Relaxing By the Lake ((Robert))

[nathaniel]

Nathaniel pushed open the huge, oak doors of the entrance to Hogwarts, that lead out to the Hogwarts grounds. It was the first day back to school. Well, techically, it was the second day back to school, since the night before, was really the first day back to Hogwarts, but today was the first full day back. Nathaniel liked to think about things such as this, a lot. Coming out of his thoughts, he began to just stroll around the grounds, not really doing anything in paticular. Waving and smiling at a few people, as he passed by.

He soon reached the lake, his favorite place at Hogwarts. A place to relax, and enjoy the sun all at once. His favorite willow tree sat beside the lake. He smiled as he moved over to the spot. He moved over to the lake, glad that nobody else had already taken his place. He stood right in front of the great, body of water, taking a relaxing, deep breath, as he watched the lake. The waves were washing up to shore, in the slight wind every few minutes, and the only sounds that were heard was the sound of chirping birds, only the faint sound of other student's conversations, and the waves, hitting the ground, and the other waves as they hit the shore line.

This sounded very peaceful, and this was the way that Nathaniel liked it the best. He sat down, now, leaning his back against the tree trunk. This is the time that he liked to think about the memories of his mother. His mother passed away, when Nathaniel was only seven years old, so he didn't have much memories of the woman, but he loved to think about them all the same. A smile crossed his face, as the memories flowed back. He continued to sit there, like this for some time, simply enjoying his own company.

[Robert Knight R5]

Robert walked around the courtyard. It was a beautiful day. He was trying to listen to an enchanted portable music player that he'd bought with some of the money he'd earned from working at Catalina's Cubby. Robert loved music more than anything and was sad when he realized that his CD player didn't work at Hogwarts in his 1st year. All the magical reside from old spells in the air does something to electricity. It was all very complicated, and Robert didn't think much of science anymore. It was his favorite subject at his old school in the Muggle world, but once he found out about the magical Wizarding world, it all went out the door for him.

Robert was trying to hear the music he was listening to, but it very noisy all around him. Everyone was talking since it was the first official day at Hogwarts. It was too loud for him. He wanted to get away from the crowds of other students, so he headed over toward to lake. The chatter of students could easily be ignored from there. The water was a calming blue and the wind made the willow trees sway left and right. Robert saw a boy who he thought was in his year sitting under a large willow tree. Robert also thought he was in Hufflepuff, but that didn't matter.

"Would you like some company?" Robert asked him with a small smile.

[nathaniel]

Nathaniel looked up, at the sound of a voice. He was a bit sad that he had to be taken away from his peace, but he also liked meeting new friends. He smiled a bit shyly up at the boy, and replied, "Sure." with a wide smile crossing his face. The boy didn't look too familiar, but he recognized him faintly. He looked to be about his age, but Nathaniel was pretty sure that he wasn't in Hufflepuff.

"Hi, umm... I don't believe we met." he said, turning to the boy. "I'm Nathaniel. Nathaniel Benson, Fluff fourth year." he introduced himself formally. As he waited for the boy to reply, he turned to the lake again, smiling as chirping birds flew overhead. He turned up, and followed their path, in the sky, for as far as he could see them. The birds soon turned into mere black dots, that were almost impossible to see. After the birds were completely out of site, Nathaniel turned back to the boy beside him, now focusing his full attention on him, continuing to wait for his reply, a smile plastered on his face.

((Sorry this post isn't as good as my last one. I'm doing this pretty late at night, and I've got to get going to bed in a few minutes. School night.))

[Robert Knight R5]

"And I'm Robert Knight. Fourth year Raven," Robert said in the same formal tone. Robert didn't know many Hufflepuffs. "You might have met my cousin, Katherine. She's a Huffle, too. But she's in her fifth year." Robert knew some of the fifth year Ravenclaws, but he naturally enjoyed making new friends. He thought about the speech from Dumbledore that he had heard just the night before. It was true, we had to settle our differences and watch out for each other. Robert made a mental goal to make more friends outside of Ravenclaw this year.

Robert noticed that Nathaniel seemed to be easily distracted. Either that or he was very shy. He was watching something in the air. Robert looked upward to see what he was looking at, but all he saw were a couple of birds flying in the opposite direction. Then his attention seemed to revert back to Robert once they were out of sight. He tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to him so he just looked around awkwardly waiting for Nathaniel to say something.

((Read Dumbledore's speech in the great hall, if you haven't already. You probably have though ))

[nathaniel]

((Yeah, I have, and I understood what your post meant. ))

Nathaniel gave up a sheepish grin, which he had been doing a lot, to the boy, when he seemed to notice that he wasn't exactly paying attention. "Oh sorry." he muttered, looking down at his feet, as he shuffled them slightly, over the grass. He looked back up to the boy, when he introduced himself as Robert Knight, a fourth year Ravenclaw. Nathaniel was glad that Robert was a Ravenclaw, because he really hated running across Slytherins, since they usually made fun of his quietness and shyness. So, Nathaniel smiled when Robert said that he was in one of the nicer houses.

Robert asked if Nathaniel knew a scousin of his, a fifth year Hufflepuff. Sadly, Nathaniel didn't know anybody by the name of Knight, although, the name sounded faintly familier, though. Nathaniel thought it was a bit sad that he had never gotten aqquainted with a fellow Hufflepuff, but Nathaniel had always been too shy to meet new people.

There was an odd silence between the two, so Nathaniel decided to cut through it, and try to make conversation with the boy. He laened back, against the tree trunk, turned to Robert, and said, a bit awkwardly, "So umm... what do you like to do? Like... I dunno... anything that interests you, so I can start a good conversation." Nathaniel said as last, laughing slightly. He obviously didn't know what to say, so he decided to start a nice conversation this way.

((Nattie doesn't know who Katherine is yet, because this post is before the one I have with her, just to remind you.))

[Robert Knight R5]

((I know Nathaniel hasn’t met Katherine yet, but Robert doesn’t. ))

Robert frowned at the fact that he’d never me his cousin before. He’s probably seen her before, but just doesn’t know her by name, Robert thought to himself. Then the odd silence continued. Robert shifted his weight from one foot to the other and put his hands in his pockets. He was about to say, Well, I guess I’ll see ya around, and leave. But then Nathaniel broke the silence by trying to start a conversation, which Robert was glad about because he really had nothing else to do and enjoyed people’s company.

Robert grinned when the boy asked him what he liked to do. Robert loved anything related to the fine arts. “Well, I love theater and painting,” he said, “In fact, Lenora Byers in Gryffindor and I are starting a Drama Club. I’ve been passing out fliers and stuff, but I still will need more people before I could do auditions.” Truth was, there weren’t enough older boys. A couple of first years had jumped at the idea, but not as many people were interested as Robert thought there would be. “Do you like acting? Maybe you could join...” Before the boy could answer he said, “But if your not, that’s okay,” with a shrug. He didn’t want to pressure someone into doing something they weren’t interested in. “If you’re not into that kinda stuff, then just tell anyone who might be interest to talk to me,” he said with a smile.

[nathaniel]

Nathaniel listened to Robert talk about a drama club that he was starting soon. It did sound interesting, but it wasn't something for Nathaniel. Nathaniel would be much too shy to even sign up. He had been trying to stop this kind of acting, and get himself more active with people and what not, but it didn't seem to be working well. Nathaniel frowned and replied, "Well... it does sound pretty cool, but I don't think that I would be too interested in it..." he trailed off awkwardly. "I'm sorry. I don't mean it the way you might be thinking... Just, to be honest, I don't think I would have the courage to do anything like that..." he said with a weak smile. He didn't mind telling people about it very much, since this fact about him was already pretty noticeable.

He shrugged and said, "So, I saw that you had a CD player, huh? Do you like music? I, am muugleborn, so I like a lot of the muggle music. I personally enjoy country, rock, and punk rock... what about you?" he asked curiously. "But... if you're not muggleborn, or halfblood, you probably haven't the faintest clue what I'm talking, huh? Well, in that case, I like the Weird Sisters as well." he asdded in quickly with a smile. He liked to make everything very clear for people, so they wouldn't get confused. Especially when he was talking to other wizards or witches, about muggles or muggle objects. To him, it was normal, and a normal way of life, but to most of the other people in the wizarding world, it was like learning about aliens, and he knew how they felt, because that was exactly how Nathaniel felt when he first learn about the wiarding world.