Potterverse discussion

Tren was heading to his first class when he spotted Meira, looking lost. He went over to her and smiled, "It's a little confusing, isn't it? I can show you the way to your class, if you like."

"No, you're at the right end of the school," he smiled. "Divination is to the left." He started walking with her down the hall.

He tilted his head, then shrugged, "I'm not sure. But once you know roughly where everything is located it's not difficult to navigate this place."

Tren felt a twinge when she mentioned her father, remembering how hard it must be for her to have almost no family. Remembering she didn't want pity, he did his best to act as if nothing had happened. "Well, another thing that Hogwarts teaches you is a sense of direction," he said, smiling.

"In a few days you'll feel like this is home. Hogwarts does that to everyone." He smiled and stopped in front of a door, "Here we are."

Tren blushed slightly from the touch of her hand against his and watched her go into the classroom, then turned after a moment and headed to his own class.

"Yeah, I have my fingers crossed," Court said, smiling and holding up his crossed fingers. "Though I do trust Hagrid, and I think he'll do his best to take care of us."

"Definitly." she lapsed into silence, not an akward silence, but a comfortable one.

Court walked with her quietly, glancing at her out of the corner of his eyes. He felt his cheeks warm and looked away, wondering if she liked him the same way he liked her.

She felt his glance and saw his blush, which in turn made her blush. Why must the bloodrush to my cheeks be so bloody obvious?

"I guess we'd better hurry, or we'll be late," Court said, walking a little more quickly.

"Yeah." Se replied quickly, also speeding up.

((So... I'm out of small talk, you?))

((Yeah.))

((well, that's just great.))

((Okay.))

As they passed a girl with a pygmy puff on her shoulder Court looked at Saffy, "What do you think of pygmy puffs?"

"Pygmy puffs? They are rather cute, I guess, especially because they're small. They look a bit like pom-poms, don't they?"

"Yeah, they do. I wonder if they have colors other than pink and purple."

"I've seen a few sky-blue ones, and some grayish ones I think."

"Really? I've only ever seen the pink and purple ones."

"They're the most common, but I make it a habit to look for the uncommon."

Court grinned, "Some green ones would be cool. And yeah, you do."

"Green would be neat. I'll have to look out for any green ones - or maybe talk to the Weasley Wizard Wheezes staff next visit... Looking for the uncommon can result in the most wonderful experiences, you know."

He nodded in agreement, "It can."

"Like this one time at home I noticed a marking on one of the walls that I hadn't seen anywhere else, and I pressed on it and a passageway opened up. I followed it, and it let to this old room that you could spy on the -" She stopped suddenly; she had been about to say throne room, but Court didn't know about that. "- on another room." She hoped she had said it fast enough that Court wouldn't have noticed, but she doubted it.

"What room?" Court asked, catching onto her pause.

"Oh, just this other room near the secret one." she said in a somewhat nonchalant voice. Inside her head, she was cursing at her slip up. At least, cursing as much as she ever did, which is to say not even real curse words.

((ie: dang it, shoot, ect.))

He raised an eyebrow, "The kitchen? The great room?"

"Nope." She smiled then, getting an idea. "If you can guess, then I'll tell you a secret."

He sighed, "I'm terrible at guessing, but okay. Bathroom? Basement? Bedroom?"

"Nope, nope, and nope." She figured he wouldn't guess it, and if he did then she would have had to explain anyway, so promising to reveal her secret wasn't that bad.

Court scratched his head, then started listing rooms you would find anywhere but a house. "Ballroom? Dressing room? Throne room? White padded room?"

She blinked in shock. He had figured it out! How... "No, no, why on earth would I have a padded room, and... yes."

"I didn't know what else to guess," he said, shrugging, then stopped. "Wait... a throne room?"

She ducked her head a little bit. "Yeah. It's... uh... that's part of the secret."

He looked at her, curiosity and confusion in his eyes, "What's the secret? Why is there a throne room in your house?"

She looked around, then pulled him off to a side corridor where nobody would be able to hear them. "You know how I'm adopted, right? Yeah. So... my adoptive parents are the King and Queen of England. 'Home' is Buckingham Palace. So... throne room."

His eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly, but he closed it quickly. "Wh-Really?? Your adoptive parents are the king and queen?!"

"...Um, yes." she said softly. "Please don't tell anyone else."

"Of course not... but... why didn't you tell me? I'm one of your best friends."

"Well, of course you are, but... I don't really like telling people. It's just kind of ingrained in me to keep it a secret here. I didn't tell you at first because when we first met I didn't really know if I could trust you - I mean, who trusts people they've only just met with secrets? - and then I just kept... not telling you. Besides, if it got out that I was the 'adopted princess' I don't think I could stand it." She started of slowly, then got faster and faster as she went on. It was kind of a relief to tell someone, finally. To have someone else at Hogwarts know.

"Okay, Saf. I get it," Court said, smiling and putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's pretty cool, you being the adopted princess. Of course, I won't tell anyone. Your secret's safe with me."

She smiled, relieved, and hugged him. "Thank you." When she stepped back she added "Besides, some people want to hurt me to get at Mother and Father." she touched the top of her scar on the right side of her neck, remembering the past summer. with a slight shudder. "And if people with magic decided they didn't like the royal family..." she trailed off, letting the silence speak for itself.

((sorry 'bout vanishing like that earlier, I had to go babysit.))

((It's okay. I had to help clean the house, then I cleaned my room.))

He frowned, "Yeah, I can see that ending in disaster. But they're well looked after, yeah? I mean, by Muggles, but they're still protected."

"Oh, of course they're protected! But I was protected too, and I still got attacked, so I don't trust the protection quite as much as I did last year. My parents wanted me to stay home, but they figured that here was safer, so they let me come back. And they're right, here is safer, which is why I'm worried. They aren't all that safe. They think they are, but they aren't." She had started pacing as she talk, something she almost never did. When she realized what she was doing, she stopped to compose herself. "Sorry, I shouldn't have let myself speak without thinking."

Court shook his head, "It's fine; you're worried about them. Maybe you could talk to them about getting some Aurors to protect them as well as the Muggles."

Saffy shook her head. "As of right now, you, me, Professor Dumbledore, and Professor Flitwick are the only magical people who know that I am a princess. Not even the other teachers know." She gave a smile-that-was-not-a-smile. "So I really have no logical reason to worry, I just worry that someone will find out, or that I'll make a slip-up like I did a few minutes ago, because it's really, really, really hard to keep something this big a secret."

"You've done a good job of keeping it a secret so far. I never suspected. If you slip up, I'll try to help deflect it. Try to relax a little bit, you'll be fine."

She closed her eyes, trying to get control of her worry. She knew she could - she had done it often, ever since she had entered her new family, and could keep her facial features calm even when she was really annoyed, mad, or worried - but when she calmed herself the emotions just built up until she burst, like she had a few seconds ago. But after an outburst she would just calm herself again. After a few moments of having her eyes closed, calm descended upon her. Her face relaxed, going blank, and she went still. When she opened her eyes, they were blank as well until she smiled, a small smile that only really reached her eyes because she wanted it to. "You're right. We should get to class before we're late, we only have a few minutes." Her voice was light, not revealing the previous worry at all. And once again, her 'mask' as she called it, was in place. It was the first time in a while that she had worn her 'mask' at school, and even longer since she had masked herself while someone else was there. The speed with which she could do it, after not having had to in a while, scared her a little, but that too was hidden.

Court tilted his head, then hugged her, feeling like she needed the support. He let go after a few moments, then went back into the hall, waiting for her to follow.

She stood there for a moment, a bit shocked - he hadn't ever hugged her before, so his action had surprised her - then followed after him. "Have you ever found anything interesting without actually looking for it?" she asked, trying to get back into the conversation they had been having before her slip-up.