Chapter Two: Boy Scouts, Robots, and Rules

When Mora got to the Ravenclaw common room's entrance, she walked down to the next portrait on the right and muttered, "Luigi Vampa." The portrait accepted the password and swung open. The portrait that worked as an entrance to her quarters was a dark room, with red curtains flowing in front of the windows. A dark wooden bed was visible with the same color red on the comforter. A young woman with olive skin and long black hair, much like Mora's own, was sitting on the bed with a look of sadness in her eyes. While the picture was dark and ominous, it was beautiful. Victoria was written on the frame in white cursive, with, "1815-1835," written beneath it.

Mora stepped into her room, and was instantly comforted. The walls were covered in dark blue wall paper, and dark brown furniture complimented it. To her left she saw her silver sofa, which had been nicely worn in over its six year life and had become more of a dull gray than a light silver. A desk was pushed up against the wall behind it, with a gold lamp with a red lampshade sitting delicately off to the right of the surface. To the left of the entrance was a large, stone fireplace. There were no windows in this room, and for this she was grateful. Bright light never suited her, but she did like the single window in her bedroom. To the right of the entrance, was a door that led to a silver bathroom, with the blue towels and a white bathtub, sink, counter, and toilet. A portrait of her family, dated 1998, sat on the counter along with a blue vase that held no flowers.

She took off her jacket and hung it on a hook to her left, and walked straight, and then up a flight of stairs on her right. The wooden steps creaked as she walked up them. As she entered her bedroom, Odette hooted at her from her cage. She was a completely black owl, except her beak and feet. Mora received her as a present from Blaise in their second year, and she became extremely attached to the feathery creature. Sitting on the bed, she unbuckled her Mary Janes and tossed them gently to the corner of her room. Tomorrow classes would begin, but she was uncertain if she was happy about that. While she loved learning, she didn't want to spend a lot of time with other people, especially since she'd spent almost the whole summer by herself.

As she laid down on her bed, she looked over to her window. A breeze was gently blowing the whimsical silver curtains, which was odd because she'd left her window closed. Cautiously she walked over to the window, where she found a letter with her name written on it in slightly muddled handwriting. She opened the letter carefully, for she had no clue who could have sent her this. Her face burst into a smile when she saw Draco's name at the bottom of the letter, and she read:

Mora-

What in the world is a boy scout?

Please reply soon, this is killing me.
Draco

Mora chuckled after reading his letter. Although she found Draco arrogant, she enjoyed his company. For about five minutes, she thought of all sorts of ways she could describe a boy scout, most of them evil and disturbing, until she decided on one that was somewhat truthful. Quickly she pulled out a piece of parchment and then her never-ending-ink quill. On the material she wrote:

While your letter amused me to no end, I don't appreciate the open window thing. What if aliens suddenly took over the world and saw an open window? They'd probably enter there instead of through the front doors, so you've put my life in danger, but I guess I'll just have to live somehow.

To put it simply, Boy Scouts are young males who dress in little uniforms. They have to do sinister things, like make fire and catch young rabbits to get swatches of fabric with they barbarically stitch into vests. They treat these as an accomplishment and often brag about how many badges they've acquired through their evil doing. One rule is that they always have to be prepared, so they carry around a wide assortment of objects with them, such as linens, a toaster, a pitchfork, a musket, a large wooden cross carried on one boy scout's shoulders, a bear rug, a few towels (which is the most useful thing in the Universe), cookies, matches, lighters, flame throwers, anything else that could possibly produce fire, empty bottles which used to contain water, cat litter, and of course an Oompa Loompa. While I doubt you know half of those thing, you most likely get the 'Always Prepared,' saying now.

If I've confused you more than you were before, my mission is completed. I'll have to call on 007 to let him know his Bond Girl has accomplished what he asked of her. Maybe I'll get one of those cool guns! I'm off to read about Biff and J.C.

Mora Sumpter

She walked over to Odette and gave her the letter, then told her who to send it to. Dutifully she flew out the window and disappeared into the night sky. For a few seconds she debated whether now was an appropriate time to go to bed or not, then decided it was, even though she hadn't read her book. After changing into her green and black pajamas and closing the window, she hopped into her bed, under the covers and muttered, "Lumos," before closing her eyes.

--

When she woke up the next morning, she glanced over to the window. 'Good, it's closed.' She couldn't figure out how Malfoy's owl had gotten it open, and she figured it was better if she didn't know. Grudgingly, she pulled herself out of bed and to the bathroom. Mora definitely wasn't a morning person, at all. Once she had some tea, or anything with caffeine, she felt better. It helped her think and cleared up her head, or as clear as it could get.

As she hoped into her shower, she started to remember the incident with Draco in the halls two years ago. This time she allowed it to invade her mind; she didn't have the energy to attempt and push it away.

--

Mora woke up to Draco shaking her gently on the floor, and she felt foolish. Fainting wasn't something that she liked doing, it made her feel weak. Slowly she sat into a sitting position, and felt maybe she could keep it in a bit longer, just until Blaise came back. But one look into Draco's eyes, full of concern, made her lose it. She cried against him in the hall before he could stop her. Not being experienced with comforting others, he held her in his arms until she'd soaked the whole front of his shirt with her tears. Right as he was about to ask what happened, she decided to tell him.

"It's my mother. She, well, she's dead. For the past four years, she's been barely living from her grief. I expected her to do it, but not so soon. Now I've lost both of my parents. But at least my father didn't kill himself!"

--

She gently stepped out of the shower, and decided she didn't want to remember this anymore. Of course she knew this wasn't a healthy method of coping with her grief, but she didn't know how else to. She got dressed then left her quarters, grabbing her jacket and pack on the way out the door. Since she the day started off badly, she assumed it would only get worse.

But she thought that she was doing well with dealing with her parents' deaths. Although she did grieve from time to time, she allowed herself to feel happy and she was a lot of the time. But expressing her emotions to people was difficult for her, except for with two Slytherins. So instead she seemed distant and thoughtful to most of her peers. She seemed to always be in deep thought, and while this was true some of the time, it wasn't always the case. Happiness was one of the hardest feelings for her to show outwardly. She could think about it, recognize her feelings, but showing it too others was hard. It'd taken her a few years of practice to get accustomed to telling Blaise how she felt, and she was beginning to do the same with Draco.

The Great Hall was already full of life by the time Mora entered it, but that was to be expected as she had woken up later than she had intended. Instead of sitting at her House's table, she found herself walking towards a green and silver table instead. Draco looked at her, amused most likely at her soaking wet hair and half-awake appearance. He pointed, and Blaise turned around and smiled at her. She sat down next to him and said, "Don't say anything until I've gotten some caffeine into my system. It's too early for me to be awake." Blaise passed her a cup of tea, but she refused the sugar he offered. She liked her tea strong and black.

"You were right, you're letter confused the hell outta me. Oompa Loompas? 007? Mora, you're a strange one." Draco did in fact look confused, but not as much as Blaise. It was then that Mora realized the similarities in both of their hairstyles. Each had long, shaggy hair that almost hung in front of their eyes, but Blaise's hair was brown, wilder, and a bit longer. Draco's hair was almost perfectly set in place, but naturally. He quit using gel in second year, and for that Mora was grateful. Gelled back hair annoyed her to no end, and she couldn't be friends with someone who she was constantly annoyed by. Now it was just an annoyance because of his attitude, but it wasn't continuous.

"Oompa what-pas? Are you two going to tell me what's going on?" Blaise's look was priceless, and it took all of Mora's self control not to yell 'Kodak Moment!'

"Well, it started out with muggle words, and then developed into a letter with secret agents, fire, little orange midgets, towels, more fire, you know. The usual."

"I'm going to have to quit asking questions." His brown eyes proved he didn't really mean it, but they were still sparkled with flecks of confusion. She patted him on the head, grabbed a piece of fruit, and shoved it in his mouth. "Good boy!" At this she went into a fit of laughter, while most of the Slytherin table looked on with annoyance. While they didn't hate Mora, they didn't appreciate her presence at there table. But Draco was the leader of the house, and had been for awhile, and if he allowed it, then the rest of the house had to put up with it.

"Wow. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were a Hufflepuff. Those outbursts of laughter are much more like a badger than a raven you know." Obviously Draco woke up in a bad mood this morning, but she decided to have fun with it.

"You are so right. I need to start being more like a raven. Or better yet a snake, they're quite cunning you know." At this comment she kicked him in the shin as hard as she could, and he jumped up from the table in shock and pain. Once again, she began to laugh uncontrollably, but this time Blaise joined in on the fun. Draco looked shocked for a minute, and then calmly sat down with a scowl on his face. He wasn't mad enough to try and get back at her, but he was enough so that he didn't feel like talking with her. Mora didn't mind, his juvenile silent treatment wasn't going to bother her, he got in moods like this sometimes. She was surprised that she had so quickly got over her horrid mood from this morning, but she supposed that being with her friends had killed her sadness. When Blaise and she finally finished laughing, they were wiping tears from their eyes and taking deep breaths trying to stay calm.

"That was fun, but now it's time for class. See you two in potions!" With that she smiled brilliantly at them, and walked out of the hall, her pack with her books gracefully placed over her shoulder.

--

Sitting in the Slytherin common room, Mora reviewed her few notes from the day. She had an amazing memory, and rarely took notes unless she really thought she needed them. Mostly she wrote down specific dates, which was what she had the most difficulty. Yet other than that, learning came naturally to her. Ever since she'd been young, she'd loved learning.

As she sat at a table with Draco and Blaise she realized how much different the atmosphere of this room compared to her own. It was drafty and cold in there; even the fire lit a few feet away provided a miniscule amount of warmth and barely affected the temperature at all. That was one of the reasons why she often liked to spend time in there with her two friends, she loved the cold. Her room was always warm, which was nice, but being cold was also pleasant to her every now and then. "Hey, do you have any extra ink?" Blaise asked her.

"Um, no I don't; I have a quill that never looses its ink. Ask Draco."

"So, do you?" You could tell he really didn't want ink, because no ink meant he didn't have to do his work now. While Mora loved to learn, Blaise was almost the exact opposite. He found taking notes tedious and only cared about a few classes. "Yeah, let me go get some from my trunk." Soon he was gone up the stairs, and Blaise scowled.

"You know, you don't have to do your work. Failing is always an option. Just don't study at all, and soon you'll fail. All because you're being lazy, I think that's a perfect plan." Her face was lit up with amusement and his held a look of boredom.

"I'm going to study; I just don't have to be happy about it." Draco came back from down stairs and asked some nearby Slytherin if he'd seen any ink. Mora took this as her opportunity to annoy him, since she didn't have to study until tomorrow.

"No. But I have seen a ship with black sails!" With this comment she kept her face completely serious, which was very difficult considering Draco's utter confusion at this statement. His eyebrows were drawn in as he tried to decipher any hidden meaning behind her statement. Finally, he just muttered, "What?"

"I said I have seen a ship with black sails, but it wasn't crewed by the damned or captained by a man so evil that hell itself spat him back out, so I guess it couldn't be the Black Pearl. What a pity…" Blaise's attention had been caught with this talk of a ship. What in the world was she on about?

"What in the hell are you talking about? Have you gotten into the potions cabinet in the dungeons?"

"Hey, Draco?" Her face was as innocent as could be, and normally he would have ignored her after her little speech, but her expression made him wonder if she really wanted to ask him something. "Yes?"

"Do you think some people…do you think that there's some people that are really, that are actually robots living among us?" She couldn't contain her laughter any more, especially when he exited the room muttering 'Loony' under his breath. Blaise started laughing, even though he didn't quite get the joke or the reference. Apparently Draco'd never listened to Tenacious D.

Mora hopped up out of her seat and yelled bye to Blaise over her shoulder as she exited the common room. After looking both ways, she saw Draco walking to the right shaking his head. He was only a few paces ahead, so she ran up to him. When she got to his side, she poked him gently in the chest. "Nope- you aren't a robot." Her eyes glittered with laughter, and he just looked at her in disbelief. "Wow. What an amazing discovery, I can't believe you figured that out."

"You're mad." She looked curious. "Did I make you mad?"

Her genuine concern made him calm down a bit, and he honestly didn't know why he got pissed off over a simple conversation. He assumed the fact that she was trying to mess with his head was what bothered him. "Yeah, you did. But it was dense of me, I'm not mad anymore." Even if he wanted to be, her face made all anger depart from him. 'My god. I'm becoming a cliché. Excuse me while I vomit.' Draco didn't appreciate how his mind was reacting to her, but he really had no choice in the matter.

"Oh, okay. Right. Well, sorry about that. I'll try to keep my muggle movie and music references to a minimum." At this she smirked, and gave him a friendly hug, which he didn't quite know how to respond to. Although they were friends, she really only hugged Blaise. But after a second, he realized she was waiting for him to hug back, so he did. "I'm going to go back up to my room, study a bit, and then probably go flying. See you later." She flashed him a small smile before cautiously walking away, up to her quarters.

There exchange of a friendly embrace confused him. Ever since they'd been friends, there had been an unspoken rule. That they would each keep their distance, not get too close or friendly, and certainly never hug. Neither knew much about the other's past, but Draco knew more about her then she did about him. This event blew up the rules in his mind, and since they were shattered he wasn't quite sure what to do. He figured he'd disregard their rules from before, and just act on instinct. At the moment, he wanted to talk to her. But she was up in her room, and he didn't know where that was, so he went back into the common room to get his broom.

Blaise must have noticed the expression on his face, for he said, "What's wrong with you? You look really shook up, like a muggle who just saw a ghost or something." At this Draco laughed, he was positive that Blaise was right.

"I'm just going to go for a fly out on the Quidditch field; I need to be alone for a bit. See you later." While it wasn't completely true, he didn't see why he should tell him everything. Lately, Blaise had been too protective of Mora, and saying that he would be in a field with her alone, he would start to get suspicious. Bending the truth was something Draco was accustomed to doing, so bending it a bit this time was no hard task and Blaise believed every word of what he said. "Well, see you later."

--

A.N.: New chapter, a bit longer this time. I personally love theletter exchange, if you couldn't tell I wrote this after seeing Willy Wonka. There are quite a few references in this chapter: The Count of Monte Cristo, Pirates of the Caribbean, Labryinth, Lamb by Christopher Moore, "One Note Song" by Tenacious D, 007. And no, I didn't write song lyrics, one of my characters said part of a song, which is different. sticks out tongue See if you can find all of the ones written above, like a scavenger hunt. That's what I would do. shrugs. Well, review and all that fun stuff. A new chapter should be upsoon.

Princess Bitterheart