Incompatible Perspectives

[Hayley Elridge]

It was a glorious sunny day and a new semester, and Hayley was happy to be outside for some peace and quiet in the warm afternoon. As always when she first got back to school, the relentless bustle of Hogwarts was exhausting. Today Hayley didn't feel like seeking out her friends, even Harley or Ainsley with whom she was often content to sit and draw quietly with. Instead she was sprawled contentedly on the grass with her sketchbook in front of her.

Hayley was practising a technique she'd come across online at home: perspective drawing. God, how she'd missed the internet. She'd also looked up a lot of advice about using quill pens for art, but that wasn't her focus today. Hayley wasn't very adept at drawing architecture, and that was a source of frustration to her while she lived in this amazing castle. She hoped that using the discipline of perspective drawing would help her get proportions that actually looked like a realistic building. So she lay facing the castle, set up a page with horizon line and two vanishing points, and started sketching in the basic shapes of the North Tower. She wasn't so ambitious as to attempt the whole castle at once, but getting a reasonable likeness of that would make a good start.

 

[Lenore Harvelle-Ateara]

It was one of those days that Lenore didn't know what to do. Her hobbies were very limited and one of her hobby was learning about the Greek mythology. Since it was a very nice day outside and she had already read two books about Apollo and Artemis. It was time to go outside and get some vitamins. Maybe she would grow an inch or two. Lenore giggled and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. Carefully placing a headband over her other shaped extremities. It became harder and harder to hide herself. She actually slept with others so that meant always being conscious about how she looked. Her fellow friends just thought she was small of suffered from dwarfism. Everything was better than being part goblin. She hated herself for being different and hated her dad for making her different. She loved him to bits though, but she would cut of her ears if she could. Why couldn't she just be normal and be liked every other kid at this school. Being a goblin sucked, the prejudice and general crap that was thrown to the goblin community was enough to make Lenore gag.

Len grabbed her sketchbook, she didn't draw but she wrote information about flowers she saw on it. She sketched flowers and plants she saw and wrote what kind of qualities they had next to it. It was also a nerdy hobby, but it seemed more normal than Greek mythology was. When Lenore walked outside on the lawn she saw another girl being outside and drawing on a sketchbook. She looked very relaxed, when Len looked around she spotted some buttercups and forget-me-nots. She dropped her sketchbook next to her girls and started to observe the flowers. ''Hello, I hope I don't bother you with being here.'' Len paused ''I just like to draw these flowers'' Len pointed at the flowers she had spotted. ''If you want me gone, please say so.'' Len had the confidence of a fishstick and she would literally move if the girl said so. I am Lenore Len muttered and looked at what the girl was doing it looked nice. ''Wow, that looks amazing'' Len was in shock, it showed off real skill.

 

[Hayley Elridge]

Hayley looked up abruptly as another girl sat down beside her. She looked young enough to be a first year, and small even for that. Hayley was a little short for her age, but this girl was tiny. Hayley smiled at her. She didn't spend much time with firsties, but she well remembered what a shock it had been for her, and the stranger looked very nervous. A lot of people in her year looked down on the first years (but then, it seemed to her like Slytherins would take any excuse to look down on anyone), but Hayley had never seen the point. They weren't even that much younger. And it was enough of a struggle learning to navigate Hogwarts society and all its messed-up, prejudiced ways without taking that particular flavour of sh*t at the same time.

Hayley had intended to spend time alone, but she wouldn't object to company. She was invariably cautious when meeting new people, not knowing whether they would react with discrimination to her blood status, but on a day like this, with a first year, that was no excuse not to be friendly. "Oh, hey. Yeah, sure you can sit here. Nice to meet you, Lenore, I'm Hayley." Hayley looked over at Lenore's sketchbook and saw some drawings of flowers with notes written next to them that the girl must have done some other day. They were impressively detailed, and Hayley relaxed a little more in Lenore's company, her inevitable anxiety at new people beginning to melt with the realisation that she was an artist too. Hayley finished the basic outlines of the tower (yes! she was finally getting them right!) and began sketching in more detail. She was surprised when Lenore complimented her work, as it was at such an early stage, but she supposed it was inevitable her skill level would look impressive to an eleven-year-old. "Oh, thanks. You're pretty good yourself." Hayley was curious about the notes beside each flower, but she had a more important question: how would this girl react to her being a Muggleborn? It had become Hayley's habit to mention some subtle indicator of this fact at the start of each conversation with a new person, to see whether they'd prove worth speaking to, and this was a perfect opportunity. "I'm trying out a new technique I found online, it's the first time I've really done justice to the castle."

 

[Lenore Harvelle-Ateara]

Laying the grass felt somewhat natural for Lenore. Nature didn't judge or tried to be mean. The castle was massive and trying to hide who you are for so many people was hard. Not that she was that different, but she stood out from the rest. Lenore wondered if there were more part goblins at Hogwarts. She hadn't met any and she started to wonder if there were even any at school. When the girl smiled to her Len knew she was allowed to stay. It almost felt like she was a dog,
but some of the older years were really bad. ''Hello Hayley, likewise'' Len muttered while trying to get the outline of the buttercup on paper.

''Thanks, but I just make scribbles compared to your masterpiece'' Lenore smiled, the only thing she did draw were flowers, plants and trees and that was literally all she could do. She tried to draw a face once and it looked like a blob with eyes. When the girl mentioned the internet Len had to think a bit. She had heard of the internet, her dad talked about it when he came back from work at a Muggle theatre school. Her goblin genes came from her dad and he worked at a Muggle school as a theatre teacher. The students thought he was always in his role and that he suffered from dwarfism like his daughter did. The students didn't even think about that the ears weren't removeable. Len started to wonder if the question was a trick question to get her to talk. So she tried to pick out her words very carefully. ''My dad uses the internet on his work I think, but we don't have access to any of it in our wizarding village, it's literally shut off from the muggle society'' Len paused ''Do you use the internet often?'' Len had heard about halfblood kids living with their muggle parents, so she didn't think much of it and then again Len accepted everything. Everything was better than being part freakazoid.

 

[Lucinda Sylvester]

Lucinda was beginning to regret her decision to actually sit outside for once. She'd thought she'd be able to escape from the relentless beating of the sun if she made sure to keep under the shade of a tree, but the lack of a breeze managed to make the differences in temperature only slight and she was beginning to feel the prickling of sweat sticking to her underneath her long school robes. The worst part was that she hadn't even managed to escape the real reason she'd irrationally chosen to be outside of all places - the inane chatter of other people in her nearby surroundings. The dormitory, the Slytherin common room... they'd all been overrun with sappy conversations of students catching up after the recent holidays and Lucinda was unable to take listening to all their stupid, meaningless words a moment longer. Hence her outrageous decision to come outside and sit - she'd hoped - far away from anyone else while she tried to concentrate on her potions book.

But no. Two girls had decided to strike up conversation a little ways to her left, and Lucinda glared irritably at them over the top of her book. The one who'd been drawing in silence had been alright, but the new one - whose smaller stature perfectly described her pathetic personality - was really getting on Lucinda's nerves. The girl was far too chirpy for her liking, and just the sound of her voice was enough to make Lucinda want to throw the book at her head. Which wouldn't do, so instead she decided to try and get rid of her, or even better, both of them, in another way. "Please, if you two are going to talk about pathetic muggle things do me a favour and do it somewhere else. Some of us are witches; this is a magical school," she shook her potions book back and forth in their direction. "I suggest leaving it altogether if those sorts of inferior things are what interest you." The internet might have been her lifeline once, but it turned out most of the 'magic' she'd gotten from it had been fake and useless - now that she had access to proper spells and potions Lucinda found that it didn't quite interest her anymore.

 

[Hayley Elridge]

Hayley ducked her head and grinned awkwardly. "Thanks." This was getting embarrassing. She was good, yeah, but she wasn't the perfect artist Lenore seemed to think she was. Hayley was curious about her comment about her village being shut off from muggle society. That wasn't a possibility that had occurred to her, whole villages that just had nothing to do with muggles at all, but it made a chilling amount of sense. She'd met purebloods who didn't understand muggles at all, who thought of them as cannibals or less than human. Those f***ed up views almost made sense when you considered they would never have met a muggle, only been exposed to the centuries of prejudice that had built up. That didn't make it at all excusable, though. Hayley was about to ask more about Lenore's village when a new, sneering voice broke in.

She was still in robes, on a day like this. She was clearly a Slytherin (that was no surprise), and she looked like a first year. Hayley glared at her. "Oi, you b*tch! Let's get some things straight. This is a school for everyone who can do magic, not just arrogant f***ed-up snobs like yourself." She wouldn't usually have started with so many insults so quickly, but this had been a nice afternoon before this nasty stranger had so rudely interrupted. In response, Hayley wouldn't hold back. "Some of us weren't always witches, some of us like to talk about the things we miss from home. And those things aren't inferior at all, I'm yet to see a spell that can get me so much awesome stuff as the entire f***ing internet!"

 

[Lenore Harvelle-Ateara]

Lenore was happy and into her drawing of the buttercup in front of her. It was going well and their conversation about the internet peeked her interest. She liked to know about everything, muggle and magical wise. While thinking about what text she wanted next to the drawing they got disrupted by this wicca. It looked like she was wearing a wig and to top it off she was wearing her school robes. Lenore only wore her school robes in class, they weren't exactly fashion forward. When the girl opened her mouth a lot of bad things came out. Len wondered what her problem was. When the girl said said the some of us are witches comment something snapped in Lenore. That was exactly what Lenore was against, the prejudice against anything else that isn't a pureblood witch. Len stood up and her face was white hot with rage. ''I have more magic in my big toe than you have in that pathetic head of yours.'' Lenore spoke in rage. ''There are things magic can't fix, magic isn't inferior.'' Lenore paused ''It is a means to an end''. Lenore wondered what got her panties in a bunch. It wasn't like her to be angry, but this girl made her angry. She wondered what was wrong with her, maybe her parents deserted her or she watched to much television. Although she was shut of from the muggle society her dad thought her some things about it. He didn't want her to become a muggle hater.''Magic can't give you friends or resurrect the dead'' Lenore stamped on the ground, she didn't even care if her ears showed.''If you keep that little attitude up, I think you will have seven horrible years here.''

The girl was in her year, but she wasn't that bad in the classes. Why would she explode to them now, they did nothing wrong it was odd.

 

[Lucinda Sylvester]

Both girls responded explosively to Lucinda's simple statement and she couldn't help smirking at their reactions, even though it she'd failed at getting them to move elsewhere. It didn't matter as much now though; Lucinda was just pleased that she'd managed to annoy the two girls as much as they had done to her - it made her feel like she'd already won half the battle. Fights like these were something she was used to from the days at her old school, and so instead of feeling particularly bothered by the flimsy insults both girls sent her way Lucinda just absorbed them all, delighted that she had clearly ruined their days. "Well, some of us were always witches, unlike yourself clearly," she told the older girl, looking her up and down in a judgmental manner. "When you finally catch up you'll realise that the internet is just a poor muggle substitute for imagination - which you clearly lack if you worship it so much." Lucinda's lip curled as she mentally placed the girl into a box labelled 'watches cat videos for hours airhead.'

She then switched her attention to the short one, although the shrieking the girl was making didn't improve the sound of her voice any in Lucinda's opinion. She actually grimaced slightly to hear it. "I doubt it," she said, easily countering the girl's first retort. "And if you think that's true then that just shows how much you know." Lucinda's tone was derisive, and she was really warming up to the conflict now that she had some nice places to pick holes in the other girl's arguments. "If you were as smart as me, you would know that magic can raise the dead - it's called Necromancy, look it up - and if you were paying any attention in class, you'd also know that there's a spell that can make anyone do anything you want." She attempted to give the other girl a pitying smirk, but pity wasn't really an emotion her face had ever had cause to practice before. "I guess I can understand you not being able to keep any friends though, your personality is pathetic. 'Oh, can I sit here, am I bothering you while I draw my pathetic little flowers?'" She cruelly mimicked what she'd heard the other girl say earlier. "You're nauseating."

 

[Hayley Elridge]

Hayley grinned at Lenore's response; her new friend was surprisingly good at insults for someone who'd seemed so shy at first. But to her irritation it seemed to only make the stranger smug. Oh, so this was one of those purebloods, the ones that just wanted to pick a fight. Well, if she was trying to make Hayley annoyed, she'd get more than she bargained for. "Oh, you are pathetic," she spat. "Pathetic and clueless. If you think that way it's clear you're no better. You're just substituting bigotry for imagination. You've got no ideas in your head but what your prejudice put there." Hayley could barely contain her rage. How dare this petty fool insult her imagination? Through the internet of all things, a place to inform and enhance it!

Hayley's mouth dropped. What was wrong with this girl? She'd only known about the magical world a scant few years, and even she knew that the spell the bigot was talking about was utterly illegal, despicable, and didn't work like that. Hayley didn't know much about Necromancy, but she was pretty sure it didn't work like that, either. "The Imperious Curse can't get you friends! It can get you slaves. Though I wouldn't be surprised to hear you think those are the same thing." When she insulted Lenore's ability to make friends, Hayley was outraged on her behalf. Hayley didn't even know Lenore, but she seemed lovely, and Hayley felt instinctively protective over her. She did seem shy, and Hayley was concerned she might take the bully's words to heart. "I bet she can keep infinitely more friends than you. You don't even know what a friend is!" Why did so many Slytherins seem to think of friendship as a means to an end, a game of manipulation and influence, rather than a true connection between people? "You make me sick."