Casey smiled, it was a known fact that the lake was one of her favorite spots, and she was sure John wasn't surprised by her choice at all. But it was such a nice night, how could she not make a trip down to the lake? She was pretty much ecstatic when John took her hand and she moved a little closer, her arm just touching his. "It really is. I'ts a perfect night for a walk," She stated, looking up John. She remembered the night she'd first met John, and they'd left dance, going for a walk along the grounds towards the lake instead.

He smiled when she touched his arm and looked out at the lake, finding the reflection of the stars beautiful, but not as beautiful as Casey. "So, other than taking a nap in the common room, is there anything else you had planned tonight? " He asked, always worried she had some place she needed to be or wanted to be more

"Hmmm.... Well at the moment, the only thing I've got planned is hanging out with you.... Unless you've got other plans...." Casey said, surprised at her own words, but also desperately hoping that John had no where else to be just so she could spend more time with him. She hadn't realized how much she'd been missing him up until now.

"Good, because I don't either." He said with a grin, knowing that she wanted to spend time with him was the best thing he had heard in a long time. He pulled her closer and bending down a little bit and kissed the top of her head, he was shocked at his own actions, but he couldn't help himself.

"Well that works out perfectly then," Casey said, practically grinning from ear to ear. That meant that she could spend more time with John, and knowing that he wanted to spend time with her. . . Well it was just a great feeling. Her stomach flipped as he kissed the top of her head, an unfamiliar feeling for Casey. She looked up at John, still grinning ridiculously, feeling as if she couldn't be happier.

"Yeah I guess it does."John said but then stayed silent for a while, his stomach flipping at the thought of what he wanted to say. "I think I'm really in love with you." he said, he had no idea where this side of him was coming from, he had never done this before, ever and it confused him slightly, but every time he saw her he got butterflies in his stomach and couldn't stop thinking about her.

Casey paused, not sure if she'd misunderstood John's words. That was something every girl would want to hear, but this scared Casey.and she wasn't sure why. She didn't know how to react or what say. She was definitely falling for John, but love was something she had a problem with, just saying the words were hard for her. But then she didn't want to hurt John by saying the wrong thing. She wanted to say that she loved him too, but at the same time, she wasn't sure she was ready for that. She decided to settle for, "I think I'm falling for you too..." Her voice was soft, and hardly audible, but just loud enough so John could hear. Her words rang true, she was definitely falling for John. She got that butterfly feeling whenever she was with him or thought of him. But she was confused, and perhaps even a little scared.

He could tell almost instantly that something was a little off with Casey, and he knew it wasn't good and sighed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that." he said looking down at the ground, feeling embarased, and still not sure what exactly had come over him, it had been so unlike him, and he really regretted not holding himself back better

Casey wanted to kick herself. Trust her to screw up a moment like that. "No... I'm glad you said that," she reassured him. It was true, hearing those words made her nothing less than ecstatic. "It's just me. And I'm falling for you John, I really am..... I'm just..... scared?" She paused, not sure if those were the right words. She couldn't really figure out how to explain what she was feeling at the moment.

"Scared?" he asked, tilting his head to the side, he didn't understand what there was to be scared about. He had perked up a little when she had said she was glad he had said it, and didn't feel like a total moron, but he was confused. "What are you scared about?" he asked her, concern mixing with his confusion, he didn't want to scare her.

Casey sighed, not quite sure how to explain it all. "Perhaps scared isn't the best choice of word.... Confused maybe? I don't know.... I've just....No one's ever told me that they loved me.... and I've never felt like this, you know? It's new, and in that aspect, kind of scary. . . " She explained, hoping that she was making sense. She didn't add that she also felt that she didn't deserved to be loved. That was one problem with growing up in a broken home, it really messed you up in the years to come.

He nodded, as she explained, she made a little more sense. He understood how she felt, he felt the same way, but he had done his best to push those thoughts to the back of his mind. "Just let me know what you need me to do to make things easier, I'll do anything you ask, Okay?" he said, and he meant every word of it too, he'd do anything for her, she just had to tell him what.

Casey smiled and nodded, feeling somewhat relieved at this point. So John wasn't upset, and he understood. "Thank you," She said softly, giving his hand a small squeeze. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed softly, perfectly content. She looked up, "You know, if you ever need anything, just ask, ok?" She just wanted to make sure that he knew that he could always come to her.

"Thanks. Same goes for you too." He said with a smile, happy that things were okay between them. They walked a little farther around the lake. "Do you want to just sit down and talk for a while?" he asked her, the lake was pretty, and he just wanted to sit and talk to her.

"Thanks." At this point Casey felt so much better now, having gotten all of that out of the way she felt like she could really relax. "That sounds like a really good idea," She responded, realizing that the lake looked gorgeous tonight. Besides that, sitting and talking just sounded really good. And with that that she lead the way to the lake, sitting down. "So..." She said looking at him, not really sure where to go with conversation.

"So..." He said thinking for a bit on what they could talk about that they hadn't already talked about in the common room. "So how are your classes going?" he asked her, hoping she wasn't getting some of the idiots he had in his classes."What ones are you taking this year?" he asked, he didn't think he had seen her in any of his classes, but he was also a year older than she was.

Casey shurgged, "It's school. Classes are ok, I can't complain too much really. I'm taking the usual classes: Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology . . . that kind of stuff and then I've got Muggle Studies, Ancient Runes and Astronomy," She shrugged. "What about you? I know you said something earlier about some bad teachers or something?" She hoped that his classes weren't too bad.

"Yeah I'm not the biggest fan of the assistant potions professor, or the History of magic professor." He said with a sigh, he had always gotten a little bit of trouble for being muggle born, but recently it was getting more and more, it was so stupid. "Muggle studies huh?" That would have been an easy class, he should have taken in.

Casey nodded, she knew what he was talking about. "Yeah, they're not my favorite either. But oh well, what can you do?" she agreed with a bit of a shrug. She was a half-blood although raised as a muggle, so she did have some issues. "Yea, I figured it would be pretty easy, and yet it's oddly fascinating."

He realized that he didn't know something about her, what her blood status was, not that it really mattered. "I'm muggle born, I don't think it would be that fun to take. Easy, but it never intrested me very much. So what about you?" he asked "Are you half blood, muggle born, pure blood?" he asked.

"I'm half, but raised as a muggle. My mum was a witch." Casey explained. "Muggle Studies is way easy, but interesting because of the way the wizarding world views the muggles, you know? It's like getting both sides of the stories." She shrugged.

He nodded, it made sense. "Well I guess that makes sense, i haven't ever really thought of it like that before. " He said, he really hadn't thought too much about how the wizarding community thought of muggles, and other than NDE's and the like, he didn't really know that much about it.

Casey shrugged, "I'm a weird one," She said jokingly, looking up at John. "i think about things like that. In fact, I think I think too much." She knew that she was going on at this point and figured now was a good time to quit talking. Of course, what she said was true. She really did think about things too much.

"Well thats ok. I think a lot of people think that they think too much. I on the other hand, don't think that I think enough. So I guess it kinda equals its self out with us right?" He wasn't even sure if he made any sense to her, because that really didn't make any sense to him either.

Casey grinned, "Well I agree that that balances us out prefectly," She stated, looking up at him. She found that he made perfect sense to her, although she could tell that his own words had confused him slightly. "So then..." She paused, sure she had something to say, but she now couldn't remember what that was. "You know... I think I've forgotten what I was going to say..."