I like to read quite a bit, hunting with my dad and brothers. Uh… not- I mean- hunting animals like deer and things with dogs. We usually make stew or sell the meat in town, not anything too strange really, heh.” Nate’s eyebrows creased together in nervousness. Who says that? I go ‘hunting‘? God what could she think of me, she must think I’m a freak. Why hide the truth? Well, time to change the subject. “I like photography too. It’s a passion of mine, I must have about 5 cameras now and way too many albums. I guess I should be submitting them like my brothers try to tell me, instead of hoarding them but, none of them are really good enough for that. What you like to do for fun, to be creative? Anything I‘ve left out you can ask me of course.”

OOC: Here's an example of Nate's castle, I haven't found one perfect yet, but this is the best so far: travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/images/ga/germany_satzvey-castle.jpg

[~Georgie Spunk~]

Georgie still didn't really understand the animosity between the two creatures, but she decided to make light of it for the sake of resolving differences. Shaking her head in mock exasperation, She tsked, muttering "I don't know, you demonic crazed creatures, you" and flashed Nate another easy grin to let him know it was allright. But something else he said sparked her curiosity. “Really?? You were born into it?? Wow, I’ve never really thought of vampires as being born. Mind you, I’ve never really thought much of anything about vampires, seeing as I didn’t even know they existed for most of my life.” It was weird, but she was constantly learning, not just about her new friend, but about the sorts of creatures that inhabited the same earth she did that she had, until recently, been completely oblivious to. The life she had known when she thought she was a muggle seemed quite bland by comparison, and the thought of how her father would react if he knew his only daughter was getting friendly with a vampire. The thought made her smile.

“Sorry,” she said, “I was just thinking –I can’t wait to see the look on me dad’s face when I tell him I’m friends with a vampire. I can just hear him now: ‘Wos’at ye say, Georgie? A vampire? Now, Ah can’t roightly say Ah knows wot ter say ter that…Yer sure ye knows wot yer doin’ then, eh?’ “she mimicked her Dad’s thick, old English countryman way of speaking perfectly, having grown up hearing it, and she laughed, taking her cowboy hat off of her head to fiddle with as she sat back in her seat. Hearing Nate’s suggestion of hanging out more often, her smile broadened and she agreed readily “Yea, o’course!” slipping a bit into the country accent as she did. “Ah’d loik that... ahem I mean, yea, I’d like that.”

"Oh, you must have them sometime, they’re so good. Tell ya what, next Hogsmead trip I’ll take you into Honeydukes and we’ll stock up on sweets. They’ve got sugar mice there, and they’re pretty much the same except they move and squeak. I’ll haveta post you some muggle sweets over the summer. They don’t have any weird side effects when you eat them, but they taste good, especially the old fashioned stuff, like sherbert dips” Georgie closed her eyes for a brief moment as she remembered the sweet tastes of her local sweet shop. It was ‘local’ only relatively; living on a farm in the middle of the country it was a two and a half mile trip to the centre of town, but she had spent many a sweet moment in the old-fashioned sweetshop while her father was in the farmer’s market, surrounded by sherbert, lollies, licourice, jars of hard sweets of every colour of the rainbow, trays of Turkish Delight dusted with powdered sugar, jellies in their individual packaging, delicate chocolates in an endless array of colours and designs. The sweets were not cheap, made the old-fashioned way, but with a monthly allowance and nothing to spend it on, Georgie often had more than enough for several paper packages of delicious candy, and loaded up her father’s equally old-fashioned cart with what to any ordinary person would be a few months’ good supply of the stuff.

“Gardens are neat, and really pretty, but you’ve never seen plants until you’ve climbed an ancient oak tree and lain in an endless field of wheat swaying in the breeze” Memories of peacefull days with nothing to do but lay about in the sunshine were some of her fondest of her muggle home, but they were in reality few and far between. There was always something to be done at the farm, but the adventurous girl had always found ways to get out of chores and enjoy her surroundings. The hay loft was one of her favourite hide-outs.
“but yea, plants have always fascinated me. Not as much as animals, but anything to do with nature gets my prime attention. I didn’t really mean for you to try to get me into your class, though it would be pretty neat to be the only human in a nightclass…”

“Oh wow, you live in a castle!! That’s so cool!! It sounds soooo amazing. I bet there are all sorts of secret passageways. I thought Hogwarts was pretty amazing, but to live in a castle, wow.” Georgie couldn’t imagine anything more exciting and romantic then living in an ancient castle like that, it was like something out of a fairy tale. Not that she had been very patient with fairy tales as a child. Her father was always reminding her of the bizarre twists she’d made in the classic stories of Snow White of Cinderella. Apparently, she had scorned the idea of ‘living happily ever after’ and created all sorts of problems for the heroes, such as pesty gargoyles infesting Snow Whites cottage after she was awakened by the prince, or Cinderella’s prince being eaten by an angry shrubbery that refused to be pruned. She had always been a strange little child.

“And I thought that the farmhouse was crowded with the two of us plus farmhands and housekeeper. That is one heck of a family” she commented. She could not imagine having that large a family living constantly in the same house. Her extended family was a rather large one, but she only ever saw all of them in one place at Christmas.

Hearing that her new friend was the fellow owner of the noble animal horse, Georgie was instantly excited. “You have a horse too!” she exclaimed. It wasn’t often in this modern age that you came across a fellow horse owner, as most preferred dogs or cats as pets (which she also had in abundance). Then again it wasn’t every day you came across a vampire who wanted to be your friend, she mused. “Nightfall’s not cheesy, it’s a beautiful name. He sounds gorgeous. I’ve never been one for dressage myself but jumping’s fun. Ever done cross country? I usually take Sandy out through the woods, sometimes following the path, sometimes not. It can be quite the adventure, especially if you camp out with a mate” Camping trips had always been the most fun either with her father or her favourite farmhand, Harvey. “Don’t worry about rambling, I do it all the time –haven’t you noticed?” she grinned at him, glad that they were making such easy conversation, but wondering at his apparent awkwardness. She supposed he just wasn’t used to making friends with humans, and hoped she wasn’t making it difficult for him.

“Hunting hey? I’ve never been hunting; I’m not one for killing things personally. I do like catching animals though –I’ve been known to try to tame squirrels and such...” She realised the possibly problematic insinuations of this particular conversation and trailed off uncertainly, not wanting to continue it if it made him uncomfortable. Not that hunting was anything unusual, she didn’t dislike him for it or anything, but considering his situation …
She jumped on the changed subject immediately, trying to illiminate the awkwardness. “hmm, photography. Its kind of like an art form, isn’t it?? Especially what with moving pictures-those have never stopped fascinating me. You should take a wizards picture of me to post to my dad sometime, he’d love that.”

“For fun I do a lot of things. I love exploring, finding new things to do, and Hogwarts is the perfect place for that. I’m an animagus, which helps with sneaking out –I do that a lot. To pass time I love to read, I practically devour books, I always have to have something to read. So you’ll probably see me in the Library a lot. I love fiction novels, but now that most things I used to think were fiction are actually real, I spend most of my time analyzing the reality of fictional stories, which doesn’t make a lot of sense, but there ya go. I like climbing trees and swimming, so if I’m not in the library I’m most likely outside. I’m also really into the arts –acting and singing and whatnot. I was always starring in my elementary school productions and whatnot. I’m always hoping that Hogwarts would start a drama program or something, as there isn’t a lot of opportunity for theatre in the wizarding world, as far as I can tell anyway. I always dreamt of starting my own theatre troupe or something when I was younger, which I guess I could still do. It would be neat to see what kind of onstage effects I could do with real magic…”
Georgie trailed off, thoughts of the possibilities fililng her head.

[Nathaniel Crowe]

"Heh, yeah, I’m not too sure if you should really be telling your dad about me this soon. It might make him nervous, his daughter hanging around with a vampire and all.” Nate warned. He chuckled at Georgie’s accent when she talked about them spending more time together.

“Ah, Honeydukes! I’ve only been in there a couple of times really, might as well make use of the place. That sounds so good Georgie, you’ll have to introduce me to all of this delicious-sounding stuff. I’ve always gotten little packs by owl of sweets from home and chocolate more than anything, but I’m more than willing to branch out.” Nathaniel enjoyed her vivid description of the treats, his mouth watering at the thought of the unessential pleasures.

“I love giant trees, but I have to confess, I haven’t climbed any in a long time. I have a long history of breaking my arm, always my right arm though, it was strange that way.” When she asked about the night class again, Nate wasn’t even sure whether he’d bother asking his professor. If he truly thought about the girl’s safety, it would be best if he wouldn’t even mention it. But it would be nice to have a new, fresh, face in the class. A light in the sea of dark-minded souls. He wasn’t sure what anyone would think of his for having invited her, but Nate wasn’t all that sure he cared anymore.

“The castle is really fun. It’s a big place and after this long I’m still getting lost in hallways I swear I’ve never seen before. Of course, it never helps that Grandfather is always changing around the décor and artwork in his wing of the castle.” Nate grinned sheepishly before he realized his teeth weren’t quite as dull as most and covered them with his free hand while the other drew unobtrusive patterns in the syrup. “ I know what might be interesting. If I think that your home sounds so interesting and new to me and you like my castle, we should visit each other’s homes sometime, like over holidays for a little bit. If you want, that is. I would suggest bringing along some sweaters, it’s pretty drafty in any time of year… and cold in other ways too…”

“Well, I’m glad somebody likes Nightfall’s name. I do go sort of cross country I suppose. I never go anywhere in particular but I’d go out on my own into the beautiful, mossy German forests and would forget the time and not come back for a while or even a few days. I’ve gotten so caught up in riding that I’ve had my brothers come out searching for me before. They’ve gotten used to my absentmindedness.” Nate failed to mention that often his forest wanderings stemmed from his desire to sometimes run away from life at the castle. It was always a half-hearted attempt since he never brought more than a day’s worth of supplies and sometimes, nothing at all.

“Yeah, I think I know now that I’m not the only one who goes on…” Nathaniel looked towards the windows where he could see the far edges of early morning sunlight creeping into the large room. The light was beautiful, he could admit that, but all the same, it made his skin crawl and tingle before he noticed it. He didn’t have much time left for talking but he wished now that they could spend more time. Unless he asked her back to a windowless hallway or somewhere safer for him, they might have to cut the conversation short.

Nate was grateful for something to talk about after his conversational mishap.” I’d love to take a wizard’s picture for your Dad. You’ll have to see, they’re very interesting to take photos with, it’s more akin to a soundless movie I guess.” He resisted the urge to say anything horribly embarrassing like how he wished he could take many more pictures, to capture her smile, her shining eyes and the essence of a personality that charmed him.

He laughed again, the sound as clear as a rushing river. “You do seem like the exploring type to me, miss Indiana Jones. See? I do know something of the muggle entertainment world, a little anyway.” Nathaniel was extremely interested when the red-head called herself an animagus. “Really? An animagus? What kind? How did it happen? Ah, sorry for asking so many questions, I’ve just met very few of them and it really sounds very interesting to me. And books are good, film and cameras are more me but I like poetry anthologies, camera tip books and that sort of reading. Onstage effects, I wonder what you could do with that…” Nate wondered if he still had his book on film magical effects and if it would be of any use to show it to Georgie.

His next question was posed casually, as if there were not any real danger to him if he didn’t leave the hall in the next few minutes. “If… you’re done eating and all that, would you want to go somewhere else with me? It’s just getting a tad bright in here.” Already, the Slytherin table where his friends had been sitting was half empty and there were only two other vampires he knew still in the room, eating like they were in a hurry despite the fact it was the weekend. It was definitely time for him to go.