Homework (Zoey, Open)

Judah's blond curls fell on his face once more, and his eyes narrowed, the locks turning an obnoxious green color. He really should get a haircut before summer. "You just wait until I get home, hair." he said, his locks now turning an electric shade of blue. He was sat on one of the tables in the kitchens, trying to finish some division problems his mother had sent for him to finish. It was Skylar's way of making sure Judah learned more than just the wizarding basics; Muggle lessons by correspondence. There was a plate of white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies to his right, a glass of milk to accompany his snack. Putting his pencil down, he turned to glance around the kitchens; everything seemed eerily quiet. There weren't any house elves around at this time, as many of them were cleaning up the Great Hall, and it somehow felt wrong to be alone in the kitchens.

Still, Judah shrugged it off as pointless worry. He had a tendency to worry about anything without a reasonable point, much like his mother. He continued to work on his math, and he was doing just fine until he heard a loud voice coming from farther outside the kitchens. The words were blurred, broken, and it took a few seconds to reach him.


Judah wasn't an expert on the Headmaster, but something told him it was his voice. The words were followed by a very distant explosion sound, and then there were footsteps in the hallways, people hurrying into the Hufflepuff Common Room.

SHIT! Judah stood up in a flash, his glass of milk falling over the edge of the table. This better be some sort of practice in the case of a real attack! He was definitely too young to die at the hands of whatever it was that was attacking the castle. His mind raced, trying to find a possible reason why anything would attack the castle, until he remembered some of the articles his mother had written for the Daily Prophet, something about an anti-pureblood group. If it was that evil group that was inside the castle, Judah knew that they most likely wouldn't go after him. After all, he wasn't a pureblood...but the chance of death was still very much present and it simply wasn't his time.

The Headmaster has clearly ordered the students to their dormitories, but there was no way Judah was leaving the kitchen. Gryffindor Tower was all the way up on the Seventh Floor. "Holy crap! What do I do?" Judah breathed anxiously, his hands shaking. He was brave, he had always known that, but this was real life. This was different than going on adventures, this was life or death and he wasn't sure he was ready to face that. For an eleven year old, he knew too many curse words from his father, but even saying them out loud was weird in this situation because none of them could capture his fear.

Without meaning to, his hair changed from the eye-catching blue to a rich blood red, a color that - to him - represented fear. For some obnoxious reason, Judah's hair color tended to change colors without him wanting to, the way a stupid mood ring would. There was more noise outside, voices from older students directing the younger ones into the Common Room, and for a second he considered asking them for help. After all, they sounded older than him and his chances of dying would be less if he hung around some hidden common room for a while, until the attack ceased.

Having completely forgotten about maths, because who even cared about that while there was chaos outside, he decided to walk out and meet the students, but the voices sounded farther away and he wondered if he could catch up to them. That is he heard footsteps approaching, and the door swung open. Judah instantly closed his eyes, his hair changing colors in the blink of eye - blood red, pumpkin, deep blue, purple - and he waited for whatever it was to attack him. Because as luck would have it, Judah didn't reach for his wand.

Zoey was distracted. She hadn't noticed that a group of evil people had entered the school. She hadn't noticed that people where running around screaming. She hadn't noticed that her life was in danger. Well, she didn't know what the group was after, so she didn't know if she was in danger or not. Zoey was running around the school. She wasn't sure where she was, as she was distracted by all the commotion going on. The Headmaster had said to go to the common rooms, but Zoey wasn't sure where she was at the moment, and she was incredibly scared.

She twiddled her thumbs and tried to look at her surroundings, but nothing was making since. She wasn't good under pressure, or terrible situations. She ran down the stairs and realized she was on the top floor. She had seven more to go. She bolted. She jumped stairs, and almost fell on her face several times. She had a death grip on her wand in case she where to come into contact with the bad people who were attacking the castle.

She finally made it down to the kitchens. They were hidden enough from the bad people that she didn't need to go to her common room. And besides. She was quiet hungry. She slipped in and screamed. In there was a blue headed boy. She dropped her wand. She said, "You scared me! What are you doing in here?" She bent down to pick up her wand, and put it in her pocket. She said, "I'm Zoey by the way. First year Hufflepuff." She said rather proudly. Even in the midst of a great battle, this was the time to brag about her house.

Nobody attacked him. But somebody did scream, and in reaction to that high-pitched sound, Judah opened his eyes and screamed as well. There was a girl, a girl with blonde hair and crazy eyes. "Homework! What are you doing here?!" Judah said that a bit too loud, so he immediately shut up and apologized. "Sorry, you're not the only one who's scared." Now, that seemed like a terrible excuse for having yelled at her, but this was a moment when nothing made sense. Slowly, his hair returned to his normal blond shade.

Taking a seat again, because what could that girl possibly do to him, Judah picked up his work and set it aside. As soon as the whole thing was over, he would bolt out of there. Judah had completely forgotten about introductions, so he looked up at the girl when she told him her name, year and House. Nodding, Judah replied, "Judah Vizcaíno, first year, Gryffindor." Of course, the girl was proud to belong to Hufflepuff, Judah could see it, but he had more pride in his own House than the rest of the Gryffindors. "Just, you know, the best House." Judah smirked.

Remembering the broken glass of milk, Judah walked off to get something to pick the broken pieces with. Without luck, he finally decided on a napkin. Bent over the floor and picking apart pieces of glass, Judah took his wand and pointed it at the liquid. The only reason he knew the Tergeo spell was because his mother had made him clean things around the house - as a way of learning adult responsibilities - and his father had taught him the cleaning spell to make Judah's life easier. Little by little, the liquid disappeared into his wand.

As he walked over to throw away the pieces of glass, with about ten napkins covering them so the House Elves wouldn't get injured, Judah turned to Zoey. "Why are you here anyway? Not into your Common Room, I mean." It could be possible the girl was actually hungry or thirsty, but it seemed like a terrible time to think about that.