Same Old Horizons

[Lewis Harper]

Lewis walked down to the Quidditch Pitch, with the permanent smirk attached to his face. it seemed to be a trademark of all Slytherins, because everytime somebody looked at Lewis, he seemed to have that smirk on his face. Why he was walking down to the Quidditch Pitch he didn't really know. He didn't play Quidditch, he found it a lot more entertaining to laugh at the other teams as they lost to Slytherin.

He laughed, the last match at Hogwarts had been entertaining, Hufflepuff were defeated in five minutes flat. In Lewis's mind, that resulted in a month's worth of laughing and jeering at the Hufflepuffs. And naturally, the rest of the Slytherins followed his lead. He wasn't the necessarily the leader of all the Slytherins, but he was highly respected by them, and they often listened to him.

Walking onto the actually pitch, he looked around. The stands were completely empty, there wasn't a soul to be seen. Lying down on the grass, he once again smirked as he stared at the cloudless sky. It was early in the term, but so far, everything was going good for Lewis Harper. His grades were good, Slytherins's respected him, other houses disliked him. It was all going well. Life was good.

[caspian van der lynch.]

she walked, seemingly alone, if it hadn't been for the snide remarks and eerie whispers that were following her through the corridoors of hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. the slytherins were up to no good again and she didn't like it. the small orange haired girl was at her wits end, she didn't know how much longer she could handle the verbal abuse (and sometimes, physical abuse) she recieved from the slytherin students. she had no idea what she had done to deserve this, but she figured that it all came down to the fact that she was in gryffindor house, which automatically warrented bullying from the students that thought they owned the place. it wasn't fair, five year she has had to endure this torment, which only got worse the moment she had had an accident with a potion and had turned her hair orange - which, she had to admit, was pretty damn awesome. two more years left, only two and then she would be free of the place that she had to call home all year round.

sighing, caspian whipped out her wand from the front pocket of her jeans and pointed it at the nearest slytherin student who seemed to be doing most of the bullying. muttering under her breath, caspian watched purple sparks fly out of the end of her wand then walked away before she could see what had happened. she walked quickly to avoid questioning. the sleeve of her hoodie (she was wearing her normal clothes because of some unfortunate accident with her robes) was ripped and dripping with some kind of sticky liquid, along with her blood and probably some mud. as she walked she muttered darkly about 'stupid slytherins' and pretty soon she found herself at the quidditch pitch...caspian loved quidditch, she was on the gryffindor's team and enjoyed practicing every day.

caspian continued to complain to herself about the slytherins as she walked, but as soon as she entered the pitch she stopped and looked around. it was getting darker. rubbing her temples, the fifth year started walking again - not looking where she was going. "AHH!" she yelled loudly when her foot connected with something, or someone and fell over the someone. "MERLINSBEARD!" she yelled as her face connected with the floor. she was lying half on the person and half on the ground.

[Lewis Harper]

Lewis was just lying. Staring at the sky, just watching it get darker and darker. It was around dusk, and the stars in the sky were beginning to show. It was the time of day that Lewis enjoyed the most. It was predictable really, a Slytherin liking the dark, but there was a lot of reasons Lewis preferred the dark rather than the light of day. For one, it was better for sneaking up and cursing people. The element of surprise was a lot easier to manage in the dark. But the dark was also good for another reason. It was normally quiet, and gave Lewis the perfect opportunity to think. Mainly about himself. He couldn't help it, he was naturally an arrogant, vain person.

Suddenly, Lewis felt something come into contact with his side. His eyes widened in shock, as he saw a small figure fall on top of him. He was surprised to say the least. It wasn't everyday you were lying down, minding your own business and somebody came and fell on top of you. He squinted, the light was fading rapidly, and it was becoming hard to see. Looking at the figure on top of him, he recognized a small figure, with bright orange hair. He looked at her in disgust. He knew exactly who it was - Caspian van der Lynch. All the Slytherins knew about her. Well, in fact, they did more than just know about her, they tried their best to make her life a living hell. He didn't really know why it had started, all he knew was that all the Slytherins hated her. He pushed her off him rather roughly, not even bothering to ask if she was okay. After all, she was only a Gryffindor. Standing up, he brushed the grass of himself. "Honestly, do you Gryffindors ever look where you're going?" He smirked at her, he couldn't help himself, the arrogant side of his personality just had to kick in. "Look, I know you find me irresistible, but there is no need to throw yourself on me."

[caspian van der lynch.]

the slytherins really were the spawn of satan, according to caspian anyway. she found this out the very first day she started at hogwarts when one of the boys came up to her and started to mock her for her size; she had been a tiny first year and she was still tiny now and everyone knew that - it didn't look as though she was going to grow anymore. she was doomed to live her life a small person; not that she was complaining mind you, caspian rather liked being small, although she only liked it when the slytherins weren't teasing her about it and make rude comments about her behind her back. honestly, if it weren't for her love of magic and her wanting to stay as far away from her father as was possible, she probably would have dropped out of hogwarts by now, although that would be cowardly - and as a gryffindor she wasn't supposed to be cowardly. caspian was confused, she didn't know what to do about it and she really didn't want to go see her head of house about the bullying because that would mean that she's tattle and it would just bring on more bullying; which she really didn't need.

she hadn't exactly meant to fall over him, it was dark and he was laying in the middle of the floor where it would be easy for someone to have fallen over him, if she hadn't already done that. caspian was shocked and didn't really want to move because she wanted to annoy him as much as possible - although this would bring on the bullying. only she didn't get the chance to not move since he pushed her off of him roughly. with a squeak, she fell on her injured arm and bit her lip to hide a pained noise and expression, like he would care anyway. lewis never cared about anyone but himself. while he stood, caspian remained sat on the ground, she pulled her legs around to the front of her and brought them up to her knees, resting her head on her knees she shot him a steely look and ignored the blood running down her arm, and his comment. after a few moments she finally decided to answer him. "Well, maybe you shouldn't lay in the middle of the floor, in the dark, where people can trip over you!" normally she didn't talk back to slytherin's, but this time she just couldn't help herself, oh she was going to get into trouble. "Uhh, excuse me Mr. Vain."

[Lewis Harper]

Lewis could feel his temper rising. His eyes were getting narrower and narrower. Usually, when Lewis spoke to someone, they replied instantly. For many people that was simply because they were terrified of what he could do to them, but occasionally it was out of respect for Lewis - the leader of Slytherin. But now, this small Gryffindor in front of him was refusing to answer him. And it wasn't doing him any good. Lewis had a terrible temper at the best of times, and loosing his temper in front of a Gryffindor would be even worse. He would most likely completely lose it. He smirked, looking down at the girl in front of him. She was still on the ground before him, exactly where she should be. He shook his head. Gryffindors. Nobody really needed them, and yet, here they were, existing to irritate Slytherins. His attention was brought back to Caspian as she decided to answer him. Eventually.

However, the response wasn't the one he would have preferred. It seemed she was criticizing his actions. He raised his eyebrows. Did she actually know who she was talking to? Lewis Harper - Slytherin Leader did not deserve that kind of talk from anyone. "Excuse me! If I want to lie in the dark then I will, and no stupid little Gryffindor is going to stop me." he said, a smirk coming onto his face. That felt quite good for Lewis. He hadn't the opportunity to call someone stupid in about ... well, 4 hours. That was a long time for Lewis. He was used to throwing out insults left, right and center. However, it turned out he wasn't the only one that did so. When Caspian called him vain, he narrowed his eyes, in an attempt to control his temper. If he hadn't being trying so hard not to loose it, then he might have said something a lot worse. "Call me anything again, and I'll make sure you regret it. And I really don't think you need any more trouble from my house do you?" The last comment left him with a smirk on his face, and he turned away, looking out over the dark landscape in front of him.

He turned to look at her, having his back to her made him feel slightly uncomfortable, after all, she might curse him from behind or something. it would be like a Gryffindor to do that. once he was facing her, he looked her up and down, noticing a large red patch on her arm. "You're bleeding." he stated simply before turning away. It wasn't like he cared.

[caspian van der lynch.]

she didn't seem to care much as she sat there. caspian noticed the look he was giving her slowly and raised one of her thin eyebrows at him, delicately. she didn't want to answer him just because he 'told' her to, or because he was 'self proclaimed leader' of the slytherins; she didn't think that that was a justified reason for her to answer him right away and instead she chose to sit in silence for a few moments. which probably had been a bad idea anyway. now, she knew that lewis had a terrible temper because she had been at the end of it quite a few times before, and she definitely knew what he was like, but there was something about the darkness that made her feel slightly braver. usually she lacked confidence when around slytherins, not tonight. tonight she seemed full of confidence and ready to take him on, no matter what her size. caspian noticed his smirk and raised her eyebrow slightly higher. she could tell what he was thinking, and she wasn't going to give him that satisfaction; caspian pulled herself to her feet. it was funny how he seemed to tower over her. she was tiny compared to him - she could pass off as a first year.

yes, she was critizing his actions. it was simply stupid to have laid down in the middle of the floor where someone could trip over them. especially in the dark where no-one could really see you. she listened to his words, eyebrow still raised. "well, maybe next time you should think twice about where you lay just so that someone doesn't trip over you!" she shot back, her voice was full of spite which was unusual for the small sixth year. "or maybe you could just curl up in a dark corner and die!" caspian didn't really care that he had called her stupid, it happened on a regular basis and she was pretty much used to it by now. she shook her head gently as she shoved her tiny hands into the pockets of her robes. her wand was in her robes but she didn't touch it. she could feel the wooden 'stick' against the back of her hand as she tightened her fists, chewing on her lower lip. oh, she hated slytherins and every single one of them knew that. "what kind of a threat was that?!" she cried, furrowing her brow at him as he turned his back on her. for a split second caspian gripped her wand then let it go; she wasn't going to be the cowardly one and curse him while his back was turned.

it gave her some satisfaction that he seemed uncomfortable with his back to her and she felt a very faint smile cross her lips as he turned back around and looked her up and down. 'you're bleeding.' now, caspian was aware of this and normally any of slytherin wouldn't have told her that she was bleeding. but lewis had. as he turned away she tipped her head slightly to one side and bundled up her robes together and pressed them against the cut down her arm; it was quite long and rather deep. it wasn't good when you didn't know the spell to clean yourself up. there was too much blood; caspian fell over backwards and mumbled something to herself.

[Lewis Harper]

Lewis smirked in disbelief as Caspian actually stood up in front of him. She was tiny compared to him. However, despite the height difference she stared defiantly up at him, her eyebrows raised. In anything, her attitude only made the smirk on his face grow bigger. The sight must have looked rather amusing from the outside, a tiny Gryffindor squaring up to a tall Slytherin. But of course, Lewis didn't really care what anybody though about him, he wasn't even bothered what Caspian thought of him. The thin about Caspian that irritated him was the fact that tonight, she didn't seem to be afraid of him. That was a big knock for Lewis. He was used to people cowering with fear when he even set foot in the same room as then. Okay, so maybe that was only the first year Hufflepuffs, but he certainly expected people so be a little fearful of him. Caspian was normally really vulnerable to the Slytherins - making her an easy target. But now, she seemed to have a sudden boost of confidence. And Lewis didn't like one bit.

He moved closer to her in one swift movement, so their faces were barely inches apart. He wasn't happy with what she had just said. Nobody told Lewis Harper to go curl up in a corner and die. it just wasn't done. It was normally the other way around, he was the one telling people to go a die. He narrowed his eyes at her. He glanced down at her. He could tell by the way she was moving that she had a hold of her wand, or had her hand in that pocket at least. Personally, he wasn't too bothered. He knew his fair share of Dark magic if he ever needed to use it. However, he still found having his back to her uncomfortable. He would try his best to make sure he wasn't in that position again. "And maybe you should try watching where you walk in the dark. Why were you walking across the middle of the Quidditch Pitch in this light?" The smirk however, was wiped of his face, when she made a comment about his so called 'threat'. It wasn't exactly a full blown threat, but it was a kind of warning, and the fact it hadn't had any effect on was confusing Lewis. And he hated it when he was confused. It was the simple reason he had dropped Arithmancy. All those numbers were too confusing. "Don't push it, you really don't want me around when I'm angry." It was true. He had once lost his temper on a second year Ravenclaw and the result wasn't nice - four months solid detention.

He shook his head at her when she seemed to realize she was bleeding. he rolled his eyes. it had certainly taken her long enough. He laughed when she fell over backwards, a soft quiet laugh, but it was still heard. He really didn't like this girl, and watching her lay on the grass before him was rather amusing. Still, she was bleeding. And he was the only person around. He didn't want four months detention again, there was only so many lines he could bare to write out. He pulled out his wand, and performed the spell which would temporarily stop the bleeding. He could have done it a lot more effectively, but he didn't really care if she was still in pain."Have you not learnt that spell yet?" he laughed, trying to ignore the fact he had just helped her out. "Or are you just that stupid? It wouldn't really surprise me you know."

[caspian van der lynch.]

standing at a mere height of five foot and two inches wasn't something that she liked, but it was handy when you wanted to escape the slytherins; which was a good thing. however it also made her an easy target for them; which was a bad thing. she looked up at him defiantly, the silence was deafening as she released her burst of confidence every so few seconds. she didn't want to just burst out with it all because that would have made her slightly big headed and it was never good to feel like that when around a slytherin. especially not this one. she was being defiant with him, something that she usually didn't do. it was the fact that it was dark that made her brim with confidence. tonight there was something different about her whole attitude, like she was a completely different person to the small, weak caspian that trudged around during the day. she smirked at him, sensing that he felt a little uncomfortable. that gave her some satisfaction.

if it weren't for her boost of confidence, caspian would have taken a step backwards when he moved closer to her in one swift movement. she stayed exactly where she was and simply tilted her head at him slightly. bright, vivid hair fell across her young and pale face as she stared at him, rather bemused to be quite honest with you. obviously he wasn't happy that she had just told him to curl up and die. she doubted anyone would be happy if she said that to them. caspian didn't care. she just shrugged at his response and released her grip on her wand, pulling her hands out of her pockets. a part of her was hoping that he'd turn his back on her again, while the other part of her knew that he wouldn't. shame. she would have loved to curse him right there and then. she glared up at him as he talked back to her. "now why would i do that?" she asked, oh she was asking for it. "what's it to you if i'm walking across the quidditch pitch in this light?" yep. she was definitely asking for it. caspian hid a smile as she noticed that his smirk had been removed from his face when she commented about his threat. she was definitely enjoying herself right now. "aw, poor baby." she mumbled just before she fell.

caspian glared at him when she heard his laugh as she fell. she pulled herself into a sitting position. she fumbled around in her pocket for her wand to clean up her wound, but lewis beat her to it. to say that she was shocked would be the understatement of the century. a slytherin helping a gryffindor? that was... well, she'd never witnessed that before. caspian tilted her head to one side and chewed on her bottom lip. personal gain was her first thought. if a professor came out and saw that she was bleeding they would have automatically blamed lewis for it and he would have been given detention. "there's no point in denying that you just helped me, lewis." she cooed softly, narrowing her eyes. "was that a personal gain thing, whereby you don't recieve detention if a professor came along?" she knew the answer already, but she just didn't want to say it.

[Lewis Harper]

He rolled his eyes. This girl had a serious attitude problem. First she came and kicked him in the side which actually kind of hurt. Then she fell on top of him. Next, she called him vain and now, she was making fun of him. It just wasn't acceptable. At least not in Lewis's head anyway. No Gyrffindor should ever get away with that. Especially not with a Slytherin. To be honest, he was slightly amused by her behavior. Sure, he would have preferred it if she was quiet and didn't answer back, but this was bearable. It made a change from the usual side of things, now he had someone to throw insults at, and actually have insults thrown back at him. It wasn't his ideal form of entertainment, but it gave him the chance to come up with witty comebacks, something he didn't get to do often, as people were normally to afraid to answer back. "Well, some people say there is horrible things waiting in the dark, waiting to get you." he smirked, knowing that it was very likely Caspian would be very scared if something suddenly jumped out of the trees at her.

Still, Lewis couldn't really help wondering what was giving her the boost of confidence tonight. He had seen her surrounded by groups of Slytherins mercilessly cursing her, and she looked so scared. He had even seen her looking terrified when she was up against only one or two Slytherins. Sometimes, he had even been one of those Slytherins, and yet, she had never had this much confidence. Maybe it was the fact they were alone, it was one on one. He narrowed his eyes. There must be something about him that made her feel more confident. Was he not as much as a threat as the other Slytherins? At that thought, he narrowed his eyes. He seriously hoped that that was not the case. He prided himself on being the Slytherin that everybody feared, that everybody looked up to. It would not be any good for his ego, popularity, or pride, if anybody found out that a small sixth year Gyrffindor wasn't scared of Lewis.

He looked at the ground as she looked intently at him. She was surprised to say the very least. Lewis was a bit shocked with himself to be honest. He actually had no idea why he had just done that. A Slytherin, help a Gryffindor? It was just unheard of. He could cover it up with as much as he wanted, but the truth remained. He had helped her, and of his own accord. He meet her gaze, giving nothing away in his eyes. Then, as if the shock had subsided at bit, she spoke. He glanced away from her, into the dark as the memories came flooding back. Dungeon corridor. Dim light. Second Year Ravenclaw. A comment had been made. Lewis lost his temper. Blood. Panic. Finally, after few minutes of silence he spoke again. "You know that second year Ravenclaw that was taken to St Mungos because his injuries were so bad?" He thought she may know, after all Gryffindors seemed to have ways of finding things out, no matter how much they were hushed up. "That was me." No matter what he said about it to the other Slytherins, he was still deeply ashamed of what he had done. He had certainly been punished by his Father enough. Lewis reckoned he would never get rid of the scars.