Lindsay didn't realize that she was supposed to have an interesting reason for crossing the bridge. If she had, she probably couldn't have thought of one – not without blushing and stammering on about how un-creative she was. Her reason for being on the bridge was boring, and her destination was even more boring. “I was just going back to my dormitory and I was going to look over the transfiguration,” she answered. Nigel was in transfiguration with her and Pete, so he had the same impossibly difficult assignment to work on as she did. Maybe he was agonizing over it, too... but probably not. Lindsay did enough agonizing to cover every student in sixth form.  

”I didn’t mean that I was avoiding you.”

“Oh, sorry. I just, um... I wanted to make sure,” she responded a tad awkwardly, slightly relieved to know that she wasn't being given a subtle hint that he wanted her to get lost. Lindsay could certainly have understood if he did want to be alone. It may have seemed counter-intuitive that Pete Watkins' girlfriend was the sort of person who occasionally got overwhelmed by too much company, since Pete was equal to about five people all by himself, but it was the truth. When Lindsay wanted to be alone she did was came naturally and went out running. She went almost every morning without fail, and occasionally during the afternoon or early evening if she was feeling too overwhelmed or emotional or weighed down to deal with other humans. She didn't think standing on a bridge would help her when she was in one of those moods, but she wasn't Nigel Wright... thank goodness. If she lived in Gryffindor tower she'd probably spend 3/4ths of her free time running, just to escape the noise of that place. 

She didn't mind talking now, though. Nigel wasn't one of those grating Gryffindors who could exhaust a girl after just one conversation – usually. The ghost line of discussion wasn't too bad. She didn't think about ghosts much, so it was actually sort of interesting to ponder their motivation. She wasn't sure why Nigel would act so interested in ghosts one minute and then sound like he didn't care a minute later, though. Lindsay thought talking to the ghosts themselves was a fairly clever way to get to know about them. They definitely would know more about being a ghost than she did, seeing as she was alive and probably wasn't going anywhere for at least a hundred years. The fact that Nigel though talking about death was relevant meant that he had some different priorities right now, and for some reason she found that worrisome. 

“No, not yet. But I expect it to happen any day now. Sometimes it’s just fate, I guess. If something’s meant to happen, there’s not much anyone can do to stop it.”

She had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, and she wasn't sure if she was supposed to or not, either. She was having trouble deciding whether or not it was more awkward to ask him what he was talking about or pretend to know already, so she decided not to do either. “Do you have, um... hunches sometimes?” she asked him, glancing over at him with some interest. “I do - Only sometimes, though. I just get this sort of feeling that something's going to happen, and sometimes it does. Like that, do you mean?” The truth was, Lindsay was excellent at predicting doom because she had a tendency to panic and turn any thought into a self-fulfilling prophecy – she rarely realized it, though. “Do you know what sometimes makes me feel better?” she asked him. “Sometimes I do my numbers. If you do a really good arithmancy reading then you can sometimes find really good news in there,” she explained, looking sincere. What she didn't mention was that she was likely to find that good news nestled in a sea of bad news, and that very often she ended up in a worse mood when she was done. It was easy to forget that sort of thing when trying to cheer someone up, though. “I can do yours for you one day, if, um, if you want me to,” she offered, “It's easy for me.” 


we don't realize our faith in the prize unless its been somehow elusive
how swiftly we choose it - the sacred simplicity of you at my side