Burning Energy

[Fleur van Houten]

Fleur was bored. Sure, she had homework she technically could be doing, but she didn't feel like it. Right now, all she wanted was to move. She had the urge to run, jump, maybe even fly. But as she looked out of her dormitory window after waking up, she had been dismayed to see rain spattering the glass. Even though spring was definitely starting to warm things up, it still wasn't always the best weather. The girl had contemplated going outside anyway, even thinking she could use the shelter of the trees as an excuse to peek into the forest, but had decided against it. The idea of wet clothes wasn't very appealing, and she didn't enjoy the feeling of running around in the rain.

So instead, she had decided to train inside. The energy coursing through her still needed an outlet, after all. Putting on track pants and a simple shirt, Fleur had taken off from the Gryffindor Common room at a fast pace. It was still early in the morning, so not many students wandering in the corridors. Fleur decided the stairs of the North Tower would give her a good work out, and before long she was running up the steps with her red hair bouncing in a ponytail behind her. Once at the top, she had to take a moment to catch her breath before turning around and running back down. It wasn't as good as running outside, but at least it got her blood pumping.

 

[Stella Wright]

Stella smiled and hummed softly to herself as she started on the steps up to the North Tower. She was on her way to the owlery, to post the letters home she'd written last night. It didn't seem entirely fair to the owls to send one out in the rain, but she had woken up this morning with the insatiable urge to do something, some physical activity that belied the rain coming down outside. Of course, there were plenty of things Stella could think of to do inside, but she didn't want to delay sending these letters. Really she needed another science project to do, but she hadn't thought of one she'd be allowed to do yet this year.

Lost in her own thoughts, Stella didn't notice the girl pelting down the staircase until she was almost on top of her. "Woah!" They almost collided, and Stella flattened herself against the wall to allow the other girl some space. "Sorry about that! I really wasn't paying enough attention." Now she thought about it, Stella really should have registered the pounding of footsteps, or the flash of the girl's bright hair. A scientist should pride themselves on their observational skills, and it seemed that today hers really weren't up to scratch.

 

[Fleur van Houten]

It was as if running cleared Fleur's mind, making her feel better almost immediately. She was so glad to be moving, even though she wished she was outside. She could almost picture herself flying instead, maybe on the bac of a dragon. But she was snapped out of that fantasy when she nearly collided with a brunette girl she recognized from class. Fleur came to a stop, nearly stumbling down with the remaining momentum. She ended up one step lower than the Ravenclaw, bracing herself against the wall. Looking up, she gave the girl a sheepish grin. "Oops. I should probably say sorry instead, I kind of lost track of where I was." She said, though she wasn't sure how much sense that made. "I wanted to go running but it's raining too hard outside. But when the urge strikes, you gotta do it you know? Like how some sharks have to keep moving to stay alive." She had read a bit about that during the holidays, and was always eager to share tidbits of interesting animal facts. Whether they were regular animals or magical creatures hardly mattered. "Are you okay?" She asked, a little belatedly.

 

[Stella Wright]

Stella chuckled at the other girl's reaction. "Hey, don't worry about it. I know the feeling." How many times had Stella been so lost in thought, so fascinated by something she'd been reading or something that had happened in class, that she'd forgotten to pay any attention to what she was doing? Now she came to think of it, she'd met Phoebe that way as well. Maybe she would make another new friend today. "Yeah, absolutely." Stella had never gone running in her life, but she could relate to the importance of doing something while you were in the mood for it. "I felt a bit the same myself this morning, actually. Just had to get up and do something." She gestured with the letters in her hand "I chose sending these, though." Stella was curious about the shark quip, but didn't know how to respond to it, so she settled for saying, I'm fine, don't worry about it.

 

[Fleur van Houten]

Fleur smiled at Stella, glad to hear the girl understood what she had been doing. She had half-expected to be scolded, but at least that didn't appear to be the case. "I feel like I should know your name, you've been in classes with me for three years." She said candidly. "Sorry, but I don't." She added with a small shrug. She wasn't too embarrassed about this fact, as she was pretty sure she had never talked to the girl before. Fleur hardly paid attention in class, so missing a few names wasn't too strange. The Gryffindor couldn't help being a bit disappointed at the girl's lack of response to the shark tidbit. She thought maybe a Ravenclaw would appreciate some sort of fact. She looked over at the letters. "Who are you writing?" She asked curiously, not really thinking about if it was rude to ask that of a near stranger. "I'm Fleur, by the way. Glad you're okay."

 

[Stella Wright]

Stella nodded thoughtfully. ”Actually, yeah, I don’t know yours either,” she admitted. ”Guess neither of us are very good at names.” Stella was usually too busy paying attention to her classes to take much notice of her classmates, with the exception of occasional chats with those she was already friends with. "I'm Stella," she added, smiling. Stella had never felt she was very good at small talk, but maybe they could move beyond that and she could make a new friend. Either way, it was nice to have a conversation with someone new. "My family back home," Stella replied, not at all taken aback by the question. "One for my parents, one for my little sister - she's coming to Hogwarts next year."

 

[Fleur van Houten]

Fleur wasn't surprised the other girl didn't know her name either. Sure, they shared classes, but besides that they didn't have anything in common. Fleur was glad to be talking to her, as she felt like she should get to know others in her year. She grinned when the girl introduced herself as Stella. "Flower and star, huh?" She said, cracking a joke about their names. "That's kind of funny." Fleur didn't put a lot of thought into names and meanings, but the meaning of their names wasn't very difficult to know. She wasn't surprised to learn the girl was writing family, but perked up at the mention of a sister coming to Hogwarts next year. "No way! So is my little brother!" Fleur said with a grin. "They'll be in the same year like us. Maybe it won't take them three years to meet." She paused, frowning a bit. "Though, knowing Lars it'll take him three years to meet anyone. He's the shyest person I know. What's your sister like?" An idea was brewing in her head, but she had to get a bit more information from Stella first.

 

[Stella Wright]

Stella chuckled. "Yeah, I guess it is." Stella didn't often think about the root of her name; it was her name, and she was too accustomed to it to give it much thought. When she did, though, it always amused her. "Well, I'm really into stars. Are you interested in flowers?" She asked half as a joke, and half out of genuine curiosity about what this girl was interested in. Even if her interests didn't include flowers, the question was likely to spark some discussion of what they were. Stella grinned back, enjoying Fleur's enthusiasm. She was always keen to meet someone who could get excited about things the way she did, even if they were different things. "Oh, cool!" She laughed, then nodded slowly. "I don't think she's that bad, but Nell is pretty shy too. She's really sweet, and, um, she's a big bookworm."

 

[Fleur van Houten]

Fleur was glad her silly comment about their names had made the girl laugh, though she was surprised to hear Stella actually really liked stars. Maybe she was one of those people that liked Astronomy? Fleur wasn't really, but there was no reason to get into that. "Man, your parents must be seers or something." She joked, grinning. "Or did you start getting interested in stars once you knew what your name meant?" Either outcome of that question was kind of funny to the girl. "I'm not really into flowers, though. Well, maybe snapdragons." She joked, then realized Stella would have no context for that joke. "I'm really into dragons." She clarified with a small shrug. The news about their younger siblings being in the same year starting next year made Fleur smile, especially when Stella revealed her are was also shy. "I never said he was bad, just that I didn't know any people that were more shy than him." Fleur said with a small shrug. "Maybe I mostly know outgoing kids." She didn't need Stella to think Lars was a total weird kid, especially if her idea was going to work. "What if we set them up as friends? That way they each have someone they know at the start of the next year. I think Lars could really use something like that." She said, smiling hopefully at the brunette.

 

[Stella Wright]

Stella stared off into the distance for a moment, distracted by the question. She had never given any thought to whether her name had sparked her interest, or how it had come about. She'd been fascinated by space for as long as she could remember; where it had started was lost in the mists of time. Maybe her parents would know. Maybe she should ask them. "I don't know," she said slowly. "They definitely aren't seers, but it does seem like a strange coincidence. My mum's a scientist, that might have something to do with it - both the name and the interest, I mean." She glanced back to Fleur when the Gryffindor said she was into dragons, smiling, though not so much at the rather feeble joke. "Oh, cool. Dragons are cool." Anything you could do science about was potentially interesting in Stella's opinion, and dragons were certainly fascinating creatures. "Hey, do you know how dragon flame works?" It was something Stella had wondered about before, since she couldn't think of a way in which it would be physically possible for a creature to breath fire out of its mouth and not be hurt by it. "Oh, I didn't mean bad in that way, just that I don't think Nell's as shy as that," Stella added, hasty not to cause offence. Although she had heard that Gryffindors had a reputation for being outgoing, so maybe her brother wasn't all that shy after all. "Ooh, I like that idea." Stella had been meaning to introduce Nell to her friends, and show her around the castle, but it would be even better for her to know someone her own age. "I think Nell could do with that too. What's Lars interested in?" Stella liked the idea, but it would only work if their respective siblings had something in common.

 

[Fleur van Houten]

Fleur could tell her joke about the girl's name made her think, even though she hadn't really meant it that seriously. Coincidences happened, right? Fleur herself wouldn't think much of it, but she supposed she wasn't a Ravenclaw for that very reason. When Stella said her mother was a scientist, she nodded. "That makes total sense. It's a lot more logical than my seer guess." The fact that Stella's mother was a scientist could also probably partially explain why Stella seemed to be so into Astronomy. Though it didn't necessarily have to. Fleur's interest in Magical Creatures was something she had developed all on her own. She was a little disappointed when the girl didn't seem to appreciate her humor, but at least she agreed that dragons were cool. Fleur's brow furrowed at her question. "What do you mean, how it works?" She said. "I know it can be incredibly hot. Did you know the Swedish Short-Snout breathes blue fire?" Fleur knew a lot of trivia about dragons, but she somehow doubted she would be able to answer Stella's question. The brunette seemed a lot smarter than her.

What she said about her sister made sense, and Fleur nodded in acceptance. Wheels in her mind were already spinning about how to set these two up to be the best friends ever. Lars needed someone on his side, someone to look out for him a little. She knew she couldn't expect too much from an eleven year old girl, but any sort of support would help. She was glad to hear Nell would like this, as Fleur wasn't quite convinced Lars would be very happy at the idea. Somehow, he never liked it when Fleur tried to do things for him. Not even things he clearly wasn't doing on his own. But if she set this up right, maybe he wouldn't have to know she was involved. "Lars is like really into art and painting and stuff." She said, miming painting with a paintbrush for a moment. "He also likes to take walks in nature. I think he likes flowers. He draws them a lot." Fleur shrugged a little. "He reads books sometimes, but I think it's sometimes just an excuse not to play with the twins."

 

[Stella Wright]

Stella shrugged. Certainly it made sense that Mum being a scientist had made Stella interested in science, but it didn't necessarily follow that she was into astronomy. Not that her family weren't interested in astronomy, but none of them were as obsessed as Stella. "I guess it does," she said with a smile. "How did you get into dragons?" Now Stella was on this track of thinking about how her interests had started, she was also curious about what Fleur's answer to that question would be. Stella was puzzled at how confused Fleur seemed by her question. Had she really not wondered about that? Or was the mechanism by which dragons breathed fire so complicated that a simple question didn't properly apply? "Ooh, no, I didn't, that's cool." Fleur was certainly knowledgeable about dragons, even if she couldn't answer Stella's specific question. "I mean, how do they shoot fire out of their mouths without getting burned by it? How do they make fire that can come out of their mouths?"

Stella nodded slowly along with Fleur, already thinking about how best to make this happen. Nell could certainly do with some friends at school, and while Stella had no doubt she'd be able to make some herself, this would be a sweet and sisterly thing to do. "Oh, cool. Nell's into nature too, she likes gardening, especially succulents. And we go on nature walks too, but it's more of a family thing for us." Stella smiled wistfully, missing her sister. It had been so long since they'd done that, just gone for a walk as a family, with Nell enthusiastically pointing out interesting or pretty flowers and insects. "Your family has twins as well? That's nice, it's just the two of us." Honestly, Stella liked it just being her and Nell; it meant that they were quite close despite their age gap.

 

[Fleur van Houten]

The question Stella asked Fleur about her interest in dragons wasn't a new one. The girl's interest was often seen as at least a little unusual, so people often wanted to know what had started it. "When I was young, I got an old book of my grandfather's with moving illustrations of dragons in it." She said, remembering it fondly. "At first I just thought the pictures looked cool, but once I learned to read I just started memorizing random facts about each dragon. They have always been very interesting to me, and I really wish I could see one in real life." She sighed, knowing that was unlikely for now. The girl's question about the fire made Fleur frown a little. As far as she knew, the answers was just magic. "Well, dragon bodies are obviously made to withstand high temperatures, since they aren't hurt by their own fire. And I assume the fire just comes into existence through magic. Like the same way we can create it by waving a wooden stick around and saying a word." Put like that, it did seem a little strange that they could just generate fire like that. There probably was some sort of explanation for it, but Fleur didn't really care. "I'm sure there's many things we don't know about dragons yet, though. They're not the easiest creatures to observe up close," she said with a small shrug. It annoyed her a little that she hadn't been able to give a better answer. Here was something she was supposed to be an expert in, but she couldn't answer a simple question about it.

The plan to let their siblings be friends seemed like a good one. It was quite a coincidence that they seemed so similar, and Fleur was excited by this idea. "Awesome! They can be shy nature-loving buddies," she said with a grin, holding up a hand for a high five. "Do you have any clue where you'll sister will end up? Which house, I mean?" Fleur didn't really know about Lars, though she had the feeling he wouldn't be in Gryffindor with her. That was probably for the best, she couldn't really imagine him being at ease in the often rambunctious common room. "Yup! My sisters are twins, Emma and Iris." She felt a twinge of sadness as she thought about them. It was strange to be so far away from her siblings for most of the year. "They're eight, so won't be at Hogwarts for a while."

 

[Stella Wright]

Stella listened with interest to Fleur's anecdote about the book. "I had similar experiences myself," she said, "though the books that sparked my interest in science were muggle ones rather than magical." There seemed to be precious few magical books that took the proper empirical approach. "I do have a few astronomy books with moving pictures, they're really awesome." Stella smiled. "I'd love to see one, too." Not as much as Fleur would, probably, but it would be amazing. Dragons were but one item on Stella's long list of things she'd like to see for real some day, of which she knew even now only a few were likely to be fulfilled. Stella frowned, somewhat disappointed by Fleur's answer. Of course their bodies must be able to withstand high temperatures, but how? She wasn't surprised, though. Stella had an ever-growing collection of scientific questions about magic, none of which seemed to have satisfactory answers available. One day she would make proper efforts to answer them, but at school she just didn't have the resources. "You've got a good point there, I'm sure they're pretty challenging to study. I wonder if there are any experiments you can do that don't involve live dragons . . ."

Stella giggled at Fleur's reaction. "Yeah, that sounds great!" She completed the high-five, grinning back at the girl. "Um . . . I think she'll probably be a Ravenclaw, although I might be a bit biased there. Either that or Hufflepuff, I reckon." Stella would love it if Nell was in Ravenclaw with her, and she was certainly smart enough, but she was sweet and kind, too. "Oh, that's cool. It's just me and Nell . . . and it's pretty weird being away from home for so much of the year." Stella didn't often dwell on how far away she was from her family; it didn't do any good, and it wasn't as though she wasn't happy with her friends at Hogwarts . . . but she felt so disconnected sometimes, so distant from her own life, and her little sister growing up almost without her. Writing letters helped, though.

 

[Fleur van Houten]

It was a little interesting to learn Stella's interest in science was sparked by muggle books. It made sense, she didn't think there would be many wizarding books about that, but it made her wonder if the girl was muggleborn. That wasn't something she really wanted to ask, though. "If I ever find one around here, I'll call for you." Fleur joked with a smile. It was extremely unlikely, but she liked Stella more because of it. She could tell she had disappointed the girl by not giving a better answer, but she wasn't a dragon-scientist. She didn't even think that existed. Her eyebrow raised slightly. "What else would you need but live dragons?" She asked, tilting her head. She hoped Stella wasn't thinking about doing experiments on dead dragons, that would definitely make Fleur like her a little less.

But she was still happy she had managed to get Lars a friend before he even started at Hogwarts. She knew her brother needed the help, and she was happy to provide. "I'm thinking pretty much the same about Lars, house-wise." She told the girl with a smile. "I don't think he'll be in Gryffindor. Emma might in a few years." She had to agree it was weird to be away from her siblings, and Fleur was more than a little excited to have Lars join her at Hogwarts. By the time the twins joined, she would be in her sixth year. That was definitely alarming. "I think I should go take a shower now, I don't really feel like running anymore. We'll keep in touch about this, okay?"