Oh, fiddlesticks. ((Sethia))

[Jordan Elizabeth Cortes]

Jordan was a seventh year. A seventh year. She let the word roll around in her mind a bit, and then smiled brightly at the thought. She loved the idea of being a seventh year - yet it frightened her as well. Jordan still wanted to be a kid, she still wanted to drag Dill around and blow up things or set off random fireworks at the most random moments. She wanted to just run around and laugh. After Hogwarts though, Jordan knew that wasn't going to happen as much as she liked. That did not mean, though, that she couldn't have that time of her life for one more year - which was why she was wandering around Hogsmeade. Jumping from shop to shop, buying things here and there and making orders upon orders of fireworks. Dill was almost out of stock, as was she and fireworks were an essential with them. Her arms were full with bags now, yet she still walked around Hogsmeade.

She stopped at the Three Broomsticks and set all her packages down beside an empty table, before collapsing lightly into a chair. She laid her head on the table and let out a small sigh before lifting her head up and looking around. It was as crowded as it always was during the summer, which was nice. Jordan liked familiarity. She placed her arms on the table in front of her, crossed and tapped her fingers on the wooden table. A waitress came up and Jordan ordered a butterbeer and the waitress went off after waving her wand and making the butterbeer appear. Jordan picked it up, and although it was a bit of a warm drink for the summer - she found she was rather addicted to the drink. Jordan took a sip after a moment and then set it back down on the table. She wasn't going to stay there long, she had wanted to sketch something while she was in the village - so this was just a pit stop.

When she finished her butterbeer, she left the correct amount of money on the table and grabbed her bags and parcels - making her way back out to the open air. Jordan closed her eyes a moment and then reopened them to see little kids running in front of her screaming, "You're it!" Jordan smiled and felt that familiar feeling of longing to be young again - younger anyway. She shifted the weight of her merchandise and walked over to a nearby bench. She was settled within moments and then quickly pulled out her sketchbook and charcoal pencil. Her eyes searched the area and landed on an old woman sitting on the bench, reading. Swiftly her hand moved over the paper - drawing the shape and the background. The story spilled from her fingertips and told it's tale on the page. Jordan found herself so much in the zone of her drawing, she didn't notice someone approach her.

[sethia]

Her return to Hogwarts, wasn’t exactly going as planned, but then again had she even had a plan in mind when she decided to come back? A year of your life, when you were younger a year wasn’t that big of a deal, but as you got older you began to understand the importance of a second far less a year. She had left Hogwarts a year ago to take care of her aunt and reverted to acting like a muggle, though secretly practicing magic when she could. Time waits for no man. Whoever wrote that wasn’t lying, it hadn’t waited for him and it certainly hadn’t’ stood still for Sethia. However, today was a day for trying to enjoy herself before she headed into London to stay with Payton. It was strange; she was looking forward to that visit and dreading it all at the same time.

She walked along the streets of Hogsmeade, her arms dangling freely at her side. Her blond hair was loosed around her shoulders and a gentle breeze was blowing through it. She smiled slightly as she looked into the store windows she passed; she had missed the sights and sounds of the magical world. She stopped before a large multicoloured-glass window, inside curled up on the corner of the window box was none other than a rather large kneazel and behind it, hanging upside down was a large black bat. She giggled as the kneazel yawned lazily and rolled over, before she continued on her way. Everywhere had changed, as she realised where the pet store now stood was once her favourite deli and that there were at least five entirely new stores on that street that hadn’t been there when she left. Someone would have called it progress; Sethia saw it as just another example of how the world had left her behind.

She could have stayed in Yorkshire and lived out her life as a muggle in stead of coming back to Hogwarts for her last year, but the muggle world wasn’t for her. She had missed everything about the wizarding world while she was away from it; the people, school, everything, even the Slytherins taking their malcontent out on the world. No matter what she missed, or who she missed, there was always one person in her mind and that was Payton.

She stuffed her hands into her pockets as she continued down the street and passed The Three Broomsticks, not intending to go in, but something pulling her back anyways. She entered the establishment and found a seat by the bar where she ordered a butterbeer and a packet of peanuts. She sipped the cool drink and munched on her Philius Peanuts, the only peanuts that came in chocolate and asparagus flavour, thankfully her packet was the chocolate kind. She was munching away on her nuts when she saw someone pass out the door out of the corner of her eye. It looked like someone she knew but they had moved so quickly she wasn’t really sure. She left some coins on the bar and went out after the figure, her peanuts in hand. She followed them through the streets and with each step she was sure it was who she thought.

Finally, the girl stopped and whipped out a sketchbook and began to draw a woman across the way. She was now positive, she could clearly see her face and it was Jordan. Sethia walked up slowly, a small smile on her face as Jordan failed to notice her. Sethia came right up behind her, looking over her shoulder at the sketch, before she spoke. “Great drawing,” she said with a smile.

[Jordan Elizabeth Cortes]

Jordan jumped a bit at the voice behind her complimenting her drawing. She put her free hand to her chest as if to steady her beating heart and then turned to see who had spoken to her. When she saw Sethia Wagner, Jordan smiled and shrugged, “Thanks. You know me, I can never go anywhere without my sketchbook and a charcoal pencil because I end up seeing something I want to draw. Though, this one….” Jordan trailed off as her eyes went to her sketch page and sighed as she looked up at the woman on the bench. “I think it’s missing something. It’ll come to me at four in the morning, but I know it’s missing something imperative.” She shrugged again and started to sketch in the shaded area that she hadn’t yet. A smile still remaining on her lips. A smile always seemed to be there, or at least to the outsiders it seemed to be there. After the attack though, she wasn’t all smiles for awhile – and it took Justin Finch-Fletchley to make her understand that the attack wasn’t something she could handle and that it was over… there was nothing she could do about it now.

During that time, Jordan hadn’t been in the greatest moods. In fact, she had gotten a cold from sitting out in the pouring rain – crying, where Justin had found her. Jordan hadn’t been harmed badly, but it had scared her that she had been attacked at all. She heard all these things about people getting attacked, including Payton – Dillion’s twin brother, but when it happens to you, it’s something completely different. Jordan sighed out loud and brightened her smile a bit more before turning to Sethia. She moved over a bit and waved her hand to the seat beside her, “Sit down if you’d like, I don’t bite. Can’t say that for the bench though.” In truth, Jordan had forgotten Sethia was standing there for a moment – but the thought of Payton made her remember. Jordan didn’t know much, considering she didn’t speak to Payton as much as she did Dillion (who didn’t speak complete sentences anyway) and all the rumors that went around were not even true – or at least the ones she had heard. All she knew was that something happened where Sethia had to return home and it left Payton confused and a little heartbroken. She didn’t the details, but she didn’t dare ask. It was rude, and if either of them wanted her to know they would tell her. Jordan sent another smile in Sethia’s direction and returned to her drawing.

“Drawing calms me down. If I wanted something to get me energized, I would dance. But drawing is always so peaceful, you can’t get hyper off drawing – well, unless you’re Dill. But Dill can get hyper off anything, he’s eternally hyper.” As she mentioned his name, Jordan’s smile grew and she felt a slight blush in her cheeks. It was her seventh year at Hogwarts and she was just coming to terms with the fact that she liked Dillion more than she had claimed she did. She still didn’t know how he felt toward her, and that saddened her a bit, but she would take having him as a best friend over not having him at all any day. It was simple, and it clicked in her head easier than anything else did. Yes, she would like to be something more with him. But if she couldn’t, she wouldn’t want to lose the one person she loved more than anything in the world – as a friend or more. Her eyes went to Sethia, semi to make sure that she hadn’t caught her blush, and semi to smile at her and start a conversation with her attention almost completely on her housemate. “So, are you looking forward to the upcoming year?” She asked, her hand still shading and her watching every now and then to make sure she wasn’t getting “out of the lines.”