Camping Out (Sary)

After a fairly uneventful summer, Aoife was glad to be back at school again. And slightly homesick of course… because THE SHEEP. She had missed people. Although she certainly wouldn’t admit it, she had missed that wanker Hunter. Probably because there was nobody to talk to at home and she had been so deprived of human company, she would hang out with anyone. Yeah. She hadn’t missed Hunter at all. Just the food and butterbeer (and firewiskey now, she supposed) that he tended to be quite generous with. She was just using Hunter for food. TerriblePersonAoife. It didn’t matter. The point was, she was back at Hogwarts and that made her happy.

Despite having missed having people to talk to, sometimes the common room annoyed the shit out of her and today was one of those times. Luckily, Hogwarts had endless places to hide in or just spend alone time at. That was good. Suddenly she needed more and more “alone time”. Ah, teenagerdom. Just slightly late. She hadn’t been to the astronomy tower for years now. There was no point taking the subject at exam level when it was a shit subject which she was awful at. Nonetheless, classes were held in a pretty cool tower. And as far as she knew, it was never ridiculously busy during the day because classes went on at night and nobody liked astronomy enough to go for the fun of astronomy based activities. Probably.

She was huffing and puffing as she climbed stairs and stairs and more stairs, carrying a heavy bag filled with stuff. Eventually she reached the top of the tower and took a seat on the floor against the wall. Right after she’d checked she wasn’t going to fall and plummet to her doom. Then she grabbed a bottle of butterbeer and some Bertie Botts from her back. It was rare that she ate wizard sweets so she’d got some in Honeydukes yesterday. Feeling lucky, she ate the first one. Great. Raspberry flavour. She didn’t like raspberries. Aoife also grabbed some parchment and her Transfiguration book for an essay she had to write. It was cruel, giving homework right at the start of term. Unfair.

Saryana was both glad and not to be back at Hogwarts. Happy, because MAGIC! And learning it. Plus actually being able to use her wand, unlike how it was during the summer. Which sucked. Sad, because of the people here. Well, not all but just those she knew. The girl still remembered how most people seemed to be slightly cold to first years also. And had literally no idea if it'll still be such. Yet even if it wasn't like last year, everyone was still annoying for her and she still had her small wish that maybe she wasn't supposed to be sorted in Gryffindor. If she just allowed that hat to sort her elsewhere... But it doesn't matter now, she'll just have to live seven, now six years with louder than elephants Gryffindors and them always pranking people. Including herself but because she had experience with pranks from a kid, she managed to avoid most.

At least now she was second year, which was good. It also meant that she didn't need to be so bored in class. Another year, more harder stuff. Although she wasn't sure if the second year was still as easy. The beginning for now was but everything is easy at first. Sometimes it sucked knowing more than your class but having to keep up with them. Yet the girl lived through it. Barely but did. Though living through it wasn't the most happy thing to do. It would be nice if she could move up a class... Or two. But it might leave her less time to prove that she was worthy to be a prefect and she doubted it was allowed anyways. So all she could do is just study nonstop. And have fun with it, also. Because learning was awesome. For her, at least.

Because right now she had nothing to do, Saryana decided to go to the Astronomy Tower. The librarian for some reason told her to stop hanging out all the time in the library. Saryana didn't really get that part. Not only could she get more time to study but she also could help her put books it their places. Yet the librarian seemed to think that she had to hang out with more people her age or something such. And take a brake from reading all the time. So she got a small ban from.the library today. Which sucked. And because Saryana did NOT want to hang out in the Common room because 1) It's too loud and 2) Some people where plain annoying. So her she was, running to the tower. She took with herself a book. Even though the girl is banned from the library, it still can't stop her from reading. Sadly, when she arrived, someone was there. Writing something. With what seemed to be Butter beer and Bertie Botts All Flavored Beans. Or how it was. Widening her eyes slightly she muttered. "Er, sorry, didn't know someone was here..."

Aoife had become very talented at the art of procrastination. After writing one word, "the", she had taken out her wand from her bag and was changing the colour of one of her shoes, from grey to green to purple to orange to pink. This was like Transfiguration, though. She was practically practicing the subject. Or was this Charms? Either way, it was studying, and she was proud of herself for that. Except, she had mastered this spell years ago, so practicing it was fairly pointless. Sighing quietly, she returned to the essay, trying to remember what it was supposed to be about. It came to her, and she started to write an introduction, which seemed pretty decent to her. She was totally sure this essay was going to be amazing.

And she was all in the zone when she heard the creak of the floor. Great. For once, someone had turned up here. Oh well. As long as it wasn't someone disruptive, she could continue to work well. Who was she kidding? She wanted it to be someone disruptive, so she could have a heated discussion about cheese or something. The girl who entered looked vaguely familiar, a second or third year in her house, but not one who was often in the common room or socialising with housemates, the redhead could work out that much. Maybe it was because she stayed isolated from the rest in isolated places like this. That was a sad thought. Everyone should have friends and be sociable and feel loved.

"Hello!" she beamed, deciding she wanted to make friends with this girl. "Do you want some butterbeer? I have another bottle! Have you ever had butterbeer? It's awesome!" Aoife took another bottle from her bag and held it out for the girl to have. As a friendly gesture of potential friendship. "I'm Aoife O'Donnell!" she announced. To make it official that she was so done with her essay, she pushed the parchment and ink and quill to the side, where she couldn't possibly use them to write an essay with. "I'm not crazy, I'm just nice," she added as way of reassurance for the girl. Some people got the wrong impression when she was like this.

Saryana looked at the girl. She was a red head. Which didn't help her remember who she is because Hogwarts had a few  red headed girls. Plus she preferred to ignore them as she ignored most people. Well, those from her house. She knew some of those from the other houses. Although most she knew are near her age, which made sense because the girl shared classes with them more. But what was important at the moment is that Saryana can't remember a girl a few years older than her even though they are in the same house. Or she thought such. Merlins Beard, she doesn't know even that! Whatever,  she would likely introduce herself anyways. That is, if she wanted. Otherwise Saryana would just try and learn who she is.

But seconds later she got that she wouldn't need to do that, because the girl invited her in. She wanted to give her butter beer. And asked if she hadn't.  Well, she never had it. Her parents would never allow her, both being wizards and also working in the Ministry. So she shook her head. "I haven't tried... But I'd like to!" She took the bottle. "Thanks!" She said and tried it. And she liked it! A lot!  Why doesn't her parents allow her this? It was great! Amazingly awesome! She wondered where she could get such a thing. One day she'll ask. One day.

"I'm Saryana Greenwood. " The girl watched as she pushed her things away. Good, hopefully she didn't stop her from that. When Aoife told her that she wasn't crazy, she tilted her head slightly. " Er... Wasn't really thinking you're crazy but alright! " The girl wondered if people thought of her as crazy and she was saying that because of that. Maybe. Not that it mattered. Saryana didn't care that much what her friends where like, only that she had them and that they weren't somewhat unusual. Whatever. She took another taste from the butter beer. And it was just as amazing.

Gosh, she was so nice sometimes. Even to strangers. Random younger children she didn't know. Very charitable and friendly. Which was why she was going to be such an amazing adult if she ever managed to grow up. "Nice to meet you, Saryana Greenwood!" she grinned. "Which year are you in?" Aoife only asked because she was curious, and while this girl didn't look familiar, leading the redhead to believe she was a first-year, she also looked like maybe she could be older? And there were plenty of her housemates she didn't even know existed, just because they weren't very noticeable. Only that didn't matter, because if they suddenly became noticeable, or if she found them in an isolated tower, she would be their friend. Because she was NICE.

Pouring a couple of Bertie Botts' out into her hand, she examined them closely. In the past, she'd just shove one in her mouth and take her chances, but now she realised she could work out which one was which sort of, she sometimes worked it out. For example, the pink one there was likely to be a good one - strawberry, candyfloss, or even bacon. But the green one could be either - apple, pear, sprouts or bogies. So she instead picked a yellow one, smiling in pleasant surprise when she realised it was banana flavoured. Gosh, she was so good at this game. Then she remembered the girl here, with the butterbeer she'd so generously gifted. Butterbeer went best with sweets. So she held out her hand. "Do you want a bean? I'd recommend pink, it's least likely to be something disgusting - unless you don't mind it being disgusting." After all, Gryffindors were supposed to be brave and reckless and unpredictable, they were the expected traits. But not necessarily true. After all, the redhead was predictable sometimes. And not brave, because she'd stopped picking random Bertie Botts'.

Saryana smiled. After that she just remembered she was standing up. Rolling to her eyes to herself in her mind, she sat down on the ground. Just than the question of her year came in. She was about to say first when she remembered that she was an awesome second year now! With a slight smirk to herself She answered. " I'm a second year now! What about you? You look to be around your fifth - Sixth Year... Though I may be wrong" she shrugged. Though it was preferable not to be wrong. Because that wasn't awesome. More likely, it was embarrassing. Okay, some things were obviously more embarrassing - like falling in front of everyone, stuttering, falling asleep in the middle of class and being caught... But being wrong still was. Unless you usually are wrong. Then it didn't make any kind of difference. But for the green - eye it wasn't awesome. Not even a bit.

The girl watched as the redhead took out some Bertie Botts! Saryana loved those! At home she would often eat them with the hope they would be a good one. She never really looked at which ones seemed better - the girl just ate them. Though it wasn't always fun when she took beans with the most gross taste in them. One of the worst she had eaten was even on her birthday, which wasn't very pleasant. But after time she stopped eating them. About three years ago. Just than she was offered some of the beans. "Oh, thanks!" She said and followed the girls advice. Why hadn't she noticed that pink should be good? Well, this girl was older, which should mean that she is also smarter and wiser. And should notice things. Which was awesome! Putting on bean in her mouth, she tasted it. Cotton candy! Awesome! She smirked to herself slightly. And took another sip of butter beer. "How did you know about the beans?" She asked, interested.