Lost in Thought PV Taylor Haywood Closed

He laughed a little at her zombie impression. Not bad. Oh lord...that got him thinking, do ZOMBIES exist?! That would be another thing to add to his list. Silly as it may be, if you would have asked him a year ago if unicorns and dragons, werewolves and vampires, elves and imps existed, he would have laughed. Now, gosh...he didn't know what was fact from fiction!

"Where to begin..." he said, laughing softly again because he had the smallest family imaginable. Nearly. "Well, my family is me and my Aunt Maggie who is ...the greatest. I wouldn't change a thing about her." He hoped people realized how lucky he felt to have just her. Some felt pity but it wasn't like that. Aunt Maggie was absolutely wonderful and so had the life she had helped to give him.

"My mum broke up with my father before realizing I was even here and uh, she didn't feel the need to tell him about me so he's never been in the picture." Talking about it sometimes was a bit odd. Honestly, Simon didn't even know his name and that never bothered him much but now as he was getting older, questions did start to surface.

"My mum, gosh. She...she was thrown into a whirlwind. She had just graduated from here actually. She was a Gryffindor. So, at 17 she just graduated and her parents both passed in an accident. She had go get a job and support herself and her 14 year old sister. Then I popped up and things got even more complicated. Things never got easier for her either. She died of cancer when I was three. I don't remember her but I know she was brave and confident and did everything she could for me and her sister and she loved us so much. So then my Aunt Maggie had a three year old me to take care of at 17. She was then thrown into that whirlwind."

But Simon supposed that was life sometimes. Some people had calmness and some people had chaos. One never knew what life was going to throw at you.

"No siblings though," he laughed. "And Aunt Maggie is twenty-five and barely dates from her worklife so I don't see having a cousin any time soon but one never knows... No pets either. Just me and Aunt Maggie."

"And you know, one of my friends is in Slytherin. I think you've got to remember that they're also known for determination and all that, ambition. It's not all bad stuff. Your mum probably embodied the good traits of the Slytherin house that the sorting hat saw."

"Aunt Maggie sounds incredible. I'm sorry about your mom though. We should start a dead moms club." Taylor said this with a small laugh. She tended to make jokes out of bad subjects. She didn't mean it in a bad way it's just how she coped with sad things in her life, and in other peoples. "That was uhm, a joke if you could not tell. Sorry." She had really hoped she didn't just make things awkward with her new friend. She looked down and fiddled with her locket.

"Do you wanna see my grandfather?" She opened her locket and held it out to him so he could look. "He was a star Quidditch player y'know. He was a seeker. I don't want to play it though. You have experienced how clumsy I am, and that's just a foot from the ground." Taylor flying sounded like a recipe for disaster. Something she would rather not experience was falling off a broom and hurtling towards the ground. She would much rather stick on the ground with her books, where it was safe, and it was much less likely for her to plummet to her death. However that could happen while just standing on a chair as she had previously found out.

@Simon Kincaid

She was good. He laughed along with her at the joke and didn't take any offense to it in the least. She then mentioned if he wanted to see her grandfather and he leaned forward to take a look at the small picture inside the locket as she showed her.

"Oh, there are so many boys in the dorms that like quidditch. They all want to play for the House team or have banners up with what professional teams they support. Back home in London I played squash for the school team but that was about it," he laughed again. It was a form of raquetball but it didn't seem to have a lot of popularity. "I've no interest in quidditch. Fascinating sport, though, truly. It's just personally not for me either. Not due to clumsiness but because I can't be outdoors very long. Genetic condition."

Oh no, there he went again with talking about genes. Ha. It wasn't intentional for the conversation to go back like that. He looked at the photograph and examined it. Sometimes you could tell a lot about a person by just a photograph. It was in their eyes. "He looks like a kind person," Simon complimented her grandfather.

So that was two special people in her life. Her mother and her grandfather. He wondered if she had had lost him too. "Tell me about him."

"Hmm can't go outside? Must be a vampire. Are those even real? I haven't the faintest idea." she said with a small laugh.

She loved talking about her grandfather. He was such an interesting person. "Well my grandpa is my best friend. I could always talk to him about anything. And he's taught me so many things about Hogwarts. I saw him over break but he was quite sick, I'm worried but it's probably just a cold." Taylor said that last part more for herself than for Simon. She doesn't know what she would do without him. He's her last tie to magic in her family. Besides her of course.

"You see my dad tried to hide my letter at first. He wanted me to be normal. Magic scared him and all that. But my grandpa knew what he was up to and found the letter for me." Taylor had kind of resented her father since that had happened. She understood why he didn't want her to be magic. It's what had killed her mother after all. She was a bit scared of magic too of course. Who wouldn't be. But her curiosity triumphed her fear but it was always still there in the back of her mind.

@Simon Kincaid

He laughed, "my aunt sometimes calls me that. I've got a list of things I want to learn about while I'm here and it seems vampires might be a thing. Honestly, I'm a little scared to touch that subject yet though," but he had seen books about it there in that very library.

"Technical term is Xeroderma Pigmentosum," he said, thinking that a Ravenclaw might like knowing that for some reason. "I dunno, it just hurts to feel the sun for too long and I can get a pretty bad burn. I assure you though, I have a heartbeat and I've never drank blood," he laughed.

At least for now he could laugh about it. When he was just a baby he would cry and cry and cry when he was taken outside. Not long after he was able to walk, his mother and aunt took a trip to the beach and that resulted in a terrible burn. A doctor suggested this genetic condition but his mother was already tired of doctors and procedures by this point in her diagnosis that she didn't want to put her little boy through that and never really pursued it further.

It would still be a long while before Simon found out the truth in the matter. Maybe in his Second Year, maybe even later, he would begin to piece it together. Vampires WERE real. His father was one, making him a dhampir. But for now, he was ignorant to the fact 100 percent.

"We could make him some sort of present? A thinking of you card or a bookmark? I mean, I know how to make some different types of friendship bracelets and if we don't tie them off, then they'd be like a bookmark. Just something so he knows you're thinking of him?" Simon offered up what little talents he had. His aunt had taught him. She probably wished she had a niece instead of a nephew.

"Great idea! And we can make some for eachother too." Taylor had never made a friendship bracelet before. She didn't have many friends back home. But it couldn't be too hard. She was a witch afterall. If she couldn't make a simple bracelet how could she expect to make it in the wizarding world.

"I'm sorry about the whole not being able to go outside thing. That must suck. Maybe if you like had an umbrella or something...it could block the sun." Taylor thought that was axtually quite a genius idea. Stop the sun from getting to you and you can't burn right? Although it would look rather odd to walk around on a sunny day with an umbrella "On second thought maybe we can just stay inside. Nothing is wrong with being inside. It's better in some ways. Freezing though." Taylor always got incredibly cold easily. She always had to sleep with about 5 blankets to be warm at night.

All of a sudden, she noticed just how close she was sitting to Simon. Their knees basically touching. She got very flustered though she did not know why so she moved a little bit to the side. She didn't know whyy she felt flustered. She just did.

@Simon Kincaid

"I don't think I've ever gotten cold," he admitted, stating the opposite of how Taylor usually felt. He smiled, "my aunt even sent me this puffy winter coat here at school." It wasn't needed but he loved that she had thought of him.

"Alright so we need to figure out some supplies. We need the right sort of thread and I think that's about it. Know anyone that might have some?" He figured some of the girls in the Hufflepuff Common Room might because he saw some of them knitting at times. Still, he wasn't sure exactly who to ask. "I could always write to Aunt Maggie but it might take a couple days to gather the materials that way."

He thought about the professors but no, none immediately came to mind that might have such materials. "Did your grandfather go to Hogwarts?" he asked, the thought popping into his mind. Maybe they could make the bookmark in his house colors if so. She could attach a note with it sharing about her experiences at the school and maybe bring back some fond memories for him. He knew that his mother had loved her time at Hogwarts and they had been some of the best years of her life. Maybe it was the same for her grandfather.

"I still don't really know too many people here. None that I think would have that anyway. Well actually! There's this girl I met yesterday. Paige I think was her name. Yes Paige Chase. She had loads of bracelets on her arm. Maybe she would have some." The girl had been incredibly nice to Taylor and they even went and ate breakfast together. She hadn't really talked to her lately which saddened Taylor a bit.

"He did go to Hogwarts. He was a Hufflepuff just like you actually. He always told me stories about his time here. He even met my grandmother in his 2nd year." She smiled at the thought of his stories. Her favorite one was always the story of the Yule Ball he attended. She always dreamed of what it will be like to attend one. "The colors are yellow and black right? It shouldn't be too difficult to find those colors."

"Did your Aunt Maggie go to Hogwarts? She sounds like she would be a Gryffindor." Taylor was glad not to be sorted into that house. She was not particularly brave. Unless she was bored. Then she could be incredibly spontaneous. One time she ran into the middle of the street while it was raining and just sat in the middle of the road. It was comforting to her.

@Simon Kincaid

Simon gave a wide smile when she mentioned Paige Chase. Of course, Paige. Paige was one of his closest friends here at Hogwarts and she was crafty in all things - ...including snowball fights when a meal was on the line.

"Yeah, those are the colors," he said and listened to her tell that her grandfather was a Hufflepuff too. Good. Somehow it helped him form a bit of a connection with the man even though he never met him. "That's sweet that they met here." Simon wanted that. Well, he wanted a deep form of true love some day although he really hadn't seen it except in books and movies. Aunt Maggie rarely dated and again, he knew nothing of his father.

"Actually, no. Aunt Maggie's not magical. My mum was the only one in the family that got a letter and her parents weren't either." He wasn't very accustomed to the term muggle so he didn't use it. There were so many new terms to know in this new world. "My mum was a Gryffindor though. And Aunt Maggie said she loved this place. I think her best years were here," and he smiled, glancing around the library a moment. He knew his mother had been in there at some point or another and he figured she probably spent a great deal there. She loved reading and would read to him every single night before bed. It's probably where his love of reading sparked from.

"Brilliant! You know Paige too! She was eager to make friends, quite the opposite of me." Taylor said with a small laugh. It seemed like fate that they all met. "Maybe we could become the next Golden Trio. That'd be fun. I call being Hermione though." The thought excited her. Although it wasn't exactly likely, she didn't very well expect to keep friends for long. Better alone. That's what her father had always told her.

"Your mom sounds amazing. What I've heard of her at least. I think we'd get along if I ever had met her." Taylor truly meant that too. She had always gotten along well with adults. More mature than other kids that is what her grandpa would say. She didn't want to be mature all the time though. Too much pressure she thought.

"This is a rather odd question but what's your favorite food? You can always tell a lot about someone by their food taste. If they like chocolate, I find that they're always bubbly and nice. Or, like me, if they love pasta then they are definitely quiet. I love pasta. With meatballs too. Sooo good. Jeez I'm hungry now." The only thing Taylor loved more than reading was food. Cooking food, eating food, even just looking at food. And she had a super fast metabolism so she could eat loads and stay super skinny.

@Simon Kincaid