Cernunnos Main Commons

Annie bounced down the stairs after a magnificent night in their new dorm. She could not be sure if Kerry was already awake or not because of the enchantments on their doors, but she was positive he would not have left for breakfast without her.

The main common area astounded her. She remembered that it was grand last night when Professor Holoc brought them inside, but in the daylight, it was breathtaking.

After circling the room once to make sure Kerry was not milling around anywhere, she crossed over to the massive fireplace and flopped onto the emerald green sofa. She smiled as she thought of the night before. She had replayed certain scenes over and over again in her mind before she slept last night…namely the kisses.

Kissing was something she had thought a lot about, but had never done with anyone other than her mother and father. Kissing Kerry had been nothing like the pecks from mom and dad, she thought. Her body trembled in anticipation of seeing him again. She felt herself blush as beads of sweat prickled her forehead and unwanted thoughts began entering her head. What if it’s weird between us now? What if Kerry is having second thoughts? What if he has already skipped out to breakfast because he wants to avoid me…

In a panic, Annie stood up and began to pace. That must be it. That’s why he isn’t here! She felt the tears begin to well up and pleaded with them not to escape. She sat back down, cleared her mind and breathed deeply.

Closing her eyes, she saw what she wanted most...Kerry. Her vision showed her Kerry smiling…it was dark…evening? He was speaking—though no sounds were coming out, or rather, none she could hear. Leaning back against the soft emerald green sofa he pulls Annie close, whispers in her ear…kisses her neck—her hair—her lips…

Annie gasped and opened her eyes. “Kerry…” she whispered to the empty room.

Heading down the stairs, Kerry liked that he could relax today--hey, for the next three days!--in jeans and a tee shirt. And tennies. It's almost like being home, he thought, other than I'm in a huge freakin' tower with a nice bed, and my parents are acting like there's nothing wrong with me, and my . . . Annie is around her somewhere.

He thought over last night, late last night. There was space and time travel, mental and physical abuse at the hands of a spirit, he had to take his friend off to the hospital, he got clued in on the ways of life, he pledged himself to Annie, was told about her future, pledged himself anyway, found out that he was probably some kind of preternatural stalker, and kissed, and kissed, and . . . mmmmmm. Kissed.

He smiled as he entered the Upper Boy's Commons. There were a few people here already, even though it was around 6 AM or so. A lot were in jeans, a few still in night clothes. Even a couple of girls over on this side chatting with a couple of guys--wow. It sure isn't Hogwarts, Kerry thought. Half the time people sat in the commons and read and hardly spoke to each other. A couple of people looked in his direction; one gave him that "Hey, there" nod, like they remembered him from late night.

He looked down to the Main Commons and saw Annie on the sofa in front of the fireplace. She looked . . . what is she doing? To Kerry it sort of looked like she was almost pantomiming her--hugging me? It wasn't every obvious, but it did look to Kerry like she was reliving a moment from memory.

Kerry knew Annie was intense. She was like that when we first met, he thought as he made his way down the main staircase to the ground floor, but last night she seemed to open all the way up, like she's never done before. And Kerry realized it opened him up as well in a way he'd never opened before. He wasn't used to be open with his feeling: he wasn't used to using his feelings. But that didn't bother him with Annie. He said a lot of things to her last night, but he wasn't lying when he said he liked her. He knew he did.

I just hope she doesn't mind.

He cleared his throat before he reached the floor to let Annie know he was here. "Hey, Annie," he said, smiling. As he strolled up to her, he said, "I hope you weren't waiting long."

Annie heard Kerry’s voice and stood up a little too fast. Her head began to spin. There he was, walking toward her. Her mouth was dry and her palms were sweating. Say something!! But she couldn’t. She remembered this feeling last night with the nurse in the hospital wing.

She opened her mouth and no sound came out. What is WRONG with me? She snapped her mouth shut; panic began to overtake her. Her breathing was coming in short puffs and the room threatened to crash down on her.

Exposed and defenseless, Annie fainted on the couch.

Kerry rushed over to Annie, and, without thinking, lifted her shoulders and slid under her, cradling her head in his lap. Oh, dren, man! What--? Kerry had no idea if he should call out and get help, or . . . or what?

He started softly patting her on the cheek, whispering, "Annie, you okay? Come on! Wake up, Pumpkin!" He thought for a moment that getting the nurse in here might be the best thing--

Annie opened her eyes and there he was. “Kerry? Wha…” she saw the look on his face, he didn’t look good at all. Then she remembered—she fainted.

Her hands flew up to hide her face. “I’ve done it again, haven’t I?” she said from behind them. She sat up, not waiting for his answer. Her cheeks were burning. “I’m sorry, Kerry.” I should be committed now before I end up hurting someone… “I don’t know what happened. I was sitting here—thinking about, uhm,” she looked at the fireplace, avoiding his eyes. “Stuff, and you appeared and I guess I got a little—overwhelmed.”

Kerry looked around to see if anyone was watching; when the coast looked clear, he leaned over and gave her a little peck on the cheek. "It's okay," he told her. "With all the stuff that's happened in the last 12 hours, we're lucky we're not in the hospital . . . relaxing."

He grinned, trying to bring up her spirits. "You just gotta lighten up, honey," he told her. Then he mentally slapped himself: Honey? Dude, what's up with that? He patted her left hand. "Just don't go passin' out on me when you're not around a sofa, okay?"

“At least this time I don’t stink like an owlery that desperately needs cleaning.” She smiled at him, looking at him as though for the first time. He had changed somehow since they first met. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but the attraction she felt for him was almost tangible.

She glanced over at the stairs, checking to see if anyone else was wandering down. When she was satisfied no one was, she leaned closer and rested her head on his shoulder. “Thanks for the rescue.” Quickly, before her body had time to react, she reached up and kissed his neck. Her pink lip gloss leaving a faint mark behind.

Holoč entered the tower, intent on looking at a few things before heading off to have breakfast in the Dinning Hall. And I need to get with-- Oh, there up already.

He spied Annie and Kerry on the sofa next to the fireplace, sitting very close to each other. He knew they'd been out for a while after the Sorting last night because Krum hadn't been feeling tell, but now . . . She looks much better now, he thought.

Holoč cleared his voice to get them a chance to recover from whatever they were doing. "Malibey, Krum," he said in a normal, non-threatening voice, "please come into my office." As he unlocked the door he mumbled, "Hum. Jsou na samém začátku, ne?"

Annie jumped when she heard Professor Holoc from behind them. He beckoned them to his office. We’re so busted. Annie glanced at Kerry and grabbed his hand. It hardly matters if he sees us holding hands; he probably already got an eyeful of me kissing Kerry on the neck…

She navigated around the massive green couch and walked with Kerry toward Holoc’s office, preparing herself to take a detention before even beginning one class.

Holoč looked over the new 1st Years, and he noticed that look in Annie's eyes. Yes, I've seen that before in my Dalena-- He grinned at Kerry and wondered if the young man knew what he was getting into.

"I needed to speak with you before you got out into the population," he said. "It has to do with your transfer. Because of the temporal shift you, um, underwent, it's important that you not tell anyone about when you came." Holoč paused; he hated dealing with tenses when talking about time travel. It's all confusing enough.

"The story we are using is that you and the other 3 had to leave Hogwarts due to a clerical error that said there was room for you, but not." He shrugged. "It's not the most perfect story, but it should be good enough.

"Also, besides the students, don't speak to the Headmistress about this, should she ask. She was the initial point of contact on the 13th, and it was necessary for her to, um, travel back with Professor Lovecraft to speak with her, am, self. So we had to memory charm her so that she wouldn't remember that she was going to go back and met with herself . . . yes.

"Lastly . . ." Holoč was getting uncomfortable. This was all confusing enough, but he knew this last might be very hard. "Because, right now, you are existing in two places at the same time, we can't have the you you speaking with anyone you know outside this school. As such, we've suspended your mailing privileges until the 15th of this month, which is the day after you left England."

He didn't want to let that sink in too much, so he added, "You may visit your owls if you like, but do not try to send out any letters. They've already been charmed by our Gamekeeper, and any letters you send will go to her, and then me, and then . . ." he put up his hands, as if to say, And then there is trouble. "I know this is hard, but it is only two weeks. If you need something, I will help all I can. Any questions?"

Kerry nodded. It hadn't been as if he'd spoken to anyone outside Hogwarts when he'd been there, but Annie . . . he knew she sent letters home, and he saw the problem. Can't be sending letter from Scotland and America. That looks strange.

He said, "That's okay, Professor. I understand." He touched the back of Annie's hand, not even realizing he was doing it in from of the coven head. "We'll be okay, right?"

“Uhm, excuse me professor,” Annie began. She could feel the panic rising in her voice and gripped Kerry’s hand in response. “Are you telling me we cannot have any contact—at all, for two weeks?”

She blinked at him. Her mind pulled up her vision from last night. Her first kiss...she saw her father, and he was weeping.

“I have to speak with him, Professor.” She heard her voice go an octave higher than normal. “I have never had to go without speaking to my father that long… Surely, there has to be a way.” She rose from her seat. “Surely…”

Holoč switched over to Bulgarian, thinking that it might ease Annie's tension a little to have it explained to her in her own language. "Ani, sŭzhalyavam. No v momenta, v koĭto zhiveem v edin paradoks--vie ste edno i sŭshto litse, namirashto se dve razlichni mesta po edno i sŭshto vreme. Veshtitsi, koito sa se navede vremeto pravilata nakraya umirat--ili oshte polosho. I nie ne iskame tova da se sluchi." (Annie, I'm sorry. But at the moment you are living in a paradox--you're the same person living in two different places at the same time. Witches who have bent temporal rules end up dead--or even worse. And we don't want that to happen.)

He reached out and touched her shoulder. "Ako tova pomaga vsichki , shte tryabva s nego, samo tova e tvoeto minalo vas, a ne da stoish tuk v momenta." (If it helps any, you have contacted him; only it's your past you and not the you standing here right now.) He nodded over to Kerry. "Osven tova, mozhete da si mlad chovek tuk--gledam vrata mu i da vidim toĭ mozhe da vi napravi shtastlivi." (Besides, you have your young man over here—I look at his neck and see he may make you happy.)

He smiled and gave her shoulder a squeeze. "If you want to talk, that is why I am here." He turned to Kerry. "You, too, young man. This is not an easy thing, but . . ." Holoč let go of Annie's shoulder and stood tall. "We are made of strong stock, yes? We will get through this."

Annie sat back down, comforted—and a bit embarrassed, by Holoc’s words. “Da, vie ste pravi,” (Yes, you are right.) she whispered. If I have to be lost in time with anyone, I am glad it is Kerry.

She glanced at his neck and smiled. He’ll love when I explain that later. “Thank you, Professor. We should go now.”

Kerry listened quietly while Professor Semplen and Annie spoke in what he figured was Bulgarian. He noticed the professor nod in his direction once, and Annie got just a touch of red in her check. I hope he wasn't busting her over the kiss on the neck, he thought.

When Annie said they should be going, Kerry took that to be his cue. "Yeah, we should, um . . . probably start exploring." He looked to the professor, who nodded a little in an absentminded way. Kerry stood, went over to the door and held it for Annie. "Thank you," he said, then walked out, closing it behind him.

Kerry noticed that Annie's mood was better now. "Everything okay?" he said as they walked back into the center of the commons. A few more people were beginning to trickle down to great Friday morning. "You want to get something to eat, and then we can start roaming? Maybe you can meet up with that seer and, um, see what she makes of your visions."

As soon as they left Holoc’s office, Annie turned to face Kerry and ran her fingers swiftly over his neck, wiping her lip-gloss away. “I’m sorry about that in there. Professor Holoc just explained things in a way that made a bit more sense,” she giggled. “And he noticed that I left you a small gift on your neck.

“He called us into his office before I got a chance to fix it. I think he approves, though it was embarrassing.” She looked deeply into his eyes to see if he thought so too.

"We can go now, if you'd like. It looks like this place is filling up fast."

It was then that Kerry saw Annie was wearing lip gloss. As he quickly touches his neck he wondered, I never noticed her with lip gloss before. I didn't notice it before, 'cause she passed out. But now . . . He knew girls wore stuff like that, but it wasn't something he took in very often.

Now that he saw it on Annie, and clearly, he liked it.

"It's okay," he said. "I didn't even know it was there." He looked around. "Yeah, this place is gonna be swingin' in a bit. How about breakfast?" Without waiting for a response he took Annie by the hand and headed for the door.

After all, she told him last night she'd follow him anywhere.

And she probably needed to eat.