Open Private Runway

[Jenna Irons]

((Open after Ana posts with Celia))

Jenna had long since come to the conclusion that Gryffindors had the worst fashion taste at Hogwarts. It was unfortunate, but undeniable. Luckily for her, that meant if she wanted to see something terrible, she knew exactly where in the castle to look - anywhere above the fourth floor was more likely to be swarmed with Gryffindors, and Ravenclaws were never that much better. Plus, the corridor had the added bonus of being frequented by Hogwarts Monthly losers. Jenna had brought a cup of tea with her and settled down at a seat with Celia, sipping her drink pointedly as a mud-caked Gryffindor carrying a toad bounced by, looking far too happy for how filthy she was. "Okay, that's next level." Jenna said with a snort of laughter once the girl was gone, looking back at Celia. "I think she was wearing a magenta cardigan under all that muck, total trash even without the mess."

 

[Celia Vu]

The reason Hogwarts had a uniform, Celia had decided, was because no one here knew how to dress themselves. She'd never seen a group of more unfashionable people before in her life. It made her that much more grateful whenever she did meet someone who had a modicum of taste. Not only could she talk fashion with people like Jenna and Malkin, but she could also judge other people's fashion with them.

Celia was presently watching a mud-covered Gryffindor with a mixture of horror and fascination. How could someone be so unaware of their appearance? She giggled at Jenna's comment. "Oh, so that's what that color was." Celia took a sip of her own drink. "I can't believe there are people who actually choose to keep toads as pets." Cats could be cute, and owls were at least useful. There was nothing redeemable about a toad.

Another Gryffindor passed by, and Celia fell silent. The new girl wasn't covered in mud, but that was about the only thing she had going for her. Once the Gryffindor was out of earshot, she turned to Jenna. "Oh my god, that jacket — it looked like she fished it out of a dump. And her hair." The girl's blonde hair had been a mess, and Celia was pretty sure she'd spotted bits of grass in there. "I guess no one in Gryffindor knows how to use a brush," she snarked.

 

[Jenna Irons]

Jenna pulled a face as Celia mentioned the Gryffindor's choice of a toad. "Oh, heinous. At least they're wearing matching slime, it would be cute if it wasn't disgusting." She said with a laugh before schooling her face into something more placid as she watched another Gryffindor pass. Jenna watched the girl silently pass before letting out a laugh. Jenna was fairly sure these were Seraphina's roommates, and it only made her feel more secure in her decision to abandon her former best friend. She laughed at Celia's comments, nodding in agreement. "Oh my god, totally. It's gotta be like, part of how they get into their common room. Can't come in if you look like you've actually groomed yourself." She gave a snort of laughter and fell silent again as a tiny Ravenclaw hurried past them, all glasses and frizzy hair, tripping over a loose cobble in the floor and sending pages of papers and what looked like muggle comic books flying. Jenna had to suppress her laughter as the girl grumbled in a foreign language as she gathered up her things and hurried on. "I suppose at least Ravenclaw is consistently tragic." She giggled.

 

[Celia Vu]

Celia giggled at Jenna's comment about the Gryffindor common room. "Someone needs to tell them that just because their mascot is a lion, they don't have to look like one." Their conversation was interrupted by a Ravenclaw tripping in spectacular fashion, and Celia had to press a fist to her mouth to stifle a laugh. The muggle comic books in particular earned a judgmental look from Celia. The girl couldn't be more of a loser if she tried. Celia smirked at Jenna's remark and started to nod in agreement before suddenly stopping as she realized that she had seen the Ravenclaw before. "Oh my god, I know her. She's on the Monthly, and she's a total geek. Kinda creepy, too. She's, like, always staring at people, but she never says anything. It's so weird." Celia was pretty sure the girl also barely spoke English, which made her decision to join the school newspaper all the more baffling.

 

[Jenna Irons]

Jenna's eyes widened as Celia explained who the clumsy Ravenclaw was, looking at her in disbelief. "Ewwww! Like, she just stares at you while you're trying to do stuff? That's so creepy! I bet she's, like, a serial killer or something. It's always like, weird nerds like that who snap. What a total weirdo." Jenna made a mental note to jot these comments down in the burn book, although she wasn't really hanging out with Seraphina anymore. There was no reason she shouldn't keep her notes up to date even without the... Gryffindor.

 

[Celia Vu]

Celia had to laugh a little when Jenna suggested that Giulia might be a serial killer. "She's always given me more of a loser vibe than serial killer vibes. But she's definitely a total weirdo," she said with an emphatic nod. It was nice being able to swap stories with someone who enjoyed gossiping as much as she did. Normally Celia had to hide her judgmental side (or at least try to hide it), but with Jenna, she could speak freely.

"Speaking of tragic Ravenclaws... Look," she said, nodding toward the stairs, where a boy with messy brown hair was struggling to get his foot out of a trick step just below the fifth floor landing. He looked to be about Jenna's age, and she noted with disgust that there was a stain on his wrinkled shirt. The boy tugged at his leg, and Celia wondered how a fourth year Ravenclaw had lasted this long without learning the castle's trick steps. "Should we take bets on how long he's going to be stuck there?" she asked with a smirk.

 

[Jenna Irons]

Jenna snorted softly at Celia's comment, giving the other girl a calculating look. "Oh, but but the losers are always the ones who snap." She said seriously, before looking to see the next person Celia had pointed out. "Oh my god!" Jenna laughed in disbelief. "He's - ew! Okay, so like, in first year Heta Omega and the Brotherhood did that gross blind dates thing, and I had to go to the Yule Ball with him. He's a total loser. He was rude to me the whole time, he said he thought I would be ugly! Like, can you imagine?! He can get stuck in that stair forever, as far as I'm concerned. A total loser trashbag."

 

[Celia Vu]

Jenna's next comment nearly made Celia choke on her drink. "No way, you went to the Yule Ball with him?" She whipped around to get another look at the boy, who was still struggling with the trick step. "Seriously?" she said as Jenna recounted the boy's comments. "That's so rude. I hope you ditched him after that." Celia had always viewed blind dates through a rather romantic lens. She hadn't even considered the possibility of getting stuck with a loser, and she made a mental note not to sign up for a blind date if Heta Omega ever tried to host a similar activity in the future.

A passerby took pity on the boy, and Celia watched silently as the two made their way up the steps and down the corridor. "The clubs here need to be more selective about their membership," she said decisively when the boy was finally gone. "Guys like him shouldn't even be able to join the Brotherhood and sign up for stuff like blind dates." The lack of standards at this school never ceased to annoy her.

 

[Jenna Irons]

Jenna pulled a face just at the memory of her "date" with Weston, nodding in agreement. "Oh, naturally. Not gonna let a total loser like that drag me down." She said firmly, brushing her hair back over her shoulder as she spoke. The whole date had been a massive disappointment, and though she had been more optimistic about her love life since, Jenna knew she was long overdue a good date. She snorted in agreement with Celia's comment about exclusivity. "Oh, absolutely." Jenna agreed. "As far as I'm concerned, there should be some kind of personality test you have to pass or something. Anything to keep people like him away from those of us with taste." The quantity of total losers let through the doors had always been Jenna's biggest pet peeve when it came to Heta Omega, and it was something she was determined to sort out when she was made president.

 

[Celia Vu]

Celia was glad she had finally met someone who shared a similar outlook on social life at Hogwarts. Sometimes, she felt like she was going crazy here. She nodded in agreement with Jenna's suggestion of a personality test. "You know how real sororities and fraternities choose their members, right? They vote. If the members don't like you, then you can't join." Celia considered herself decently versed in real Greek life, thanks to stories from her friends' older siblings and Hollywood movies. Her dad had also been a part of a fraternity, though she certainly wasn't going to reveal that her ties to the muggle world ran that deep. "Of course, we'd first have to get rid of all the losers who are already in Heta," she said with a small frown. "Otherwise they'd vote to bring in all their loser friends."

 

[Jenna Irons]

Jenna's eyes widened as Celia explained how real sororities worked. It was something she had only ever heard of in American movies and TV shows, but the explanation made a lot of sense. "Oh, totally!" She agreed, sitting up taller. "That's perfect. I'll make sure we start doing that when I'm president, first order of business." As far as Jenna was concerned, her becoming president of Heta Omega was a matter of 'when', not 'if'. She was going to be president, and there were a lot of things she was going to fix when that day came. "It would be hard to get all the losers out, though. Sometimes I want to just start my own club, for girls who actually deserve it, you know?"

 

[Celia Vu]

Celia wasn't surprised to hear that Jenna wanted to be the president of Heta Omega, and she thought the other girl had a pretty good shot at the position. It occurred to Celia that once Jenna was president, she would be in charge of picking girls for the other leadership roles; it was just another reason to be friends with Jenna. "Can the second order of business be better events? Samantha barely did anything." Celia figured that she might as well toss in a few more suggestions while she had Jenna's ear. Heta Omega had such a nice space, and it was a shame the club didn't take better advantage of it. "Oh my god, you totally should!" she said, nodding when Jenna brought up starting her own club. "Heta has so many problems, and it'd take forever to fix them. You could create something more exclusive, a club that's actually an elite sisterhood and not some boring group that takes anyone who signs up."

 

[Jenna Irons]

Jenna snorted slightly in agreement. "Oh, without a doubt. The whole club is basically worthless if you don't actually do anything fun." She grinned at Celia's enthusiasm, mind already turning over with ideas. The idea of having her own elite, exclusive group of girls, more suited to the upper echelons of Hogwarts life. "Totally! We'd like, actually do interesting things, like help each other find cool dates to the dances and make sure all the sisters always look cute and aren't accidentally hanging out with the wrong kind of person, you know? We could even call it the Elite SIsterhood, I loooove that name!" She beamed, eyes alight with possibilities.

 

[Celia Vu]

Celia's smile grew as Jenna seemed to get more into the idea of starting a new sorority — one built on genuine sisterhood. "That would be perfect! We could throw parties without worrying about losers showing up and have a whole initiation ceremony and everything." Her smile grew a bit strained when Jenna suggested they call it the Elite Sisterhood. Celia had been envisioning something a bit more elegant, mysterious even, but she wasn't about to contradict the older girl. Celia knew she needed Jenna's full support for this to work. She had spent the past year trying to figure out how to increase her social standing at Hogwarts; maybe starting a sorority with one of the most popular girls in school was the answer. "Ok, but like, we should actually do this," she said, fully turning towards Jenna, her tone growing a bit more serious. "We could invite a bunch of girls to apply and have, like, informal interviews with them to make sure they're fun and not socially awkward losers, and then we can decide who gets to join."

 

[Jenna Irons]

Jenna beamed at Celia's suggestions, lighting up at the thought. "Totally! And like, hazing. Like in movies and stuff. You know, we've gotta make sure they're tough enough to hang out with us." She added, not wanting to let Celia steal the glory of coming up with all of the ideas. She nodded eagerly when the younger girl said they should do this for real, unable to help the broad grin on her face. "One thousand percent there. We'll do this so much better than the Heta Omega losers, we can totally set up a real sisterhood to really help the girls of Hogwarts who deserve it."