Open Hopeless

[Estella Fuentes]

[Open after Arle]

Estella was beginning to become frustrated. She had worked so well in the holidays making flower crowns, but now that she was at Hogwarts, she couldn’t do it anymore. It was like all knowledge of making flower crowns had completely disappeared. She wanted to make one that would match her robes, but none of the coloured flowers that she had found in the grounds were working. It needed to be yellow to match her tie, but it also needed another colour, and Estella just couldn’t find the right one. There were no black flowers and she didn’t think any other colour matched enough. She tried green to give it an earthy feel, pink as that usually worked well with yellow and it was her favourite colour, and even orange as that was a warm colour just like yellow was, but nothing was looking any good to her. The girl sat on the grass near the edge of the lake, her eyes watering as she attempted to make another flower crown that was just not looking too good. It had bits sticking out and Estella could barely see what she was doing with the tears in her eyes. Annoyed, she threw her half-made flower crown into the lake, watching as it floated away in front of her.

 

[Hayzel West]

Disappointed that there were people practicing at the pitch, Hayzel decided to stow away the broom and the balls at the shed before taking a detour to the lake. Muttering to herself, she aimlessly kicked a stone in front of her, chasing after it wherever it landed. Just as she kicked the stone once more, the Gryffindor heard a splash making her look towards the direction of the sound thinking it was the squid. She saw what seemed to be a flower crown floating away. She approached the edge looking around and found another girl, her classmate, upon closer inspection. She appeared to be in a mood although Hayzel knew she was friendly enough. "Hey, Estella, right?", she softly called. "You made that one?", she gestured to the crown. The girl shifted on her feet, cautious not to invade the other's personal space.

 

[Estella Fuentes]

Estella quickly looked up and wiped her face as she heard a voice. It was a classmate, and the Latina couldn’t help but feel embarrassed by this, especially since the pair of them hadn’t spoken much before. She didn't want this to be her first impression of her. Her face was red, eyes were swollen, but she still smiled brightly at the girl. “Yeah, Estella.” she confirmed, trying to remember the girl’s name. “Yeah that is, well was, the flower crown I was making. It’s gone now.” She chuckled a little to try and hide the fact that she now regretted it. She probably could've taken it home and fixed it somehow. It was then that Estella remembered her name. “You’re Hayzel, right? You have such a pretty name.”

 

[Hayzel West]

Hayzel secretly applauded the girl's effort to smile even when she was just in tears a few moments ago. The Gryffindor gestured to a patch of grass near Estella. "May I?", she asked, taking a seat a few moments after. "Aren't we witches?", she winked, pulling out her wand. She pointed it at the crown and said, "Accio, flower crown." The floating piece soared towards the girls. Hayzel caught it cleanly. It was a bit wet but still intact. "I won't say it's gone. And it's pretty. Why throw it away?" She placed it in front of Estella. "Yep, Hayzel. Just call me Haze. Or Nut.", , she added with a giggle. "Yours is pretty too.", she returned the compliment.

 

[Estella Fuentes]

Estella nodded as the Gryffindor took a seat near her. She didn't mind the company and was glad for this as she hated being alone. She watched as the girl summoned the flower crown back. Estella gave her a disgusted look as she held the dripping wet flower crown in her hand as if she had just saved it. "As if I'd want it now, it's wet." she told her, watching the drips of water fall off the soggy flowers. "Thanks, I guess though." She figured she had good intentions by doing it, so she couldn't be too annoyed by it. However, Estella didn't bother touching it as the girl then placed it in front of her. She nodded as the girl confirmed that her name was Hayzel. "I'll just call you Haze..." she replied, figuring calling someone 'Nut' was rather stupid. She came off a little weird to Estella, but the Hufflepuff was happy to talk to her nonetheless. "What have you been up to today? Are you ready for the exams?"

 

[Hayzel West]

Hayzel noticed the disgusted look on Estella's face at the sight of the wet crown. She laughed, shaking her head. "Sorry, sorry. I was thinking we can dry it up and we can make it into something else instead.", she explained although they just let it dry on the grass. She chuckled at what the Hufflepuff wanted to call her. "Haze then. Although you can call me Nut. I was almost named Hayzelnut. Should I just call you Estella or...maybe Essie?", she playfully said. She shook her head at the question. "Practicing Quidditch. I'm gonna tryout next year. As for exams, I'm just gonna wing it.", she shrugged. "How about you? Are you looking forward to hours of sitting and writing?", the Gryffindor wrinkled her nose at the thought.

 

[Estella Fuentes]

Estella admired the girl's determination to revive the flower crown, however she also thought it was a little stupid to think that it could be. "It'll never be the same." Estella just told her with a sigh. At the mention of instead calling her Essie, the Hufflepuff just shrugged. "Whichever is fine. My friends always call me Essie. It's better than Stella." Estella chuckled a little bit at the idea of people calling her Stella. It sounded like a dog's name and was almost as bad as calling someone Hayzelnut. The Latina nodded as Hayzel said she was practicing quidditch. "Oh cool, I've never been game enough to do that. I prefer dancing." she told her, wishing there was some sort of dance club within Hogwarts that she could join. Heights just weren't her thing. "You should definitely care about exams though, particularly next year when we do our OWLs. Everyone says they're important." Estella wasn't sure how important exams really were in the long run, but it always made her feel better about herself when she did them. "I wouldn't say I'm looking forward to it. I'm more looking forward to it being over and seeing the results in the end."

 

[Hayzel West]

Hayzel thought even more, suddenly not wanting to call the girl Essie. "Stella sounds like a pup's name.", her nose crinkled. "I can call you Essie or Estelle.", the Gryffindor said. Listening to Estella saying she had never tried Quidditch. "I love music but not enough for me to try my feet at dancing." She wiggled her feet in front of her, laughing. "You should try Quidditch. It can be fun!", she said with a happy sigh. They were suddenly on the topic of exams and studies, something that was not really her forte. "Yeah, they're important. If you consider a career in the ministry or the school. But not when you consider playing professional Quidditch." she said breezily. "Thus the reason I just wing them.", she chuckled.

 

[Estella Fuentes]

Estella had enough of talking about her name or what nickname Hayzel should call her and so just shrugged it off, happy for it to be put under the rug. Truthfully, Estella didn't really care as long as her true friends called her Essie. "I'm good." Estella said simply when Hayzel said that she should try playing Quidditch. She didn't understand the audacity of the girl. After all, Estella wasn't going to tell Hayzel to try dancing as she believed that everyone was different and it should be okay for Estella to not want to try it. At Hayzel's next statement, Estella couldn't help but roll her eyes. "That's not true at all. You need good grades to also become a healer, to work with magical creatures, or even to work at the bank. How do you know that professional Quidditch is going to be your life long career? No offence, but most sport players are forced to retire when they are like... 40. What would you do after that, or if you became injured and could no longer play? I just think getting good grades is a very good plan B as it gives you security and reassurance. Then, you can pretty much do whatever you want." Estella explained, trying her best not to come off as rude. She just didn't quite get people who didn't have the same mindset as herself.

 

[Hayzel West]

Hayzel was just completely amused at Estella's reaction to quidditch. It was not really a surprise to the Gryffindor, after all,not everyone was into the wizard sport. She shrugged nonchalantly at her answer. When they were talking about exams, it seemed that Estella was one of the academically inclined students of their year. "Well, when you say it like that, you have a point. It's just that...", she leaned back with her hands to steady her. "classes have this boring aspect and I don't like boring stuff. Though I like Charms and Flying.", she continued. "If I do get injured then I'd enjoy my retirement years.", she added sheepishly. "Maybe I can still try a bit harder next semester.", she said, mostly to herself.

 

[Estella Fuentes]

As Hayzel said classes were boring, Estella couldn't help but agree. "Yeah, some of them really are boring. But we're here to get the grades, not really to have fun at every subject." she told her, hoping she understood. "If any class is boring I think it's Divination. The professor is nice, but I just don't understand how anyone could find making things up like that fun." Estella tried to think about whether or not she remembered Hayzel in her classes. "Charms is fun, yes. We learn a new spell pretty much every lesson which is good. I just don't like how sometimes the professor, especially in Defence Against The Dark Arts, would make us do things that we don't really want to do. Like casting spells on each other." Estella always had a problem with this, but she learnt that it was possible to negotiate with the professors and this was what made her a little more comfortable with the lesson material.

 

[Hayzel West]

Hayzel was glad that at some point Estella agreed with what she said. The Gryffindor laughed at the mention of Divination. "I know, right? Like even the drawling voice of the professor is enough to make you snooze.", making a snoozing face to emphasize. She listened some more to the Puff mentioning Charms which was also her favorite along with DADA. "Well, I'm actually fine with practicing spells on our classmates as long as it doesn't include the unforgivable ones. Not that we have to worry about those. We only learn them in theory but never in practice.", she said thoughtfully.

 

[Estella Fuentes]

Estella chuckled a little half-heartedly as Hayzel spoke about the Divination professor. It wasn't the nicest thing to say about her, and truthfully Estella didn't mind the professor at all, but she thought that was the reaction that Hayzel wanted from it. After all, she could sort of see where she was coming from in saying that, despite not fully agreeing with it. The Hufflepuff shrugged at the girl's opinion on using spells against other people. "I don't know, I guess I just don't want anything bad happening to anyone. I feel like some of the spells they teach could really injure you, and it definitely gives bullies the chance to make fun of people, which I think shouldn't be condoned." she explained, really wanting to get her hands on the school's curriculum. She had some better ideas, but knew that her opinion would probably mean nothing to them.

 

[Hayzel West]

[deepest apologies for the very late reply]


Hayzel nodded at what Estella said about spells on other people. "That may be true but I guess that's how they want us to prepare for the real world.", she commented. She glanced at the Hufflepuff. She seemed the type to be a prefect next term. "Since you don't like bullies, I don't like them too.", she crinkled her nose. "Do you think you can become a prefect and have the chance to stop those mean people?", she asked. The fifth year was usually the time when the school chose new head people and prefects the ones that graduated.