Time was an object Nearly Headless Nick had no grasp on whatsoever. Days came and went in the blink of an eye, students he vividly remembered as first years had their obituaries in papers in what seemed like a week. Time warped the castle he called home, made the trees he watched from the window in his rooms grow and fall with the changing of the wind, reminded him constantly of his immortality. Things raced around him, constantly reminding him that he would be unable to stop, not ever.
But when he found himself sitting opposite one Rita Skeeter, time came to a halt. The minutes slowed, the seconds dripped away like honey, the hours seemed perpetual. Nick felt alive when he was with her, he almost began to believe that the blood would begin to pump through his veins again.
The years between their meetings flew past, like birds heading south for the summer. Nick could hardly wait for time to slow, for Rita Skeeter to stop time for him, to feel absolutely alive again.
