Clarity

[Clara Zhefarovich]

It was a rainy day in New Zealand, but Clara supposed she should be used to this weather by now. It would have been nice to start the year playing games outside, but instead they were all stuck inside. Though, the saying did say that if you don't like the weather in NZ, wait 10 minutes and it will change. At that thought, Clara instantly looked out of her Common Room windows, hoping to see the sun breaking through the clouds. But alas, it was still a dark sky, the rain heavily pelting the earth. Clara sighed, her arms wrapped around her legs as she looked into the fire in front of her. She shook her head. She was at Hogwarts for pete's sake, why was she feeling so miserable? Her mother had used to say that her mood was dependent on the weather. Not wanting it to control her life, Clara smiled to herself. If she was going to make it through this miserable weather, she would definitely need someone by her side!
Looking around the room, it seemed as if everyone had either gone to explore, or already had a friend to chat to. They probably don't want some lame First Year bugging them, the thought popped into her mind. Clara unwrapped herself, and pushed herself up off from the ground. Right! She thought. Time to go exploring. If I were wanting to meet new people, where would I go? Clara mused to herself. The young blonde smiled brightly to some of the other students in the Common Room as she walked out, not sure if they thought she was crazy or not. Clara hoped they didn't, but didn't stop to check. She didn't have to walk far before she heard the noise of the Student Lounge. Smiling to herself, she knew that this could be the place where she met someone to be friends with. Clara walked into the Lounge, grinning at the sight of everyone having fun together. This definitely looked like a place she wanted to be at. Grabbing a spare seat, Clara looked around, unsure where to go, not wanting to bug anyone or get in their way.

 

[Serenity Dion]

Serenity found herself wandering around the castle yet again. She was getting better at navigating herself around the place but it just seemed to go on forever, finding more and more alcoves and secret hiding places - that probably weren't so secret but they were somewhere she wouldn't expect to find a hole that lead into a tunnel, although Serenity was finding it hard enough to get from one place to the other she really didn't need to start going off course and end up getting more lost than she ended up most of the time. She hoped that getting around the castle would become easier especially with classes just around the corner she really didn't want to be late for anything, even more so in her first week, she wanted to make a good impression with the professors and not be that first year that can never make it to class on time or that first year that can never find her way about and always as to ask for directions. Serenity absolutely despised being late for anything and had always been that way from whenever she was young and had started going to dancing classes, thinking back on it now that was probably because she was so excited to go to her dance classes that she didn't want to miss anything.

Making her way back up to the Ravenclaw common room after her plans of going outside to explore the grounds a bit were spoiled by the weather which she was unaware off because when she had left the common room the weather was lovely but it had taken her so long to get outside that the rain had started and didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon. On her way down the fourth floor corridor she heard a lot of noise coming from a room she hadn't been in before. Reading the sign on the door she discovered it was the student lounge, she hadn't even known there was on. Entering the room she saw there was a lot of people in here, a fire in the corner to dry people off that had gotten caught in the fire, this seemed like a great place for people of all houses to meet up. Closing the door behind her she entered on in, there wasn't much room so when she saw an empty seat she advanced towards it. "Anyone sitting here?" she asked the girl sitting on opposite seat, she looked like she was on her own so either she was saving the seat for someone or she was on her own and could use someone to talk too like Serenity.

 

[Clara Zhefarovich]

Clara slumped her head on her hand, her elbow resting on the table. The young blonde didn't know why she thought she would make some friends by going to the student lounge. It was the same as in the Common Room. Every seemed to know each other, and would probably get angry if a first year tried to join in on their conversations. Clara sighed, supposing she would have to wait for classes to start to make some friends. She desperately hoped she could make some, but was unsure if anyone would actually want to be her friend. Looking around, Clara wanted to leave and go back to bed. But she was sure that if she got up and left now, people would laugh at the girl who obviously was a loner. Clara didn't know what was worse, staying here and looking like a loner, or leaving and people knowing she was a loner.
The blonde hadn't been there very long when she saw a girl her age, with what looked like the Ravenclaw uniform on, walking towards her. Clara looked behind her, sure she wasn't walking up to her. However, as the girl sat opposite her, and asked if anyone was sitting there, Clara's face broke into a grin. Maybe she would make a friend after all? "No, nope, no one is. Hi, I'm Antolini. Oh my goodness, no I mean, I'm Clara, Antolini is my last name." The Hufflepuff smiled weakly, reaching her arm across the table to shake her hand. Clara didn't know why she was so nervous, but it was probably just because she was feeling a bit down. Hopefully the girl wouldn't be put off, or wouldn't ask her to move so that one of her friends could sit there. Clara could just picture her sheer embarrassment if she had to move because the girl was waiting for someone else.

 

[Serenity Dion]

The ever bubbly Ravenclaw felt ever so slightly intimidated walking into the student lounge, she wasn’t shy – no far from it, but everybody was here with someone and there didn’t seem to be many people that were just sitting on their own. Then again the student lounge didn’t really sound like a place you came too to be on your own especially if this amount of people was anything to go by what the daily occupancy of the student lounge was. If she hadn’t of seen the other girl on her own also Serenity may of turned on her heel and went back out the door and make her way back up to the Ravenclaw common room. Although she wasn’t really known for turning away at the opportunity of meeting someone new so she defiantly wasn’t going to leave now, unless the girl was waiting for someone else then of course she would leave right away.

Standing over the girl now waiting on an answer Serenity beamed a little brighter when the girl confirmed that no one else was sitting there. She laughed softly as the girl seemed to get muddled up in her words, she didn’t want to seem mean by laughing and she would let that be known if the girl brought it up at all, it was just a simple laugh showing her amusement at the slip of the tongue that the girl seemed to experience at this moment. Taking her seat as she shook the girls’ hand she smiled softly. “Hi Clara. It’s nice to meet you, I’m Serenity Dion.“ Once she had taken her seat she got herself comfortable and pulled her seat in at a tilt to face Clara better. Once she was comfortable she didn’t want to waste a moment in getting to know Clara, no point beating around the bush really, they were both clearly on their own and didn’t have a problem with sitting beside each other not knowing the other person. “Thanks for letting me sit here, I hate being on my own..” She said, opening up a possible conversation, leaving it up to Clara if she wanted to talk or just be on her own.

 

[Clara Zhefarovich]

Serenity was a nice name. It was different and unique. Clara wondered briefly why her parent's didn't give her a better name, but she was not one to bring up such a topic with them. A smile brightened Clara's face, sensing that her day was probably going to get better as Serenity got comfortable, it was now more obvious to Clara that the girl opposite her was not going to ask Clara to move for another friend. The young blonde wondered if perhaps she wasn't the only one who hadn't made many friends yet.
Clara nodded in understanding as Serenity said she didn't like being on her own. She did understand this; though her mind was always in conflict as to whether she should get out of bed or stay huddled in her safe place. Still embarrassed about mucking up her words, Clara had to count in her head to three before speaking to the girl again. "It's no problem. I was hoping that I would find someone to chat to. I like your name. It's a cool name." Clara trailed off, breaking eye contact suddenly feeling nervous again. Now what? She was so unsure of what to talk about. Why didn't she think of conversation starters before? Her mind had been so clouded with nobody actually sitting with her that she didn't think of what she would do if someone came and talked to her. The young Hufflepuff felt her cheeks redden and butterflies flap in her stomach. Why was she feeling so bad?