Replenishing the Soul ((Kitty))

[Andrew Thornton G6]

Drew grabbed his latest baseball cap from his pile of belongings in the dorm before taking off for Hogsmeade. Things were a bit different since the last attack, but little damage had really been done other than a few stores. Of course the place was rather dreary after all the attack had left one Hogwart's student dead and many injured. Drew pushed the depressing thought from his mind. He wasn't concerned about such things. He didn't really see how things truly affected him anyway. He was rather young and naive when it came to realizing that he was still a part of the grown up world. He thought the world was mostly good and if the world was good than so must be the people within the world. Unfortunately he was wrong, but it was a nice dream to believe in. You see, nothing bad had ever happened to him and he didn't think anything ever would. He felt he was invincible and heck maybe he was. Things just happened to work out for Drew. They always did. He figured it was his Irish ancestry, but then again it could just be wishful thinking.

Drew's mind continued to wander off into 'la la land' for the entire walk to Hogsmeade. Each new thought chained together with some thing different, creating a mass of different ideas and beliefs flowing through his brain at the same time. All thoughts going about a mile a minute. However all thoughts ceased to exist when he came into full view of Hogsmeade and for the first time in his life his thoughts quieted. The remnants of the attack were still present in every thing he saw. The people moved briskly from store to store and had a since of paranoia. The buildings themselves seemed to creak and screech at every movement made. The air was different. It was cold, but it was warm outside. It was like the very life of Hogsmeade had been blown out. His eyes fell to the remains of Zonko's, which had been nearly destroyed by the attack. It was rather disheartening for the 14 year old, who had only known love, joy, and peace in his life. This horror gave him a new perspective on life. Maybe he wasn't the invincible kid he always thought he was? He closed his eyes and breathed deep. The images burned into his mind forever. His eyes changed slightly as they always did when his emotions were strong. The bluish gray irises of his eyes slowly and steadily changed to a deeper more mysterious blue. He pushed the images away and thought of the happiest moments of his life.

Ruffling his hair, Drew took off into the heart of Hogsmeade heading straight for The Three Broomsticks. He didn't need to be down and depressed for the rest of the day. He knew that only one thing would make his life better and that was a Butterbeer, a nice cold Butterbeer. Besides he knew that life had it's own quirky way of working out, it always did. He just needed to get happy completely again and then he knew his life would be utterly fantastic. After all, you make your own destiny and Drew was determined to do so. So with his new found enlightenment Drew opened the door of the pub and sauntered inside. Getting himself a Butterbeer he turned and took off for an empty table. Sitting down he popped the cap off and took a long swing of the nice cold brew. Each swallow helped replenish his soul.

[Kitty Swann]

Kitty turned around in her mirror, thoughtfully appraising her new dew. Many pony tails shot out of her head, so many that no hair hung down without being apart of a tail, as she liked to call them. A few round abouts and she realized that it looked like her skin was being stretched by the strain of how tight she had done up her hair. With a heavy sigh she took all of the tails out which only made her hair fluffy and knotted. Picking up her handy-dandy brush, Kitty managed to make her hair look "normal" enough for her to be satisfied. The long golden brown/blond hair fell to her shoulders and looked nice and straight. Kitty wasn't even sure herself what color her hair actually was. In the summer it got lighter though, so blonde was more like it. She grinned at the mirror, running a hand through her hair, which was nice and silky. She had to keep it this way since it was so long; otherwise it would look really weird.

"S.O.S. please, someone help me," she began, starting to sing as she made her way through the halls. Kitty loved music, especially those that described her. Though she wished in her deepest heart that that song could be true to her, it wasn't. She hadn't met anyone special, though there were those cute boys here and there. Ah, well, she needed to meet someone right before she gave her heart away. She had made that promise to herself ever since she was ten and had thought she was in "love" but turned out that he didn't even care for her. It wasn't great for a ten year old to find out and even now, now that she was fourteen, she still couldn't get over it. "S.O.S. please someone help me, it's not healthy for me to feel this. Y.O.U. are making this hard, I can't take it see, it don't feel right. S.O.S. please someone help me, it's not healthy for me to feel this. Y.O.U. are making this hard, you got me tossin' and turnin', can't sleep at night. This time please someone come and rescue me, 'cause you on my mind has got me losing it. I'm lost, you got me lookin for the rest of me. Love is testing me but still I'm losing it. This time please some one come and rescue me, 'cause you on my mind has got me losing it. I'm lost you got me looking for the rest of me. Got the best of me, so now I'm losing it."

It was a nice day outside, nice and hot and yummy. Kitty liked being outside a lot, so it wasn't any surprise that she ventured to Hogsmeade. With the song still in her head, she avoided the more destroyed part of Hogsmeade and went to the center of the village. Everyone around had a fleeting expression and a quickened pace that made them look half frightened to death of another attack. Kitty could share that feeling; she had gotten attacked by the Death Eaters when they had brutally entered the school. Kitty had been scared of everything for the first few days of recovery but now that she had realized that it wasn't all bad days in life, she had learned to forget, though she could never truly forgive. She sighed heavily, the smile that always adorned her face darkened and turned into a frown. She didn't want to be reminded of that. Turning, she saw the Three Broomsticks and veered inside. The place had a more friendly air then outside and she felt welcomed. Getting a butterbeer, Kitty looked around for someone to sit by. She saw a boy who looked her age sitting at an empty table. "Hi," Kitty said as she slid into the seat opposite him. "Mind if I sit here? I'm Kitty, Kitty Jones," she said, her brown eyes dancing. She loved meeting new people and this was no exception.

((Okay, this post was very odd and random, but I love it. Kitty is the only character I have that I can do this with. ;D ))

[Andrew Thornton G6]

Drew smiled at the girl who had introduced herself as Kitty Jones. "By all means have a seat. I was beginning to get a bit lonely by myself. The names Thornton, Andrew Thornton. Doesn't sound as good as Bond's does, does it?" Drew asked with a frown. He was always into using lines from movies, but in this case Andrew Thornton had too many syllables in it to make it sound decent. "You can call me Drew though. I'm not a big fan of my full name. Drew or Andy I guess. Not many call me Andy. I'm a bit of a Drew guy. I mean your name for instance where you born with the name Kitty or is it short for something? I mean if it's your real name have you ever wanted to shorten it to one syllable. It seems everyone wants to do that. I must say I thought of it first. But enough of my rantings about random things." His mind drifted for a few seconds before he realized he hadn't found out really anything about her yet.

"What year are you in? Oh, what house? I don't think you're in Gryffindor, because I know most of them. And while I'm at it I'm going to shut my loud mouth," Drew said with a bit of a chuckle as he shut his mouth. He knew he had been ranting, but it was just like him. Every time he met someone new he couldn't help but talk, talk, and talk. He wanted to find out who everyone was and to do that required vocals. Besides, Kitty seemed to be someone who would respond in just the same way, after all she sat down with him first.

((sorry about the shortness. On a break and wanted to respond.))

[Kitty Swann]

((It being short is no problem. My posts might be a tad longer though seeing as Kitty loves to talk. And thanks for replying - I'm suddenly struck by inspiration for Kitty but I'm sure you can tell by this post. ))

Kitty giggled. "It's almost there. James Bond is a superstar who everyone knows and you... I just met you. Which isn't a bad thing. I mean, if I heard Thornton, Andrew Thornton, and everyone around Hogwarts talked about you, I'd be like, 'wow, a superstar is talking to me!' Though now that I think about it, your name does kind of sound familiar. Are you a social butterfly of some sort?" she asked with a tilt of her head, a curtain of blond hair falling forward. She couldn't relate to being extremely social - too many people thought of her as too hyper or annoying. Really though, she couldn't help it! Okay, so maybe she could if she tried hard enough, but that would be like having the world stop. Kitty Jones, a quiet sensible person? Not ever gonna happen! She couldn't imagine herself being quiet and watching everyone else have fun. No, that was no life to live!

"My real name? Yucky! No one ever calls me by my real name, nope!" she said, the mere mention of her real name sending her into a hyper mania. "It's Kathleen," she confided with a shudder. "It's gross, isn't it? Yuck, yuck, yuck. Ever since I could remember I hated it and changed it to Kitty. It's more suitable, don't you think? My mom hates it though - she says that it makes me sound like an animal, not a prospering young lady. Prospering is too big of a word anywho, so I ignore her lots." she nodded to assure this fact. Stopping to catch her breath, Kitty smiled. "Shorten Kitty to one syllable? What would that be? Kit?" she shrugged. "Kitty is the one and only name for me! Not Kathleen, not Kathy, not Kit. Kitty. And don't you dare call me anything other then that or I'll... I'll..." she tapped her chin for a moment, trying to think of a suitable revenge. "I'll make a desk try to trip you all day. Hah!" She grinned. Desks always tripped her; to see someone else being tripped would be great fun!

Kitty grinned. "Ah, c'mon! You - a loud mouth? Then what am I?" she asked with amusement, though Kitty thought of everything as funny. "I'm fourteen - fourth year. And I'm sure you can guess what House I'm in and if you can't I'm very... disappointed in you." she said with a nod. It was obvious which House she belonged to, now that Drew had seen her rant about her name and talk about getting a desk to go trip him. She wanted nothing less then to see that, but she couldn't carry out the threat without reason. She shook her head. "I'm not a Gryffie, nope. The Sorting Hat knew where I belonged right away!" she smiled, remembering that day so well. It had all felt like a fantasy, like sitting on a cloud. She couldn't remember ever being happier when the Hat announced she was a Hufflepuff. She tapped her chin again - a sure sign she was thinking - and contemplated Drew. "I'm gonna guess here. I like guessing. You're a... you look my age but I don't see you in classes so... you're either a Gryffindor fifth year or a Gryffindor third year. I'm thinking third though... Am I right?" she took a sip of her butterbeer, looking at him over the rim with dancing eyes.

[Andrew Thornton G6]

Drew smiled brightly and chuckled as Kitty took off on her own rant. He was glad that he was in the presence of someone that wasn't afraid to talk. It seemed he always ended up with people that either didn't like talking at all and found him annoying or with people that talked just as much as he did about things that were just as random. It made life exciting. He loved being around people that were like him. It made life more interesting and of course brought him joy. Not that he wasn't joyful all the time as it was, but it added more joy to his life and that was all he wanted. He wanted to be joyful all of his life. Being unhappy was no way to live and he felt that if the world just had one ounce of happiness in it all the time than it would be a better place than it was. He wondered if others thought those sort of things or if he was the only peace loving maniac.

"Yeah, I guess I'm not a superstar yet, but I'll be one day and then you can have the pleasure of meeting me again. A social butterfly? Ummm, I guess you can call me one. I'm just normally talking with everyone and anyone. I like to though. I love meeting new and exciting people. My goal is to meet 5 new people every day, because that just makes my life exciting, one big adventure and I crave adventure. You know just like Peter Pan. He always liked adventure didn't he? I'm the same way. And my biggest adventure is meeting new people. All kinds of people. Slytherins don't even bother me, I think I bother them, but they don't bother me. I'd make friends with them if I thought they wouldn't hex me every chance they got," Drew said with a laugh and shrugged.

"Kathleen isn't so bad. And you could go by Katie or Kat or how about Leen, or Nel. Or something crazy like that. Kitty just seems to be so far from Kathleen. Did you think about going by Kat and then you came up with Kitty? But don't worry I won't call you by anything other than what you want to be called by, unless I come up with a decent nickname. How about Kitty-Kat?" Drew said with a smile. He wondered if he was pushing his luck with Kitty, but he was just interested in how she chose Kitty as a nickname as opposed to something that came off of Kathleen. Drew was pretty straight forward from Andrew. It was one of two names Andy or Drew and Drew just seemed to be more interesting to him. Plenty of kids were called Andy, but not many Andrew's went by Drew.

"A desk really? I guess I'll watch it then. I don't want a desk to be tripping me all day, though I'm trying to figure out why that's the best curse you can think of. You could go with my shoe laces constantly tying themselves together? That would make things easier, since I would see a desk following me, but I would never quite know when my shoe laces were suddenly going to tie themselves together," Drew said with a smile and a laugh.

"You're right, me a loud mouth? You blow me out of the water! A fourth year Hufflepuff would be my guess. You just seem like a Hufflepuff and besides that you're way too bubbly to be in Ravenclaw and you're definitely not in Slytherin and I know you're not in Gryffindor. So that leaves Hufflepuff logically, but I didn't really need to figure it out that way. You're right about me though. I'm a third year Gryffindor. All the way and completely. I was quite excited when I got sorted into Gryffindor. See I had done a bit of research when I got my letter. I'm a muggle born so I didn't know much, but when I read about the houses I knew I wanted to be in Gryffindor. It was just the right place for me. I guess it was the same for you. The hat knowing exactly where to place you right away. It's times like that when you know that being here is just fate," Drew said with a smile as he looked dazed for a few seconds. He broke his own concentration and took a sip of Butterbeer.

[Kitty Swann]

"Slytherins are rude and very big meanies!" Kitty exclaimed. "Make friends with them? Hah! All they like to do is be mean. They think of the meanest thing they can say while talking to you, they put on the meanest face, they try to do the meanest things. Mean, mean, mean!" She took a sip of her butterbeer in an attempt to keep her mouth shut so Drew could talk. She didn't like talking so much that no one else could get a word in but... she did like to talk. A lot. That was just her though. Kitty Jones loved to talk. "How are you gonna become a superstar?" she asked with a raise of her eyebrow. "Are you going to invent something or maybe be the first person to... to..." she trailed off, not sure what Drew could do. He seemed to like talking a lot, just like Kitty. Which was good; Kitty got bored with people who were listeners 'cause then she did all the talking. Now that wasn't any fun, was it? "Peter Pan? Hmm... I think. I haven't watched that movie for a long time. It was really good though - that much I know." she smiled.

When Drew said Kitty seemed so far from Kathleen she grinned, "that's the point! I don't like Kathleen at all. Besides, a really special friend of mine started calling me Kitty 'cause my favorite animal is a kitty. It just kind of stuck, I guess. Kitty is the only real thing that I feel good with and that I like. Kat or Katie is too original and Nel and Leen are too strange. Kitty is just the perfect mixture of both and... I just like it. A lot," she explained with a distant look. She hadn't talked about her special friend for a long time, not that she wanted to. After he left though she couldn't help but remember the things he had used to say. Such as his adoring nick-name Kitty. She really did miss him though. Jerome used to tease her about having a boyfriend but she had only been seven and eight when he left. It was strange that she remember it now. She had pushed it in the back of her head to be forgotten and so far it had worked. She could just barely see his face; red hair with long bangs that fell into his dark brown eyes. She sighed and looked down at the swirling contents of her butterbeer. She didn't want to think about him anymore. Drew was much more interesting, considering she was the one who had started conversation in the first place. Kitty smiled apologetically at him.

"Sorry. I was just thinking about something..." she shrugged, hoping Drew wouldn't ask her. She had issues when it came to keeping things to herself. Any secret given to her was immediately tossed out for the public to ooh and aah over. Well, not always. It depended who the "public" included. If it was nice people who she knew wouldn't do anything about it then she didn't care. If it was Slytherins though or very cruel people she would refrain from doing it. "Yes, a desk. Desks are always trying to trip me. Always! Okay," Kitty began as she described what had happened, "so I was walking in the common room the other day and I suddenly tripped. I fell on the ground and when I looked up a desk was there. No one else - just that desk. They are really very good at tripping. Tying your shoelaces together?" she mused with a smile forming. "Hmm... that's actually a pretty good idea. But if you saw the desk following you, wouldn't you be kinda embarrassed 'cause everyone would see it? I wouldn't be but I know lots of people who would. Just a little amount of attention makes them go crazy. I like attention though. My dad says I crave attention... kinda like you and adventure."

She grinned as Drew said she blew him out of the water. "Yeah, I guess so. I just like to talk and I have a big mouth. Plus I'm hyper all the time. Have I told you yet that I have A.D.H.D.? Lot's of people think I'm weird for it and all, but I'm really very proud of it. I like having fun even if it is rather reckless and careless," she shrugged. He mentioned fate and Kitty's eyes grew wide. "You mean like it was destined? Well, just look at me. Can you imagine me in any other House besides Hufflepuff? I was so proud when I was Sorted into Hufflepuff.... Actually.... I didn't really know anything so I just wanted to be where I could enjoy myself without being judged harshly. Hufflepuff was the place, apparently." she nodded. "You don't seem much like a Ravenclaw anyway so I figured Gryffindor was the only place. Besides I like to know lots of people in my House." She didn't even mentioned the possibility of him being in Slytherin; that was too impossible. "I'm muggleborn too, and proud of it! Most people," she coughed, "Slytherins," and coughed again before continuing with a mischievous grin, "bring me down because I'm a Hufflepuff. And to make matters worse I'm muggleborn, but do I care what they think? Nah ah. Not a care in this world!" she smiled and took a sip of butterbeer. "My parents didn't like me coming here though. I mean, they were happy for me and all but I'm needed for the chores around my house," she said in an undertone. The undertone was unconsciously done. She didn't want to sound strange but it was a habit she had gotten for some odd reason. Maybe it was because of her dad, she didn't know.