To The Library

[Annaliese Vermeulen]

Anna was pissed off, to put it mildly. Then again, when wasn't she? She was in a perpetual sour mood, and being so displaced at the moment wasn't helping anything. Nobody knew anything she could talk about, and she barely knew anything about the wizarding world. Not to mention the fact that she had to work in English 100% of the time, now - she couldn't slip in to Afrikaans whenever she felt like it, because no one would understand her. Of course, if you asked Anna, she'd state that nobody understood her anyway so what difference did it make?

Getting lost in her own thoughts, Anna failed to pay enough attention to her surroundings, and tripped on a slightly raised tile, sent sprawling to the ground, books going everywhere. She hated falling, as much as she hated failure. She'd fallen plenty of times in dance class back home, and although others had gotten used to it, she'd never been able to. Signs of weakness abhorred her. Her own especially. And while others had made their mistakes and learned from them, Anna never learned. She just got angry.

Arms shaking, Anna endeavoured to pull herself back up, gritting her teeth as she did so. She was so lost and displaced here, and while her brother could slip right in to any situation as comfortably as could be, Anna struggled.

 

[Oscar Overton]

It had been a interesting week for Oscar. Though, he supposed hardly anyone would say they had a boring week when they experienced their first week at Hogwarts. He had learnt so much but still felt like his head could use more filling. As usual, Oscar had finished all his homework and was on his way to the Library to do some more studying. He couldn't help but want to fill his head with knowledge, and to know as much as he possibly could.
Oscar hadn't yet made a friend at his new school though. He didn't know what it was about him that seemed to deter people from him, but everyone else had seemed to make friends except for him. He supposed he was so awkward as it was, and he had made quite a fool out of himself, no one would want to associate with him. Despite this fact, Oscar was still in a pleasant mood. Shifting the bag on his shoulder, Oscar rounded the corner to see a girl around his age trip over. He watched as her books went flying and Oscar hated seeing it happen. Quickly moving forward, Oscar put his bag and a couple of his books down on the ground. Rushing over, the young Ravenclaw started picking up the books as he walked to the girl. He put the books down, and offered his hand to the girl, in case she needed help getting up.

 

[Annaliese Vermeulen]

Anna opened her eyes to find the face of a concerned young Ravenclaw boy, who offered her a hand. Any normal person would've been thankful for the aid, and perhaps Anna was, deep, deep down, a little grateful for the assistance that the boy was offering, having picked up the books and offering help. Of course, any grateful thoughts Anna had were hidden beneath many, many layers of bitterness. Her own parents had never bothered to really look out for her, why should anyone?

"Go away," she growled, looking away from the boy as she pulled herself up to her feet, roughly grabbing the books off of him. "I don't need any of your damned pity!" It wasn't the boy's fault, of course. After all, he was only being kind. It just so happened that the young Slytherin was more stressed than usual. She wiped a stray tear from her eye before straightening up, standing tall and imposing. Well, at least with an endeavour to be imposing.

It was perhaps no wonder that Anna had failed to make many friends in her entire lifetime, let alone just at Hogwarts.

 

[Oscar Overton]

Oscar took a surprised step back as the girl told him to go away. He racked his brains trying to think of what he had done wrong. Surely the girl didn't fall down purposefully? Why would anyone do that? Did she want to stay on the ground? Oscar was completely confused until the girl yelled that she didn't need his pity. He flinched when she grabbed the books and he stood there completely nonplussed. Oscar supposed there could be confusion between pitying someone, and actually helping them. He watched as she wiped a tear away from her eye and wondered what the underlying issue was.
As the girl stood, Oscar took another small step back, never being this intimidated by a girl before. He didn't want anything to go wrong, so he tried to explain himself. "I - I wasn't pitying you. You were just...I was just helping. You fell..." Oscar muttered, holding his hands out in surrender. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything. He should have just let the girl yell at him. Perhaps she needed to take her anger out, but Oscar wasn't to happy that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. His books and bag was behind the girl and the young Ravenclaw desperately wanted to run to the library- his sanctuary, but like a bad dream, his feet were glued to the ground, and we wouldn't be able to leave his bag lying around - or the books.

 

[Annaliese Vermeulen]

((who would've thought that it would be so hard to get in the character of a really horrible mean girl? ))

She built walls inside her mind, when people laughed at her for falling over in a ballet performance, when people bullied her for being such a "high and mighty ballerina", when she was humiliated for her failures, Anna built walls. Walls to hide the sad little girl that just wanted to be picked up and set back on her feet again, that wanted so desperately to be loved by parents who ignored her, and by a brother who Anna was worried saw himself as 'too cool' to be around his little sister, that wanted to be able to fly, not fall. And instead, she presented the Anna formed from too many bad memories and humiliations, the Anna who lashed out at everything, the Anna who expected bad things to come. The walls only became harder and harder to break, but the sad, lost, lonely Anna pounded on them with all her might, hoping, praying that her cries might be heard and someone would help her. The Anna people saw, however, knew that nobody wanted to help someone so unlovable. She only had herself to rely on.

Drawing a deep breath, Anna looked away from the boy, trying to calm herself. "So then what, you'd help me up so you could push me back down, is that it?" she asked, bitterly spitting the words. Of course the boy meant no harm and definitely didn't deserve to be Anna's verbal punching bag of the day. She looked back at him, eyes deadly. "Nobody helps me. And why should they. I don't need it. So what's your problem, then?"