How To Make A Friend

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley kept her arm linked with Amber's on the way down from the owlery, trying to remember the way back to their floor so she wouldn't get lost sending letters in future. As honestly delightful as she found the twisting, changing structure of the castle, it could hardly be called practical when you had somewhere important to be in a hurry.

Ainsley had spent all of her travelling time since arriving so focused on getting to where she was trying to go that she hadn't really paid much attention to the paintings, but as she and Amber walked together, Ainsley started to actually pay attention to them, eyes boggling at the moving, talking magical works of art. They were wonderful, and Ainsley itched with curiosity, the fact that they had a destination in mind the only thing keeping her from stopping every few minutes to ask the paintings questions.

That didn't mean she had nobody to ask though, and Ainsley finally became conscious of Amber again as they drew near the library, remembering that her new friend (FRIEND!) had said she could ask questions if she wanted to. "So... how do the paintings move and talk? Do they stay still while they're being painted or do painters have to paint something that moves? How does the painting know who it is? Is there a spell they cast to make the paintings talk and move or do they just do that because they're magical? Is it magical paint? Or magical paper? If someone just painted a stick figure would it still move and talk? What if you paint a real person, can they control the painting? If you hurt the person, does the painting get damaged? Or the other way around? What if there are two paintings of the same person? Could they talk to each other?" As soon as Ainsley started she couldn't stop, more questions springing to mind every moment.

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

Amber was relieved they were getting close to the library, it wouldn't have been nice to get her new friend lost in this huge building, and she didn't want to be walking around for hours either. She wasn't as excited as the other girl to see the library and all the books, but she had to admit she was a little bit curious.

Ainsley's stream of questions came as a surprise and she looked at the other girl with wide eyes and a nervous expression. Did she really think Amber knew all those things? She was just a first year too. All she knew was that paintings moved and talked and that was normal.

She didn't want to look like she didn't know anything, but she knew it was best to be honest. "Uhm, Ainsley? I don't really know the answer to any of those questions. I've only been in school for a little while, remember? We haven't learned anything about that kind of magic." She paused. "I think there's a spell to make them like that?" She added uncertainly.

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley paused, looking slightly stunned. It hadn't occurred to her that Amber might not know. "Oh..." She said slowly, voice quiet. "I thought they were normal for wizards... nobody seems to think they're strange." Ainsley looked around again, uncertain of what to do about this. "We should... ask someone! An adult at the library, or... one of the paintings. Usually when I don't know something mum and I google it together and learn about it, but since we can't use computers here we'll have to find someone who knows, which... is really more likely to be one of the paintings, right? Or is it like being born, you don't know anything before you were a baby? What if they don't even know how they were made? Do they even KNOW they're paintings? That's such a scary thought! What if we're a painting!" Ainsley's head whirled around wildly in a cascade of ginger hair, as though looking to see frames hiding somewhere.

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

Amber nodded. "They are normal for wizards, that's why I don't know… I never asked. It is just a thing that happens. It's normal."

All Ainsley's questions made Amber a little uneasy. She didn't want to spend hours on this mystery, because frankly, she didn't need to know. All she knew was that they moved and it was good and useful and sometimes funny, no reason to get all excited about it.

Still, her friend was clearly curious and she didn't want to disappoint her. "Well, we could start by finding a book about it."She said."That way there's a good reason for us to go to the library and we have something to do there, alright?"

She patted Ainsley's arm. "We aren't in a painting, the world is too big for that! Paintings are small and if they go outside the frame they just go to other paintings and that doesn't happen to us."

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley listened intently to Amber, giving a weak whine when her friend didn't have any of the answers she was looking for. "But... do they know about the life of who they're a painting of before they were a painting? Do they know things after? If you did a painting of me today would it know what I'm doing when I'm an adult? Would it age with me or stay the same?" Ainsley let out a frustrated noise, realising Amber wasn't going to know the answer to any of this either, and none of her classes seemed to answer the real questions she had about the magical world.

"Come on, we need to get a book!" Ainsley insisted, taking Amber's arm, and hurrying with her towards where she hoped the library was. "This doesn't make any sense and we've gotta know!"

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

Amber wished she could have answered Ainsley's questions, the disappointment her friend showed made her feel bad. It wasn't her fault they hadn't learned this yet, she didn't know. If she asked Ainsley exactly how something common in the muggle world worked, would she have been able to explain?

Well, if she always asked this many questions, maybe.

She swallowed down her dismay at the turn this trip to the library had taken. It wouldn't be a good idea to complain to a new friend that was enthusiastic about something. And perhaps it would turn out to be fun after all. She just didn't like feeling like she wasn't useful.

"Sorry. I ... I don't know the answers." She said after a small pause. "I don't want to be disappointing, but I just don't know. Let's find a book." She tried to sound cheerful, but didn't entirely succeed.

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley didn't notice the disappointment in her friend's tone, grinning as she finally found the doors that led to the library. "There's gotta be a librarian or someone, they'll know for sure!" She looked around a little urgently, hoping someone would come to her rescue. The sheer volume of books lining the walls was enough though, to finally give Ainsley pause. "Ohhh, there are so many books here! They look so old! You could read forever and never read all of them! Oh, Amber, I bet there are stories! And more books about our school subjects! And history! And gardening! It's amazing, Amber, there's so much to read!"

Ainsley spent a few moments just taking in the sheer volume and majesty of the library before crossing to the librarian's desk, looking for someone to help in the quest for answers about the paintings, though the potential the library represented was already beginning to wipe the entire subject from her mind.

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

All of Amber's worries drained away as she saw the library for the first time. Even as someone that didn't read a lot in her free time, she could appreciate how beautiful and well stocked it was. There were books everywhere, some looked old, others looked really old. She wondered what they were about, and if there were any that would interest her.

Seeing Ainsley so enthusiastic made her smile a little. It was nice to see her like things about the magical world, since she seemed to be missing her old life more than most others in their year. "There's so many!" She exclaimed. "I'm so glad we found it, I bet there's books about everything we can even think of!"

She followed Ainsley without complaint, but privately thought there were many more interesting things to find here than the question about paintings. She hoped there were books about fashion, though that seemed somewhat unlikely. Still, there were so many books that she was sure she would find something to occupy her time.

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley wanted to wait for a librarian, but she couldn't resist the draw of the bookshelves, the painting problem fading further and further from her mind as she wandered away from the desk and over to the shelves, running her fingertips over the spines of the books in awe. "They're all so old, I've never seen so many books like this all together..."

Wandering down the nearest aisle and skimming the titles of the books as her fingertips trailed across them, Ainsley almost lost track of Amber, completely lost in her own world. Somewhere in here had to be the answers to everything making Ainsley feel isolated and lost and confused in this magical world... every question she had, everything she didn't understand, this was where she would finally find explanations, reasons, answers. Suddenly remembering she wasn't alone, Ainsley looked back at Amber with wide eyes and an awestruck smile, unable to even find the words to express how happy she was. "I... this is... everything!"

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

Amber watched Ainsley go up in the books completely. This was something she couldn't quite understand. Sure, there were many old and important looking books, and she felt awed by the beautiful library and all the potential these books held, but Ainsley seemed to be on a different level entirely. She followed her friend as she trailed her hand over the different titles and looking at them in awe. It seemed like she was starting to forget Amber was even there, and that felt a little annoying.

"Well, yes there are a lot of books, it's quite amazing." She said, trying to keep her voice bright. It was nice to see her friend so happy, but she was almost starting to feel like an intruder coming between Ainsley and all the books here. If Ainsley just wanted to stare at them, Amber wouldn't know what to do with herself.

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley beamed, turning to face Amber excitedly, her face flushed with joy and delight. "This is so amazing! What's your favourite book? I bet they have it here, I bet they have EVERY book ever written here!" Ainsley did another turn at the end of the aisle, looking around at all the possible places to look. After a moment though she looked back at Amber, reminding herself that the books would... be here forever, and as tempting and amazing as they were, they hadn't been her only goal for the day. Getting to know Amber was the other one, and Ainsley wasn't finished yet. "What is your favourite book? What kind of books do you like to read?" She asked, skipping back over to her new friend.

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

Amber was startled by the question and forced herself to keep smiling. Reading books was clearly very important to Ainsley but she herself barely ever did it. Would it harm their budding friendship if she admitted to that? Ainsley might think she wasn't very smart or very good at reading or maybe she wouldn't be as interested in being her friend anymore... But at the same time, she couldn't exactly lie and pretend to like books she hadn't read. With her luck, the other girl would ask more questions and then she'd be caught in a lie.

"Well, I don't read that much." She said lightly, eager to brush past the subject. "I'd like to find some books about wizarding fashion or something. Can we go look?" Normally she would have asked what kind of books Ainsley liked and what her favorite was, but she was hoping to move past the subject smoothly without drawing too much attention to the fact that the last time she read a storybook for pleasure was when she was a little kid. She didn't want to disappoint Ainsley, she was clearly very excited about books.

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley faltered, surprised. That was... something she had never even thought about. "Books about... clothes? Why? Do you want to learn to sew? I can teach you, I sewed the pockets onto this skirt myself!" She smiled brightly, gesturing to two round doilies, sewn haphazardly to the front of her skirt, each with an opening at the top for a hand. "You don't need a book to learn that, just a needle and thread!"

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

Amber shook her head. She liked the way Ainsley altered her clothes, it looked really cute and gave her a very specific and unique style, but that wasn't what she was after. If she wanted pockets on a skirt, she would try to find one with pockets to buy. Though, that often turned out to be harder than it should be. At the same time, no pockets gave you a good excuse to buy a cute bag as well.

"No. I don't want to learn how to sew." She said patiently. "I just like reading about fashion. You know, different trends through the ages or new ways to combine clothes." She shrugged. "I have a lot of magazines about fashion, I could show you sometime. It's fun." She thought of Evelyn, the Gryffindor girl she had talked to. Surely she would understand. But Ainsley didn't, and she wouldn't force her friend into something she had no interest in. "But it's not really important. Like I said, I have plenty of magazines. We can go look for books you like. After all, you like books a lot more than me, I think."

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley listened to Amber a little blankly, trying to figure out what Amber actually... meant, if she didn't mean sewing books. "But... how can there be books about clothes? They're just clothes, you wear them, you don't read them..." She paused. "Unless there was a book ON your clothes... like a skirt with a story in the fabric pattern..." She trailed off, thinking, wondering if there were stories worth embroidering onto clothes. Ainsley's eyes began to go distant for a long moment, deep in her thought, before she snapped herself back to the RIGHT thing to be thinking about. Books about... clothes?

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

Amber felt herself grow a little frustrated. She knew many people thought fashion wasn't important, but she hadn't really met anyone that didn't seem to be aware of its existence completely. "It's not a book on your clothes." She said, a tad sharply. "it's a book about clothes. Like, I don't know, the history about it, what people used to wear or what they wear now. What fabrics or colors were common or fashionable."

She felt embarrassed, her cheeks slightly flushed. "Look, they probably don't have that here anyway. It's not like there's a fashion class in school, it's sort of silly of me to think something like that would be here. We should focus on what you want to read, especially since you wanted to see the library in the first place." Her voice softened a bit. "I'm sure there's a lot you will like, we should go look. See if we can find some answers to your questions."

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley's eyes widened and she tensed up nervously at the bite in Amber's voice. She was clearly angry, but as hard as she thought, Ainsley couldn't think of anything that could have made her friend so upset. It was worrying, but Ainsley remembered the words her mum had taught her in case of situations like this, when it was hard to figure out how best to be polite. "I'm sorry." She said quickly. "I think I said or did something that made you angry... could you please explain to me what I did wrong, so that I know not to do it again?" Ainsley recited the overly formal words clearly from memory, watching Amber anxiously as she did. Ainsley's mum always sat down with her and explained clearly when Ainsley was polite, but Amber was a different person, and Ainsley had already noted that she often reacted differently to things than mum would. Ainsley couldn't predict Amber at all, and that made her all the more nervous about upsetting her.

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

The look on Ainsley's face was enough to instantly make Amber regret snapping at her. Her words made her feel even worse. She wasn't actually angry, just a tad embarrassed, but she wasn't really sure how to put that into words.

She shook her head quickly. "Oh no, I'm sorry! I'm not angry." She said quickly, holding up her hands to reassure the girl. "You don't have to apologize and you did nothing wrong. I just... I got a little frustrated I think because some people feel like fashion is a vapid topic that isn't important but it is important to me." She smiled. "But I know that's not what you were saying! I was just reminded of it a little. It wasn't fair of me to react badly and I should apologize. I'm sorry for my tone of voice.

Cheerfully, put her hand on Ainsley's arm, gently leading her to some bookcases. She wanted to move past this misunderstanding as quickly as she could. "Maybe we'll run across a book about fashion to show you what I mean? We can look for anything interesting at all. I'm sure there's answers for anything you might think to ask."

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley relaxed slowly as she listened to Amber, relieved that she hadn't done anything to upset her friend. "Oh... okay, that's..good then..." She said a little uncertainly, still not totally sure how to respond to what the situation actually was. Ainsley fumbled, trying to word things carefully. "I just... don't understand what you meant, or how a book can be about clothes if it's not about sewing..."

Ainsley smiled a little as Amber went on, a little relieved at the prospect of finding a book to explain. "Okay, let's look for fashion books then... there's got to be some here, there's so many books in this place..." Ainsley smiled, linking her arm with Amber's gently, relieved that things seemed to be okay now.

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

Amber nodded. It was hard for her to understand that Ainsley had no idea what fashion was or that there could be books about it, but she realized that it wasn't that important in the end. "It's okay. But I can't... explain it better than I already have." She admitted. "It isn't that important, though. If we do find a book about it, I'll show you."

As Ainsley linked arms with her, Amber squeezed it reassuringly. She couldn't help but feel bad for reacting the way she had, but she was also starting to realize that she and Ainsley were two very different people. It was a lot of fun to hang out with her, but if they could have such a misunderstanding over simple books, she couldn't help but worry they wouldn't understand each other about bigger things too. Fashion was such a big part of Amber's life, she hadn't really considered that there would be people that were very much unaware of it's existence and influence. She had, of course, known that not everyone cared, but she hadn't expected someone to be so confused at the entire concept.

"What do you want to find a book about?" Amber asked cheerfully, trying her best to change the subject and leave the whole awkward conversation behind them.

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley smiled a little hesitantly, still not totally certain if things were actually alright between her and Amber. But the soft squeeze to her arm reassured her further, and she allowed herself to relax slightly, kicking out her long, draping skirt in front of her as she walked, watching the fabric billow and swirl around her ankles. "I like long skirts, because they feel good and swishy on my ankles. Do you like them?" She asked a little hesitantly, trying to reach out towards understanding her friend.

Ainsley faltered somewhat at Amber's question about books, thinking for a long moment. "I... want to find every kind of books." She said slowly. "I mean, there's so much... new information here, so many things to learn, and... maybe it'll make this whole school easier to understand. That's what I want. I just want to... learn everything I don't know yet."

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

Amber knew now that it was no use trying to explain trends or fashion to Ainsley. There was something admirable about a girl just liking what she liked, and she did think Ainsley's unique style suited her. "I like them occasionally, not so much on myself but they look lovely on you." She said with a cheerful smile. "Very pretty."

At Ainsley's last statement, she smiled softly at her friend. "Then we should get started, shouldn't we? There is a lot to learn." She squeezed her arm. "But we do have seven years to explore this library, so there's no rush." She started leading Ainsley to a nearby bookcase. Maybe this trip to the library would be fun after all, it was more time to spend with her friend. And who knew? Maybe Amber would learn something interesting too.