Living on the Edge... or sort of ((Liam))

[bekka]

Claira jumped down the three steps leading from her house with a dramatic sound as if she were an action hero. She looked around, as if searching for her enemy. Then ran across the yard and jumped over a medium sized rock and turned, looking around. Her mother watched from the doorway for a moment, making sure her daughter was fine. Samantha Stone smiled slightly, admiring her daughter for being so strong when so much has been reveled to her. Finding out her father isn't her real father and the big turn for her life when she found she was a witch. Samantha turned, walking back into the house, shutting the door behind her.

Claira continued to play her dramatic adventure game, her hair flying about her 10 year old face and her smile radiant. She stopped playing and looked about the street. It was caldisac with only 6 houses, leading onto another street. She thought for a moment, wondering if she should stay and play her strange little game or go to her favorite park. She sighed and then took a running start ending with jumping over the small chain link fence that guarded her parent's front and back yard. She then proceeded to run down the street toward her favorite park. Once there she immediately climbed up and across the monkey bars, imagining she were a super hero that saved the world one jungle jim at a time.

[Liam Angelus G5]

Since Liam returned from Hogwarts, things in his life had been difficult. The worst of which was the fact that his grandfather is in St. Mungos and he has to stay with his aunt and her husband and their four kids. Liam had been going to St. Mungos everyday hoping that they would find what was wrong with his grandfather.

On his last trip to St. Mungos, his grandfather had told him to stay at his aunts house and have some fun on his summer holiday. Today, Liam did as he was told and stayed home and was going to try and have some fun before he went back to Hogwarts in a months time.

Since Liam did not want to stay around his cousins, Liam decided to go for a walk in the park near the home. Liam did not know much about the area, but that did not stop him, he was after all a Gryffindor. As Liam walked down the streets, he stopped to look at the muggles rushing about. It was the first time in his life that he had been around so many muggles at one time and it seemed rather odd to him to see so many.

As Liam headed into the park, he brushed his growing hair out of his eyes before he saw a young girl playing on the monkey bars. He watched her playing what looked like a weird muggle game to Liam. Liam walked over to the monkey bars and stood there watching her. After a few moments, Liam said, "Hello. Um, what are you doing?"

[bekka]

Claira jumped off of the monkey bars as soon as a boy walked into the park. Instead of saying hi, she ran to the slid and ran up it, making airplane noises (because in her game she was a super hero that was flying across the sky to save her teddy bear). Once she was up on the jungle gym, she went back to the monkey bars and was swinging across yet again. The boy walked up to her swinging legs and watched her. She raised and eyebrow... Why was he watching her? He asked her what she was doing, so Claira dropped down right in front of him and smiled, brightly. Then her face changed to nervouse worry, looking around as if someone were watching or listening.

"Shhhhhhhh!" Claira said, her eyes betraying that she were playing, "The evil Teddy-Snatcher is listening..." she couldn't help but giggle, "He might steal your teddy too!" she laughed, knowing how silly she sounded.

"Sorry..." she straightened up and smiled in a friendly way, "What's your name? Mine's Claira,"

[Liam Angelus G5]

Liam thought that the girl was rather strange and thought that she might be disturbed or something. She ran up the slide making noises that reminded Liam of when he traveled with his grandfather out of the country. When the girl came back to the monkey bars, Liam watched as her feet went swinging back and forth as she climbed on the bars.

When the girl spoke to him, he was a little taken aback. This young girl was definitely the oddest person he had ever met. When the girl finished speaking, Liam said, "You know, you're a rather strange muggle. But then again I've not met many muggles."

When the girl stopped laughing and apologized about what she had said. "I should apologize to. It was rude of me to say something like that." Liam thought a moment before he continued to speak. "Liam. Liam Angelus."

[bekka]

Claira smiled as he called her a strange Muggle. She wasn't a Muggle... but most definatly strange. She was about to tell him that she was not a Muggle, but a witch, but he apologized before she could say anything. She figured that him using the word Muggle, he was indeed a wizard or someone raised in the wizarding world. She smiled.

"No, it's perfectly all right. And I'm not a Muggle..." Her voice didn't sound like hers, it was much more serious than ever it was before.

[Liam Angelus G5]

Liam looked at the girl. He could see that she was thinking about something. He wondered if she knew what he was talking about when he called her a muggle. He didn't have to wait long however.

"So, you're not a muggle then," Liam replied. "Then you are a witch? Hmm, I'm a wizard myself." Liam whispered the last to sentences so that no muggle could here him. "I'm a Gryffindor fourth year by the way. But, yeah, I do need to apologize. I shouldn't make that kind of first impression, I wouldn't want you to thing badly of us Gryffindors or myself and my pure-blood family heritage. But, please don't mention that I dislike to some degree being pure-blood. I have enough trouble as it is."

[bekka]

Claira smiled as Liam answered her comments and questions. She nodded at his own question. Her smile was genuine, very sweet and friendly. He was wizard too then.

"That's pretty cool!" she said, her voice showing how excited she was, "Yes... I am a witch. I havn't even gone to Hogwarts yet! This September is my first day!" He was in Gryffindor? That always seemed to confuse Claira. What were these titles? Then her mind went back to the letter the Dumbledore man sent... it said something about houses and years. There were four houses... but she couldn't remember the names.

"I don't know what house I'll be in. Hopefully the... smart one..." she could only remember the traits of the houses. One was brave, one was sneaky, one was smart, and one was loyal.

[Liam Angelus G5]

Liam let a half smile come across his face when Claira smiled at him. He was beginning to thing that he aunt had the right idea of sending him out to have fun.

"Yeah, its pretty cool," Liam replied. "I've been at Hogwarts for three years now, I'm getting ready to start my fourth in September. You'll have fun, as long as no Death Eaters decide to attack again, which they shouldn't." He remembered the rumor's that had gone through the school after the attack, and he did not want to think about it again.

"The smart one?" Liam asked. "What you don't think we Gryffindors aren't smart? Well we are, but we are also brave. But you must mean Ravenclaw, they're the smartest in the school, well, smarter than most. So you don't want to be brave like me and my house, or loyal like the Hufflepuffs, but I'm glad you don't want to be evil and sneaky like the Slytherins, I hate them, thinking they are better than everybody else." Liam was glad that he had not had to many interactions with the Slytherins.

[bekka]

Claira listened closely as Liam explained the houses. It was better to hear it from someone rather than read it on a piece of paper. She realized the house that appealed to her the most was called Ravenclaw. It even sounded cool. She smiled, shylike, when he asked her what was wrong with being a brave Gryffindor.

"Nothing!" she said jokingly, "I was just saying I think it would be cool to be sorted into the house that was known for how smart the students in it were,"

Slytherin... Pyro was in Slytherin. Now that Claira knew what Slytherin was known for, it made sense that Pyro had been so mean, "Ya... that makes sense. Slytherins are the mean ones... Every school needs a group of mean kids, I s'pose,"

[Liam Angelus G5]

Liam eyed Claira rather sternly as she talked about not wanting to be a Gryffindor. He could not see why anybody would want to be in the others. Yes, it was true, the Gryffindor's did have a habit of getting into trouble, but it beat being boring, or at least thats how Liam felt. "Well, my entire family was in Gryffindor, everybody but my mum, she was a Ravenclaw," Liam said, "or at least thats what my granddad and aunt told me, but it doesn't matter, she was brave enough to be a Gryffindor."

Liam watched Claira as she appeared to be thinking. It seemed that she was thinking about a certain person, but he could not tell who. "Uh, yeah, the snake's are the mean one's, and yeah I guess every school needs them, but I wish they didn't have to be in our school," Liam said honestly.

[bekka]

She nodded, feeling compelled not to laugh or smile as Liam talked about his family. It seemed he didn't know his parents or they died, or both. She didn't feel it was polite to ask, either. Once he commented on how brave his mother was, Claira nodded. Her own mother was extremely brave, just not a witch. Same with her father, of course. She smiled when he commented on the Slytherins. She nodded, knowing that no one wants mean people in their school.

"Yes, I s'pose everyone wants that, eh?" she smiled.

[Liam Angelus G5]

Liam nodded in reply to Claira. He thought that was response enough. He thought that if she'd met a Slytherin, she would feel the exact same way. Liam turned to look down the street and wondered to himself if any Slytherins lived in this neighborhood.

"So, are your parents magical or muggles?" Liam asked, trying to change the subject to something other than school and Slytherins. "So, um, do you want to do something, this park seems kind of boring?"

[bekka]

Claira raised her eyebrows at Liam when he asked about her parents. She thought for a moment. She had made a mistake in telling Pyro about her real father and did NOT want to do that again... So she just smiled and nodded.

"Muggles, both of them!" she said it so cheerfully, "We had to send that Dumbliedore man a letter, asking about everything... he sent one back, too!" She smiled and then that smile got bigger when he asked if she wanted to do something.

"Yeah, this park is boring..." she shrugged, her greenish brown eyes twinkling, "I don't know... don't really care..."

[Liam Angelus G5]

"Really?" Liam asked enthusiastically. He was rather interested in muggle's, he had been for a long time. "That is so cool. You're parents are muggle's. What's that like, having muggle parents I mean?"

Liam was wanting to know all about growing in a muggle home. He had never know anything other than the magical world. He grew up in a normal wizarding home, with a house elf, and everything else that came with being a pure-blood.

"Um, I'm not from around these parts," Liam said honestly. "So you'll have to show me around the place, if you don't mind. Otherwise, we could just stay around here."

[bekka]

Liam's face changed when he heard about her parents. He seemed eager to know all about living with Muggles. She was taken aback by his reaction, never had she seen someone so excited over regular people. She smiled and nodded, feeling happier all the sudden.

"Well... their regular parents, really. Momma loves me and so does dad... They don't know anything about the wizarding world, neither do I acually. No magic, no wands, just regular life. We use electricity in everything... It's basically the substitute for magic, I s'pose," She was excited to tell him everything.

"Well... I don't know if my mom would like me leaving the park. She gets worried if she doesn't know where I am," she knew she wasn't sopposed to leave the park, but she wanted to show Liam the big park, "Truth is, I don't exactly know my way around the city yet, only where my parents take me,"

[Liam Angelus G5]

Liam listened to Claira explain about what it was like to live with muggles. He was sure that it would be difficult to live like that after he spent his entire life in wizarding world. But he did wonder sometimes if living in a muggle home would have been nicer than living in a magical home.

"Well, that puts us in a bind then doesn't it?" Liam said with a half smile. "I'm not actually from this part of the city, or England for that matter, but I think we could find our way if your parents would agree to it."

[bekka]

Claira shrugged and turned toward where her house was. She looked back at Liam and smiled.

"Well, then, lets go ask them!" She started off down the street, wondering if Liam would follow or not. Once her house was in sight she smiled brighter. She walked up to the door and opened it, her mother and father's voices stopping. Claira turned to Liam and motioned for him to follow her inside.

"Momma... daddy, Liam here is new to London and wanted to know if we could take him around, show off our favorite place to live!" Claira pleaded with her eyes. Then she walked up to her mother's ear and whispered, "he's a wizard too..." she smiled, pleadingly.

[Liam Angelus G5]

Liam followed Claira to her house up the street from the park. He kept a close eye on where she was so that he didn't lose sight of her as they walked. He wasn't sure if he should be following her or not since they had just met, but she seemed nice enough to Liam.

When they reached the house, Liam followed Claira to the front door and waited as she opened the front door. Liam slowly followed her inside where he heard her parents stop talking when the door had opened. When Claira introduced him, Liam said remembering his manors, "Hello ma'am, sir, you have a lovely home here, and a kind daughter."

[bekka]

Samantha and Mathew Stone were taken aback by Liam's kinda introduction. So far the only impression of a wizard was Pyro Blackfire and that wasn't a good wizard to meet for the first time. Samantha looked at her husband, a half smile on her face, her eyes slightly surprised. Mathew shrugged and turned back to Liam and his daughter, his smile friendly and matching Samantha's.

"It's very nice to meet you Liam," he said, kindly, "Thank you for the compliment on our house... we try to keep it as clean as possible," Samantha smiled and nodded in approval, "Yes... Claira is a very high spirited girl," Claira blushed and waved away the compliment as if embarrassed but she had a flatered smile on her face. Samantha laughed.

"We would be very happy to show you around, Liam... seeing as we don't like Claira to wander off alone," Samantha nodded, her voice kind but serious. Claira beamed.

"YAY!" she said. She loved any chance to get out of the house and go around London, her favorite place in the world.

[Liam Angelus G5]

"Well, you are very welcome, Sir," Liam replied as he bowed his head. "Yes, she is quite high spirited, it is a rather good change from my cousin." Liam had hoped that his last comment had not sound wrong, he did not like to talk bad of his family or others unless the had were a Slytherin student.

"I would greatly appreciate it, ma'am. I understand perfectly, there are a lot of strange people out there, and I would not want anything bad to happen if she had been aloud to go out alone," Liam said sounding as sincere as possible.