Lonely Nights PV Arran Magdaleno Closed

​Arran was walking in the hallways when he met up with his older brother, Felix, who was in Gryffindor, the House evryone thought Arran would get in. But unfortunately no, Arran was in Hufflepuff. At first he had been angry about it but after a while he realized that it wasn't so bad. He made a lot of friends and the badgers won the House Cup anyway, so he didn't have that much to complain about - except that everyone in his family was going to have something to say.

"The Sorting Hat is never wrong..." said Felix, shrugging. "I don't know, maybe you were thinking about Grandpa Louie?"

Arran glared at his brother, furious. "You know very well that didn't happen. That thing..." He folded his arms angrily. "Some nasty Slytherin probably had something to do with it, probably holding a grudge with one of you, I bet."

His brother raised his arms in defense, a small amused smile on his face. "Oh, don't go blaming us, little brother. After all, the Hat was looking in your head, not ours. And everyone was there; it'd be hard to conjure up some spell that only effected one person out of so many first-years, anyway, especially for a student at Hogwarts." The Hufflepuff just walked in silence, worried about his parents.

Sensing this, Felix clapped his younger brother on the shoulders. "Oh, I'm sure mum and dad won't be that upset. Father always did say you were a little soft, especially for girls -"

"Shut up!" He burst into laughter as Arran let out a series of punches at him tears in his eyes. Arran exhaled and pushed him in irritation, but then he joined him in laughing. After they calmed down, Felix gave his brother a solemn smile and rubbed his head.

"Good luck telling father. See you?" And his brother left him, leaving Arran to wander around until he eventually found himself outside. It was night and almost time for the students to go to bed but he wanted to get a last breathe of fresh air before he went to sleep, maybe it would help him think clearly instead of worrying so much.

As he was walking, Arran noticed someone near the trees and he raised his eyebrows. Was someone else sulking about something? He wouldn't be surprised, but maybe talking could help him get out these negative feelings. Arran really didn't like being sad or stressed at all.

He waved back and stood in front of the person, who happened to be a girl. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and sighed softly. "Hullo. It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" He gazed at her for a moment before looking up at the stars, closing his eyes.

“Hullo. It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" The words of the stranger shocked her out of her brooding, she hadn’t expected them to join her.

Looking up, she saw that the stranger was a boy with fluffy blonde hair and slightly tan skin, he had his eyes closed and his head tilted back toward the stars. Sam wasn’t used to people her age willingly speaking to her, they tended to make fun of her height, her hair, and her card and coin tricks. Her mother and father never pushed her to make friends, they understood that she was often a solitary person and wanted mostly to sit and read her books and write her poetry. She tended to get along better with her parents and so didn’t tend to go out and try to make friends. Sometimes she’d stop people to get their picture for a collection but that’s about it. She also liked hanging out with her uncle and aunt more as well, they always gave her books and talled and her uncle would teach her more magic tricks.

Samara considered for a second and finally spoke, “It is, the stars are so bright out here. I’m Sam by the way.” And scooted over so he could sit down if he wanted.

Arran opened his eyes again and went to sit next to the girl, crossing his arms over his knees. "I'm Arran. Is Sam short for something, perhaps Samantha?" She was cute but sadly he had his eyes on anothee girl. Well, he wasn't exactly sure yet, his options were still open, but he was only eleven and didn't want to get too deep into relationships with girls, he had other things to focus on at the moment. Right now he didn't even want to think about love, he just wanted to let out all the anger he had in his head.

Arran rubbed his face and sighed deeply. "Have you worked your way up to something you really wanted, and everyone thought you were going to get it without a doubt, but when it was time for what you wanted to come, you were entirely disappointed and now you fear the the shame your family will feel from even knowing you?" That was a very...deep way to describe being placed in a House you didn't want to be in, in his case Hufflepuff instead of Gryffindor, but he just didn't want to the look in his father's eyes, or feel the anger in the Howler they'd probably send. Well, only his grandmother Josephine would send a Howler over being sorted "wrong", but Arran was still very upset.

"I apologise, I just get so worked up sometimes, and my older brother doesn't help at all..." Arran peeked at Sam from between his hands. "So what's your deal? You don't look giddy and jolly yourself, Ravenclaw." He liked her hair; Arran liked to hang around interesting people, people who may think they're weird or misfits, not saying she was one. People whonwere ordinary and boring weren't his type at all.

Sam nodded, “Arran, that’s a cool name, mine is actually short for Samara. After the fable not the horror movie villian.” She had an attempt at a smile but it was short-lived.

Sam sighed, she might as well share why she was so upset:

“I miss my home.” Sam leant her head back against the tree with a thunk, “I’m sick and tired of being the odd one out. I want people not to look at me funny when I say that I prefer to do my own laundry or that I’d rather use non-magical cameras to take photographs. The muggleborns and wizardborns look at me like I’m crazy and the other half-bloods are so happy that they aren’t squibs that they think I’m weird for not wanting to use magic.”

“I know it sounds weird but I wish that I wasn’t here, at home I don’t have to talk to anyone I don’t want to talk to, or share a bedroom, or wake up at a specific time, or wear those itchy black robes.” Samara realised her voice had been getting louder and looked a bit embarrassed.

“Sorry.” Sam winced, “I got a bit carried away.”

Sam turned back to the boy, “So, what’s got you upset?”

Grumbling Marcia made her way through the corridors. The school year was only a few weeks old and her female colleague had already called in sick. Now she had to patrol the grounds, at night on top of that, and Marcia once again asked herself, why she had accepted that damn badge. The students were all in their dorms and those who weren't were on their way. 

Some older students passed her as she climbed the stairs to the entrance hall. Both of them held heavy books; library books no doubt. With a quick nod she left them behind. They weren't her concern. as older students they were nevertheless allowed to stay a little longer, although it was beyond Marcia why someone would want to stay in the hallways at night. She avoided to look to her left or right and rather focused on walking straight, eyes darted an her feet. Hogwarts at night, while being alone, was an eery place. 

Usually the halls were filled with laughter or chatter, but now you could hear the sound of air rushing through the countless gasps of the old castle, making it seem as if it was breathing. Marcia shuddered and quickened her steps. 

The grounds weren't better. It was already dark, the days were gradually getting shorter and you could see the first signs of autumn in the tree line of the near forest. Marcia pulled out her wand: 

"Lumos!" Nothing happened. She cursed under her breath and didn't attempt to cast the spell a second time. 

It was one of the easiest spells anyone could learn, but she still hadn't got the hang of it. Quite embarrassing.

She loved the grounds and knew every inch of them, so she didn't need the light anyway to find her way, but she would have felt better to have at least some light. Her robes tightly wrapped around her she made her way and tried to not pay too much attention to the noises of the night. 

Her own steps in the grass were soothing, so she begun counting them. She had made a habit, that she would count her own steps to give herself some sense of time. There weren't much clocks to find at Hogwarts, so she started measuring her patrolling duty time in steps. 1000 needs to be reached till she could call it a day and finally go to bed. 

"167, 168, 169 ..." A bed, what would she give for her bed. Nine hours of lessons were utterly too much. They also had to make some room for homework and, in her case, prefect duties. The day hasn't enough hours. 

"344, 355, 35-" She stopped. Somewhere in front she heard faint chatter. Annyed she closed her eyes when she realised, that she had found some students. Noone was allowed to be out here, not even the older ones.  Okay, remember protocol. 

Whoever it was, they probably couldn't see her in the dark without a light at the tip of her wand indicating her position. She herself could only hear them, so the rogue students hadn't lighten their wand either. A direction was, however, enough. Once again she lifted her wand and pointed it in the sky where the students were chatting. 

"Verdimillous!" A bright green spark emerged following a straight line. A hiss could be heard shortly before a loud bang filled the air over the grounds. The spark exploded and expanded, covering the area in green light. 

She could now see two young students. With all the authority she could muster she spoke: "Oy, no lingering on the grounds past sunset!" She still held her wand. "Both of you, back to your dorms!" It was the first time she actually cought students out of beds, but she figured that it only had been a matter of time. "Back," she repeated, pointing at Hogwarts with her wand. The light was already beginning to fade, but she recognized them to be a boy and a girl. Marcia didn't care why they were out here. 

With a sigh she waited for them to make their leave. Shit, where was I? 326? Damn I have to start over.