Closed Frozen Distance

[Natalia Novak]

Natalia knew she was supposed to make friends with people from the right families at school, but so far that had proven tricky. There were fewer of them than she had expected, or maybe they had already made their own friend groups that she wasn't a part of. At least the girls she met in her dormitory didn't seem to fit the description of the sort of people she was looking for, so Natalia tried to distance herself from them as much as possible. She usually sat at a small distance from them at the Slytherin table, keeping her face neutral as if she was entirely unbothered to always be sitting by herself while everyone else was chatting and having fun. Natalia was unbothered, she reminded herself. Sooner or later, she would find the appropriate people to spend time with.

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi was starving, she had skipped breakfast that morning after staying up to late reading for History of Magic and oversleeping. It had only been a few weeks but she had settled into life at Hogwarts well enough and her classes were so far, pretty easy especially Astronomy. Once she arrived in the great hall she scanned the Slytherin table to see if there was anyone she wanted to sit with, and she immediately frowned when she spotted Natalia sitting by herself. It was no surprise she was by herself, with an attitude like hers it wasn’t a surprise no one wanted to be her friend. Indi sighed and considered her next move, there wasn’t anyone else available to sit with so she figured it might be smart to try and be civil with her roommate. She decided she would try and play nice as she walked over. “Hi.” she said simply as she sat down across from the other girl and started to serve herself some food. Wondering if just one word would be enough to lead into an argument.

 

[Natalia Novak]

Natalia was quietly focusing on her food, trying not to seem like she was listening to the conversation a few girls to the right of her were having, when she suddenly heard someone greet her. Natalia looked up, and frowned when she saw Indira, or bookstore girl as she still sometimes called her in her head. She hadn't been thrilled to be in the same house as her after their run-in at the bookstore, but had at least expected the girl to avoid her company after that encounter. That seemed to have been an optimistic thought. "What do you want?" She asked Indira directly as she sat across from her. She figured there had to be some reason she was now talking to her, and she didn't trust it to be anything good.

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi took a bite of her lunch as she waited for Natalia to acknowledge her, or maybe she wouldn't. She actually wondered if her roommate would simply just ignore her pretend she didn't exist. But she wasn't that lucky and Natalia turned and spoke to her bluntly. "Nothing." she said just as bluntly and rolled her eyes as she looked back down at her food. "Just thought I'd say hello since you're over here by yourself." she said with a shrug and stabbed a grape on her fork and pointed at the other girl to accentuate her point.

 

[Natalia Novak]

Natalia frowned as the girl rolled her eyes. She imagined what her own mother would say of such an unladylike and childlish gesture. She almost missed having her around to teach her how she should behave. She felt a little lost at Hogwarts, which was so unfamiliar to her in a lot of ways. Not in the least because of people like Indira. She had no idea what to make of this gesture. Was it real? She somehow doubted it. "I'm perfectly happy by myself." Natalia said with a frown. She wasn't going to let some girl pity her. "If you have something useful to say to me, you may do so. If not, I prefer to eat by myself."

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi brought the fork up to her mouth and ate the grape as she stared at Natalia. Why was she so stuck up all the time? She acted like she was so much better than everyone else but Indi was pretty sure she was doing better than her in lessons. “Sure you are.” she said skeptically before taking another bite of her lunch. She rolled her eyes as Natalia mentioned only saying something useful. Indi could appreciate the sentiment since she didn’t care much for small talk either but coming from the other girl she found it nearly insufferable. “What’s your deal?” she asked bluntly as she roughly put down her silverware. Not bothering to even pretend to play nice or act like there wasn’t something going on anymore. “Why do you act so high and mighty all the time?” she asked, irritation clear in her voice. “Last time I checked your a student just like me, nothing special.”

 

[Natalia Novak]

Natalia bristled at Indira's tone of voice, like she didn't believe her. Natalia had thought her lie pretty convincing, and it annoyed her that it wasn't. But she quickly remembered her composure, and calmly cut a piece of her toast off. But as the other girl asked her what her deal was, her gaze snapped to her. "What do you mean?" She asked her, frowning. "I don't act high and mighty." She told her, raising her chin slightly. "But we are not the same." She said with a tone of superiority. "I'm from an old magical family, one with prestige and a certain... status." She told the girl, figuring she would understand her meaning. "So you don't have to bother trying to befriend me, perhaps you can find people more on your own level." She added coolly.

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi watched in horrified fascination as Natalia cut her toast with a fork and knife. If she hadn’t been convicted Natialia was probably some kind of alien robot pretending to be human, that had convinced her. She let out a frustrated sigh when the other girl tried to act like she didn’t know what Indi had been referring too. She rolled her eyes so hard she feared they would get stuck back there when Nataila said they weren’t the same. “My family is magical too.” Indi pointed out indignantly. “Mostly.” she added quickly, thinking about her stepdad’s boring muggle family they had to spend the holidays with last year. She knew her actual father was magical too but she had never met him and didn’t know much about him anyways. “Well I’ve never heard of them. How fancy can they really be?” she scoffed, and made sure to sound extra annoyed as she used air quotes around the word ‘fancy’. “My own level?!” Indi snapped, her general annoyance turning to anger almost immediately. “What is that supposed to mean? I think my grades are better than yours.” she pointed out.

 

[Natalia Novak]

Natalia couldn't help herself, she rolled her eyes too when Indira said she was also from a magical family, mostly. As if that word, mostly didn't even matter. "Of course." She said coolly. "But there's a difference between a mostly magical family and a pureblood family." She said, placing down her knife and fork for a moment. She tucked some hair behind her ear, looking at Indira with a cold expression. "It is no surprise you have never heard of my family." She said. "I wouldn't have expected anything else." She gave her a small smile. "Yes, your own level. Grades have nothing to do with it." She told her. "Your own social level." Though it did honestly annoy her that Indira said her grades were better, she hadn't done as well as she had expected or wanted to.

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi scoffed as Natalia finally mentioned her real reason for being so stuck up. “You’re a pureblood?” she asked incredulously. “That does explain a lot.” she muttered under her breath. “And what differences would that be? I would love to know.” she said snapped, and waited for Natalia to explain. If she was going to make such bold claims, Indi wanted the other girl to at least try and back them up with some kind of fact. And she knew it would be so satisfying when she couldn’t. A wizard’s worth wasn’t determined by their blood but what they accomplished. Not that she expected Natalia to understand that. “Well if they’re anything like you, I will gladly keep to my own kind.” she said mockingly.

 

[Natalia Novak]

The way Indira asked about her blood status made Natalia frown. She didn't sound impressed. Rather... judgmental? Natalia had no idea what to make of this. She hadn't expected this response. If anything, she had expected a bit more respect from the other girl. "What does it explain?" Natalia asked her angrily. "Why I'm better than you?" She asked her, losing her composure for a bit. "The difference is ... is status and purity. It matters! It matters in your power as a witch. It just... it makes you better." She told the other girl, wondering if she really didn't know that pureblood witches and wizards were more powerful and better at magic. "You're just jealous." She told her archly. "It's not a good look on you."

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi tried to hide her smirk as she noticed Natalia getting a little flustered. “It explains why you think you’re better than me.” she snapped, making sure to emphasize the word 'think'. As the other girl started to stammer, Indi couldn't contain herself and let out a laugh. "Status? Purity? Sorry if I'm not impressed your family managed marry the same people, because at the end of the day that's all it means." she said matter-of-factly. She wasn't so naive to think that your family or were you came from didn't matter but she wasn't about to admit that now that Natalia seemed so shaken up. She had heard her parent's complaining for years about how people only got jobs at the university because of rich and well connected parents. But Indi had to believe that was only a factor to success and if you worked hard enough and were clever enough it wouldn't matter what kind of family you had. “Jealous?” she snapped. Her patience for the other girl's absolutely idiotic reasoning was wearing thin. “Oh yeah, I really wish I was brainwashed like you.” she sneered.

 

[Natalia Novak]

Natalia frowned and looked away from Indira, annoyed that she had gotten to her. She was above her, so she shouldn't be affected by her words. Natalia tried to let it all roll off her, but it bugged her. Especially when Indira laughed at her. Natalia bristled. "You clearly don't know anything." She snapped at her. "I almost feel bad for you." Natalia tried to count to ten in her head, it wasn't ladylike to snap at people and it was beneath her to show the other girl she was getting under her skin. But she couldn't help the glare she shot her at her final words. "I'm not brainwashed!" She said, annoyed. "You're just in denial about how the world works."

 

[Poppy Perkins]

oops

 

[Indira Khatri]

“I don’t think you have any right to say anything about what I know and don’t know.” Indi said dry and was really getting tired of arguing in circles with someone who was so clearly wrong but refused to accept reality. The more defensive Natalia got, the more she started to feel bad for the other girl. Not enough to let the argument slide, but at least now she could understand how the evil wizards they talked about in class turned out the way they did if they were taught the same backwards nonsense. Indi had hardly had any of her lunch once they started arguing but she didn’t want to spend any more time losing brain cells so she grabbed an apple. “Sure. I’m in denial.” she said sarcastically and rolled her eyes. “See you in class.” she called out with a false friendliness as she left the great hall.