Gryffindor Common Room -- Open

[enchante_violet]

Pansy had never felt so odd at Hogwarts, not even when she had sat under the Sorting Hat, as she now did going to the Gryffindor common room at curfew. She returned from the library and gave back every curious or nasty glance as she joined the informal queue in front of the portrait. Once inside, she paused to view the room, having decided she

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[divinepatil]

Neville had been pretty distant to everyone staying pretty much to himself. When he wasn't in his dorm he had been in class. The only person he had talked to had been Gabrielle at dinner when they sat at the Ravenclaw table.

He had decided that the four walls of his dorm were starting to close in on him, and he would go down to the common room to sit beside the fire. No one really talked to him if he didn't initiate it unless it was a close friend. Those seemed to be dwindling at the moment.

He walked slowly down the stairs and vaguely looked around the room for Zed. They could sit in silence and study or just think without feeling uncomfortable with each other. He did not see him, though. It wasn't until he got by the fire and the chairs and tables that he spotted Pansy drawing in her sketch book. He decided not to disturb her plus he didn't feel much like conversation so he went to the seat closest to the fire and sat down on the floor and leaned his back against it rather then sit in it.

[enchante_violet]

A few minutes after he had sat down, a little folded note fluttered over to Neville and landed on the floor beside his foot, where it flapped its little wings before unfolding itself.

Dear Neville,

You don't want company?

Pansy

[divinepatil]

He wrote back and enchanted it to flutter back to Pansy.

Pansy,

If you feel like being with a sulky young idiot you may come over.

Neville

[enchante_violet]

Pansy used a levitating spell on her things, and walked over to him with them floating along behind her, save for the sketchbook and pencils, which she chose to carry. She stopped and looked down at a despondant boy.

"You're acting like you don't have your common room," she said.

[divinepatil]

He looked up and gave a weak smile at Pansy. "I feel so not a part of this common room at this moment. It has nothing to do with the Slytherins being here either. It is just hard for me to realize that for the most part of the people I have told only Kris has been behind my idea. Everyone else is luke warm to totally against it. Not to mention Castro and I are fighting again."

He scooted over making room for her to sit in the chair or next to him on the floor.

[enchante_violet]

If she hadn't been in her school uniform, she would have taken a spot on the floor. She sat in the chair and her school things slowly floated down to the floor, neatly piling up.

"Well, Neville, I'm sorry to hear anyone should wish to fight with you. I don't think you deserve to be treated like that."

[divinepatil]

"Castro, reserves the right to fight with whomever he wishes even if they are trying to help him. I am beginning to wonder why I thought this was going to work at all. I guess I just thought that Gryffindors would want the rivalry to stop. Little did I know that they wanted to continue it. Then there is Castro making trouble again. Calling poor Kris a well a female dog on the journals. It enough to make me want to be in another house!!" His voice raised just a little. Some of the other people in the room looked over, but Neville didn't notice.

[enchante_violet]

Had Pansy been her cat, her ears would have flattened and her tail would have swished. Since she was neither a cat, nor had she eaten any of the muffins, her dark brown eyes narrowed. She put a pencil behind her ear, clasped her hands on top of the sketchpad laying across her lap, and started fiddling with the ring.

"You're too sweet. It's idiotic to fight with people trying to help you. Look at you and I. We discovered we were trying to help each other so we went with it. And Draco's spoken with you and even Chad has noticed how nice you are.

"Friends will disagree but you don't actually go to war against them. And he called Kris names which I doubt she deserves. Look, I'm saying that and the girl slapped me. At a time when I was still in total shock because of Devon..." Her voice trailed off as she stared at the dragon emerald, seeing how it caught the firelight.

"

[divinepatil]

"I am not sweet. I just try to treat people the best I can. I have moods I just choose not to vomit it all over other people if I can help it. Castro, doesn't know how to stow his moods and he doesn't know how to swallow his pride when need be.

As far as You and Draco and any other Slytherin I decide to encounter or them me I think it is just looking at the other person with an open frame of mind. If you make them feel understood then they are going to try to do the same for you. In least thats what my Gran keeps telling me." He looked at Pansy then away at the fire the light from the fire reflecting in his eyes making them sparkle.

[enchante_violet]

She gave him a smile. "Sure you're sweet. That doesn't mean you aren't tough or anything like that.

"You know, I would have never done any of this last year. But it sure turns out your Gran's advice is good. Even if it doesn't get the response you want, the other person wouldn't want to harm you, unlike the feelings Castro makes other people have towards him."

[divinepatil]

"Yeah, I suppose. I wouldn't call myself particularly tough either. I suppose I just grit and bear it if I think its worth fighting for.

I don't know what Castro is trying to do. All I do know is that he has more pissed off people then not. What does continuing this feud or differences or whatever you want to call this that we have between the two houses? I mean all it does is harm us in the long run. Especially if we are going to be encountering more Death Eater attacks in the future. We all have to be watching each others backs together."

He stuck his leg up and put an arm on his knee tracing patterns on the other out stretched leg with his other hand. Then looking up at Pansy he continued, "Thanks for the sleeping drought. I think if I would have had one more night of bad sleep I would have gone stir crazy over the deep end." He smiled at her then.

[enchante_violet]

"You're welcome. I have some more I'd share with you if you need it. You know, your girlfriend seems to be really nice. If it wasn't for Chad needing help, I wouldn't have minded being in Ravenclaw and talking more with her."

[divinepatil]

Neville beamed as he always did when Gabrielle was mentioned.

"I really don't know what I'd do if I didn't have her and Kris by my sides. Also two very surprising people by my side during this time Draco and you. It's odd the people that you think would be by your side aren't always there and the people you least expect are. It just goes to show that people aren't always what the seem until you get to know them."

Once again we went to tracing patterns on his leg with his free hand.

After a few minutes he continued, "What is going to happen when this Mediation talk actually gets announced officially? I know that not many I am finding out in my house are going to be for it. What about your house? You think the same?"

[enchante_violet]

Pansy nodded, agreeing that people could do unexpected things. While both of them were quiet, she looked at the green reflections in the emerald again, until his questions brought her out of a reverie.

"I know some won't be for it, though probably not for the reasons some would expect. I'd hardly say we're suddenly Saint Slytherins but a lot of us just seem to be tired of being treated like we always cause the trouble."

[divinepatil]

"Well I know there were a few times in years past that Draco might have been a little more malicious then should be toward me, but I am willing to forget everything in light of recent events. I is more important to survive and get through this time the harbor old grudges.

Anyways, people change and grow up. If we didn't then we wouldn't get anywhere."

[enchante_violet]

"Exactly. Wouldn't you sort of despise yourself if you didn't change and move on with your life?"