Harvest Moon PV Closed

Landon wasn't expecting to see another person up on the astronomy tower after curfew. If you were going to sneak away from bed, why go to the tower of all places?

But then again, Landon went there, so he had to judge himself too.

The unexpected company called out, a pleasant voice in the silence of the dark night, illuminated only by the bright moon and abundance of shining stars.

His mischevious instinct was to scare the girl suddenly, but he decided against it. Landon really could have a heart sometimes, and with all the stuff about the Masked Man he chose to be pleasant in his greeting this time.

It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for somebody talking to the Riley boy, as he was known back at home for his ruthless pranks and trouble-making.

Consider yourself lucky, he thought as he stepped out of the darkness and into the light protruding from the girl's wand. Getting a closer look at his company, he noticed the details that he hadn't seen from her silhouette.

The girl had long, wavy brown hair, going all the way down to her slender waist. It was impeccably kept, and her blue eyes seemed to give off a pleasant glow.

"Fancy seeing another face here," he said dryly, giving her a little grin. It was, indeed, surprising, as he had already said.

"The name's Landon," his cocky introduction escaped his mouth before he could think to change it into something that sounded kinder.

Wait, why did Landon even want to change it into something kinder? He never did that.

Clearly this girl was messing with his brains, he couldn't quite think straight, he reflected, giving his head a slight shake.

The muscled boy extended his hand confidently for a handshake, what he had seen other people do when introducing themselves in a manner other than sneaking up from behind and saying some sort of, "Gotcha!"

He really seemed to need to analyze why he felt like behaving so sweetly for this girl.

[font=Times New Roman]Raising an eyebrow at the boys introduction, the Slytherin lowered her arm and withdrew her wand into her sleeve. It was always handy to keep it there, easy enough to grab it at a moments notice should she need it.

Purposefully forgetting her introduction to the boy - Landon as he had said - Isabella’s brain had a hundred opinions on the boy whizzing around inside it, most of them being not so nice. The cocky introduction, and the dry comment, on his behalf had set her judgement of him off on the wrong foot.

He seemed like one of those kids that had been brought up with no manners, his whole attitude and aura was basically a tell tale sign. She could be wrong, but her instincts usually turned out to be right about most people.

Making up her mind to leave as soon as possible without looking stuck up or unkind, she was caught by surprise when he stuck his hand out for a handshake. Her mouth upturning at the corners, she shook his hand. Maybe her opinion of him had been wrong this time.

“Isabella. Isabella Hills. I’m Bella to most, Isabella sounds too old. Second Year this year, Slytherin.” The pride was evident in her voice when she spoke of her house, as it had always been since the middle of her first year. While hated by most because of the stereotyping that seemed to follow it around everywhere, the brunette never hesitated in saying that she loved her house. She had admitted before that she would stand by it until the very end.

Coming from a less than perfect family, she had found a home in Slytherin - the house quickly becoming more of a family to her than her family had been in years.

“So what brings you up here? I don’t see many people around here when there aren’t classes in session.” What she was saying was true, not many people preferred the company of the moon and stars over the company of their bed.[/font]

After isabella- Bella- had introduced herself, Landon decided to let his guard down to the girl and show his soft and sweet heart. She just had that effect on him. Though it would probably wind up with him becoming even more insecure, he might as well take the risk.

Quite embarassed at his rash behavior a few moments earlier, he ended up doing the only thing he could think to do- apologize.

Landon didn't normally have to say sorry. It wasn't usual for him and even made him feel shy, a very rare emotion for the extrovert.

Looking down at his shoes and running his hand through his messy brown hair, a habit of shyness, he mumbled, "Pleasure to meet you, Bella. I'm sorry about earlier. I can be a bit impulsive sometimes..." the boy trailed off, hoping that would do good enough to redeem himself.

"I couldn't sleep," he started to answer the girl's question, muttering "as usual" under his breath, "So I decided to risk detention and go for a walk after curfew. I ended up here, not quite sure how," he shrugged at the last part, truly unaware of exactly how he had winded up on the top of a tower.

Smiling shyly at Bella, running his hand through his hair once again, he asked her, "What about you?'

Thinking back on the events of the conversation so far, Landon realized just how many times he had played with his hair. Resolving to stop with the action, he stuck his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants.

[font=Times New Roman]Earlier? What did he mean by earlier? Was this boy apologising for the way he had introduced himself before? Seems like she had misjudged him quite a lot. Maybe he wasn’t so bad. “It’s fine, really. I’ve met some people who are way worse.”

It seemed as though Landon had two different personalities. He had changed from the cocky boy she had judged within a matter of seconds to this, was it shy, boy who surprised her and made her rethink her judgement - something she had never had to do. In some way, this boy was intriguing to her.

Throughout her twelve and a half years she had learnt that people didn’t normally change. Physically, they changed a lot - but mentally they stayed almost the same. There were a few people she had met that changed, but none ever this quickly. Landon interested her, and only a few people throughout her time at Hogwarts had managed to do that.

“I couldn’t sleep either, and the sky was too beautiful tonight to stay in my dorm. So I ended up here.” Thinking her sentence over, she added onto it in a voice that was obvious to anyone paying attention that it was one of excitement.

“I’m not really worried about detention to be honest. I kinda wanna get it, just to see what it’s like. Plus, there are worse things in the castle at night than detention.” The excitement dropped from her voice, replaced by one of fear when she mentioned the worse things in the castle. The obvious one would be the Masked Man. If Eckenrode hadn’t been in his right mind - then the someone who had controlled him throughout the time he was under a spell was still out there. And that idea scared her.

Raising her eyebrow again as Landon ran his hand through his hair once more. Man, what was with guys and their hair these days. Grinning as he put his hands in his pockets, she made a comment - her voice teasing so he would know it’s a joke. “You like your hair, don’t you? You should keep it messed up like that - it’s cute.”

While the comment she had made was said without thinking, when she looked at him she had to admit that he was kind of cute. But, as another realisation came, she figured that he was probably a First Year this year - given that she hadn’t seen him around the school last year. But then again, she didn’t know half the people in her year.

“Are you a First Year this year? I’m sorry if you’re not - I don’t know half of Second Year, even though I probably should.” A slight blush graced her cheeks as she admitted her fault in not knowing all of the people in her year. “And you’re a Gryffindor, aren’t you?” Her guess had come from his first boldness. She knew he wasn’t a Slytherin, she would of noticed if he was in her house. He could be a Hufflepuff - given his nature after his boldness. If he wasn’t in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff would be her next guess.[/font]

Landon was relieved to hear that she accepted his apology. As for the people who were way worse, he wanted to meet them, they sounded interesting.

Looking up to the sky that she mentioned, he noticed three constellations, one of which was Orion the Hunter, a constellation he and his brother used to look at all the time. It brought back a mix of feelings, but Landon swore to himself that he wouldn't have a flashback right then.

"I've been to detention before, it isn't really all kids hype it up to be. You sit and do tasks for a teacher, though sometimes it can be a bit tedious. Not too bad, really..." He spoke quietly. The boy felt that if he talked too loud, he would disturb the peace of the calm night.

Landon may have not seen these worse things she talked about but he didn't want to judging by the fear in her voice.

Landon smiled a bit at her teasing comment.

"Ay, can't help it, it's a habit," he joked back. His Scottish accent seemed to show a bit more in that sentence.

"Yeah, you guessed it, I'm a first year. And a Hufflepuff, though lots of people think I belong in Gryffindor," he said, shrugging.

"So, do you like astronomy? Seeing as we're on the astronomy tower I thought it fitting to ask."