Family Matters.

[Alexis Bennet]

Lexi frowned as she saw several owls come in her direction. The school year had barely begun and her family had already gotten needy and desperate. A letter from her big brother, which was actually most appreciated as she had seen so little of him lately, a package from her parents and a messy letter from her sister as well as a little note from her uncle and aunt whereas her other uncle, a squib, was someone she had not yet met and would very likely never meet as he had somehow ended up in America. It was lucky that she didn’t know a good portion of her family or else she might have even more undue stress after her breakfast was eaten and she had to return to her dorm room so she could put these things on her bed before she went about with her day. As the new Gryffindor stood up she put her hands around the box carefully and made an attempt to carry everything as neatly as possible but there was bound to be something that dropped with her luck. It was the letter from her uncle and aunt, with neat writing in pen that said ‘To Alexis Bennet’ and ‘From Izaak and Alianne Finch’ whereas she knew the letter itself would be nowhere near as formal because they were not this type of family. The light haired girl was narrowly tempted to swear under her breath when she saw it had dropped and fallen behind her. She turned back, at which point the letter from her big brother had also fallen and so she rolled her azure blue eyes in frustration and she put the package down beside her as she bent over to pick up the letter from Jay. When she had the girl stuffed it into the breast pocket of her black cloak and then turned sharply to pick up the other letter but has lost track of it in that moment and a small wave of panic hit her. If she’d lost it and had to write something back or had news about her baby cousin she would feel absolutely awful so she kept looking on her hands and knees but a pair of feet where in her way and just as she opened her mouth to ask the person to move the skinny girl stopped herself.​

 

[Alana Finch]

Alana sat at the Slytherin table quietly eating a bowl of porridge and watching as the owls flew in to deliver the morning mail. She watched with interest as several students near her received parcels, probably filled with items that they had forgotten when they'd left for the castle. That reminded the girl that she ought to write to her parents to request that they send her purple hoodie. It was her favorite one, yet somehow in the excitement of packing she had left it behind. Alana certainly didn't expect her parents to just send it on. They weren't that attentive and would think it silly that she was so sentimental over an item of clothing.

Finally, Alana had enough and she pushed back her bowl and stood up. No one stopped her to chat. The girl had known that she might have difficulties fitting in at the school. Lorin had warned her well. She'd always experienced some degree of difficulty with getting people to play with her in the playground and she was learning that this wasn't so different. As she walked, Alana noticed a girl struggling with a box in her arms. The Slytherin's red eyes followed the descent of a letter as it seemed to fly out of the girl's box. Waiting a moment to see if she would turn back for it, Alana finally realized that she was busy grabbing something else. Bending down, she picked up the letter and held it, face up, so the girl could grab it and they could both be on their way. It was then that she spotted the name on the front and she brought it closer. Finch. Other than her family and Aunt Irene, Alana had never known another Finch. Not that she knew that many people or went around asking people their last name. "That's my last name" she noted aloud as she tore her red eyes away from the letter and moved them towards its recipient. "I believe you're looking for this" she stated, holding the letter down to the blonde girl.

 

[Alexis Bennet]

Upon hearing the words, ‘That’s my last name’, Lexi stood up and eyed the girl currently holding the letter from her Aunt and Uncle cautiously. They did not look similar at all although the red eyed girl had the same shade of blonde hair as the Gryffindor’s mum and with a family so spread out and separated from one another for reasons she did not know the Bennet girl knew it could be possible. “Thanks. I’d never hear the end of it if I lost a letter from my uncle,” she said as she shoved the letter into her pocket. Her uncle, while quite easy going, fancied a chuckle and was good at getting it by teasing her but at the same time she couldn’t be too bothered by it because he surfed with her because her dad couldn’t and her mum wouldn’t. Both on the opposite side of the spectrum her father taught her how to fly surrounded by a Quidditch team filled with professionals and even her older brother, a quidditch player as well, took a few flights with her. These things were complex at times for the eleven year old because she felt she had to live up to a dead girl or that she had to be so much of an opposite to keep certain family members comfortable around her. While Finch may be a common name throughout the world, it was the name of a strong pureblood family with blemishes on it due to the aforementioned uncle and her mother due to the birth of her big brother all those years ago and so she'd never met a majority of them so they could very well have been related although it might be difficult to see how that would be the case when aside from their noses they seemed to look so different. "I'm Lexi," she finally introduced with a shrug of her awkwardly thin shoulders.
​

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[Alana Finch]

Alana eyed the girl curiously as she took the letter and stuffed it into her pocket. They didn't look alike at all, aside from both of them being blonde and they didn't even have the same shade of blonde hair. The Slytherin felt silly for even thinking that they might be related. Surely, Finch wasn't an uncommon name. The ghost of a smile crossed her lips as the girl mentioned an uncle. Alana didn't have that sort of relationship with her aunt though she had wished for it. She'd read so many books where people had aunts who did fun things with them. She, on the other hand, was pretty sure the woman disliked her. Aunt Irene was always giving Alana odd looks.

As the girl introduced herself, Alana did what she had been taught to do whenever she introduced herself. She stuck her hand out for a handshake until she realized that the girl's hands were pretty full which might make it tough for her to shake hands. "Oh dear. How silly of me" she dropped her hand awkwardly. "I'm Alana" she added, a serious expression on her face. After a moment of searching for something else to say, she finally went for the most obvious of things. "Would you like some assistance?"

 

[Alexis Bennet]

Lexi did not want to stare at the blonde's red eyes so she glanced away unsuspiciously for a moment to better balance her items before looking back up as she saw the girl's hand extended and for a brief moment she contemplated it before stretching her face to make an awkwardly apologetic apology for not being able to go through common pleasantries in shaking hands with this girl who happened to have the same name as her Uncle Izaak. "It's nice to meet you," the Gryffindor said pleasantly finally and when assistance was offered Lexi knew that aside from the letters which were now burrowed deep into her pockets and the box containing this she could not imagine she only had her wand on her but the first year was in no position to shove away the opportunity to gain friends and so she said, "I think I'm fine but you're more than welcome to join me up to Gryffindor house." She was a little curious as to who Alana Finch was if she was honest and if it had been figured out they were not actually cousins, it would still be very nice to have friends. Her brother had been so introverted during his Hogwarts career and she did not wish that for herself.

 

[Alana Finch]

Alana was fairly certain that the girl wouldn’t accept her offer of assistance, and she found that she was right. The Slytherin paused for a beat as the girl, Alexis, invited her to join her in walking to Gryffindor House. Thus far, Alana had avoided interacting with any of the Gryffindors. She shared classes with that house, but she had found seats in those classes that were decidedly in Slytherin territory. So far, she hadn’t detected any huge differences between them and any of the other students though. The girl had half expected them to have horns from how her parents had spoken of Gryffindor House, but they seemed to be like all of the other first years, perhaps a little louder. Alana contemplated making an excuse, any silly reason, to avoid going towards Gryffindor. She knew it was impossible, but she half-feared that her parents would somehow find out that she had been nice to a Gryffindor and use that as a reason to pull her from the school. With a half-shrug, Alana decided to just do it. Surely, her parents would never find out. “Ok” she stated quietly. Alana knew that like most of the Houses aside from her own, they needed to take the stairs. “Are you enjoying being a Gryffindor so far?” she asked, curiosity apparent in her voice, as her hand settled on the bannister and she got ready to go up the stairs. Her red eyes moved quickly to the girl’s face as she waited to hear her response.

 

[Alexis Bennet]

LONGEST RESPONSE TIME EVER esp for the worst response hahahahaa.

Lexi smiled at the other girl as she accepted her offer and began walking side by side with Alana. "I suppose so. There's a lot of pressure in being a Gryffindor, of course. What about you? Do you like Slytherin?" With an uncle in Slytherin and probably countless other relatives in the house as well she didn't feel as if they would all be evil like people in her own house claimed them to be. To her the competition between the two houses seemed foolish. Her uncle was nice, albeit a little irritating at times with his stubborn attitude towards the muggle lifestyle and Alana seemed just as nice so she failed to see why she should hate them all together. They'd done nothing to hurt her yet. The first years were all unable to anyway, with their inexperience in magic, and as they would get older she would also know more spells so if necessary she felt confident in herself enough to know that nothing would happen between her and any "evil" Slytherin.​

 

[Alana Finch]

Alana found the Gryffindor’s response surprising. She, of course, understood being pressured. The pressure to become a Slytherin, by her parents and herself, had been immense. Now that she was in Slytherin, though, she didn’t feel any pressure at all. The Slytherin felt comfortable, as if she had been made to be in Slytherin House. So, it was a bit difficult for her to understand the type of pressure that Alexis was speaking about. Still, she nodded her head as if she understood and then nodded more urgently as she was asked if she liked Slytherin. “I do. It’s great so far!”she stated proudly. About the only thing that she would change if she could was to have more sunlight, but she wasn’t really supposed to be out in the sun much anyway. Her mother said it was bad for her. “I wouldn’t have been able to stay here if I hadn’t been a Slytherin” she admitted, almost sheepishly, as she continued to climb the stairs. Alana was very glad that things had worked out the way they had. The Slytherin lifted her foot to go onto the next step and yelped as her leg sank down to about mid-calf. This was her first venture this high up, and she had forgotten that some of the stairs weren’t exactly stairs. Using the bannister, Alana began trying to lift her leg out of the trick stair.