Leaving Charms...

[Lucinda Dalton]

Lucy dawdled out of Charms class, thinking over what they'd learnt. Magic still seemed so strange, so foreign, so unbelievable! She wasn't even sure she liked it. Why can't I be back home, studying English and History? she mused. Lucy didn't know anybody - she was a fairly solitary being, which made living in a boarding school situation extremely difficult. The only person she'd ever spent much time with was her mother, and obviously her mother couldn't be with her. Worse, she wasn't a witch, so Lucy was behind everyone else it seemed, in that she had no idea what she was doing, while most of the other students seemed to know everything and anything.

Not looking where she was going, the normally graceful Lucy walked straight in to a suit of armour and was knocked flying back a couple of metres, dropping her textbook on the ground and sending it across the corridor. Embarassed, Lucy hurriedly sat up, and pulled her uniform back in to place. It was her first week and she was not making a good impression at all.

 

[Charlie Linus]

Charlie grumbled his way out of the stupid class. Charms? Please?! It was all way too weird for Charlie to even want to come to terms with. He let out a yawn and tried to will his head ache to go away. It had been building sinse he walked into the classroom and now all he really wanted to do was head back to the Slytherin Common room and sleep off the irritating pain in his skull.

As if on cue someone smashed into a suit of armour, which sent a loud clanging noise through the hall. Shutting his eyes rightly Charlie cursed lightly and looked up to perhaps yell at the person, depending on their age. He saw a girl picking up her books and all thought of yelling flew out the window. Charlie started to walk over to her, but before he could help her, she had already straightened and was fixing her uniform back into place. "Are you... Okay?" He tried, he had never been good at talking to new people. They never understood him, so he kept to himself. Maybe it was time to put that behind him, he wasnt going to get anywhere in school if he didnt at least try to talk to people.

 

[Lucinda Dalton]

Lucy blushed profusely when a boy she recognised from her Charms class moved towards her and asked if she was okay. "Oh! Yeah, I'm fine thanks," she muttered, her Australian accent very recognisable - another thing which made her feel out of place, everyone was from different countries around the world. Lucy felt like a bit of an anomaly being a muggleborn from the suburbs of Brisbane. "I don't normally do this, I mean, I'm usually pretty co-ordinated...I don't know what came over me," she quickly explained, as though she was defending her fall. "Um, I'm Lucinda, by the way. You can call me Lucy, though, everyone does." Awkwardly, Lucy held out a hand to the boy. "I don't know if wizards have some secret handshake or way of introduction or anything," she joked, a shy smile appearing on her face. "What's your name?"

 

[Charlie Linus]

Charlie grinned, wanting to chuckle at the girls attitude. She introduced herself as Lucy and then stated that she wasnt sure if wizards had some sort of handshake, Charlie realised she must have been a 'muggleborn' or whatever the girl in the great hall had explained himself as. "Yeah neither do I." He said, with a small uneasy laugh, grasping her hand anyway. "Im Charlie. Charlie Linus." He stated with his strong English accent, a huge contrast with the girls Australian one.

 

[Lucinda Dalton]

"Very pleased to meet you, Charlie...you're a first year too right? I just saw you in Charms...I think? Slytherin, yeah?" Lucy coloured a bit, when she realised she was bombarding the boy with questions. "Oh! Sorry. I haven't really spoken to anybody here...you wouldn't think boarding school would be lonely but it really is. I don't know about you, I just feel so out of place here." Lucy bit her lip, realising she was rambling. She was very good at rambling, she'd practiced it so well in debating. "Heh, sorry. I must be boring you. I'm just lonely. And bored."

 

[Charlie Linus]

Charlie blinked as he listened to the girl ask question after question. He then let out a light chuckle, usually such behaviour would annoy him, but strangely he was warming up to the girl. He nodded when she asked if he was in Slytherin. "Yup, your a Ravenclaw yes?" He asked, although he still didnt understand what houses meant what.

Charlie nodded yet again when the girl said she felt out of place. "I know how that feels." He looked past her and down the corridor. He felt extremely out of place here and although he didnt like to admit it, he had always felt that way. He was almost used to it in the normal world, but here, it just brought back all the unpleasant feelings of not belonging. He looked back at her and half smiled. "Nah, your not boring me." He let out a laugh. "How you liking your classes so far?" He asked.

 

[Lucinda Dalton]

Lucy shrugged. "Yeah, Ravenclaw, that's me," she smiled. "All I really get about Ravenclaws is that we're supposed to wear blue a lot and climb an awful lot of stairs," she added, with a chuckle. Having the common room and dorms in one of the towers was extremely annoying. There weren't any stairs at Lucy's house back in Brisbane. It was a small home, on a very small block - some would say it was cramped, Lucy and her mother called it cozy. It was definately big enough for a single mother and her eleven year old daughter. Especially if said eleven year old was sent off to a boarding school. But no stairs. Now she had to climb up all the way to the castle towers on a daily basis. She was lucky that she had some fitness from playing netball, that was for sure.

"Oh good," she smiled, quite relieved to actually be having a conversation. "Um...I'm not sure about classes, really. I think I might like them, but they're so confusing, and I feel so behind everybody else," she admitted. "That Charms class was kinda...weird. History of Magic's okay, though...I think. I don't know. What about you?" It pained Lucy to have to say 'I don't know', as she was so used to being the know-it-all. Lucy was never stumped for an answer...until she came to Hogwarts, that is.

 

[Charlie Linus]

Charlie let out another laugh, he was starting to enjoy Lucinda, or Lucy's company more and more. It was nice to know someone just as confused by everything as him. Charlie had to agree with her on the subject of classes. He had no clue and to be honest, he didnt want to know. "I havent been paying much attention in my classes, I dont get them. I mean, Charms? The whole idea of using a wand is crazy by itself." He admitted with a playful roll of his eyes.

 

[Lucinda Dalton]

"I don't really get them either...waving wands just looks ridiculous," Lucy stated, rolling her eyes in response. "I much prefer pen and paper...but we don't even have that, we have to use quills! I was so used to using the computer at home, too," Lucy added, missing home. She wondered what her mother was up to. "Astronomy is completely ridiculous, too...and you know we actually have to fly on broomsticks? I thought that was just a thing of fairytales, but we actually have to fly brooms! It's crazy!" Lucy exclaimed, glad she had somebody who was equally as confused and uncertain about everything to vent to.

 

[Charlie Linus]

"I know right!" Charlie exclaimed in return at everything Lucy had just said. "And I was in the library, did you know Dragons exist?!" He said, still completely outraged at that little fact. He shook his head. This was only stuff you read about or dreamt about. You would think anyone would be excited about this magical world, but there couldnt be anything worse. Charlie stopped, wondering if he could say what he was thinking, he then summed up the courage and admitted, "Its good to have someone to relate too." He said, with only a little difficulty. "Everyone loves this world." He added.

 

[Lucinda Dalton]

Lucy gasped. "No way! Are you serious? Unicorns and fairies and things, too? I heard there were centaurs in the forest and mermaids in the lake. Madness!" Lucy shook her head slightly, stunned. Dragons! Lucy was convinced they were the thing of legend. And she'd been reading her History of Magic textbook - Merlin was real! Merlin, now Lucy was sure he was only in stories. She wasn't exactly sure what to think any more, anyway. It seemed like everything she thought she knew was covering up the truth, whatever that was. She gave Charlie a smile, despite all that. He seemed nice enough and he was going through exactly what she was. "I'm glad. It's good to know there's someone else out there who isn't enamoured with the idea of magic...and also feels a little out of place."

 

[Charlie Linus]

Charlie blinked, he had been joking about mermaids being in the lake when he had made that comment in the library, but now it was real?! Like Lucinda had said, madness. What was next flying pigs?! Charlie absently looked out of the nearest window, as if expecting a pig to fly past. In all honestly, he wouldnt be surprised if one did.

Charlie smiled back at Lucy. "You can say that again." He joked. He couldnt feel more out of place if he had worn wings and a fairy costume. Well okay, maybe he would just a little bit, but that was beside the point. The point was, everyone loved this world and everything about it. Charlie thought he would have to deal with squeeling little children prancing about waving their wands for the rest of the school year and the ones to come. He was thankful he wasnt the only one confused by all of this.

"So where abouts are you from?" He asked, although he thought he recognised her accent as either a New Zealand one or an Australian one.

 

[Lucinda Dalton]

Lucy shrugged, shaking her head with a slight ironic laugh. She wasn't even sure she quite wanted to understand the wizarding world. All she'd ever wanted to be was a barrister. She had been looking forward to going to high school, and university. She was going to get a Law degree, do Arts as well and major in English for the fun of it, then she was going to become a barrister and enjoy her job standing up in court and prosecuting or defending. It didn't matter which. She just wanted it more than anything.
But no, she had to be a witch. So she couldn't go to the high school she was going to go to, and if she didn't graduate high school there was no way she was going to be able to go to university. She'd cried that night when she recieved her letter. Most girls would have rejoiced. Not Lucy.
"I'm from Australia. Brisbane, to be precise," she explained. "What about you?" she asked, figuring he was from the UK somewhere, but not quite sure where.

 

[Charlie Linus]

"Ah an Australian huh." He chuckled, he had never met an Australian before. "Im from all over the place, I moved alot as a kid, but before I got here, I lived in Manchester." He explained with a small shrug. He hated the moving and the constant change, the only thing he could be somewhat thankful for is that he got to stay in England, but the moving always corrupted everything.

Charlie started to feel a little unconfortable, he knew that the conversation was running slim and thoughts of his family started to bubble in his head, which always brought forth unpleasent feelings. He decided to cut the conversation short. "I suppose I have to get going. I already have homework that I have to do." He said lightly, he enjoyed the company of Lucy and hoped to see her again soon, but he would think of topics of conversation before then. "It was nice to meet you and we should hang out again sometime." He said with a half smile. Man he was bad at this.