Closed A Rose With Two Thornes

[Amaryllis Thorne]

It was all so overwhelming, and Amaryllis couldn't stop staring at the stack of books on the table in front of her filled with information that she did not know. It didn't seem fair that she was expected to keep up with kids who'd grown up in the magical world and likely already knew a lot of what was in those pages. They could have at least offered an Introduction to Magic class, or maybe brought her and other kids like her to the castle a few months early to give them some sort of magical foundation before they were thrown into classes with their magical peers. Of course there was no way Amaryllis would ever complain about such a thing, but no one could stop her from thinking it.

The first year dragged her History of Magic textbook over and turned to the next chapter of her studies. At the very least, she figured she should probably familiarize herself with the history of magic before tackling more of the present. Her attempts in Charms class earlier that day were less than impressive. After a few minutes of reading the same paragraph five times over, not absorbing any of what it said, Amaryllis dropped her head. "What am I even doing here? There had to be a mistake," she spoke aloud as she shook her head back and forth.

 

[Caleb Thorne]

Caleb had spared not time and was quickly getting familiar with the castle. So far he had spent most of his free time on the lookout for neat places to hide or any kind of inconspicuous ways he could sneak out if he wanted to, but he had been on his best behavior since coming to school. It was harder to get into too much trouble if you made a good impression on professors and prefects, and besides he hadn't been there long enough to get too bored yet. Today he decided to take a detour to the student lounge to see if he could find anyone he knew, or maybe bother his brother if he was around. Caleb frowned when he entered, disappointed to see that it was fairly empty and only a few students seemed to be hanging around. But he was already here and decided to check it out anyways. He only made it a few steps before he heard someone say something. With an eyebrow raised he looked and saw a first year like him looking distressed while being surrounded by books. "That's a good question. Are you studying already?" he asked before chuckling and sitting down across from her. He rested his chin in his hands and looked at her curiously. "I didn't think it was allowed to assign homework so soon." he said somberly as he looked at the books again.

 

[Amaryllis Thorne]

Amaryllis jerked up from her self-pity at the sound of another voice in front of her, recognizing a boy from her classes. The corner of her lip pulled up and she shook her head. "I think they should give us at least a month to settle in before they start assigning work." Amaryllis didn't think they'd been assigned too much just yet, but that hadn't stopped her from reading ahead. She sighed and looked at the stack of books beside her. "I just figured I'd get a head start. I don't know any of the history of magic anyway, so I figured this would be a good place to begin." She took a couple seconds flipping back the pages in her book and pointed to a drawing of a few angry goblins. "Did you know that there was a goblin rebellion back in the 1600s? I didn't even know goblins existed two months ago." Surreal. There was no other word to describe her life now.

 

[Caleb Thorne]

Caleb laughed at her suggestion. "I don't see anything wrong with that." he said and leaned back in his chair. "You sound like my sister." he groaned when she mentioned reading a head for class. "Isn't that the whole point of our History of Magic lessons? I don't think you need to worry too much about that." he said, hoping it would make her feel better. She seemed quite stressed out about magic and he couldn't really understand why. He had grown up almost exclusively in the magical world and could probably count his interactions with muggles on one hand. But he guessed if he had just been send off to some muggle boarding school he would probably be a bit out of sorts as well. "I...didn't know that either." he admitted slowly, just because he lived in the magical world it didn't mean he was an expert on history. "I think I've met a goblin once." he offered, as he recalled a blurry memory from his childhood when he had gone to work with his father once. "So...were you raised by muggles or something?" he asked curiously after a pause. He had no idea if it was a rude question but he didn't know how else to ask.