Open Curiosity Still Lingers

[Marley Owens-Lee]

Marley had been surprised that she had run into Vex last year and she had become speechless. No words had come out of her mouth, which was a bit embarrassing for her. Though the magical world to Marley had been pretty neat. The movement of portraits and the ghosts that lingered around the school were so cool. The second year Hufflepuff stood on the fifth floor corridor. Sure she walked up and down the corridor like a bunch of times, but Marley wanted to get a proper look at the corridor. Looking at the beautiful paintings and portraits that spoke. She wondered what sort of magic it was that made them move and speak. Maybe she could do that with her own paintings. Though she was also curious if she'd see a ghost again, but she felt that would be a bit unlikely.

 

[Lucy Montague]

Lucy was wandering aimlessly. It was raining outdoors, so she couldn't exactly go for a nice sun-soaked walk around the castle grounds. She found herself on the fifth floor corridor, just eyeing the portraits. Strangely, she found another girl doing something very similar. Lucy waved, greeting the other girl. "Hi! What are you up to? Anything fun?" she asked curiously. "I'm Lucy, by the way. I think we're in the same year?" Lucy was fairly confident of that. She recognised the other girl from classes but had never spoken to her.

 

[Marley Owens-Lee]

Marley smiled happily when she saw someone nearby. It was always fun meeting new people. "Hiya! Oh! I'm just looking around at the portraits, and maybe even see a ghost or something! The portraits are really cool" Marley says happily with a smile. "Nice to meet ya Lucy! My name's Marley" Marley says with a smile and wave. "How about you? What are you up to?"

 

[Lucy Montague]

Lucy was taken aback for a moment but the girl's chipperness, but recovered quickly. She liked chipper, she just hadn't been expecting it. "Oh, that sounds fun! Ghosts and portraits are really cool," she said, looking at one that had just caught her eye - a landscape with a witch staring into a background of forest. It was striking, and she wondered what the witch would have to say. Lucy smiled back. "I'm good! Just getting used to being back again. Bit disappointed by the weather so I thought I'd take a walk indoors instead. How are you?" Lucy asked back, knowing that was only polite.

 

[Marley Owens-Lee]

Marley listened to her classmate. "Yesss, they're very cool! I wonder how they make the portraits move. Is it like magical paint that they use? Or do they use a charm to make them move?" Marley questioned, mostly to herself, but she would be surprised if Lucy knew. "Oh yeah, the weather is pretty yucky today, I guess it's just the perfect time to explore the castle" Marley says with a small laugh. "I'm doing good! Me too! It's gonna take a bit for me to get back to the swing of things again"

 

[Lucy Montague]

Lucy thought they were very good questions. "Hmm, if I had to guess, I'd say they charm it, but I don't really know. Magical paint would be very cool," she noted, thinking that if she was more artistic maybe she'd want to get into magical portrait painting. She frowned in thought. "What if it's even both? You can do either or?" Lucy was enjoying how upbeat Marley was, finding her a great conversation partner. "I agree! There's always something new to find, that's what I love about Hogwarts," Lucy said brightly. "Same, it feels weird to be back but nice. Just waiting for a good class where they can teach us more spells, I love learning spells."

 

[Marley Owens-Lee]

"Yes! I mean using both would most likely make the most sense" Marley said with a nod. It made sense if the artist used both. Maybe using both helped the paintings move a lot more and were able to go to different sports of the school. Marley nodded her head quickly. "It's definitely weird for sure. I miss my dad when I come back here. It feels weird the first few weeks, but I guess you get the hang of it after a while" Marley said with a nod. They had only been back at Hogwarts for the first couple of days, and she missed her dad, but she knew she was able to see him again. "I love learning new spells too! I wonder what ones we'll be learning this year. I hope we learn some more useful ones"

 

[Lucy Montague]

Lucy nodded. She definitely missed her parents at first - and her cousin. But she did get used to it in the end. "Oh, do you just have a Dad?" Lucy asked, not realising that was probably a rude question in her curiousity. "Mm, I hope I get into the hang of things soon. And same! I hope it's more spells than last year. Charms looks exciting, that's probably my favourite subject, what about you?"

 

[Marley Owens-Lee]

Marley nodded. "Yeah, just my dad. I'm adopted," Marley said with a shrug. Marley never really knew what it was like to have a mum. She was a bit jealous when others spoke about their mums. But she always wondered what it was like to have one. "I'm sure we'll get back to the swing of things soon," Marley says reassuringly. She was happy to be back at school for sure tho. "Charms is cool! I think that and History of Magic would most likely be my favourites"

 

[Lucy Montague]

"Oh, right. Just one parent, huh?" Lucy paused, wondering what it'd be like to have just her father, or just her mother. She'd get even less attention than she was getting now and the idea made her sad. She hoped Marley wasn't sad. Lucy agreed with Marley about charms but made a face when she talked about history of magic. "Nope, I can't do history of magic. It's so boring," Lucy complained, then felt a little bit self-conscious. "I'm sure it has it's good points, I just..." Lucy made a thoughtful face. "What is it about it that you like?" she asked curiously.

 

[Marley Owens-Lee]

Marley nodded. "Yup, just one parent! And two older brothers" Marley said with a nod, as she held out two fingers to show how many she had. Her brothers were much older than her, so she didn't really spend much time with them, but she loved them anyway. Marley laughed a little when Lucy mentioned she found History of Magic to be boring. "That's totally okay! It's not for everyone" Marley said with a nod. She shrugged a little at the girl's question. "Oh, I just like learning about what had happened all those years ago, I dunno, I just find it interesting" Marley says with a shrug. "What's your top three favourites and your top three least favourite subjects?"

 

[Lucy Montague]

"Oh, you have brothers too! I'm an only child, I always wanted siblings though," Lucy commented idly. "Do you get on with them well?" she asked, genuinely curious. Lucy nodded along to Marley's reasoning. Maybe Lucy could grow to like history of magic, but she doubted it. "Oh, that's a tricky one," Lucy replied, giving the question thought. "Charms, transfiguration, and herbology are probably my favourites. Then my three least favourite...hmm, history of magic, potions, and...I don't know what the third would be. I don't even dislike potions that much, I think it'll be fun once we start actually making them. What about you?"

 

[Marley Owens-Lee]

"Yeah, I get along with my brothers but I'm not that close with them though" Marley said with a shrug. She saw her brothers whenever she could, but there was a large age difference between her and her older brothers so she wasn't really that close with them. Marley nodded at Lucy's question. "Oooh! Those are interesting! I think my top three would be History of Magic, Charms and Defense against the dark arts.... I dunno about my three least favourites, but I know Transfiguration is my least favourite"

 

[Lucy Montague]

Lucy guessed the age difference made a difference. She couldn't imagine having such older brothers. But she found it hard to imagine having siblings at all. It must have been like having a cousin you live with, Lucy figured. Lucy was excited to hear Marley liked charms too. "Isn't charms great? The spells are so much fun and useful. Oh yeah, defence against the dark arts is cool too! I can't wait until third year though, with all those extra classes that they offer. Magical creatures and ancient runes and arithmancy and divination! I'm so curious about them. I kind of want to take them all but that'd be a bit...too much, wouldn't it?" Lucy asked, tilting her head slightly and genuinely wondering what Marley thought about that idea.