Casually

[Penelope Klein]

Penelope sat on a window ledge, her legs crisscrossed. The girl had just finished her homework, and she couldn't believe it had been almost five weeks since shopping with her mother and sisters. Frankly, it had been ages since she's gone shopping, period. Penelope felt the urge to cry as she thought about all the browsing she had missed out on, her sisters frequently sent letters of the latest fashion - but style wasn't the same in New Zealand as in Germany, her home. Plus, she had thought for sure daddy would have sent some of his latest designs by now, yet no packages had arrived. Exhaling heavily, the girl wondered if there was somewhere she could go exploring. Penelope had visited the gardens, her classrooms, and common room; although not much besides those three locations. Spacing out, she stared out the window, looking out to the landscape of Hogwarts New Zealand. The nature was drastically different, the amount of greenery almost unknown to her and her family. Hopping up, Penelope carried her books in her arms - and started back up to the Gryffindor common room.

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan did not care about his homework at all so instead of doing what he promised his aunt he would do because he was falling behind, the young Gryffindor chose to walk through the castle's corridors hoping to come across something out of place that could possibly be linked to one of the supposedly many passageways hidden somewhere inside the castle. At first Aodhan decided not to go look for them because aunt Libby did not want to give him any clue whatsoever on where to find them when he asked the woman about them, but now that he had Rory's help he was sure that it wouldn't be so difficult to do. The Gryffindor made his way down to the second floor, wondering if there was something he managed to overlook the night when he ended up in one of the rooms located in that corridor since there wasn't much light. He passed the door to the abandoned classroom as he was sure that there wouldn't be anything other than chairs and desks in there, his eyes carefully scanned the walls - sometimes even tapping on a brick hoping that it would reveal a secret handle he pull or something like that. Aodhan walked towards he girl he saw walking in the corridor. "Hey!" he said, "Have you by any chance seen anything odd while walking?" the Gryffindor asked, hoping for an answer that would give him a lead as to where to go looking.

 

[Penelope Klein]

As she walked, Penelope kept her eyes on the scenery outside the window. New Zealand was beautiful, yes, but it was nothing close to the German countryside she knows; Hogwarts' garden was captivating and the variety of flowers there made her very pleased. Penelope was so very deep in her thoughts, that the girl hadn't noticed another Gryffindor coming her way. His voice startled her, Penelope snapped out of her thoughts and made eye contact with the boy, "Hello," she greeted him casually, "Anything odd?" Penelope tried to contain a giggle, "Besides the whole of New Zealand?" her accented voice rang through the hallway.

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan frowned at the girl. "There is nothing wrong with New Zealand?" But at hearing the accent in her voice he understood why she would say something like that to him. Aodhan chuckled slightly and shook his head with a smile. "I mean something odd in this corridor. I'm looking for clues that can help me find a secret passageway on this floor." The Gryffindor hoped that the girl had seen something out of place but knowing that she thought New Zealand was odd, he wondered whether she was able to tell him about odd things inside the castle as probably everything here would seem odd to her in the first place.

 

[Penelope Klein]

Penelope grinned slightly, realizing the boy must be from New Zealand she cheekily responded, "You obviously have never been to Cologne!" she laughed, for Cologne was the most beautiful place on Earth. Before she was able to feel any homesickness, Nell was snapped out of her thoughts when the boy mentioned a secret tunnel, "Are you serious? There is a secret passageway here? Do you have a map or something!" Penelope progressively looked towards her shoes as she finished her sentence, seeing that she potentially was being too excitable, and intrusive. Deciding that didn't matter to her, Penelope brightened up and with introduced herself, "By the way, I'm Penelope. I'm from Germany although that probably doesn't matter much," she said in a rather informative tone, if they were to do any exploring he must at least know her name.

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan frowned once more and tilted his head slightly to the right when the girl mentioned something he had never heard of before his his life. "What is a Cologne?" the boy asked, confused as to what she was talking about. "This.. Is.. New.. Zealand." he said slowly, thinking that the girl was confusing some other place with the country the school was in. He tilted his head again, this time squinting his eyes slightly when she asked if he had a map that would lead them to the passageways. "If I had one I wouldn't be asking you if you noticed anything weird, would I?" Aodhan said sarcastically. "I wish I had a map though, it would make things much easier." the Gryffindor added so he wouldn't sound too rude. He smiled when the girl introduced herself as Penelope and said, "I'm Aodhan and I am originally from America."

 

[Penelope Klein]

Her brows furrowed slightly at the boy's confusion, "What is a Cologne?" Penelope questioned his question, a slight smile on her face, who doesn't know where Cologne is? but rather than judging, Penelope decided to educate him instead. "Cologne is my hometown in Germany, in the East, along the Rhine river" she hoped that would give a bit more context. Laughing at the boy, obviously Penelope knew she was in New Zealand, Yes, this is New Zealand. Good observation!" she wasn't trying to sound rude, although it was a stupid comment.

Nell laughed, she had just judged the boy's stupidity and yet she appeared equally dense. "You are right, I need to use my brain once in a while!" Quickly scanning the hallway again for anything suspicious, You are right, a map would make things a hundred times more efficient," smiling fondly at the boy, she nodded at his introduction, "It is nice to meet you!"

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

''I still don't know it.'' the boy said truthfully. ''But Germany is in Europe, right?'' Aodhan never really cared much about other countries, nor did he really care about New Zealand, it was just the country that he lived in, nothing more. He rolled his eyes at her comment and then smiled when she told him he was right. Of course he was right, he was right most of the time. ''I guess I would have to make that map with my friends, which might be really dfficult to do since I have no clue where they could be. The passageway, I mean.''