so many years ago

[Tara Sitara]

It felt odd to be back at the castle. this year was the first year Tara hadn't been fully home during the holidays instead she had gone and get herself a job as a cook in a house in france, It had been a good job, well paid and the family was nice. she had been allowed a few days off to go home however it wasn't like spending the summer. it had been a whirlwind of meeting people and she hadn't had chance to visit the valley, or really have a long conversation with anyone from home during her visits. though she had grown into good friends with meera her employees daughter. once she had arrived back to the castle she cleared through her trunk and found a pile of old sketch pads from her first year. she had taken the first few and gone into the garden. she loved the garden, all the flowers reminded her of the valley at home, tough they were a different kind and a lot more cultivated. she was dressed warm in a thick Salwar kameez of an orange brown colour as although thankfully sunny it was still cold out. she managed to find the same bench she had been sitting on on her first day at the school and started to flick through the pages. the first few pictures were of obsidian harbour and Brightstone village, then came a few of the flowers of six years ago they looked so similar to the flowers out today though they were many generations ago part of her waned to neaten them and fix where they were wrong but she purposely hadn't brought any pencils with her for that reason, they should stay how they were. it was funny she thought how many generations of flowers could pass and they still looked so similar, one years would maybe get battered by the wind, another hail but eventually new would come just as perfect as he previous years had been and the damage was forgotten however she had changed a lot since then, sure she was taller, and older, however she had been through a lot to, though hopefully it still dint mar her outlook on life or personality.

 

[Kate Archer]

Kate walked out of the castle and onto the grounds. It was a nice day, the sun was shinning but there was a bite in the air. They were starting to come out of winter but the chill was still there. She hadn't been out in the grounds since coming back. Frankly it had been too cold and Kate to the cost of her weight, was prone to colds and the flu. Two things she hated. She was planning on taking a walk around the grounds. She wanted to get some fresh air and exercise. The grounds around the school were beautiful. Her two favorite places were the Hogwarts Gardens because it reminded her so much of home and the Rosebush because it was just so calm and peaceful. There were quite a few people walking around the grounds. Kate wondered was any of them her friends. She hadn't talked to her friends i quite some time and she missed talking to girls like Tara and Sapphire.She had so much to tell both and she hated bottling up all her news. She was looking forward to seeing Sammy too, she couldn't have a girl talk with him but she could still gladly chat and do random, spontaneous things.

She walked into the Hogwarts Gardens. She had lots of memories here. Last time was not a very pleasant one as it involved her falling off a tree, well fainting and then falling. That had not been pleasant, she had cracked the bones in her knees and and had done a lot of injury to herself, poor Sammy had been worse as he had taken the brunt of the fall. The two had recovered though and were as fit as fiddles. She walked over to the tree and couldn't help but smile. They had both agreed , maybe climbing trees wasn't such a good idea and they wouldn't try to again. She continued walking around the Hogwarts, as she walked she spotted a familiar figure sitting on a bench. Kate quickly walked over "Tara"She said happily smiling. She missed her best friend. They had been out of touch lately and she really wanted things to get back on track.She gave her friend a tight hug before asking "Can I sit?"She asked smiling.

 

[Tara Sitara]

tara looked up as she heard her name called softly accross the flowerbed. she saw her friend smiling across at her. she put the book up next to her as before standing up "Kate. I didn't expect to see you here" she said as her friend hugged her and she hugged her back. kate was so thin though Tara was glad that she seemed to have gained a little weight over the summer. "of course you can sit, I wasn't doing much just looking through an old sketch book" she said picking up up out of the way so they could both sit down. she turned the page absent mindedly and saw a boys face looking at her. the boy had dark hair and startling blue eyes. Tara could remember drawing this. it had been on her first day at school and she had been in the garden drawing the plants that had been on the previous pages when she had met the by and as she were talking she sketched him firstly in colour then when he said he couldn't see colour she had done it in black and white. the picture was clearly an eleven year old Stefan though she could also remember when she was doing it she had removed many of the bruises from his face. quickly she shut it, it sort of felt odd having his picture there. trying to break the quiet she looked at her friend "How was your holiday?" she asked hers had been good but different to what she was used to.

 

[Kate Archer]

Kate smiled, before she had fallen out of the tree, Kate hadn't been in the Hogwarts Garden much. She had spent a lot of time here during first and second year but after that she had been too busy and preoccupied with other things. It was a beautiful place, it was particularly beautiful in the spring and summer. There was some lovely flowers in winter though. A lot of the trees in the garden were dead but the place wasn't completely dead of color. "Cool" She said sitting down looking at the sketch book. First year, it seemed like years and years ago. She had been an innocent, sweet ,Irish, muggle-born who had no clue of the human world never mind the magic world. She still didn't know everything, she never would not everything but she had a better understanding of the world, both of them. Kate looked at the next picture, it took a few moments for her to recognize the face. "Stefan"She whispered looking at the picture of the young boy. Tara had captured his eyes very well. Kate looked up "Mixed to be honest"Kate said smiling slightly "Have you seen Sara lately?"She asked curiously. Sara's sense of style had changed a lot as had he attitude.

 

[Tara Sitara]

as Kate muttered stefans name Tara smiled glad that the picture was recognisable. "yes, thease were drawn during my first days here, in fact stefan was the first person I talked to here" she said remembering those days. she had been lost, a new country, new culture, different languge, new food including meet and beef. different climate, away from her family and the whole magic thing also thrown in and added to the equation. but now she was used to it, she missed her family but the new zealand culture felt almost as hers as the indian one did, she changed how she acted naturally now.
she could tell that something had happened over the holidays when kate said that it had been mixed. she put her arm around her friends shoulder. "what happened?" she asked was it something to do with sara, she had seemed different at breakfast, there was some rebellious streak that she hadn't seen in her friend before. her suspicion was confirmed when she was asked if she had seen sara as of late. "she was at breakfast the other day. she seemed rather different, short and tight top and sharp heels. actually I didn't recognise her at first." she confessed "whats happened to her?" she asked guessing this was what had mixed up Kate's holidays.

 

[Kate Archer]

Kate smiled "Really?, I only met him at the end of the first term"Kate said looking at the picture once more before Tara closed it. Tara really was good at art,she had a real talent. Kate was terrible at art, a stick person was the best thing Kate could draw. She really was terrible at art. Music had been her thing while other kids had loved art she had hated it. While some people would love to use a paint brush or express themselves through art Kate expresses herself through music. Singing was what she was best at, what she loved. She was a performer. She didn't just sing she had emotion behind her singing. She hadn't really sung in a while. Even as she said it songs flooded into her head. As she thought about it she realized how much she missed singing. Tara had obviously caught on to Sara's new sense of style also. Kate smiled slightly "I doubt many did, you can barely see her through the make up"She said sighing, her smile disappearing from her face "That's whats bothering me, I don't understand what's wrong. She only got an A in Herbology which means she can't be an auror but I can't see how this has made her change so much"Kate said voicing her worries and thoughts for the first time.

 

[Tara Sitara]

Tara nodded. I was out in the morning drawing and I think that i bumped into him or something, i cant exactly remember"[/b] she said. it had really been so many years ago. they had all grown up since then. she had loved, lost, trusted and been betrayed as well as made friends, and learned a lot. take she knew had gotten ill, better, been gossiped about, and loved and lost and loved still. she was proud of her friend from what she had become.
"I am sure it is just a phase. It's better she get it out now than at the end of the year or after the " she said "If you want I can talk to her, maybe it would be better if it wasn't just her sister asking about her" she said. "I could check and see if they would let her still be a auror if she didn't get an A, or even repeat sixth year if she cant." she said. Tara herself wasn't that worried about classes. as she knew what she wanted to do when she graduated and having straight O's wasn't necessary for it. all she needed was to be able to cook and be good with people. the people she was good with, the cooking she still was still working on.