Far from the Madding Crowd, Prose/Cam!

[♥ James Callum-Monroe]

Hogwarts was, by anyone’s definition, a massive place. There was the castle itself, of course, which seemed to have a never ending number of passageways, rooms and hidden places. As far as James was concerned, the greatest challenge for any person who entered through the doors of the castle was to explore every inch. It was almost certainly an impossible challenge, but it was one that the Gryffindor had readily accepted. Just because he would almost certainly never be able to explore every nook and cranny of Hogwarts didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try—there was just too much to miss out on if he gave up. Besides, the seventh year liked impossible challenges. They were usually far more entertaining than the regular kind.

On the lion’s journeys through Hogwarts, he had found that there were many oddities. That wasn’t really so surprising in a school full of wizards and witches, of course. James found something strange just about every time he left his dorm. It was fantastic. How could anyone ever get bored? It was impossible, unless they were completely insane. As the seventeen year old strolled down the corridor, taking his sweet time to reach his destination, he marveled at how endlessly entertaining Hogwarts was. If it wasn’t the castle itself, it was the residents. On this particular evening, the Gryffindor’s plans included one of his fellow students and a part of the castle he had not yet been able to explore. In fact, he’d only found it this morning, stumbling upon it after taking a wrong turn on the way to the Owlery. The boy could hardly believe it—a whole part of the castle he hadn’t even realized was there. It was rather embarrassing, really.

James had turned around and gone in search of someone who would be willing to explore with him. He’d found his query quickly enough, and now here he was, at the appointed time, entering that mysterious stretch of corridor. The seventh year wasn’t all that concerned about being disturbed, since this place had more dust than anywhere the lion had ever seen. He was also fairly sure that he and his companion wouldn’t get in trouble for being here, since there’d never been any warnings to keep out. It was just a section of the castle that, for whatever reason, no one seemed to use. Odd how many of those there were, wasn’t it? James supposed that, Hogwarts being as old as it was, the school’s needs changed over the years, with places that were once necessary falling into disuse as the years went on. It seemed like the sort of thing that went in cycles. Well, whatever this place had once been used for, and for whatever reason it wasn’t used now, the Gryffindor was grateful to find it empty. It was so much easier to explore when the corridors weren’t crowded with students. It was much easier by oneself, or with one other person. Speaking of other people, James looked over his shoulder down the corridor toward the populated area of the castle. Hopefully Prose could follow his directions.

[Prose Williamson]

Prose was the type of person who enjoyed getting out and going places, even if the destination was ambiguous or sketchy, because she was also the type of person to find herself getting ever so bored if she didn’t. Today, as she tied her forest green converse and made sure she looked presentable enough to go out (though it was almost impossible for her not to be), she thought about James, her Gryffindor friend who she was to go on this adventure with. He had simply walked up to her that day and asked if she wanted to explore an area of the castle he’d never been to, and without thinking about it more than “Oo, that sounds fun,” she said that she would. James seemed like a cool guy, who was obviously confident enough to just walk up to the rather attractive girl and say hey the first time they had met. She liked him for that, along with the fact that he didn’t seem to be a douche. Too many guys who have to courage to walk up to girls do so simply to get laid or whatever, but his motive seemed simply for friendship, which was quite impressive.

Prose stared at her face for a bit in the mirror before finally exiting her dorm and walking through and out of the common room. She had forgotten that the Slytherin common room was in the dungeons and that it would probably take quite a bit of time to get up to the tower that they were supposed to meet at. The sixth year sighed and shook her head, raising her left arm to read her watch. Fifteen minutes before the appointed time. Seemed like it would be enough, but Prose didn’t want to waste the time she had. Speed walking down the corridors and up the many flights of stairs left her more than winded when she finally did manage to reach the towers. The way to the Owlery was on her right and, following her friend’s instructions, took a left instead, heading off into a part of the castle that seemed more run-down than any section of the building she’d been in before. The walls were caked with dust and the windows seemed to realize that this part of the castle was disused, for they only let in a tiny amount of light. Magic was weird sometimes.

She walked for a while down the hallway before discovering her Gryffindor friend near a T intersection of stairs, one heading up and the other down. Prose waved to James and smiled dorkily, and then quickly put her hand down and flattened out her face, not wanting to look as weird as she thought she had just looked. Oog, she thought to herself, Am I trying to impress this guy? She had no idea if she had more-than-friend feelings for James at the moment, but her body apparently had different plans, though this seemed to happen with every attractive guy she met. It was quite annoying. She made it to where James was finally and said “Hey,” and smiled a bit. Interestingly enough, she found herself actually excited to see where this adventure would take them, for some reason. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t ever explored the castle, but it was never dull in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. “Well, which staircase shall we take?” Prose asked her friend, pointing in the direction of the two staircases. The girl smiled at James again, staring into his eyes and waiting for his response.

[♥ James Callum-Monroe]

James wondered what made a part of the castle qualify as important enough to keep clean. The Gryffindor lifted one foot to peer down at the visibile print on the dusty floor. There were sections of the castle where students weren't allowed that were better kept than this. The third floor corridor couldn't get much more foot traffic than this place, and yet it was kept in immaculate condition. Hogwarts was a big place, and it wasn't like there were an infinite number of house elves to clean it, but still, you'd think that one unused section of the castle would be as dirty and another. The lion shook his head. Whatever, it didn't really matter. It just seemed strange was all. It was hard not to wander into areas like this and wonder about them.

The seventh year turned as Prose approached. The boy grinned, "Hey. I was thinking we'd go up, unless you're dying to go downstairs." James rocked back on his heels for a moment, turning his head to look in the direction of the staircases. Obviously he'd try the second staircase later; that went without saying. The boy turned back to smile again at his friend, giving her a chance to state her own opinion, before starting up the stairs. He didn't know Prose very well, at least not yet, but she seemed like the kind of person who liked decisive action. At any rate, she wasn't put off when the Gryffindor just walked up to her and started talking. Shyness had never really been the boy's thing. He didn't really see the point in it. If the lion wanted to talk to someone, he talked to them. It was simple, easy, and just about the only way the seventeen year old got what he wanted. In this case, what he'd wanted was a new friend, which he seemed to have found, so all was well, even if this particular friend was a rather pretty girl. Yes, of course he'd noticed. James was pretty sure that it was impossible for him not to notice. The seventh year wasn't blind, even if he wasn't actively trying to look at girls in that way at the moment. The whole "ladies' man" thing didn't fit too well with the prefect's new "responsibility" thing.

The Gryffindor thought he was being extremely responsible just then. He was doing his favorite activity--exploring the castle with a friend--and he wasn't breaking one single rule. This wasn't an out-of-bounds area of the castle, and it was well before curfew. Granted, just because a place wasn't expressly forbidden didn't mean it was okay for them to be there, but never mind. The seventeen year old was new to this, he couldn't be expected to follow the rules perfectly on his first try. And anyway, who was going to give a prefect detention? Come to think of it, James wondered if he hadn't been given the prefect position just because people were tired of seeing his sorry face in detention. So far that was the most convincing reason yet.

[Prose Williamson]

Going up the stairs sounded fantastic to Prose, who had never been in this area of the castle and was always fond of going up to the higher parts of the place, which of course provided the best views, or places to sneak off. Interestingly, people didn’t like climbing stairs when looking for people at all. Prose really wasn’t the type to sneak off generally, but there had been times when she had snuck off with certain people…guys mostly, though there had been times when they were girls…throughout her Hogwarts career. This particular high place in the castle, though, was new to her, and indeed it was new to her partner as well, who apparently, from earlier conversations, loved exploring the building. It wasn’t exactly a new experience to Prose to be exploring, but generally she had a place in mind to end up or something, so now just “exploring” would be interesting for the girl. And so up the stairs she went, ahead of her companion, bounding up the stone blocks two at a time, reaching the top of said stairs rather quickly. She turned when she reached the top of the first flight and, looking up the next flight to perhaps see where it led, yelled down to James, “Come on then,” and smiled and laughed. She bounded up the next flight of stairs and ended up in another dusty corridor, complete with strangely small windows which provided the amount of light that’s common in a jail cell.

It was annoyingly small, the corridor the sixth year found herself in, as well. It was big enough for two people perhaps to walk side by side, sort of the same size as a city sidewalk, but it was enough to make the girl feel a little cramped. What’s weird was the stairs didn’t seem to get smaller when she went up them, but when she got to the top, suddenly the hallway had shrunk. Magic is so very odd sometimes, and Prose thought that this must have been one of the many oddities that were abundant in the school. Still, it would be an interesting adventure, she was sure. Hoping that James was behind her, she moved forward, whipping her wand out of her pocket (which she had enchanted to fit the stick, girl’s pockets are so damn small) and casting “Lumos” as she went. The light from the end of her wand revealed…well…more dust and less natural light as she continued down the corridor. It was becoming a very odd place to be, and there was this strange feeling that accompanied it as well. It almost felt to the girl that something was warding her off from continuing, but her being Prose and so very confident and stubborn, she did indeed continue. The girl was half-worried about getting dust all over her clothes for a second, and quickly checked her shoes with her wand. Yep, they were covered with the dust that so caked everything else.

As upsetting as this was, she persevered, aiming to find some sort of room or more stairs or whatever before even thinking of turning back. Anyway, they had just started their adventure, it would be silly to quit now. It wasn’t long, in fact, before she did indeed find a room, though it was simply by chance that she even saw the door, as it was hidden so skillfully by the dust. It was almost impossible to even see the door handle, which she was a bit annoyed to notice was also covered in the dust, which seemed to be magically placed about the hallway, specifically designed to make it look old and eerie. It was all very strange. Nonetheless, she opened the door, which was quite heavy and required a bit of heaving on her part, open, and slid inside the room, making sure James was still behind her with an, “In here!” and a shine of her light back down the hallway before doing so.

Upon entering the room, the Slytherin girl noticed a couple of things. One, there wasn’t much going on in this room besides what appeared to have once been a bookcase, though now it looked more like a huge rectangle of wood, and two, that there was some sort of opening on the other end of the room from where she was standing. It looked like a huge mouse hole or something, which perhaps could have been the case, knowing Hogwarts. Still, this being the only interesting thing, Prose decided to go inspect it. Walking over to it, she noticed by shining her wand’s light into the hole, that it seemed to be smooth on the inside, and that it was a passageway of sorts angled slightly downwards. A slide, she supposed. Weird. The girl, deciding to wait to see what James thought before doing anything, turned to her companion then, and asked him, “So? A slide or something. What do you think it is? I mean, we have yet to explore any more of that…weird hallway, but this is cool isn’t it?” The girl smiled in the dim light towards her friend.

[♥ James Callum-Monroe]

Exploring was just better with a partner. Well, sometimes exploring was best done alone, especially if there was stealth involved, it just depended. As James followed up the stairs after Prose, he mused that there really wasn't a science to any of it. It depended on a whole list of unpredictable factors--where he was going, what time he was going, his mood, the moods of any friends who'd be coming with him, the moods of potential friends he hadn't made yet but would like to make--that, really, the lion had little to no control over. Well, arguably, the Gryffindor had control over where and when he went somewhere, but that was at least partially dictated by his mood, and by times like this, when the seventh year discovered places he didn’t know existed. At any rate, there was really no way to know what an experience was going to be like beforehand, even if you’d been to a place before. The whole experience was governed by all sorts of conditions. For all James knew, if he’d found this place tomorrow, he wouldn’t have been in the mood for company, or wouldn’t have found anyone whose company he desired, and would’ve spent the evening exploring by himself. It just all depended.

As they ascended the stairs, the seventh year momentarily lost sight of his friend. Apparently he’d started to slow down while he pondered the mysterious ways of his mind. That just wouldn’t do. The lion sped up his pace, reaching the top of the stairs as Prose reached another door. The Gryffindor took a moment to glance up and down the corridor, taking in the dust that still coated just about every inch of the place, save for the outline of the pair’s footprints. There was something really odd about this place, though the boy couldn’t quite put his finger on it. It just all seemed very… odd. Maybe it was just the whole feel of the place, that feeling that everything was a little too… orderly, if that was the right word. As if someone came through periodically to keep everything looking just so. How long did it take a shoe print to be covered up by another layer of dust? They couldn’t be the only people who’d been up here since this space stopped being used. So where were the signs of use? Even infrequent traffic left some sort of mark.

James followed the Slytherin girl into the room, taking a moment to look around. There wasn’t much more of interest here, either. It was just your standard too dusty room, with your standard dusty bookcase and your standard dusty giant mouse hole—wait, what? The lion crossed the room to stand next to Prose, peering into the dark hole. “Huh,” the boy said, leaning in through the opening to try and get a better look. There wasn’t much see except more dust, which made the Gryffindor sneeze, twice. Pulling his head back out and making a face, James offered, “Could be a lot of things, I guess. Could be a chute, you know, for sending things back and forth, maybe. Or maybe it leads to a secret room or something. Or… maybe someone wanted to get somewhere undetected.” The seventeen year old grinned at this last part. It was hard not to appreciate someone wanting to build something that made sneaking around easier. Whoever it was sounded like James’ sort of person. “Think it’s safe to go down?” He wasn’t really expecting an answer. The Gryffindor had already made up his mind to see what was at the bottom of this slide—his decision had been made the minute Prose had said the word.

“One way to find out, I guess.” The lion climbed into the hole, careful to keep his legs in front of him. Who knew what was at the bottom? If it was a hard landing, James didn’t fancy getting a head injury just for the sake of discovering something new. “See you at the bottom.” With that, the seventh year pushed off, sliding down into the dark tunnel, slowly at first, then gradually picking up speed as he descended toward wherever this led.

[Prose Williamson]

Prose definitely enjoyed the fact that James was obviously perfectly okay that there was a random hole in the wall in the room. It made this whole adventure have much more potential to be really fun than the sixth year Slytherin thought was possible. James’ explanation of the possibilities the hole had were quite reasonable (and not to mention exciting), and his question as to whether it was safe was irrelevant. Really, Prose was much too happy with the discovery to actually care much whether or not it was safe. Injury might be exciting, to tell the truth. The girl had never been injured before, nor had she been to the hospital wing, not even to visit anyone. That was mostly because she lacked anyone to visit, as none of her friends had been injured before either. To tell the truth, though, Prose pretty much assumed that the hole was safe because whatever creature or whichever person made it would have to have made it at least useable by them, right? The Slytherin nodded to herself and grinned, placing her hand on the outside edge of the opening in the cold stone, gripping as well as she could before sliding her legs inside. “Well,” she said to herself, noticing just then the lack of any way of knowing where the tunnel led, nor how far down it went, nor the angle that the slide went at, “Here goes nothing, I guess.”

Letting go, she began her descent down the chute, picking up speed as she went, eventually getting to the point where it was actually frightening to be where she was. The slide began turning then, though, and her speed was taken to a consistently exciting pace, though less than scary thankfully, and kept turning until it counted as a spiraling slide. The girl began to feel like she was a little kid again, on those slides in the playgrounds of her primary school, and it made her start to giggle. Her giggling increased as she went, even though the pressure change was getting rather drastic, so much so that she was beginning to feel pain in her ears. The slide went on and on, seeming to go on for hours, though it was probably something more like a minute or two, and every second the chute got colder. Prose guessed that going through the bowels of the castle was the reason, probably because they ended up going through a ton of stone that was undoubtedly keeping the cold that was there hundreds of years ago inside it. Nonetheless, they were obviously going quite deep into the castle. Starting in the tower made the fact that this slide was so long much more ridiculous, as the castle was absolutely gigantic. This made the sixth year more than interested in finding out where it came out…

When the slide finally did come to an end, surprisingly the girl did not fly out of the end of the chute with a SLAM, but instead, she slid out on the floor of somewhere she recognized. The room was colored green and was filled with beds and bedside tables and...well this was strange. They seem to have ended up in the Slytherin Girls Dorm. In fact, they had ended up in a specific area of the Slytherin Girl’s Dorm: Prose’s dorm room. What made this situation quite a bit more awkward than it normally would have been was the fact that just a little while ago, Prose was making eyes at her Gryffindor companion. Speaking of whom, she turned to James, who had landed similarly to her and sat rather close to her side, and said, rather wittily “Uh…so…this is my bedroom. How do you like it?” The Slytherin stood up then, wiping herself off of the dust that had gotten on her clothes, and jumped a bit away from the boy, smiling awkwardly at him.

[♥ James Callum-Monroe]

The slide seemed to go on forever, twisting and turning its way through the castle to who knew where, until James gave up on making any sort of noise as he went down. Not because he wasn’t still enjoying it, of course, because it was exhilarating and made the seventh year feel a bit like a little kid again—in a good way—but because yelling and laughing could only be done for so long before it got tiring, and he had no idea when the ride would end. So the boy contented himself with enjoying the downward journey, spiraling down into the depths of the castle, imagining the bottom at each curve but not really wanting it to come just yet. The Gryffindor could feel his ears popping as he descended, the slightly painful feeling detracting a bit from the experience and making him reach up to rub his ears, making for a rather awkward position.

As the lion made his way down the slide, it was hard not to wonder what the thing was doing there. It wasn’t like it was the sort of thing that normally popped up around the castle. Then again, this was Hogwarts, and James would be lying if he said that it didn’t constantly surprise even him. Still, there was usually some sort of reasoning for things. Even the oddest features of the castle had to have been put in by somebody at some point. The person and the reason might be long gone by now, but they’d still existed. Some seemed like little more than a way of marking I was here. Maybe that was what the slide was. A hidden little treasure left to be found for those curious enough to seek it out, to share in something from generations down the line.

Or maybe it wasn’t like that at all. As the seventh year reached the bottom, hitting the floor with a jarring bounce, it occurred to him that there was probably a less… er… noble reason. Rolling out of the way of tunnel’s entrance so that Prose wouldn’t collide with him when she made her way there, James took in his surroundings. He was in the Slytherin dormitory, that much was obvious from the green and silver bed hangings, and from some of the personal items that had been left out, the boy could only assume he’d ended up in the girls’ wing. That or the Slytherin boys had some very interesting secrets. The Gryffindor had never been in the girls’ dormitories of any house, of course. There were those silly charms that kept the boys out of the girls’, but didn’t stop the girls from going up to the boys’. Up until this moment, the lion had never had a reason to visit either the boys’ or the girls’ dormitories of Slytherin. The worrying implications of a slide that led into one was at least slightly pushed aside by an appreciation for the fact that the seventh year could mark another spot in the castle off his metal list. That was something.

Turning, James saw Prose emerge from the tunnel. Her recognition seemed to come quicker, and the seventeen year old at least had enough sense to feel slightly embarrassed when he realized they were in her room. Standing, the lion wiped haphazardly at the dust on his clothes. “It’s, er… very nice. Never been in the girls’ dorm before.” He offered the snake a smile, hoping to diffuse some of the awkwardness.

[Prose Williamson]

The awkwardness in the room was palpable, as James let Prose know that he had never been in a girl’s dorm before. This, even if James was secretly a ladies man, wasn’t that shocking, for even Prose had only gone to guy’s dorms before when she hooked up with anyone. It was less weird, she supposed, if she did it that way. Perhaps because girls tend to keep their lives much more private than guys and so therefore didn’t want most guys poking around in their stuff, but really there was no real reason behind it. Guy’s dorms were just comfortable, she thought, her room got boring and same-y. The bed eventually became uncomfortable, the chairs looked like they were telling her to go away, and stuff like that. Still, it was kind of funny to see James look so very uncomfortable in the sixth year’s room, smiling awkwardly at her as he attempted to look less so.

Her thoughts then turned to the giant slide they had just gone down. It didn’t actually make any sense to the Slytherin girl, for even though the ride was quite long, it didn’t seem long enough to go from the top of that abandoned tower to the dungeons where the Slytherin dorms were. The girl sighed and shook her head, thinking about all the times in her life at Hogwarts where the castle itself seemed to be screwing with her. When she was in primary school back in London, none of this shit happened, no giant slides that traveled through wormholes or whatever, no abandoned huge dusty towers to search through. It really made her happy that she had come to this place. Sure there were exciting moments when she was a kid, but nothing compared to the wondrous stuff she found at Hogwarts. The place was still surprising her to this day, apparently. She thought back to the first time she set foot in the building, seeing the great hall all shiny and exciting, watching all her peers stare in awe at the amazingness of it, and being so excited to be sorted into some house. Prose, of course, had never heard of the sorting until the train ride, but once she did she was possibly the most curious first year of the bunch. Growing up in the muggle world, she had never had any experience with the magical world, obviously, and so the idea that they were put into groups of similar-minded people was very exciting to the girl.

Still, now here she was, in her sixth year at the school, only one year away from getting out into the real wizarding world, still getting surprised by the world she had been placed in. No matter how bored she actually got with schoolwork or her monotonous relationships (disregarding her new one with James, of course), she could always find something fun to do. This particular adventure was definitely in the top ten of adventures she had had before, mostly because of the magical slide, but ending up in her room with a cute boy helped, too. The snake looked over at the lion, smiling and saying, “I’m not sure how well I could sneak a Gryffindor through the Slytherin common room, that might end badly,” she moved closer to him, looking into his eyes as she did so, “We may be forced to stay here a little while, I hope that’s alright.” She changed her smile to a sly one as she studied his response to her apparent flirtation. The girl still didn’t exactly know if she fancied the lion or not, but she figured she may as well try to see how he felt about it.

[♥ James Callum-Monroe]

James wasn't so inexperienced that he couldn't properly appreciate the opportunity that being alone in the girls' dormitory with a rather attractive Slytherin provided. Actually, he wasn't inexperienced at all. Just because the Gryffindor had never been in a girls' dormitory didn't mean a girl had never been in his, or that he'd never spent time in a girl's room when he was on break. The seventeen year old figured that he was young, and youth was the time to do that sort of thing. It was only when you got older and started having responsibilities--real, proper responsibilities--that it all started getting messy and crossed the line from "appropriate" into "childish." James wasn't sure when that point was exactly, though he figured it was probably somewhere around "getting married and having a kid." This was well before that, thankfully. The point was, the seventh year wanted to enjoy himself.

Though he probably shouldn't. Really probably shouldn't. At least not the sort of enjoying himself that entered the boy's mind when he was standing alone with a girl in her room. When exactly had he gotten a voice of reason? The lion wasn't all that sure he liked it. It seemed like exactly the sort of thing he'd been avoiding for years now, that whole "thinking too much about this" thing. Honestly, what was wrong with him? It wasn't like flirting went against the prefect's new idea of responsibility. Responsible people had fun. Probably. He didn't actually know, he didn't hang out with a lot of responsible people.

The Gryffindor chose to lean against the wall, crossing his legs and sticking his hands in his pockets. The wall seemed like a fairly neutral spot. More neutral than any other place in the room, anyway. Why were there no chairs in here? The only places to sit were the beds or the floor. One was uncomfortable, and the other suggested something James really didn't want to suggest right away.

He was thinking too much about this. Honestly, he liked Prose well enough, and was not remotely averse to doing any of the things that were flitting through his mind right then. Assuming she thought the same, there really didn't need to be more to it than that. "Well, I don't want to cause trouble," the lion replied, his lips twitching up into a smile. "I'm fine staying in here as long as you are." Looking around the room, James scratched at his chin. The thing about dorm room's, at least as they existed at Hogwarts, was that there wasn't really much to do in them besides sleep. That, and they didn't provide much in the way of privacy if that's what you wanted. For the time being, at least, James figured they wouldn't have much of a problem with that. It was too early yet for anyone to be thinking about going to bed. The seventeen year old couldn't quite keep the mischievous smile off his face. He couldn't help it. "What do you suggest we do while we wait?"

[Prose Williamson]

Prose was enjoying the flirtatious chunk of handsome that was James Callum-Monroe as she moved closer to him. It was funny, she had had flings of this sort before, but with James it felt different. Not in an “I’m-in-love” kind of way, but it seemed much more casual and natural to take this chance with the Gryffindor than it had with, say, Slytherin boys. Slytherins seemed to have the player thing down pat, thinking of women as less than themselves, and the women who actually dated men like that disgusted Prose to no end. James, though, while he may have been attractive and smooth, was not about to sink to the Slytherin boy’s levels when it came to girls, and instead was content to play a bit hard to get as the sixth year girl advanced on him.

“I suggest,” the Slytherin began, smiling a bit more as she continued, “That we do something…fun.” She moved in as close as she could, her face aligned with the boys. This, though, was tough due to her height, but she did her best. Really, her face was about in his chest, but she looked up at him with her big brown eyes slyly and wrapped her left arm around his torso, feeling the warmth of the handsome man as she did so. Her right arm she raised upwards, putting her hand on his neck and whispering, “I hope that’s alright…” before pulling him in towards her while raising herself up on to her tiptoes and planting a kiss on the boy’s lips.

Prose liked to think of herself as a good kisser, though she had never been told whether or not she was. No boy had ever complained, though, and had always seemed to enjoy what she could do, so she kept the idea in her head that she was great. This, in and of itself, probably made her better at it, anyway, right? The girl continued to kiss James, swiveling her head back and forth and using just enough tongue (in her opinion anyway) so as not to go too quickly with him. Prose loved kissing people, it was one of her favorite things to do, and she had done it often since she had come to Hogwarts. She only hoped he was enjoying it as much as she was. If not, she would be afraid that she was doing something wrong, and that could only lead down a bad road for her. As a child, before she met George Singleton, she was shy and uncomfortable with herself, and she did her best to hide that side of her. So far, it had worked out well, but every single time she got close to someone in any way, the doubts popped up in her mind that perhaps she wasn’t good enough, or perhaps she was a terrible person in some way. At the moment, though, Prose did her best to concentrate on making this kiss phenomenal. She let out a moan and carried on…

[♥ James Callum-Monroe]

It really didn’t take much to please James. In all honesty, if he and Prose had spent the rest of their time together having a pleasant chat, he probably wouldn’t have complained. It would be a perfectly fine way to pass the time. Truly, the Gryffindor would have been just as happy to do that as snog the pretty snake in front of him. That was absolutely what the seventeen year old intended to say if the subject ever came up. Because as questionable as the lion’s sanity sometimes was, he was pretty sure the day would never come when he was so crippled with lunacy that he wouldn’t rather kiss a girl than talk to her. Pleasant as the latter might be. Usually. But, well, cliché though it might be—and it was very cliché—the boy’s not completely illogical brain was clearly not located in his head.

So, when Prose pulled him in for a kiss, James just smiled and gave his acquiescence by wrapping one arm around his friend’s waist and leaning down to meet her kiss. The seventh year was at least fairly confident in his ability to properly kiss a girl—he’d done it enough times by now that he figured there wasn’t much excuse for being bad at it. The Gryffindor had spent quite a lot of time thinking about this and other things, had practiced with whatever girl was willing and who didn’t make him want to pull his hair out otherwise, so he rather thought he ought to be pretty good at this sort of thing by now. At any rate, he hadn’t heard any complaints yet.

One arm still wrapped around her waist, James reached up his other to lace his fingers through Prose’s hair in a somewhat unconscious effort to draw the two of them closer. It had been awhile since he’d done this sort of thing. It was like he’d been in some sort of absurd dry spell that he had no real reason for. No good reason, anyway. Just a bunch of silly almost-reasons that didn’t make much sense at a time like this. They couldn’t make that much sense if all it took was a girl in his arms to make them fly out of the boy’s head, right? He didn’t have that short an attention span. Still, every good kiss had to end eventually, and after a few moments James drew his head back, fully aware that he was probably smiling like an idiot, but not really caring.

[Prose Williamson]

Prose, to tell the truth, was not expecting James to be quite so fantastic at snogging as he was, and she was also not expecting him to pull away quite so soon. The Slytherin would have been perfectly content with making out for the next half hour, but apparently, the Gryffindor had other plans. This was fine, she supposed, though the fun was cut short in such a way that she looked worriedly at him and said “Is something wrong?” just how all the cliché movie make out scenes happened. It was at this point that Prose began feeling annoyingly self-conscious as so many other girls seem to whenever anything might happen badly in any sexual context. She had told herself that she didn’t want to worry about all that, to, say, not give a crap what anyone else thought, but she knew that that was perfectly impossible for her to do.

Immediately when James pulled away, she started thinking to herself things like “Am I not good enough,” or “Am I not attractive to him,” and all the annoying thoughts one could think of that might pop into someone’s head in that situation. It was all truly dribble and had no real weight to it, but of course the young girl’s mind was unable to understand that at the moment and instead was content with making her feel worse and worse as time went on. All she wanted to do was keep kissing this boy standing in front of her, but she couldn’t make a move until he told her everything was alright. The girl stared up at James with her big brown eyes and hoped that that his response would be nothing bad. It didn’t matter how the boy was smiling as widely as he possibly could to the girl’s mind apparently, even though this probably should have tipped Prose off that there was no problem whatsoever and he was simply taking a break. Prose’s past, though, had not been kind to her self-esteem, generally, due to the fact that she was almost forced to become a hard and strong willed Slytherin during her primary school years. Bullies can do you that you, you know? This self-esteem issue made it hard for the girl to handle whenever a guy or girl did anything that might indicate she wasn’t good enough for them. It was quite annoying.

James, though, probably didn’t think that at all, but all Prose could do was hope that his response was a good one.

[♥ James Callum-Monroe]

James felt like he was wandering through some sort of wonderful fog. A good snogging did that. Generally speaking, the Gryffindor wasn't opposed to continuing that particular activity, either--after all, it had nothing but benefits. It exercised the lips, the tongue, and the neck if you had to move around a bit. It developed certain necessary social skills, like how to avoid banging noses when in close facial proximity. It... probably did other things that were beneficial in some way... Basically, snogging was the greatest physical activity ever taken up by mankind. Even better than quidditch. Though, if he could figure out how to snog on a broom, the boy's life would be set. There couldn't possibly be more for anyone to want after that.

"Wrong?" The lion repeated, more than slightly flabbergasted. What could possibly be wrong at a time like this? Well, James supposed they could be in a setting with less imminent danger. You didn't get much more dangerous than a girls' dormitory, after all. Though, to be fair, this particularly dorm room had a certain lack of pink, which made it decidedly less threatening overall. "Absolutely nothing's wrong. Everything's grand. Spectacular. Amazing." The seventh year paused, making a face for a moment. "Is something supposed to be wrong?" Scratching at the back of his head, James looked around the room as though their surroundings were supposed to give him some sort of idea. To be perfectly honest, it was kind of hard for the seventeen year old to focus on much given the current situation. Say what you liked, but kissing a pretty girl was distracting. James was glad he didn't do the whole relationship thing as a general rule. How anyone got anything done in one of those, he'd never know.

"I suppose," James said slowly, "we probably should figure out how to get out of here without too much hassle. Nice as this is." The boy sent Prose a lopsided grin. "But I think I'll probably have to get back eventually."

[Prose Williamson]

The amount of joy Prose Williamson felt when James said absolutely nothing was wrong was palpable, and her face lit up into a large smile which spread from ear to ear. The Gryffindor’s question if something was supposed to be wrong was answered with a shake of the young girl’s head, and that entire problem was put to rest in her mind. This was proving to be a much more exciting trip to the abandoned tower than first imagined. Already, they’d found an ancient magical slide in a room up near the top of the tower, made out in the Slytherin girl’s dorm, and now had to work out a way of getting out of the dorm and common room without anyone seeing the two of them. The Slytherin knew that if they were caught in the act they would undoubtedly be reprimanded the only way most Slytherins knew how: sneering. It was petty and retarded, but it was a sad truth about the girl’s general snakey company.

“Alright, getting out might be hard, depends on who happens to be in the common room right now. I don’t think guys are allowed in girl’s dorms, so let’s hope it’s not a prefect…I mean, you’re a prefect, but still…” Prose said, her face reverting back into her neutral look. Grabbing the boy’s hand, the girl began leading him towards the door, which she opened slightly and poked her head out of when they arrived. Seeing no one in the immediate vicinity of the door, she opened it up wider, pulling the boy along behind her as she started out into the common room.

There, though, were two Slytherin boys, fourth or fifth years, perfectly ready to make annoying comment about Prose’s escapades with James. As soon as Prose and James entered the main room the two boys turned and looked at them with jeering looks on their faces. It was all quite ridiculous. Prose, already known throughout the Slytherin house as the “Mudblood Snake” (which was perfectly true so that didn’t bother her much), was also known for being flirtatious and quick with her love life. Coming out of the dorm holding a Gryffindor prefect’s hand was not helping any rumors being spread about her and the flings she may or may not have been having. The boys snickered soon after realizing what the situation looked like, and immediately started jeering in the most child-like fashion: “Prose and the lion did it in the girl’s dorms! Oh my god!” etc.

This was more than enough for Prose, who was also known for the fact that she didn’t give a crap about getting in trouble, to curse the two of them to bits. Grabbing her wand from her enchanted pocket, she held it up to the guys and, without retaliating verbally, simply spoke “Furnunculus” twice, aiming at each of the boys as she did so. The boils from the curse soon spread along each boy’s skin, causing them to scream and grab at them stupidly. Undoubtedly, they screamed simply because of the shock of the curse, because they couldn’t have been that painful, but scream they did. Like little girls. Prose thought it was hilarious, of course, but only after chuckling a bit realized her companion may have a different view on the whole situation. Deciding to talk about it once they got away, Prose said “Come on!” urgently to James, and speed-walked to the door of the common room, exiting when she got there, and holding the door open for the Gryffindor to get through as well.

[♥ James Callum-Monroe]

Well, James was feeling quite pleased with himself indeed. Who wouldn’t? He’d had an eventful evening, found something new and cool and interesting, had a snog with a girl who was herself cool and interesting, and all in all, it was one of the better nights the boy had had in awhile. Clearly he needed to wander the castle with company more often. Now the only worry was getting out of there without getting into tons of trouble. The seventh year had yet to test his theory that he was somehow immune to detentions since he was a prefect, and he didn’t really fancy doing that right then. With his luck, the lion was probably wrong, anyway. That was how it usually worked when it mattered. Oh, well, the seventeen year old figured that the night had been worth a trip to detention. As long as he didn’t get stuck with another one that started at dawn like the last time.

James followed Prose out of the dormitory and into the common room, only to realize they weren’t alone. Figured. Unfortunately, the Gryffindor was still wearing that same self-satisfied grin he’d had on his face for the last few minutes--he was pretty sure he knew exactly what that must have looked like to the boys in the common room. The lion tried to wipe the expression off his face quickly, but it was too late, they were already acting like idiots. James opened his mouth to yell at them--or say something, anyway. Yelling might have been too extreme--when Prose took out her wand and started jinxing them. The seventh year sputtered like an idiot for a second, the words that had been on the tip of his tongue getting jumbled with whatever surprised noise came flying out of the boy’s mouth.

Turning to follow after his friend, the lion sent one last look back at the boys--who were making such a big racket over something that probably wasn’t even that bad; even James had to crack a smile at that. He kept after Prose, his longer legs making it easy to keep up with the snake as they left the common room. As he got out into the corridor outside the Slytherin common room entrance, the seventh year allowed himself a chuckle, leaning against the wall next to the entrance. “Remind me to never get on your badside,” he said to Prose, the satisfied grin returning to his face--there wasn’t much that could keep it away for long at the moment. “That was fun,” he continued, stretching his arms a bit. “We should do that again sometime.” Mostly the boy meant the snogging part, but really he wouldn’t have said no to more adventures in the castle.

[Prose Williamson]

Her bad side? Yeah, Prose did have one of those, eh? She also had a habit of doing whatever she pleased no matter who was accompanying her, and sometimes, though not apparently this time, that would get her into some interesting situations. James seemed okay with the fact that the Slytherin had gone a bit crazy on the two boys, possibly due to the dormitory snog that had just occurred, but perhaps because he wanted to do something to them as well. It was…cute, to see the boy dorkily smile at the girl and tell her that he had had a good time. Prose couldn’t help but agree with his idea that they should do it again sometime with a large ear-to-ear smile and a nod.

It had been a long time since Prose had actually felt anything more than “man this guy is attractive and I must jump him” when hanging out with men, and it was nice to enjoy spending time with specifically James right then. Seeing as her life was being pretty mundane as of late, spending more time with James would have made the sixth year more than happy. A where and a when didn’t matter, just someplace and soon, because this Gryffindor guy was quite something in the Slytherin’s eyes.

It was getting later in the afternoon, then, and Prose decided that she probably should get going and do homework etc. It was, sadly, too early to ask James to join her in doing whatever she had to do, so instead she grabbed his hand and leaned in, planting another kiss on the boy’s lips, one that lasted quite a while, and then broke away, still holding his hand and feeling his fingers. They were rough and boyish and strong...Oh dear god, she liked him. It had taken her that long to discover this fact, and she had only just met the boy. Her eyes widened at that thought, and she let go of the Gryffindor’s hand, almost hoping this was a fluke. This was so unlike her it actually legitimately scared her, and every part of her was telling her to get away from this situation as fast as she possibly could. She had never felt as vulnerable as she felt at that moment, and that scared the girl to death. Shaking her head, she moved away from James, not looking at him at all as she said “Goodbye, James, I’ll…write you, or something,” and started walking away heading out of the dungeons and perhaps out onto the grounds to think things over. As she walked, though, every thought in her head was about the boy. It was quite annoying to her.

“Gah!” she exclaimed, “What’s wrong with me?” She was so content before to just have flings or just to hook up with people after parties. Did she want more now? Why did it take her until her sixth year of school? These were questions that ran through her head as she exited the building, heading nowhere in particular, but wracking her brain for answers…hopefully James understood…