Damien sat in one of the archway's in the courtyard. He had his text book in front of him, but not close enough for him to read because let's face it, he didn't feel like schoolwork. The sky felt heavy as it hung low, thunder rumbling in the distance and the lurking threat of rain looming.

The Salemite curled his legs up to his chest, setting his chin on the top of his knees and wrapping his arms around his legs. Merlin, he was bored, and there was nothing for him to do except for his exhausting homework. Everybody always said that Junior year was the hardest, but they weren't even close. They were Muggles, with boring Muggle homework and boring Muggle classes.

Damien's Junior year was filled with magic and thoughts of the tournament, how he might possibly even compete in one of the challenges coming up. This is, after all, why he came here to Hogwarts. It was to compete, and maybe win. But that still didn't take precedent over his classwork. His mother still hovered over his shoulder, in his letters of course, pushing him to take the hardest classes and to push himself to the limit.

He was fed up with that by now. Almost perfect grades for two years and his Mom still didn't trust him to work hard. It was a bit of a drag sometimes.

And that's what he was thinking about, sitting in the archway. But that wasn't all, he was sort of hoping that maybe somebody could come talk to him. Get his mind off of everything.

Alexia sat in the library, reading a book peacefully; or so it seemed. Letters had been delivered yesterday, some to Alexia this time, containing bad news and no matter how hard she tried she simply couldn't get the words out of her head: worse, deteriorating, bad, fatal, end, possible, likely... She needed a distraction, stat.

As if the world heard her silent plea the deep rumble of thunder shook through the air. Alexia had always loved rain; the feeling of it tickling down her skin always brought on a gleeful state to her mind. It felt like freedom, simple freedom from life for just a bit. excited, Alexia put back the unread book on the shelf and went outside, her face stoic though inside giddy.

She didn't see the Salem junior as she grinned nd stepped, fully clothed into the pouring rain.

The Salemite reached out and flipped a page of his textbook as the looming sky opened up. The light rain splattered the courtyard with ease at first, but then the fat raindrops slammed into the cobblestone, making loud patting noises. A crack of lightning illuminated the sky out in the mountains, not close enough to hit them of course. With each rumble and crack of thunder, Damien found it harder and harder to concentrate.

Especially once he caught sight of a girl, who looked to be about his age, stepping out into the rain. He had to look twice to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, because she was fully clothed, and she didn't seem to mind the fact that she was going to be soaking wet in a matter of minutes.

Damien swung his legs down off of the archway and stepped into the courtyard, a few yards away from the girl. He could feel the rain pelt his head, dripping down to blur his sight; and he could taste the fresh rain on his lips, a sweet and new taste. He felt like a little kid again, when he would chase his Mom around outside in the cold Boston rainstorms, catching each little drop of rainwater on his tongue. The same went for snow, and they always had an abundance of that.

"Hey you!" He called, waving one of his hands to get the girls' attention. "I don't know if you've noticed, but it's raining. Not the best weather to be out in." Damien said, finishing in a lopsided grin. Finally, somebody to distract him.

Imari had been walking behind Alexis but had stopped right before entering the courtyard because she spotted one of the kids from Salem sitting there.  Normally she would of kept going, but she heard him call after Alexis and realized that she had met this one before.  Silently cursing whatever made her make the decision to come this way today she nonchalantly walked out into the courtyard, her Potions book in hand and sat down on a bench under a tree. 

She knew it was raining, and she didn't care.  Imari did her best thinking when it was miserable outside.  She had been reading ahead and was way ahead of most of the students in her class, although she didn't brag about it so no one but her knew.  Imari tried to keep herself from glancing Damien's way because she knew it was a bad idea. 

Her whole life she'd been good at hiding who she really was, except around members of the opposite sex.  The strong, wire-covered, flaming, toxic waste walls she'd hide behind would become harmless around anyone with a Y chromosome.  Mostly the reason she tried her hardest to stay away from guys, no matter how old or how young.  Although Imari noticed that her defense mechanisms would fail if the guy were roughly her age and handsome.

She just hoped that Damien wouldn't spot her.

Obviously the girl who was dancing around in the rain was choosing to ignore him, not that Damien minded. Really, he didn't. Hell, he minded. Why wouldn't you talk back to someone when they said hello to you? Umm, common courtesy here. He thought Americans were supposed to be the rude ones.

As he headed back to pick up his books, he spotted someone walking rather quickly in the opposite direction. He knew that girl, he'd seen her around before... What was her name! He though about it as he gathered his stuff. Imari! That was her name. Gorgeous, quiet, oh-so-out-of-his-league Imari.

Making up his mind to go and talk to her, he slung his bag over his shoulder and jogged across the courtyard, not minding that his hair was getting wet or that it was dripping into his eyes. He could fix that with a drying charm later. With a grin on his face, because he was so hopeless around cute girls, he walked over.

"Afternoon!" He said, "Mind if I join you?"

Imari silently groaned when she heard his voice from the person standing by her.  She knew that today wasn't going to be good for very much longer.  Then she thought, 'Why not?'

Imari looked up at the Salem student and smiled back, "Good afternoon to you." she looked back at her book and then said, "I don't mind if you join me, I wasn't aware that others liked to study in the rain." she told him, pointing to his bag.  She looked up again, "This tree is helpful to keep the rain away, but I put charms on all my books to keep them from getting damaged in the rain."

Another silent groan. Imari knew she was doing it already and all the guy did was ask if he could join her.  She was talking too much.  He probably didn't want to know why she was sitting here, and probably didn't care if she charmed her books so that they would never get ruined.  "You're Damien, right?" she said softly, knowing that this was the only safe thing she could think of to say at the moment without making herself sound idiotic.

Damien bit his lip as he awaited the brunette's response, she looked up at him with a smile that made his heart melt. And he smiled back, sitting down on the bench beside her, not minding that his robes were getting damp from the cool bench. He listened intently to her, silently thinking how clever it was of her to charm her books.

"And you would be right, I'm Damien. You're Imari, right?" He asked, almost echoing her exact question. Briefly he wondered if her Slytherin roots made her wary of half-bloods and Muggle-born like all the others. Damien hoped not, he wasn't exactly from the purest of pure blood lines, barely even from a real magical family.

Why am I worrying about this? He thought to himself, tilting his head slightly as he cracked open one of his textbooks. It was the same one that Imari was reading from, and he glanced over her shoulder to see what page she was on.

"Do you like studying in the rain all the time? Or was this just a spur of a moment sort of thing?" He questioned, flipping pages to find the one he was looking for.

"I like coming outside in the rain because it's quiet." she said as she watched him flip pages in his book.  Imari noticed it was a Potions book exactly like hers.  "Not even the library is this quiet."  She looked up at his face and wondered what he was thinking.  Usually she could guess almost acurately what the other person was thinking, but it was harder with Damien.

"So, how are you enjoying Hogwarts?" she asked him, knowing he was from a magical school in the United States and very far from home. "Do you miss your school at all?" she asked.  Imari was a little curious about where he was from, but was not going to ask him right out about that, after all, she was a Slytherin and had to play it cool. 

"Hogwarts is really nice," he said, thinking for a moment about how much he really missed home and the friends he had left behind for the year. "It is really far from home though; I used to think Salem was far from my actual home, because I actually live in Boston, Massachusetts."

Damien felt a full on rant hovering right over his shoulder, but he gulped it back and just continued on talking. "It is different here, it's... well, it rains way more." He said with a chuckle, eyes flicking up to the sky. "I'm just waiting for snow, because it get's really cold where I come from, and maybe it'll feel more like home here once it gets really cold and snowy."

"Sorry, I'm talking too much." He amended, "But what about you. After all these years, are you still enjoying Hogwarts?" Damien wondered if spending seven years at the same school ever got to anyone. It would get to him, four years at one school was enough to make him stir crazy.

"You're not talking too much." Imari told him as she marked her place in her book carefully and stowed it back in her bag.  She was wondering where the usual feeling of uncomfortable-ness was at.  Normally around when she started having a conversation with a guy, she would feel awkward and uncomfortable and start to talk a mile a minute.  But as of right now, none of those traits were popping up and she almost missed them.

"Hogwarts is okay, the first couple of years I was still an awestruck child, but now that I've been here six years I kind of see it as a home away from home." She paused to think about it, "I could deal without the constant talk about how I don't belong in Slytherin because of my family.  It never stops."

She'd never told anyone willingly about her family, but she could feel it bubbling, the word vomit was coming and she was going to be at a loss to stop it. "My fellow classmates in Slytherin don't think I belong there because my mother is a muggleborn witch and my older sister is a squib." She looked down at her hands in her lap and felt a blush start to creep up her neck.  "I've never told anyone that before." Imari whispered.

Damien shrugged, “I don’t think it’s fair how you get judged based on your blood purity. Any time someone would do that to me, I would just ignore them. I never thought it reasonable for someone to be categorized based on how much magic you really have in your family.”

He heard Imari’s voice get quieter, to the point where she was practically whispering the truth about her family and where she came from. After a short internal battle with himself, he rested his hand on hers, trying to be comforting and offer some sort of reassurance that he was fine with it.

“You know, us muggleborns aren’t that bad. Frankly, we’re more fun to be around because we don’t need to follow any pureblood rules or make sure that our lineage is carried on.” He said quietly, a smile tugging at his lips.

“And don’t worry, Imari. Your secret is safe with me. Promise.”

Imari heard him say that her secret was safe with him and felt a smile grace her lips.  She looked at his hand on hers but didn't move it.  Unlike other guys that have tried the same thing, this didn't feel uncomfortable. "Thanks, it's not really a secret though, just something that the other Slytherins like to remind me of every day."

"How, exactly are muggleborns more fun to be around?" Imari asked with a slight smirk on her face.  Her mind was going a mile a minute, this guy was one of the Salem students, he was smart, cute, and he seemed to be understanding.  What she couldn't understand was why he was sitting out here with her.  Most of the guys around Hogwarts found her more like a friend than anything else and she had gotten comfortable with that. 

"What's your school like?" she asked him, trying to get off the subject of her family.  To Imari, her family was a sore subject, her sister still didn't talk to her, and she had yet to meet her new baby nieces.  As she thought of her sister's new family she could feel the tears coming, but she forced them back, not wanting to let a weakness show in front of anyone.

Damien smiled back at Imari, his heart pounding in his throat from the simple touch between their hands. He was glad she hadn't made him move it, because he really didn't want to let go.

"Well," he started, "First off, we're just insane. There's nothing saying that if we mess up then we'll smear a bloodline that's been pure for ages, and there's no rules on who we can be friends with or who we can love. We're basically the coolest people in wizarding society, but some people just haven't realized this yet. Obviously." He said jokingly, chuckling under his breath.

"My school is like... a school. I guess," Damien answered, pausing a moment to think. "I've never tried to explain it, but it's interesting. There's the classes, which are similar to the ones here but our teachers aren't as strict or proper. Umm, there's also Quodpot!"

His eyes brightened as he thought about his favorite sport, his favorite pastime; that which was known as Quodpot. "See, it's sort of dangerous because things do blow up in you face occasionally, but it's so fun!" He probably sounded like a fan girl, all smiles and rainbows about a sport. But when your favorite sport involved your best friends and a fast paced game, it was bound to grow on you.

"Do you play Quidditch here?" He asked Imari, "I tried to learn how to fly but it was sort of disastrous. I just think it's so awesome how you guys learn to fly in a class your very first year... but I digress."

Imari noticed him getting excited when talking about Quodpot.  She had heard of it, but didn't really understand it.  "No, regrettably I don't play Quidditch.  I fly well, but I'm not confident enough to do it when there are bludgers flying." She told him.  "It's true we learn to fly our first year here, but I made sure only to do well enough to pass the class, I didn't want to be recruited onto the team. I'm not much of a sports fan, but I do like to take a run every morning."

She smiled as she thought of her and her mom taking early morning runs before breakfast.  "During the summer at home, my mum and I take long runs in the morning before breakfast.  I haven't been able to break that habit yet, but I dont' really want to.  It helps me focus on the things I need to do for the day."  She felt her cheeks redden slightly as she was getting excited about the subject she was talking about.

"What about you, besides that game you mentioned, what do you do for fun?" she asked him.  She was beginning to enjoy talking with this guy, he seemed to genuinely care about what she was talking about. "I mean, there is more to life than sports right?" she said in a joking manner.

"I used to hate running when I was little, once I was running around in my yard at home and I tripped and fell. Ended up in the hospital with a broken ankle," Damien said, remembering how much he had avoided running after that. His friends all seemed to enjoy it but he couldn't stand it, until he started Quodpot, where all you did during practice was run sprints and suicides and the like. Ah, good old American sports.

Damien smiled back at Imari, "I don't know, I guess there is more to life than sports... but it depends on the day." He said with a laugh.

"Actually, lately I've been working on my Patronus whenever I've had free time. I know that sounds sort of, I don't know, sort of geeky; but magic just feels so right." He said, a sparkle appearing in his eyes. Damien loved learning new spells and magic and all sorts of different things.

"And you? Besides running, what do you like to do?" He asked back, looking over at her. His day had started out awful, but he could feel it getting so much better just by being with her.