Head in the Clouds (Matthew)

Lyra wrapped a pretty blue scarf around her neck and left the dormitory. Later on she was going to Hogsmeade with Lyn - it was going to be totally amazing and they would buy ice-cream and pranks and everything - but for the moment she was stuck at Hogwarts with nothing to do. Even though it was cold outside, the sun was out so there would be no harm in going out to get some fresh air before she met up with her sister at the entrance gates. After a short walk through the grounds, she found herself at the stone circle.

She took a seat on the floor and quickly became lost in pointless, insignificant thoughts. Like the Daily Prophet. This morning she had read about how badly Holland lost their recent quidditch match against New Zealand. It was a shame. The Netherlands sucked at quidditch and there was nothing she could do about it. She hated flying herself so there was no chance of her joining and making it successful. But maybe Hunter could instead. There was also a whole page on how Jeremy Rufford had recently been sighted buying a new suit. It was ridiculous - did people really care about stuff like that?

What took her mind of stupid newspapers better than anything? Haoife. And Senter. Right when it had looked just like Lyn would win their bet forever, Aoife had come back to Hogwarts with blue hair and a good attitude, so her and Hunter were friends again. Hopefully, soon, Hunter would realise that he needed to ditch Seren (however pretty, smart and wonderful she was) to convince Aoife that they were meant to be. It would happen. It might just take a while.

Thinking of Lyn, they had to do the switching thing this term. If her sister still wanted to, that was… twins... rainbows… haribos... Without realising, Lyra’s eyes had closed. She wasn’t sleeping properly, just relaxing and being happy and carefree and whatever. It was nice. No interruptions, or loud Gryffindor gits.

Matthew loved exploring. It was the coolest thing, but much less cool without Ollie around. Matthew loved hanging out with Ollie, because his brother always did really ridiculous things, and Matthew was able to watch and see if it was really a good idea or not. Like when Ollie had wanted to know what would happen if he stuck his finger in the fan - Matthew wanted to know, too, but it was way smarter to let Ollie try it first. Because apparently sticking your finger in a spinning fan wasn't a great idea, and Matthew was able to learn that without having to try it himself.

But Ollie was so busy all the time, and Matthew couldn't spend all his time trying to get his big brother to go exploring with him or there wouldn't be any time for actually exploring. A kid had to have his priorities, after all. Learning the fire spell was number one. Exploring and Ollie were also both pretty high up on Matthew's priority list. Normally, Ollie would be higher than exploring, but he was being a butt and refusing to hang out with his awesome cool amazing brother, so exploring it was!

Matthew had explored a lot of the grounds by now, but he hadn't gone to that weird wooden hut down on the grounds. It was pretty stupid to have a random hut there that nobody used, but maybe it had a bigger purpose. Maybe there was actually a secret entrance in there to somewhere cool and epic! Matthew was in the middle of sprinting in the direction of the hut when he passed by the stone circle - but as he glanced over at it, Matthew dug his heels into the ground. Somebody was sitting in the circle!

Matthew had already inspected the stone circle very closely. It was obvious what it was used for - creepy things, like sacrifices and rituals. Maybe there was something that haunted Hogwarts that demanded a student sacrifice once a month or something. The thought made Matthew's skin crawl - what if they picked him to sacrifice! He was fairly certain that a sacrifice wasn't going on right now, because it was the middle of the day and things like that only happened during night, when there was a scary full moon in the sky. But still, this girl must have a purpose here. Approaching cautiously, and refusing to step into the circle in case there was some weird magic going on, he called out to the girl. "Are you performing a ritual or something?! If not, you should probably get out of there before they decide to sacrifice you.""

Lyra was a little annoyed when somebody broke her out of her wonderful stupid thoughts, the New Zealand hate and Haoife hope. She was a lot annoyed when she jumped in surprise and almost cracked her head open on the stone she had been leaning on before. Well, maybe she didn’t almost crack her head, but she could have, if she was ten inches shorter and her head had moved when someone talked to her. Her eyes opened to give the person a look and she saw a small Slytherin boy there. He was weird. Why did he need to come and tell her his creepy concerns about her being in danger of “THEM” sacrificing her. If she was in the middle of the stone circle, she obviously knew what she was doing and if she was to be sacrificed, she would have some idea of it.

Still, she may as well make something out of the stupid little git’s worries. “Shh!” she warned and closed her eyes again. She crossed her legs and placed her hands on her knees. “Be quiet, this ritual is important. Do not disturb me again or else you must be sacrificed along with your entire family and an innocent pig.” The ritual was about to start now. Lyra tilted her head upwards to face the sky. She grabbed her wand from her pocket and held it carefully in her hands, as though it was a precious and valuable object. Which it sort of was, she guessed. “Lynetteius, Tobyiasusus, Yes Haoifeararas, No Senterias, Awesomeius Jack.” Even though she was just saying family members, her favourite pig and her ships, she was saying them with added bits on the end, so it sounded weird. Hopefully. At least, believable?

“Done!” she grinned and sat up straight, opened her eyes and nodded at the boy. “I’m Lyra. I’m a high priestess of… the Haoifeararas religion. I’m in between sacred ceremonies to settle disputes with my twin sister who supports Senterias,” she nodded, trying to sound as serious as she could and not burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles.

Matthew actually flinched and jumped back a few feet in surprise when the girl in the circle shushed him. For whatever reason - even though he knew that this was clearly a sacrifice - he hadn't expected her to admit it straight out. "Sorry," he whispered, his eyes wide when she told him he'd have to be sacrificed if he interrupted her again. But actually, he'd been wrong to begin with. It wasn't a sacrifice. It was a ritual. Big difference.

He watched on as the girl closed her eyes and started to mutter some crazy, unrecognizable words. Wow. This was some real stuff. Hesitantly, Matthew took a few steps closer again, still staying outside the ring of the circle. But he wanted to get a good look in case anything cool happened that he could tell Ollie about later! He jumped again when the girl grinned and exclaimed that she was done in such a normal voice in comparison to the serious, ritual one she was using before.

"High Priestess... That sounds pretty important," Matthew commented in awe, looking from Lyra to the stones and back a few times. "I'm Matthew," he added quickly, though it sounded pretty boring in comparison to her awesome title. "And that was a real ritual?" he asked. "I thought there'd be a little more to it, like the stones glowing or the sky turning dark or something cool like that." This girl had pretty boring rituals in Matthews opinion, but he didn't want to tell her that because he was a little scared that she would use her high priestess abilities to sacrifice him to the gods or something.