Open (Definitely Not) Hiding

[Millicent Abernathy]

A light rain fell softly against the long library windows. Ensconced in pillows beneath the windowsill, Millicent closed her eyes. In the pauses between hushed conversation on the other side of the library, she could almost pretend she was at home, sitting in her living room, breathing in the comforting smell of her dad's agricultural book collection. The patter on the windows was rain against the French doors; the scratching of quills was her cat sharpening his claws; the door opening and falling shut was her mother coming out of the kitchen. But then an unfamiliar voice would rise up again on the other side of the bookshelf, and the brief illusion was shattered.

She knew she ought to move. At some point, somebody was going to come searching for the cushions she'd pilfered off various armchairs around the library. At some point, the library was going to close. At some point, she would have to go up to her dormitory and see the girls again. Her stomach lurched at the thought. As far as she could tell, they were all very nice - but that wasn't the problem. They were just so... talkative. They chatted to each other like they'd been best friends for years. Meanwhile, Millicent could hardly think of a single thing to say - certainly she couldn't think of anything funny or interesting. She thought of all the friendships that were being established while she sat on the floor in the library, hiding, and her heart felt heavier than ever.

 

[Rosemarie Chatwin]

The other Hufflepuff girls had seem to be nice and all, but it had overwhelmed Rosemarie. Rosemarie didn’t like groups of people. People always seemed to have opinions and Rosemarie couldn’t handle opinions well. Rosemarie shrugged the feeling of and grabbed her pot of marigolds from the windowsill. She left the common room and decided to go to the library. The library was peaceful and calm, which made Rose’s feeling ease down. It wasn’t like she didn’t like the other Hufflepuff girls, it all just had been a bit too much for her.

Rosemarie walked through the multiple aisles of the library and spotted a book about magical herbs. She grabbed the book and walk around to find the perfect place to hide and enjoy the peaceful serenity that the library provided. Rosemarie looked at the armchairs at the library and could have sworn there were pillows in there when she was up here the last time. The missing pillows made Rosemarie curious and now she was on the hunt to find them. Soon she spotted someone sitting under the windowsill, with all the pillows surrounding her.

Rosemarie walked slowly; she didn’t want to scare the girl. The windowsill could harbour her marigold when Rosemarie was going to read her book. ‘’Do you mind sharing a tiny bit of your pillow fortress and some of the light for my plant?” Rosemarie muttered “I promise I’ll be quiet, I kind of want to hide from the world for a while.’’ Rosemarie said while sitting down and tracing the gold spine of her herbology book. Sitting on the floor eased Rose's mind, she wanted to learn about magic, but she had still no idea on were to start.

 

[Hortensia Abernathy]

Hortensia's first night in the common room had been chaotic, but a true bonding experience that she was sure had already made her some life long friends. After overhearing one of the girls talk about a library, she knew she was going to have to see this for herself, just so that she could have a comparison of a) whether it was as grand as the one they had a home, and b) whether it looked like something out of Beauty and the Beast. For the occasion she'd even deemed it necessary to wear her bright yellow ball gown, complete with transparent train that would drag behind her on the floor as she walked, and finished the outfit with her long white gloves that just about went up to her elbows. She walked along the stone paths with a little tap tap of her shallow heeled pumps, lightly echoing in the corridors, and smiled at the occasional onlooker, giving them a polite wave as one princess might while on parade. ​

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She entered the library, which really the door to begin with were a bit disappointing since they weren't quite as wide as the ones they had at home, but the first year remained positive as she glided her way through the library, dress bobbing along the floor as she walked, peering up at shelves upon shelves of books in wonder. This of course would also not be the boring books that her parents kept, old and dusty and full of useless information. No, these were magical books, that would have tales of wicked adventures and advanced potions for every imaginable possibility. The smile on her face only grew wider when she saw the familiar red hair in the distance, and lightly taking her dress in both hands, pinching at the knees, she lifted it so that she could hurry her pace towards her sister, who already seemed to have made a new friend. Yes, she was quite sure that this would have topped the library they had at home, even it was a little.. cosy. "Missy!" she waved enthusiastically at her twin, before adding another wave to the girl beside her for good measure. "Oh please tell you're finding this as fun as I am," she said, lowering her dress back to the floor as for now she had stopped walking.​

 

[Millicent Abernathy]

Millicent looked up, tucking an unruly strand of red hair behind her ear. "Oh. Yeah, OK," she said, shifting over a little bit to allow the Hufflepuff access to the windowsill and a few of the cushions. Immediately she was less comfortable. The floor was cold where it had been exposed, and without the pillows stacked up around her she could feel a draft coming through a gap in the bookshelf on her left. She picked up the volume of basic charms she'd put down over an hour ago and tried to find her place - but no sooner had she reached it than her stomach lurched a second time. Oh, no. Why here? Why now? And why on earth was Hortensia wearing that dress? She looked like she was about to burst into a Disney song-and-dance routine in the middle of the library.

"Oh, hi," she said, feeling her face heat up faster than a frying pan. She'd never hoped to make a good first impression on the Hufflepuff, but at least before she'd had a chance. She closed her book but kept her fingers wedged in the page. "What are you doing?"

 

[Rosemarie Chatwin]

Rosemarie sat down her pot of marigolds on the window sill and propped herself against some of the cushions. Still leaving the majority for the red haired girl that had started the hideout. Rosemarie opened her Herbology book and started reading the table of contents to see if something was particularly interesting.

Soon she heard someone coming over and Rosemarie looked at the girl that was coming towards them. The girl was wearing white gloves and a giant yellow ball gown, something that looked straight out of Beauty and the Beast. It had been a long time that Rosemarie saw a disney movie, but she was pretty sure that the gown was from that movie. The red haired girl whose name seemed to be Missy already knew the girl that was now standing in front of them. The girl in the Beauty and the Beast dress seemed so different from Missy and she had no clue how these two already knew each other. ''Nice Dress, its from Beauty and the Beast right?'' Rosemarie muttered while flipping her book to a page about magical herbs native to Europe. She didn't want to get involved with whatever going on between these two girls.