I'm Probably About as Surprised as You Are

[Lucinda Sylvester]

It wasn't a position she had ever expected to find herself in, but strange as the situation was to her Lucinda was actually feeling rather positive about the whole idea. It wasn't that she was lonely, or feeling a desperate urge for social company, but more that she was sick and tired of rolling her eyes at every person she saw these days. It did actually tend to get tiresome, despite the fact that she'd happily pretend otherwise to her dying day. There were few people that she'd met in this school who didn't make her react in such a way, but one that Lucinda remembered very clearly was a Ravenclaw girl named Zoe. Although it had been clear that the girl had unfortunately confused ideas about matters concerning proper witchcraft, Zoe had never outright laughed at Lucinda's ideas, nor acted like she was stupid for thinking them. It just about made her Lucinda's most favourite person in the entire school - if she had actually had one of those.

Concerned as she was with her own opinions of the Ravenclaw, Lucinda didn't stop to think about how she might have been perceived by the other girl herself - pushing a smaller student aside to sit opposite Zoe with the assumption that her presence would be well received. "Hello. I hope you're not finished yet, I only just got here." She perused the lunch food laid out across the Ravenclaw table briefly, then reached out for a goblet of pumpkin juice. "You must have done something interesting in the holidays, tell me. Cryptids? Aliens? I'd prefer aliens to be honest." This was another reason Lucinda found she could stand Zoe - there was nothing normal or boring about the girl at all, which was more than she could say for countless other students in this place.

 

[Zoe Westwick]

After spending the holidays at home, Zoe felt like she had to adjust to noisy Hogwarts mealtimes all over again. Everything was so loud and busy and distracting, there was so much to look at Zoe almost found it difficult to eat. Interesting conversations, fascinating people, and that bright, beautiful ceiling above it all, stealing Zoe's gaze away from her omelette. Even though the skies outside were cloudy today, Zoe found her attention drawn upwards, wondering what could be out there, amongst the stars or even lurking hidden above the clouds.

Distracted by her thoughts of the beyond, Zoe wasn't paying attention to any of the students around her until she heard someone talking close by enough that they were most likely talking to her. Snapping her attention back to the table, Zoe was a little surprised to see Lucinda beside her, a face she hadn't seen since last year. "Oh! Hello!" She said brightly. "No, I haven't eaten much yet, I was distracted by the ceiling. Do you ever wonder how they made it do that?" Zoe felt her gaze being drawn upwards again, but tried to focus back down on the actual conversation, listening to Lucinda's question. "Well, the holidays were boring. I didn't see anything interesting in my telescope, Auckland has much too much light pollution for any serious UFO spotting. Oh! I don't think I've told you though! At the end of last year, I saw a centaur! A real one! Here, at school! He was by the lake, near the forest, and he had horse legs and a bow and everything! It was amazing!" Zoe bounced a little in her seat as she talked, the excitement at a real life encounter with a real life magical creature not yet having left her.