Unappetizing

[Rose Holland]

Rose was delighted to have two sisters at Hogwarts now, but trying to keep up with them was hard. Both Phoebe and Diana seemed to prefer to keep to their own circles, so Rose had to make sure to visit them sometimes for talks and catching up. She figured the best time to do that was at mealtimes, as it was easy enough to hop over to the Ravenclaw or Slytherin table to check on her sisters. She had made herself some toast with strawberry jam at her own house table while chatting with her friends, but once she spotted Phoebe arriving and heading to the Ravenclaw table she excused herself. Toast still in hand, she hurried over to the Ravenclaw table. It wasn't until she was nearly there that she tripped. She wasn't sure over what she had stumbled but before she knew it the toast flew out of her hand as she crashed to the ground. Well. That was humiliating. She got to her feet again with a quick laugh, but then saw where her toast had ended up. On the robes of a girl that had also been heading to the Ravenclaw table. Right on the front, and of course the jam side was facing down so the toast was sticking to her. Rose felt her cheeks flush slightly, but she laughed again. "Woops, sorry. My bad." She said, hoping none of it had gotten into her hair. "I don't know what happened there." The girl was in her year, and Rose was fairly sure her name was October. The two hadn't really talked before, and this wasn't exactly the best introduction. "You can keep that." She joked weakly.

 

[October Alcott]

Mealtimes never felt like they got any easier to October. She didn't really have any close friends in her own house, so her options were to join a friend at their table, and be the outsider in another house, (and have to pointedly avoid April if it were the Hufflepuff table,) or eat alone and keep her head down. Today was an eating alone day, so she made her way to the Great Hall with an armful of Arithmancy notes, determined to at least not waste the time. She was flicking through the pages trying to find what she had written down in last week's class when all of a sudden someone was colliding with her very, very hard.

Shrieking, October jumped back, startled by the impact. Looking down, she shrieked again as she saw the large, messy glob of jam staining what had only moments earlier been a set of perfectly useful Arithmancy notes. "What are you doing?!" She demanded, furious. "Is your head as stupid as your feet? Watch where you're going!" She scoffed at the girl's weak attempt at humour, flicking the toast back at her angrily. "I don't want your mess!" She snapped. This breakfast was ruined, as were her Arithmancy notes. Now October was going to need another shower, and there wouldn't be time to eat before class.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose knew she was clumsy, and this situation wasn't the first time she had made a situation like this, though usually she was able to talk herself out of it. Only then did she notice the notes, and realized the girl was probably mostly annoyed with that. "Look, sorry! I didn't mean to trip." She said, grimacing. She wasn't sure what the girl was saying in French, but it sounded very angry. "I'm sorry, I can help!" She said, hoping to fix this and make the girl like her. Looking at the notes, she had to say they looked very confusing. Surely this was a class she didn't take, maybe Arithmancy? Her idea of offering the girl her own notes vanished, as she had nothing but Herbology or Charms to share. Thinking of charms gave her an idea, and she pulled out her wand. "I'll help get rid of it, hold on!" She said happily, pointing her wand at her notes she proudly stated "Scourgify!"

The jam disappeared! Rose beamed proudly. "See?" She said, pointing at the notes. But then she noticed something else, something bad.They weren't notes anymore. Just blank pieces of parchment. A few words still clung to the pages, but for the most part her spell had wiped them clean. Rose's eyes widened, and she took a small step back. "Uh oh." She muttered.

 

[October Alcott]

October glared at the other girl, furiously shaking jam off the pages of her Arithmancy notes. "Watch where you're going!" The pages were splattered, but as October shook them out she could see that most of the text would hopefully be salvageable. Arithmancy was October's least favourite subject as it was, and she really didn't want to have to redo so many notes. Before she could step away to try and fix them though the other girl was drawing her wand, and when October looked down she saw, before she could do anything, the neatly organised notes washing away from her pages as well as the smearing of jam.

Time seemed to stand still for a long moment as October stared at the blank pages in horror. Hours of meticulous note-taking, wasted! Pages and pages of work she desperately didn't want to do again, gone! The impulse to shriek wrestled within October with silent, shaken horror and she just stood silent, staring at the ruined pages in disbelief for what felt like eternity.

It was the other girl's paltry utterance that shook October from her shock, bringing her back to the moment. "I - wh... what on EARTH are you thinking? Why would you DO that? How could you be so IRRESPONSIBLE?"

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose knew she had messed up, badly. But she didn't like how much the girl was yelling at her. It wasn't like she had done anything on purpose. All she had done was trip, something she couldn't really help. The rest had been her trying to help, though she should have known better. "I'm sorry." she said anxiously. "I'm so sorry." She winced at the girl's yelling and took another step back. "Maybe... maybe I can help make new ones, I don't take that subject but I could try?" She asked, though she kind of worried the girl would start yelling more. "I was thinking I could clean up the jam, I didn't know the spell would see ink as something dirty to be cleaned. How could I have known that?" She asked, frowning slightly. "I just wanted to clean up my mess."

 

[October Alcott]

October's entire body was tense as she processed just how much work she had lost. "I don't want your help!" She snapped in response to the other girl's offer. There was no way somebody who didn't even take Arithmancy would be able to recreate all that work, certainly not to October's high standards. There was nothing for it - she was going to have to do it all herself. "Be more careful in future!" She snapped, sick and tired of this exchange. There was nothing to be done now, other than take the useless blank parchment back to her room, and October couldn't stand to be near the clumsy girl a moment longer. Cursing under her breath in French she whirled around on her heel and stormed away, still furious.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose's face fell as the girl kept snapping her, her hope that her arguments would calm her down now gone. While she understood that the girl had probably worked hard on her notes, she did think she overreacted a little. But rather than say something like that she tactfully stayed quiet. She sighed, watching the girl go before starting to clean up what remained of her mess. All she could do now was hope the girl wouldn't remain angry at her for long. They did have classes together.