Connecting

[Acacia Dunn]

Acacia had already hit it off with a couple of her roommates, but the best way she knew to make new friends was to just get out there and meet people. If she sat around and thought about her old friends at home too much she'd be overwhelmed with homesickness and never make any new ones, so the sooner she could get out there and get to know some classmates, the better. With that in mind, Acacia managed to find her way to the student lounge area, only taking the wrong staircase twice. Surely if there was any place in this school ideal for meeting new friends, it would be this one.

After looking around the room quickly, Acacia made her way over to the first person she saw who looked to be around the same age, giving the girl a friendly smile. "Hey! Is it alright if I join you?" She asked, already sitting down next to the girl. "I just have to say, I love your hair, it looks so soft." Smiling warmly, Acacia brushed her own hair back. "I'm Acacia, I just moved here so I don't really know anyone yet. What's your name?"

 

[Mazikeen Roe]

Mazikeen looked up in surprised when someone her age asked to sit with her, already taking the seat with her, so it wasn’t so much of a question then, but Mazikeen didn’t mind "Sure,". She was a little puzzled by the next statement, she didn’t necessarily disagree with the statement, she liked her hair, but she wasn’t sure the girl should’ve said that. But regardless, as Acacia introduced herself she smiled at her, ”I’m Mazikeen, or Maze,” she knew that it was hard to come to hogwarts so maybe it was more that than anything. Introducing oneself could be hard, it wasn’t always simple and as first years they needed to introduce themselves to everyone to get some friends. Which meant just being themselves out there. ”I’m a gryffindor, what are you?” she asked, opting to ignore the initial comment and just focus on getting to know her, rather than lingering on the comment. The young gryffindor was always happy to meet people and spend time with them, and maybe she would prove to be good fun. Mazikeen had been sitting there since she’d grown bored of siting about doing nothing and had opened a book but doing anything but that would be good too.
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[Acacia Dunn]

Acacia listened to the other girl with a friendly smile, gasping softly when she introduced herself. "Oh, that's such a cute nickname!" She said happily, wondering to herself where the girl's name had come from. She knew how annoying it could be to be asked about an unusual name though, so she didn't press it, focusing on the next detail Maze said about herself instead. "Oh, is that the red one? I'm a Hufflepuff. I'm still learning the houses, I wasn't really expecting to go to school here. What's Gryffindor like?" She asked, genuinely curious. Cedar had told her so much about the different possibilities for houses in Ilvermorny, but Acacia hadn't had much time at all to learn what the options were like in her new school, only that they were different.

 

[Mazikeen Roe]

Mazikeen could figure that being very complimentary was just this girl's nature, but she loved it, and knew to lean into it. If that was what brought Acacia joy then she'd happily continue "Acacia is such a beautiful name too," she returned with a smile. Thinking it and thinking that it was a name that certainly suited the girl in front of her. She nodded at the question, "It is, gryffindor is red, Slytherin is green and ravenclaw is blue," she added the other houses to help the girl a little, possibly with knowing the houses a little better, if the information was what she already knew then, Maze was keen to help her remember. "Were you planning on going to a different magical school?" Mazikeen didn't even think about the fact the girl had been perhaps raised muggle, the thought never even crossed her mind. "I like it so far!" the girl replied, "It's good, the people are nice, haven't had any bother yet, everyone's really nice, but then again, everyone from all the houses seem really nice," Mazikeen wondered if perhaps she'd just had the good luck to not run into anyone who wasn't kind, "Hows Hufflepuff?" she returned the question. Mazikeen would've been happy in any house, so she was keen to hear about other houses.
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[Acacia Dunn]

Acacia beamed in response to Maze's compliment. "Thank you so much!" She said happily. She was relieved that Maze seemed friendly and nice to talk to, she had chosen her first person to talk to well. She nodded, listening to the other girl explain which house was which, trying to solidify the memory in her brain. "Thanks! I'll try to remember that, it's so different to what I'm used to." She nodded in response to the other girl's question. "My brother goes to Ilvermorny. I thought I was going there too, I'm still not really sure how I wound up here." Acacia tried not to let herself think about it too much. No matter how Acacia thought about her situation it felt like Mom and Dad had abandoned her here. Trying not to think about it, Acacia nodded, listening to Maze describing Gryffindor. "That sounds so nice!" She said happily. "Hufflepuff is really nice too. I've only met a few people so far, but my roommates are lovely. It's a relief, I was a little worried this place would be like, super traditional and snooty or something."

 

[Mazikeen Roe]

Seeing the other girl beaming at the compliment, Mazikeen couldn’t help but be happy, she couldn’t help but return the beaming smile. She was also glad to help out the other girl, in whatever way she could towards learning which houses were which, ”Really I don’t think houses matter that much you know, but it’s good to remember which is which,” Mazikeen said before listening to the girl continue, her brother went to another school! Mazikeen had heard about that school, ”They have houses in that school too!” Mazikeen had done very little reading about it, but she knew that they did indeed also have houses. She wondered if they were at all similar to the houses they had at Hogwarts, but given that Acacia didn’t know the houses here she assumed maybe not. ”What are the houses at Ilvermorny? How come you ended up here?” the girl added the latter question realising that it was odd for one kid to be at one school and for another to be at another. It wouldn’t be as weird as if they were close by the two schools were not close. She listened to the girl’s description of hufflepuff and nodded along, ”I think the original Hogwarts is very traditional, the one in Scotland,” Mazikeen hadn’t thought this would be a particularly snooty school, but she had heard the other one was. So maybe that was how it worked. ”I’m glad this school isn’t super traditional and snooty, snooty is no fun, and no fun is boring,” she commented. ”Do you like fun?” it was a pretty inane question really, who didn’t love fun!
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[Acacia Dunn]

Acacia smiled happily, pleased that Maze looked to be enjoying their conversation as well. "Yeah, I dunno if it really means much, but it's definitely useful to understand that stuff." She smiled happily, then nodded when Maze asked about Ilvermorny houses. "They do! There's Pukwudgie, my brother's house, which like, represents the heart. Then there are Thunderbird for soul, Horned Serpent for mind, and Wampus for the body. It's supposed to represent like, what kind of career you could have or something, I think. It's really different to here." Acacia glanced around, thinking about the descriptions the singing hat had given of the houses here. It had felt so plain and unceremonious compared to the giant statues Cedar had described. Still. Not worth dwelling on. She smiled awkwardly and shrugged in response to Maze's question about why she was at another school. "Oh, y'know. It's so silly. My parents don't think my brother works hard enough. They expect more from me, so they don't want me near him, I guess. It sucks. But it's fine, whatever, I'm here now, might as well make the best of it!" Acacia laughed quickly, smiling to cover up how upset she was about this entire situation. She didn't want to dwell on it. She was relieved to change subject, and smiled brightly when Maze asked about fun. "Duh, of course! Fun is the best! What kinda stuff do you like to do for fun?" She asked, wanting to talk about the other girl's interests rather than dwell on her own misfortune.