Late conversations ((Ivy))

[laurap]

Laura was soaring through the air. Flying. It felt magical until she suddenly started to fall. Laura watched almost helplessly as ground begun to near her. Stifling a yelp – or at least trying to – Laura shot up in her bed with cold sweat on her forehead.
Laura shrugged the blanket off from around her and looked around the empty room, hoping she hadn’t woken anyone. No one seemed to be moving so Laura let out a long breath of relief before tip-toeing silently out of the dormitory and down to the common room. She didn't want to disturb anyone elses sleep just because she happened to have a silly nightmare. Laura loved flying - that was why she had auditioned for the Quidditch team. Flying made one feel so carefree so opened for everything new.

Feeling as if she needed some fresh air, Laura opened a window in the common room before sitting on a couch and picking up a quill and a piece of parchment. The absent scribbling onto the parchment soon turned into drawing – Laura draw nature today. A mountain to the back-ground and a water-fall falling into a pond right there. With a rose-garden and a swing on the shore of the pond.
Starting to relax again after waking from her nightmare Laura half-smiled as she heard foot-steps on the stairs. Wondering who would be up at this time besides her, Laura turned her head curiously and waited for the person to come into view as a corner hid the person - a girl obviously as she was coming down the girl's stairs - from Laura's eyes.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy was sleeping lightly. She wasn't dreaming fretfully, as she often did, but just sleeping lightly. She didn't realise the transition from sleep to waking until quite some time had gone by, and she lay there, in the darkness, eventually opening her eyes, the darkness that flooded into them oppressive. She turned over and waited to go back to sleep, but it became clear after a while that sleep was not going to be forthcoming. Ivy sighed and reached round the back of her bed hangings, groping for her clock. She brought it inside the darkness of her bed hangings and tapped it. The clock projected the time in red glowing numerals into the darkness. It read 01:17.

Ivy drew back one side of the hangings and put her feet on the floor. Cautiously she padded across the room and opened the dormitory door. It squeaked slightly as she eased it closed, and she grimaced, hoping she hadn't woken anyone. Ivy moved along the corridor quietly, the stone cold to her bare feet. The house elves had rolled the carpet that usually led along here up for cleaning, and looked up at her as she passed to see if there was anything they could do for her. She opened the door onto the common room and started to descend the steps. It was quite cold in here, probably because of the fact that there was a window open and it was still only April. It didn't take long for Ivy to realise that she was not the only one in the Common Room. Looking across the room, she noticed Laura Pennington, a girl in her year. As Laura seemed also to have registered her presence, Ivy gave her a smile and drew up an armchair next to her.
"Hello Laura," she greeted the Hufflepuff. "You're drawing quite late."

[laurap]

Laura was relieved to see Ivy coming into view. The girls weren’t exactly the friends but after having shared a dormitory for three years they knew each other to at least some point. Their mutual interest for Quidditch was helpful as well.
“Hello Ivy,” Laura greeted with a small smile lowering her eyes to the picture in front of her and putting her pencil down as Ivy commented on drawing this late, “I just couldn’t sleep. Saw some silly nightmare and figured there wasn’t must use to tossing around in my bed for the rest of the night.”<br>
Laura fell silent – Ivy probably wasn’t even interested in why she was up. It was just polite to ask it. Picking up a pencil again Laura started to shade the roses she had just drawn mainly just to keep her hands busy.
“And you? Couldn’t sleep either?” Laura asked with a shy smile.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy smiled and nodded slightly at Laura's explanation. Perhaps that might be the reason why she was awake. She usually slept fairly lightly. While she was looking after her father she had needed to so she could help him with anything he needed in the night. Since he had gone her sleep had been disturbed with worries and regrets. Her sleep pattern was starting to settle down slightly now; the bags under Ivy's eyes were less pronounced, but they were still there. And she probably looked pretty pale and blurry eyed tonight. She usually did if she woke up too early. Ivy watched as Laura started to shade her drawing and smiled uncertainly at her. She wasn't the world's best conversationist.

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep," Ivy said. "Or at least, I woke up and then couldn't sleep, same as you really, so I came down here... I don't know why really. It gives me more freedom to make noise and do what I want to." She smiled at her fellow Hufflepuff, and again looked down to her drawing. Laura was probably one of those people who had a great talent for drawing, maybe a bit like Jordan had been, unlike Ivy, who couldn't draw for the life of her. She never had been able to and never would be able to. She just had to use her wand to transfer the picture in her mind onto paper. Now embroidery, that was a different matter. But there someone else had drawn the pattern. Ivy returned Laura's smile. She suspected both of them were probably at a loss for conversation, so she moved the conversation onto a topic she knew both of them would probably be able to talk about.
"How are you finding Quidditch practice?" Ivy asked. "We have a match coming up." Ivy's throat constricted at the thought of who they were to play, but pushed it away quickly before the worry and nerves could take hold. She had been sad when Kiyla had left the team; it was always nice to have your friends as your fellow Chasers, but actually then Laura had taken the position anyway. Ivy had been glad about that; it would probably give her more chance to come to know her fellow third year Hufflepuff over time.

[laurap]

Laura smiled at Ivy. They both seemed to be at loss of words. Somehow it made this conversation a bit easier for Laura. Of course, it also helped that the conversation turned onto something both girls knew and loved – quidditch.
“Quidditch practice. Well, they are hard. But Nokomis is a good captain in my opinion. Besides the game is going to be difficult. Slytherins don’t really play nicely,” Laura said with a worried frown. Slytherins didn’t always play fair and most of their team was a lot older and bigger than the Hufflepuff team. Laura was rather sure that Hufflepuff didn’t have very many chances of winning. Pushing the thought away and looking at things from a more positive retrospect, Laura smiled. Flying really did make her feel free – that was why quidditch was exactly the sport for her.
“But I’m not complaining really. I live flying. Have you ever gone flying with a kite? I have with my mom. I liked that as well, but controlling a broom is a lot easier and more comfortable,” Laura said with a warm smile.

“Yes, I like it here late at evening or very early in the morning. It’s so peaceful and calm here then, so unlike during day-time,” Laura said with a smile, looking around the warm and welcoming room, recalling that Ivy had commented about it. She really did love it here.

[Ivy Tunstall]

"Nokomis is a brilliant captain," Ivy said to Laura with a smile. Nokomis shouldn't have doubted herself. She'd made sure they had a team to play against Slytherin, and Ivy found her quietly authorititive. Ivy knew that with Nokomis as captain, the team could go a long way. She had faith in her friend, and she hoped the rest of her team did too. The Chaser side of the Hufflepuff team was probably the youngest of any of the teams, but nevertheless it was teamwork that would count in the end. People on the team would not look for other people to blame if things didn't go well. They would blame themselves and strive to do better next time. And if everyone on the team was giving of their best, it was only a matter of time before the true Hufflepuff potential was unleashed. Even if probably not this time against Slytherin.

"Kites? Well, I was never any good with them, but I still ended up showing Livi how to use one. Probably accounts for why she isn't the world expert either." Ivy chuckled at the thought, although inside her heart gave a twinge as she thought of home again. She always felt that home would never really be home again. The two people that had once made it home were no longer there, even if the Ashtons still were.
"I love my house." Ivy said to Laura. "Probably accounts for why I'm willing to get on a flying broomstick and risk breaking my neck for it. Apart from the fact I love Quidditch." Ivy smiled at the fellow Hufflepuff, before yawning, realising quite how deathly tired she felt, and probably looked to Laura. Rubbing her eyes, she looked to Laura, feeling slightly embarassed, and also noticed the rather unearthly time that it was from the clock mounted on one of the walls.
"You don't mind if I go up now do you?" Ivy asked Laura. "Only I think I could really do with some more sleep." She looked anxiously to the third year, hoping she hadn't caused offense by yawning and needing to go back to bed.

[laurap]

Laura just smiled softly. She didn’t really know Nokomis very well, but she seemed like a nice girl. And there had to be a reason why she was chosen as team captain, even though she was still only a second year – she had been allowed to join the team only this year.
“I’m sure Hufflepuff will have a great team. Even if we won’t win the Quidditch cup this year, then there is always next year and we are going to get a lot of practice, right?” Laura answered with a soft smile and glanced at her watch as Ivy mentioned going back to bed.

Muffling a yelp Laura stood as well: “I hadn’t realized it’s this late. Or early – I should better get some sleep as well.” Putting her things together quickly Laura moved up the stairs to the third year girls dormitory as well and smiling and whispering “Good night” to Ivy, Laura moved to her bed and slipping in it, draw the hanging around it closed.