Practice will make you better, right?

[Cullen Yeong]

Cullen paced back and forth in the empty classroom. A few sets of chairs were randomly about but otherwise it was clear this classroom never got used much. He was going over material he had learned during the year so far in preparation for exams coming up shortly. "Drought Charm, dry up puddles, small ponds and the smallest of spill. But not, big water areas," Cullen said in Korean his native tongue. He was more used to speaking in Korean or Japanese so whenever he was by himself he would revert to one of those languages rather than English. He wondered what it would be like to memorize everything from his classes in English. He felt as though he still didn't understand things as well in English compared when he translated the work back into his native tongue. He didn't think there was anything wrong with studying for his tests by going over the information in another language. He would still going over the definitions in English and spelling for everything, as the two languages had very different written languages as well. "Amplifying Charm and the Quietening Charm," he spoke in English this time as he was reading from his notes going back to the previous week to remind himself of the charms they worked on previously.
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[Rose Holland]

Rose was searching for her friends today. Usually she knew where they all were, generally speaking, but today it seeme dlike all her best friends were hiding from her. Rory and Harley weren't in the common room, and she hadn't seen any of them in the Great Hall yet. Humming to herself, she made her way to the second floor corridor to the abandoned classroom there. Harley and Hayley sometimes liked to cause trouble in there, like painting on the walls.

But as she peeked inside, she saw an unfamiliar boy. But he definitely wasn't a first-year. She grinned as she heard him talk about charms they learned today, and got an idea. She pointed her wand at herself, "Sonorus." She muttered. "HELLO!" She then said loudly, amplified by the charm. She giggled, which was also very loud. This was a funny prank, at least, if the guy hadn't spotted her and seen what she had been doing. She hoped he could appreciate her humor.

 

[Cullen Yeong]

Cullen was lost into his own head studying for the upcoming exams when suddenly he heard someone yelling very loudly at him. He covered his ears and ducked down slightly as he turned to see what was happening. He saw a girl standing there laughing, very loudly. It seemed that she had used one of the spells he had been about to study on herself to scare him, it had worked. "Hi," Cullen replied raising his hand and nodding his head towards the girl. She seemed friendly and he recognized her from their classes they took together, she was also a fourth year but not in his house. He couldn't remember exactly what house she was in. She seemed to have qualities of the Gryffindor house so he put her in that house in his mind immediately. He looked down at his notes for a moment trying to think of what he should say, although he was still hesitant to use English around those of his age group, fearing they would pick on him.
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[Rose Holland]

Rose couldn't help but giggle more, though she reversed the charm quickly as the loudness of her own voice unnerved her a little bit. The boy looked like he'd had a good shock, and she felt a little bit bad about it. "Sorry," she said a little sheepishly. The boy was friendly enough to greet her politely even after she shouted at him like that. "Hi." She said to him, entering the classroom to approach him. "I think I've seen you around, but not for very long. Are you new? Or am I unobservant?" She grinned. "I could believe both."

 

[Cullen Yeong]

Cullen swallowed as the girl entered the room, the time he had been hoping for burst in loudly. He could use English with this girl. He glanced around as he thought about how to respond to the girl's questioning. "Hi," he said once more in return to her, certain his accent was telling of him not being a native English speaker. "I came here...at the peginning of the year. Tran-fer," Cullen said in a rather quiet monotone like voice. He knew some words should have an emphasis but he was never certain when to do that and often found in English his voice was steady tone.
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[Rose Holland]

Rose was a little confused when the boy simply said 'hi' again, and she wondered if she had startled him badly enough to confuse him or something. But once he spoke a longer sentence, Rose understood a little better. This boy wasn't a native English speaker, and it was clearly not easy for him to talk in the language. She couldn't help but admire him, as she didn't speak any language aside from English. It was impossible to even imagine how difficult that had to be, so she quickly overlooked any mistakes he might have made. After all, she understood exactly what he had been saying, and that was what mattered. She moved closer to him, smiling brightly. "Oh! A transfer? That explains it." She said with a nod. "I'm Rose." She said, holding out her hand. "It's nice to meet you! I'm sorry for shouting."

 

[Cullen Yeong]

Cullen was slightly nervous to not just be speaking English but also to a girl. He hoped she wouldn't judge him to harshly for any mistakes he made and if he used what a lot of native speakers would call 'Simple English' to respond to her. His mind was racing in Korean as he scrambled to find the correct words to say in response to her once more. "Sorry, sorry, Hi, yes. Cullen," he said bowing slightly before remembering the custom here was to shake hands. He extended his hand and met her's, it was an odd interaction for the boy. "No, you scaring me," he said his hand leaving hers to brush his bangs out from in front of his eyes. He glanced out the window wondering what else he could say, small talk was hard for him. A lot of words and topics to think about to mention. "The weather is nice, and how are you?" he said.
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[Rose Holland]

Rose felt quite lucky to have stumbled across a transfer student, as she was always happy to make new friends and this way she could maybe show him around or something too. She smiled as he introduced himself and cocked her head curiously as he bowed. Then he shook her hand instead, though he seemed unused to the gesture. "Nice to meet you, Cullen! I'm glad I didn't scare you." She said with a grin, though she was pretty sure she had at least startled him. She wouldn't rub it in. Following his gaze outside, she sighed softly at the sight of the green lawn below. "The weather is nice, you're right! I kinda wanna go outside now. Have you been out on the lawn yet? And the gardens are pretty nice!" She said, eager to show him that if he hadn't seen it yet. "You're so lucky you get to explore Hogwarts for the first time!" She added with a sigh. "Oh, and I'm good! How are you doing? Sorry I totally interrupted your studies."

 

[Cullen Yeong]

Cullen was rather still surprised this girl was talking to him. He felt nervous as he introduced himself to her using his chosen name, he knew his real name might be hard for others to pronounce and he liked the meaning of Cullen, though he wasn't completely certain that he was handsome as the name meant. His eyebrows furrowed as she spoke, him realizing he must have said something incorrectly. "No, you scaring me, ahh, yes yes, you scaring me, scary," he said trying to confirm with the girl she had in fact scared him. Cullen pounded on his chest with his hand over his heart to signify that it was beating fast as he spoke. He managed to work out in his own head that he should have said yes instead of no and felt quite proud of himself. "Weather is fair," Cullen said looking out the window, it was the only word he could recall in the moment speaking to this Rose girl for when you talk about weather. "Yes, I just peen in castle the whole time," Cullen said not realizing again he used the wrong word to communicate his answer. He hadn't been out exploring the castle grounds yet, the castle itself had been a big thing to wonder through during the first semester, let alone the whole grounds as well. He wasn't the most adventurous person out there. "I'm good, studying for ec-ex-ams," he said stumbling over the last word, he found certain sound pairings in English harder than others.
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[Rose Holland]

Rose nodded quickly as she understood what he meant. "Oh I did scare you! Sorry." She said sheepishly. The way he showed his heart beating fast was pretty clever, and Rose grinned as she realized what he was doing. It was very interesting to talk to someone like this, thinking of other ways to communicate. She was glad he agreed about the weather and wanted to talk about it more, but paused at his words. Her mouth twitched but she really didn't want to laugh at him, it had to be very hard to speak in a different language. Rose cleared her throat, deciding to correct him. "You say 'been', with a b." She said, then shrugged. "But I still get what you mean, so it's fine! It's a shame you've only been inside, it's much better out! Especially now that it's spring." She grinned at him. "You should go exploring sometime, maybe we can go together." Hopefully, he would want to. It worried her a little that she might be annoying him, especially as she had corrected his pronunciation now too. As he said he was studying for his exams, she looked at the book he had been reading out of. "Charms, right? Do you find it difficult to follow lessons here?" Maybe Rose could help him? But she wasn't very smart, there were probably better people around to help him study.

 

[Cullen Yeong]

Cullen nodded though he was pretty much over the fright she had given him with her loud voice. He thought maybe even after a few more minutes he'd be able to laugh about the situation. Although, he would laugh about it with a friend, but he hardly knew this Rose enough to consider her a friend yet. He wasn't surprised he had to be corrected on something else. "Ba-pa-be, ah I see. Thank you," he said grateful she wasn't laughing at him for his mistake. The weather was warmer now, it made him want to go out, but he never really knew what to do when he was outside, other than go for walks. But, going on a walk by yourself was probably a sad thing to do, one would look so lonely out there. He was glad she offered to go with him, it'd be nice to be shown something new by someone who'd been out there exploring before, he wouldn't get lost and end up going to places he wasn't meant to by accident. "Ahhh, yes, that would be nice. I would like that, thank you," Cullen replied with a smile on his face. Rose was already the nicest person he had met at the school. She was willing to talk with him and forgive him for his mistakes in her native language. "Charms, yes, I study here, in English and sometimes translate and use my language texts to understand," he said picking up and showing her the two textbooks he had for the subject, one in English and one to her that must have looked rather odd, as the text was in Hangul, the Korean's writing system.
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[Rose Holland]

Rose nodded when he pronounced the sound right, giving him a bright smile. "Yes, like that!" She said, happy to have been able to help him at all. It also made her happy that he seemed to like the idea of going outside and exploring with her. She grinned at him and nodded excitedly. "Let's go soon!" She said happily. It was a little early to call him a friend, but maybe they could become friends. There was something about him that made her feel a little protective of him, and she really hoped no one was giving him a hard time for his English. Her eyes widened in amazement as he showed her the two textbooks, her gaze immediately going to the Korean one. It looked unfamiliar to her, but that just made her curious. "Wow! That must be difficult. I don't know if I can be much help to you, but if you ever want to study together maybe I could help a little. I'm not very good at Charms, but I do like it." She said with a shrug.

 

[Cullen Yeong]

Cullen was glad the girl's voice was at a normal level, though she was rather loud without the amplifying spell. He smiled politely at her, glad to have some company and a person who was willing to show him the grounds. It was summer weather year and he thought it would be nice to spend some time outside. "I would like that. Let's go soon," Cullen said in reply to the girl. When he showed her the textbooks he had, Cullen was surprised the girl offered to study with him, she was the first in their year that was that nice to him. He really hadn't spoken to a lot of people at the school. "Charms is o-kay. Not my b-est class," Cullen said in agreement, he found Astronomy the easiest and History of Magic of course was just memorizing dates. "What class do you like?" He asked trying to ask her questions as she asked him ones.
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[Rose Holland]

Rose knew she could be very loud and present, and hoped she wasn't overwhelming the boy too much. Her offer of help was genuine, but she wouldn't blame him if he didn't take her up on it. She was a stranger after all. She nodded in understanding when Cullen admitted Charms wasn't his best class, and smiled when he asked her what her favorite was. "Herbology, for sure." She said without hesitation. "What about you?'"

 

[Cullen Yeong]

Rose talked fast, which normally wouldn't bother Cullen but sometimes her words seemed to morph in his brain and he lost the meaning of words. For now their conversation was light which made it easier on him, just simple questions and answers. "Astronomy is good, so is History of Magic," Cullen said nodding his head with his words. He did not know if those were the classes he was the most excited for every day but they were the ones he continued to do well in. Cullen was surprised this girl was being nice to him, he hadn't met many in their year that were as friendly as she was.
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