Valentine’s Day was coming. Not that it really held much significance for Elizabeth.  She’d never really had a Valentine. Then again, she’d never really allowed time to have one.  She lived on a fairly strict schedule.  Liza liked to make sure that she had time for all of her classes, homework, some tutoring, and then her duties of Prefect and now Head Girl.  She was very efficient. It was something she prided herself on, and something her teachers appreciated in her.  But coming towards the end of her final year at Hogwarts, she felt a little bit of regret.

All around the castle, there were far too many canoodling couples.  Liza didn’t really have too much against it.  She was happy that they’d found happiness in one another. Of course, if they went a little too far in the public areas, she would need to reprimand them.  It would normally be just a few house points, but hopefully they’d learn it wasn’t appropriate, especially if there were younger students to come by. 

But today was a Saturday, and a day that most students were enjoying a day free from their studies.  Often times they would leave their work til Sunday, though Liza preferred getting hers done right away.  To each their own.  But she also needed to make sure to have plenty of time available for her patrolling duties, and for keeping tabs on the Prefects under her watch, and the Head Boy. Thankfully there was a pretty good group of Prefects this year and they were all rather good with their studies and duties.

For now, it was a very good afternoon for walking the castle.  It had been rather chilly outside lately, having just endured nearly an entire week of snow and some wind.  As Elizabeth patrolled through the third floor area, she paused near the old statue of the humpbacked witch. Oddly enough, this had become one of Liza’s favorites of the statues in the castle. While the old witch would have been considered “ugly” or “terrifying”, she’d risen above that and created the cure for Dragon Pox.  She had been quite a gifted healer as well.

Standing in front of the statue, she felt a bit of a chill. She reached into a pocket of her robe and pulled out a Honeydukes chocolate bar from her last trip to Hogsmeade. Chocolate was always good at warming her up.  There seemed to be a bit of healing power put in wizarding sweets, as compared to the muggle ones she’d grown up with. But it definitely helped on a day like today, battling the chill in the air and the slight feeling of romantic failure.  Liza told herself it was quite all right not to have any romantic things happen while in school, because there was plenty of time when she was done. 

So she stood there, staring at the statue, somewhat consoling with herself while eating chocolate. Even Head Girls needed some time to themselves, right?  After a few minutes of that, she was still not finished with the chocolate bar when she heard the sounds of someone (or more than one?) coming down the hallway.  Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Liza turned to greet them, perhaps hoping for a little conversation. It had been a while since she’d had one, mainly focusing on her studies and duties.

“Good afternoon.” She said with a smile. “How is your day going?”

Dressed in a simple Slytherin uniform, Erin would not have attracted too much attention from females had she chosen a different method of locomotion.  As it was, Erin skipped down the hall, happily oblivious to  most of the world around her.  Not that was that unusual, but she seemed particularly hyper today, even for her.  Her thoughts were spinning around her head like a tornado.  She almost did not even here the platitude from the elder girl. 

"Ooh.  Faily well.  Huh.  Never really thought about how ugly this statue is.  Wonder why?  You know, I think this is the first time I've talked to you.   Wonder if that's a good thing or not?  Though have I seen you wandering around with a book before?  Are you a ravenclaw?  Do they talk about anything besides books?   I'd ask one, but usually I am too distracted too keep a prolonged conversation going.  Oh, you like chocalate too?  I wish I could eat more of it, but everyone watches what I eat whether I like it or not," Erin said, the filter between her mouth and brain working about as well as it always did.

ADD in full blast, Erin the proceeded to skip away from the girl, and find some shiny metallic object in the corner.  This was good.  Erin liked shiny objects.  They could keep her entertained for a while.  Damn shame she never made seeker.  She probably could have found the snitch relatively easily, even if her skillful maneuvering on a broom kept her at the keeper position. 

“Oh, hey you know what this is?” Erin asked her almost-forgotten acquaintance, she continued nonplussed, “I’ve never seen it before.  Wonder if it does anything useful.  Wonder if I can use it to reflect light in my next shoot if nothing else” Erin said, half-talking to herself, halfway talking to the head-girl.

The Slytherin girl had been skipping. Granted, it probably wasn’t the safest mode of travel through the castle, but Liza supposed it wasn’t necessarily against the rules. Running was worse. She knew the other girl.  Then again, it was somewhat her job to know most of the students.  It was a bit difficult to know everyone, especially with all of the extra students this year because of the Tetrawizard Tournament. Liza did the best she could.  As for the Slytherin girl, Liza was fairly certain her name was Erin Dark. And Erin talked quite fast and all over the place.

“Well, Gunhilda wasn’t exactly what we’d call beautiful. I’ve heard this is a very close recreation of her though.” Liza tried to follow the girl’s words and questions, but her thoughts were very disconnected. “I do often have a book, and yes I’m a Ravenclaw. And yes, we do talk about more than books.”

Liza laughed a little, realizing she probably forgot a few of the questions the other girl had asked.  But it didn’t seem to matter too much, as Erin skipped off a bit towards a left-behind shiny object.  Liza stood there a moment as the other girl looked at the object.  She certainly was an interesting one. She folded up the wrapper and put the remainder of the chocolate back in her pocket and walked over. The Head Girl tried to tell what the item was.  She wasn’t really sure.  It looked a little like a mirror, but different.

“Is that a mirror? I don’t have any idea what a mirror would be doing in the corner of a hallway.  But it’s not quite a mirror.  Rather interesting. I’m sure it would reflect light though.” Liza cocked her head a bit, looking at the object again. There were so many weird things in the wizarding world that looked like things she knew, but had been magically altered.  She never knew what to make of them. But she did still love learning about them.

"Gunhilda?  Did the child put her poor mother through twenty hours of labor or something?  I wonder what offense she committed to be named that.  Huh.  I guess not everyone was as lucky as me when it comes to looks.  Oh, that's good to know stereotypes are still useful then.  I'll have to remember that.  Wonder if it applies to all houses, or just Ravenclaws?  Or maybe they gather a group of like minded people together and there opinions follow their friends.  Or maybe they never diversify." Erin offhandedly commented in reply to Elizabeth, stream of conscious flowing like the Thames. 

At this point Erin remembered she had something bright.  Something shiny.  Something good.  Erin did what she always did when confronted with a bright and shiny object:  Cast spells without thinking things through. 

"Lumos" she cast.  While the spell itself was relatively harmless, it caused the shiny thing in Erin's hand to heat up.  A lot.  The sudden change in temperature caused her too quickly loosen her grip on the object. 

"Youch!" Erin yelped, dropping the object on to the floor.  She noticed that the shiny object had now turned a bright orange color, similar to the one would expect from burning wood.  Erin could still feel the heat waves emanating from the now glowing object.

"I did not expect that to happen.  Maybe next time I want to take a hot bath I'll take the thing with me.  Um...you wouldn't happen to know a good spell to cool it off by chance?  Actually - should we just leave it for a teacher to find?  They generally deal with unexplainable magic more humorously.  Or rather, watching other people deal with unexplainable is funny so as long as you do not get caught in the crossfire.  Oh.  I'm Erin by the way.  I don't think we've met." Erin somehow managed to state in one breath, her oral filter still firing on all zero cylinders. 

Elizabeth couldn’t help but laugh a little at the Gunhilda comment. It was kind of an unfortunate name, but names were different back then.  Elizabeth has actually been a fairly common name throughout time.  But Erin would have been pretty weird back then.  Then the Slytherin girl kept talking. Words just fell out of her mouth like a fountain. Random, not really connected thoughts.  This was something that Liza wasn’t exactly used to, but it was somewhat entertaining even if Erin didn’t mean it that way.

“I suppose that’s true.  There are the basic traits on which the original founders asked for their house. That’s how everyone gets sorted.  Though I suppose that’s changed a bit since the original—“ Liza stopped once the girl decided to use her wand to try and reflect light off the mirror-thing. All of a sudden, she could feel heat.  Erin dropped it quite fast and Elizabeth looked at the object in fascination for a moment before looking back at the Slytherin girl.

“Are you all right? Do you need to go to the Hospital wing?” It seemed like she was okay, but Liza thought it’d be good to ask. “And perhaps leave it here. If a simple spell like that had that reaction, I’m not sure I’d want to try anything else with it. I’ll be sure to find one of the professors to investigate it. Though I’m rather curious as to how it got here in the first place.

“Nice to officially meet you too, Erin. I’m Elizabeth, or you can call me Liza.” She smiled at the girl. “And sorry if I stopped you on your way to somewhere. I just enjoy talking to different people.”

"I'm fine" Erin beamed, smiling like she was in a photoshoot rather than a school hall.  Was she supposed to say something afterwards?  Maybe.  Probably.  She couldn't remember that though, and oh that warm thing was there to.  Apparently the ravenclaw did not want to play with the magical object.  Erin was disappointed.  So much potential. So shiny.  And now it gave off heat like a mini-fire.

"Elizabeth or Liza.  One name for a queen, the other for the red-headed stepchild.  Wonder if people's names effects them any?  Or if its just a moniker that really has no baring besides slightly separating from everyone else.  People keep chocolate separate from me.  I like chocolate.  This depresses me."  Erin rambled, once again jumping from conversation topics like most people jumped rope.

"Was I going somewhere?  Probably.  Don't remember where it was though.  I get distracted pretty easily.  Sometimes that makes it hard to work with people, but most people manage.  Oh, want to toss the quaffle for a bit?  The pitch is probably empty right now.  Or maybe it isn't.  If it isn't, we can go skip stairs," Erin asked, her hyperactive mind shining through. 

“Well, I don’t really have any desire to be queen. And I’m not a step child nor do I have red hair.  I suppose you can either let your name control who you are, or create your own personality for your name.” Elizabeth decided. “What do you think of your name?”

Having never talked to Erin before, Liza still adjusting to the random jumps in conversation.  She was very much used to everything flowing.  With Erin, you couldn’t tell what the girl was going to talk about next. Names, to chocolate, and now to quidditch? Liza never played quidditch.  She was an okay flyer, but was definitely not confident enough in her flying skills to try throwing balls around while on a broom. She would stick to having both feet on the ground, and using her brain more than her muscles.

“I’m actually not much of a quidditch player. Not much of a sports player, either. I suppose that comes from the fact that my parents were always more into intellectual exercises then sports ones.” Sometimes she’d wondered what it would have been like if she had grown up playing sports, if quidditch might have been easier.  But she was rather fine with what she grew up like.

“Skip stairs? Like going to the stairs and missing one?” This was another thing Liza wasn’t familiar with. Though she had gotten fairly used to not knowing some things, because of her not growing up in this world she had been introduced to.

"No desire to be queen?  All that knowledge and no ambition.  You should spend sometime in Slytherin house.  You might pick some up by proximity.  Seriously, who doesn't want to be queen?  You get all the dresses you could ever want," Erin thought aloud, actually managing to string several thoughts together for once.  Unfortunately Erin had a hard time counting to five,so her cohesion ended at that point. Fortunately, Elizabeth asked about her name.

"I wonder how I got the name Dark when I'm white and blonde.  It seems like there should be something else like- Ooh - hey that warm thingamobber feels nice now," Erin rambled, the heat from the object actually feeling rather good.  It was February in Scottland after all.

"Truth be told, I'm not much of a quidditch player either, but for some reason I manage to consistently make the team.  Have no idea why though.  I am way too distracted for a keeper, yet I am one of the few who shows up consistently.  Guess there's something to be said about persistence?  Or is it apathy?  Or is apathy persistant?  Ah, bother I can never keep those straight." Erin said.

"Skipping stairs? Its just when you go down stairs in somemultiple rather than 1 by 1.  Its a lot of fun at Hogwarts cause the stairwells move around and what not.  Good way to explore too.  Some passages can actually only be reached by skipping two or three stairs at at time.    You should try it.  I think someone could spend a century at this castle and never ferret out all of its secrets," Erin bemused.