Mr. Moonlight! [can't stop quoting song titles]

Iris closed her eyes and sighed dreamily. For one, she had never felt like this in her life. Of what she can recall, she had never been this calm. Relaxed. Just being her underneath the majestic gleam of the full moon. Everything seems to beautiful. Including her once-devastated life. Just recently. Hell, she'll never do that again. She'll won't kill herself ever again. Not this time. Not this time when she's actually stable enough to hold herself upright without falling. But did she felt like this before? Oh, yes. Before she had become someone nobody knows. When all was perfect with friends. No enemies or haters. She had lived with that. But one thing's for sure, she's struggling to live with what is now. Hard. Tremendously pitiful. Like a load of burden. Literally.

The girl, - with her usual insomnia mood in its maximum level, and making her wander off again inside the castle since there's now way she can go outside because of that bird, opened her black eyes and gazed at the wonderful view ignited by the moonlight. She looked down only to see nothing but blackness and tiny shimmering lights, then rested her head against her crossed arms by the brass metals. Realizing there's nothing down there to be interested at, Iris looked up again at the starry sky with its large orb floating above her. Now life makes sense.

OUTFIT!

Riley quietly crept up to the Astronomy tower, tugging on the ears of her hat-she wanted to be up in the sky, yet she needed the fresh air the Ravenclaw tower lacked. Her guitar was slung across her back as she moved silently through the school, making not a sound and running across not a soul in the halls.

Riley's feet found the top of the tower, and she looked down instead of up, feeling fur around her ankles. The retarded kitten had followed her. "Nefertiti, get!" Riley whispered at the dumb animal, shaking her foot a little in hopes of scaring the cat off. "You retarded animal, get!"

The kitten just purred and curled up. Riley threw her hands up and gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine," she whispered at the cat, "Be that way." Nefertiti, being a cat, didn't respond to the sharp words of Riley's. Riley rolled her eyes and swung her guitar off her back, setting it down. She wasn't going to be the one to send an immature kitten on a rampage through Hogwarts

Iris snapped her eyes open once she heard another presence of a being right inside the wode tower. She lifted her head up from its resting place and looked behind her to scan the room. She narrowed her eyes slightly, making out the figure against the dark area. After she finally saw more clearly, she dropped her hands from the metal bars and walked towards the rather frustrated tone of the stranger. And what was that with her? A cat?

"Uh. Hello? What brings you here? I expected everybody's already asleep by now. It's probably past midnight." Iris spoke sarcastically, in wonder why a soul was also wandering and eventually reaching the point to where the girl stood.

She sighed with relief, feeling a bit glad it was someone who seemed to be nice by the outside apperance. Her gaze suddenly fell on the cute furry creature beside the stranger with a guitar. Huh. Playing a song would be rather unusual during the time around.

"Oh, hey there, love! You're so cute, aren't you?" The Slytherin said as she greeted the cat with a pat on the head. She turned to the owner, remembering her manners, and smiled, "Hi! I see you too have a pet. Cool. And you play that guitar? Cooler." greeted Iris casually, a lot better sensation overwhelming her. She can see the change surely now.

Riley's blue eyes widened and wandered the room before snapping over to the girl. She seemed oh so vaguely familar. Probably in some of my classes, Riley thought, dismissing the thought before she lost her grip on the present and explored the nonexistent. It was only the nature of the Ravenclaw to be overly curious and imaginative.

"Obviously no one else is awake, or else I wouldn't have made it this far alone, would I've?", there was a sarcastic edge to Riley's voice to counter the girl's tone. "The only reason I'm here is because of my freaking insomnia." Riley rolled her eyes, knowing that come tomorrow she still wouldn't be tired, or able to sleep. It was better to get stiff done than waste time trying to accomplish the impossible.

The girl reached where Riley stood, looking her over. The girl's black eyes unnerved Riley slightly-but only slightly. Her own eyes were such that her brother often joked that she could see his soul or read his mind. The other girl's eyes lingered on Riley's guitar for a moment before falling on her cat.

"Yup. That's Neffie-err, Nefertiti." Riley bent down and scooped up the little kitten, who mewed softly and adorably. "You can hold her, if you'd like. And yeah, I play guitar-although I'm probably a little rusty at the moment, from lack of practice. I planned on playing once I made my way up here, but a certain cat had a different idea," Riley's ice blue eyes narrowed at the cat, but they were still soft and friendly. She gave the girl a small smile, relaxing ever slightly. "I'm Riley,"

"Yeah. Insomnia. Me too. I'm actually afraid to go to sleep tonight. It's like running away from that horrible nightmare." Iris replied with a hint of humor and began with her usual introduction, "I'm Iris. Also known as Eye. Trust me. Just call me that way so you wouldn't get confused. I think I can call you Riles. That okay?" and winked with a half smile.

"I can just call her Neffi. If you don't mind at all." She then replied with a low chuckle at he epic failure of trying to pronounce the name of the cat clearly. Even the owner seems to be in little trouble of it.

"So you're here to play? Come on. Show me. I think you'll do great. Of course better than me because I can't do that." Iris said as she encouraged Riley to go with her own hobby.

"Insomnia sucks," Riley laughed slightly. "I'd have been fine staying in the Ravenclaw tower, if not for the feeling of being suffocated," Riley smiled at Eye. "Go ahead, call me Riles. I have a strange feeling that you'd call me that even if I didn't give you permission."

"Eh, I don't care. I don't even know if she still responds to Nefertiti, since I've called her Neffie for as long as I've had her," Riley looked at the cat curled up in her arms, pawing at her curls. "It sounded like a good idea for a name at the time,"

Riley looked at Eye for a moment, then shrugged and picked up her guitar. "A lot of people don't play guitar. Everyone on TV does, and then in the real world, virtually no one," Riley pulled the pick off the string on her wrist-the most convieniant way to not lose it. She settled her guitar and strummed out a few chords to tune, then started to play the guitar part to "In the Dark" by Flyleaf, the song that she could play best on guitar.

"Suffocated? Tell me what it's like being with Ravens. And heck yeah. Slyths could be the worst to be with. Although we seem to be practically insane all the time." Iris agreed with a soft laugh and whispered, "You know. Drinking, parties, and stuff. But I don't guarantee I'm all above. Just a few. Beware. But I'm way different. I don't call myself a Slytherin really."

She smiled childishly, pointing out that she was somewhat spilling a secret. Though not all of it to be exact. She crossed her arms and spoke again about Riles' cat, "I only got mine when I started here. And hey! We should both have a pet date. I can introduce you to Vee. That seems fun."

Iris exclaimed, feeling all giggly and excited, like her old self. Well, not really. Maybe just slightly exaggerated. She listened to the Ravenclaw's music and tried to sway with the tune. She clapped her hands in advance and complimented,

"You're great. And I do love those celebrities on TV. There's nothing like them. I can only just sing along. Muggles are still cool, you know. But only some notice and even care." and admitted to herself. Did she say this just a year ago? Before her bunch of best friends suddenly disappeared?

"Being with Ravens....hmm. Have you ever been to Funny Farms? That's pretty much sums up...." Riley trailed off. "On second thought, the only one that applies to is me. It's like being jammed into a room with a whole bunch of stubborn know-it-alls, only you know you aren't any different," Riley shrugged. She knew she was a stubborn know-it-all. Didn't change anything. "Really? I thought Slytherins were supposed to be all evil and killing people every five seconds. I wouldn't have pinned them as the party house." Riley smiled. "I doubt you're evil. And what kid doesn't go party and get drunk on the weekends?" Riley chose to leave out that she'd never had any alcohol stronger than butterbeer.

Riley was somewhat oblivious to the nature of this information-that it was obviously strictly secret. However, she was smart enough to tell that this wasn't something you screamed in the middle of the great hall. "Neffie's only 10 months old. I've had her for....eight, I think. Oh, that sounds like fun! Is Vee short for something?" Riley tilted her head ever so slightly to the side-it was a force of habit now.

The music was rusty, just as Riley had suspected. To someone else, it would've sounded fine, but Riley knew what the song was supposed to sound like and that this was really very mediocre. Halfway through, she simply slammed the pick down the guitar, making such a ruckus that Neffie hissed and pulled away slightly. "Sorry, Neffie," Riley said dully to the cat, although her fur was so dark she couldn't see much more than the glimmer of the moon on the gold in it and her glowing yellow eyes.

"Meh, I could be so much better, if I practiced more. And Muggles are awesome!” Riley exclaimed. “My mom-she’s a Muggle born, from Seattle. In Washington, know? I was born there,” Riley’s eyes misted over momentarily as she remembered her childhood in America, where she had been so happy…”But my mom, she’s very Muggle oriented and wanted us-me, my older brother Liam, and my little sister Emma-to be as well. Especially since my Muggle grandmother lives with us. Muggles, they’re definitely underestimated. My dad likes to say that my grandmother is the spawn of Voldemort,” Riley laughed, her blue eyes sparkling.

"Funny farms? Never heard of it. Anyway, some of the Slytherins are not that bad. Although I don't know them very well. I mean, a lot of them. I'm rarely with my house. I have tons of friends from the other houses. Mostly Ravens and Gryffs. Huffles? Another rare kind." Iris replied, now having a comfortable conversation with this new friend. She did not even wonder why this girl is different from others. Probably she ask though.

"Different? Well then, what makes you?" She asked curiously then answered back to what Riley had said about parties and those stuff. Here it goes again. It's as though one word and Iris will go back to that habit again. Come to think of it, she misses it already. But that's out of the question now.

"Vee. That's the rest of her name. I sorta found it in a muggle book somewhere. It fascinated me." Iris changed the subject to shrug away her again insane thoughts, and continued, "Mum's a muggle-born too. And I'm actually from Texas. But we moved. And now here I am. A spawn of Voldemort? How come?" then asked again with a confused expression.

"It's an expression-I've honestly never heard of it, either. But my brother likes to joke whenever the phone rings, 'It's Funny Farms, calling for Rye.' And I'm sure they aren't all bad-it's more of a stereotype, I think," Riley moemntarily furrowed her brow before easily continuing her conversation. "I don't have many friends. If you were to look up 'socially awkward' in a dictionary-well, there might be a picture of me," Riley smiled. How many times had someone made that exact same comment to her?

"I'm different...I'm insane. It's not a trait valued in the Ravenclaw house-solid head, clever mind. I'm clever-I just 'put it to the wrong uses'," Riley put air quotes around the last words and rolled her eyes. She registered Eye's quick change of the subject, but decided to brush it off. Not her buisness.

"Most Muggle names fascinate me-my family likes to joke that I'll end up having kids named something like Peeta or Katniss," Riley laughed at herself-mainly because that was very likely. "Oh, where in Texas? Texas is pretty much the opposite of Seattle-rainy, cold Seattle," Riley stuck out her tongue. "It grows on you, though."

Riley laughed at the story she thought would explain her grandmother best to Eye. "My grandmother's a bit...old fashioned would be the most delicate way to put it. When my brother got his Hogwarts letter-well, my grandmother was very against it. My brother's 19 now, he was 13 when we moved-but he still went to Hogwarts. Don't even get me started on what happened when she heard he was in Gryffindor," Riley laughed. "I don't know why, but she wanted us all to be Puffles. She was even less thrilled when I got sorted into Ravenclaw-said it wasn't a lady's place to be clever. My little sister will probably be a Puffle, though-she's too sweet to be anything else," Riley smiled at her oddly mixed family-they'd be a great fighting team. Riley could come up with battle plans, Caleb could execute them, and Emma could help with the wounded. It would be perfect.

(I couldn't resist the Hunger Games reference...XD)