Painted Faces

[Min-Ji Song]

Min-Ji wasn't much for exploring unless he was by himself, and it seemed that the first year was never by himself, these days. He missed his family; his mother, his father, and his two much older brothers who generally let him alone unless he sought them out. There were people everywhere at Hogwarts. You couldn't even visit the loo without bumping into other student gossiping in front of the mirrors while they washed their hands. He supposed this should have induced him to interact more, but he withdrew instead, holding tight to the company of his rat and cutting a wide berth whenever a group went past.

Still, there was no point to being lonely at a boarding school filled with students. Earlier that morning, Min had discreetly followed some fourth year students to the Student Lounge, which he'd heard of but never visited. He left Pepperjack with another rat friend and took a set of parchment and quills to write letters home.
As he sat down at one of the long tables in the student lounge, opposite a girl whom he politely ignored, he considered that he hadn't much to write about yet. Min-Ji had yet to make any friends (although there was the odd one or two who would greet him if he walked past), and classes hadn't begun, so he ended up scribbling all over the nice parchment he'd set aside for letter writing. He was inking in a round face with pointed ears when he happened to glance at the work of the girl near to him. Her page, unlike his, was an explosion of colour in swirling pastels and chalk.
"Wow," said Min enviously, quite without thinking. He'd garnered her attention, which caused him to duck his head sheepishly, but continued despite his chagrin. "Sorry, keep going, didn't mean to interrupt. It's just so good."​

 

[Anabelle Williams]

The Student Lounge was, easily, Anabelle's favorite place. The First Year Slytherin still hadn't ventured too far up the castle, the Fifth Floor the farthest she had gone so far. Still, in quiet times, rather than adventure upwards, Anabelle enjoyed sitting in the student lounge, designing different shapes and patterns, different styles and creatures people could dress up as. In no way was Ana even close to what her sister was capable of drawing, but not exactly having anyone to practice her make-up on yet, it was fun to put her visions on paper. Today's attempt was a fairy; well, what Anabelle liked to imagine they looked like. She knew of muggle fairies and she knew of magical fairies, but in her mind, they could be so much more beautiful, colorful, glamorous. One day, Ana hoped she could dress one of her friend's into a fairy, doing their hair but more importantly, their face. Anabelle glanced her eyes up as someone joined the table she was at, but it wasn't someone she knew or who was making conversation, so her eyes quickly dropped back down to her hand, where she was moving it across the eyes, each eye was a different pattern, but they both were glittery, which was a definite must for a fairy; everyone knew that. Somehow, her picture wasn't making sense. She could see it in her head, but couldn't get it on page. A voice opposite her made Anabelle look up, seeing the boy that had sat down looking at her work. She felt her cheeks redden at his comment, she didn't think it was that good, definitely not something she'd show her parents anyway. Still, he was only being polite. "Thank-you." Anabelle replied with a small smile. The blonde looked down at the boy's work. "What are you drawing? Do you color as well?" And then, for good measure, "I'm Anabelle." It was only polite to introduce yourself to the person you were talking to, after all.

 

[Min-Ji Song]

Let's not talk about the time it took me to reply, this is just appalling.

Min-Ji shook his head and returned Anabelle's smile. "I'm Min-Ji," he replied, "And I'm just mucking around on paper, really." He still passed his drawing over to the other first year (or at least she looked like one, to him) for scrutiny. He wasn't particularly proud of his drawings, but he knew he wasn't the worst artist in existence.
"I don't really colour because I can only do plain stuff. How did you make yours glittery?" he continued curiously, far more interested in her work than his own. "And why are they different on each side?" He meant the eyes of the fairy. Min hadn't even considered that the focus was the creature's makeup and not the face itself. Makeup was akin to magic, to him. His mum and his sisters got ready to go out and suddenly they were all pink and glowy, and his mum got lipstick marks on his cheeks.​