I Shouldn't Be Surprised, And Yet...

[Jessica Matthews]

The effort to which the castle had gone to decorate for Halloween had been strange for Jessica to behold. The day normally passed quite quietly at home, marked only by commercial pleas on the television and the occasional mention of trick or treaters in town. She'd certainly never been to anything that resembled a Halloween party before, and she was severely regretting the decision to do so now. Sometimes, when she wasn't in classes, she could almost convince herself that everyone here was just a normal person like herself - and other times they let live bats fly around 'for the aesthetic.' Gripping a cup of some liquid she wasn't familiar with, Jessica kept one eye on the flying rodents and another on the people surrounding around her. They didn't seem particularly bothered by the unconventional style of decoration, and so she supposed neither should she - or show that she was anyway. She wished she would catch sight of someone she knew, she was probably beginning to look like a weird little loser standing by herself.

 

[April Ward]

Halloween seemed so very exciting! April had never really celebrated it at home as it wasn't really a New Zealand tradition, but she was glad that Hogwarts decided to celebrate it anyway. She was very happy with her costume, and felt like it was very creative and funny. Not everyone seemed to really get it, but that only made it feel more special to her. The whole school looked so SPOOKY and it delighted her. She'd had a lot of fun looking at the different decorations, sure she had spotted some bats flying around earlier. She was now trying to see if there had been any awesome jack-o-lanterns she had missed, and in haste to cross the room she bumped into a blond girl that was holding a drink. She gasped and tried her hardest to keep the girl's drink from spilling all over them both, she mostly managed. "Oh gosh, I'm so sorry!" She said, looking her up and down. "Are you alright?" She had seen this girl around before, but didn't know her name.

 

[Jessica Matthews]

Jessica had been watching everyone carefully, but the costumes were making things difficult. She thought she might have seen Bao at one point, but if it was her she had slipped away into the crowd before Jessica could even start heading in her direction. Trying to decide whether chasing down an unknown person was dignified or not, she soon found herself jolted from her thoughts by someone colliding with her. Instantly a pair of hands thrust themselves towards the cup she was holding in an attempt to steady it, but some liquid still managed to spill out over Jessica's fingers, and she felt like groaning in dismay at the stickiness that was sure to settle in. She'd have to remember not to touch her hair, or her dress. The girl's apology did appease her though, and she looked up at the taller girl with a smile. "I'm fine, no need to worry. It's just... juice?" She peered into the cup quizzically, then shrugged. "Worse things have happened. I'm Jessica." Their meeting might have been an accident, but there was no way she was going to let this girl go on her way without trying to assess her as a potential friend first.

 

[April Ward]

April smiled at the other girl reassuringly. "Give me a second," she said cheerfully before bouncing over to the food table. She grabbed a few napkins and also two biscuits and returned to the girl, taking the cup from her gently and giving her the napkins to somewhat clean her fingers. "It's nice to meet you, Jessica." She said with a smile, popping a biscuit into her mouth. "Are you enjoying the party?" She looked at the other girl quizically. "Don't you have a costume?" She didn't mean it in a judging way, she had seen plenty of people without costumes around. But it was always possible it was a costume she just didn't recognize. "Oh, sorry. I'm April! I forgot to say that. I'm in Hufflepuff!" She offered the girl the second biscuit.

 

[Jessica Matthews]

Although her eyes widened slightly as she watched the girl bound away, Jessica soon saw that she was coming back and her fingers loosened from the grip they'd suddenly taken on the cup - she hadn't been dismissed after all. And the girl had even brought napkins with her. Touched by the gesture, Jessica smiled warmly. "Oh thank you, you didn't need to do that! And it's nice to meet you, too," she replied, proceeding to get rid of as much of the sticky liquid from her hands as she was able. "I didn't realise that people would be wearing proper costumes," she said, looking down at the floral print dress she was wearing. "I could say that I'd come in fifties style, because the skirt silhouette almost matches, but the shoes and my hair are all wrong."

Taking in the other girl's costume, Jessica fought to keep her eyebrows in place. "Yours is interesting. Where'd you get the idea?" It was the sort of thing that she wouldn't have been caught dead in, not unless it somehow found its way into a Vogue couture spread - and maybe not even then. But the girl's demeanour more than made up for her questionable costume choice and Jessica took the offered biscuit in one hand, the now crumpled napkins having found a home in her other. "Thanks," she said with a smile, and took a small bite before replying. "You have such a pretty name, I'm a bit jealous. Do you like Hufflepuff?" She didn't quite want to say what her own house was yet, just in case April decided that she didn't want to talk to some 'mean' Slytherin.

 

[April Ward]

April shrugged when the girl said she didn't have to do that. April was fairly used to bumping into people, and she knew that it was the most polite way to deal with that. "Of course I did, otherwise you might have gotten sticky I-hope-it's-juice on your pretty clothes!" She said with a grin. April nodded in agreement as she said she hadn't known people would wear proper costumes. "It surprised me too, a little, but I got this with my dad. I never really celebrated Halloween before so its all a bit new to me. But I like being so colorful!" She did a little twirl and laughed. "I think you could totally pass for fifties girl! I mean, most people don't know that much about it. Are you a fashion designer or something? Or will you be in the future?" Her eyes grew wide.

April twirled again to show off her costume. "I got the idea because me and my dad went to an art museum and I found all the modern ones so funny and colorful that I wanted to look just like it!" She said, giggling. Then she gasped. "Don't be jealous of my name! I like yours a lot too! At least you can get nicknames, like Jess." She paused, tilting her head. "Or Ica? is that one you get sometimes? It is a bit weird but at least it's not as common as Jess." She grinned. "Ica." She repeated before laughing again.

"I do like Hufflepuff. It has so many fun people in it! Like Norton over there, with the pumpkin. He's so funny and always seems excited. And I also know Remy who I don't see anywhere right now and Therese. She's so pretty and has this long black hair." She turned her attention to Jessica, realizing she was talking about her own house without asking hers. "Which house are you in?" She wondered if it was Ravenclaw, since the girl seemed so smart about clothes.

 

[Jessica Matthews]

Jessica smiled warmly when April complimented her dress, ducking her head in faux modesty. "Well, I'd want to do it properly if it really was a costume - perhaps next year." She considered the other girl's question, wondering how much detail to go into. Although she thought it was a bit silly to ask if she was already a fashion designer - she had only just turned twelve, honestly - Jessica wouldn't deny to herself that she had been daydreaming for some time about doing such a thing one day. She even had an entire scrapbooking journal dedicated to 'research' of her favourite designers and their clothes. "Maybe," she eventually replied, unable to stop the little gleam in her eye as she spoke. "I'm still learning some of the... fancier sewing techniques" (or all of them beyond the basics, actually, but April didn't need to know that) "but my mom thinks I'm doing really well."

Jessica remained astounded at the other girl's enthusiasm for her costume, but nevertheless smiled as she spun around in it. Her lips thinned slightly, however, at hearing the unique nickname April had thought of. "I only rarely get called Jess, but I've never heard 'Ica,' - I'd prefer just Jessica, really." She tried to keep her tone friendly, but firm. She was absolutely not going to be saddled with being called something that sound like 'ick.' She'd seen it happen countless times before - some kid at school got called something everyone else found mildly amusing and then got stuck with the name forever. She hoped April would stop laughing about it soon, and forget even faster why she had been doing so in the first place.

Back on safer ground, the smile returned to Jessica's face. "Oh, I've met Norton! Yes, I agree," she said, giggling at April's description. "But I haven't met the other two, yet." Maybe she could get April to introduce them to her later. For the moment though, she was stuck with thinking how to dodge the other girl's question. She couldn't, Jessica realised - perhaps she could play the 'yes, I am very nice for a Slytherin' card if she needed to. "I'm in Slytherin," she said, smiling. "I've met a few of the girls in my year, but none of the boys. And I'm friends with a second year, too," she couldn't help adding.

 

[April Ward]

April smiled at the girl's comment about wanting to have a costume next year. "What would you want to go as next year?" She asked eagerly. "You could pass as a princess, totally." She added with a nod to her blond hair. "I guess you can even make the costume yourself and you'll look so pretty!" She laughed at Jessica's assertion that she was maybe a designer, or maybe going to be one. April wasn't entirely sure which one it was, and for some reason she didn't really want to ask.
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She pouted a little when the other girl didn't take to her unique nickname the way she had hoped. Maybe she would 'forget' her request to just be called Jessica later, though she nodded for now. "Okay, Jessica it is."

April smiled when the girl said she had met Norton, and her face lit up when she said she hadn't yet met the other two. "I could introduce you, then!" She said with a grin. "If I see either of them." April simply nodded when the girl said she was in Slytherin. She didn't have a bad view of any of the houses. "Are the girls nice?" She asked curiously. "And is the second year nice?" April didn't seem very impressed with the fact that it was a second year the girl had befriended. Her own friend/sort of sister was a second year too.

 

[Jessica Matthews]

Jessica tilted her head in thought at April's question. A princess costume seemed slightly standard, but if she made it herself - or rather, decided what she wanted it to look like and then get her mother to make it - it could look amazing. The thought made her smile, and she nodded at the other girl happily. "That sounds like an amazing idea, thanks!" In return she gave April a once-over, trying to decide what costume the girl could wear next year that wouldn't result in something like the unfortunate thing she had found to wear tonight. "You'd look really pretty in a proper dress, too - but I could see beautiful wings attached to the back; you could go as a butterfly!" Jessica's eyes shone with excitement at her burst of inspiration. "They could stretch out above your head, and of course you'd have to have a lot of glitter on them." She was almost jealous that she'd come up with this idea for April, and not herself, but she was sure she could convince the other girl to let her help design them.

Glad that the she seemed to have dropped the attempt to give her a horrible nickname, Jessica smiled, an expression that widened when April offered to introduce her friends to her. It was no wonder the other girl had so many of them, she was so nice and eager to talk with people, and Jessica was very glad that they had (literally) bumped into each other - she didn't even mind the residual stickiness that remained adhered to a space between her fingers. She was sure now that April would be a wonderful person to have as a friend, and she was looking forward to spending more time with her in the future. Nodding, she replied, "Yes, all the girls I've met are wonderful - two are so nice and polite, and the other girl has been really helpful." Thinking back on the subject of that particular conversation, Jessica hoped her grimace was properly disguised as a smile. "And the second year is so lovely - she offered to show my friend and I around the castle, taking time out of her day for us and everything." This fact was very important to Jessica, because it signified that Odette must really care about her if she was willing to do such a thing - she was sure the older girl must be busy.

 

[April Ward]

April clapped excitedly as Jessica told her her idea was amazing. She could just picture it, Jessica with her long hair with flowers in it and a big crown with sparkles. She smiled. "You would look so beautiful." She said, nodding. Jessica's own suggestion made her smile, though she didn't think she would listen to it. April wanted to be unique, and she was pretty sure there were a few people dressed as butterflies around every year. Still, she didn't want to be rude and she nodded. "That could be fun!" She said. "I do really love glitter, and I'd love to run around with wings fluttering behind me."

April was glad she had run into Jessica, the girl seemed very nice. "That sounds great! You should introduce me sometime. Are the girls in your dorm nice? Mine mostly are! Also, isn't flying fun? Maybe during the next lesson we can stand next to each other!" Jessica provided a new chance to show off how quickly the broom replied to her command every time. "Only if you want, of course!"