Cain looked up through the patch of clear sky at the stars and he smiled lightly, there was nothing that kindled his spirits more than the sight of those twinkling orbs, he could lose himself in predicting from them and spend the whole night away not even noticing, he liked the way the best, rather than being painfully aware of his lack of interactions, it was almost as if he was choosing this path himself.

Sighing slightly as his thoughts were turned from the stars to more upsetting matters Cain thought of all the 'friends' that he had made of the past few months, there had been Jaqui, who said that she would meet him again in a week and never did, there was Juliet, who had conversed with him once, and he had dared to think flirted with him and then dissappeared, and then there was Ophelia, the one that he felt most upset about the absence of, she was his best friend, and he was worried that she might have done something idiotic to herself.

The very idea of her...not living any more made him blink slightly in an effort to stop his tears and he wished that there would be someone to draw him out of this lonliness, but nobody would come, and if they did, they would just leave him, like they always did.

Lolly was wandering through the Forbidden Forest late after her night shift. The trees were always so calm, whispering lovely things, nice things, happy things into her head. She liked trees. Occasionally she would get trickles of cool death, but Lolly knew that was always just the food chain, the circle of life. She had grown used to it back home.

Through the trees, a strong sense of despair was ricocheting around in her head. Wondering whether she should follow it and be filled with bitterness until the person feeling it - for plants and animals certainly could not feel such darkness - stopped feeling it, or go and help the person, Lolly pondered the emotion for a second. It wasn't just despair... whoever it was was so incredibly lonely. They were just so alone...

A shining tear slid down her face as the loneliness filled her veins as well. Lolly couldn't hold up her defences against a force so strong. Not many people were so lost. But this... this person was. Scrubbing the tear away, she headed forward again, brushing her blonde curls out of her face so she could see what she was doing. A chilly breeze drifted past and Lolly pulled her thin cardigan tighter around her.

Eventually, the trees cleared in enough of a patch to see the sky clearly. In the center of the clearing stood a majestic Centaur, gazing up at the clear night sky. She stepped into the clearing, but stumbled back as the full force of his emotions hit her. Lolly gasped as the wave toppled her over and she fell onto her backside, breathing heavily while trying to keep back the loneliness and despair.

Cain turned his head slowly when he thought he heard someone coming into the clearing, his eyes widened in hope that it would be one of his friends coming to see him once more but alas, is was not, and instead he looked upon a girl that looked vaguely like and older student.

Stopping staring at the sky, he moved towards her and smiled gently, his lopsided warm smile and knelt down on his front legs, with a hand offered out to her to help her up.

"Greetings, am I truly that frightening that you must fall over when you see me?"

Then, when he grasped her hand, Cain realised something, this girl wasn't human, instead she was something else altogether, and he wondered what although not rightly caring, whatever it was, it was a positive force.

"I am Cain. Who are you?" he asked quietly so as not to scare the girl again, his leather tunic squeaking slightly as he stood up.

The Centaur had heard her fall. Her head was pounding and her vision was blurred. The drowning feeling of loneliness was smothered by warmth as he smiled at her; it didn't disappear, just got covered. It did help Lolly to cope with the tsunami of emotions, though. She was able to grasp his outstretched hand and rise to her feet, but it wasn't until she rubbed her eyes to clear her vision that she realised tears were streaming down her face. At his touch, more emotions racked through her body and she snatched her hand back as soon as she was stable.

Lolly was shaking her head. Cain, as he introduced himself, was just so brimful of confusing, swirling emotions that she could barely control her own. She felt like she was suffocating. "L-Lolly..." she managed to choke out, voice breaking at the end of her own name. She felt so overwhelmed. Sometimes she really disliked her power.

Cain thought that there might be something wrong with this young student, she seemed to be crying rather a lot and he furrowed his brow slightly, hoping that she hadn't encountered something very nasty in the forest, or has been chased in by other students.

"Whatever is the matter? You seem so upset, do tell me what is wrong, maybe I can help you in some way."

When she snatched her hand away Cain frowned a little more and felt his heart ache again, wondering if perhaps he had done something wrong to offend her:

"Forgive me I do not mean to offend you, I only...wanted to help you get up."

Still thinking that there must be something terribly wrong with the girl in front of him, Cain vowed to make sure he would stay until she was alright again.

"Lolly, what a lovely name, I believe that's a sweet is it not? I don't have much experiance with sweets...would you like some water...?" he asked, when it looked as if she might be having trouble breathing.

Lolly swallowed hastily and leaned against a nearby tree for support. Her stomach was turning flips and her head was throbbing. A sharp pain stabbed straight through her heart and she felt like curling up and dying. How could one person harbour so many emotions, and with such strength? How was Cain possibly still standing.

"Please..." she whispered hoarsely. "Stop it."

He hadn't offended her, but she couldn't find the words to tell him what was wrong. The force of his heartache and loneliness radiated off him in tidal waves. "Stop it!" she yelled, clawing at her hair and sliding down to the ground, face red and tear-stained. She tried and tried to push his feelings away from her own, but it was too much to handle and Lolly could feel herself caving in.

"Stop hurting... yourself..."

Water would be no good in this situation. Though she was raspy and sounded terrible, water would just make it worse. Lolly tried breathing deeper and more calmly but confusion was overriding her brain and it proved very difficult.

Cain watched the student backing up and he looked thoroughly confused, he looked everywhere in the clearing for something else that could be causing this pain to the child but there was none. Was it some sort of medical pain? What on earth should he do?!

"Stop what? Lolly you have to tell me what it is I'm doing wrong then I can stop like you want."

Getting a little upset at the girl in front of him hurting herself, Cain placed his hand on the hilt of his sword to comfort him, as soon as she yelled he reared up on his hind legs, eyes wide with hurt, he wasn't doing anything wrong.

"Stop..."

Cain heard her say that, and he understood, and tried to keep a lid on his emotions, forcing them away.

"You're an empath? You should have said, I apologise for causing you pain, ill try to keep away."

Lolly sighed as Cain bottled up his emotions. Finally; relief flooded through her and she staggeringly got to her feet. She was able to sift through the remaining emotions and push them out of her foremost mind. "Thank you," she breathed softly, eternally grateful that he knew what she was. "Yes... I'm a very strong empath. I was born with it."

She turned to him as he suggested he leave, grabbing his arm. "Please don't go. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to absorb so much of your pain." She stared him straight in the eye. "Don't go."

Lolly wished she'd gained control of the flood earlier. She normally would have, but he caught her off guard. She didn't want to see him go, because he was the first person she'd talked to apart from the Romains. It would be nice to have someone else to interact with.

Cain nodded his head, that meant that if she was responding to his emotions, they must be very strong indeed, perhaps more and more kept piling up on top of him until he didn't notice it any more, only when some new predicament came along would he feel any change.

"I have never met one of your kind before and hope not to do so again if this is the unfortunate effect that I have on you."

Feeling almost ashamed of himself Cain hung his head slightly and shuffled his hooves on the floor, something he did whenever he got nervous around people.

His eyes flew up as Lolly grabbed his arm and he stopped, to look at her with kind eyes.

"There is nothing to apologise for Lolly, it is my fault for having the pain in the first place. Of course I will stay if you desire it."

You wouldn't meet any more of my kind anyway, Lolly thought cynically. They were all dead now. She shook her head again, sighing. "It's not your fault," she whispered. "Only the most advanced Occlumens are able to control so much emotion."

She walked forwards a bit, trying to clear her head a bit more. "Where's your herd?" she asked. It was unusual to see a lone centaur like this.

Cain smiled lightly, it was nice to know that it wasn't really his fault that the nice girl in front of him got hurt, he hoped that this wouldn't happen in the future.

"My herd? I do not know where they are, they don't have much to do with me, they have a...different outlook on the stars to myself."

It was sad, since he would have been the leader of the herd if he hadn't of rejected it out of principle, maybe things would have been different if he had taken on the job.

"Are you a student here? I have not seen you before...you were not at the battle?"

She glanced at him, feeling a small tide of wonder roll off him. Lolly half-smiled at him. "No, not a student. I... I work for Briony in the kitchens. I owe her my life. I'm a Nymph, you see, the last of the Riverine Dryads."

Sighing, Lolly stepped out, too engulfed in her own thoughts to notice much else. She concentrated on the peacefulness of the ancient trees surrounding her, taking refuge in their calming presence.

Cain suddenly knew why this girl was giving off a different feel to a human, it was because she herself wasn't human, and that would also explain why she hadn't been seen around the castle before.

"A nymph? I believe today is a most wondrous day for I have always thought about what a nymph might be like, and now I am aware."

Smiling lightly to himself, Cain had a niggling question and chose to ask it so that his mind would be at peace:

"What happened that you would owe Briony your life?"

Lolly didn't look at Cain. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes and it took a lot to keep her voice steady. "I'd rather not talk about it," she whispered curtly.

Managing to hold back the tears from her eyes, Lolly decided to give him an inkling of something so he may guess on his own. Staring him right in the eye, she said firmly, "If you must know, Briony and Richard saved my life. There was a fire. That's all I'm saying."

Lolly did not want to think about it any more. It was too painful, and she reached out to stroke the rough bark of a tree for comfort.

Cain raised an eyebrow and felt profoundly sorry when the nymph looked like she was going to burst into tears, he hated to think that he had upset her, he only wanted to know why she was being permitted into the castle and hung his head slightly.

"Forgive me Lolly, I didn't mean to offend you, I should not have pried into your personal life, I hope that you are not too upset by my foolishness."

Bowing to her, trying to make up for his mistake, Cain looked up to the sky and smiled lightly at the stars above and what they meant for the future of this particular girl.

"Let us talk of happy things, how do you find Hogwarts yourself? I have only been in it once myself."