alone at last [open]

[Conan Clarke]

The sun. It was actually shining today. Unlike the many afternoons this week where clouds greedily inhabited the sky, hiding the sun’s bright face. Conan drank in its warm rays. The warmth and light added to the softness of the grass and silence of it all soothed Conan and painted a smile upon his face. For a while he had been cooped up inside the gloomy castle, where the only real light was casted by torches and accompanied by long and ominous shadows. Rain had come down in sheets and damped his spirits even further. What had once been a cheerful place had quickly turned into a sullen prison with the death of Harry Potter. But today was different. The sun dried up all of his fears and his mind was only focused on the sketch pad in front of him.
Smoothly his hand went this way and that; his quill swiped over the paper and turned a white sheet into an impressive landscape. As he lay flopped on his belly beneath the branches of a tree, his mind was transported to a different scene, one with cliffs overlooking gorgeous oceans, and his hand captured it all. Bright green eyes focused intently on his work, making sure that every detail was there.
Conan was an unusual boy. Quiet. Very quiet. A loner. He kept to himself most of the time, an outcast from the big and brave occupants of the Gryffindor house. Even his looks were a bit off. Wild and curly brown hair. Sloppily dressed. Easily mistaken for a second or third year due to his young appearance. Here, however, in his secluded spot, he wasn’t judged. It was nice.

(Sorry, it's kind of sloppy. I need to get back into rping. :B )

[Tessa Sams]

(Just going to jump in here if you don't mind.)

"A day without rain! About time!" exclaimed Tessa as the girl extracted herself from the group of Slytherin girls that she was nothing like. As the girls turned to the staircase that would take them back to the common room, Tessa headed the opposite direction toward the sunlight that shown in through the grand window not too far down the hall. She passed people, but she felt as though she was in a different dimension. Their useless chatter flew over her, she heard nothing but her own breaths and thoughts, she felt only her heart beating in her chest and the ground pressing back against her feet with each step she took. Through the door and away from the dreary atmosphere of the students at Hogwarts. Really, it was a bummer that Harry Potter died, but what was the use in mourning? If people were so upset about it and wanted to destroy Voldemort, all they had to do was band together, get some spies, and destroy him from the inside out. In Tessa's mind, it was really quite a simple thing. Her father, a member of the Order, told her that it wasn't nearly that easy, but she was stubborn as a mule.
The fresh air and sunlight was a godsend to her. She hated the gloom of the dungeons, she hated the dark mood of the castle, and she just needed something a little bit brighter. She smiled brightly as she saw just how empty the outdoors were. It was a strange thing, usually the school celebrated a nice day after such a period of storms. She shook her head and realized how strange she really was. She was a Slytherin that was not pureblood or rich, her father was a member of the Order, and her mother was a muggle. She hardly agreed with anything her fellow housemates said, but she never spoke out against them in fear that they would hurt her in some way. She was not the brightest in her classes and she did not enjoy the sport of Quidditch. Tessa cared more about her cat Mox than anybody else. She really was an isolationist, but she didn't see that as a problem.
Caught up in her self centered thoughts, Tessa hardly noticed when she tripped over something...until she fell on top of it. Not it, a him. Tessa was mortified and her face, now bright red, showed it.
"I am...so incredibly sorry, I just...wasn't watching and...well, I thought I was the only person that liked to come to this spot...."
Tessa pushed herself off the boy, who looked quite a bit younger than her. She ran her fingers through her hair, seeming almost exasperated. Tessa immediately noticed the boy. He wasn't younger than her, they were in the same year. He was in her potions class, though because he was a Gryffindor and she was a Slytherin, they had never interacted. She felt worse about tripping over him.
"I really am sorry," Tessa said, sincere.

(I apologize for how awful this is....wow.)

[Conan Clarke]

(xD It's fine, my was -and is- ten times worse!)

One minute Conan was peacefully drawing, then the next, thump! Something hard crashed right on top of him, the air got knocked painfully from his chest. The collision did not last long, thankfully, and whatever had landed on him quickly scampered up. Still gasping for breath, Conan glanced upwards to see who had landed on him. At first he had expected some older boy, probably Slytherin, coming to poke fun at him once again. Instinctively he hurriedly snapped his sketchbook shut to hide the drawings from view of the stranger. But as he looked up he discovered, to his surprise, that the intruder had not been an older boy, rather a girl from his year. A Slytherin girl, still. One who he thought he recognized from his potions class.

Apologies spewed from her mouth and her face turned a bright red. Conan's face was feeling a little flushed too. From the sound of it, the apologies seemed sincere and the story was believable. The grass was longer here and when he lay flat on his belly he was hard to spot. The distracted girl probably just missed him and fell.

"It's okay," he said quietly, his voice carrying a heavy Irish accent. "I thought I was the only was here too."

Noticing that he was still lying down in the grass, Conan sat up and crossed his legs. Bits of grass clung to his wild hair and to his robe. His shirt was untucked and his tie was very wrinkled. One pant leg was up to near his knee while the other was normal length. He lacked socks and his shoes were both untied and caked with mud. This sort of style of not unusual for Conan, he wasn’t one who bothered with his appearance.

After getting a better look at the girl, Conan was sure she was in his potions class. However, since he never interacted with the other students, her name was unknown. The problem was he was too shy to ask for it, or say anything else for that matter. Focusing his eyes on the ground he fiddled with a piece of grass with one hand and laid the second one protectively over his sketchbook. Silence dragged uncomfortably along.

[Tessa Sams]

The silence was incredibly uncomfortable, and Tessa didn't know if she should leave. He was there first...but that didn't mean he had sole claim on the beautiful patch of land in the sunlight. She breathed in deeply and took in the boy's appearance. He was definitely not the best dressed person she had seen, but that made Tessa feel a little bit better around him. She hated that all the people she was housed with were such stuck up jerks that didn't like somebody if they didn't have money. She did a pretty good job of hiding the fact that her family wasn't as incredibly wealthy as everybody else.

"It's just...such a lovely spot. The land around here is so gorgeous. I really wish I was an artist so I could paint or draw this beautiful place, but I'm probably the worst artist anybody has ever met," Tessa said, not realizing that she was just rambling along about nothing.

Tessa realized that she didn't even know this kids name, and he probably didn't know hers. She was the girl that got lost in the background, not that memorable. She smiled at his awkward posture and said to him, "I'm Tessa. We have potions together...but don't worry, I'm not one of those evil Slytherins that hangs out with Malfoy and his annoying crowd...I'm pretty sure the sorting hat made a mistake in placing me there, but whatever..."

She shifted her wait, feeling a little uncomfortable. She didn't usually associate with people from other houses, especially not after embarrassing herself in front (or on top) of them. She laughed lightly at the absurd situation and sat down cross legged not too far from the boy and started ripping a piece of grass into tiny pieces.

(I am just..lost. Such an awkward situation. I apologize for the terribly poor post.)