Solving Puzzles (Bri & Stephen)

Brianna found that sometimes, when you were thinking very hard about a puzzle that needed to be solved and you just couldn't understand it, it was best to look at it from a different point of view. She could remembered her mother telling her that long ago, and it had just stuck in her brain. A question in her essay had confused the peculiar young Ravenclaw and rather than go research it, because she KNEW the answer, she had decided to look at it from a different point of view - quite literally.

She held the essay out in front of her and read it again, her eyes flicking over the line repeatedly as she thought hard about it. Now, how is this looking at it from a different point of view exactly? Brianna was hanging upside down, which was something she often did but now she had a reason behind the action.

She pursed her lips and shook her head, rolling up the scroll and tucking it into the waistband of her skirt as well as her white shirt. Her cloak was on the ground beneath her and she let her eyes shut as she started to swing lightly, before the flew open and she grinned. "Ah ha!" She exclaimed, looking very pleased with herself as she released her legs from the branch and tucked them into her chest, flipping over and landing perfectly on the ground - unaware of the person watching her.

Stephen Smith, known as Steve or Stevie, had decided to go for a walk of the Hogwarts grounds. He was still getting accustomed to Hogwarts, it was a different place. Even though he'd been here a while he had always felt a bit awkward and out of place. The only person he felt comfortable around was his girlfriend Elle Parker. Sadly though, he couldn't spend all of his time with her.

Hopefully he would make some friends, but that required interacting with people. Something he tried on occasion, but was never very good at it. When he looked ahead of him, he noticed a brunette girl about his age hanging upside down from a tree limb. That was certainly an odd sight, but what was even odder was she was reading. It made him sick to his stomach thinking about it. She then swung down from her tree, exclaiming happily as she did so.

"Hello." Steve said loudly, so she would hear him. "What were you doing?" he asked her. The girl he now recognized as a fellow Ravenclaw, Brianna he thought. "I'm Stephen Smith, you can call me Steve. "You're Brianna Pierce right?" Offering his hand to shake, he tried to meet her eyes instead of looking at the ground of objects around her like he had a habit of doing.

Brianna landed perfectly, flinging her arms out so as to add to the landing. Looking pleased with herself, she bent down and somersaulted over to where her essay lay on the ground. She quickly picked it up and scribbled down a note for herself onto her spare piece of parchment, a huge grin on her face. Her head snapped up at the sound of a voice and she grinned brightly at the boy.

Dropping her essay carelessly in front of her, she jumped up once more and bounced over to the boy with a wave given to him, about to answer him when her attention was captured by a beetle landing on his shoulder. She reached her hand out and offered it to the christmas bug, watching as it scuttled onto her hand. She lifted it up and held her hand out, watching in wonder as the bug fluttered away.

"Yes, i'm Brianna Pierce, call me Bri though - I know who you are. Pleasure to meet you in the flesh, Steve," she knew him from the Ravenclaw common room. She shook his hand and then pointed to her essay to answer his question. "I was hanging upside down so I could figure out a question in my essay. I knew the answer, I just needed to think about it from a different point of view." She beamed at him. There was a sound of swooping wings and her parrot, Polly came to rest on her shoulder. "This is Polly, my parrot," she introduced and the parrot squawked at Steve. "Don't be rude, Polls," she scolded.

Steve noticed her take a beetle off his shoulder, and she held it before the insect flew away. He'd heard from other people that she had a fascination with insects. They thought it was really weird, but he thought it was kind of cool. Nobody paid attention to insects, at least hardly anybody; and yet, they made up a vital part of the world's ecosystem. Without them, it would be much harder for humans to live on earth.

"Actually, if it's all the same to you, I'd prefer to call you by your full name Brianna. I've never been one for calling people by abbreviated versions of their names." he explained to her, shrugging. "Well that's pretty cool, I'm impressed you were able to think straight with all the blood rushing to your head. Do you hang upside down often?" he asked with a grin. Suddenly a parrot flew and landed on her shoulder, and he jumped. This girl certainly was different, but all he could think was that it was pretty darn cool. "Nice to meet you Polly. Your owner is pretty cool, just so you know, better listen to her."

Brianna was glad to see that Steve wasn't disgusted by her fondness of bugs, he merely regarded her as if she was doing something worthy of his interest. She grinned at him before her eyes moved back to the beetle as it flew away. She pushed her short crop hair behind her ear and shrugged at him. She couldn't care less what he called her, but some people preferred nicknames. "Suit yourself, I don't mind either way." She grinned.

Brianna nodded her head eagerly, she loved to hang upside down. She never noticed the blood rushing to her head unless she was upside down for almost ten minutes. "Not really, it normally takes about ten minutes for me to really notice." She shrugged. "And yes, I love to hang upside down! You should try it!" She beamed at him. Polly regarded Steve with interest, scrutinising him before she made another squawk, but Brianna recognised it as her friendly one. "'Allo!" Polly didn't speak much, but she did know how to say hello. "I thinks he likes you, which is good because she normally hates everyone," Brianna giggled as she patted her parrot fondly. "What are you up to today?" She asked with a slight tilt of her head that was mimicked by Polly.

Stephen watched Brianna consider him for a second, and then she smiled. It was a fantastic thing to see, he couldn't help but grin back. After she watched the beetle fly away she pushed her hair back. Her hair wasn't the usual style, but it suited her. "Alright then, sounds good." He was glad he'd finally made a friend, for the most part he'd kept to himself since coming to Hogwarts.

The way she described it made it sound like a lot of fun. Maybe he would have to try hanging upside down sometime. "Sounds interesting, perhaps you could show me how it's done, seeing as you're the expert." This time the parrot's squawk didn't sound quite so harsh as the one before. "Hello to you too, I'm Steve." he told the parrot, and he reached out his hand to lightly pet it. When the bird stayed still, he gave it a light pat before pulling his hand back. "Well that's good, wouldn't want a parrot attacking me." he said, laughing. He laughed even more when Polly mimicked her inquisitive head tilt.

"Not too much, I was just going for a walk. Was thinking of trying to talk to people. Being sociable isn't one of my strong suits, I'm awkward and nervous around others most of the time." he admitted sheepishly. "You are pretty easy to converse with though. I don't know, maybe I was just trying too hard to fit in instead of being myself."

Brianna liked her short-crop hair but she was going to grow it out to see if she liked having it long better. She'd always liked being able to run a brush through it once and get rid of any tangles instead of spending hours like the other girls in her house did trying to brush away the matts that had appeared in their hair overnight. She noticed that the colour of their hair was very similar and this made her smile brightly at him.

"I'm an expert at hanging down, i'm not sure if that's a compliment or an insult," she said in a playful tone as she took a step back towards the tree. "Come hang upside down with me!" She beamed at him and watched as he reached out to pat Polly. Her parrot didn't seem to mind the gesture and slightly nuzzled into his hand before fluttering up to the branch that Brianna had hung from. Brianna moved back over and reached up, jumping so as to grab the branch. It was thick and strong meaning it didn't sway at all when she added her weight to it. Pulling her boy up, she swung back and forth before flipping right over the branch and hooking her legs, letting go with her arms and swaying upside down. She smiled at Steve.

"Aww, you don't seem awkward or nervous at the moment. You can be my friend, I don't have many - especially not the girl's in my dorm. They don't like my pet tarantula at all." She pouted lightly, as if not liking a spider was the weirdest thing she'd ever heard of. "Hmm, don't try so hard then? I don't even bother trying to fit in, liking bugs has always made me an outcast but i'm not going to change who I am just to please some random people." She mused, swinging lightly.

Steve still couldn't help staring at that amazing smile, it made him feel a bit warmer on the inside. Naturally he beamed back at her, having a friend was going to be great, especially such a cute one. He noticed her hair was about the same shade as his was. Maybe they could spend some more time together after tonight.

"Compliment, definitely compliment. I don't say bad things about people if I can help it, let alone you." he teased back. Following her to the tree, he looked up a bit nervously. "Okay, if you really want me to." he shrugged. Her parrot flew up to the branch she was now hanging from. After she was up she pulled him up fairly easily, which was quite impressive considering he was bigger than her. Brianna must be a lot stronger than she looked. His breath caught when she did the flip, but she landed alright and was now swinging happily upside down, grinning at him. This was so unusual, but he had to admit kind of fun.

"Well I'm not somehow, something about you makes me feel comfortable." Steve admitted with a small grin. "I'd love to be your friend. You have a tarantula?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. "Could I meet him or her sometime?" He didn't know much about tarantulas, but he loved learning about new things, animals and insects included. "I'm not trying so hard anymore, I learned my lesson. That's just silly, you seem pretty cool to me. For some reason most people just don't like bugs, I don't really mind them. They play an important role in the world's ecosystem, even if people don't realize that."

Brianna was always happy to meet new people, whether they liked her or not. Often when people disliked her she'd follow them around all bubbly and cheerful just to grate on their nerves. She wasn't meaning to be rude, she just found it funny to watch people get flustered by her happiness and it meant she had the upper hand in an argument. Don't like happiness, eh? She'd argue.

"Woah, a compliment," she felt her face light up in her normal, ever present grin. "I don't get many of those you know, people tend to dislike me after talking to me for a little bit. The best compliment i've ever gotten was 'You're weird... in a good way' and that was from my best friend," she chuckled and was not at all fazed of thinking about a friend who had ditched her to become popular. She really didn't care which was unusual because most would be upset but she was so used to being disliked it didn't hurt her feelings anymore.

"That's nice to know, glad I make you feel comfortable," she swung backwards and forwards, not noticing the way her blood swished around in her head and made other people feel uncomfortable. She was used to hanging upside down, just like she was used to insults and being called weird. She grinned at him and wiggled her eyebrows. "Yuppers! He's called Long Legs and as long as you don't squeal when you see him he's very nice," Polly squawked her agreement with the statement and pecked lightly at Brianna's shoe. "I like that they have lots of legs and they tickle my hand when they sit on it. I don't really mind being an outcast or being called weird, i'm used to it really so it doesn't affect me."

Steve was not usually a social person, and it seemed that Brianna tried to be but people kind of shunned her. His problem was nerves, but he was working on getting over that. Eventually he knew he would, having friends would definitely going a long way towards helping him become less shy. One of the things he already loved about her was that she always had a nice smile.

"Don't sound so surprised, you deserve compliments just as much as anybody else, even if you don't get them." he told her, swinging into her and nudging her lightly. "Your friend is right though, you are strange in a good way, I like things that are different." he said, blushing a bit. He didn't normally give compliments this often, but he wanted to. A unique thing about Brianna was that she didn't seem to care about her popularity, it was rather refreshing.

Now he was starting to get accustomed to hanging upside down, though still not as at home as Brianna was quite yet. It was kind of fun seeing the world upside down. "Yea." he agreed with a nod. When she grinned and wiggled her eyebrows he burst out laughing, which felt kind of odd since he was upside down. "You're silly. I'm sure that he is, I'll have to come meet Long Legs then." Hearing Brianna say she didn't mind being an outcast made him kind of sad, had she ever had a true friend to her before? "Sounds kind of cool to me. Well other people are just missing out on how great a person you are. I don't think you are that weird though, everybody has their own quirks. You just embrace them, it's nice to see."

It wasn't easy to understand why people couldn't just be out there, for Brianna was such an enthusiastic person in everything she did. She'd never been shy, not even when she was little, she'd always talked to strangers but if they got to close she'd run off squealing. She'd always been very peculiar too, so to think that someone was shy was interesting to her.

"Thank you, Steve, it's nice to be complimented," she confessed in a sing song voice as she flipped herself up so she was sitting on the branch and then swapped and swung back down so she was swinging the opposite way to Steve and their faces were facing one another. "She's not my friend anymore, apparently I wasn't popular enough to appease her, not that I care to be honest. If she wanted to be popular that was her problem, not mine. Well you're different to me, you don't mind my interests and you're a shy person. I like different things too!" She grinned at him, un-fazed by the blush on his cheeks.

Brianna had always found amusement in hanging upside down and being able to see the world from a different point of view - like Luna Lovegood had. Luna Lovegood was Brianna's idol, she wanted to be just like her. This was not the reason that Brianna acted weird, but rather she looked up to the blonde because she had found an individual who was popular yet even weirder than her. "I am a bit silly, aren't I? I'm sure he'll be delighted to meet you and shocked that I have a friend." She grinned at him and swung lightly again. She would've blushed except she was never flustered by anything so she merely continued to grin at his compliment. "You should show this side to people more, you'd be surrounded by friends and wouldn't have time for a little weirdo like me," she poked her tongue out at him.

Steve was really starting to like Brianna, she made some of his anxiety go away. With her help he thought he could become a bit more sociable, and she could too. Not that she had social problems, but people seemed to be put off by her bug problems for some reason. Maybe they could help each other out a bit, become each other's support at Hogwarts.

"You are most welcome." he said, blushing a bit. When he blushed his head started to feel lightheaded but he shook it and was fine. The moment he regained his composure her face was right across from his and he just stared at her eyes, which he instantly noticed were beautiful. "People who are more concerned about popularity than a friendship aren't worth the trouble. Different is good, we can learn a lot about life from things that are different. If everything was the same, well where would the fun be in that?"

There was something about Brianna, maybe just the confidence in her personality, that made her stand out in a great way. Someday he wanted to have that much confidence in himself, he would have to work up to it though. "You are a cool silly though, like Luna Lovegood. She always seemed pretty awesome to me. I'll be your friend however long you want me to be." he said with a grin. "Who says I'd like the other people? Most people I feel super awkward around, but not you. Perhaps I'll just stick to being your friend and see how that goes, got to start small for me. Work my way up to being more social." Steve admitted. All the while he was blushing because she thought he could have tons of friends. "What side is that I should show? The fact I like odd things?" he asked with a wink.

Brianna was easily bored of doing certain things for an extended period of time, it was amazing that she was able to even read enough books to have a general knowledge of all of her subjects let alone actually be able to do her essays. She often pushed her boredom to the back of her mind, and normally when she was hanging upside down she easily tired of the action and trotted off to do something else.

However, swinging beside Steve was great fun! She didn't feel boredom even close to her emotions, in fact she was perfectly entertained and happy. She hadn't really talked to anyone since the previous year at that ball when she'd met that Gryffindor boy... She couldn't for the life of her remember his name which was strange because she never forgot anything. Liam Woodham! She beamed as the name came back to her. "There would be no fun in that silly, that's why I say embrace who you are and don't try to be someone else to please others!" Brianna beamed at him, glad that he understood where she was coming from.

Brianna's mouth dropped open and her legs slackened their grip on the branch so much that she almost slid off but her quick reflexes caused her to quickly swing as she slid down and as she went up she hooked her legs around the branch once more. He'd just told her she was like Luna Lovegood, her hero! She felt tears fill her eyes and she reached out, hugging Steve tightly despite their upside down position before she released him. "Luna Lovegood! Oh Merlin I love her, she's my role model, she's the person I look up too and you think i'm like her," she was near sobbing as she clapped her hands together once and wiped at her eyes. "Thank you, that means so much to me, that's the best compliment i've ever been given!" She grinned at him and laughed softly. "No, just this soft, sweet side. If there's one thing people love, it's those who are nice. Especially girls, they like the nice guys. You're not bad looking either," she mused, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

Steve usually didn't like hanging out with people, but he found literally hanging out with Brianna wasn't that bad. She was funny, quirky, smart, and had a unique way of talking. Somehow, she made him fee less awkward and weird than he usually did, especially around girls. Guys he was reasonably okay with, never before had he been this comfortable speaking to the opposite sex though. Part of him wondered if making friends was this unusual for Brianna too, it sounded like it might be.

For a minute there, she seemed to be trying to think of something. Eventually she did and then returned to the conversation. The silence hadn't been awkward though, like some were, it had felt comfortable. "Uh huh, I completely agree. Learned it the hard way, should have had that attitude from the beginning; but, learn it I did. You know Brianna, this is really fun talking to you like this. I'm having a really good time." he told her shyly.

Steve became worried when she suddenly dropped to the ground, thankfully she landed safely. Before he could say pet tarantula she was back up in the tree with him. Then even more shocking, she hugged him tightly and her eyes got all teared up. Not knowing what else to do, he remained upside down and hugged her back, slightly confused. "Hey, it's nothing Brianna, you just kind of make me think of her. Both quirky, cool, and just very special people. I would have loved to meet Luna..." he said, wondering what she was like to talk to. "Honestly Brianna, it's no big deal." he said, waving it off and laughing a bit.

"Ummm, ummm...thanks." Steve answered, blushing a dark red. "I do generally try to be nice, but no girl's ever really...you know, liked me before in that way." he admitted to her. "Oh please, if anybody's good looking here it is you. You are like, kind of beautiful." he said quietly, barely getting the words past the lump in his throat. How was she going to respond to that? His heart felt like it was racing, and he was nervous and blushing even more.