Strange Strangers

[Brielle Rose]

Brielle was sick of being in her dorm room, mostly because she had drawn every single thing she could think of. Being the kind of person who despised being outside, Brielle had retreated to the student lounge to attempt a sketch of a person. People were her favourite things to draw. She loved drawing people because each person was so incredibly unique. Brielle found herself a chair in the corner of the room, far enough away from other people and began looking around to see who she should draw.

She spent only a few seconds deciding, then found somebody who wasn't moving around too much. It was a student, probably a first year, but Brielle didn't know them. That wasn't surprising. Brielle didn't know many people at Hogwarts. Somehow she didn't think that the few students she stalked to sketch counted as 'knowing' them.

 

[Alice Hills]

Alice was sitting in the student lounge reading her book. She had left the common room because it had been crowded, and had stumbled upon this place, having not know that it existed before. She had randomly had her book with her and so had curled up with it in an armchair and started to read. She loved reading, more than anything else and found it a way to escape to a land where the only thing that mattered was someone else's thoughts and problems. She sighed as she finished a chapter. She had read it many times before, and knew what was coming in the next one. Feeling cramped, she stretched quietly and tore her eyes away from the book. She felt as if someone was watching her, the feeling you can get, so scanned her eyes around the lounge to see one girl, who looked older than Alice, with a pencil in her hand, sketching something. Not knowing what it was, Alice wondered how the girl would take it if she went over to see. Alice liked drawing, and found out that she was quite good at it. But, she couldn't draw people very well and preferred to draw landscapes and objects. Her favourite place to draw now was by the lakefront, where the mountains, trees and lake all merged together into a perfect scene. She uncurled her legs and stood up, shaking slightly to bring feeling back into her toes. Re-sitting down in a different position, she opened her book and continued to read, ignoring the annoying feeling of someone watching her.

 

[Brielle Rose]

Brielle continued to sketch, looking up every few seconds to make sure she was drawing it right. Her old art teacher had once told her not to draw exactly what was there and do it her own way, but Brielle hated that. She was good at drawing things she could actually see. If it was something from her head, Brielle simply couldn't draw it. Simple enough. She studied the partly drawn picture, frowning slightly. It wasn't quite right to her for some reason. It lacked... Life.

Brielle stared at her subject for a few seconds, then quickly looked down as the girl who she was trying to draw got up. She looked up again as the girl sat down in a different position. That annoyed her. Usually subjects weren't meant to move. Brielle studied her picture again, this time realizing what she hadn't done properly. She had left out the eyes! Brielle carefully began to draw the girl's eyes on the paper, quickly becoming absorbed in her work again.

 

[Alice Hills]

Alice sighed, the feeling of the girl watching her had now got to her too much for her to bear it. She put her book down, being careful to fold over the right corner, and stood up. Walking over to the girl, she smiled. She looked over her shoulder to see a very good piece of artwork, obviously drawn by the girl. She somehow recognised it from somewhere and frowned, trying to work out what it was. It suddenly dawned on her that it was her, in the position that she had been sitting in originally. She felt bad for having moved, for that was the very reason she didn't draw people. She bit her lip, and decided to make it up to the girl. "Hi. Im Alice, and can i just say that that is a really good drawing." She said, smiling and trying to engage conversation with the girl. She still felt awkward for having been chosen as someone to draw, and now felt panicked that she never knew what else was going on around her.