<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/d/dc/Corey_Gryff_2.png)</div><strong>NAME:</strong>Corey Dwyer (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=284413.msg14005990#msg14005990)<br/><strong>WEARING:</strong>Gryffindor pajamas and a robe<br/><strong>Blood Status:</strong>Half-Blood<br/><strong>Wand</strong>: Sycamore, Thunderbird Feather, 10 inches<br/><strong>House/Year</strong>: Gryffindor - Second<br/><strong>Date</strong>: Friday, 1 September 2017<br/><strong>Time/Day:</strong>Late evening<br/><strong>LOCATION:</strong>Gryffindor Common Room<br/><strong>CONTENT:</strong>Fire and thoughts<br/><strong>TAGGING:</strong>Grace<br/><hr/>After another huge dinner in the Great Hall, and his first time watching a Sorting from the tableside instead of the stool, Corey was feeling surprisingly sleepy as he made his way back to the Gryffindor common room.  Strangely quiet, especially after spending the meal comparing some of the new first years (too few of which had made into his house) and catching up on the summer with Grace, Corey simply plodded along the wide castle halls, his attention more on getting to his room than on the moving, chatting painting on the walls, or his fellow students.  Was he simply seeing Hogwarts as old hat already, in just his second year?<br/><br/>No, Corey thought as they began climbing the moving staircases that would take them all up to their tower House.  He knew what it was exactly.  Just like last year had never ended, Corey was right back into his head about Grace, just as she very much still saw him in the friendzone.  Sighing internally, Corey glanced over at the pastel haired girl, and wondered how it was that no one had ever written a manual on how exactly one got out of the dreaded friend-zone.  Surely it was a common problem!  As he waited for the portrait to swing open and he made his way inside, Corey tried not to wonder if it was because over the course of history people had discovered that once you were in the Zone, there was no getting out!<br/><br/>Pleased to see the common room at last, Corey let his smile grow as it willed, although he could not help his eyes straying to the stairs that led up to the boys sleeping compartments.  Looking over to where the tired students splitting by gender had already separated him from Grace, Corey made a hugely exaggerated yawn, pointing at the stairs, and heading up.  He knew Grace would understand what he meant.  They could connect on most levels it seemed, just not  the ones he wished for.   Climbing the stairs, Corey made his way with easy familiarity to his room, wasting no time in opening his trunk, his pajamas and robe already right on top for easy access.   Changing into his Gryffindor pajamas and robe, Corey gave his teeth a quick brush before heading back to flop onto his bed.<br/><br/>Laying back, Corey stared upwards at the red and gold canopy of his bed, replaying the conversations on the train and at dinner, and sadly not finding a lot of hope for the future in them.  This year was supposed to be different, right?  He thought, something he had been telling himself all summer.  It seemed to him though, that things were never going to change, not unless he found some bold way to do it.  But, how?  He certainly didn’t want to lose a friend.  Scowling, Corey came to the realization that he was not going to be falling asleep anytime soon, and that if he was going to be awake, he might as well enjoy the fire instead of the sound of his classmates snoring.<br/><br/>Rising up from his bed, Corey made his way silently down the stairs to the common room, finding a conveniently placed couch by the fire as a few older students passed him on their way to bed.  Laying back, Corey put his feet up as he watched the flames, determined that one way or another, he’d be the first ever to think his way out of the friendzone!<br/>