Of Vanishing Steps and Escaping Ink Bottles (Liam)

[Katarina Gresh]

Kat was running up the steps from the dungeon. She wasn't late for anything, she just didn't like the dungeons, they creaped her out.

She walked toward her common room, beginning to climb the stairs, that is, until one of the stairs vanished and her foot got caught. Kat's things went everywhere. "Bugger..." She mumbled before trying to grab her school things. She reached for her ink bottle, but it rolled down the stairs and out of her reach. "Double bugger..." she said. The bottle continued to roll until it stopped at someone's feet. "Excuse me," Kat called out. She pointed to the bottle at his feet. "Could you hand me that?"

[Liam Ferrera]

Liam's eyebrows raised at the ink bottle that rolled and stopped just in front of his feet. This was different. While he was observant and watched where he was going at all times, he couldn't always account for other people. And maybe he quiet tendencies made him invisible, but he was used to people running smack into him.

But no, this time, the offender fell a few feet in front of him, and wasn't actually an offender at all.

He grabbed the ink bottle almost as an afterthought and then moved towards her, dropping quietly to his knees as he helped her gather the rest of her things. Sometimes, he swore the castle itself was worse than Peeves.

"Are you all right?" he asked, trying to catch her eyes to see if she was hurt. He said nothing about the missing stair, or any of that kind of small talk that others often used in these situations.

[Katarina Gresh]

The boy who picked up her ink bottle came over and helped Kat with her things. "Thank you so much," Kat said graciously. "That stupid vanishing stair, I never remember it's here, even in all the 6 years i've been here," Kat shook her head and looked up at the boy helping. She recognized him, he was in her year, in Ravenclaw if memory served her right. She just couldn't place his name, which was a common thing with her.

"Yea I'm alright," Kat said, checking to see if she had everything. She looked at him and gave him a glowing smile. "I'm Kat," she said. "Or Katarina, but I prefer Kat." she said lightly.

[Liam Ferrera]

Liam's eyebrows went up again. She was... bubbly. Friendly, and all in a good way, of course, but she liked to talk. Not that there was anything wrong with that. People just tended not to talk so much to Liam. Around him, yes, to him... well, most gave up. Liam didn't say much that wasn't worth saying.

"I'm glad you're all right," he told her. "Kat," he added. "I'm Liam."

He spotted another sheet of parchment behind her, and he moved past her to pick it up, and then added it to the things in her arms.

[Katarina Gresh]

Right. Liam. That was it. he was one of the Ferrera kids, kat remembered. Though, she was sure he wouldn't like being refered to like that, so she didn't mention it. "Thank you so much Liam," Kat said again as he handed her the rest of what had fallen. She stood up and brushed dirt off her school robed before smiling at Liam. "There should really be a warning sing somewhere around here, don't you think?" She laughed a little. "I'm off to my common room," Kat added, "Where you headed?"

[Liam Ferrera]

Merlin, she was so bubbly, Liam thought. Not that it was a bad thing. It was kind of refreshing, actually, and while his mind was in a couple of different places, she was holding his attention.

To answer her question, he only shrugged. Liam really didn't talk unless it was necessary. Words were empty and just filled up space most of the time. You could have a much better, deeper conversation with someone without using words at all. Words could be likened to a deep sea diver who was swimming with a rain coat. So, he shrugged, because he wasn't really headed anywhere.

"I'll walk you," he offered.

[Katarina Gresh]

She was starting to realize that Liam wasn't really a talker. Kat, was. She hoped it wouldn't bather him. Maybe she was annoying him...

She though different when he offered to walk her to the Hufflepuff common room. "Aw, thank you, I'd appreciate it." she smiled.

[Liam Ferrera]

Kat wasn't annoying him at all. In fact, he liked the sound of her voice and how friendly she was.

He motioned down the hall, indicating that they should walk towards her common room. Then, feeling particularly gentlemanly, he said, "Let me carry your things. In case another stair vanishes on you." He was teasing her, but it was delivered quietly and discreetly.

[Katarina Gresh]

"Oh ha ha, make fun of the clumsy kid," Kat laughed good naturedly. "And thank you," Kat said as Liam took her things. "That's very kind of you," she smiled widely. She began to walk toward her common room with Liam beside her.

"I'm really not that clumsy, i just always forget about that darn stair. I'm always at least a little forgetful. My aunt says it's endearing, but she's a little nutty, you know. Everytime I forget something my friends just say its a dumb blonde moment. I was thinking of dyeing my hair red, maybe I'd have less dumb moments..." Kat laughed. "sorry, I tend to babble...." she apologized.

"You don't talk much, do you?" Kat asked curiously, smiling at Liam.

[Liam Ferrera]

He didn't mind that she talked so much. She had a melodic voice that was easy to listen to. Where most people would have told her that she would have looked good with red hair (and Merlin, Liam thought she would), he didn't see the need to say it. It was obviously an idea she was already comfortable with, and she didn't need his approval.

"Don't be sorry. I'm listening." That was the thing about Liam- he listened too well. He remembered everything someone said. The way he looked at words- if you felt the need to say it, it must have been important, and so it was important from him to hear and remember.

He shrugged at her question, though a little thrown off by her forwardness. "I talk when I need to." Then, feeling like he should give her more than that, he added, "Everyone's always bugging me to talk more."

[Katarina Gresh]

She was kind of surprised when he said he was listening. Most boys didn't. Most just nodded their heads and agreed and said they were listening. She appreciated that Liam actually heard her. It was really sweet.

"Thanks," Kat smiled. Tucking a stubborn blonde hair around her ear. "And I won't bugg you to talk more, trust me, I talk enough for the both of us," she giggled. "Being a more quiet person is part of who you are, right? Who would I be to ask you to change?" Seeing that she was just recently discovering herself now, after recently meeting her parents for the first time and starting her relationship with Tim, she understood that everyone was their own person, and that they are who they are for a reason.

[Liam Ferrera]

Liam wasn't like most boys. Not only did he listen more than most boys did, he paid attention more than most people did. He picked up a lot reading things that weren't being said, and reading between the lines of what was being said.

Her smiled at her joke. He liked people that could laugh at themselves, even if he wasn't really one to laugh much. They'd make a good team if what she said was true, and she didn't particularly mind his quiet behavior. Contrary to what a lot of people joked about him, he did talk. When something needed to be said, he had no problems saying it.

"It's part of me," he agreed. "Like being blonde is part of you. Only dye it red if you really want to."

[Katarina Gresh]

"I might," she said in reference to her hair. She wondered what her parents would do. She knew her aunt and uncle would freek out. Ever since she and Tim discovered who her real parents were, (old family friends of the Scotts) Kat didn't really know what to think. Did she apporve, did they? whas she what they expected their daughter to be? where they who she imagined her parents to be? She wasn't sure, Kat only knew their names, and a little about them. She had hardly seen/heard from them since then.

"It's a good part of you," she said. "Well, that sounded wierd, didn't it? I mean, like a good quality. Like, some people, like a lot of the Slytherins have bad parts of them, like a lot of them are bullys and pick on the other students. But I'm not saying all Slytherins are bad. i'm just saying..." Kat realized she was rambling, again. She squeezed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Oh shut up Katarina," she mumbled to herself, giggleing only a little.

[Liam Ferrera]

Liam chuckled when she told herself to shut up.

"Katarina," he said, turning his face towards her as they walked, and he shifted her books in his arms. "If you don't want to talk, please don't feel like you have to. If you want to, don't make yourself stop." He kind of liked her babbling, though again, if she was putting the energy into saying all of this, he would put the energy into listening. He couldn't help but think though that she felt the need to fill the silence where he was not. She really didn't need to.

[Katarina Gresh]

(I really love this thread!)

A small blush of embarrassment rose up in Kat's cheeks. "I'm not just talking to fill space, I just..." she tried to think of a good word. "babble...a lot...I guess," she smiled at Liam. "And then I go off on tandums of nothingness sometimes and I know it tends to annoy others, so I have to remind mydelf to stop babbling." Like she was starting to do now. She smiled at him again and let out a soft laugh.

[Liam Ferrera]

"It's not bad," Liam told her quickly, worried that he might have somehow offended her. "I just meant that you don't have to."

He realized he was talking more in the last ten minutes than he usually did all day, but he didn't mind. She talked a lot, so he felt the need to respond. She seemed like the type that genuinely wanted to engage in conversation, and not just talk at someone all day without really paying attention to their responses.

"You're not annoying me."

[Katarina Gresh]

"Oh, good," Kat smiled. "Just let me know if I do, you know, get annoying. I won't mind, I've heard it before." She then stopped talking for a little bit, just to walk with Liam to her common room. She found that it wasn't that bad, just walking and not talking for once. She alway thought she needed to speak to keep people entertained or excited for her being around.

But she wasn't very good at staying quiet for long. "Do you do this often?" Kat asked. "You know, save clumsy girls from vanishing stairs?"

[Liam Ferrera]

Again, Liam didn't feel the need to respond. He already told the girl that he didn't find her words annoying, and he didn't quite understand yet that girls needed to be reassured of these kinds of things. He hated just trying to fill the silence when there was nothing to say.

He walked with her peacefully, at least for a few steps. He understood, of course, that people often thought he was a little slow, or weird at the very least since he spoke so infrequently, and he was hesitant to respond when he was spoken to. He knew that most people felt uncomfortable in silence and needed to fill the void, and he didn't mind that. He just hated when he was asked to do it.

At her question, he looked up, his eyebrows knitting as if to ask what she meant until she clarified, and then he broke into a gentle smile.

"Only the charming ones."

The words weren't chosen precisely, and he could have filled in the adjective with anything. Pretty being top among them... but he did find her charming, and that was more important to point out to her, in his eyes.

[Katarina Gresh]

Kat didn't think Liam was slow or wierd or anything like that. She thought, actually, that he was rather sweet. Most other kids here at Hogwarts would have seen her caught in the vanishing stair and just laugh and walk away. She didn't mind at all that Liam was the quiet type, it just made her talkative-type more compatable.

Charming was a new one in Kat's book. No one had called her charming before. Pretty, clunsy, a little annoying, sure. But never once had she been called charming. "Thank you," Kat siad, smiling back at him.

[Liam Ferrera]

Another positive thing about Liam's quiet behavior was that he was really good at reading people. When you just sat and watched for a while, let other people do their thing without battling you for attention, you started to notice things. It was easy for him to pick up when people weren't paying attention or when they were, when they were lying or being honest.

And that smile of hers and the thank you... those were sincere. He smiled back.

"Where are you leading me?" he asked at length, realizing that they hadn't really said where they were going. He also sort of hoped, in a weird way, that it would take a few more minutes to get there, because he liked listening to her talk.