lurking in the night -open-

[nikita kayla wynter]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-image: url(http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/ss279/legendskseeker/oceanbreezebg-1.png); padding-bottom: 20px;] flightless bird in general, 'sneaking out' and 'ravenclaw' were not two words that were used in the same sentence, but tonight, the ravenclaw student nikita wynter, was sneaking out. not everyone in the house of ravenclaw was a 'good-two-shoes'. okay, practically no one was. they were smart, not suck ups. and once in a while even the students in the smart house needed a break. nikki had been sneaking out of the school at night once or twice a month since her second year at the school, when she'd stopped cowering at every little bump in the night and built up the courage to venture beyond the safety of four walls. there was something peaceful about the nearly full moon hanging above her head on a cloudless night, the owls flying overhead and the soft 'whos' to be heard among the trees that surrounded the lake from owls... were she younger everything might have spooked her, but she'd built up a tolerance to the creepy in her last six years. she wasn't a kid any more. it was past midnight when she snuck out of the ravenclaw commons room, not exactly a prefect-like thing to do but hey, she needed a break sometimes, too. she'd stayed up late, watching student after student trickle off to their beds and rest while she pretended to be working on an essay for potions class. the parchment in front of her, however, had not a single drop of ink on it. she stayed in the commons room, watching the flickering fire for about twenty minutes after the last student wandered away to their dorm, before crumpling the paper into a ball and tossing it into the flames to watch it turn into ash. a few moments later she gathered up her wand and snuck out of the common room to the hall beyond the tower: empty, of course. even the other prefects were likely curled up in their beds by now, unless they were some ambitious seventh years. the ravenclaw commons room was a far ways from the entrance to the school, and it would be near impossible to get out of the school for some fresh air if not for a passageway she'd discovered in her second year. rather, she'd been told about it by an older student. there was no way a second year would have stumbled across the passageway by accident. tip-toeing past the sleeping portraits, nikki made her way to a suit of armor in the hall. by tapping her wand against the handle of the sword in the armor's grasp, it pulled away from the wall and revealed a passageway within. a muttered 'lumos' and about five minutes of walking brought her to the end of the passageway: a broom cupboard near the school's entrance. from there it was free access to the outdoors. she knew where she wanted to go, so as soon as the cooling september air hit her face she set a course for the lake and the trees that surrounded a small portion of it near where the care of magical creatures class was held. there was always a chance of seeing some fantastic magical creature out there, which was something nikki always looked for. to a girl who had lived her life with such creatures as dogs and horses, however awesome they were, there was something spectacular about every magical creature that existed. like something out of a fairy tale. she loved sighting them. she took a seat on the cold earth near the edge of the lake, listening to the water wash up against the shore. it was a beautiful day; barely any wind and not a cloud in the sky to impair her vision of the moon and the thousands of stars dotting the sky. completely peaceful. that was why the crack of a twig nearby startled her so much. she turned to gasp in surprise at the creature who'd decided to pay her a visit tonight, though it was more likely the unicorn was just in the area and stumbled across the young girl. looking over her once, and remembering the comc lesson on unicorns, nikki could identify it. it had a horn, and was whiter than white... at least seven years old, one of the older unicorns at hogwarts. nikki stood, standing perfectly still as she watched the creature, feeling that it was watching her just as carefully. she took a step forward, and when the unicorn simply stood there, another. the creature was the one who took the next step, close enough that nikki could reach out and touch it if she wanted to. it was at times like these that the muggle born thanked the lord that she had not been born a male. if she were, the creature would have bolted the moment she noticed it. she lifted her right hand cautiously, placing it gently on the creature's mane. there was contact for about one second before the unicorn stiffened, looking over nikki's shoulder at something in the woods beyond. she turned her neck to look, but through the darkness of the trees could see nothing herself, and while her attention was on the forests there the unicorn slipped out from under her hand, running away with barely a sound. something out there must have startled it... nikki was torn between looking after where the unicorn had disappeared and looking at the trees where something had startled the creature, so her eyes kept nervously darting back and forth. suddenly the lake didn't seem so peaceful. words-1152, tag-open, outfit-see the picture, with ravenclaw mitts and a scarf, notes-n/a

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[elizabeth]

There was nothing like a little adventure when you couldn't sleep to make the evening hours pass by a little faster.

The past few days had brought about a strange sleeping pattern for young Elizabeth Wood, or rather a lack thereof. Lately she'd found herself unable to sleep, her mind too full of the visions that had come in her recent nightmares that she couldn't make sense of at all. It was a little disheartening, knowing that she put in so many hours to her schooling and homework and quidditch...only to be rewarded with the inability to regenerate her body in the hours that followed. She'd said nothing of it to anyone, thinking it was perhaps a temporary thing that would soon leave her be and allow her to continue on her with her life. Besides, what did she expect anyone else to do about it? Knowing Caden, he would probably worry about her like a mother hen, insisting that she write home to tell her parents about the situation. And well...her younger brother certainly wasn't going to care, and she could hardly blame him. So she was having nightmares about a crazy lady and a cliff...so what? Maybe she was finally losing her mind after spending seven years in the same school with the same lessons, teachers and people around her.

But boredom had taken control tonight, prompting the Gryffindor to throw a heavy sweater over her thin frame as she slid her feet into a pair of ballet flats and hurried her way out the portal of the common room. At this time of night, there were sure to be a great many precautions set up to ensure that nobody came in or out of the school...but the students had outsmarted these long ago. It was common knowledge that if you wanted to get out, all you had to do was ask an older student. Tradition dictated that they pass the knowledge along, allowing every new generation of students the chance to break the rules and do something a little bad when they needed to just get out. And tonight was one of those nights for Beth. She couldn't sit upstairs any longer, and any source of light used for reading would definitely wake her roommates, which was a hazard to her physical well being. So she had done the only thing she could possibly think of.

It took only about ten minutes for her to glide through the corridors, ducking behind a few of the larger statues to avoid being spotted by the night patrol before she made her way to the oak doors and slipped into the cool night air. Getting out was the easy part. Getting back in would certainly prove to be a little more tricky because she wouldn't really know where they all were or who had changed places with who. But that was something to worry about later, she decided as she drifted further and further away from the view of the school. Now it was time to bask in the glow of her accomplishment, go for a walk and perhaps tire herself enough that her body would not be able to protest her desire for sleep anymore. She could only hope that it would actually work. A soft sigh fell from her lips as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her pajama pants, hoping to spare her skin from the initial sting of the cold night air. With winter relatively close it was beginning to cool off much more quickly at night, depriving them of the sunshine and warmth they had enjoyed so much during the summer months prior to their return to school.

Soon they would wake to find their windows covered with the same frost that took hold of the grass, making their early morning practises of quidditch even more of a hassle. Not that she would ever complain aloud though, for she loved playing on the team. There were only seven spots too, she reminded herself quickly, and always someone willing to pick one of them up if someone decided they had had enough. But the chances of that happening anytime soon were rather slim to none, especially since they had been working so hard lately to come up with something good for their match against Slytherin. The last thing they wanted, and this included most of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students as well, was to see the silver and green kit of the Slytherin team hoisting that cup into the air at the end of the year.

That thought alone was enough to leave a bad taste in Beth's mouth.

But the brunette was so distracted now in her thoughts of the upcoming match that she didn't pay the slightest bit of attention to her surroundings, something that would get her into a lot of trouble if she had been on the pitch. As she walked, her foot stepped on a twig and caused it to crack, her arm brushing against a bush on the way by. It wasn't much noise, she noted, but enough to startle her back to her thoughts and shatter that peaceful feeling that had been surrounding her since she had first stepped outside. In a moment, she realized just how close to the lake she now was, wondering how she had managed to make it so far without noticing...until she spotted another figure ahead of her. "I'm sorry, I hope I didn't frighten you," she said apologetically, taking a few cautionary steps closer. "I didn't realize there was anyone else out here besides me. I guess I got a little lost in my own head."

word count; 1010
tagged; nikita wynter
listening to; sherlock holmes movie
comments; i hope you don't mind my snagging this! terribly sorry for the rambling!

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