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Post by Vanessa Reyes Vonderheide on Jun 29, 2010 12:20:38 GMT -5
Vanessa couldn't sleep that night. No matter what she did, she could not keep her eyes closed. She tossed and turned for hours before finally giving up. She grabbed her books and put on a red robe before heading downstairs. She sat down on her favortie sofa and let her books sprawl out around her while she studied and did her homework. The fire was roaring nicely and she stretched her feet towards it as she read over a chapter in her potions book.
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Post by Sirius Black on Jun 29, 2010 17:26:41 GMT -5
Sirius couldn't sleep, either, but homework was the last thing on his mind. Actually, his mind wasn't the trouble at all. It was his stomach. He was hungry, which wasn't unusual for him. Back at home, he liked to sneak downstairs late at night and grab something from the kitchen, when he was sure Kreacher wouldn't be awake. In fact, his house elf was so unpleasant that it had taken Sirius awhile to get used to the more cheerful, happy house elves of Hogwarts. It was lucky that he'd gone down to the kitchens with James the first time, because he might have started yelling orders at the poor creatures, since that was all his elves responded to.
As he lay in bed, Sirius was trying to decide whether he wanted to go all the way down to the kitchens to get a snack, or if the bag of chips he had stashed in his trunk would be good enough. The main sticking point, really, was that if he chose the chips, he would probably still get thirsty, and then he'd still have to go down to the kitchens to get a drink. Sure, he could drink water, but the water in the Gryffindor bathrooms wasn't really the best for drinking.
Finally, he made his decision and slipped out of bed and grabbed the bag of chips on his way downstairs. He figured he would start with the chips, and then if he was thirsty, he would just go down to the kitchens anyway. After all, he'd already be up.
As he padded down the stairs, he was surprised to notice that the fire was still burning brightly. It cast heavy shadows in the otherwise dark room, and illuminated the figure of a girl, who seemed to be turning pages in a book.
"Kinda late to be doing homework," he commented as he approached her. "Only Ravenclaws study after midnnight."
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Post by Vanessa Reyes Vonderheide on Jun 29, 2010 17:52:11 GMT -5
Vanessa jumped and her books ended up on the floor. She looked up to see Sirius Black standing there and she blushed. She chuckled slightly at his comment and shrugged. "I've always said I was put in the wrong house." She said with a smile before turning to pick up her books.
"What are you doing up? Aren't you usually sleeping in until the very last minute?" She asked. She'd seen him around a lot but they never really talked. She knew who he was, of course, because he hung around with her old crush, Remus.
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Post by Sirius Black on Jul 6, 2010 23:24:12 GMT -5
Sirius grinned at her reaction. Somehow it seemed that he had an unusual ability to make girls jump when he walked in the room. He sort of enjoyed it.
Moving the rest of the way into the room, he approached her and held up the bag of chips. "Yeah, but food takes precedence over sleep," he said. "I was hungry, so I came down to have a snack. Remus is a really light sleeper, so if I cracked into this bag of chips in the dorm room, he'd wake up."
Without asking her, he moved in and sat down next to her, pushing a couple of her books aside. "So what about you? What's so important that you had to work on it this late?"
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Post by Vanessa Reyes Vonderheide on Jul 9, 2010 19:03:12 GMT -5
She glanced at the bag of chips and nodded in understanding. "Yeah, eating is important." She agreed, feeling like she sounded way too lame. She blushed slightly when he mentioned Remus and looked back at her potions book in an attempt to keep him from noticing. She flipped back to the chapter she was reading and summoned some parchment with her wand. She chewed on her lip as she read, hardly noticing him moving to sit beside her. She looked up, almost startled when he spoke again. She hadn't expected him to keep conversation with her. She didn't find herself that interesting.
"Oh..uhm. Potions. Not my strongest subject." She said with a shrug as she showed him the cover of her book. She also wasn't too impressed with her proffessor but she wasn't going to voice those opinions. "When I can't sleep...I study. It's a weird thing for me but its relaxing and it helps." She explained and turned the page.
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Post by Sirius Black on Jul 12, 2010 22:56:45 GMT -5
Sirius watched her with amusement. While a lot of boys his age still thought girls had cooties, Sirius was different. He found girls fascinating. What did they think about? What made them act the way they did? Vanessa seemed like she was determined to ignore him, which of course made him even more interested in getting her attention.
Ripping open the bag of chips, he stuffed a handful in his mouth and began crunching loudly as she began babbling about Potions. He didn't care for the class, either--Severus was good in potions, which automatically made it worthless in Sirius' eyes. He much preferred more fun classes, like Charms or Defense Against the Dark Arts, although for some reason, Transfiguration was his favorite. He liked the idea of changing one thing into something else.
"You mean, studying is boring and it puts you to sleep," Sirius corrected through a mouthful of chips.
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Post by Vanessa Reyes Vonderheide on Jul 13, 2010 10:12:34 GMT -5
Vanessa couldn't help but laugh. She tucked her long, blonde hair behind her ears and smiled. He was easy to joke around with but at the same time she felt like anything she said would be the wrong thing to say. She listened to him munch on the chips he was stuffing into his mouth and glanced at him to see him watching her. She didn't know why but it made her feel very self conscious. She looked back down at her book and saw that the words were jumbling together. Her eyes were officially too tired to read. She snapped her book shut and looked back at him.
"Well, yeah. That's pretty much it." She agreed with him. It was true. Usually reading, especially studying something, put her to sleep pretty easily. And she wasn't a big fan of potions so that usually put her out quickest. She set her books aside and turned so she could curl up on the couch and look back at him. "So, why are you so interested?" She asked curiously. He seemed to be fasinated by her and she couldn't understand why.
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Post by Sirius Black on Dec 27, 2010 1:17:54 GMT -5
Sirius leaned back against the arm of the couch, still crunching on the chips. It was sort of an excuse to avoid answering the question right away as he thought about the answer.
He couldn't necessarily say that Vanessa was any more fascinating to him than any other girl. But she was pretty, and the pretty girls were always more interesting than the ones that were a little more plain. Of course, if he said that to a girl, he'd probably get smacked for it.
Then again, maybe it was just that Sirius liked people in general. He made friends easily, and if a kid was quiet, Sirius felt like it was his duty to try and make him or her laugh. That was part of how he became friends with Remus, after all.
But girls... they were just so different and mysterious. He could hardly be blamed for wanting to understand them. Men much older than he was spent their whole lives trying to understand women. So he was getting a head start.
"Because I don't know you very well. Because you're cute, and because you're here," he answered honestly. "Does it bother you that I'm curious about you?"
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Post by Vanessa Reyes Vonderheide on Dec 27, 2010 11:57:05 GMT -5
A new blush spread across her face easily. It wasn't hard to make her blush and when you throw around words such as 'cute', it's bound to happen. She tucked her hair behind her ear again, a habit she picked up in an attempt to hide her pink cheeks.
"No, it doesn't bother me. Mostly just surprising I suppose." She said honestly. People usually would walk on by her and ignore that's she even there. She didn't get offended or anything, she was just a quiet person and people found her awkward. "So if I were someone else, you'd still be asking as many quesetions?" She asked with a smirk as she gathered her books and stacked them on the table in front of her.
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Post by Sirius Black on Dec 28, 2010 0:53:42 GMT -5
Sirius shrugged and crunched on another chip. "Probably," he said. "After all, you are the only one here, so who else am I gonna talk to? But I mean it, you are cute. And I've noticed you before... I've been meaning to come over and talk to you for a while now. I remember you were watching us from across the common room last week, when me and James and Remus and Pete were taking turns doing our Slughorn impressions. You laughed the hardest at Remus's, and his wasn't even the best one."
Sirius had a way of noticing things about people. That was the reason why he was the first one of the three of them to figure out what was really going on with Remus. And he always noticed cute girls and the way they acted.
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Post by Vanessa Reyes Vonderheide on Dec 28, 2010 1:25:55 GMT -5
The blush deepend on her cheeks and she sunk in her seat. "So you're pretty observant, huh?" She asked, smiling slightly. She wondered if he knew she used to like his best friend. She really hoped not. "And thank you." She added about the cute comment. She felt suddenly couragous and stole his chip bag to eat a few with a smirk. "So why didn't you ever come talk to me before?"
She handed the chip bag back before moving so she was sitting on her feet. She liked Sirius. He was interesting, talkative, and cute. She liked his hair and had the sudden urge to run her fingers through it. She resisted, however, because she probably already seemed weird enough by studying in the middle of the night.
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Post by Sirius Black on Dec 29, 2010 0:02:47 GMT -5
Sirius laughed as she took the bag from him and began eating. "By all means, help yourself," he said.
He didn't really have a reason why he hadn't talked to her sooner. Well, he did, sort of, but he was fairly certain that she wasn't going to want to hear it. The truth was, he was easily distracted and there were a lot of pretty faces around. The dust had still barely settled from his disastrous relationships with Kris and Amy when he caught sight of Emmeline. And although he'd been spending a lot of time with the Ravenclaw girl, that didn't keep him from noticing other pretty girls, and flirting with a few here and there.
He shrugged. "No reason. I guess I just figured that the right time would come along. And here it is." He finished with a grin. "So, I don't think we've actually been properly introduced. I guess you know who I am... But I can't remember your name."
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Post by Vanessa Reyes Vonderheide on Dec 29, 2010 0:17:16 GMT -5
She giggled. She actually giggled as she handed the bag back. "Sorry. Couldn't resist." She said with a grin on her face. She was glad he came down to munch on chips. She was enjoying his company much more than she enjoyed studying.
To be honest, she had always kind of wished she would get a chance to talk to him. He was interesting and light hearted. She'd seen him around constantly and saw how he acted with everyone. He was a people person to be sure and he was an easy person to laugh with. Even with her being so shy, she was still able to laugh with him like she was his best friend.
She smirked. She knew his reputation. He was a ladies man and he was always looking at girls, even when with one. Even knowing that couldn't stop her from being curious about him and wanting to know more. "I'm Vanessa Vonderheide. We've had classes together for two years now." She said with a chuckle although she wasn't surprised he hadn't really noticed her yet. She wasn't the prettiest in their class.
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Post by Sirius Black on Jan 2, 2011 0:59:19 GMT -5
Sirius leaned a little closer to her. "Oh, I know you're in my classes. Like I said, I have noticed you before. But you're quiet.... you don't talk a lot, so I don't hear your name very often. You should talk more, though. You're interesting. I bet you have a lot to say for yourself once you get started talking."
In his experience (which, admittedly, wasn't much), the prettiest girls were often the most shallow and had less going on in their heads. He had to look no farther than the Slytherin girl, Ophelia Burke, as an example of that. And although of course Sirius was a sucker for a pretty face, he also liked girls with a little bit of intelligence or personality. At his age, he was a little young to do a whole lot more than talking with girls, so they needed to have something to talk about.
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Post by Vanessa Reyes Vonderheide on Jan 3, 2011 16:32:41 GMT -5
Vanessa smiled shyly as he leaned in and spoke to her. He told her she was quiet, which was true. She was content with sitting in class wordlessly and doing all her assignments. She didn't have many friends because she was a shy person and cared more about her school work. She laughed then.
"You've talked to me no more than twenty minutes and you think I'm interesting? What may I ask is so interesting about a blonde twelve year old who cares more about her books than people?" She asked, raising an eyebrow curiously. She thought about how she hadn't really lived since starting school. She got so obsessed with making sure her grades stayed up and her assignments always got done. She started thinking it might be time to change that a little bit. She needed some excitement in her life. Maybe Sirius was the one who could give her that.
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Post by Sirius Black on Jan 9, 2011 23:32:23 GMT -5
Sirius laughed. "Are you saying you're not interesting? Look, it just so happens that I am a very good judge of character. When I first met James, I knew in less than a minute that we were going to be best friends. And I knew before I ever even spoke to him that Snivellus was a slimy little snake. So if I say you're interesting, I think you're just going to have to take my word for it."
He took another handful of chips and stuffed them in his mouth, watching her the whole time. Although he might have been laying it on a little thick, he meant every word he was saying. He had a feeling that Vanessa had a sharp mind, and that she had a lot to say for herself. That made her interesting to him.
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Post by Vanessa Reyes Vonderheide on Jan 12, 2011 21:56:23 GMT -5
Vanessa smiled at him and played with her hair while she listened to him. "Well I'm glad one of us thinks so. I've always considered myself kind of boring." She said with a shrug. She laughed when he called Severus "Snivellus" and shook her head. "Well I hope you prove me wrong. Since you seem to have such a great judge of character."
She leaned back against the couch pillows and twiddled her thumbs. "So, we've been talking about me for a while. What about you? What are your interests? You can already see mine are...books." She said sadly with a chuckle as she motioned to the stack of school books beside her. She was curious about him because they hadn't talked. But he was the most outgoing person she'd met.
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Post by Sirius Black on Jan 18, 2011 0:23:18 GMT -5
Sirius didn't answer her question right away, mainly because he needed to consider it for a moment. The real answer was, he was interested in everything. Well, everything except for schoolwork, anyway. But just about everything that was fun, Sirius liked. But it was interesting that the one thing she said she liked was probably the only thing he didn't. But then, Sirius never did like to go for girls who were too much like him.
"Oh, you know. I like quidditch, and exploding snap. I like food and music. But most of all, I like joking around, playing pranks, and going on adventures. What I don't like is sitting still. I feel like I always have to be moving, you know? Hey, do you wanna go exploring? Like, right now?"
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Post by Vanessa Reyes Vonderheide on Jan 19, 2011 12:25:10 GMT -5
Vanessa nodded as he spoke and smiled. It all very much sounded like him. She looked at him confused when he asked if she wanted to go 'exploring'...now? She opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to decifer what he meant and if he was serious. She decided it made sense that he didn't like sitting still. They'd been sitting there talking for a while. She chuckled slightly before responding.
"Uhm? What do you mean by exploring? And...right now?" She glanced outside, seeing that it was still very dark outside. "It's after hours. Won't we get in trouble?" She added, looking back at Sirius. As much as she worried about getting into trouble with him, it was an intriging idea. She never did anything fun or exciting. It seemed with him that was all he did.
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Post by Sirius Black on Jan 22, 2011 2:04:24 GMT -5
Sirius laughed at her puzzled expression. He always liked to keep people on their toes and get them to do things that they wouldn't ordinarily do. He was quite sure that leaving the common room after hours was something that Vanessa had never even considered before. Which was exactly why she should do it.
"No, not outside!" he said, grinning.
It wasn't that he had a problem with exploring outside after hours, but such a thing required more planning, because the castle was locked up at night, to keep strangers out as well as to keep students in. He was also pretty sure that there were protective charms on the castle to keep students from sneaking out. These things would have to be tested, and plans would need to be made. He couldn't just do it on the spur of a moment with a girl he barely knew.
"We'd definitely get in trouble of we went outside. No, I meant we could explore the castle. There are lots of secret passageways and hidden rooms in the castle, you know. It's still against the rules, of course... which is why we just have to make sure we don't get caught." He jumped to his feet, leaving the chip bag on the sofa. "Come on, are you in? It'll be fun."
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