Small World (Darcy Collins)

Rogan lifted his head up and looked up at the girl who was now staring at him, he hadn't realized that someone had walked up and he was suddenly very self-concious about the fact that he had been talking about himself. She had recongnized the university's name, which made sense, most people that grew up in England knew what Oxford was. Rogan felt his face flush as she questioned him about wanting to go to university; "Uh… Well… I…" Rogan dropped his head once again against the table, before muttering his reply; "Yes… I want to go to muggle university after Hogwarts." Rogan was fully prepared for the humilation he was sure that would follow his confession.

He peaked his head up again, confused by her anxiety; after all, she had just caught him talking to himself about wanting to go to a muggle university. "You don't need to apologize… I guess I was pretty much talking to myself." Rogan smiled softly at the girl, who was nervously fidgetting with her necklace. She looked vaguely familiar to him, but he wasn't exactly sure why. He assumed it was just because they had gone to school together for the past couple of years, based off of her looks he assumed she was about his year, maybe a year ahead. So naturally, he'd seen her face once or twice before in the past six years. "But yes; I wanted to attend Oxford after I graduate… however, I'm trying to home-school myself with muggle subjects while I'm dealing with my own course load… I just don't know how to do it without the use of a time-turner or a spell to clone myself." Rogan smiled softly at the girl, before realizing how rude he had been; he stood up quickly and cleared off a spot on the table for her, "My father would murder me… I'm sorry, I'm Rogan Sawyer. Would you care to join me?" He asked with his most polite voice.

Rogan smiled softly at Darcy, “Yeah it’s possible, Dumbledore is going to write my letter of recommendation and also make up a transcript with the proper muggle subjects on it for me. He said he’s never seen it done, but he’s been more than supportive.” Rogan nodded as she said that her mum taught at Oxford, Rogan suddenly realized why this girl looked so familiar, “You’re Deborah’s daughter?” Rogan asked bluntly, “I’m sorry; I’m sure you hate to hear that question. But your mum, she’s Professor Collins, correct?” Dumbledore had introduced Rogan to Professor Collins when he had originally expressed his interest in going to Oxford; she had been mentoring him and helping him prepare for his entrance exams. She had told him that her daughter was attending Hogwarts as well, and Rogan couldn’t imagine there being more than one oxford professor having a child attending Hogwarts.

“It’s wonderful to finally meet you, Darcy.” Rogan said politely as he offered her a polite smile, he reached down and tried to help her organize the papers, but Rogan was not known for being the most organized individual in the world. He quickly piled a couple of papers into a messy pile on the right side on the desk as he cleared a spot for her. Darcy offered him a granola bar, and he was about to decline but his stomach rumbled once more, “Thank you so much, I missed dinner tonight.” He said softly, a little embarrassed as to why he had missed it. “I got caught up with studying and my essays… I lose track of time sometimes when I’m here.” Rogan smiled sheepishly again and sat back down as he opened up the granola bar and took a bite, he normally wasn’t a major fan of healthy food, but at this moment it tasted delicious. As she asked about his blood status he cocked his head, he was confused as to why it should matter as to whether or not he was muggle born. She explained her reasoning and he smiled softly and gave a slight laugh, “Yeah, I guess only a muggle-born like myself would want to go to college. I’ve just always dreamt about it, I really want to attend oxford; I’ve got the naval academy as a safety school. My Pop really wants me to go there instead, he’s an alumn.” Rogan looked over at Darcy, she was much prettier in person than in the pictures he had seen on professor Collins’ desk. “So, what are your plans after graduation Ms. Collins?”

Summer School. It was a thought that hadn’t even occurred to Rogan, but he knew that by this time it would be too late for him to try to do that, he had already committed his summer… to Darcy’s mum. “Summer school is a brilliant idea, I wish I would have thought about that before...” Rogan shook his head in disapointment and shrugged, “I’m doing a summer internship with your mum this summer. I’m hoping that doing an internship with a tenured Oxford Professor might help score me some brownie points.” He blushed softly as he realized that the tenured professor he was talking about was actually Darcy’s mother, he was afraid that Darcy would think that he was only using Deborah to get himself into Oxford which wasn’t the case at all actually, “But, that’s not the only reason I’m doing the internship… I mean, I love your mother… Wait! Not like, love love your mother, I wouldn’t try to split your parents up or anything… assuming they’re still together… but it’s not bad if they aren’t. I mean, that’s starting to be more common these days right? It’s just that mine are still together… not that it would make me better than you or anything because I’m not… I don’t think anyone is better than anyone… I… I think I’m just going to shut up now.” Rogan blushed heavily and looked down at his papers as he began to fidget with his pen. Rogan hadn’t even really learnt how to use a quill properly and had always preferred to use a muggle pen with his ink well as opposed to a quill. He twirled the pen between his fingers, letting it roll from one knuckle to the next.

As she split the muffin and the bannana in half he blushed again at her and put his hand up to stop her, “Oh no thank you. I can’t impose on you and eat your dinner, that would be so rude of me.” Rogan went to take another bite of his granola bar and realized that he had already finished it. He had been hungier than he originally thought, “Yeah, I missed dinner… and skipped lunch.” He admitted sheepishly, “I was kind of in a hurry to get started on my essays, Thursday afternoons are my only free period and I have this friend who thinks that studying is only for…nerds, and so if I went to lunch he wouldn’t have let me come here to study.” Rogan was of course refering to his friend Jack Campbell, who was the main reason that he had chose to skip lunch and hide in the back of the library. He had known that Jack wouldn’t go to the back of the library to look for him, he had probably just came in the door and called out for him once and then left.

Rogan raised both of his eyebrows and looked up at Darcy, giving her a quick visual inspection to look for any bandages or injuries, but as she explained why she was at the hospital wing, he lowered his eyebrows and smiled once again at Darcy, “A healer? Wow… that’s… that’s quite noble.” Rogan was genuinely impressed that Darcy cared enough about other people to want to devote her entire life to healing others. “I might be a bad person, but I don’t know if I could do that; I’m squemish when it comes to blood.” Rogan blushed again, he hadn’t planned on admitting all of his weaknesses to a girl he had just met, but it seemed to be how the night was working out. As she talked about her time with Madam Pomfrey he smiled and nodded his head, “No, I didn’t know that.” Rogan lied, he had known that but he felt as if admitting that would have made him seem like a know-it-all. Normally, Rogan wouldn’t have cared if he seemed like a know it all, but for some reason he was pretty self-concious about how Darcy perceived him right now. “I’m thinking about majoring in Engineering; I find it absolutely fascinating how muggles are able to work around their lack of magic and invent new ways to make their lives easier. I’d love to study their methods and how they think up…” Rogan stopped himself realizing that he was rambling on about why he wanted to study engineering. “I’m sorry, I guess it’s safe to say I’m a little bit of a nerd…” Rogan blushed heavily, realizing that he had probably just ruint any chance he had with Darcy Collins, which might be for the best considering he was going to be doing an internship with her mother.

Rogan felt relief rush over his body as she told him that he didn’t need to shut up, he was afraid that his rambling about family dynamics in the 70’s would have scarred her off but she seemed to enjoy his rambling and was smiling back at him, which only caused Rogan to blush again. He cocked his head as she talked about the revolutionary 70’s and he smiled brightly back at her, humor had never been Rogan’s strong point. Granted, he was good at getting people to laugh, it was just typically that they were laughing at him. “Yes, my parents are American. They’re together as well, actually. My Father is in the Navy, I grew up all over the States. They’ve been in Rhode Island for the past couple of years, it’s been my favorite so far, but I really liked Florida as well… The winter’s were better at least.” Rogan shrugged, he didn’t mind snow but he definitely preferred the warmth of Florida’s winters to the snow and ice of Rhode Island’s.

Rogan looked at the muffin and the bannana and reluctantly took the muffin, “Well, since you’re not taking ‘no’ for an answer I’ll take the muffin… but I’m sorry if I’m being rude, but I hate Banannas.” Rogan gave Darcy an apologetic look, “They’re mushy and gross.” Rogan stuck his tongue out in disgust before taking a bite of the muffin. Blueberry was his favorite, his grandfather would always make him blueberry pancakes whenever he would visit during the summers and ever since then they’d always been his favorite. Blueberry anything really, but especially pancakes and muffins. Rogan smiled brightly as she mentioned studying together all night, “Does that mean that I’m going to have a study-buddy tonight?” He asked rather hopefully. Rogan typically studied alone but Darcy was a welcome change, she didn’t seem to be judging him about his attempt to go to college after Hogwarts, and to be perfectly honest… she wasn’t too bad to look at either. Rogan watched as she played with her necklace and smiled softly, “You’re necklace, it’s beautiful.”

Rogan laughed as she made another joke, “Well, it’s nice to know that I’ll be in good hands if my hands cramp up on me.” He tilted his head as she took the pen from him a little surprised at the brave move, she seemed shy to Rogan and for her to be willing to just take his pen like that was surprising for Rogan. He smiled playfully at her, “I believe you have my pen, fair lady.” Rogan reached over and plucked her quill delicately out of her hand, his hand brushing across the back of hers for just a brief moment as he did.

Rogan smiled and shook his head, “I assure you, I’m definitely a nerd.” He chuckled softly, he knew that this was exactly the opposite of what Jack would be telling him to say, but considering that Darcy hadn’t turned around and ran away he was assuming that he was being mildly sucessful. “I spend all my free time hidden from my best friend in the library so he won’t prevent me from studying… I definitely think that classifies as Nerd material.” Rogan laughed softly at himself and shook his head as he took another small bite of his muffin.

Rogan shrugged and almost chuckled at Darcy; “Yeah, there was quite a bit of moving while I was growing up.” He hadn’t minded it though, it simply met that he had to find new people to play with and since Rogan wasn’t much of the play-with-others type he would just find himself studying by himself at the base library. “I guess I’ve always been a loner, so it wasn’t a major deal. I’ve always been the hide-in-the-back-of-the-library type.” Rogan shrugged once more as he looked around Hogwart’s massive library and wished he would have had this one on base to go hide in. He wasn’t surprised she’d never been to the states, most of the students at Hogwarts hadn’t been, “Florida is ok. It’s got a lot of old people there; they call it the retirement state.” Rogan smiled softly at Darcy, “Rhode Island is much better, the food is incredible. Well, if you like seafood it is, Do you enjoy seafood?”

Her giggle brought a wide smile across Rogan’s face; it was so carefree and adorable, he’d never heard anything like it before in his life. He had never made a girl giggle like that before and the fact that he had made him want to do it again…and again and again. He’d never felt so relaxed talking to a girl like this before, it didn’t have the pressure that it normally had when he was with Jack or in front of other people. “Well, I look forward to a night of studying and absent minded chatting… together.” He slipped the last word in quickly, almost afraid to toss it in. Rogan looked down at the heart shaped locket, studying the small golden trinket; it was so simple and elegant it seemed to fit Darcy perfectly. Rogan then looked away quickly, afraid that Darcy might think that he was looked at her inappropriately. “I’m sorry, I was staring at your necklace, I swear.” Rogan stuttered quickly, looking down at his books afraid that of what she would think about him now.

Rogan watched confused as she dropped the pen, he didn’t know if it was her attempt to give him his pen back or not. Rogan took a quick breath picked up the pen and slid it back into Darcy’s hand before wrapping her fingers back around it with his hand, “Please, keep it. I have plenty, and it gives us a reason to have to study together again, right?” He asked hopefully, surprised at his own bravery.

Rogan laughed and shook his head, “I’ve not had to make a trip to the hospital wing so far in my Hogwarts career… I didn’t realize what I was missing.” Rogan winked awkwardly at Darcy, it was a gesture that he’d seen Jack use countless times on different girls and it always seemed to make them swoon, so Rogan figured that it was at least worth a shot with Darcy Collins. “So what subject are you studying tonight, Ms. Collins?”

Rogan smiled coyly as he leaned forward with Darcy as if she was telling him a secret, he smiled and laughed slightly “That’s actually the exact reason why I picked it. Get out of my head already, would you?” Rogan shook his head and leaned back, a little disappointed that his close proximity with Darcy had been so short lived. He took a peak over at the restricted section and then back at Darcy, “Have you ever been in there?” He asked curiously. He assumed that most students had gone in there, Rogan had only gone in there once and it had been with professor Slughorn to retrieve a book about a South China potion that allowed wizards to clone themselves for 23.5 hours. The potion had been an epic failure, they had created miniature versions of themselves cross-bred with some of the house elves that did nothing but apparate all-around the room for the entire 23.5 hours. Rogan chuckled as he remember the incident before quickly stopping, realizing that he would look weird to Darcy if he just randomly started laughing. “Hmmm.” Rogan made a face as if he was deep in thought and tapped the knuckle of his index finger against his pursed lips a couple of times, “Well, fish is technically seafood. I’ll allow it… this time.” Rogan narrowed his eyes before laughing playfully.

Rogan felt his heart skip a beat as she said the word “together”, he was surprised by his cardiac reaction to her voice but he assumed that it was fairly normal. It was an incredible feeling and he was now starting to understand why Jack chased so many girls. Rogan turned an even darker shade of red with embarrassment, it wasn’t until she reached over and took his left hand in hers and placed the locket in his hand that his blush began to fade. Rogan could feel the smoothness of her hands brush against his hands, the feeling was… intoxicating. Rogan looked at the small gold trinket and turned it over in his fingers before opening it and looking at the picture inside of it. It was of a lady and her cat, but the cat looked vaguely familiar… Rogan just dismissed it as the picture being small and all cats looking alike. He knew that it wasn’t her mother, because he had met her mother on several occasions. “You’re grandmother I’m assuming?” He asked politely before closing it back together. Rogan inspected it one last time before standing up from his seat and walking behind Darcy, he delicately moved her hair out of the way, causing the heavenly scent of her shampoo to float up to his noise and fill his nostrils, he then draped the golden chain around her neck, and skillfully clasping it behind her neck, his fingers brushing against the bare skin on the back of her neck as he did. Rogan politely walked back over to his chair and sat down.

Rogan bit down softly on his bottom lip as she asked him about meeting again, perhaps he had assumed too much and she did not actually want to be here with him and he was just occupying her favorite table after all. “Yes, again… I mean… if you’re not too busy… Because I’d understand with your training and all… I just… uhhh… Never mind, it was silly.” He was stuttering over himself and barely able to form a cohesive sentence as he talked to her. Rogan faked a look of shock as she talked about suckering him out of a pen, and then raised her quill back to her; “Perhaps it was me, who suckered you. After all, I have your quill.” Rogan retorted back at her with a playful smile. As she agreed to meet him again Rogan thought he could do backflips here in the library, but he would never disgrace this place of higher learning with such a disgraceful act. “Then it’s a…uh… date?” Rogan swallowed as he said the word, afraid that he might be over reaching.

Rogan waved off the tissues, “Uh…no… I think I got it… thanks.” he muttered quickly, realizing that Jack’s famous wink was pointless and apparently looked just as silly to girls as it did to Rogan. His eyes perked up as she talked about Transfiguration and he smiled wider as she talked fondly of McGonegall; “I love her! She’s my head of house, so naturally we have a fairly close bond; She tried to help me learn to become an ani-magi last year but I couldn’t grasp it. I guess there are a couple of students that can already make the transformation. Can you believe that? How cool would it be to be able to just transfigure into an animal whenever you wanted to get away for a couple of hours?” Rogan’s eye lit up as he realized he was ranting about something that Darcy probably had no interest in. “Sorry… I do that sometimes. You know, just rant about a random topic.” He swallowed hard and blushed a deep crimson as he returned his focus back to his muggle books. “For me, I’m starting with History. It’s difficult because the muggles have a much different view than us wizards… Sometimes I wonder how much history is just a matter of opinion rather than fact. For example, the founding fathers are heroes back home in America, but from Britian’s point of view… they were nothing but terrorists that destroyed British property.” Rogan shrugged, hoping that he wasn’t ranting or being boring yet again to Darcy; before turning his attention back to his books.