Closed Roses are red, violets are blue, it’s not for valentines but this is for you.

[Echolyn Zephyr]

“Will you stop moving!” Echo pulled the Gryffindors left hand back toward her, ignoring the glares of the other students who clearly didn’t appreciate her raising her voice when they were in here to study. Maybe the library wasn’t the best place to sit to paint nails, but Echo wasn’t risking the chaotic atmosphere of the Great Hall, wasn’t spending a moment longer in a classroom than necessary, and refused to watch bugs flying into the polish had they sat outside. Around them were a variety of colour brushes and small pots that the Slytherin had brought up from her dorm, a small white towel between them so she had a good angle to work on Nia’s requested design. She dipped a brush back into the pot, making sure wipe off the excess before continuing.

“I hope you take care of these,” The first year warned, hazel eyes glancing up to the brunette as though the only person she truly trusted was herself, to keep herself looking clean. Echo had only done two fingers so far because it was a painstaking process, but she was willing to put in the effort if it meant Nia got the chance to feel extra pretty. “Is that shade good for you?” She asked, giving the girl a moment to examine.

 

[Mania Athanasiou]

Mania rolled her eyes as the Slytherin before her told her to stop moving so much. "I'm no moving. I can't not breathe." She gave an exaggerated sigh, as though her constant shifting hadn't been nothing but the result of breathing in and out. In reality the first year had a difficult time staying sat in one place for so long without moving her limbs back and forth. Even in lessons she usually swung her feet under the table or fidgeted with her hair. It was quite interesting following Echolyn's process of painting the nails though, the girl had that skill down that was for sure.

"I'll take good care of them, unlike my sister who wears chapped nail polish I like mine to look good." Nia's nose scrunched up in distaste at the memory of Gaia's habit of wearing her polish until it was barely even there anymore. Fixing her glasses with her right hand the Gryffindor focused on the two fingers already done. There were already a lot of cute flowers on the two fingers so she gave a smile raising her eyes to the face opposite of her. "They look great Lyn," Nia said throwing in a nickname she just came up with. "Thank you for doing this, if you ever need anyone to practice nail art on I'm your girl." Mania gave a quick salute-like motion with her right arm.

 

[Echolyn Zephyr]

Echo thought Nia was doing more than just breathing but she didn’t push it. “Why would you wear polish if you were going to let it get so damaged?” The Slytherin couldn’t imagine wasting the time to put literal art work down, a limited edition piece if you will, only to destroy it as fast as possible. “Older or younger?” Echo didn’t know too much about Nia as things stood, and perhaps this time was also about bonding. It’s secondary purpose though, of course. “I have two but neither of them bother,” she told the Gryffindor, voice not much more than a hushed whisper, “Iris tends to keep hers short, and Demi would probably be like yours, she’d ruin it immediately.” Her sisters had their own unique traits but she knew neither of them ever came close to caring about how presentable they were, at least not on a day to day basis.

Echo smiled as she complimented her work, before getting straight back to it. Surely she could use magic to make the paint move or something? There had to be something useful she could learn while at this school. It was the first school she’d ever been to and quite frankly so far she wasn’t impressed. “Every two weeks you’ll need a fill in, or a new design, so we should make it a habit,” besides it would be nice to have a regular friend. ​

 

[Mania Athanasiou]

Giving a nod of agreement Nia gave another dramatic sigh. "Yeah I know, I always tell Gaia to not do that it looks so ugly too. She just says 'but noo its a pretty colour and then I just can't be bothered until I want a new colour.'" Nia did her best to imitate her younger sisters voice. "She's younger than me, by a year or so." She replied, thinking about how soon she'd join her at the school. Listening to the Slytherin talk about her sisters Mania just nodded thinking on her own army of sisters. "I have four sisters, I am the second oldest. We have Hera who is quite girly and puts a lot of attention and effort into her looks and she really is pretty. Then we have yours truly and well I like to look pretty. Then after that we got Gaia and her careless behaviour with how she presents herself, she's more of a quiet one too though she says it's the middle child syndrome." Giving a shrug at that Nia continued, "Then there's Eris who well she's only like 9 or something so there's that and then finally family baby Melinoë or Mel, she's a princess for now." Merlin knows what she'd turn out like later on though.

Mania really liked the idea of doing this regularly, it was somewhat relaxing and fun bonding in a way. Not to mention her nails would look real pretty after it too! So wins all around. "Yeah, I'd like that very much." The Gryffindor said with a sharp nod which made her glasses almost fall off so she had to adjust them again. "I wonder if there would be a spell to help these things stay on without always falling off slightly or moving around." She mumbled more so to herself than the other girl.

 

[Echolyn Zephyr]

Echo listened as her newest friend told her all about her sisters. She could relate to having a lot, although it wasn't as many as she had. Combining their families alone they'd have 8 girls and poor little Ares would be fully outnumbered. Not that he would likely complain about that. He complained about everything until it was working in his favour, but being surrounded by girls? Probably not. "Middle child syndrome?" Echo asked, screwing the caps back on her polish so that if some fool was about to come by and knock them flying at least they wouldn't be ruined. The Slytherin hadn't really had an official education, nor had she been around many people until she'd come to Hogwarts, so there was still a great deal she had to learn about the day to day world let alone magic as well. "I don't know if there's a spell, but you can borrow one of my glue's if you want," she added, sliding one across the table. "If it pops off, just use a little bit to stick it back on, but be careful because that glue is probably strong enough to stick a first year to the ceiling." She was joking of course, but who knew.​

 

[Mania Athanasiou]

Mania looked at Echo who asked about the middle child syndrome and then thought of the best way to explain it to the girl. "Middle child syndrome is kind of a term used for you know when you are born in the middle and you aren't the oldest aka the role models and the trial runs of parenting and what not, but you are also not the youngest aka the family perfect baby who can do no wrong. You just kind of are, you fall through the cracks and go unseen. At least I think that's the general idea of it what Gaia refers to?" Who knows all her life she knew in her family you were either Hera sort of perfection or Mania sort of destruction and disappointment or if by gods saving grace you were younger you were the perfect baby that could do no wrong. Though Gaia had always fallen through the cracks but she had also wanted that, thrived on it.

Nia gave the Slytherin a funny look as she clearly had thought her to be talking about the nails, not her glasses then again that was a fair assumption because she was the only one constantly annoyed by the loose frames and their incompetence to stay on. "Hmm maybe I'll use the glue though I don't know how good it'll be on your face, but won't hurt to try surely?" She said with a grin, knowing full well that stuff was something that should not be put on ones face.