Stop and Watch the Sun Set

[Alana Finch]

Even though she'd finished up tryouts nearly an hour ago, Alana still had her gear and broom beside her as she sat on one of the stone benches. She was jotting down some notes in a notebook, making decisions about who to put as a starter and who to cut from the team. Already, she'd decided to make Rome an alternate for the season. Sure, she was good but Alana still held a grudge against the young girl for what she'd done to her and Matthew. And, Asaiah was just as good. The open Chaser positions were giving her trouble. They'd had a lot of good people at tryouts. The guy stuck out in her mind, but mostly because he was good looking. She sighed as she erased a name, moving it to the alternate column instead. Being a captain was a lot tougher than she thought.

Glancing up, Alana smiled as she noticed that the sun was just beginning its descent. Sunsets were beautiful, and as she sat there watching it, it was easy to forget the fact that she was going to make some people on her team happy and others upset.

 

[Amy Rosemary]

Despite what happened over the summer break, Amy was starting to feel slightly better, if only because lessons had started and was spending more time with her twin than anybody else. She hoped to spend some time with Maddie as well this year seeing as they barely talked nowadays. A new year always meant a new start for the Rosemary twins. Amy was hoping she would make new friends too, it was getting lonely and a bit boring for her. As much as her brother was fun, she knew she needed other people to support her as well. Ignore the fact that she couldn't sleep, but with others around her she could get through that. One step at a time.

Amy was taking a walk outside, deciding to do her studying in the garden for a chance as she was in need of some fresh air. Thankfully because she wasn't in the mood to be sociable there weren't many people around. She settled on a bench, barely noticing someone else was there too. After a few minutes of doing her homework she was nearly done and decided to take a break. Only when she glanced up did she realise the other person on the bench was an older girl. Amy was pretty sure she had seen her around before. She couldn't remember from where however, Amy didn't want to disturb her, she seemed so peaceful, so instead of saying anything out of respect, the hufflepuff watched the sunset in front of her. She had no idea whether she should apologise for sitting on the same bench as the other girl. "Beautiful, isn't it?" She said softly, her mouth doing its own thing and she spoke before she could stop herself.

 

[Alana Finch]

Alana had noticed someone else drop down onto the bench, but as she hadn't immediately begun talking or making noise, it hadn't bothered the Slytherin at all. She had been too lost in thought over quidditch. It wasn't until she was admiring the sunset that the girl beside her breathed her first day words. Alana smiled, her red eyes glancing over and really taking the girl in. She was blonde like Alana, though her hair was a much lighter shade. "It is" she replied, agreeing readily.

Closing the book that was open in her lap, the quill sticking out to hold her place, Alana watched the colors change in the sky for a moment before feeling the urge to speak again. "It's a shame we don't have more classes outside. I wouldn't mind sitting a defense against the dark arts lesson if I had this view and not Styx's face." Alana was feeling especially grumpy towards her Head of House this semester. The girl realized she still had her wrist bands on, green ones to represent her house, and she took them off, adding them to the pile with her other gear.

 

[Amy Rosemary]

Amy smiled. "I've always loved watching the sunset, it always calms me down when I'm feeling really overwhelmed." She looked over at the other girl who was looking at her and she noticed that she had red eyes, an odd colour as she had never met someone with those eyes before, but they were beautiful nonetheless. Amy loved anything different and sometimes she even liked change, which was why she tried to make new friends when she needed to breathe. Not that she ignored her other friends, she never did that. Her brother often kept her from drifting apart from the people to whom she was close.

The hufflepuff laughed, agreeing. "Yeah, it would be really nice for a change. I think Styx needs a bit of fresh air himself, maybe he'll become nicer instead of spending all of his days in the dungeon." She shuddered at the thought of staying there for most of the day. "I mean, doesn't he miss the sun?" Probably not said a voice at the back of her mind. "Or he'll become nastier, who knows. Maybe he enjoys being alone down there." Amy realised she hadn't introduced herself as she had only been talking. "I'm Amy by the way," she smiled at the older girl.

The blonde couldn't help but notice her take something off. They were green, Amy guessed she wasn't too fond of her head of house if she was in Slytherin like her brother. She was too curious to let it go. "If you don't mind me asking...do you like being in Slytherin? My brother says it's not too bad if you don't get on Professor Styx's bad side. What happens if you do?" The last question was her mind speaking and she wasn't really expecting the Slytherin girl to answer, it was mostly to herself, not that she would mind it if she did reply. Amy had no idea what Styx was truly capable of.

 

[Alana Finch]

"Nastier, I'm sure, " Alana stated with an eye roll. Some of her fellow Slytherins were enamored with the man, though she always suspected it was the result of some spell they were under. She had never been though, and now she really didn't like the man. "Alana" she added, introducing herself after hearing the girl's name. Her face was more familiar than her name, which she was fairly certain she hadn't heard before. It would be easy enough to remember, beginning with an A just like hers did.

She had just finished putting her bands down and turned back to Amy to answer her question. Everyone was always curious about how the Slytherins got on. It made Alana wonder if the school thought they were being tortured or something down in the dungeons. Surely, they didn't think the Headmistress would allow that, right? Alana thought for a moment and then shrugged her shoulders. "I don't really know. I've always managed to stay on his good side. One time he caught me but..." Alana stopped, not really wanting to discuss that night. It was the night Chaos had been expelled. "He let me off easy" she finished. "Slytherin's pretty fun...if you like competition and are willing to do whatever it takes to be the best." Really, everything was a competition - for friends, for time, for grades. Everyone wanted to be the best or keep their position as the best at something. "What house are you?" she asked.

 

[Amy Rosemary]

Amy nodded in agreement, she would never in a lifetime want to cross that man. He seemed nastier than he looked, and she would hate to bump into him or something. She knew by the way he taught, that although he was a good Defense professor it sometimes worried the hufflepuff that he would jinx one of his students one day if they weren't behaving in class. Of course it was silly to think like that but it wasn't as if he wouldn't do it. Everyone knew that. If he could break the rules a little Amy was sure he would not hesitate to make anyone from any of his classes listen. The girl's name was easy to remember and Amy usually was good with matching people's names to their faces and vice versa.

Amy had always been curious about things she noticed so when Alana answered her after having taken her bands off she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Styx really was confusing to her, he let her off easily once but yet he acted so dark? She wondered how that worked. Maybe Styx had experienced an identity crisis somewhere along the years of his youth. He was an unpredictable man. "Yeah, I know from experience about competition." She glanced down at her hands before her gaze settled on the scene in front of her. "Personally, I wouldn't mind a bit of it, but I'd rather not compare myself to others. Been there, done that and not doing it again." She laughed, remembering her toddler years at the muggle school she'd hated. It dawned on her how ridiculous those children had been and at least still were. "I'm a Hufflepuff. Which is odd if you have a twin in basically the opposite house." Amy could understand the difference between her and Dan and yet she still found it odd that they weren't placed together.

 

[Alana Finch]

Alana had glad that Amy had looked away because it gave her time to get rid of the confused expression that crossed her face. If she didn't compare herself to others, how did she get anything done? Alana spent most of her time comparing herself to her classmates and her housemates, so the idea of not doing that was fairly baffling to her. By the time Amy looked at her again, her face was back to holding a smile, though it was a tighter one than before.

"I'm figuring you mean your brother is in my house then?" she formed it as a question, though she was fairly sure she was right. Hufflepuff were considered the nicest students, leaving Slytherin as some apparent default of the meanest students. Alana disagreed. Any house that counted Havoc or Chaos in its numbers could not think themselves nice. She rolled her eyes before speaking. "Our houses aren't that different, you know. You Puffs just aren't willing to do whatever it takes like we are" Alana shrugged her shoulders.

 

[Amy Rosemary]

"Yeah, he's in Slytherin." Amy looked at Alana this time, her blue eyes settled on her and she reflected on what she had meant. "I don't mean any offence of course, it's just that I've always had bad experiences with competition, I tend to shy away from it here- it's the only place I'm able to breathe." The hufflepuff shrugged, now realising that what she had said might have confused Alana and she tried to explain further. "Well, I can't say you're wrong. I have found Hufflepuff to be hard-working like all houses but I've noticed a lot of people in my house tend to compete with each other and themselves, I guess I'm just not used to that yet, at least not here." Amy knew her thoughts were disfigured, she couldn't believe she'd only realised the similarities between the houses now and it was all coming back to her. "Considering how similar my twin and I are, I understand what you're saying. All my life I've been competing against him but not for school itself, more like outside of Hogwarts." Amy sighed, not really sure she had made her point clear enough. "Sorry, my mind's not here today, it's been a long break."

 

[Alana Finch]

Of course, Alana thought to herself snidely. No, a Hufflepuff would never mean offense. Alana almost wished Amy would admit to trying to offend her. It's why she rarely spent time with any Hufflepuffs. They all thought they were perfectly innocent, and that just couldn't be true.

At least, they could agree on one thing. It had been a long break. "Ain't that the truth" Alana mused, thinking back to her time with Chaos over the holidays. He'd kissed her and made her dinner. And now she was terribly confused about it all and angry with herself for being confused. "Maybe you should embrace the competition instead of shying away from it" Alana pointed out.

"Come to the dark side" Alana added after a moment, a smirk coming across her face.

 

[Amy Rosemary]

Amy grinned. She could not be the least bit fazed by Alana's choice of tone and that was one thing her and Dan had in common. In her opinion Slytherins were not much better than the Puffs maybe on the same level but she didn't have it in her to argue with the older girl. "Maybe I should. Maybe I need to open my eyes beyond the horizon and what's right in front of me," she teased exaggeratedly referring to others around her being competitive all the time and she went quiet for a few minutes while she truly considered doing what Alana had advised. "You really believe it will work?" Amy had to try it still of course but she had to be sure it was the right decision. If what Alana was saying helped her then why not do it as well for a change. It might increase her possibility of being better than her mother thought her as. "Actually, I'll do it," she said before she could reflect on it for much longer. "It'll give me a chance to prove that I am not as demented as my mum thinks I am." Alana's last comment made the hufflepuff smirk.

"With pleasure. Do you have cookies?" She winked, hoping her new acquaintance was nicer than some other people she had encountered.

 

[Alana Finch]

Alana sort of listened as Amy tried to reason things out for herself. The words were fitting to what she had going on herself, and she knew that it probably wasn't an accident that she was hearing these words at this moment. As Amy asked her if she thought it really would work, Alana shrugged. Honestly, she didn't know if it would help Amy to embrace competition, but she didn't think it was helping her to run away from it. There had to be a happy medium somewhere in there for Amy. She snorted at hearing that she wasn't the only one who had issues with her parents. Alana had once been the apple of her parents' eyes, the Slytherin who was going to do everything just like they wanted. Now, Alana didn't even know what she wanted for herself, let alone trying to figure out a way to do whatever that turned out to be and please her parents.

"On Mondays we do. The rest of the time we have cute boys" she giggled, happy to bring back some levity. The sun was moving a lot faster than she wanted it to, and soon they'd be sitting in near darkness. Alana began to gather her things. "Heading in?" she asked as she did.

 

[Amy Rosemary]

Amy giggled, Alana had made a very good point about the guys in Slytherin. She smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I am," she gathered her things and stood up, waiting for the older girl and said one last thing before they would head up to the castle together. "It was nice meeting you by the way Alana." Amy meant what she said, it was refreshing to talk to somebody else for a change that she didn't know. She hoped this would not be the last and only time she had the chance to see and talk to her because once in a while it would be lovely to have a different opinion to the ones she was used to. The hufflepuff needed it for a change and she had enjoyed the short time they talked as they watched the sun set.

sorry it's not my best!

 

[Alana Finch]

Alana smiled at Amy as she finished gathering her belongings. She hadn't realized just how much she had with her. "You too, Amy" Alana replied. She was being very genuine about her words. The teen didn't have a huge amount of friends, but the ones she did have were a lot like Amy. As they walked towards the castle, Alana couldn't help but wonder if they would hang out again at some point. "I'll see you around" she nodded her head, her hands too full to wave properly, before heading down the dungeon steps.

Out of Character:

It was fiiiiiine.