Closed How to Make Friends (and Keep Them)

[Liesel Besemer]

Liesel tapped her biro against her notepad rhythmically, resting her chin on her hand. There had to be something she was missing. Nobody else seemed to have difficulty making friends. She suspected, deep down, that she wasn't trying hard enough. At primary school, she had floated from group to group, generally tolerated, sometimes accepted, but never really wanted. Instead of trying to work out what she was doing wrong, she had been content to linger on the side-lines, or to sit alone in the library and read. That had worked back then, but it was quickly becoming clear to Liesel that if she didn't make friends at Hogwarts soon, she was going to get left behind.

She ceased her pen-tapping in order to write at the top of the page, 'How to Make Friends'. She considered this title for a moment, then added, 'and Keep Them'. Perfect. She was going to figure this out if she had to use up all the ink in her biro. Now, where to start? Giving people compliments seemed like a sure way to win their affection. Liesel jotted that down. What else? She chewed the end of her pen, a hard line of concentration appearing on her forehead. No, that was all she had. This was never going to work.

An outburst from the Hufflepuff table made Liesel look around. She couldn't find the source of the excitement, but she did spot a familiar face, sitting a little apart from the rest. Liesel swivelled out from the Ravenclaw bench and plonked herself opposite Katherine, dropping her notebook on the table. "Kathy - can I call you Kathy? - how do you think you make friends? I'm making this list, look. I've got 'give people compliments'. That's obvious. What else can you do?"

Spoiler: The Notepad

How to Make Friends and Keep Them

• Give them compliments
• 
  
• 
  

 

[Kate Kensington]

A loud noise from the table next to her broke Kate from her stupor. She decided to try what the girl the other day had suggested, and read a book. But not just any book, one of the school books. Kate, however, had read the same paragraph a million times, not actually taking the information in. Her eyes were going blurry and her head felt heavy, resting on the palm of her hand; until of course, the eruption. Kate jumped, looking around, blinking a couple of times to make sure she was actually awake. Well, this was useless. She thought to herself. Slinging the book closed, Kate slid it into her bag, as movement across the table happened. Katherine looked up, pleasantly surprised to see Liesel sitting opposite her. She was unsure about the nickname Kathy, but Liesel didn't give her too much of a chance to respond. Kate felt honored that the girl thought she knew how to make friends, and she gave her a small smile. "I think you're asking the wrong person, Liesel. As much as my mother would hate to hear this...I-I don't know how to...make friends." Kate said, slowly trailing off. She tried to think of what her mother told her to do, to make friends. "But my mother says that we should always smile and be kind. Maybe buy them a present?" She suggested.

 

[Liesel Besemer]

"Oh," Liesel said. "Well, we can work it out together. Smile... be kind... buy them a present... That's four things. Although being kind is a bit vague, isn't it? I'll take that one off. Buying someone a present is kind, anyway." She struck a line through Katherine's suggestion, then turned her notebook to reveal what she'd written so far. "God, it's so much work. I can't be bothered to do all this. Ooh, you have sausage rolls! We didn't get them on our table today." Liesel pinched one and bit into the warm pastry, spreading flaky crumbs everywhere. "So good."

 

[Kate Kensington]

Kate smiled as Liesel said they would work it out together. She felt herself getting excited as Liesel jotted down her ideas, feeling rather proud of herself. She felt herself wanting to stand up for her 'be kind' idea when Liesel crossed it off, but supposed maybe Liesel was right. How was a person supposed to be kind? Maybe she had to think about that more, and add those ideas to the list. Before Kate had another thought, Liesel had changed the subject and grabbed a sausage roll. Kate's eyes watched the crumbs flake onto the table, resisting the urge to tidy it up. "Quite." Kate replied, putting a smile on her face and looking at Liesel instead of the mess. "I usually cut mine smaller, so I don't lose any flake." She said, as politely as she could. She wasn't trying to tell Liesel what to do, but perhaps she just didn't know.

 

[Liesel Besemer]

Liesel wasn’t worried about losing a few flakes of pastry. She polished off the sausage roll and licked her fingers clean before drying them on her robes. ”Why are you so polite?” she asked. ”You’re like an old woman. Are you OK?”

 

[Kate Kensington]

Kate watched, trying to keep her horror inside as Liesel licked her fingers and wiped them on her robes. She was taken aback by her comment, unsure what to make of it. Was she being mean? "Umm, yes, I'm fine. I'm - I'm not old. My mother says to make friends you have to be... polite." Kate trailed off.

 

[Liesel Besemer]

"Yeah, but there's polite, and then there's-" Liesel sat up straight and put her best Kate voice on- "'Ooh, quite, yes, quite. I don't want to lose any flake.'" She laughed, suddenly inspired to reach for another sausage roll. "You're weird. Maybe that's why you don't have any friends?"

 

[Kate Kensington]

Kate watched, feeling her stomach knotting up as Liesel spoke...was she mocking her? Kate had never experienced this type of conversation before, the older ladies she spoke to had only ever been polite, as her mother instructed her to do also. But Liesel...Liesel wasn't being polite. Kate felt her cheeks burning, and she found that she couldn't look at the Ravenclaw, but instead at the table, as Liesel stated that she was weird and that was why she didn't have any friends. There had been things that Katherine had cried about, certainly, in her life, but it had never been because someone had spoken such ugly words over her. Kate didn't know what to do, or how to even get out of the situation. All she knew was that even her heart felt a bit sore, and she felt as nervous as she had when they were asked to speak in front of everyone in Charms class. "Perhaps." Kate managed to utter out in response to Liesel, keeping her eyes on a flake of pastry on the table, her hands clasped in her lap.