stying ahead

[Duncan Mowbray]

Duncan was fed up and decided that he needed a break from the drama so he went to the one place that didn't seem to get much traffic. He went to the library and went looking for books.

He found the section on classes for this year and he studied the transformation book.

He smiled and drank in the silence. It tasted delicious.

[Brooke Edwards]

Brooke stepped into the Library and looked at the rows and rows of wizarding books. Her uncle had a small library at their house, but never had she seen so many magical books. Brooke smiled, her eyes glinting with her favourite green, and walked towards the section full of books on magical creatures. She wanted to see how many of those books Uncle Bryan had.

As she walked over, she changed her hair, to get it out of her face. It was hanging in her face, completely black, then it changed to short and spikey, with a cute purpley colour. Satisfied with her changes, Brooke continued on to grab a book.

While reading, she noticed the boy out of the corner of her eye. She didn't look at him, but waited for him to make the first move towards communtication.

[Duncan Mowbray]

Duncan saw the girl and probably would have said nothing except that he saw her changing. He new that metamorphmaguses were really rare and he was curious. He put a quill in the page he was reading to mark it and closed the book.

He walked over to her "Hello, I'm Dunacn MOwbray. I haven't seen you here before."

[Brooke Edwards]

Brooke smiled sheepishly as the boy approached her. Okay Brooke, she thought to herself. Try not to come off as that odd girl in Hufflepuff. She sighed and put her book down.

"Hi, the name is Brooke Edwards." She paused. "I'm in Hufflepuff," Crap, crap, she thought. He knows your in Huflepuff, stupid. You're wearing yellow robes. Her spiked blue hair, in response to her thought, became black again and fell in front of her green eyes.

[Lilah Delancy]

Lilah was in the Library checking out a book on DADA and she noticed Duncan was there talking to that new girl .... PAige, Marie oh Broooke! Lilah thought

Lilah needed to ask Duncan when to go back and see Pan.

"Duncan. I need to ask you something. In private." Lilah said pointing the other way.

[Duncan Mowbray]

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you Brooke." Duncan replied. "And I'm the first Gryfindor my family ever had. We've been ravenclaws forever."

He looked at Lilah "Hey Lilah. Something private, huh ?" he put a book mark in his page. "I've been looking through mythology books and I don't want to loose my place."

He stood up and looked at Brooke. ""Since you're even newer than us if you wanna wait for me I won't be long. Would you mind if I ask you about being a metamorphmagus ? If it would bug you let me know and I promise to never ask. I'll be right back."

He walk to the end of the hall with Lilah "What's up."

[Brooke Edwards]

As Duncan spoke to her, Brooke remained silent. Not because she was shy, but because she simply felt there wasn't anything to say. She changed her eyes to a hazel colour and smiled, sitting down and picking out a book.

She wondered what those two were talking about. There had already been so much drama at this school. She knew that girl Lilah, and wondered if Duncan was in the middle of it all. She hoped not, she thought he was kind of cute.

Brooke picked out a book on magical beasts. She wished that there were Care of Magical Creatures classes. She simply wanted to be around animals again. How she missed Uncle Bryan's Hippogriff.

[Lilah Delancy]

Lilah went to the end of the hall with Duncan and she really wanted to talk to him abotu 2 things.

"When are we going to see Pan? I wanted to thankyou for saving me from hawkes and I kind of like you like more then a friend." Lilah said in one breath blushing

Lilah hoped Brook didn't like him because Lilah gets jealous easy and she knew duncan.

[Duncan Mowbray]

Duncan ran his fingers through his hair. "I really have no idea when Pan will contact us again. He said he'd call us but didn't really give us a hint. I have books over there I was reading about Pan and also plan to read about the 'music of the spheres' that he was talking about. He said we would here him so I just think we need to keep our ears open."

"We might get a summons at a wierd hour or during classes. This path could get us both into trouble." he said seriously.

"About the other thing..." he said looking uncomfortable. "Right now I think it would be... unfair of me to look for more than a relationship than freinds. Hawkes crushed you like an insect and you're really hurtin. It would e way to easy for a guy to take advantage of your position. I couldn't call myself your freind if I did that."

"When you've had a chance to recover, and if you need my help as a freind to recover, if that's something you'd want to try after you've had a chance to heal... that could be a good thing. It would be dis-honorable right now." he said, hoping that Lilah would understand.

He gave her a small kiss on the cheek and said "I'm easy to find if you need me."

Then he returned to the new student. "Do you mind if I ask you about being a metamorthmagus ?" he asked as he sat down.

[Brooke Edwards]

Brooke watched as Duncan kissed Lilah on the cheek. She was a little dissappointed, thinking that Duncan was taken, but she didn't let it bug her. She thought for a moment and then remembered that boy in the Trophy Room. Which one is Lilah with? She wondered.

Brooke was reading when Duncan interrupted her and she clumsily dropped her book on the table, knock over the stack that she had been collecting. Her hair a dark red and fell in front of her face, straight. She immediately got down on the floor, feeling stupid and picking them up. Once she had them on the table again she continued.

"Sure..." She said a little awkwardly, blushing furiously. "You can ask me anything," She said looking into Duncan's eyes and just for fun she changed them to a bright orange colour.

[Duncan Mowbray]

Duncan went to the floor and helped her gather the books "Do you trip and knock things over a lot ?" he asked and it sounded like a real question, not a criticism or a nasty comment.

"I have a theory about that, that almost all metamorphmagus are kind of clumsy. Most of us are extra clumsy and trip a lot during our growth spurts because our bodies aren't used to the changes in the length of our legs. Metamorphmaguses can change into different people so you get different length legs and you never have a chance to get used to one body size."

He turned his head and took a quick peek at Lilah, then back to Brooke. "I'm kinda worried about her. The guy she liked REALLY hurt her and she's... well... hurting." and he sounded much more like a worried freind than a boyfriend.

"I've fallen a few times and got really hurt." Duncan said "I'm not clumsy, I'm just the leap-before-you-look kinda guy. We like mountain climbing andd I've fallen off a couple of them."

They had the book piled neatly. "Do you play any instraments ?" Duncan asked. "That has nothing to do with being a metamorphmagus. I'm just curious because am a musician and I like to know who else is one too."

Then he laughed and ran his fingers through his hair "And maybe I talk too much. I haven't let you get a word in. Sorry about that."

And he stopped talking in an obvious invitation for Brooke to take her turn talking.

[Lilah Delancy]

Lilah was left in the hall with a kiss upon her cheek feeling very dissapointed.

STUPID hAWKES I WiLL GET MY REVENGE.

[Brooke Edwards]

Brooke smiled while Duncan helped her clean up her books. To get her hair out of her face, she shortened it, making it all spikey, and made it her favourite colour of blue. Her eyes were still bright orange. The freckles on Brooke's face showed up amazingly under her blush.

"That's an interesting theory," Brooke laughed, with a sparkle in her eyes. "Normal wizards can be clumsy too you know. As far as growth spurts go, I think there normals as well. The only thing that my uncle finds the most irritating is that he can never recognize me. We have a look set, a familiar one for him." She then paused.

"Do you want to see it?" She asked, quietly. Brooke changed her hair to a flame red colour, with streaks of orange in it. Then her eyes changed to a bright blue. "It's what my mother looks like." Brooke's smile faltered when she spoke of her mother. She hadn't spoken to her mother in years, not since she knew she was a witch.

"Instruments? No...I'm not too musical," Brooke confessed, shyly. Then a thought came to her. "I can make my uncle's Phoenix sing beautifully though. All you have to do is scratch her behind her ear." she giggled.

"Thanks for helping me pick up my books," She smiled. "I really appreciate it... So do you have anymore questions?"

[Duncan Mowbray]

"OK, here's another question." he said as he sat and opened his book. "What do you do for fun ? I climb mountains and I do my music and I study. I'm the first not-a-ravenclaw in my family in 20 generations, but even though I am an adventurer I DO like to keep my brain going - insatiable curiousity."

"And hsve you ever considered parnking somebody ? With your talent and a bit of help you could be great at it."

[Brooke Edwards]

Brooke smiled widely, her eyes turning a dark brown, as Duncan asked her what she liked to do for fun. She immediately thought of her Uncle's Hippogriff, Penny. She loved to fly on her.

"Well," Brooke spoke with shyness, she wasn't used to opening up to others. "I don't really tell people this much, but I love animals. Magical Creatures of course. My uncle works to save endangered creatures and he has a lot of pets at our house. Penny, the Hippogriff is my favourite. She is a great flyer. We live in the country, far away from muggles." When she said muggles her voice faltered. She was thinking of her parents again.

"Other than that, I love reading...obviously. I'm also interested in Quidditch, though I've never played it before." She blushed again.

"I'm too nervous to ever prank someone and I'm not a very good liar. My sometimes changes with my emotions, when I'm not careful." Brooke knew this was true. She tried to lie to Uncle Bryan once and her hair kept changing random colour when she wasn't thinking about it.

"So, is everyone in your family a wizard then?" She asked curiously. "The only wizard I really have in my family is my uncle." She said the last bit a little awkwardly as though she really wanted a change in subject.