Dorm #7: Alone Time

Daniel sat in his dorm room practicing his guitar. He had double checked with Jude before having his parents send it to the school. He was excited to have the instrument back. He was messing around trying to learn one of the songs by The Lumineers. So far, no such luck.

Daniel hadn’t seen Heather around lately, mainly because she was freaking out about the quidditch tryouts and he was studying because he had nothing else to do really. He stopped playing at the sound of excited knocking on his door. He set the guitar down and got up hurrying to answer it. Daniel grinned at the sight of his best friend. “Hey.”

Heather quickly learned a couple things when coming to Beauxbatons. One, she was smothering Daniel, and two, he needed better methods for splitting time up between herself and Melody. Luckily, Heather had quidditch tryouts to do so she was spending a lot of time away from Daniel so she could freak out over them. It felt like forever before Professor Bowen finally got back to her, but Heather was excited to find out she'd made the team.

Heather decided not to go to Daniel right away because she didn't know if he'd be busy with work or whatever, but today she caved and went to see him. "Hey, I wanted to tell you that I made the team." Heather smiled brightly at him. "I didn't know if you were busy or not, but I figured that I would just pop in quick to tell you and then get out of your hair." Heather smiled. "See you in potions first thing tomorrow?"

Daniel wasn’t sure if he had done something wrong to make Heather stop spending as much time with her. He hoped that he hadn’t. He really missed hanging out with her.

He grinned brightly and her news, hugging her gently. Though he quickly stepped back thinking he probably crossed a line. “That’s great Heather! I’ll cheer for you… even if that makes me a house traitor…” He chuckled. “Pop in quick? I’ve barely seen you.” Daniel said somewhat sadly, looking down. “Jude’s out right now, you should come in and stay for a little bit?” He asked hopefully. He wasn’t going to push her into hanging out with him. Heather was easily the most popular person in their year… and he was definitely on the other end of that spectrum.

"Yeah, sure, we can hangout for a bit." Heather smiled at him. She didn't want to disappoint Daniel, even if it meant hogging him for the day. "We could cuddle or something, and maybe you could tell me a story? Or play your guitar for me?" Heather asked softly and stepped into his dorm room. This was the first time she'd been in here all year. She plopped herself on Daniel's bed and looked up at him happily.

She couldn't help but wonder if she'd interrupted something important to Daniel. Maybe she should've just left Daniel like she'd originally planned, but he looked upset when she mentioned she was leaving as soon as she got there, and she couldn't do that to her best friend. He wanted her there and that meant she was going to be there for him no matter what happened because Daniel was always there for her.

“We can do whatever you want.” Daniel smiled at her happily. He wanted to cuddle with her and tell her all sorts of stories… maybe no guitar playing. He wasn’t good enough yet to play for anyone really. Daniel felt bad that Jude had to deal with his practicing. He smiled down at her then plopped beside her. “Are you excited for the quidditch season to start? What’s it going to be like playing against your brother?”

Heather could and would never be a bother to him. Honestly, she was much more important to him than practicing or studying. He would always want her there with him.

"I definitely want a couple stories then." Heather snuggled up against his side, breathing in his scent and smiling. "I'm really excited for the season to star. I am so happy that I made the team. Playing against my brother will be weird at first, but I'm excited to have the opportunity to be better than him, albeit at a different position. It's just exciting to do. I have no idea what our poor mother is going to do though. Who does she root for?"

"Alright, story time now." Heather plopped her head onto Daniel's chest and listened to his heartbeat. She smiled at the steady rhythm and began to lull in to contentedness as she waited for him to tell her the first story. She was hoping for something with Gods and Goddesses because those were sometimes Daniels best stories. He was so smart he could tell stories about many different deities and even make believable deities up for stories.

Daniel blushed slightly when she curled up close to him. It wasn’t anything new, them cuddling, but she was so small and soft. He wrapped an arm around her and played with her blonde curls.

“You’ll get to block all of the shots he’ll try to make against Montagnard. That’ll be interesting.” He nodded. “Your poor mother is right. I’m sure she’ll root for both of you as equally as best as she can, y’know? She wouldn’t want to pick sides, that’ll most likely make you and Trent upset.”

He chuckled softly, the blush creeping onto his cheeks once more. Hmm… she wanted a few stories, but how could he be creative enough to tell that many stories in one day. He didn’t think his stories were all that good, but Heather loved them and liked hearing them. Daniel would write a whole book for her if it made her happy.

“Hmm…let’s see…” He mused aloud trying to decide what the subject of his story should be. Gods and Goddesses, Heather really liked hearing those ones. “Long ago, there was a goddess. She was the youngest of all the other gods and goddesses and many of them didn’t take her very seriously…”