Ric's Lucky I Owe Him One

Stark lounged backward across the bench, looking 17 as always, dressed in jeans and a tshirt. Robes had always been troublesome in his opinion, and it was much easier to move without all the fabric. Crossing his legs at the ankles - quite unconcerned that he was taking up most of the long bench - Stark continued to flip through the old Quibbler gossip section, grinning boyishly at some of the things that they had come up with. The Headmaster as a Unicorn? The Highmaster's son being a biker boy? Popov's secret business in vegetable selling?

Chuckling softly, he flipped the page to the next story, turning the magazine upside down to read it properly.

The last thing she remembered correctly was being at her cottage, flipping through the muggle tv for something decent to watch when an owl had arrived. Next thing she knew, Lila was on board the Hogwarts Express when she had offered to help at the wizarding school. It was somewhat of a scenery change but hardly. Hogwarts and England had been her school and birthplace so the similarity of it all put a small smile on her face.

Besides, things were sort of slow back in Sweden and Finland so she thought of it as an escape.

Lil had left her luggage in another compartment, not really caring if any of her clothes would be stolen. And if they were, she'd use it as an excuse to get out of the castle and go shopping.

Standing in front of a compartment that was occupied by the familiar face of the seventeen year old that would never grow up, Lila opened the door roughly and leaned onto the opening.

"I see Peter Pan has been offered a teaching position," Lil smirked as she crossed her arms and watched Stark. "Dragged here too?"

"Teach? Me? Here? Definitely not. I just seem to have misplaced my shadow." He grinned boyishly at the magazine. "I'll be off once it's been returned." He frowned suddenly, looking up at her and actually looking worried. "I think the Headmaster... might have stolen it. I need my shadow! How am I to get back to Neverland if- Wendy!" He stood quickly - much too quickly for a human, not that he'd noticed - and ran to her, wrapping his arms around her, as he'd just realized who it was.

"Wendy, there you are! I thought I'd never see you again! Ever since I left you at home that one night-" There was something of the truth in his words. "Wendy! You've gone and grown up without me!" He pouted, then smirked when he realized he was still relatively taller than her. "Well... maybe not grown..." He grinned again. "More like aged I guess..."

"Isn't this the third time you've misplaced your shadow Peter?" She mocked as she placed one of her hands on her hips and pointing at him in a Wendy-like way. "Oh Peter, must you do this all the time? Loosing your shadow all over the place and blaming other people on in? Shame on you Peter!" She grinned as she was engulfed into a hug at a speed too fast for her to comprehend, "You boys always like to shower me in hugs, don't you?"

"Oi, I'd rather much like the word grown more than aged," Lil pouted as she crossed her arms, the Peter Pan and Wendy banter going over he head in an instant. "Not all of us can stay the same age with the same image forever, you know."

Finally taking a seat in the compartment, she grinned.

"So if you're not teaching, what in the world are you doing here?" Lila joked, a false dramatic tone in her voice.