Open Up High

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë couldn't believe how quick the break had flown by. Before she knew it her brother had left for beauxbatons again and she had been put back on the train to hogwarts. It was crazy to think that she would now be in her third year, which meant that next year she'd already be halfway through her time at the school! She had set herself a couple of new goals for this year, asides from doing good in class obviously, and she was keen to achieve them. One of them was to find herself a new hobby. She had decided to try out for quidditch as a start but if that didn't work out she'd go on and try to find something else. Something that was easier to keep up with at school than her dancing had been. Another was to spend more time observing the sky from outside. She had spend a lot of time last year looking at it through her window, but she figured it might be good to spend more time actually being outside. At least as long as the curfew would allow her to be outside in the evening. Chloë had climbed the stairs after dinner, mentally punching herself for eating too much as she did, and now found herself at the top of the north tower. She happily leaned against the stone wall as she looked out over the grounds. It wasn't dark yet, but the sunset had been colouring the sky and it looked as pretty as could be. She smiled slightly as she looked at it, wondering if perhaps this year might turn out to be even better than her previous one at the school had been. Who knew? Maybe it would.

 

[Daintree Vaskevold]

Daintree had been truly conflicted to be back at school. On the one hand, school was good, he had quidditch, he was planning a rugby game, he had his friends - however close he kept them - he had Tres here, but it was just the motions and he felt a little disappointed as he always did to know that his home and his old friends would become ever more out of reach. It was something he had noticed in recent breaks, he couldn’t engage with his old friends a well because they talked about muggle culture that he had just missed. He didn’t know who the famous people and he could admit he struggle to use the new technology or the new apps that they had. He spent the whole break catching up to return to the magical school. He hated magic for what it had done to his life, but he’d been thinking of forsaking the muggle world now, there was little left for him there, only his family. He knew if it wasn’t for them and the money that came with it, he’d probably decide to never go back. ​

​

He was fourteen he could make such decisions now. Kids a hundred years back would’ve all left home by now..surely. He hadn’t liked the feast, getting slime everywhere because of a ghost hadn’t really been his idea of a good time. He had gotten all that had fallen on him off but once all had passed, the boy had done his usual introduction in the slytherin common room, he had left. It was late but he was feeling restless, and knew that he could go for a walk and maybe that would help bring him a little peace. He come up all the stairs, perhaps not the easiest of the walks, but he could be assured that by the time he got back to the dorm he wouldn’t have the energy to do much else. He was greeted as he reached the top of the north tower, by a girl. He really hadn’t expected anyone else to be up there. He had thought that most would be unpacking, meeting old friends, enjoying the back to school feeling. ”Hey, sorry,” he said quickly, ”I guess you had the same idea as I did,” he said to her with a little shrug. She wasn’t in his year and she wasn’t in his house, but she was probably only the year below him. ”Sorry, I’ll go,” he didn’t particularly want to, after all those steps he thought it would be good to sit, but he didn’t want to disturb this girl, and if she wanted to be alone, it would look favourable of him to leave first. ​

this is much longer than I intended it to be...also hope you don't mind me joining​

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë had been staring at the sky for a while, banishing everything she was thinking for a while and filling her head with nothing but peace and quiet. The only thing that seemed to remain was the feeling of happiness her previous thoughts had brougt her and so she just stood there, staring, with a content smile on her face. It felt nice for a moment but as tended to happen at hogwarts it didn't take long for her peace to be disturbed as she could hear another student come up. She turned around to face the student when he, at least he sounded like a he, greeted her. "Nah, you're good." Chloë responded with a small smile and a shake of her head. She didn't own the tower and she wasn't going to tell him to leave either. Still caught up in her feeling of content she moved over to sit down against the wall to give her legs some rest. She definitely was starting to feel what those stairs did to her now. As was her nature, everything in Chloë wanted her to say something else. She enjoyed conversations with strangers, meeting new people, but the boy hadn't ruined her moment of peace and she didn't want to ruin his. Especially not after the chaos that was the feast. So she kept quiet for as long as she could, which obviously wasn't that long. After a couple of minutes she couldn't help but to speak up anyways, figuring that the boy would make it clear if he wasn't up for any conversation. Which was totally fine as well. "So.. you glad to be back?" The gryffindor asked him, wondering if 1) he would be up for a chat and 2) if he was as excited to be back at the school as she was.

 

[Daintree Vaskevold]

Daintree hadn’t been sure whether to say anything really, perhaps it would’ve been better to have left and not bother engaging with her, but he had wanted to remain, he had travelled so far for it. The slytherin smiled at the girl as she said he could stay. He moved a little further up from her, he took a seat on the steps and just looked towards the girl, watching slightly as she was looking out the window. He shrugged at the question, ”I guess,” he said he was trying to be a bit more excited about it, but he wasn’t as excited about it as he was sure others were. ”That welcome back feast was quite something,” he said, smiling slightly, it felt mental that that had happened. Daintree had seen those ghosts around the school, but that ghost was different, ”Are you?” He was sure that this girl was looking forward to this more than he was. He didn’t know much about the other students, he tried hard with the kids in his year group but he hadn’t really tried that hard with kids in the in the other years, though he was sure that he’d seen her at Jenna’s birthday, ”You were at Jenna’s birthday right?” he was sure he’d met her there, or at least seen her at it, and he knew that Jenna was in the year below him, and this girl was likely in that year. ​

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë turned herself slightly towards where the boy was sitting when he answered her question. If she was going to continue talking to him she might as well look his way instead of still looking up, which would be rude. She noticed he didn't seem all too excited about being back at school, definitely not as much as she was. He seemed indifferent, like he didn't mind but perhaps hadn't been looking forward to having to go back either. "Complete and utter chaos is more like it." Chloë chuckled when he mentioned the feast. In all honesty she still couldn't fully comprehend that it had actually happened and wasn't just something she had imagined, some trick of her mind. "Took me way too long to get it all off." She shook her head for a second, still not sure what her opinion on the whole situation was. In all honesty it had taken her far too long for her liking to get all of the slime and confetti out of her hair. Perhaps if their house table hadn't been one of the main targets or if some of the other students hadn't decided to start a slime fight she wouldn't have had to get so much slime off in the first place. "Yeah, I am!" She smiled when he returned the question to her. There was just so much that could happen in a year and her hopes were that it would be as good a year as last year had been, perhaps even better. "I was." Chloë nodded, now realizing why the boy had seemed so familiar to her whilst she was sure she didn't really know him. "Surely my terrible bowling skills should've left an impression." She laughed, recalling how bad she had been at it in comparison to some of the others. Even though they had both been at the party and had likely been introduced the gryffindor had to admit she didn't remember the boy's name. "I'm sorry I don't remember your name." She smiled at him, hoping that at least he wouldn't remember hers either. After all, there had been quite a couple of kids at the party. "I'm Chloë."

 

[Daintree Vaskevold]

Daintree wasn’t sure what he expected out of the conversation, but he was looking for conversation and this was certainly it. He’d been looking for peace and something to take his mind off things, but it seemed like this would be the way to do it, so it was something he welcomed. He looked towards her as she agreed that it was chaotic. There had never been anything like it in his entire life, whether at school or not. It had just been such chaos and so much ruined food. He was sure that it wouldn’t take long to tidy up, magic despite how much he disliked it was pretty good at tidying things up. It made quick work of something that would take muggles several hours. The teen was pleased when he was right, he maybe hadn’t met this girl before properly like he was now, but he’d seen her and interacted somewhat during that bowling game. ”I think that’s why I’m remembering you were there,” he countered with a little shrug. He didn’t remember much of the afternoon, it had been nice, at least he’d gotten to spend the time with Tres. He didn’t remember her name either, so he just smiled as she introduced herself, and he leaned forward to extend his hand, ”Daintree,” he said in response. ”It was my first time bowling in a long while,” he said, ”Good fun though, easy fun. How do you know Jenna?”​

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë nodded when the boy responded to her remark about her terrible bowling skills. In all honesty, she had managed to end up with the lowest score. It would've certainly have been something to remember, even if just vaguely. It was either that or her hair, although Emma and her sister had been there as well. Chloë's hair was often an easy way to recognize her, but next to the bright hair of the other two girls it might not even have stood out that much. Probably not even in the slightest. She happily shook his hand as he returned the favour of introducing himself. His name sounded like one she had heard before, but definitely not one she'd be able to recall without having formally met. At least now she would try to remember it, which was something she was usually pretty good at. "I think it was my first time bowling like, ever." Chloë chuckled, wondering why for some reason her family had never went bowling. The most likely answer she could come up with at the moment was her mom wouldn't like it. They did plenty of other fun things though. "But yeah, it was fun." She nodded in agreement. Even if she had been terrible at it she had still managed to have a good time. It had been nice to see a group of people out of school as well, rather than just some of her friends individually from time to time. "Well we're in the same year, for starters." Chloë started answering his question. "And her brother's in my house so I know him, and we share a few of the same friends which I guess makes it easy to connect as well." She smiled, trying to recall the first time she had actually had hung out with the girl. It had probably been the whole cootie catcher thing, which had been fun. "Plus, I literally feel the need to chat with almost anyone I come across, as you might have noticed by now, so I think that's how we first met." She quickly added with a little chuckle whilst thinking back on the cootie catcher situation. Chatting up people she didn't know out of curiousity had certainly been the right way to make friends for her so far. "What about you? You're not in the same year as us, right?" She asked him, although she was sure he wasn't. She recalled Jenna talking about him once, stating he was older than they were. It wasn't like that would automatically mean it would've been more difficult for them to meet but it did make her curious as to how the boy did know her.

 

[Daintree Vaskevold]

Daintree didn’t remember much of the bowling night, he had spent most of it with Tres and trying his best to show her that he was good at the sport. There had been a lot of Jenna’s friends at it, and Daintree just didn’t know most of those people. The Slytherin was sure that he’d seen Chloe at it, though what part of it he remembered was difficult. He frowned a little when she said it was her first time, ”Really?” he always forgot that magical people didn’t have the same things as the muggles did. He knew he should remember or else he’d always be outing himself as from muggles, but it was funny to him that they didn’t have it. It was such an easy thing to do, such an easy distraction. ”That definitely explains why you were bad at it,” he joked lightly, keeping a friendly tone. If Chloe was a friend of Jenna’s then she was by proxy a friend of his and he had to be more polite than he might’ve been if they didn’t have this connection. He nodded as she listed her connection to Jenna, it seemed more complex that his, though more obvious too, same year, same house as brother, the fact this girl openly admitted that she was friendly, what more could be expected as a reason why. ​

​

”I think I had breakfast once with Jenna, and we became friends,” he said, he wasn’t quite remembering exactly how they’d met, but he knew that he’d met her and then it had snowballed into a friendship that he hadn’t expected much. ”I’m in fourth year, so just the year above you guys,” he said, he didn’t think he was a good friend, but he didn’t really need to be. He was just being a friend to Jenna and doing what he could to ensure that she liked him. ”I did feel a little out if place at her birthday because everyone else was in the same year apart from me and my girlfriend, but it wasn’t too bad. Bowling is an easy distraction. What did you get her?”​

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë wasn't surprised about his reaction about her never having gone bowling before. She wasn't sure whether it was because her family didn't have that much connection to the non-magical world or whether her guess about her mom disliking it would be the truth. It didn't matter though. Now that she gave it a try she admitted it was fun, but it definitely wasn't something that now felt like it had been missing from her life. She frowned at his next comment. "Bold of you to assume that's the reason I was bad at it." Chloë spoke in a fake-insulted tone. "I mean it could've been a moment of discovering my raw, hidden talent for bowling." She tried not to laugh as she spoke, because for all they knew it could have been true. Ofcourse after the party they both know that didn't happen because she had been terrible, but it could have.

Chloë nodded when Daintree explained how he met Jenna. Hanging out at breakfast definitely sounded like a solid way to make a new friend. She should try that once. "Ah, so you know Sully and Noel then?" She asked when he confirmed that he was indeed a fourth year, her mind connecting him to the names of her own friends that were a year older. Maybe he knew them. Maybe they were even friends. She didn't know and now she was curious to find out since having mutual friends with someone was often a good thing. "True." Chloë agreed with bowling being an easy distraction. "Plus I'm sure Jenna was happy that you came and I guess that's what matters most, huh?" She smiled. After all, it had been Jenna's party and she had invited him so showing up would've probably be enough to make her happy. "I got her this notebook decorated with all sorts of magical creatures, so she has a cool one to write in everytime she comes across a new one." She explained her present, still content with the fact that Jenna had liked her present. She had been struggling with what to get the girl and personally felt like it had been a thoughtful present. "What did you get her? Something cool?"