The Rest Is Still Unwritten

[Gabriella Tillington]

Gabriella Tillington was not a people person, but a part of her wanted to be. It sometimes felt like every interaction she had failed just because she didn't react the right way, or say the right thing. Though, she also knew she was being hard on herself in this regard at least to an extent. Sure, it didn't go smoothly for her, but she still had a few housemates that liked to talk to her. She must not have scared them off completely yet.

But school wasn't just for social interactions, it was for studying too. It would be even better to combine the two things. So when Gabriella entered the library to work on her Defence Against the Dark Arts homework, she first scanned to see if anyone around her own age was sitting by themselves. Her gaze fell on a girl she recognized vaguely from classes she shared with Ravenclaw, and after a moment she headed her way and approached her table. "Hello, can I sit here?" She asked the girl as she stood near her table. "I want to work on some Defence homework." She clarified, gesturing at her book. She knew that was a class she shared with Ravenclaw, so perhaps this girl had to do the same.

 

[Ella Bishop]

Ella was working on her essay about the knee-reversal jinx when she noticed someone vaguely familiar walking towards her. She smiled up at the girl and nodded her head. ''Sure, go ahead,'' she told her, moving some of her own stuff to make room for the girl. She hadn't taken much of an effort to make any friends last year due to the fact that she wanted to feel at home at school first. Ella had missed her parents and while she understood the reason why they had to move to New Zealand years ago wished that she would have been with her brother at Ilvermorny instead. Homework had been one of the things that kept the girl from getting bored without having any friends but she had a tendency to finish her schoolwork pretty quickly once it was assigned to her. Perhaps engaging in a conversation with this girl would help her to widen her social circle. ''I think they should give us more advanced stuff,'' she began in the hope that the other girl would respond to it. ''Writing an essay on knee-reversal jinxes is pretty easy.''

 

[Gabriella Tillington]

Gabriella was glad the girl didn't say no and actually made room for her. Gabriella smiled gratefully at her as she took her seat, wondering if this girl could be a friend of hers. She was fairly sure she wasn't in Hufflepuff, but that she was in her year. That was a start, right? She could tell the girl was also working on Defence Against the Dark Arts, which made her smile and conclude the girl was a Ravenclaw, as she shared that class with them right now. Quietly, she opened her book and started to write the title of her essay, when the girl spoke up. Gabriella perked up slightly, as she completely agreed. "Yes, I think so too." She said, happy they had already found common ground. "I honestly think it's a little ridiculous they're making us learn about pranks. Why would we waste our time on something like that? It's just silly." She said, hoping her opinion wasn't too different from the other girl's. "It's just a matter of filling up our time until we can get to the real stuff, it seems."

 

[Ella Bishop]

Ella nodded her head in agreement with what the other girl said. ''It kinda gives me the impression that they don't trust us with any real magic yet, which, if you ask me, is stupid because we are here to prepare ourselves for the real world, not to joke around and learn about irrelevant stuff.'' the Ravenclaw said, happy the girl seemed to shared her opinion on this matter because it really annoyed the twelve-year-old that they were not learning about real offensive and defensive magic even though they were second years now. Ella looked down at the parchment in front of her and smiled at it with satisfaction, thinking that she had done a good job writing her paper - she could have written more about the knee-reversal jinx but thought that was she had written thus far would be good enough for the stern Professor. She looked back up at the girl again to see how far she was. ''If you need any help feel free to ask me,'' he told the girl, hoping that she would accept this offer so she could be done with the essay as well, and they could have a conversation about how easy everything they were learning in this year was.

 

[Gabriella Tillington]

Gabriella actually smiled a little when the other girl mirrored her own thoughts completely. "I think they underestimate us." She said with a small sigh. "Treat us like little children. Though honestly, there are a few others in our year I feel act like children." She said, a disapproving look on her face. "Some of them are so silly." She said with a slight shake of her head. "I don't think I would trust them with serious things either." She glanced at the other girl. "I'm Gabriella, I should have introduced myself. I know we share classes, but I don't think I caught your name at any point." She said apologetically, hoping the girl wouldn't be offended by the comment. Ella was also working on the essay Gabriella wanted to work on, and Gabriella was careful not to look at her essay in case it looked like she was copying. The girl's comment surprised her, and a small part of her was offended by it though she tried to hide it. "I can do it. Like we discussed, it's not all that challenging." She said curtly. "Though we can keep talking for a little while, if you wish. I don't have to finish it right now."

 

[Ella Bishop]

Ella chuckled at the comment of some in their year acting like children and nodded in agreement once again. It was nice to know that she wasn't the only student from her year that was thinking about these kinds of things in a certain way. Surely they were old enough to advance to more difficult and challenging stuff in their second year regardless of the way some of them were behaving? It wasn't fair to those who took their studies seriously. It almost made her want to go to her Professors and ask if she could get more assignments in order to keep herself from getting bored too much. She smiled at the girl named Gabriella when she introduced herself and said, ''All good, my name is Ella.'' She was glad that Gabriella still wanted to keep talking even though she was working on her essay. She only shared Defence Against the Dark Arts with the girl so figured that her question should be about that subject. ''Do you think Professor Styx is going to teach us any real stuff later this year?'' she asked, really hoping that the man would.

 

[Gabriella Tillington]

Gabriella was happy to sit and talk to Ella, as she felt like the other girl could be a good friend to her. The two girls were very similar and she wondered if Ella could be a friend for her. Unlike some others, Gabriella felt like she hadn't made many friends at all during her first year, and now she was a little lonely. Athena had been nice to her at the start of the year, but she didn't see the girl often. "Nice to meet you Ella, our names are quite similar." she noted with a small smile. She hated nicknames, but she wouldn't mind as much if people tended to go for 'Ella' rather than the ugly 'Gabby', but she still preferred her own name. "I'm afraid he won't. Personally, I think he's probably saving all the interesting things for the upper years. I won't hold my breath for anything of value until fourth year at least." She said with a small sigh. "Perhaps I'm just being negative, but it's not very challenging so far." She played with the end of her quill absentmindedly, glancing at the other girl. "What's it like being a Ravenclaw? I sort of figured I might get put there, but instead I got Hufflepuff." She shrugged. Gabriella didn't mind Hufflepuff, in fact, she preferred it. In a house like Ravenclaw she would have felt more like she had to compete with her housemates, as it was supposed to be the house for smart students. She wondered if they all did homework together in the common room, and if it was quiet there. The Hufflepuff one could be so loud.