Beneath shadows in dusk

[Maria Lohenstein]

Sitting astutely on a bench in the Hogwarts Gardens, Maria Hermina Luise Mollinary von Lohenstein was quietly reading a muggle novel. She really enjoyed them, especially the older series, and couldn't understand why Slytherins wouldn't come near it with a ten foot long pike. Honestly, didn't they know what they were missing out on?
Sighing heavily, she folded the book and looked up through the branches, watching the dimming sun of Spring go down, dusk would come soon and it would be prudent to get back to the Ravenclaw Tower, but Maria instead kept on reading

 

[Rapunzel Frost]

Rapunzel threw her hair up in a cute but messy bun. She rummaged through her bag for her prized possession, a book her step-father gave her, Wuthering Heights. Once she came upon it, she snatched it up and a satisfied "ahh" slipped out from her mouth. She jumped down the steps connecting the girls' dorm rooms and the common room with her kitten, Samantha, striding along beside her. She left the entire Hogwarts interior, which meant lots of walking, and it resulted in a pleasant fresh air breath the moment she set foot outside.

She spun on her tip-toes several times, taking in the beauty of the gardens that she was strolling through. Several benches had been placed throughout it but only one had caught her eye because another Ravenclaw was seated upon it, reading a book of some sort. Rapunzel excitedly twirled towards her and sat herself next to the girl. Rapunzel didn't want to be rude so she sat there waiting for the girl to acknowledge her and her curious kitten.

 

[Maria Lohenstein]

All in all it was very wonderful weather today, sunny, but not too cold, with a small breeze to it too. Perfect weather indeed to Quidditch. But oh well, first years weren't exactly allowed on the teams unless they had beyond extraordinary talent, reasonable.

Maria returned to her Austen novel and kept reading, caring little about what time it was. That is, until another Ravenclaw student plunked herself down next to her. Sighing, she wondered what business the Ravenclaw had, nevertheless there was no reason for her to be annoyed at all. So she folded her book and said with somewhat disinterest: "Hello, nice weather isn't it?"

 

[Rapunzel Frost]

Rapunzel could tell that the girl wasn't very pleased with Rapunzel interfering, but she acted clueless anyway. "Oh yes! It's lovely! Are you enjoying it as well?" She kept a glowing smile cemented to her face, hoping to lighten the other Ravenclaw girl's spirit. "I'm Rapunzel, by the way! Rapunzel Frost," She extended her hand for the girl to shake, "And you are...?"

Out of Character:

sorry it's short! I've gone braindead haha

 

[Maria Lohenstein]

Remaining essentially unimpressed, Maria turned her head slightly over to Rapunzel and observed. She wanted to keep things quiet and calmly read on, but polite mannerisms prevented that completely, so she replied: "Yes, it's better than usual... Picton tends to rain a bit during springtimes." A suitable pause, if not mostly for theatric purposes, "Well, I intended to use the nice weather to read a bit, but yes."
Falling silent again, Maria looked on as the introductions came, and she said next, almost like a reflex, while automatically shaking the hand stretched out towards her: "Maria von Lohenstein, it's a pleasure." It wasn't that she actively tried to be polite, it was just the way she've been taught.

 

[Rapunzel Frost]

The girl implied that Rapunzel had ruined her reading plans and Rapunzel instantly felt bad. However, the conversation continued and Rapunzel felt the need to make friends with the girl. Maria sounded quite bored so Rapunzel brought out her bombardment of questions, "Are you enjoying your time here at Hogwarts? What is your family like back home? Muggleborn, half blood, mixed, pure? What's your favorite color? Any pets?" Rapunzel ecstatically questioned any potential friends she came across, and Maria was definately no exception.

 

[Maria Lohenstein]

Raising an eyebrow in amusement, Maria stopped herself from sniggering and replied politely to each and everyone of Rapunzel's questions.
"I do enjoy it here, thank you." She said, with a smile. "I guess home is ok. Mother and father are both working, so they don't really have much time for me, but they do try." Sighing, she pondered on how to reply to the next question, whose subject had gotten her in a fight with her mother and the implications directly lead to Maria never knowing her aunt. "Grandmother was a muggleborn, and grandfather was a pureblood. So I guess that makes me a mixed." She said slowly, with unintentional emphasis on the past tense. Thankfully, a more jolly subject came up next.
"Favourite colour... my favourite colour is blue, the skyblue sort. And I do have a family owl, Harold, he's kind of old. We brought him in Europe actually." Everything replied to, she turned her gaze on Rapunzel, smiled and said: "So, that was me. Well, if you don't mind then, could you please tell me a bit about yourself?"

 

[Rapunzel Frost]

Rapunzel nodded her head to show "welcome" to Maria's "thank you". She listened to Maria's description of her home life and felt a little sorry for her because of her shown sorrow. Rapunzel smiled back at her, thinking she had finally broken through the irritated feeling. "Oh, well I really love it here! It's all very wonderful!! I love this... magic deal!" She paused thinking of what her next question had been. "Umm... my family... Well... I have 11 siblings... Cinderella, Alexzander, Valentine, Rhettland, Maddox, Brinley, Beckett, Berlinna, Kaden, Luna Lark, and Akayla! Plus the daycare kids... Then my mom and stepdad... and I don't know if my biological dad has any other kids or what..."

"My dad was a wizard but my mom's a muggle... so I think I'm half blood...?" Rapunzel asked. She didn't have to think more than a millisecond to answer the next question, "Purple!!!!!! It's such a... royal looking color," Rapunzel smiled than continued with the last question, "Yes, I have a kitten, Samantha that I bought recently. She's so adorable and she's got a ripped ear."

 

[Maria Lohenstein]

Maria looked down to try to hide her astonishment and smiled a little when she heard how many siblings Rapunzel had. Looking up again, she said: "Oh my, you have the hugest of families. It must be great having all those people around you right?" Now sighing, she didn't know what to say, "I wish sometimes I had a sibling. Especially with the way mum is... Alledgedly she's never been the same again ever since she lost her sister - my aunt that is." Maria eventually said softly.

Smiling again, she made a comment on Rapunzel's favourite colour, "Oh yes, of course. Did you know that the Roman Emperors all had their togas lined with purple fabric? Purple was quite expensive then. I suppose that's why it's a royal colour." Smiling, she hoped that she didn't come off as a know-it-all. But then, didn't all Ravenclaws have such a tendency?

Leaning slightly back on the bench, Maria then had an amusing thought, and proceeded to act on it. "I suppose you read most muggle fairy tales right? Like... Rapunzel?" Smiling, or rather grinning as a hint, Maria asked her newfound friend. Then she finally noticed her friend's cat, and bent over slowly to meet it. "Oh she's just adorable, may I pat her please?" Smiling, she prompted Rapunzel.

 

[Rapunzel Frost]

"Oh yea, it can be nice... But even with so many people, sometimes you still feel so alone..." Rapunzel looked off to the side and sighed than turned her gaze back towards Maria. Rapunzel's mouth drooped to a surprised frown, "Oh, that's terrible. I'm sorry!" Rapunzel didn't want to ask about it too early in their friendship, so she showed sympathy and noted that she should try bringing it up some time later.

Rapunzel was interested in the bit of information Maria gave her. She made a mental memo of it than thanked her for sharing it with her. Rapunzel smiled and replied, "Indeed I do. Rapunzel is my favorite. It's the one my mother used to read to me every night before she tucked me in for bed. It was her second favorite fairytale."

Maria bent down towards Samantha, Rapunzel's British short hair, than asked to pet her. Rapunzel happily allowed it than leaned down to pick up Sammy after Maria was done petting her. Rapunzel stroked her soft fur. She was so glad to have made friends with Maria.

"Do you have a favorite drink? Food? Book?" She tried to keep their pleasant conversation going while also learning more about Maria.

 

[Maria Lohenstein]

"Maybe that's true. But true loneliness..." Maria replied softly to Rapunzel, cutting her sentence off sadly. Every Second of May... she hated every Second of May, because on every Second of May, her mother would have a depressive period and lock herself in her room, she knew of course the story behind that date, but she had no intention of divulging it yet. Instead, Maria just nodded politely and rose to curtsey. "Thank you Miss Frost. Codolences appreciated." Smiling weakly, she took a pause and sat down again.

"That's nice Miss Frost. Do you want to know which fairytale is my favourite? Cinderella. That story... I don't know, it has so much in common with my late Auntie. Mum always read it to me before bedtime." Maria said, smiling sadly, "Thank you for letting me petting your cat. She's so sweet."

"Favourite drink? Food? Book? Well... I do like the occasional cup tea sometimes. Food... Any three course dinner with dessert. Book... I don't know, a lot I guess." Chuckling at the end of it, Maria was enjoying this conversation now, more than she usually did.