Taking a walk

Sophie walked into the Park, Laurie on her shoulders. It was her first time in this park, when she left England, it wasn't here yet. She looked around, fascinated and the orange snake on her shoulders swayed his tail excitedly. She started walking around the park, hoping she'll see any of her old friends somewhere.
The redhead soon saw a convenient bench under a great oak tree and sat down. Laurie slithered to her lap and she stroked him absentmindedly as she was thinking about her old Hogwarts times.

Gillian was trying to find a place to sit down away from the sun and hopefully cooler than everywhere else, the summer was her least favorite season of all.

With her book on one hand and a coca cola on the other, she strolled around the park that she had come to find after her return to england, when she spotted a girl with fire red hair, and a snake, narrowing her eyes she let a smile light her face, for there, a few meters ahead was someone she never thought she would see again in a lot of years.

"I can't believe that laurie is still alive!" she said sitting down next to the girl, like it was something they did ususally, but with a huge smile on her face.

Sophie looked up surprised as someone just sat down next to her, only to find it was Gilly. The girl she's seen last so many years ago. Not even bothering to think about her question, the redheaded witch wrapped her arms around the other girl tightly and Laurie slithered on to Gilly, hissing happilly.

"Rockchick! I can't believe you're here! I've missed you so much!" Sophie grinned and laughed, it was so great to see her old friend again.

Gillian smiled widely and returned Sophie's hug with equal enthusiasm, she had missed her few friends from when she was in Hogwarts.

She hold on to the embrac for a little longer before pulling away finding the snake on her shoulders. she stroked the snake while looking at sophie "rocker babe, you look amazing!!" she really did and Gillian was glad that they had run into each other "how's your life rocker babe? what have you been doing since you got out from hogwarts?"

Sophie gave Gilly one last squeeze and then pulled away, still grinning like a maniac.

"You look amazing too, Rockchick! I've lived in Italy for a while and I've studied History of Magic! I'm gonna teach it at Hogwarts, how crazy is that?" she laughed while her face was still beaming with happiness from seeing her old friend again.

"How have you been?"

Gillian couldn't stop smiling, Sophie always had that effect on her. "Italy?? really!! that's a beautiful country!! any ragazzo caught your heart?"she asked in a half joking tone "no way!! I'm teaching at Hogwarts too!!! how amazing is that?? we get to be coworkers!!!" she was indeed really glad that she could get to work with sophie.

"my life has been well, I've been traveling around the globe for some time now, but needed to come back, I'm tired of all my friends being away" she said with a smile that wasn't as bright; the bad memories still lingered in her memory, too fresh...

Sophie laughed at Gilly and tilted her head, smiling and chuckling in her own special way when she asked her about boys. Truth was, she just broke up with her boyfriend, but she was trying to keep things the light way. So, she only answered with simple words.

"Well, rockchick, let's just say he wasn't able to keep it. You work at Hogwarts too? This is brilliant!" she exclaimed and bounced on the bench, grinning happilly.

"Travelling around the globe? Sounds awesome! I missed everybody so much, too. When we- erm, I got sick of those Italians, I came back here immediatly, hoping to see any of you and I did. " the redhead said quickly after the words of the breakup almost escaping her mouth.

"Anyway, Rockchick, how've you been? I mean, any boys caught your interest?"

Gillian noticed that Sophie was kind of in the same situation as her, trying to leave behind all the pain and start soemthing new.

She grinned widely "I knw!! we can do a lot of things together ther!" she was now imagining all sorts of things they could do, even while being more restricted cause of their proffesor condition.

"yes, it was awesome, I got to visit some really interesting places, and some really weird yet interesting people" she said laughing a bit "you know how I always loved traveling" she said rambling a little trying to leave behind the guy subject, she would tell her when she was ready "anyway, some things happened that made me miss a steady life, so I came back and here you are!", she was gald that she had found someone she knew, that bring back her roots.

When she asked her about boys, she immediately remembered that encounter she had had with André Martinez and blushed slightly "well... do you remember when we were at ogwarts, that I had this huge crush on this older boy, André was his name" she said not really knowing if she remebered him, sophie had been a slytherin after all "anyway, I ran into him the other day... he's still as gorgeous as I remember" she said and couldn't help a small girly giggle to come out of her mouth, she couldn't believe she was saying that.

Sophie nodded excitedly when Gilly was telling her about her travellings.

"We have to go on a drink sometime and I want to hear about those wonderfull places! Do you have any pictures?" she didn't push the subject that made Gilly come back, she saw on the other girl's face she wasn't quite ready to tell.

"Andre Martinez? Seriously? Oh, I remember him! I mean, we haven't talked much, actually, I don't think we ever talked, but I noticed him...He's here too? Awesome!"

Gillian grinned at the other girl's excitement about her travels, "sure!!! I have some pictures and various souvenirs, of course I can show you!!!" she said, grateful that they both lived now in the same place.


"yes, we didn't talk much either when we were at Hogwarts, he helped me once or twice with arithmancy, but that's all... anyway, he is here too, and he looks even more amazing, he seems nice too..." she hoped she could talk to him a little more, but still haven't found an appropriate place or time, and she wasn't going to look for him, obviously she wasn't desperate for a man.

"now, tell me everything about you!!! I want to know how your life was after Hogwarts!!" she asked with genuine interest.

Sophie beamed at Gilly when the girl was describing Andre, she seemed to be quite into the man. She couldn't blame her, the guy was delicious. At least was when they were at Hogwarts.

"That's really great, Rockchick! Well...I graduated Hogwarts, then I moved to London and studied History, then I went backpacking around the world and settled in Italy for few years. Now I'm back." she grinned.

Gillian blushed slightly when she noticed how Sophie beamed with a knowing smile, she was never shy about men, but for some odd reason she was blushing this time, she didn't dwell on it.

"backpacking??? where?? and why didn't you tell me?? I would have joined you, I backpacked through southamerica for a year too, and then I joined the aurors... and that was it... I dedicated my life to it, that is until he died" she said, with a tone that stated she didn't want to elaborate more.

Sophie saw Gilly blush, but didn't comment on it, she gathered her and Andre weren't going out yet. But she was determined to know the details when they'll start.

"Well, actually, it was just Europe. First I went to Russia, then to Netherlands, then Belgium, stayed a while in France, then some friends took me to Bulgaria and then Romania. I met an Italian fellow there who was also backpacking and followed him to Italy. I stayed there for three years. It was quite eventfull." she grinned. Upon hearing Gill's story, her grin faded and she hugged the girl tightly. She didn't imply who died but her face told Sophie everything.

"oh I wish I was there with you rockerbabe, I've been to all of those places but never really stayed for more than one night, missions always were fast and we left before we could raise suspicion" she said shrugging slightly remembering the blur that all of those countries were.

"three years with an ialian man!!! that's quite the achievement, the are such flirts!!" as soon as those words left her mouth she blushed deeply, it was so like her to just blurt out things without thinking them first.

"I wish you'd be there with me too, it'd be so totally awesome if you were!" Sophie said, a longing smile on her face. She loved the time she spend in Europe, but had missed her Hogwarts friends so much all the while.

She sighed at Gilly's words and nodded irritably. "They sure are flirts, I'll give them that..." she said, trying not to think of that horrible day when she found out her boyfriend was cheating on her.

"well, then we have to make this year worthy of fond memories like those years we were appart, what do you think? maybe we could trow a party or make some sort of secret friend between the staff members?? I decided this is going to be one of our best years!!" she said with enthusiasm and laughing at her sillyness.

Sophie laughed with her friend and got excited like the other girl. She felt as she was 11 years old again and was talking about how great Hogwarts will be.

"We should totally throw a party! The most awesomest party ever!" she chuckled at her silly enthusiasm and would probably be blushing by now if she wasn't talking to Gilly.

"Absolutely!!! where do you think we can do it? I don't really know all the castle, I just arived and really haven't talked to anyone else... do you think we should ask for permission? go to Cooper's office or something?" she started to blabber, blurting out ideas, this was actually a good idea, since she only knew sophie.

"I think it'd be better if we asked for the permission, although I'm very very tempted to do something wrong. To, you know, get into the old spirit." Sophie grinned mischeviously.

"Gillian Marie Brennan! What do you mean you don't know the castle? It's good old Hogwarts! And yes, I'm aware Marie isn't your middle name, but it could be." she grinned. She loved being back with her old friend.

Gillian let out one of her signature loud laughs "Sophie!" she couldn't stop laughing "I would go with it but we are professors now, we might get in actual trouble for that you know" she said still laughing "although we could run naked through the forbidden forest now" she said as a joke.

She blushed deeply with an apologetic smile "you know... we don't know ALL the castle, I know we went to a lot of forbidden places, but as teachers we definitely get to be in a whole lot of other places you know" she said trying to explain.

Sophie started laughing along and couldn't stop even if she'd want to.

"Rockchick! Of course, we could do that! We can do anything! Except, I don't really know WHY anybody would run through the Forrest naked...other than to seduce the hot centaurs, of course!" she joked and laughed.

"Ok, I get your point. And I agree, now we can do anything! As long as we don't get banned from the school..." she grinned. She won't go risking that much, of course, she loved Hogwarts and was hoping she'll stay there.

She loved sophie, and had missed how easily was to laugh along with her, thankfully they would have a lot more time to spend together now that they were both teaching at Hogwarts.

"oh Merlins pants no!!! why would anyone want to seduce a centaur!!?? they smell like horse!!" she laughes and shuddered at the thought "I just said the first thing that came to my mind" she tryed to explain.

Sophie laughed and realized how much she actually missed her friends. Sure, she had friends in Italy, but they never really understood her jokes or spoke English much.

"Well, I don't know, Gilly, they can be attractive, you know!" she answered sarcastically and chuckled. RC kept on explaining and the redhead rolled her eyes.

"Honey, I was joking!"

Finally her fit of luahgter died a little and she could breathe normally again. "I know, I was just kidding too... I know you go more for the house elves tupe" she said and burst out laughing again.

After a while, her stomach was husrting and she had tears because of her laugh; she wiped them away and tried to take a few deep breaths "ok... that's it" she said between the last remains of giggles "have you met or reecountered with any one else? cause you're my first you know" she said and then giggled "Jeesh that came out wrong" she said with a chuckle.

Sophie was still laughing and when Gilly said the thing about the house elves, tears came running down from her eyes, but she didn't even try to wipe them away. After a few minutes when she finally calmed down, she shifted in her seat more comfortably and wiped the tears of laughter away.

"Well then, I'll make sure to invite some of the elves to the party!" she grinned. "No, there wasn't anyone at Leaky when I first got here and then I came straight here. And, even if it sounds totally wrong, you're my first too!"