A Voice Closed

Barney let out a long sigh as he made his way down the corridor, his footsteps echoing through the halls. He wasn't trying to hide, nor was he doing everything in his power to be found at such a late hour... he just needed to walk, and if he was caught Gryffindor lost house points, who cared?

He wasn't keeping track of time, but after what felt like an hour or two he stopped dead in his tracks, brow raising upwards outside of one of the doors in the corridor. Slowly, the boy's head turned towards the room, an odd sound coming from within causing him to swallow hard. His courage faltered for a moment, what if he was about to be discovered, what if he entered and it was a gathering of ghosts wanting to trap him? A siren luring him to his demise?

Barney whipped out his wand, pointing it at the door as he lowered his stance, slowly stalking towards the clasroom. His ears were pricked upward, the nearer he got, the more it began to sound less like ghosts and more like singing. Still, his wand was raised, ready to send sparks flying if needed, if it was indeed a trap. 

He pushed open the door a few inches and peered inside. He couldn't see any ghosts, nor any teachers waiting in ambush and so he opened the door, moving into the room, although dimly lit he could just about make out the beauty of the place. It takes several seconds before he even looks at the source of the noise. The pale boy stared through the darkness, finally realising that it was a fellow student, and she looked quite alive. "You're quite loud." He says simply, not making any comment on the quality of the girls singing, lowering his wand. "Lucky I'm not a Professor" He closed the door behind him and made his way into the ballroom, keeping to the edge for the time being, fixated on the girl.

The singing abruptly stopped. 

Kira turned around slowly, her eyes wide in surprise. She peered through the darkness and spotted a figure around her height and size. It was a boy, with hair and eyes as black as night, which could hardly be seen against the darkness of the vast room.

Lucky. She was so lucky he really wasn't a professor. If it was a professor who found her singing to herself in the ballroom, at the middle of the night, that is... She shivered. Just the thought of Kira's mother's disapproving frown at this nonsense sent shivers down her spine.

The girl, her small moment of surprise and fear gone, straightened her back and looked the boy straight in the eye. "Who are you?" She asked, her voice hushed and tone crisp. 

Her sudden change of attitude was mainly because of her embarrassment. Although she was glad it was only another student who had found her here late at night, heat still crept to her cheeks in a blush. She could not believe someone she didn't even know saw her like this. She was still unsure if her voice even sounded nice. Perhaps it sounded good to her, but what of to other's ears? If word of this got out, her new life here at Hogwarts would be absolutely ruined. Kira was glad the darkness hid her blushing cheeks, as her face most likely resembled the features of a tomato. 

There was the slight sound of shuffling as Barney stowed his wand away inside of his robe. Despite it being such a late hour, he was still in full uniform, perhaps he had never intended on sleeping, perhaps he wanted to be easily identified as a Gryffindor  if he was caught. 

"Not a teacher" he called through the darkness, though the sound of heeled shoes could be heard as he stepped closer to the girl. "You know it's actually quite late, shouldn't be wandering the castle at night." His voice seemed to have a sarcastic spin to them, he was wandering at night himself. Almost forgetting his manners, the boy slowly bowed his head, eyes pointing straight at her as he lowered himself. Finally he straightened back up and cleared his throat, feeling oddly sweaty.

"I'm Barney, and I assume you didn't wind up here because you're a sleepwalker?" He asked with the same humerous sarcasm, running his hands through his thick locks,  gripping the back of his head for a moment whilst his dark eyes were still locked on her. He wasn't entirely  sure why he entered the room, or why now that he was here he was actually trying to engage in conversation. He just knew he was curious about this girl. 

"I'm Kira. And I'll have you know, sleepwalking is one of my many specialties." She lightly huffed, her tone snappy yet laced with a little humorous sarcasm, just like the boy's. Her eyes, the shade of a peacock's blue feathers, scanned the wizard as he was now closer for her to properly see. Still fully dressed in his uniform, she noted, then quickly realised that she was actually dressed in her nightgown. She mentally face palmed, a look of exasperation on her face before she spoke again to try to engage in more conversation, as to make it less awkward. 

"And what about you? You're still dressed up. Not sleepy?" She flicked a lock of her strawberry blonde hair off her shoulder, crossed her thin arms, and raised an eyebrow at the boy in question. Kira's eyes began darting around the room, from the boy, to the door, and back. They were bound to get caught in here. If a wizard spotted another wizard in here, what are the odds of a professor finding them? She felt the sudden urge to just leave the boy here alone and tiptoe back to her dorm, before any more harm could be done tonight. However, curiosity stopped her from doing just that. She was quite curious of this boy, and she couldn't figure out why. Whatever the reason was, she decided to stay.

"Sleepy?" Barney said chirpily, as if to prove that he wasn't in fact tired. "Not at all, difficult to sleep when-" He cuts himself off, the room falling into silence. Finally he clears his throat, lowering his hands into his trouser pockets. "You're in your nightwear..." He says, suddenly feeling the blood rush to his ears. He quickly looks over both shoulders towards the door, the motion sending his hair wild. What would everyone say if he was caught, fully clothed in the middle of the night and with a girl in her PJ's? As he turned back to the girl his eyes were covered by his mane, he blinked a few times, apparently unsure if the room had just gotten even darker or if some black curtain had been drawn in front of him. Quickly his hand shot out from his pocket and up to his hair where he swept it out from his eyes, both of his coal like orbs now locked on Kira. He was half tempted to turn, to leg it back to Gryffindor tower and to forget about the girl with the eyes that twinkled, but something kept him rooted on the spot. 

"So... You're a singer?" Barney asked finally, addressing the aspect of the girl that drew him to the room in the first place. He tried to speak with a tone that made him sound as though he didn't really care about this topic, but the way his ears were pricked up suggested that he was a little bit too eager to listen to her. He swallowed hard, he hadn't met many people he actually wanted to have as a friend yet, though he was interested in getting to know this girl. "I probably would have enjoyed the tune a little more had I not been fearful that you'd alerted every Professor and Prefect in this wing of the Castle" He speaks and now the smile can be heard through his voice, forgetting about his false disinterest and the door behind him. Slowly his hand rises from his side, stretching it outwards in the form of a handshake as a sign of greeting. 

Kira's pale face flushed as the boy noted her lack of proper wear for outside the dorms. She crossed her bare arms, barely noticing the low temperature in the room as she looked back at the boy. There was definite regret in Kira for not choosing to change into something else before leaving her dorm room earlier in the night. At least Kira wasn't dumb enough to forget to put on some shoes. She may not feel the cold at times, especially now, but she doubted her feet would last against the ballroom's freezing floors. Kira wondered how she looked like right now. With her hair in a messy bun, her night gown on and white sneakers she brought from her home, Kira wondered how the boy in front of her wasn't laughing his brains out at the sight of her. Compared to his neat attire, she most likely looked like a deranged clown right now.

She then scoffed, a smirk on her face at the boy's next statements. "I wasn't that loud. You probably just have really good hearing." To be fair though, she realised that she was a bit too loud, even for her own liking. 

Kira then watched as Barney reached his hand out to her for a handshake. Her upper right lip tugged upwards, and she accepted it as she reached her own hand out and clasped it with his, shaking their hands lightly up and down. 

Barney became very conscious of his hand as both touched, more unaware of it than ever as he withdrew it, lowering it back to his side. His nose twitched slightly, it didn't feel right there, his hand felt heavy, he quickly raised it up into his hair once more, gripping the back of his head. His mouth opened for a moment, wanting to speak but unsure of what to say.  His eyes shot upwards, towards the ceiling as he took a deep breath. He shrugged his shoulders and looked back to the girl. 

"So, as you can tell by the robes, I'm in Gryffindor. Since I haven't noticed you in the common room yet, I'm going to guess you're..." He pauses, perhaps it's just the intense blue of her eyes but he comes out with "Ravenclaw?" He said this with a somewhat smug tone, in case he was correct. His head turned upwards a little way, his hand falling from his hair as both arms folded over his chest. Perhaps he thought he looked like a detective in this pose, but it's more likely he looked like a fool. His eyes were still pointed at the girl, wanting to see her reaction, to see his brilliance, that he may have just correctly guessed the house she was in.

Her hand fell back to her side, and Kira's eyes lit up in amusement and a small chuckle escaped her pink lips when the boy made an attempt to guess her house. "Slytherin, actually." Her tone showed her small amusement, noting the way his voice sounded somewhat smug when he guessed her to be Ravenclaw.

She then realised how this moment, their meeting, kept getting. . . stranger? Kira couldn't find the right word. 

A Slytherin and a Gryffindor, both meeting for the first time in the middle of the night. From what her mother had told her, both houses do not exactly get along, and had been known as rivals for a long time. But through out Kira's day, all the Gryffindors she'd spotted didn't exactly look all that bad. Even the boy stood in front of her seemed harmless, and even nice. Perhaps the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor only happened during her mother's time here at Hogwarts, and had ended a long time ago? She wished so, because from the small period of time Barney and Kira have been talking, she'd already deemed him worthy of a possible friend. . .

But does he think the same? 

The night had been boring thus far. James Chapman, Gryffindor prefect, had been up to check that the dorms were full just before curfew and low and behold they were not. He had spent the last three quarters of an hour searching the majority of the lower half of the castle, though to be fair it wasn’t exactly an exhilarating job so he hadn’t been paying much attention. He casually strode across the stone corridor, his black leather shoes tapping on the ground with each step, footsteps ringing out through the chambers of Hogwarts.

Then, suddenly, he heard voices from up ahead. Not quite the ghostly figures that he had heard talking on one of the higher levels. Immediately he began to walk with lighter steps, muffling his walk towards the ballroom which seemed to be where the voices were coming from. Seemingly one male and one female, he recognised one fairly quickly and a devilish grin made itself present on his face. He swiftly, but carefully, made his way towards the doorway that led into the ballroom. Jame’s arms spread to the side as he slid silently along the wall next to the doors. With a candle in one hand and his wad in the other he readied himself. Holding back laughter at what he was about to do. His prefects badge sat polished on his black robe, he hated wearing the robe and preferred just to have his jumper but the night wasn’t exactly tropical.

He waited a second for a natural silence in conversation before rushing forwards, making sure his steps were loud. His carved wand was held, outstretched in front of him. “What on earth are you two doing in here?” He attempted to make his voice sound extremely stern. “It is way past curfew, you should both be in your dorms!” He couldn’t hold it back any longer as he looked for any startled expressions on their faces, a laugh escaped his lips.

His rigid posture dropped back to his normal relaxed state though he still continued to laugh. “I’m joking, I’m joking. What’s up guys?” That was all he could manage to get out as he struggled with his own sense of humour.