Great Escape --- Nick

[Cameron Juliet Ryan]

Cameron Ryan sat in the back of her herbiology class rather bored out of her mind. Cammie had never really been interested in plants, and honestly this was defiantly not one of her better subjects. She ran a hand through her nice blond hair and tried to focus on whatever the professor had been teaching, but every few moments her eyes would drift and she'd manage to slip in and out of contentiousness. It wasn't until she had been elbowed in the side for the fifth time that she'd managed to finish the task their teacher had assigned them and work without needing to fall asleep. Cammie couldn't help it though. The night before she'd managed to stay up till two in the morning finishing a muggle book, her friends mother had sent her to occupy her time, and before she knew it she'd fallen asleep as soon as she'd finished, and woken up on the couch in the common room at just before anyone had even gotten up.

Cammie's mind drifted for a moment as her partner finished their project, finding Cammie to be a lost cause and she pushed a lock of her blond hair out of her face yawning a bit. She really was glad this was her last class, she could only imagine being this tired in potions and making something explode. Cammie rolled her eyes at her own thoughts and glanced around the classroom for a moment, to see almost everyone working diligently at her work. A couple of guys around her were arguing about something and some girls around her gossiped, but the class was pretty well tamed by this time. It wasn't long until they were excused and Cammie sighed in relive, happy to finally be done for the day. She smiled to herself as she packed her things and took their project up to the teacher who clearly took notice of her lack of attention and assigned her an extra assignment. Cammie only shook her head at left the classroom glad to officially be out in the sun instead of the glass building.

The grounds were quiet as Cameron began walking up to the black lake, if she was there she would be able to be in peace. She began thinking of her friends, how much she had missed them over the summer break, they would all visit as much as they could but sometimes that didn’t work out, heck she almost didn’t get to see Piper at all last summer, and that sucked more than she could say, but now that they had returned to school she's gotten to see them more often than she liked, and that was something she loved about Hogwarts. It was her home and her safety, although sometimes when she was walking around it brought her sadness. The memories of her brother Scott were everywhere, no way to escape them, but she at some point enjoyed that as well. Cammie sat on the grass by the lake lost in her own thoughts for a moment,as she enjoyed the light breeze that went by through her blond hair. She lied down on the grass for just a few moments starring up at the clear blue sky before she felt herself drifting off to sleep a soft smile gracing her lips.

[Nicholas James Potter]

Herbology. One of Nick's personally favorite classes, aside from Defense Against The Dark Arts. He was in the middle of a project, alongside his partner, who also seemed avidly active in the project with him. They had been assigned a plant which needed to be cared for. The teachers was assigning instructions along the task of caring for a plant, which Nick had noticed on the board called Abyssinian shrivelfigs. They were important because their leaves were used as an ingredient in a potion for a Shrinking Solution, which Nick might actually use some day, if he ever deemed it useful in a situation. He liked Potions as well, it was not such a bad class. None of his classes, besides Divination, were all that bad. Nick and his partner were currently peeling some of the leaves off that had grown from their plant. It was a fun day in Herbology for Nick, although some of his classmates were either evidently not putting their best effort in or sleeping, like he saw his best friend Cameron doing. Nick turned, plucked a few leaves off, then handed it off to his female partner, who had her turn pulling leaves carefully from their plant and placing them with the tweezers into their medium sized jar. They were finished, and Nick's partner raised her hand to signal that they were indeed finished, and had completed all of the necessary instructions set out for the class. The teacher collected their items, and Nick turned with the girl to the people behind them to talk about Quidditch. Nick and his friend were arguing about the teams best Seeker, and Nick thought he was right. Nick's partner gave up on the two boys arguing, and turned to her friend to gossip. Nick gathered up scrap parchment, and crumpled it into a small ball. He threw it at Cameron, but it narrowly missed, and the Professor noticed him. "Mr. Potter, there will be no throwing objects in my class." the Professor scolded, and Nick turned around, a falsely innocent smile on his face as he looked at her. "Yes, Professor. Won't happen again." he replied sweetly, turning back around. There was no more time for pranks or jokes, because the time was up for class, and they were all allowed to go. He'd finished his last class for the day - he was free.

There was a growing sense of relief as Nick walked out of class with his friends, talking about what they'd be doing later that evening. Nick was not ready to do homework just yet, he'd save it for a bit later. The sun shone down on him, on his uniform, making him warm and giving him a pleasant feeling. He always loved the sun shining down on him, giving him a feeling that everything was good. He laughed with his friends, joking about a Professor and how they could shove the homework assigned to them up some place not so nice. Nick did not mind his homework, but lately it had seemed like more than just a bit of homework. It was a rather unnecessary load that nick did not take a particular liking to. He carried his Hogwarts bag all the way up to the Ravenclaw Common Room, which he had to climb many stairs to get to. He was now slightly envious for a few moments of the Hufflepuffs, and dare he say it, Slytherins. They had it easy, being able to go straight in and into their Common Rooms. he had to be the lazy one to climb all the stairs at the end of the long and exhausting day. Sitting down on his four-post bed, he rubbed his eyes groggily from having looked at textbooks all day. School days always seemed to have a way of slowing him down, causing him to be more lazy. He slipped on some deodorant underneath his long sleeved uniform dress shirt, and left the room, wearing the school uniform white shirt, Ravenclaw tie, dress pants and Converse trainers. He jumbled down the stairs in a mad rush, his slightly curly and immensely unruly hair bouncing and billowing from the pace he kept while jumping down half the stairs. Nick was a Sixth Year, yes, but he had to enjoy life while he was young, did he not? He was always a sort of childish one, but not in an overrated sort of way. Nick just had a lot of fun in his normal days, and did a lot of fun stuff with his friends tagging along. he was alone now, and made it to the First Floor with no trouble and in hardly any time. Nick headed outside, glad to be away from the burden of classes with teachers, some of which only droned on and on about hardly anything. Nick's father had told him about a Professor Binns who was a ghost and teacher, and all he did all period was talk about the history of magic. What could be more boring than that? In Nick's mind, hardly anything. He was headed outside, and directed toward somewhere fun. He'd seen Cameron heading down toward the lake; maybe he'd pay her a visit.

The sunlight hit him as soon as he cracked the main doors open. The hue of blue in the sky was magnificent, and with hardly any clouds covering it up, curtaining it from the students, there was quite a beautiful afternoon to be enjoyed outside. Nick walked out, hearing the grass under his feet being stomped on with his Converse trainers, not the high tops, thank goodness. The sounds of students exhilarated to be out of their classrooms and dormitories could be heard from everywhere, and Nick smirked. He had all afternoon to himself, and the evening would be spent doing his homework. He saw the figure not far away that was his best friend Cameron, and directed his footsteps to her. Before long, Nick was near Cameron, and finally up in front of her. He took in her profile, from her long blonde hair to her closed eyes, and then to her petite frame. She looked like she was sleeping, exactly as she had been in Herbology with him. The light breeze flowed through his hair, and he looked down to her, kneeling down. "Am I so unwanted by you that every time I come around, you need to pretend you're asleep so that i'll leave you alone?" Nick joked around, laughing a bit before continuing. "Or did you stay up all night reading again?" Nick knew how much his friend loved reading books, both wizard and muggle made ones, and it wouldn't surprise him if that was the cause of her exhaustion.

[Cameron Juliet Ryan]

A soft breeze flowed through the air as the sun shown down upon the grounds of Hogwarts. It seemed almost too good to be true. The nice and calm spring air around, the clear blue skies and the air of delight surrounding the place. Classes had just let out only a while ago and relief flowed through the air among them as they hustled off to greet the up and coming weekend, it was Friday after all. Students all around campus talking and laughing amongst one another, while the teachers either watched, graded papers or handled their own affairs around the school. It was one of those days too nice to stay cooped up in the common room, or well inside anywhere. A few students huddled inside of the courtyard, enjoying the day, others headed to their dorms to change out of their uniforms and more fitting clothing while others such as Miss Cameron Ryan headed straight to the lake to enjoy the sun, or in her case fall asleep in the sun. Her long blond hair practically glowed under the glare of the sun as she slept in the soft open grass around, her bag ling next to her completely untouched. Her blue eyes were closed as she rested more than relieved to finally have fallen asleep. The night before she’d managed to stay up half the night reading a very interesting tale, and classes for the day had been murder on her, especially her last one which, she’d managed to sleep halfway through and almost managed to land both herself and her partner a failing grade.

The sixteen year old lied on the grass completely at peace with the world, in her own dream world, where her imagination happened to trail to her best friend, Nicholas Potter. It was odd how she’d managed to dream of him at the moment, but then again they did just have a class together and he was absolutely dream worthy, no doubt about that. In her dream the two of them were just talking, under a tree, but they weren’t at Hogwarts. In all honesty Cameron had no idea where they were, but it was beautiful, it looked fairly much like a rose garden. They were sitting on the stone wall of a large fountain in the center of the garden, just laughing and talking with one another. That smile, that rare genuinely happy Nick smile, had settled itself on his lips and of course it made Cameron smile, it made her heart skip just a few beats. Cameron Ran a hand through her blonde hair in her sleep unaware of the footsteps approaching her resting body. A laugh escaped her dream selves lips as the dream started to slowly fade away from her and her mind began to return to reality. A familiar voice and the sent of her best friend, who she just so happened to be dreaming about, floated through the air waking her out of her sleep.

"Am I so unwanted by you that every time I come around, you need to pretend you're asleep so that i'll leave you alone?" his voice echoed in her ear along with the light sounds of his laughter as Cameron’s eyes fluttered open to look at him, the sun right behind his head. Or did you stay up all night reading again? Nick asked her and Cameron couldn’t help but laugh softy and snuggling back into the grass for just a moment, before sitting up on her elbow and looking up at Nick sleepily.

“See Nicky you ruined my nap and my rather awesome dream, now I have to use you as a pillow, but remember you brought this upon yourself.” She said sitting up a bit more and pushing Nick from his kneeling position, onto the ground so that he was lying down. She gave him a sweet smile and lied down, resting her head on his chest and closing her eyes. “That’s better.” She muttered getting comfortable and covering her mouth stifling a yawn. “and yes I was reading this muggle book, that was just fascinating although I don’t think I’ll be going to a muggle high school, ever in life, it was rather interesting.” Cameron said matter of factly a smile sliding itself onto her lips as she thought back to the book she had been reading, and then her dream and this was defiantly close enough to it that she really couldn’t actually be upset with him for waking her up. “Oh and don’t think I didn’t notice you trying to through paper at me, I’ll get you back for that I hope you know dude.” She said briefly looking up at him, before looking back up at the sky.

[Nicholas James Potter]

One moment he was kneeling, the next he was laying down, his chest being used as a pillow by Cameron. She'd dragged him into that position, and he could not help but laugh when she did that. "I brought this upon myself now? Well that's not fair. See, you stole my favourite spot to sit at the Lake, and so it's only justifiable that I wake your from your dream to get my spot. But I guess this is good enough." Nick joked. He wasn't about to get angry for her actions, because all in all, he had deserved it for what he'd done to her. Nick lay there, the sun warming his skin, the breeze cooling it to a perfect temperature. The sound of the lake waters being splashed about and people talking and laughing was what made Nick feel at ease. A genuine smile rest on his lips as he closed his eyes and put his hands behind his head, enjoying just relaxing for once. "But beware, i will be getting you back for this. You better be watching your back, Ms. Ryan." Nick commented, the smile returning to his face. His father would have never been bold enough to do this at his years of school. Nick looked up at Cameron, her head still resting on his chest, her blonde hair shimmering in the sunlight as it cascaded down his left side in the direction she was laying. He took a few strands of her hair and twirled it around his finger, feeling the silky blonde hair wrap around his index finger. This was much better than sitting around in the Common Room doing petty homework that could be done much later. He still had hours before he'd need to do it. "What was this dream about? Me running down a beach with no shirt on?" Nick taunted, smirking afterward. He figured that wasn't what she'd dreamed of, but it was nice to put a bit of humor into peoples lives.

Nick listened as Cameron put into explanation the truth of the book. So Nick had been correct; she was reading a book late last night, and now was tired. It was amazing how correct he could be about the most trivial things. And it was not like he could read peoples thoughts or minds; in fact, he had the opposite sort of training. Nick was an Occlumens, a title that meant that he could block his thoughts and mind from being interfered by outside sources. Nick did not want people reading his mind or innermost thoughts, especially because he had a lot of secrets to hide. His biggest being that he was a vampire. If anyone found out - well, it just would not be good if everyone knew about it. "I couldn't handle being in a muggle school. Magic is too cool. What was this book about? Forbidden love as usual?" Nick joked again. He had no real idea what she'd read, his assumptions only made by what he figured girls usually read on their spare time. Nick read only wizard books, finding Muggle ones to only have too much drama in them. His life contained enough drama to surpass the ones in books Muggles read. Hell, his family history had about the same. Nick was just a part of the puzzle that connected him to one of the most known wizarding families known. Not like he wanted everyone knowing that or giving him that knowledge as a remainder constantly. He'd rather be known as Nick Potter, someone who was a good friend, a support, and funny. His friends had a good thought of him, and to everyone else, it didn't matter anyways. His friends were all that mattered. Right now, all Nick needed to focus on was his school work, his social life, and the environment around him. Anything else would come as it will, and he promised himself to deal with it as it came. Girls were something of interest to him, as they'd always been, but yet, nobody had swept him off of his feet entirely. Maybe one day he'd find that girl. For now, he busied himself with cute girls like Cameron who made him feel good but were good enough as best friends. Now they'd always been friends, and he reminded himself of that as he looked down to her, memories passing in a faded picture, like a ghost film as he looked at her, then back up to the sky. She was speaking again.

A laugh lightly escaped him. Oh, the wonderful joys that happened during class. He could not have helped himself any more than to pick on Cameron by throwing parchment at her. Throwing crinkled up parchment was nothing compared to some of the other antics Nick Potter had pulled in the duration of his classes. His sly remarks and pranks were something that he amused himself when class began to get less than interesting. He couldn't help it, blame the easily distracted part of himself that he could not control. "You saw that? Blimey, I thought you were sleeping m'dear. Next time i'll check." His mock surprise could not be masked by the joke escaping between his lips. In all honesty, he'd perceived her to have been sleeping, and it did come as a bit of a shock to find out that she'd noticed or heard. But he would not let that show. "Oh, you'll get me back, Ms. Ryan? I think not. That would be challenging me to a full out prank war, and we all know I win those frequently. I wouldn't want to hurt your feelings by winning." Nick teased, his voice edging her on to his new found challenge, and he was going to stand by it unless she dismissed it. He loved challenges, especially ones of the pranking variety. "Dude? When did you start saying that? I do have a name you know. Didn't think it was that hard to remember." He said, smirking to the sunlight.

[Cameron Juliet Ryan]

Cameron made herself comfortable on his chest for just a moment and sighed in both content and out of her tiredness. She listened and laughed just a bit about his little comments and inwardly rolled her eyes. Nick was always such a goofy, yet serious, person to be around, but he was Cammie’s favorite person to be around. No matter what the situation he always made thing more entertaining in someway. “It better be good enough, Nick because I’m not moving.” She said with a smile, but was completely serious at the same time. Cameron reached up and tucked a lock of her blond hair behind her ear for just a moment, letting the sun beat down on her neck, as the breeze went by. The blond girl felt Nick twirl a lock of her hair , but said nothing against it, it didn’t bother her at all, and even if it did she highly doubted she would protest the action. It wasn’t until he asked her what she dreamed about that she got kind of uncomfortable. Cameron scoffed a bit and rolled her eyes at his running on the beach comment, silently thinking about that before speaking up. “You wish I was dreaming about that, no actually, I had a dream that you got um… beat up by…. A um… goat, yeah that’s right I said a goat, a demon goat. Yeah it was a good thing I got there in time or you would have been demon goat food.” Cameron told him lying through her teeth, but she hoped he would buy that and leave it alone. She was pretty sure it would have been odd if she told him the truth or it would have been in her mind.

Cameron thought back about the book now and could have rolled her eyes if she wasn’t so tired. It was a ridiculous concept to have for a muggle book, but it had been kind of accurate. In reality Hogwarts was like one large High school, well when it came to the fifth, sixth and seventh years. There was gossip drama, and a lot of rumors, the difference was they didn’t have cell phones and magic actually did exist. The characters in the book were way more than a little less down to earth than any of at Hogwarts however, and defiantly more self centered. Cameron laughed at Nick’s statement and shook her head. “Plus it’s way more… shallow then it is here, trust me.” She said rolling her eyes a bit, but continued on afterward. “No it wasn’t about forbidden love, It was more about snobby girls trying to be the most popular in the whole school, back stabbing, drinking parties, but there was a bit of forbidden love in it between this one girl Jenny, who liked her roommates boyfriend, but I’m pretty sure you would hate it, it’s more of a chick thing.” Cameron rattled on about the book for a few moments. It was a defiant teenage girl book that was for sure, there was too much drama for it not to be. A smirk crossed her features for a moment and she looked at nick. “Well unless you’re gay, you’re not gay are you? Because if you’re gay and you didn’t tell me then you suck because we could have gone shopping.” Cameron said to him jokingly with a smile gracing her lips.

Cameron looked up at the sky as Nick laughed and shot him a look, he shouldn’t be laughing, and throwing parchment at her during class no less was a serious offense especially since she was trying to sleep. She ran a hand through her blond hair for a moment and rolled her eyes at the guy whose chest she just so happened to be laying on. “Don’t be just oh so surprised, Of course I saw it, I’m a Ravenclaw we are very perceptive, in case you didn’t know that.” She told him sounding much like a know it all, but laughed after that. “Plus the fact that you did get called out on it, was pretty funny as well.” She said teasingly poking him in the side. Cameron was going to have to get him back for it though, she’d probably just pants him in front of the whole common room, that was defiantly delicious revenge, but until then she was just going to have to sit back and wait for the right moment to strike. She knew Nick had a thing for pranks, and prank wars were something, that he owned at, but she did have a few tricks up her sleeve to get him back it he asked for it. “Well if I was challenging you to a prank war, which if it comes down to that, so be it, it will be one that you will lose because I have a few of my own tricks up my sleeve so it would be you with the hurt feelings.” Cameron told him with a smirk before laughing just a bit. Cameron rolled her eyes at herself when she said dude and mentally cursed her cousins back in California. That was something they had managed to say all the time and when her particularly favorite cousin Gabby had sent her a letter she’d used it so frequently it had stuck into Cameron’s mind like super glue. “well sorry Nicholas James Potter, my cousin Gabby says it all the time, I’m pretty sure it’s a California thing, but and I guess it just got stuck, don’t judge me.” Cameron said once again poking him in the side to emphasize her point.

[Nicholas James Potter]

Nick had to laugh at her way of speaking to him. Cameron was so confident, so sure of herself when she said something that he had to laugh. She had been positive that she wasn't moving from the spot she was at, but Nick could probably pick her up and throw her into the Lake if he wanted to (not like he did, that would be a not so good move on his part unless they were honestly playing around) without another word. "Oh, you're so sure of that, are you? I'm pretty sure that I could just pick you up right now and move you wherever I wanted to." Nick jested, although there was a truthfulness to his sentences. He could pick her up, even if she was screaming and kicking, and move her to wherever he wanted to go. He was not going to do that (just yet) primarily because he was comfortable laying there and he was assured that she was too. People walked by, some staring, others whispering, and some just carrying on with their day. Nick ignored it with no problem. He knew that they had no business into his life, and if they spoke anything about him, that was their deal and he wanted nothing to do with it. When she explained to him her dream, Nick raised an eyebrow in curiosity. It made hardly any sense at all to him why a person would dream that, or what it would mean. He'd have to research it in Divination, and if it didn't make any sense, then he could just get back at her with his conclusions. "A .. demon goat? Oh, Cameron, you know you don't have to lie to me. I know you were dreaming about me running across the beach shirtless. you don't have to hide it." He said, half laughing as he said it. A demon goat? Who dreamed about that? "But either way, i'm glad you, erm, saved me."

Nick listened to the description of the book, envisioning it in his mind using his friends. he could have been immediately positive that it was going to be much different in his mind than it was in the actual book, and it was, but it was something cool to imagine. Nick hated drama, despised it in every fashion or manner, and his friends knew that or at least acknowledged that. So when he heard the level of drama that the teenagers in Cameron's book dealt with, he was glad that he was not in that high school. "You're right, it is more of a chick thing. Way more drama than I could ever handle, that's for sure." Nick informed her, agreeing with her previous statement. Then, when she questioned him about being gay, he raised his eyebrow at her, raising his head to look to her, giving her that are-you-seriously-asking-me-this? look. "I am not gay, dear Cameron, do not fret. I am into girls. I know you are pretending to be happy about a possibility of me being gay, but rest assured, I am not, so your crush on me won't go to waste." Nick mentioned, allowing her the knowledge that he was a heterosexual and planning on remaining that way. it seemed that there were a lot of gay people at Hogwarts. Nick had no prejudice against them, he was just not one of them. He liked his girls, he had had many girlfriends, and he planned on having more. Right now, though, no girls had really shown him that they liked him, or none at least that he had noticed. Then again, he could be very blank and distracted at times. For all he knows, girls could like him and he would know no such thing.

Nick had honestly thought that Cameron had been sleeping during Herbology. It kind of surprised him that she had noticed what he had done, as well as knowing what the teacher had said afterward. "Well, next time i'll just have to try and be a bit more secretive with my throwing parchment at you." he laughed, very much more taunting now that she was using that matter-of-fact tone with him. "Well, I will say that had you actually been where i'd aimed the parchment at, the teacher would not have seen it. So it's your fault." After he spoke, he received a playful jab to the said as she poked him. "Hey, what was that for?" Nick asked, looking to the sky and shaking his head slightly. He was glad to have Cameron as a friend, someone to make fun of without having her feelings hurt. They could tease each other and never take each other seriously. Yeah, they had their serious times, but it was not like it was all of the time. Pranking wars were definitely something that Nick participated in all of the time, when his friends challenged him to it or when he challenged a friend to it. He was no stranger to them and often won, losing to the better people. But versus Cameron, Nick had a feeling he could win, even if she had a few tricks up her sleeve. "Oh, even with those tricks you won't beat me. i'm the Ravenclaw King." Nick announced to her, justifying himself with a title. It wasn't the best title, but it suited him just fine to use for the moment. He was not going to continue calling himself that unless it became his official nickname, and if it did, then so be it. "Oh, calling me by my entire name, Ms. Cameron Juliet Ryan? Well, two can play that game. And judge you, now why would I do that?" Nick responded, using her name in a serious tone. He was poked again in the side, and flinched a bit as he had done before. "Two can play at that game, Cameron." He challenged, and poked her back gently in the side.