A Sweet Escape

Once they left the library, Natalie had Landon start heading up instead of down. She didn't want to tire him out too badly, so she slid down off his back and walked beside him instead until they reached the seventh floor. "One of the house elves told me there's a secret room up here," she whispered to him excitedly. She didn't know where it was, nor did she know if Landon already knew about it. After all, his dorms were up here somewhere so he was more likely to have heard of it or found it than she was. She wanted to find it, even if it was just to see what it looked like or to find out why it was so special that it was a secret.

A room that could change depending on what the seeker wanted? How exciting! Natalie grinned up at Landon as he kissed her head and put his arm around her. Now to think of what she wanted the room for... there were so many options that she could hardly setting on one thought long enough to consider it. She grinned again when she made a decision. "So where is this super secret room?" she asked.

Natalie nodded. She walked past this area every time she went up to the Astronomy Tower or the Divination Tower for class, but she'd never once noticed that one patch of wall was more special than the rest.

When they reached the area that Landon was talking about, sure enough there was a door there. Excitedly, Nat took Landon's hand then opened the door and went inside.

Inside was a perfect replica of the living room of her house, right down to the muggle photographs of her and her sister. "This is amazing!" she said as she dragged him further into the room to inspect it. When she was satisfied that every detail was perfect, she turned around and kissed Landon soundly. "This is incredible, I'm so glad you knew how to get in here," she said before kissing him again.

Not that there was a whole lot of space between them on the couch to begin with, but Natalie snuggled as close to Landon as she could. She kissed him again, gently and slowly before pulling back and sighing slightly.

"Lando, am I date-able?" she asked him as the thought popped into her head. She'd thought that she was but no boys besides Landon ever went anywhere near her, almost like she had a disease or they were afraid to talk to her or something. It puzzled her beyond belief.

"Yeah? I just wondered because I don't really talk to any guys besides you and couple of first years. They just don't seem to like be very much for some reason, and I was just wondering if it was because of me," Natalie explained.

She decided it was best to just brush it off. Boy's were weird. Landon was the exception to that. She kissed him again lightly in thanks for what he'd said about her; it really did make her feel better about herself.

Natalie laughed lightly. "I don't mind, you can cramp my style all you like," she said. She was much happier just hanging out with Landon than she thought she would be if she was hanging out with anyone else. "This year"s first years are actually pretty sweet. They're very helpful," she grinned, thinking of how she had drafted a few of them into helping her figure out if the Loch Ness monster would like cupcakes.

Natalie giggled as she tried to escape from Landon's relentless tickling. "I give in! You win!" she gasped between giggles. She gladly returned his kiss because it meant that her torture was over.

"Oh, no no no, I will be cramping your style right back. If any of the girls here are going to try to get with you, they're going to have to go through me first. I have to make sure they're good enough for my Lando," she said with a firm nod.

She supposed she could understand what Landon was saying, but she hadn't had a chance to help the first years with anything beyond how to get into the kitchens yet. "They were helping me find out what the Loch Ness Monster likes to eat," she said brightly.

"Don't be silly," Natalie giggled again. "He eats cupcakes. I'm not sure how though, since he doesn't have any fingers. And I'm pretty sure that they'd get soggy underwater, so maybe he comes to the surface to eat them," she pondered aloud. She bit her lip as she thought. Maybe she would just have to go visit the Loch Ness Monster someday and find out the answers to all of her questions for herself...

"Cupcakes for dinner, pretty girls for dessert, everyone knows that Natalie. Like I said, be careful, he might me hungry after his cupcakes and go after the pretty girl that gives them to him." Landon wrapped his arms around Natalie and held her close to him before kissing her on the top of his head. From what he heard this was a pretty normal thing for best friends to do. It was nice to have her in his arms though, he couldn't deny he liked it.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Natalie replied, giggling at his insistence that the Loch Ness Monster would want to eat her.

She smiled and snuggled in closer as Landon wrapped his arms around her. She loved their cuddle time. She placed a soft kiss on his neck since she didn't have enough wiggle room to reach his cheek or his lips, not that she minded, because she didn't. She loved being held like that because it made her feel wanted by someone who wasn't obligated to love her like her family.

"You're really comfy, you know that?" she grinned.

"You'll be the biggest and strongest out of anyone here, and that way whenever someone gives me trouble, I can have you go beat them up for me," Natalie giggled.

She got a sudden, bizarre mental image of Landon with biceps bigger than his head, which made her laugh even more at the sheer ridiculousness of the image. "Just do me a favor and don't get too muscley, okay? Because then you might hurt me by cuddling like this."

"Hmm..." Natalie pretended to think about it. "I'm going to go with 'no' on that one, but thank you for the offer," she stuck her tongue out at him before returning his kiss.

She thought for a minute that what she said might have made him uncomfortable, which she hadn't meant to do, but she couldn't think of a better word for what they were doing and it was just friend-cuddling anyway, so it wasn't a big deal in her mind. She just lucked out in getting a best friend who was content to lay there and hold her.

Natalie laughed. "No I would rather you not beat me up. This is much better than getting a black eye or something..."

She gave a soft yelp as Landon started to tickled her again. "No fair! No fair!" she gasped for air and was glad when he kissed her because it meant that her torture was over. She was taken aback by his question as it was not something that she had been expecting.

"You mean for us as in you and me or us as in us?" she asked. "I suppose either way, I see us as being best friends forever, but beyond that I don't really know." Even though she took Divination, Natalie wasn't very focused on the future. She was much more content to live in the moment.

Natalie nodded satisfactorily, though there was something that she definitely wasn't telling him. She did have at least a small idea of what she wanted to happen, she knew that she wanted him to play a big part in her life after Hogwarts, although it looked like just how big of a part was going to depend on him making it happen.

In order to stop herself from thinking too much about something that might not happen, Natalie reached up and kissed Landon again, more firmly than they had been. After all, just because they were friends didn't mean that they couldn't test the boundaries a bit. She placed a hand gently on on his arm and tugged on his lower lip lightly with her teeth. "I'm a lion, rawr!" she whispered to him teasingly before resuming her kiss.