Looking for Allies

[Odette Madison]

Odette needed to make friends, and fast. This school was bigger than she had anticipated, and the added obstacle of an old school enemy being here as well had left Odette in need of some backup. She'd met Margo on the train, and she was promising enough, but she wasn't exactly the sort of girl that screamed power and popularity. Of course, Odette was enough for the both of them, but she did need a few more girls around. She was sort of hoping to get a small group together that she could count on, but she needed to meet more people first. Maybe she could start a study group or something, but that sounded totally nerdy. She sighed, it wasn't easy to be on unfamiliar ground.

But she had found the library, a place she knew she would find fellow first years. Or well, she hoped she would. She walked in but had to stop for a moment to take it all in. There were so many books here. She was briefly tempted to go look for a good storybook and curl up in a corner, like she used to do at night when she was younger, but quickly dismissed it. Books were only distractions from the real world, as her mother always said, and she was here with a mission.

Still, she couldn't stop a few longing looks at the shelves as she passed them. Though she couldn't really see a lot of books that looked like they might have stories in them. Well, good. Who needed stories when you could live like a princess in real life? It was silly and childish. She looked around the library carefully, moving between shelves. It seemed like not many first years had found this place yet, but she was sure she would spot someone suitable sooner or later.

 

[Aurelia Jameson]

So far Hogwarts had been everything that Aurelia had thought it would - and so much more. She didn't think that she would forget her first glance of the castle. It had literally took her breath away. She had visited a lot of different castles in England on family day outs, but Hogwarts was something special. There was something new at every turn - from the food just appearing on the tables, to talking portraits! It was all slightly overwhelming.

She'd been happy to have been sorted in Hufflepuff. Not knowing a lot about the houses meant she hadn't had a preference, but her new house seemed friendly enough. She'd been a bit disappointed that the couple she had met on the train, Corrine and Luciano, weren't in her house but she was sure that she'd see them in classes and such.

Aurelia had decided to start exploring - after all she was going to be here for seven years. It was such a big place too, she knew that she would need to find her way pretty fast, else she would miss classes! After wondering around the lower levels for a bit, she'd overheard a few older students talking about a library. Well. That did it. It took a while but she had finally found the most wonderful room she had ever been in.

It is official. I am in heaven!

Taking a step inside and then another and another, Aurelia just stared. There were books everywhere! The room was simply enormous. Far bigger than any library she had been in before, and her mother had once taken her on a trip to the Bodleian Library in Oxford. In fact, the Hogwarts library rememinded her a lot of that hallowed place. Running her hands lovely along the spines, Aurelia started a slow walk through the stacks, looking at the titles and mentally creating a booklist. So many books.... so little time.

 

[Odette Madison]

Ah, there she was. The perfect girl for Odette's plans. She was around the right age and from the look of awe and wonder in her eyes, she was definitely new here. Oh dear, she almost looked like she was going to start drooling any second now. Ignoring the fact that deep inside she felt the same way about this amazing library as this girl clearly did, she let herself feel superior to her. She was sure she wasn't as obviously a firstie as this girl was.

She almost felt sorry for interrupting what looked to be a special moment for her, but she didn't let herself dwell on it. The library wasn't going anywhere. Whoever this girl was, she had plenty of time read in the coming seven years. Odette smiled brightly and approached her. "Hi! Are you a first year too?" She asked cheerfully. "Isn't this place amazing?"

 

[Aurelia Jameson]

Coming to the realisation that she would probably need more than seven years to read these wonderous books (even if the titles to most of them were rather confusing at the moment) Aurelia just allowed herself to soak it all up. Never before had she had unfetted access to this amount of knowledge.

There must be an answer to pretty much any question in here! She mused, turning down another aisle. The books in this section seemed to be all about charms - or at least most of them had the word "charm" in the title. That was one of the subjects she was really looking forward to. Tugging a book from the shelf, the young witch ran her fingers across the title, "An Anthology of Eighteenth Century Charms", when a voice behind her made her turn in surprise.

"Oh, hello." Aurelia had been in her own little world, that she hadn't even clocked other people in the place. "That I am. A first year that is. And yourself?" She eyed the girl smiling at her and felt an answering smile form back. From the way the question had been phrased, Aurelia assumed she was a first year too, but thought it was only polite to ask and not just assume. "Amazing is definitely the word for it." Curling her arm around the book she held, Aurelia couldn't help but grin a little.

 

[Odette Madison]

If I wasn't a first year I wouldn't have asked if you were one too, would I? Was what Odette thought in response to the other girl's rather silly question. Of course, she knew beter than to say it. Instead she nodded, smiling shyly. "Yes. First year as well, Slytherin." She still hadn't quite figured out what all the houses were about, and she wished she had done more research before coming to Hogwarts. So far, she hadn't actually interacted with many people from her own house, though she knew that it was the best one because she was in it. "What about you? I don't think you're in my house, right?" Well, she was sure she wasn't, but it was smart not to seem too sure of yourself sometimes. It made you look less threatening.

"I love the library too, though I only just found it. I haven't seen many books I can really understand yet, I do wonder what we'll learn in classes." It was true, the titles on the books around them were slightly intimidating to Odette. How soon would they start to make sense? She didn't really have any idea how difficult classes at Hogwarts would be, it would be humiliating if she got bad marks. "Are you interested in charms?" She asked, noting the title of the book the other girl was holding.

 

[Aurelia Jameson]

"No, I'm in Hufflepuff." Aurelia answered. She wasn't surprised that the other girl wasn't in her house, she was sure that she'd have remembered her from the sorting. She'd taken note of the houses at the welcome feast, and knew that Slytherin was the green one, with the snake on their crest. She made a mental note to research more into the animals and what they represented for each house. You could tell a lot about someone by what they used to represent them.

"Aye, everything does seem really complicated. And so different! I can barely understand one word in ten in some of these titles!" Aurelia laughed. "Charms seems like it could be so much fun. Some of the spells that I've read about are just like the kind of ones that I always imagined magic would be like."

Aurelia replaced the book she had been holding and smiled a little shyly at the girl. "My name's Aurelia," she said holding out her hand politely.

 

[Odette Madison]

Hufflepuff. She wondered what that house was known for. Besides having the most ridiculous name in existence. Odette was glad she never had to tell anyone she belonged to a group called Hufflepuff. Still, Odette smiled kindly and nodded. "That's the yellow one, right?"

The girl went on to blather about the books and how hard they were to understand. From her words, Odette gathered she was just another girl from a No-maj family. How many had she met by now? It would be really helpful at this point to meet someone that knew more than Odette did about this school. "Oh, it must be terribly overwhelming if you're not used to magic." She said sympathetically. "I'm Odette. I don't know much about Hogwarts but if you have any questions I think I probably know more about magic than you do." There was a slight smile on her face as she said it, it was nice to know you're better than someone in some way.

 

[Aurelia Jameson]

Aurelia nodded. She'd been a little disappointed when she'd discovered that all her school robes had changed to included the house colours. Yellow wasn't really her colour, she'd have prefered green or purple maybe. And with the black, she thought it kind of made them look more like bumblebee's than the badgers that were on the crests but she'd never say that out loud. It wasn't a huge deal after all and it could have been worse - like bright pink!

"Thanks," Aurelia smiled. It was nice of Odette to offer to help. Everyone had been really helpful so far. She knew that not everyone would, in a school this size there were bound to be unpleasant people but she felt lucky so far to have avoided them. "Were your parents magical?" She asked curiously. How different it must have been knowing about magic and not just having it thrust on you suddenly. A feeling of envy flickered for a moment. Must be nice to know you fit in right away!

 

[Odette Madison]

Odette smiled. Sure, kids of No-maj family were a little boring and predictable, but at least they never failed to be curious about magical families. Odette knew a bit about magic, though she knew that there were probably people from other families that knew a lot more. She only lived with her mother, after all, and her mother didn't do that much magic around the house. When she did, she didn't like it when Odette asked nonsensical questions about it, so most of her knowledge came from simply observing. If she ran into a Pure Blood, she knew she wouldn't seem nearly as knowledgeable, but to someone like Aurelia she might as well be a professor.

"Yes, my parents are both magical." She said, smiling at her in a knowing way. It was half a lie. Or, maybe it was. She knew for a fact her mother was magical, but she wasn't completely sure about her father. He most likely was, though, since her mother had let slip they knew each other in school. Odette just took it for a fact these days, as she did with many things she assumed about her dad. "I've seen my mom do all kinds of spells around the house, I think it will really help me in class." She said, not missing a beat in making the other girl feel inferior. "I hear some people that come from non magical families have some trouble catching up... but I'm sure you're not one of them." She added with a small laugh.

 

[Aurelia Jameson]

Not catching the hint of condescension in Odette's speech, Aurelia frowned as Odette mentioned how people from her kind of background were usually at a disadvantage. She'd kind of worked it out for herself that at some things not knowing about the Wizarding world before coming to Hogwarts would put her behind a bit - such as popular culture and references about what happening in the world. Even with slang terms and such. However, she didn't realise that her school work might be effect too!

"I hope I'll be alright. The essays and such shouldn't be a problem. I mean, there's tones of reference books here to help. But..." She paused and nibbled on her lip. "Fingers crossed actually casting spells goes alright." She worried for a moment, before shaking her head and giving the Slytherin a small smile. "That's what practise is for, isn't it!" She stated brightly. School had always proved interesting and challenging for the Hufflepuff, and it looked like Hogwarts would prove no different.

"So are you from New Zealand?" She asked, moving the topic from school. She was curious about Odette. The girl seemed really confident and sure of herself, something that Aurelia always felt she lacked.

Out of Character:

Sorry it's taken me a while to reply

 

[Odette Madison]

Out of Character:

Don't worry about it

Odette nodded. "I'm sure you will be alright, you're hardly the only one." She said with a smile. "And you're right, with hard work and practice I'm sure you will catch up in no time." She wished Aurelia had been a little less optimistic, but she filed that away for later. It seemed like school wasn't a big insecurity for her, but if she needed to know what that was, she knew she could find it. It was going to be hard to remember things about everyone, she had already met so many people. Maybe she should keep a notebook? But that would be trouble if it was ever discovered by anyone.

The question about where she was from made her smile tighten a bit. It was a sore subject, her mother had never made a secret of how much she hated living here and how it was somehow because of Odette, though she had never explained to her daughter how exactly it was her fault. "No, actually. I was born in America, though I have lived here for most of my life. What about you?" She asked, hoping that turning the question around would save her from having to answer more questions about this subject.

 

[Aurelia Jameson]

Aurelia caught how Odette tensed up slightly when talking about her family. I wonder what the story is there? She didn't want to pry though, they'd only just met and she was quite liking the Slytherin. She didn't really want to annoy her by being too nosey.

"I'm originally from England. We moved to Wellington a couple of months ago." She offered with a smile. She missed England greatly. To her it was still home. Wellington still felt strange. It didn't help that she was only there a short while before coming to Hogwarts so she hadn't had all that much time to explore properly.

 

[Odette Madison]

Odette nodded at Aurelia's explanation. She could hear the accent, and wondered if she sounded slightly American to everyone else. She didn't like that idea, it would make her stand out in a way she wasn't sure would be seen as positive. Oh, she was proud of her heritage, and still wished badly she was at a school over there instead, but she also wanted to blend in. People who were different were laughed at, that was just the rule of schools everywhere.

"It was great to meet you, Aurelia. Maybe we could meet up sometime again?" Odette asked with a smile. "Like, when we've had classes I could use some people to do homework with and stuff, sound good to you?"

 

[Aurelia Jameson]

"Yeah I'd like that," Aurelia grinned. It was too. She was glad that Odette had made the first move and came over to talk to her. She seemed like a nice enough person, and Aurelia was definitely looking forward to becoming better acquainted with her. Things might not be too bad round here with Odette as a friend.

"Maybe..." She hesitated slightly and fiddled with the hem of her shirt for a second. "Maybe we could form a study group or something." It would be nice to have someone to do homework with, the work always seemed to go better when you had someone to bounce idea's off of.

She glanced down at her watch and was startled to see that it was rather late in the afternoon and dinner would be starting soon. She'd managed to spend the whole afternoon in the library (which wasn't unusual) without actually reading a book (which was unusual). "Better get going, dinner's going to be starting soon. I'll see you around Odette." With a smile to the Slytherin she moved off and headed out of the library.