A late night wander pv Closed

Being trapped indoors could sometimes be the worst. Even with colder temperatures growing, with autumn transforming toward winter, most of the students spent a great deal of their time outside the castle walls. When classes would break, they would cut through the Courtyard. When classes would end, they would assemble on the Grounds to play a quick game of tag, to read a book, or to socialize. They would go to a quidditch game and instead of staying for just a short while, they would get to experience the entire game through. Simon hated that he missed out on so many of these common experiences.

Back at his home in London with his muggle friends, they would often spend a lot of time outside - kicking a football, having snowball fights, running around the streets of South Kensington going here or there or no where in particular at all. At least though in London, when it got dark, that could be his time to be out. As the sun slipped down the horizon in the evening, he could meet up with those friends.

That wasn't something he could do at Hogwarts. Hogwarts had such an early curfew that it forbid a dhampir like him any opportunity to get some fresh air unless he went out for small amounts of time during the day and chanced getting burned - chanced perhaps being discovered.

This particular night he had enough. He had finished his coursework, studied for a History of Magic examination, read a little from a book, and even jotted down a little more to a song he had been working on - but he had become stir crazy. Cabin fever. It was time to get outside.

He grabbed one of his many hooded sweatshirts, his normal attire of choice because they helped shield the sun on sunny days, but this would grant him the little warmth needed to go out on this cold night. While others would need much more than a sweatshirt, Simon Kincaid's body temperature always ran cold and being at freezing, he would only notice a slight chill.

Through the corridors he went and out from the Entrance Hall doors. He stepped down a few cobblestone steps and was out on the grounds. The moon above provided him some light and he was met first with the path that led towards the Great Lake, aligned with some trees. He had gone that way before, so instead he strode off toward the left. It was that way in which he saw someone in the distance, he watched as she moved from one patch of foliage to the next. Simon wasn't totally sure if it was a prefect or not, but he didn't think so. "Psst! Psst, hey!" he said, kinda loudly but also soft. He didn't want to startle her. "What are you looking for?" Perhaps she dropped something like a bracelet and was trying to find it. Maybe he could help.

Clair almost screamed, she had not been expecting someone to Psst! Psst! Hey! at her, sure she was not doing anything wrong, what she did do was fall over as she turned around, she started to laugh a little, "Hello, I am just looking at the gardens, I...well...I'm exploring the Grounds, I have not seen most of it, want to explore with me?'' she offered, it would be nice to have a partner in crime. She stood up, and reached out her semi dirty hand, "my name is Clair, Clair Fernandez. I'm a first year Ravenclaw, you?" She could not guess his house by his clothing, he was wearing a hoodie, it had no outright way of saying 'I'm a.....' She knew she had not seen him in her common room, that narrowed the chances of him being a Ravenclaw, but she felt she had seen him at a table, she could not place which table, but a table beside her house's table, which meant if she was right that he was a Slytherin or a Hufflepuff, and by looking at him she guessed that he was not a Slytherin, "Are you a Hufflepuff by any chance?" She asked hoping that she was right, he was taller then her by a bit, so she guessed that he was second or third year, but she was not sure. "what are you doing out here?" She asked smiling, pulling out her wand she muttered "Lumos" her wand light up and the darkness that surrounded them disappeared, "That's better!" She said smiling
(Wc 260)
@Simon Kincaid

He cast his eyes down the moment she muttered the incantation for her spell because he knew the bright light would appear from the end of her wand. Being a dhampir meant his pupils would widen more than normal and so the darkness of the Grounds there at night didn't bother him and he could see better than she could have. He didn't mind that she had casted Lumos, it was just that he needed his eyes to adjust again before he glanced up and scared her to no end. That wasn't the right way to get started when making a new friend.

"Yea, Hufflepuff," he said, glancing up now because he was sure his eyes had adjusted to normal. "Simon Kincaid, Second Year," he said and smiled to her. "And I think I'm just doing what you're doing...feeling a little stir crazy indoors sometimes so decided to come out here for a walk. It's a nice night," he said, trying to justify that it was because it was a nice night that he was out - and not that it was because it was night.

"And sure, I'd love the company, Clair Fernandez. Let's explore." But before they stepped away from the small patch of plants they stood near, he leaned down. "Did you know these ones only bloom at night?" he pointed to one of the flowers. Despite it growing colder there in the Scottish Highlands, it was still holding its own.

"There's a whole patch of them over there," he pointed off to the right.

Clair noticed how as soon as she cast her Lumos, Simon looked down. She knew that so e people hated light, some even hated the users of spells such as Lumos,
"I can turn it off if you want" she said softly, Clair was a rather calm person, she was more of a follower and not a leader.
Smiling widely when she was proven to be correct about his house Clair laughed and said "I wanted to be a Hufflepuff, some people think that Hufflepuffs are dumb, or stupid, but I agree with them, Friends and loyalty. But my love of learning was to much, the sorting hat was confused I do admit!" she laughed, her laugh was not loud like some peoples laughs, nothing about Clair was loud or outrageous other then her knowledge of this, Magic things were her weakness having been from a Muggle family, but every thing else was common knowledge to Clair, some might say she was a nerd."Stir crazy is right! I am more of a 'night owl' I love the time just after the sun goes down, most students are not out at that time, so it gives you time to explore alone without all the screaming yelling kids, in my opinion Curfew is way to early here."
When Simon told her about the flowers Clair was interested, they were very pretty,
"Can you tell me more please? I'd love to learn about them!" she said
Bending down to look closer.

IDK my word count, I'm to lazy to count every word and the word counter is gone, sorry if it's under the proper count!

"I don't know all too much. I know the main purpose of flower blossoms is for the plant to spread their seeds. The flower attracts pollinators, like bees, but they can be moths, mosquitos, butterflies... Most pollinators roam only in daylight, leading most flowers to open up wen the sun is out to fit their schedule but not all pollinators like to be out and about when the light is out." Simon could relate to that. "Pollinators like moths only roam at night and the flowers they pollinate have to adjust to their schedule. Usually it's flowers like these, that are white, that better attract them. The ones here are a Casablanca Lily, but the ones over here are Ipomoeas. Back at London, I had a neighbor that had a collection of evening Primroses in the front lawn."

Simon then grew a little quiet. For not saying he knew much, he certainly just went on quite awhile about outdoor plants - even alluding to the fact that this wasn't just a Hogwarts thing but also something he knew about from back home.

Would his fellow evening explorer wonder? Would she question? Would she seem to realize that perhaps he was just like those moths and moonflowers that he spoke of - liking to be out and about when the light is out.

For claiming that he knew nothing Simon knew a lot! Clair laughed and pointed her wand to the light,
"Wow, you know a lot! Do you like being outside after dark?" her question was simple and was more for the sake of making a topic to talk about, but Clair was also wondering about the boy, he was in a normal sweatshirt, while she was in everything she could fit on, why was he not cold? She guessed some kind of magic, but she did not want to be rude, maybe later she would ask, just maybe.
As she looked at the flower she wondered what it was thinking, did flowers even think? How could you learn? Ask the flower? She looked back up at Simon,
"Do you like Hufflepuff? Is you whole family Hufflepuff? The rest of mine is Slytherin, it's kind of funny that way!" Clair looked around and stopped thinking about her Lumos, it went out and she cursed quietly, she mutter Lumos again and it came back on, 'try not to forget about it!' She thought
"Do you like fire? I love to have big bonfires!" Clair loved the smell of smoke and the crackle of the burning wood, to her fire was soothing...
(209)

"Yeah," he said, stopping short of saying that most of his time outdoors was spent after dark. That would be rather obvious. "Back home in London I'd always go out in the late evenings. Less people but it's a busy town so everything's still alive. The Underground still runs and you've got free run of the Capital," he smiled, obviously having good memories of it.

She then asked him about his thoughts on his house as she flickered the light of her wand back on and he squinted, again. His eyes had already adjusted to the lack of light and instantly came back to a 'normal' with the bright light once more.

"Yea, I enjoy Hufflepuff. Actually I think it was the perfect place for me. People underestimate Hufflepuffs but the way I see it, we've got the best of all houses. We're loyal and persistant like Gryffindor, we're hardworking and determined like Ravenclaw, we're cunning like Slytherin, and we've got kindness and friendliness on our side." Okay, now he was starting to sound a little cheesy and he knew it. Time to move on. "I only had my mum that came here. My Aunt Maggie, she never got a letter and my mum was a muggleborn. She was in Gryffindor and she definitely was a true Gryffindor. She had to deal with...so much and I don't know how most could have done it. I'm proud of what she did."

He always spoke hightly of his mother, even if he didn't remember her personally.

Then she asked about fires and he had to smile a little. Hufflepuffs and fires always seemed to somehow go together at Hogwarts. "Yea, I like fires. They're like experiencing a little bit of the sun...light and warmth." The sun was something he didn't experience too often.

"Was your family upset when you didn't get Slytherin?"

Clair smiled when he told her that he liked being outside at dark, she also felt relief when he gave a good reason, she decided that it was time, she could tell him what she had thought, because now she did not think that anymore! "I love the dark for the same reasons as you! I was not from London I was on a farm, but the dark had less people, less crowdedness." she took a deep breath, "I'm glad that that is why you like the night, I was starting to think you were allergic to the sun!" she had said this as a joke, sure she had thought that, but Clair was not a rude person, she did not want to be rude!
She dismissed her joke and went on, "so your a half blood then? I'm muggle born so my sisters and I are the only magic ones in our family, Your mum sounds great!" what she had said was true, she did think that his mum sounded great!
"Yeah, my one Sister who is still here at Hogwarts, my other one finished a few years ago, has not spoken to me since I was sorted into Ravenclaw."
(202)

"That would be hard," he said, sensing that she probably felt bad that her sister was excluding her like that. Maybe there was another reason for the avoidance though, he really didn't know. "It can be hard for people to accept some things. We're only human. We're not perfect."

It still didn't always make it better.

Simon looked over to Clair for a moment and focused on what she said about starting to think he was allergic to the sun. Was it wrong to not tell others what he was? I mean, especially in situations like this where they were already thinking it - was it a lie to not let it be known? Simon never wanted to lie.

Still, he thought about what others might think and he definitely didn't want to deter this friendship. With all that kept getting put in the school's newspaper, the Hogwarts Headliner, he knew there was more skepticism over dhampirs than ever. Probably not the best idea to say anything at all. Even if he brought up the notion of his mother and aunt believing all those years he had an actual muggle genetic condition that caused aversion to the sunlight - she still might think it was because he was a dhampir. She'd be right, but would she be afraid?

"What was it like living on a farm? I've really only seen some birds, squirrels and pigeons, like a couple rabbits. I've seen the bobbies on horses, but that's about it," he really didn't know much about animals.