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WHO: Nepeta & Norman
TONE: Kawaii then Kowaii 8(
RATING: PG-13.
WHEN: October 7th
WHERE: School grounds, nowhere in particular
WHAT: Nepeta and Norman are just chilling, getting to know each other more when Nepeta has a vision. Seems like they have more in common than they thought.
STATUS: Ongoing

Norman was someone very easy for Nepeta to talk to. A lot of people would make the mistake of thinking that someone as friendly as Nepeta would have an easy time talking to anyone, but that would be a mistake. Words didn't come easy to the Hufflepuff, and sure she may be surprisingly good to go to for advice but when it came to just making casual conversation? Not so much. Everytime she spoke with someone she always deliberated, always thought of what might keep the others interest---usually asked a lot of questions. If you chose just the right subject, people seemed to like being asked questions since they could just go on and on about a favorite matter or show off their know how. While Nepeta genuinely liked to learn more about others and hear what they had to say, her own habit of turning it into a game of chess sometimes made it exhausting to talk to others.

She didn't get that with Norman. Well, no, she still did, but not quite as much as she did with other people. And hey sometimes she was able to let herself talk. She didn't know if he was just being polite or genuinely interested but he'd listen to her whenever she told one of her stories about her adventures in the forest in the back of her home, or the Forbidden Forest. Or the times she snuck into Knockturn Alley and all the queer folk she came across. It was nice and oddly refreshing.

That was likely the reason that she kept true to her word and would often seek him out at the Hufflepuff table. that was where they spent most of their time since they had no classes together, and usually either one was busy with homework or she with Quidditch practice to be able to meet in the common room.

Today, however, she had managed to convince him to come with her on a walk through the school grounds. With her she had a large bag of sweets she had gotten from Honeydukes that she was sharing with him.

"Here, try these. They are my favorites." She held out a small box with a chocoball in it.

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Norman was slowly adjusting to the hustle and bustle of this school. While some aspects of it were similar to back home, there really was o comparison for going to a school for magic.

One of the more jarring things that he's had to get used to involved how non confrontational the rest of the school was towards him. Really, Norman should have expected that. The whole reason his hometown treated him like the plague was because he was a wizard. Suddenly being deposited into a wizarding society made him part of the norm. Which was still inherently hard to get used to.

Of course there were a few things about him that still made him weird in comparison to the rest of the school. He'd learned very early what Muggleborn and Mudblood meant. Not to mention he still regularly conversed with the dead and now, thanks to Nepeta's suggestion, also paintings.

But friendship- that was still a thing he was working on dealing with. The idea that people enjoyed his company despite ...well. Him was still startling. But he realized, that it wasn't unwelcome.

"Oh, okay." Norman opened the box and took out the candy, looking at it curiously.

You will find, Norman, that these are chocolate balls full of strawberry mousse and creme. So prepare for deliciousness. Very, very sugary deliciousness.

She points out the lake to Norman as they continue walking, pulling out one for herself.

"I don't now if anyone has told you but there are a lot of creatures in the lake too. There is the giant squid who will pop up occasionally to play or get food furom people. I've also heard that there are supposedly Merfolk all the way at the bottom but I've never seen any of them." That was said with a bit of wistfulness. Nepeta would love to meet some but that would involve actually going into the lake. And swimming out. And then going way deep underneath.

So yea. It would be a while before she attempt that given she still couldn't swim all that well.

Oh, she was right. Norman inspected it a moment longer before taking a tentative bite. He blinked in surprise and shoved the rest into his mouth. That really was good. Was wizard candy magically tastier than normal candy? Was that a thing wizards did?

"I've heard stories. Are merfolk friendly?"

He gave the lake a thoughtful glance, as if he could spot one of them from the surface.

She held out the bag for him so he could take anything at his own leisure. There were a bunch of things in there so be careful about biting in without thinking.

"They're purrty sentient so I think that would really depend on the individual. I figure the ones in the lake must be friendly enough." Of course this was Nepeta saying this so it should be taken with a grain of salt.

"Though I guess it also depends on what kind of mermaid you're dealing with. There are sirens, selkies and merrows that I know of."

Yeah, Norman was careful, if anything. He wasn't about to shove unidentified candy into his mouth. Also he wasn't going to take advantage of Nepeta's generosity and pig out on what she'd spent money on, so he only picked out one other thing from her bag. Oh, a chocolate frog, that looked tasty.

"So, just like in all the myths. There's a- Whoa!"

WHY WAS HIS CANDY HOPPING AWAY FROM HIM.

Nepeta couldn't help but laugh.

"Better chase after it before it gets away! You'll be losing chocolate and a card." She ran after the frog, deciding to give Norman a hand and hoping to cut it off.

"Why is the chocolate alive!" Norman shouted with some amount of exasperation.

Augh, and it was fast too. He all but leaped upon it in an attempt to catch the thing.

That just increased Nepeta's laughter and she picked up her pace focusing on the frog.

"Beclaws it's magic! Why not?" She kept her eyes on the frog, picking up her large robes so they wouldn't drag behind. So focused was she that she didn't immediately register how the world around her was changing. Away fell the green grass and blue sky surrounding the castle, and instead the world altered to become the inside of a house. The frog disappeared and she jerked to a stop, and before she could really thinking through what was happening she spoke.

"Uh. It's not suppose to do that." She looked behind her to see that her new friend was no longer around, and her brow furrowed. "Norman?"

Norman stopped in his tracks when Nepeta said that next bit. What was it doing? It wasn't until he looked up and really got a look at her that he realized something was pretty drastically wrong. Her eyes had gone completely white, and the look on her face was- off.

So was her voice.

"Nepeta? I'm right here. Hello?"

He frowned and cautiously approached her, chocolate frog completely forgotten.

Alas. Norman's words fell on deaf ears, and after the initial surprise it didn't take Nepeta a very long time to figure out what was happening. She cursed under her breath. It had been so long since this had last happened, that a part of her had almost hoped that her visions had left her entirely.

Some color left her face and she visibly tensed, holding out her hands as she might have if blindfolded. She might as well be, for she knew now that while the world around her may appear different her body still existed somewhere back...where was it again? God she always got so cloudheaded whenever this happened.

She shut her eyes tightly, hoping that when she opened them again she'd be back where she was suppose to be, but to no avail. Panic began to fill her because she knew inevitably something bad would happen. She was never one to be gifted with pleasant visions. She swallowed a lump in her throat and took the time to look around. She was in what looked like a...grocery store? Everything seemed to have a fuzzy, discolored look to it which made it a little hard to tell exactly.

That was when she saw them. Two girls, twins, cowering away from a long black shadow and she couldn't help it.

"Look out!" She pointed towards the shadow, eyes widening in fear.

Norman, being left on the outside, had quietly approached her with an expression that went from confused to extremely apprehensive and concerned. What on earth was going on. Could she not see him?

It was unfortunate that he was so close when she shouted. He shrieked, himself, and stumbled back, losing his balance and landing on his behind some feet away from her.

It was the, however, that he realized he'd seen this before- just. Not from this perspective. She was seeing things like he'd seen them. One of the things that gotten him the most flack back home had been the times where he completely lost touch with reality. Where he was transported to another place where inevitably something horrible would happen.

He knew no amount of shouting or shaking would wake her up until it was over, so he got back up and stayed close by- waiting for her to snap out of it.

Nepeta's hands went to her mouth, certain that these two girls were about to suffer a terrible fate when another figure came into the picture. Another man, and Nepeta couldn't help but feel that there was something awfully familiar about him.

It came much too quickly, before she could even begin to consider where she might know him from. The air was filled with screams and then she saw the splatter of blood. She shut her eyes and cringed away, not wanting to see anymore but still the screaming echoed in her ears. She clamped her hands over them and crouched down until it was nothing more than a whisper.

Only then did she dare open her eyes, and what she saw made her heart drop through her chest. Greg sitting at the Hufflepuff table, and an owl swooping over him to drop a letter in his porridge.

The real world came rushing back.

He waited- wincing at each reaction and movement she was making. Whatever she was seeing, it must have been bad. That's usually how these weird visions went. So he was crouched there with her, watching her for any signs of awareness.

When she finally did snap too, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief and stepped back, giving her some space.

"Are you okay?"

It took her a moment to focus in on Norman. If she hadn't been so shaken by what she had seen she might have felt a degree of embarrassment but right now that was the last thing on her mind. She opened her mouth to try and answer her question but found that her voice was lost to her. Redness seeped into her cheeks and around her eyes but surprisingly she managed to keep from crying.

Instead she just swallowed through the lump in her throat and said in a voice barely above a whisper. "S-sorry. I'm...no. Could you get one of my parents?"

She needed to tell one of them what she had seen so they could get to the bottom of it.

Norman bit his lip, but he wasn't sure what else he should do for her. She looked really shaken up.

He nodded, standing back up straight. Should he go running into the castle or should he use the journal?

"Yeah. Is your dad still teaching right now? What should I tell him?"

"No he," she sounded distracted and made a vague gesture, "he should be in his office by now. Just tell him I...Saw something I guess."

She looked to him, expression apologetic. "Sorry about this, Norman. I ruined our day out." It was dawning on her that Norman was taking all this surprisingly well--especially considering when he was both a First year and Muggleborn.

He nodded. Okay, he knew where the office was at least. He had History of Magic after all. That shouldn't be too hard to find.

"Okay."

He paused and decided that maybe using the journal AND looking for him would be a good idea all around. He pulled it out of his robes.

"And you didn't ruin anything. Don't say something like that. Um, visions are really messed up sometimes. I mean, that's what you saw right? Like the world burned away like parchment and you were suddenly somewhere else."

He understood.

She probably should have figured that. It was the easiest explanation for his calmness, and it's not as if there aren't any other Seers in the school. Yet this was the first time she had met one who described what often happened to her so accurately. Seers were as varied as could be, and considering all the different forms of Divination it was hard to find someone who went through the same experiences even in that department. Maybe she just wasn't looking hard enough.

Nepeta looked for a moment before dropping her gaze and nodding.

"Yea. A lot like that. It happens to you too?"

He frowned a little, again and nodded.

"Yeah. I thought ...maybe it was a wizard thing but I guess that's not true. I used to see all kind of things back home. Most of the time they weren't very nice."

When you wake up in the middle of maths screaming about murder, that usually makes people uncomfortable around you.

Nepeta gave Norman an empathetic look. Sounded very much like her own experiences indeed--except she had at least known about the wizarding world at a much younger age.

"It is. Pretty much everyone knows about Seers--that's what they call people like us, and there is even a class for it called Divination but." Truth be told despite her potential Nepeta didn't know very much on the subject. "But they are kinda rare from my understanding. At least true Seers. You get a bunch of phonies which makes this branch one that a lot of people are apprehensive of. In some places they are well respected, in others looked down upon, but either way people are aware of them."

Well, then. He wasn't sure what to make of that. It was nice to have some kind of insight to one of the things he'd yet to have explained to him. It figured he'd still be a wierdo even among wizards. But... at least he wasn't the only one.

Norman hunkered down on the grass and flipped open his journal. He quickly scribbled out a message, wishing he knew the spell to make it private. If anyone got nosy, he would just tell them to mind thier own.

"Okay, I left an entry for your dad. I'll wait for a few minutes before leaving to find him."

"Thanks, Norman. I really appreciate it." This wasn't the first time this had happened in front of someonenelse. Unfortunately, those other times had been in front of Muggle children and so it hadn't gone so well. Having someone who kept calm, believed her, and more importantly had been in her exact shoes was an almost surreal feeling and that more than anything was what kept her calm now.

"I don't really know a lot about it all but my dad...he sometimes sees things too. In fact I am pretty sure I got it from him so if you ever need someone more experienced to talk to he...he would listen."

"Maybe."

He wasn't so sure about talking about this with anyone. Of course, every time he had to remind himself that he wasn't in Bury St. Edmunds anymore. There was a slim chance Professor Vantas was going to turn him away and call him an attention-seeker, given his own apparent status as a seer.

Habits were hard to break, though.

At least he had a word for it now.

Norman flipped his journal back open again, looking to see if anyone commented on it- He paused and the responses before scribbling hasty replies.

"It looks like your dad and your brother are both coming."

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