It was early. The sun was just rising and Lizzie had no idea why she was awake. Sure, during the school year, she'd wake up right after curfew was lifted to go for a run, but she'd decided to take a break from that during camp. Camp was supposed to be fun and relaxing. It wasn't too relaxing to wake up a sunrise every single day. Then she got tired earlier and couldn't stay up to look at the stars, or talk with her tentmates.

With a sigh, the redhead retrieved a muggle hoodie from her tent and pulled it on. There, now she wouldn't freeze. She padded across the camp, her hands tucked into the sleeves of the hoodie and her unruly curls flying every-which-way. If she was awake, she might as well watch the sunrise. Maybe it would be interesting. Or, maybe not interesting, but have colors other than the usual oranges and yellows.

Movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention, and she glanced over. A figure walked across the dewy grass, seemingly going the same direction Lizzie was. Someone to talk to?! Being quite extroverted, Lizzie loved it when she had people to talk to. It was the best thing. Sitting by herself was okay, at times, but then she got urges to just talk and she'd rather not look like a psycho talking to herself.

She altered her course slightly so that she'd near the other student. "Hello!" she chirped. As a morning person, almost as soon as she woke up, she was awake and functioning. Some people found that irritating. Hopefully, this person wouldn't be one of them. "How are you doing on this fine morning? Going to watch the sunrise?" The words just spilled out of her mouth before she could stop them. Hopefully, the other person would take her hint and converse with her, and not just give her one-word answers. Unless they weren't a morning person. Then she understood not wanting to talk. Her brother wasn't a morning person and he was always a pain to talk to in the mornings.

Matrix would wake up early. The sun was not up yet, but the orange began bleeding into the early horizon. Matrix would be wearing a black hoodie, with the hood up and his hands in his pockets. When he was almost to the viewpoint he was heading towards, he would hear a voice. "Hello!" Matrix would jump out into the air and turn towards the voice. “What?” He would yelp in surprise. He did not see anyone else here before, but now that he looked again, he would see a girl walking towards the same point as him. "How are you doing on this fine morning? Going to watch the sunrise?" The girl would say. “Uh, good I guess. How about you?” He knew he was a morning person, but this girl was so much more awake then him. “ and yes I am” He would look at the sun. “ Let’s go fast before we miss it!” Matrix would motion towards the sun’s position. He would smile at the girl. “ Did not expect to see anyone else this early. I am Matrix Kaida. A pleasure to meet you” He would say once they reached the point. Matrix would then take a seat on the dewy grass, not minding the wetness. His parents always told him that you can see stuff in the morning that you could not see any other stuff. He would turn backwards for a quick second and see the moon disappearing into the moon setting.

@Lizzy Callaghan

Lizzie's smile faded slightly as she realized the boy wasn't nearly as awake as she was. She felt bad for approaching him with such energy. "I'm doing well, thanks," she replied, trying to tone down her enthusiasm. As the boy confirmed that he was, indeed, going to watch the sunrise, Lizzie nodded in approval. It would've been pretty awkward if he wasn't.

"Let's go fast before we miss it!" he exclaimed, as he motioned towards the sun. With a black hoodie on, he looked just like a shadow, especially since he was being backlit by the sun. It was pretty cool. She would have loved to take a picture of him with the sun behind him, as a reference to draw or paint, but muggle devices didn't really work at Hogwarts or around magic so that clearly wasn't going to happen.

As the two of them reached a good vantage point to watch the sunrise, the boy introduced himself as Matrix Kaida. At first, Lizzie wasn't sure if she'd heard him correctly. "Matrix?" she repeated, confusion lacing her voice. "Like the muggle movie?" It had to be Matrix. There wasn't any other name she could think of that sounded like that.

"You've got an interesting name!" she exclaimed after she'd accepted the fact that his name was, indeed, Matrix. "Mine is so boring compared to yours. It's Lizzie. It's not short for anything, either. Just Lizzie." She dramatically sighed, as if it was such a bad thing to have a relatively common name, but the smile on her face betrayed her real feelings; she didn't really care that her name wasn't short for anything nor that it was sorta common. She never was a very good actress.

"Like the muggle movie?" The would ask him about his name. “ Yah, I guess” Matrix would say thinking. “ But don’t think I have watched it yet” Matrix would say nodding “I honestly have no clue why my parents named me Matrix...” He would say sighing “It’s as random as Elon Musk’s kid’s name!” He would say laughing a bit. “ He is a Muggle Entrepreneur, if you did not know.” He would say to her. He needed to remember that some families only payed attention to Wizarding news. He was not sure which one she was.

The girl would then introduce herself. “Lizzie” Matrix would repeat trying the name. “All names are interesting” Matrix would give her a warm smile. Though his name was cool, it’s meaning did not seem very suitable.

After he had said this, he would see the orange horizon bleed into the rest of the sky. He could see some reds and yellows as well. He would watch as every inch of the area around him slowly became brighter by the sun’s touch. “ Beautiful, isn’t it?” Matrix would say soaking in all the light, sighing. No matter how many times he had seen the sun rise, it never got old.

@Lizzie Callaghan

@Matrix Kaida

Elon Musk had a kid?! Lizzie knew that he had a very successful space company, but not that he had a kid. That was news. "I know of Elon Musk," she told him. "But I didn't know he had a kid with a weird name. I guess I'll look that up when I get home from camp." She made a mental note to do that, although she was pretty certain she'd forget by the end of camp.

With a start, she realized she'd been standing the whole time, while Matrix looked like he'd been sitting down for a while. Awkwardly, she plopped down on the ground and leaned back onto her hands. Slowly but surely, the sky started to turn orange, and the whole world lightened a little bit. The darkness from night faded into a baby blue and the sun peeked out from behind some small clouds. It looked like a scene out of a painting. Very pretty.

"Very beautiful," she agreed, really wishing her had her sketchbook and sighing as she remembered that she'd sent it home with a couple of her more fragile belongings. Her smile fell for a second before she perked back up. "Matrix, do you by any chance have a muggle camera?" Although she doubted he did, considering how muggle electronics tended to malfunction around magic, it was worth the ask.

"Ah, forget it..." she mumbled after a second. "I don't think muggle cameras work here." Although she was just restating her previous thoughts, she wasn't sure exactly how much Matrix knew about the magic world and did want to leave him confused from her randomly dismissing her question. "Anyways," she continued. "What do you like to do for fun?"

Lizzie would then ask him if he had a Muggle camera. “No, not at the moment. I may have one in my bag but I think I may have left it in my tent. This would of made a nice picture” Matrix would say. Lizzie would then point out that Muggle technology may not work here. “That would explain why my camera won’t turn on.” Matrix would laugh a little and then sigh. “ I wonder what spells Wizards use instead of a camera ...“ Matrix would reach out and pretend to grab the sun.

Lizzie would then ask him what his hobbies where. Matrix would think for a second before responding. “I play the violin and I love to hike and travel the world. What about you?” He would ask her. He looked at the sun and noticed that it was about an hour before everyone else in his tent would wake up. He had plenty of time to relax, and even get a new friend? “Have you traveled out of the country before?” Matrix would ask curiously. He loved to learn about new places and where people had traveled. He would let out a sigh, thinking about it.

@Lizzie Callaghan

Lizzie laughed along with Matrix. She could only imagine his confusion when he first discovered his camera wouldn't turn on at Hogwarts. Luckily, her older brother had warned her that muggle devices didn't work around magic, so she'd been spared of the confusion. She had also wondered what spells or things pure-bloods used to capture photos. Well, not photos, since from what she'd seen they were more like muggle gifs on paper, but the point still stands. She didn't know any purebloods well enough to ask, unfortunately.

"You like to travel?" Lizzie asked. "That's really cool! I'd like to travel more if I didn't get sick every time I go on a plane." she laughed softly. Since she lived in Ireland, she didn't have the travel opportunities those on mainland Europe did. She had once taken a trip to the mainland and that week, she'd visited at least three countries. It was insane how far the tram would take you. "I don't really have that many hobbies," she added, in response to his question. "I do some art stuff, I run, that's about it, though."

She was quiet while Matrix asked another question. "I live in Dublin, so being here is out of the country for me." She knew that wasn't really the answer he was looking for though, so she added, "But I went to France, Belgium, and the Netherlands a couple of years ago. What about you? Since you like to travel, I imagine you've been to many more places than I have."

Lizzie would say that she would love to travel, but did not like planes. “I am sure there is magic you can use to travel around instead of a plane.” Matrix would say thinking about it. “Or even one so you don’t feel sick” He did not know the name of the spell for either, but knew how much wizards and witches relied on magic. “They must have come up with something!” Matrix would think.

Lizzie would then tell him her hobbies. Matrix would nod at this. He tried to run at least every other day. “Staying in shape will help you achieve academic success” His mom had told him. Better to start early to get into the routine. “What kind of art do you like to do?” Matrix would ask curiously.

Lizzie would tell him that she is from Dublin. “Ireland is a beautiful place” Matrix would nod at this. “I’ve been to Ireland once, but was there for only a week.” She would then tell him the places that she visited. “I’ve never been to Belgium or Netherlands.” Lizzie would then ask him what countries he has been to. “Well I’ve been to quite a few in each continent...” Matrix would say, not wanting to list each one as Lizzie may think he was bragging. “So what house are you in?” Matrix would ask. The sorting ceremony was coming soon and he was excited to see what house he would get into. Luckily he had been able to make it into the summer camp. His parents said it was a good opportunity for him to make new friends before the school year.

@Lizzie Callaghan

Lizzie's eyes narrowed as she contemplated what Matrix said. Yeah, the magic world surely had something that could help with her motion sickness on planes. It was just on planes though. She was fine on boats, in the car, or on a tram. It was just planes, for some reason. There had to be a spell for it like the dark-haired boy had expressed. She knew there was apparation and floo networks that she could theoretically use, but her parents liked to use the muggle ways when possible. Something about how fascinated her mother was by muggle technology. She was about to share her thoughts on the topic when Matrix continued.

"What kind of art do you like to do?”

Ohhh did he really want to go down that path?! Lizzie could talk for hours about art. "I mainly draw, like pencil sketches and charcoal and stuff, but I've dabbled in digital art --it's a muggle thing-- and I do some occasional painting, although I'm not very good at it-" she paused to take a breath. Maybe she should stop... She was sorta starting to ramble... Yeah, stopping seemed like the best option. She didn't want to scare Matrix off with her obsession with art.

She let Matrix talk about his hobby, which he clearly loved just as much as she loved her art. When it seemed like he was done, she commented, "Wow! You've been to so many places! Which was your favorite?" She noticed how vague he was about the exact counties he'd been to, but chose not to mention it. It wasn't a big deal, really. "Oh, and I'm a Gryffindor. You?" she added after a second, his question not quite processing in her brain until then.

Lizzie would tell him that she tried a bit of visual art along with sketches. “Ah digital art” He had heard about it before, but had never tried it. “I’ll try it out later, but definitely not in Hogwarts” He would say laughing a little. “My visual art skills are not the best” Matrix would say sighing. “I hope I don’t get an assignment where I have to draw, or I will get a failing grade for that assignment. Though I could always use a little bit of magic.” Matrix would say with a mischievous grin.

Lizzie would then ask him what place in the world was his favorite. Matrix would think a while before answering. “Probably Japan, maybe....I’ve lived there almost 2 full years....the longest I’ve been anywhere. So it kind of feels like a second home a little, I guess” It was a hard question, as Matrix had loved every place he had visited.

Lizzie would tell him that she made it into Gryffindor. She would then ask him what house he had gotten into. Matrix would laugh a little. “ I have not been sorted yet, but I guess I kind of want to be a Hufflepuff, as non of the other houses really fit me. I am not sure about the loyal friend part, as I really never had one.” Matrix would say before smiling again. “ But I am sure I will make some here!”



@Lizzie Callaghan