Chestnut eyes were alight with wonder as she watched the sun descend towards the earth, orange kissing the horizon and licking at the sky all around them. It cast the typical blue with a magnificent, romantic glow, blue and purple woven in amongst the rest of the colours at play above her. Evening. One of the more beautiful times as day, even if there was a strange sadness as dusk fell. It didn't touch her now, her mood was too bright for her to allow it to do such a thing. Then again, Alcyone was rarely sad. She was a cheerful person.

Most of the time. Naturally, no one was without their darker days, but her darker days were typically her being neutral, or "normal". Bah, to be normal, who wanted to not be constantly grinning at the world like she was in on a big secret? Amusement tugged her lips up into a smirk as she wandered the edge of the lake. For once, she wasn't dressed to the nines, but instead clad in a simple sweatshirt to fight against the chill of autumn, and track-pants. The clothing hung loosely off of her figure, hair pulled back in a slightly messy ponytail, and only the most simplistic of make-up adorning her features.

It was as close to natural as Alcyone ever really looked, unless you were fortunate enough to live with her and see her during the holidays, where she would sometimes go days without getting out of her pyjamas (only to shower), and would not wear a drop of make-up. She'd intended to come out jogging, but found that she'd gravitated towards the edge of the lake to watch the sunset. She wasn't afraid of the dark, not on nights where the moon did not come out to play. It was only a crescent now, silhouetted against the orange of the sky, it's pale glow to be her only light source when she inevitably lost track of time and had to walk back to Avalon village in the dark.

Her eyes slipped shut as she reveled in the last moments of daylight, feeling the sun warm her skin even as the wind fought against it to bitterly nip at her cheeks and bring a light flush to the surface. She lifted a hand to cover her face with her mitten-clothed fingertips, shivering slightly as a particularly nasty gust of wind ruffled the fabric of her clothing and brushed her hair in front of her features. Once it died off, she retrieved her wand and bit down on the tip of her mitten, tugging it free of her skin so she could properly hold onto the piece of wood within her fingertips. Muttering to herself, she waved her wand around her until the warming charm took effect, and made a pleased noise as she realised that she ought to have done that earlier. Sometimes, you really don't use that brain of yours, Malfoy, she thought to herself with an amused twitch of her lips. She stuffed her wand back into her pocket and continued to stare out at the horizon, completely at peace with the world. Th wind still brushed by her freezing charm, but it was light regardless, and a breath of heat danced over her skin as the weather was affected by her magic.

With Humphrey approaching from behind, and her mind drifting off on tangents that seemed to move with the wind, she scarcely noticed the other male until he was greeting her with a polite, and slightly playful 'Miss Malfoy'. As she was prone to doing when startled, she let out a surprised noise as she jumped, turned on her heel, and shouted out, "Amortenia!" Yes, she'd been thinking about various potions, and wondering what she'd get a whiff of if she smelt Amortenia now. Last time, she'd smelt something that was an awful lot like the forest, apple pie, and the faintest hint of cologne. A distinct type of cologne though, not the overly expensive kind, but a very earthy one. Blinking, Alcyone smiled immediately as she recognised one of her newer friends. Recovering herself, she quickly dropped into a curtsey, pretending to flourish her skirt though she was not wearing one - which was odd in itself. "Master Williams," she winked playfully at him.

Alcyone felt her cheeks flush a slightly darker pink at the laugh that he gave in response to her shouting out amortenia, shaking her head lightly as she joined in his soft laughter. "I'm sorry, Cae - my brother," she corrected herself. Right, Humphrey probably didn't even know that she actually had a brother, and it wouldn't be obvious from a glance either. He looked more the typical Malfoy, with those aristocrat features of his, cheekbones that could cut you they were so sharp, the dirty blond of his hair, and those piercing grey eyes of his. She was a reddish-brown haired girl with brown eyes, and softly tanned skin, certainly not the typical Malfoy. But a harder look would make it obvious they were related, if you noticed the similarity in bone structure and posture. "Says that I have a habit of shouting out random things when I'm startled. I was thinking about potions," though, now that she thought about it, that cologne...

She didn't think about it, smiling contently at him. Yes, for all of her intelligence, when it came to herself? Alcy was rather clueless, and most certainly obtuse. She stuck her tongue out at him in the most ladylike manner as he pointed out her lack of dress. Whilst she preferred the more feminine of clothing, sometimes she just felt like being super comfortable, and these? These were her comfy clothes. "I know, I'm not even wearing boots," she tapped her sneakers lightly with a chuckle. For some odd reason, when he winked at her, she felt her smile brighten a little more for reasons that didn't feel quite like amusement alone. "I felt like watching the sunset! Well, I actually came out to go for a jog, but I got distracted and thought I'd watch the sun go down instead," she glanced towards the willow tree he pointed out, making a note that it was his favourite spot. "How're classes going for you?" She turned about, ducked down, scooped up a pebble and tossed it out over the surface of the lake. It bounced thrice, then sunk beneath the water's surface.

Alcyone didn't think that it was difficult to startle her - she wasn't an auror in training like her brother, and was scarcely aware of her surroundings. She'd not been exposed to any kind of war, after all, or strife, nor had she cared as much about doing what her parents said as her brother had. She'd stepped every toe out of line and laughed whilst she was doing it, so there was no built-in defense for her. She was warm and bubbly with most people that she met, even those who were rude and closed-off in response. Some shells were just harder to chip at than others. "I'm not difficult to startle." She informed him with a shake of her head, amusement tugging a grin from her lips. Her eyes lit up as he called her by her common nickname, glad to see that he felt that comfortable with her. Though they'd only had a few meetings, they'd spent several hours together the first time to the point that she felt like she knew him a lot better than she did. "Yeah, his name's Caelum, and he's a little more moody than I am. Sometimes, it depends who he's talking to," she chuckled.

She was glad to see that her tongue-poking only dragged mirth from the other male, glad that she could make him laugh. She liked to make people laugh, it was a sign of happiness, and she liked it when people were happy, too. Her moods were very dependent on the people around her, something that her brother said was unhealthy, but she often waved him off when he said things like that. They were typically accompanied with "you're a little vain, Alcy", and she didn't like hearing that either. "Oh yes, and you must be my knight in shining armour to save me from the perils of sneakers!" She snorted with laughter, cheeks flushing at the noise. Woopsies, that was embarrassing. She blinked at him as he beckoned towards her, tossing her pebble across the water and then trotting along after him. She was, naturally, reminded by their 'first' meeting when he did that, though she didn't comment as she sat beside him, their arms touching. She glanced at the contact and bit back a smile. "Same here, it's only the introductory lessons so I don't know how difficult it's going to be - but I think I've got my work cut out for me this year."

A few strands of hair, loose from the ponytail, swirled in front of her eyes as she shook her head with an amused laugh. She lifted a hand to press over her heart in mock-betrayal as she grinned at Humphrey. "You plot such dastardly things against me, Humphrey! How could you?" She teased, nudging his side lightly with her elbow as she dropped the theatrics. "But really, if you pranked me, I'd probably fall for it. Just try not to give me a heart-attack with your wicked tricks, okay?" She supposed that come Halloween next year, she'd have to watch out for the scary things that Humphrey could startle her with. Oh dear, he'd probably be hearing lots of her random thoughts if that were the case. She shook her head lightly as Humphrey inquired as to what having a brother was like - Cae wasn't moody so much as... Double-sided? He could switch his outward appearance with the blink of an eye. "He's wonderful, really. You just don't know what side of him you're going to get sometimes." No, Cae's outward appearance reflected how he felt on the inside in ways that only those that knew him could tell.

For instance, when he became stoic and difficult-to-read, that meant something was troubling him, or he felt uncomfortable with the people at hand. If the two of them were alone, that meant the former rather than the latter. "An... orphanage? I'm sorry to hear that," her eyes widened as she turned her head to look at him, compassion bright in the chestnut depths of her gaze. "Growing up with him was alright, though he felt the pressure of our parents more keenly. They expect more of him, see, 'cause he's the oldest and the male of the family," he was expected to continue the pureblood lineage too, something he had not interest in. That wasn't his fault though - his heart had been captured by a muggleborn from the word 'go'. "I had a sister, too." Her tone dropped from that typically warm tone to a slightly more sombre one at the mention of Capella. "But having a sibling that you get along with growing up is good, because you're never alone."

Alcyone was pleased that he didn't shift away from her when she settled beside him. Even through their clothing, she felt warmed by the contact between their frames, though it wasn't so much because she realised that she was affected by him as it was that she believed it was progress - he'd seemed wary when she'd squeezed his arm last time, but now he looked quite content to have her close to him. "Me? Be shy about something? You'd think you'd have figured out that I'm not at all shy by now," she replied with a laugh, her back rested against the tree. She tipped her head up to look at the stars, the sky now shades of light and dark blue as the sun was swallowed mostly by the horizon. Night had descended upon the duo. Pinpricks of light scattered themselves across the expanse of inky blue above the two of them, and she smiled. Night time was peaceful. "But I'll keep it in mind. If anything, I can have someone to groan too when I can't be bothered doing my work."