Exploration!

[Giselle Varius]

Now the new school year had officially started and sorting was over Giselle, like many of the new students to Hogwarts New Zealand, was exploring the castle and its grounds. This place was going to be her home for the next seven years and already she preferred it to her new home with the Varuis’. Personally, Giselle had nothing against the family, they were really nice people and even she had arrived they had tried to make her feel very welcome and while she appreciated their efforts she couldn’t bring herself to be her usual happy, bubbly girl that she normally was around people, even new people that she had never met before. It had a been a few months now since her father died and she had been put up for adoption and subsequently adopted, so she had temporarily returned to her normal self. On occasion though Giselle would return to her cold, withdrawn personality that had taken her over for a few months during the holidays before school started.

The young Gryffindor walked outside and welcomed the new spring weather as it was slowly getting warmer compared to the winter months. Giselle was happy that she had been sorted into Gryffindor. The more she thought about it, the more she realised that it was the house for her. She pretty much fit the whole bill; of course she knew she could have been in almost any house feeling, herself, that she had some of the qualities of all the houses in her...well maybe not Slytherin. For the simple fact that Joceline was in Slytherin she wanted to have nothing to do with that house and not be connected to it in any shape or form, the fact her half sister was there was something that she would have to deal with at some other stage. Another reason she was happy to get Gryffindor was because she could see Aiden whenever she wanted now. She missed her big brother so much during the whole adoption process and for most of the holidays. The older boy seemed a bit different that he was before she had to leave but she figured that he was sad like she was and had taken longer to get over it that she had. With a soft smile on the young girls features she walked around the stony path around the garden.

 

[Mylie Styx]

Being a witch was still really new to Mylie. Of course she knew about her magical ability most of her life but her mother never wanted her to use it. But at Hogwarts she needed to use it to Graduate. It was really confusing for her. Mylie didn't have any friends or siblings to help her either so she supposed that everything she was going to learn would be taught to her by the Professors. Mylie hadn't met any of the Professors yet either. Except for her Head of House, someone with the last name Snow. From what Mylie could tell the woman was really pleasant and sweet. Really beautiful too. It made her feel lucky to have someone that seemed like she actually liked the kids and liked her job. Mylie wasn't sure if she was ever going to take Arithmancy though, she hated numbers. There was a lot going on right now but Mylie still felt really unliked and confused right now. There was plenty she could do but didn't want to do any of it. There were those Quidditch teams, but Mylie didn't like sports and first years couldn't try out. She could possibly join one of those various clubs she had been hearing about. Anything she could to make a friend to bond with. She liked cooking so maybe that was an option. Yeah that sounded really good. When it came time for joining the clubs she would look into it and join. There were probably a lot of kids that went here that liked cooking just as much. Did someone actually have to be a good cook to join or was it okay to be a novice at it?

Mylie walked outside and welcomed the new spring weather with an unsure glance around. She was dressed in cooler clothing that wouldn't make her too warm while outside. Most of her life was spent on Hawaii so the weather change was weird to her. She wanted to go to the Garden for a little bit. There was no classes or homework so her time would be spend doing other things. Like getting to know the layout of the school. Mylie was almost able to find her Common room without help now. Her short legs didn't carry her far before she almost ran into someone. Another girl her age. A gasp left Mylie as she stared at her. She wanted to apologized for almost running into her. But she was so nervous that she couldn't say anything.

 

[Giselle Varius]

Giselle continued to roam aimlessly around the gardens. They were such a lovely place and in the spring weather it was just perfect. She was sure that the gardens had their own sort of beauty in all of the seasons. She could just imagine the hot sun shining down on all the fully grown flowers and other scenery; the leaves on the trees turning into the reds and oranges that brought Autumn then falling to the ground; and of course there was winter, she grounds covered in a white blanket – she had all of this to look forward to and she was very much excited. Giselle was excited in general about the rest of her years in Hogwarts. She had heard her brother talking about it so much for years now and while he had a great dislike to school she loved it before she even stepped foot inside of the great oak doors. While she had only been in the school for a short time and classes had yet to even start she knew she was going to enjoy herself. Everyone seemed nice and while she had yet to meet any friends she normally didn’t take too long to do so, the only problem being was she was still finding it hard to be old self after the holidays. She had gone so long not talking to anyone and being withdrawn she still felt like being from time to time, it had become a natural thing for her for so long and it just seemed to be an easy thing to do. She didn’t want to be like that because she liked being outgoing and meeting new friends and such; she just needed to give it time.

Giselle looked around the garden and the rest of the grounds that she could see from where she was walking. She could see a lot of people going by their, what it looked like, daily routine. She figured that after going to the school for a while one would fall into a daily routine that you would at home and such. She knew that Aiden even had his own sort of routine, and he didn’t like school, but she didn’t bother to ask him what it was because from the way he mentioned it she figured that it was something that she wouldn’t want to know about. She loved her brother to bits but he was a little strange at times when it came to certain things but she let him have it and didn’t speak about it. Continuing on down the path she felt herself go forward after, it seemed, someone had walked into her. Turning around to see what happened Giselle saw a girl, she seemed young – around her age, looking at her with a nervous look on her face. From her expression Giselle could guess that she didn’t mean to run into her. Giselle was in a one of her good moods today and the Gryffindor in her made her feel a bit braver as of late, so she decided to break the ice. “Hi there! Are you alright?” she asked with a smile on her face, wondering if the girl was going to remain quiet or not.

 

[Mylie Styx]

Mylie opened her mouth to reply. But nothing came out that sounded close to words. It was more like stutters and words that didn't really make sense to her. She was asked if she was alright. But Mylie really didn't know what she could say to the girl since she felt alright but felt bad for running into her. Usually she would apologize and leave but this time the words were having trouble coming out properly. Having no siblings and no friends to relate this to was coming back to haunt her. Finally something came out, even if it wasn't what Mylie needed to say to the girl. "Hi my name's Mylie!" Mylie told her under her breath. She knew she needed to apologize rather than run her mouth and try to make friends. It got a little lonely without friends. Thats all Mylie wanted out of anything from this school was a friend. Someone she could talk to and listen to. The girl seemed nice enough not to yell. So maybe she wouldn't mind hanging around a little. Mylie wasn't sure if she was in the same House as this girl or not, she actually couldn't even remember the names of the other houses. Except Slytherin. All the other Hufflepuffs her age seemed to think that house was full of bad people. So Mylie had to think of them as bad too. She followed the crowd because she thought it would make her more popular. Did popularity even matter when it came to making friends? Mylie thought it did so she would do anything. Mylie would do anything she could to make friends. Anything to get people to like her. Even if it meant changing herself over and over again.

"I'm sorry for running into you. I'm new so I don't really know where I'm going." Mylie knew it wasn't an excuse. There were plenty of other first years who probably didn't go around and run into people. It would have to do because she didn't have anything else. It seemed like a bad excuse but it could work. Mylie scratched some of her brown hair away from her cheek before Mylie tried to smile at the girl. Mylie believed that she had one of the worlds cutest smiles. Mylie didn't bother to show it to many others though.

 

[Giselle Varius]

Out of Character:

So sorry about the wait

Giselle gave the girl a funny look as she couldn’t seem to get a word out, or rather a full word. Giselle was confused; she didn’t know if it was anything to do with her, did she scare or intimidate the girl? If that was the case then she didn’t mean to do so, it was far from her intentions in fact for Giselle felt that starting Hogwarts New Zealand was a time for her to make new friends and so far she had had no luck. She found it hard to talk to people because ever since her father died at the holidays and she had to move away from Aiden she didn’t want to get close to anyone anymore because everyone that she was close to ended up leaving her in some way or another. Although he bubbly personality couldn’t stay away for too long and on days like today she tried to break out of her shell and talk to someone and she ended up scaring the first person she talked too; bar Aiden – who had been weird anyway. She wondered if it would just be better to be one of those people who throughout school just stayed quiet and didn’t talk to anyone, that way she wouldn’t get close to anyone and also she wouldn’t possibly frighten anyone who she did end up talking too. When the girl end up talking Giselle felt slightly more at ease, at least she wasn’t frightened into not talking completely. “Hi Mylie! I’m Giselle.” she said with a soft smile, figuring that maybe she should try and more calm approach and not being as enthusiastic as she maybe came across earlier. Giselle felt so confused about herself as of late, at times she wanted to talk and at times she didn’t, when she did talk she came across as too enthusiastic, she just couldn’t seem to get it right. It used to be so easy. She thought to herself with a small frown.

When the girl apologised for running into her Giselle rolled her eyes softly, “Oh that. That’s alright.” she told the girl with a small shrug. Giselle honestly didn’t mind about it , no one was hurt and that was the main thing. This made Giselle a bit more relaxed because she figured that the girl was only scared because she thought Giselle was angry with her, which was far from true. “Are you a first year too? I am. I’m in Gryffindor. What house are you in?” she asked the girl, getting a bit excited now that she felt that she hadn’t scared the girl and that she had also met someone who was in her year, possibly – unless she was a transfer.

 

[Mylie Styx]

Mylie was calm for a moment. The girl had told Mylie her name so it must have been okay to try and be friendly back. Mylie wasn't too sure if she wanted to completely let her guard down around the girl either even it she seemed as sweet as a bag of sugar. It wasn't often that Mylie had the chance to make a friend. "So you are not going to beat me up for running into you?" Mylie asked, her voice light as a feather. Mylie knew that she needed to try and get more open with others that were in her year. She told herself that she was willing to do anything to make a friend. Even learn to trust strangers more than she ever us. If offered candy though Mylie would know something's up. Mylie let the girls name sink into her head fully because this may end up being her first friend, Mylie wanted to soak up the moment. "I really like your name. It's pretty..and it makes me think of those models that I see in my mother's magazines." Mylie figured that just letting her mouth run would help her out. She would eventually land on something that she thought that Giselle and her would both agree with. Then they would get to talking, become best friends, and spend the rest of their years here as best friends. Mylie hoped that this was something like it would go. Hopefully it was normal to plan out your future because Mylie did it often. Once she even tried to plan out exactly how her marriage life and wedding was going to be. That didn't turn out well in the end. Mylie didn't even know what a wizard wedding was like. Was there a lot of magic involved?

Mylie blinked but registered that Giselle told her that she was in Gryffindor. Mylie still had a hard time remembering what the houses in this school were. Was that a good house to be in? "Is Gryffindor a good house? I'm in...Huffle..puff?" Mylie wasn't sure if that was the house she was in or not. In was the house where everyone was really sweet and wore yellow all the time. Mylie felt like an idiot not remembering what house she was in.

 

[Giselle Varius]

Giselle became worried as the girl went quiet again, she sincerely hoped she hadn’t come off in a bad way to her so much so that she scared the girl. Giselle had never had that effect on people and she didn’t like how it felt – especially when she was trying to be nice and friendly to the girl. Mylie was the first person that had even really spoken to Giselle since she got here, apart from Aiden. It was likewise for Giselle as she had yet to really talk to anyone at the school yet as she found herself overwhelmed by everyone here; she was starting to worry that she wouldn’t make any friends at all – especially if she went and scared them all off when she tried to talk to them. When Mylie asked if she was going to beat her up for running into her, Giselle gave her a confused look. “Merlin no!” Giselle exclaimed. “Why would I do such an awful thing?” she asked her, accidents happen and Giselle was in enough of them to know one when she saw it and this was clearly an accident. Giselle really wasn’t having an awful lot of luck with the whole, making friends thing, so maybe she should just forget about it and go be a hobbit. Of course she was joining a few clubs so she could get to meet different people, she was even thinking of joining the yearbook staff as they were looking for new rookies with some staff positions opening up in the new year – that was something she was very excited about but also nervous as she had to prove herself to the editor and current staff that she would be taking over for next year. When Mylie said that she really liked Giselle name and compared it to those that one would call models in magazines, the young Gryffindor blushed slightly before trying to hide it was a beaming grin, “Thank you!” she exclaimed, compliments were good weren’t they? “You’re name is very unique and pretty too. Where are you from?” she asked, not able to place the accent so she knew she could cut out a few countries as Giselle had travelled some in her life – mostly to mainland Europe and New Zealand though.

Giselle was surprised when Mylie asked if Gryffindor was a good house and she was even more surprised when she sounded like she didn’t know what house she was in herself. Of course Giselle knew that some people didn’t grow up in the Wizarding world and there for didn’t know about all of the houses before even going to school like Giselle did but one would at least know their own house wouldn’t they? “I’d like to think Gryffindor is a good house. We’re full of brave people.” she said with a smugly smile, but not for the general stereotypical generalisation of the people in her house but because it was where Aiden was and she was happy with him. “Hufflepuff is a good house too. I should have figured that’s the house you were in.” Giselle said with a soft smile. Mylie looked like a little sweetie pie so it was easy to believe that she was Hufflepuff.

 

[Mylie Styx]

Mylie shrugged her shoulders at the girl. It was like Mylie knew why people did these things when they bullied other students. The student body just seemed to do whatever it wanted. Mylie just figured that Giselle would be like the others and treat her like an ant. Mylie should probably learn to have more confidence in others and in herself if she ever wanted to make friends. When Mylie got nervous her eyes often changed color like crazy but she was able to keep it concealed for now. Sometimes other kids thought it was scary when she changed her physical features before their eyes without a potion or anything. There was this one kid who found it to be cool but he also tried to bribe her her into turning into this monster thing to scare people with for amusement. Mylie hadn't spoken to him since. Giselle told Mylie that she liked her name and Mylie's pale cheeks glistened with a red color. "Thank you. I'm from Hawaii. My mother and I recently moved to New Zealand. Where are you from Giselle?" Mylie told Giselle. Mylie really missed Hawaii and the life that she had there. The sun was always out and warming the island. Mylie hated the cold and had never witnessed a blanket of snow on the ground before. If she had she probably wouldn't like it. All the life and summer in Hawaii was what Mylie lived for, she enjoyed the Ocean and was pretty good at surfing before she had to move away. New Zealand had oceans too and was warm but to Mylie it wasn't the same as good ol Hawaii was. No one hear even understood the Hawaiian language for liked the taste of grilled pineapple on top of a slice of pizza. Mylie had no idea if there was anyone else in this school that was even from the United States like she was. As Mylie started to think more about her island home her eyes faded off to a depressed blue color. Mylie really missed her home and she even missed her father who ignored her a lot when she was around him. Would he like her now. Mylie shook her head and the blue went back to her original brown color that they were before. Mylie shifted and stared at Giselle. Mylie wasn't aware about her eyes changing their color on her. Mylie was rarely aware when things like that had happened to her.

Mylie remembered seeing a few people that were in Gryffindor. "Do you have any family in the school too? I saw earlier a bunch of brothers and sister that were in the same house. The Gryffindor people seem nice. A lot nicer than the ones in the green." Mylie felt stupid. Mylie didn't know the actual names of the houses so she wasn't really sure if the greens were bad or not. Older students with green colored uniforms picked on her in the hallway earlier. They called her names like leftover and creampuff. Mylie didn't know what the names had to do with anything. She thought those kids were so rude and bitter. They probably did not have any real friends.

 

[Giselle Varius]

Giselle didn’t like people who were mean to others for no reason. She had to grow up with Joceline so she knew what it was like to have people bully you for no reason, it was even worse when you were family. Although Giselle had grown to dislike Joceline just as much so it didn’t matter that Joceline hated her now because she normally gave back as good as she got. Then again she didn’t really have that problem anymore as they didn’t live together as of the holidays and while at school the two had learned to ignore each other – something Giselle couldn’t care less about because to be honest she could go the rest of her life without seeing her half sister anymore, as long as she had Aiden she was happy. Sure she had some new family, not brothers or sisters but family regardless but Giselle still couldn’t bring herself to make nice with them because she was still to shy around them and still upset about having to leave her real family. When Mylie told Giselle that she was from Hawaii the young Gryffindor’s eyes widened to intrigue. She was a young girl and for someone so young she had travelled a lot and having only stayed in Hawaii for a few days she did love the place, it was so pretty. “Well I was born in Nice, France, but I’ve travelled so much since I was about five that I have no accent to prove it.” she said with a small giggle. She knew that a lot of people from all over the world had prominent accents whereas she didn’t, or at least she didn’t think she had an accent – if she did it most definitely wasn’t French. “But I live here in New Zealand now with my new family.” she said, her voice lowering with a hint of sadness at the last part of her sentence. Giselle’s new family had a big family and a lot of them lived around the world but she never visited them and doubted that she would ever see them so her past-time of travelling a lot was probably over for a few years until she was able to apparate herself to wherever in the world she wanted to go. Or if she was lucky she might be able to meet up with Aiden during some of her holidays and he could take her away, she didn’t spend an awful lot of time with her older brother as he always seemed pre-occupied now – a – days, something that saddened her greatly.

Giselle looked down at her feet for a moment as she scuffed the ground that she was standing on, she didn’t like to be sad and when she thought about her new family and not being able to spend time with her old family she became sad. Lifting her head again at Mylie’s question she thought she noticed something different about the girls face but she couldn’t put her finger on it so she shrugged it off. “I have an older brother in seventh year, he’s a Gryffindor too, he’s the best.” she said beaming; Giselle really did love her older brother. “I don’t like the green people either, I have a half sister there and she’s horrible.” she said, with a small ‘humph’ as she crossed her arms over her chest. She knew she had some of her new family in Slytherin but she didn’t know them, she didn’t know a lot of Slytherins actually so it may just be Joceline that was the bad out of them but until Giselle was proven wrong she would stand with her gut instinct that all Slytherin were mean poopy-heads.