Midnight in the Common Room

[Cassandra Lynn Murphy]

The clock finally struck midnight and the bell rang once very loudly since the room was completely empty expect for a single person. Cassandra was that lone person in the room. Despite the late hour she was still wide awake and there was no signs of her growing tired enough for bed any time soon. So she just resigned herself to sitting and getting ahead on homework while she had the quiet.

Instead of being in her school robes she was in her house sweatshirt and jeans. Maybe putting on pajama pants would have inspired her to go to bed but she didnt feel like trying to find her pajamas in the dark girls dormitory. Her potions book was set out in front of her and she was writing down the potions that would be on thier first test, which was weeks away but she had time to prepare now. She loved school and was always striving to work hard to get the best grades. Potions was her favorite subject so she could spend hours working on it.

One reason she loved potions was because her dad owned a potion store so she understood the importance of them and that they could destroy or even kill someone if the creator wasnt careful. In her future she could see herself working with potions... probably not teaching and definately not running her dad's shop. Either way she was 15 and had time to think about what he wanted to do.

As she sat there the fire began to dwindle so she got up and added logs to the fire to build it up since she assumed she'd be awake for another few hours. Then she sat down next to the fire and poked it with the firepoker. She sighed and looked up at the mantle, where a picture of the founder of the Slytherin House sat. Even though she was a half blood she hoped that she made the house proud, and she probably did since no one knew she was a half blood. She liked keeping her blood status secret.

[Astrid Elkjær]

Astrid pulled her hair through a pony tail as the clock struck midnight. She was standing in front of the mirror and thinking how creepily it looked in the dark. Although the pureblood had never heard of Bloody Mary, she could vividly image something of that sort crawling through towards her right now. In fact, as she recalled a childhood tale simular to Bloody Mary in some ways but only recalled by those of wizarding birth she bit her lip and hurriedly turned her back on the mirror.

With the sudden rush to meet Cassandra she grabbed a pile of clothing, all with coat hangers from beside her bed and walked out the door. Not carrying about her roommates' sleep enough to stop the door before it slammed, the slam banged and made her jump. As she stepped into the common room, any superstition washed away with the presence of another human being. ''Cassandra!" She announced her presence in an excited way that could only be faked by a girl who had slept as little as Astrid.

She walked over to the silky green furniture and dropped the pile of clothing on a lounge chair, that sat perpendicular to the couch Cassandra was sitting in. She herself had changed out of her earlier attire into comfortable work-out shorts - that she often slept in- and a tank top. Her make-up had been removed and as she stood in front of the fellow Slytherin she felt like she was ready for some girl time. Like middle-school girls discovering sleepovers, there was much to do.

"Oh you simply must stop studying, my dear" she said looking upon the potions homework. She was in a different class than Cassandra but she could guess that the girl knew much more about the subject than she. And with all the studying she did, she must have had a better grade as well.

[Cassandra Lynn Murphy]

Cassandra spent a little bit of time in her room. Her roommate was nice and quiet just like Cassandra, she was a good roommate, but Cassandra wasn't sleeping well so she was rarely in there to sleep and the light bothered her roommate. So she spent many nights in the Common Room or in the bathroom trying to cover up her dark circles. But she could feel her body getting tired so probably tomorrow afternoon she'd go to sleep. When she heard her name she turned and saw Astrid. "hey there." She said with a smile.

She laughed when Astrid made the comment about studying. "Yes... lets find something more fun to do because all of this studying is honestly driving me insane. I've done enough homework to be good for almost all of this semester." She said and then packed up the stuff she had. "So... what shall we do?" She asked as she looked over at Astrid. It was nice to just relax with another female and yes it did feel a bit like a sleep over but who cared. They were two teenaged girls, who could not sleep, just hanging out in the common room. Honestly she needed a break from classes and homework to just be a teenager.

Then she walked away from the fireplace and sat down on the couch. Then she looked over at the pile of clothing. "Getting rid of some stuff?" She asked as she looked from that pile of clothing back over to Astrid. Finally she noticed that she wasnt wearing any make up and she felt silly for wearing so much. After all she did have on the foundation to cover up the dark circles under her eyes and some mascara. Well she could not change that now since they were hanging out. She put her hands in the front pocket of her sweatshirt and she gave Astrid a friendly smile.

[Astrid Elkjær]

Astrid coyly listened to Casssandra announce the end of her homework and nodded toward the pile of clothing in relation to what the activities tonight would begin with. "That, my lady is all the clothing my mother bought me for the school year. You're a little shorter than I am but you probably will pull of this look much better than I do." She sprung from the seat she was sitting in and picked up the top piece of clothing from the pile. It was a sundress, probably meant to wear in a cold autumn night during a quidditch after party or something.

She smiled and asked, "Smash or pass?" The dress was definitely the cute girly style that Astrid would never be able to rock without seeming to be dressed by her mother. Which would be technically true and definitely unacceptable. On the other hand, she was sure it had been expensive. No hand-me-downs in this pile, which was why she wasn't simply throwing it away or giving it to charity. It had to go to her new maybe friend.

Astrid set the dress down next to Cassandra and talked as she picked up the next item. "So do you mind if I call you Cassy, or Cass because Cassandra is super long and it kind of makes you sound like you're my grandmothers age. If you know what i'm saying." She felt talkative as she swung a blue blouse around. It was silky and soft in her hands and probably would work on her if she unbuttoned half of it but that wouldn't be doing the shirt justice. "Alright, do you like?" She dragged the e in like out, and leaned forward toward her friend.

It felt like she was putting on a fashion show, displaying the girly clothing she would never wear. After a couple more sundresses would be tee-shirts and then the long skirts that made you look to be going for a hippie style. She thought she may be dead tired by the end of this, her constant talking was the only thing keeping her awake.

[Cassandra Lynn Murphy]

"yeah I am a little on the short side." She commented. Then she looked at the dressed that Astrid picked up first. She studied it and tried to image herself in that dress. Would it make her look sexy? Or would it make her look like a cute little fifteen year old? But how could she refuse the dress when Astrid was being so nice and sharing. She wondered if it would ruin the start of thier friendship if Astrid showed her a dress that was just awful.

"It is cute." She said and smiled. If cassandra had to pick a style that she dressed in normally it would have to be just causal and comfortable. Maybe a little girly when she did wear a nice dress but she rarely wore something very nice as a dress. "i think it would look cute on me. Assuming we were going someplace that dress was appripate." She added. She got up and looked at the dress and held it up to her to see if it would fit her.

She laughed. "Oh I dont want to sound old so sure Cassy or Cass is fine." She said and looked over at Astrid. "Do you have a nickname?" She asked. Then she looked over when Astrid was modeling the shirt. "Do you really have to ask that? You're like the hotest girl in Slytherin." She replied and then picked up something else from the pile. "you dont like look the type to have all of these long skirts. Did someone buy them for you?" She asked. She hoped that Astrid didnt take that question the wrong way, but Cassandra did not see her as a long skirt kind of person.

"So... what did you want to do tonight? i mean its midnight and everyone is asleep." She said and motioned to the empty room. "We probably have this entire castle to ourselves since everyone sleeps"

[Astrid Elkjær]

Astrid let Cassandra start to look through the pile of ruffles and dresses and pastel colors. It was a girly and pretty pile but with a little hemming and on the right girl it would look cute. Astrid watched Cassandra place the first dress in front of her, she thought it looked playful and matched Cassandra's quiet and sweet personality.

She laughed as Cassandra said she was the hottest girl in Slytherin, it was the first time in a long while she had been complimented by a female. Astrid responded to the nickname question, "Well you can't really shorten Astrid to anything cute or appropriate. I haven't seen in happen yet anyway, but please let me know if you come up with something."

She twisted the blue blouse back onto the top of the pile and sat down on the couch to watch Cass model the clothing. It didn't really matter what they looked like on Astrid anyway, she wasn't going to wear them. She watched as Cass dug through the long skirts and asked about them.

"My mother picked them out, like I said." She rolled her eyes and wondered if the two should put on a couple of those dresses and get out of the castle for tonight. She had enough money for them to get a couple drinks, although most of her allowance had already been spent. Maybe she knew a spell to hem up some of them real quick, and she could reintroduce the world to Cassy as her new sexy friend. She got up again and grabbed one of the skirts, it was white and a denim like material. Currently it reached right above the knee, but that could be changed.

"Yes the castle is empty, we should change that." A slightly devious look entered her eye and with a flash she had her wand out. "We better get ourselves looking all nice first though. Do you know a good spell for shortening clothing items?" She could probably conjure up one, but with Cass and her study skills, she decided to turn to her anyway.

[Cassandra Lynn Murphy]

She never thought of herself as girly girl who ran around being innocent. But as far as innocence went Cassandra was very innocent. And yes she would admit to it but she was a virgin. However she was not one of those girls who was trying to save it and be pure until marriage. If the right boy was to come along one day then she would gladly give it away, but for now she remained a virgin. She wondered who else was a virgin in Slytherin. Now a days it seemed that the house had a reputation for being on a bit on the sexier side.

She laughed as she thought of how you could shorten Astrid. "yeah sorry I cant think of anything cute and approriate." She said. The names to come to her mind were like Assy or Riddy. So yeah nothing really approriate, although Assy was kind of cute if it couldnt be shortened to Ass. Then she nodded when Astrid answered her question about who picked the clothing out for her.

"Where did you want to go?" She asked since they were making plans for the evening. She wondered where they would go. Maybe just to the restricted areas of the castle. But that sounded lame so Cassy figured they'd do soemthing that Astrid loved which was going out. Honestly she had never snuck out of the castle so she wondered how they would do it and how would they get back in. But before they went she knew she should grab the little bit of money she had at the school in case she needed to buy something. Then Cassandra looked over at the skirt. "oh yes of course I can reduce that." She said and grabbed her wand off the table. She smiled at Astrid and then muttered the words to make the skirt short. Of course she wasnt sure who was going to wear it or how short it was going to be so she picked a legnth that was a little higher than mid thigh. "is that legnth ok?" She asked after it was finished.

[Astrid Elkjær]

Astrid squealed as Cassandra finished shortening the skirt, it looked oh so much cuter this way. She could just imagine the way it would hug around her hips, although thinking it through she thought it would look better on Cassandra so she made a hand motion and said, "Well slip it on." Her giggles continued afterward and she stumbled to the pile of clothing. Taking a few seconds to dig through it she found a floral v-neck dress and picking it up muttered the same words Cassandra had said and watched as the bottom half of it ripped off perfectly.

Another squeal came from her overly excited body. She quickly slipped off her pajamas and put the dress over her head. She had never particularly cared about hiding her body to other girls, so she didn't give the immodesty another thought. And didn't stop to look at Cassandra who she assumed had taken the hint and begun to change. She stretched the dress over her hips with her hands and watched as it clung to her sides. The material was soft and hugged her body in a way she had to love.

Turning back around she looked at Cassandra and said, "Are you ready?" And then remembered that Cassandra had asked a question earlier. "Oh, I think we'll just go down to Hogsmeade and just get some late night butterbeer or something." She was sure the girl's reactions would be fun enough, no reason to freak out the girl too badly. She could just imagine her having a little break-down about breaking the rules and not studying. Not because she seemed so inclined with the rules, but because it seemed like she had never broken them before.

After all, breaking habits could be pretty hard. Looking away from Cassandra she pulled all of her hair together with one hand and waved her wand with the other. It quickly did itself in a messy bun. She waved her wand again, this time in the direction of her face. And the typical make-up was done; just foundation, concealer, bronzer, blush, eyeliner, and mascara. She didn't want to do anything too much. Although if she was going to she would have probably added a little eyeshadow or lipstick. But not both.

[Cassandra Lynn Murphy]

(sorry its taken so long to reply... I've been without internet)

She admired the work she had done on the skirt. It was the first time she did it to a piece of clothing that someone was going to wear. She was proud that it had turned out so good. For a moment she wondered if her mother had been magical then would she be as proud of her know. Was her mother proud of her now anyways? Probably not since her mother hated magic and as she called it the "magical lifestyle". But Cassandra knew she needed to stop crying over her mother's disapproval and move on with her life, afterall she did have a pureblood father who was proud of her.

She smiled when Astrid told her to put it on. Could she really wear such a sexy skirt? Well she stood up and then slipped off her jeans. She didnt care if someone say since no one was there to look and no one in the house was interested in her. But she did put on the skirt kind of quickly. Then she glanced over at Astrid. "Wow... that dress looks great." She commented and slipped off her house sweatshirt since under she was wearing tanktop.

"yes I am ready." She replied and then nodded when Astrid finally told her what they would be doing. It sounded fun and she figured no one was going to stop two slytherin girls. Plus from experience Cassandra knew that the professors always went to bed and rarely was there one awake. So she figured that they could get away with it. There were a few nights when she did not sleep that the would walk around the castle and she never saw anyone. One night she did run into a professor who asked why she was awake and then had coffee with her since neither could sleep. That was her favorite professor. "Alright sounds good." She added and then found a cute sweater to wear since it was cold out. Then she looked over at Astrid and waited for her to finish. Cassie already had make up on so she didnt need to put anymore on.

[Astrid Elkjær]

Astrid twirled around in her outfit one last time, looking down at herself she frowned. She quickly ran across the room and found a hand mirror on a dusty wooden shelf. It had been sitting there as long as she could remember, with no one to claim it and no lost and found for it to go to. Of course, she had never given this much thought. She just wanted it now, to observe the make-up she magically placed onto her pale round face. It wasn't her usual too much make-up but a light blush on the top of her cheeks and a shining pink on her lips. Her lashes were lengthened and darkened quickly, and it all came together at the same time. The effect was magical, and Astrid smiled at herself before turning back to Cassandra.

She stopped before marching out the door to think about leaving the pile of clothing alone. They did live with a bunch of devious Slytherins, but she decided that any Slytherin awake at this time of night would not be interested in a pile of hand-me-down clothing. In fact, if anyone else awake was not already out, she was sure they had much more devious intentions.

Astrid walked to Cassandra's side and looped their arms together, then they began to walk outside into the cold dungeon air. Astrid had no plans of their destination until a few minutes ago, and she thought now that maybe she should have checked the weather. It could get quite chilly on those autumn nights. She ran one of her hands through her messy hair and then let it fall flat against her forehead. She wasn't sure what to say next so she let herself ramble. "You probably have never done this before, don't worry if we get caught I know a few places to hide." As the exited the common room she continued.

[Cassandra Lynn Murphy]

As Astrid put the finishing touches on her outfit, Cassandra was trying to find confidence so she could work the skirt and look just as pretty as Astrid. Honestly she did not want to be that friend that got left behind if Astrid found a boy while they were out. She tried to find a moment in her memories of when she felt pretty and she knew people were envious of her. She looked over at the fire place and the mantel. Their founder looked so strong in the painting above the fire.

Then a memory came right to her mind. The day she recieved her letter to go to Hogwarts it was easy to see that her sister was so upset that Cassie was going and she wasnt. It took her until that moment to realize that her sister was being mean to her because secretly she wanted to go. Everything just made sense to her now and she smiled because now she knew what it felt like to be envied. Her sister always did look so pissed off every day after that. If only she knew how her sister was doing these days. It had been so long since she saw her but then she remembered that her sister was a muggle and Cassie was better than her.

A new sense of pride filled her since she realized that she was actually superior to her muggle sister. Her blood was better, maybe not better than a purebloods, but she was better than muggles. As she was thinking about this Astrid moved to her side and they looped arms. She got up and walked with Astrid towards thier destination. "Actually I've done this often." She said when Astrid commented about how she probably never snuck out before. Cassandra often walked around the castle after dark and only got caught once and the professor gave her a cup of coffee and sent her back to the common room.