The entire day had been one big pile of boredom for Ea.
So far, the highlight of her day had been the fact that she had found an acorn in one of her shoes, and this was hardly a highlight at all. Having the rest of the evening off, Ea decided to change that.

After dinner she had gotten out her notebook in which she had made a list of things to do to brighten up a day like this. So far she had gone to the kitchens and had gotten cookies, been to the lake and fed the giant Squid and danced in the owlery.

Carefully crossing these activities off her list, Ea made her way down the hallway that led to the library.
The next point on her list was rather odd, but Ea had always wanted to try it. It said: Find a stranger and pretend to know him/her

To most people, this may seem rather silly, but to Ea it was good fun. One of her favorite things were the expressions on people's faces when they were surprised and she figured this might be a way to experience just that.

She looked up to see a boy dressed in Slytherin robes walk towards her. A small smile spread on her face as she tucked the notebook back into her pocket.

She took a few, quick steps towards the boy and acted as if she had been out of breath.

"Sebastian! Oh dear, I am so glad I found you. We've been looking absolutely everywhere for you. Anyhow, you needn't worried - we've got the situation under control and they nearly got all of the soup of the walls" she said, speaking whatever words came to mind as she looked up at him with a serious facial expression, nodding.

Craven sighed walking out for the library and down the corridor. His day had been awful; another howler had arrived from his father, apparently he didn't appreciate being called a pompous stuck up prat, he'd not managed to find his loopy sister to see how she was fairing and the library had not been the best place to relax in; everyone was chattering away!

He hadn't noticed the blond girl approaching till she was suddenly right in front of him. He raised a eyebrow at her in question as she spoke, he'd never been Sebastian nor did he know one in his house. Mismatched eyes sharped at her appearance, picking up on the fact she was from hufflepuff. As if this answered all his questions. He'd only met one nice hufflepuff and that was Rebecca.

"Oh i should have know a badger....Well I'm sure Sebastian will be happy to hear that but i quite clearly am not him..." His voice was short and sharp, he had no patience today and after spending the last hour in the company of chattering slytherin boys he was more than a little house proud.

Surprised as well as a bit amazed at the boy's calmness, Ea shrugged as she shook her head.

"Oh? Well, I am sorry for the misunderstanding then" she said. The boy's reaction had not scared her off. In fact it had just gotten her that much more interested in talking to him.

She let go of her original intention and decided on simply trying to find out more about the Slytherin. As he walked on, she followed him. She had to take small, quick steps in order to keep up with him.

"I am Ea" she said, as she followed him, keeping her eyes on his face.

It had never been in his nature to yell, his forte was sharpness of the voice and sarcasm. If he ever did yell the shock of it would probably cause him to win the argument. Ignoring her apology eh continued to walk on until he heard the small quick footsteps following him. He quickly stopped in his movements a loud sigh escaping his lips and his mismatched eyes scrunching in annoyance until he forced his expression to relax and his mind to calm down. Before he had chance to speak she'd introduced herself.

"That's lovely, is there something you wanted?" his voice was laced with sarcasm as he spoke, his deep tones rough though still calm. Had it been any other house he probably would have said something rather cutting and walked off, but she was a Hufflepuff girl and he kept thinking that being mean to Rebecca's house mates wasn't a good way to start a friendship.

Ea did not let his sarcasm scare her off. She wasn't too good at picking up hints, and both irony and sarcam were things she would probably never fully understand.
This is why she didn't, like most others probably would, shrug and walk away from the unpleasant Slytherin.
Instead, she decided to answer his question properly, unaware that he probably had not meant for her to do so.

"Well, no, nothing in particular.. Only, I have been particularly bored all day.. And, no offence, you seem like you could need something to cheer you up as well?" she said, hoping her stragihtforwardness would be met with at least a hint of warmth.

He very almost exploded at the girl; the Slytherin side of him was tempted to hex her into the hospital wing. But for some reason his newly found conscience convinced him not too. It helped of course that her innocence at his sarcasm reminded him of his sister; well either that or he would find the girl to be truly annoyingly stupid, again much like his sister.

Despite this sudden attack of conscience his arrogance didn’t tone down; he was still very much a pure blood Slytherin after all. He rolled his eyes at her before speaking, the damned smug smirk on his lips and his voice calmly deep.

“Oh and I suppose you’ll be the one to cheer me up. Tell me Ea, how do you intend to achieve that?... And didn’t anyone ever tell you not to bother Slytherins without reason?” He raised and eyebrow at her, obviously portraying a questioning expression.

((ignore this))

Ea was used to being spoken to this way. Her entire family seemed to do nothing but roll their eyes and mock her. It had been such a natural part of her upbringing to be put down, Ea had grown somewhat immune to it.

Ea always made it a point to answer questions, even if she found them silly or stupid. She was almost never able to detect a rhetorical question and often annoyed people when answering these.

She tilted her head at the boy who still had not given her his name and smiled at him, wryly.

"Perhaps." she said shortly, as a reply to his last question, then added
"Didn't anyone ever tell you that Hufflepuffs have no sense of propriety?"
She was hoping she might somehow manage to soften him up a bit.

"Now, regarding the cheering up - you are just going to have to decide whether or not you are up for some fun.. and if you are, you'll see in time what I have in mind" she said, a flash of eagerness running across her small face.
Ea pushed a blonde piece of hair out of her face as she took a few steps away from the boy, then turned back.

"Are you game?" she asked, knowing this would give him the opportunity to follow her or back off. However, if Ea knew Slytherin's right, they weren't too keen on admitting that they weren't 'game'.

With her arms akimbo, she watched him curiously.

He watched her tilt his head as she responded and he was suddenly eager to follow Fawne for a day and find out if she teaching other students her stupid talking habits. Unfortunately Ea’s whole attitude and her likeness to his sister caused him to soften slightly towards the Hufflepuff girl. She hadn’t caused any harm yet, had she? He couldn’t believe she managed to clam him down, he was going soft surely? He grinned at her reply to his Slytherin question, his smirk seeming a little less arrogant than before.

“Perhaps, though when did Slytherin ever listen to anyone but themselves?” his words although technically self insulting were spoken with a sense of pride, like he was proud of his house and all its personality traits, regardless of the bad ones.

He laughed a deep rich sound, when she called his bluff; asking if he was game. He took the bait eagerly and knowingly. After all what kind of Slytherin would he be if he backed down? His voice was full of humour as he spoke. Now taken steps forward, following her now.

“Of course I’m game, my name is Craven Blackwood is it not? And I wear green and silver don’t i? However I highly doubt our ideas of fun are the same blonde-ie.” The nickname was not insulting but a habit he’d developed. For example Rebecca was Pet, April was Queeny and his sister was Imp...

Ea couldn't hold back a grin. She was thrilled to have finally managed to break his surface somewhat, and the fact that he had a sense of humour made her even more interested in spending time with him.

She liked his way of talking, his way of being ironic about the Slytherin sterotypeswhile really he fit it rather perfectly.
However, Ea never spent much time wondering what house someone belonged to.
She had met plenty of Slytherins that were as nice, or even nicer than her own housemates.

As he introduced himself indirectly, Ea shot him an interested glance. She always tried to make something out of people's names, and Craven's seemed to suit him well.

As he dropped the comment about their idea of what 'fun' was being different, Ea shook her head slightly and grinned again.
The nickname he had chosen for her didn't bother her. In fact, she liked it quite a lot.

"Oh, is that so?" she said, raising an eyebrow jokingly as they kept walking, Ea leading the way.

"Why I am just going to have to proove you wrong, aren't I?" she said firmly, then added
"I suspect you are going to like where we are going, though. Unless you're afraid to break the rules, of course.." she said in a sing-song voice, deliberately trying to provoke him, though still with a smile on her face.

"I mean, if you're afraid you're gonna get in trouble, you can always turn back? I suppose there are plenty of potions that needs to be brewed?" she said, sincerely hoping he would catch her joking tone of voice. She would hate for him to think she really thought Slytherins were like that.

They kept turning around corners, walking down hallways, making their way toward the stairs that led to the Astronomy tower.

He watched as Ea shook her head, almost as if contesting whatever her idea was, it would be fun. He was willing to bet with the oddity of the girl whatever her idea of fun was it would be humorous; he just wasn’t willing to admit it. His voice was full of humour as he spoke, warming up to the girl’s personality just for her cheekiness.

“It takes a lot to prove me wrong Blondie.” He laughed when she called his bluff once more, deliberately provoking him into following. And yet even with this knowledge he still chose to follow the girl to where ever they were heading and this idea of fun she had. Perhaps his day had been dull after all, up until now of course.

Her potion brewing comment caused him to chuckle once more, his eyebrow rising as if questioning the stereotype silently. He did not, willingly brew potions, that stereotype had been added to his house through Snape years ago. It was strange to hear it used. In fact he barely brewed potions in lesson, his mind was far to busy to think on little potion details.

“I assure you, I do not brew my own potions, I have lackeys for that. And as for getting into trouble, do I look like the sort ot stay out of it…I am curious though, for a badger Blondie you are surprisingly misbehaved.” He realised as he followed her that they were heading for the astronomy tower, he couldn’t think of anything fun to do up there but he chose not to comment further and just followed Ea...

"Oh no, you strike me as being rather reckless iindeed" she said, truthfully, making it clear that this was not a bad thing to her.
"It's just that with too many people around here it's all hat, no cattle, you know?" Ea said, trying to make the muggle phrase that she had recently learned sound natural.

She took a few, quick steps up the stairs, then turned back toward him with a grin on her face.
"Can you keep up the pace back there?" she called out teasingly as she continued to run up the stairs.
She was nearly out of breath as she reached the top of the tower and ran out on the platform.

OOC: sorry it's short - I want Craven to get up there before I continue.

His smirk became even more pronounced when she called him reckless, most would see it as an insult but to the 16 year old Slytherin it was a compliment. And a pretty nice one at that. He was glad that she didn’t seem to think it a bad think either. He noted with a hint of metal astonishment he seemed to be befriending quite a few Hufflepuffs lately. Maybe he didn’t give the badgers enough credit after all.

He looked slightly perplexed at the saying, having never heard it before in his life. But he had been brought up in a pure blood house hold after all. Not very many Muggle things there for him to learn. He chose to gloss over her reply, ignoring it almost as if not wanting to injure his pride.

He listened to her teasing but made no move to run up after her, his stride taking a quick pace up the stairs instead. He didn’t fancy being a panting, sweating mess when he reached the top of the tower… He walked up to her panting form, thankfully at the top of the stairs now, and none the worse for ware.

“You know speed isn’t everything Blondie…So what about this fun?”

Slightly annoyed with his calmness, Ea glanced up at Craven as her breathing became steadier. She clicked her tongue.
"Never heard of patience have you?" she asked, but didn't wait for an answer.

A second later, she was on the move again, making her way across the platform. As she reached the stone railing, she adroitly jumped onto it, balancing on it for a moment before reaching the wall of the castle. As she did so, she started climbing it, placing her feet in the holes between the stones and the small shelves on which her feet only barely fit. Ea didn't have too much trouble getting onto the roof of the castle. At this particular spot the roof was rather flat, and with some care, one was able to walk on it.
As she managed to get up there, she looked back at Craven.

"Are you coming, or no?" she asked and served the words with a hint of provocation and a wry smile.

He never got to respond to her question since the girl was already on the move; begrudgingly he had to admit she was a lot faster than he was. Her excessive energy was something Fawne expressed in a much different way, she was less like his sister than he thought. This was probably for the best.

Her followed her at a quicker pace than he walked up the stairs but he very almost shouted his head off at her when she climbed over the barrier wall. What on earth was she doing, she could fall! Didn’t she know that’s how Dumbledore died?! He took a few deep breaths and pulled out his wand, ready to cast a spell if she fell. He was about to call her back when her provocative words reached his ears. He would not have some Hufflepuff calling him a coward. With a firm mind set he quickly climbed over the wall, despite his tall frame he was fairly nimble.

“Your really nuts for a badger, but I am not letting you walk alone on the roof. You’ll probably end up dead Blondie.” His voice was taunting and teasing, but there was perhaps some underlying concern in there. For all his bad Slytherin traits he did have a conscience and Ea looked so young to him as she climbed.

He tucked his wand in his pocket for easy access in case he slipped and began to place his feet in similar places to hers as he climbed the roof. It took him a lot longer since his frame was bigger and so where his feet. The small foot holes she used were of no use to him and he had to look for bigger ones, usually further apart. Eventually he pulled himself onto the roof; standing on the flat surface and brushing his robes down. He looked slightly more unkempt than usual but non the worse for ware, of course she couldn’t here his heart pounding very fast.

“And were on the roof why?” his eyebrow was quirked in question and his eyes were clearly un- amused, if they were caught on the roof there would be hell to pay,

Pleased to see him joining her, Ea chuckled slightly. She was in a good mood. Dangerous outings like the one they were on was the one place she truly felt free. It allowed her to take a break from hogwarts' everyday stress and let her childish curiosity loose.

Ea smiled widely at him, hoping her smile was as contagious as it used to. She hated to see him serious; she was in the mood for having fun, and fun was always better when you had someone to share it with.

"Lghten up," she said, "I told you we were going to have fun, didn't I?" she said, still smiling. She turned around, her eyes fixated on a gap between two parts of the roof. It was rather wide, and Ea knew that if she fell, she would fall badly. The gap didn't go all the way down to the ground, but it would still be a long fall to the roof under it. The thought of it made the adrenaline rush through her body.

"All right, we really have to watch our step.." she said, to herself as well as him. She bit her lip, fully aware that this was dangerous. To Ea, however, danger usually equalled fun.

"Now watch.. and learn" Ea said, her eyes narrowing, stilll looking at the gap. Within a second, she had accelarated and was running towards the gap with as long steps as her short legs allowed, using her arms to gain more speed. As she reached the edge of the part of the roof they had been standing on, she jumped.

There was a very short moment of pure joy, the feeling of flying freely in the air. The wind caught on to her robes slightly, its upward force making it possible for her to make it to the other side. She landed on her feet, but had to support herself with a knee due to the large amount of speed.

Ea turned around, now on the other part of the roof. She looked back at Craven, a wide grin on her face, her cheeks blushing and her blonde hair messy.

"You see? it’s all aerodynamics, baby” she said as she stuck out her tongue at the movie-like quality of her comment.