A skip and a grin (open)

Dillon sat in the common room humming quietly to herself as she flicked through a fluffy novel. Se sighed and kicked her shoes off, snuggling into the soft sofa and grinning brightly as she came to the climax of her humming tune.

As Dillon finished humming the strum a guitar gently came to her ear. Gouden was sitting nearby, strumming his black acoustic guitar. And then he gently played a chord, the guitar sounding perfectly fine to the untrained ear, though still he began to adjusts its strings to get a near perfect sound. Normally Gouden wasn't the type to interrupt others or be in there way, perhaps he hadn't noticed Dillon's presence in the room.

Dillon heard a guitar strum and turned to see a boy with an acoustic guitar. She lay her book and her lap and smiled. "Ooh! A guitar!" she mused. "Are you any good at playing it?" Dillon asked watching in awe as he adjusted the strings.

"Sorry, am I any good?" he looked up with a skeptical stare. Eventually after nodding to himself he continued "I guess you could say I can play decently, i'm nothing like my brother though. He'd blow me away with his guitar any day." He strummed it again, this time smiling at his instruments tone. I'm taking a lot better care of this instrument then anyone thought I would, Im proud.

"So, what's your name?" he asked with some curiosity while meaninglessly plucking at one of the strings of his guitar.

Dillon smiled and nodded at the boy's reply. I'm sure he's being modest. she thought, doubtful of his response.

"I'm Dillon," she said, closing her book and setting it down on her armrest. "And you are?"

"Gouden, but that's a bit odd on the tongue, so you can call me Gourden if you like." he said giving her a genuine smile. He gave his guitar a rest but he didn't put it down just yet. "It's nice to properly meet you Dillon." For a moment he thought he would offer a hand for her to shake, but that would be terribly awkward and old fashioned, so he refrained.

"I must insist I call you Gouden, I couldn't possibly substitute your name for something else for my own benefit." Dillon said, frowning slightly.

"And it is a pleasure to meet you too, Gouden." Dillon smiled and put her legs up onto the chair. "My cousin plays the guitar. He's terrible though. When I was five I went upstairs and threw his guitar out the window, I only remember because I got into a load of trouble afterwards. My parents were both furious, and his parents too of course."

Gouden couldn't help but smile, it sounded like a playful exchange of siblings if anything else to him. "Im sure you did get in a load of trouble, regardless if your cousin was killing your precious eardrums." he chuckled softly. "Thanks, by the way," he continued she could ask why he was thanking her "for being the first person with an honest I've met."

"No need to thank me for anything," Dillon grinned. "I just don't see the point in lying. Although sometimes you do have to slightly fluff up the truth to avoid hurting people's feelings. Like rather than saying that someone's painting is bad just say 'Oh, well it's not your best work' or 'I think you should consider other hobbies'. I have to do that a lot, I don't like making people upset but I also hate giving people false hope, which in some ways is a lot crueller."

"I understand what you're saying." Gouden strummed his guitar with a half smile on his face. "Sometimes its better to lie for the sake of another then to completely crush them, but sometimes even a lie can go to far." He wasn't sure why but his own statement bothered him to no end. It was a subconscious nagging at the back of his head and his mood changed almost immediately, though he tried to hide it.

Dillon nodded in agreement. "So where are you from?" she asked tilting her head, resting on the back of her chair.

He looked up and sighed as if it was something he was having trouble remembering. "It's probably Italy" he dragged out his vowels a little in probably. At least that's what my mom says anyway. But I just can't remember anything about it; I'm not even that sure myself." He thought to himself for a second and then smiled at her, "What about you?"

"I used to live in London," Dillon said with a smile, slightly missing some of the things that she remembered about London. "But I moved when I was ten. I still prefer London to New York, but I guess it's good that I'm here, I found it difficult to find a school because-" Dillon stopped. She realised she was being too open. She continued speaking, altering her words slightly. "Because there is a very large wizarding population in England."